While making my way slowly to the harbour, dawdling a little - for I had plenty of time to spare - to look in shops and chat with those citizens of Mih-Sa-Voh who recognised me as the pilot of what was, to them, a marvellous flying machine, I saw a small procession pass me.
It consisted of tired-looking warriors mounted on dahara. They had evidently just come back, also, from an expedition, for they were dusty and bore minor wounds.
They had a prisoner - a wild looking man with a long, thick beard and very blond, long matted hair. He, too, bore many recent scars and had his hands tied behind him as he sat his dahara.
In spite of his savage appearance, he bore himself well. Although I dismissed the idea as a trick of the mind, I was sure there was something about him very familiar to me. Since that seemed impossible, I refused to waste my energy trying to puzzle out why I should feel this, but I asked a passer-by if he knew who the prisoner was.
The man shook his head. 'Doubtless one of our enemies - though that is not their normal appearance.'
I continued on to the harbour and found my balloon still waiting for me, now moored to one of several iron rings in the Quayside.
I climbed into the cabin and started the engine - that marvellous little unit which seemed to require no fuel.
Then I steered just above the roof-tops of the sparkling City of Jewels towards the palace, a large building that was more magnificent than any of the rest It seemed literally built of precious gems!
I had learned that many kinds of jewels were mined in Mishim Tep and, though they were useful trading commodities, no special value was placed on them by the populace.
I reached the palace steps and dropped down a little to where guards ran forward at my shouted instructions to take my mooring lines and make them fast.
Vorum Saz Hazhi now appeared at the top of the steps and greeted me as I mounted the steps.
'I have told the Bradhi of your offer,* he said, 'and he would interview you now. He diinks that you have come at an opportune moment - ships like this could be useful in fighting our enemies.'
As I joined him I noticed that he looked worried.
'What troubles you?' I asked.
He took my arm as he led me into the palace. 'I do not know,' he said. 'Perhaps it is the cares of this terrible war we are about to mount, but the Bradhi does not seem himself. There is something strange going on and I cannot think what it can be.'
That was all he had a chance to say for then the huge jewelled doors of the throne room were opened and I saw a vast hall, lined with great, colourful banners and with tiers of galleries stretching up to the roof, high above, and the walls flanked with nobles, men and women, all looking towards me in polite curiosity.
On the throne dais at the far end were three figures. The Bradhi was in the middle, a care-worn man with grey-streaked hair and a massive, impressive head that seemed carved from rock.
On his left, his hands still bound, stood the wild man I had seen earlier.
But it was the person who sat on a stool beside the Bradhi whom I recognised - and recognised with loathing. Yet, at the same time, that person's presence aroused in me a feeling of jubilation.
It was Horguhl, that evil woman who had, both directly and indirectly, been the cause of most of my troubles on my first trip to Mars.
Horghul!
This could only mean that my calculations about tunc had been right, even if I had slipped up slightly on those about space.
If Horguhl was here then, somewhere, so was Shizala!
Both Horguhl and the wild man turned to look at me. And they both spoke at once, saying the same two words:
'Michael Kane!'
Why had they both recognised me?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Horguhl's Treachery
I ADVANCED no further, aware that I was in danger.
And then, suddenly, I recognised the wild man's voice and knew why he had seemed so familiar to me. It was Damad - Shizak's brother with whom I had parted what seemed years before in the Caverns of Argzoon.
If he was a prisoner then it was my duty to free him, for he was a close friend.
I drew my sword and instead of turning and running for the hall ran towards Damad before the astonished courtiers could act.
Horguhl was screaming and pointing to me. 'That is the one - that is he! He is the sole cause of this war!'
How I, in my absence in another time and space, could have caused a war, I did not pause to work out. I cut Damad's bonds and then wheeled as a courtier came at me with his sword.
