Among the River People who stood ranked along the further side of the river stream, Zhu Kor spied Jugrid and Tomar and Ylana. Since they were not bound, and, indeed, bore arms, it was blatantly obvious to the little Mind Wizard that they were not prisoners, but had found a safe and friendly haven among the southern tribe. This did not bode well for the Kuurian: no matter which way victory fell in the conflict, whether to the handful of Xangan’s men who yet lived, or the eight or nine of Charak’s former supporters who remained, surely the River warriors, egged on by Jugrid and Tomar and Ylana, would destroy the survivors, or make them captive, and turn their hostile attentions, finally, upon himself.
Zhu Kor felt his blood run cold at the unpleasant thought. Alone and friendless, devoid of the host of warriors who had come hither with him, most of whom were now dead, he stood little chance of escaping his own demise.
But even the last of the vicious and cunning Mind Wizards of Callisto was not without certain skills that might tip the scales of fate in his favor. Chief among these was his uncanny power to control the minds of others. It was not impossible for him to so interfere with the vision of an ordinary man as to render himself invisible. That is, while the eyes of such men might observe him clearly, it was within the scope of his telepathic abilities to convince the vision-center of the brain that the eyes had seen nothing.*
Briefly, Zhu Kor considered this possibility, reluctantly deciding against it. While it was within his powers to so control the vision centers of human brains, only a few humans could be so influenced at one time. T’here were far too many ranked against him for him to control them all.
He turned his cunning and agile mind to other courses of action. What was required here, obviously, was something in the nature of a diversion. The bigger the diversion, the better, thought he.
He turned his shrewd and crafty gaze upon the river itself. This he knew full well to be the River of the Groack; and he was well aware that the name of the stream derived from the immense and predatory reptiles who at times infested its waters. Now, it was far easier for one of the Mind Wizards of Callisto to control the mind of a beast than that of a human. The reason for this lay in the fact that the brains of animals are smaller, and simpler, and far less alert and self-aware than are the brains of men.
Concentrating his telepathic organ, Zhu Kor now projected a tendril of thought-waves that ranged the length of the river as it meandered across the grassy plain from the distant shores of the Cor-Az. While thought-waves diminish in strength and intensity of focus in direct correlation to the distance they must traverse, Zhu Kor was able to reach and identify the typical mind-radiations of a monster groack not too far upriver. The giant reptile was browsing among a school of fish along the deeper portions of the river bottom.
Inserting a tendril of thought into the sluggish mind of the immense predator, the Kuurian insidiously implanted therein an irresistible urge to swim the length of the river to the site opposite the encampment of the tribe of Zuruk. Without pause or delay to investigate the origin of this overpowering whim, as a man or woman might well have done, the riverdragon left off his depredations among the small school of fish, and began to swim downriver with all possible speed.
BEFORE very long the members of Xangan’s band had slain to the last man the former followers of Charak. The few of the Cave People who survived the sanguinary contest now regained the further bank, to cluster about the hunched, diminutive figure of Zhu Kor the Mind Wizard, in lieu of any other more obvious leader to command them. It would have been sheer madness to attack the ranks of River men, and only in flight, they assumed, lay the slightest possibility of safety. Indeed, the turncoat Pandan, who had managed to avoid the battle, urged that they retreat into the jungle immediately, before Zuruk’s men could be upon them. This, however, was contrary to the wishes of the yellow dwarf, who lingered in full view of his enemies.
Zuruk and Jugrid now commanded their men into the shallows. In less time than it takes me to describe the scene, the warriors had crossed the shallow river and came scrambling up the further bank, prepared to slay or take captive the survivors of Xangan’s force and their Kuurian leader.
It was precisely then that an ear-splitting screech rent the air and they turned, stricken with horror, to observe the vast and wriggling and scaly bulk of the enormous groack as it came heaving up out of the water to hurl itself upon them.
Jugrid and Zuruk, in the fore, turned in consternation and found themselves staring into the very jaws of doom.
Chapter 20
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
THE huge river monster loomed up over the two chieftains, and it needed no mental prodings from Zhu Kor to spur the beast to the attack. The hunger that growled in the great saurian’s belly provided all the impetus it needed.
The great, wedge―shaped head swung toward the two man-sized morsels. Fanged jaws agape, it floundered towards them. With one accord, Jugrid and Zuruk came splashing up out of the shallows to gain the slick mud of the steep shore. There they paused, took their stance, turned and loosed their throwing spears directly in the face of the ravenous groack. The crude javelins thudded home, one burying itself in the base of the monster’s long, snaky neck, the second sinking deep within its rounded shoulder.
The groack shrieked deafeningly, as bright pain lanced through its minuscule mind. It swiveled its head to snap at the barbed sticks it somehow sensed were the cause of its torment.
But the uncanny power of Zhu Kor reached out again, grasping control of its dim, pain-blurred brain, and driving the monster up out of the shallows in pursuit of the two chiefs.
And at that precise moment, a diversion occurred.
A winged black shadow fell suddenly over the scene.
So swift and unexpected was this interruption that it jarred Zhu Kor’s concentration. His hold upon the tiny brain of the lizard snapped. He stared above him into the golden sky, with surprise, swift comprehension, and dawning fear.
It was the Jalathadar, come at last!
Lukor and Koja and Kadar of Tharkol leaned over the mid-ship rail, staring below.
What they saw eluded their comprehension, for the figures beneath their keel were diminutive, and, when seen from directly overhead, unrecognizable. In the confusion below them they sensed a confrontation, the aftermath of a battle, but little else. They watched the huge river dragon come heaving up out of the water, frightened by the sudden and enormous shadow of the flying ship. It forgot to be hungry, forgot even its pain, in the urgent desire to be gone from the presence of the aerial monster. Perhaps the groack mistook the winged shape for that of its only natural enemy, the immense, predatory flying ghastozar. Perhaps it was only spurred to flight by some dim flicker of the instinct for survival. At any rate, it came floundering and flopping up out of the river and plowed through the handful of remaining Cave warriors, who were trampled to red slime under the weight of its ponderous flippers.
A small, malignant yellow form darted before it, slitted eyes blazing with command. Blinding pain lanced through the groack as mental force struck and tore at its mental centers. Without thought―as carelessly as a man slaps out at an annoying fly without thinking about it―the groack struck out, snatched the little yellow man up in its jaws and broke his spine with a shake of its head. For a moment or two the dwarfish figure squealed and flopped, dangling from the great jaws. Then they came together with a crunch, and it moved no longer, shrunken limbs hanging lifelessly, dripping blood on the wet, trampled grasses.