1 - Warriors of Mars (12 page)

"Y-yes.
They took prisoners. I am amongst the last of them left alive."

"How many
prisoners?"

"Several
hundreds."

I was horrified. Now it was plain
that, as I had surmised, this move of the Argzoon had been carefully planned
for years. The first force had been badly defeated, but it had severely
weakened the strength of the southern nations. Secondly, the southern army's
punitive force that had followed the Argzoon here had been led into a carefully
laid trap and the weary warriors must have been fairly easy game for a force of
fresh Argzoon warriors waiting in ambush. Then the Argzoon had put the second
half of their strategy into operation, going secretly south in small numbers
with the object of taking the south by surprise, beginning with Varnal.
Something had disrupted this strategy—perhaps my slaying of their master-mind—and
the plan had broken down. But much damage had been done. The south would take
years recovering from the blow and while recovering would face constant danger
from other, stronger would-be aggressors.
The Vladnyar, for
instance.

Now I asked the slave the leading
question:

"Tell me—have two women been
brought here recently?
A dark one and a fair one."

“There h-has been a woman
prisoner..."

Only one! I prayed that Shizala
had not been killed on the way.

"What does she look
like?"

"She is very beautiful—fair-haired—a
Karnala woman, I think..."

I sighed with relief.
"But what of Horguhl the Vladnyar—the dark-haired woman?"

"Ah!" His voice was a
muted scream. "Do not mention th-that name. Do not mention it!"

"What is wrong?" I could
see that he was in an even worse state now than when I had originally
confronted him. Spittle ran down his chin and his eyes flickered crazily. He
was trembling in every part of his body. He hugged himself, hunched and
twitching. He began to moan slowly.

I seized his shoulder, trying to
shake some selfcontrol into him, but he fell to the floor and continued to moan
and tremble.

I knelt beside him. "Tell
me—who is Horguhl— what is her part in this?"

"Ah! P-please—leave me. I
will not tell them you are here ... Y-you must go.
L-leave!"

I continued to shake him. 'Tell
me!"

Suddenly a new voice spoke from
behind me. A cool, mocking voice full of controlled, malicious humor...

"Leave the poor wretch alone,
Michael Kane. I can answer your question better than he. My guards mentioned a
disturbance in the store-room so I came to investigate myself. I have been
halfexpecting you."

I whirled, still in a crouching
position, and looked up to stare into the deep, evil eyes of the dark-haired
woman whose role had been such a mystery. It was to be a mystery no longer.

"Horguhl!
Who are you?"

"I am Queen of the Argzoon,
Michael Kane. It was I who commanded the army you defeated, not poor Ranak
Mard. My army dispersed before I could recall it because that bitch-dahara
Shizala attacked me soon after you had left. In the struggle she knocked me
unconscious but she was then captured by some of my men. When I awoke, my army
was in confusion, so I decided to take vengeance on her instead of her city
..."

"You!
All this was your doing! But how are you Queen of those giant savages—what
power can one woman
wield
over them?"

"It is my power over
something else that they fear," she smiled.

"What is that?"

"You will learn soon
enough." Blue Giants were beginning to swarm into the room behind her.
"Seize him!"

I tried to stand up but stumbled
against the prone and shaking body of the slave. Before I could recover my
position half-a-dozen Argzoon were piling on top of me.

I fought back with fists and feet,
but soon they had bound my arms behind me and Horguhl was laughing in my face,
her white, sharp teeth flashing in the gloom.

"And now," she said,
"you will learn the punishment meted out to the man responsible for
disrupting the plans of the Queen of the Argzoon!"

"BRING him to my chambers," Horguhl ordered the
guards. "I will question him first."

I was forced to walk behind her,
following her through a maze of bleak and draughty corridors lit by guttering
torches, until we came to a large door apparently made of heavy wood covered
with silver hammered into some crude semblance of a design.

This door was opened and the big
room we entered was warmed by a huge fire roaring in a grate at one side. The
room itself was rich with rugs of fur and heavy cloth. Covering the walls were
tapestries, obviously booty from raided cities, for the workmanship was
exquisite. Even the windows were covered, and this explained the warmth of the
room.

A heavy chest, about the height of
my waist, stood near the fire.
On this stood jugs of wine and
bowls of fruit and meat.
A large, fur-strewn couch was on the other side
of the room opposite the fire, and there were a few benches and carved wooden
chairs dotted about.

Though not particularly lavish by
the standards of the civilized south, the Queen's chambers were luxurious
compared with what I had witnessed of the living standards of the Argzoon
peoples.

Over the fireplace hung a tapestry
much less well executed than the others. It depicted the creature I had already
seen on the Queen's banner—the mysterious N'aal Beast. It looked menacing and I
noticed the guards avert their eyes from it as if afraid of it.

