The Fire People

by Ray Cummings

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  REVOLUTION.

  There seemed to be five of our captors, all of them as evil-looking men asI think I have ever seen. They rummaged about the room, evidently insearch for weapons they thought I might have secreted. Then they orderedme to stand up, and without more ado led Miela and me from the house.

  This was once when I was glad of the interminable daylight. I hoped wemight find some early risers about the streets, for I thought certainlythe time of sleep must now be nearly over. But no one was in sight as weleft the garden. We turned the first corner and headed toward the base ofthe mountain.

  "To Baar's house they are taking us, I think. It is on the marshlandbelow." Miela spoke without fear of our captors understanding the Englishwords. We took advantage of this until after a moment we were roughlyordered to be quiet.

  Lua, we thought, must have been taken away before we arrived; we wouldfind her at Baar's house when we arrived there. We had come down to thelevel marshlands now, the outskirts of the city, and were passing along apath between occasional shacks. Before us, standing alone in a rice paddy,I saw a larger, more pretentious house--a wooden structure on stilts, witha thatched roof, which Miela said was where Baar lived.

  We went in single file up its board incline, and entered a squalid roomwith matting on the floor, a rude charcoal brazier at one side, and theremains of a previous meal lying on a table.

  Two women were in the room as we entered. I took these to be Baar's wifeand a servant. Two naked little children lay on the floor, one of themcrying lustily.

  Baar glanced around as he came in, and with what I took to be an oathordered the children removed from the room. The slave woman--I could seeshe was a slave by the band upon her arm--picked them up. Evidently shedid not move fast enough to suit Baar's temper, for as she straightened upthe man cuffed her upon the head. She stumbled to one side against Baar'swife, who was standing there, and the other woman, with a sharpimprecation, struck her full in the breast.

  Neither of them saw the look she gave as she shuffled away, carrying theinfants; but I did. It was a look of the most intense hatred, born andnourished, I realized, by long ill-treatment.

  Miela and I were now bound securely hand and foot, and Miela's wings werelashed to her body. Thus rendered entirely helpless, we were laid togetherin a corner.

  From the talk that followed Miela gathered that Baar and his men wereexpecting the arrival of others. He roughly ordered his wife--a woman ofthe Twilight Country, obviously--to clear away the remains of their lastmeal and bring other food. She obeyed submissively.

  This, the first of the Twilight Country People I had seen, was a thick-setwoman of perhaps thirty-five, although she might have been older, for herblack hair, which fell in an unkempt mass to her waist, was beginning togray. She wore a single garment, a pair of silken trousers, drab withdirt. Her clipped wings were covered in the usual way.

  I could see now why Miela had said these Twilight women could not fly, forthis woman's torso was fat and flabby. Her skin was curiously pale--adead, unpleasant white. Her face was broad, heavy and unintelligent. Hereyes were large and protruded slightly.

  Baar and his men ate breakfast, paying no further attention to Miela andme. Suddenly Miela spoke in a frightened whisper. "They are going now in amoment to the castle. The king they will kill!"

  It was evidently a widespread plot we now overheard. Baar's followers hadfor some time been talking quietly with the lower classes, and, findingthey could count on their support, planned now to murder the king. Thenwith the queen and the little prince held as hostages, they expected thatthe men of science, threatened also with a revolt of the peons, wouldrelease the light-ray.

  The light-ray once in his control, Baar could make himself king. It seemedan absurd hope, but such was the plan they were now discussing. And whatwas far worse, I could see no way by which I could prevent the attempt.

  "They are going to the castle--now--to murder the king?" I whispered,incredulous.

  "Yes," Miela answered. "So they plan. Now--in a moment--before the time ofsleep is over."

  "Isn't he guarded? Can they get in the castle without arousing others?"

  "There are the guards--a few. But Baar has promised them great wealth, andthey will stand aside and let him pass. So it is arranged."

  The arrival of several other men interrupted our whispered conversation.Baar, his meal over, consulted with them hurriedly. He then instructed hiswife to watch us, and after a moment they all left the house.

  The woman, who was now the only occupant of the room with us, shuffledabout, clearing away the meal. I tried desperately to work my hands loose;I even tried with my teeth to gnaw Miela's bonds, but without success.Every moment counted, if we were to do anything to save the king. Iwondered again where Lua was--perhaps in another part of the house here,bound as we were.

  "Miela," I whispered, "ask for food. Tell her we have had nothing for manyhours. Perhaps she will loosen our bonds a little to let us eat. We may beable to do something then."

  The woman answered Miela's pleading by setting us up side by side, withour backs against the wall. She placed food before us, and then, with aknife, cut the cords that bound our arms.

  My heart leaped exultantly; but, instead of leaving us and going on withher work, she sat down just out of reach, holding the knife in her handand watching us narrowly.

  "We must eat, Miela," I said, using as casual a tone as I could andpointing to the food smilingly. "Eat, and pretend not to notice her.Perhaps I can get to my feet."

