He departed helmed and armed and cloaked with terrific forces. He descended through seas of stars to a miniature spiral of light, a jewelled pinwheel that looked like a glittering toy against the dark of the abyss. With a distinct shock, the portion of Kirin’s mind that observed these dim memories recognized that jewelled spiral as the galaxy wherein he had been born.
There a Thing moved across the stars. It was invisible; to the sight it could be glimpsed only as a clotted thickness of shadows, a greater darkness against the dark. He closed in battle with the crawling blot of darkness. Tremendous forces surged in that titanic conflict. Stars were torn flaming from their place and hurled against the coiling gloom. Streams of enthropy were levelled against it that would have withered into nothingness any material being. Naught availed against the Thing, ever it came on across starry space.
At length he closed with it in something akin to hand-to-hand battle. Coils of silken shadows settled about him. A wintry cold blew from the clotted nest of writhing night. He battled with blasts of heat and searing light. And then…
But the mind of Kirin was not able to handle the flood of intolerable memories that rose from the dark gulf within his deeper brain. He sank into astounded, stunned unconsciousness. One name, one strange and curious name, echoed and resounded through the vaults of his memory.
Somewhere he had heard that name before, but the sound of it conveyed no meaning to his over-loaded brain.
Valkyr… Valkyr… I am Valkyr!
He sank into the darkness of deep slumber.
And while he slept, the hidden Second Mind that had shared this body with him all his life, rose into wakefulness and into realization of itself. The probing tendrils of the Mind Wizard had triggered an automatic protective reaction. A slumbering intelligence long dormant was roused to wakefulness again by the threat of mental violation. As Kirin slept this intelligence swiftly reorganized itself, linked memory sectors together into patterns of supernal power, and began at leisure to explore the surface recordings of recent events. For millions of years the dead and banished God had endured incarnation after incarnation in mortal form. When one host-body died, the disembodied intelligence fled from the corpse to enter another life. Now was it reborn within Kirin of Tellus.
Knowing none of this, the Earthling slept, until awakened by a girl’s shrill scream of terror!
9. MIND DUEL
“I ask you once again, slave—what are you doing in my quarters?”
The menace in Pangoy’s voice was sharp and cold, like a keen dagger-blade.
Caola turned, wishing she had brought some manner of weapon. Fear rose within her. She knew the dire things of which the vile Nexian was capable, and she knew that the life of a slave-girl was of no consequence on Zangrimar, under the tyrannical reign of the Witch Queen.
“Lord, I—I—” she stammered, her mind racing furiously.
“You what? You came here to spy, is that it?”
“No! I came only to…”
He sprang forward and seized her wrist, twisting it in a merciless grip.
“Speak, girl, or I will break your arm,” Pangoy hissed, exerting subtle pressure. “Whom are you spying for? What faction? Is it Kynarion, or Loigar, or Iosophus, or—the Queen? Speak, you little fool!”
Sobbing with pain, Caola writhed in the Nexian’s terrible grip. Her arm blazed with agony. Needles of intolerable fire lanced through her muscles.
“Please, Lord Pangoy! I spy for no one. I am here by accident—a wrong turning of the corridor—” He smiled mirthlessly.
“You lie, girl. My chambers are clearly marked. You would have to be blind to enter here by error. And the door is sealed by magic, it opens only to the touch of the signet ring I wear. Speak the truth now, or I’ll—”
He increased the pressure and Caola screamed.
It was this shrill cry that woke Kirin from his slumbers. He opened bleared eyes to see the girl struggling in the clutches of Pangoy. Although every movement cost him pain, he fought against the straps that held him.
“Caola! Let her go, you torturing fiend!”
Pangoy cast a look of astonishment at the man he had thought incapacitated for hours. Then he smiled and hurled the whimpering girl against the wall with one powerful shove.
“So, we have awakened from our little swoon, eh? How nice!” he chuckled, striding towards the table whereon Kirin writhed helplessly.
“Don’t touch her again, you pig, or I’ll break both of your arms,” Kirin growled.
Pangoy smiled again.
“So that’s it! You have a friend within the palace, eh? This girl did not enter my quarters by accident, but to discover where you were hidden… I see! A conspiracy. How many others are in this, girl? Speak up!”
He turned away from the bound Earthling to confront the slave-girl who had staggered to her feet. One hand went to his waist where the glittering metal coil of a neuronic whip dangled.
Caola sucked in her breath when she saw it. She had seen slaves in agony under the neuronic whip before and she knew the incredible agony the touch of the electric lash caused. The metal of the whip was charged with electric force keyed to the vibrations of the human nervous system. A single touch brought a burst of unendurable agony searing through every nerve in the body. She moaned and lifted her hands in mute supplication as Pangoy drew forth the whip.
Bound to the table, Kirin also saw and recognized the whip. The girl he fuzzily remembered had been friendly to himself and Doctor Temujin in their cell, hours or days before. Although his mind throbbed with red waves of pain and his body felt like it had been beaten with clubs on every square inch, he strove against the metal straps. And they shattered!
The squeal of rending metal screeched through the chamber. Pangoy jerked around, his face blank with amazement, to behold the Earthling’s nude body descending from the table. Those straps should have held a bull buphodon helpless. But they had shattered into atoms beneath one surge of the Earthling’s muscles!
He raised the whip against Kirin as the Earthling stumbled towards him. The power-pack in the hilt of the whip sparked with energy as Pangoy thumbed the power switch. Blue flickering flames wavered along the length of the lashing metal whip. The pungence of ozone filled the chamber.
Pangoy shook out the neuronic whip. Fiery sparks spat and crackled.
“Kirin, look out!” Caola cried. But the Earthling lurched forward, unheeding. Some nameless force rose within his mind, directing his steps. He was caught in the grip of an unseen master and sent staggering forward like a jointed puppet guided by an invisible hand.
Pangoy laughed and lashed out with the whip.
Kirin reached up and caught it. Fire sizzled about his arm, but unseen webs of force turned aside the electric flames before they could touch and sear his flesh. Force webs bent and the very fabric of space twisted. Energy was turned back upon its own source.
And the whip-handle exploded in Pangoy’s hand!
With a deafening retort the power-pack in the handle detonated. There was a fierce flash of white fire and the Mind Wizard recoiled, shrieking, clutching his burnt and blackened hand. Minute droplets of super-heated liquid metal sizzled, deeply imbedded in his seared flesh.
Caola watched, her eyes widening with incredulity, as Kirin advanced step by step upon the crippled Mind Wizard. Pangoy awoke to the danger that confronted him and turned from the Earthling’s path, hurrying over to the laboratory bench. There he snatched up the mind-amplifying helmet and set it upon his brows. His features were pale with agony and contorted with rage and baffled fury.