Robert Grandon 02 Prince of Peril Page 8

  I caught sight of Graak and the princess at the same time. The ape, his fierce cries now reduced to mere whimpering, was on his back surrounded by a half dozen of the strangest and most horrifying creatures I have ever seen.

  Writhing, squirming, extending, contracting, they had no set form, but could change themselves instantly from limbless, egg-shaped bodies three feet long to the semblance of snakes fifteen feet in length, or any of the intermediate lengths between the two. They were clinging to the fallen cave-ape with grotesque, three-cornered sucker mouths, and from the edges of some of them I could see blood dripping.

  Before I could reach him, Graak's whimpering subsided, his struggles ceased, and I knew that he was beyond help. His assailants, finding him quiescent, settled down uniformly in the shape of extended ovoids about four feet in length, to drain the rest of his blood.

  From a position of temporary safety, the princess looked down in horror. She was on the umbrella-like top of a toadstool about fifteen feet in height, evidently having been tossed there by Craak when he had been attacked, for there was no way she could have reached that point unassisted. Climbing rapidly toward her were two more of the hideous things, leaving slimy trails on the stem.

  Bounding forward, I swung my club at the nearest creature, expecting to cut it in two with the sharp, saw-edge of my weapon. To my surprise and consternation, the club failed to make the slightest impression, but bounced off as if it had struck extremely springy rubber, and nearly flew from my grasp.

  The hideous head with its three-cornered suck mouth was instantly extended toward me, and again I struck—this time from the side. Although the blow made no more impression on the tough skin of the creature than before, it broke the hold of the thing on the stem of the mushroom and sent it whirling and writhing a full twenty feet away.

  The other thing on the stem stretched out to seize me, but

  I dealt it a backhand blow which sent it squirming and wriggling in the opposite direction.

  A quick glance around showed me that the surrounding marsh was literally alive with these horrible creatures. Evidently excited by the sound of the conflict—or possibly by the smell of blood—they erected ugly swaying heads to investigate, then came crawling toward us, leaving slimy trails in their wake.

  There was only one thing for me to do in order to save the princess, or even to save myself: I must find a way to get to the top of the toadstool with her. But this was a good fifteen feet from the ground, and the marshy soil was not particularly conducive to high jumping, as it clung to the feet with each step.

  As I looked about for some means wherewith to accomplish my purpose the ring of attackers closed in on me. Then came an inspiration. About twenty feet from the toadstool on which the girl stood was a clump of huge, jointed reedlike growths. Several of them, which reached to a height of more than forty feet, bent slightly toward it.

  I managed to reach them just ahead of the advancing army of attackers and climbed the largest one with an agility of which I had never even imagined myself capable. One of the slimy things that sought my lifeblood instantly wound its body around the reed and followed, then another and another, until the stalk below me was covered with their snaky forms.

  As I climbed upward, the reed gradually bent over toward the top of the toadstool, so that when I reached a height of a little over thirty feet, I was directly above it. Swinging my legs free, I hung on for a moment with my hands, then let go. As I alighted on the center of the toadstool cap, the reed shot upward like a steel spring, hurling its slimy occupants far out across the marsh as if they had been shot from a catapult.

  No sooner had I alighted than there was a cry of terror from Princess Loralie. Turning, I saw her crouching in fear beneath the ugly head of one of our attackers, its neck arched and its three-cornered sucking mouth, armed with thousands of razor-sharp cutting teeth, ready to strike.

  I swung my club, knocking the thing to the ground, but no sooner had I done so than another came up over the edge of the toadstool, quickly followed by two more. Soon the entire rim became alive with the swaying, wriggling heads, and I was kept busy every second of the time knocking them bac to the ground.

  "Give me your club, Prince Zinlo," said Loralie after I had been at this strenuous work for some time, "and let me help you. If we take turns with rests between for each, we can last longer. The swamp dwellers are persistent, and we are doomed, it seems—but let us fight while life lasts."

