Astounding Stories of Super-Science 12

Astounding Stories of Super-Science 12

Then I knew a part of Derek's purpose! He had pressed the mechanism at

his wrist. He stood imperious with upraised arms. The garden was in a

tumult, but in a moment it died. A wave of horror swept the crowd. A

freezing, incredulous horror. They stood staring, incredulous, silent,

swept with a widening wave of horror.

 

The figure of Derek on the balcony was fading, turning luminous. A

wraith, a ghost of his menacing shape standing there. It faded until it

was almost gone, and then, as he reversed the mechanism, it materialized

again. A moment passed, then he stood again solid before them.

 

His voice rang out, "Will you obey me now? I am a friend of the

toilers!"

 

They were prostrate before him. There is no fear more terrible than the

fear of the supernatural. In all of history there has been in our world

no worship more abject than the worship and fear of a primitive people

for its supernatural God. On the platform beneath the balcony, the

palace soldiers stared up, horrified. Then they too were prostrate

before Derek's threatening gestures and commanding voice.

 

I stood watching, listening. And suddenly, from the prostrate crowd, a

man leaped up. In the silence his amazed voice carried over the garden.

 

"Alexandre! It is our Prince Alexandre! Our lost prince!"

 

He stood staring at Derek, his arms gesturing to his comrade around him.

He shouted it again:

 

"Our rightful king, come back to us! Don't you recognize him? _I_ saw

him go! He went like that--fading into a ghost. Ten years ago, when

Leonto killed his father and would have killed him had he not escaped!"

 

The crowd was standing up now. They recognized Derek! There was no doubt

of it. The garden was ringing with the tumultuous shouts,

 

"Alexandre! Our lost prince has come back to us!"

 

My head was whirling with it. Derek, prince of this realm? I could see

that it was true. Escaped from here as a young lad, when his throne was

usurped. Returning now, a man, to claim his own.

 

And suddenly he turned and flashed me his smile.

 

The din from the garden drowned his words. The crowd was shouting:

"Alexandre! Our lost prince!"

 

The king's guards on the lower platform stood sullen, confused. I heard

footsteps behind me. I whirled around.

 

From the room, the group of Rohbar's crimson nobles were rushing toward

me! Their swords were out. One of them shouted, "Kill them now! We must

kill them and have done!"

 

There were five or six men in the group. They were no more than ten feet

away from me. They came leaping.

 

I stood in the window opening, with only my dirk to oppose them. I

shouted, "Derek! Derek!"

 

I think I took a step backward. I was out on the balcony. It flashed

over me--Derek and I were caught out here!

 

The first of the red cloaked figures came hurtling through the doorway.

I leaped to avoid his sword. I saw the others crowding behind him.

 

Then I felt Derek shove me violently aside. I half fell, but recovered

myself at the balcony rail. Five of the crimson nobles were on the

balcony. Derek confronted them. His aspect made them pause. They stood,

with outstretched swords. The garden was silent; the crowd stared up.

And in the silence Derek roared,

 

"Get back! All of you, go back inside! Back, or I'll kill you!"

 

In Derek's right hand he held the cylinder outstretched, leveled at the

menacing nobles.

 

"Back, I say!"

 

But instead they rushed him. There was a flash. From the cylinder it

seemed that a ray spat out, a flash of silver light. It caught the three

men who were in advance of the others. Their swords dropped with a

clatter to the balcony floor. They stood, transfixed.

 

An instant. Derek's silver ray played upon them. Their red cloaks were

painted with its silver sheen.

 

They were shimmering! I gasped, staring. The other nobles, beyond the

ray, had fallen back. And they too stood staring in horror.

 

Another instant The three figures wavered. I saw the face of one of

them, with the shock of incredulous horror still upon it. A face turning

luminous! A face, erased, with only the staring eyes to mark where it

had been!

 

There was a moment when the three stricken men stood like shimmering

ghosts, with Derek's deadly ray upon them. Then they were gone! It

seemed, just as they vanished, that they were falling through the

balcony floor....

 

Derek snapped off his ray. He rasped, "Back into that room, I tell you!"

 

The remaining nobles fled before him. He turned again to the balcony

rail.

