2 - Blades of Mars (10 page)

 
          
 
My arm was aching and I felt I could not hang
on to the fur much longer. Any moment I was going to drop and become prey to
the spider-beast. From Hool Haji's grim expression I could see that he, too,
was feeling the strain and could not bear it much longer.

 
          
 
And then, quite suddenly, the spider-beast
began to sag at the leg joints. The legs were slowly drawn up under its body
and it sank down amongst the broken bodies of its servitors.

 
          
 
It had destroyed them, it seemed, in its
death-throes, for it cried one word: 'Gone!' -
and
died.

 
          
 
We made sure that the heart had ceased to beat
and then virtually fell from the
beast's
back and
stood looking up at it.

 
          
 
‘I am glad it died and not us,' I said, 'but
it must have realised it was the last survivor of its aberrant species. What
actually went on in that crazed, alien brain, I wonder? I feel sorry for it in
a way. Its death was somehow noble.'

 
          
 
'You saw more than I did,' Hool Haji broke in.
'All I saw was an enemy that nearly destroyed us. But we have destroyed it -
that is good.'

 
          
 
This pragmatic statement from my friend shook
me from my somewhat speculative frame of mind - possibly out of place in the
circumstances - and made me begin to wonder how we were to find our way out of
this maze of a city. I wondered, also, if all the spider-men had been killed in
the death-throes of the beast.

 
          
 
We picked our way through the ruin of corpses
and followed the tunnel until it turned into a large hall.

 
          
 
We discovered a further tunnel leading off the
hall and plodded on, simply hoping that we should eventually find a room with a
window or exit - for there had been some visible from the outside.

 
          
 
The tunnels were difficult for Hool Haji to
negotiate most of the time - only a few of them were large enough to take the
spider-beast, for instance. This led me to conclude that the creature we had
destroyed had been, even amongst his own kind, a 'sport.'

 
          
 
Once again something in me awakened sympathy
for the misshapen creature that had been so ill-fitted for the world and yet
plainly possessed an excellent intelligence. In spite of its having threatened
my life, I could not hate it in any way.

 
          
 
It was while I was still in this philosophical
mood that we stumbled upon the vats.

 
          
 
The first indication of their existence that
we received was the smell. Breathing in the vapour, we felt a slight stiffness
in our muscles. Then we entered a hall over which crude gangplanks had been
placed, for the floor, which was sunken, was full of a noisome, bubbling fluid.

 
          
 
We paused beside the gangplank, looking down.

 
          
 
‘I think I know what this is,' I said to Hool
Haji.

 
          
 
‘The poison?'

 
          
 
'Exactly - the stuff which
they coated on those needle-poles to paralyse us.'

 
          
 
I frowned. 'This could come in useful,” I
said.

 
          
 
'In what way?' my friend asked.

 
          
 
'I'm not sure -I have a feeling that it might.
It will do no harm to take samples.' I pointed to the far wall.

 
          
 
On a shelf stood several
pottery flasks and a heap of poles with six-inch needles at their tips.

 
          
 
Carefully we crossed the vat by means of the
gangplank, heading towards the shelf. We breathed in as little as possible for
fear that our muscles would become paralysed altogether, causing us to plunge
into the vat, and we should either drown or die from an overdose of the stuff.

 
          
 
At last we reached the shelf, feeling stiffer
with every moment that passed. I took down two flasks of good, if weird,
workmanship, and handed them to Hool Haji, who stooped and filled them. We
rammed stoppers into the flasks and attached them to our belts,
then
we took a number of poles and left the hall of the vat
by the nearest exit.

 
          
 
Now the floor of the tunnel rose and this gave
us some hope.

 
          
 
I could see light glimmering from somewhere,
though I could not see its direct source.

 
          
 
Just as we turned into a small passage and saw
daylight coming through an irregular opening to one side of the passage, the
light was momentarily blocked out by the sudden eruption into the place of a
number of the large spiders I had seen earlier.

