The Vladnyar, for instance.
Now I asked the slave the leading question:
"Tell me-have two women been brought here recently? A dark one and a fair one."
There h-has been a woman prisoner…"
Only one! I prayed that Shizala had not been killed on the way.
"What does she look like?"
"She is very beautiful-fair-haired-a Karnala woman, I think…"
I sighed with relief. "But what of Horguhl the Vladnyar-the dark-haired woman?"
"Ah!" His voice was a muted scream. "Do not mention th-that name. Do not mention it!"
"What is wrong?" I could see that he was in an even worse state now than when I had originally confronted him. Spittle ran down his chin and his eyes flickered crazily. He was trembling in every part of his body. He hugged himself, hunched and twitching. He began to moan slowly.
I seized his shoulder, trying to shake some selfcontrol into him, but he fell to the floor and continued to moan and tremble.
I knelt beside him. "Tell me-who is Horguhlwhat is her part in this?"
"Ah! P-please-leave me. I will not tell them you are here… Y-you must go. L-leave!"
I continued to shake him. 'Tell me!"
Suddenly a new voice spoke from behind me. A cool, mocking voice full of controlled, malicious humor…
"Leave the poor wretch alone, Michael Kane. I can answer your question better than he. My guards mentioned a disturbance in the store-room so I came to investigate myself. I have been halfexpecting you."
I whirled, still in a crouching position, and looked up to stare into the deep, evil eyes of the dark-haired woman whose role had been such a mystery. It was to be a mystery no longer.
"Horguhl! Who are you?"
"I am Queen of the Argzoon, Michael Kane. It was I who commanded the army you defeated, not poor Ranak Mard. My army dispersed before I could recall it because that bitch-dahara Shizala attacked me soon after you had left. In the struggle she knocked me unconscious but she was then captured by some of my men. When I awoke, my army was in confusion, so I decided to take vengeance on her instead of her city…"
"You! All this was your doing! But how are you Queen of those giant savages-what power can one woman wield over them?"
"It is my power over something else that they fear," she smiled.
"What is that?"
"You will learn soon enough." Blue Giants were beginning to swarm into the room behind her.
"Seize him!"
I tried to stand up but stumbled against the prone and shaking body of the slave. Before I could recover my position half-a-dozen Argzoon were piling on top of me.
I fought back with fists and feet, but soon they had bound my arms behind me and Horguhl was laughing in my face, her white, sharp teeth flashing in the gloom.
"And now," she said, "you will learn the punishment meted out to the man responsible for disrupting the plans of the Queen of the Argzoon!"
Chapter Twelve
THE PIT OF THE N'AAL BEAST
"BRING him to my chambers," Horguhl ordered the guards. "I will question him first."
I was forced to walk behind her, following her through a maze of bleak and draughty corridors lit by guttering torches, until we came to a large door apparently made of heavy wood covered with silver hammered into some crude semblance of a design.
This door was opened and the big room we entered was warmed by a huge fire roaring in a grate at one side. The room itself was rich with rugs of fur and heavy cloth. Covering the walls were tapestries, obviously booty from raided cities, for the workmanship was exquisite. Even the windows were covered, and this explained the warmth of the room.
A heavy chest, about the height of my waist, stood near the fire. On this stood jugs of wine and bowls of fruit and meat. A large, fur-strewn couch was on the other side of the room opposite the fire, and there were a few benches and carved wooden chairs dotted about.
Though not particularly lavish by the standards of the civilized south, the Queen's chambers were luxurious compared with what I had witnessed of the living standards of the Argzoon peoples.
Over the fireplace hung a tapestry much less well executed than the others. It depicted the creature I had already seen on the Queen's banner-the mysterious N'aal Beast. It looked menacing and I noticed the guards avert their eyes from it as if afraid of it.
I was still tightly bound, of course, and when Horguhl dismissed the guards she was in no danger from me. I stood straight-backed, staring over her head as she paced before me, darting me strange, curious looks. This went on for some time, but I kept my expression blank and my eyes fixedly ahead.
Suddenly she faced me, swept back her right hand and slapped me stingingly across the mouth.
I kept my features rigid as before.
"Who are you, Michael Kane?"
I did not answer.
"There is something about you. Something I have never sensed in any other man. Something I could learn to-to like." Her voice became softer and she took a step closer to me. "I mean it, Michael Kane," she said. "Your fate will not be pleasant if I order it to be carried out. But you could avert it…"
I still remained silent.
"Michael Kane-I am a woman. A-a sensitive woman." She laughed lightly, somewhat self-mockingly, I thought. "I am what I am through no circumstances of my own making. Would you like to hear why I am Queen of the Argzoon?"
"I would like to know where Shizala is, that is all," I said at length. "Where is she?"
"No harm has come to her yet. Perhaps none will. I have thought out an interesting fate for her.
It will not kill her, but it will help me turn her into a willing handmaiden, I think. I.would rather keep the ruler of Varnal as my cringing slave than have her dead…"
My mind raced. So Shizala was not to die-yet, at any rate. I was relieved, for that would give time for Darnad to come and try to rescue her. I relaxed a little-perhaps I even smiled.
"You seem in good humor. Do you not feel anything for the woman, then?" Horguhl sounded almost eager.
"Why should I?" I lied.
"That is good," she said, almost to herself. She strode panther-like to the couch and spread her beautiful body upon it. I continued to stand where I was, but looked directly into those smouldering eyes. After a while she dropped her gaze.
Staring at the floor, she said: "I was only a child of eleven when the Argzoon attacked the caravan in which I and my parents were travelling through the northern borders of Vladnyar. They killed many-including my mother and father-but took slaves as well. I was one of those slaves…"
I knew she was trying to touch me in some way, and if her story were true I felt sorry for the child she had been. But I could not, considering her later crimes, justify them.
"In those days, the Argzoon were divided amongst themselves. Often the cavern was a battlefield between warring factions. They could not unite. The Argzoon were split into scores of family clans and blood-feuds were normal, day-to-day happenings. The only thing that could unite them for a short while was the common fear of the N'aal Beast which haunted the subterranean passages below the floor of the Great Cavern. It fed on the Argzoon, who were its natural prey. It would slither up and attack then slither away again. The Argzoon believe that the N'aal Beast is an incarnation of Raharumara, their chief deity. They dared not make any attempt to kill it. Whenever possible they would sacrifice slaves to it.
"When I was sixteen years old, I was chosen as one of those who would feed the N'aal Beast. But already I had felt this power in me-some ability to make others do my will. Oh, not in large ways-I was still a slave-but in ways that made my lot a little easier. Strangely, it was the N'aal Beast which brought this power out of me in strength.