  "I am not tired," I insisted, rather breathlessly, but she came and seized the club, making it necessary for me either to use force with her or surrender it. I yielded, watching her to see if she could manage it. Despite her small size she proved surprisingly strong.

  But she soon grew weary, and I took the club once more. It was a hopeless fight; day was fast waning, and in the black, moonless darkness of Venus we would soon be dragged down to meet the fate of the bloodless carcass that had once been Graak, now staring sightlessly up into the leaden sky.

  CHAPTER VIII

  I was running around the rim of the toadstool cap, knocking off the slimy things that sought to drink our blood, and Princess Loralie was crouching fearfully in the center, when suddenly I heard a crashing and splashing through the marsh behind me, accompanied by queer noises that sounded much like a combination of a bleat and a bellow.

  Glancing back for a moment between gasps, I saw coming toward us an immense humpbacked reptile sinking flank-deep in the watery ooze with each step as it crashed through the reeds in its apparent endeavor to escape from some mortal enemy, and uttering the queer cries of distress I had heard. I could see its long snakelike neck curved back as, with its small jaws it would jerk the swamp creatures first from one side then the other.

  Coincident with the appearance of this huge reptile, the heads of the swamp dwellers stopped reappearing above the edge of our toadstool cap. They had abandoned their attack on us in favor of the larger quarry.

  Thicker and thicker they swarmed around the great dinosaur. For every blood-hungry thing the giant lizard tossed in the air, at least ten squirmed up to fasten their sucker mouths on its heaving sides, until the reptile's back resembled the wave-tossed bottom of a capsized ship covered with immense barnacles.

  Gradually the speed of the great beast slowed down. It stopped. Then its struggles grew weaker, and the doomed saurian uttered a final cry and sank down in the ooze.

  So absorbed had I been in this titanic battle that I had momentarily forgotten our own danger.

  "Our enemies have momentarily forgotten us," I said then. "Shall we make a dash for liberty?"

  "It is our only chance," she replied.

  Swinging over the edge of the toadstool, I dropped to the ground. Loralie swung her small, athletic body over the edge as I had done, and dropped into my waiting arms.

  As I stood there, ankle deep in the ooze with that shapely young form close to me, I suddenly forgot our danger—forgot everything except that she lay there in my arms, her head thrown back, glorious dark eyes that were pools of lambent flame looking up into mine. But when,-intoxicated with her nearness, I would have crushed her to me, she suddenly twisted free from my arms and ran, leaping lightly as a startled fawn in the direction of the mountains to the southwest.

  Club in hand I followed her as closely as I could, meanwhile keeping a sharp lookout for swamp dwellers. But they were too busy feasting.

  As we approached the foothills the ground became drier and firmer, and the character of the vegetation once more underwent a gradual change; cycads and low-growing conifers were mostly in evidence. Soon we were climbing steep hillsides, with the ground continually becoming more rugged and the vegetation more sparse.

  During our progress Loralie had not addressed a word to me, or noticed my presence in any way. I felt I must have offended her by holding her over-long in my arms. Yet for that fleeting moment I would have sworn I had seen in her starry eyes the reflection of emotions akin to my own, and quite unlike her unnatural aversi
on to me in the caves of the ape.

  When we arrived in a small isolated copse of water fems, I decided it was time to halt for rest and refreshment.

  "Here are food and drink," I said. "Let us stop for a while."

  Without answering, she sank down wearily on a mound of soft moss and turning, buried her face in her arms. In a moment she began weeping softly.

  I broke off a branch of water fern and knelt beside her, trying to get her to sit up.

  "Don't touch me!" she wailed. "Go away."

  "Oh, very well," I snapped, and ate and drank by myself—without much appetite. Then, I set about equipping myself with more efficient weapons.

  I soon fashioned a bow, which I strung with a piece of the tough cord I had brought with me. Some reeds which

  I had gathered en route I made into arrows by tipping them with slivers of stone bound in place with the cord. I bound bits of fern leaf in place of feathers. A quiver I made from ptang-hide which was wrapped around the piece of meat I had brought with me.

