Merrick peered with narrowed eyes. At first he saw only a darker bulk against the dark fungus forest far ahead, one that glinted in the moonlight at points. It was only when after minutes of onward flight the dark bulk slowly grew that he appreciated its enormous size. Fascinated he watched.
It largened slowly and Merrick almost forgot their errand in the wonder of the sight. The Cosp city lay before them! And it was a city of but a single structure—a gigantic, irregular-shaped mass of metal with countless flat smooth sides, miles upon miles in extent. And it was as bored with tunnel-openings and honey-combed passages as some colossal black metal cheese. Around its giant metal mass rose a metal wall hundreds of feet in height, against which the crawling fungus forest pressed and crept.
“The city of the Cosps!” Holk repeated. “Long ago the spider-men found here that giant outcrop of solid metal, and hollowed out in it their cells and tunnels until now it holds all their countless hordes. The wall around it keeps out the great crawling fungi of the forest that surrounds it.”
“Then those tunnel-passages—” Merrick began.
“Run through the whole huge city in a labyrinth,” the other answered. “Somewhere down in that mighty honeycombed mass lies the hall of the Cospal, the ruler of the Cosp race. It is near there, I think, that Jhalan would be with Narna, but how are we to reach it?”
“There’s but one way,” Merrick said decisively. “The city seems sleeping, and two of us might penetrate into it and get back, where all of us would inevitably be discovered. You will land Jurul and me between the wall and city and we’ll try it. You can hover high over the city, and if we get out again we’ll fire our light-guns as signal to drop for us.”
“And leave Jurul to have the fun of it while I lie up in the cold?” Holk asked belligerently. Jurul was laughing softly. “Yes. As Chan I order it,” Merrick told him. “You’ll have fighting enough before we get out of this, Holk.”
“In that case, well enough,” Holk grinned.
He took the controls and while Merrick and Jurul looked to their weapons sent the airboat downward. Some of the tunnel openings were lit, and there were what seemed like guard-towers on the great wall, but no airboats were in sight, and silently as some ship of the dead their craft sank toward the sleeping city of the spider-men.
VI : IN THE COSP CITY
MERRICK expected each instant a challenge or alarm from the guard-towers on the great wall, but none came. Long ages of immunity from attack had made the Cosps negligent in their guard, and without accident the Corlan craft came to rest on the black metal plain that lay between the surrounding wall and the city’s huge honeycombed mass.
At once Merrick and Jurul were leaping from it. “Hold her high above,” Merrick whispered to Holk, “and when you see our light-guns firing down here drop like lightning for us.”
“If it’s firing you can’t keep me from it,” Holk grinned, and set the craft darting up again into the darkness.
Merrick and Jurul, their hands on the hilts of their light-swords, set off instantly toward the looming bulk of the city whose honeycombed metal cliffs towered a half-mile away. The metal floor over which they hastened gleamed in the light of the moons. No Cosps were in sight, though they saw dark spider-forms against a few of the dim-lit tunnel-openings from time to time.
They headed toward one of the openings on a level with the floor, the upper ones being reached by projecting holds in the cliffs unusable by any but the many-limbed spider-men. Merrick had in mind the suggestion of Holk that it was only deep down toward the center of the great city, where the Cosp ruler was, that Jhalan and Narna would most likely be found. He realized the slenderness of their chance of finding them, but was carried on by the very unreality of the adventure and by a strong memory of the Corlan girl.
They slowed as they neared the tunnel opening, and peered stealthily into it. Dim-lit by feebly glowing plates inset in the walls, it curved out of sight before them, quite unoccupied. Merrick and Jurul stepped cautiously into it, stooping because of its low height. They passed doors as they went on in it, opening one or two and finding beyond them storerooms filled with unused mechanisms and weapons.
They went on and soon found that other tunnels crossed their own. Merrick took the first one leading downward and inward. Its downward slant was steep and the metal floor slippery to their feet. They shrank back once as a sound of oddly hissing voices came to them and two spider-men crossed their tunnel just ahead. The two great Cosps, hideous spider-bodies made more ghastly by their hairless and human-like heads and features, were discussing some matter, talking in the tongue Merrick had learned was common to almost all Kaldar’s races. They passed and Merrick and Jurul crept on.