Using a trick taught me as a boy by my old fencing master, M. Clarchet, I hooked the tip of my sword in the basket-hilt of his, flipped the weapon out of his hand and sent it spinning towards me. Then I flung it to Damad - and we were both armed. The trick would not have worked on anyone but a man taken off his guard - but it had worked and that was the important thing.
The whole throne room was in confusion. I was sure that there was some awful mistake and that Horguhl was responsible for it, and I did not want to kill any of the folk who had treated me so hospitably. Damad and I fought a defensive action from our corner of the throne dais and the courtiers were cautious about attacking us too hard in case their Bradhi should be wounded.
This gave me an idea for a bluff which would prevent any blood being spilt - including ours.
I leapt behmd the Bradhi and seized the man by his hamess.
Then I raised my sword above his head.
'Harm us - and you slay your Bradhi,' I said in a loud, clear voice.
They paused and lowered their weapons.
‘Do not listen to him,' Horguhl screamed at them. ‘He lies, he will not kill your Bradhi!'
I spoke as sternly as I could - though Horguhl, knowing me better than they did, was perfectly right in what she had said - and addressed the courtiers.
'I am a desperate man,' I said. 'I do not know why you should hold the son of the ruler of your oldest ally a prisoner or why you should allow this evil woman to occupy the throne-dais of your Bradhi. But, since you do, I must protect myself and my friend. Do you not recognise him as Damad of the Kamala, Bradhmak and Pukan-Nara?'
'We do!' one courtier shouted. 'And that is why we hold him! We are at war with the Kamala!'
'At war?' I could hardly believe my ears. 'At war with your friends since the ancient days? Why?'
'I will tell you why,' screamed Horguhl. 'And you should know, since you were partly the cause of all this. Your wanton Bradhinaka Shizala had the Bradhi's, son, Telem Fas Ogdai, damned and murdered so that she might marry - you!'
I was astounded at the enormity of the lie. It was Horguhl who had been responsible for Telem Fas Ogdai turning traitor and eventually being killed in fair fight.
'Surely it is common knowledge that Telem Fas Ogdai betrayed Kamala?' I said, turning to the courtiers. But they groaned and muttered, unconvinced by what I had said.
Their spokesman said: 'She had told us the whole despicable plot that you and Shizala of the Kamala devised between you. The honour of Mishim Tep has been affronted, her favourite son destroyed, the Bradhi attacked and humiliated - these are things only blood can wipe out!'
'You speak nonsense!' I said. 'I know the truth - Horguhl has hypnotised you as she has hypnotised so many before. You believe a story that would not stand up to analysis for a moment if your minds had not been dulled by her power.'
The Bradhi struggled in my grasp. 'If it had not been for her we should never have known the truth,' he said. He spoke mechanically and I was sure that he was totally in Horguhl's power.
'Your Bradhi has been mesmerised by her!' I said desperately.
'You lie!' Horguhl screamed. ‘I am only a simple woman who was deceived by Michael Kane just as he tries to deceive you. Kill him! Kill him!’
'How can one woman have convinced a whole nation of an enormous lie?' I shouted, turning to her. 'What have you done, you evil creature? You have set two great nations at each other's throats
. Have you no sense of shame for what you do?'
Although she continued to act her part, I saw a glimmer of irony in her eyes as she replied. 'Have you no sense of shame? You interloper who trampled on all the great customs and traditions of the Southern nations in order to have the woman you loved.'
I could see that convincing them was impossible.
'Very well,' I said. 'If I am the villain you say I am, then you know that I will carry out my threat and slay the Bradhi if you try to attack me.' I began to move forward and she stepped reluctantly backward to let me pass.
Damad covered my back as we went through the hall towards the doors and thence through the entrance chamber to the palace steps and my airship.
I forced the Bradhi to climb the ladder and Damad followed me. Once inside the cabin I turned to the old man.
'You must believe us when we deny what Horguhl has said,' I told him urgently.
'Horguhl always speaks the truth,' he said in a flat voice, his eyes glassy.
