"Prince Zinlo of Olba," I finished for her, "at your service."
"I am the Princess Loralie of Tyrhana," she replied with a smile that revealed two adorable dimples. "Pray tell me . . ."
Our conversation was interrupted by the youth, who, after extricating himself from the bushes, rushed between us with drawn scarbo.
"Body and bones of Thorth," he snarled. "You have sealed your death warrant, Prince Zinlo."
Then he made a slash at me that would have severed my head from my body had I not leaped back. As I did so, I drew my own blade and engaged him. Finding in a moment that he was no master of fence, I disarmed him—then retrieved his weapon before he had time to recover from his amazement.
"You have dropped your scarbo," I said. "Permit me." And I presented it to him, hilt first.
Again he lunged at me, and again I disarmed him, with as much ease as before—then leaped and picked up his weapon before he could reach it.
"Perhaps I had better keep this," I said. "You seem so unfamiliar with its use that you may injure yourself."
He reached for his tork, but I was expecting this, and with a quick slash cut his belt. The weapon fell onto the soft moss, and I kicked it into the shrubbery.
He cringed as if expecting the death blow, then suddenly looked beyond me, exclaiming, "By the sixteen kingdoms of ReabonI Look behind you!"
Thinking it a trick, I did not look until I heard a scream from Princess Loralie and the clank of weapons. Then I whirled, and saw her struggling in the grip of a purple-clad noble whom I instantly recognized as my opponent of the tower—Talibozl An Olban airship resting on the ground behind him explained his presence here. Four burly warriors were rushing toward me with drawn scarbos.
"It seems that we have some real fighting to do," I said to Gadrimel, tossing him his weapon. He caught it, and came manfully enough to guard, just as the four armed retainers of Taliboz bore down on us. I crouched low and extended my point as my first assailant made a vicious swing at my neck.
He died on my blade with an ear-piercing shriek, and I wrenched it free just as my second assailant came up. This fellow was not only more wary, but quite expert with the scarbo. He laid my cheek open with a quick cut just as I was coming on guard. His second blow was aimed at my legs, and would have mowed me down as grain is cut had I not leaped back. As it was, the point of his weapon raked my thigh.
Stung by the pain of my two wounds, I forgot my swordsmanship for the moment, and brought my blade straight down in a blow which he should have easily parried. It was the unexpected clumsiness of the stroke which told, as he did not come on guard in time; my blade divided his head as cleanly as a knife divides a Zarovian sporepod.
Over at my left, Prince Gadrimel was sorely beset by the other two ruffians. His face and body were bloody as my own, yet he gave them back blow for blow and thrust for thrust. But he was plainly weakening. With the princess being carried off, there was no time for the niceties of dueling, and I felt no compunction about leaping up behind his nearest assailant and striking off his head. The other, seeing the blow, turned to face me; but to his own undoing, for he left Gadrimel the opening he sought. With a quick slash the prince disemboweled him.
"Come," I snapped, dashing toward the airship. "We must rescue the princess from that fiend."
He followed close at my heels, but we had not covered more than half the distance to the airship when it began to rise. Then a mattork projectile screamed past our heads, exploding in the shrubbery behind us, followed by another and another. We took shelter behind the marble rim of the fountain, and Taliboz's bombardment ceased.
The cannonading was suddenly resumed; but this time it came from the castle behind us. The castle guards, evidently believing themselves attacked by the Olban ship, were returning its fire with a vengeance.
Gadrimel and I both rose from our hiding place, and he shouted, "Don't shootl The princess is on board."
The firing ceased, but too late, for the airship, its motive mechanism put out of commission by a mattork shell, was falling into the bay. I watched breathlessly as it hurtled downward, expecting to see it plunge beneath the water as my own had done the night before; but, to my astonishment, two parachutes flew upward from the fore and aft decks and effectively broke its fall. It alighted on an even keel with a great splash that nearly capsized a small sailing vessel anchored near by. Sinking no deeper than its deck railing, it rose again to ride the waves as evenly as if it had been built especially for the purpose.
