City of the Beast

Chapter Ten INTO THE CAVES OF DARKNESS

SOMEHOW I managed to keep them at bay, though I will never know how. Then I saw Darnad appear behind them, waving a sword he had got from somewhere.

Together, one on each side, we took on Chinod Sai and his men, but we knew we must be beaten eventually.

Then there came a sudden, elated roar, and bursting into the throne room came a wild mob waving swords, spears and halberds.

They were led by a good-looking young man, and by the gleam in his eyes-at once calculating and triumphant-I guessed him to be the next contender for the paltry throne of the City of Thieves.

Now, while the others helped Darnad deal with the Argzoon and the guards, I concentrated on Chinod Sai. This time, I promised myself, he would not retreat.

Chinod Sai realized my intention and this seemed to improve his skill.

Back and forth across the broken floor of the throne room, over the bones of the wretches he had incarcerated for his own perverted pleasure, we fought.

Lunging, parrying, thrusting, the steel of our blades rang through the hall while to one side the mob fought, a thick mass of struggling men.

Then came disaster for me-or so I thought. I tripped over one of the flagstones and fell backwards into the pit!

I saw Chinod Sai raise his arm for the thrust that would finish me as, sprawled out on the slime, I stared up at him.

Then, as the sword came towards my heart I rolled away, under part of the floor that was still intact. I heard him curse and saw him drop down after me. He saw me and lunged. Raising myself on my left arm, I returned his lunge and caught him exactly in the heart. I pushed home my thrust and he fell back with a groan.

I climbed from the pit. "A fitting burial place, Chinod Sai," I said. "Lie with the bones of those you have slain so horribly. You had a swifter death than you deserved!"

I was just in time to see Darnad dispose of the last Argzoon.

The fight was over and the young leader of the mob raised his right hand high, shouting:

"Chinod Sai is defeated-the tyrant dies!"

The mob replied exultantly: "Salute Morda Kohn, Bradhi of Narlet!"

Morda Kohn swung round and grinned at me.

"Enemies of Chinod Sai are friends of mine. Indirectly you helped me gain the throne. But where is Chinod Sai?"

I pointed at the floor. "I slew him," I said simply.

Morda Kohn laughed. "Good, good! You are even more of a friend for that little service."

"It was no service to you," I said, "but something I had promised myself the pleasure of accomplishing"

"Quite so. I was truly sorry about the death of your friend."

"My friend?" I said as Darnad joined us. He had a flesh wound on his right shoulder but otherwise seemed all right.

"Belet Vor-did you not know?"

"What has happened to Belet Vor?" Darnad asked urgently.

I must admit I was not only thinking of Belet Vor-but of the girl I had sent to him, Shizala.

"Why, that is what enabled me to arouse the people against Chinod Sai," Morda Kohn said.

"Chinod Sai and his blue friend learned that you had been seen in the house of Belet Vor. They went there and they ordered him to be beheaded on the spot!"

"Belet Vor, dead? Beheaded-oh, no!" Darnad's face turned pale with horror.

"I am afraid so."

"But the girl we rescued-the one we sent to him?" I spoke in some trepidation, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Girl? I do not know-I heard nothing of a girl Perhaps she is still at his house, hiding somewhere."

I relaxed. That was probably true.

"There is still another missing," Darnad said.

"The Vladnyar woman-Horguhl. Where is she?"

Together we searched the palace but there was ho sign of her.

Night was falling as we borrowed mounts from the new 'Bradhi' and rushed to Belet Vor's house.

Inside, it had been torn apart. We called Shizala's name but she did not answer.

Shizala had gone-but where? And how?

We stumbled out of the house. Had we fought and risked so much only to fail now?

Back to the palace to see if Morda Kohn could help us.

The new Bradhi was supervising the replacement of the flagstones. "They will be securely cemented down," he said. "They will never be put to the same dreadful use again."

"Morda Kohn," I said desperately, "the girl was not at Belet Vor's house. And we know she would hot have gone anywhere of her own accord. Did any of Chinod Sai's guards survive? If they did, one of them may be able to tell us what happened."

"I think there are several prisoners in the anteroom." Morda Kohn nodded. "Question them if you like."

We went to the ante-room. There were three sulking, badly wounded prisoners.

"Do any of you know where Shizala is?" I asked.

"Shizala?" One of them looked up with a frown.

"The blonde girl-the prisoner who was here."

"Oh, her-I think they both went off together."

"Both?"

"Her and the dark-haired woman."

"Where did they go?"

"What's it worth to tell you what I know?" The guard looked cunningly at me.