'Do you not realise that she has hypnotised you?' I asked him. 'The Kamala and the men of Mishim Tep have been friends for so long that a war between them could destroy everything that Southern culture stands for!'
'She would not lie.'
'But she does lie!' Damad spoke now for the first time. 'I do not understand everything of which you speak, but I do understand that neither my sister nor Michael Kane would ever do the things of which you accuse them.'
'Horguhl is good. She tells the truth.'
I shook my head sadly. Then I led him towards the hatch and showed him the ladder.
‘You may go, you poor deluded thing,' I said. 'Is this that I see - the shadow of a once-great Bradhi?'
Something seemed to spark in his eyes for a moment and I could see the kind of man he really was when not in Horguhl'is hypnotic power. Grief for his son's treachery and death must have sapped his powers for a time - and in that time Horguhl had managed to reach him and work on his mind until his will was submerged.
I had underestimated her. I had thought her defeated in the Caverns of Argzoon but instead she had immediately hit upon a scheme to gain her ends and revenge herself on all her enemies - and one of those enemies, though they did not realise it, was Mishim Tep!
We waited until the Bradhi had reached the ground and then, as the courtiers and guards surged forward, drew in our ladder, sliced our mooring lines and rose into the sky above the Jewelled City.
Now that I knew the truth - that 1 was really in the same time-period that I had been drawn away from earlier - I was determined to return to Vamal, City of the Green Mists, and sec my Shizala. Also we had to discover what the Bradhi, Camak, - Shizala's and Damad's father - knew of this business and what he was preparing to do.
The great battle which had taken place at Vamal between the Kamala and the Argzoon had badly depleted the Kar-nala force and wearied them. I did not think they could stand a chance of winning a war with the stronger Mishim Tep.
NeithCT, I thought, would their hearts be in it, for while those of Mishim Tep were convinced that Horguhl spoke truth, the Kamala knew otherwise and must feel more than sympathy for the delusions of their friends.
It would take us some time, even at full speed, to reach Vamal, but at least Damad would be able to guide me.
As we sped towards the City of the Green Mists, Damad told me what had befallen him since we had parted at the Cavems of Argzoon.*
*See the first volume in this series - Warriors of Mars - which chronicles the earlier adventures of Michael Kane.
You will remember that Damad and I had decided that one of us should retum to the South to get help to rescue Shizala, who was Horguhl's prisoner in the Caves of Argzoon, if I was unsuccessful in my attempt.
He had left, riding as swiftly as he could over the hundreds of miles we had crossed. But his mount had gone lame shortly afterwards and he had found himself without a dahara in the heela-infested forests.
Somehow he had fought off those heela which had attacked him - though his. beast had not been so lucky -but had lost his bearings a little and had stumbled on to a village of primitives who had captured him with the intention of eating him.
He managed to escape by burrowing out of the hut in which he was imprisoned but, weaponless and half starved, he had wandered for some time before meeting up with a band of nomadic herdsmen who had helped him.
Many more adventures followed and at length he was enslaved by brigands, who sold him to the representative of a Bradhi of a small nation that had somehow managed to survive in the South, though it was far behind most of the Southern nations in terms of civilisation.
He had seized his first opportunity to escape from the working party and had headed for Mishim Tep, it being the nearest friendly nation - or so he thought.
Reaching Mishim Tep and telling the villagers of a small settlement near the border who he was, he was driven off as an enemy! He could not believe what had happened and had decided that a mistake had been perpetrated.
He had found himself hunted by those he regarded as his nation's greatest allies. For weeks he had eluded the guards who sought him, but had eventually been cornered. He had fought well but had finally been captured.
The guards had taken him to Mih-Sa-Voh. where I had first seen him.
It was a story to match my own - which I told him at his request.
Soon we were flying over the vast plain which I recognised at once from the weird, crimson ferns which covered it, undulating slowly in the breeze like an endless ocean - the Crimson Plain.
