The hours that followed were a confused horror and despair to me. Yet
there seemed no one but myself and Caan who considered this disaster
more vital than those which had preceded it. At last we knew that the
young women of Rax were being stolen—from under our very eyes—from the
heart of the city, in the silence of the Time of Sleep. We knew now
also, that they were being taken into the dread Water of Wild Things.
Og’s presence proved that. Og had gone to live with the fabled humans,
half-savage, that legend said lived with the monsters of that strange
dark region. And now Og had come back—and had been caught in the very
act of an abduction. It was all clear now. And all we had to do was to
guard our women—to watch carefully the entrance to the Water of Wild
Things, that nothing, human or savage, could come out of it to trespass
on the Marinoid domain.
Thus ran the sentiment of the city; and the King, making a speech from
the parapet of his palace roof-top, assured us in flowing phrases that
the danger now was past. No marauders could come from the Water of Wild
Things now that we were on the alert to stop them. He, our Monarch,
assured us of that. Our women in future, were secure.
Had Nona been safe at my side, no doubt I should have applauded these
sentiments as did most of the other onlookers. But Nona was not at my
side. She was gone—into that horrible unknown region from whence none
returned. The King said Marinoid women now were safe! What was that to
me, with my Nona gone?
There was talk of an expedition into the Water of Wild Things. But none
would volunteer, save those comparatively few who already had lost wives
or daughters. Caan stood by me. He would go. And I—there would have
been no sleep or food for me again had I tried to stay in Rax and yield
up Nona to her fate.
There were no artificial weapons available in Rax save of one type—that
slim hunting spear made of fish-bone—the spear with which the King’s
attendant had struck me down when first I was being brought to Rax.
These spears were all the Prince and I had had for our hunting
expeditions.
Other weapons? The Marinoids had had them in times gone by. But once—a
lifetime before—civil war had broken out between two of the Marinoid
cities; and when it was over all weapons save the simple spear, were
abolished. There seemed no need of weapons. There was practically no
wild life in Marinoid waters. The monster that had once come to devour
them was a fable out of the distant past. And so they lived on in a
false security making themselves defenseless so that they would not be
tempted to fight; and forgetting that their very defenselessness must
prove an irresistible temptation for some enemy to attack them!
We organized our meager, pitiful little rescue party. Led by Caan and
me—with Caan’s wife to care for Boy while we were gone—there were no
more than fifty of us in total. Then, quite without warning, Prince Atar
signified his intention of joining us—commanding us in person.
Can you guess the joy it brought to my heart? Our Prince, disregarding
even the commands of his father, was coming with us!
Atar—for so I called him now in the intimacy which had come between
us—was younger than myself. A slim, clear-featured youth, with a boyish
smile, but eyes which had in them the look of one born to command. And
Caan—a man past the zenith of his life, whose arms were no longer
limber with youth but with a body strong and sturdy nevertheless. With
these two to help me I felt that I could conquer whatever strange
creatures we might encounter—and get my Nona back.
Our party was no more than together, when Atar announced we were making
a mistake. There were fifty of us, practically unarmed. We were too
large a party to go anywhere in secret; we would, by our very numbers,
be but provoking an attack.
* * * * *
Atar’s plan, in brief, was that he, Caan and myself, should slip quietly
into the Water of Wild Things and see what conditions were there. Then,
perhaps without ever having been seen or forcing an encounter, we could
return and plan an expedition in greater force—a force sufficiently
great to insure success.
To me, whose one and only desire was to follow Nona and get her back,
the Prince’s words seemed rational indeed. What did I care for the
safety of those other Marinoid girls who had been stolen?
The Prince, nevertheless, was right from every angle, and so it was
decided that we three should go alone.
I shall never forget the scene as the Prince parted from his mother on
the roof-top of the Palace. We were going to what everyone considered
almost certain death. We would go, and they would never see or hear from
us again.
But with these Marinoids there were no heroics. No shouting and applause
as the heroes went forth to battle. That is left for you really
civilized humans who wage war after a more vainglorious fashion.
These Marinoids, crowding every corner of the cube of open water before
the King’s palace, hovered in silence as we prepared to leave. And the
silence deepened as the Queen stood before her son, and he knelt at her
feet.
“Goodbye, Atar,” she said; and her glance included Caan and me. “We will
wait and hope—for you to come back.”
Her arm brushed his sleek head as he rose and turned away. We departed;
and her brave, inscrutable smile followed us, as between those silent,
solemn ranks of spectators we slowly swam along the streets and out of
the city.
And presently, with tumultuously beating hearts, we three with only our
slender spears, were approaching that dread black opening which marked
the entrance to the Water of Wild Things.