Tama Princes of Mercury Read online

  I had thought that the battle was bursting around us; but almost at once I saw that it was not. Rowena and I stood at the small window oval. She had loosened the ropes which hampered her. But Dorrek had not noticed or had not cared.

  Muta came like a shadow and stood behind us. The ball had been resting within a hundred feet of the valley's precipitous wall. Our window had faced that way; and all the main encampment was behind us, out in the open valley. As we lifted now, we had a wider vista. The ball sailed outward from the cliff, then backed into the center of the valley some three miles from the nearest cliff and came to rest again on the rocks.

  We were now in the center of the encampment. I saw its turmoil of alarm. Men were dragging projectors with cables slithering after them like giant snakes. Brues were being harnessed to small carts loaded with storage batteries.

  Mound-shaped tents were set up in straggling array on the rocky floor, and illumined by tiny lights, strung from metal poles. And houses which had been built of gathered loose stones crudely piled in tiers, with skins and fabric cloth stretched for a roof, dotted the valley floor.

  Many of the giant projectors were ready. Dorrek had at least half expected this alarm. Within ten minutes after he had sighted the Cube, his great circular barrage was springing up around him. The flare of their upstanding beams, the hiss of them, was what I had mistaken for an attack.

  The camp occupied a mile-wide circle, and within half an hour the barrage was complete around it. From our secondtier window we presently saw: tiny distant lights which marked the coming of Grenfell's force.

  Dorrek's barrage was constantly being strengthenedreserve protectors dragged to the circular line, reserve batteries for renewal. There seemed hordes of fur-clad men. Hand weapons were being distributed. A hundred brues went past, lashed by their drivers, slithering off toward a section of the barrage. Still no attack came from Grenfell.

  Here in the ball I stood alert, waiting for an opportunity to get away with Rowena. But always there seemed too many men moving around this upper tier and the incline.

  But once out into the confusion of the camp, clad like these other furred men, our chances might be better now than before.

  "Soon, Rowena," I whispered. "If this upper corridor is cleared, even for a moment" Muta held stolidly to her decision to help us.

  "I watch at the door." She stood there, motionless.

  At last she signaled, "Now!" But a dozen men came trampling up from below, rummaging in the room adjoining us. I saw the flare and heard the scream of Grenfell's test shot, and then the bursting of a bomb overhead. The conflict was beginning. We must escape, now if ever.

  There seemed renewed activity in a distant section of the camp. Men marching in that direction. Groups of the giant insectsand all the reserve projectors, and mechanisms for the launching of rockets and bombswere being taken now to one segment of the barrage line. Was Dorrek preparing an offensive move off there? It seemed so.

  The little upper corridor was momentarily vacant. I joined Muta.

  "We will try it now?" She nodded. "Yes. I go down." There were only two guards at the foot of the incline. Muta started down to them. I hastened back to Rowena.

  "The robeshurry, dear." We donned the robes, pulled the hoods over our heads, close against our faces. Our stature, if closely remarked, was a danger. Rowena was taller than most of these men.

  And I had no counterpart save Dorrek.

  We crept to the ladder. Muta had drawn the guards aside.

  My heart was pounding with the sudden fear that now, at the last, the inscrutable Mercurian woman would betray us. But she did not. She was talking with low, passionate words to the two guards. What she said, we never knew.

  They saw us, perhaps, as we slipped past but she held their attention.

  We reached the lower doorway. Men were nearby, working at some apparatus. We walked, stooping. The doorway was open.

  A six-foot ladder descended into the dim activity of the camp. I was upon it, with Rowena behind me. The dark forms of men were outside. They would see us; but men had been passing in and out of the vehicle constantlyin our brown fur robes we would not attract particular notice.

  A cylinder weapon was in my hand. But I realized that a shot would bring the camp upon us. I stuffed the cylinder back into the pocket of the robe and unclasped a long knife blade.

  "Jack! Hurryl Someone's coming behind us!" I had paused in the doorway, making sure of what was below. I tensed to jump down, but the dark moving form of a brue was disclosed. I could not chance passing near it, to have it sense me as an enemy.

