"We shall go," I said, "and we shall take with us your words. But I
warn you that the words you have spoken are treason to the universe,
in that you have defied the Council!"
Liane leaped from her throne, her scarlet lips drawn back against her
white and gleaming teeth. Her eyes, dilated with anger, blazed down
upon us almost as hotly as the flame which rose behind her.
"Go! And quickly!" she fairly screamed. "If you have no desire to feel
the embrace of the sacred Flame, then _go_!"
I bowed silently, and motioned to Correy and Kincaide. Swiftly, we
made our way down a long aisle, surrounded by motionless figures
staring unwinkingly at the column of fire, toward the door by which we
had entered this great chamber.
Behind us, I could hear Liane's clear voice lifted in her own guttural
language, as she addressed the multitude.
* * * * *
Safely within the _Ertak_, we discussed the morning's adventure over a
late luncheon.
"I suppose," said Kincaide, "there's nothing left to do but tell
Fetter as much as seems wise, to reassure him, and then return to Base
to make our report."
"We'll come back, if we do," growled Correy. "And we'll come back to
_fight_. The Council won't stand for her attitude."
"Undoubtedly that's true," I admitted. "Still, I believe we should put
it up to Base, and through Base to the Council, before doing anything
more. Much, if not all, of what she said was perfectly true."
"It was that," nodded Kincaide. "There were scores, if not hundreds of
doors leading into that big chamber; I imagine it can be reached,
underground, from any point on the continent. And those winding
passages would be simple to defend from any form of invasion."
"But could these Lakonians fight?" asked Correy. "That's what I'd like
to know. I doubt it. They look like a sleepy, ignorant lot."
"I think they'd fight, to the death, if Liane ordered them to," I
replied thoughtfully. "Did you notice the way they stared at the
flame, never moving, never even winking? My idea is that it exercises
a sort of auto-hypnotic influence over them, which gives Liane just
the right opportunity to impress her will upon them."
"I wondered about that," Kincaide commented. "I believe you're right,
sir. Any idea as to when we'll shove off?"
"There's no particular hurry; Fetter will be busy until evening, I
imagine, so we won't bother him until then. As soon as we've had a
chat with him, we can start."
"And without Hendricks," said Kincaide, shaking his head sadly. "I
wonder--"
"If you don't mind, Mr. Kincaide, we won't mention his name on the
_Ertak_ after this," I interrupted. "I, for one, would rather forget
him. Wouldn't you?"
"I would, sir, if I could," said Kincaide softly. "But that's not
easy, is it?"
It wasn't easy. As a matter of fact, it was impossible. I knew I would
never forget my picture of him, standing there shaken and miserable,
beside the woman for whom he had disgraced his uniform, hiding his
head in shame from the eyes of the men he had called comrades, and who
had called him friend. But to talk of him was morbid.
* * * * *
It was late in the afternoon when I called Correy and Kincaide to the
navigating room, where I had spent several hours charting our return
course.
"I believe, gentlemen," I remarked, "that we can call on Mr. Fetter
now. I'll ask you to remain in charge of the ship, Mr. Kincaide, while
Mr. Correy and I--"
An attention signal sounded sharply to interrupt me. I answered it
instantly.
"Sentry at exit, sir," said an excited voice. "Mr. Hendricks and the
woman stowaway are here asking for you. They say it is very urgent."
"Bring them both here at once, under guard," I ordered. "Be sure you
are properly relieved."
"Right, sir!"
I turned to Correy and Kincaide, who were watching me with curious
eyes. My excitement must have shown upon my face.
"Mr. Hendricks and Liane are at the exit, asking to see me," I
snapped. "They'll be here in a moment. What do you suppose is in the
air?"
"Hendricks?" muttered Correy, his face darkening. "It seems to me he
has a lot of nerve to--"
There was a sharp tap on the door.
"Come!" I ordered quickly. The door opened and Liane, followed by
Hendricks, hurried into the room.
"That will do," I nodded to the guard who had accompanied them. "You
may go."
"You wonder why we're here, I suppose?" demanded Liane. "I'll tell
you, quickly, for every instant is precious."
This was a very different Liane. She was no longer clad in diaphanous
black; she was wearing a tunic similar to the one she had worn on
board the _Ertak_, save that this one was torn and soiled. Her lips,
as she talked, twitched with an insane anger; her amazing eyes were
like those of a cornered beast of the wilderness.
"My council of wise old men turned against me when I told them my
plans to marry the man of my choice. They said he was an outsider, an
enemy, a foreigner. They would have none of him. They demanded that I
give him to the Flame, and marry one of my own kind. They had not, of
course, understood what I had said to you there in the great chapel of
the Flame.
"I defied them. We escaped through a passage which is not known to any
save myself, and the existence of which my father taught me years ago.
We are here, but they will guess where we have gone. My old men are
exciting my people against me--and for that shall all, down to the
last one, know the embrace of the Flame!" She gritted her teeth on the
words, her nostrils distended with rage.
"I--I am safe. I can command them; I can make them know my power, and I
shall. The Flame will have much to feed upon in the days which are to
come, I promise you. But my beloved would not be safe; at this moment I
cannot protect him. So I have brought him back. I--I know he ... but I
will not be weak. I am Liane!"