I welcomed the sight for it meant we were fairly close to the Calling Hills in which lay Vamal, City of the Green Mist, home of the Bradhis of Karnala - and Shizala, my betrothed.
The Calling Hills were reached next morning and it was no time before we had reached the valley where lay Vamal.
May heart leapt in joy as I saw again the tall white buildings of Varnal. Here and there some of the buildings were of the strange blue marble which is mined in the hills. Traceries of gold veined the marble, causing the buildings to glitter in the sun. Pennants flew from the towers. It was a simpler city than Mih-Sa-Voh, the Jewelled City, and not so large, yet to me it was infinitely more beautiful - and an infinitely more welcome sight!
We dropped down into the city square and guards came forward at once, very alert, preparing to treat us as enemies.
The Bradhi Camak hurried down the steps of his palace, Shizala following him.
Shizala!
She looked up and saw me. Our eyes met and locked. We stood there with tears of joy coming to our eyes, then I was leaping from the cabin and hurrying forward to take her in my arms.
'What happened?' she asked. 'Oh, Michael Kane, what happened? I did not know what to think when you disappeared the night before the betrothal ceremony. I know you would not leave me of you own volition. What happened?'
‘I will tell you soon,' I promised. 'But first there are other things to discuss.' I turned to the Bradhi. 'Did you know that Mishim Tep plans to march against Vamal?'
He nodded grimly, sorrowfully. 'The declaration arrived by herald yesterday,' he said. ‘I cannot understand how Bolig Fas Ogdai came to believe these perversions of the truth. He accuses me and mine - and you, Michael Kane -of the most heinous deeds known to our society. We were friends for many years, our fathers and forefathers were friends. How could this be?'
'I will explain that, too,' I said. 'And now, let us try to forget these problems - we are united once more.'
'Yes.' he agreed, trying to smile, 'this is a day of joy -to see you both return together is more than I dared hope for. Come, come - we shall have a meal and will talk and learn everything.'
Hand in hand, Shizala and I followed her father and brother into the palace.
Soon the meal was prepared and I began to talk, telling them of my return to earth, my journey back to Mars and my adventures in the North. Damad then told of his adventures and we discussed what had been happening in Varnal
since we had left.
In spite of the black cloud of imminent war that was forever present, we could not disguise our joy at being reunited and the talk went on long into the night. The next day would bring two things - the ceremony of betrothal between Shizala and myself, necessary before a marriage could take place, and plans of war...
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
An Unwelcome Decision
'So HORGUHL has deceived Bolig Fas Ogdai as she deceived his son,' said Carnak next morning.
'She has him totally in her power,' Darnad said.
We were eating breakfast together - a rare custom on Mars, but there was little time to waste.
'There must be some way of convincing the Bradhi that she is lying,' Shizala said.
'You have not seen him,' I told her. 'We tried to convince him, but he was hardly aware of what we said - he was like a man in a dream. This war is her doing - not Bolig Fas Ogdai's.'
'The question remains,' said Damad, 'how can we avert this war? I have no wish to shed the blood of my friends -and no wish to see Vamal destroyed, for they would undoubtedly win.'
'There is only one way I can think of.' I spoke softly. 'It is an unwelcome solution - but there seems nothing else for it. If all else fails, someone must kill her. With the death of Horguhl will come the death of her power over the Bradhi and his subjects.'
'Kill a woman!' Damad was shocked.
'I like the thought no more than do you,' I said.
'You are right, Michael Kane.' Camak nodded. 'It must be our only chance. But who would take on such a repugnant task?'
'Since I reached the decision, then the onus must be on me,' I murmured.
'Let us discuss this later,' said Bradhi Camak hastily. ‘Now it is almost time for the betrothal ceremony in the throne room. You and Shizala must prepare yourselves.'
Lord of the Spiders or Blades of Mars Page 10