  "Rowenathis wayl" I pushed her back through the doorway. The room inside was dim. Footsteps were upon us I We shrank against the wall, but we could be seen.

  "Stoop down low," I whispered.

  A pile of apparatus lay by the doorway. We bent over it, pretending to be working. The voices of men in the adjoining room were audible.

  "Jackcan't we get out?" Rowena whispered.

  "A brue outside. I didn't darejust a minute!"

  "Someone is comingi" I saw Rowena's white hand, and gripped it. I felt then, with horrible premonition, that in another moment we would be challenged. We could not answerneither of us could speak Mercurian. For a brief instant I held Rowena's hand.

  With freedom abead of us, all my thoughts had gone to the future. The worldour blessed Earthso wonderful a place, with Rowena. Was this to be the end of our life together, trapped here in this dark room, in the depths of the mountains of a strange planet? The footsteps were upon us. The brue had stopped almost at the foot of the entrance ladder.

  "Rowenaleap over iti We'll have to chance it!" Run openly, with our great Earth strides through the camp? Or stay here ten seconds longer and be discovered.

  It flashed upon me that the choice I must make held all the difference between life and death.

  I suddenly drew Rowena back from the doorway.

  What destiny held me? In that second of decision, what benign fate made me choose rightly? What vagary of that mysterious thing we call the mind guided my uncertain muscles? Life is a queer business) The brue reared itself on the ladder. Half a dozen men appeared behind the startled giant insect. It sensed us, no doubt. The men lashed at it; one jabbed with a pronged pole, and sullenly it slithered back to the ground, and the men drove it away.

  In the room, the approaching footsteps brought a heavy shape directly toward us. It was Mutal She touched me. "You go now! I want never see you again!" I could well subscribe to that. Rowena bent down.

  "Muta," she whispered, "thank you for this. I wish you happiness." No one was near the ladder. We descended it. I caught a glimpse of the face of the Cold Country woman as she stood watching us go.

  We moved slowly into the dim activity of the camp. I had carefully decided which way to head. We half circled the outside of the vehicle, threaded our way between two dark tent shelters and made off over the rocks toward the distant barrage line.

  "Carefully, Rowena." I walked beside her, whispering.

  "Hold your balance." For the slight gravity and our tense impatience made it difficult to keep from running. "If were challenged, stand perfectly still. I'll do what I can." The barrage line seemed horribly far ahead of us across a dark, rocky expanse. But this was the least occupied, least active section of the encampment. All the movement was the other way.

  Soon we were past the thickest cluster of the tents. We.

  came to an almost unoccupied spread of boulder-strewn floor.

  "Now, faster!" We took longer, freer steps. Soon we were running, pausing momentarily to look around. A line of brues showed in advance of us. We waited to let it go by. Overhead the storm was bursting into greater violence. Whirlpools of a crazy wind plucked at vs. And the rain was beginning.

  The barrage line came nearer. I headed toward the space between two of the giant projectors. The attendants at them showed clearly, dark shapes of three or four men at each.

  "Jack, look!" Behind us, fa
r across the camp, the opposite segment of the barrage was moving outward. Dorrek was beginning an offensive. We saw the gas bomb mount and break upon the clifftop. A shot from the Cube came screaming down and burst against the barrage. Girls over the cliffs were dropping bombs to neutralize and dissipate the gas fumes.

  We ran. A man driving a brue crossed in front of us.

  We waited, crouching in the crevice of an overhanging rock. Started again. We were not far from the barrage line soon we would have the two projectors behind us. The rocky surface here was broken with numerous little gullies and hollows. We jumped most of them, sailing in huge fantastic leaps.

  "Waiti" I drew Rowena down barely in time to avoid discovery.

  Four men passed close to us. Again we started. A small hollow lay immediately before us. And as we approached, a black figure rose from it. He saw usi It was too late to drop out of sight. I expected a shot. With a leap I was over the brink of the little pit.

  The black figure struck at me with a knife, but I avoided the blow and saw a white face.