"I will speak to Morda Kohn. He owes us a favor. I will ask him to show mercy to you."

"You'll keep your word?"

"Of course."

"I think they went to the Mountains of Argzoon."

"Ah-but why?" Darnad broke in. "Why should a Vladnyar willingly go to Argzoon? The Blue Giants are no-one's friends."

"There is something mysterious about Horguhl's association with the Argzoon. Perhaps when we find her we will learn the answer," I said. "Could you lead us to the Mountains of Argzoon, Darnad?"

"I think so." He nodded.

"Come, then-let's make haste after them. With luck we may even catch them before they reach the mountains."

"Best that we did," he said.

"Why?"

"Because the Argzoon literally dwell in the mountains-in the Caves of Darkness that run under the range. Some say it is really the Bleak World of the Dead, and from what I've heard it's possible!"

We spoke briefly to Morda Kohn, telling him to show the guard mercy. Then we strode outside, mounted our daharas and rode into the nightheading for the dreadful Caves of Darkness.

We were not lucky. First Darnad's beast cut its foot on a sharp rock and went lame. We had to travel at walking pace for a full day until we came to a camp where we could exchange Darnad's prime mount for a rather stringy beast that looked as if it had little stamina.

Then we lost our bearings on a barren plain known as the Wilderness of Sorrow-and we could understand why anyone would feel sorrowful on encountering it.

On the other hand, the mount that Darnad had exchanged was in fact very strong-and my own beast wearied before his did!

We finally crossed the Wilderness of Sorrow and emerged on the shores of an incredibly wide river-wider even than the Mississippi.

Another pause while we borrowed a boat from a friendly fisherman and managed to cross. Luckily Darnad had a precious ring on his finger and was able to convert this into pearls, which were the general currency of these parts.

We bought supplies in the riverside town and learned-to our relief, for there had always been the chance that the guard was lying maliciouslythat two women answering to the description of Horguhl and Shizala had passed that way. We enquired if Shizala had seemed to be under restraint, but our informant told us that she did not appear to be bound.

This was puzzling and we could not understand why Shizala should seem to be travelling to the terrible domain of the Argzoon of her own free will.

But, as we told ourselves, all this would be learned the quicker if we caught up with them.

They were still some three days ahead of us.

So we crossed the Carzax River in the fisherman's boat, ferrying our mounts and provisions with us. It was a difficult task and the current drew us many miles down river before we reached the other side. The fisherman would collect the boat later. We pulled it ashore, strapped our provisions to our animals and mounted.

It was forest land now, but the trees were the strangest I had ever seen.

Their trunks were not solid like the tree-trunks on Earth, but consisted of many hundreds of slender stems curling around one another to form trunks some thirty or forty feet in diameter. On the other hand, the trees did not reach very high, but fanned out so that sometimes when passing through a particular grove of low-growing trees our heads actually stood out above the trees. It made me feel gigantic!

Also, the foliage had a tinge similar to the ferns of the Crimson Plain-though red was only the main color. There were also tints of blue, green and yellow, brown and orange. It seemed, in fact, that the forest was in a perpetual state of autumn and I was pleased by the sight of it. Strange as the stumpy trees were they reminded me, in some obscure way, of my boyhood.

Had it not been for the object of our quest, I would have liked to relax more and spend longer in that strange forest.

But there was something else in the forest that I was to meet shortly-and that decided me, if nothing else could have done, on the necessity of moving on.

We had been travelling in the forest for two days when Darnad suddenly pulled his mount up short and pointed silently through the foliage.

I could see nothing and shook my head in puzzlement.

Darnad's beast now seemed to move a little restlessly, and so did mine.

Darnad began to turn his dahara, pointing back the way we had come. The peculiar, ape-like beast obeyed the guiding reins and my own followed suit, rather quickly, as if glad to be turning back.

Then Darnad stopped again and his hand fell to his sword.

"Too late," he said. "And I should have warned you."

"I see nothing-I hear nothing. What should you have warned me of?"

"The heela"

"Heela-what is a heela?"

"That-" Darnad pointed.

Skulking towards us, its hide exactly the same mottled shades as the foliage of the trees, came a beast out of a nightmare.

It had eight legs and each leg terminated in six curved talons. It had two heads and each head had a broad, gaping mouth full of long, razor-like teeth, glaring yellow eyes, flaring nostrils. A single neck rose from the trunk and then divided near the top to accommodate the heads.

It had two tails, scaly and powerful-looking, and a barrel-shaped body rippling with muscle.

