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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07d10f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63786 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63786) diff --git a/old/63786-h.zip b/old/63786-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 848d52d..0000000 --- a/old/63786-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63786-h/63786-h.htm b/old/63786-h/63786-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index ad6b2ba..0000000 --- a/old/63786-h/63786-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2971 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Engines of the Gods, by Gardner F. Fox. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.poetry .stanza -{ - margin: 1em auto; -} - -.poetry .verse -{ - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Engines of the Gods, by Gardner F. Fox - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Engines of the Gods - -Author: Gardner F. Fox - -Release Date: November 17, 2020 [EBook #63786] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGINES OF THE GODS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>ENGINES of the GODS</h1> - -<h2>By GARDNER F. FOX</h2> - -<p>The engine was the wealth of Mars. With it Kortha<br /> -could save his people ... or the evil Guantra<br /> -could rule the Universe. But neither could use<br /> -the machine until its secret was solved—so<br /> -they fought and schemed for the knowledge, and<br /> -their planet lay on the brink of destruction.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Spring 1946.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Kortha the smith brooded out over the great red waste of desert. Men -said Kortha was a genius. Men said he was the biggest man on Mars, and -strong as an anthropoid ape. But Kortha brooded, because Kortha was a -coward.</p> - -<p>He was not afraid for himself. He was afraid <i>of</i> himself.</p> - -<p>He looked at his sun-bronzed, hamlike hands, and shuddered; glistening -beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. With those hands he had killed -men, and had crippled his best friend for life.</p> - -<p>Behind him gleamed the red <i>utta</i>-brick smithy and his small shack, -and the tiny structure he called his laboratory. Swinging on his heel, -he went away from the desert and into the smithy. He made the bellows -leap, and the red flames spurt from the furnace. With the tongs he -lifted a white-hot strip of metal and pounded on it with a sledge that -an ordinary man would have found immovable.</p> - -<p>In the clang and dance of hammer on anvil, he lost himself; listened -only to the mad symphony of beaten metal instead of the still, -small voices of his soul. The din of smitten steel jangling on the -sootblacked anvil was the music that helped the giant forget his heart. -His eyes gleamed red from the smarting flames, and he peered into their -depths with green eyes wide and angry as though he beheld a corner of -some lost hell.</p> - -<p>He did not hear the muffled thunder of the 'copter that swung in a -circle above his shack and swooped downward to dig its tires into the -yielding sands. He did not see the door open, and who came out.</p> - -<p>"Kortha," said a voice like a song.</p> - -<p>He started then; looked up, brows furrowed. His eyes opened a trifle in -astonishment.</p> - -<p>"Ilse!" he whispered. The hammer fell from his grasp and bounced on the -brick floor.</p> - -<p>The girl with the hair like spun flax laughed softly and leaned against -the wooden door. A white cloak clasped with a fiery ruby draped her -shoulders. She wore gauze trousers with broad leather belt studded with -jewels, and a bolero of <i>arket</i>-fur. Her white midriff was bare.</p> - -<p>"You ran away, Kortha," she accused, her dark eyes gleaming like uncut -sapphires from the tanned oval of her face. "You ran away from Hurlgut -when he needed you. It took me a long time to learn where you had -holed."</p> - -<p>"Three years," said Kortha softly, wiping grimy hands on the white fur -that clasped his hard loins beneath the leathern apron.</p> - -<p>The girl ran her eyes over his massive frame in approval; saw shoulders -a yard wide, and a chest and legs that were ridged in muscles. His long -arms, tanned by years of exposure to a desert sun, were those of a -king gorilla. She had seen Kortha snap an iron chain with those arms; -had seen him break a man's back, and other things. Well did Ilse know -the strength of Kortha, and the fact that she carried a heatgun in her -cloak was mute evidence that she had knowledge of his mad, flare-hot -temper.</p> - -<p>Ilse sighed, "You could rule the Confederacy if you would."</p> - -<p>"And own gems to garland your hair, and furs to swathe your body," he -said.</p> - -<p>His green eyes belied his voice: they drank up the sight of Ilse and -her red mouth and her platinum hair as a miser drinks up the sight of -his yellow gold.</p> - -<p>"You idiot," she whispered. "You man-killing, tempestuous idiot! Zut -forgive me, but I love you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She straightened; faced him fully, eyes unwavering.</p> - -<p>"They sent me to you, knowing that you might kill another. They—we -need you, Kortha. Hurlgut lies on his back, unable to move. You put him -there; you and those terrible arms of yours. But Hurlgut forgave you -long ago. You know that! But you don't know—</p> - -<p>"You don't know that Guantra keeps him there, with green <i>bessa</i>-mead -and white women to amuse him, to make him forget that he rules Mars!"</p> - -<p>Kortha started, and his lips drew back from his large white teeth, -like the snarl of a hungry leopard. Deep in his corded throat a curse -rumbled.</p> - -<p>"Guantra. I remember him. An evil smell of a thing!"</p> - -<p>"Guantra aspires to power. He has had himself declared Premier of the -Council. He wants to turn Mars over to the victors in the Earth-Venus -war, with himself as sole power on Mars. He plays politics like a -master, does Guantra. Mars, with its rich ore-beds and mines—Mars, -the prize of a war that does not concern her. Under a united Mars, -she would take her place among the planets beside Earth and Venus as -members of the Council of the Trinity. Under the Confederacy, Mars -could have done this. Once it was almost accepted. Then—you ran away. -And the Earthmen and the Venusians who feared your brains and your -body, Kortha—they revoked their acceptance."