The Golden Age of Science Fiction Novels Vol 04

by Anthology

Far below in the meadow one of the woolly creatures appeared to stumble, to stagger a pace or two forward before it sank into the grass.

  "Zitu!" came Lakkon's voice.

  Croft smiled.

  Naia approached. Slowly she put forth a finger and touched the shining thing in Croft's hands. "This is the new weapon?" she said in a sibilant whisper, and lifted her face to his.

  "Aye. And having shown Lakkon its power, I must return to Himyra."

  "Return?" she cried protestingly. "Must you go so soon, my lord?"

  "The need presses," Lakkon cut in. "Lord Jasor came but to show us the last fruits of his wonderful knowledge. I called to you witness the test. You need not remain.

  "You see," he went on as Naia turned with a quivering lip and slowly mounted the stairs.

  "What?" Croft met him eye to eye.

  "That my daughter is a woman, Jasor of Nodhur, and that your name is a word on every tongue in Aphur, and that the princess is pledged to Cathur."

  "Who will forswear his pledge."

  "If your words be true."

  "You doubt them?"

  "Nay—yet Lakkon is a name of honor, and pledge is a pledge until broken indeed."

  "And should it be so broken?"

  "Aphur would refuse you nothing."

  Croft laughed as he sprang into his seat. "Forget not those words, Prince Lakkon," he flung back as he started the car.

  He drove to the palace, found Gaya, and told her the whole thing from beginning to end.

  "You mean that the maiden loves you?" she cried.

  "Aye," Croft said.

  "You have told her of your love?"

  "Aye." Croft inclined his head.

  "You are mad!"

  "Nay—I am in love. It comes to the same thing." Croft smiled.

  "Ga and Azil help you both," Gaya returned. "I can do nothing. And—you must not imperil her honor, my lord. But—I shall make it my task to see her and explain the manner of your return tonight, and," her color deepened swiftly, "to assure her of your love."

  "Thank you, sweet Gaya." He bent and gripped her hand.

  For the rest, as the days and weeks dragged away, Croft sought to drown himself in attention to his work. There were no labor troubles in Aphur. The State fixed the scale of wages, and those who would not work were summarily sent to the mines to dig the metals needed by their more energetic fellow citizens. Thus the fifth month passed.

  Rifles were being turned forth in a glittering array at Himyra and Ladhra and stored with their ammunition for the time of need. Croft finished his printing press and struck from it the first bulletins which should appeal to the men of three states to come to their country's need.

  The bulletins were posted in Aphur, Nodhur, and Milidhur, and in the capital of each state a public demonstration of the new army weapon was held by a picked squad of Jadgor's royal guards whom Croft had taught to shoot. At each a heard of taburs was slaughtered, singly and in groups. All southwest Tamarizia gasped. The word flew from mouth to mouth. The stories fired men's hearts. They flocked to the captains of the city guards.

  Croft began teaching the royal guard and the guard of Himyra, the school of the company and squad, marksmanship and a simple manual of arms. They learned quickly and inside a month he sent many of them as special instructors to all Aphur and the other southern states. Thus far things had progressed to the end of the ninth month, when the imperial throne at Zitra interfered. A messenger arrived, commanding Jador and all others responsible for the warlike activity in Aphur and Nodhur to appear before Tamhys with the least possible delay.

  Chapter XII

  The thing was not unexpected to Croft. From the started he had feared some such event. Hence, without offering explanation to Jadgor, he had taken steps to convince Magur of Himyra of the deathlike stupor in which his body lay at such times as he was absent from it.

  He had gone on once occasion to the pyramid and deliberately left Jasor's form sitting in a chair, while he projected himself to Scira and found out Abbu, now for some months engaged in keeping watch on the moves of Cathur's prince. Returning to find Magur standing above him in something like awe, he had told exactly what Abbu was doing at the time, and requested Magur to verify his words in any fashion he chose.

  Now, faced by the imperial interference with all his plans, he called Magur to his aid. He took him to Zitra, with Jadgor, Lakkon and himself, making the journey quickly in a motor-driven craft and taking the messenger along.

