by Anthology
Croft felt a thrill of humor at the words.
"And how does Cathur plan when the cycle is run out?" she inquired at length. "What of this pledge with Aphur, then?"
"Zollaria will be ready—then."
"And if not?" she said.
"The pledge can be forsworn—and Aphur can do what she likes."
"Your father?"
"Knows not his own mind from day to day, as you yourself know. Even now he speaks of giving me the throne."
Kalamita smiled. "Yet Bzad says Naia is very fair." She narrowed her eyes.
"Bzad speaks truth, yet have I not come straight to you as I said on my return?"
"Aye. Good then, my lord. Tonight shall you know Zollaria's final plans which shall bring you to Zitra's throne." She rose and stood before him. "Do you love me indeed, my lord?"
"Yes, by Zitu!" Kyphallos's voice was thickened. He reached out eager hands.
"Not Kyphallos alone may pledge himself for reasons of State," she taunted, drawing back. "I also have given my troth to another since you left."
"You!" He sprang forward and seized her by her jewel-banded arms, holding her in a grip she might not resist. "What mean you? Say quickly your words are a jest, or, by Zitu and Azil, I crush in your unfaithful breast!"
It came over Croft that the Cathurian loved her—with such love as a man of his type could give; that this explained all he had so far heard.
But she smiled into the threatening face. "For reasons of State, my lord."
"What?" Kyphallos caught a breath.
Kalamita loosened his grip on her arms, carried his arms downward beside her and drew them about her form. "Plans have gone forward since you departed for the south. When all is ready you shall invite me to Anthra—and once in your power you shall refuse to permit my return. Zollaria, and he to whom I am pledged, shall demand it, and still shall you refuse. Then shall Zollaria wage war on Cathur and Cathur shall appeal to Tamarizia for aid. And since Cathur guards the gate to the Central Sea and her loss would spell the downfall of a thousand cycles of power that aid may not be refused."
Kyphallos spoke. "And Cathur's unprepared army, thanks to Tamhys's thoughts of peace, and of others before him, shall scarcely stop the armies Zollaria has trained and armed and taught for fifty years. Then shall Kyphallos and Kalamita mount the throne of Zitra, and—"
"Naia!" Once more the woman taunted with a smile.
"Bzad can have her, if he takes her," Kyphallos cried.
Bzad—the blue Mazzerian chief! Naia to a savage! Croft's spirit quivered and shook with a righteous rage.
"Not an impossible fate," he heard Kalamita say, and noted a crafty light creep into her yellow eyes. "Come, then. Let us descend. Play your part strongly, my lord, and all, I think, shall be well."
Croft followed them downstairs to the court where a table was spread. Save Kalamita herself the guests were wholly men. He recognized Bandhor, her brother, and the Mazzerian Bzad. The others, plainly Zollarians and men of Mazzer by their appearance and speech, were as yet unknown to him. Thereafter, as the meal progressed, Croft learned the final details of the plan.
This was Zollarian statecraft, Croft thought. She sent a royal woman of easy morals to lure Cathur into a snare. She would make this tawny enchantress her final exuse for war. To her Kyphallos would sell his birthright, his state, his nation, and a place upon a secondary throne.
Croft left. He had learned all he had hoped and more. He knew now what Tamarizia faced—war. And he knew more. He knew that Naia, of Aphur, was his! He knew that Cathur meant to forswear her—that there would be no need on his part to win her other than by winning this war. Turning his mind upon the first step which should lead him to its completion, he focused his mind upon it with all his power and left Palos for Earth.
Chapter X
Two weeks went by before he once more opened the eyes of Jasor's body and found himself in a guarded room in the palace of Aphur's king.
He had spent them on Earth in the study of firearms and munitions and the various devices required for making the same.
He sat up. "List, soldier, I would drink!"
"Aye, my lord." The guard turned to the door and set it open. "Wine!" he bawled. "The Lord Jasor awakes!"
"My clothes." Croft left his couch.
Ten minutes later a rap fell on the door. Robur appeared. Word of Croft's waking had spread. The prince himself came with a page bringing wine. Croft drank. "I would see Jadgor at once."