</p> - -<p>"They had agreed. I stayed that long."</p> - -<p>"They refused to go through with it. They revoked their decision. They -said—they said Mars was a hotbed of trouble, that it had no competent -ruler to make its decisions, and enforce them!"</p> - -<p>"Guantra," said Kortha bitterly, "wants to be that ruler. As Premier he -stands an excellent chance of fulfilling his ambition."</p> - -<p>Ilse came close to him, touched his hands with hers and clung. Her blue -eyes stared anxiously up to his green ones.</p> - -<p>"If you were to come back, and be that ruler," she breathed. "Kortha, -Kortha, don't you see Mars needs you?"</p> - -<p>Kortha looked past Ilse, out toward the red desert. Far in the haze of -distance, against the black and jagged Mountains of Eternity, there was -something white that shook and eddied in the heat waves rising from -the sands. Kortha knew it for forgotten Yassa, the city beyond recall. -A dead city, that ate up travelers that went to it.</p> - -<p>Kortha sighed, and looked at Ilse. Always had Kortha wanted to go to -Yassa. There was a mystery about Yassa, a mystery that Kortha meant to -solve. The time was now come when he could.</p> - -<p>"Give me time," he said to Ilse. "I need time to think."</p> - -<p>She looked at him and in the depths of her blue eyes there was an -infinite sadness, a yearning.</p> - -<p>"You lie, Kortha," she whispered, tears in her eyes. "You do not ever -intend to return. Tell me why?"</p> - -<p>He looked down at her and smiled. How could he tell <i>her</i>? The long -uncut blonde hair that hung to his naked brown shoulders swayed a bit -as he shook his head.</p> - -<p>"I will, perhaps. But not yet."</p> - -<p>Not yet you cannot tell her, Kortha. It is for her sake that you have -buried yourself alive. But she would not understand. She is turning now -and going away from you, perhaps forever.</p> - -<p>Kortha walked across the sands behind her toward the 'copter. Once his -great hands went out hungrily, then fell listlessly at his sides. Ilse -was not for him. She was part of his brooding, the part that ached and -stabbed with loneliness. Ilse was what made him a coward.</p> - -<p>In the shadows of the flier the girl faced him once again. She stood -perilously close, her eyes beseeching silently, and the fragrance of -her hair and her curving body steamed in his nostrils.</p> - -<p>"You are no hermit, Kortha. You need life. You need a woman. You -need—me."</p> - -<p>He nodded, staring at her face, drinking it in. He did not ever intend -to see Ilse again, Ilse whom he loved, Ilse of the fair hair and the -blue eyes and the body tanned brown by Sol.</p> - -<p>Kortha stepped back and his shadow fell from hers. He lifted a hand, -saying softly, "Goodbye."</p> - -<p>With arms hanging to his thighs, he stood on the desert, watching until -the dot that was the 'copter in the sky passed beyond the horizon. -Wearily he swung about and went back to his hut.</p> - -<p>He yanked down a gigantic steel hammer from the wall, breaking the -thong that held it to its nail. Gripping the hammer in his great -hands, he swung it around his head, once, twice, in a flashing circle -of blue-white light.</p> - -<p>The walls crumpled when he hit them. The roof caved in and became the -floor. Scraps of brick and metal fell to dance on the shuddering tiles. -Fire leaped from the forge, caught hold and grew in a red frenzy. Red -and huge in its crimson heat, Kortha battered and slammed his sledge, -buckling even the wrought metalwork of his dwelling. This was his past, -here before him. Sobbing, he fought it; and sobbing, watched as the -fire came to consume it.</p> - -<p>When the place lay black and smouldering, Kortha lifted his head and -looked with his green eyes across the desert to Yassa.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A rolling something on the red sands caught his alert gaze. He smiled -gently. A tumblie. Probably Xax, who liked him. He watched it roll -straight and fast over the desert, toward him.</p> - -<p>Nature had made a perfect gyroscope in a tumblie: a round ball of -sharp, glistening spikes with a core of jelly that stayed level no -matter how fast the powerful spikes rotated. Two long feelers, like -skeletal arms, lay hidden in the spikes, but could stretch beyond them -to clutch food seeking to escape. In the heart of the jelly was a -strong brain.</p> - -<p>Xax stopped, looking between his hard spikes at the blackened ruins.</p> - -<p>"You leave the desert, Kortha?"</p> - -<p>"I go to Yassa."</p> - -<p>He felt the alarm of the tumblie, and sighed as Xax shrilled, "You go -to death! Only the tumblies have ever entered Yassa and—lived. There -is a part of Yassa that even a tumblie cannot penetrate. The white -tower. The temple of dead, forgotten Zut."</p> - -<p>Kortha hefted his big hammer and eyed its gleaming length.</p> - -<p>"Kortha has never gone to Yassa," he whispered grimly.</p> - -<p>It was not a boast; it was a statement of fact, a realization that -there was only one Kortha.</p> - -<p>Xax looked around him and saw the tire marks in the sand. He sat -silent, looking up at the man who towered more than six feet above him.</p> - -<p>"Someone was here," Xax said at last. "Ilse, wasn't it? You've told me -enough of her! The Confederacy needs you, doesn't it? And you won't -go."</p> - -<p>"I go to Yassa."</p> - -<p>"Mad. Mad!"</p> - -<p>"Not mad, Xax. So sane that I go to the one spot on Mars where I might -bring her freedom, and a place in the planetary sun."</p> - -<p>Xax digested that, squatting there.</p> - -<p>At last he said, "You have not dwelt out here three years for nothing. -You tried to hide from yourself at first, but you have learned things -here on the desert."</p> - -<p>A pain tugged and tore at Kortha's heart, and his lips were bitter as -they smiled.</p> - -<p>"You are clever, Xax. Smarter than Ilse."</p> - -<p>"Ilse is a woman who loves you. Her love is inclined to blind her."</p> - -<p>Kortha swung the hammer idly in his hand, eying the sunlight play -across it. He took a stride toward Yassa, and another.</p> - -<p>"Come, Xax," he called. "It is easy to talk and walk at the same time."