As the Green Star Rises 

As the Green Star Rises 

By Lin Carter 

CONTENTS 

Part I THE BOOK OF ANDAR THE KOMARIAN 
Chapter 1 ON THE BRINK OF DEATH 
Chapter 2 ABOARD THE XOTHUN 
Chapter 3 SLAVES OF THE BLUE BARBARIANS 
Chapter 4 THE FATE OF THE SKY-SLED 
Chapter 5 MAN OVERBOARD! 

Part II THE BOOK OF RALIDUX THE MALE 
Chapter 6 ISLE OF THE ANCIENT ONES 
Chapter 7 ALTAR OF THE SERPENT-GOD 
Chapter 8 NAKED FANGS 
Chapter 9 FLAME FOR FREEDOM 
Chapter 10 THE VAULT OF MARVELS 

Part III THE BOOK OF SHANN OF KAMADHONG 
Chapter 11 CASTAWAYS IN AN UNKNOWN SEA 
Chapter 12 A STRANGE DISCOVERY 
Chapter 13 JUNGLE LOVERS 
Chapter 14 VISITOR FROM THE SKIES 
Chapter 15 CAPTURED INTO THE CLOUDS 

Part IV THE BOOK OF PARIMUS THE WIZARD 
Chapter 16 THE DECISION OF PARIMUS 
Chapter 17 THE MIND-QUESTING 
Chapter 18 THE SHIP FROM THE SKY 
Chapter 19 WHEN COMRADES MEET 
Chapter 20 SLITHERING HORROR 

Part V THE BOOK OF DELGAN OF THE ISLES 
Chapter 21 THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 
Chapter 22 FLASHING SWORDS! 
Chapter 23 TO THE DEATH 
Chapter 24 RACE AGAINST TIME 


Chapter 25 AS THE GREEN STAR RISES 
Epilogue 

Chapter 25 AS THE GREEN STAR RISES 
Epilogue 
I 
THE BOOK OF ANDAR THE KOMARIAN 


Chapter 1 
ON THE BRINK OF DEATH 


I had only minutes to live. Soon the tides would rise, the waves of the sea would wash over the tiny 
islet upon which I had been marooned by the treachery of a supposed friend, and I would drown. How 
strange it was to find that I feared extinction–I, who have died once, already, only to be reborn in the 
body of another! 

Mine must surely be the strangest story in all the annals of human experience. Born to wealth and 
social position on the distant planet Earth, I had traversed the abyss of space to become a homeless 
wanderer; a savage boy, lost and helpless amid the wonders and perils of an alien world. 

Chained to a cripple’s body, I had learned to burst those chains that bind the spirit to its habitation 
of flesh. I had set my spirit free, to roam the infinite wilderness of stars! For within that crippled carcass 
beat a warrior’s heart, whose blood stirred to the siren-call of adventure and mystery. 

Across the universe I had drifted to a new life in a new body, upon a strange and marvelous planet 
which revolves about a star of green fire–a star unknown and unnamed by the astronomers of my native 
world. But a star under which such as I might find the life of excitement, bravery and battle for which my 
spirit had been forged. 

In the body of the warrior hero, Chong, I had loved and won the love of Niamh the Fair, princess 
of the Jewel City of Phaolon. And in defending her against her enemies, I had fallen beneath the 
treacherous blow of a coward’s knife, I had gone down to the Black Gates of Death, leaving my 
beloved Princess alone and helpless in the power of her enemies. 

But the love I felt for Niamh the Fair proved stronger than death itself, and from the portals of his 
Dark Kingdom I had come back to dwell in a second body, that of a savage boy named Kam of the 
Red Dragon people. 

In this second incarnation upon the World of the Green Star I had found new friends to aid me in 
the search for my lost beloved. Zarqa the Kalood was one–an alien being; tall, gaunt and 
golden-skinned, nude, sexless and bewinged. The last survivor of a prehuman race which had ruled this 
planet in former ages, Zarqa became my ally and my friend. 

Janchan of Phaolon was another–the bold and daring young princeling who had quested through the 
extremities of the world to find the lost princess of his realm. 

By a strange trick of fate it had been these, the Winged Man and the Phaolonese noble, who had 


set my Princess free from the temples of Ardha, and not I. For I had fallen captive to the Assassins when 
fate sundered our company. But even in that grim fellowship of thieves and murderers, I had found a 
friend and companion in the Assassin Klygon. 

set my Princess free from the temples of Ardha, and not I. For I had fallen captive to the Assassins when 
fate sundered our company. But even in that grim fellowship of thieves and murderers, I had found a 
friend and companion in the Assassin Klygon. 

There we had met with Delgan of the Isles–or so he called himself. A blue-skinned man of 
indeterminate age, Delgan was a slave as were we. Together, we three had escaped from the albino 
troglodytes and won freedom . . . but at the price of my eyesight. For, in battling the monster Nithogg, 
giant worm-god of the savages, I had been blinded by an explosion of light. So intense had been that 
burst of brilliance, I feared my vision would be forever impaired. 

Together, riding upon an immense leaf fallen from a tree taller than any Everest, we followed a river 
down to the sea. I wish I could convey the mystery of this astounding discovery to the reader this 
manuscript may find. In a world where one interminable forest of mile-high trees marched from horizon 
to horizon, and from pole to pole, the very existence of this immense tract of waters under the open sky 
was more than a legend: it was a myth. 

But we found it, Klygon, Delgan, and I, Kam. 

That very night our friend betrayed us. While we slept upon a tiny islet, scarcely more than a reef of 
sand, he thieved our stores and weapons from us. Striking down my faithful Klygon with a blow that 
would have cracked open any skull less hard than his, bidding me a mocking adieu, he sailed off in our 
leaf-boat; he left me stranded–blind and helpless, to await my death at the turning of the tide. 

And so my long saga of peril and adventure drew close to its end. 

I sat there, hugging my knees, listening to the rising wind and the lapping of waves. There was 
nothing I could do. The isle was bare and empty; and our only road to safety had been the leaf-boat, 
crisp and curled, long and narrow as a canoe. With that taken from us, we were marooned here. 

Klygon, as I have said, yet lived. The coward’s blow in the dark had only rendered him 
unconscious. Now roused to consciousness again, he was groggy and still partially stunned. I had 
dragged him up to the highest point of land and sat there by his side, awaiting the end of our travail. 

It would not be long in coming, that I knew. The wind was rising, dawn was glimmering in the east 
even now (I sensed); and the water rose inch by inch, foot by foot. 

The unknown sea was a very large one–bigger than Lake Superior, perhaps bigger than the 
Caspian. The gravitational pull of the Green Star is strong–many times stronger than the Moon’s pull, 
back on my native world. This planet revolves so closely about the Green Star that its surface would 
have been seared to a lifeless desert, bad it not been for the eternal blanket of cloud-barrier which 
envelopes it, even as Venus is enveloped; this alone makes life endurable here. 

And, as the Green Star rises, so rise the tides of that sea! 

I had failed in everything. Janchan and Zarqa, together with the incarnate Goddess Arjala, had freed 
Niamh from her prison, flying off with her into the unknown. I did not know what had become of them. 
For aught I knew, they might stand in direst peril at this very moment. 

Their fate was as unknown to me as mine would be to them. They must often have wondered what 
had become of the wild boy, Karn the Hunter, who had saved them from the clutches of the mad 
magician, Sarchimus. 


In another moment–or another hour–the tides would rise to drag me down. And I, who had passed 
through the Black Gates once, would do so again. And those who loved me would not ever know what 
had chanced, or how I met my end. 

In another moment–or another hour–the tides would rise to drag me down. And I, who had passed 
through the Black Gates once, would do so again. And those who loved me would not ever know what 
had chanced, or how I met my end. 

And I thought of Delgan, who had left us here to die. 

Why had he first befriended, then turned upon us? Klygon, I remembered, had not trusted him from 
the very first. But it had ever been my way, perhaps foolishly, to take men at their face value, to accept 
them at their word. Well, now that trait had brought me down–not only me alone, but the homely, loyal, 
faithful Klygon, as well. 

My eyes were scaled in darkness; but I remembered the sound of Delgan’s voice–smooth, 
obsequious, with a hint of mockery behind his words and the glint of cunning in his candid, innocent eyes. 

If this were not to be the end, after all, perhaps we would meet again, Delgan and I. My jaw 
tightened at the thought.. Oh, to have my eyes again, and a longsword in my hand, and to be brought 
face to face with Delgan of the Isles! Then it would be steel against steel; my courage and skill and 
determination against his cunning and slyness and treachery . . . and I would abide by the outcome of the 
gamble. For Delgan would not walk away from me a second time, I silently vowed . . . 

And then I felt the water against my feet, lapping about my heels. 

I stood up, dragging the groggy Klygon erect and holding him up, while the cold waves washed 
about my ankles. I really cannot explain why I did this, but there is something within me which refuses to 
give up even when the future looks at its blackest, and my luck has reached its end. It would be wiser 
not to have fought for another minute’s breath, but to yield to that which was inevitable. Well, perhaps 
so: but it was my way to fight on even against the most hopeless of odds, to the last moment, the last 
breath, the last drop of blood. 

The waves closed about my legs; soon they would wash about my knees. And then it would be 
only moments to live. 

Oh, it is hard to die when you are blind! I, who have faced Death unflinchingly, eye to eye, would 
do so at the end. But I could not see the face of mine Adversary, the placid face of the waters that 
would be my second tomb . . . 

The numbing coldness of the waves about his lower limbs must have roused Klygon from his 
stupor, for I heard him gasp suddenly. 

Then he clutched my arm in a powerful grip, his fingers biting into my flesh like steel hooks. He 
began a senseless ullulation–a howl of agony that sounded like a cry of surprise! There were no words 
to that strangled, bellowing cry, and I wondered if his reason had not given away before the shock of 
awakening to the very face of death. 

But then, just a moment later I heard another sound, at first inexplicable. Then, with a jarring shock, 
I recognized it 

The slap of waves against–a hull! 

And I wondered if my reason had given way, as well! 

Then, as I swayed numbly, scarcely daring to hope, there came to my ears the creak of oarlocks, 
the grunt of the rowers. And in the next instant, just as the waves rose about my loins, there were hands 
that grasped me, lifting me from the cold embrace of the deadly waters into the dry safety of a boat; and 
Klygon beside me, sobbing and babbling. And then I am very much afraid that I fainted dead away. 


Chapter 2 
ABOARD THE XOTHUN 


I have escaped death many times during my years of perilous adventure on the World of the Green 
Star, but never so narrowly as when the Xothun pirates rescued Klygon and I from the rising waves of 
the Sea of Komar. 

Unable to see my new surroundings, or the hands which had lifted me from the murderous embrace 
of the waters, I perforce relied upon my companion to serve as my eyes. Poor Klygon was ill-suited for 
such a task, I fear. Spawn of the gutters of Ardha, denizen of the back-alleys of the Yellow City, his 
rearing and education had prepared him poorly for such a situation. 

Perhaps I should explain here, for the benefit of whatever reader may chance upon this narrative, 
that the natives of the Green Star are wont to dwell in treetop cities built high among the lofty boughs of 
their world-wide forest. Indeed, the Laonese–for so they term their race–have a superstitious terror of 
the floor of the continental forest and never willingly descend to solid ground at the base of the colossal 
trees. “The Bottom of the World” they call it; that black and lightless abyss, given over to the monstrous 
worms and cannibal savages, where seldom does a ray of sunlight ever penetrate to lighten its perpetual 
gloom. 

The universal language they speak, therefore, does not even have the words to describe our 
situation. Since the denizens of the treetop cities have never seen or even imagined a sea, they have no 
words in their vocabulary to describe such a phenomenon. And the very concept of a ship built to 
navigate such a sea is equally alien and unfamiliar to them. But by dint of patient and repeated 
questioning, I drew from Klygon a word-picture of the vessel whereon we were now captive. 

It was a wooden vessel of several decks and considerable length, called the Xothun, by which 
name the Islanders refer to a sea-dwelling reptile unknown to Klygon’s people. The Xothun had a 
high-tiered forecastle, where the captain’s cabin was situated and the bridge from where the vessel was 
steered, and a pointed prow. The midship deck was railed with gunwales of ornately-careen wood, with 
a high-built sterncastle and a rudder shaped like a dragon’s tail. From what I could elicit from Klygon’s 
halting descriptions, the ship sounded not unlike a Spanish or Venetian galleon of the High Renaissance. 

The Xothun’s design was sophisticated and its craftsmanship denoted that its builders belonged to 
an advanced level of civilization. Oddly enough, however, the officers and crew-members seemed 
scarcely developed above savagery. They were a loutish and ill-kempt lot, clothed in tattered and filthy 
skins, fitted with scraps and bits of war-armor fashioned of the glassy, transparent metal the Laonese 
employ instead of iron or steel. Unshaven and dirty, surly and disobedient, quarrelsome and often drunk, 
it seemed to me that they had too recently emerged out of the red murk of barbarism to have possessed 
the skills to design or build such a galleon as the Xothun. 

And their unfitness to sail the Xothun was evident, even to a blind man. The ship was maintained in 
the most slovenly manner imaginable, her decks and stairways littered with garbage, beslimed with offal. 
Discipline was almost nonexistent among them; order was maintained only because the ship’s officers 
were larger and stronger than the crewmen, and went heavily armed with dirk, axe and cutlass at all 
times. 

The captain of the Xothun was afoul-mouthed brute called Hoggur. According to Klygon’s faltering 
descriptions, he was a towering brute, muscled like a gladiator, ugly as an ogre, bristling with weapons. 
As for his vicious temper, I had evidence of that from my own knowledge; I had not been aboard the 


Xothun half a day before Iloggur turned upon one of the crewmen for some fancied slur or insult, and 
flogged the poor creature half to death. 

Xothun half a day before Iloggur turned upon one of the crewmen for some fancied slur or insult, and 
flogged the poor creature half to death. 

Thus, when a lookout posted high in the crow’s nest of the galley spied Klygon and me in 
immediate peril of drowning, Hoggur dispatched a longboat to bring us aboard. Once we were on deck 
before him, he looked us over with a contemptuous sneer and commanded that we be taken below and 
chained to the oars to replace two rowers who had died the night before. Neither of us were in the best 
condition, having but recently escaped from the noisome underground burrows of the troglodytes, but 
that made little difference to Hoggur. Nor did the fact of my blindness interest him: an oarsman does not 
need his eyesight to drag on the oars. 

And so it was that Klygon and I were saved from a watery grave only to be enslaved at the oars of 
the Xothun; there we toiled in reeking filth and perpetual darkness under the lash until we succumbed to 
some illness, whereupon we would be unchained and dropped over the side. 

Out of the frying-pan, into the fire, as we Earthlings say! Still and all, even the postponement of 
certain death gives one certain latitude for hope. Better the death delayed than death at hand. 

My companion at the oars of the Xothun was a young nobleman called Andar. Komar was his 
country, an island in the archipelago which lay in the midst of the Komarian Sea. Although I could not 
see him, I guessed from his pleasant, manly voice and the superior breeding which was evident in the 
many kindnesses he displayed towards me, that he came from a more cultured society than that of the 
repulsive savages who commanded the vessel. 

The other men chained to the oars with us were also mostly Komarians, I gathered. Toiling at the 
oars, listening to brief snatches of conversation as they whispered among themselves, I began to piece 
together something of what had happened to them; why they had been consigned to so dire a fate. 

The loutish crew who commanded the Xothun, said Klygon, looked very unlike the men chained to 
the oars. The crewmen were hulking and slovenly, with coarse, brutish features and peculiar blue skins. 
The oarsmen were slimly built, with the pale golden complexions and slanted emerald or amber eyes of 
dwellers in the treetop cities. Their manner suggested culture and exquisite breeding; they were 
aristocrats like Andar, while their masters were savages. 

I soon understood the tragedy which had so recently overtaken these people. On the World of the 
Green Star were a wandering race of azure-skinned nomads known as the “Blue Barbarians.” They 
roamed from place to place; a savage, homeless horde, possessing neither culture nor civilization. 
Scarcely more than brutes, their ever-swelling numbers and innate ferocity made them an object of fear 
and dread to the more civilized inhabitants of the treetop cities. 

For these Blue Barbarians, it seemed, were subject to unpredictable attacks of madness. This 
infected the entire race at intervals, turning them into howling, berserk maniacs. During these periodic fits 
of racial insanity they became monsters, attacking whatever lay in their path, destroying all who stood 
before them; fighting like madmen with an utter fearlessness and a resistance to pain that made them 
terrible. Doubtless, in one such berserk frenzy, they had ventured into the islands of the sea, hurling 
themselves against the fightingmen of Komar; this kingdom they overwhelmed and trampled down. 

Now it was their way to overwhelm, conquer and destroy, but never to rule. Having overcome one 


of the Laonese cities, I understood, they had butchered its populace and left it in wreckage, wandering 
away in an aimless fashion. Why, then, had they in this instance remained to occupy the cities of Komar 
and man its ships? This change in the ways of the Barbarians seemed to me inexplicable and even 
frightening. 

of the Laonese cities, I understood, they had butchered its populace and left it in wreckage, wandering 
away in an aimless fashion. Why, then, had they in this instance remained to occupy the cities of Komar 
and man its ships? This change in the ways of the Barbarians seemed to me inexplicable and even 
frightening. 

Andar was an intelligent and gentlemanly warrior, and answered my questions without pause. 
According to him there had arisen amongst the Barbarians a chieftain whose name he did not know, but 
who was a man of greater cunning, cleverness and foresight than his brutish brethren. He had risen 
swiftly to a position of the highest authority among the tribe, that of Warlord. Andar guessed that by 
some freak of heredity, the Warlord was naturally immune to the racial madness which afflicted all the 
other Barbarians. He hit upon a method of using his immunity to weld the random savagery of the 
Barbarians into a weapon, directing the ferocity of the horde towards a planned and calculated goal. 

In short, like some Napoleon, he strove to channel the racial energies of his people to build an 
empire for himself. The first necessity of his scheme was to find a base of power secure from outer 
assault; hence he had led his savages against the Komarian archipelago. The great isle of Komar itself 
lies in the very center of the vast inland sea, and thus occupies a position of security, ringed about with 
league on league of water, like a gigantic moat. 

The Komarians, said Andar ruefully, were an ancient people largely given to peaceful pursuits and 
not a warlike race. They were great merchants and traders, as had been the Phoenicians of my own 
world, or the people of Minoan Crete; given to the arts and sciences and to maritime industries. Taken 
by surprise, outnumbered, their central citadel had fallen; the Warlord had deposed and executed their 
hapless monarch, himself assuming the Komarian throne. This it seemed, was but the first step in his 
cunning plan for world empire. He had schemed to train his hordes in the tactics of naval war, 
conquering isle after isle. He formed a gigantic maritime empire as the base from which to launch attacks 
against the nearer Laonese cities–Kamadhong, Ardha and Phaolon being among these. 

“But fate sometimes turns whimsical,” smiled Andar, “and favors the most unfortunate. For during a 
routine voyage to a lesser island of our kingdom, the ship on which the mighty Warlord sailed was 
attacked by one of the dreaded dragons of the deep and was lost with all hands. The whereabouts of the 
Warlord are unknown, although he may have eluded the jaws of the monster and reached the coast of 
the mainland. If he fled inland, he is probably dead by now, slain by one of the monstrous worms who 
dwell in the unbroken gloom, among the roots of the great trees. At any rate, he has left his horde 
leaderless and for many months they have merely drifted, not knowing what to do. This current 
expedition is an attempt to sound out the coastal city of Tharkoon. In the guise of an embassy, the 
Barbarians hope to spy on the defenses of the metropolis, as a prelude to invasion. In this, they are 
exceptionally unwise; for Tharkoon is ruled by a Wizard of great power, whom only the foolhardy would 
dare to threaten. However, lacking the genius of their former master, the Barbarians are mere savages. 
In their untutored state, they assume all other men are as stupid as themselves, to their eventual detriment 
. . . ” 

“Row, purse your hide! Save your breath for the oars,” growled a thick voice from behind us. I 
heard the whistle of a lash and the slap of a whip against the naked back of my companion. No sound 
escaped the tight lips of Andar, but he bent to the oar and we spoke no further. 


Chapter 3 
SLAVES OF THE BLUE BARBARIANS 


And thus it was that I lived as a slave, chained to the galleys of Komar, toiling under the lash of the 
Barbarians. The life I now led was grim and ugly, almost devoid of hope. Hour after hour we labored at 
the benches, five men to each oar, following the tireless beat of the oarmaster’s drum. For all his 
toughness, little Klygon groaned at this unending toil; and even I, with the vigor and resilience of youth, 
wearied. 

When darkness fell over the World of the Green Star, only then were’ we free to rest from our 
diurnal labors. We were given a wooden cup of water, mixed with wine to restore us; and each man got 
a bowl of fish-stew and a chunk of coarse bread. Then we composed ourselves for such slumber as we 
could gain, sprawled on the very benches where we had labored. 

The stench of so many men penned together for many days in this black hell became overpowering. 
Our toil at the oars raised great blisters on our hands; they broke, blistered and broke again until our 
hands were raw and bleeding. Some times such raw wounds became infected and festered. When this 
occurred, the hapless victim died raving of fever and was pitched overboard. Yet other, men broke 
down under the misery of living in such bestial conditions and fell into despondency. For them, the end 
came mercifully swift. It seemed there was no escape from the chains of slavery, save death. 

It was Andar, my bench-mate, who cheered us all by his example and his fortitude. For all he had a 
cheerful word; his manly and heroic endurance of our common suffering heartened all who slaved at the 
oars in the stinking darkness of that hold. When men broke down, wept or whimpered under the lash of 
the overseer, time and again a curt word from Andar stiffened the manhood within them, silencing their 
sobbing. This I witnessed many times and it never failed to puzzle me. What authority or eminence had 
this youth at my side over his fellow-captives? 

One night, I learned the secret. The whip had scored my back that day and the pain of my raw 
stripes prevented me from falling into the leaden slumber of exhaustion that claimed us all at the end of 
the day’s toil. Thus it was that, as I lay there motionless, my head pillowed upon my manacled wrists, I 
overheard a conversation between Andar and the man chained to the oars behind him. 

They were discussing our present position. The man behind us, a former lordling named Eryon, 
guessed they were nearing the coast of Tharkoon. Andar agreed. 

“I almost could pity the ignorance of these vile savages,” Eryon grunted disdainfully. “Knew they 
aught of sails and rigging, they could have ridden the wind far swifter than by the oars alone.” 

“Aye,” said Andar. “But it is ever the way of savages to pretend contempt for the arts of civilization, 
which they cannot comprehend. It is their way of asserting their own convictions of superiority, in the 
teeth of all evidence to the contrary!” 

“And their navigation!” growled Eryon. “Half a dozen times in the last two days, methought the 
ignorant Hoggur would run the ship aground! Well, our neighbors of Tharkoon will have little to fear 
from even a great fleet, if all other captains of the Horde prove equally bad seamen, which will doubtless 
be the case.” 

“Yes; they are fools to threaten the Wizard of Tharkoon with invasion, even were they the finest of 
seamen,” laughed Andar. “The magical sciences of Prince Parimus will bring them down, which may well 
prove to our advantage.” 


“Perhaps,” Eryon grunted. “Unless the Wizard employs his arts to sink the ships, which means a 
sea-bottom sepulchre for us all; conquered and conqueror alike!” 

“Perhaps,” Eryon grunted. “Unless the Wizard employs his arts to sink the ships, which means a 
sea-bottom sepulchre for us all; conquered and conqueror alike!” 

“Let’s hope so. Think you, lord prince, he will also know you are concealed amongst us, unknown 
to our captors?” 

“Perhaps. But speak no more of this, Eryon, I beg you; do not call me by that title within the hearing 
of our captors.” 

“Your pardon, sire! But the guards sleep at the stair, drunk with wine, and hear us not. There is no 
danger.” 

After these words they slept. But I had learned an interesting bit of information: 

Already I had known that the king of the Komarians died when the horde of blue savages stormed 
the royal citadel. But now I had discovered that the heir to the kingdom, Prince Andar, had concealed 
himself among the nobles and was hidden on this very ship, seeming to his brutal captors but another 
aristocrat. 

Time passed, slowly. When one is chained to the oars, the sheer cumulative fatigue of unremitting 
labor, the degradation of the beslimed, filthy benches, in whose vile squalor we wallowed like beasts, 
tend in time to numb the mind and anaesthetize the soul. One minute–one tour–one day becomes 
indistinguishable from the one that came before, or from the next which follows. But gradually we neared 
the coast, or that part of it which lay under the dominion of the Wizard of Tharkoon. 

Eryon lifted his head, sniffing the salt breeze that came through the oarlock port in the hull. 

“We approach the Reefs of Angzar, my comrades,” be grunted. “Nay, good Klygon; ask me not 
how I can tell. I have sailed this sea all my days in the service of my Lord, the Prince of Komar; even 
through the stench of the hold I can read our position on the wind.” 

“Reefs, you say?” muttered the man chained next to him. “Then by all Gods and Demigods, I pray 
the blue beasts know them not! Let the Barbarians steer us into the very jaws of the reef in their 
ignorance. Let the Xothun founder, her hull crushed to splinters in their stony fangs . . . then will 

I welcome a watery grave, and an end to filth, misery and toil!” 

Andar spoke swiftly, comforting the poor man with words of hope and courage, as was his way. 
And as he did so, my faithful Klygon bent down to whisper in my ear from his place on the bench behind 
my own. 

“Eh, lad, I’ve no taste for drowning! Shall I pick our locks and free us, to make a break for it?” 

The implication of his words froze me into astonishment. 

“Do you mean . . . you can?” I gasped. He grunted that he could. 

“Saints and Avatars, m’boy I spent four-and-twenty years in the House of Gurjan Tor! Think you 
the Assassins’ Guild teach naught but the arts of man-slaying? If the world holds a lock old Klygon 
cannot pick, well, he’s yet to find one.” 

Eryon, seated next to the homely little man, bad caught the import of his whispered words. He 
swore with amazement. 

“What’s that, benchmate? Can you truly pick the cursed locks and free us all?” 

“As easy as steal a coin from a blind man’s purse-beggin’ your pardon, lad! See you this ring in my 
earlobe, friend? ‘Tis cheap copper–worthless as a bauble, which is why yon indigo-skinned heathen 


forebore to take it from me. But in truth, ‘tis not a ring at all, but a length o’ wire bent into a circle. Were 
I but to take it from mine ear and stretch it out straight, there’s not a lock here I could not pick in two 
xoles,” he boasted hoarsely. The interval of time he mentioned was about three minutes, by Earth 
reckoning. 

forebore to take it from me. But in truth, ‘tis not a ring at all, but a length o’ wire bent into a circle. Were 
I but to take it from mine ear and stretch it out straight, there’s not a lock here I could not pick in two 
xoles,” he boasted hoarsely. The interval of time he mentioned was about three minutes, by Earth 
reckoning. 

“There are sixty stout men and true, chained to the oars,” Eryon rumbled. “And each one would 
face Death with a smile, for one chance at freedom!” 

Andar chuckled. “Bare hands have little chance against drawn swords,” he pointed out. “Let us 
wait for the right moment, when the God of Storms fights on our side.” 

“What do you mean?” I asked, puzzled by his cryptic reference. In low, terse phrases he explained 
to me that this part of the Sea of Komar we were entering was dangerous, with sudden rainsqualls at this 
season. Terrific storms blew up without warning, seldom lasting more than fourteen xoles (about thirty 
minutes). When such a squall hit the galleon, he said, the Blue Barbarians would panic, not being by 
nature a sea-faring people; thus, with the diversion of a sudden storm, we could rise against our masters 
at a time when they were off guard, busied with other things. 

“Aye, perhaps so,” muttered Klygon. “But this night I plan to start picking the locks, just in case. 
The Gods I hear tell, help those who help themselves. I’ve no doubt this be true of the God o’ Storms, 
as well!” 

Chapter 4 
THE FATE OF THE SKY-SLED 


I have elsewhere told of the adventures which befell my dear friends, Janchan of Phaolon and Zarqa 
the Kalood, after they fled from the treetop city of Ardha having rescued Niamh the Fair and the 
Goddess Arjala from the burning temple. I told how they were captured by a mysterious race of 
black-skinned men of superhuman beauty and superhuman cruelty, who inhabited a Flying City in the 
sky; it had been built many ages before by Zarqa’s ancestors, now extinct. It has also been explained 
how the race of immortally youthful black men experimented upon human subjects, under the insane 
delusion that the human inhabitants of The World Below were naught but mindless beasts; which, while 
they resembled men and women, were only animals. 

Of course, none of these things were known to me at this time, for Klygon and I had fled from 
Ardha mounted on winged zaiphs like enormous dragonflies; I did not rejoin my comrades until long 
after the events which I have described had transpired. At the time, I had no way of knowing what had 
befallen my dear friends and the beautiful princess of Phaolon, whom I loved. So I must now interpose 
into this narrative an account of their adventures, of which I was then completely ignorant; these details I 
did not learn until long after. 

About the same time that Klygon and I, together with that smooth-tongued traitor who called 
himself Delgan of the Isles, had escaped from the underground cavern-world of the albino troglodytes, 
my friends were also escaping from the clutches of the ebony-skinned rulers for the Flying City. One of 
the black princelings, named Ralidux, had conceived a violent and irresistible passion for Arjala, the 
beauteous Incarnate Goddess of Ardha. To Ralidux, who shared the madness of his race, his passion 
was a bestial, loathsome thing; for he believed Arjala to be only an animal, though one shaped in a 


cunning simulacrum of humanity. The depravity of his lust had driven him completely mad; this had 
provided Zarqa a chink through which to gain mental ascendancy over the black immortal. 

cunning simulacrum of humanity. The depravity of his lust had driven him completely mad; this had 
provided Zarqa a chink through which to gain mental ascendancy over the black immortal. 

