Astounding Stories of Super-Science 11

Astounding Stories of Super-Science 11

And then she was up on her bare feet, again circling the stage. Her

anklets clanked as she moved with the tread of a tigress. The musicians

shrank from her waving blade.

 

* * * * *

 

A girl in white veils was suddenly disclosed standing at the back of the

stage.

 

Derek whispered, "Is that Blanca?"

 

"Yes," whispered Hope.

 

Blanca stood watching her rival. The crimson Sensua passed her, took her

suddenly by the wrist, drew her forward. For an instant I thought it

might have been rehearsed. I saw Blanca as a slim, gentle girl in white,

with a white head-dress. A dancer who could symbolize purity, now in the

grip of red passion.

 

An instant, and then horror struck us. And I could feel it surge over

the audience. A gasp of horror. The frightened girl in white tried to

escape. The musicians wavered and broke. I stared, stricken, with

freezing blood. Upon the stage the knife went swiftly up; it came down;

then up again. The read Sensua stood gloating. The knife she waved aloft

was truly dripping crimson now.

 

With a choked, gasping scream the white girl of the toilers crumpled and

fell.... She lay motionless, at the feet of the crimson murderess.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VIII

 

_"Why, This Is Treason!"_

 

 

There was a gasp. The audience sat frozen. On the stage, with no one

lifting a hand to stop her, the crimson murderess made a leap and

vanished. A moment, and then the spell broke. A girl in the audience

screamed. Some one moved to stand up and overturned a seat with a crash.

 

The amphitheater under the canopy broke into a pandemonium. Screams and

shouts, crashing of seats, screaming, frightened people struggling to

get out of the darkness. The torches on the stage were dropped and

extinguished. The darkness leaped upon us.

 

Derek and I were gripping Hope. We were struck by a bench flung backward

from in front. People were rushing at us. We were swept along in the

panic of the crowd.

 

I heard Derek shout, "We must keep together!"

 

We fought, but we were swept backward. We found ourselves outside the

canopy. Torchlight was here. It glimmered on the pool of water. People

were everywhere rushing past us, some one way, some another. Aimless,

with the shock of terror upon them. Under the canopy they were still

screaming.

 

I was momentarily separated from Derek and Hope. I very nearly stumbled

into the pool. A girl was here, crouched on the stone bank. Her wet

crimson veils clung to her white body. Her long, wet hair lay on her. I

stumbled against her. She raised her face. Eyes, wide with terror. Mute,

painted red lips....

 

I heard Derek calling again, "Charlie!" I shoved my way back to him. The

crowd was thinning out around us. Girls were climbing from the pool,

rushing off in terror, to mingle with the milling throng. Among the

crowd now, down by the edge of the bay, I saw the sinister figures of

men come running. The toilers, miraculously appearing everywhere! I saw,

across the pool, a terrified girl crouching. A huge man in a black cloak

came leaping. The colored lights in the trees glittered on his upraised

knife blade as it descended. The girl fell with a shuddering scream. The

murderer turned and whirled away into the crowd.

 

"Charlie!"

 

I was back with Derek and Hope. Hope stood trembling, with her hand

pressed against her mouth. Derek gripped me.

 

"That cloak, get it off!" He ripped his crimson cloak from him and

tossed it away. He jerked mine off. "Too dangerous! That's the crimson

badge of death to-night."

 

We stood revealed in the clothes of our own world. My business suit, in

which that day I had worked in Wall Street. Derek in his swagger

uniform. He stood drawn to his full height, a powerful figure. The wires

of our mechanism showed at his wrists. They dangled at the back of his

neck, mounting to that strangely fashioned electrode clamped to his

head. Strange, awe-inspiring figure of a man!

 

We were momentarily alone under the colored lights of the trees. Hope

murmured, "But they will see us--see you...."

 

Derek's face was grim, but at her words he laughed harshly. "See us!

What matter?" He swung on me. "It forces our hand; we've got to come out

in the open now! This murder--this king! My God, what a fool to let

himself get into such a condition as this! His people--this chaos--what

a fool!"

 

He had drawn his dirk. I realized that I was holding mine. Near us the

body of a crimson noble was lying under a tree. A sword was there on the

ground. Derek sprang for it, waved it aloft.