"He sleeps," Prince Robur began.
"Then wake him. All Tamarizia totters to a fall unless we be ready in less than a single cycle, Rob."
"Zitu!" Robur stared. "Say you truly. How know you this, Jasor, my friend?"
Croft turned and pointed toward his couch. "I was told while my body lay there. You call on Zitu in vain unless you give heed to my words!"
"Nay, not so. Come, I myself shall take you to my father without delay."
That was a strange night in Himyra of Aphur. Jadgor, no king in seeming now, but a stern-faced man in a simple garment sat upon his couch while Croft revealed his knowledge of what Zollaria planned.
"By Zitu!" he roared at the end. "Would Cathur dare this thing?"
"Aye—for the woman and Zitra's throne," said Croft.
"To forswear his pledge to Aphur?"
"Aye."
"To surrender his state?"
"Aye—that too, Jadgor the king."
And suddenly Jadgor was king indeed. "Then let Zilla the Destroyer take me unless we meet them, spear to spear and sword to sword! Jasor of Nodhur, I understand you not—nor yet how your knowledge is obtained save Zitu speaks through you as a mouthpiece for his own designs. Wherefore I shall once more heed your words. This falls on Aphur, Nodhur, Milidhur, I think, with Tamhys, man of peace on Zitra's throne. Yet shall Aphur, Nodhur, and Milidhur prepare. Inside a cycle, should we work together, we shall have a very horde of ready spears and swords."
"Nay, scarcely that," said Croft.
"What else?"
"Stronger weapons than those, for which I bring the plans. If made in time, a thousand men instructed in their use, can end this war almost before it starts. Let Aphur, Milidhur, and Nodhur plan together, that these weapons may be produced some in Himyra and some in Ladhra. The work is vast. Yet shall the final end be sure if this is done before Zollaria strikes. Robur and I shall undertake the carrying out of my designs, if Jadgor gives the word."
"Then Jadgor gives it," said the king. "On Nodhur will I call and Milidhur. No man may say that Aphur failed to think of Tamarizia's good. Nodhur, make your weapons for this coming trial of strength, and I shall give you moneys, metals, men—all things you may require."
Croft's heart swelled in his breast. "Then, Robur and I shall plan that this work may start at once. Aphur, I crave your pardon for having broken your sleep."
That was the beginning of Croft's real work. At once he plunged into a very frenzy of action, almost appalled himself by the amount to be done inside a year. That first night he spent with Robur drafting to his attentive ears those things which they must do—the finishing of the motors—their installation in ships.
"The structure for that end is well-nigh completed," Robur said.
"Good!" Croft cried, and went on swiftly to demand the construction or appropriation of buildings for the making of arms. As to the nature of the latter, he held back the details for the time, and spoke of preparing a fleet of swift motor-driven galleys in which to transport the troops they would raise across the Central Sea when the need should arise.
Robur's eyes sparkled at that. "We shall come upon them ere they dream we can arrive. Jasor, my friend, your name shall be greatest among Tamarizia's men."
"No greater than that of Jadgor," Croft replied. "Rob, your father is a man above other men. None save a man of noble spirit forgets himself to assure his nation's good."
In the month that followed Croft began the training of a number of men in assembling the motors, choosin
g only such as seemed peculiarly adapted to the work. He installed a motor in a galley and drove the craft along the Na at a speed which had never been seen in a ship in Palos before. In this, with Jadgor himself, and Lakkon, whom he persuaded to bring Naia along, he journeyed on up the river to make his long-promised visit to Jasor's parents at Ladhra and enlist Belzor, King of Nodhur, in their plans.
Sinon and Mellia scarcely knew how to take him they thought their son.
"By Zitu! You have done it!" Sinon cried as he rode the galley across the Na's yellow flood.
Later, loaded with honors, both by Jadgor and Belzor himself, he grew abashed. "That my son should raise me to noble station," he faltered to Mellia at his side. "Strange days are coming to Tamarizia, wife of my heart, when he who was a dullard sits in the council of the kings."