They found themselves passing other doors and when they peered through one found the room inside full of sleeping Cosps, each resting on a square raised platform. They crept quietly past these, following their tunnel that wound ever downward. Moving around one of its sharp turns, they ran squarely into three Cosps coming around the turn. Before the spider-men could recover from their surprise, Merrick and Jurul had their light-swords out of their sheaths and had sprung forward. Merrick’s shining sword touched one of the great spider-men and before he could realize it the Cosp was a scorched and distorted lifeless heap, blasted by the sword’s terrible force. Jurul accounted for a second in the same instant, and as the third spider-man turned to flee Jurul’s blade touched and blasted him also, the light-swords being automatically recharged from the hilt at each release of their force.
For a moment Merrick and Jurul stood, panting and wild of eye, shining swords ready, but no more of the Cosps appeared for the moment.
“We can’t stay here long,” Merrick whispered. “Some of them are sure to stumble upon us.”
“Back, Chan,” warned Jurul. “I hear others now—”
They shrank back into the darkness of one of the transverse tunnels, more dimly lit than their own, dragging the three twisted forms of the slain spider-men with them. Five Cosps were approaching along the tunnel they had been following, and as they came around the turn Merrick saw that they were armed with black-tubed poison-sprays. He heard them talking as they came on.
“—and why he should receive him so I can not guess. There has never been anything but war to the death between Cosp and Corlan and there never will be. Why, then, should this one be received in honor with his prisoner?”
“You forget,” another answered, “that this Corlan hates his people now as much as we do. This Jhalan can help us to make a final conquest of Corla.”
“Also,” a third spider-man put in, “the Cospal will know how to deal with him when we have conquered his race.”
“It may be so,” the first replied, “but in the meantime it irritates me to see him a guest in the chambers of the Cospal himself.”
Merrick, listening, hardly realized their danger in his interest until the five Cosps came level with the cross-tunnel in which they crouched. Were they to turn down it discovery was inevitable, but fortune favored the two and the spider-men went on along the brighter-lighted way. When their voices had receded Merrick plucked at Jurul’s arm.
“You heard?” he asked excitedly. “Holk was right—Jhalan and Narna are in the Cospal’s chambers!”
“But how to get into them?” Jurul said doubtfully. “They’ll be guarded, remember.”
“This lighted tunnel must lead to them, for those five were apparently just coming from the Cospal’s chambers,” Merrick pointed out. “And once we find them we’ll find some way of getting in.”
They started along the lighted way again, made more cautious by their two narrow escapes, shining light-swords in their hands. It came to Merrick as they crept forward how vast must be the sleeping honeycombed Cosp city that lay around and above and beneath them, a limitless labyrinth of tunneled ways holding in its cells and chambers all the countless sleeping spider-men. He crept on with Jurul.
They crossed other tunnels, but the lighted one led
surely onward and downward. At last they were brought up short as they rounded a curve in it by glimpsing ahead a portal-like door across it, guarded by four spider-men with poison-sprays. At sight of the Cosp guards the two shrank back.
“Guards of the Cospal,” Jurul whispered. “We’re near—but how to pass them?”
“Our light-guns?” Merrick asked, and the other thought and nodded.
“Our only chance, it seems. Before we could get near them with swords they’d kill us with the sprays.”
Sheathing their swords, therefore, the two drew their stubby light-guns and crept silently to the curve’s edge. Then, raising them, they pressed the inset firing-plates on the stocks. Merrick was aiming at the Cosp on the extreme right and saw him fall in a blasted heap as the shining charge flashed soundlessly from the gun and struck him. One on the left had fallen at the same instant beneath Jurul’s fire, and as the two remaining Cosps darted forward with poison-sprays upraised they were met by two more charges that cut off their rising cries of alarm by instant death.
Merrick and Jurul, trembling with excitement, dragged the slain guards back into another of the transverse tunnels and then went on through the portal. Along the tunnel now were designs worked in white metal on the black metal walls, showing Cosps battling with Corlans and also with beings unlike any Merrick had ever seen, that he realized must have been inhabitants of some part of Kaldar.