  We ate the food she had given us. I tensed the muscles of my legs, andbelieved that, bound as I was, I might be able to leap forward and reachthe woman. It was almost hopeless to attempt it, for I realized she wouldmeet my body with the dagger point.

  We were still eating, and I was thinking over this plan, when the slavewoman appeared silently in a doorway across the room, behind the woman whofaced us. Something in her attitude made me look away again casually andgo on with my eating.

  Miela had evidently not noticed her.

  The slave woman came slowly toward us. A moment later she hurled herselfupon Baar's wife from behind. At the same instant I threw myself forward,falling prone, but within reach of the seated woman. I gripped her with myhands, fumbling to catch her wrists, but before I could succeed shetoppled forward and fell partly over me.

  I heard Miela give a cry of fright. I struggled free and raised myself upto a half-sitting position. Baar's wife lay beside me dead, with the slavewoman's knife buried to the hilt in her back.

  Reaching over, I took the knife from the dead woman's fingers, and with itcut the cords that bound my ankles. I sprang to my feet. The slave hadretreated and stood shrinking against the side of the room, terrified atwhat she had done. I paid no more attention to her for the moment, buthastened to release Miela.

  We searched the house hurriedly, calling to Lua; but she did not answer,nor could we find her. When we returned the slave woman was still standingwhere we had left her, staring with horrified eyes at the body of hermistress.

  "Tell her what she did was right," I said. "She may have saved the king.Tell her to go to your house and wait for us."

  The woman nodded eagerly when Miela told her what to do, and fell on herknees before us.

  "She says she will serve us always. She has been very badly treated,Alan."

  We sent the woman away, and with a last hasty glance around hurriedly leftthe house alone with its single dead occupant. A large wooden mortar andpestle, used for pounding rice, stood in the kitchen. I carried the pestleaway with me; it was nearly five feet long and quite heavy--an excellentweapon.

  We hastened up through the city--Miela half walking, half flying, and Icarrying this bludgeon and running with twelve-foot strides. But it wasnow hardly more than three-quarters of an hour since we had passed thisway before, and there were still few people about to see us. Baar and hismen had started some twenty minutes before us, I figured, and we mustreach the
castle before them.

  I made extraordinary progress over the level country. But I could not runuphill for long, and soon had to slow down to a walk. Miela kept closer tome now. We approached the castle grounds.

  "Where will the guards be, Miela? We must avoid them if we can. They mighttry to stop us."

  Miela did not know where they would be; but under the circumstances, asBaar had told his men, she believed the guards would disappear from thevicinity. This conjecture proved to be correct. The guards, not wishing tobe concerned in the affair at all, had simply disappeared. We saw nothingof Baar and his men on the way up the mountain, although I had hoped wemight overtake them.

  As we passed hurriedly through the palm gardens surrounding the castle Isaw its huge front doors were closed.

  "Miela, we can't get in that way. A side entrance--or some other way--"

  "I know," she said. "There is a smaller door below, and others on theside."

  We hastened on. Suddenly I gripped Miela by the arm.

  "What's that--over there--see, beyond the grove?"

  There seemed to be furtive figures lurking among the palms.

  "Those cannot be Baar's men, Miela--there are too many. What can it--"

  We had reached a little doorway under the front terrace. There was no timeto investigate these advancing figures. Baar and his men might already beinside the castle.

  I slid through the doorway, every muscle tense. Miela had brought theknife from Baar's shack, and with it clenched in her hand was close besideme. I wanted to make her stay outside, where she could fly away if dangerthreatened, but she pleaded to follow me, and I let her come. I neededher, since I had no idea of the interior arrangements of the building.

  We passed along a dim hallway and up a narrow flight of stone steps. Not asound came to us; the interior of the castle was silent as a tomb. At thetop of the steps we came almost directly into the inner patio of thebuilding. Across a bed of tall flowers, nodding gently in a little morningbreeze that swept down from above, I saw the head and shoulders of a manstanding in the center of the courtyard; the lower part of his body washidden by the flowers. I tried to duck out of sight, but he had seen me.

  He was not over forty feet away. I stepped back, believing I could reachhim in a single leap; but Miela held me.

  "Not you, Alan. He would cry out. The noise would bring others." Sheraised her knife, and her eyes blazed into mine. "Never have I thought tokill a human. But now I--a woman--must kill. Stand quiet, Alan."

  She flew swiftly up and poised over the man. He had started toward us.Evidently he was, so far, as anxious for silence as we, for he made nosound. I saw now he was one of those who had come to Baar's shack. Hisnaked shoulders, his thick neck, and bullet head were all that showedabove the flower stems as he plowed his way through them directly towardme; but the hand he swung aloft to aid his progress held a knife.

  He glanced up at Miela, poised in the air above him, and saw the weapon inher hand. At this new enemy he stopped, confused.

  Miela swooped down at him, and he struck at her with his knife; but sheavoided it with an incredibly swift turn, and a second later had passedhim and was crossing the courtyard.