* * * * *
She faced Hendricks, who had stood there like a graven image, watching
her. Her arms went about his neck; her lips sought his.
"My beloved!" she whispered. "Liane was but a woman, after all.
Darling! Good-by!" She kissed him again, and hurried to the door.
"One more thing!" she cried. "I must master them myself. I must show
them I--I, Liane--am ruler here. You promise? You promise me you will
not interfere; that you will do nothing?"
"But--"
Liane interrupted me before I could put my objections into words.
"Promise!" she commanded. "There are hundreds, thousands of them! You
cannot slay them all--and if you did, there would be more. I can bend
them to my will; they know my power. Promise, or there will be many
deaths upon your hands!"
"I promise," I said.
"And you--all of you?" she demanded, sweeping Correy and Kincaide with
her eyes.
"Commander Hanson speaks for us all," nodded Kincaide.
With a last glance at Hendricks, whose eyes had never left her for an
instant, she was gone.
Hendricks uttered a long, quivering sigh. His face, as he turned to
us, was ghastly white.
"She's gone," he muttered. "Forever."
"That's exceedingly unfortunate, sir, for you," I replied crisply. "As
soon as it's perfectly safe, we'll see to it that you depart also."
The sting of my words apparently did not touch him.
"You don't understand," he said dully. "I know what you think, and I
do not blame you. She came back; you know that.
"'You are coming with me,' she said. 'I care for you. I want you. You
are coming with me, at once.' I told her I was not; that I loved her,
but that I could not, would not, go.
"She opened a port and showed me one of her countrymen, standing not
far away, watching the ship. He held something in his hand.
"'He has one of your hand bombs,' she told me. 'I found it while I
was hidden and took it with me when I left. If you do not come with
me, he will throw it against the ship, destroy it, and those within
it.'
"There was nothing else for me to do. She permitted me to explain no
more than I did in the note I left. I pleaded with her; did all I
could. Finally I persuaded her to give you the word she did, there
before the great flame.
"She brought me back here at the risk of her own life, and, what is
even more precious to her, her power. In--in her own way, she loves
me...."
* * * * *
It was an amazing story; a second or two passed before any of us could
speak. And then words came, fast and joyous; our friend, our trusted
fellow-officer had come back to us! I felt as though a great black
cloud had slid from across the sun.
And then, above our voices, rose a great mutter of sound. We glanced
at one another, wonderingly. Hendricks was the first to make a move.
"That's the mob!" he said, darting toward the door. We followed him
swiftly to the exit of the ship, through the air-lock, out into the
open.
Hendricks had spoken the truth. Liane was walking, very slowly and
deliberately, her head flung back proudly, toward the city. Coming
toward her, like a great ragged wave, was a mighty mass of humanity,
led by capering old men--undoubtedly the lesser priests, who had
turned against her.
"The portable projectors, sir!" begged Correy excitedly. "A pair of
them, and that mob--"
"We're bound by our promise," I reminded him. "She's not afraid; her
power is terrible. I believe she'll win without them. Look!"
Liane had paused. She lifted one hand in a gesture of command, and
called out to the rabble. Correy translated the whole thing for me
later.
"Halt!" she cried sharply. "Who moves upon the Chief Priestess of the
Flame earns the embrace of the Flame!"
The crowd halted, cowering; then the old man shouted to them and
gestured them onward. With a rush, the front ranks came on.
"So!" Liane called out to them. "You would disobey Liane? Yet even yet
it is not too late; Liane gives you one chance more. You little know
the Chief Priestess of the Flame if you think she will tolerate an
encroachment of her power. Back! Back, I say, or you all shall feel
the might of Liane!"
Before her tirade the mob faltered, but again the crazed old men led
them on.
Liane turned, saw us, and made a regal gesture of farewell. From the
bosom of her tunic she snatched a small black object, and swung it
high above her head.
"The bomb!" shouted Hendricks. "She has it; she--"
At the very feet of the onrushing crowd the black object struck. There
was a hollow roar; a blast of thundering air swept us backward to the
ground.
When we scrambled to our feet, Liane was gone. The relentless mob had
gone. Where they had been was a great crater of raw earth, strewn with
ghastly fragments. Far back toward the city a few straggling figures
ran frantically away from that scene of death.
"Gone!" I said. "Power was a mania, an obsession with her. Even her
death was a supreme gesture--of power, of authority."
"Liane," Hendricks whispered. "Chief Priestess of the Flame ... Giver
of Death...."
* * * * *
With Liane gone, and with her the old men who had tried to snatch her
power from her hand, and who might have caused us trouble, the
rebellion of the Lakonians was at an end.
Leaderless, they were helpless, and I believe they were happy in the
change. Sometimes the old ways are better than the new, and Liane's
regime had been merciless and rather terrible.
There are many kinds of women: great women, and women with small
souls; women filled with the spirit of sacrifice; selfish women, good
women and bad.
And Liane? I leave her for you to judge. She was a woman; classify her
for yourself.
After all, I am an old man, and perhaps I have forgotten the ways of
women. I do not wish to judge, on one hand to be called bitter and
hard, on the other hand to be condemned as soft with advancing age.