Sea Kings of Mars

by Leigh Brackett

  Rold took one longship and a picked crew, and left Khondor by night. Jaxart went with him. Everyone knew the dangers of that voyage. But one swift ship, with Swimmers to scout the way, might elude the Sark patrols. They would beach in a hidden cove Jaxart knew of, west of Jekkara, and go the rest of the way overland.

  "If aught goes wrong on the return," Rold said grimly, "we'll sink our ship at once."

  After the longship sailed there was nothing to do but wait.

  Carse was never alone. He was given three small rooms in a disused part of the palace and guards were with him always.

  A corroding fear crept in his mind, no matter how he fought it down. He caught himself listening for an inner voice to speak, watching for some small sign or gesture that was not his own. The horror of the ordeal in the place of the Wise Ones had left its mark. He knew now. And, knowing, he could never for one moment forget.

  It was not fear of death that oppressed him, though he was human and did not want to die. It was dread of living again through that moment when he had ceased to be himself, when his mind and body were possessed in every cell by the invader. Worse than the dread of madness was the uncanny fear of Rhiannon's domination.

  Emer came again and again to talk with him and study him. He knew she was watching him for signs of Rhiannon's resurgence. But as long as she smiled he knew that he was safe.

  She would not look into his mind again. But she referred once to what she had seen there.

  "You come from another world," she said with quiet sureness. "I think I knew that when first I saw you. The memories of it were in your mind-a desolate, desert place, very strange and sad."

  They were on his tiny balcony, high under the crest of the rock, and the wind blew clean and strong down from the green forests.

  Carse nodded. "A bitter world. But it had its own beauty."

  "There is beauty even in death," said Emer, "but I am glad to be alive."

  "Let's forget that other place, then. Tell me of this one that lives so strongly. Rold said you were much with the Halflings."

  She laughed. "He chides me sometimes, saying that I am a changeling and not human at all."

  "You don't look human now," Carse told her, "with the moonlight on your face and your hair all tangled with it."

  "Sometimes I wish it were true. You have never been to the Isles of the Sky Folk?"

  "No."

  "They're like castles rising from the sea, almost as tall as Khondor. When the Sky Folk take me there I feel the lack of wings, for I must be carried or remain on the ground while they soar and swoop around me. It seems to me then that flying is the most beautiful thing in the world and I weep because I can never know it.

  "But when I go with the Swimmers I am happier. My body is much like theirs though never quite so fleet. And it is wonderful-oh, wonderful-to plunge down into the glowing water and see the gardens that they keep, with the strange sea-flowers bowing to the tide and the little bright fish darting like birds among them.

  "And their cities, silver bubbles in the shallow ocean. The heavens there are all glowing fire, bright gold when the sun shines, silver at night. It is always warm and the air is still and there are little ponds where the babies play, learning to be strong for the open sea.

  "I have learned much from the Halflings," she finished.

  "But the Dhuvians are Halflings too?" Carse said.

  Emer shivered. "The Dhuvians are the oldest of the Halfling races. There are but few of them now and those all dwell at Caer Dhu."

  Carse asked suddenly, "You have Halfling wisdom-is there no way to be rid of the monstrous thing within me?"

  She answered somberly, "Not even the Wise Ones have learned that much."

  The Earthman's fists closed savagely on the rock of the gallery.

  "It would have been better if you'd killed me there in the cave!"

  Emer put her gentle hand on his and said, "There is always time for death."

  After she left him Carse paced the floor for hours, wanting the release of wine and not daring to take it, afraid to sleep. When exhaustion took him at last, his guards strapped him to his bed and one stood by with a drawn sword and watched, ready to wake him instantly if he should seem to dream.

  And he did dream. Sometimes they were nothing more than nightmares born of his own anguish, and sometimes the dark whisper of an alien voice came gliding into his mind, saying, "Do not be afraid. Let me speak, for I must tell you."

  Many times Carse awoke with the echo of his screaming in his ears, and the sword's point at his throat.

  "I mean no harm or evil. I can stop your fears if you will only listen!"

