Koja gathered up the loose length of chain and passed it thoughtfully through his many-jointed, clawlike fingers, swinging it to assess the weight.
“As for Koja,” he said, blinking owlishly, “he shall require no weapon but this heavy length of iron chain, for the small blades used by the members of your race do not fit his hand. But this length of chain will serve well enough.”
“Then let us be going!”
Lukor led the way out of the cell, peering about through the dimness.
“Which way?” he inquired. I jerked my thumb toward the square stone room where Bluto’s corpse lay in a puddle of congealing gore. We sprinted off down the corridor, our footsteps raising echoes.
“Is this not foolhardy?” Koja asked, thudding along at my side, his ungainly strides carrying him along at a rapid pace. “How can such as we hope to traverse the palace unmolested? Surely the first Chac Yuul warrior to spy us will raise the alarm.”
“There is a network of secret passages hidden within the walls,” I said. “We can travel far by means of them, and without being discovered. There should be a panel leading into the labyrinth of hidden passages in the hall beyond the entrance to the Pits-2’
And then a pang of despair ripped through my heart! For even above the noise of our running feet and over the thudding of my own heartbeat, I could faintly hear a distant bell tolling the hour!
And Darloona was being married―right now!
“But―” Koja began. I cut him off with a curt word.
“Save your breath for running,” I panted, and we raced down the echoing hall and burst into the stone room.
And stopped short!
Eyeing the corpse, old Lukor voiced a snort of laughter.
“I see you had time for a bit of practice ere coming to seek us out, my boy!”
I did not reply. I hefted the heavy cutlass in my hands and wondered what the next few moments would bring.
For there in the doorway that led to this chamber from the upper level stood a fat, smiling little man with gleaming, amused eyes.
“I told you that we would have another little talk, O Jandar,” the man said in a high, breathy voice.
It was Ool the Uncanny.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
IN THE HALL OF HOOM
These things I, Jandar, did not see happen, for I was not there. But much later, when all was over, the fighting was ended, and Darloona taken from me, I heard how they had chanced to occur. And I tell them to you now, just as I heard them from the lips of Valkar, Prince of the Ku Thad.
Valkar waited long in the wineshop, but Jandar did not come. Minute by minute, time ticked past, the hour appointed for their rendezvous came and went, and still there was no sign of Jandar.
What had happened to prevent their meeting? Valkar grimly counted over the possibilities, and none of them were pleasant ones. Jandar’s imposture might have been discovered―his true identity revealed―his mission of rescue unveiled.
If this were so, every passing moment might bring danger closer to Valkar. For the komor well knew how pain can wring truth from the lips of even the bravest and most stubborn of men. Every minute he remained waiting here in the tavern might draw their plans closer to the brink of disaster. Even now, a contingent of guards might be clanking through the streets of Shondakor, bound for this inn.
The longer he waited here, the more likely was the chance that he would be arrested.
At length it was so close to the time of the marriage ceremony that Valkar dared wait no longer for his friend. If Jandar had not come by now, he was not coming. Some unforeseen happening had occurred to shatter their plan. The gnawing unease, the feeling that something had gone wrong, grew stronger.
Abruptly, Valkar rose from the wine-stained table, tossed a glittering coin at the sallow-faced innkeeper, and strode out of the wineshop, peering up towards the towers of the royal palace where it rose beside the plaza in the heart of the great city.
It was up to Valkar to come to the aid of his princess and he must do it alone.
Valkar had entered the palace and its maze of hidden passages within the walls only a few times before, and always by the dark of night, when few were abroad and the chances of being seen were slender.
Never before had he dared to enter the closely guarded citadel by broad light of day. And, under ordinary circumstances, he would never think of making the attempt with the palace crowded with warriors and officers, every corridor thronged with wedding guests, a thousand scurrying servants making last-minute preparations for the impending royal nuptials.
Under such circumstances, the chances of discovery were vastly greater. However, Valkar had no alternative but to try it. For within the hour, unless he found some means of intervening and bearing off the Princess to safety, Darloona would be married before the hideous stone idol of the Chac Yuul devil-god, Hoom.
Under his cloak, Valkar was dressed in his most resplendent decorations, for this was a festival day and all the chieftains of the Black Legion had been commanded to clothe themselves in all their finery as if for parade.
Tossing aside his cloak, Valkar found it not difficult to mingle with the other officers thronged before a side gate, and to enter in their midst. His decorations and ornaments were no less glittering than their own, and thus he gained entry into the palace without detection or even being noticed.
Striding through the hallways, he thanked the mysterious Lords of Gordrimator for this small stroke of fortune! On previous secret visits to the palace of the Kings of Shondakor, he had entered the walls by a small door in the outer circuit of the walls, a door concealed behind a heavy growth of shrubbery. But in the broad light of day it was impossible to use that route without being seen.
Now that he was actually within the palace, he must find one of the sliding panels that would give him entry into the hidden passageways behind the thick walls. And this he found most difficult.
The trouble was, simply, that the palace was bustling with guests and visitors. Every room and corridor he passed, every rotunda and antechamber, was filled with people. On the rare nights when he had visited Darloona in secret to urge her to permit him to assist her in an escape, he had chosen a late hour when certain side passages were untenanted. Now, every passage was filled with busy people. Perspiration started on his brow; he had the horrible feeling one experiences sometimes in a nightmare, of racing against the clock, of struggling to avert some hideous doom, and of finding that every step is slowed and encumbered by an unseen impediment, so that one battles forward in slow motion while doom races nearer with every madly ticking second!
Straining to keep the tension from being visible on his features, Valkar turned aside and ascended a staircase to the second level, hoping to find a momentarily empty suite wherein to make his entrance through one of the hidden panels.
At last, after an agonized eternity of strolling past crowded rooms, he found a chamber empty of all occupants and wasted no time in striding to a further wall covered with a richly brocaded wall hanging.
The swordsman stepped behind the hanging and in a moment his searching gaze found one of the minute and unnoticeable signs that marked a bidden door. In another moment his fingers had found and depressed a secret spring.
With a faint clashing of hidden counterweights, the door slid open and a black hole yawned before him. Without hesitation he stepped within and sealed the panel shut behind him.
He had brought no candle or lantern into the dark maze of passageways, for it would have looked odd for an officer to be strolling through the brightly lit palace carrying a lantern when it was broad daylight. And it took his eyes a few moments to adjust to the dimness.