by Anthology
Fuero was still regarding me appraisingly. I felt suddenly very young, very inadequate as I stood there facing him. But I met his gaze squarely, and all at once he smiled.
"He says, 'Let us speak to the people,'" said Miela.
We went to the parapet. Only a few moments had elapsed since I had stood there before. The situation below was unchanged, except that the crowd had grown denser.
A sudden hush fell as they saw us. Fuero turned to me and spoke quietly; his eyes seemed searching out my thoughts.
"He asks you, my husband, if you will take oath before your God to do what is right for our people. He wishes to trust you now in this crisis, for there is no one else, and he believes in you."
"I will, Miela," I said solemnly. "Before God I swear it."
The man gazed steadily into my eyes another instant, then abruptly he thrust a small metal cylinder into my hand. I thrilled as my fingers closed around it. He seemed to hesitate, then he turned and, slowly crossing the rooftop, looking neither to right nor left, he descended the stairs out of our sight.
He had done what he thought was best, and, having done it, had withdrawn immediately from further participation in the affair.
It may have been the absence of his dominant personality, or the grasp of my hand about this little metal cylinder, but now I felt a renewed sense of responsibility, and with it a feeling of power that swept aside all doubts and all fears. Now I could command, could guide and control, the destiny of this nation, and could, thank God, save my own world.
"Miela," I said, "tell the queen her son shall be king. I am about to proclaim him king before the people, and I, as regent, will rule. Tell her that, and bring him here now to me."
The queen made no answer, save a slight inclination of her head. But I saw that she had recovered composure. She pushed her son gently away from her, and I strode forward to meet him.
"Tell him, Miela, he is a man now, and must have no fear, for he is the greatest man in all this land."
I patted his shoulder as he stood beside me, and he looked up into my face and smiled bravely.
The top of the parapet was flat and broad. I raised the little boy up and stood him upon it. Instantly another tumult of shouts arose.
I looked down and saw the figure of Fuero as he stalked unheeding across the garden, the people respectfully opening up a path before his advance.
Approval and derision seemed mingled in the cries that greeted the appearance of the little prince.
"Quiet them if you can, Miela," I said. "Speak to them."
I steadied the boy with my hand, and he stood there unafraid, a sturdy, manly little figure.
Miela raised her voice and began speaking. The shouts partially ceased, then suddenly a stone struck the parapet almost in front of us.
A sudden rage possessed me. I fumbled at the cylinder I held. It was very much like a little hand flashlight, and seemed to have a knob at my thumb. Miela stopped speaking and turned to me.
"There--press that, Alan. Careful! Aim it there! See! Over there against those palms."
I held the thing up and pointed it toward the huge royal palms, aiming at their graceful fronds high over the heads of the people. My hand pressed the knob; the little cylinder seemed to thrill in my grasp. A tiny beam of light shot out-quite plainly visible--a green, shading into red. It struck the palm branches, and silently yet rapidly, as though they were under some giant blow-torch, they shriveled, crackled, and burst into flame.
Miela's fingers bit into my arm. "Enough, Alan! Stop!"
My thumb yielded to the upward pressure of the tiny knob against it, and abruptly the light vanished. A narrow swath had been cut through the palms--a furrow of death plowed by the pressure of my thumb against a bit of metal!
The crowd had frozen into the immobility of terror. Now, as the dreaded ray vanished as suddenly as it had sprung forth, they turned with cries of fright to escape. No one had been hurt. I shuddered as I realized now that many girls had been in the air, and through no thought or skill of mine had they escaped.
"Speak to them, Alan," Miela cried. "There must be no panic. Here must they stay and listen to what you have to say. Speak to them; stop them now."
I handed her the cylinder, lest the diabolical thing spit forth again its fire from my unskillful fingers, and leaped to the top of the parapet.
"Stop!" I shouted at the top of my voice. "Stop--all of you! At once!"
I waved my arms violently: I knew my words meant nothing, but my voice carried far. The excitement continued. But a few stopped and stared at me; then others, and gradually there was less confusion.
Miela turned and shouted something to the girls on the rooftop. Instantly they spread their wings and flew, down, circling close over the heads of the people.
"Wait, Alan. A moment now and there will be quiet. The girls are telling them not to fear, but to wait and listen to what you have to say."
Miela stood now upon the parapet top, with the little prince between us. She had concealed the tiny metal cylinder in her belt; her open palms were flung out before her, and her wings, spread and flapping slowly, raised her on tiptoe. Every line of her graceful body was tense; her attitude bespoke power, dominance, authority. And then she began to talk in a voice vibrant with emotion. Once she laid her hand lightly upon the curly head of the little boy, and a tremulous, uncertain cheer answered her from below.
"I have told them of the king's death, Alan," she said a moment later, "and that here is their little king standing before them; And now, of you--what shall I say?"
"Tell them that until the king is older, I--the man from earth--shall rule them as regent. Tell them if they obey me all will be well, for I shall rule them wisely."
I stood while Miela translated this amid dead silence from the crowd. As she finished I raised myself to full height and stared down at them threateningly.