  Several hours elasped in these pursuits, and my too-temperamental companion had in the interval sobbed herself to sleep.

  I had scarcely finished cooking some ptang. meat when I saw the princess stir and open her eyes. For a moment she seemed startled by the strangeness of her surroundings. Then she sat up, and catching the appetizing scent of my roasting meat, looked hungrily toward it—then resolutely away.

  "The Prince of Olba," I said, "would be greatly honored if the Princess of Tyrhana would join him at dinner. The royal butler is about to serve."

  Despite her attempt at severity, I saw a slight smile play around the corners of her adorable little mouth. Then she turned her head away once more.

  Placing my roast on some broad, clean leaves which I had spread over the moss for the purpose, I walked over to where she sat.

  "I say, young lady," I remarked severely. "Don't you think you have carried this foolish perversity of yours about far enough? I can't imagine what makes you act like a badly spoiled child. I've a notion to spank you."

  She tried to maintain her dignity, but I saw her lips quivering.

  "Forgive me," I said. "Perhaps it is I who am wrong. If I have done anything to hurt your feelings, I'm sincerely sorry. I am not desirous of forcing my attentions on you, but I can't leave you alone in this wilderness. You make it hard, extremely hard for me to be of service to you."

  She looked up at me, her beautiful eyes brimming—tears clinging to the long dark lashes. "You are so land, and so brave. I wish those other things were not true."

  "What other things?'' I asked in surprise, sitting down beside her. "Has someone been talking about me?"

  "I cannot betray those who have reposed confidence in me," she said, "nor can I doubt the testimony of many witnesses. Yet it does not seem possible."

  "I'm sure I don't understand what you are driving at. Pray tell me of what monstrous crime I am accused, and permit me at least a chance to defend my character."

  "You were accused . . . Oh, I cannot say itl" She looked at me reproachfully, then turned her head away and swallowed hard to keep from crying.

  "It must have been horrible. Won't you tell me what it was?"

  "Of making love to that Chixa," she faltered.

  The evidence might seem to point that way, I realized, particularly if it were distorted by someone bent on maligning my character. I quickly told her how I had won the she-ape's weapons and my freedom. "Do you not believe me?" I demanded at last.

  "On this matter I believe you," she answered with some relief, "but there is still that other affair."

  "What other affair?" I asked.

  "Your affair with the young sister of Taliboz. Why did you betray that trusting child—betray her and run away—so that her brother must needs come after you to bring you back at the point of a tork? It was dastardly—cowardly. I denied it—fought against believing it, but there were so many witnesses I was at last convinced."

  "If Taliboz has a sister, I do not know it, nor have I ever seen her. This story was fabricated from whole cloth. There is not even seeming evidence in this case as there was with Chixa."

  "But Taliboz himself told me," she insisted, "and five of his men substantiated his story at various times. I wanted to disbelieve this thing, but what could I do?"

  "You were convinced of a monstrous falsehood, for which Taliboz will one' day answer, as he will for his numerous other crimes—if he has not already answered, back there in the fern forest, to some jungle creature. I swear to you that if Taliboz has a sister I do not even know of her existence."

  "It seems strange," she answered, "that the sister of an illustrious noble of Olba should be unknown to the Crown Prince. Surely she must have been much at court."

  "Perhaps she was. Never having been there myself, I cannot say."

  She looked at me in amazement—unbelief so clearly written on her features that I saw that I had gone too far. I must either tell all now, or have nothing believed.

  "In order that you may understand this singular statement," I said, "I am going to tell you who I really am."

  "No doubt you are a reincarnation of the god Thorth. Pray do not weary me further with lies."

  "The story I am going to tell," I answered, "will tax your credulity to the uttermost, yet I hope some day to be able to prove it to you. I am not of Olba, nor even of this planet."

  I explained to her, as best I could, how I had been transported from Mars to Earth and thence to Venus—Zarovia. To my surprise, she seemed not only credulous, but actually well versed on the subject.

  "You seem to know more about these phenomena than most scientists," I said.