</p> - -<p>The tumblie rolled along beside him. They went out into the hot red -sands, their shadows before them. Kortha fixed his eyes on the white -blot that was Yassa, and his long legs lengthened their stride. Sand -crunched faintly under his sandalled feet, releasing tiny clouds of red -dust at every step.</p> - -<p>"Eons ago Mars was a cultured world, Xax. They had everything, our -ancestors. Even you tumblies possessed your own civilization. The -ancients had power, and weapons long since forgotten by the clans that -descended from the survivors of the Great War.</p> - -<p>"Wars are useless things, but they must be fought as long as there are -men to quarrel. Who says otherwise is a fool. But the Great War—ahh, -that <i>was</i> a war. They used things to fight with that we have long ago -lost, and that Earth and Venus have never known. Mars is older than -either and had more time to develop them. Our ancestors fought and -destroyed: men and machines and cities. They left little. Among the -things they did not leave was the knowledge of their arts and sciences. -Mars had to build again, from scratch."</p> - -<p>Their shadows crept behind them as they walked.</p> - -<p>"Today Mars is a weak Confederacy of clans, ruled by a prince I -crippled for life. Guantra hopes to rule that Confederacy, but Guantra -is a cautious man. He would never dare usurp the throne unless he were -sure of victory. So sure of such a complete victory that he need fear -neither Earth nor Venus.</p> - -<p>"There is only one thing that would make Guantra so confident."</p> - -<p>A pool of clear blue water lay in a little hollow ahead of them. Kortha -put his palms to the hard sand that packed its edge and lowered himself -to his belly. Immersing his lips in the cold spring water bubbling from -hidden streams, he drank deeply. Xax lay to one side, watching him.</p> - -<p>With the back of his hand, Kortha wiped his mouth, his eyes on the -blood red sun dying in the desert a darker crimson on the horizon.</p> - -<p>"We'll stay here for the night."</p> - -<p>Kortha lay down and locked his hands behind his head. His golden hair -spilled in a flood across the red sand. Xax rolled close to him.</p> - -<p>"Two hundred years ago," said Kortha slowly, "the first Earthmen set -foot on Mars. Those first colonists settled among us. Some of them -married Martian girls. One of them wedded my great-great-grandmother. -Mixed blood flows in my veins. I am brood of Earth and brood of Mars."</p> - -<p>Xax said, "You keep me in suspense, Kortha. What one thing is there -that will make Guantra confident?"</p> - -<p>"A weapon, Xax. He needs a weapon. I think I know where he can find it. -But to get back—</p> - -<p>"They say that Earth ancestor of mine was a big man, and strong. He -must have been, for it was he who whipped the clans into semblance of -order, who established the Confederacy, who placed Hurlgut's ancestor -on the throne.</p> - -<p>"Earth made Mars rich in those early days, with demands for the metals -of its mines and the stellus-ore to power their rocket ships. Earth -was not strong enough to conquer us, then. It extended friendship, and -traded. Fortunately, the Confederacy was ruled by wise men. They used -their new riches to make the Confederacy strong, too."</p> - -<p>Kortha sighed and watched Phobos roll on upward into the vault of sky -above him.</p> - -<p>"Those early leaders left the Confederacy strong. I made it weak."</p> - -<p>Kortha rolled onto his stomach, his head buried in the crook of his -naked forearm. He heard Xax snort, "You were the greatest of the lot!"</p> - -<p>"I crippled Hurlgut in a fit of rage. I left him prey to Guantra." -Kortha sighed, "I ran away. It has been bitter, being out here, Xax. I -had a long time to think. I hope my hermitdom has made me a wiser man. -But I am afraid."</p> - -<p>They were silent for long moments. Xax stirred restlessly and the -clicking of his quills was like the rasping of many needles.</p> - -<p>"Now Guantra will rule Mars," said Kortha hoarsely. "He will get his -weapon unless I can stop him. He will wait until Earth and Venus are -weakened by war. Then he will attack them. Ilse thinks he will turn -Mars over to them, but that is not so! He wants to rule the Trinity of -the three planets. In the end he will pull Mars down, for Mars is not -ripe to rule—not yet. Not under Guantra, at any time."</p> - -<p>Kortha closed his eyes, whispering, "I must stop Guantra. I must stop -him without seeming to do so. For I cannot ever again take my place in -the Confederacy. I am too dangerous."</p> - -<p>Xax said softly, "Guantra has the army and the air fleet tinder his -banner. You are one man against a world."</p> - -<p>"I am Kortha," said the giant.</p> - -<p>He rolled on his side and cuddled his head in his elbow.</p> - -<p>An instant later, he was asleep.</p> - -<p>Xax squatted, thinking.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>Five days later a giant of a man and a round thing that rolled straight -as a warlance beside him clambered up the sloping black rock side of -the Mountains of Eternity.</p> - -<p>Sunlight glinted from the smooth, dark stone that was polished bright -as a mirror by the myriad dust storms that swept up from the desert, -year after year. Heat shimmered all about them, rising slowly from the -vast sand-bottom, reflected back from the igneous rock. Sweat wetted -the hairs on the man's chest and forearms. It dripped from his face in -tiny streams.</p> - -<p>Kortha stood erect on a narrow footpath and looked above him. Upward -the trail wound to dizzy heights. Set on a shelf of massy ebon stone -beyond him lay Yassa, like a white bowl of cool water in a black -furnace.</p> - -<p>Onward they climbed, and upward, their eyes fastened on the goal ahead -of them.</p> - -<p>They came together to the greenish bronze gates that tilted off their -hinges and lay at grotesque angles. Down the street that stretched -behind the gates walked Kortha, and with him swept the tumblie.</p> - -<p>Kortha stood still, nostrils distended.</p> - -<p>"I smell danger."</p> - -<p>Eyes alert, he walked on; but now he paced like the stalking cat, and -the muscles in his long legs humped and swelled beneath the bronzed -skin. His hammer hung loose in his hand, but then, the claws of a tiger -are often sheathed.