But the pictured walls meant little to Merrick in the excitement that now urged him on. He had not realized how much his quest for Narna meant to him until now when he came within reach of the Corlan girl. He and Jurul glimpsed far along lit corridors spider-guards here and there, but were able by following branching ways to avoid them. They were in a great maze of guarded corridors and ante-rooms that must surround the inner retreat of the Cospal, he knew, and he halted at last in doubt.
He was turning to Jurul, when from both came whispered exclamations. Some one was following the transverse tunnel some distance ahead, and as he crossed their own they saw that it was the great figure of Jhalan!
Merrick almost leapt forward as he saw him but checked himself in time. His heart pounded madly as they watched the great Corlan cross ahead. Black-bearded and still in his black metal garment, Jhalan still wore his light-sword and light-gun, and his possession of weapons in this city of the Cosps was in itself ample proof of his treachery. They crept silently after him, and as they followed him down the dim-lit cross-tunnel saw him pass two spider-guards, exchanging a word with the Cosps as he did so. Merrick and Jurul made a quick detour through divergent tunnels to avoid the guards and again a moment later were dogging the traitor Corlan’s heels.
In both their minds, as they followed like stalking beasts of prey, was the same thought, that by following Jhalan most surely would they be led to Narna.
They dared not keep too close to their unconscious quarry, though, for ever and again he cast a glance around and behind him. So it was that after trailing him through several tunnels in which, luckily for them, were no more guards, they saw Jhalan turn a curve ahead. Before they reached it they heard the clang of a door and when they hastened around the curve found the corridor beyond it empty. Along it were a dozen doors, through any of which the Corlan might have gone. They halted, tense, Merrick sick with doubt.
“Well have to try all these rooms,” he whispered. “He must have gone into one of them.”
Jurul shook his head. “Suicide to do that,” he declared. “There may be a half-hundred Cosp guards or even the Cospal himself in those rooms, even if Jhalan is in one.”
Merrick saw all the force of the other’s words and stood for a moment in despair. Their whole venture seemed black, when from the second door there came out a sound that startled them. The scream of a girl!
VII : FLIGHT AND BATTLE
“NARNA!” cried Merrick as the scream struck his ears. He leapt to the door.
“Wait!” Jurul exclaimed. “There may be Cosps inside too!”
But Merrick was for the moment beyond control of reason. He tugged fruitlessly at the handle of the locked door and then whipped out his light-sword and drew its shining blade around the handle. Beneath the sword’s force the metal of the door twisted and melted instantly, and as the door gave before him Merrick burst inside, shining rapier in his hand.
The scene inside was one that fanned his quick rage to flame. The room was a small one, with strange metal furnishings, and at one side of it Narna was struggling in the grasp of Jhalan. No fear, but loathing, was in her eyes, and they lit instantly as she and Jhalan turned and saw Merrick burst in.
“Chan Merrick!” cried the girl.
“One side, Narna—quick!” Merrick exclaimed.
For Jhalan, behind the girl, had recognized Merrick and had instantly whipped out and levelled his light-gun. Instead of springing aside, though, Narna struck up the weapon and the charge that flew from it blasted the wall over Merrick’s head. Rather than waste time Jhalan dropped the weapon and ripped out his light-sword. Merrick’s weapon clashed against it as he leapt forward, and then the interrupted battle they had fought in Corla was resumed.
Again the shining slender blades clicked against each other like needles of death as Merrick and Jhalan circled each other in the chamber. Once Jhalan raised his voice in a hissing cry, but Jurul had closed the door to prevent the fight from arousing the spider-men. Merrick knew as he stabbed and feinted that his ally dared not use his light-gun in the little room lest he annihilate friend and foe alike.
Whatever Jhalan was, he was a supreme swordsman. But the long slender light-sword in Merrick’s hand was so like a fencing-foil in weight that it was as though he were engaged in a friendly bout rather than in one where a touch was the end. He pressed Jhalan fiercely forward, but as the Corlan gave way slipped suddenly. Instantly the other’s blade leapt toward him but Merrick threw himself aside in time, was on his feet again. A cold rage filled him now and he pressed Jhalan irresistibly.
