We attacked at once.
With cries of surprise the Argzoon turned. Then we were locked in combat, driving through their midst in an effort to link up with our comrades on the other side.
I myself was engaged with one of the largest Argzoon I had encountered. He was almost twelve feet high and fought with a long lance and a sword.
At one stage he flung the lance at me. By chance, I grabbed it in mid-air, turned it and flung it back at him. It caught him in the belly. I finished him with my sword. If it had not been for that lucky catch, I doubt if I should have survived the encounter.
Now I could see that we were almost linked with our fellows on the other side.
Certain that the tactic had succeeded, I left my men in charge of a dark-skinned warrior who had shown skill and intelligence in the fighting, and left the fray, sheathing my sword.
I was running for the Tower of Vulse near the main gate. Here I hoped that I would at least find Shizala and make myself responsible for her safety, if I could do nothing else.
I saw the Tower soon and noted that its entrance seemed unguarded.
But I saw something else. Something that sent a shock of surprise thrilling through me.
What I saw I thought impossible-some trick of the light, some illusion.
What I saw was an aircraft tethered near the top of the tower-an aircraft similar to the one in which Shizala and I had flown when we went to the camp of the Argzoon!
How did it come to be there?
I reached the entrance of the tower and ran inside. There I found a set of winding, stone steps leading up and up. There seemed to be no rooms in the lower part of the tower. I began to run up the steps.
Near the top of the tower I found a door. It was unbarred and I flung it open.
I felt shock as I saw the two within the room.
One of them was Shizala.
The other-? The other was Telem Fas Ogdai, Bradhinak of Mishim Tep, Shizala's betrothed.
He had one arm around Shizala and his other hand held a sword as he looked warily towards the door through which I had burst.
Chapter Fourteen
SWEET JOY AND BITTER SORROW
FOR a moment I confess that my emotion was one of dreadful disappointment rather than joy that Shizala was safe in the arms of a protector.
I dropped my guard and smiled at Telem Fas Ogdai.
"Greetings, Bradhinak. I am glad to see that you have managed to keep the Bradhinaka from danger. How did you get here? Did you hear something of where we had gone in Narlet, perhaps? Or was Darnad able to get word to you more swiftly than I had supposed?"
Telem Fas Ogdai smiled and shrugged. "Does it matter? I am here and Shizala is safe. That is the important thing."
I felt the answer rather unnecessarily oblique but accepted it.
"Michael Kane," Shizala said, "I was sure you had been killed by now."
"Providence is on my side, it seems," I said, trying to hide the expression in my eyes, which must have added-'save in the most important matter of my life'.
"I hear you've performed miracles of daring."
Telem Fas Ogdai spoke somewhat ironically. My dislike for him increased in spite of my effort to take an objective attitude to bin. He was not helping me.
"Providence again," I said.
"Perhaps you will leave us for a moment," Telem Fas Ogdai said. "I would like to have some words with Shizala in private."
I would not be boorish a second time. I bowed slightly and went out of the room.
As the door closed I heard Shizala's voice suddenly scream loudly.
It was too much. In spite of my earlier encounter at the palace of Varnal, I could not control myself.
I sprang back into the room.
Shizala was struggling in the grasp of a scowling Telem Fas Ogdai. He was trying to drag her towards the window to where his aircraft waited.
"Stop!" I ordered levelly.
She was sobbing. "Michael Kane-he-"
"I am sorry, Shizala, but no matter what you think of me for it, I will not stand by and see a brute handle a lady so!"
Telem Fas Ogdai laughed. He had sheathed his sword, but now he released Shizala in order to draw it.
To my surprise she ran immediately to me!
"He is a traitor!" she shouted. "Telem Fas Ogdai was in league with Horguhl-they planned to rule the continent together!"
I could hardly believe my ears. I drew my own blade.
"He threatened to kill you unless I remained silent just now," she went on. "I-I did not want that."
Telem Fas Ogdai chuckled. "Remember your bond, Shizala. You must still marry me."
"When the world learns that you are a traitor," I said, "she will not."
She shook her head. "No, a bond of the kind we made goes higher than ordinary law. He is right.
He will be exiled and I with him!'
"But that is a cruel law!"
"It is tradition," she said simply. "It is a custom of our folk. If tradition is ignored society will crumble, we know that. Therefore the individual must sometimes suffer unjustly, for the sake of the Great Law."
It was hard for me to argue against this. I may be old-fashioned, but I have great respect for tradition and custom as pillars of society.
Suddenly Telem Fas Ogdai laughed again, a somewhat unhinged chuckle, and lunged towards me.
I thrust Shizala behind me and met his lunge with a swift parry.
Back and forth across the room we fought. I had never encountered such a skilled swordsman. We were evenly matched, save that I had earlier exerted myself a great deal. I began to feel that he must win and Shizala would be condemned to spending her life with a traitor she hated!
Soon I was actually retreating before a whirlwind of steel and found myself with my back not against the wall-but worse-my back was to the window. A drop of a hundred feet was behind me!
I saw Telem Fas Ogdai grin as he forced me further back. I became desperate. From somewhere I called on extra reserves of energy. In a last final, desperate bid I hurled myself forward, straight into that network of flashing steel!
I took him by surprise. It saved my life and cost him his.
He stumbled backward for a moment.
I thrust rapidly at his throat. The point met flesh and he fell with a great roar of baffled rage.
I knelt beside him as the life bubbled from him.
I could not save him. We both knew he was going to die. Shizala came and knelt by him, too.
"Why, Telem," she said, "why did you do such a despicable thing?"
He turned his eyes towards her, speaking with difficulty.
"It was an expedition I undertook in secret more than a year ago. I thought I would try to discover what had happened to your father. Instead, I was captured and brought to Horguhl."
"You were brave to attempt such a thing," I said softly.
"She-she seduced me somehow," he said. "She told me secrets-dark secrets. I became completely in her power. I helped her plan the final stages of the attack on Varnal. I deliberately went to Varnal at the time of the attack, knowing that I would be asked to carry a message for help to Mishim Tep and your other allies." He began to cough horribly, then rallied himself.
"I-I could not help myself. I expected you to be defeated, but you were not. Your folk learned that I had not taken the message to Mishim Tep-m-my father asked why I had not. I-I could not reply.
People talked-soon it was common knowledge that I had betrayed Varnal, though-though none knew why. It was that woman-it is like a dream-I-I am a traitor and a fool-she-she-"
He raised himself up then, his eyes staring blankly out at nothing.
"She is evil!" he cried. "She must be found and killed. Until she is, all that we love and hold valuable on Vashu will be in danger of corruption. Her secrets are terrible-they give her an awful power!