  Carse wondered which he would do first-go mad or fling himself from the balcony into the sea.

  Boghaz clung closer to him than ever. He seemed fascinated by the thing that lurked in Carse. He was awed too but not too much awed to be furious over the disposal of the Tomb.

  "I told you to let me bargain for it!" he would say. "The greatest source of power on Mars and you give it away! Give it without even exacting a promise that they won't kill you when they get it."

  His fat hands made a gesture of finality. "I repeat, you have robbed me, Carse. Robbed me of my kingdom."

  And Carse, for once, was glad of the Valkisian's effrontery because it kept him from being alone. Boghaz would sit, drinking enormous quantities of wine, and every so often he would look at Carse and chuckle.

  "People always said that I had a devil in me. But you, Carse-you have the devil in you!"

  "Let me speak, Carse, and I will make you understand!"

  Carse grew gaunt and hollow-eyed. His face twitched and his hands were unsteady.

  Then the news came, brought by a winged man who flew exhausted into Khondor.

  It was Emer who told Carse what had happened. She did not really need to. The moment he saw her face, white as death, he knew.

  "Rold never reached the Tomb," she said. "A Sark patrol caught them on the outward voyage. They say Rold tried to slay himself to keep the secret safe but he was prevented. They have taken him to Sark."

  "But the Sarks don't even know that he has the secret," Carse protested, clutching at that straw, and Emer shook her head.

  "They're not fools. They'll want to know the plans of Khondor and why he was bound toward Jekkara with a single ship. They'll have the Dhuvians question him.

  Carse realized sickly what that meant. The Dhuvians' hypnotic science had almost conquered his own stubbornly alien brain. It would soon suck all Rold's secrets out of him.

  "Then there is no hope?"

  "No hope," said Emer. "Not now nor ever again."

  They were silent for a while. The wind moaned in the gallery, and the waved rolled in solemn thunder against the cliffs below.

  Carse said, "What will be done now?"

  "The Sea Kings have sent word through all the free coasts and isles. Every ship and every man is gathering here now and Ironbeard will lead them on to Sark.

  "There is a little time. Even when the Dhuvians have the secret it will take them time to go to the Tomb and bring the weapons back and learn their use. If we can crush Sark before then. . ."

  "Can you crush Sark?" asked Carse.

  She answered honestly. "No. The Dhuvians will intervene and even the weapons they already have will turn the scale against us.

  "But we must try and die trying, for it will be a better death than the one that will come after when Sark and the Serpent level Khondor into the sea."

  He stood looking down at her and it seemed to him that no moment of his life had been more bitter than this.

  "Will the Sea Kings take me with them?" Stupid question. He knew the answer before she gave it to him.

  "They are saying now that this was all a trick of Rhiannon's, misleading Rold to get the secret into Caer Dhu. I have told them it was not so but-"

  She made a small gesture and turned her head away. "Ironbeard, I think, believes me. He will see that your death is swift and clean."


  After a while Carse said, "And Ywain?"

  Thorn of Tarak has arranged that. Her they will take with them to Sark, lashed to the bow of the leader's ship."

  There was another silence. It seemed to Carse that the very air was heavy, so that it weighed upon his heart.

  He found that Emer had left silently. He turned and went out onto the little gallery, where he stood staring down at the sea.

  "Rhiannon," he whispered, "I curse you. I curse the day I came to Khondor with the promise of your tomb."

  The light was fading. The sea was like a bath of blood in the sunset. The wind brought him broken shouts and cries from the city and far below longships raced into the fiord.

  Carse laughed mirthlessly. "You've got what you wanted," he told the Presence within him, "but you won't enjoy it long!" Small triumph.

  The strain of the past few days and this final shock were too much for any man to take. Carse sat down on the carven bench and put his head between his hands and stayed that way, too weary even for emotion. The voice of the dark invader whispered in his brain and for the first time Carse was too numb to fight it down.

  "I might have saved you this if you had listened. Fools and children, all of you, that you would not listen!"

  "Very well then-speak," Carse muttered heavily. "The evil is done now and Ironbeard will be here soon. I give you leave, Rhiannon. Speak."

