by Anthology
"And—and she—and they—have gone?" Croft stammered as he spoke.
"Aye." Gaya looked into his eyes. "Jasor, what does it portend?"
"That I know not, yet shall I ascertain. Gaya, my sweet woman, how long have they been gone?"
"This is the third day since they departed, my lord."
"They went—how?"
"In the ship which brought the escort—one Kyphallos sent."
"The day after tomorrow they arrive. So then there is time."
"Time? Time for what, Jasor?"
"Tonight I shall sleep," Croft told her frankly. "And while I sleep I shall learn what is the true intent of this sudden desire on Kyphallos' part to show Cathur their queen."
Gaya's eyes grew wide. "You shall sleep—as you sleep to learn?"
"Yes." Croft smiled. "And I shall learn, wife of my friend."
But, despite his confident tone, he was more than a little disturbed as he sought his own rooms that night and stretched himself on his couch.
At first, he went to the cell of Abbu in the Scira pyramid to learn, if he might, what Abbu was about.
He found him speaking with a brother priest—was half-minded to leave, yet lingered, held by the first remark of the unknown monk.
A nice time for Kyphallos to be at Niera, with his promised queen approaching Scira on the sea."
"He will return in time to greet her," Abbu said.
"Yet I like not his frequent journeyings to Niera, nor his association with the Zollarian nobles who make it their resort. Nor does Cathur like it overly well."
Abbu frowned. "Nor does Cathur like the stories which come back from Anthra concerning the things which occur there in the palace."
Croft left. At least, he thought, Abbu was attending to his duties as Aphur's spy in so far as he might. And Cathur was muttering against their soon-to-be king. He smiled and willed himself to Niera, since now it appeared the Cathurian profligate was once more there. He would be, almost without doubt, in the presence of Kalamita of the tawny eyes and hair.
And it was with her and her brother and Bzad, the Mazzerian chief, he found him, in a room of that palace overlooking the Central Sea. They sat together in a low-toned conversation.
Kalamita stretched her supple length like a cat about to yawn, and turned a slow smile on the Cathurian prince.
"So then," she said, "it is all thought out. You men, with your spears and swords, are far stronger than subtle, my lords. Leave the subtlety to a woman in your plans."
"I see no chance of failure in this, I confess," Bzad spoke as she paused.
"Not unless you bungle."
"I?" Bzad growled. "By Adita, goddess of beautiful women, I shall make no mistake. See, I shall repeat it step by step. On the fourth day after the princess arrives, Kyphallos of Cathur invites her and her father to visit Anthra, and they take the ship the next day. Meanwhile I place my galley under the cover of Anthra and wait. At the same hour they set sail I slip forth. Midway we meet and I sail close in passing. A collision seeming imminent, in the confusion a wrong order is given on board Kyphallos' galley. The prow of my galley strikes his ship as it seeks to cross my bows through turning in the wrong direction. Kyphallos and the maid are saved. Lakkon drowns, and any surviving sailors on board the Cathurian ship are destroyed, so that none shall survive to tell what happened really.
"I sail to Scira and put Kyphallos ashore. We tell a story of disaster in which all perished save only him. According to it, this Naia died with her father. I sail away. She is mine."
"Thereafter," Bandhor spoke for the first time, "our good lord Kyphallos shall come to Anthra, after a period of mourning, and invite our sister to visit him for a time. But upon her desiring to leave he shall refuse. A man of her ship's crew shall escape Anthra in a boat and bring tidings, whereupon him to whom she is pledged shall lay the affair before the emperor himself. Our army shall be ready. An expedition shall proceed to Anthra to rescue Kalamita. In the meantime, Kyphallos shall have taken her to Cathur, and have concealed her—placing her in the sanctuary of Ga, where the vestals will have her in charge. Then shall Zollaria attack, and Mazzer. Tamarizia, finding herself assailed on all sides, shall break like the crushed-in shell of an egg!" He contracted the fingers of a mighty hand until they were flexed in his palm. "Thus it shall be."