 
          
 
I drew my sword, which my blue friend had
returned to me, and he used one of the poles to flail about him at the
disgusting creatures. They paused only for a short time to attack us and then
scuttled past, disappearing into the depths of the city.

 
          
 
What I had at first thought to be a direct
attack was, in fact, nothing more than the nocturnal creatures returning to the
darkness of the city.

 
          
 
We clambered out of the window and stood once
again on what I can only call the 'surface* or roof of the city -a place of
unnatural cliffs and canyons all of the same darkly shining, obsidian stuff. It
still looked as if it had been moulded whilst malleable rather than constructed
in any fashion men would employ to build a city.

 
          
 
Our feet slipping on the smooth surfaces, we
stumbled
along,
now realising we had no real idea
where our ship was in relation to us!

 
          
 
I imagine we would have wandered like this for
many more hours - perhaps days - if we had not suddenly caught sight of Jil
Deera's stocky figure framed against the jungle beyond. We yelled to him and
waved.

 
          
 
He
turned,
his hand
on his sword-hilt, his stance wary. Then he grinned as he recognised us.

 
          
 
'Where is Vas Oola?' I asked as we walked
towards each other.

 
          
 
'He is still with the aircraft, guarding it,’
the warrior replied. 'At least' - he looked distastefully around - 'I hope he
is.'

 
          
 
'Why are you here?' asked Hool Haji.

 
          
 
'When you both did not return at nightfall I
became worried. I thought you had been captured since I heard no sounds such as
a wild beast might make, and as soon as it was dawn I set out on your trail -
and found this place. Have you seen the creatures that inhabit it?
Huge spiders!'

 
          
 
'You will find the remains of even stranger
denizens below the surface somewhere,' Hool Haji said laconically.

 
          
 
'I hope you left yourself markers for your way
back,’ I said to Jil Deera, thinking myself a fool for not having done just
that myself.

 
          
 
'I have.' Jil Deera pointed into the jungle.
'It is this way, come.'

 
          
 
Since ill-luck had, for the most part, dodged
us since we had left the haunt of the Yaksha, we were in some fear for the
safety of our craft We should have been in a far worse predicament, stranded on
a land we had absolutely no knowledge of at all, if the balloon had been
attacked and wrecked.

 
          
 
But it was quite safe and so was Vas Oola, who
seemed very relieved to see us.

 
          
 
We had paused to cut small logs for use as
ballast, and these were soon aboard.

 
          
 
Then, once aboard, we released the mooring
lines and began to
rise
gently skywards.

 
          
 
As soon as we were high enough above the great
jungle, which seemed to stretch away to every horizon, I started the engine,
set our course and soon we were - or we hoped devoutly we were - on our way to
Mendishar to see if something could be saved from the wreckage of the ill-fated
revolution.

Sentenced to Die!

 
          
 
Thankfully we crossed the ocean without mishap
and arrived, at length, at the borders of Mendishar.

 
          
 
We landed in the hills and hid our craft.

 
          
 
Twice, as we scoured the hills in the hope of
discovering some information, we came upon totally destroyed villages.

 
          
 
Once we were lucky. We met an old crone who
had, by luck, escaped the destruction. She told us that whole families of
hill-people had been arrested; many, many villages razed and hundreds, possibly
thousands, slain.

 
          
 
She told us that the leaders of the revolution
who had been captured were due to die in a great ritual personally inaugurated
by the upstart Bradhinak Jewar Baru. She did not know when, only that it had
not yet taken place.

 
          
 
We decided we would have to visit the capital
- Mendisharling - ourselves in order to see just what the true situation was,
judge the mood of the populace and, if possible, rescue those under sentence of
death.

 
          
 
With robes salvaged from one of the ruined
villages, Hool Haji disguised himself, as an itinerant trader and
myself
as - a bundle!

