AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY.
Returning consciousness brought numerous twinges of pain to Grandon.
His head ached, his arms ached, in fact it seemed that his whole body
was one solid, throbbing mass of bruises. He stirred uneasily. A soft
hand pressed his fevered brow, and a sweet voice said:
"Speak not so loudly, Rotha. You will awaken him and he needs
rest--much rest and quiet."
Slowly he opened his eyes. He was lying on a sleeping shelf that
projected in a half-moon shape from the wall like the nest of a
cave-swallow. At the foot of his couch, which was of stone but lined
with soft moss, Rotha, the slave girl, held a golden vessel in which
was a pasty compound of aromatic herbs, while Vernia occupied a place
at the head. His armor had been removed and his bruises covered with
the sweet smelling ointment.
In the center of the room a guard stood stiffly erect, holding a
sputtering torch, by the light of which he could see grotesquely carved
figures on the walls, a queer table shaped like a great tortoise, and
chairs that were human figures seated on round pedestals, the body
forming the back, the lap the seat, and outstretched arms with hands
bent downward and finger-tips touching the thighs forming the arm rests.
The furniture was all cut from hard wood of a reddish purple color and
highly polished. The floor was of hexagonal blocks of varicolored
stone and presented a smooth, glossy surface.
He saw all these things at a glance, then his eyes sought those of the
girl at his bedside.
"It is indeed an honor to be nursed by the greatest ruler in all
Zarovia," he said, smiling feebly.
"I'm afraid it is but small recompense for your services," she replied.
"Besides, I am a ruler no longer, nor is it probable that I ever will
be again. Within fifty-eight days my cousin, Prince Destho will assume
the crown. I am sure he must have been the instigator of my abduction.
My legal right to the throne will have been forever forfeited. I will
have been away from the capital for a year, and such is the inexorable
law!"
"Surely you must be mistaken in your calculations," said Grandon. "I
am positive you have not been away from Reabon for over half a year at
most."
"You forget that you are on Zarovia, where the years are much shorter
than on your planet. Our world is closer to the sun than yours,
consequently our year is only two hundred and twenty-five days in
length."
"That's true. Then we must start for Reabon at once."
"But how? The marsh-men say there is no way out of this valley but a
secret tunnel, known only to the sabits, and this is said to be guarded
night and day by a huge army of soldier sabits recruited from all the
communities in the valley."
"But does not the river cut through the surrounding cliffs on its way
to the sea?"
"I am told that the river ends in a great whirlpool a few miles from
here. The marsh-men believe that it falls into a bottomless pit. In the
light of their learning the belief is reasonable enough, for the pit
has never been known to fill up or the river to overflow its banks."
"The river being out of the question, we have the alternative of
scaling the cliffs, or finding the secret passageway of the sabits and
fighting our way through," said Grandon. "In either event we must start
quickly, for the time is short and there is much to be done if we would
defeat your scheming cousin Destho, and save your throne."
* * * * *
Despite her protests Grandon arose, gritting his teeth as the pains
shot through his bruised body. While he donned his armor with the
assistance of the two girls he asked many questions regarding the
outcome of the battle with the brown-mouthed sabits. All of the slaves
had been rescued and the king and queen sabits were prisoners.
Joto had, by his wonderful agility, escaped his pursuers and personally
led a party to the rescue of Grandon. They took him, stunned and
apparently lifeless, to Vernia, who ascertained that his heart was
still beating and had him conveyed to this bedchamber of an ancient
Albine ruler, where she and Rotha, whose mother had taught her to
compound healing salves and potions from herbs and fungi of the valley,
nursed him all through the night.
Grandon was drawing on his gauntlets when Oro entered. At sight of his
commander, Oro saluted smartly, after the style of soldiers of Zarovian
empires.
"Where did you learn the military salute, and why are you here instead
of guarding the roga-sabit as instructed?" asked Grandon.
"We have been taught many things by Joto, who has assumed temporary
command of your army," replied Oro. "He has set the other captains
you appointed to the tasks of guarding the king and queen sabits of
the two communities, drilling, and learning the meaning of military
orders. In addition he has been training a crew of thirty men to
handle the mattorks. We are in grave danger, for the sabits of all the
communities, realizing that we menace their safety, have united with
the common purpose of annihilating us. Our scouts report the marshaling
of a mighty force in the red-mouthed community which they have made
their base of operations. They are pouring in by thousands from all
over the valley, and Joto thinks they will attack us before nightfall."
"Joto has commendable initiative and ability to match it," said
Grandon. "Let us go and see what he has accomplished."