Their escape, however, was soon discovered. Armed with curious electrical weapons which 
projected stunning beams of force, the black warriors pursued them through the night. A chance beam 
from one of their weapons struck the aerial vehicle a glancing blow sufficient to disable it temporarily, 
and stunning Zarqa into unconsciousness. Freed from the mind control of the Kalood, Ralidux flew off 
into the darkness, with Arjala and Niamh his helpless captives. 

Now it is appropriate that we follow the adventures of the sky-sled and its hapless riders. 

As Zarqa sprawled across the controls, his arm struck a lever and the vehicle sped off in a giddy 
curve that carried it down into the dense foliage of the sky-tall trees. 

Janchan uttered a warning cry, but it was too late by moments. Had it not been for the restraining 
straps that held them securely, they might all have been flung out when the sky-sled swerved, and fallen 
to a terrible death in the unknown depths below. However, this did not occur. But now they were flying 
blind through pitchy darkness, great pallidly-golden leaves whipping by them. At any moment the 
sky-sled might careen into a branch; and at their present speed such a collision would demolish their 
vehicle, hurling them all to their doom. 

His locks streaming in the wind, Janchan tore away the straps that held him in place and fought his 
way over to the controls. He was forced to crawl on his belly, inch by inch, seeking handholds; for to 
stand erect would mean he could be torn from the sled by the wind. Luckily, the ancient Kaloodha sages 
who had designed the flying craft had foreseen just such an accident; it had been planned for such an 
eventuality. Hand-rings were set at intervals in the floor of the vessel. By means of these, while 
dangerous in the extreme, it was not impossible for a lithe, athletic young man such as he to make his 
way forward. 

Once at the controls, Janchan fumbled for the power lever. When the bolt had struck him and he 
had collapsed across the panel, Zarqa’s arm had accidentally thrust the lever forward as far as it would 
go. The vehicle was now hurtling through the upper foliage of the great trees at full speed, completely out 
of control. Gritting his teeth, Janchan clenched the hand-grip of the lever, pulling it back to slow the flight 
of the craft. 

Unfortunately, however, the Prince of Phaolon was only a novice at the art of flight. Instead of 
bringing the lever back notch by notch, thus slowing the forward thrust of flight gently, he pulled it back 
all the way into the socket. The vehicle halted its flight with such abruptness that he was flung forward, 
striking his head against the crystal wind-shield. He knew no more for a time. 

When he awoke, and came groggily to his senses, he found the old philosopher bending over him, 
bathing his brows with a bit of cloth dampened with water from their canisters. 

“Where are we?” he murmured. “What has happened?” Raising himself on one elbow, he peered 
around at the stupendous vista. 

There were gigantic trees whose boles lifted miles into the silver-misted skies; the maze of 


interlocking branches were broader than six-lane highways, thrusting out in every direction, terminating in 
huge clusters of leaves brilliant as lucent golden foil in the rays of the distant sun. 

interlocking branches were broader than six-lane highways, thrusting out in every direction, terminating in 
huge clusters of leaves brilliant as lucent golden foil in the rays of the distant sun. 

“It is as you can see, Prince Janchan,” the old philosopher said, gesturing about them. Janchan 
blinked bleary eyes and looked again . . . and his heart sank within him. They were caught fast in the 
sticky meshes of a colossal spider-web which stretched between two of the immense trees of the forest. 

Such a fate would have been merely ludicrous on my own distant planet; but here, in the world of 
the giant trees, it was anything but ridiculous. For, on the World of the Green Star, where moths, bees 
and dragonflies grow larger than men, the great predatory spiders who build these titanic webs grow 
larger than elephants. They are more dangerous and deadly than a dozen tigers. 

Janchan looked about, measuring the extent of the web with his eyes. Some of the strands were all 
of five miles long, and were as thick as a ship’s anchor-cable. From past experience, Janchan knew all 
too well the terrible adhesive grip of the sticky web-strands; their incredible toughness was like woven 
nylon cables, very nearly as unbreakable as steel. 

The sky-sled, completely weightless and floating free once he had shut off the power of its thrust, 
cancelling the magnetic waves which energized the craft, had drifted into the grip of the mighty web. 
Janchan knew all too well that even the magnetic force which powered the vehicle would prove 
insufficient to break the grip of those sticky strands; that even the keen edge of sword or dirk or dagger 
would not be able to cut them loose. 

They were hopelessly stuck in the web; here they must wait helpless until the arrival of the 
monstrous spider-thing which had built the web. The brute might well be miles away, he knew; but it 
would be apprised of their presence by the vibrations of the impact, whose tremors would travel along 
the tightly-stretched strands to the spider’s hidden lair. 

The spider might be hours–or merely minutes–away! 

And how does a single man, armed only with a sword, kill something larger than an elephant? 

There were many things to do. But Janchan’s first concern was the condition of Zarqa the Kalood. 

“What of our winged friend?” he inquired anxiously. “Has he stirred?” 

“Alas, I fear not,” sighed Nimbalim of Yoth. The ancient philosopher cast a worried glance at the 
Winged Man, who hung limp and seemingly lifeless in the restraining straps. “He hath not evinced a 
single sign of life since struck by the beam of force. I do not know the strength nor the resources of his 
kind, but the bolt struck with great vigor. I saw the flash of the explosion and the long sparks it cast. 
Perhaps ‘twas but a glancing blow touched him, and not one of killing force.” 

Janchan bent over worriedly to examine the body of the million-year-old Kalood, who was the last 
of his kind. The gaunt, naked, sexless, golden body was slack and motionless. The great purple eyes 
were empty and dull; the huge bat-ribbed, membranous wings lay half-open. He fumbled to find a 
heartbeat, but the tawny integument which clothed the Winged Man in lieu of human skin was leathern 
tough. He could discern no pulse. 

Suddenly the sky-sled quivered as in a gust of wind. But Janchan felt no wind. 

“What was that?” he asked. The philosopher sighed. 

“The tread of many jointed limbs upon the web,” said Nimbalim gloomily. “The spider is coming . . . 
” 


Chapter 5 
MAN OVERBOARD! 


When night fell over the World of the Green Star, the pirate-savages let down the anchor. Knowing 
little of the science of navigation, they feared to sail under cover of darkness lest they stray from their 
course. Being ignorant and superstitious Barbarians, they believed the hours of darkness were under the 
dominion of demons, monsters and evil spirits, whose malignant attention might be attracted to a moving 
vessel. 

Hence, every night, we slumbered at our oars after being fed by our captors. The barzabang, or 
“stroke-master,” slept by his drum at the foot of the stairwell leading to the upper deck. Two armed 
guards slumbered there as well, to ward the exit. The Blue Barbarians had little fear that the galley-slaves 
would escape from their chains, so the. two guards were permitted to doze. 

That very night, once the guards had partaken of their nightly wine and fallen into a sodden slumber, 
we feigned sleep while the wily Klygon removed his ear-ring and pulled it out into a length of wire some 
eight or nine inches long. Then while we masked his actions from the glance of any guard who might stir 
to wakefulness, he inserted one end of the stiff wire into the keyhole of the lock and began deftly probing 
the mechanism to discover its configurations. 

Each slave on a bench was fastened to the same chain, which was looped through a ring worn upon 
the right ankle. The end of the chain was locked securely to a heavy metal ring at the end of each bench. 
This meant that Klygon had only to pick one lock in order to set free an entire benchful of slaves. There 
were twelve benches in the hold, to each of which five slaves were tethered. 

We waited, breathless with suspense, while his gnarled yet subtle fingers probed delicately at the 
inner mechanism of the lock. Using the wire he made a slight metallic sound from time to time; but this 
sound would not easily be detected. There are many sounds aboard a ship at sea–the creaking of worn 
timbers, the squeal of winches, the distant calls of the watch, the occasional rasp of sandal-leather on the 
deck above our heads. In truth, the snoring of our guards alone would be enough to drown out the slight 
rasp, clink and clattering sound made by Klygon’s pick. 

The suspense was well-nigh unendurable. It was all the worse for me, who waited in blind 
darkness, unable even to watch the careful tinkering of those gnarled and knotted fingers. At length, one 
click sounded louder than all the rest, and my companions began to breathe again. By this I gathered, 
and correctly, that the lock was open. 

Freeing himself from the chain, Klygon crept from his place on the bench to kneel between my 
knees while he opened the lock of my chain. Then, bench by bench, lock by lock, the agile little assassin 
made his way the length of the hold. Well before dawn lit the misty skies of the World of the Green Star, 
every slave chained to the oars of the Xothun was a free man. 

Only the awe in which Prince Andar was held by his lords and nobles prevented them from arising 
to attack the pirate crew, once their chains were broken. Klygon regained his place at the bench behind 
me and rechained himself to the oar. To the untutored eye, I assume the locks must have looked secure 
enough, for as we rowed the Xothun that day no hue and cry was raised against us. The guards that 
paced the aisle between the rows of benches, industriously plying their whips upon the naked backs and 
shoulders of the oarsmen, had no slightest inkling that the men they lashed were not chained but–free! 

“Courage, and patience, my friends!” Andar said, as men groaned beneath the lash. We bit our lips 


and put our backs into the oars while the Xothun glided on through the choppy waves. 

and put our backs into the oars while the Xothun glided on through the choppy waves. 

The wind is rising . . . 

The whisper ran among us like a fire among dry brush. We strained our ears, there in the echoing, 
noisome darkness of the hold. And it was true; above the booming of the stroke-master’s drum, the 
groan of timbers, the thin song of the whip, we could hear the eerie whistle of wind in the rigging. Well 
before mid-day, darkness fell suddenly–a darkness split by livid flares of lightning. Rain began pelting 
against the deck above our heads. 

The storm was upon us now, howling like a banshee. The galleon wallowed sluggishly in the choppy 
sea. Waves battered against the hull; the ship came about heavily into the wind. From the deck above 
there came to our ears the shriek of rending timbers, followed by the crash of a fallen mast. A chorus of 
yells came from the frightened, bewildered blue savages, who had never before experienced the terrors 
of a sudden squall. 

Hoggur’s loud voice rose above the rest, spluttering oaths, cursing viciously, summoning his men to 
clear away the wreckage and lend their backs to the wheel, to bring the ship’s prow about into the wind. 
The two Barbarians who guarded the stairwell snatched up their weapons and went clattering up the 
wooden stair; none but the stroke-master was left to guard us. 

“Now!” cried Andar in a ringing voice. “For Komar, and freedom!” 

“Komar! Komar! And–Andar!” roared Lord Eryon in stentorian tones. Suddenly the slaves were 
on their feet, stripping away their chains, swarming down from the benches to charge up the stair. 

The burly stroke-master cried out once before he vanished under a hurtling mass of men. His 
cutlass went flying. Prince Andar snatched it up, brandishing it, and led the charge up the stair to the 
decks. 

“Come, lad,” breathed Klygon at my side. “This way!” I followed him the length of the hold, 
staggering with every pitch of the Xothun as she shuddered under the hammering of the waves. Up the 
coiling stairs, I climbed, slipping and stumbling. And then–fresh, wet air blew in my face. I forgot the vile 
stench of offal and the stinging degradation of the lash in the sudden heady exultation of freedom 

Freedom! If there is a sweeter word in all the languages of the many worlds on the Universe, I have 
yet to hear it. And only the man who has been a slave, grovelling under the brutal lash, can know its full 
meaning. 

All about me, men cursed hoarsely, or cried out in pain; they struggled like maddened beasts on the 
pitching deck, pitting bare hands against naked blades. But I saw none of it, in the perpetual darkness of 
my blindness. How my palms itched for the comforting feel of a sword-hilt! How my heart lusted for the 
sight of red blood spurting from the flesh of my enemies, as my blade thrust deep into their hearts! All 
about me, my fellow-slaves fought for their freedom and died for it, but I–I could do nothing! For a man 
who cannot even see his enemy, can hardly fight him . . . 

The storm was rising now. Deafening peals of thunder drowned out the hoarse shouts, curses and 
shrill cries of battling men. I could not see the chaos of the deck, nor the wild waste of waters, nor the 
fury of the storm. But stinging gusts of wind lashed me as I clung to the rail; in no time I was drenched 
from head to foot by the icy waters of the great waves that rose above the rail to break against our hull, 
sluicing the deck. 

I heard the clear tenor of Andar’s voice ringing above the riot, shouting words of encouragement, 
whipping the hearts of his men to ever more desperate and daring deeds, as he cried out the ancient and 
hallowed rallying-cries of Komar. Would that I could have stood beside him in that hour, a sword 
clenched in my strong right hand, battling with the gallant Prince for victory and freedom! Alas, a blind 


boy is of little use in any battle 

boy is of little use in any battle 

I sprang to my feet and leaped upon him, as a slender puma leaps upon a massive buffalo. My 
hands fumbled at his breast–rose and locked about his burly throat. He cursed and spat; more surprised, 
I think, than alarmed. For why should the giant warrior have feared the hands of a half-naked, whipped 
and beaten, starved and scrawny blind boy; for such I must have seemed to him, who knew not that the 
slim body of the boy Kam held the spirit of Chong, that mighty champion, the hero of a hundred battles. 

His balled fists smashed against my face and sides, but I clung to him, tenacious as a tiger; my 
fingers sank into his fat throat like steel hooks. Not for nothing had I drunk of the Elixir of Light in the 
enchanted palace of Sarchimus the magician, gaining the strength and vigor of many men! Not for 
nothing had I toiled and sweated at the heavy oars for all these days of unremitting labor; my lean thews 
and sinews had toughened to living steel from the back-breaking labor. 

Now his hoarse curses turned to strangled gasps of fear and his burly chest rose, straining for air. 
My fingers sank like the talons of some merciless bird of prey into his puffy, swollen flesh; throttling the 
life from him, I was oblivious to the rain of blows he battered upon me. I was conscious of nothing–not 
of pain or peril–all I knew was that my hands had settled about the throat of my enemy. Only death–his 
death, or mine own–would loosen the rigor of my grip upon his gullet. 

Then a great wave broke over me, startlingly cold, waking me from my berserk fury. I became 
aware that the thing I clutched and crushed between my hands resisted me no more, but dangled limp 
and lifeless in my grasp. Hoggur the Barbarian was no more; I had conquered! 

Thus it was that, blind though I might be, I played my small part in the freeing of the Xothun and the 
victory of Prince Andar, my friend. 

I opened my stiff, aching fingers and let the dead thing fall from my hands. The carcass slid over the 
wet deck to the stair. In a livid flash of lightning, men saw the corpse of Hoggur and the blind boy 
crouched above it, his lips peeled back from his teeth in the mirthless grin of a fighting-man. A great cry 
went up that Hoggur was slain and the Blue Barbarians were leaderless. I heard the ringing tones of 
Andar claiming the victory for Karn. And I was Karn, and had fought in the battle that won freedom for 
the Komarian slaves. 

And then a great, mighty wave broke against the hull and the galleon keeled over at a sickening tilt. 
I was thrown against the rail, which broke away. 

The next thing I felt was the icy waters of the Sea of Komar closing about me and I sank like a 
stone. And that was the last thing I knew. 

Part II 


THE BOOK OF RALIDUX THE MALE 


Chapter 6 
ISLE OF THE ANCIENT ONES 


Through the impenetrable darkness of the night the mighty blue wings of the immense hawk-like 
bird had borne the black superman, Ralidux, with the two women who were his helpless captives. Ever 
since the bolt of electric fire had struck Zarqa the Kalood into death or unconsciousness, thus freeing 
him from the control of an alien mind, the ebon princeling had given the hawk its head. 

It might fly where it wished, for aught he cared. He could no longer return to dwell among his 
brethren in the Flying City for now it was known that he, Ralidux, had conceived an atrocious lust for a 
lesser being. This depraved passion, his fellow immortals of the Flying City of Calidar viewed with an 
abhorrence verging on horror; even as you or I might view a member of our own species so maddened 
with lust as to desire copulating with an animal. 

To the distorted intellect of Ralidux, the surface of the world was a savage wilderness inhabited only 
by beasts. The only oasis of civilized men known to him was the Flying City itself. He must choose, 
therefore, between exile in a savage wilderness or the swift extermination by his horrified brethren, were 
he foolish enough to return to the Flying City. 

It was, therefore, a matter of no importance to him where the blue-winged zawkaw bore him. Life 
from now on was to be a brutal, degraded existence in a hideous hell of noisome beasts, where he must 
dwell until death, forever deprived of the comforts of converse and companionship of his kind. 

Were it possible for his fevered, disordered intellect to shrug off the red mists of madness which 
now blinded it, he might have recalled the discovery whose horrendous implications had driven him over 
the brink of sanity. That was, quite simply, that the man-shapen “beasts” who inhabited The World 
Below were not beasts at all; they were human creatures like himself, with the divine gifts of reason and 
coherent speech, and a high civilization of their own. The exquisite creature he held clasped against his 
powerful black breast was no beast, but a woman; the other half of the human species which his purely 
masculine civilization considered legendary, since their females had died out ages before. 

Had he realized the implications of this discovery, he might have understood that the desire he felt 
for the beautiful young woman who lay panting and helpless in his arms was no ghastly, unholy lust at all. 
It was merely the normal human desire of male for female–a physical desire his insane, immortal brethren 
had ruthlessly repressed for untold centuries. This repression had in part contributed to their common 
madness. 

His arms tightened about the lissome creature he held. His nostrils tasted the warm, perfumed odor 
of her floating hair; and he was very conscious of the delicately rounded smoothness of the silken, 
half-naked, voluptuous body he held against him. It was almost worth it, to have lost the companionship 
of his kind and his own self-respect, to be able to vent his lusts at leisure upon the lovely, desirable 
creature whose charms had inexplicably enslaved his soul. 


He blinked through his wild, disordered, feverish dreams. Day had come up over the edges of the 
world, while he had flown onward in a stupor. Beneath him there now glistened an immense expanse of 
open waters, with scattered small islands clad in jungle verdure amidst them. Such a phenomenon was 
unknown to him or to the annals of his civilization; but he regarded the vast, land-locked sea with 
complete indifference. To his mad brain, one part of the world was no different than another. All places 
in The World Below were equally savage and untamed. 

He blinked through his wild, disordered, feverish dreams. Day had come up over the edges of the 
world, while he had flown onward in a stupor. Beneath him there now glistened an immense expanse of 
open waters, with scattered small islands clad in jungle verdure amidst them. Such a phenomenon was 
unknown to him or to the annals of his civilization; but he regarded the vast, land-locked sea with 
complete indifference. To his mad brain, one part of the world was no different than another. All places 
in The World Below were equally savage and untamed. 

Ralidux climbed stiffly from the saddle, lifting down the sleeping Goddess of Ardha. She had passed 
from panic to uncaring lassitude, and from thence to a fitful and exhausted slumber during the long 
nightmare of her abduction by the ebon madman. 

Ralidux neither knew nor cared what his other captive might do. His entire being was concentrated 
on the object of his desires. Cradling the unconscious Goddess in his arms, he left his winged steed 
untended, and entered the jungle. 

Niamh the Fair slid from the saddle to the greensward and lay there numbly for a time. The 
disastrous and tragic turn of events which had turned their escape into yet another nightmare of captivity, 
separating her forever (as she supposed) from her friends and former comrades, left her dazed and 
apathetic. She had seen the sparkling bolt of force that struck the sky-sled; she had watched with horror 
as the crippled craft swerved into the foliage of the great trees, careening crazily; even if Prince Janchan, 
Zarqa the Kalood and the aged philosopher, Nimbalim, had not died when the bolt struck their craft, 
surely their death had followed swiftly when the craft had crashed into the trees. 

She was now completely alone and friendless, as she bad been once before; before her eyes, the 
mighty form of her hero and lover, the great champion Chong, had been struck down by a traitor’s blow 
during their desperate escape from the Secret City. If anything, her present situation was even more 
desperate and completely hopeless. So far had she wandered, that she had not the slightest idea in which 
part of the world she now was. Wherever she was, surely she was thousands of leagues from her own 
city of Phaolon. Even the wise old sage of her court, Khin-nom, had not known of the existence of this 
mysterious, unknown sea. 

Even worse, she was on a savage jungle isle; at the mercies of a depraved maniac who regarded 
her and her companion as mindless beasts, formed in a weird mockery of humanity; to be ruthlessly 
disposed of at will. Her situation was precarious and replete with perils. 

Rousing herself from her despondency, the resourceful girl determined to explore the jungle. 
Perhaps she might find a hiding-place wherein she might seclude herself against discovery; or perhaps 
within the lush verdure she hoped to stumble upon some manner of weapon with which to defend herself 
against the fury of Ralidux. 

She stepped into the dense growth of brush which grew at the jungle’s edge and vanished from 
view. 

Ralidux bore the unconscious Arjala into the gloom of the jungle aisles. Although he had never 
before seen such surroundings as these, having spent the interminable centuries of his immortality in the 
synthetic environment of the Flying City, he wasted scarcely a single glance on the wild, untamed 
vegetation through which he progressed. 

His entire being was concentrated upon the voluptuous form of the helpless young woman he held 
clasped against his breast. The last vestiges of reason had deserted the black immortal by now: lust 
blazed up within him, consuming his last tenuous grip on his sanity as if in a conflagration. 


The wall of trees parted, revealing a dim glade and a limpid pool whose cool, fresh, crystalline 
waters bubbled up from hidden springs. Depositing his limp burden on the grassy margin of this pool, he 
bent, dampened the hem of his garment in the chill waters, and began bathing the face of the unconscious 
woman. 

The wall of trees parted, revealing a dim glade and a limpid pool whose cool, fresh, crystalline 
waters bubbled up from hidden springs. Depositing his limp burden on the grassy margin of this pool, he 
bent, dampened the hem of his garment in the chill waters, and began bathing the face of the unconscious 
woman. 

Trees she had known had soared into the heavens like god-built pillars supporting the sky. But 
these trees that ringed the glade where she lay were curiously dwarfed, rising to merely two or three 
times the height of a full-grown man. And what were these peculiar ruins that lay strewn about, 
half-buried under roots and bushes? Never had she heard of cities built of stone. In the treetop regions 
where her race customarily made its abode, deposits of stone were unknown. The cities of the Laonese 
were made of crystals–a tough, resilient material derived from the sap of the sky-tall trees among whose 
upper branches the cities of her race were built. 

But as a priestess of the Inner Temple, as an Initiate of the Secret Mysteries, she was privy to 
certain antique lore preserved by the priestly scribes and archivists. Thus, she recognized certain of the 
stony glyphs as the work of a prehistoric race whose origins were shrouded in mystery, as was their 
eventual doom; a race her people held in the highest degree of awe, and whom they knew only as “the 
Ancient Ones.” 

She half-rose from her recumbent position to examine the enigmatic ruins more closely. Then it was 
that her wandering gaze fell upon the magnificent form of the half-naked black Calidarian. He stood 
motionless as an eidolon of jet, watching her lissome movements with eyes of cold yet burning 
quicksilver-eye within which there blazed no spark of pity or humanity–eyes fierce with unholy hunger 
and with the pure frenzy of desire. 

It was Ralidux! So she had not dreamt it all, but was still at the mercies of the mad immortal who 
had conceived a consuming passion for her loveliness! 

She fell back on the cushion of the sward, half-faint at her discovery. As she did so, a mad lust 
flared up in the immobile features of the Skyman and he sprang upon her as a wild beast springs upon his 
shrinking prey. 

Chapter 7 
ALTAR OF THE SERPENT-GOD 


Even as had Arjala, Niamh marvelled at the strangeness of the jungle foliage. That trees should 
grow so small seemed to her both wondrous and inexplicable. Still and all, this was a portion of the 
world thoroughly unknown to her and her kind; it was perhaps only natural that in such strange regions 
nature should adopt forms other than those familiar to her. 


She wondered at brilliant flowers like jungle orchids, that grew in a variety of hues bewildering and 
bizarre-flame orange, virulent scarlet, cat’s-eye yellow–and at blossoms striped, speckled and mottled 
with patches of velvety black. Their heady odor intoxicated her senses, even as she exclaimed in 
astonishment over their smallness. The blossoms known to her, that grew wild upon the mighty boughs 
of the towering trees, were often the size of mature humans. True, in the roofed gardens of Phaolon, 
horticulturists had bred flowers as minutely small as these through patient cultivation and grafting; but to 
find such miniscule flowers blossoming in the jungle was startling to her. 

She wondered at brilliant flowers like jungle orchids, that grew in a variety of hues bewildering and 
bizarre-flame orange, virulent scarlet, cat’s-eye yellow–and at blossoms striped, speckled and mottled 
with patches of velvety black. Their heady odor intoxicated her senses, even as she exclaimed in 
astonishment over their smallness. The blossoms known to her, that grew wild upon the mighty boughs 
of the towering trees, were often the size of mature humans. True, in the roofed gardens of Phaolon, 
horticulturists had bred flowers as minutely small as these through patient cultivation and grafting; but to 
find such miniscule flowers blossoming in the jungle was startling to her. 

It loomed above the dwarfish tangle of the trees, walls of crumbling, sculptured stone bedizened 
with weird and curious ornamentation. Stone faces leered and grinned above the lintels of door, gate and 
window; faces with fanged maws or cruel beaks instead of mouths, with bulging, inhuman brows 
crowned with sharp horns, or curling locks like serpents. Some had two eyes, some three or four or 
seven; some bore but one glaring organ amidst their brows, which stared cycloptically down at the 
wondering girl. 

Niamh, too, was an Initiate of the Secret Mysteries. She knew something of the lore of that 
vanished race, rumored to have existed on the extremities of the planet during its youth. They had been 
contemporaries of the Winged Ones, of the Kaloodha, of Zarqa’s long-extinct people, had the 
mysterious Ancient Ones. Alone among the many denizens of the World of the Green Star, they had 
built their habitations upon the surface of the planet, rather than aloft amidst the branches of the gigantic 
trees. 

A flight of stone steps rose steeply from the floor of the jungle to the threshold of the carven gate, 
which yawned blackly open. Vines and lianas shrouded the bottom-most steps, and dead leaves were 
blown into the corners of the stairs. Time had pried apart the stones whereof the stairs were built, and 
saplings grew amidst the steps, thrusting the stones awry. 

Niamh ascended the stairs with trepidation and lingered, hesitantly, upon the threshold of the 
Temple, peering within. She could discern nothing of the interior, whose depths were hidden from her 
searching gaze by densest gloom. 

She resolved to enter and discover what lay within. The isle seemed uninhabited, singularly deserted 
by wildlife of any kind. In all her exploration of the jungle she had yet to come upon the slightest trace of 
any beast. The creatures known to her were the tree-dwelling dragon lizards, the winged moths and 
dragonflies of the vast, sky-tall forest; and such creatures would be unlikely to dwell here in the jungles 
of the isle. But she sensed a curious tranquility about the jungle, a mood of peacefulness which 
enveloped the isle; she felt somehow that whatever the hidden dangers the place held, she had nothing to 
fear from predators. 

She stepped within and was swallowed up in the fathomless darkness. Within the next few 
moments, however, her eyes adjusted and gradually, objects began to be visible in the black depths of 
the Temple. She wandered the length of a stone-paved hall, staring up at monstrous idols which grinned 
or beckoned or menaced; they lifted numerous hands whose claws, fingers, paws or pincers clasped 
stony artifacts which doubtless represented the attributes of power of these unknown divinities. 

Some of these were stone flowers, skulls, wheels and keys; others seemed to represent stylized 
thunderbolts, swords, axes and other weapons of curious design. The stone gods sat enthroned, or 
squatted tailor-fashion, or were coiled about the tops of pedestals. Far above her head, twisting marble 
columns rose to support a lofty dome which had survived the depredations of time in a remarkable state 
of preservation. 

The utter stillness of the Temple, which was broken only by the shuddering echoes of her sandals as 
they scraped upon the tesselated pavement, together with the ominous darkness of the vast hall, were 


awesome to the girl. Her skin crept to the rustle of echoes. She fancied that the glaring stone eyes of the 
row of monstrous and deformed godlings followed her timid progress with sentient, knowing gaze. The 
fixed and glaring orbs seemed to gloat down upon her, as if they knew some terrible and tremendous 
secret whose existence she did not guess. 

awesome to the girl. Her skin crept to the rustle of echoes. She fancied that the glaring stone eyes of the 
row of monstrous and deformed godlings followed her timid progress with sentient, knowing gaze. The 
fixed and glaring orbs seemed to gloat down upon her, as if they knew some terrible and tremendous 
secret whose existence she did not guess. 

Whatever furniture, tools or utensils the vast pile of masonry had once contained had either lapsed 
to dust with the passage of innumerable ages, or had been carried off by the Ancient Ones themselves. 
They had deserted this island, giving over their stone shrine to the dominion of the jungle. 

She resolved to retrace her steps, hoping to see the open, wholesome sunlight once again. The 
darkness, the shuddering silence, and the brooding monstrosities of hideous stone were beginning to 
prey upon her nerves. She found herself starting nervously at every sound, even though she knew it to be 
only the echo of her own footsteps. She caught herself peering over her shoulder, looking behind her into 
the menacing gloom in wary apprehension. Her skin crept upon her bare forearms; her firm adolescent 
breasts rose and fell with the quickness of her breath, while her heart thudded against her ribs. 