  Round and round she flew, her great wings flapping audibly, a giant birdcircling its prey. The man turned continually to face her. Several timesshe swooped toward him, and as swiftly avoided his blow. From every sideshe threatened. The man stood now bewildered, striking wild in a frenzy,as one strikes at a darting wasp. At last, with an agonized cry, he turnedand ran. Instantly she dropped upon him; there was a flash of her whitearm; the man's body crumpled and lay still among the flowers.

  Miela was back beside me. Her breast was heaving; her eyes were full oftears; she trembled.

  "A terrible thing, Alan, my husband, for a woman to do; but it had to be."

  I pressed her hand with silent understanding.

  "Come, Alan," she said. "They will have heard his cry. The others--we mustmeet them, too."

  "We must get to the king. I--"

  A vibrant scream rang out from the silence of the house--a man's voice,shrill with agony--then suddenly stilled.

  "Good God, Miela! The king--where is he? Take me there."

  She pulled me back through the doorway. A man scurried past. I leaped athim and struck him a glancing blow with the heavy wooden pestle. Hestumbled to his knees. Without thought of giving quarter, I hit him againbefore he could rise. He sank back, senseless or dead.

  Miela was ahead of me, and I ran after her along a hallway. The sound ofscurrying footsteps sounded from overhead; a woman screamed.

  A broad, curving stairway fronted us. I passed Miela halfway up, and,reaching the top, ran full into another man who darted from a doorwayclose by. The impact of my heavier body flung him backward to the floor. Ileaped over him with a shout of warning to Miela, and ran on into theroom.

  A man was standing stock still in its center. It was Baar. He flung hisknife at me as I appeared, but it went wild. Two other men were comingtoward me from opposite sides of the room. I swung the bludgeon about meviciously, keeping them away. Suddenly Baar shouted a command, and beforeI could reach any one of them they had scurried away like rats.

  A low bed with a huge canopy of silk stood against the wall. A woman knelton the floor beside it, and against her knees huddled a little half-grownboy.

  I heard Miela's voice shouting in her own language. The sound of menrunning came from below. Then Miela's half-hysterical laughter, and thenthe words: "They are running away, Alan--all of them. I have been callingyou to bring me the light-ray. And they are running away."

  I turned to the bed, pushing its curtains aside, and then hurriedlyclosing them again with a shudder.

  Miela was beside me.

  "The king is dead, Miela. No--you must not look."

  Her eyes widened; her hand went to her breast.

  "There is one who needs you." I pointed to the woman on the floor.

  She was staring at us, unseeing, one arm flung about the childprotectingly, holding him partially under one of her long, sleek redwings. The fingers of her other hand clutched convulsively at the bedcoverings; she was moaning softly with a grief and terror all the moreintense because it was restrained.

  "There is one who needs you, Miela," I repeated. "Comfort her--for we havecome too late."

  The castle now was in thorough confusion. Several waiting maids rushedinto the room, stared at their mistress and the little prince, and, seeingwhat had happened, stood silently wringing their hands in fright, or fledaimlessly through the halls. One of the king's councilors had come in,stopping, bewildered, at the scene that met him.

  "Tell him what has occurred, Miela," I said.

  There came now faintly to my ears from outside the castle sounds of agathering crowd--murmurs and vague muffled shouts. The cries grew louder.A rain of missiles struck the castle; a stone came through a near-bywindow, falling almost at my feet. All at once I remembered the lurkingfigures we had seen among the palms in the garden.

  "Miela!" I cried. "Hear that, outside! A crowd is gathering. The men wesaw--out there! People whom Baar has--Miela, ask him, for God's sake, totell us how we can get weapons. Where are the other councilors? Send forthem. We must do something--now, at once. This is revolution, Miela--don'tyou understand? Revolution!"

  I felt so impotent. Here in this crisis I could talk to no one butMiela--could issue no direct commands--could understand the words of noone but her.

  Suddenly, from over our heads, a great, solemn deep-throated bell begantolling.

  "What is that? What does that mean?"

  A girl rushed into the room.

  "It is the bell of danger," said Miela quickly. "The girls are ringing itto arouse the city. Up here then will the people hurry to find out what itis that threatens."

  "They're outside now," I retorted. "Order all the king's councilors hereat once. Find out if any guards are about the place. Send them here. Whereis the head of the city's police? Send him here
to me! Tell him to callout all his men."

  What was I saying? I had forgotten the one vital thing!

  "Miela! The light-ray! These men of science who guard it, where are they?Send for their leader. Get him here to me at once--we must have the ray!"

  Miela stood very quietly beside me. Her face was white; her eyes blazed,but she seemed calm and unfrightened.

  "He will come," she said, "and armed with the ray. The bell will bringhim. Your other commands I will see are obeyed."

  The old councilor, who had been standing by, dazed, came slowly forward atMiela's call. The king's councilor! And all the others were like him. Theking was dead, and here was the little prince huddled in his mother's arm!Realization had been slow in coming, but now it broke upon me like a greatlight.

  I flung the bludgeon away from me, and stood erect.

  "Miela," I cried, "tell him--tell them all--their king is dead. It is _I_who command now. There is no one else--and I have the power. Tell themthat. It is I, the man from earth, who commands!"