Accompanied by the two girls, they made their way to the place where
Grandon had fallen into the passageway while attempting to tunnel
his way to freedom. Here they encountered the first sign of Joto's
activities, for the hole had been widened and a broad stairway
constructed. Two guards saluted stiffly as they passed.
They found Joto outside the structure, supervising the practice of the
mattork crew, who used empty bullet and gas clips but went through
the motions of loading, aiming and firing with surprising speed and
precision, while four units of a hundred men each were being drilled by
their officers. He turned and raised his visor with a welcoming smile
as Grandon and the others approached.
"I see that you are not without considerable military genius," said
Grandon.
"Having trained men in the art of warfare for some time I should be
reasonably proficient," replied Joto. "However, I bow to you as a
superior strategist. The attack you planned against the brown-mouthed
sabits was marvelously conceived and executed. If the reports of our
scouts are to be credited we will shortly have a battle to fight which
will require infinitely more cunning. We await your orders."
"How many sabits do you expect will attack us?"
"Twenty thousand, at the very least. Every community in the valley is
sending no less than a hundred, and there are more than two hundred
communities. There will soon be a fight that will decide whether this
valley is to be ruled by men or monsters."
"Twenty thousand sabits," mused Grandon. "Enough to sweep us away
bodily, and these buildings with us."
"Easily."
* * * * *
"With four hundred and fifty men it will be impossible to guard both
communities, or even all the buildings of one community against so
powerful a force. Have the brown-mouthed sabit rulers brought to the
central building of this community, and there kept with the rulers of
the white community. Withdraw our guards from all other buildings, and
block all the runways with stones except the one which leads here from
the central building."
"Then we may as well kill all of our sabit slaves at once," said Joto,
"for the attackers will surely kill them."
"Why should they war on their own kind," asked Grandon, "when it is
their purpose to rescue them?"
"Their purpose is not altruistic, but protective only. There is no such
thing as love, mercy or charity in a sabit mind. As our slaves, the
brown-mouthed and the white sabits are outlaws and enemies of their
kind. Moreover, they will fight to protect their rulers, their eggs and
their fantas."
"Why not let them fight?" asked Vernia. "They should account for a few
of the attackers."
"Right," exclaimed Grandon, "Leave them to guard the brown-mouthed
community and the three outer structures of this one. No doubt they
will all be killed in the first charge, but it is probable they will
account for an equal number of enemies."
Joto sent a messenger to order the brown-mouthed rulers brought to new
quarters, as directed by Grandon. It was decided that a hundred men
should be posted in the central building, with one mattork placed on
the roof. The other two mattorks would command the battlefield from a
place on the roof of the men's sleeping quarters.
The stores of dried fungi from both communities were removed from
their storage rooms and carried to the subterranean chambers, as were
also hundreds of sacks of the sticky food. While Joto supervised this
work, Grandon took Oro and a crew of twenty-five men to examine the
engines of war in the ancient armory of the Albines, which Oro had
discovered while exploring the underground passageways.
They traveled underground for more than a mile before they arrived
at the huge subterranean armory which, next to the throne room, was
the largest excavation in the entire system. Its floor level was
considerably below that of the passageways and its ceiling was higher
and dome-shaped. Though the floor was of hard granite, the walls and
ceilings were as elaborately decorated as those of the fountain room,
the reliefs being almost exclusively battle scenes between Albines and
sabits, and in many cases showing in operation engines of war similar
to those which stood about on the floor.
Grandon examined these heavy, death-dealing instruments of a vanished
race with more than ordinary interest. Most of them were better adapted
to the purpose of attack on the sabit dwellings than for defense.
There were catapults that hurled huge stones or fired long, heavy,
metal-tipped missiles which acted as battering rams. There were
instruments apparently adapted to the spraying of poisonous liquids,
though no ammunition for them could be found.
Among the devices which required considerable mechanical ingenuity
were queer three-wheeled carts built in the shape of hollow triangles,
the outside edges of which were protected by curved blades and spiked
clubs that whirled rapidly when the machines were pushed forward by men
running inside. A small group of men operating on level ground might
cut a path through an entire sabit army with one of these machines.
Having sent Oro and his men to Joto with six of the carts, Grandon
was examining the brown metal spring of one of the catapults when his
attention was attracted by a curiously wrought cabinet standing against
the wall. What he at first took to be narrow sliding drawers proved to
be thin flat slabs of stone on which designs had been scratched with
some sharp instrument. The topmost slab was covered with a carefully
drafted design of an Albine catapult. The next illustrated the
construction and working principles of the spraying machines.
* * * * *
As he pulled out slab after slab he found plans for the construction
of practically all the machines he had seen, but the bottom slab
particularly interested him, for he saw that it consisted of two maps
side by side, the general shape of both being identical, but the
details different.