  "Jimmy!" He was lying here with his broken leg, trying desperately to crawl across the enemy camp to rescue us. There was moisture in Rowena's eyes, a catch in her voice as she joined us in the pit. We rested a moment, whispered to each other.

  We were triumphant. We would soon be out of this. Tama was nearby, with a flying platform.

  "All right, now," Jimmy murmured. "How glad I am you're not in the sphere! It's been holding up this fight." He was trembling with eagerness and triumph. "Fearful handicap for Grenfellcome onwe've got to get outget back to Grenfell. Things are starting off there already." We crawled forward, but we did not get far. The camp, in advance of us and to the sides, burst into a sudden chaos.

  Bombs were dropping from overhead. One of them exploded within the camp. Outside the barrage, girls were attacking.

  "Heckl" muttered Jimmy. "We can't get out now." I gathered him in my arms. He was incredibly light, as though I were holding a child. I ran. With Rowena beside me.

  But it was useless. A light flare came down from overhead and struck the ground near us. For a second Or two the rocks were painted white with the dazzling glare. I stumbled and fell. Jimmy kept his wits; he reached and drew Rowena down with us.

  We lay in a cluster of boulders against which we huddled for shelter. And over us, with amazing suddenness, the battle raged in full fury.

  We were trapped. The storm and the conflict were both at their height. How long we three lay there I have no idea. I could not guess the progress of the battle; I only knew that every moment a more lurid inferno showed around us.

  Rowena suddenly whispered, "Where is Jimmy?" I realized that she and I were alonel Jimmy had crawled away from us! XVI BATTLE FURY GBEMFELL, during all this time, found himself in an increasing dilemma. He knew that once he ordered these flying virgins to the attack, the conflict would be sharp and brief.

  But Grenfell had no intention of precipitating such a crisis.

  Dorreks forces were bottled; by exhaustion of his food supplies he could be overcome. And there was the question of electronic power. It seemed probable that Dorrek could not maintain this huge barrage for many hours. Inevitably his batteries would be exhausted.

  In a day-cycle Commander Arton would be coming up the canyon with the reinforcements, a thousand young men, upon whom Grenfell preferred the brunt of the conflict to fall. An attack now by the flying girls would be too deadlythe losses too great.

  But Grenfell finally sent the two largest platforms to an altitude of fifteen thousand feet. Each carried a giant projector. The rays spat down, and crossed the barrage curtain with a hissing turmoil of sparks.

  Coming back, one of the platforms abruptly disobeyed orders. Four men manned its long-range ray; thirty girls flew it. Instead of returning to Grenf ell's camp on the cliff,,it droppped low into the valley and hurled itself at one of the base projectors of the barrage. The projector bent its ray down, but missed. The platform went like a speeding projectile, its beam darting before it. Then Dorrek's ray caught it and clung. From the deck of the Cube the shuddering Grenfell saw the bodies of the thirty girls wither and fall.

  For an instant the insulated platform held together. It was, barely a hundred feet from the barrage base. Its ray spluttered and vanished. The platform tilted, and crashed to the rocks, the black figures of its men little falling dots against the barrage light.

  A group of girls made a similar attack. From the darkness of the valley floor they hurled themselves at an opening between the barrage projectors.

  Flying in a group, they skimmed the surface. They safely passed the barrage line, rose inside over the enemy camp.

  For a minute perhaps they dropped their bombs. The flares were visible to Grenfell through the curtain. How many of Dorrek's men and insects were killed was never known.

  The beams from the hand weapons of the girls were flashing down. They flew holding their shields to protect their bodies and wings as well as they could. Mounting, they crossed perhaps a third of the camp, leaving a trail of destruction beneath them. But one by one the enemy rays caught them and brought them down.

  That was enough for Grenfell. Three hundred of the girls were still in the cliff camp near the Cube. He ordered them to keep out of the air, and sent two of the emergency platforms to fly to the lower camp and order the four hundred girls, the projectors and flying platforms there to come up here and join him. Dorrek's activities were at this upper end, and if he tried to escape through the lower canyon he would encounter Arton's army.