Washed shoreward, it drifted closer and closer to the small sailing vessel while Gadrimel and I rushed down to the shore. Then, as we stood helplessly watching, a dozen armed men swarmed into the sailing vessel from the airship. The sailors instantly dived over the opposite side and swam for shore. The last man to step into the captured ship was the purple-clad Taliboz, carrying in his arms the limp form of Princess Loralie.
"To the docks!" shouted GadrimeL racing madly off to the right. "They are raising the sails!"
As I hurried along, I saw the sails go up, billowing in the breeze, while four of Taliboz's men at the prow hoisted the anchor.
Gadrimel and I rounded a bend in the wooded shore line, and a crescent of docks to which several hundred ships were moored came into view. At the same time, the vessel which Taliboz had captured, with all sails up and anchor hoisted, veered about in the considerable breeze and made swiftly for the open sea.
A party of soldiers from the castle had reached the dock ahead of us. With them was a tall, broad-shouldered figure in the scarlet of royalty, whose grizzled beard was cut off square below the chin, and whose regal countenance was empurpled with anger.
"It's my father, Emperor Aardvan of Adonijar," said Gadrimel.
"Prepare six warships for pursuit, at once," I heard Aardvan shout.
A thousand men hurried to carry out his orders.
As we approached this commanding individual, the prince and I both bowed low, with right hands extended palm downward, in the universal Zarovian salute to royalty. I was struck by the contrast between this brawny, bull-necked emperor and his mincing, effeminate son.
Aardvan, glaring down at us, roared, "Two brawling princelings, all spattered with blood. What did you do? Scratch eath other like a couple of marmelot cubs? Who is your playmate, Gadrimel? Were those his men who carried off the princess?"
"This is Torrogi Zinlo of Olba, Your Majesty," replied Gadrimel.
"The Imperial Crown Prince of Olbal What does he here?" I explained briefly.
"We slew four men, sire," boasted Gadrimel.
"I've heard of this Taliboz," growled Aardvan. "A traitorcms and dangerous fellow. You are welcome to Adonijar, Prince Zinlo. Stay as long as you like, and when you are ready to depart I'll send a guard of honor to accompany you to your own country."
"With your majesty's permission," I said, "I should prefer to accompany the fleet which is preparing to follow Taliboz."
"That will be as Gadrimel says," rumbled his father. "He will command the fleet."
"Come along," said Gadrimel. "Our private quarrel can wait. For the present we have common interests, and your blade may be needed."
A graybearded naval officer came running up and saluted.
"What is it, Rogvoz?" inquired Emperor Aardvan.
"The fleet is ready, Your Majesty," replied the officer.
"Then let's be off," said Gadrimel.
We hurried aboard one of the six vessels, all of which swarmed with armed men, accompanied by the graybearded officer. A few moments later, with all sails set, the fleet plowed out of the harbor in pursuit of the small fishing boat, which was now but a speck on the horizon.
CHAPTER IV
The tint sailboat in which my mortal enemy, Taliboz, was carrying off the Princess Loralie, was making steadily northeast toward Olba with our six battleships in hot pursuit, when suddenly I saw her come about and head directly south.
Gadrimel, Admiral Rogvoz and I were watching together on the foreward deck of the flagship
. The admiral stared for a minute through his long glass. Then he carefully scanned the horizon toward the northeast.
"They have good reasons for turning," he announced excitedly. "A great ordzook approaches from the northl"
He passed the glass to Gadrimel, who looked for a momerit, then with an exclamation of horror, passed it on to me.
When I had adjusted the glass to suit my vision, I saw a most fearsome sight. Not more than a half mile behind the small sailboat, and gaining on it rapidly, a gigantic and terrible head projected from the water, swinging on a thick arched neck. The head alone was half as long as the sailboat it pursued; and although the body was submerged, I could see, at intervals of fifteen to twenty feet, sharp spines flashing intermittently above the waves to a distance of fully a hundred feet behind the head.
"Do you think we can save them, Rogvoz?" asked Gadrimel.
"We can but try, Highness," replied the admiral. "It is doubtful." He turned to the captain of the boat. "Order the mattork crews to start firing on the ordzook, and signal all other captains to do likewise."
