2 - Blades of Mars (17 page)

 
          
 
'Yes. Who are you?'

 
          
 
I snatched off the mask. She gasped. Several
emotions flashed across her face and, strangely, not one of them was the hatred
she had exhibited earlier.

 
          
 
'
Your
Nemesis,
perhaps,' I said.

 
          
 
'Michael Kane! Are you here alone?'

 
          
 
'More or less,' I said. 'I have come to kidnap
you!'

 
          
 
'Why?'

 
          
 
'Why do you think?'

 
          
 
She literally did not seem to know. She put
her head to one side and looked into my face, searching for some sign -1 knew
not what.

 
          
 
Regarding her, I found myself unable to
believe that this girl-like person sitting on the throne could be capable of
such hatred that it could bring down whole nations. Already she had been
responsible for using the Argzoon to weaken the power of half-a-dozen Southern
nations - and destroyed the Argzoon nation in the process. Now Kamala and
Mishim Tep faced one another in warfare and she sat with innocent eyes
quizzically staring into my face.

 
          
 
'Kidnap me . . . !' She seemed to find the
idea almost attractive. 'Interesting...'

 
          
 
'Come,' I said brusquely.

 
          
 
Her eyes widened and I averted my own from
looking at them directly. I knew her powers of hypnotism already.

 
          
 
'I would still know why, Michael Kane.'

 
          
 
I hardly knew what to say. I had expected many
things from her but not this near-passive mood. 'To have you testify that you
lied to the Bradhi about his son, about

 
          
 
Shizala, about me - and so stop the war before
it
is
too late.'

 
          
 
‘And what will you do for me if I do this for
you?’ She was almost purring now and her eyes had become hooded,

 
          
 
'What do you mean? Do you want to make some
kind of bargain?'

 
          
 
'Perhaps,'

 
          
 
'What bargain?’

 
          
 
'You should know, Michael Kane. You might
almost say that it was because of you and for you that I created this
situation.'

 
          
 
I still did not understand.

 
          
 
'What do you propose?' I asked. It would be a
relief if this was all she wanted.

 
          
 
'If I tell the Bradhi I lied, I want -you,'
she said, flinging her arms towards me.

 
          
 
I was shocked. I could not answer.

 
          
 
'I am leaving here soon,' she said. 'I need do
no more than what I have done. You could come with me - there would be nothing you
would want for if you did.'

 
          
 
Playing for time, I said: 'Where would we go?'

 
          
 
'To the west - there are lands in the west
which are warm and dark and mysterious.
Lands where strange
secrets may be found - secrets that will bring us great power, you and I.
We could rule the world!'

 
          
 
'Your ambition exceeds mine, I am afraid,' I
said, 'Besides, I have had some experience of the Western continent and would
not return there again willingly.'

 
          
 
'You have been there!' Her eyes lighted and
she stood up, stepping off the dais to stand close to me and look up into my
face.

 
          
 
I was still at a loss for something to do or
say, I had expected a screaming mass of hatred - but found her in this weird
mood. She was too subtle, perhaps for me.

 
          
 
'You have been in the west,' she went on.
'What did you see?'

 
          
 
'Thing I would not wish to see again,’ I said.
Now I was involuntarily looking into her eyes. They drew all my attention. I
felt my heart beating strongly and she pressed her body against mine. I could
not move,
A
voluptuous smile played about her lips and
she began to stroke my arm. I felt dizzy, unreal, and I heard her voice coming
to me as if from a distance.

 
          
 
'I swear,' she was saying, ‘
That
I will adhere to my side of the bargain if you will adhere to yours. Be mine,
Michael Kane. Your origins are as mysterious as the origins of the gods.
Perhaps you are a god - a young god. Perhaps you can give me power, not I you.'

 
          
 
I was sinking deeper and deeper into those
eyes. There was nothing else. My flesh felt like water. I could hardly stand.
She reached up and began to run her fingers through my hair.

 
          
 
I swayed and stumbled backwards and the
movement helped me break her spell. With an oath, I pushed her away, shouting:

 
          
 
'No!'

 
          
 
Her face changed then, contorted with hatred.

 
          
 
'Very well - let it stand,' she said. 'I will
enjoy putting you to death myself before I leave.
Guards!'

 
          
 
A single guard entered.

 
          
 
I drew my sword, cursing myself for a fool. I
had let Horguhl beguile me as she had beguiled the Bradhi! Her powers had even
increased since the last time I had encountered her. If they increased any
more, heaven only knew what would happen. She had to be stopped by some means -
any means!

 
          
 
The guard swung his sword at me and I parried
it easily. I do not boast when I say I am a master swordsman and easily the
match for an ordinary palace guard. I could have finished him speedily but I
was still wishing not to have to kill. I tried the trick of flicking his sword
from his hand, but he held on to his blade too tightly.