</p> - -<p>A shadow dropped from above, swiftly.</p> - -<p>Kortha whirled, side-stepping.</p> - -<p>A huge king gorilla slammed an arm at him and screeched in anger as -the smooth-skinned man eluded him. The gorilla gave his attention to -alighting on the hard stones, and that was his mistake, for this smooth -skin was on him like a charging buffalo, head lowered between his -tremendous shoulders, and arms long as the gorilla's own shooting at -him, hitting hard, like pistons.</p> - -<p>Kortha was laughing harshly in his throat as he hit. He had not fought -in three years, and the taste of a battle was as old wine to his lips. -He needed this test, badly. He wanted to learn if his reflexes were as -they used to be. Kortha balled a fist and drove it into the gorilla's -ribs. He hit again, and again, and something snapped.</p> - -<p>Blood flecked the wide, distorted mouth of the animal. His tiny eyes -glared beneath shaggy brows. His dark brown coat bristled.</p> - -<p>The gorilla had got his balance by now, and Kortha darted beneath a -blow that could have ripped his head off. He swung low, then veered up -sharply, legs planted apart, arms pliant and big hands grasping. He -caught the gorilla by a wrist, whirled, taking the screaming animal on -his back. He humped his hips and flung the beast from him, into the -air. But he kept tight hold of its wrist, and snapped downward with all -the fury of his titanic strength.</p> - -<p>The gorilla hit the stones on its back. It screamed as its spine burst.</p> - -<p>Kortha stared down at the writhing, dying gorilla, saying, "So. This -is the secret of Yassa. The extinct king gorilla is not extinct. Only -an expedition in force could completely explore Yassa."</p> - -<p>Xax shrilled, "They dare not touch a tumblie. That is why we can come -and go."</p> - -<p>He proved his point an instant later when another gorilla dropped from -a low roof. Xax rolled beneath the falling beast who screeched in -agony as the tumblie's long quills ripped into the pads of his feet. -Chattering in pain, the gorilla ran off while Kortha laughed.</p> - -<p>"You're a good companion to have at a time like this, Xax," he chuckled.</p> - -<p>Xax clicked his needles. "We're coming to the Tower of Zut. A tumblie -can't fight what dwells in there."</p> - -<p>Kortha said, "No living thing dwells there, Xax. And the dead cannot -harm you."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The glory that was Yassa burst on them as they rounded a corner and -stood in the square of Zut. A massive building of translucent white -jadestone loomed solitary in the square. The face of the temple, -gleaming lucid in the sunlight, fronted toward them, broad and tall -and tapering to a triangular crown far above. From its base four -bulbous domes stretched backward, fanshaped, like blunted and misshapen -fingers. The symmetry of the building was awesome. The ancient -architect who designed it had been an artist as well as an engineer. It -was a thing of beauty, as well as a place of terror.</p> - -<p>Like a dark mouth set in the white face of the windowless tower gloomed -a gate of shadows, open to the square. That yawning space was black -with emptiness. There were no doors hung on hinges; only that sombre -opening, silently menacing.</p> - -<p>Kortha stood looking at it. The wind ruffled the white fur of his -mantle. It stirred his amber hair and cooled the naked skin of arms and -shoulders.</p> - -<p>He lifted his hammer and shook it in the sunlight, and grinned.</p> - -<p>He walked forward.</p> - -<p>Xax spoke to him above the clicking of his needles on the broken -flagging of the square, "Are you walking into that thing like a <i>yavit</i> -to the trap?"</p> - -<p>"Others have examined it before me, Xax. I have not heard that their -examinations saved them. Besides, if the death that lurks in the tower -of Zut still lives, I have no need to fear Guantra."</p> - -<p>They were quite close to the doorway now, and looking in they glimpsed -something white and shining on the tiled floor. As they drew nearer, -the heaps of white stuff grew plainer.</p> - -<p>They were bones. Human bones: what was left of the skeletons of many -men.</p> - -<p>Kortha lifted his head to survey the doorway. His green eyes blazed -with challenge, but their fire was controlled, and alert. He saw the -entrance plain and severe in style, affording no clue as to the manner -of its deadliness. From the way in which the walls shone, so clearly -translucent with the hint of inner fires deep within them, he knew that -the tower was built of <i>transvaline</i>, that rare building material whose -secret was lost with so many others during the Great War.</p> - -<p>In the walls two tall, faint strips of black shone dully: the doors of -this queer adit.</p> - -<p>Kortha swung his hammer in his hand and tossed it through the opening. -The doors remained open, and the bolt of force that he half expected to -sweep from somewhere at the hammer, remained hidden.</p> - -<p>He grunted to Xax, "Come on. No sense wasting time out here, like dogs -fretting before a bear's cave."</p> - -<p>They passed the threshold together, and stood in a domed chamber, -circular in shape, with another doorway beyond and opposite the -entrance. There were words on the lintel above its arch.</p> - -<p>"Science chamber," whispered Kortha, and started toward it.</p> - -<p>Behind them was a metallic whisper, susurrating in the stillness. -Kortha whirled and cursed and leaped. The doors closed before his -shoulder struck their smooth black surface. He hit and bounced -slightly, jarred. Kortha swore slowly, fluently, looking at the doors.</p> - -<p>"How long will the air last?" wondered Xax.</p> - -<p>"Longer than our bellies will stand the lack of food and drink. So this -is the great tower of Zut. Sliding doors that imprison any who break a -secret electri-beam. Zut! I'd thought better of the Ancient Ones. This -is really too simple. Find the beam and send a current along it, and -the doors'll open again."</p> - -<p>Kortha swung on his heel, going down the hall and into the Science -Chamber. Standing motionless on the threshold, he ran keen eyes into -the huge chamber.