  And he did, flooding Carse's mind with the voice of thought, raging like a storm wind trapped in a narrow vault, desperate, pleading.

  "If you'll trust me, Carse, I could still save Khondor. Lend me your body, let me use it-"

  "I'm not far gone enough for that, even now."

  "Gods above!" Rhiannon's thought raged. "And there's so little time-"

  Carse could sense how he fought to master his fury and when the thought-voice came again it was controlled and quiet with a terrible sincerity.

  "I told the truth in the grotto. You were in my tomb, Carse. How long do you think I could lie there alone in the dreadful darkness outside space and time and not be changed? I'm no god! Whatever you may call us now we Quiru were never gods-only a race of men who came before the other men.

  "They call me evil, the Cursed One-but I was not! Vain and proud, yes, and a fool, but not wicked in intent. I taught the Serpent Folk because they were clever and flattered me-and when they used my teaching to work evil I tried to stop them and failed because they had learned defenses from me and even my power could not reach them in Caer Dhu.

  "Therefore my brother Quiru judged me. They condemned me to remain imprisoned beyond space and time, in the place which they prepared, as long as the fruits of my sin endured in this world. Then they left me.

  "We were the last of our race. There was nothing to hold them here, nothing they could do. They wanted only peace and learning. So they went away along the path they had chosen. And I waited. Can you think what that waiting must have been?"

  "I think you deserved it," Carse said thickly. He was suddenly tense. The shadow, the beginning of a hope. . .

  Rhiannon went on. "I did. But you gave me the chance to undo my sin, to be free to follow my brothers!"

  The thought-voice rose with a passion that was strong, dangerously strong.

  "Lend me your body, Carse! Lend me your body, that I may do it!"

  "No!" cried Carse. "No!"

  He sprang up, conscious now of his peril, fighting with all his strength against that wild demanding force. He thrust it back, closing his mind against it.

  "You cannot master me," he whispered. "You cannot!"

  "No," sighed Rhiannon, "I cannot."

  And the inner voice was gone.

  Carse leaned against the rock, sweating and shaken but fired by a last, desperate hope. No more than an idea, really, but enough to spur him on. Better anything than this waiting for death like a mouse in a trap.

  If the gods of chance would only give him a little time . . .

  From inside he heard the opening of the door and the challenge of the guards, and his heart sank. He stood breathless, listening for the voice of Ironbeard.

  14: Daring Deception

  But it was not Ironbeard who spoke. It was Boghaz, it was Boghaz alone who came out onto the balcony, very downcast and sad.

  "Emer sent me," he said. "She told me the tragic news and I had to come to say goodbye."

  He took Carse's hand. "The Sea Kings are holding their last council of war before starting for Sark but it will not be long. Old friend, we have been through much together. You have grown to be like my own brother and this parting wrings my heart."

  The fat Valkisian seemed genuinely affected. There were tears in his eyes as he looked at Carse.

  "Yes, like my own brother," he repeated unsteadily. "Like brothers, we have quarreled but we have shed blood together too. A man does not forget."

  He drew a long sigh. "I should like to have something of yours to keep by me, friend. Some small trinket for memory's sake. Your jeweled collar, perhaps, your belt-you will not miss them now and I should cherish them all the days of my life."

  He wiped a tear away and Carse took him not too gently by the throat.

  "You hypocritical scoundrel!" he snarled into the Valkisian's startled ear. "A small trinket, eh? By the gods, for a moment you had me fooled!"

  "But, my friend-" squeaked Boghaz.

  Carse shook him once and let him go. In a rapid undertone he said, "I'm not going to break your heart yet if I can help it. Listen, Boghaz. How would you like to gain back the power of the Tomb?"

  Boghaz's mouth fell open. "Mad," he whispered. "The poor fellow's lost his wits from shock."

  Carse glanced inside. The guards were lounging out of earshot. They had no reason to care what went on the balcony.

  There were three of them, mailed and armed. Boghaz was weaponless as a matter of course and Carse could not possibly escape unless he grew wings.