The captain shouted his orders to the waiting cannon crews, and a moment later the din of these rapid-fire weapons was terrific. From the high forward deck our signal man meanwhile busied himself semaphoring with two huge disks, one red, the other yellow. The other ships immediately opened fire with their mattorks, adding to the deafening noise which our own ship had started.
We were approaching closer to the marine monster now, as the path of the fishing boat crossed our own. I could see the ordzook turn from time to time, snapping at the stinging mattork projectiles as they struck the spiny ridges of its undulating scaly body, which was a shimmering, bluish-green in color. The head and neck were a brilliant shade of yellow, except where neck and shoulders joined, for at this point a broad band of scarlet formed a flaming ring—a danger signal which all creatures might beware.
The speed of the mighty amphibian was impeded by its constant turning to snap at its wounds, enabling the small boat containing Taliboz and Loralie to gain on it gradually.
Suddenly changing its course, the monster wheeled and swam toward our fleet. "To the right!" called Rogvpz. "Veer to the right!"
The ship on which we stood came about suddenly, her starboard rail for a moment submerged beneath the waves. All hands grabbed for such fixed objects as they could cling to.
Behind us trailed the fleet, and on came the ordzook, not stopping now to snap futilely at the stinging projectiles, but bent on more deadly action.
With all the port mattorks trained on the monster, I thought to see it go into a death struggle at any moment, but the projectiles seemed merely to irritate it. We were so close in a few moments that I could see its relatively tiny jet black eyes, set just above the comers of the great gaping mouth which was filled with a formidable array of saw-edged teeth.
We passed it safely, as did the second, third, fourth and fifth boats, but the last of the fleet, lagging behind because of improper manipulation of its sails, could not escape.
The enormous yellow head reared upward for an instant on the arched, spiny neck. Then, with formidable jaws distended, it struck downward at the fore deck. The captain of the ship and three of his men standing with him disappeared into the huge maw along with most of the deck on which they stood.
Again and again the creature struck at the doomed craft, until sails, masts, men, and most of the upper works were gone. Then it reared upward in the water and came down with a tremendous crash on the middle of the defenseless hulk. Broken in two by the terrific impact, both halves of the ship sank almost instantly, and the fearful creature which had wrought this destruction before our eyes plunged into the waves after them. Nor did we see it more.
Once more we turned our attention to the boat containing Taliboz and the princess. Hemmed off from Olba by our five vessels, they were now sailing due south at a speed apparently equaling our own, for as time passed the distance between us did not seem appreciably to alter.
Because of the presence of Princess Loralie on board the fishing boat we were constrained to withhold our mattork fire, with which otherwise we could soon have brought Taliboz to terms. He fired no shots, either, except a few stray projectiles from the torks, which led us to believe that he had not salvaged any mattorks from his wrecked airship.
As we sailed southward over the blue-gray waters of the Ropok Ocean, the point of land on which the city of Adonijar is situated receded from view, and in all directions showed only a cloud-lined sky meeting and almost blending with the rolling waters.
But even this vast expanse of sky and sea was not a lonely place. It teemed with life of a thousand varieties—with creatures of striking beauty and of the most terrifying ugliness. Quite near our boat several large white birds with red-tipped wings and long, sharply curved beaks skimmed the water in search of food. Mighty flying reptiles, some with wingspreads of more than sixty feet, soared high in the air, scanning the water until they saw such prey as suited them; then, folding their webbed wings, they plunged with terrific speed, to emerge with struggling prey and leisurely flap away.
With the advent of sudden darkness, common to tropical and semi-tropical Zarovia, bright searchlights flashed out from the mastheads of the entire fleet, and the boat we pursued was thus kept in sight.
While these lights were an absolute necessity in the blackness of the moonless Zarovian night, they were also a nuisance, as they attracted to the vessel countless droves of flying creatures, mostly reptilian; many of them, blinded by the bright beams, flew against masts, sails or rigging and fell, squawking, croaking or hissing to the deck. Some of them, infuriated and only partly crippled or stunned, menaced our lives until dispatched and tossed overboard.