For Croft had appeared before Belzor inside the first day after Ladhra was reached. And Belzor, startled by the fact of a galley which ran up the turgid current of the mighty river without oars or sails, had listened to him and Jadgor and joined his support to their plans. That settled, he arranged with Sinon to send several galleys to Himyra to be equipped with motors, and returning to that city for a few days, dropped down stream, entered the Central Sea, and sailed to the capital city of Milidhur.
On this trip Gaya made one of their party, and though Croft perforce acted as engineer, he managed more than one word with Naia during the course of the voyage, and once the fleeting bliss of a stolen kiss.
In Milidhur, Gaya's voice helped to turn the tide to Jadgor and Croft. A princess of state, she brought all her influence to bear. And since Milidhur was asked only to form a part of the army, to be equipped before Zollaria struck, the matter was soon arranged.
Day and night the fire of creation flared in Himyra, and so soon as work was started, and he had shown Robur how to keep busy the many men Jadgor had furnished for their needs, Croft put some of the new motors into commission between Himyra and Ladhra and started other work there, in a mighty building set apart by Belzor for his use. Those necessary bits of machinery first installed in the Himyra shops he had made, like the motor parts were now made, in numbers.
Sinon's first galley up the Na carried as its cargo partly assembled engines of queer design to a Palosian mind, which should when set up in the shops at Ladhra fulfil their portion of Croft's plan. Thereafter the fires of the new era flared in Ladhra, too, and Croft spent his time between the two shops, motoring back and forth mainly at night.
Twenty of the hundred cars which were gradually taking shape he set apart, however, after they were tested—and these he had equipped with all-metal wheels carrying crossbars on their tires like short, strong teeth. He put workmen to the task of making metal walls to bolt upon each chassis. And these walls were pierced with slots. Thus he arranged for twenty armored cars and had them set aside. Likewise he speeded the construction of numbers of flat-bottomed power boats capable of speed, yet having floor space enough to transport no small number of men.
A month passed, two months, three. Machines were assembled and set up—motors were harnessed to them to Robur's amazement. Croft found the Tamarizians apt of comprehension and willing to work. At the end of three months he found himself the supreme captain of a picked corps. And at the end of a month he was ready to begin the actual making of arms.
Now and then Croft went back to his Earthly body, not only to renew its physical life, but to gain help in the work he was carrying on by learning fresh details on each trip. He gave up any intention of manufacturing machine guns, as a thing requiring too much time. On an average, he spent two days of every week on Earth. His sleeps on Palos had become too frequent to cause any further comment when they occurred. Thus a fourth month passed.
In it Croft accomplished several things. He did not stop motor production with the first hundred. He continued their building and began selling the output of the shops to private owners. The things became a not too unusual site on the Himyra streets, and the first motor caravan was organized and crossed the inland desert to Milidhur with success.
One special car Croft had built. On it he lavished all his present ability of refinement. And when it was done he drove it to Lakkon's mountain mansion in the twilight of a busy day. It was for Naia, and himself he gave it to her; and after the evening meal, when the three moons rose, he placed her in it and taught her how to drive.
Chapter XI
At the end of the fourth month, the first rifle was done. It was an odd-appearing affair. Tempered copper took the place of steel in barrel and other metal parts. Copper formed the shell for the ammunition, over which Croft had experienced more trouble than in anything else. Lead was very scarce on Palos, but there were vast quantities of gold. That explained the enormous use made of it in draperies and the common trades as he had learned.
Yet it was with some compunction due to the opposite conditions on Earth and their life-long effect on his brain that he finally hit on an alloy from which the bullets were made. Powder had troubled him, too—though in the end he managed to make it. And for the fulminating centers of his cartridge complete, was compelled to spend several days on Earth.
In the end, however, he held the first completed weapon in his hands, and taking Robur in a car, he drover out along the south road to a place where he knew vast flocks of water fowl were wont to frequent the Na.
As a boy he had been a good shot, until such time as he waked in his soul a repugnance for killing the natural creatures the One Great Source had made, save as necessity arose.