I was still tightly bound, of course,
and when Horguhl dismissed the guards she was in no danger from me. I stood
straight-backed, staring over her head as she paced before me, darting me
strange, curious looks. This went on for some time, but I kept my expression
blank and my eyes fixedly ahead.

Suddenly she faced me, swept back
her right hand and slapped me stingingly across the mouth. I kept my features
rigid as before.

"Who are you, Michael
Kane?"

I did not answer.

"There is something about
you. Something I have never sensed in any other man. Something I could learn
to—to like." Her voice became softer and she took a step closer to me.
"I mean it, Michael Kane," she said. "Your fate will not be
pleasant if I order it to be carried out. But you could avert it..."

I still remained silent.

"Michael Kane—I am a woman.
A—a sensitive woman."
She laughed lightly, somewhat
self-mockingly, I thought. "I am what I am through no circumstances of my
own making. Would you like to hear why I am Queen of the Argzoon?"

"I would like to know where
Shizala is, that is all," I said at length. "Where is she?"

"No harm has come to her yet.
Perhaps none will. I have thought out an interesting fate for her. It will not
kill her, but it will help me turn her into a willing handmaiden, I think.
I.would rather
keep
the ruler of Varnal as my cringing
slave than have her dead..."

My mind raced. So Shizala was not
to die—yet, at any rate. I was relieved, for that would give time for Darnad to
come and try to rescue her. I relaxed a little—perhaps I even smiled.

"You seem in good humor. Do
you not feel anything for the woman, then?" Horguhl sounded almost eager.

"Why should I?" I lied.

"That is good," she
said, almost to herself. She strode panther-like to the couch and spread her
beautiful body upon it. I continued to stand where I was, but looked directly
into those smouldering eyes. After a while she dropped her gaze.

Staring at the floor, she said:
"I was only a child of eleven when the Argzoon attacked the caravan in
which I and my parents were travelling through the northern borders of
Vladnyar. They killed many—including my mother and father—but took slaves as
well. I was one of those slaves ..."

I knew she was trying to touch me
in some way, and if her story were true I felt sorry for the child she had
been. But I could not, considering her later crimes, justify them.

"In those days, the Argzoon
were divided amongst themselves. Often the cavern was a battlefield between
warring factions. They could not unite. The Argzoon were split into scores of
family clans and blood-feuds were normal, day-to-day happenings. The only thing
that could unite them for a short while was the common fear of the N'aal Beast
which haunted the subterranean passages below the floor of the Great Cavern. It
fed on the Argzoon, who were its natural prey. It would slither up and attack
then slither away again. The Argzoon believe that the N'aal Beast is an
incarnation of Raharumara, their chief deity. They dared not make any attempt
to kill it. Whenever possible they would sacrifice slaves to it.

"When I was sixteen years
old, I was chosen as one of those who would feed the N'aal Beast. But already I
had felt this power in me—some ability to make others do my will. Oh, not in large
ways—I was still a slave—but in ways that made my lot a little easier.
Strangely, it was the N'aal Beast which brought this power out of me in
strength.

"When news came that the
N'aal was slithering up into the Great Cavern, I and a number of others—folk
like myself and Argzoon criminals—were bound and placed in its supposed path.
Soon it appeared and I watched in horrified dread as it began to seize my
companions and swallow them. I started to stare into its eyes. Some instinct
made me croon at it. I—I don't know what it was, but it responded to me.
Through my mind, I was able to communicate with it, give it orders."

She paused and looked up at me. I
did not react.

"I returned to this city—the
Black
City
—with the N'aal Beast following
me like a pet. I ordered a deep hole to be made, in which the beast was imprisoned.
The Argzoon regarded me with superstitious awe—they still do. By controlling
the N'aal Beast, I control them. Later I decided to make up for my years of
misery and hardship and planned conquest of this entire continent. By several
methods I got news of the south and her defences. Then I put the first stage of
my plan into operation. I was prepared to wait years for victory—but
instead..."

"Defeat," I said.
"A well-deserved defeat.
Your years with the Argzoon
have warped you, Horguhl—warped you beyond hope of salvation!"

"Fool!" She was off the
couch and pressing her voluptuous body against me, stroking my chest.
"Fool! I have other plans—I am not defeated. I know many secrets; I have
much power that you do not dream of. Michael Kane, you can share all this. I
told you I have never known a man like you—brave, handsome, strong-willed. But
you also have something else—some mysterious quality that makes you as
different from the ordinary riffraff of Vashu as I am. Become my King, Michael
Kane ..."

She was speaking softly, her
hypnotic eyes staring into mine, and something seemed to be happening to my
brain. I felt warm, euphoric. I began to think her proposal was attractive.

"Michael Kane—I love you!"

Somehow that statement saved
me—though I will never know why. It jerked my mind back to sanity. Bound as I
was, I shrugged her clinging hands away.