After several hours I grew weary and retired for the night. Despite the constantly repeated disturbances above deck and the frequent colliding of the craft with some marine monster, I soon fell asleep.
I was awakened late the following morning by Prince Gadrimel's valet, who insisted on ministering to my wants as became a prince of the blood imperial. After a breakfast of stewed mushrooms and succulent grilled fish, washed down with a bowl of steaming kova, I went on deck where I found Gadrimel and Rogvoz in consultation.
"They swing gradually but surely toward the southwest, Highness," said Rogvoz as I came up. "They are trying to circle us and sail once more toward Olba."
"Is there no way we can prevent their doing this?" asked Gadrimel.
"We can only follow them so that their circle must be so large that they will be cornered by land."
I took up the glass which he had put down in order to make some calculations, and focused it on the ship we were pursuing. On the rear deck I made out the slim figure of the princess, who also held a telescope in her hand. She raised it a moment later, and I saw that it was pointed at our ship. I waved my left arm.
Her reply was instantaneous, as her shapely white arm flashed above her head. Then I saw Taliboz, glowering with rage, come up behind her, wrench the glass from her grasp and with significant gestures order her forward. With little head held high, she defied him, but he grasped her wrist and dragged her away. As she disappeared from view, I lowered my glass, and Gadrimel, who had evidently been watching me, said, "Beard of Thorth, Prince Zinlo! Your usually serene and smiling countenance has suddenly become as1 stormy and forbidding as the Azpok at change of seasons. What have you seen?"
"Enough," I replied, "to make me long for the day when I can once more meet Taliboz face-to-face, scarbo in handl"
For five days we followed in tormenting nearness, sometimes close enough to be within hailing distance, sometimes so far back that we feared to lose them. It was late on the fifth day that a lookout at the masthead above us suddenly shouted: "Land! Land!"
Instantly Gadrimel, Rogvoz and I rushed to the foredeck. Taliboz, now hemmed in from all sides by our fleet, was doing the only thing left for him to do, steering directly for a sheltered inlet. He rounded a curve in the s
hore line, disappearing from view, and some time later, when we sailed into the inlet, we saw his craft beached.
Rogvoz, who had the glass, exclaimed, "The fool! The utter fool! To escape us he plunges into worse danger, dragging the princess with him. We, at least, would not eat him.''
"What do you mean?" demanded Gadrimel.
"Just now I saw the entire party disappear into the fern forest."
"But this danger you mention. What is it?"
"I had forgotten, Highness, that you are unfamiliar with this part of Zarovia. This is the land of the terrible, flesh-eating cave-apes—huge creatures, any one of which is said to be a match for a dozen men, but with intelligence far greater than that of other apes. Some of the few men who have landed here and had the good fortune to escape them say they not only have a peculiar clucking language of their own, but can also speak patoa."
"We must catch up to them quickly," I cried.
The five ships were brought up as close to the sloping, sandy beach as was safe, then boats were lowered. Soon a force of five hundred fighting men stood on shore.
After a short consultation, it was decided that we should form a long line, the men keeping about ten feet apart, and so enter the forest in the direction which Taliboz had taken. This line, if kept unbroken, would form a great net nearly a mile across in which the fugitives, we felt sure, must inevitably be snared. Rogvoz took charge of the extreme left end of the line, Gadrimel directed the center, and I had charge of the extreme right end.
Tripping over clinging creepers, floundering through sticky morasses, cutting our way through matted, tangled rope-like vines which hung downward from the mighty branches of the tree-fems, and constantly slapping at the biting and stinging insect pests which abounded in these lowlands, we soon found ourselves progressing with exasperating slowness.
Not only did the vegetable and insect world seek to detain us, there was the menace of animals and reptiles as well. A giant whistling serpent—a hideous creature fully forty feet in length, with long, upright ears and sharp spines the full length of its back—struck down one of our men and succeeded in killing two others before it was finally dispatched by the bullets from a score of torks.
Robert Grandon 02 Prince of Peril Page 4