 
          
 
While I was wasting time trying to disarm him,
several more guards rushed in.

 
          
 
Horguhl was at my back as I defended myself
now against six swords - and I still fought an entirely defensive action since
I was anxious not to kill.

 
          
 
It was my undoing, for while I engaged the
guards Horguhl had come up behind me with some heavy object - I never knew what
it was - and struck me a glancing blow on the head.

 
          
 
I fell backwards.

 
          
 
My last memory was of cursing myself roundly
again for the fool I was.

 
          
 
Now everything seemed lost!

The Minor

 
          
 
I AWOKE in a dank cell that was plainly
somewhere underground. It was not primarily a prison cell - the Bradhis of the
South are not like the old mediaeval robber barons of Earth - but had probably
been used for storage purposes. The door was strong, however, and no matter how
I tried to shift it I could not. It was barred on the outside.

 
          
 
My weapons had been taken away from me.

 
          
 
I wondered what fate Horguhl planned for me.
In refusing her proposals of love I had redoubled her hatred for me. I
shuddered. Knowing what sort of thoughts her mind could turn to, I did not
enjoy thinking of the prospect of torture at her hands.

 
          
 
There was a small chink in the door through which
I could see the bar. If I had had a knife I could have lifted the bar, I was
sure - but I had no knife.

 
          
 
I began to feel my way around the cell. There
were bits of refuse here and there - crates of vegetables seemed to have been
stored in the cell.

 
          
 
My hand touched a wooden slat and then passed
on -until I realised what the slat might promise. I picked it up and took it
back to the door, but it was too thick to pass through the chink.

 
          
 
The wood was not hardwood but quite soft. This
gave me an idea. Carefully, with my thumbnail I began to try to split it
sideways.

 
          
 
Little by little I worked at the slat until I
succeeded. Then I returned to the door and the tantalising chink and - my piece
of wood went through.

 
          
 
Thanking my stars that the cell had not been
designed with the idea of imprisoning anything more than a few crates of
vegetables, I began to inch the bar upwards, praying the thin slat would not
break.

 
          
 
After some time of this I finally managed to
lift the bar.

 
          
 
It fell with a thud to the floor outside and I
pulled the door open.

 
          
 
The corridor was in darkness. There was
another door at the end of it. I walked up to this door, not expecting danger,
and found myself confronted by a guard who was only just awakening from a doze.
Evidently he had been disturbed by the noise of the bar falling.

 
          
 
He leapt up, but I flung myself at him. We
began to wrestle across the littered floor, but then I got an armlock round his
throat and squeezed the air from him until he passed out. Then I rose, took his
sword and dagger, and continued on my way.

 
          
 
The corridors beyond the first one were a
maze, but at length one widened out into a rather impressive corridor, high and
roomy, leading towards a pair of heavy doors which seemed to be of solid bronze
or some similar metal.

 
          
 
Perhaps these led to the stairs up to the main
palace. I thought hopefully.

 
          
 
I opened the doors - and was confronted by one
of the strangest sights of my life.

 
          
 
It was the treasure house of Mishim Tep, a
huge vault with a low roof. In it were stacked works of the finest
craftsmanship - indeed, artistry would be a better word. There were jewelled
swords and chalices, chairs and great tables, pictures made of precious stones
that seemed to give out their own light
All
were dusty
and piled at random. Careless of their treasures, the Bradhis of Mishim Tep had
stored them in darkness and ail-but forgotten about them!

 
          
 
I gasped at the wonder of it and could only
stand there
staring
.

 
          
 
Then I saw Horguhl. She was absorbed with something,
her back towards me. Even as I walked through the heaps of art treasures she
did not seem to notice me. I took my dagger out and reversed it, planning to
knock her on the head.

 
          
 
Then my foot slipped on a jewelled mosaic and
I stumbled against one of the piles with a crash. It fell - and I fell with it

 
          
 
From the comer of my eye I saw Horguhl turn
and snatch up one of the swords.

 
          
 
I tried to rise, but my feet slipped again.
She raised the sword and was about to bring it down into my heart when she
suddenly stood transfixed.

 
          
 
Her mouth gaped open. She was not paralysed -
not in the way I had been when injected with the poison of the spider-men - but
her muscles became slack and the sword dropped from her nerveless fingers.

 
          
 
I turned my head, wondering what she had seen,
but a shout sounded suddenly:

 
          
 
‘Do not move!'

 
          
 
I recognised the voice. It was Toxo's. I
obeyed his urgent order.

 
          
 
A little later the voice came again. 'Stand
up, Michael Kane, but do not look back.'

 
          
 
I did as he said.

 
          
 
Horguhl still stood transfixed.

 
          
 
'Move to one side.'

 
          
 
I did so.