She felt the icy breath of fear against the back of her neck. But every time she turned quickly to 
look behind her–nothing was to be seem 

She was afraid: but there was nothing here to be afraid of. Or, at least, there was nothing which she 
could see or hear. Was it some unknown or dormant sense within her, somehow detecting the approach 
of danger, which strove to alarm her to flight? She did not know; but suddenly the quiet jungle, the open 
air and streaming sunlight beyond the dark portal seemed very desirable to her. She wished mightily to 
be gone from this place of cold stone, dead silence and pervasive, haunted gloom. 

Just then, she caught a glimpse of a peculiar structure the gloom had previously concealed from her. 
It must be the secret altar of the mysterious shrine; the shadowy abode of the nameless god whom the 
Ancient Ones had worshipped here, long ages ago. 

It was a very strange altar; naught but a flight of circular steps leading to a dais. In the center of that 
dais a deep well was sunken; before that well, two stone pillars had been raised, with stone rings at their 
tops. Looking at this strange sight, Niamh shivered suddenly; it was almost as if the unknown builders 
had raised those pillars before the well so that a human sacrifice could be bound between the pillars, the 
wrists chained to the two stone rings. 

She ascended the stone steps to the top of the dais to investigate this weird altar; her former fears 
were forgotten in the impulse of curiosity. 

The pillars were sculpted to represent leering, goggle-eyed faces, one atop the other. She noticed 
without really comprehending it, that the cavern eyes of these frightful faces were fixed to stare down at 
something in the depths of the well. 

Cautious of a misstep, the Princess of Phaolon approached the rim of the well and peered down. 
She could see nothing of whatever lay concealed in the darkness at the bottom of the well, but she did 
not believe it held water. The odor which arose from below was a sour, musky stench, very different 
from the putrid smell of scummed, stagnant water. 

As she turned to go, her sandal accidentally dislodged a bit of broken stone from the very brink. 
This fragment fell into the well. She lingered warily, but there came to her ears no sound of a splash 
when the rock reached bottom. 

A moment later, there came to her ears a most peculiar sussurration. A hiss, like that of escaping 
gas. This was followed by a dry rasping, as if some moving thing was scraping against the stone sides of 


the well . . . as if something was crawling or gliding swiftly up the throat of the well . . . 

the well . . . as if something was crawling or gliding swiftly up the throat of the well . . . 

The silent, motionless row of carven gods or devils watched her go, and smiled to themselves their 
timeless, graven smiles. 

At the threshold she paused momentarily in her flight, and turned to look behind. Never could she 
recall what had impelled her to take that final backwards look. 

As she stared back into the darkness, her eyes widened until the whites could be clearly seen all 
around the pupils. 

The pallidly golden tint of her skin whitened with stark terror. The hairs stiffened and lifted on the 
nape of her neck, as the hackles of a beast rise when it senses danger. 

Her features became strained and contorted into a mask of horror. She shoved her knuckles against 
her lips, as if trying to stifle the scream that rose from within her. 

Then she shrieked–a desperate, wailing cry of unbelieving horror. She turned to flee from the 
pursuit of the monstrous thing she had glimpsed moving behind her in the darkness of the ancient building 
. . . 

Chapter 8 
NAKED FANGS 


The Goddess Arjala lay helplessly pinned against the greensward, clasped in the powerful arms of 
the ebon princeling from the Flying City. His weird quicksilver eyes flamed with unholy lust as he 
covered her upturned face with panting kisses. 

The Goddess writhed in his arms, resisting him with every ounce of strength her lithe body 
possessed. But it was useless, she realized with growing horror. He was far stronger than she, and the 
impulse of his tumultuous desire was irresistible. No matter how strenuously she strove to fight him off, 
the black immortal would overcome her. 

Arjala had experienced much that was new to her since Zarqa and Janchan had carried her off, 
while attempting to rescue the Princess of Phaolon. Reared in an atmosphere of seductive luxury, her 
most idle whim was absolute law; the Ardhanese priestess and vessel of the Goddess was thoroughly 
unaccustomed to having her wishes ignored or even flouted. But since the sky-sled had borne her off 
into the night, she had been angered, insulted, and ordered about; it was as if she were a person of no 
consequence, instead of being the most powerful woman in her realm. 

The ultimate indignity, however, had been suffered at the hands of the black immortal, Ralidux, and 
others of his kind. 

For in the Flying City, Arjala had been subjected to the most abhorrent, obscene degradation of all, 
that of slavery. She had been stripped, poked and prodded about; tested, weighed and measured like 
some animal in an experimental laboratory. 

And now, the affront supreme! For the black madman meant to force his virility upon her, against 
her will. There could be no more horrendous insult than this. As the realization spread throughout her, 
the Goddess forgot her fears in a rising tide of rage that welled up within her and exploded in a spasm of 


fury that even Ralidux had not expected. 

fury that even Ralidux had not expected. 

Right now, however, Ralidux was not amused. He was, in fact, trembling with furious frustration. 
The sudden spurt of anger within her breast had turned the Goddess into a spitting tiger-cat, all claws 
and screams. 

With one hand free of the clutches of Ralidux, Arjala did her best to claw out his quicksilver eyes. 
The best she could manage to do, however, was to rip raw and jagged furrows down his face, scoring it 
from brow to chin. Hot blood spurted under her tearing nails; stung, Ralidux howled, clapped one hand 
to his torn face, and the struggling young woman scrambled free of him. 

She fled into the jungle in the next instant, vanishing into the gloom between the trees. He staggered 
to his feet, snarling curses, the blood leaking down his face and dribbling between his fingers. Her nails 
as they raked his face had narrowly missed his left eye, by perhaps a third of an inch. 

Possessed by maniacal rage, Ralidux did not pause even to bathe his wounds in the pool amid the 
glade; he plunged into the jungle after the girl. The green gloom swallowed him up, and the glade was 
empty; there was no sign that man had even breeched its secluded solitude, save for a scrap or two of 
cloth torn from Arjala’s garb and the blood of Ralidux that wet the crushed grass like some ghastly 
scarlet dew. 

Arjala had not the slightest notion of where she was going, but hurtled in headlong flight through the 
twisting, crossing aisles of the jungle. In a few minutes she emerged from the edge of the jungle into the 
sunlight of open day. Pausing for a moment in her flight, the girl looked about her dazedly, so as to 
ascertain her position. 

By some quirk of fate, she had emerged at the same point she had entered the jungle earlier. There 
before her was the immense blue hawk-like bird, resting upon a fallen log. The saddle upon its back was 
empty. 

In her present state, the mind of Arjala was out of control. Sheer instinct impelled her now; and to 
see was to act. The giant bird represented to her dazed, outraged thoughts the opportunity for escape; 
her chance for freedom from a situation which was intolerable to one with her sense of self-importance 
and queenliness. 

Without a moment’s hesitation, she quickly ran across the level space where the bird squatted 
wearily. In her proper mind, she would have been timid of the immense raptor and wary of its uncertain 
domestication; but in her current hysteria, it did not even occur to her that the bird might resist her if she 
mounted the capacious saddle strapped about its breast at the base of its neck. 

As for the great hunting-hawk, it eyed her curiously, turning its fierce orange eye upon the 
half-naked girl. But it made no objection to being mounted and would indeed have responded to her 
picking up the reins, and flown away with her, even in its wearied condition. 

This action, however, Arjala did not take. A voice hailed her from the edge of the jungle. 

Terror flashed in the liquid jewels of her beautiful eyes and she turned slowly to see which of her 
companions was accosting her–the madman whom she loathed and hungered to slay, or the rival 
princess for whom she had scant liking. 

With eyes wide with unbelieving horror, Niamh the Fair stared behind her into the darkness of the 
Temple. 


Up from the black well atop the altar dais slithered the hideous length of an enormous serpent. Its 
eyes of soulless flame glared through the darkness as if to mesmerize the Princess. 

Up from the black well atop the altar dais slithered the hideous length of an enormous serpent. Its 
eyes of soulless flame glared through the darkness as if to mesmerize the Princess. 

The girl had heard of such creatures, which seldom climbed to the height of the jewel-box cities 
built high in the sky-tall trees and were, for that reason, so rare as to be considered mythological. It was 
known as the Ssalith; and such were the traits of cunning and ferocity the monster serpents displayed, 
they were feared even by the terrible sea dragons and the fearsome ythids of the upper regions. 

Pale and trembling with horror, Niamh fled from the approach of the Ssalith. Down the crumbling 
stone stair she fled on white nimble feet, darting into the jungle. 

On her very heels the gigantic serpent poured its scaly and sinuous length out of the yawning portal 
of the Temple and down the carven stair, its jaws grinning open, scarlet tongue flickering, tasting the air. 

Soundless as a shadow it glided into the jungle and, in a few moments, had vanished within. 

Ralidux plunged through the bushes, oblivious of the branches that whipped his bloody face; 
ignoring the bite of sawing-edged leaves as they snatched and tore at his thighs and legs. 

He sought the girl who fled before him with a single devouring compulsion which gnawed at the 
citadel of his sanity. The girl would be his or he would perish in her pursuit: naught else in all the world 
mattered to him now but to exhaust the burning lust which tormented him, upon her helpless body. 

He was by now wholly mad. His superhumanly beautiful face was transformed into a horrible visage 
of naked fury. The severe, classic composure that had made his features as perfect and immobile as 
those of a superb sculpture had been shattered to rage. His eyes blazed like mad stars of silver fire in the 
raw and bloody ruin of his snarling face. 

Suddenly the aisle before him was filled with a gliding, serpentine bulk. He paused in his headlong 
flight. Scenting fresh blood, the head of the monstrous Ssalith swung about. 

Before it stood an unarmed naked man, streaming with gore. The giant serpent was hungry, enraged 
and eager for the kill. Its tiny brain could only contain one thought at a time; hence, it forgot the fleeing 
girl and lunged for this new delicacy which fate had thrust into its path. 

With the Ssalith, to see was to strike. The hideous blunt-nosed head thrust for Ralidux like a bolt of 
lightning. Jaws lined with curved fangs the length of cavalry sabers now gaped wide. Uttering its war-cry, 
a deep-throated, thunderous hiss, the monster serpent struck! 

Fear lent wings to the flashing legs of Niamh the Fair. Like a frightened deer she sped through the 
gloom of the silent jungle, emerging suddenly into the full light of day. 

Before her was spread the grassy plain on which they had alighted from their hawk-like steed; 
beyond stretched a tawny beach and the open sea. 

The hawk was still there. So was Arjala! 

Crying out for her to wait, Niamh sprinted forward. Arjala turned a furious, tear-stained face in her 
direction. Her eyes were raging and wild, like those of a beast. She snatched at the reins without a word. 
The zawkaw spread its vast wings and beat the air with a sound like drumming thunder. And started to 
rise! 

Niamh, almost by Arjala’s side, now watched as the blue hawk began to ascend. She sprang into 


the air, a lithe leap with all the strength and agility of her long legs. 

the air, a lithe leap with all the strength and agility of her long legs. 

The hawk rose a hundred yards into the sunlit air, and circled out over the sparkling waters of the 

sea. With the Princess of Phaolon dangling by one hand from the stirrup, her heels kicking at empty air! 

Chapter 9 
FLAME FOR FREEDOM 


The thick, sticky strands of the enormous web trembled ever so slightly. Somewhere in the vast 
system of taut, interlocking cables, the great spider crouched like a malignant thing, waiting . . . waiting. 

Waiting for something to land and become entangled in the huge net it had spun with slow, patient 
labor. 

As the sky-sled had just become entangled! 

Now, sensing the entanglement of some flying creature, the huge spider woke from its trance. 
Tasting the air with huge, hairy feelers, the crouching brute expanded its stalk-like, jointed legs. Behind 
the hideous, chitinous mask of its face was a brain; cold, calculating and emotionless it estimated the 
precise location of the entangled thing and its post position in the tremendous web which hung between 
two of the great trees. 

Dappled sunlight glistened on the armored legs as the vast bulk of the spider shifted. The light of the 
Green Star sparkled on the crab-like chitin, which had an oily sheen. The rays that filtered down through 
immense leaves flashed in the great orbs of the compound eyes. Legs thrust out, clenching the sticky 
web-strand; now the immense spider stood, balanced on the swaying cable. 

In the next moment it was moving along, claw over claw with a sidewise, scuttling motion; down the 
length of the anchor-cable in the direction of the foreign object whose abrupt impingement in the 
tightly-strung web had disturbed it from its waiting somnolence. 

At some considerable distance from the rapidly-moving spider, the Prince of Phaolon and the 
ancient philosopher were attempting to revive their comrade, Zarqa the Kalood. 

The inhumanly gaunt, golden-skinned creature had fallen forward over the control panel of the 
sky-sled, striking his bulging and hairless brow against the inner rim of the crystal windshield. They could 
discern no heartbeat nor pulse within his body; however, the faint traces of a shallow, ragged respiration 
they could detect. It was this token that life yet flickered within the body of the Winged Man that gave 
them hope. Thus, they persevered in their attempt to revive Zarqa. 

Nimbalim of Yoth had dampened a bit of cloth torn from the hem of his robe and with this was 
bathing the brow of the Kalood. Janchan of Phaolon was rubbing the gaunt, skeletal wrists and chafing 
the forearms of the winged giant, hoping to restore his circulation. 

Within a few moments their attempts at resuscitation were crowned with success. The immense 
purple eyes of the Winged Man opened and he stared about him vaguely. They gave him water mixed 
with wine to drink; he partook lightly of the beverage, coughed, and seemed stronger. 

My dear friends! .. . What has occurred? Where are we, and why is the vehicle no longer in motion? 

The cool whisper of alien thoughts within his own brain was an uncanny sensation, and one still 
novel enough to cause the old philosopher to shiver slightly. But Janchan was by now well accustomed 


to the Kalood’s telepathic mode of communication and hence, it did not disturb him as it did the Yothian. 

to the Kalood’s telepathic mode of communication and hence, it did not disturb him as it did the Yothian. 

Luckily, it was but a glancing blow, Zarqa smiled. And the bulk of it was absorbed by the 
wind-crystal, which thus deflected most of the bolt. Otherwise I might easily have been slain . . . but I 
fear that my swoon has caused me to lose my control over the mind of Ralidux! This means that he is 
now in command of his wits. Our two female companions in adventure are completely at his mercies . . . 

So swiftly had things been happening, and so concerned had he been over the condition of the 
Winged Man, that Prince Janchan had not yet thought of the possible consequences of Zarqa’s loss of 
consciousness to the Goddess Arjala and Niamh the Fair. Now the dangerous plight of the two women 
was brought home to him, and his eyes went blank with horror. 

During their period of captivity in the Flying City, he had been thrown together with the voluptuous 
Ardhanese priestess, in close proximity. His innate sense of chivalry had caused him to adopt a 
protective manner towards the unfortunate young woman; and this, together with their enforced intimacy, 
had ripened (in his heart, at least) to a passion more intense and personal. He was by now deeply in love 
with the willful, obstinate girl; and he had reason to believe she returned his admiration. 

Knowing of the frenzied desire which Ralidux had conceived for Arjala, he realized that the woman 
he loved was now completely in the power of the lust-maddened maniac. A chill of the utmost horror 
went through his robust, manly frame. 

“Now, by all the Lords of The World Above, my friend, you are right! We must speed to her 
rescue without a moment’s delay! The vicious, depraved madman will have his will with her at the first 
opportunity . . . and Arjala is a noblewoman of high caste!” This he said in quick, gasping tones; but he 
said nothing more. To one familiar with the tradition-bound, age-old ways of the Laonese, there was no 
more to be said. A noblewoman of the highest caste may be violated against her will, subjugated by 
sheer force. But she does not live long after this, the ultimate indignity. 

Every noblewoman on the World of the Green Star wears a tiny blade sewn into the hem of her 
intimate garments. The knife is called The Avenger of Chastity. Once subjected to degradation, a 
woman of Arjala’s caste unsheathes this hidden blade with a ritual gesture. 

And sheathes it again, in her own heart! 

Nimbalim cleared his throat with a trace of irritability. 

“Your pardon, my friends . . . but may this unworthy scholar remind you that we have other, more 
pressing, more immediate problems to cope with than those of the missing members of our party? I refer 
to the hungers of the rapacious xoph, whose approach can even now be felt by the tremors along the 
web; I doubt not that he speeds with much alacrity in order to discern what chance visitor had entered 
his domain, and to discover if it should be the sort of provender his appetite demands for its 
assuagement . . . ” 

Zarqa had by this time recovered fully from the stunning assault of the ray bolt. In a single, 
all-encompassing glance he took in the details of their entanglement; wasting no time in idle words, he 
bent swiftly to energize the controls of their aerial conveyance. 

The sky-sled quivered, engines thrumming; but so thoroughly were they enmeshed in the adhesive 
grip of the enormous net, that even the powerful magnetic flux which drove the contrivance proved 
insufficient to extricate them from their predicament. 

Janchan unsheathed his sword and undertook the task of cutting them free. But the spider-silk was 
tougher and more durable than braided nylon cord; his transparent blade, razory-sharp though it was, 


would take upwards of an hour to saw through even one of the many strands which held them fast. 

would take upwards of an hour to saw through even one of the many strands which held them fast. 

Your sword-edge will not cut us free, friend Janchan, the thought pulsed swiftly from the Winged 
Man. 

“What then? Stay here and die?” panted that worthy person. 

If necessary, I trust we shall face our doom with the equanimity of those who strive on, even into 
the very jaws of defeat, replied Zarqa. But I know of one instrument which may serve to liberate us 

“Its name? Quickly! From the way the web is vibrating, the great spider is almost upon us,” cried 
Janchan. 

Its name is–fire! came the throbbing thought of Zarqa the Kalood. 

Fire! Of course! Janchan grinned–a humorless rictus of the lips which had no mirth in it. The sticky 
substance of which the mighty net was woven might well prove easily combustible. Indeed, the adhesive 
qualities of the monster spider’s web reminded him of the gummy residue left at the bottom of an oil 
lamp when all the fuel is exhausted. Why had the simple notion not occurred to him? At least it was 
worth a try– 

He said as much, and Zarqa nodded solemnly. 

But we must act swiftly, my friends, or the spider will be at our throats, he said mentally. Now, 
search your garments–have we, any of us, a flint-striker on our persons? 

The Winged Man made reference to a small artifact employed for striking sparks, similar to the 
flint-and-steel contrivances used for identical purposes by early American colonists. Such instruments 
were customarily carried in a small pocket by travellers, who were thus assured of being able to light a 
cook-fire or illuminate a torch in the wilderness during their travels. The savant Nimbalim ran his fingers 
through the pockets of his robes, then shrugged with empty hands. 

Zarqa’s tawny hide was in itself proof against the elements; and his kind were not equipped with 
external genitalia and required n6 cover for modesty. He had neither pocket nor pouch in which to store 
the necessary implement. 

And as for Janchan he searched his person with hands that were now a-tremble, with a horrible 
inner conviction that he, too, had no such device upon him. 

“The three adventurers looked at each other with consternation in their faces, and empty hands. 
And the gigantic spider was almost upon them. 

Chapter 10 
THE VAULT OF MARVELS 


As the enormous serpent struck at him, Ralidux did the only thing he could: he sprang up into the air. 

With a vicious snap, the fanged jaws of the monster Ssalith closed upon the space his body bad 
occupied a split-second before. 

His arms were stretched above his head to grasp a branch that arched over the jungle path. As he 
sprang, however, his fingers brushed the branch of the tree–slipped, and failed to cling. 


He fell back. As he did so, the head of the serpent-god chanced to be directly beneath him. Thus, 
he landed to find himself astride the neck of the giant snake! 

He fell back. As he did so, the head of the serpent-god chanced to be directly beneath him. Thus, 
he landed to find himself astride the neck of the giant snake! 

The reptile was astounded, outraged and furious. Never before had its prey attempted to ride upon 
its back; the experience was new, and it did not like the weight of the little manling. It shook its head 
furiously from side to side in an attempt to dislodge its rider, but he clung tightly to avoid being hurled off. 
Ralidux was mad, but sufficient sanity made him realize that only by clinging to the back of the reptilian 
monster could he avoid being mangled between those fanged, hideous jaws. 

The gigantic Ssalith then attempted to rub him off by scraping its head against the turf, and against 
the trunks of the trees. The rough bark tore his skin and lacerated his shoulders, but Ralidux gritted his 
teeth against the pain and clung like death to his precarious perch. 

Again and again, the serpent battered its blunt-nosed head against any obstacle it could in an effort 
to dislodge the manling; but he clung like a leech. 

The serpent hissed and squalled, forked tongue flickering, jaws gaping and closing on empty air. 
Nothing it could do would loosen the powerful grip of the black man, whose muscular thighs were 
clamped painfully about its gullet. Ralidux intensified the pressure of his grip; most of the serpent’s 
enormous length was sheathed in powerful muscle, mailed in a coat of impenetrable scales, impervious 
even to the point of a sword. But the base of its throat was unarmored and tender: there alone was it 
unprotected; there only was it vulnerable. And it was precisely there that the bare knees of the black 
superman slug into its soft throat with crushing pressure, cutting off its windpipe. 

The Ssalith exploded in a writhing fury, battering its head blindly against rocks and trees, thrusting 
and wriggling through dense bushes. Nothing it could do seemed to discourage the little creature that 
clung to the back of its neck, slowly throttling it. 

The miniscule brain of the serpent-monster could hold only one thought at a time. Fury had driven 
hunger from its mind; and now fear replaced fury. Safety, to the tiny mind of the Ssalith, meant its nest 
beneath the ancient stone temple; now it headed back the way it had come, gliding through the jungle 
aisles toward the security of its noisome lair in the warm and fetid gloom of the subterranean catacombs, 
from which the tempting odor of Niamh’s flesh had lured it. 

It slid out of the jungle, ascended the broken stone steps and entered the darkness of the ruined 
edifice. Still Ralidux clung grimly to his perch behind its skull; by now he was battered and bleeding from 
a score of scratches, dazed and half-conscious. But he knew that if once he let go and fell off, the 
ravening snake would be upon him in an instant. 

Darkness closed about him. Presently he discerned that his loathsome steed was descending a 
tunnel cut vertically into the depths. Before long, this well would terminate in some manner of nest; it was 
possible that there the reptile had a mate, or a brood of offspring. Were that to prove the case, his doom 
was assured. 

Rousing his sluggish wits, he lifted his head and peered about him. The darkness was, at this depth, 
somewhat alleviated by a sickly phosphorescence. A vague green glow was visible; seemingly shed by 
the reeking slime which coated the lower portion of the vertical shaft. 

By this ghostly luminosity, Ralidux caught a glimpse of a side-tunnel which branched off at a right 
angle. Its black mouth rose rapidly toward him as the Ssalith slithered down the shaft. From the quick 
glimpse he caught, it seemed that this side-tunnel was too small and narrow to permit the entrance of the 
serpent’s blunt, wedge-shaped head. 

As he was borne past this opening he released his grasp, threw his arms up and caught hold of the 


lower lip of the tunnel’s mouth. In the same instant, he let go with his legs. Now he dangled free, 
supporting his weight by the grip of his fingertips only. The enormous length of the serpent brushed 
against him as the remainder of its body slithered by. Scales rasped against his raw back and bruised 
legs; but in a moment, the gigantic snake had vanished beneath him and _ he was able to drag himself up 
and into the mouth of the second tunnel. 

lower lip of the tunnel’s mouth. In the same instant, he let go with his legs. Now he dangled free, 
supporting his weight by the grip of his fingertips only. The enormous length of the serpent brushed 
against him as the remainder of its body slithered by. Scales rasped against his raw back and bruised 
legs; but in a moment, the gigantic snake had vanished beneath him and _ he was able to drag himself up 
and into the mouth of the second tunnel. 

Ralidux crawled the length of the tunnel on his hands and knees because it was too low-roofed to 
permit him to stand erect. At the end the tunnel opened into a large, circular rotunda with a domed roof. 
The rotunda had evidently been hewn from the solid bed-rock of the island, and Ralidux marvelled at the 
sheet immensity of labor expended on the subterranean structure. Other side-tunnels branched off from 
all sides; their black mouths gaped in the smooth circular walls of the room, spaced at broad intervals. 

The rotunda was barren of anything but the litter of trash and rotten, decayed bits of wood and 
fabric that had once perhaps been furniture. It was difficult to ascertain the purpose for which the 
subterranean chamber had been designed. 

A wide stone arch led into an adjoining antechamber; therein the Skyman from Calidar found weird 
artifacts of glistening metal and crystal whose purposes were equally enigmatic. Chamber followed 
chamber, in a straight line. At the terminus of this series, he entered a huge stone vault filled with 
incomprehensible mechanisms used by the Ancient Ones. Among these he espied a slender craft, 
pointed at either end, which resembled a gondola or a canoe. It was fashioned entirely of a sleek metal 
of fierce indigo hue, and possessed a cockpit-like enclosure shielded with crystal. Peering within the 
transparent cupola, the Calidarian saw a padded seat and a curving control-panel. Lights yet glowed 
among the controls, suggesting that this strange vessel still possessed motive power. 

The discovery intrigued the black man. A savant among the Skymen, he was familiar with the 
super-science of the Ancients; they in many ways had rivalled the brilliant and sophisticated 
achievements of the Winged Men who had ruled the planet before the advent of man.* 

The terminal chamber opened upon a cliffside, which gave a clear vista of jungle, sea and sky. A 
heavy growth of vegetation screened this lateral opening. Ralidux clambered through, making his way out 
of the jungle-clad slopes to the shore, and thence around the curve of the isle to the spot where he bad 
left his zawkaw. 

The giant hawk, of course, was no longer there, having flown off with Niamh and Arjala. A fury 
gnawed at the heart of the black immortal, as he guessed that his fair captive and her accomplice had 
eluded his clutches in this manner. For an indeterminate period he ranged the jungle isle, careless of again 
encountering the serpent-monster, finding no trace whatsoever of the two women. Towards nightfall, he 
became convinced the women had departed from the isle by means of the winged steed. 

By this time, aware of a raging hunger, he paused to refresh himself with such jungle fruits, nuts and 
berries as he could find. His keen intellect, whose rationalizations were not entirely impaired by his lust 
for Arjala, considered the alternatives open to him. 

His appetite somewhat sated, he climbed back up the verdure-clad slope to the lofty cliff and 
re-entered the stone vault where the advanced mechanisms of the Ancient Ones reposed. Unless the 
gondola-like craft was indeed an aerial vehicle as it seemed, and still under power, he was marooned 
here helplessly. This goaded him to wild extremes, for he could not bear the notion that the voluptuous 
creature who was the object of his desires had escaped him. 

He experimented with the craft and found the mode whereby the crystal-screened cupola could be 
energized. Entering, and seating himself within the cockpit, he studied the controls closely. Their 


markings were in a language unknown to him; but his highly-trained scientific mind soon ascertained the 
purposes of the various verniers, levers and studs. 

markings were in a language unknown to him; but his highly-trained scientific mind soon ascertained the 
purposes of the various verniers, levers and studs. 

In another moment his flying contrivance soared aloft above the jungles, circled the island once, and 
he then headed her prow into the dawn and flew out over the open sea. 

Part III 
THE BOOK OF SHANN OF KAMADHONG 


Chapter 11 
CASTAWAYS IN AN UNKNOWN SEA 


When the great wave washed me overboard from the deck of the galley Xothun, I struck the icy 
black waters with stunning force and sank like a stone into the depths. The waves closed over my head 
and through my parted lips, which had opened involuntarily in a cry of alarm; the cold waters rushed in 
to choke me. 

But the biting chill of the cold waves spurred me to consciousness moments later; I struck out in a 
wild spasm of terror, kicking and struggling convulsively. In a another moment my head broke surface 
and I gulped air into my starved lungs. For a time I floated there, struggling to keep my head above the 
waves, spitting and gagging; spewing up the waters I had swallowed. 

I could see nothing, being blind. The hull of the Xothun might be very near, almost within the reach 
of my outstretched fingers. Or, for all I knew, the ship might be rapidly receding as I wallowed helplessly 
amidst the cold waters; and every passing moment might be carrying it further and further away. 

I strained my ears, seeking the whereabouts of the ship by the only sense left to me, which was that 
of hearing. But all that came to me was the howling of the gale, the rumble of thunder, and the 
ear-splitting crack of lightning. That, and the roar and splashing of the sea were all that I could hear. 

It seemed to me that I should have been able to hear the creak of the timbers, the squeal of 
cordage, and the hoarse yelling of battling men, even above the gale. But I heard nothing to suggest that 
the ship and my comrades were near me. It was as if, instead of falling overboard into the sea, I had 
been whisked from the deck by the spell of some malign enchanter; then transported by his magic to the 
most desolate, uninhabited portion of the planet. 

My hands reached out, clutching desperately; but they closed on only empty air and cold water. I 
opened my mouth to yell for help but the waves battered me, drowning my calls. 

That my predicament was almost entirely hopeless was no secret to me. Already the cold chill of 


the icy waters had penetrated to my bones. My legs were numb and my arms increasingly feeble. I might 
manage to keep my head above the waves for a time, but not very long. Young and strong as I was, a 
cold and watery grave lay in wait for me when my endurance should fail and I no longer had the strength 
to struggle against the drag of the icy waters. 

the icy waters had penetrated to my bones. My legs were numb and my arms increasingly feeble. I might 
manage to keep my head above the waves for a time, but not very long. Young and strong as I was, a 
cold and watery grave lay in wait for me when my endurance should fail and I no longer had the strength 
to struggle against the drag of the icy waters. 

