IN THE HABIT OF ZITU
Once in the flesh again, conscious of all he had seen and heard, he
sprang from his couch and dressed. He was going in the flesh to Scira.
That one thing was clear in his mind. He would go to the capital of
Cathur as quickly as his swiftest motor-galley might take him, and
get into touch with Abbu and through him with Naia. After that, things
must be met as they arose, only there was another thing on which he
was equally determined: the girl should never embark for Anthra on the
Prince of Cathur's craft.
Leaving the palace, he entered his car, kept in the court now always
for any emergency, and drove straight to the dock on the Na, where the
fleet of motor craft were kept busy. Here he selected a galley--one of
the latest models he had prepared; sent runners to rout out the crew
and order them aboard, ready to sail at once.
From the dock he drove to the shops, flaring with light as the
night-shift worked; called one of his most expert motor builders to
one side, and directed him to report aboard the galley as quickly as
he might. To him he gave authority to open a warehouse and provision
the boat for a voyage of some days, and instructions to bring it to the
quay below the palace so soon as ready to sail.
Then he went back to the palace itself, and sent a nodding guard to
rouse Robur and ask him to come to Croft's rooms. He waited there in a
vast impatience until the door opened to admit Aphur's crown prince.
That Robur was keyed to some expectancy he saw at a glance. The man's
eyes were wide, his whole expression eager. Croft suspected Gaya had
whispered wifely confidences into his ear earlier that night. He
plunged into his theme at once:
"Rob--I've slept--one of my certain sleeps. Gaya told you, I suppose."
Robur nodded. "Yes. And you have learned, Jasor--what?"
Croft told him, and Robur swore a strong Aphurian oath. "They plan
that, do they? Naia to Bzad, a man of Mazzer. By Zitu, Jasor, I am with
you in whatever you mean to do."
Croft shook his head. "Nay, Rob, my friend. Your duty is to Tamarizia
first. You know all we have planned. Your place is here--to general the
Bithurian expedition when it is time. Mine is the duty to the maid."
"You love her." Robur made the statement direct.
"Aye." Croft met it and looked him in the eye.
Robur put forth a hand. "Azil be kind to you and her," he made answer.
"What have you planned?"
Croft explained his intent in a very few words. "I await now the lights
of the galley at the quay below," he finished. "I desire to slip forth
unknown to any save the guards. Will you drive me down with what arms I
shall take?"
"Aye," said Aphur's heir. "You can reach Scira how soon?"
"In two days--the day after Naia and Lakkon arrive."
Robur smiled thinly. "Should you save Lakkon's life as well as his
daughter's a second time, his gratitude should overcome much."
Croft shook his head. "I plan not on gratitude, Rob. I myself shall
overcome much--Kyphallos, Zollaria, and Mazzer. So shall I reach to
the woman Zitu formed for me. I shall enter Scira at night, and go to
the pyramid, and--Hold! Drive now with me to Magur. He must lend me a
priestly robe."
"Come!" Robur's eyes flashed. Once more he smiled. "A priest shall
reach Scira, my friend? He shall go to the pyramid. I understand."
The two men left the palace, entered the car, and crossed the bridge,
swung into position on Robur's order. They stopped before the pyramid
and hammered on the door. A sleepy priest admitted them at last and
sent them up on the primitive lift to Magur's lofty apartments. Magur
himself appeared in the end, blinking sleepily with startled eyes when
he faced Croft and Robur himself.
Croft explained.
Magur balked. "Shall the garments of Zitu be used for deception?" he
exclaimed.
"Shall not the garments of Zitu serve to guard a clean shrine of life
from pollution?" Croft snapped in return. "Can the cloth of the Source
of all Life be put to a better end?"
Magur gave him a glance little short of admiration. "Ye speak, as
always, with the words of Zitu himself," he returned. "I am convinced.
Wait, and this matter shall be arranged." He turned away. In five
minutes he was back with a dark-brown robe and hood, not unlike a cowl,
also a pair of leather sandals and a cord with which to belt the robe
about the waist. These he placed in Croft's hands, and raised his own.
"Zitu go with ye, my son," he spoke in a formal blessing. "Should he
favor ye on this mission, what shall ye do with the maid? Her return to
Himyra would cause a clacking of tongues."
"I have thought of that, O Magur," Croft replied. "The maid shall go
to Zitra so quickly as she may. There Zud himself shall see her in
sanctuary in the quarters of the virgins, until this thing has passed,
unless you have better to suggest. Thus it is Zollaria plans to hide
their unclean Kalamita in Scira. I am minded to turn their own trick
upon themselves."
"Nay," Magur smiled. "Thy plan is worthy of one of your mind. Go, then,
and may Ga, the pure mother, use you to guard the maid."
The galley lights glared red in the night at the quay as Croft and
Robur drove back across the bridge which opened behind them span by
span. All was ready now save the arms and ammunition. Working in haste
at the palace, the prince and Croft collected those and took them down
to the ship.
"You shall win, my friend," said Robur as he clasped hands with Croft
at parting.
Croft smiled somewhat grimly. "I shall win, Rob," he returned, "or you
need not look for me back."
Then he was off, dropping down the Na, passing the high-reared barrier
of the walls, and once past those, opening the motor and speeding down
the mighty yellow flood to the sea.