  Croft marveled at Zitra, despite all he had seen of Tamarizian architecture before. It rose crystal and silver and white, save that the temple of Zitu, surmounting a pyramid twice the size of that at Himyra was of an azure-blue stone—the color of the highest priesthood as he was to learn. The palace of Tamhys was a marvel to they eye—vaster than Himyra's mighty structure—built wholly of white and crystal and roofed with burnished silver, paved with alternate squares of silver, and crystal, and gold.

  The thing was unbelievable, Croft felt. He moved as in a dream. This was the central city of empire, impregnable to any weapon then known on Palosian soil.

  Magur watched him, well pleased. His pleasure grew as Croft turned and faced the monstrous pile of the pyramid and the pure blue temple on the top. They landed, and while the wharfmen were unloading a motor which Croft had brought as a present for Tamhys, and the messenger hurried to the palace to announce their arrival, he led Croft to one side.

  "I would have you meet Zud, High Priest of all Tamarizia," he said. "We who keep alive the love of Zitu in the hearts of the nation are not devoid of all material power, my friend."

  Croft inclined his head. "I also serve Zitu in my way," he declared. "I should be honored to enter the presence of him he has seen fit to exalt to so high a degree."

  An armed guard appeared, escorting a number of gnuppa-drawn chariots. At the invitation of a noble in glistening cuirass and helmet, the party from Himyra entered the cars and drove toward the palace through the streets paved in broad, flat stones. Croft, however, insisted on driving the motor he had brought, and with him went Magur, the priest.

  Tamhys would grant them audience that evening, it appeared.

  Magur smiled. He beckoned the noble to his side. "Then will Jasor of Nodhur, who sits before me, visit first on Zud," he announced. "Say this to Tamhys, when you reach the palace with Lakkon of Aphur and Jadgor, Aphur's king."

  The man saluted and withdrew without question. Once more, Magur smiled. Croft started the engine and moved off in the wake of the gnuppas that he might not frighten them out of their wits. "Turn here," said Magur after a time. Inside ten minutes they stopped in front of the main approach to the mighty pyramid.

  Magur told of what he had seen and of what he had heard. The high priest eyed him when he finished. "Magur believes these things?" he inquired.

  "Aye, as in Zitu I believe." Magur inclined his head.

  "That these things are of Zitu, through Jasor of Nodhur's mind?"

  "Aye, Zud, sevant of Zitu, so I believe."

  Zud turned his eyes from the priest to Croft and back. "First came he to you, at Himyra, from Abbu the brother at Scira," he recited Magur's words.

  "Aye."

  "As a servant of Zitu's undreamed designs to come."

  "Zud speaks the words present in my mind."

  "Before the audience my request to be present shall reach Tamhys," Zud decided. "And now, Jasor of Nodhur, how come you by the knowledge of things undreamed?"

  "My body lies as dead. In truth, my spirit leaves it. And, while absent, acquires the knowledge with which it returns."

  "As a voice?" said Zud.

  "Nay, as something shown to me, together with the manner in which it may be made."

  Zud rose and lifted his hands. "Who may understand Zitu?" he intoned. Croft felt he was convinced.

  Hence when he stood that night before the white-haired Tamhys, he felt a quiet assurance born of the belief that Magur and Zud, both present, were his friends, and they were the
friends of his cause.

  "Jadgor of Aphur," Tamhys began. "I have now summoned you before me, since for some time I have had you beneath my eye. You have married your son to a princess of Milidhur, and within half a cycle you have betrothed your sister's child to Cathur, and Belzor of Nodhur and yourself are friends. Thus only Bithur seems not swayed in more or less degree by those wishes which are yours, and you wax strong in power. Why have you done these things?"

  "Tamhys of Tamarizia," Jadgor replied, "these things I do not deny. Robur of Aphur wedded the Princess Gaya for love. Nodhur's interests are one with aphur, since both possess the Na within their lines. Naia has plighted her troth to Kyphallos of Aphur at my wish to make strong the guard of the western gate and assure to Tamarizia those things she holds."

  But Tamhys frowned. "This is not all. It has come to my ear that you have in Himyra a man—Jasor of Nodhur—who now stands before me—a man who works new marvels undreamed of before—that some of them are weapons, designed for the work of war—that Aphur and Nodhur and Milidhur increase the men in their guards to an unwarranted degree. What say you to this?"