 

I think that no more than a minute or two had passed since the murder.

Down by the water the boats were hastily loading and leaving the dock.

One of them overturned. There were screams everywhere. Red forms lay

inert upon the ground where they had been trampled, or stabbed. But the

prowling figures of the toilers now seemed to have vanished.

 

Derek gestured. "Look at the palace! The garden!"

 

Beyond the canopy I could see the dim gardens surrounding the palace. I

glimpsed the high fence, and the gateway in front. A mob of toilers was

there. The guard at the gate had fled. The mob was surging through. Men

and women in the vivid garments of the fields, armed with sticks and

clubs and stones and the implements of agriculture. They milled at the

gate; rushed through; scattered over the garden. Their shouts floated

back to us in a blended murmur.

 

We were standing only a dozen feet from the edge of the pavilion. No one

seemed yet to have noticed us. A few straggling lights had come on under

the canopy. I could see the dead lying there in the wreckage of

overturned seats.

 

Derek said, "We can't help it--it's done. Look at them! They're

attacking the palace!"

 

This mob springing miraculously into existence! I realized that the

toilers had planned that if Sensua were chosen they would attack the

festival. The murder of Blanca had come as big a surprise to them as to

us....

 

"Come on! Can you get into the palace, Hope? The king must have gotten

back there. Get your wits, girl!" Derek stood gripping her, shaking her.

 

"Yea, there's an underground passage. He probably went that way."

 

From the palace gardens the shouts of the mob sounded louder now. And

from within the building there was an alarm bell tumultuously clanging.

 

Hope gasped, "This way."

 

She led us back into the pavilion. We clambered over its broken seats,

past its grewsome huddled figures. Some were still moving.... We went to

a small door under the platform. A dim room was here, deserted now.

Against the wall was a large wardrobe closet; stage costumes were

hanging in it. The closet was fully twenty feet deep. We pushed our way

through the hanging garments. Hope fumbled at the blank board wall in

the rear. Her groping fingers found a secret panel. A door swung aside

and a rush of dank cool air came at us. The dark outlines of a tunnel

stretched ahead.

 

"In, Charlie!"

 

I crouched and stepped through the door. Hope closed it behind us. The

tunnel passage was black, but soon we began to see its vague outlines.

Derek, sword in hand, led us. I clutched my dirk. We went perhaps five

hundred feet. Down at first, then up again. I figured we were under the

palace gardens now, as the tunnel was winding to the left. There were

occasional small lights.

 

Derek whispered to Hope, "The toilers don't know of this?"

 

"No."

 

"Where does it bring us out?" I whispered.

 

"Into the lower floor of the castle. The king must have gone this way.

There might be a guard, Derek. What will you do?"

 

He laughed. "I can handle this mob. Disperse it! You'll see! And handle

the king." He laughed again grimly. "There is no Blanca to choose now."

 

The tunnel went round a sharp angle and began steeply ascending. Derek

stopped.

 

"How much further, Hope?"

 

"Not far," she whispered.

 

We crept forward. The tunnel was more like a small corridor now. Beyond

Derek's crouching figure, in the dimness I could see a doorway. Derek

turned and gestured to us to keep back. A palace guard was standing

there. His pike went up.

 

"Who are you?"

 

"A friend."

 

But the man lunged with his pike. Derek leaped aside. His sword flashed;

the flat of it struck the fellow in the face. Derek, with incredible

swiftness, was upon him. They went down together and before the man

could shout, Derek had struck him on the head with the sword hilt. The

guard lay motionless. Derek climbed up as we ran forward to join him.

 

I noticed now, for the first time, that in his left hand Derek held a

small metal cylinder. A weapon, strange to me, which he had brought with

him. He had not mentioned it. He had produced it, when menaced by this

guard. Then he evidently decided not to use it.

 

He shoved it back in his pocket. He whirled on us, panting. "Hurry!

Close that door!"

 

We closed the door of the tunnel.

 

"Charlie, help me move him!"