Chapter XIV
Once in the flesh again, conscious of all he had seen and heard, Croft sprang from his couch and dressed. He would go to the capital of Cathur as quickly as his swiftest motor galley might take him, and get in touch with Abbu and through him with Naia. The girl should never embark for Anthra on the Prince of Cathur's craft.
Leaving the palace, he entered his car, kept in the court now always for any emergency, and drove straight to the dock on the Na, where the fleet of motor craft were kept busy. Here he selected a galley, one of the latest models he had prepared, sent runners to rout out the crew and order them aboard, ready to sail at once.
From the dock he drove to the ships, flaring with light as the night shift worked, called one of his most expert motor builders to one side, and directed him to report aboard the galley as quickly as he might. To him, he gave authority to open a warehouse and provision the boat for a voyage of some days, and instructions to bring it to the quay below the palace so soon as ready to sail.
Then he went back to the palace itself, and sent a nodding guard to rouse Robur and ask him to come to Croft's rooms. He waited there in a vast impatience until the door opened to admit Aphur's crown prince.
"Rob—I've slept—one of my certain sleeps. Gaya told you, I suppose."
Robur nodded. "Yes. And you have learned, Jasor—what?"
Croft told him, and Robur swore a strong Aphurian oath. "They plan that, do they? By Zitu, Jasor, I am with you in whatever you mean to do."
Croft shook his head. "Nay, Rob, my friend. Your place is here—to general the Bithurian expedition when it is time. Mine is the duty to the maid."
"You love her."
"Aye."
Robur put forth a hand. "Azil be kind to you and her. What have you planned?"
Croft explained his intent in a very few words. "I await now the lights of the galley at the quay below," he finished. "I desire to slip forth unknown to any save the guards. Will you drive me down with what arms I shall take?"
"Aye," said Aphur's heir. "You can reach Scira how soon?"
"In two days—the day after Naia and Lokkon arrive. Drive now with me to Magur. He must lend me a priestly robe."
"Come!" Robur's eyes flashed. Once more he smiled. "A priest shall reach Scira, my friend? He shall go to the pyramid. I understand."
The two men left the palace, entered the car, and crossed the bridge, swung into position on Robur's order. They stopped before the pyramid and hammered on the door. A sleepy priest admitted them at last and sent them up on the primitive lift to Magur's lofty apartments. Magur himself appeared in the end, blinking sleepily with startled eyes when he faced Croft and Robur himself.
Croft explained.
Magur gave him a glance little short of admiration. "I am convinced. Wait, and this matter shall be arranged." He turned away. In five minutes he was back with a dark-brown robe and hood, not unlike a cowl, also a pair of leather sandals and a cord with which to belt the robe about the waist. These he placed in Croft's hands, and raised his own. "Zitu go with ye, my son," he spoke in a formal blessing. "Should he favor ye on this mission, what shall ye do with the maid? Her return to Himyra would cause a clacking of tongues."
"I have thought of that, O Magur," Croft replied. "The maid shall go to Zitra so quickly as she may. There Zud himself shal see her in sactuary in the quarters of the virgins, until this thing has passed, unless you have better to suggest. Thus it is Zollaria plans to hide Kalamita in Scira. I am minded to turn their own trick upon themselves."
Magur smiled. "Thy plan is worthy of one of your mind. Go then, and may Ga, the pure mother, use you to guard the maid."
The ga
lley lights glared red in the night at the quay as Croft and Robur drove back across the bridge which opened behind them span by span. All was ready now save the arms and ammunition. Working in haste at the palace, the prince and Croft collected those and took them down to the ship.
"You shall win, my friend," said Robur as he clasped hands with Croft.
Croft smiled somewhat grimly. "I shall win, Rob," he returned, "or you need not look for me back."
Then he was off, dropping down the Na, passing the high-reared barrier of the walls, and once past those, opening the motor and speeding down the mighty yellow flood to the sea.
A day passed, two days, and night came down. Far to the front the lights of Scira lifted above the waters. Croft called his crew and gave them their instructions in detail. They were to stay by the ship, were to be ready to start at once. Then, to their amaze, he slipped on the priests robe over his cuirass and sword, and appeared before them thus as they approached the harbor gates. The standard of Aphur broke out at the galley's stern. They passed inside unchallenged and moored at the quay. To the harbor master—a huge Cathurian captain—Croft said merely that he was a priest come on a mission from Magur to the pyramid, and stepped ashore.
