Gordon shook his head. "No, I can't believe that! Zarth Arn was a scientific enthusiast, not a schemer. And if he'd been plotting with the Cloud, he'd not have exchanged minds with me."
But if Zarth Arn had been innocent of intrigue, why had Shorr Kan sent him that message referring to their past discussions?
Gordon gave it up. "I'm just out of my depth. I should have known that my ignorance would get me into some disaster if I tried to play Zarth's part!"
He thought miserably of Lianna. They'd have to tell her what had happened, even if they kept it concealed from everyone else.
Would she too think him a traitor? That possibility stung Gordon to despair.
He was for a time in a fever of self-torment, but finally a despairing apathy succeeded it. After hours, he slept.
Gordon estimated it was evening of the next day when he awoke. The door opening had aroused him. He stood up, and then stared incredulously at the two figures entering.
One was Corbulo's stocky form. But the other, the slimmer figure in dark jacket and slacks-
"Lianna!" Gordon exclaimed. "What are you doing down here?"
She came toward him, her face pale but her gray eyes alight as she put her small hands on his shoulders. Her words came in a rush.
"Zarth, they told me all about your father's accusation. Arn Abbas must be mad!"
His eyes hungrily searched her face. "You don't believe I'm a traitor, Lianna?"
"I know you are not!" she exclaimed. "I told Arn Abbas so, but he was too angry to listen to me."
Gordon felt a wave of sharp emotion. "Lianna, I think it was what you might believe that tortured me most!"
Corbulo came forward, his grizzled face grave. "You must talk quickly, princess! We must be out of here with Zarth Arn in twenty minutes, to keep my schedule."
"Out of here with me!" Gordon repeated. "You mean you're going to let me leave here?"
Corbulo nodded curtly. "Yes, Zarth, I made up my mind and told the princess this evening. I'm going to help you escape from Throon."
Gordon warmed to this hard-faced Commander. "Corbulo, I appreciate your faith in me. But it would look like running away."
"Zarth, you have to go!" Corbulo told him earnestly. "I thought I could bring your father around. But unfortunately, in your apartments were discovered other incriminating messages to you from Shorr Kan!"
Gordon was stupefied. "Then they're fakes, planted there on purpose to incriminate me!"
"I believe that, but they've deepened your father's raging belief in your guilt," Corbulo declared. "I fear that in his present anger, he may order you executed as a traitor!"
The Commander added, "I'm not going to let him do that and then regret it later when you're proved innocent. So you must get away from Throon until I can prove your innocence!"
Lianna added eagerly, "We have it all planned, Zarth. Corbulo has a light naval cruiser with trusted officers waiting at the spaceport. That ship will take us up to my Fomalhaut Kingdom. Well be safe there until Corbulo and your brother can prove you're not guilty."
Gordon was more deeply astonished. "You say-we? Lianna, you'd go with me, a fugitive? Why?"
For answer, firm, warm arms went around his neck and soft lips pressed his in quivering, sweet contact.
Her voice was a husky whisper. "That is why, Zarth."
Gordon's mind whirled. "You mean that you love me? Lianna, is it true?"
"I have, since the night of the Feast of Moons when you kissed me," she whispered. "Until then, I had liked you but that was all. But since then, you've been somehow different."
Gordon's arms tightened around her, "Then it's the different Zarth Arn, the new Zarth Arn, you love?"
She looked up at him steadily. "I have just told you so."
There deep in the secret prison beneath the great palace of Throon, Gordon felt a wild, soaring joy that blotted from his mind all consciousness of the deadly web of peril and intrigue in which he was caught.
It was he himself, even though in a stranger's physical body, who had won Lianna's love! Though she might never know it, it was not Zarth Arn she loved but John Gordon!
10: Flight Into the Void
The secret of his identity trembled on Gordon's lips. He wanted with all his soul to tell Lianna that he was Zarth Arn only in physical body, that he was really John Gordon of the past.
He couldn't do it, he had to keep his pledge to Zarth Arn. And after all, what good would it do to tell her when he had to leave her eventually and go back to his own time?
Could any self-devised torment be more damnable? To be forced to separate himself by half a universe and two thousand centuries of time from the only girl he had ever really loved?
Gordon spoke huskily. "Lianna, you must not go with me. It's too dangerous."
She looked up quickly with brilliant eyes. "Does a daughter of star-kings fear danger? No, Zarth, we go together!"
She added, "Don't you see, your father won't be able to send after you by force when you're with me in my little Fomalhaut Kingdom. The Empire needs allies too much to estrange my people thus."
Gordon's mind raced. Here might be his chance to get to Earth! Once away from Throon, he might by some pretext get Corbulo's men to take them first to Earth and the laboratory there.
There, he could manage to re-effect the mind-exchange with the real Zarth Arn without letting Lianna know what he was doing. And the real Zarth, on returning, could surely prove his innocence.
Corbulo interrupted by coming up to them. His hard face was deeply worried.
"We cannot wait longer here! The corridors will be clear now, and it is our only chance to go."
Disregarding Gordon's protests against her accompanying him, Lianna seized his wrist and tugged him forward.
Corbulo had opened the massive sliding door. The corridors outside were softly lighted, silent, deserted.
"We go to a little-used branch of the tubeway," Corbulo told them hastily. "One of my most trusted officers is waiting there."
They hurried along the corridors, deep beneath the mighty palace of Throon. Not a sound came from the mammoth structure over their heads. These secret passages were soundproofed.
Nor did they meet anyone. But as they emerged into a wider corridor, Corbulo led the way with caution. Finally they stepped into a small room that was a vestibule to one of the tubeways. A car was waiting in the tube, and a man in naval uniform waited beside it.
"This is Them Eldred, captain of the cruiser that will take you to Fomalhaut Kingdom," Corbulo said quickly. "You can trust him absolutely."
Them Eldred was a tall Sirian, the faintly greenish hue of his face gave evidence. He looked a hard-bitten, rangy veteran of space, but his curt face lighted as he bowed deeply to Gordon and Lianna.
"Prince Zarth, Princess-I am honored by this trust! The Commander has explained everything to me. You can rely on me and my men to get you to any part of the galaxy!"
Gordon hesitated, troubled. "It still seems like running away."
Corbulo swore a spaceman's oath. "Zarth, it's your only chance! With you gone, I'll have time to dig out evidence of your innocence and bring your father around. Stay here, and he's likely to have you shot as a traitor."
Gordon might have stayed despite that danger had it not been for the potent factor which was wholly unknown to these others-the fact that this was his only chance to get to Earth and make contact with the real Zarth Arn.
He gripped Corbulo's hand. And Lianna softly told the bluff Commander, "You're risking much for us. I shall never forget."
They stepped into the car. Them Eldred hastily followed them in and touched a lever. The car started racing headlong through the darkness.