Shan Kar added, "Vruun is the great metropolis of the Brotherhood, humans and beast-clans alike. So far there's been armed truce between them and us Humanites. But the fight last night means war!
"Kree must have suspected my purpose in going to the outer world, and sent his daughter Nsharra with Tark and Hatha and Ei to block me. They failed and the Brotherhood failed again last night. But our capture of Tark and Kree's son begins open conflict now."
Eric Nelson asked quick questions. The answers of the Humanite leaders gave him a discouraging picture. The Humanites, with their fanatic desire to establish human authority, were a minority in the valley. They could not put more than two thousand warriors into the field.
"The Brotherhood has twice that many men and five times that many intelligent beasts of the clans," Shan Kar admitted.
"Pretty stiff odds — but we hold a joker in our machine-guns and grenades," said Nick Sloan.
Nelson nodded. "If there are only swords and bows and spears and the claws and fangs of the brutes against us we should be able to discount the advantage of numbers."
He continued decisively. "We ought to hit them with everything we've got before they get used to our new weapons — smash hard at the heart of this Brotherhood, at Vruun."
Sloan voiced agreement. But the big warrior Hoik shook his head doubtfully.
"Our warriors might not follow you to a direct attack on Vruun. They're still afraid of Kree."
"For heaven's sake, why?" demanded Nick Sloan disgustedly.
Shan Kar explained. "The Guardian of the Brotherhood, as I told you, is reputed to be warder of terrible powers left by the ancients in the Cavern of Creation. That's mostly myth put out by the Guardians during the ages, of course!"
The Humanite paused. "Yet the Guardian does have a few queer powers. He's known to have effected some terrible transformations, to punish those who transgressed the Brotherhood. That's left such a memory of horror in L'Lan that even our own fervent followers might hesitate to attack Kree's city directly."
Nelson exploded. "How can we lead a campaign for you when your own people are poisoned by superstition?"
"Let's pull out of this creepy place," snarled the Cockney.
"Take it easy, you two!" said Nick Sloan. "With a fortune here for the taking, we're not letting a few difficulties rob us of it."
Shan Kar interrupted. "There's one quick way to overcome that difficulty and that's to capture Kree and Nsharra! That would dismay the Brotherhood and remove our own people's lingering doubts."
"Capture them?" asked Van Voss, his colorless, expressionless eyes on the Humanite. "Why not just kill them?"
"That's out!" snapped Nelson. "We're not murderers."
"And killing them would so infuriate the Brotherhood that they'd never surrender," added Shan Kar.
Sloan nodded. "Besides, you said the old Guardian and his daughter know the safe way into that cavern where the platinum is. No, we don't want to kill them."
Shan Kar continued rapidly, "A few of us, only a handful, could penetrate Vruun secretly by night and seize Kree and Nsharra. We could make Tark himself lead us secretly and safely into the city!"
"You mean that the wolf will do that if we threaten to kill him?" Li Kin asked, his spectacled eyes wondering.
Shan Kar laughed mirthlessly. "The Hairy One isn't afraid of death. But he doesn't want us to kill Barin, the Guardian's son.
"We'll offer him Barin's life if he guides us into Vruun, supposedly to liberate a Humanite prisoner. Tark may accept."
"It sounds to me like a cursedly complicated and dangerous plan," Sloan commented bluntly.
"But if it succeeded, it would clear the way for a quick blitz against the whole Brotherhood," Nelson said thoughtfully. "I'll lead the attempt if the wolf can be talked into guiding us."
"Have the guards bring Tark back in," Shan Kar told Diril.
The great wolf stalked back into the black hall, his chains held carefully taut by the sword-armed guards who walked on either side of him.
Tark swept them with his gaze. Eric Nelson felt a chill, uncanny shock in meeting those eyes that were like pools of cold green fire.
Shan Kar and the Humanites apparently found nothing strange in the scene. They were too accustomed to contact and speech with the intelligent beasts of the Brotherhood.
"You must choose now whether young Barin is to live or die," Shan Kar told Tark.
His lips did not move, Nelson saw. He was thinking to the wolf again, and Nelson and his companions were picking up that thought through their thought-crowns. Tark's lips writhed back from great white fangs in a soundless snarl. His answering thought came fiercely. "A trick! You want nothing more than to kill both Barin and myself!"
"That is quite true," Shan Kar coolly agreed. "But even more than to kill you two we want something else."
His thought raced on. "Hoik's brother, Jhanon, is a prisoner in Vruun, as you know. We wish to rescue him. We'll give yours and Barin's lives for his freedom."
"I have not authority to release Jhanon," Tark retorted. "Only the Guardian can do that."
"But you could guide a few of us secretly into Vruun, so we could release Jhanon ourselves," pressed Shan Kar. "Do so, and Barin goes free."
Tark's thought came after a pause. "If I did that it would be a direct disobedience of the Guardian's orders."
"But if you don't, the Guardian's son will die!" Shan Kar threatened. "Nsharra sent you to watch over her brother, didn't she? And you failed, Tark! How will you face her and report your failure?"
Tark's green eyes narrowed. The wolf looked from one to the other of them, then back to Shan Kar.
"You are right," his telepathic answer came finally. "I will be committing a minor act of treachery against the Brotherhood, but I must do it to prevent a worse thing happening."
"Then this very night we go to Vruun!" Shan Kar said swiftly. He pointed to Nelson. "He and one of his comrades go with us, Tark."
Tark's eyes flickered back to Nelson's face, and the green orbs were inscrutable in expression.
"That is well," he answered. "I promise to get you secretly and safely into Vruun."
When the guards had taken the great wolf away Nelson expressed his satisfaction. "So far, so good! With the wolf guiding us, we've a strong chance of getting hold of Kree and the girl."
Shan Kar looked at him with an ironical smile. "You still underestimate Tark's resolution and cunning. He knows that it's Kree and Nsharra we're really going after. He figures to lead us inside Vruun and then suddenly turn on us and give the alarm."
"Then why are you going in there with him, if you think that?" exclaimed Sloan.
Shan Kar's smile hardened. "Because, if all goes well, we'll outguess Tark. Once inside Vruun, we'll overpower him before he can betray us!"
Chapter VII
SECRET MISSION
Night brooded over Anshan, a velvety darkness that enwrapped the city's glassy towers and domes. Like glimmering ghost-bubbles the fairy spherical structures caught and imaged the thousand stars that burned in the blue-black sky.
Nelson turned from the open window out which he had been gazing and looked across the torchlit room at the others.
"The moon won't be up for hours, and that's good. With luck we can get in and out of Vrunn before it rises."
"I wish that you were not going," murmured Li Kin, his bespectacled face troubled.
Lefty Wister had elected to accompany Nelson. He sat checking the service automatics which Nelson had deemed more suitable than submachine-guns for this stealthy attempt. Van Voss sat watching with his pale, expressionless eyes.
Nelson shrugged. "It's risky but no more so than some of the things we pulled for old Yu Chi Chan. And if we can capture Kree and his daughter we have a chance to clean up this business pronto."