 

"My people--yes, I am Alexandre--I had not thought you would recognize

me so soon. But you are right--the time has come for me to claim my

inheritance. And I will rule you justly."

 

His cylinder was still in his hand; he swept a watchful glance behind

him. I thought of Rohbar. He was in the next room, with the king. Had

they seen this attack upon Derek? They must have heard the crowd

shouting, "Alexandre!" It seemed strange they did not appear.

 

I recall now, as I look back to this moment on the balcony, that I

suddenly thought of Hope. She had been beside me just before the nobles

attacked. I did not see her now. I was startled, but thought of her was

driven from my mind. From within the palace a scream sounded. A girl

screaming.

 

But it was not Hope's voice. A girl, screaming, and then shouting:

 

"The king is dead!"

 

Derek came rushing at me. "Charlie, that--"

 

We heard it again. "The king is dead!"

 

We hurried into the adjoining room. There was no one to stop us--no one

up here now who dared oppose Derek. The terrified nobles in the room

fell cringing before him.

 

"Alexandre--spare us! We are loyal to you!"

 

He strode past them. In the adjacent apartment we found the king lying

upon the floor. A wound in his throat welled crimson. He had evidently

been lying here alone, and had just now been found by a girl who had

entered. He was not quite dead. Derek bent over him. He opened his eyes.

 

He gasped faintly: "Rohbar--killed me. Rohbar and that--accursed crimson

Sensua...."

 

His voice trailed away. The light went out of his staring eyes. Derek

laid him gently back on the floor.

 

And as though already the news of his death had miraculously spread, the

bell in the castle tower began tolling. Not clanging now. Tolling, with

slow, solemn accent. The crowd evidently recognized it. We could hear

the shouts: "Death! Death has come!"

 

Derek's eyes ware blazing as he stood up. "The end, Charlie! I would not

have planned this, and yet...."

 

He did not finish. He whirled, rushed back to the other room and to the

balcony. The scene was again in confusion the crowd milling, voices

shouting:

 

"The king is dead!"

 

At the edge of the garden a woman's shrill, hysterical laughter rose

over the din.

 

Derek called, "Yes, the king is dead!" He paused. Then he added, "If you

want me--if I have your loyalty--I will claim my throne."

 

A tumult interrupted him. "Alexandre! King Alexandre!"

 

He spread his arms, but he could not silence them.

 

"The king is dead. Long live King Alexandre!"

 

A wave of it swept over the garden, engulfing the castle. At the main

entrance Leonto's soldiers stood sullen, listening to it.

 

Derek stood triumphant. His hands were outstretched, palms down. But up

on the circular bridge at the top of the tower there was a sudden

commotion. The soldiers up there had vanished, moved back within the

tower to make room for other figures. I stared amazed, transfixed. A

huge man in leather garments was there, with a sword stuck in his wide

belt. A man with a bullet head, a heavy face, gazing down....

 

Rohbar!

 

And held in front of him the slender figure of a girl. Hope! He clutched

her, his thick arm encircling her breast. With sinking heart I realized

what had happened. Hope had moved away from me. Every one in the room

had been intent upon Derek. Rohbar had come quietly in, after murdering

the king, had seized Hope, stifled her outcry, and had taken her up into

the tower.

 

And I had promised Derek that I would shield this girl from harm! The

horror of it--the self-condemnation of it--swept me, froze me to

numbness. I could not think; I could only stand and stare. Rohbar held

Hope like a shield before him. The low railing hardly reached her knees.

A sheer drop to the garden beneath. He held her tightly, and in his free

hand I saw his dirk come up menacingly against her white throat. His

voice called:

 

"Silent, down there! Alexandre, you traitor! Silence!"

 

Derek stared up. The triumph faded from him. He stared, stricken. The

crowd stared. The soldiers on the lower platform ceased their shouting

and gazed up at these new actors, come so unexpectedly upon the stage.

Again Rohbar called, to the guards this time:

 

"I represent your King Leonto. This Alexandre is a traitor to us all.

And he cannot harm me! I defy him. Look at him! I defy him to use his

evil weapon upon me!"

 

Derek was silent. A single adverse move and Rohbar's knife would stab

into Hope's throat. Derek's ray was powerless. A flash from it would

have killed Hope, not Rohbar.