  "There is a reason for my intense interest in the subject," she replied. "My uncle Bovard is one of the greatest scientists on all Zarovia. There is but one who is considered greater than he."

  "Vom Vangair

  "Yes, but how did you know?"

  "Vorn Vangal," I answered, "is Dr. Morgan's Zarovian ally, the man who made it possible for me to come to this planet."

  "Dr. Morgan? What an uncivilized sound the name hasl Vom Vangal I know well."

  "Then you believe my story?" I asked.

  "Implicitly." And she smiled thrillingly at me.

  "And you know Taliboz was lying?"

  "Of course. Are you going to sit there and question me all day, or will you have the royal butler serve dinner? I am famished."

  The roast had grown cold but was nonetheless delicious. I carved as best I could with my flint knife, and we made out very well, finishing up with the contents of a few spore pods, washed down with drafts of cold water from the fronds of the water fern.

  "And now," I said, when we had finished dinner, "we must look about for a place of shelter from the night-moving meat-eaters."

  There were many caverns in the rocky hillsides, but the mouths were too large or too numerous to be barricaded. And an unbarricaded cave in the Zarovian wilderness would prove to be a trap.

  We traveled far before we found a cave that seemed suited to our purpose. Without taking time to explore its interior— for I knew that the sudden darkness would soon be upon us— I made haste to collect heavy rocks for the doorway, delegating Loralie, meanwhile, to gether sticks for fuel which I intended to keep in the cave as a fiery defense against possible attackers.

  Darkness caught us with our labors unfinished, and I kindled a small fire just outside the cave mouth that we might complete our work by its fight.

  I was just rolling up the great stone which was to finish my barricade when the hideous roar of a marmelot sounded near by. It was taken up, a moment later, by others of its kind, until the echoing hills resounded with the thunderous cries of these fierce beasts.

  "Quick!" I called to Loralie. "Into the cave with you!"

  She started in, then backed out in terror. "There's something in there now, and it's coming out after us."

  Then, as the frightened girl cowered against me, I heard a hoarse, booming c
roak from the cave and saw two glowing, menacing eyes moving toward us from the darkness of the interior.

  CHAPTER IX

  Standing within the ring of light cast by our small fire, with Loralie crouching fearfully at my feet, I fitted an arrow to my bowstring. I drew it back to the head, took careful aim between the two glowing eyes that were advancing from the dark interior of the cave, and let fly.

  Immediately after the twang of the bow there came a deep bellow of rage from the interior of the cave.

  As I fitted a second arrow in place, there was a terrific roar behind me. Turning, I beheld the gleaming eyes of a marmelot not more than fifty feet distant. I let fly, and the arrow struck the huge feline just as the enraged cave creature came forth.

  Prepared as I was for the appearance of one of the fierce creatures of the Zarovian jungle, a chill of horror ran down my spine when the grotesque tenant of the cave waddled out into the light.

  It was obviously a reptile—not an animal as I had supposed. Although its entire length was not more than six feet, fully two-thirds of that length was mouth—enormous jaws four feet long and a yard across, armed with row upon row of sharp, back-curved teeth. The other third was a round sack, or pouch, attached to the back of the head.

  It walked on two short, thick legs growing from beneath its ears, each armed with three sharp talons. There were no forelegs. Both head and body bristled with a profusion of sharp spines like those of a horned toad.

  "A krogerl" cried Loralie. "We are lost!"

  As the thing charged toward us with enormous jaws distended, I heard the marmolet bounding through the brush from the opposite direction.

  "Come," I cried, taking the girl's hand. Together we leaped across the fire and into the shadow of the bushes beyond. Scarcely had we gained this place of temporary safety ere the two formidable creatures, beast and reptile, met on the spot where we had been standing.

  The marmelot, apparently surprised at being confronted by this strange anomaly, stopped, spat, and arched its back like a startled cat. But the kroger, undaunted at sight of the huge king of the jungles, which was easily twice its size, charged on. With a snap of its immense jaws, the reptile took in at one bite the head and neck of the mighty carnivore.