The Corlan was maneuvering around the room and in a moment more his plan made itself evident. For as he neared the door he flung it open with a swift motion of his left hand, and as he leapt for the opening hurled his light-sword in Merrick’s face!
The sword, as it left Jhalan’s grasp, went dead and forceless, and Merrick’s own blade, striking it in his instinctive parry, sent the weapon flying back to strike the head of Jhalan just as he leapt through the door-opening. Without a sound the great black-bearded Corlan sank to the floor, stunned by the blow.
Merrick, panting, stepped to the unconscious man and extended his shining blade toward him, then suddenly drew it back.
“I can’t do it!” he panted. “In fight, yes, but I can’t kill an unconscious man.”
“Then I will!” Jurul declared. His light-sword leapt forth, but Narna interposed.
“No, the Chan Merrick is right. No Corlan strikes a prostrate foe.” Jurul drew back and the girl turned to Merrick.
“Did they capture you also, O Chan?” she asked. “Have you escaped them?”
“They never captured me,” Merrick told her. “I came with Holk and Jurul and others to find you—our airboat waits above.”
“You came—for me?” she marvelled. “Why, scarce a Corlan in history has ever dared approach this Cosp city. Truly you are our Chan, when for a single one of your subjects you dare what no Corlan has ever dared before!”
“It was not that,” Merrick began, feeling in some way clumsy in expressing himself, but Jurul interposed.
“If we’re to get back up to the surface we’d best be going,” he warned. “It must be near day now and all this Cosp city will be waking soon.”
They left the unconscious Jhalan where he lay and started back through the corridors they had followed in coming. Narna, though, showed them another way which she declared was a shorter route to the surface, being the one by which she had been brought down captive by Jhalan and the Cosps, and running past the inmost hall of the Cospal.
They f
ollowed it as hastily as possible, detouring through adjacent tunnels now and then to avoid guards, knowing that a single cry would bring the sleeping hordes of spider-men around them into wakefulness. Soon they were following a wider tunnel, one side of which was open, giving view of a great dim-lit hall along whose side high up their passage led like a balcony. Merrick peered down into the hall as they crept onward.
It was of enormous size and he could see drawn up around it rank on rank of armed Cosps, great spider-men standing as motionless as though carven. In a cuplike depression at the hall’s center rested a single Cosp at least three times as large as any Merrick had seen, a huge spider-monster twenty feet across with enormous, bulging head. It was the Cospal, he knew, the strange ruler of the spider-race. It seemed sleeping, perhaps only thinking, but motionless as the guards around it. The strangeness of the sight remained with Merrick long after they had crept past the hall and on up the tunnel.
They moved onward, upward, sometimes in dark tunnels where only Narna’s soft grasp of his wrist told that his companions were beside him. Hope rose in Merrick as they climbed steadily up and outward through the Cosp city’s vast labyrinthine mass. At last the dim-lit tunnel ended in a dark circle ahead, dotted with stars. Merrick turned with a whisper of exultation on his lips, but as he did so a single long, rising, hissing cry trembled up from deep in the city’s mass behind them, taken up and repeated by dozens of similar voices instantly.
“Jhalan!” cried Jurul. “He’s come to and given the alarm! I knew it was wrong to let him live!”
“We can still make it if Holk is watching!” Merrick cried, all effort at stealth gone now as the city woke around them. They raced up toward the star-dotted mouth of the tunnel.
“Cosps ahead, O Chan!” Narna cried suddenly, but Merrick had seen the dark spider-shapes appearing in the opening ahead.
As one he and Jurul aimed their light-guns in racing forward, and as the shining charges flicked and flashed from them the Cosps ahead reeled back and down in scorched heaps. In all the tunnels behind and around them, though, Cosps were crying to each other, searching through the ways toward them as up from beneath poured pursuing guards. They burst out of the tunnel’s mouth onto the black metal plain and Jurul’s light-gun shot its charges rocket-like up through the night in shining signal. From the wall ahead and from the city’s mass behind Cosps were pouring, poison-sprays in their grasp.
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