 

The king's soldiers saw Derek's indecision. One of them shouted, "He

cannot harm us! Look, he is frightened!"

 

The crowd recognized Hope. They began calling her name. And calling,

"Master Rohbar, do not harm our Hope!"

 

"I will not harm her! Not if you do what I tell you! Leave the

garden--go quietly! I will deal with this traitor!"

 

He added to the guards, "Go up and seize him! He cannot hurt you!

Traitor! Seize him! If he does not yield--if any of this crowd attacks

you--then I will kill Hope."

 

Derek stood clinging to the balcony rail. With Rohbar's watchful gaze

upon him he did not dare turn or move. I was standing back from the

balcony, behind Derek and partly in the room. No one thought of me. No

one from outside could see me. And I, who had played no part in this,

save that one I had neglected, suddenly saw my role. My cue was

sounding. My role to play, here upon this tumultuous stage.

 

I turned back into the dim room. A few frightened men and girls were

here. They were all crowding forward, gazing through the windows at the

scene outside. No one noticed me, but I saw, with sudden realization, my

role to play.

 

I darted across the room, out into the dim, deserted corridor of the

castle.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER X

 

_My Role to Play_

 

 

I slipped like a shadow through the almost empty corridors. Down on the

lower floor I found that many of the soldiers were on the inside,

standing about the corridors in groups, waiting for word from their

comrades on the platform to indicate what action they should take. My

time was short; I knew that within a few minutes they would be rushing

up to overpower Derek.

 

I stood unseen against the wall near the main entrance. I could not get

outside. There were too many soldiers there.

 

I tried to keep my sense of direction. The wing upon which the tower

stood was about two hundred feet from me here. If I could not get

outside I would have to try the inside, along this corridor. I prayed

that I might not make an error. I tried to gauge exactly where the tower

would be.

 

The hallway was almost dark and in this wing there chanced to be no one

at the moment. I came to the angle and turned it to the left. I was

unarmed save my dirk. I drew it. But I encountered no one. I passed the

doors of many empty rooms. The windows were all barred on this lower

floor. I could hear the shouts of the crowd outside.

 

I came at last to the end of the wing. A staircase here led upward. I

guessed that I was directly under the tower now, and that this staircase

undoubtedly led upward into it. I mounted a few steps to verify what I

was sure would be the condition. It was as I thought. Rohbar had won

over the soldiers who were here. He had sent them down from the tower

bridge. They were guarding this staircase.

 

I crept up another few steps, very cautiously. I could hear their voices

on the stairs. A light was up there. I could see the legs of some of

them as they crowded the stairs. I softly retreated.

 

There was no way of getting up into the tower here. Alone and armed only

with my dirk, I could not mount these stairs and assail a dozen armed

men standing above me; especially when, if I raised an alarm, Rohbar

overhead might be startled into killing Hope.

 

I stood another moment, thinking, planning my actions. I was trembling.

Everything depended upon me now. I must get up into the tower. And,

above everything, haste was necessary.

 

I retreated back to the lower floor. I was still some twenty feet above

the ground, I judged. That was too far. A dozen paces along the hall I

saw a stairway leading downward into the ground level cellar of the

castle. I marked in my mind exactly in which direction I turned, and how

far. I went down the stairs.

 

There was an empty lower room. It was pitch black. I lay down on its

earthen floor. Above me, a few paces off to one side I could visualize

the tower. A hundred and fifty feet above me, at least, up to that

bridge balcony, where Rohbar stood with Hope. I kept my mind on it and

prayed that I might not be making an error, a miscalculation.

 

I prayed, too, that luck would be with me. A desperate chance, yet I

thought I knew what was here, or about here, in New York City. I lay on

my side, alone in the blackness, and pressed the switch at my wrist....

 

The familiar sensation of the transition began. The darkness grew

luminous. Around me shadows were taking form. My body was humming,

thrilling with the vibrations within it. I could feel the ground under

me seeming to melt. My head was reeling. Nausea swept me, but with it

all I tried to keep my wits. I must watch this new Space into which I

was going. Space? I prayed that here on this spot in New York City there

would be empty space! If not, at the first warning, I was prepared to

stop my mechanism.

