“May I know it, then?”
I nodded a bit dispiritedly.
“There is no reason why you should not share my inward trepidations, Ergon, although I have good cause to spare my Princess. My reasoning is simple. Valkar will not be able to follow us, because he can have no notion of how we vanished from the copse.”
Ergon blinked at me, his heavy visage grim and thoughtful.
“You mean―”
“I mean that the balloon was released even as the guardsmen entered the wood behind us,” I said in low tones. “Valkar and the others would have first combed the copse itself, to ascertain that we were not hidden somewhere in the thick underbrush. By the time they made certain of that, and began to scour the countryside for some sign of us, the balloon would have been well out of sight. And besides ... I hesitated.
“Yes?” he urged.
I released a weary sigh.
“And besides, Shondakorians know nothing of balloons, which are otherwise unknown across the breadth of Thanator. And there is simply no reason at all for our friends to have looked for us in the skies… ”
Chapter 4
The Empress of Callisto
With dawn the next day my Princess rose rested and refreshed, and filled with zest and good humor. It did not in the slightest serve to dampen her spirits to discover that the mailed legions of the Golden City were not as yet encamped about the walls of Tharkol. Doubtless, she said cheerfully, the host had ridden through the better part of the night, and would arrive later in the morning.
Ergon and I exchanged an eloquent glance, but neither of us disabused Darloona of her groundless optimism that rescue and vengeance were almost at hand. Indeed, we strove to put a cheerful face on events ourselves, in order to protect her peace of mind. I don’t know about Ergon, but, for my part, this was not easy to do; I had spent a perfectly wretched night, tossing and turning, unable to quiet my seething brain until the early hours of morn, in which exhaustion finally induced an uneasy slumber shot through with menacing and unpleasant dreams.
We bathed and breakfasted sumptuously. Again I puzzled―not only as to why the Queen of this city had caused us to be taken prisoner at all―which doubtless we would discover in time―but also as to the peculiar luxury of our imprisonment. Few prisoners are jailed in silken apartments of decor so sumptuous as to befit the housing of state guests of royal blood.
The answer to this minor mystery, too, we would doubtless learn in time, I grimly conjectured.
We had just completed our leisurely meal when the measured tramp of booted feet in the hallway beyond signaled the arrival of guards come to escort us into the presence of the Queen of Tharkol. It seemed that we should soon learn the answer to at least one of the questions which had plagued me―that is, the reason why the Tharkolians had captured us, thus deliberately performing an act of war against a neighboring kingdom with whom they were, ostensibly at least, at peace.
There was no slightest opportunity afforded us for an attempt at escape. The cortege of guards sent to escort us thither numbered, as I recall, about twenty. The number had been calculated to a nicety, I thought. Had they been any fewer, two determined and desperate warriors, such as Ergon and I, might perchance have risked all on a try for freedom. But twenty fully armed warriors … the number was too great; to try for a break would have been utter folly, and quite futile.
Thus the guards formed a hollow square, with Darloona and Ergon and I in the center of the square, and marched us through the sumptuous palace of Tharkol and into the throne room of the Queen without a chance of a fight.
The moment we entered the throne room I stopped short in amazement. And perhaps I should explain at this point in my narrative something of the manner in which princes hold state on the jungle Moon. It has been my experience that the monarchs who rule the city-states of Callisto generally hold court in a large pillared and domed chamber or central hall of their palaces. During such occasions these monarchs are enthroned in a great chair, often situated on a low dais in the center of the hall, a dais usually raised two or three steps higher than the floor of the throne room itself.
Zamara of Tharkol, however, ruled in a different wise!
For one thing, her throne room was the most enormous single room I have ever been in during my entire life. The great hall must have measured no fewer than five hundred feet from wall to wall. It was an enormous circular space, or rotunda, ringed with a circle of marble pillars of immense height and tremendous girth which soared up far above our heads to support a colossal dome so huge it would have done credit to the palace of the mightiest emperor.
Around the walls of this enormous rotunda stood, motionless and in complete silence, a vast throng of nobles and officials and courtiers. These numbered at least three times the number of such officials as generally attended a gathering of the court in my own city of Shondakor. They were Perushtarians, one and all, with scarlet skins and brilliant black eyes, attired in superb and costly garments which scintillated with colored fabrics and flashed with precious metals and sparkled with masses of expensive jewelry. The overall effect was stupendous-stunning!
Holding this motionless and unspeaking crowd back, as it were, a ring of guardsmen stood three deep, entirely encircling the vast echoing room. Daylight glittered blindingly from polished helm, golden cuirass, kite shield, and spear blade. Cloaks of black and scarlet velvet and tall plumes of those same colors adorned these guards, who were, without exception, men of extraordinary height, physical development, and handsomeness. Like so many Adonises in gold, scarlet, and black, the triple ring of guards stood, frozen at attention, immobile as bronze statues. Not one of them was an inch less than six feet tall.
Again, the cumulative effect was staggering.
At the center of the gigantic hall, Zamara sat enthroned.
Her throne was a ponderous and shimmering thing of solid electrum which must have weighed a ton or more. Even if the tremendous throne was only plated with the precious stuff, the amount of gold and silver that had gone into the making of the alloy. represented in itself the ransom of an imperial province.
And, where most of the Princes of Thanator sit in state atop a dais consisting of two or three steps, such proportions were too modest for the likes of Zamara of Tharkol. Her dais was seventeen steps high, and towered above the heads of the throng like a miniature hill!
Her costume consisted entirely of jewels. These were either white or ice-blue diamonds, for the most part, or at least the Callistan equivalent of the diamond, a gem which the races of Thanator name ramazond. The wealth of many kingdoms adorned the body of this young woman.
She was certainly one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever set eyes upon. Slim as a sapling, graceful as a dancer, lithe, supple,. and dangerous as a leopard, the warm scarlet of her naked arms, long legs, and slim waist contrasted startlingly with the bejeweled treasure she wore. Her face was heart-shaped, vital, alive, with enormous and brilliant eyes and a flowing mane of silken black, caught in a jeweled coronet of flashing stones. She sat in the mighty throne, a vision of incredible wealth, dazzling beauty, and awesome power.
I think I gasped at the sight of her. Directly above her soared the immense dome of lucent crystal. Daylight poured down upon her in a flood of golden fire that struck to glory the magnificent gems which adorned her half-naked body. She was stunning … and she knew id
In that moment of deafening silence when we stood, all three of us, frozen in amazement at the magnificence of this spectacle, an imposing chamberlain rang his mace against the marble pave with a crash of thunder.