He recognized one as a map of the valley surface, the other as a plan
of the underground passageways and chambers of the Albines. Holding the
flickering torch nearer, he eagerly examined his find in the hope that
it might contain information regarding the location of the secret way
out of the valley.
A careful scrutiny of the surface map revealed only the solid, unbroken
cliffs in oval formation, so he concluded that the tunnel mentioned
by the marsh-men must not have been known to the Albines. Turning
from this to the underground map, he noticed a discrepancy that had
previously escaped his observation, for in the first map the river
began at the western end of the valley and wound its way south of the
center to the point where it ended in a whirlpool; while in the second
it began in the northwest and flowed for some distance north of the
center, apparently going directly through the point where the other map
showed the whirlpool, and flowing thence on through the cliffs to the
east.
Grandon was puzzled by this seeming paradox, for he had seen enough
of the valley to know that but one river flowed through it. Then the
significance of the thing dawned on him. This river was drawn on an
underground map. Obviously it was an underground river! Furthermore, it
could not have been mapped unless navigable, in which case it offered a
means of escape from the valley providing he could locate it.
He noticed that at one point the river appeared to touch the end of the
chamber he was in, but there seemed to be no mode of exit other than
the door which led to the passageway through which he had entered. His
curiosity aroused to a fever pitch, he walked back and forth along the
walls searching for a concealed door, but without success.
When about to give up his seemingly hopeless quest he arrived at a
certain point where his attention was attracted by a gentle murmuring
as of distant waters. Pausing, he listened breathlessly, and noticed
that the sound seemed to emanate from the figure of an armed warrior
which was chiseled in bold relief on the wall before him.
A careful search revealed a small lever behind the right elbow, and on
pulling this a section of the wall four feet wide and higher than a
man moved toward him, revealing a flat platform and a flight of steps
beyond. The unmistakable sound of roaring water was now plainly audible.
Grandon stepped on the platform and, finding it firm, held his torch
aloft and descended the steps. After traveling for a considerable
distance he reached a level floor of stone and a moment later came upon
a sight that amazed and startled him, inured though he was to strange
and awesome spectacles.
* * * * *
Before him lay a great stone dock on which, as far as his torchlight
carried in both directions, reposed a fleet of metal boats, each about
fifty feet in length and built in the form of those huge amphibious
reptiles such as he had rescued Vernia from, back in Reabon. The
prow ended in the arched serpentine neck and head, while the stern
terminated in the flat, pointed tail. Behind these grotesque craft
he could see the black, foam-flecked water rushing headlong beneath
stalactite-festooned subterranean arches.
He examined one of the boats with intense interest. It was constructed
of brown metal similar to that from which the Albines made their
weapons and armor, and appeared quite strong and seaworthy. The deck
was completely arched over with the same material, fashioned in
imitation of reptilian scales, except at the front and rear where there
were oval holes provided with hinged metal lids.
Upon entering the forward hole he found a roomy interior all of metal,
and saw that the hull was rigidly ribbed and braced. Twenty large metal
paddies lay on the floor and there were twenty seats for paddlers, ten
on each side, while metal hoods projected outward almost to the water
line, in such a manner that they would completely hide the paddlers and
protect them from the missiles of an enemy. The steering device and
helmsman's seat were immediately behind the top of the rear entrance
hole, and were also protected by movable metal plates.
Upon his moving the tiller the entire tail turned, and he learned
later, as he had surmised, that the rudder was fastened beneath this
tail.
Grandon made his way back to the armory and carefully closed the secret
doorway. He started along the passageway, reflecting on the importance
of the discoveries he had made, when he noticed a soldier running
toward him.
The man stopped suddenly when he saw Grandon and saluted stiffly.
"Joto bade me tell you that the sabits are beginning the attack," he
announced breathlessly.
"Attacking already?" Grandon was dumfounded. He hurried swiftly forward
to join in the momentous conflict which was to decide, once and for
all, whether men or monsters should rule the Valley of the Sabits.
As soon as he had left the room a tall, bulky figure in armor stepped
from behind a large catapult and went directly to the hidden door,
wrenching one of the torches from its fastening as he passed. The
soldier fumbled with the hidden lever for a moment, then managed to
swing the door back and disappeared in the dark interior.
Some twenty minutes later he reappeared, carefully fastened the door
and replaced the torch. His visor was raised, and an expression of
malicious cunning overspread the face beneath it. The face was that of
Tholto, the brutal marsh-man of the mating pits.
"A way out of the valley," he muttered. "This farce of pretended
friendship will soon be over. I have only to gather a few provisions
and to get _her_."
He lowered his visor and slunk out of the door and down the passageway.