"I do not love you,
Horguhl," I said firmly. "Neither could I feel anything but loathing
for someone who has done what you have done. Now I realize how Shizala was so
easily brought here—that hypnotic power of yours! Well, it will not get the
better of me!"

She released me and when she spoke
again her voice was low, vibrant. "Somehow I knew that.

Perhaps that is what attracts me
to you—the fact that you can resist my power. Few others can—not even that
primordial beast, the N'aal."

I took several steps backwards. I
was still looking around for some means of escape. She seemed to realize this
and looked up suddenly.

Her face was now a mask of hatred!

"Very well, Michael Kane—by
refusing me you
are
accepting the fate I had planned
for you.
Guards!"

The huge Argzoon warriors entered.

"Take him! Send messengers to
all the Argzoon who have returned. There are not many as yet—but tell them all
to come. Tell them they are going to witness a sacrifice to Raharumara!"

With that, I was led away.

I spent a short time with my
guards when they paused in a chamber near the exit of the castle. Then they led
me out through the smoky, evilsmelling streets of the
Black
City
. Behind us, in twos and threes
at first, then in increasing numbers, there began to follow a procession of
Argzoon. One blue warrior who strode beside my guards, keeping pace with me,
darted me a strange glance which I could not interpret. The warrior did not
wear armor—I assumed he had lost it during the flight back to the
Black
City
—and he had the signs of a
recent wound on his breast. Then we were passing from the city and I forgot
about him.

The scene beyond the city was like
a mediaeval painting representing Hell. The great bonfires roared, sending
flickering, smoky light across the rocky plain that was the cavern floor. The
giant Argzoon looked like demons as they escorted me over the plain. The fires
were the fires on which the damned were roasted. And I was soon to meet a
creature very like an ancient representation of Satan!

Horguhl was already there,
standing on a dais that was reached by a flight of about sixty steps.

Her back was turned to us and her
arms were outstretched. On either side of her were braziers, flaring brightly
to show her to all. The Argzoon began to form a semi-circle at the bottom of
the steps, and spread out along the sides of what was plainly a pit, now that
we were closer. The steps terminated at the dais and the dais looked down on
the pit.

My guards halted and waited
expectantly just before the first step. We all looked up at Horguhl. She was
crooning something. The
words—sounds,
rather, for I
did not recognize them—sent a shudder through me and I noticed that many of the
Argzoon were similarly affected.

There came a peculiar, slithering
sound from the pit and from it, just to one side of the dais, I saw a great
flat serpent head rise up and begin to sway in rhythm to Horguhl's crooning.

The Argzoon muttered in
superstitious fear and began to chant and sway in time to the movement of the
serpent head. It was of a sickly yellowish color, with long fangs curving out
of its mouth from the upper jaw. There was a stale, unwholesome smell about it,
and once it opened its great jaws and gave forth a horrid hissing, revealing a
gaping red maw and a huge forked tongue.

Then Horguhl's crooning became
softer and softer, the swaying
more gentle
, the
humming of the spectators almost inaudible, and then—it came almost as a shock
to me—absolute silence.

Suddenly this silence was broken
as from behind me there
came
a cry.

"No! No!"

I turned my head and saw who it
was that had cried out.

"Shizala!"
I shouted involuntarily. The fiends had brought her here to witness my
death—that was obvious. Even from that distance I could see her cheeks were
streaked with tears and she struggled in the grasp of two massive blue
warriors. I tried to break away and run towards her, but my bonds and my guards
stopped me.

"Stay alive!" I shouted
to her. "Stay alive! Do not fear!" I could not tell her that Darnad
was even now riding for civilization, bent on bringing help to rescue her. But
perhaps my cry would mean something to her. "Stay alive!"

Her voice answered faintly:
"Oh, Michael Kane, I-I-"

"Silence!"
Horguhl had turned and was addressing her subjects as much as myself and
Shizala. "Take the prisoner to the pit's edge!"

I was hustled forward and stared
down to where the N'aal Beast was coiled. Its oddly intelligent eyes stared up
at me—and I shuddered at this—almost with malicious humor!

"The N'aal Beast is in a
playful mood today," Horguhl said from above me. "He will play with
you for some time before devouring you."

I resolved to show no sign of the
horror within me.

"Throw him down!"
Horguhl ordered.

Bound and helpless, I was thrown
into the Pit of the N'aal Beast!

I managed to land on my feet some
yards away from where the huge snake-creature still lay coiled, looking at me
with those terrible eyes.

And then, suddenly, from above I
heard a cry and looked up. An Argzoon warrior was staring down at me—the one I
had seen earlier who had looked at me so strangely. He had a sword in one hand
and a battleaxe in the other. What was he doing?

I heard Horguhl shriek to her
guards: "Stop him!"

And then the Argzoon was leaping
into the pit to stand beside me. He raised his sword and I suddenly realized
the truth of what was happening.