  Grenfell sought Tama, but she was missing. He could not locate Jimmy Turk, Guy, Toh, or Roc.

  The storm was increasing in fury. Grenfell moved the Cube forward and began firing directly down. But the shots were always intercepted. The Cube was unwieldy when flying for short distances close to the ground. But twice Grenfell manipulated it around the valley; and once it fired down from four miles overhead.

  He wanted to hit the base projectors, but he could not.

  One or two of the shots entered the camp. This he did not altogether want. It was a horrible handicap, tor Grenfell did not want a shot of his to strike the Mercurian ball in which Rowena and I had been imprisoned.

  Rain was presently falling. The crazy wind had steadied.

  The red lightning flares and thunder cracks were almost continuous. Dorrek's mounting bombs fell upon the cliff. The wind brought the gas fumes. Grenfell closed up the Cube, firing down into the turmoil through its -deck port.

  He ordered the girls farther back and a hundred of them into the air to dissipate the fumes with neutralizing bombs.

  It was then, with Tama and Guy missing, that events got beyond Grenfell's control. Dorrek's barrage advanced again until it reached the base of the cliff. Grenfell thought Dorrek's move was to command the canyonto enable his men to escape back toward the Cold Country. He planned to let them go; the deep, narrow gorge was twenty miles long in this direction; the escaping men and brues could easily be assailed later. Grenfell was watching the silver ball where.

  it still lay in the center of the valley. He was convinced that Dorrek and his leaders were aboard it; if he should ascend to get away, the Cube was ready for the chase.

  But the enemy did not escape. Brues began crawling up the perpendicular cliff in the segment which the barrage now commanded. A hundred of the giant insects were on top of the cliff before Grenfell was aware of it. And to each of them three or four men had clung. They spread out over the upper plateau.

  Lurking men among the rocks, dark, slithering insectsspreading out, advancing upon Grenf ell's camp. The fume bombs and rockets stopped coming. But the insects with their human burden mounted the cliff wall steadily.

  Grenfell ordered his girls and platforms into the air. They flew low, seeking out the crawling enemy. The upper plateau in all that vicinity was dotted with the tiny lights of the girls, flashing down upon the gruesome insects. Brief combatsalways with the brue left writhing in death agony.r />
  Dorrek's men were harder to find. Once upon the clifftop, they had ordered the insects forward, left them, and vanished.

  Presently no more came up. The move puzzled Grenfell.

  Then abruptly they attacked the Cubel Grenfell was standing with his men on D-Face deck. The lower door was open. There was a flurry of girls flying nearby. Grenfell saw, in a red lightning puff, fifty or more furred figures of men running forward among the crags near at hand.

  With short hand rays darting before them, they rushed at the Cube's doorway.

  The infuriated, reckless girls buried themselves down like frenzied birds. Doubtless none of the men would have lived to reach the doorway. But it startled Grenfell, as Dorrek probably intended. The Cube hastily rose; and as it lifted, a projector, of longer range than any of Dorrek's others, shot at it from the barrage line.

  The beam caught the mounting Cube. There was a horrible moment when Grenfell thought that the hull plates would melt. The interior heated, stifling; choking fumes of fusing metal; a rain of smoke and fire and snapping, sizzling sparks outside.

  Then it was over. The Cube's hull, protected to resist the cold of interplanetary space and the friction heat of atmospheric passage, withstood the brief, intense blast. The Cube rose beyond range, and came again into the lurid, storm-filled night.

  Grenfell had flung on all power. He checked it now. Baker. Gibbons and the othersand the Hill City officials who were heregathered in a startled, frightened group on the deck. The Cube seemed not greatly banned, but it had been a close call.

  From a height of some twenty thousand feet Grenfell gazed down and saw that all the girls had flung themselves into the conflict! Darting at the barrage in a score of places, they dropped down into it like plummets.

  Two platforms with men and bombs came from the plateau in a long dive toward a triangular opening between the projectors. Both got through, into the camp, raking it for an instant before they fell in little bursts of flame. Those horrible little bursts of flame I They were everywhere. Tiny puffs. Each of them a human life gone. And the barrage line . held.