 
          
 
I, of course, would draw too much attention in
whatever disguise I attempted, so I had to become the 'trader's’ goods!

 
          
 
It was in this manner, slung over Hool Haji’s
shoulder, that I entered, for the first time, the capital city of
Mendishar
. It was a place of little spirit. Peeping
through a small rent in the cloth in which I was swathed I could see that,
apart from the swaggering, boorish Priosa, there was not a back that was not
bent, not a face that was not lined with misery, not a child that was not
emaciated.

 
          
 
We passed through the market and there was
little of anything nourishing on sale.

 
          
 
The whole city had an air of desolation about
it which contrasted sharply with the bright uniforms of the ‘chosen’ Priosa,

 
          
 
It was a scene familiar to me from my reading,
but I had never seen anything like it in real life. It was a place ruled by a
tyrant who so feared for his own security that he did not dare relax his iron
rule for a single moment

 
          
 
Whatever happened now, I reflected as I was
humped along by my friend - who was not, I felt, going out of his way to make
my ride comfortable - the tyrant must fall eventually, for people can be ground
down only for so long. At some time the tyrant - or his descendant - relaxes,
and it is at that moment his subjects choose to act!

 
          
 
Hool Haji took a room at a tavern near the
square and went to it at once. Then he placed me on the hard bed and sat down
mopping his brow as I disentangled myself from the cloth.

 
          
 
I grimaced as I sat up.

 
          
 
‘I feel as if every bone in my body is
dislocated,' I said.

 
          
 
‘I apologise.' Hool Haji smiled. 'But it would
look suspicious if an impoverished trader like
myself
should treat his goods as if they were precious things instead of the few skins
and rolls of fabric he told the gate guards he had.'

 
          
 
'I suppose you're right,' I agreed, trying to
wriggle the circulation back into my legs and arms. 'What now?'

 
          
 
'You wait here while I go about the city and
see what information I can glean - and test the temper of the people. If they
are ready to rise up against Jewar Bam - as I suspect they might be, given the
right push - then perhaps we can decide a means of destroying Jewar Barn's
rule.'

 
          
 
He set off almost at once, leaving me to do
little more than fiddle with my fingers. The reason I had come with him - apart
from the obvious one of being his friend and ally -was that if he was captured
I might have a chance of taking the new^ back to our friends and because, if we
needed the airship, I would be able to operate it in the event of this
happening.

 
          
 
I waited and waited until, in the late
afternoon, I heard a disturbance in the street below.

 
          
 
Cautiously I went to the window and peeped
out.

 
          
 
Hool Haji was down there talking heatedly to a
couple of insolent looking Priosa guards.

 
          
 
'I am simply a poor trader,' he was saying.
'Nothing more or less, gentlemen.'

 
          
 
'You answer closely the description we have of
the Pretender Hool Haji He fled, coward that he was, from a village we
investigated some weeks ago, leaving his followers to fight for him. We are
seeking this weakling since he has managed to convince a few misguided people
that his rule will be better for Mendishar than that of the noble Bradhi Jewar
Bam.'

 
          
 
'He sounds a wretch,' Hool Haji said
dutifully.
'A positive scoundrel.
I hope you catch
him, noble sirs. Now I must return...'

 
          
 
'We believe that you are this hwok'kak Hool
Haji,' one guard said, blocking Hool Haji's path and using one of the most insulting
terms in the Martian vocabulary. Literally, a hwok'kak is a reptile of particularly
filthy habits, but the implications of this are far wider and impossible to
describe here.

 
          
 
Hool Haji controlled himself visible on
hearing this, but probably gave himself away - not that there seemed any chance
of the guards letting him come back to the tavern.

 
          
 
'You will come with us for questioning,' said
the second guard. 'And if you are not Hool Haji you will probably be released -
though the Bradhi has no love for rabble such as wandering traders.'