  "That you have heard the truth, O Tamhys," Jadgor again replied. "These things have been made. The guards have been increased. These things also have I done to make Tamarizia strong."

  The lines of Tamhys's countenance contracted further. "You are a man of power, Jadgor of Aphur," he cried. "Power is beneath your nostrils. Hence you dream of war. Yet is war not of my creed, nor shall be. For fifty cycles has Tamarizia known peace—"

  "Aye—and fifty cycles past lost she is the State of Mazhur, because she knew not the art of war—as she knows it now," Jadgor flared. "Is she to lose Cathur now as well?"

  Tamhys smiled as one might at a child. "Jadgor of Aphur, the warning I have received concerning your aims comes to me from the loyal house of Cathur itself. You think, perhaps, to win Mazhur back."

  "And if I should—I should make Tamarizia whole again!"

  As for Croft, he felt assured he understood the situation better now. Cathur of Zollaria's prompting thus sought through the peace-loving Tamhys to tie the hands of Tamarizia while Zollaria made ready for the blow she expected to strike ere long. He said as much to Magur, who repeated it to Zud.

  Tamhys smiled again. "Should you attempt it, you would send our sons to death for a little ground. Let be, Jadgor. Hold we not the western gate as always? Are the wails of dying men and the sobs of women things grown sweet to your ears?"

  "Nay, but if Cathur falls—if Zollaria makes war and we cannot defend what yet remains of our ground?"

  "Would Zollaria have waited fifty years to make war had she it in mind?"

  "Then what does Tamhys wish?" Jadgor inquired, with a sigh.

  "That you cease those unwise undertakings—that you send the men from the shops of their making back to their fathers' trades. That you cease to dream of war and pursue the ways of peace in which we have prospered in the past. That you turn Jasor of Nodhur's mind to other things than the making of the instruments of destruction. I have heard he has builded chariots which run seemingly of themselves, and galleys which propel themselves up rivers and across the seas. Those things are well. Jadgor, I command that you forsake—"

  "Hold, Tamhys!" It was Zud, the High Priest, who spoke. "Truth you have been told, yet not all the truth as it appears. None know the plans of Zitu save Zitu himself. A priest, I am as yourself, a man of peace. Yet Zitu himself may send a war at times to, like a sorrow, purge the soul of the nation and recall it to him, even as a grief may turn the soul of a man to higher things. Jasor of Nodhur was a dullard till Zitu opened his mind. He died as his physician declares, yet now he lives again, and speaks with a mind inspired.

  "Himself he says these things are delivered unto him while his body lies as dead. This I have from Magur of Himyra who has seen him in such a sleep, and Magur has the account of his changing from Abbu of Scira who administered to him the last rites of life, ere he seemingly died. Hence Zitu's hand appears in this to the minds of Magur and myself. Shall Tamhys seek to interfere when Zitu directs?"

  For the first time the emperor wavered in his course. "If he comes as an agent of Zitu, why came he not first to Zitra?"

  Zud smiled. "Zitu acts many times through the means at hand. It were easier to convince the mind of Jador perhaps than to persuade Tamhys."

  The emperor winced, and turned to Jadgor again. "Swear to me by Zitu that your acts were meant for Tamarizia's welfare and for no advancement of self through an increase of your power."

  Jadgor's color mounted, but he controlled his voice. "I swear it, O Tamhys."

  "These weapons are for Tamarizia's defense alone?"

  "As Zitu sees my heart."

  Tamhys chose a middle course. "Keep, then, what you have," he decreed. "Yet fashion not any more. Nor urge your men to look for war, when peace is in their land. I have heard of strange writings posted on walls, inviting men to join your guards."

  Jadgor's face was dark, but he bowed in submission to the emperor's command. "What of the men who stand pledged at present?" he asked. "I have promised them a stated wage for a cycle. It is understood. My word has passed."

  "At the end of the cycle, let them be dismissed," said Tamhys after some thought.

  Again Jadgor bowed.

  Yet Croft found himself not unduly cast down, and he thought he caught a smile in Lakkon's eyes. Suspecting some such event as had just transpired, he had instructed Robur to speed the assembling of all rifles both at Himyra and at Landhra, before leaving for Zitra himself.