</p> - -<p>He chuckled. He laughed. Head flung back, he roared hoarse laughter -to the trestled ceiling. He sobbed his delight, hands spread over his -muscled loins, helpless with his mirth.</p> - -<p>Xax clicked a question at him, impatient.</p> - -<p>"It's Guantra," said Kortha when he could. "The fool. The utter fool. -And he hopes to rule the Trinity. Look for yourself, Xax. Look at all -these machines spread out before your eyes. The wealth of a planet is -spread out for you. The greatest weapons the solar system has known are -here. And Guantra has left them all!"</p> - -<p>"How do you know Guantra has been here?"</p> - -<p>"Down there. Observe the blacker spaces against the grey dust inches -thick on the floor. Something rested there for ages, Xax. Gone now. Oh, -Guantra was here, all right, probably with his entire science staff. -They took two things away with them. Probably the simplest machines -of the lot. Why did he leave the rest? Because the fools who man his -science staff didn't know what in the world all these things are. -Didn't know how to use them. Didn't have the slightest idea of what -they are supposed to be. Zut, it's rich!"</p> - -<p>"You may not know yourself," chided Xax.</p> - -<p>"If I had the resources of a science staff, I'd damn soon find out," -Kortha grunted, wiping moist eyes. "No wonder Guantra can come to -power—when Mars has idiots for a population."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He was bitter and savage, thinking of Ilse and—himself.</p> - -<p>"Men say you are a genius," Xax clicked. "It's not fair, comparing -others to yourself."</p> - -<p>"Bah!" snorted Kortha. "A man makes himself what he is. But let's not -bandy words. I have work to do."</p> - -<p>He walked down the aisles of this treasure house of metal machines. -His quick green eyes studied condensors and generators, pausing to -search the intricacy of bearings, or the purpose of bizarre couplings. -Inventions of forgotten ages lay before him, dim light shrouding -dusty cables, and plasticine casings. Here were bulbous globes and -straight, thin shanks of steel; there in shadowed niches rested wired -engines and bulbed machines, silent and mysterious.</p> - -<p>"Guantra and his staff took the more obvious machines, perhaps the ones -that bore explanatory cards," said Kortha, walking softly in the dust. -"These are more complex."</p> - -<p>He came to a halt before a queer tangle of rings and wires and -generator. Three metal bands floated in air between two looped -magnetizers. Kortha rubbed at his jaw, thoughtfully, scowling. The -pattern of the machine was utterly new, completely strange to him; yet -there was about it a faint air of familiarity. The thing had no obvious -purpose. It fired no missile. It had no in-take or out-let valves. It—</p> - -<p>"Zut!" he whispered. "It only does one thing. It gives off vibrations!"</p> - -<p>Xax merely looked at him. Kortha was saying excitedly, running hands -over metal sides and rounded knobs, over cables and rings, "But don't -you see? If a thing can be made to give off the proper vibrations, it -can affect matter. It can cause a change in the electronic structure -of a substance, by speeding up or slowing down the rate of electronic -revolution around the atom.</p> - -<p>"Remember the old legend about the beggar who had a queer machine -strapped to his back? Everywhere he wandered he met harshness and ill -treatment, until one night a woodchopper took him into his hut and fed -and clothed him. The woodchopper kept him with him until the beggar was -healthy again. As a reward, the beggar turned everything in the hut -<i>into gold</i>!"</p> - -<p>"Pfah," muttered Xax. "A myth."</p> - -<p>"Myths are simply memories carried down from generation to generation. -No, no, Xax. Where mankind has a myth, there is usually <i>some</i> truth -behind it, no matter how distorted by time and innumerable retellings. -It is the smoke that hints of the fire. I just wonder if this machine -is the one that began that particular myth."</p> - -<p>Kortha squatted and ran exploring fingers over wires and coils, making -positive attachments and strengthening connections. He squinted up at -the rings, motionless, rigid in the air, between the magnetizers. He -grunted.</p> - -<p>"Must get its power from the air. Maybe it feeds on oxygen or hydrogen. -Or argon. Hell, I'm just guessing at this point. See if it works first. -Then analyze it."</p> - -<p>He looked around for an object; found a loose panel of carven wood on a -perilously old table. Ripping off a section of the wood, he placed it -before the machine. His fingers turned a knob.</p> - -<p>A beam of shivering green light pulsed from the coils and hung -motionless to a yard outward. Kortha kicked the block of wood into the -beam.</p> - -<p>"Zut!" he breathed softly.</p> - -<p>The wood changed: grew red and warm, shimmering a brilliant crimson, -pulsating as though from inner fires. It became opalescent, almost -fluid in scarlet brilliance. Slowly the red became green, and then -yellow. The bar hardened, the liquidity of its structure tensing into -solidity.</p> - -<p>Kortha stared with wide eyes at the bar, whispering, "Gold!"</p> - -<p>"Gold," echoed Xax, awed.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha grinned broadly, hefting the thing in his palm. "Pure gold. -Heavy, but somewhat soft, Xax. I was right. Blessed be the mythmaker, -for he shall help us find truth!"</p> - -<p>"It can't be true," protested Xax, his faceted eyes glued to the amber -bar in the giant's hand. "You don't turn one thing into another, not by -just a—a color!"</p> - -<p>"Of course not by a color. That green light was something that got -down to rock bottom, affecting the very nature of the wood. What's so -odd about it? All matter is composed of electrons. Those electrons -move in certain orbits within the atom. If it is possible to alter the -vibratory rate of those electrons—why, then your substance itself is -changed. It is something else. In this case, it's gold."</p> - -<p>The voice interrupted him. It came from the outer chamber: harshly -gloating, unrelievedly triumphant.</p> - -<p>It called: "Kortha. Come where I can see you, Kortha. I want to talk to -you."</p> - -<p>"Guantra," whispered Kortha, and ran.</p> - -<p>He found the quartz-crystal televisi-screen finally, perched in a niche -in the hall, where it could command a view of the closed doors. Kortha -went and stood before it. He drew back his lips, and spat.