 
          
 
There was nothing for it. I decided
,
but to act. There was a spare sword in the roll of cloth -
it had been trying to stab me all the way through the city. I went to the bed
and, tugged the sword free, then returned to my position at the window.

 
          
 
Now was the time to try to help my friend, for
once the whole city was alerted to stop Hool Haji escaping there would be little
chance of us leaving Mendisharling
alive.

 
          
 
I balanced myself momentarily on the window sill
and then launched myself with a yell at the nearest guard.

 
          
 
The great warrior was astonished to see what
was, to him, a tiny man leaping at him with a naked sword.

 
          
 
I landed only a short distance from him and
immediately engaged him.

 
          
 
Realising that my decision had been the only
sensible one and that secrecy was no longer possible. Hool Haji attacked the
second guard.

 
          
 
Soon the street had cleared as if by magic and
only the two Priosa and ourselves were left, battling to the death.

 
          
 
I hoped that the downtrodden populace did not
have those among them who would go and bring other Priosa.

 
          
 
If we could finish these, we might just make
it from the city.

 
          
 
My opponent was still baffled. He never really
recovered his wits. Within a few minutes I had stabbed him through the side of
his armour and he lay dead on the cobbles of the street.

 
          
 
Hool Haji also finished his opponent quickly.
We turned at the sound of running feet and saw a whole detachment of Priosa
coming towards us. Mounted on a great grey dahara was a tall, heavily built
Mendishar in golden armour.

 
          
 
'Jewar Baru!' The name was an oath on Hool
Haji's lips.

 
          
 
Plainly these warriors had not been summoned
but had heard the sound of our fight from close by.

 
          
 
Hool Haji prepared to stand his ground, but I
tugged at his arm.

 
          
 
'Don't be a fool, friend. You will be
overwhelmed in an instant! Leave now and we will return soon to deal out
justice to the tyrant.'

 
          
 
Reluctantly, Hool Haji followed me as I ducked
back into the tavern and barred the door.

 
          
 
Almost at once the guards were battering at
the door and we ran upstairs to the third and top storey of the building, and
from there through a hatchway on to the roof.

 
          
 
The houses in this quarter of the city were
huddled close together and there was no difficulty in leaping from one flat
roof to another. Behind us the guards - but not Jewar Baru, who had doubtless
remained in the safety of the street - had reached the roof and were following
us, shouting at us to stop.

 
          
 
I do not think they recognised Hool Haji at
that stage -although it was well-known by then that he had a man like myself as
a constant fighting companion - and would probable have exerted themselves even
more if they had realised just who my friend was.

 
          
 
The roofs became lower now and at last we were
running across the tops of single-storey buildings.

 
          
 
Near the city wall we dropped back into the
street. People were startled at our appearance and we were in time to see a
couple of half-drunk Priosa come out of a wine shop and stagger towards their
daharas.

 
          
 
We were there first, mounting the beasts, as
it were under their noses, wheeled them about and were off, heading for the
gate, leaving the shouting guards still confused.

 
          
 
Near the gates we met four Priosa who
possessed faster reactions than their friends. Seeing us on what were evidently
stolen mounts they tried to block our path.

 
          
 
Our swords swung swiftly and we left two dead
behind us and the two others wounded as we rode hell for leather through the
gates and down the long road that led away from Mendisharling.

 
          
 
Already riders were pursuing us as we galloped
along the trail and then turned sharply towards the hills on our left.

 
          
 
Into the hills we rode, our enemies close
behind us, our beasts beginning to flag.

 
          
 
If night had not fallen soon I think we should
have had to turn and fight a force that was far too large to give us any hope.
But night did fall and we were able to elude our pursuers before the rising of
the moons.

 
          
 
In the comparative safety of a cave we had
discovered, Hool Haji told me all he had learned in the city.

 
          
 
The people were beginning to murmur almost
openly against the tyrant, but were too frightened to do anything about it -
and too disorganised for it to be effective if they did.