It was unlike anything I could describe. It could not exist-but it did!

The heela stopped a few yards away and its twin tails lashed as it regarded us with its two pairs of eyes.

The only thing to its advantage, as far as I could see, was that it measured only about half the size of an ordinary dahara.

Yet it still looked dangerous and could easily dispose of me, I knew.

Then it sprang. Not at me and not at Darnadbut at the head of Darnad's dahara.

The poor animal shrieked in pain and fear as the heela sank its eight sets of talons into its great flat head and simply clung there, biting with its two sets of teeth at the dahara's spinal cord.

Darnad began to hack at the heela with his sword. I tried to move in to help him but my animal refused to budge.

I dismounted-it was the only thing I could doand paused behind the clinging heela's back. I did not know much about Martian biology, but I selected a spot on the heela's neck corresponding to the place where he was biting the dahara. I knew that many animals will go for a spot on other species which corresponds with their own vital spots.

I plunged my sword in.

For a few moments the heela still clung to the dahara's head; then it released its grip and with a blood-curdling scream of anguish and fury fell to the mossy ground. I stood back, ready to meet any attack it might make. But it got up, stood shakily on its legs, took a couple of paces away from meand then fell dead.

Meanwhile, Darnad had dismounted from the dahara, now moaning in pain and stamping on the moss.

The poor beast's flesh had been ripped away from a considerable area of its head and neck. It was beyond any help we could give it-save to put it out of its pain.

Regretfully, I saw Darnad place his sword against the creature's head and drive it home, wincing as he did so.

Soon dahara and heela lay side by side. A useless waste of life, I reflected.

What was more, we should now have to ride double and though my dahara was strong enough to carry both of us, we should have to travel at about half our previous speed.

Bad luck was dogging us, it seemed.

Riding double, we left the heela-infested forest behind. Darnad informed me that we had been lucky to meet only one of the beasts since there had been others of its pack about. Apparently it was quite common amongst heelas for the leader to attack the victim first and, if successful, lead the rest in for the kill, having tested the victim's strength. If, on the other hand, the heela-leader were killed, then the pack would skulk off, judging the enemy too strong to risk attacking. Besides which they would feed off their dead leader's corpse. In this case, the corpse of the dahara, too.

It seemed that, like hyaena, the heelas were strong but cowardly. I thanked providence for this trait, at any rate!

Now the air grew colder-we had been travelling for well over a month-and the skies darker. We began to cross a vast plain of black mud and obsidian rock, stunted, sinister shrubs and ancient ruins. The feet of our single dahara splashed in deep puddles or waded through oozing mud, slipped on the glassy rock or stumbled over great areas of broken masonry.

I asked Darnad if these were the ruins of the Sheev but he muttered that he did not think so.

"I suspect that these ruins were once inhabited by the Yaksha," he said.

I shivered as cold rain fell on us.

"Who were the Yaksha?"

"It is said they are ancient enemies of the Sheev but originally of the same race."

"That is all you know?"

"Those are the only facts. The rest is superstition and speculation." He seemed to shudder inwardly, not from the cold but from some idea that had occurred to him.

On we went, making slower and slower progress over that dark wasteland, taking shelter at nightscarcely distinguishable though it was from day!-under half-fallen walls or outcrops of rock.

Strange, livid beasts prowled that plain; peculiar cries like the voices of lost souls; queer disturbances that we felt rather than heard or saw.

It was like that for another two weeks until the looming crags of Argzoon became visible through the dim, misty light of the Wastes of Doom.

The Mountains of Argzoon were tall and jagged, black and forbidding.

"Seeing their environment," I said to Darnad, "I can understand why the Argzoon are what they are, for such landscapes are not conducive to instilling a sense of sweetness and light into one."

"I agree," he replied. Then a little later: "We should reach the Gates of Gor Delpus before nightfall."

"What are they?"

"The entrance to the Caves of Darkness. They are, I've been told, never guarded, for few have ever dared venture into the Argzoon's own underground land-they let our normal fear of dark, enclosed spaces do their work for them."

"Are the Caves very dangerous?"

"I do not know," he said. "No one has ever returned to tell…"

By nightfall we made out the Gates by means of Deimos's very dim moonlight. They were mainly natural cave-mouths widened and made taller by crude workmanship. They were dark and gloomy and I could understand what Darnad had told me.

Only my mission-to rescue the woman I loved but would never be able to make mine-would induce me to enter.

We left our faithful dahara outside to fend for himself until we returned-if ever we should.

And then we entered the Caves of Darkness.