"But if there is trouble--if any one defies my authority--then, Miela, tell them I shall use the light-ray, for I shall brook no interference."
The silence from below continued.
I spread my hands out before me and smiled.
"But there will be no trouble. I am with the Light Country, heart and soul. Its interests are my interests, for I have married one of its women, and now I too am one of its people.
"Tao shall be overthrown--tell them that, Miela. The Twilight People never again shall threaten our cities. If more land is wanted by our people of the Light Country, tell them they shall have it. All the land they desire shall be theirs. For when Tao is vanquished I shall build great cars such as he is building, and all who wish may go to my earth peacefully, and we will make them welcome as I have been made welcome here."
A cheer arose as Miela translated this; and now for the first time I heard no cries of dissent.
"Say to them again I shall rule them wisely. Say I shall look to them--all of them, rich and poor alike--for help in what we have to do. All must help me, for I am only one, and I need them all. When this work we have to do is over, when our nation is freed forever from this menace from across the sea, tell them that then I will give my every thought to the details of their welfare. All that they wish--if it lays in my power--shall be done."
A girl alighted for an instant on the parapet near me; another, darted downward in her flight, evidently to avoid the disrespect of passing directly in front of me. The thought flashed through my mind that I might mention the virgins and promise them reversal of the law they so abhorred, but I felt it would be impolitic to raise that question at such a time as this.
"Tell them now to leave the grounds, quietly," I concluded. "When I wish them again they will be sent for. All that I do will be known through public proclamation."
I lifted the little prince in my arms, and then, with the cheers of the people ringing in my ears, jumped backward with him to the roof below.
Thus, by swift moving circumstances which could not have been foreseen, was I made ruler of the Light Country. The crowd dis
persed quietly. We sent the queen and her waiting maids back to her apartments, the aged councilors to theirs, and soon Miela and I were alone in one of the castle rooms.
Now that the nervous excitement under which I had been laboring was over, I felt utterly exhausted. I dropped wearily into a seat, and Miela sat on the floor at my feet with her arms on my knees.
I stroked her glossy black hair idly.
"I'm tired, girl. I'm all in. Aren't you?"
We had not slept since the afternoon before, and so much had happened since.
Suddenly I remembered Lua.
"Miela--your mother. We must find her." I started to my feet, then sat down again.
There was no use of my rushing away on some aimless search over a city like this.
"Where is the head of the city's police, Miela?"
"I have sent for him. He should be here now to see you."
"I must have him search the city. Lua must be found. The castle guards--we must appoint others, Miela. I must have a council, too--not doddering old men, but others that we shall select. Who collects the taxes? Where is the money? Who handles it?"
The questions piled upon me faster than I could voice them, and all the while my tired brain and weary, aching body called only for rest--for sleep.
I thought of Mercer and Anina. They should be back by now.
"We must send home and have them told we are here, Miela. And that slave woman of Baar's--she will be there, too. She must be sent here to us also."
We had decided to live in the castle.
"When Mercer and Anina return, we must arrange to go to the Water City. The disturbance there must be quelled. All the cities must be told of our actions here. I must visit them all, Miela."
My voice seemed trailing off as though I were talking to myself. A thousand problems rushed in confusion through my mind. I felt I was talking almost incoherently. A knock on the door of our room brought me to myself.
A young girl stood respectfully on the threshold. Miela listened to what she had to say, questioned her swiftly, and then turned to me. Her face had gone suddenly white.
"The girls have returned from over the sea, Alan. This is one of them. But Anina and our friend Ollie have stayed there."
"Stayed there?" I cried. "Why?"
"They set free Tao's men as we planned. They were on their way back when the earth-man suddenly bid Anina return. Something was wrong, he said. This girl does not understand what. But they went back. And Anina and Ollie they left there, standing on the shore together. We are to go over to the same place to-night, if we can, and get them. That is all the girl knows."
The girl withdrew after a moment.
Mercer and Anina left in the Twilight Country! Miela and I stared at each other blankly.
CHAPTER XX.
IN THE TWILIGHT COUNTRY.
Mercer sat on the rear end of the platform and waved good-by vigorously as he was carried swiftly up and out over the water. Under him was a pile of blankets and a coat, and beside him a box of baked dough-like bread--the food he was to turn over to Tao's emissaries when he set them free.
Anina flew at his side, at intervals smiling up at him reassuringly. Before him on the platform his captives huddled. Although all of them were trussed up securely, he menacingly kept his little wooden revolver pointed at them from the level of his knee.
He chuckled as he thought of the fight at the bayou. Everything was working out all right; it was surprising what one could do with his physical strength here on Mercury.
The girls had carried the platform up some five hundred feet above the sea. Mercer turned and looked back. The shore had already dropped almost to the rim of the close-encircling horizon. He leaned over toward Anina, resting one hand on the bamboo handle she was holding. "How long will it take us to get there, Anina?"
He knew the girl would understand his words, but he did not realize she had little basis for comparing time in his language.
"Long time," she answered, smiling. "But we go quickly now."
He sat back again and waited. It seemed like hours--it was hours probably, three or four--and still they swept onward straight as an arrow.