And knowing Scira as he did, he arrived in due time and without incident at the pyramid portals and rapped for admission, asking for Abbu as soon as he was inside. Then—he was in Abbu's cell, fumbling with his robe and casting it from him, to stand in gold and silver harness before the monk's staring eyes.
"My lord—my lord!" faltered the priest.
"Hold." Croft lifted his hand. "Strange things are forward in Scira. What know you of them, Abbu, who have acted as Aphur's eyes?"
"Yesterday the prince returned from Niera to greet the Aphurian maid he is to wed," Abbu replied. "It was a holiday occasion. The streets swarmed with people."
"Think you Kyphallos intends to lead Naia to the throne?" Croft snapped.
"Zitu!" Abbu lifted his hands in the sign of the cross. "Is it not so pledged, Jasor?"
"Aye—by the lips, yet not by the heart," said Croft. Swiftly he told the staring monk those things he had learned.
"Zitu would not permit this," Abbu mumbled at the last.
"Nay. Hence am I here. Listen, Abbu the priest. What I do, I do by the grace of Zitu—and with his consent. You who have sworn to help me in Zitu's name must gain access to this maid. Say to her what is to be. Say to her thus when you have told her all else as a sign: 'Jasor has not forgotten.' Hearing this, she will believe. Say to her then that on the night after you have spoken to her she shall desire to speak with a priest from the holy pyramid, to receive a blessing before she is presented to Cathur's people. She shall prefer her request of Kyphallos himself, and insist that it be granted.
"She shall specify the priest Abbu, whom she knows. I shall then go to her in the palace. Instruct her that her father shall be with her when I arrive. Thereafter shall we contrive a way out of the palace and to the boat I hold waiting for her escape. Say not to her that I shall come in your place. That she will learn when I appear. Now give me a place to sleep, and when you see her state these facts concerning Kyphallos' plan as things of your own knowledge, confessing to her that you have acted as Aphur's eyes for well nigh a whole cycle past."
Abbu bowed, "Indeed," he said, "I believe you speak truth, O Jasor, and with Zitu's help I shall do all you say. Take my pallet for your slumber. I shall pray through the night for your success to Zitu himself."
Throughout the next day, Croft lay hid. Abbu brought him food in the morning and disappeared. Only late in the day when the monk returned was he to learn how he had managed his task.
"My lord, there was a pageant in honor of her, of Aphur and her father," he explained. "The civic guard and that of the palace marched before them, while the people watched, and you know that it is a custom for the lay brothers of the pyramid to solicit alms. So with my little earthen jar I passed among the people, and after a time I approached the raised station where Aphur's princess sat, and lifting my little jar I cried to her as Cathur's queen-to-be that she give freely to Cathur's temple. A guard about the noble party angrily bade me be off.
"I lifted my voice in protest, crying again to that beautiful woman for alms. She heard me, my lord. She has a gentle heart. 'Hold,' said she to the guard. 'Let the priest approach.' Thus, my lord, I gained her side, and she gave me pieces of silver enough to fill my jar, compelling all her party to contribute freely.
"And when that had been done she asked me of our temple, and I told her concerning it, and called a blessing upon her, and contrived to whisper that I had an important message, meant for her ears alone.
"The maid, my lord, is quick of comprehension. She turned to the prince himself. 'This priest finds favor with me,' she said. 'I would peak with him further. It may be that I shall select him for my own spiritual instructor once I am Cathur's queen.'
"Kyphallos smiled, my lord. 'As you will, my princess,' he replied, and I think he suspected nothing.
"Then the maid turned back to me and set a time for me to come to her at the palace on the morrow in the morning. Is it well, my lord?"
"It is well," said Croft. "Yet there is more for you to do. Provide me a second robe such as Magur gave me which I wore here, and arrange for a carriage to be waiting tomorrow night on the street from the palace to the harbor. Do this in time that I may know the driver's name, when I shall come upon him, and so calling him identify myself as the man for whom he is employed. Here—" He drew a pouch and placed silver in Abbu's hand. "Pay the man well, and tell him to look for as much beyond what you give him if he serves me without fail. Also provide me a standard of Cathur's colors, such as are used on ships."