It was a fragment of the deck-rail, which had broken away when the waves had dashed me over 
the side of the ship. The wood was inwardly dry and covered with a thick coat of paint or gilding. While 
the fragment of rail would not have sustained the weight of a grown man, it was sufficiently buoyant to 
support my weight, being a muscular but half-starved boy. 

I wrapped my arms about it, locking my numb fingers together; pillowing my breast and cheek upon 
the uppermost surface of the wood so that my head was above the level of the waves. 

Now I could rest a little, despite the chill discomfort of being immersed in the cold sea from my 
chest down. Now, at least, my death by drowning was postponed for a time. 

It might be an hour, it might be two, before the numb cold paralyzed my limbs and I slid into the 
depths. But at least I had a fighting chance. 

All I have ever asked of life or fate, or whatever gods stand over the destinies of men, is a fighting 
chance. I clung to that bit of wood and let the wild waves bear me where they wished. 

And after a time, I slept the dead slumber of exhaustion. 

When in time I recovered my senses, the storm had abated and it was day. I could not see the 
brilliance of the Green Star, but I could feel the warmth of its silvery-emerald rays against my face and 
arms, my back and shoulders. 

From the chest down, I was still immersed in the waters of the sea. The numb cold had by now 
virtually paralyzed my legs; I could no longer feel life in my extremities. 

If I did not soon find rescue, I would succumb to the sucking grip of the waters, or perish from 
exposure to the elements. I drifted there among the idle washing of the waves for a measureless time, 
feeling miserable, lost and lonely. 

I was feeling sorry for myself–an emotion rarely experienced by the heroes of romance. But I am no 
hero, only an ordinary man to whom the most extraordinary sequence of adventures has happened. 
Thinking on this, I shrugged off my gloom and despondency. Surely, thought I, I have not travelled 
across the immensities of space to a strange and alien world, entered the body of another man, passed 
through the black gates of death only to be reborn in yet another body, to perish in so mundane a 
manner as drowning! Surely, whatever nameless, inscrutable gods in charge of my destiny will preserve 
me for a unique doom and an end far stranger and more marvelous than this! 

My blindness made my present position tantalizing. For all I knew, the sandy shores of an island 
might well be within eyeshot at this moment, unknown to me. I might even now be drifting past some 
tropic isle well within the reach of even my numb, strengthless limbs! The very thought caused me such 
exquisite agony as to almost drive me mad. I strained my every sense to detect the savory odor of jungle 
flowers upon the wind, or to hear the slap of waves against a sandy beach. 

And then I heard a human voice! 

A voice, calling me across the illimitable, invisible waste of waters! I lifted my own voice in a 


hoarse, croaking cry; waving one arm aloft clumsily, not knowing from which direction that call had 
come. 

hoarse, croaking cry; waving one arm aloft clumsily, not knowing from which direction that call had 
come. 

“This way! Over here–can you swim?” the clear voice called. 

I shook my head feebly. “I am blind–I cannot tell where you are–you will have to come to me!” I 
cried. 

Then there followed an interminable time when I lay there in the dank embrace of the waters, 
waiting .. . but no one came. My spirits sank within me; and my heart grew leaden within my breast. 

Had there truly been a voice at all, or was it only an auditory illusion? A figment of my disordered 
wits–a dream born in my tortured brain? 

And at the very moment that these dire, dreadful thoughts entered my weary mind, there came to 
my ears the rhythmic splash of oars or legs thrusting through the waters; the slap of the waves against the 
sides of some rude vessel, and the panting of a labored breath. 

And, while I hung there in suspense, scarcely daring to hope, there followed yet another 
phenomenon before which I almost dissolved in tears of exhaustion and relief. 

For I felt the warm, comforting touch of a human hand upon my shoulder! 

My rescuer, it seemed, was a young boy whose name was Shann. In a shy, hesitant, wary voice he 
told me that be had been carried off by slavers from the city of Kamadhong; from their clutches he had 
escaped, after many perils. I gathered from the boy’s words that the slavers had been transporting him 
and his fellow-captives over the sea in a ship; I deduced that he had either been washed overboard in 
the storm as had I, or perhaps had jumped. 

He was riding astride the trunk of a tree, floating amidst the unknown sea, when he had spied my 
tousled hair, bright gold against the blue-green of the waves. The effects of the sudden storm had 
covered an area larger than I had thought, in order to fell trees on one or another jungled strand. 

He helped me aboard his treetrunk. I fear it was difficult for him to haul me aboard, for I was at the 
end of my strength and could do little to assist him. 

I gave him my name, Kam, and told him my country; but the moment had not yet come for us to 
exchange adventure stories, and so I said nothing about my past. Much of what I could have told him 
would have seemed incredible; so I said nothing of my adventures among the Assassins of Ardha, or in 
the Pylon of Sarchimus the Magician; nor of my lost friends, Prince Janchan, Zarqa the Kalood and 
faithful, homely Klygon. 

He seemed to be some years younger than myself; his legs and thighs were smooth and his arms 
girlishly slender, and his voice the clear soprano of a boy before the years of puberty. These things I 
discovered as he dragged me to the treetrunk, our bodies close together. His hair was very long, long as 
a girl’s; and when I touched his cheek it was innocent of hirsute growth. He was smaller and slighter of 
build than was I, and I guessed his age to be no more than twelve. Like me, he was nearly naked, a 
scrap of cloth about the loins, his boyish breast covered with the rags of a tunic. 

Once he had gotten me up on the floating treetrunk, I stretched out in the sun to let the welcome 
warmth dry my limbs and send life tingling through them. I dozed for a time in the sun, my new-found 
friend at my side, at watch over me lest I slide back into the waves. 

I felt myself to be very lucky. For amidst the trackless waters of the unknown sea, I had joined 
forces with another castaway. Now, at least, I had a little friend; a comrade to share my perils and 
adventures. 


The sun sank and night fell. We slept, cuddled in each other’s arms for body-warmth, shivering in 
the coolness of evening. The boy sobbed for a time; I stroked his shoulder and patted his tear-stained 
cheeks, comforting him as best I could. Though alive and together, we were hopelessly lost. No one 
could say what surprises we might find with morning. 

The sun sank and night fell. We slept, cuddled in each other’s arms for body-warmth, shivering in 
the coolness of evening. The boy sobbed for a time; I stroked his shoulder and patted his tear-stained 
cheeks, comforting him as best I could. Though alive and together, we were hopelessly lost. No one 
could say what surprises we might find with morning. 
2 
A STRANGE DISCOVERY 


With dawn, the world lightened, as it does for all but I. My young comrade stiffened where he lay 
curled against me and sat up suddenly–so suddenly that his movement rocked our precariously balanced 
craft, nearly sending me back into the waves again. 

“What is it?” I asked. 

The boy hesitated. 

“It’s–I think it’s–yes, it is! An island!” 

My heart leaped within my breast. Controlling my excitement, I asked him to describe what he saw. 
His words sketched in a rough picture: a sandy beach, scarcely more than a dun line against the 
blue-green sea; massed shapes loomed darkly behind, which must have been great trees, or perhaps 
rounded knolls or hills mantled with dense verdure. 

“How far away?” I asked. 

He shrugged. “How can I say? I know not how to measure distances at sea. But near enough for us 
to reach, with some effort.” 

Indeed, the wind or the motion of the sea current was driving us in the direction of the island which 
Shann’s keen eyes had spotted; so for an hour or two we let the Sea of Komar do our work for us. 
Later, towards mid-morning, we had drawn close enough to the mysterious island for the boy’s sharp 
gaze to ascertain further details. There were indeed wooded hills, and a thick stretch of jungle, he 
affirmed. But nowhere did he see any sign of the presence of man–no cleared or cultivated areas, no 
rooftops visible above the trees; not even a plume of smoke hovered on the clear morning air, rising from 
a cook-fire. 

The current was going to carry us past the island, although according to my new friend it would 
bring us quite near the shoals. We began propelling our ungainly tree-trunk craft in the direction of the 
shore, rather than trying to swim the distance. We resolved to take this difficult and fatiguing course of 
action because Shann did not know how to swim. There was nothing odd about this, of course; the 
treetop cities, such as Kamadhong, are built at a height of a mile or two in the air. This being the case, 
their inhabitants seldom have either reason or opportunity to learn the art of swimming. 

We “rowed” our lumbering log through the simple expedient of sliding over into the waves, Shann at 
one side of the trunk and I on the other; both of us grasped the log firmly in our arms, and kicked out 
with our legs. It proved about as clumsy and tiring a task as perhaps it sounds, but it had one 
transcendent merit in that it worked. 

Eventually the tree-trunk wedged itself between the rocks that formed shoals, sheltering a deep 
lagoon that would have made a perfect harbor for a port city. From this point on we had to attempt the 
rest of the distance on our own. The taller of the two, I found that my toes could just barely touch 
bottom. So I instructed Shann to lock his arms about my neck from behind, letting his body float as best 


he could; I floundered grimly into shore. I was still worn out from my long immersion in the sea and did 
not feel capable of swimming in, burdened by the boy’s weight. Therefore, while he clung to my back I 
struggled through the shallows until we reached the shore; at which point he let go and waded in by 
himself. 

he could; I floundered grimly into shore. I was still worn out from my long immersion in the sea and did 
not feel capable of swimming in, burdened by the boy’s weight. Therefore, while he clung to my back I 
struggled through the shallows until we reached the shore; at which point he let go and waded in by 
himself. 

When we recovered our strength, we moved further up the strand to the edge of the jungle. We 
were both famished, so the first and most urgent necessity on the agenda was to find food. In this I 
would be more than useless; while Shann scampered about the edges. of the jungle, searching for edible 
fruit or nuts or berries, I attempted to put my person to rights. All I had on was my loin-cloth by this 
time, my other rags of garments having perished in the sea; but these were exceedingly uncomfortable, 
being clammy and wet and scratchy with sand. So I stripped it from my loins, rinsed it clean at the edge 
of the lagoon, and stretched it out on a branch to dry in the sun while I let the sun perform a similar task 
on the rest of my person. 

I was apprised of the return of my little friend a while later, when I heard a shocked gasp and the 
thud of fruits suddenly let fall from his hands. I had been dozing, stretched out in the sun, and did not 
understand at first what had wrung that startled gasp from his lips. Then it came to me that I was stark 
naked. Now the denizens of Kamadhong, like those of the other Laonese cities, customarily go clothed, 
of course; but the temperature of the air is such that they generally wear as little as custom allows; while 
they are not nudists, neither are they prudes. Prepubescent boys customarily bathe together in the nude, 
and frequently wrestle or race together naked. Hence, I could not understand Shann’s shock at 
discovering me in my nudity. Surely, he had brothers, or playmates; surely he had seen other lads 
without clothing, even older boys such as myself. 

I confess to feeling just a little irritated by his delicacy. However, he made no comment, and busied 
himself with gathering up the fruits he had let fallen. I rose and wrapped the length of cloth, now 
thoroughly dry, about my loins again. And we ate together the foods he had found, although there 
seemed to be a touch of constraint and awkwardness in his manner. 

I made no remark on this unwonted daintiness of his; but I resolved that if we were going to have to 
be together on this jungle isle, he was going to have to accustom himself to such things. Survival in a 
savage wilderness demands certain sacrifices; and among the first things to go are most of the amenities 
of civilized life. 

It certainly seemed strange to be eating fruit of ordinary size again. The elfin inhabitants of the 
jewel-box cities aloft in the mighty trees cultivate many fruits and berries in their crystal-roofed gardens; 
but these grow to a size commensurate with that of the gargantuan trees in which the cities themselves 
are built. I had been accustomed, then, to eating one lobe of a juicy berry, about the size of a slice of 
watermelon back on Earth; and to eating portions cut from a fruit like segments cut from a pie, the fruits 
themselves being five or six times as huge as pumpkins. 

But here on our nameless island, Shann and I breakfasted on fruit of more normal size. There were 
pear-shaped fruits the size of your fist, that tasted like ripe mangoes; and elongated, banana-like fruits as 
rich and sweet as pomegranates: and small tart berries, and others succulent as cherries. 

Besides these, Shann had found something as chewy and delicious as coconut, but in a hard shell 
like huge walnuts. And several kinds of ordinary nuts, of which only one variety proved bitter and 
inedible. We ate a very good meal, all in all. 

It was obvious that, whatever else happened to us on the isle, we were not going to starve to death. 

While searching for something to eat, Shann had found a woodland pool and after our breakfast, he 


led me there to drink. He had come upon no sign of wild beasts during his brief exploration of the jungle; 
but of course, he had confined himself to the edge of the brush, not daring to venture too deeply within, 
lest he lose his way. 

led me there to drink. He had come upon no sign of wild beasts during his brief exploration of the jungle; 
but of course, he had confined himself to the edge of the brush, not daring to venture too deeply within, 
lest he lose his way. 

At length, we discovered a thorny thicket whose wicked barbs and intertangled boughs should 
serve to discourage any beasts on the prowl, with the possible exception of giant reptiles clothed in an 
armor of tough scales. There, we found an open space; we spent the declined hours of day heaping thick 
dried grasses into a comfortable bed, and building the skeleton of a lean-to out of fallen sticks, which we 
roofed over with palm leaves. 

Our edifice, when completed, lacked most of the civilized amenities, I am sure. But at least it would 
afford us considerable protection from the elements, should the weather that night prove inclement. We 
had both been soaked in the sea to such a point that we were heartily determined not to permit ourselves 
to be drenched in a downpour. 

The night, however, proved calm and clear. 

We dined, early that evening, on a repast precisely similar to that on which we had breakfasted. I 
resolved that, on the morrow, I should see what could be done to procure a bit of fresh meat for our 
diet. Fruits, nuts and berries were all very well. They filled the belly: but I hungered mightily for meat; 
hot, scorched and dripping with steaming juices. 

We retired early, still weary from our exposure to the elements, as well as from the extraordinary 
exertions of the day. The little boy curled up in a far corner of the lean-to, and fell asleep promptly. 

I remained wakeful for some time, staring into the unbroken darkness of my sightlessness. They 
pained me a bit, my eyes, for sea-water had inflamed my burns, which were only half-healed; and the 
flesh about my sockets was swollen and tender. 

But that is not what kept me awake. 

I had remembered something which I had noticed, but forgotten. It served to explain the odd shock 
with which Shann had reacted to my nakedness; and his curious reluctance to share my bed for mutual 
warmth. But, even while answering one question, it opened up yet a deeper mystery. 

I remembered that morning when I had struggled into shore with the boy clingling to my back, his 
slim arms wound about my neck. I had noticed a peculiar sensation at the time; but in my state of 
waterlogged and bone-weary exhaustion, it had not registered clearly on my attention. 

Now it came back to me as I lay there, wide-awake. I understood why Shann had displayed such 
shock and consternation, upon discovering me lying there naked in the sun. 

As he clung to my back, his upper body had been pressed against my naked back and shoulders. 
And I, felt–not the smooth chest of a young boy–but the firm, pointed, shallow breasts of an adolescent 
girl. 

Chapter 13 


JUNGLE LOVERS 


During the next few days, Shann and I learned more about the nameless island which was to be our 
home for an indeterminate period. 

Insofar as we could discover, it was completely uninhabited by human beings. Shann had climbed 
the tallest tree which grew nearabout; from an aerial perch aloft, my comrade had searched the horizon 
to all points of the compass. Nowhere had the girl descried the slightest tokens of human habitation. Not 
even the smoke of cooking-fires could be seen coiling up into the clear sunlit air. 

The crude and rudimentary lean-to we had shared during our first night together on the island had 
proved sufficient to protect us from the elements; but it left much to be desired in the way of permanent 
accommodations. Working together during the long afternoons, we erected a more permanent hut; we 
constructed it of fallen branches trimmed to proper length with sharp shells or pointed stones. This 
provided us with the rough frame for a simple, two-chamber dwelling. The roof we thatched with 
palm-leaves, whose steins we tied to the roof-arch thongs made of dried grasses. The walls of this little 
but were then covered by mats of rattan, which the nimble fingers of Shann wove from the stiffer fibers 
of the palm leaves. In this last task, I could not provide assistance, for my blindness made me clumsy; 
unable to see what I was doing, I made a botch of my every attempt at weaving. 

Our diet consisted of nuts, berries and jungle fruit, which grew wild in the interior of the island; this 
we soon supplemented with bird’s eggs stolen from treetop nests, and with the tender and succulent 
meat of certain crabs and shellfish which were wont to scuttle about the sandy seashore, or which dwelt 
in the shallow waters of the lagoon. Here, again, it was Shann and not I who must provide our nutriment. 

That the unequal burden of securing our foods must fall upon my companion in misfortune would 
not have rankled me as much as it did, had we truly been two young boys marooned together. But we 
were not; for Shann was a girl only a year or two younger than I, myself. Every civilized instinct and 
every scrap on chivalry and protectiveness within me cried out in protest, at the necessity of her fulfilling 
the masculine role in our existence. 

There were other constraints produced by my knowledge of her sex, which knowledge I still 
concealed from her. For one thing, I now understood her reticence as to our sharing sleeping 
accommodations. Quite obviously, it was a violation of her modesty to insist we share the same bed of 
fragrant grasses. This made it necessary for us to divide the hut into two compartments. Moreover, there 
was the problem of bathing. Had Shann been truly a younger boy, as she pretended, I would have 
thought nothing of our bathing together each morning in the clear, warm waters of the lagoon. As things 
stood, however, I had to adopt a ruse to avoid such an intimacy; at the same time, I kept her from 
knowing my actual reason for declining to bathe in her company. 

From this, my reader will deduce that I believed it only proper for me to pretend ignorance of her 
sex. I understood her reasons for the pretense of boyhood which she steadfastly maintained. When first 
she had rescued me from the waves, she had no way of forming an accurate estimate of my character or 
the degree of civilization which my forebears had attained. A girl, thrown together by circumstances with 
a healthy young male, would naturally fear certain advances against her modesty. For all that Shann 
knew, I was a lustful young savage from the nomadic mainland tribes who would force her to become 
my bedmate as a matter of course. 

Thus I strove to protect her own modesty and allay any fears she might still entertain, by continuing 
the pretense of my ignorance of her true gender. The relief she felt at my pretense was obvious in her 


voice. While I am certain she came to respect me and enjoy my company during these first few days of 
our strangely primitive life together, I am equally sure that she would have continued her pretense of 
being a boy throughout our adventures together, if only to avoid any embarrassment. 

voice. While I am certain she came to respect me and enjoy my company during these first few days of 
our strangely primitive life together, I am equally sure that she would have continued her pretense of 
being a boy throughout our adventures together, if only to avoid any embarrassment. 

For my part, I was possessed with a consuming curiosity as to her appearance. I listened eagerly to 
her warm, clear soprano, painting in my imagination a thousand tentative portraits of the mysterious 
girl-child who was my constant companion, night and day. The sound of her voice, dreamily singing a 
little song while she went about her domestic tasks, enthralled me. I drank in the liquid music of her 
delighted laughter at a jest or quip or circumstance. The slightest touch of her hand, or of her shoulder 
against mine, aroused within me a heady emotion I hardly dare name. Once, her long, silken hair blew 
across my face while we bent together over a shared labor; and the faint perfume of her nearness and 
the feathery caress of her floating locks choked me with joy. On another occasion, while assisting the girl 
to drag her captured shellfish from the shallows, her bare thigh brushed intimately against my own. The 
warm touch of her smooth, naked flesh aroused within me an intoxication so pleasant that I almost strove 
to sustain the contact a moment longer before recovering myself. 

I believe my interest in her was returned; that the girl whom I knew only as a sweet voice with a 
name responded, perhaps against her own will or inclination, to my masculinity. At times as we 
conversed a warmth and intimacy stole into her voice, which grew gentle and husky with emotion. Now 
and again, when she extended her hand to assist me over some unseen obstacle, she seemed to prolong 
our hand-clasp beyond the moment of necessity; it was as if she, too, revelled in our physical nearness. 

There could be no question about the fact that I was on the verge of falling in love with the unknown 
girl whose face I had never seen. 

This was impossible, and I denied it vehemently to myself. For I loved another; my heart was 
pledged to Niamh the Fair until death severed us forever. So even as my pulses quickened to the 
nearness of Shann, even while I tossed and turned feverishly on my bed during interminable sleepless 
nights, torturing myself by trying to imagine her unguessable loveliness, I castigated myself for wandering 
into forbidden paths. 

I would not–could not—be unfaithful to the exquisite Princess of Phaolon! Grimly I clung to that 
standard of behavior, striving to ignore the way my senses stirred and quickened to the touch of Shann, 
or the warm nearness of her young body. I became curt and even rude in my dealings with the girl, who 
was hurt by my mystifying attitude towards her, I am sure. Her tentative small gestures of friendliness, 
however innocent, I came in time to rebuff. Believing that her pretense of being a boy had gone 
undetected, she obviously did not understand why I so sharply turned away from the small tendernesses 
and the innocent gestures of friendliness. Had she truly been a boy, I would have welcomed it, in the 
loneliness of one blind like myself. 

She no longer displayed the slightest reticence at exposing her nude body in my company. To have 
done so would have carried modesty to an unnatural degree, since I was unable to see her. This being 
the case, she could not comprehend my harsh insistence on bathing alone and retaining my few scraps of 
clothing upon every occasion we were together. I have no doubt that my behavior seemed inexplicable 
to her; that my rudeness in snatching my hand away from even the most innocent or friendly touch 
caused pain to the puzzled, bewildered girl. 

She could not have realized the agony of soul it cost me to deny myself the exquisite pleasure of the 
most fleeting, casual touch. Gradually, an estrangement grew, erecting a barrier of silence between us. 


She bitterly resented my callousness, or what she deemed callousness, not realizing the effort such 
self-denial cost me. We became remote, Shann withdrawing into hurt and offended silence; I became 
gruff, irritable and uncommunicative. 

She bitterly resented my callousness, or what she deemed callousness, not realizing the effort such 
self-denial cost me. We became remote, Shann withdrawing into hurt and offended silence; I became 
gruff, irritable and uncommunicative. 

The next morning she was gone. 

It is folly and madness for a blind man to attempt to go searching for a lost comrade in a trackless, 
tropic jungle. 

Very well, then: I was mad and foolish! But I went, nonetheless; I took with me the long pole, 
pointed at one end and hardened in a bed of coals, which was the principal weapon I had devised for 
myself early during our time together on the isle. Blundering and crashing, stumbling and tripping, I went 
into the jungle, hoarsely calling her name. 

I found her a little while later. She was bathing in the jungle pool and I fear I surprised her, by my 
ridiculous display of alarm and fear for her safety. She had heard me crashing and yelling in the depths of 
the jungle. So had another set of ears, those belonging to a varphax. We had found our jungle isle 
scantly populated by predators, the varphax being the principal beast of prey; and one previously 
unknown to me–a shaggy, bison-like boar with curved, wicked tusks and burly, huge shoulders. 

It came hurtling out of the undergrowth, attracted by my voice. Shann shrieked and sprang from the 
pool to assist me. Her own weapons lay on the grass with her rags of clothing. 

By hearing alone I ascertained the direction from which the shaggy bull-boar was charging. 
Dropping to one knee, I braced the butt of my crude spear on the ground while the point was leveled at 
the brute which thundered down upon me. 

In the next instant a massive weight impaled itself upon the point of my weapon, the shaft of which 
bent almost double and snapped in two before the irresistible fury of the varphax charge. In the next split 
second something like an express train crashed into me, knocking me head over heels. 

Blackness closed about me for a time; I recovered to find my head pillowed on the bare thighs of 
Shann, who wept and caressed my brow with gentle fingers. 

“Don’t die, oh, don’t die!” the girl sobbed, covering my face with frantic kisses. As one in a dream, 
I lifted my lips to hers and drew her slender, sobbing form into the strong circle of my arms. And we 
kissed . . . a long, passionate caress that left me shaken and speechless, but somehow at peace. 

The naked girl lay in my arms, unresisting. 

“How long have you known?” she murmured dreamily. 

“From the beginning,” I said. “I have loved you from the beginning. And you?” 

“I don’t know,” the girl whispered. “It happened so slowly . . . I didn’t want this to happen, so I 
told you I was a–a boy. Why are you crying?” 

Am I crying? I didn’t know blind men could cry . . . because I didn’t want this to happen either, I 
fought against it so long, with so much pain. Shann–I love another, back in the world of trees and cities . 
. . she may be dead by now, for aught I know; but I feel as if I have betrayed her . . . ” 

The girl drew my lips to her and kissed me, sweetly and lingeringly. “I, too, love another . . . 
although in my case I know that the man to whom my heart is given has gone down to death; I saw him 
die with my own eyes long ago. And I feel as you do, my beloved; that I have betrayed one who is not 
here to defend himself . . . and that his ghost stands between us . . . forever.” 

In our misery, in our ecstacy, we clung together near the corpse of the dead monster. I loved her, 


and hated myself for my weakness in giving way to that love. 
However could I face Niamh the Fair again? 

and hated myself for my weakness in giving way to that love. 
However could I face Niamh the Fair again? 
4 
VISITOR FROM THE SKIES 


The pirates were as unprepared for the revolt of their galley-slaves as they were for the furious 
storm which broke about them. Fully armed, well fed, they should have been more than a match for the 
scrawny starvelings who fell upon them with bare hands. But no warrior born fights with such furious, 
desperate abandon as a slave striving for freedom. The Barbarians were terrified and disorganized by 
the tempest, the mighty waves which sluiced the deck; the almost continual blinding flicker of lightning, 
and the bellowing of wind and thunder. 

A milling, frightened throng, they surged about the deck getting in each other’s way; bellowing 
confused and conflicting orders, they staggered under the buffets of wind and rain which lashed at them. 
When the freed slaves came roaring up out of the hold, it took them completely by surprise. They fought 
as best they could; but a swaying deck swept by a howling gale and slick with running water makes a 
poor battlefield for warriors long accustomed to pitched battles on dry land. And the slaves, all of them, 
were seasoned mariners. Hence, the outcome of the revolt was not long in question; and when I, Karn, 
slew their leader, what little heart they had for the conflict went out of them. Marshalling his men 
intelligently, seizing every slight advantage, Prince Andar got the upper hand and held it until the eventual 
victory. 

Some of his lords were all for pitching those Barbarians who had survived the battle over the side 
and into the sea, but at this Andar demurred. It was not so much that he was squeamish; for to his way 
of thinking, the only good Barbarian was a dead Barbarian. Instead, his reason for sparing the lives of his 
former masters was one of grim necessity: many hands were needed to operate the Xothun, and the 
former slaves alone were not number enough. Starved, abused and beaten, none of them were in the 
best condition; many had suffered injuries during the battle. Besides, it pleased his appetite for 
vengeance to see their former masters chained to the slimy benches where they had long endured insult 
and degradation. 

Under the command of experienced mariners, the Xothun safely rode out the storm with her rigging 
only slightly impaired. The squall, despite its violence, proved one of brief duration; within the space of 
an hour or so, the skies cleared and the waves grew calm. My disappearance had long since been 
discovered, of course; for many eyes had been upon me while I struggled with Hoggur. They had seen 
me swept over the side by a breaking wave. My former shipmates were helpless to search for me until 
the tempest had subsided; once the storm was over, however, they wasted no time in dispatching 
long-boats to search the waters for my body, although there seemed little hope that I could possibly 
have survived. In the darkness of night, the search was finally abandoned and my demise was assumed. 

Poor old Klygon was despondent; together, we had survived a host of perils and it seemed 
unbelievable to my stouthearted comrade that I was no more. Andar and his lordlings, who had known 
me for only a brief time, regretted my death and praised me for my share in the victory. With dawn the 
repairs to the ship were completed; the vessel was cleaned, neatened and put to rights by the very hands 
of those whose slovenly, careless ways had soiled and cluttered her. 

A council of war was held that morning in the captain’s cabin. That bluff and hearty warrior, Lord 
Eryon, was all for putting about for Komar. He pointed out that when the subjugated populace of the 


island learned that the princely heir of their former monarch yet lived, they would rise up to overthrow 
the Blue Barbarians. 

island learned that the princely heir of their former monarch yet lived, they would rise up to overthrow 
the Blue Barbarians. 

“Then it is your decision, my Prince, to turn about and make for home?” demanded Eryon eagerly. 
The Prince lifted one hand. 

“Not so fast, old friend!” he smiled. “Fate has also offered yet another rare opportunity to us; one 
that should not be ignored or overlooked in our haste to liberate our captive realm.” 

“What opportunity is this?” 

“I refer to our fore-knowledge of the plans of the Horde, who next intend to strike against 
Tharkoon. You will recall, my lords, that our former masters on this ship were bound there to test the 
mood and temper of the Tharkoonians; if possible, to gain some estimate of the strength of their 
fortifications, and the disposal and number of their warriors. Here is our chance to enlist a strong and 
willing ally on our side. The relations between Tharkoon and Komar have ever been polite, if not indeed 
friendly. Surely the Wizard of Tharkoon, once apprised of the secret intentions of the savage Horde, 
would choose to strike boldly now, rather than supinely await the arrival of a fleet invading his own 
realm.” 