He gestured to the wild fowl floating on the yellow water more than a bowshot away. "Now watch, Rob," he said, and took the rifle in his hands.
"Had we not better draw a little closer, Jasor, my friend?"
"No." On the word, Croft fired. He chose a bird swimming to one side. And hard on the sound of his shot that bird jerked in the spasmodic fashion of a sorely stricken thing, struggled for an instant and floated away, half sunk in the yellow tide.
The entire flock rose and swarmed across the sky. Pumping up a fresh cartridge, Croft lifted his rifle swiftly, chanced another hit—and scored. One of the flying creatures spun dizzily over and over, to fall not far from where the two men stood in the car.
"Zitu! Zitu!" Robur exclaimed, springing from the machine to retrieve the fallen bird. Croft watched him run toward it in very unprincelike haste. Then he was coming back with the dead thing in his hands, staring wide-eyed at the drops of blood on its feathers, lifting his face with a strange expression to Croft as he climbed back to his seat.
"Are you convinced, Rob?" Croft laid the rifle aside.
"I am convinced Zitu himself but uses you as his agent. These things never came from a mortal brain alone."
"Man comes by Zitu's will. Why should not Zitu use man for the things it pleases him to do?"
"You do not deny it?" Robur spoke in almost startled fashion.
"Nay. Have I not already said that all I did was by Zitu's grace? Think you not Zollaria will stand in awe of our weapons when they are in the hands of our men, on foot or mounted in the cars I have armored and pierced with holes for the barrels of the rifles?"
"Aye, by Zitu!" Robur shouted. "Turn around Jasor—and 'let her out.' We must return to our work."
But that night Croft drove out to the mountains, taking his rifle along. Others were being assembled now, and he had seen Jadgor himself and arranged for the beginning of the army they must raise. The thing would be started by a public demonstration, at which Croft should show the power of the new weapon. The men of Aphur, and Nodhur, and Milidhur would be invited to join. To each who did so a rifle would be given wholly as his property for all time to come, and a certain wage would be given also while they were being trained.
Fired by the thought, Croft asked for a copy of the Tamarizian alphabet, found it not unlike the ancient Maya inscriptions in Central America and had taken it to the ship and set his pattern makers to forming molds for the making of type. He intended printing p
roclamations of the coming call for volunteers and posting them about the streets.
Thus to his inventions he added the printing press, crude, and for large work only at first, but printing none the less. Now at the end of the day, Croft was speeding forth to show the woman he loved the thing which should win for them their heart's desire, and wreck Zollaria's plans.
Lakkon himself met him as he descended at the door. Despite his resolve, Croft's visits were growing more and more frequent and Lakkon was not a fool.
"My lord," he said, giving his hand, "what brings you again thus soon?"
Croft drew himself up. "Success," he returned. "I came but to prove to you the power of the first of the new weapons we have made. And having done so, I shall return to Himyra so soon as I may."
"Nay." A troubled expression waked in Lakkon's eyes. "Take not my words amiss." He seemed suddenly abashed. "The weapon does all you said?"
"Aye. I shall show you and the princess, if I may."
Lakkon's eyes flashed. "What do you require?"
Croft glanced about. Below him near the lake in a mountain meadow were some of the strange sheep-like cattle, knee deep in grass. He gestured toward them with his hand. "Permission to slay one of those."
"Granted, so be you can do it," Lakkon smiled. The distance was twice the range of any bow.
Croft reflected the smile as he made answer. "If the princess may be summoned." He turned and took the rifle from the car.
Lakkon eyed it with unconcealed interest. He called the Mazzerian from within the door and directed that Naia be bidden to appear.
While they waited, Croft opened the magazine and extracted a bullet. He was explaining it to Lakkon when Naia hurried forth. "A powder within the shell furnishes the power to propel the ball in the end," he finished in time to greet her. "And now, Prince Lakkon, to take you at your word." He lifted the shining barrel.
"What would you do?" Naia exclaimed.
"Behold," said Croft, and fired.