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The image of the man in the screen recoiled slightly, then thrust -forward again, pushing the lean hawk's face with jutting, black-bearded -chin and hooked nose and slightly bald forehead almost to the limits -of the screen. The thin lips twisted in a savage smile. The dark eyes -glittered under thin brows.</p> - -<p>"I have you, Kortha. At last, I have you where I want you. I have -searched for a long time without success. Where did you hide yourself? -Ah, well—it makes no difference. You are to die, Kortha, and -I—Guantra!—am to be your executioner.</p> - -<p>"Did you suspect that I learned the secret of Yassa, Kortha? If you -did, and I think as much, you are right. It cost ten men's lives, but I -learned it. It was a lethal ray that blasted whoever passed those black -doors. We smashed it out of existence, reluctantly. It was a hellish -thing. I would have given much to have saved it, but," sighing, "it -could not be done. But I found other articles to take its place."</p> - -<p>"Two of them," assented Kortha dryly.</p> - -<p>Guantra seemed startled, then nodded. "Two, yes. A lightning-blaster -and a—no, I'll not tell you the other. That is <i>my</i> secret.... I see -the lightning-blaster surprises you."</p> - -<p>"Another myth," whispered Xax, looking up at Kortha.</p> - -<p>"Myth?" puzzled Guantra, brows meeting over its hooked nose. "Oh. You -mean the one concerning the weapons of the Great War. The rhyme that -goes—</p> - -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse">"They culled the lightnings from the sky,</div> - <div class="verse">"And summoned all who were to die—"</div> -</div></div> - -<p>"A neat bit of doggerel, but let's talk of living men. Kortha, I know -you for my enemy. If you were my friend, now—"</p> - -<p>Guantra jerked suddenly, drawing back. His lean face looked tense, -thoughtful. His thin lips drew down at the corners, and slowly curved -into a smile. It was not a nice smile to see.</p> - -<p>He whispered, "If you were my friend."</p> - -<p>Kortha lifted his big hammer and showed it to Guantra.</p> - -<p>"Talk no more of friendship between us, <i>yavit</i>," he said clearly.</p> - -<p>But Guantra leaned forward and smiled again. His dark eyes were steady -on the big man in the white fur harness, whose sun-browned skin seemed -like smooth bronze against the bearskin.</p> - -<p>"Zut love me, but you <i>will</i> be my friend, Kortha. Wait! I am sending -men for you. You cannot fight me, for all Mars is at my beck. My men -will bring you to me, and I will <i>make</i> you my friend!"</p> - -<p>He flung back his head and laughed, and his mirth rang loud and harsh -in wild, eerie peals. Listening to it, Kortha bared his teeth in a -soundless snarl and shook his hammer, and said, "I would sooner be -friends with a canalhound. Send your men, but they'll not find me. I'll -be away, looking for the shortest route to your throat!"</p> - -<p>Guantra grinned, "I'll forgive you that when you're my friend, Kortha. -Don't think you can get free of the tower. The controls for those doors -are under my fingers. A trusted guard watches the screen here, night -and day. He summons me when any enter the tower. He was quite excited -upon seeing you. Mars has not forgotten Kortha who reunited the clans.</p> - -<p>"How Mars will worship a Kortha come to life! Mars will also worship -Guantra who found you and gave you back to her. The crowds will go for -you. Kortha the genius. Kortha the man-gorilla. Kortha the great.</p> - -<p>"And Kortha will be—my friend!"</p> - -<p>It was then that the giant swung the massive hammer against the -quartz-crystal screen. It shattered into fragments that sounded like -musical glass as they fell to the floor.</p> - -<p>Kortha looked at Xax, and rested the hammer by a sandalled foot. His -green eyes glittered, and his long yellow hair shook as he moved -abruptly, turning on his heel.</p> - -<p>"Guantra has his weapon now. He needed that weapon before he dared -declare himself. So! A lightning-blaster. Now when Earth and Venus -learn that Mars is a power to be reckoned with, they will seek -Guantra's favor. Each will hasten to make peace and bid for his -friendship. And Guantra will sell Mars for the highest offer. In a -polite way, of course.</p> - -<p>"If I can't stop him, he will. And Guantra has an army. And an air -fleet."</p> - -<p>Kortha laughed harshly, "I have two hands and a brain, and a hate for -Guantra. Maybe that will even up the odds. Come, Xax. Stop talking to -me."</p> - -<p>Xax shrilled a chuckle and rolled along with the fur-clad giant, back -into the science hall. Kortha worked with his deft fingers, examining -coils and rings, delving into the secrets of ages-ancient generators -and condensors. He grunted and swore, and his brow was furrowed in -thought. One engine he completely dismantled, but could make nothing of -its function. Others he merely glanced at, passing them by.</p> - -<p>"I'd need a laboratory to test them all," he said at last. "I just -don't have the equipment. You can't determine uses or strengths or -purposes with your naked fingertips."</p> - -<p>He went and patted the ringed machine with his palms.</p> - -<p>"We have no weapon but this, Xax. It will have to do."</p> - -<p>"That?" choked the tumblie. "That's no weapon. It's just a—a luxury!"</p> - -<p>Kortha knelt and began fastening wheels to the base of the machine. -He said, "In our hands it will be a weapon. It will have to be, for -Guantra is sending men and ships to capture us. When those doors roll -open, his men are coming in for me."</p> - -<p>The wheels screeched as they bore the weight of the big engine across -the marble floor. Kortha's leg-muscles bunched and writhed under the -pressure he exerted. His naked arms bulged, tightening under the smooth -skin. Up the ramp went the machine to grate to a halt opposite the -entrance doors.</p> - -<p>Kortha lengthened the distance level of the beam, and wiped a forearm -across his wet brow. He smiled mirthlessly, "Let them come, now. We're -ready for them."</p> - -<p>Xax shrilled, "You said we could escape by throwing a beam of light on -the mechanism of the doors. Then why do we stay here?"