“Perhaps,” growled Eryon, “and perhaps not. These wizards be a tricksey lot; and wiley, to boot. 
We shall waste valuable time in paying court to the Tharkoonians–time that might better be spent in 
battle for Komar! Remember, sire, that erelong the Warlords of the Horde will be expecting the swift 
return of this vessel from its mission. Already much time has been squandered by the Barbarian officers, 
who knew not how to use the winds and tides to full advantage . . . ” 

“We shall make up for lost time on our return voyage from Tharkoon,” said the Prince. “For we are 
veteran sailors and the Barbarians were clumsy novices at the art. We shall enter Komar’s harbor on 
schedule, I doubt not.” 

No further arguments were offered against Prince Andar’s plan; for it was obvious to all that they 
should enormously enhance their chances for recapturing Komar from her conquerors, could they 
augment their strength by adding a contingent of warriors from Tharkoon. 

All that day, then, the Xothun plied the waves in the direction of the mainland city on the seacoast. 

Towards nightfall the alarm went up. Alert lookouts stationed atop the mast had spied a flying 
monster, silhouetted against the dimming skies. Andar, Eryon and Klygon gained the deck, swords at the 
ready, to observe with amazement the descent of the aerial creature. 

None of the Komarians had ever seen its like before; but Klygon knew it all too well. It was one of 
the monstrous blue-winged hawks employed by the black princes of the Flying City! 

Riding astride the saddle, a lone passenger was observed–a beautiful young woman, clad in rags of 
finery which displayed her loveliness to full advantage. 

The winged monster circled the ship on laboring wings. Its beaked maw gaped open, tongue lolling. 
Its gigantic wings beat wearily. Klygon strained his eyes but was unable to make out, in the rapidly failing 
light of day, the features of the lone rider. 

At length, the giant bird descended to the deck and settled on the aft rail. Its immense weight tipped 


the ship, but not dangerously so. Komarian warriors gingerly approached the ponderous creature, their 
weapons at the ready. But it panted, eyes glazed and apathetic, and offered no resistance. Seemingly, 
the brute was too fatigued to be of any danger to the mariners. 

the ship, but not dangerously so. Komarian warriors gingerly approached the ponderous creature, their 
weapons at the ready. But it panted, eyes glazed and apathetic, and offered no resistance. Seemingly, 
the brute was too fatigued to be of any danger to the mariners. 

They assisted her across the swaying deck to where Prince Andar awaited, curious to question this 
surprising visitor from the upper regions of the air. 

By his side, Klygon hovered in an agony of suspense. It seemed to him most likely that the rider 
would be either the Goddess of Ardha, or the Princess of Phaolon. 

But if it were Niamh, then what had happened to Arjala? And if it were Arjala, where was Niamh? 

He strained his eyes through the darkening murk– 

And then he gasped, recognizing the strange visitor from the skies! 

Chapter 15 
CAPTURED INTO THE CLOUDS 


We returned to the hut hand in hand, and few words passed between us. The discovery that we 
had come to love one another had broken upon us with catastrophic suddenness; we were dazed and 
stunned by the wonder of it. 

Back in the jewel-box cities, nestled in the safety of the sky-tall trees, a thousand age-old 
conventions, customs and traditions hedge young lovers about, dictating the pattern of declaration and 
response. Here, in the savage wilderness of our island home, we were cast adrift; no guide was upon our 
actions but that of our own wills. Yet neither of us felt free to give rein to the passions which clamored 
tumultuously in our hearts. We could not wed without benefit of priestly ritual; any intimacies between us 
were clandestine, furtive, somehow disreputable, at least according to the rules of civilized behavior 
obeyed in our society. 

But there were some things which had to be said: questions that must be asked, answers that must 
be given. 

“My beloved, why did you conceal your true self from me?” I asked her, when we had returned to 
our encampment. 

“Why? Did I play the part of a young boy so unconvincingly?” she teased. 

I grinned. “You made a most enchanting young boy, indeed! But why did you play the part at all?” 

She sobered. “I did not know your heart, Kam, nor your sense of honor. At first, considering your 
pitiful blindness, it seemed wisest to pretend to be of your sex, rather than to cause awkwardness and 
constraint between us. Since you could not see me to discover the truth, I thought the imposture would 
be easy to continue. You must remember, my darling, I had recently broken free of the grasp of slavers; 
they sought to display my beauty before the obscene eyes of lustful purchasers. The very concept is 
disgusting to me. I am a woman of the Laonese!” 

She said it proudly, simply; and I needed no further explanation. To her people, the chastity of a 
woman is a sacred trust. Once violated, the loss is considered irredeemable; the women of the Laonese 
avenge their own honor, once despoiled, with a small blade through their hearts. 


My own heart contracted painfully at the thought of those slim, dear hands quenching the bright 
vitality of that pure young body. Her hand stole up to caress my scarred brows. 

My own heart contracted painfully at the thought of those slim, dear hands quenching the bright 
vitality of that pure young body. Her hand stole up to caress my scarred brows. 

It was simply said, requiring nothing further. But it was understood that there would be no further 
intimacies between us until we had either made our escape from the isle or had been rescued and 
returned together to civilization. 

I sighed, but realized the rightness of her dictates. Indeed, there was no other way. The love 
between us would, in time, be consummated within the standards of decency and honor whereby we 
lived, not before. Until that happy hour, a soft word–a fleeting caress–a touch of the lips–nothing more 
could pass between us. 

One barrier between us had fallen; another had been built. 

And there was another cause for the estrangement which rose between us, following our mutual 
declarations of love. 

I have no apt name for the thing which parted us. Perhaps it was so simple a thing as guilt; a sense 
of the betrayal of vows, a feeling of shame. Whatever you call it, it was stronger than a barrier of stone 
or steel. 

In her native city of Kamadhong, Shann my beloved had given her love to a mighty warrior among 
her people. That was not very long ago, I understood. The youth to whom she had given her heart was 
dead, struck down by a foeman before her very eyes. 

But in her heart his name and image still stood inviolable, unshaken. Not yet had she forgotten his 
valor and gallantry, or the sound of his voice. She spoke of this very little or not at all; intuition supplied 
me with the details of her cruel loss and her present dilemma. 

That she loved me she could not deny; but that the knowledge of her love caused her guilt and 
shame was equally undeniable. Time had not yet healed the wound on her heart. She had not yet 
forgotten her emotion for the man whose name I never learned; in time, perhaps, she would forget him 
and could love me openly, freely, without a sense of guilt. She felt her betrayal of the memory of one 
dear and precious to her. 

I understood her reticence on this subject completely. For I, too, had given my love to another; and 
the same guilt knifed through my heart at the very thought of Niamh. 

Niamh! Niamh! Niamh the Fair–Oh, my lost beloved, where are you now! Do you yet live in some 
far corner of the world? Can you ever forgive my lack of faithfulness to your memory? 

These words welled up in my heart as I lay in sleepless torment on my pallet, listening to the murmur 
of the jungle night. How I despised myself for yielding to an emotion once reserved for the flower-like 
beauty of the Princess of Phaolon; now irrevocably given to the young girl with whom Fate had thrown 
me together. 

How I loathed myself for falling in love with Shann! And yet, I was helpless to oppose the stormy 
tempest of emotion which swept me from my adoration of Niamh with irresistible force. It hurled me, a 
faithless suppliant, at the feet of another–of a girl whose face I had never seen! 

Yet I was helpless to fight the love that sprang up so swiftly between us in our jungle Eden. The 
very sound of her voice awoke a resonance in my heart, which echoed through the innermost secret 
chambers of my soul. It was as if I had known Shann forever, and needed only to meet her at last, for all 
other memories and loves to be swept from my heart . . . 

I could not resist falling in love with Shann; but I could not resist the sensation of shame and guilt 


which tormented me because of my unfaithfulness in loving her. 

which tormented me because of my unfaithfulness in loving her. 

Our life continued much as it had in the days before I slew the bison-boar beside the pool in the 
glade. 

We cooked shellfish, ate fresh fruits, nuts and berries; Shann scrambled nimbly about the rocks to 
bring back bird’s eggs. I erected a thornbush barrier around our but to keep the predatory beasts at 
bay, although in simple fact the island seemed remarkably, free of dangerous creatures. 

We talked lightly on subjects which bore no relation to our private agonies. She never spoke of her 
dead lover or of her former life in distant Kamadhong; I said not a word of Niamh the Fair, nor of my 
remarkable adventures in searching for my lost beloved. We talked only of future things, and then 
wistfully. 

The idyll ended as suddenly and mysteriously as it had begun. I was within the jungle, fashioning a 
stone knife to the end of a pole with which I planned to knock down some ripe fruit her keen eyes had 
spied, growing on the high branches of a tree. She was some distance away, gathering shellfish on the 
beach. 

I heard her cry out suddenly 

There was surprise and wonder in her voice; it was not a scream of terror. Therefore, I did not at 
once stop what I was doing to hurry to her side, I merely called to inquire the cause of her exclamation. 

I recall her next words as if they had been spoken only yesterday. They were the last words I was 
ever to hear from the lips of Shann my darling . . 

“An air-vessel!” she cried in amazement. “It is descending to the beach!” 

My first thought was that it could be none other than the sky-sled, wherein my friends Prince 
Janchan and Zarqa the Kalood had borne the Goddess Arjala and Niamh the Fair. They left the burning 
temple of Ardha for the unknown darkness, never to be seen by me again. 

I almost opened my lips to ask her if such indeed it was. But then I closed them again, upon the 
realization that Shann had never seen the sky-sled; she knew nothing of my former comrades, whose 
names I never had any reason to even mention to her. 

I am coming,” I called. 

Putting down my half-finished tool, I rose from my knees and headed in the direction of the beach, 
which was only yards away. 

A blind man cannot move swiftly through a dense tropical jungle. Thus it was that, even though I 
had used this route many times before, I went slowly, haltingly; fumbling to feel my way. I moved 
towards the beach with tragic slowness, as grim hindsight tells me now; at the time, however, I was 
half-convinced that it was my friends, somehow come to search for me, who were then landing on the 
beach. 

And then Shann screamed, this time in sheer naked terror! 

I ran, crashing and stumbling through the trees; tripping over roots my sightless eyes could not see, 
hurtling in the direction of her voice. 

I broke from the edge of the jungle to hear her calling me wildly. But her voice sounded from above 
me, blurred amidst the whirring of engines. As I stared about in my blindness, her dear voice receded 
swiftly into the distance of the upper air, and I heard no more. Nothing but the lazy slosh and slap of 
waves against the shore, and the brisk wind rattling the palm-like fronds of the trees. 


I called and wept, stumbling about the beach. I cursed my blinded eyes with all the bitterness in my 
heart–eyes that could not even see what had become of her whom I loved. 

I called and wept, stumbling about the beach. I cursed my blinded eyes with all the bitterness in my 
heart–eyes that could not even see what had become of her whom I loved. 

Part IV 
THE BOOK OF PARIMUS THE WIZARD 


Chapter 16 
THE DECISION OF PARIMUS 


The prince of Tharkoon willingly granted audience to the mariners once the recaptured Xothun had 
docked, and Prince Andar had presented his credentials to the harbor guards. Despite his tattered and 
scanty raiment and whip-scarred back, it was not difficult for Andar to prove his rank and station; for 
princes of the Komarian royal house are tattooed with an heraldic device at birth, this dynastic emblem 
being situated upon the breast. , 

Parimus of Tharkoon was an elderly man; tall and lean, kingly and commanding, attired in glittering 
and splendid robes of gilt brocade sewn with flashing gems. His lofty brow denoted superior intelligence, 
his silver herd the majesty of age; and his jade-green eyes were keen, alert, observant and sympathetic 
as he listened to Andar’s incredible tale in his great hall of audience. 

“I was not unaware, Prince Andar, of the calamity which has befallen your unhappy island realm; 
neither am I indifferent to the potential menace the Blue Barbarians afford the safety of my own 
kingdom,” the Wizard said thoughtfully, upon the conclusion of the Komarian’s statements. “The death 
or disappearance of the Warlord of the savage Horde, early last year, gave me cause to hope that the 
Barbarians would collapse; torn apart by internal rivalries, unable to cope on their own, bereft of the 
superlative, cunning genius of their lost leader. And, in part, my hopes were fulfilled, for in the many 
seasons past the Barbarian conquerors have merely occupied the isle of Komar, too busily settling their 
internal dissensions to bother with any schemes for extending their savage empire in’ the direction of my 
realm of Tharkoon. Now, however, it would seem the situation has been resolved. Such plans are 
indeed afoot–if you accurately report the purpose of the Xothun’s mission here, as I believe you do.” 

“Then you will lend your strength to us in setting my people free, and in crushing our mutual 
enemies?” demanded Andar, eagerly. The magician smiled and stilled his words with a gentle gesture. 

“It is not that easy, my young friend! We Tharkoonians have never been a warlike race. I maintain 
only a small militia to keep order in my dominions. Thus, I have no standing army to lend in support of 
your cause . . . ” 

“Aye? An’ what o’ his magic powers, then?” grumbled Klygon to Lord Eryon, where they stood a 
few paces from the throne dais. “I could’a swore his wizardship there was able t’summon ghosts an’ 
genies from The World Above l” 

“Hush, goblin,” growled Eryon, from one corner of his mouth. “When princes converse, ugly foreign 


imps keep silent.” 

imps keep silent.” 

Little love was lost between the homely, comical, bandy-legged little hook-nosed Assassin, and the 
towering, hot-tempered Komarian blueblood. Their banter had enlivened many a dull evening aboard the 
Xothun on the voyage hither. The give-and-take between the disparate duo, I had best add here, was 
largely on the verbal level; actually, a warm bond of comradeship had sprung up between the two men, 
so very different in appearance, background, and social position. 

“Will you two hold your tongues?” begged Andar, repressing a grin. 

“Beggin’ your princely pardon, I’m sure,” retorted the little guttersnipe with a servile bow. “But 
yonder great hulking oaf lacks decent words when dealin’ with his betters–“ 

“Ho,” roared Eryon, huffing out his beard, eyes ablaze. “My better, are you, weasel? Scoundrel! 
Rapscallion! Deformed dwarfling! Were we back aboard the Xothun, ‘twould be out blade and scatter 
gore!” 

“I beg you, gentlemen,” laughed Prince Parimus helplessly. “We have important matters of state to 
decide here! Kindly conduct your duels, whether verbal or physical, after a proper course of action has 
been determined . . “ 

“I pray pardon for my ruffianly followers,” Andar grinned, with a shrug. “But, to be fair, Klygon of 
Ardha has raised a point of worthy interest in mentioning your wizardly powers, sire. Standing army or 
not, is’t possible your mastery of sorcerous arts is sufficient to outweigh ten thousand warriors in the 
field?” 

By sheerest chance, the agile-witted Prince of Komar had touched upon a facet of his abilities of 
which the Wizard of Tharkoon was excessively vain. He coughed, complacently pooh-poohing such 
voluble praise; finally he admitted, with a pretense of modesty which fooled no one present, that he did 
possess a modicum of skills in the usage of the age-old technological arcana of the Kaloodha. 

Through the next few days there were several such meetings convened in the great hall of audience, 
when the lords of the Tharkoonians and the barons of the Komarians debated tactics, schedules, and the 
deployment of forces. 

The affable Prince-Wizard of the seacoast city was far too intelligent to ignore the danger hovering 
with dark wings over the security of his happy realm. And far too humane and compassionate to regard 
with indifference the brutal subjugation of the isle of Komar by her savage conquerors. 

Prince Andar reiterated his scheme for entering the harbor of Komar aboard the Xothun, with him 
and his men dressed in Barbarian harness, their complexions concealed behind blue paint. The 
all-important element of surprise, he thought, would enable them to gain entry to the walled Citadel atop 
the acropolis hill at the heart of the city, upon pretext of bearing important tidings. Then, once behind the 
fortress gates, they would strive to cut their way through the Barbarian chiefs to recapture the Citadel. 
Due to the extensive fortifications of the acropolis hill, the Barbarian warriors in the Outer City would be 
helpless to come to the defense of their chieftains. 

“And then, timing it to a nicety, were I to land with my force and engage the Outer City garrisons 
with my magic weapons,” mused Parimus thoughtfully, “it would be a matter of divide and conquer .. . 
hmm . . . your plan has considerable merit, my princely neighbor!” 

“Such is certainly my own opinion,” admitted Andar the Komarian. “Great import, however, lies in 
timing the arrival of our twin expeditions, which must be precise. Your fleet should set sail so as to reach 
the harbor of Komar thirty to forty minutes after the Xothun docks; anything earlier or later might prove 
fatal to the success of our plans.” 


The Prince-Wizard smiled unworriedly. 

The Prince-Wizard smiled unworriedly. 

Andar’s frank, open face clearly registered his surprise and consternation. 

“No fleet? But how, then, do you plan to launch your forces against the stronghold of the 
Barbarians?” 

“By air, my young friend! I have succeeded in re-energizing one of the aerial vessels used by the 
forgotten Kaloodha. My sky yacht will serve to bear my warriors and myself to the island city in a mere 
twinkling. Have no worries on that account, let me reassure you!” 

Their plans concluded, the Prince and his lords, together with Klygon, returned to the Xothun and 
cast off. In some little while the ship had vanished from view. It would take them only a day or two of 
steady sailing to gain entry to the harbor of Komar; Andar did not plan to loiter along the way; however 
he strove to time his arrival at early nightfall, for the darkness would make it even less likely that the Blue 
Barbarians would penetrate their disguises and discover the imposture. Parimus had supplied them with 
a sufficiency of a blue salve whose tone accurately matched the pigment of the Barbarians’ skins. 

Leaving Klygon behind as his liaison with the Tharkoonians, when Prince Andar and his warrior 
nobles debarked in the Xothun, they took with them the beautiful young foreign woman who had so 
dramatically landed on the deck of the vessel immediately prior to their landing in the harbor of 
Tharkoon. Klygon at loose ends since the disappearance of young Kam, was happy to have something 
to do with himself; he delighted in the importance of his new role, strutting pompously about in borrowed 
robes. 

While the Xothun sailed the waters of the inland sea of Komar, the Prince-Wizard of Tharkoon 
assembled a company of his bravest, most experienced bowmen and readied his sky yacht for 
immediate departure. 

This vehicle closely resembled the Kaloodha sky-sled in which Karn, Janchan and Zarqa had made 
their escape from the Pylon of Sarchimus the Wise. It was fashioned from the same unknown silvery 
metal, with long sled-like runners which extended beneath the keel of the vessel and afforded it a means 
to settle on the ground. But it was many times the length of the little four-man sled; with an enclosed 
cabin and compartments below the deck, which could serve as comfortable accommodations for a 
considerable number of men. Circular portholes, fitted with panes of durable, transparent crystal, ran in a 
row along the sides; and the prow of the vehicle terminated in a pointed nose like that of a tapering 
projectile, rather than turning up in a curve as did the prow of the skysled. 

Weapons, gear and provisions were stored in the capacious hold and Klygon, Parimus and his 
war-party came aboard; at the appointed time, the aerial vessel arose from the palace rooftop of the 
science wizard and took to the skies. 

The yacht passed above a jungled isle shortly thereafter. Chancing to peer into the mirror-table 
which, by a cunning arrangement of lesser mirrors, afforded occupants of the cabin a clear, unimpeded 
view of whatever lay directly beneath the sky yacht, the Tharkoonian savant was surprised to see a 
human being upon the desolate beach. 

“How peculiar!” he murmured to the stalwart young bowman named Zorak, who stood watch on 
the bridge of the flying ship. “I had considered the isle of Narjix completely uninhabited, save for savage 
beasts, till now.” 

“Perhaps, lord, yonder person is a hapless castaway,” the bowman suggested. 

Parimus shrugged. “ ‘Tis not unlikely; these waters are rendered hazardous at this season by sudden 
storms. Instruct the pilot, Zorak. Let us descend to the strand and discover whether we can render 


assistance to the unfortunate young person who may have been cast ashore by a shipwreck, or even 
washed overboard in a squall . . . ” 

assistance to the unfortunate young person who may have been cast ashore by a shipwreck, or even 
washed overboard in a squall . . . ” 

Was it merely his old eyes playing tricks upon him–or did he fancy the half-naked figure was that of 
someone he knew? His heart thudded against the cage of his ribs like a prisoned bird; he hovered over 
the mirror in an agony of suspense. 

The sky yacht halted its progress, hovered weightlessly, then began to descend to the sandy beach 
where a small and lonely figure stood staring skywards. 

Chapter 17 
THE MIND-QUESTING 


Ever nearer came the spider-monster, down the long, quivering strand of its gigantic web. With 
frantic haste Prince Janchan, Nimbalim of Yoth, and Zarqa the Kalood searched through their garments 
or belongings for a fire-making implement. Nimbalim shrugged philosophically with empty hands, for his 
robes concealed no such device. Zarqa, like all his sexless, tough-skinned race, had no use for clothing 
and wore none. And Janchan’s pocket-pouch was empty! 

“The xoph approaches,” observed the thousand-year-old sage, tranquilly. His companions looked 
up to see, still at some distance, the horrible scuttling shape of the Brobdingnagian spider. The brute was 
essentially the same many-legged creature identical with Earth spiders; but, as is the way with all insects 
on the World of the Green Star, one grown to the proportions of an elephant. Clad in albino fur, with 
monstrous glittering compound eyes like clustered black crystals, it rapidly narrowed the gap between 
itself and its helpless prey. Feeding-mandibles clacked and rasped with horrid eagerness; black crystal 
eyes glared with mindless hunger; the obscene mouth-orifice drooled a stinging slime. The thick 
anchor-cable swayed like a ship’s hawser under its ponderous, scuttling weight. 

The Prince of the Phaolon had carried off his weapons when they had departed from the Flying City 
of Calidar. He now drew forth his long-sword and stiletto from their scabbards and took up a stance at 
the edge of the sled, facing the rapidly approaching monster. 

“Young sir, what is it that you would do?” inquired the philosopher. Janchan shrugged and replied 
that he meant to fight the xoph as best he could. “You but prolong the inevitable,” said Nimbalim gently. 

“Perhaps; but it shall never be said of Janchan of Phaolon that he died without fighting for his life,” 
responded the young warrior briefly. 

Were it not for the after-effects of the bolt, which have temporarily numbed the muscles of my 
wings, I could perchance bear us to safety through flight, came the cool, serene thoughts of Zarqa. But I 
fear our adventures are at an end, my friends. It has been a privilege to share in your perils and exploits; 
I, who have outlived the last of my race, have known an end to the unendurable loneliness that was my 
lot, in your companionship. I do not fear death, but I regret only that we shall not live to discover the fate 
of our lost friends 

“And I, who have passed dreary centuries in the captivity of the black immortals, have at least had 
a taste of freedom,” said the old Yothian quietly. “It pleases my heart that, even if I must end my days 


here at this time, at least I shall die as a free man.” 

here at this time, at least I shall die as a free man.” 

Now do I regret that we departed from the burning temple of Ardha in such haste! came the cool 
thought of Zarqa. For in my haste to be gone, I abandoned the death-flash which the temple guards 
stripped from me. Had I the weapon with me now, ‘twould be simplicity itself to blast the 
spider-monster from its aerial perch . . . 

Suddenly reminded of the store of weapons they had carried off when they had departed from the 
Pylon of Sarchimus, at the termination of the previous adventure, Janchan gasped and stiffened. Hope 
suffused his grim features. 

“The vial of Liquid Flame!” he exclaimed. 

‘Twas carried of by young Karn, with the Witchlight and the coil of Live Rope, said Zarqa listlessly, 
when he left the sky-sled to enter Ardha on his own, and was slain by the zzumalak– 

“But there were two vials,” cried Janchan. “I brought one of them aboard the sled myself!” 

They stared at each other in blank astonishment for a moment. Then, galvanized into action, 
Janchan sprang into the rear storage compartment of their craft, rummaging frantically through the food 
supplies. 

As fate would have it, at the same moment the giant spider, deciding these puny manlings were too 
small and feeble to be any danger, flashed down the cable on flickering stalked limbs, and sprang upon 
its prey! 

Snatching the precious vial from amongst the bundles in the tail compartment of the sky-sled, 
Janchan gave the cap a twist and hurled it directly into the path of the on-coming monster. 

Straight and true the crystal bottle traced its flight, striking the very breast of the charging xoph 

And exploded! 

Instantly, the monster spider was enveloped in a sheet of flame. Rivulets of burning fluid ran down 
its stalked lags; the liquid flame soaked into its befouled albino fur. Its vicious mandibles clicked and 
snapped, closing on empty air, as its tiny brain sought to slay the unseen enemy which had attacked it. It 
swayed drunkenly, on fire with agony, claws snatching at the elusive, invisible foe. Then, a blackened 
husk, withering in the fury of the searing flames, its agonized struggle stilled; it loosed its hold on the 
web-strands and fell into the lightless abyss below. 

But now, the web itself was afire. The sticky, adhesive substance which coated the gummy strands 
was as flammable as oil-soaked wood or cloth. Streams of fire ran in every direction. Within another 
moment, flames shot up around the entrapped sky-sled and the heat became unendurable. 

Janchan, by this time, had climbed back into the vehicle. Now, as the portion of the web which held 
them fast in its grip began to shrivel and flake away in burning cinders, the 

Winged Man thrust forward the control levers. The burning strands stretched–snapped–and parted! 
The sky-sled burst free and rapidly ascended to a level above the burning web. And the three 
adventurers breathed a vast sigh of relief at their narrow escape. 

Exhausted from their ordeal, the travellers came to rest in the branches of an adjoining tree and 
refreshed themselves with food and drink. None of them had slept at all the night before; the strain and 


tension of their precarious escape from the Flying City of Calidar, and the adventures subsequent 
thereto, had taken considerable toll of their energies. So, for a time, they rested and slept a little, while 
Zarqa the Kalood stood guard over them. The Winged Man was so constituted that the necessity for 
slumber was foreign to his system; however, he did take this opportunity to partake of nutriment to 
restore his own vital energies. It had been a considerable time since he had last imbibed a quantity of the 
golden mead, which was the only source of sustenance his alien race required. 

tension of their precarious escape from the Flying City of Calidar, and the adventures subsequent 
thereto, had taken considerable toll of their energies. So, for a time, they rested and slept a little, while 
Zarqa the Kalood stood guard over them. The Winged Man was so constituted that the necessity for 
slumber was foreign to his system; however, he did take this opportunity to partake of nutriment to 
restore his own vital energies. It had been a considerable time since he had last imbibed a quantity of the 
golden mead, which was the only source of sustenance his alien race required. 

The item of first importance on their agenda was to locate the lost members of their party, and to 
reunite with them once again. This, however, presented them with seemingly insoluble problems. For one 
thing, they had not the slightest notion of where Ralidux might have flown with his two female captives, 
once he had accidentally been released from the mind control of Zarqa. 

“Not back to the Flying City; that’s certain, at least!” said Janchan with finality. 

“I would tend to agree with you, Prince Janchan,” nodded the ancient philosopher thoughtfully. “By 
his unwitting assistance of our escape from the slave pens of Calidar, Ralidux has forever alienated 
himself from the company of his kind. The Skymen would consider him a renegade, if not indeed an 
heretic; fit only for swift execution, or perchance a more lingering demise in the experimental 
laboratories. Clyon, his superior, would demand no less; so, I believe, would Prince Thallius.” 

In a few well-chosen words the Yothian sage explained to his new friends the rival political factions 
into which the black supermen of the Flying City were rigidly divided; and the intense contention and 
suspicion which existed between the adherents of the parties. 

Just as the guards were closing around us on their hunting-hawks, I directed the captive brain of 
Ralidux to guide his steed on a divergent path, whereby I had hoped to divide our pursuers; at most to 
delay their approach by posing to them the necessity of deciding which fleeing party to pursue, thus 
affording us precious time, mused Zarqa telepathically. The last glimpse I had of Ralidux’ hawk, it was 
curving away in that direction. He pointed off to their right. 

Janchan nodded. “Yes, that’s right, friend Zarqa. The last time I saw them, they were heading off in 
that direction. But then the bolt bit the sled, put you out of action and we crashed into the leaves. I was 
too busy with the questions of our survival to think of them. Incidentally, Zarqa, have you fully recovered 
from the effects of the bolt by now? Can your wings fly?” 

Yes, responded the solemn-eyed Kalood. It was a passing paralysis of the wing-muscles–a 
temporary numbness caused by the electric shock of the weapon employed by our pursuers. Rest, and 
the partaking of my nutrient mead, has restored me to my full powers again. 

“I assume, then,” said Nimbalim “that we are agreed to begin the search for our missing 
companions in that direction in which they were last headed in flight?” 

Janchan nodded grimly. Without further ado, they reentered their vehicle and took to the skies, 
weaving between the boles of the enormous, sky-tall trees. 

“Of course, they might have landed anywhere,” Janchan said, despairingly. “On that branch, or the 
next; on the one above it, or the one below. We have little chance of finding them in all this wilderness . . 
. ” 

True, replied the Winged Man. However, there is nothing else we can do but to search; however 
hopeless may seem our chances of success . . . 

“A pity you cannot reestablish contact with the mind of Ralidux, save in his presence,” murmured 
the philosopher, after some time. 


I agree. It is difficult enough to control the mind of another, even when he is near; distance renders it 
impossible . . . however . . . now that you mention it– 

I agree. It is difficult enough to control the mind of another, even when he is near; distance renders it 
impossible . . . however . . . now that you mention it– 

The Kalood shrugged. No, not really: it is just that, having once mastered the mind of another, I am 
sensitive to the unique patterns of his thoughts. The emanations of each mind, friend Janchan, are 
distinctly individual. 