  Swiftly the Earthman spoke.

  "This venture of the Sea Kings is hopeless. The Dhuvians will help Sark and Khondor will be doomed. And that means you too, Boghaz. The Sarks will come and if you survive their attack, which is doubtful, they'll flay you alive and give what's left of you to the Dhuvians."

  Boghaz thought about that and it was not a pleasant thought.

  "But," he stammered, "to regain Rhiannon's weapons now - it's impossible! Even if you could escape from here no man alive could get into Sark and snatch them from under Garach's nose!"

  "No man," said Carse. "But I'm not just a man, remember? And whose weapons were they to begin with?"

  Realization began to dawn in the Valkisian's eyes. A great light broke over his moon face. He almost shouted and caught himself with Carse's hand already over his mouth.

  "I salute you, Carse!" he whispered. "The Father of Lies himself could not do better." He was beside himself with ecstasy. "It is sublime. It is worthy of-of Boghaz!"

  Then he sobered and shook his head. "But it is also sheer insanity."

  Carse took him by the shoulders. "As it was before on the galley-nothing to lose, all to gain. Will you stand by me?"

  The Valkisian closed his eyes. "I am tempted," he murmured. "As a craftsman, as an artist, I would like to see the flowering of this beautiful deceit."

  He shivered all over. "Flayed alive, you say. And then the Dhuvians. I suppose you're right. We're dead men anyway." His eyes popped open. "Hold on there! For Rhiannon all might be well in Sark but I'm only Boghaz, who mutinied against Ywain. Oh, no! I'm better off in Khondor."

  "Stay, then, if you think so." Carse shook him. "You fat fool! I'll protect you. As Rhiannon I can do that. And as the saviors of Khondor, with those weapons in our hands, there's no end to what we can do. How would you like to be King of Valkis?"

  "Well-" Boghaz sighed. "You would tempt the devil himself. And speaking of devils-" He looked narrowly at Carse. "Can you keep yours down? It's an unchancy thing to have a demon for a bunkmate."

  Carse said, "I can keep him d
own. You heard Rhiannon himself admit it."

  "Then," said Boghaz, "we'd best move quickly before the Sea Kings end their council." He chuckled. "Old Ironbeard has helped us, ironically enough. Every man is ordered to duty and our crew is aboard the galley, waiting-and not very happy about it either!"

  "Help! Come quickly-Carse has thrown himself into the sea!"

  They rushed onto the balcony, where Boghaz was leaning out, pointing down to the churning waves below.

  "I tried to hold him," he wailed, "but I could not."

  One of the guards grunted. "Small loss," he said and then Carse stepped out of the shadows against the wall and struck him a sledgehammer blow that felled him and Boghaz whirled around to lay a second man on his back.

  The third one they knocked down between them before he could get his sword clear of the scabbard. The other two were climbing to their feet again with some idea of going on with the fight but Carse and the Valkisian had no time to waste and knew it. Fists hammered stunning blows with brutal accuracy and within a few minutes the three unconscious men were safely bound and gagged.

  Carse started to take the sword from one of them and Boghaz coughed with some embarrassment.

  "Perhaps you'll want your own blade back," he said.

  "Where is it?"

  "Fortunately, just outside, where they made me leave it."

  Carse nodded. It would be good to have the sword of Rhiannon in his hands again.

  Crossing the room Carse stopped long enough to pick up a cloak belonging to one of the guards. He looked sidelong at Boghaz. "How did you so fortunately chance to have my sword?" he asked.

  "Why, being your best friend and second in command, I claimed it." The Valkisian smiled tenderly. "You were about to die-and I knew you would want me to have it."

  "Boghaz," said Carse, "your love for me is a beautiful thing."

  "I have always been sentimental by nature." The Valkisian motioned him aside, at the door. "Let me go first."

  He stepped out in the corridor, then nodded and Carse followed him. The long blade stood against the wall. He picked it up and smiled.

  "From now on," he said, "remember. I am Rhiannon!"

  There was little traffic in this part of the palace. The halls were dark, lighted at infrequent intervals by torches. Boghaz chuckled.