</p> - -<p>"Guantra has sent men to overcome me. If we escape, we'll be out in the -open where they can overcome us at will. Here we have a chance. They -have to come in that door. I'll have them all in front of me. I have to -kill them all, Xax. Otherwise Guantra may learn where I've gone."</p> - -<p>"He may still find out," the tumblie grumbled.</p> - -<p>"I know. It's a chance I have to take."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The drone of the fliers sounded sooner than Kortha had anticipated. He -could imagine them circling above the ancient city, swooping in to a -landing in the square. A moment later he heard the drumming of feet on -stone.</p> - -<p>The doors rolled open effortlessly. Guantra's guards came in yelling, -with guns in their hands, leaping for him; shouting loudly at sight of -him.</p> - -<p>Kortha put a hand on a lever, threw it down.</p> - -<p>A beam lanced out at the doorway. It splashed its pale green color over -the scarlet tunics and naked legs of the guards.</p> - -<p>The guards changed color.</p> - -<p>They glittered yellow, metallic. One or two of them were off balance. -They fell with a ringing clangour on the marble floor.</p> - -<p>Xax gasped, "Gold. They're all solid gold statues!"</p> - -<p>"I told you it was a weapon," rasped Kortha, shoving the machine in -front of him, wheeling it toward the square.</p> - -<p>There were a few guards left, in front of the fliers. When they saw -Kortha, they came running. One by one he picked them off; watched them -fall harshly, bouncing a little on the cobblestones. They did not fire. -Kortha realized Guantra must have been very explicit about wanting him -taken alive.</p> - -<p>When he stood alone in the square, Kortha lifted his hammer and brought -it down on the glistening orifact. Metal danced and shattered under -his blows. Casings split. Magnetizers fell apart. Bolts and shards of -metallic rings jangled on the paving, clattering and rolling among the -lichen-lifted flaggings.</p> - -<p>"Guantra will never use that," said Kortha grimly.</p> - -<p>He walked toward the fliers. One after the other, he smashed their -radios; and the controls of every ship but one. Holding open the door -of the last plane, he said to Xax, "Get in."</p> - -<p>"Where are we going?"</p> - -<p>"To find Ilse," answered Kortha, settling his big frame in the -plasticine seat. His hands went forth to punch buttons and twist dials. -The tubes behind him roared their power, shaking the entire ship. -He taxied the flier across the square and yanked back hard on the -repellever. The nose went up sharply, and riding the air currents on -blunt wings, the flier rose above the ruins of white Yassa and aimed -its prow at the desert.</p> - -<p>Kortha slipped in the automatic controller, and ran fingers through his -fur jacket.</p> - -<p>"Ilse will know the politics I've missed in living on the desert for -three years. She will know if we can raise a force strong enough to -fight Guantra. We'll need men and money and ships. Guantra has cornered -the market on those, right now."</p> - -<p>"You wouldn't go to Ilse before. Why will you now?"</p> - -<p>"Three years ago I crippled a man, Xax. Hurlgut, who was my best -friend. It was in a fit of rage. I couldn't control my temper. And—I -was afraid that some day I'd do something like that to Ilse. I couldn't -afford to let that happen. I love her too much. There was only one -thing to do, since I couldn't master my own emotions.</p> - -<p>"I ran away. I came here across Syrtis Major to the Yassan desert -because it is so far from life. Nothing exists away out here. If -Hurlgut or Ilse were to send searching parties, it would be like -looking for a sword out in the asteroid belt.</p> - -<p>"I picked a good spot, all right. It took them three years to find -me. They wouldn't have found me yet if I hadn't helped an occasional -unfortunate who'd come to try his luck at mining in the Yassan sands."</p> - -<p>"Mining?" puzzled Xax. "In the desert?"</p> - -<p>"There's a lot of copper mixed into that sand. Some day I hope to learn -why. Cliffs of metal abound on Mars. The cliffs around Ruuzol, for -instance. But enough of that. Let me explain about myself. I came to -the desert and lived alone. High hopes were mine that the silence and -loneliness and my work would teach me control. I don't know how well I -succeeded in that, but in another thing I did have success.</p> - -<p>"On the long winter nights, I saw lights in Yassa, Xax. Man-made -lights. Electritorches and solar-beams. Now everyone on Mars knows -that Yassa is a deserted city, and deadly. Lights didn't belong there. -I wanted to go to Yassa to see who walked its dead streets. But as a -test, I curbed myself, fought my yearning. I mastered it. I wondered -and puzzled, but I stayed on the desert. Some day I would go, but not -yet. Finally the lights went away, and did not return.</p> - -<p>"I know now that those lights were carried by Guantra's science staff, -who discovered the secret of the tower of Zut, and used it. They took -away the weapons they could use and left the others, thinking no one -could fathom their use. They thought me dead. Bah, the fools!</p> - -<p>"Then when Ilse came for me, I realized the truth. Guantra had sent men -to Yassa. But if I went to Yassa, I might prevent their taking anything -of value from the city. I was too late!"</p> - -<p>Xax shuddered at the glitter in the green eyes of this big giant.</p> - -<p>"I did not think Guantra had taken anything. I know better now. Without -a weapon, Guantra would not dare strike for power. By smashing every -weapon in that Tower, I could have stopped him cold at one stroke. Then -I could have returned to my smithy, in the desert, and lived out my -life."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha sighed, and surveyed the craggy ground below. They were flying -low over a barren plain where rocks lay yellow in the sun as far as -they could see, like golden pebbles. Jagged red cliffs rose off to the -right, shining dully like copper; to the left, a mesa of red-green -stone lifted a flat top toward the sky. Between the mesa and the -cliffs, the golden floor of the plain went on and on, endlessly.