“May I ask, what are the limits which distance puts on your abilities to distinguish one thought-wave 
from another?” queried Nimbalim of Yoth. 

That is very difficult. for me to say; especially in the case of you wingless ones, whose mental 
radiations are dimmer and less precise than are the emanations of my own kind. However, if you will 
take over the controls of our craft, Prince, I will bend my efforts to the detection of the thoughts of 
Ralidux . . . 

With a feeling of excitement, Janchan came forward to take his place before the controls, so that 
Zarqa could concentrate. They flew on for most of that day and into the night. From time to time, Zarqa 
would indicate a slight adjustment in their direction; he fancied his sensory equipment caught the far, faint 
impulse of the mind for which he quested. 

Dawn broke below them glimmered a vast inland sea, such as they had never seen or envisioned 
before. They stared down in amazement at the great stretch of waters, which was broken only by a 
scattered archipelago of jungle islands. 

Suddenly, Zarqa stiffened in his trance. He clutched Janchan’s arm his claw-like bony fingers 
sinking into the flesh. 

Down! he commanded sharply. 

Janchan touched the lever and the sky-sled sank down towards the islands of the unknown sea. 

Chapter 18 
THE SHIP FROM THE SKY 


I burst from the edge of the jungle as Shann’s cries receded into the distances above me and were 
lost in the winds of the heavens. Never before had I cursed my blinded eyes as at that hour. The girl 
whom I loved had been stolen from me and I could not even see what it was that had kidnapped her into 
the clouds. 

For hours I paced the lonely emptiness of sand that stretched beside the sea, bemoaning my fate 
and railing against the grim, ironic jest the fates had played upon me. At length, however, I recovered my 
reason although the ache in my heart had not lessened. Returning to the hut I filled my hungry belly with 
food which, in my distraction of mind, I did not even taste. Then, having nothing else to do, I came back 
to the beach where Shann had been taken from me, and began wandering about aimlessly, trying to think 
of something to do next. 

Odd, how bad my luck had been, with those people whom I had come to love! Niamh the Fair was 
gone from me, and as for Zarqa and Prince Janchan, our paths had been sundered long ago. Even 
homely, grinning, faithful little Klygon, who had become my ally and my only friend in the House of 
Gurjan Tor, even he had been taken from me in the end. And now Shann, the girl I had come to love, 
however guiltily; she, too, was gone. 


Was loneliness to be my lot forever? Musing, upon that question I paced the empty beach. And 
then I heard the flying thing above, the whirr of her engines, the rushing wind of her passage! 

Was loneliness to be my lot forever? Musing, upon that question I paced the empty beach. And 
then I heard the flying thing above, the whirr of her engines, the rushing wind of her passage! 

I waited, motionless and unresisting, as the craft settled into the sand near me. Its shadow fell 
across me, cutting off the sun, I heard the squeal of sand as its weight crunched slowly into the wet 
beach. A door opened, men jumped out and came across the sand towards me. 

“You would seem to be in distress, young man,” a man said to me in a voice I did not recognize–an 
old man, from the tone and timbre of his voice. “Can we do aught to alleviate your distress?” 

I opened my mouth to ask my interlocutor if it bad been his ship which bad carried off a young girl 
from this very beach only hours before, when suddenly I heard a voice calling me by my name. 

“Karn! Karn, me lad! Saints and Avatars–is it you?” 

It was a voice I recognized; and my heart leaped up within me when I heard that hoarse, croaking 
sound. 

“Klygon!” I gasped. 

And then I choked, too full of emotion for words, and could say no more. But words were not 
needed; for in the next instant the little man was upon me, hugging the breath out of me and clapping my 
bare shoulder with his horny, calloused palm. 

My rescuer, to whom I had been introduced as Parimus, Prince-Wizard of Tharkoon, was 
solicitous as to the condition of my blinded eyes. Not many minutes after his sky yacht had lifted up from 
the beach of the jungle isle whose name I now learned was Narjix, he was bathing my poor eyes with 
ungents and healing salves, tsk-tsking under his breath as he changed the dressings. 

“Deplorable! Simply deplorable, my boy! But fortunately, the sea-water in which you were so long 
immersed has cleansed the burns and its natural astringent has precluded any infection from setting in. It 
is a great mercy that yon rogue, Klygon, applied wet black river-mud to your burns so soon after they 
were inflicted upon you; for ‘tis that good stroke of luck alone has saved your sight–“ 

“D’you mean I have a chance to see again?” I demanded. 

From the way his hand on my brow moved, I know that he shrugged. 

“’Tis very likely, but too soon to tell. Sea-water, however, makes an excellent antiseptic, in lieu of 
any other. These salves will help heal the raw places, while an application of these rays may do much to 
rebuild the nerve-cells.” He switched on a healing lamp whose rays were directed into my eyes. I could 
not see the glow of the lamp, but the skin of my face itched and tingled from the action of the rays. 

“Ten minutes, now; not a moment more!” he cautioned. 

“I will remember, Lord,” said the young bowman, whose name was Zorak. The science wizard 
shuffled back to the bridge of his vessel: Klygon came to my side. 

“Lad, lad,” he breathed, “’tis marvelous-good to see you again! Why, we all fancied you dead– 
drowned, food for the fishes, at very least–after that great wicked wave swept you off the Xothun’s 
deck! Fancy a boy, blind as you were, findin’ your way to shore and livin’ like a castaway the while! 
Wonders will never cease, they say . . . ” 

“You have not yet told me what has become of our Komarian friends,” I reminded him. 

“Aye, Demigods and Sages, that I ha’nt! Well, lad, we took the ship an’ sailed her into 


Tharkoon-harbor;’ his wizardship, here, gave us a right royal welcome. The lad, Prince Andar I mean, an 
’ he, palavered back and forth . . . and th’upshot of it all was that his wizardry will lend his power to aid 
in the retakin’ of Komar; so Andar, the dear lad, and that gruff of grouch, Eryon, sailed back t’ Komar, 
dressed up like pirates–“ 

Tharkoon-harbor;’ his wizardship, here, gave us a right royal welcome. The lad, Prince Andar I mean, an 
’ he, palavered back and forth . . . and th’upshot of it all was that his wizardry will lend his power to aid 
in the retakin’ of Komar; so Andar, the dear lad, and that gruff of grouch, Eryon, sailed back t’ Komar, 
dressed up like pirates–“ 

“I mean t’ say, in the borrowed finery tooken from the corpses o’ the Barbarians. See, Andar 
figures to enter Komarharbor by dark o’ night, dressed up like the Barbarians, with blue goo smeared 
on they faces an’ everywhere. He hopes to take the Citadel by surprise, the guards not 

knowin’ they be no Barbarians at all, but the true an’ rightful lords of Komar . . . ” 

I let him chatter on in his stumbling, colorful, slangy way; all the while, the healing rays tingled upon 
my burned eyes. 

A bit later, Zorak switched off the lamp, replaced the fresh dressings on my eyes, and forcibly 
ushered the voluble little bandy-legged Assassin from my cabin, sternly saying that his master decreed I 
was to rest for a time. 

Outside the cabin, Klygon paused, chewed his lip. 

“What is it?” asked Zorak. 

“Oh, I don’t know; something I fergot t’ mention,” growled the little Ardhanese. 

“Something important?” the bowman prodded. 

Klygon shrugged. 

“Probably not . . . ‘twere about the woman what landed on Xathun-deck, when we lay half-a-day 
out o’ Tharkoon. You know, the lady as sailed off with Andar bound for the island-city. Thought I 
should mention it to the lad in there; how odd it be that she comes out o’ the sky, clingin’ to that 
monstrous great blue bird an’ all . . . ” 

“Does Karn know the woman?” 

He shrugged again. “Maybe so, maybe not. Anyway, th’ lad’d recognize her by name. Well, no 
matter; guess it be of no great import after all . .. I’ll mention it to him when he wakes, if I remember t’do 
it . .. let’s go get some grub! All this talkin’ has made poor of Klygon hungry as a bull ythid in matin’ 
-season.” 

Zorak laughed, and they went off together. I did not learn of this exchange until much later, nor did I 
learn the identity of the girl who had so surprisingly landed on the decks of the pirate galley, until after the 
end of this adventure. 

For, of course, Klygon forgot to tell me about it–until it was too late. 

I slept, woke, washed and ate, and donned the warrior’s harness of gilded leather Zorak had set 
out for me. I found my way to the bridge where Klygon and Parimus were. 

The flight to Komar was taken by a wandering, circuitous route. This was partly to avoid detection 
by any of the Barbarian galleys which ranged the inner sea; and partly in order to time our arrival at the 
island city according to the schedule which Prince Andar and the science wizard had worked out 
between them. 

Twice more Parimus treated my eyes with his healing salve and subjected them to the curious rays 
of his lamp. The rays would stimulate the regrowth of damaged tissues and vastly accelerate the repair of 
the nerves. 

No more was I the dirty, half-naked wild boy, clad in a tattered loin-cloth. If Shann were to see me 


now, she probably would not recognize me. Cleaned up, my wild mane of raw blond hair was trimmed 
back in a warrior’s braid; newly garbed, cloaked and buskined, with a longsword in its scabbard at my 
side, I felt like a civilized being again. I had not felt so in a long time, and found it to be a good feeling. 

now, she probably would not recognize me. Cleaned up, my wild mane of raw blond hair was trimmed 
back in a warrior’s braid; newly garbed, cloaked and buskined, with a longsword in its scabbard at my 
side, I felt like a civilized being again. I had not felt so in a long time, and found it to be a good feeling. 

I tried, to recall her exact words, spoken on the beach as I blundered towards her through the 
jungle, just before the unknown thing had carried her away from me. But I could not remember precisely 
what she had said. 

Was it a bird–or an airship? 

That whirring sound I had heard–was it in truth the sound of engines, or had it been perhaps the 

beating of mighty wings? 

Strain my memory as I might, I could not remember. Not that it made any difference, I guessed. 

The girl I loved had been carried off into the unknown. That was all I knew; and that was enough. 

Night fell across the Green Star planet. Suddenly, there came a shrill cry of alarm from the bridge. I 
sprang from my pallet, wrapped a bit of cloth about my loins, and snatched up my naked sword. I made 
my blind and blundering way into the control cabin, where the lookout was posted. 

Klygon, Zorak and the old science wizard were already there, talking together excitedly. Confusion 
reigned inside the crowded, swaying cabin. Outside, storm winds blew, rain pelted down to smear the 
crystal panes; thunder growled and grumbled amidst the black, thick clouds. 

The sky yacht had been attacked by another flying craft. 

Or–had it? 

“I tell you, my lord, I simply don’t know!” the lookout was protesting. “’Tis hard enough to see out, 

what with the dark and the flicker of lightning, amidst all this rain–“ 

“But you must know what it was you saw!” said the Wizard, testily. 

“A flying vehicle of some sort, smaller than your lordship’s yacht. It passed across our bows so 

closely I thought it was trying to ram us–“ 

“The storm may have blinded the foreign machine, even as we,” pointed out the Wizard. 

“Perhaps, sire, but I–“ 

“There it is again–coming right for us!” shouted Zorak. 

“Pilot! Take evasive action,” snapped Parimus. “Officer of the watch-man the energy cannon. We 

can take no chances.” 

“Aye, my lord!” 

“There it is again–swinging around towards us–“ 

“Shoot it down,” commanded Parimus, tensely. 

There came to my ears the droning whine of the energy weapon. Then an ear-splitting crack as of a 

bolt of lightning! 

In the next instant the mystery ship went spiralling down, crippled or demolished, into the dark 
waters below! 


Chapter 19 
WHEN COMRADES MEET 


At the crisp mental command of Zarqa the Kalood, Prince Janchan of Phaolon bent to the controls 
of the sky-sled. The aerial vehicle skimmed away, into a steep downward curve. 

Not too far in that direction–back, back! came the telepathic instruction of the Winged Man. The 
young Phaolonese grasped the control lever in his firm grip and inched it backwards into reverse. The 
downward curve became a narrowing spiral. 

Beneath them, a dull glinting shield made pewter flame by the rays of morning, the inland sea spread 
its vast expanse of waters. Islands and archipelagoes broke the glittering stretch of unknown waves. 
Even as they stared down at the mysterious sea, the sled arrowed towards one jungled isle. 

“Amazing!” cried Janchan, staring at the weird vista. The world, to him, was composed of dry land 
which supported a planet-wide forest of immense trees. In their branches, the denizens of Lao made 
their jewelbox cities. In his wildest dreams, the young Prince had never envisioned such an inexplicable 
enigma as this tremendous expanse of open waters. 

The old philosopher Nimbalim was entranced. His serene eyes sparkled with intellectual excitement. 
The cosmological speculations of the natural philosophers of his ancient realm had, in fact, predicted the 
sea. Or, if not the actuality, at least the theoretical possibility of its existence. After untold centuries of 
mental stagnation, which he had suffered during slavery to the black supermen of Calidar, he found the 
excitement of. the discovery intoxicating. 

“Whatever could have caused such a marvel as this,” murmured Janchan. “Some miracle of the 
gods, perhaps?” 

“The hand of nature herself,” replied Nimbalim of Yoth. “The clouds which envelop our world are 
composed chiefly of water vapor–minute droplets of the fluid, held in suspension by the winds, perhaps. 
When this envelope of clouds becomes too heavily charged with droplets, they combine–merge–into 
drops too heavy any longer to be held aloft. This causes the phenomenon commonly called rain. 
Unknown quantities of the fluid fall on the trees, much of which filters through the leaves and trickles 
down the trunks, to end at last at the Bottom of the World–that black, nightmarish abyss which lies at 
the roots of the arboreal giants, a region of we know so very little.” 

The free exercise of intellectual speculation, the chance to teach, argue and explain, was a heady 
joy to the ancient philosopher, Janchan observed with compassion. The sparkle in those fine eyes, the 
animation in those wasted features, belied the countless centuries of Nimbalim’s synthetic immortality. 
He let the old man continue his discourse, all the while remaining alert to further mental directions from 
Zarqa. 

“Much of this rainwater which collects at the bottom of the world returns to the cloud-layer again, 
through the process we call ‘evaporation.’ You will have seen water heated in a ceramic container until it 
steams away; well, that is only an artificial acceleration of the natural process of evaporation. Reduced 
again to vapor, the moisture ascends into the sky, to become part of the clouds again. No one has yet 
discerned precisely why this upwards motion should be natural for water vapor; but a theory proposed 
by my colleague, Ellambyon of Tuomaha, attempts to explain it on the basis of his observation that 
heated air–and thus steam, as well–tends to ascend, being lighter than cold air. At any rate, so dense are 
the leaves and branches which interpose their nemoral barriers to the ascension of this vapor, that some 


of it condenses into droplets again upon the leaves, thus more water remains in the abyss than ever 
returns to the clouds again.” 

of it condenses into droplets again upon the leaves, thus more water remains in the abyss than ever 
returns to the clouds again.” 

“Yes, of course! If this theory were true, over the passage of numberless ages, vast quantities of 
water would collect at the Bottom of the World. Since it is only natural for water to seek to collect at the 
lowest level, any large depression in the surface of the planet would tend to become the reservoir of 
these waters. In time, whatever trees also occupied this portion of the planet’s surface would decay and 
die in these waters; over ages, creating such an expanse as this we see below us . . . a pity I shall never 
be able to bring to my colleague Ellambyon the proof of his speculations . . . ” 

“But why should you not? It is our hope to be able to return you to Yoth at the conclusion of these 
adventures,” argued Janchan. 

A touch of sadness entered into the calm features of the thousand-year-old man. 

“For two reasons, friend Janchan, either of which is sufficient to prevent me. In the first place, I 
understand that my natal realm of Yoth was demolished by the depredations of the Blue Barbarians, at 
some period after my enslavement by the Skymen of Calidar. The second, alas, is that my colleague 
lived and died many centuries ago, lacking the synthetic immortality conferred upon me by the 
experiments of the Calidarians.” 

Janchan bit his lip, vexed at his insensitivity in proposing the question. Then 

“I’m sorry: what was that, Zarqa?” 

I said the signal has faded; I am no longer receiving the mental radiations from Ralidux. Level off 
and let us explore these islands immediately beneath us in a widening circle, until I am able to recover 
reception of the thought-waves of his brain. 

All that day they searched, without, however, recovering the signal. That evening, they let the 
sky-sled come to earth on a jungled-clad isle; Janchan built a fire by striking stones together and they 
basked in its warmth while they partook of the evening meal. Then they slept while Zarqa, who required 
no slumber, stood guard over their recumbent forms. With dawn they arose, bathed in the cold fresh 
waters, broke their fast, and resumed the search again. 

For some time thereafter, their adventures continued as a humdrum repetition of search, descent, 
dinner, slumber and waiting to renew the search. The inland sea was incredibly vast, and the jungle isles 
proved far more numerous than any of them could have guessed. They were naggingly aware of a sense 
of wasted time; however, they had no recourse but to continue their fruitless pursuit until they regained 
contact with the brain of Ralidux. 

A storm blew up suddenly–one of the many swift, disastrous squalls which rendered aerial flight 
over the inland sea so unexpectedly hazardous. Black clouds closed about them almost before they 
noticed it; within moments they were flying practically blind through gusts of gale-force wind. Sheets of 
rain sluiced them, stinging their eyes, rendering their vision even more limited than before. They would 
have descended to alight on some rocky isle to wait out the storm had they been able, but no isle 
beneath them appeared in the tossing waves. 

At length a flare of lightning did indeed reveal an island to their left; they made for it with all possible 
speed. But in the blackness and confusion of wind and rain, they suddenly found themselves hurtling on a 
collision course with an alien sky-ship of strange design. 

Janchan yelled with surprise, hurling himself to the controls. The sled angled off at a sickeningly 
vertiginous tilt, narrowly missing a collision with the unknown craft. Now they had lost track of where, in 
this wilderness of flickering lightning and boiling storm-clouds, the island lay. A moment later they found 
themselves closing with the strange skyship once again–only this time it was alarmed and ready for them. 


Before any of them could think or act, the enemy ship loosed a bolt of sparkling fire which grazed 
the tail of their craft. Even so glancing a shot, however, was sufficient to send them reeling through 
space, turning over and over like a falling leaf. 

Before any of them could think or act, the enemy ship loosed a bolt of sparkling fire which grazed 
the tail of their craft. Even so glancing a shot, however, was sufficient to send them reeling through 
space, turning over and over like a falling leaf. 

Pull up! Janchan–pull up, or we will crash! came imperatively from the Winged Man. 

“I’m trying to,” said the other through gritted teeth. “We seem to have suffered some damage from 
that energy blast . . . ah, there we go!” 

The nose of the sky-sled rose, breaking its doomed dive. For a moment the craft hovered almost 
motionlessly, nose pointed at the storm. Then leaves and branches whipped at them, as the reeling craft 
plunged through the upper terraces of the jungle, it came to a jolting, shuddering halt, half-buried in the 
wet sand of the beach. 

Had it not been for the padded body-sized grooves of the sled’s deck, in which they lay, plus the 
taut webbing of straps that bound them in place, the passengers of Zarqa’s craft might have been slain, 
seriously injured, or thrown clear. As things worked out, while they were all bruised, dazed and shaken 
up, none of them sustained anything more serious than a bump or a cut. 

Janchan tore loose from his webbing and staggered over the tilted deck to where the frail old 
philosopher lay, pale and shaken, blood welling from a scratch on his brow. 

“Are you all right, magister?” he demanded urgently. 

“I believe these old bones have never before taken such a shaking-up,” wheezed Nimbalim gamely, 
but breathlessly. “However, I estimate that I am still in one piece. What of our Kaloodha friend, is he–“ 

I am unharmed, came a pulse of calm thought from Zarqa. 

“We seem to be on fire,” the philosopher pointed out, nodding toward the tail of the craft from 
which black smoke eddied. 

A scorch, nothing more. 

“Yes, I think that’s all,” Janchan nodded. The bolt from the attacker had scorched the transparent 
protective enamel, the sky-sled’s heavy coating. Already, the downpour had extinguished the slight 
blaze. Now, the rain itself was lessening as the storm-clouds passed quickly by overhead, driven by 
gale-force winds. 

Out of the clearing skies, the strange craft came floating down towards them! 

Janchan swore and put his hand to his sword. But the deck of the immense craft was lined with 
archers who handled their bows in a very businesslike manner. He grasped the hilt of his blade, then 
relaxed his fingers hopelessly. They were too few, and too lightly armed, to put up much resistance 
against so overwhelming a force. 

The larger ship settled on the beach some fifty yards from where they stood. A port yawned open, 
in the glistening metal flanks of the attacker. Small figures appeared, and came down a ramp to the wet 
sand. In the forefront was an elderly man of scholarly mien and princely dress, accompanied by a tall, 
bronzed, stalwart archer; a young boy with a bandaged face, and a small bow-legged little rogue, 
impishly ugly. 

None of the strangers did Janchan or Zarqa recognize, except for one. The sight of that one brought 
them to their feet in stark astonishment. 

“Karn!” Janchan roared, grasping the arm of the Kalood who stood beside him. The changeless 


melancholy in the solemn face of the Winged Man altered, for once, into an expression of surprise and 
delight. 

melancholy in the solemn face of the Winged Man altered, for once, into an expression of surprise and 
delight. 

And so we met again, there on the beach of an unknown isle after so long a time sundered apart! 
Janchan clasped me to his bosom, stammering with joyous astonishment, and Zarqa the Kalood, whom I 
had rarely known to smile before, smiled until I thought his golden face would crack. 

Karn, my young friend, my rescuer from the prison o/ Sarchimus! Well-met, indeed, dear youth! 
Now do I think that the gods of The World Above are more than idle myths; for they have brought us 
back together again after such a long, weary separation! 

“Then these are friends of yours, my boy?” murmured Parimus in horror. “And to think that I 
directed my warriors to fire upon their craft–to bring it down! I could not know, nor could you, with 
your blinded eyes, have told me the craft was that of allies! Strangers, can you ever forgive me–?” 

Introductions were exchanged all around. We had, each of us, a thousand urgent questions to ask 
of the other; but the one question that was foremost in my dazed, uncomprehending mind was that of the 
whereabouts of Niamh the Fair. 

Did she live or die, the girl I once had loved–the girl whose love I had betrayed with another? 

Chapter 20 
SLITHERING HORROR 


My lips parted. I was about to ask the fate of Niamh the Fair and of the Goddess Arjala, both of 
whom I had seen being carried away to safety out of the burning temple by Janchan and Zarqa the 
Kalood. 

Parimus, however, interrupted. 

“Time is of the essence, my friends,” the science wizard said. “Even as we speak, Prince Andar and 
his Komarian nobles are arriving at the harbor of his vanquished city in disguise, hoping to take the Blue 
Barbarians unawares and storm the royal citadel. Our own arrival is now slightly overdue; and unless we 
get underway immediately, we shall be too late to afford Andar the Komarian the, all-important 
diversion we have planned between us.” 

This was news to me, of course; and neither Zarqa nor Janchan were as yet acquainted with the 
gallant young Prince Andar whose kingdom had been overrun by the savage Barbarians, under their 
enigmatic and mysterious Warlord. In a few terse, well-chosen words, the Prince-Wizard of Tharkoon 
outlined the recent developments which had occurred since I had been washed over the side of the 
Xothun and lost in the measureless waters of the Komarian Sea, thus separated by the swift-flowing 
sequence of events from my allies and comrades. 

“I am sure we all have many things to tell each other,” 

Prince Parimus smiled regretfully. “But the story of our various adventures shall have to await a 
safer, less urgent time for the telling. We must take to the air without delay; the isle of Komar lies not far 
from this uninhabited isle. But in these uncertain latitudes sudden storms arise in a twinkling, and the 
sooner we are aloft the quicker we shall arrive to assist Andar in his battle. Tell me, Kalood, does your 
craft still retain the power of flight or have we injured the mechanism by our unfortunate bolt of electric 


fire?” 

fire?” 

The sky-sled remains flight-worthy, Prince Parimus, the Winged telepathed in reply. I f your 
bowmen will lend a hand, we shall quickly be able to dig the prow out of the wet sand in which it 
crash-landed. If you would be so kind . . . ? 

Parimus nodded, turning to the tall Tharkoonian bowman who stood ever at his side. 

“With the greatest pleasure, noble Zarqa! I am delighted to learn that our ill-chanced ray caused no 
damage to your ancient craft. Zorak–command a detail of your archers to bend their backs to the task 
without further delay. There are digging-tools in the forward supply cubicle of the yacht–“ 

Zorak touched his brow obediently, but his bronzed features wore the shadow of a troubled frown. 

“Well, what is it?” huffed the science wizard, irritably, seeing him hesitate. 

“My Prince, since the Komarians expect us momentarily to provide the diversion their assault upon 
the citadel requires for victory, should we not leave these new-found friends of the boy Karn, with the 
tools? Let them dig their craft free themselves, while we burry to relieve Prince Andar? Surely, they can 
excavate their sky-sled and follow on our heels?” 

Parimus shook his head, determinedly. 

“Caution and prudence bid otherwise, brave Zorak! Young Karn and his friends have too often 
been separated by chance and adversity, ere now. I will not risk a similar mishap, which would prevent 
their remaining together. Come, come, man! Twill take only a few moments; then we are off, flying 
together, with no possibility of further ill-luck separating old comrades.” 

Zorak saluted and returned to the aerial yacht, summoning the bowmen to the deck. A runner 
entered the cabin to unlock the store of tools. Within a few moments, Tharkoonian archers came 
trooping onto the beach, their bows and quivers set aside, awkwardly shouldering picks and shovels. 
They formed a half-circle about the portion of the skysled which was tilted over, half-buried in wet sand. 
In less time than it takes to tell it, the tools were at work and wet sand was flying in all directions. 

There was nothing in particular for Zarqa, Janchan or I to do while the archers dug the sky-sled out 
of the sand. We seized this opportunity to fill each other in on the adventures which had befallen us after 
we had become separated on the outskirts of the Yellow City of Ardha. 

Then it was that I learned for the first time how Janchan had entered the city, disguised as a 
mercenary swordsman. He had luckily lent his blade to the rescue of an influential and grateful officer of 
the royal guard, who had been set upon by Assassins in the pleasure gardens. Of his meteoric rise in the 
ranks of the guardsmen loyal to Akhmim, the Tyrant of Ardha, I had previously known nothing; nor of 
how he had chanced to penetrate the temple on a mission to free Niamh the Fair. In a few swift words, 
the Phaolonese princeling told how he had set Zarqa free and dispatched him to the place where the 
sky-sled lay concealed. He descended to the prison-cell in which Niamh was sequestered; he had been 
surprised in the act of liberating the Princess by the intrusion of the Incarnate Goddess of the Temple. An 
accident had started the fire. Luckily, Zarqa had arrived with the sled in time to carry them all to safety 
from the burning building. 

Zarqa then told how he had come to be imprisoned in the temple, having been captured by Arjala’s 
huntsmen. He further related the astonishing consequences of their hasty flight from Ardha; of how they 
had been taken prisoner by the black immortals of Calidar, the City in the Sky; and of the many 
mysteries and marvels of that amazing kingdom, which floated among the clouds, far above the treetops 
of the Green Star World. 


I then related a brief account of the adventures that had followed my rash and impulsive attempt to 
enter Ardha on my own; of my desperate battle with the giant zzumalak, which had carried me from the 
tree branch to the rooftops of the palaces of Ardha; of my capture and imprisonment by the Assassins’ 
Guild, how they had trained me in their subtle arts and skills. 

I then related a brief account of the adventures that had followed my rash and impulsive attempt to 
enter Ardha on my own; of my desperate battle with the giant zzumalak, which had carried me from the 
tree branch to the rooftops of the palaces of Ardha; of my capture and imprisonment by the Assassins’ 
Guild, how they had trained me in their subtle arts and skills. 

Janchan was fascinated by my account of the black, gloomy abyss which lies at the base of the 
sky-tall trees; I, in turn, was intrigued by his description of the strange flying city of scarlet metal; and of 
the beautiful and sinister madmen who live eternally above the world. 

“Our adventures have carried us to regions above the sky . . . and to the uttermost, darkling depths 
of the world,” he mused. “How strange it is, then, that we should meet again–on a nameless, uninhabited 
jungle isle amidst this enormous sea, whose reaches were unknown to us!” 

Someone–I think that it was ugly little Klygon–began to make some comment on that. But he was 
interrupted by the most peculiar noise. 

It was a tremendous, deep hissing sound, like a jet of steam escaping from a boiler. All about me 
men yelled and roared in sudden, inexplicable terror and consternation. 

Inexplicable, that is, to me! For a blind youth cannot tell from sound alone what is happening. 

All about me I heard the thud of running feet–startled cries–the inexplicable crackle of vegetation 
being crushed beneath the weight of some enormous bulk. I stared about me helplessly, suddenly finding 
myself alone; unable to account for the attack of panic which had struck my comrades into terrorized 
flight. 

But it seemed the island was not uninhabited, after all! 

My first inkling of what had befallen us came when a vast, cold coil settled about my 
waist-tightened with crushing force–and lifted me into the air! 

I beat with puny, futile hands against the dry, slick, rugous thing which encircled my middle. My 
palms scraped against scaly hide, and the rank odor of reptilian musk was heavy in my nostrils. 

From some distance, I heard my comrades calling my name in alarm and fright. As for me, I was 
too muddled and confused to be scarcely conscious of the sensation of fear. I did not know how 
suddenly the thick wall of the jungle had parted before the brutal, thrusting force of a monstrous, 
wedge-shaped head. The flaming eyes, grinning, fanged jaws and flickering, forked tongue had driven 
the archers into flight in all directions. 