 

We dragged the prostrate figure of the unconscious guard aside into a

shadow of the wall. We were in a lower room of the palace. It seemed

momentarily unoccupied. Overhead we could hear the footsteps of running

people. A confusion in the palace, and outside in the garden the shouts

of the menacing throng of toilers. And above it all, the wild clanging

of the alarm bell from the palace tower.

 

Derek said swiftly, "Get us to the king!"

 

Hope led us through the castle corridors, and up a flight of steps to

the main floor. The rooms here were thronged with terrified

people--crimson nobles in their bedraggled finery of the festival. In

all the chaos no one seemed to notice us.

 

We mounted another staircase. We found a vacant room; through its

windows we looked a moment, gazing into the garden. It was jammed with a

menacing mob, which milled about, leaderless, waving crude weapons,

shouting imprecations at the palace. At the foot of the main steps the

throng stood packed, but none dared to mount. A group of the palace

guards stood on the platform over the moat.

 

Derek turned away impatiently. "Let's get to the king."

 

We mounted to the upper story. The castle occupants stared at Derek and

me as we passed them. A group of girls at the head of the staircase fled

before us.

 

"The king," Derek demanded, "Which is his apartment? Hurry, Hope, we've

no time now!"

 

We found the frightened king seated on a couch with his counsellors

around him. It was a small room in this top story of the castle, with

long windows to the floor. I saw that they gave onto a balcony which

overlooked the gardens. There were perhaps twenty or thirty people

huddled in the room. A confusion existed here as everywhere else--no one

knowing what to do in this crisis. And that cursed alarm bell wildly

adding to the turmoil. We paused at the doorway.

 

"Now," whispered Derek. He drew himself to his full height. His eyes

were flashing. It was a Derek I had not seen before; he wore an air of

mastery. As though he, and not the frightened, trembling monarch on the

couch, were master here. And as I stared at him that instant in this

primitive chaotic environment, the power of him swept me. A conqueror.

The strange electrode clamped to his head gave him an aspect miraculous,

awe inspiring.

 

He strode forward across the apartment. The king was just giving some

futile, vague command to be transmitted to his guards down below. A hush

fell over the room at our appearance. The king half stood up, then sank

back.

 

"Why--why--who--"

 

I saw Rohbar here. His long crimson cloak hung from his shoulders, with

its hood thrown back. Beneath it, as it parted in front, his leather

uniform was visible. A sword was strapped to his waist. He was striding

back and forth with folded arms, frowning, but his gaze was very keen.

Rohbar was not frightened. He seemed rather to be gauging the situation,

pondering how he might turn it to his own ends. He stopped short and

swung about to face us. His jaw dropped with surprise, amazement, at our

strangeness.

 

Derek confronted him. His bulk, and huge weight towered even over Derek.

The king gasped and sat helplessly staring.

 

Rohbar spoke first. "Who are you?"

 

"This mob must be dispersed. Don't stand looking at me like that, man!"

 

Derek spoke in friendly fashion, but vehemently. "This is no time for

explanations."

 

They were menacing each other. Rohbar's heavy hand fell to his sword,

but Derek boldly pushed him away. He faced the king.

 

"Your Majesty...."

 

The king stared blankly at him. The title was no doubt strange to this

realm, but no stranger than Derek's aspect.

 

"Your Majesty...."

 

But the noise from the garden, the confusion which now broke out in the

room, and that damnable clattering bell, drowned his words.

 

The king found his voice. "Be quiet, all of you!" He was on his feet. He

demanded of Derek again, "Who are you?"

 

Derek said swiftly, "I'll show you. I can disperse this mob! Charlie,

come."

 

It seemed as though the gaze of everyone in the room went to me. I drew

myself up and flashed defiance back at them. And I followed Derek to one

of the balcony windows. He went through it, with me after him. I stood

at the threshold, watchful of the room behind us. Rohbar was standing

aside, and I saw now the woman Sensua with him. They were whispering,

staring at me and Derek.

 

I had been wondering why, when Sensua must have known that the king

would choose her--why she had dared to murder her rival. I thought

now--as I saw her with Rohbar--that I could guess the reason. She loved

Rohbar, not the king. Rohbar was plotting to put himself on the throne,

using Sensua as a lover to that end. He had doubtless persuaded her to

this murder, knowing it would arouse the toilers, precipitate this chaos

which was what he wanted. Scheming scoundrel! I could not forget the

look of desire on his face as he had accosted Hope....