  Tamhys's decision regarding such weapons as already existed he determined to accept in its broadest sense of application, and as for the dismissal of the guards now in process of training at the end of a cycle, he knew full well that they would probably not be needed after that time.

  Tamhys was old—wedded to a theory. He carried his desire for peace even into this conference to which he had called the men before him, and reached—a useless compromise which made small difference to Croft's plans. When reported to Cathur and by Cathur given to other ears, this would result in no more than a determination on Zollaria's part to carry out her intent. This since she would now believe she had tied Jadgor's hands.

  He said as much to Jadgor and Lakkon once they were alone, and for the first time Jadgor appeared pleased.

  "Nor," said Croft, "has Tamhys forbidden the construction of other weapons, my friends."

  "Hai!" Jadgor's tight lips relaxed. "By Zitu! So he did not. Jasor—you have other things in mind."

  Croft nodded. With powder and plenty of metal, it would not be impossible to construct some very effective forms of grenades. He explained, and Jadgor's eyes flashed fire.

  Chapter XIII

  The morrow saw them on their return journey to Himyra, with Croft pushing his engine top speed. He wanted to get back and to work on the grenades at once. His knowledge gained through his unsensed presence at the council at Niera months before made him believe that Zollaria would throw her entire weight on Cathur's northern frontier, while Mazzeria attacked Bithur and possibly eastern Milidhur.

  From a second motor-shop established at Ladhra and equipped with men trained in the Himyra plant he had already sent a motor-fleet to the capital of Gaya's home state for the rapid transport of troops to the frontier in case of need. He had organized a fleet of motor-driven marine transports to take men from Aphur and Nodhur to Bithur's aid. This expedition was to be led by Robur in person, and with him Croft had outlined each step so far as he could. They would proceed up that river promised Mazzeria for her aid in the war of conquest Zollaria planned, and debarking near the frontier, carry the war straight to the foe.

  As for himself, he planned with Jadgor to cross the Central Sea almost due north, capture Niera, and penetrate the State of Mazhur, thereby establishing a dangerous flank movement which, if successful, would result in withdrawing the Zollarian army operating against Cathur's frontier. Two of his armored motors would go with t
he Milidhurian expedition and two with Robur against the blue men of Mazzer. The other sixteen would accompany the expedition north. These things he now explained to Jadgor, Lakkon, and Magur while they rushed back to the capital of Aphur.

  Jadgor smiled and turned to the priest. "It appears Zitu has sent us a general as well as a genius of design," he exclaimed. "If Zitu inspires not his mind directly, then he is the most wonderful man Tamarizia has seen."

  "Raised up for Tamarizia's hour of great need, O Jadgor," Magur declared.

  Croft plunged into a frenzy of work on his return. He explained it all to Robur, saw him thoroughly versed in the making of the grenades, leaped into his car and drove to Ladhra to begin operations there. Two weeks elapsed while he was getting everything to his satisfaction.

  He returned to Himyra late one afternoon, drove to the shops, saw everything running smoothly, listened to the reports of Robur, and drove on to the palace to bathe and rest for an hour. Fresh from his bath, he was suddenly minded to seek Gaya and learn if there were any word from Naia, such as she frequently sent him by Robur's wife.

  He found her awaiting Robur's return, and proffered his request.

  That Gaya was glad to see him there could be no doubt. "My lord, your coming lightens my heart," she declared after Croft had greeted her by sinking on one knee. "The maid sent you her farewell, and asked that I say, 'Tell him to forget not his promise.' She did not explain, yet I have felt you would know the meaning of her words."

  "Her farewell? By Zitu, Gaya, my friends, what meant she by that?"

  "You know not of her absence from Aphur? You have not heard?"

  "I have heard nothing. I cam to you for word."

  "Aye. Some days ago an escort came from Cathur, asking that the maid and Lakkon, her father, visit Scira, in order that Kyphallos might present his bride-to-be to his people before he ascended the throne."

  "Kyphallos on the throne of Cathur!"

  "Scythys has died," Gaya said. "Wherefore, despite the fact that the cycle of betrothal has not run out, Kyphallos craves the privilege of entertaining Naia and her father, and assuring his people that he has chosen a worthy queen as his consort on the throne."