 

The shadows grew around me. There was a moment or two when I felt as

though I were floating. Weightless. The sense of my body hovering in a

void, intangible, imponderable, with only my struggling mentality

holding it together....

 

And then I felt myself materializing. Around me walls were taking form.

I floated down a foot or two and came to rest upon a new floor. My hand

brushed it. My physical senses were returning. I could feel a floor of

concrete. A vague, shimmering light was near me. It seemed to outline

the rectangle of a window. All around was darkness. Empty darkness.

Soundless, with only the throbbing hum of the mechanism....

 

I was indoors, in a room. I felt suddenly almost normal, except for the

whirring vibration. I flung the switch again. There was a shock. A

whirling of my senses. Then I sat up; my head steadied. The nausea

passed.

 

I was back in my own world, in New York City. This was night: I tried to

calculate the time. Derek and I had departed about midnight. This would

be, then some time before dawn. I was in a cellar room, lying on its

cement floor. There was a window, with a faint light outside it. A

window up near the ceiling. A straggling illumination showed me a bin, a

few barrels, a door leading into another room which looked as though it

might be a machine shop.

 

I sat up, calculating. I was a thousand feet perhaps from the Battery

wall, two hundred feet from the Hudson River. This was an office

building, and I was in one of its cellar rooms, at the ground level.

 

Near dawn? I tried to calculate what might be overhead. A deserted

office building. Too early yet for the scrub-women. The elevator would

not be running. I laughed to myself. Of what use to me an elevator, if

it had been running? How could I, a midnight prowler, appear from the

cellar of this building, and demand to be taken upstairs! There would be

no elevator, but there would be watchmen. I would avoid them.

 

I found a door. My heart leaped with a sudden fear that it would be

locked, but it was not. I went through it into a passage and found the

staircase. I made two turns. I tried again to keep my mind on this Space

here. I stood, carefully thinking. I had it clear. I had made no move

without careful thought. The tower with Rohbar was still to my left, and

about directly above me.

 

I went up the short stone staircase, opened another door carefully. I

was in the dim lower hall of the office building. I found myself beside

the deserted elevator shaft. A light was burning on the night

attendant's table in an alcove, on the other side of the shaft. He sat

there with his back to me. I closed the door soundlessly.

 

The stairway upward beside the elevator was here. I watched my chance. I

darted around the angle and went up. I met no one. The concrete

staircase had a light at each floor. Four floors up. No, not enough! I

opened the fourth floor door. The marble hall of the office building was

empty and silent. Rows of locked office doors with their gold-leaf names

and numbers. A single dim light to illumine the silent emptiness....

 

I retreated into the staircase shaft and mounted higher. My dirk was in

my hand. Charlie Wilson, the Wall Street brokerage clerk, prowling

here! And upon what a strange adventure!

 

I came to what I thought was the proper floor. In the hall I selected a

room. The door was securely locked. I had no way of breaking the lock,

but the panel was of opaque glass. I would have to chance the noise. I

rushed the length of the hall, to where a red fire-ax hung in a bracket.

I came back with it. I smashed the glass panel of the door.

 

Would a watchman hear me? I did not wait to find out. With the ax I

scraped away the splinters of glass. I climbed through the opening. My

hand was cut, but I did not heed it.

 

I was in a dim, silent office, with rugs on the floor, desks standing

about, filing cases, a water-cooler, and a safe in the corner. I rushed

to one of the windows. It looked over Battery Park and the upper bay.

The stars were shining, but to the east over Brooklyn I could see them

paling with the coming dawn. I gazed down to try and calculate my

height. Yes, this would be about right. And my position. I could see the

outline of the shore, the trees of Battery Park, the busy harbor, even

at this hour before dawn, thronged with the moving lights of its boats.

 

I saw all this with my eyes, but with my mind I saw the wrecked,

deserted pavilion, and the gardens of Leonto's castle. The threatening

mob would be below me. The palace entrance would be here to my left,

down in the street where those taxis were parked. There was a commotion

down there by the office building entrance. I know now what caused it,

but at the time I did not notice. The wing of the castle was under me.

This would be the tower. Its upper room, or the balcony, just about

where I was standing. I prayed that it might be so. I seemed with my mind to see it all.