 

And now Derek appeared, to add an unknown element to Rohbar's plans.

There was no way he could guess who or what we were. I saw that he was

puzzled, was whispering to Sensua about us, doubtless wondering how to

handle us.

 

I saw too, that there were half a dozen crimson cloaked men here who

were not frightened. They had gathered in a group. They stood with hands

upon their swords, eyeing me, and watching Rohbar--as though at a sign

from him they would rush me.

 

On the balcony Derek stood with the light from the room upon him. The

crowd saw him. The main gateway of the palace was just under his

balcony. The crowd had now started up the steps to where the guards were

standing at the top. At the sight of Derek the mob let out a roar, and

those on the steps retreated down again.

 

Derek stood at the balcony rail, silent, with upraised arms, gazing down

upon the menacing throng. There was a moment of startled silence as he

appeared. Then the shout broke out louder than before. The crowd was

milling and pushing, but still leaderless. An aimless activity. Someone

threw a stone. It came hurtling up. It missed Derek and struck the

castle wall, falling almost at my feet.

 

Derek did not move. He stood calmly gazing down; stood like an orator

waiting for the confusion to die before he would speak.

 

From the platform, just beneath Derek, the guards were staring

wonderingly up, awed, startled. To the right a wing of the building

turned an angle. The castle tower was there: it rose perhaps a hundred

feet higher than our balcony. On the railed platform-balcony girding its

top I saw the figures of other guards standing, gazing down at Derek.

The clanging bell up there was suddenly stilled.

 

I became aware of the king close behind me. His voice rang out: "What

are you doing? How dare you?"

 

Derek whirled, "You fool! To what a pass you have come! Your people in

arms against you...."

 

His violent words brought the king's anger. "How dare you! This is

treason!"

 

I stood alert, with my hand upon my dirk.

 

There would be conflict here, I felt that we could not hold it off more

than a moment longer. My mind leaped to that metal cylinder Derek had

concealed. A weapon? Then why did he not have it out now? His eyes were

flashing. The aspect of power, of confidence, upon him was unmistakable.

It heartened me. I took a step toward him.

 

He smiled faintly. "Wait, Charlie."

 

The king gasped again. "How dare you? Why, this is treason! Rohbar,

seize him!"

 

Hope was beside me, her eyes watching the room. Rohbar came striding

forward. Derek rasped, "You perhaps have some sense! Lead His Majesty

away. Take care of him until this is over."

 

They stood with crossing glances. And upon Rohbar's face a look, queerly

sinister, had come. A smile, sardonic.

 

He said abruptly to the king, "I think we should let him have his way.

What harm?"

 

He gestured and Sensua came forward. The crimson murderess! Her

voluptuous figure was shrouded in a crimson cloak. Her heavy painted

lips smiled at the King. Her rounded white arms went over his shoulders.

 

"Leonto, do as Rohbar says. Let this stranger try. It can do no harm."

 

The king yielded to her; I watched as she and Rohbar urged him through

an archway that gave into the adjoining apartment.

 

No wonder Rohbar was sardonically smiling! Derek had played into his

hand. We did not know it then, but we were soon to find it out.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IX

 

_"Alexandre--"_

 

 

Derek turned back to the balcony. It had been a brief interlude. The mob

in the garden, the soldiers at the top of the stairway, and the other

guards high on the bridge of the tower were all standing gazing. Shouts

again arose as Derek appeared. Again he raised his arms. This time his

voice rang out.

 

"Silence all of you! I am a friend! Silence!"

 

At first they did not heed him; then someone shouted:

 

"Quiet! Listen to him! Let him talk!"

 

The crowd was bellowing, and then they ceased. The bell was still. In

the hush came Derek's voice:

 

"I am a friend. I come from foreign lands, from distant lands of strange

people and strange magic."

 

For answer the crowd shouted and milled in confusion. A stone came up

and then another. Derek stood immovable, like a statue gazing down at

them.

 

"I command you to disperse. You will not? Then look at me! Look at me,

all of you. My will is law beyond this king--beyond these palace soldiers--beyond any power you have ever known."