Now there was good, ample reason for them to regret having left their weapons upon the 
flight-deck of Prince Parimus’ sky yacht! 

It was not until very much later, when all tales were told and all of our adventures were made 
known, that we realized that the seemingly-uninhabited island upon which the sky-sled had been forced 
down by the yacht of Prince Parimus, was none other than that same isle of ancient ruins upon which 
Ralidux the Mad had alighted, with his captives, Niamh the Fair and Arjala of Ardha– 

The isle of the gigantic living serpent-god! 

Cheated of his feast by the lucky escape of Ralidux, the vast, monstrous Ssalith had at length 


emerged from its hidden lair in the depths of the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the age-old Temple. 

emerged from its hidden lair in the depths of the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the age-old Temple. 

In time, however, the sensitive, flickering tongue of the Ssalith had scented man-flesh on the breeze 
. . . and the trail had led the slithering horror to the beach, where tiny manlings toiled to unearth a vehicle 
fallen from the skies. 

The manlings had fled in terror from the gliding monster, as it burst suddenly upon them from the 
dense wall of jungle foliage. 

All but one blind boy, who could not see the fanged monster as it poured its glistening, scaly coils 
out of the jungle depths. 

Now the slithering thing had fastened upon–me. 

Part V 
THE BOOK OF DELGAN OF THE ISLES 


Chapter 21 
THIEVES IN THE NIGHT 


Night had fallen; the west was a glimmering pyre of gold and crimson. The last level rays of sunset 
flashed from the roof-tiles and crystal windows of Komar and bathed the upper tiers of the citadel in 
ruby light, while drowning the alleys and squares below in purple shadows. 

The Xothun had lingered out to sea, awaiting the sunset hour, well out of the sight of any tower-top 
sentinel. Now, as darkness gathered upon the waters, the high-prowed galley glided stealthily into the 
harbor of the port-city. Prince Andar and his nobles looked, for the first time in weeks, upon the capital 
of their conquered kingdom. 

The harbor was virtually a landlocked bay, with a steep sea-wall encircling it; rank on rank of 
buildings rose beyond. Warehouses where the merchants stored their goods, waterside inns and taverns, 
lined the harbor wall; beyond them rose the houses of artisans and workmen; then the mansions of the 
nobles and the merchants, with their rooftop gardens and armorial blazonry. 

Beyond and above all, the royal citadel lifted its vasty, tiered height. Built on the cliff-crest above 
the city, the seat of the Princes of Komar was both a fortress and a palace. And now, for many months, 
the old black throne-chair of the Sea Kings of Komar had groaned beneath the weight of a Blue 
Barbarian. Andar gritted his teeth at the thought of this desecration: but he consoled himself with the 
thought that the hour of reparation was almost at hand. 

The Xothun crept into the gloomy harbor on swinging oars, sails furled. Here and there about the 
decks strolled Andar’s warlike lords–the exiled barons of Komar, chained into slavery by their brutal 
conquerors. Those very conquerors were, at the same time, doubtless watching the great galley come 
into harbor. But not a single man among them felt the slightest suspicion. For every man visible upon the 


decks of the galley had the azure skin-coloration of a true Barbarian, and wore the soiled, gaudy finery 
affected by the conquering savages. 

decks of the galley had the azure skin-coloration of a true Barbarian, and wore the soiled, gaudy finery 
affected by the conquering savages. 

Then, leisurely, without attracting undue attention, the crew of the galley began to debark. By this 
time it was almost completely dark; the dense black of the Green Star World, lightened by no ray of 
moonlight, was the essence of blackness itself. 

Those who went about at night in the harbor of Komar, under the reign of the Barbarian 
conquerors, commonly carried horn lanterns or oil-soaked torches. But the troop of bedraggled, 
grim-faced seamen who trooped down the gangplank of the Xothun bore neither lantern nor torch. To 
them, the darkness was a friendly shield; they knew well that the blue pigment with which their arms and 
faces were smeared would not stand up to prolonged, careful scrutiny under strong light. 

By pre-arranged plan, they split into three groups of even strength. One group made for the main 
thoroughfare, which led by ascending stages from the harbor to the citadel on the heights. The two other 
groups of seamen headed for other exits. In this manner, if one group was stopped by guards or 
watchmen, the other two would at least have an even chance of reaching the rendezvous-point without 
raising an alarm. 

They moved through the gloom-drenched streets, silent masses of unspeaking men, fully armed with 
long cutlasses and borrowed rapiers and dirks. Most kept their faces down as they passed the 
infrequent street-lights, or the bright-lit windows of wine-shops or inns. Others had muffled their features 
with scarves, or the turned-up collars of their long sea-cloaks. All wore some manner of headgear, to 
disguise the fact that their locks were the gossamer silver of the denizens of the treetop cities; not the 
lank, greasy, locks of the Blue Barbarians. 

They strode through the gloom, keeping to the inkiest of the shadows, trying not to make more 
noise than could be helped. In the forefront of the first group strode Prince Andar himself; his 
lean-jawed, handsome visage was masked by his up-turned collar, his fierce gaze roamed restlessly from 
side to side as he marched up the main avenue. 

Beneath a fold of his cloak, he clenched the hilt of a naked sword. 

By great good luck, the streets of the lower city were virtually deserted at this hour. Since the 
yet-unexplained death or disappearance of the Warlord many months before, Andar knew, the 
Barbarians had grown lax in their vigilance. Few guards patrolled the lower city, and little watch was 
kept on the movements of the captive Komarians themselves. In part, this laxity was due to overweening 
confidence on the part of the Barbarians. They swaggered about, fancying themselves irresistible 
warriors with naught to fear from a cowed, crushed, leaderless and captive citizenry. But for the most 
part, it was explained by the intrinsic nature of the conquerors: barbarians are a lazy, unruly mob who 
dislike taking orders and shirk an orderly regimen whenever they can. The absence of that brilliant 
military genius whom they hailed as Warlord gave them a chance to slump into a slovenly, disorganized 
horde-life again. 

Only his miraculous genius had forged them into a warrior legion of unparalleled power. Lacking his 
tight hand on the reins, they would slowly crumble into jealous, quarreling, rival clans. 

As Andar and his men prowled the dark streets of the conquered seaport, they saw at every hand 
the unmistakable signs of the conquerors’ brutality and callousness. Shops gaped, mere empty shells, 
their windows smashed, their shelves looted bare; bodies dangled from street corner gibbets, or rotted in 
alleys choked with garbage. Rows of homes were charred ruins, burnt to the ground through 
carelessness or malicious spite. Palaces and mansions were gutted, their gardens trampled and 


despoiled, fragile statuary lying in wreckage. And everywhere there were corpses–corpses of men, of 
women–even of children. 

despoiled, fragile statuary lying in wreckage. And everywhere there were corpses–corpses of men, of 
women–even of children. 

The upper city was better lighted, and better patrolled. Often Andar and his men hid in the shadows 
at the mouths of alleys, holding their breaths in an agony of suspense, while guard-troops marched by on 
their rounds. No drunken slackers, these were a grim, sharp, wary lot; they marched with drawn swords 
and eyes that dug into every shadow. 

Something had happened to tighten up the lax security in the upper city, Andar surmised. He 
wondered what it was. 

But there was no time now to ponder on what had taken place here, since he and his men had 
sailed from Komar chained to the oars of the Xothun. For now they were approaching the gate of the 
mighty citadel itself; its beetling walls towered above them, frowning battlements of heavy stone lifted 
against the black, murky heavens. 

But the gate itself blazed with the light of many torches. Half a company of Barbarians stood about, 
guarding the entryway. To approach meant that Andar and his men must expose their flimsy disguises to 
the hard, measuring stares of two-score alert, wary guardsmen, in the full glare of these torches. 

From the dark mouth of the alley-way, the Prince and his warriors gathered for their planned assault 
on the citadel. This was the rendezvous-point at which they had determined to meet, when they had split 
into three groups back at the harbor. Now, breathless with suspense, Andar’s party hovered in the 
black mouth of the alley, waiting to see if the rest of their comrades would make their way safely to join 
forces with them. 

No out-cry had yet been raised in the sleeping city, which was a good sign. No ringing shouts of 
alarm, no scuffle of swordplay: the island city slept heavily, under the lightless heavens. 

Then the man at his left seized the Prince’s arm. 

“A group of men, coming from the merchants’ quarter,” he whispered. Andar nodded, saying 
nothing. The clump of booted feet on the cobbles came to him on the night air, with the muffled ring and 
clank of accouterments. A darker mass appeared in the gloom, and a muttered password was 
exchanged, Andar relaxed with a sigh and began to breathe again. He had not been aware that he was 
holding his breath until he released it. 

Agonizing minutes crept by, one by one, leaden-footed. Then, another group of men appeared. This 
time he recognized Eryon at their head, by the silver in his grizzled beard and the proud way he held his 
shoulders. With as few words as possible and as little noise, the Komarians joined forces and waited 
Andar’s signal to assault the gate. By a great stroke of good luck, none had noticed them as they had 
slunk furtively through the city’s darkened ways. 

From the dark mouth of the alley, they peered out at the well-lit entry-port of the citadel, estimating 
their chances of capturing it by a sudden attack. 

“’Tis too risky, my prince,” growled the grizzled Eryon. “Let’s await the arrival of Prince Parimus 
and his airship, to divert their attention . . . ” 

Andar shook his head. “There is no time. We will arouse suspicion by merely lingering here. The 
next troop of guards to pass will notice and investigate such a mass of men lurking in the shadows. And ‘ 
tis not yet time for Parimus to launch his attack.” 

“What’s best to do, then, before the gods?” muttered Eryon, chewing on his beard in a torment of 


indecision. 

indecision. 

Before Eryon could grasp the import of his words, or so much as lift a hand to stop him, the Prince 
of Komar strutted out into the well-lit square before the main portal of the citadel. He swaggered 
brazenly up to the guard-captain. 

“What ho, comrade!” he bawled in a coarse tone affecting the crude accent of the Horde. “Be there 
thieves skulking in the night, that you guards be out in such strength?” 

The captain eyed him warily. 

“Where have you been hiding, friend, that you remain ignorant of the miracle?” he demanded. 
Andar, pretending to weave on his feet because of strong drink, blinked belligerently. 

“ ‘Miracle,’ ‘Miracle,’ is’t? Well, friend, I’ve been to sea on the Council’s business, all the long, 
weary way to far Tharkoon an’ back, that’s where! And I bear news of mighty import to the Council, 
this very hour; aye, that I do.” 

“The Council is disbanded,” said the captain in harsh, level tones. “And the miracle I spoke. of is 
that the Warlord has returned out of the very jaws of the grave, to lead us once again.” 

This was news, indeed; and not to Andar’s liking; but, for reasons of his imposture, he must feign 
otherwise. He blinked and swayed gaping slack-jawed in astonishment, mumbling oaths he had heard 
from the former masters of the Xothun. 

“You will take your news to the Warlord himself, who sits up late on matters of punishment and 
reward,” the captain cut in. “And, as you seem to have taken aboard a drop or two of wine, let me 
advise you to speak soberly and to the point. Hath been too much relaxing of discipline amongst us 
during his absence, says our master .. . already nine clan-chieftains dangle from courtyard gibbets, as 
token of his displeasure! Give me your name, sept and clan to set down in my book, and you shall be 
escorted within.” 

“By the bowels of Yhorx, I need no escort!” roared Andar, pretending rage. Blustering and 
mouthing oaths, he lurched nearer to the captain; all the time his mind was racing keenly, trying to recall 
the names of one or another of the septs and clans the Warlord had welded together into his Horde. For 
the very life of him, he could not bring a single one to mind . . . and time was running out! 

Chapter 22 
FLASHING SWORDS! 


The captain of the gate uttered a short bark of laughter at Andar’s blustering words. 

“You’ll have an armed escort to take you within the citadel, my man, or the Warlord will add my 
corpse to the many who dangle from his gibbets,” he said inflexibly. 

His hand rested lightly upon the hilt of his sword, and his eyes were hard and suspicious. They 
rested unblinkingly on the disguised Prince, searching his half-hidden features in the bright glare of the 
many torches. Andar felt cold perspiration break out on his body, trickling down his ribs and belly. 

It could all end here and now, he thought to himself. His blood ran cold at the thought. Stumbling 
and blustering, he came a few steps closer to where the captain of the Barbarians stood. 


The captain was still staring at him with alert, wary eyes. 

The captain was still staring at him with alert, wary eyes. 

His eyes widened suddenly, as a lock of Andar’s hair escaped from the bright kerchief he had 
wound about his brows. At the same instant, Andar had whipped out his sword and driven the blade 
through the captain’s heart. 

“I’ll name my nation, Barbarian! ‘Tis–Komar! Komar!” roared Prince Andar, now that his 
imposture was exposed. Whirling on his heel, he withdrew his steel from the chest of the corpse to drive 
it singing into the throat of the gate-captain’s second-in-command, who stood nearby, staring without 
comprehension at the corpse which fell to the tiles spouting gore. 

“Komar! Komar!” The cry rang up from half a hundred throats. Suddenly, the square was filled 
with yelling, running men, naked swords flashing in the torchlight. 

Cold coils crushing my chest and pinning my arms to my sides, the gigantic serpent held me helpless 
as it prepared to feast upon the puny manlings who dared defy its sovereignty of this jungle realm. 

Blind, I could see nothing of what occurred. But to my ears came the shouts and cries as the 
archers of Tharkoon scattered. And then came to my ears, there is the clammy embrace of the monster 
Ssalith, the twang of bows and the hiss of arrows as they flashed through the air. I knew that the archers 
had returned to the decks of the aerial yacht to secure the weapons they had left behind. Now, as the 
coils tightened spasmodically about my body and the huge serpent hissed in rage and pain, I guessed that 
shaft upon shaft was being loosed from those powerful bows. They sank into the giant coils of the 
creature which held me captive. 

The Ssalith hissed and struck, fanged jaws closing upon empty air, snapping at the flying darts 
which plagued it. But this mode of battle was something new in the serpent’s experience; its small, 
sluggish brain could not cope with pointed things which flew to cause it pain. Obviously, the Tharkoonian 
archers hoped to make it release me. 

If so, their plans went awry. For, baffled, and infuriated by the stinging arrows, the great serpent 
headed back into the safety and darkness of its jungle home. 

Carrying me with it! 

Branches whipped my bare legs; tangled lianas slid over my face. The wet smell of the jungle closed 
about me; a curiously pungent perfume composed of the reek of rotting leaves and the sickly-sweet odor 
of jungle flowers. As the serpent bore me deeper and deeper into the jungle, the walls of foliage closed 
behind us; the shouts and cries of my comrades were muffled and faded out. 

For an interminable period, the immense snake slithered through the depths of the tropic forest. My 
lungs half-crushed, my legs and arms going numb from the lack of circulation, I fell into a daze. Perhaps I 
swooned for a time, for my memories of this horrible experience are few and dim. 

Then it seemed to me that we emerged into the open air again; that my reptilian captor was 
ascending some manner of inclined plane, like a stone stairway. Was there some ancient stone ruin 
amidst the jungles of this unknown isle; did the giant serpent make his home within the structure? 

If so, my comrades might never find me in time to rescue me alive. For surely, once within its 
noisome lair, the gigantic snake would sate its hungers upon my flesh! 

The serpent entered the temple ruin, and I lost all hope. The last memory that passed through my 
fading consciousness was of Shann. 

And then I knew no more. 


While the Barbarians stationed at the gate of the citadel of Komar were taken completely by 
surprise, they were trained to be vigilant and wary. The stunning shock of finding themselves suddenly 
under attack held them frozen only for a moment; then their own steel flashed in the torchlight, and the 
battle was joined in earnest. 

While the Barbarians stationed at the gate of the citadel of Komar were taken completely by 
surprise, they were trained to be vigilant and wary. The stunning shock of finding themselves suddenly 
under attack held them frozen only for a moment; then their own steel flashed in the torchlight, and the 
battle was joined in earnest. 

His dancing sword point flashed in the ruddy glare of the torches, as Andar engaged two 
swordsmen at once. The most brilliant swordmasters in his royal father’s kingdom had tutored the young 
prince in the art of fencing; every last trick, feint and parry of this manly art was familiar to him. By 
contrast, his opponents, although burlier and heavier men, were rude savages; their notion of swordplay 
was the crude business of cut-and-slash. In the first five seconds after the death of the lieutenant, Andar’s 
blade laid the first of his adversaries grovelling in the dust with a thrust through the abdomen, while the 
second followed him mere moments later, his throat cut from ear to ear by a single stroke of Andar’s 
agile, darting point. 

On the voyage hither, Andar and his barons had planned out the assault every step of the way. 
Thus, even as the Prince gained control of the entry-way, his men came pouring through the gate on his 
very heels. They did not pause to engage the troop of guards stationed outside the citadel wall–their 
main objective was to gain entry to the citadel itself. 

A few moments more and all of them were within the courtyard. Then, with the aid of two strong 
barons, Andar let the gate come down, crushing the forefront of the guards, who came storming through 
the gateway after the invaders. Men shrieked and screamed as the great iron grille came inexorably 
down, crushing skulls, smashing limbs, driving heavy spikes through chest, back and belly. 

The gate was down to stay. Andar saw to that! He smashed the wheel with a huge war axe, 
breaking the gears so that only with difficulty could the entry-way be cleared again. 

By this time, more guards had come pouring into the courtyard from the main hall of the citadel; his 
men had formed a line to engage them. Once again it could be seen that superior skill at swordsmanship 
wins out over brute strength; for beneath the flickering blades of the Komarians, the roaring mob of 
cursing, bellowing Barbarians melted away like a snowbank in the hot breath of a furnace. 

“Forward men! Make a spear-head! Tryphax, hold our rear!” 

His clear voice rising like a trumpet over the noise and tumult, the Prince of Komar delivered his 
commands. The ranked nobles hurried into a war-formation and charged the main doors of the hall, 
which the last, fleeing remnants of the Barbarians were desperately trying to close upon them. The point 
of Andar’s spear-head formation smashed the great doors open and bowled over the cursing savages. 
In a moment the hall was slick with blood, and filled with groaning, dying men. The flashing swords of 
Komar made a shambles out of the disorganized mob which challenged them. 

Now the way opened up before them, and Komar seized the momentary advantage. On flying feet 
he charged through, sliding between the embattled, struggling men, rushing into the great hall itself. There, 
throned upon a dais, a smooth-faced man of indeterminate years sat with a table of maps drawn up at 
his knees. 

The Warlord–! 

Andar paused only for a moment, then hurled himself upon the military genius who had trampled his 


kingdom into the mire. He found the other was no mean swordsman; in truth, the blade his point engaged 
was as agile as his own. 

kingdom into the mire. He found the other was no mean swordsman; in truth, the blade his point engaged 
was as agile as his own. 

Andar’s features seemed familiar to him, it quickly became apparent; for as they fought, the 
Warlord smiled negligently, and addressed the Prince by name. 

“I am surprised and pleased to learn that the Prince of Komar yet lives,” purred the other, in tones 
of silken mockery. “I had feared the ancient dynasty of Komar had been rendered extinct by the 
perhaps over-zealous action of my warriors! But where in the world have you been hiding all this time, 
Andar? Certes, ‘twould not be seemly for the princely heir of this throne to skulk in the sewers, or hide 
like a rodent in the back-alleys of his kingdom, while my men and I raped, burned and looted that very 
kingdom! I am surprised to discover that you did not make so rash and suicidal an attempt at liberating 
your realm long before this . . . ” 

He laughed; Andar virtually ached to wipe that sneering smirk of amusement from his calm, pleasant 
features. 

“Save your breath for dying with!” the Prince snarled, as his blade flashed to ward off a stroke. 
With careless ease, the other eluded the flashing point of Andar’s sword, and engaged him anew. 

“I have no intention of dying just yet,” he laughed. “But–may I suggest you make your peace with 
your gods? This duel bores me, and I plan to end it soon–“ 

Even as he spoke, Andar realized the trap his opponent had so cunningly maneuvered him into. His 
boot-heel slipped in a pool of ink, spilled from the desk when the Warlord had come to his feet to fight 
Andar. 

Now he slipped, staggered, and for a brief moment was off balance. In that brief instant, his guard 
wavered and dropped. 

And the Warlord, seizing upon the opportunity he had awaited, struck! His point flashed for the 
Prince of Komar’s heart– 

Chapter 23 
TO THE DEATH 


As his foot slipped in the wet pool, Andar momentarily lost his balance. In that flickering instant, as 
he strove to regain it, the point of his sword wavered and fell; this exposed his breast to the blade of his 
opponent–who struck for his heart! 

Andar threw himself over backwards, fell down the steps of the dais, sprawling on the tiles of the 
hall floor, well out of reach of the Warlord’s blade. He came scrambling to his feet again, snatching up 
his fallen weapon, hot to re-engage his hated enemy. But it was evident that the Barbarian monarch had 
lost his taste for sword-play. 

“’Tis a pity you were so clumsy as to deny me the pleasure of spitting you upon my blade,” the 


Warlord jested, with a mocking salute. “But I have other, more pressing matters which demand my 
attention at the moment. We shall have to postpone, for the moment, the pleasure of a re-match. ‘Till we 
meet again, then, my boy!” 

Warlord jested, with a mocking salute. “But I have other, more pressing matters which demand my 
attention at the moment. We shall have to postpone, for the moment, the pleasure of a re-match. ‘Till we 
meet again, then, my boy!” 

A moment later, Andar had gained the dais and stepped behind the throne to pull aside the hanging. 
A black opening was thus revealed–a sliding panel in the wall! 

He ground a bitter curse and reluctantly, let the tapestry fall back into place again. He knew that 
panel well it and the others like it: his ancestors had honeycombed the walls of the citadel with secret 
passages and hidden doors; he had memorized the system of hiding-places at his father’s knee. The 
Warlord must have discovered the secret during his long tenancy here, and made the system a secret of 
his own. 

Andar knew only too well how complex was this labyrinth of passages hollowed within the walls, 
and how long it would take him to search through every one for his enemy. He could not spare the time. 
But he made a silent vow as he stood there, glowering. 

“We shall meet again, my enemy, and I shall make you swallow your laughing words,” he growled 
between gritted teeth. “When next our swords cross, it shall be . . . to the death.” 

Then he turned to see his men come spilling into the hall, pressed by a charging line of Barbarians. 
For a moment he stood there on the dais, watching the scene grimly. His men fought with cool precision, 
making every stroke count. But the blue-skinned savages fought with histrionic yells and grimaces, 
bellowing curses, shaking their fists and stamping their feet; contorting their faces in ferocious scowls as if 
to frighten their adversaries by the noise and violence. It was almost amusing–perhaps it would have 
been, had the occasion not been so fraught with life-or-death importance for the kingdom of Komar. 

For all their rage and fury, the Barbarians proved to be no match for the master-swordsmen of 
Komar. Their line melted away as if by magic; they bolted the hall, fleeing into the corridor beyond, 
leaving a dozen corpses sprawled in their gore upon the pavement. Swiftly, the loyalists reformed and 
turned to Prince Andar for instructions. 

The Prince gnawed his lip. The time had already passed for the arrival of Prince Parimus of 
Tharkoon and the diversion they had planned between them. Some unforeseen occurrence must have 
delayed the arrival of the sky yacht. That delay might well prove fatal to the hopes of Andar and his 
barons; however, they were in the thick of it now. There was nothing to do but to carry on as best they 
could, for as long as they could. 

“Whither now, sire?” puffed Eryon, red-faced with exertion through his blue paint. 

“We have no way of ascertaining how many guards are in the citadel,” Andar said rapidly. “But the 
chances are that we are the smaller in strength. It occurs to me that the Pits of Komar will contain many 
of our friends; those dungeons lay beneath this floor, tunneled into the bowels of the cliff. Take ten 
warriors and descend–you know the way, and also the method of unlocking the cells. Free as many of 
our friends as you can, and arm them with whatever comes to hand. Meet us on the height. I mean to 
clean out the citadel, room by room, until the fortress is ours; or we will die in the attempt. Quickly, 
now!” 

Eryon nodded grimly, marshaled his men and left the hall. 

“Now, my lords,” smiled Andar to the remainder of his force, “we have a deal of man-killing to do. 
Are you with me?” 


“Komar! Andar and Komar!” came the roof-shaking shout in reply. The Prince grinned, saluted 
with his sword, and led them forth to shed more enemy blood. 

“Komar! Andar and Komar!” came the roof-shaking shout in reply. The Prince grinned, saluted 
with his sword, and led them forth to shed more enemy blood. 

The roof of the fortress-palace was a vast, flat plaza-like area, tiled with smooth stones and 
surrounded with a battlement all its own. Naught broke the smoothness of the roof, save for a colossal 
idol of Koroga, the many-armed and many-faced national god of the island realm. 

It was here that Andar and the remnant of his swordsmen met the last stand of their adversaries. 

They had gone through the mighty citadel room by room, chamber by chamber, suite by suite; 
killing all they encountered, save for servants and slaves, whom they freed, armed and added to their 
ranks. The many lords and chieftains of the Horde who were housed in the suites and apartments of the 
citadel stood, fought and died bloodily, one by one. All the time beyond the outermost wall, the 
Barbarians surged in their thousands, yelling with rage and brandishing weapons; but they were unable to 
penetrate the defenses of the fortress, and unable to come to the aid of their chieftains. 

Of the Warlord himself, Andar had seen no sign. Perhaps he lurked in one of the secret passages 
within the thick walls of the fortress, cowering in hiding. If so, they would root him out, once the last 
defenders of the citadel had been cut down; Andar did not believe that he had been able to escape from 
the gigantic edifice and flee to safety, for the only exit to the outer city was well blocked and sealed. 

The terrible killing went on and on. Andar’s sword-arm was weary now; his bare torso gleamed 
with perspiration and blood. Some of the blood was his own, for innumerable scratches and small cuts 
scored his bare body; but most of it was the blood of the many men he had slain this night. 

The smoke of burning buildings drifted up to them, there on the rooftop of the citadel. Riots and 
pitched battles had broken out in the streets and squares of the city, Andar guessed. The Komarian 
citizenry, seizing the opportunity, had turned upon their conquerors, snatching up tools, staves and 
whatever lay to hand. 

But without the aid of the Tharkoonian archers, and the scientific weapons of Prince Parimus, he 
seriously doubted if the Barbarians could be defeated. 

Well, if he must die here, at least he would die fighting! Far better to perish with a sword in his 
hand, ringed about with the foemen he had slain, than any other death he could envision. 

He fought on, wearily, without hope. 

And then, very suddenly, it was over. The manner of the battle’s end was uncanny and terrifying. 

To Prince Andar’s right hand there fought a grizzled baron who was named Ozad. He had served 
the Princes of Komar for a lifetime with loyalty. That lifetime ended abruptly. 

The pitch-black darkness suddenly split open with an unearthly blaze of light! 

Lightning smote the baron Ozad and burnt him to a cinder. The hideous stench of charred flesh was 
heavy in Andar’s nostrils, and the intolerable flash of light blinded him. He blinked dazedly, through 
swirling after-images, at the blackened body stretched out on the smoking tiles . . . a thing that only a 
moment before had been a man. 

Bolt after sizzling bolt clove the impenetrable darkness. With each flash of lightning, one of the 
Komarians died as if struck down by the levin-bolts of heaven. 

Andar looked up in horror and amazement. Atop the monstrous idol of Koroga stood the Warlord. 
How he had gotten up there was a mystery for which Andar had no solution. But there he stood, and in 
his hand was clasped a most peculiar weapon. It was a rod of sparkling crystal that blazed from within 
with captive lightnings. Each time the Warlord levelled the crystal rod, a blast of lightning fire struck from 


it, and a man died. 

it, and a man died. 

The bitterness of defeat was like ashes on his tongue. His sword-arm faltered, and fell to his side. 
From the summit of the idol, the Warlord’s voice echoed down to the embattled troop of swordsmen. 

There was mockery in those tones, and a strange note of wild and reckless laughter; a heavy 
finality, like the ring of death. 

“Lay down your arms and surrender, or I will burn you down where you stand!” 

Eryon looked over to where Andar stood, and there were tears in the eyes of the older man. “Let 
us fight on to the end of it, sire,” he urged. But Andar shook his head. 

“There is no use,” the Prince said with quiet dignity. 

And he cast down his blade upon the tiles. 

One by one they were disarmed, by the mere handful of Barbarians who still remained alive in the 
citadel. 

Further resistance would be utterly futile, they knew; for all the while the Warlord stood, smiling 
with smooth mockery, atop the idol. In his hand, held in negligent carelessness, was the lightning weapon 
which had ruined their last chances of success, dashing the sweet cup of victory from their lips. 

“It was a good fight, my Prince,” Eryon said heavily, as the Barbarians removed his weapons. “You 
have nothing for which to reprove yourself . . . ‘twas doomed to failure, I suppose. After all, when in the 
gory annals of war, seige and conquest, have half a hundred men taken an entire city? Your father would 
be proud of you this dawn.” 

Was it indeed dawn? Andar lifted his head and looked about him wearily; yes, the freshness of 
morning was on the rising sea-breeze; and the east was pallid as nacre with the rising of the Green Star. 
The night had seemed but half-over, so swiftly had the time passed. 

He doubted if he would live to see the evening of this day. 

