"When news came that the N'aal was slithering up into the Great Cavern, I and a number of others-folk like myself and Argzoon criminals-were bound and placed in its supposed path. Soon it appeared and I watched in horrified dread as it began to seize my companions and swallow them. I started to stare into its eyes. Some instinct made me croon at it. I-I don't know what it was, but it responded to me. Through my mind, I was able to communicate with it, give it orders."
She paused and looked up at me. I did not react.
"I returned to this city-the Black City-with the N'aal Beast following me like a pet. I ordered a deep hole to be made, in which the beast was imprisoned. The Argzoon regarded me with superstitious awe-they still do. By controlling the N'aal Beast, I control them. Later I decided to make up for my years of misery and hardship and planned conquest of this entire continent. By several methods I got news of the south and her defences.
Then I put the first stage of my plan into operation. I was prepared to wait years for victory-but instead…"
"Defeat," I said. "A well-deserved defeat. Your years with the Argzoon have warped you, Horguhl-warped you beyond hope of salvation!"
"Fool!" She was off the couch and pressing her voluptuous body against me, stroking my chest.
"Fool! I have other plans-I am not defeated. I know many secrets; I have much power that you do not dream of. Michael Kane, you can share all this. I told you I have never known a man like you-brave, handsome, strong-willed. But you also have something else-some mysterious quality that makes you as different from the ordinary riffraff of Vashu as I am. Become my King, Michael Kane…"
She was speaking softly, her hypnotic eyes staring into mine, and something seemed to be happening to my brain. I felt warm, euphoric. I began to think her proposal was attractive.
"Michael Kane-I love you!"
Somehow that statement saved me-though I will never know why. It jerked my mind back to sanity.
Bound as I was, I shrugged her clinging hands away.
"I do not love you, Horguhl," I said firmly. "Neither could I feel anything but loathing for someone who has done what you have done. Now I realize how Shizala was so easily brought here-that hypnotic power of yours! Well, it will not get the better of me!"
She released me and when she spoke again her voice was low, vibrant. "Somehow I knew that.
Perhaps that is what attracts me to you-the fact that you can resist my power. Few others can-not even that primordial beast, the N'aal."
I took several steps backwards. I was still looking around for some means of escape. She seemed to realize this and looked up suddenly.
Her face was now a mask of hatred!
"Very well, Michael Kane-by refusing me you are accepting the fate I had planned for you.
Guards!"
The huge Argzoon warriors entered.
"Take him! Send messengers to all the Argzoon who have returned. There are not many as yet-but tell them all to come. Tell them they are going to witness a sacrifice to Raharumara!"
With that, I was led away.
I spent a short time with my guards when they paused in a chamber near the exit of the castle.
Then they led me out through the smoky, evilsmelling streets of the Black City. Behind us, in twos and threes at first, then in increasing numbers, there began to follow a procession of Argzoon. One blue warrior who strode beside my guards, keeping pace with me, darted me a strange glance which I could not interpret. The warrior did not wear armor-I assumed he had lost it during the flight back to the Black City-and he had the signs of a recent wound on his breast. Then we were passing from the city and I forgot about him.
The scene beyond the city was like a mediaeval painting representing Hell. The great bonfires roared, sending flickering, smoky light across the rocky plain that was the cavern floor. The giant Argzoon looked like demons as they escorted me over the plain. The fires were the fires on which the damned were roasted. And I was soon to meet a creature very like an ancient representation of Satan!
Horguhl was already there, standing on a dais that was reached by a flight of about sixty steps.
Her back was turned to us and her arms were outstretched. On either side of her were braziers, flaring brightly to show her to all. The Argzoon began to form a semi-circle at the bottom of the steps, and spread out along the sides of what was plainly a pit, now that we were closer. The steps terminated at the dais and the dais looked down on the pit.
My guards halted and waited expectantly just before the first step. We all looked up at Horguhl.
She was crooning something. The words-sounds, rather, for I did not recognize them-sent a shudder through me and I noticed that many of the Argzoon were similarly affected.
There came a peculiar, slithering sound from the pit and from it, just to one side of the dais, I saw a great flat serpent head rise up and begin to sway in rhythm to Horguhl's crooning.
The Argzoon muttered in superstitious fear and began to chant and sway in time to the movement of the serpent head. It was of a sickly yellowish color, with long fangs curving out of its mouth from the upper jaw. There was a stale, unwholesome smell about it, and once it opened its great jaws and gave forth a horrid hissing, revealing a gaping red maw and a huge forked tongue.
Then Horguhl's crooning became softer and softer, the swaying more gentle, the humming of the spectators almost inaudible, and then-it came almost as a shock to me-absolute silence.
Suddenly this silence was broken as from behind me there came a cry.
"No! No!"
I turned my head and saw who it was that had cried out.
"Shizala!" I shouted involuntarily. The fiends had brought her here to witness my death-that was obvious. Even from that distance I could see her cheeks were streaked with tears and she struggled in the grasp of two massive blue warriors. I tried to break away and run towards her, but my bonds and my guards stopped me.
"Stay alive!" I shouted to her. "Stay alive! Do not fear!" I could not tell her that Darnad was even now riding for civilization, bent on bringing help to rescue her. But perhaps my cry would mean something to her. "Stay alive!"
Her voice answered faintly: "Oh, Michael Kane, I-I-"
"Silence!" Horguhl had turned and was addressing her subjects as much as myself and Shizala. "Take the prisoner to the pit's edge!"
I was hustled forward and stared down to where the N'aal Beast was coiled. Its oddly intelligent eyes stared up at me-and I shuddered at this-almost with malicious humor!
"The N'aal Beast is in a playful mood today,"
Horguhl said from above me. "He will play with you for some time before devouring you."
I resolved to show no sign of the horror within me.
"Throw him down!" Horguhl ordered.
Bound and helpless, I was thrown into the Pit of the N'aal Beast!
I managed to land on my feet some yards away from where the huge snake-creature still lay coiled, looking at me with those terrible eyes.
And then, suddenly, from above I heard a cry and looked up. An Argzoon warrior was staring down at me-the one I had seen earlier who had looked at me so strangely. He had a sword in one hand and a battleaxe in the other. What was he doing?
I heard Horguhl shriek to her guards: "Stop him!"
And then the Argzoon was leaping into the pit to stand beside me. He raised his sword and I suddenly realized the truth of what was happening.
Chapter Thirteen
AN UNEXPECTED ALLY
AT FIRST I had thought that the warrior was going to slay me himself for some obscure reason. But this was not the case. Swiftly he slashed my bonds.