 
          
 
A little later I saw the bird-mask and the
bright little eyes gleaming behind it.

 
          
 
'I found the treasure vaults.' Toxo patted a
large sack he carried over his shoulder. 'But this young woman disturbed me.
Evidently she was engaged in a similar project.'

 
          
 
'So this is what she planned,' I said. 'She
told me that if I went with her we should want for nothing. She was not only
scheming to bring catastrophe to Mishim Tep and Kamala, but to escape with the
treasures as well. But what did you do to her?'

 
          
 
'I?
Nothing.
I was
trying to come to your aid when I, too, slipped and grabbed at the nearest
support. I seized some fabric - it must have been very old - and it ripped in
my hand. I exposed some kind of mirror. I was just going to look and see what I
had done when I noted the effect that mirror had on the young woman, so I
thought it wise not to look after all. Then I shouted a warning to you.'

 
          
 
'The mirror!'
I
gasped. 'I have heard about it - an invention of the Sheev. Somehow it
manipulates light so that whoever looks into it is mesmerised. More than that,
it will destroy their will so that any question asked of them will bring forth
the truth.'

 
          
 
This gave Toxo the opportunity to repeat his
favourite rhetorical question: 'Ah, but what is truth? Do you think the mirror
can really do all that?'

 
          
 
'Let us try,' I said. 'Horguhl - did you lie
to the Bradhi of Mishim Tep about Michael Kane, Shizala and the rest?'

 
          
 
The voice that answered was weak but the word
was clear enough.

 
          
 
'Yes.'

 
          
 
I was jubilant. A scheme was forming in my
mind
Keeping
our backs to the mirror and our faces
towards Horguhl, Toxo and I bound the girl, gagged her and - as a- precaution
against her own hypnotic powers - blindfolded her. The moment her eyes were
covered she began to struggle - but she was far too securely bound for her
struggling to get her free!

 
          
 
For good measure I wrapped her in my cloak,

 
          
 
‘We shall need your cloak too, Toxo,' I said.
We made a wide detour through the heaped gems until we were behind the mirror.
Like all the treasures of Mishim Tep this, too, had been forgotten. How many
centuries had this subtle invention lain gathering dust?
Many,
by the feel of the rotten fabric.

 
          
 
We draped Toxo's cloak over the mirror and
wrapped it up. It was about a foot in diameter and was set with only a few
gems. It was circular in shape and very heavy, with a handle like that of a
shield. Perhaps it had been used as a weapon by the Sheev, but I thought not.
Probably, if it had been used in war at all, it had been designed as a method
for getting information from prisoners.

 
          
 
Somehow we managed to get both girl and mirror
- and also Toxo's loot - out of the chamber and make our way to the roof
without being seen.

 
          
 
The guard was still patrolling - or if it was
not the same guard it was one very like him. We tapped him on the head - we had
no time for caution - and left him dreaming on the roof as we used the rope to
lower our bundles to the street.

 
          
 
Once in the street we sneaked along, pausing
every so often to rest.

 
          
 
I was praying that, having so far succeeded,
we should not now be caught. Everything depended on me reaching the airship. I
told Toxo of this and he was interested.

 
          
 
'We shall need mounts to reach it,' he said as
we came to the House of the Blue Dagger - which was at sleep, 255 thankfully.
We took our prizes to our room and Toxo left He was away for half-an-hour and
when he returned his eyes were gleaming with pleasure.

 
          
 
From somewhere he had stolen a carriage - a
fast one, by the look of it - to which was harnessed a team of six daharas.

 
          
 
Toxo bundled Horguhl and me, together with his
loot, into the back, covered us with a blanket, drew a hood over his face and
whipped up the daharas.

 
          
 
I remember only being jolted along at an
almost incredible speed. I remember an angry shout - from the guard at the
gate, Toxo told me later - and then we were bumping over open countryside.

 
          
 
It was morning when I poked my head out from
under die blanket.
Somehow, in spite of the jolting.
I
had fallen asleep. Toxo was nudging me.

 
          
 
‘You must guide me now,’ he said.

 
          
 
I guided him willingly to where I had hidden
the airship. We drew aside the brush and there she was, unharmed We began to
load everything into the cabin, Toxo telling me that he would like to be
dropped on the borders of the Crimson Plain near the robber city of Narlet - a
city I knew well, a place of thieves and brigands where Toxo doubtless felt at
home.

 
          
 
I agreed, since this was on my way. I was
hoping to reach the two armies before they became engaged in conflict.

 
          
 
We were soon in the air and I stopped only
once to allow Toxo to disembark with his sack of treasure, waved my thanks to
the masked thief and then was rising again.

 
          
 
A few groans from Horguhl did nothing but
assure me that she still lived - which was all I wanted to know at that stage.