“We tried and failed, old friend,” he said. “At the very least we made them pay a goodly price in 
blood and lives and honor–“ 

“No talking, you scum!” spat the Barbarian nearest to him. Andar looked him straight in the eyes 
with a cool, level glance; his eyes were unafraid, faintly disdainful. The Barbarian flushed, scowled, and 
raised a heavy hand to cuff the captive youth across the mouth. 

But the blow did not fall. 

Puzzled, Andar looked to see why his tormentor had stopped his hand. The Barbarian stood rigid, 
his face slack-jawed and stupid with astonishment, staring at something far above them. Andar, from his 
position, could not see it. 

He looked up, to find the source of the other’s amazement. And then he gasped in awe, as a vast 
black shape slid across the sky and settled down upon them. 


Chapter 24 
RACE AGAINST TIME 


The gigantic serpent, still holding me helplessly pinned in the grip of its coils, went wriggling up the 
crumbling stony stairs of the ancient ruin. It made as if to enter the black and yawning mouth of the 
long-abandoned temple. 

Suddenly–unaccountably–it paused, lingering on the very threshold. Then it turned and struck, 
viciously, again and again–struck at something which I could not see! 

In its furious writhings, the coils about my middle were loosened. I fell a short distance, to land on 
the broken stair. I lay there, gasping for breath, sucking the sweet air into my oxygen-starved lungs, 
numb from head to foot, but grateful to find myself still alive. 

The sounds of a terrific battle surged about me on the stair. I could not see anything at all, of 
course; but from the panting breath of the enraged monster serpent, and from the way it thrashed about, 
it was obvious that the brute was engaged in a battle to the death with some unimaginable opponent. 

I staggered to my knees, groping about. The stone steps were low and broad, thickly grown with 
lichens and slimy mosses; littered with fallen leaves and bits of carven stone which the remorseless 
erosion of the ages had loosened from their settings. I began stumblingly to feel my way down the stairs. 

The Ssalith uttered a hissing screech of agony and furious rage. Its monstrous fangs closed again 
and again upon the flesh of its attacker; I could hear the crunching of bones and the meaty sound of flesh 
being hammered and torn by those tremendous jaws. 

Yet, I had not the slightest clue as to the identity of its adversary. Nor had the other beast yet 
uttered the faintest sound. What could it possibly be, that dwelt here on this isle, huge enough to 
fearlessly engage one of the most dreaded of predators on this planet. Had this battle taken place miles 
aloft, in a branch of one of the sky-tall trees, I could have hazarded a guess or two. For the upper realm 
is made terrible by such enormous monstrosities as the ythid, or scarlet tree-dwelling dragon; to say 
nothing of titanic albino spiders whom the Laonese called the xoph. 

Either of these terrors of the treetops might well afford the monster serpent a worthy adversary in 
battle. 

But we were not in the arboreal regions, but upon a jungle isle. From my own experience as a 
castaway on just such an island as this, with Shann, the girl whom I had come to love and from whose 
companionship I had so mysteriously and abruptly been sundered, I knew too sell that no denizens of the 
upper regions dwelt here in the islands of the sea. 

I am unable to explain why the forms of life which inhabit the upper regions of the great trees should 
differ in so marked a manner from those which dwell upon the jungle-girt islands of the Komarian Sea. 
But, after all, this is only one of the smaller of many puzzling and inexplicable mysteries which I have thus 
far encountered upon the World of the Green Star. 

If this were a work of extravagant fiction I am writing, and not a sober, factual chronicle of events in 
which, however, incredible it seems, I have personally played a role, doubtless I would have, or could 
invent, a scientific reason to allay the questions of my readers. But the resources of the novelist are 
denied to him who chooses to indite a factual history. All I can do it to assure you that the thing is as 
much of a puzzle to him who writes these words as it is to him who reads them. 


I reached the floor of the grassy glade in which the ancient ruin was built, without molestation. I 
stood there hesitantly for a long, suspenseful moment, pondering what course of action I should take 
next. 

I reached the floor of the grassy glade in which the ancient ruin was built, without molestation. I 
stood there hesitantly for a long, suspenseful moment, pondering what course of action I should take 
next. 

But exactly how far into the interior of the unknown isle the monstrous Ssalith had taken me, I was 
completely ignorant. 

Undoubtedly, my friends had wasted no time in plunging into the jungle after me, and were following 
the trail of the huge serpent which had carried me off, as swiftly as they could. Also, it seemed very likely 
that the passage of so immense a creature would leave a trail clearly visible to the eyes of any who 
sought to track it to its lair. For these reasons, I decided that it was probably only a matter of time 
before Zarqa and Klygon, Janchan and Prince Parimus, would reach this ruin-encumbered glade in 
search of my whereabouts. 

The wisest thing to do was, quite simply, to wait where I was. For, being completely blind, were I 
to enter the jungle I would swiftly lose myself even further than I was already lost. And, in the depths of 
the dense jungles, it might not be easy for my companions to locate me, nor I them. 

But . . . I could not stay here! Not while the giant serpent was still locked in furious, hissing, 
clamourous battle with some unknown but doubtless gigantic monster. 

For if I were to do so, the victor of that titanic conflict would find me the easiest of prey! My 
dilemma yeas excruciating. Every moment of time that went ticking by, carried my friends ever closer to 
where I stood, helpless, unarmed, and alone. 

But, every instant that passed carried the battle of jungle monsters yet closer to its conclusion; and 
myself nearer and nearer to the dubious honor of serving as the chef-d’oeuvre of the victory dinner–to 
be eaten by the victor! 

Was there ever such a dilemma! 

The battle of the monsters was nearly over now. The serpent writhed and hissed in its death-throes. 
I could hear its scaly coils scraping against the crumbling stone surface of the stairs as it wriggled in 
frightful agony; its furtive spark of consciousness fading, its mighty vital energy ebbing as hot gore leaked 
from the terrible wounds which scored its length. 

The hot, rank smell of blood was heavy on the motionless night air. 

Turning away from the scene of hideous carnage, which was invisible to me, but whose gory details 
I could envision with the inward eye of imagination, I stealthily crossed the grassy glade to where the 
jungle’s edge rose, thick dense and choked with vegetation. Perhaps the victor would linger for a time to 
feed upon the flesh of its monstrous, ophidian kill perhaps I would have time enough to enter the jungle 
and find for myself a place of safe concealment, before it turned away from its feasting to come ravening 
in pursuit of me. 

I did not quite reach the edge of the jungle. The drumming of wings sounded from above me in the 
throbbing stillness. 

Something alighted on the grassy ground behind me. I broke into a faltering, stumbling run, racing 
for the edge of the jungle with outstretched hands. Footsteps sounded behind me, the swish of long 
grasses parting before the passage of a moving body. 

Then a hand-like claw settled upon my shoulders . . . and I fainted! 

My friends were gathered on the beach, ready to depart. They hailed my safe return with a burst of 


loud, enthusiastic cheers. 

loud, enthusiastic cheers. 

They gave me a stoup of wine and while I drank it down, Zarqa the Kalood, with becoming 
modesty, described how he had spread his wings to soar aloft. He followed in pursuit, the very instant 
the serpent bad carried me into the jungle. 

Unarmed, he was helpless to oppose the enormous Ssalith with physical strength alone; in this dire 
eventuality, he was forced to do something repugnant to his race, but well within their powers. That was 
to use his mental gifts as a weapon. 

The Ssalith had but a tiny brain, a miniscule self-awareness; but its instincts were powerful, 
swift-acting, easy to trigger. Insinuating a telepathic tendril into the sub-mind of the serpent, he had 
tripped its defensive mechanisms. He had made the serpent attack–itself! 

Those noises of terrific combat I had heard; the hissing and clashing of those monstrous jaws, the 
furious writhing of scaly coils locked in frenzied battle–had been the sounds of the maddened Ssalith 
fighting against itself. 

So intense had been the mental concentration necessary for Zarqa to perform this feat of mental 
magic, that the Winged Man had not been able to spare a single moment to send a comforting or 
explanatory thought-message to me, lest he relax his grip upon the Ssalith’s brain. 

My friends were amazed at Zarqa’s feat, and joined me in thanking him heartily. Parimus, no less 
than the others, was delighted at my safe return; but he urgently bade us suspend until a more leisurely 
moment our explanations and queries. For time was of the essence; due to the attack of the serpent 
monster, we were now long past the moment that he and Prince Andar had agreed upon for the planned 
diversion. The lateness of the air yacht in arriving at the island city might have already proven fatal to the 
hopes and ambitions of the Komarians. Only time would tell. 

We bundled up our gear and possessions and hurried aboard. Zarqa and Janchan would follow 
close behind us in the sky-sled. As for Nimbalim of Yoth, the old philosopher chose to ride in the flying 
ship of Prince Parimus; for he had become fascinated with the marvel of the million-year-old vehicle, 
eager to observe it in action from close quarters. Parimus had affably given the ancient savant a place 
beside him on the bridge. 

We ascended into the skies and set our course for the island of Komar, which lay not far off; 
separated from the island of the monster serpent by a relatively narrow stretch of waters. 

From here on, it was a race against time! 

Chapter 25 
AS THE GREEN STAR RISES 


From the strange black shape which hung against the pale skies of morning, there came a withering 
blast. A rain of deadly arrows swept the rooftop of the citadel of Komar . . . and the Barbarians fell, 
bristling with barbed death! 

A great shout of wonder and delight went up from Andar’s men, for they knew beyond all question 
the identity of that black enigma which had swept down upon them from the sky. 


Parimus had come at last! 

Parimus had come at last! 

From the embattled streets of the city below that towering height, Andar and his nobles heard a 
faint, rising chorus of cheers. The citizenry of Komar, who had arisen against their conquerors when it 
became known that the citadel was under attack, had almost failed against the roaring tide of the 
Barbarians. But now, with the miraculous visitation from the skies, their hearts beat high within them. 
They turned with new strength and with redoubled determination upon their oppressors. Snatching up 
paving stones, ripping loose barrel-staves, plundering the corpses of their fallen comrades for anything 
that could be used as a weapon, the folk of Komar rose as one man, to trample down and tear asunder 
the savages who had for so long cruelly abused them. 

The air yacht of Parimus was everywhere, floating above them, blasting with the very lightnings of 
heaven through every barrier hastily erected by the Barbarians; striking down knots of resistance, 
exploding buildings where a force of the blue men had taken refuge. The archers of Tharkoon, led by the 
stalwart young bowman, Zokar, lined the decks of the yacht; they swept the streets, squares balconies 
and rooftops of the city with a hissing rain of barbed, unerring death l 

The citadel had already fallen to the Komarian assault. The golden banner of Komar floated from 
the topmost tower, glittering in the rays of early dawn; a sign for all to see that the lords and chieftains of 
the Horde were dead or captured, and that the heart on the city was retaken. 

The sight of that proud golden banner floating freely on the morning winds struck new strength, 
hope and vigor into the weary and battered people of Komar. At the same moment, it stole from the 
hearts of the Barbarians, who looked upon the golden oriflamme with bitterness and despair, the last 
dregs of their courage and determination to fight on. 

They broke and fled, first in two and threes, and finally in a great rout. Down to the harbor they 
fled, harried by the bowmen of Parimus. There they made their last stand, holding the Komarians at bay 
while, clan by clan, they climbed aboard the ships moored to the long stone quays. 

It was evidently their hope to set sail and escape to sea. Parimus could, of course, have destroyed 
the heavily-crowded galleys with his electric ray, but debated with himself the wisdom of this. It was not 
the way of Tharkoon to slaughter helpless men in their thousands; although the Prince of Komar might 
well determine the wholesale destruction of the Horde a fitting, just retribution for the horrors of 
conquest and occupation. 

The air yacht returned to float above the many-tiered citadel, so that Prince Andar could decide 
upon this question. Andar’s loyalists now held the royal fortress securely; the last surviving remnants of 
the Barbarians within the palace walls were prisoners. The Prince harkened to the older man’s pleas to 
permit the Barbarians to flee with their lives, and agreed that magnanimity in a great victory was only 
right. So long as the Barbarians fled to the mainland, without taking refuge on one or another of the 
islands of the Komarian realm, they should be permitted to live. 

Parimus departed to observe the escape of the survivors of the Horde. It was just about over. 

The last stronghold of Barbarian resistance within the city had been destroyed; the last stragglers of 
the Horde who had been left behind when their comrades fled to sea were hunted down, seized and 
made captive by the people of the city. These captives, somewhat battered and bloody, very cowed and 
crest-fallen, were delivered in chains to the gates of the citadel to be locked in the dungeons. 

It was a touch of poetic justice, thought Prince Andar with satisfaction, that those who had lorded it 
over a captive and enslaved populace should henceforward serve that populace as their slaves. The 
neatness of this final stroke of justice pleased him heartily, although Eryon and some of the older barons 


grumbled that it was foolishness to permit so much as a single foe to continue living, when so many 
Komarians had been murdered or executed. 

grumbled that it was foolishness to permit so much as a single foe to continue living, when so many 
Komarians had been murdered or executed. 

Eryon grumbled, but a reluctant grin tugged at his bearded lips. He had to admit the decision of his 
Prince was only right and certainly just. 

We stood there on the rooftop of the citadel overlooking the city of Komar. Klygon was with me, 
and Janchan, and Zorak the bowman of Tharkoon. But Zarqa was absent, flying the sky-sled over the 
sea, assisting Parimus in harrying the Barbarian ships. Andar and his lords conferred some little distance 
away. Bloody, dishevelled and bone-weary from their long night of battle, they were flushed and jubilant 
with the heady wine of victory. 

Morning was upon us; the Green Star had risen to flood the world with its light. Even as a new day 
brightened the world, a new day had dawned for the island kingdom of Komar; the long night of 
savagery and subjugation was ended. 

We had each a thousand questions to ask the others. Zorak was fascinated to hear of our 
adventures among the albino cannibals at the bottom of the world; and how we had escaped from the 
subterranean burrows of the primitive troglodytes and found our way to sea. 

I told the bowman how I bad been blinded by a great explosion of light, in my battle with the 
Nithhog, the monster god of the troglodytes. Even as I spoke of these things, I found myself rubbing the 
bandages Parimus had placed across my eyes at the termination of my last exposure to the healing rays 
of his miraculous lamp. 

My eyes had not pained me now, for a long time–not since the swelling had gone down and the 
inflammations had ceased to be raw and tender. But now my blinded eyes itched annoyingly, as a numb 
limb tingles with the excruciating return of life and vigor. 

“Perhaps, lad, your dressings need changing,” said homely little Klygon. “In all the fuss and worry 
of this long night, we have had no opportunity to renew the ointment. Be you certain, Zorak, his 
wizard-ship left you no fresh dressings for the lad’s poor eyes?” 

The tall bowman slapped the leather pouch at his side. 

“Dressings and bandages I have aplenty, friend Klygon,” he said. “We each carry emergency 
medical supplies with us on such an expedition as this.” 

“Then, by all the Avatars and Saints, lad, sit you down here. Let me take off these dirty rags and fit 
you out afresh.” I seated myself on a block of stone and leaned back, gratefully yielding to his 
ministrations. Those gnarled and knotted hands, which had learned each one of the hundred skills of 
sudden death in the grim House of Gurjan Tor, were as tender and gentle as the hands of a woman. 

He stripped away the old bandages, and cleansed the dried ointment from my eyes with a clean rag 
and fresh water from the canteen in Zorak’s battle-gear. And as he did so I cried aloud, in wonderment 
and joy– 

For I saw the Green Star, rising! 

For the first time in an endless eternity, or so it seemed, a ray of light had penetrated the 


unendurable blackness that surrounded me! 

unendurable blackness that surrounded me! 

Dim and vague at first–a mere blur of emerald and silver–but gradually, as I blinked my eyes into 
focus, the vision steadied and grew clearer, until at last every detail was as sharp and vivid as before the 
explosion of light had robbed me of my eyesight. 

To this day, to this very hour, I cannot explain the miracle. 

Perhaps it was only that my eyes were stunned and paralyzed for a time, by the unshielded 
explosion of brilliance. That they were not truly blinded at all; but that the optical nerves were merely 
strained beyond endurance by the light and shielded themselves for a time in darkness, as a mind 
strained beyond endurance will seek refuge in unconsciousness. 

Or was it the beneficial action of the sea-water upon my injuries, acting as a natural antiseptic? Or, 
again, the miracle may be explained by the wonder-working art of Prince Parimus himself, and of his 
marvelous lamp; that was but one of the science marvels salvaged from the wreckage of the lost wisdom 
of the prehuman Kaloodha. 

Whatever the explanation–I could see! 

And almost in the same moment as I experienced the bliss and ecstacy of regaining my sight–those 
very eyes beheld a scene of mystery, horror and revelation. 

Andar shouted; Eryon snatched up his sword and stared about. Then all eyes were turned upon the 
inexplicable thing above us, dark and ominous against the silver sky. 

Out of the heavens, a weird and alien craft came floating down. It was like, and yet unlike, the 
sky-sled and the air yacht–a flying vehicle such as none of us had ever seen before. 

In the clear luminance of dawn, we were able to see within the crystal shield of the cockpit, two 
persons struggling together. 

One of these persons was a magnificently built, beautiful black man, whose noble features were 
distorted by a furious rage. Even as I stared at this unknown and mysterious being, Janchan at my side 
cried out his name in a mighty yell 

“Ralidux!” 

I had first heard of this sinister madman from the very lips of Janchan, only shortly before. The 
Phaolonese nobleman had told me of the insane passion the black immortal had conceived for the 
voluptuous loveliness of the Goddess Arjala. 

In the next moment, the antagonist of Ralidux twisted about in the course of their struggle, so that I 
obtained a clear look at the second of the cabin’s occupants. 

It was a young girl, perhaps a year or two younger than myself; with floating gossamer hair and an 
elfin face of heart-stopping beauty. A thousand questions seethed through my bewildered brain in that 
infinite moment: for the face of that girl was known to me, and so were the ragged remnants of a gown 
she wore, garments I had previously known by touch and texture alone! 

In the struggle she was turned about so that she faced me; and as her eyes fell upon my face, they 
widened and she called my name aloud in tones of wonderment–and the voice was one whose soft, 
sweet music was very dear to my heart 

“Shann!” I called, in a great shuddering thrill of wonder and amazement, even as Prince Janchan 
cried out yet another name 

“Niamh!” 


And I saw that it was truly so. The faceless girl on the isle, whom I had come to love, was none 
other than the lost Princess of Phaolon. I had known and loved her in another body, another life, another 
time! 

And I saw that it was truly so. The faceless girl on the isle, whom I had come to love, was none 
other than the lost Princess of Phaolon. I had known and loved her in another body, another life, another 
time! 

Now, as we watched in frozen horror, unable to assist, the black immortal seized her slender body 
in his powerful arms and was about to thrust her over the side. 

In that same instant, she drove her slim blade into his evil heart. It was that chaste, slim knife that 
every Laonese woman wears, ever concealed on her person. 

Transfixed with incredulous shock, his superb features twisted into a snarling mask of fury, he 
staggered to his feet, releasing the girl, and fell from the cockpit of the idly drifting craft, hurled to his 
death on the rooftop. 

Of us all, it was Zorak who saw the next player in this swift, astounding drama. The bowman raced 
across the rooftop, and clambered with agility up the stone limbs of the towering colossus. Only now did 
I see the stone idol of the Komarian divinity, which lifted its mighty limbs far above us. 

And now, emerging from some secret hiding place in the idols’ head, appeared a trim figure which I 
recognized with a thrill of hatred. It was Delgan of the Isles! 

In one hand he held the death-flash, the powerful zoukar he had stolen from me; when he had 
abandoned Klygon and myself to death by drowning, that time he had stolen our leaf-boat. 

The drifting sky craft had floated near the outstretched arms of the stone god. Clambering out to the 
extremities of that limb, Delgan dropped into the cockpit beside the startled girl whom I loved. 

She turned upon him like a tigress; they fought, while the sky craft drifted over the roof upon the 
morning breeze. 

All the while, the powerful young bowman, Zorak, climbed up the stone colossus with the agility of 
an acrobat. He reached the hand of the idol and sprang into empty space. The outstretched fingers of 
one hand brushed the tail fins of the craft–slipped–clung! 

With Zorak clinging to its tail, the sky craft floated out over the city. In the cabin, as it dwindled 
from our sight, Shann and the traitorous Delgan struggled for the controls. 

The battle was still undecided, as the sky craft faded and was lost in the distance. 

Epilogue 

Of this strange and wondrous story, there is very little left for me to tell. 

Had not Zarqa accompanied Prince Parimus in harrying the Barbarian rout–had he been there on 
the rooftop with us, able to follow the drifting craft with his sky-sled–I might have a happier ending to set 
down here. Alas, the flow of events ran counter to my heart’s desire. 

By mid-morning, the air yacht and the sled returned with word that the Barbarians, such as had 
escaped with their lives, had beached their ships on the shores of the mainland and fled into the interior 


of the sky-tall forest. It was to be doubted if they would ever trouble the realms and cities of this world 
again, the few miserable, beaten survivors of the battle for Komar. 

of the sky-tall forest. It was to be doubted if they would ever trouble the realms and cities of this world 
again, the few miserable, beaten survivors of the battle for Komar. 

From a vast distance, they had observed the craft as it disappeared into the mighty forest and was 
lost to them. The last glimpse they had of their escaping quarry was frightening in its implications. Just as 
the craft vanished among the trees, they espied a single human body fall from the craft, doubtless to its 
death far below. 

But they could not say which of the three occupants of the craft had fallen! 

The Barbarians had established garrisons at each of the seven isles which comprised the great 
kingdom of Komar. Parimus and Zarqa had managed to prevent the fleeing ships from landing on any of 
these. Thus, it was comparatively easy, with the air yacht and the Komarian navy, to destroy these 
garrisons, or to obtain their surrender. They had learned of the fall of the Barbarian strength, and they 
were thrust forth into the wilderness, liberating the last of the Komarian isles. 

The day of the Blue Barbarians was over. Andar was restored to the throne of his ancestors; we 
watched him crowned Prince of Komar in the mighty hall of the citadel, upon the very dais where once 
he had fought with flashing steel against Delgan the Conqueror. 

Now that it was learned that Delgan and the mysterious Warlord were one and the same, many 
puzzles were cleared away. Delgan had been seized by the albino cannibals and enslaved by them; from 
this captivity I, to my regret, had been instrumental in freeing him. He had repaid me by stealing my 
weapons and the boat, leaving a blind boy and an injured man to drown in the rising of the tide. He 
returned to Komar to seize power once again. 

Now, at long last, I understood the import of those mystifying words he had spoken to me, as he 
abandoned Klygon and myself to our lonely, miserable death. Those cruel, mocking words wherewith he 
had abandoned us to our doom . . . 

“ . . . I go to reclaim a destiny greater than any you could imagine. Do not think too harshly of me; 
my need is more pressing than yours. In my own country, I am a king. The needs of wandering savages 
such as yourself count for little, against the destinies of great men. I would tell you who and what I truly 
am, if I thought you had the intelligence to understand it; but you lack the wit to realize my grandeur, so I 
will keep silent . . . ” 

So it was Delgan, that sly, mocking traitor, who had been the military genius. He had welded the 
scattered, rival tribes of the Blue Barbarians into one mighty Horde, and was the master-mind who had 
led them to the conquest of Komar, to the, very threshold of a vast empire! Delgan, who had escaped 
beyond the reach of my vengeance! 

But this story was not yet over. There would be a final hour of reckoning between Delgan of the 
Barbarians and me . . . 

As we finally had the opportunity to compare adventures, all became clear. Arjala supplied the one 
missing key which made all things fit together. When she had fled from the isle of the serpent god upon 
the zawkaw, with Niamh clinging to the stirrups, she had been in a panic of terror, scarcely realizing what 
it was she did. Before she could recollect herself, Naimh’s grip had loosened; the hapless Princess of 
Phaolon had fallen into the sea. Unable to find her amidst the waste of waters, since she did not know 
how to control the flight of the giant hawk or how to force it to descend, Arjala had helplessly flown on. 
Finally the hawk wearied and came to rest upon the deck of the Xothun, where Andar and his nobles 
had taken her into their care while the hawk, affrighted, flew off into the sky-tall forest. 


Somehow, Niamh had survived amidst the waves, finding a floating log whereon to cling to life. 
Some brief time later, she had hauled a blind and half-drowned boy from the waves, which boy was 
myself. Unable to see her face, I did not recognize her as Niamh; and, having never met me nor even 
heard my name, she knew me not. It must have been simple caution that bade her adopt another name 
than her own. As Princess of Phaolon, she would have made a rich prize to any captor, while as “Shann 
of Kamadhong,” she was nobody of importance. “Shann,” in fact, as Janchan told me, had been her 
dead mother’s name: it was probably the first name that had come into her head. 

Somehow, Niamh had survived amidst the waves, finding a floating log whereon to cling to life. 
Some brief time later, she had hauled a blind and half-drowned boy from the waves, which boy was 
myself. Unable to see her face, I did not recognize her as Niamh; and, having never met me nor even 
heard my name, she knew me not. It must have been simple caution that bade her adopt another name 
than her own. As Princess of Phaolon, she would have made a rich prize to any captor, while as “Shann 
of Kamadhong,” she was nobody of importance. “Shann,” in fact, as Janchan told me, had been her 
dead mother’s name: it was probably the first name that had come into her head. 

So I had found her, and lost her again, Niamh the Fair! Was there ever a love between man and 
woman more strange in its vicissitudes than ours! 

Why had Ralidux carried her off the beach? The black immortal was dead and could not tell us 
what thoughts had passed through his deranged, febrile brain. He had been searching for Arjala with a 
mad fixity of purpose that made him see naught but the object of his frenzied passions, perhaps; Arjala 
and Niamh, both daughters of the same race, closely resemble each other, especially when seen from a 
distance. For, although Arjala is the older of the two, and more voluptuously curved, she has the same 
floating cloud of gossamer hair; the same heart-shaped face, the same creamy hue of skin, like old ivory 
or mellow parchment, as my lost beloved. Ralidux must have seen her from above and seized upon the 
conviction that it was Arjala he had found; not until he had borne her aloft, had he discovered his 
mistake. Doubtless he had kept her as his captive, hoping to use Niamh to lure Arjala to him, once he 
stumbled upon the Incarnate Goddess who was the object of his tireless quest. Approaching civilization, 
Niamh must have determined to attempt an escape, burst her bonds and grappled with the mad Skyman, 
in a desperate attempt to free herself. 

And now she was lost to me again! 

Andar cursed himself for having forgotten all about Delgan the Warlord, in the excitement of the 
arrival of Parimus and the defeat of the Blue Barbarians. Undoubtedly, the smooth-tongued traitor had 
slipped from sight, concealing himself with the hollow statue of Koroga, when the air yacht had come 
down to slaughter the Barbarians on the roof. The quick-witted Warlord had instantly known that his 
cause was lost, and had hid himself to elude capture and execution. No wonder Andar and his men bad 
been unable to find him within the citadel! When Delgan had discovered the secret passageways within 
the walls, be must have found the secret of the hollow idol as well, of which even Andar had not known. 

Then there came a time of many partings, and many meetings. Prince Parimus and his troop of 
bowmen must return to Tharkoon, even though the fate of the gallant Zorak was still unknown. The 
science wizard of the seacoast city offered the hospitality of his realm to the ancient philosopher, 
Nimbalim of Yoth, whose keen intellect was fascinated by such ancient relics of the lost Kaloodha 
wisdom as the air yacht. The two old scholars had much in common; already they were fast friends. We 
bade our farewells to them both, and our grateful thanks for their assistance. 

Now that the battle for Komar was over, it was time for Arjala of Ardha to leave the safety of the 
Xothun to rejoin us within Prince Andar’s court. I had not set eyes upon the Incarnate Goddess, since 
that never-to-be-forgotten hour when I hung at the end of the rope against the walls of the flaming 
temple, watching Janchan and Zarqa bear her and Niamh to safety in the sky-sled. In the interim, 
obviously, great and dramatic changes had taken place within the beautiful young woman’s heart. No 
longer was she proud and imperious; no longer was she the goddess who had towered above us “lesser 
mortals” in her divine superiority! The indignities she had suffered in the slave pens of the Flying City had 
taught her that she was merely human . . . and the chivalry and solicitude she had enjoyed from Prince 


Janchan had at last taught her that she was . . . only a woman! 

Janchan had at last taught her that she was . . . only a woman! 

My heart ached within me emptily at the sight of their happiness, for all that I rejoiced for them. But– 
what of my own happiness, so long deferred, now seemingly so hopeless? 

Niamh the Fair, Delgan the Barbarian, and the bold young bowman, Zorak, had flown off into the 
unknown in the sky craft which Ralidux the Mad had thieved from the hoard of the Ancient Ones on the 
isle of ruins. 

From that craft, as it dwindled into the distance and vanished from the knowledge of Prince Parimus 
of Tharkoon and of Zarqa the Kalood–one body had fallen to its death on the floor of the forest, far 
below the hurtling sky craft! 

Had it been Delgan, the traitor, the usurper, the villain? Or Zorak of Tharkoon, the brave and 
heroic young bowman who had risked his life to destroy the villainous Warlord? Or had it been–and my 
heart stopped within me at the horror of the thought–my long-lost beloved, Niamh the Fair; whom I had 
known, and come to love a second time, as Shann of Kamadhong? 

Delgan–or Zorak–or Niamh! One had gone hurtling over the side of the flying vessel, to a horrible 
death below. 

But–which?