I opened my mouth to speak, but Ool said swiftly: “Rest easy on that point, O Lukor of Ganatol; the Princess Darloona cannot be wed until I arrive in the Hall of Hoom beyond the Throne Chamber. I know, for ‘tis I, old fat Ool, who will conduct the nuptials.”
“How do you know me, priest?” snapped Lukor. Ool smiled lazily and his eyes drifted from one of us to the other.
“I know you at least as well as you know yourself, O Swordmaster―and the komor Koja of the Yathoon Horde―and you, as well, O Jandar of―what should I say? `Tellus’ or `Terra’―or `Earth’? Aye, Jandar of Tellus―that would be the proper construction.”
Jandar of Tellus!
Shock ripped through me, the shock of complete amazement, as I realized this placid little butter-colored Buddha somehow knew my closely guarded secret―knew that I was not native to this world of Thanator, but was a visitor from a far-distant planet! But how could he have known that?
Almost as if he read the question in my mind, he smiled again, obviously enjoying my mystification.
“I know many things, O Jandar, which are bidden from other men. You, and all those that dwell within the walls of Shondakor, think me but a priest of Hoom, my god―that, or a wizard of strange gifts and stranger wisdom. You have seen me many times, and each time it has entered your mind that my flesh is yellow and my black eyes aslant, and that I am unlike any people you have yet encountered upon the face of Thanator―but never has it occurred to you to think about this puzzle.”
Ool spoke truth. Suddenly it came to me that I knew well the races of Thanator: the Ku Thad of Shondakor, with their amber skin, emerald eyes, and flaming manes―the papery-white Sky Pirates of Zanadar, with their lank black hair―the bald-headed, crimson-skinned men of the Bright Empire of Perushtar―the Chac Yuul warriors, with their greasy, swarthy skins and colorless hair―and those crossbreeds, such as the Ganatolians. And not one of these races had the butter-yellow skin and slant black eyes of Ool the Uncanny!
Yet never had I noticed this!
“And for very good reasons, O Jandar of Tellus,” the fat priest chuckled. “I am one of the Mind Wizards of Kuur, dark shadowy Kuur that lies beyond Dragon River amid the Peaks of Harangzar, on the other side of Thanator.’ My people share a curious science, a mental discipline that permits us to read the thoughts and minds of other beings. As you can well imagine, this art gives us an unusual advantage over the other races of Thanator, an advantage we are not hesitant to employ.”
“That’s how you led the Chac Yuul into Shondakor!” I cried.
“Of course,” he chuckled. “An archivist possessed knowledge of the secret tunnel beneath the river and the outer walls, and thus I gained ascendancy over Arkola and a place in his councils, by bartering the secret of a safe road into the Golden City for power.”
A cold flash of reptilian greed shone momentarily in his slitted eyes.
“We are a small, a dying race; but we have a mighty power over the minds of other men, a power which, if used adroitly, can lay an empire within our reach. I found my way into the inner councils of the Chac Yuul by means of my mind power, and the Chac Yuul seized a kingdom. That iron man of war, bold Arkola, thinks he rules the Black Legion, but it is I am the master here!”
“Then using your mind power, you were able to still suspicion of your race in the brain of every man you met?” Lukor asked keenly. “That is why it never occurred to anyone to wonder who and what you were, with your yellow skin and slant gaze?”
His bald pate nodded sleepily.
“True, Ganatolian. It is but the least of my abilities. When this gallant warrior here came into Shondakor, I knew him from the very first as a man from another world. His is a strange tale, and it will have a stranger ending, as I somehow seem to know―”
“Know you aught of the mysterious power that guided me to this world?” I cried, for the mystery of my coming hence had long plagued me. Reluctantly, Ool shook his head and his cold eyes were dull and opaque.
“Nay. There are things hidden even from the probing skills of a Mind Wizard: but someday you will know the answer―if you live.” He smiled.
“From the first, I knew of your true identity and of your cause and mission,” he said sleekly, animation returning to his keen gaze. “I did not reveal you to my lords, for it amused me to see you play this little drama out to its end. But that end has come, aye, the last act is upon us even now, and I fear me you shall none of you live out the scene to its final curtain.”
I lifted my cutlass into view.
“Have you forgotten, Mind Wizard, that I bear cold steel and you are unarmed?” I said tensely. His smile was mild and bland.
“And would you strike down an old man in cold blood?” he murmured. I shrugged.
“I will kill any man who stands between me and the woman I love,” I growled. “I have naught against you, Ool; naught have you done to oppose me in my quest, therefore I am willing to let you live. Only do not get in my way―”
“Alas for your quest, O Jandar, it is not my will that you rescue the Princess of your heart,” he smiled.
“You mean―”
“I mean that for all these months I have been working towards a certain end,” he replied, and I knew then that I would have to kill him.
“What end, Mind Wizard?” I asked.
“I am not here by chance or accident, but by plan. We of dark Kuur must subjugate this hemisphere, and since we are few, we must set nation against nation, weakening them through endless wars, so that we may carry off the victory in the end. According to the decision of my Masters, the Prince of the Chac Yuul weds the Princess of Shondakor, thus provoking war between the Sky Pirates and the Black Legion. Out of that war, one victor shall arise―and we of shadowy Kuur shall dominate that victor. Alas, our plans have no room in them for Jandar of Tellus, or Koja of the Yathoon Horde, or Lukor of Ganatol―or even. for the Ku Thad.”
Suddenly I saw everything, clear and plain as if it were written on the wall.
It was the meddling little Mind Wizard had set Prince Vaspian and his father at odds, had cast the seeds of suspicion into their minds each of the other. For surely, if the mind wizardry of Ool the Uncanny could blot a question of his race from the minds of those he met, that same grim art could insert a thought into the minds of others just as easily.
A sense of futility arose within me. All that we had striven for, all our plans and hazards, had been but as a game played out for the amusement of this fat, sinister little priest!
He had known when I despatched poor brave doomed Marud to the Lord Yarrak with my letter which revealed the secret tunnel under the walls and the river. That was true―now I remembered!―it had been Ool’s men who caught Marud on his return!
But why on his return? Why let him get to the warriors hiding in the Grand Kumala at all, when Ool could just as well have seized him ere he entered the secret passage? Why let him pass the letter to the Ku Thad, unless
―Unless the Golden Warriors were walking into the trap!
“You are not stupid, O Jandar,” the little Mind Wizard chuckled. “Indeed the mighty Yarrak and his gallant warriors will find themselves entrapped when they come through the tunnel this day and gamble all on one last, brave attempt to reconquer Shondakor! For I shall alert a full cohort of the Legion to wait hidden by the secret entrance of the tunnel, and as they emerge into the streets of Shondakor, they shall face the last battle and the doom of all their kind.”
Grimly I stepped in front of him and set the point of my sword over his heart.
“You have just signed your own death warrant, wizard!” I said.
His cold, clever eyes probed deeply into mine, and his gaze was not worried but placid and serene and smiling.