After another interminable interval Anina raised one hand and pointed ahead.
"Twilight Country--there," she said.
Mercer saw, coming up over the horizon, the dim outlines of a rocky land sparsely covered with trees. It spread out rapidly before him as he watched, fascinated. It seemed a desolate land, a line of low, barren hills off to one side, and a forest of stunted, naked-looking trees in front. The platform swept on over the shore line, a rocky beach on which the calm sea rolled up in tiny white lines of breakers. Then in a great curve the girls circled to one side.
"Where are we going?" Mercer asked.
"A trail--near us somewhere. A trail to the Lone City. There we land."
Mercer saw the trail in a moment. It came out of the woods and struck the shore by a little bight where boats could land. The girls swooped downward, and in a moment more the platform was lying motionless on the beach.
Mercer looked around. It was light enough to see objects in the immediate foreground--a gray twilight. The forest came almost to the water's edge. He saw now the trees might have been firs, but with small, twisted trunks, few branches except near the top, and very few leaves. They seemed somehow very naked and starved--indeed, it surprised him that they could grow at all in such a rocky waste. The end of the trail was close before him. It appeared merely an opening in the trees with the fallen logs and underbrush cleared away.
The girls were obviously cold, standing idle now after their long flight. Mercer lost no time in preparing for the return journey. He tumbled his captives unceremoniously off the platform and set the box of food and blankets beside them.
"What's this, Anina?"
He was holding in his palm a tiny metal cylinder.
Anina took it from him.
"For fire, see?"
She picked up a bit of driftwood, and, holding the end of the cylinder against it, pressed a little button. A curl of smoke rose from the wood, and in a moment a wisp of flame.
"A light-ray!" Mercer exclaimed.
"The ray--but different."
She tossed the blazing bit of wood aside, and held her hand a foot or so in front of the cylinder.
"No danger! See?" She brought her hand closer. "Heat here--close--no heat far away."
Mercer understood then that this was not a light-ray projector, but a method of producing heat with the property of radiation, but not of projection--a different and harmless form of the ray.
He took the little cylinder from the girl, inspected it curiously, then laid it on the blankets.
"They'll need it, I guess, if it's any colder where they're going."
He set one of the captives free.
"Anina, tell him to sit quiet until we've gone. Then he can cut the others loose." He tossed a knife into the box. "Come on, Anina; let's get away."
They were about ready to start back, when Mercer suddenly decided he was hungry. He hopped off the platform. "They don't need all that food."
He gathered some of the little flat cakes of dough in his hands. "Want some?" He offered them to the girls, who smilingly refused.
"All right. I do. I'm hungry. Might as well take a blanket, too. It's devilish cold."
He was back on the platform in a moment, sitting down with the blanket about his knees and munching contentedly at the bread.
"All right, Anina. Start her off."
They swung up into the air and began the return flight.
A few hours more and they would be back at the Great City. Then the real work would begin. Mercer squared his shoulders unconsciously as he thought of all there was to do.
But there was no danger to the Light Country from Tao, he thought with satisfaction. At least, there would be none when the other cities were rid of Tao's men, as the Great City was now. The men would find their way back all right--
At t
he sudden thought that came to him Mercer dropped his bit of bread and sat up in astonishment. Tao no longer a menace? He remembered my reasoning in the boat coming down the bayou. Of course, Tao would have no reason to attack the Light Country by force of arms until he was sure his propaganda among the people had failed.
My argument was sound enough, but the utter stupidity of what we had done now dawned on Mercer with overwhelming force. Tao would await the results of his emissaries' work, of course. And here we had gone and sent them straight back to their leader to report their efforts a failure! If anything were needed to precipitate an invasion from Tao, this very thing Mercer had just finished doing was it. He cursed himself and me fervently as he thought what fools we had been.
Then it occurred to him perhaps it was not too late to repair the damage. Not more than half an hour had passed since he had set the men free on the shore of the Twilight Country. He must go back at once. Under no circumstances must they be allowed to reach Tao and tell him what had occurred.
Anina was flying near Mercer as before. He leaned over the edge of the platform to talk with her, but the wind of their forward flight and the noise of the girls' wings made conversation difficult.
"Anina! Come up here with me. Sit here. I want to talk to you. It's important. They don't need you flying now."
Obediently the girl sat where he indicated, close beside him. And then as he was about to begin telling her what was in his mind Mercer suddenly remembered that they were still heading toward the Light Country, every moment getting farther away from Tao's men, whose homeward journey he must head off some way.
"We must go back, Anina--back where we came from--at once. Tell them--now! Then I'll tell you why."
The girl's eyes widened, but she did as he directed, and the platform, making a broad, sweeping turn, headed back toward the Twilight Country shore.
"Anina, how far is it to Tao's city from where we landed?"
"The Lone City? A day, going fast."
"But they won't go fast, will they? Some of them are pretty badly hurt."
"Two days for them," the girl agreed.
Mercer then told her what an error we had made. She listened quietly, but he knew she understood, not only his words, but the whole situation as he viewed it then.