The latter request was due to a sudden thought which had popped into Croft's mind, and evoked a tight-lipped smile. He had conceived a way to throw consternation into the camp of his foes.
Chapter XV
And when night came down once more on Scira he was ready. Once he had ventured forth, gone to the harbor, in seeming a priest, and conferred with the captain of his ship, telling him to be prepared to sail on the word that night.
Back in the pyramid he waited Abbu's coming with what patience he could. The monk came about noon. "All things are ready, my lord, so far as time permits," he made his report.
"You saw the maid?"
"Aye."
"And what said she?"
"At first, she was amazed, bewildered, I think, as was her father, whom she summoned after I had told my tale, that I might relate it again to his ears. That was after I said to her the words you told me to repeat. Hearing them, she believed and called Prince Lakkon at once. His anger was great. He was for carrying the thing to Kyphallos himself and compelling him to admit or deny. But—both the maid and I prevailed upon him to see that by so doing he would destroy not only himself but her. In the end, they agreed to summon me to the palace as soon as it fell dark."
"That is well," said Croft. "The rest is prepared."
"The driver and the standard, aye. I shall give you the robe before you depart."
"You shall live to receive your reward," said Croft. "Now we have naught to do save wait."
And waiting proved the hardest part as the day dragged past. Yet in the end Abbu appeared before him and whispered that the time was come—that a chariot from the palace waited without the pyramid. He carried a tightly rolled package in his hands and gave it to Croft. "The robe, my lord," he declared. "Zitu aid you in its use."
"Zitu reward you, as I shall see you rewarded in a time to come," Croft told him, donning his own robe and thrusting the other beneath it. "Farewell for the present, Abbu. Your service is done."
Leaving the pyramid, he entered the chariot sent to fetch him and rode swiftly to the palace. He descended, passed inside the palace, and was led by a page to the Princess Naia's door.
That door he entered, and for the first time in months found himself in the presence of the woman he loved.
She rose and stood before him. "I have done as I promised my father. What more must I do?"
"Aye, what more have you to tell us, Abbu, you could not tell us before?" asked Lakkon, rising from a couch placed farther back from the door.
Croft threw off his enveloping cowl and robe. He stood before them, his cuirass with the sun of Aphur shining on its metal breast sending a sparkle of light through the room. "Not Abbu this time, Princees Lakkon."
"Jasor!" Naia's eyes went wide.
"Jasor of Nodhur, by Zitu!" Lakkon cried. "Come, my lord, what means this priestly disguise?"
"Life—for yourself—life and honor for your daughter, as I hope, since I know she would not live without the latter," Croft returned. "Hark you, Lakkon of Aphur. You are a man with a sword at your belt. Tell me, is your daughter's serving maid, Maia, of your party here?"
"Aye," Lakkon returned, visibly impressed by Croft's presence and bearing. "Yet—"
"Enough," Croft cut him short. "Here is an extra robe of a priest. Let the princess and Maia done them and pass out of the palace doors. You and I shall walk forth together. To any who seek to stay us, I am your friend. I wear Aphur's arms. Let them stop two nobles of Aphur at their peril. Without the palace, the princess and the maid will turn to the right and walk down the street toward the harbor which is by happy chance toward the Scira pyramid. We shall overtake them. We shall enter a carriage and drive to the harbor and leave this nest of treason. Abbu has told before this what is planned."
"Aye—but—" Lakkon stammered.
"I shall prove his words true," Croft flashed. "Summon Maia quickly, lest something intervenes."
"Father—do as my lord advises." Naia laid a hand on Lakkon's arm.
"By Zitu—I like it not. Yet if it be for your safety—Were it not—were it for myself alone—summon your maid."
The thing was so simple, indeed, that it made Croft smile. Inside five minutes, the two women were prepared. Naia's wealth of hair was lost beneath the cowl. Croft opened the door and they sallied forth.