A day passed, two days, and night came down. Far to the front the
lights of Scira lifted above the waters. Croft called his crew and gave
them their instructions in detail. They were to stay by the ship, were
to be ready to start at once. Then, to their amaze, he slipped on the
priest's robe over his cuirass and sword, and appeared before them thus
as they approached the harbor gates. The standard of Aphur broke out at
the galley's stern. They passed inside unchallenged and moored at the
quay. To the harbor master--a huge Cathurian captain--Croft said merely
that he was a priest come on a mission from Magur to the pyramid, and
stepped ashore.
And knowing Scira as he did, he set off in the right direction without
delay, arrived in due time and without incident at the pyramid portals
and rapped for admission, asking for Abbu as soon as he was inside.
Then--he was in Abbu's cell, fumbling with his robe and casting it from
him, to stand in gold and silver harness before the monk's staring eyes.
"My lord--my lord!" faltered the priest.
"Hold." Croft lifted his hand. "Strange things are forward in Scira.
What know you of them, Abbu, who have acted as Aphur's eyes?"
"Yesterday the prince returned from Niera to greet the Aphurian maid
he is to wed," Abbu replied. "It was a holiday occasion. The streets
swarmed with people."
* * * * *
"Think you Kyphallos intends to lead Naia to the throne?" Croft snapped.
"Zitu!" Abbu lifted his hands in the sign of the cross. "Is it not so
pledged, Jasor?"
"Aye--by the lips, yet not by the heart," said Croft. Swiftly he told
the staring monk those things he had learned.
"Zitu would not permit this," Abbu mumbled at the last.
"Nay. Hence am I here. Listen, Abbu the priest. What I do, I do by
the grace of Zitu--and with His consent. I am come to overthrow this
most foul plot. You who have sworn to help me in Zitu's name must gain
access to this maid. Say to her what is to be. Say to her thus when you
have told her all else as a sign: 'Jasor has not forgotten.' Hearing
this, she will believe. Say to her then that on the night after you
have spoken to her she shall desire to speak with a priest from the
holy pyramid, to receive a blessing before she is presented to Cathur's
people. She shall prefer her request of Kyphallos himself, and insist
that it be granted.
"She shall specify the priest Abbu, whom she knows. I shall then go
to her in the palace. Instruct her that her father shall be with her
when I arrive. Thereafter shall we contrive a way out of the palace
and to the boat I hold waiting for her escape. Say not to her that I
shall come in your place. That she will learn when I appear. Now give
me a place to sleep, and when you see her state these facts concerning
Kyphallos's plan as things of your own knowledge, confessing to her
that you have acted as Aphur's eyes for well-nigh a whole cycle past."
Abbu bowed. "Indeed," he said, "I believe you speak truth, O Jasor,
and with Zitu's help I shall do all you say. Take my pallet for your
slumber. I shall pray through the night for your success to Zitu
himself."
Throughout the next day Croft lay hid. Abbu brought him food in the
morning and disappeared. He was not disturbed during the day. What
Abbu was about he could not know. Only late in the day when the monk
returned was he to learn how he had managed his task.
"My lord, there was a pageant in honor of her, of Aphur and her
father," he explained. "The civic guard and that of the palace marched
before them, while the people watched, and you know that it is a custom
for the lay brothers of the pyramid to solicit alms. So with my little
earthen jar I passed among the people, and after a time I approached
the raised station where Aphur's princess sat, and lifting my little
jar I cried to her as Cathur's queen-to-be that she give freely to
Cathur's temple. This I did for a purpose which fell out as I desired.
A guard about the noble party angrily bade me be off.
"I lifted my voice in protest, crying again to that beautiful woman
for alms. She heard me, my lord. She has a gentle heart. 'Hold,' said
she to the guard. 'Let the priest approach.' Thus, my lord, I gained
her side, and she gave me pieces of silver enough to fill my jar,
compelling all her party to contribute freely.
"And when that had been done she asked me of our temple, and I told her
concerning it, and called a blessing upon her, and contrived to whisper
that I had an important message, meant for her ears alone.
"The maid, my lord, is quick of comprehension. She turned to the
prince himself. 'This priest finds favor with me,' she said. 'I would
speak with him further. It may be that I shall select him for my own
spiritual instructor once I am Cathur's queen.'
"Kyphallos smiled, my lord. 'As you will, my princess,' he replied, and
I think he suspected nothing.
"Then the maid turned back to me and set a time for me to come to her
at the palace on the morrow in the morning. Is it well, my lord."
"It is well," said Croft, though the delay of another day did not
please his impatience to know Naia safe. "Yet there is more for you to
do. Provide me a second robe such as Magur gave me which I wore here,
and arrange for a carriage to be waiting tomorrow night on the street
from the palace to the harbor. Do this in time that I may know the
driver's name, when I shall come upon him, and so calling him identify
myself as the man for whom he is employed. Here--" He drew a pouch and
placed silver in Abbu's hand. "Pay the man well, and tell him to look
for as much beyond what you give him if he serves me without fail. Also
provide me a standard of Cathur's colors, such as are used on ships."
The latter request was due to a sudden thought which had popped into
Croft's mind, and evoked a tight-lipped smile. He had conceived a way
to throw consternation into the camp of his foes. He set about planning
it out that same night and the succeeding day.