</p> - -<p>Kortha increased the speed of the little flier, and sighed, "But now -all that is changed. Guantra has his weapon, and I must find Ilse. We -must raise a fleet to oppose him. I'm still afraid of myself, Xax. I -may yet hurt Ilse, but I'll have to chance it. Mars is bigger than both -of us!"</p> - -<p>A dot in the sky to sunward of them grew bigger, loomed into a small -flier. Kortha swore happily, seeing the emblazoned dragon on its prow.</p> - -<p>"Ilse. She's come back to talk to me again."</p> - -<p>He swung the ship toward her, anathematizing himself for having smashed -its radio. He had meant it as a protective measure, to prevent Guantra -from triangulating his position. It boomeranged, now. Ilse would see -Guantra's rippled black star pennon on his own prow.</p> - -<p>She fled from him like a startled fawn, but Guantra built good ships. -Kortha overhauled her slowly, ducking her gun-blasts, swallow-darting. -When she dove for a cliffside, Kortha followed; and only expert -piloting prevented them both from slamming the hulls of their ships -against those coppery walls.</p> - -<p>A shell from her rear electrogun ripped away a section of his fuselage -before she saw him, big and white-furred, in the glass cabin. He saw -her face go white, looking back at him. Ilse fought her controls, -dropping toward the plain. Grinning wryly, fighting his ship that -bucked with a hole in her side, Kortha followed her down.</p> - -<p>She came running to him across the stones, her loose white bolero -jacket blowing back, her straight long legs flashing brown in the -sunlight, making shadowy grotesques ahead of her on the jagged rocks. -Her red mouth shouted laughter at him, mixed with sobs.</p> - -<p>He caught her up against him; bent to memorize her blue eyes, the soft -cheeks that were moist with tears, the full scarlet mouth. Her platinum -hair blew wild in the breeze.</p> - -<p>Kortha drank a kiss from her wet mouth, and kept her crushed to him for -moment after moment. Three years on the desert is a long time.</p> - -<p>"Whew!" whispered Ilse, laughing up at him with lips and eyes, her nose -crinkling a little.</p> - -<p>She sobered suddenly; put soft hands to his cheeks, stroking them.</p> - -<p>"You fly Guantra's ship. What happened?"</p> - -<p>He told her, looking down into her eyes, moving his gaze from hair to -lips, to cheeks and throat. She shuddered, listening, and he held her -tighter.</p> - -<p>"It's no use, Kortha," she said at last. "We can't fight the fleet that -Guantra can muster. The fact that he has those weapons makes a lot of -difference. I knew when I came for you that we were nearly beaten. You -were our only hope. If Kortha could come back from the grave—there -would be a psychological value to the thing. We might aim at strikes, -at seducing men from Guantra's navy. Build ships on the sly, from Mare -Cimmerium to Sinus Gomer. But now—"</p> - -<p>Her shoulders drooped. Kortha scowled across at the red cliff -crimson in the sunlight. It was true. The fleet that Guantra owned -was the fleet that Kortha had built. Battleship and air-cruiser, -he had blue-printed their models, seen them swung into their -launching-cradles. He had manned it with picked men. Nothing on Mars -could match it, certainly; possibly nothing on Earth or Venus, either, -with the exception of their vast space fleets. He sighed.</p> - -<p>Xax shrilled a warning, clicking his needles.</p> - -<p>From the south a huge grey battleflier rose grim and massive above the -flat mesa. Sunlight disclosed its rippled black star pennon, and the -gleaming guns, and the swarms of fighters covering its decks. Towering -masts brooded down across the plains, giving the ship an aetherial look -that its dark bulk belied.</p> - -<p>Kortha laughed bitterly, "What use to talk of fleets now? That's -Guantra's own flagship. He's come in person for me now. By some black -magic, he's learned of what took place at Yassa. Probably took alarm -when his radio calls went unanswered."</p> - -<p>They ran across the stones for the small cruiser, kicking pebbles into -life, making them roll and bounce. With big hands, Kortha tossed Ilse -into the open door of the flier; swept in after her with a hard, swift -leap. The door clanged behind them.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The ship shuddered under a direct hit on her rear rockets. Kortha went -flying, clutching at Ilse, dragging her down on him. His back met the -far wall, and he cushioned her against his chest.</p> - -<p>Kortha was on his feet, eyes blazing. His hand went to his hammer, -hefting it, lifting it up and down, very slowly. He snarled a little, -deep in his throat.</p> - -<p>"He knows we're here. He's playing with us. He wants us alive."</p> - -<p>"There's my plane. If we hurry—"</p> - -<p>Across the stone-bottom, they saw the silvered hull of the little flier -cave inward. Metal sides slivered, and splinters flew through the air.</p> - -<p>"Guantra has good gunners," said Kortha drily. "Let's learn if his -combat units are as good."</p> - -<p>He drove the massy head of his hammer against the door, breaking it -open. With Ilse in one arm he dropped to the rocks and walked away from -the flier. Side by side, they stood and looked up at the gigantic ship -that hovered yards above the plains. Men came swarming over its sides, -dropping like ants from ropes, leaping toward them.</p> - -<p>Kortha saw they were unarmed. He tossed his hammer aside and grinned -mercilessly, lips writhing back from strong white teeth.</p> - -<p>Ilse looked up at him and shuddered. She had seen Kortha fight before.</p> - -<p>He sprang to meet them, hamlike fists balled into twin maces. He broke -a man's jaw with his first blow. With his second he snapped three -ribs of an officer in a short green cloak. He hit again, and again, -and everytime that his fists struck, bones cracked or splintered. Men -shrieked there on the stones, trying to stand up to him.</p> - -<p>Occasionally he unclasped his hands to grasp; and when his grip fell, -clutching, the victim dropped with shredded limbs.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>They were all around him now, grunting under his blows, screaming when -he wrenched. Kortha danced like a temple harlot, twisting on his toes, -slamming his long arms out, dropping his fists where they hurt the -most: on jaw, on belly, on ribs. He laughed harshly as he fought; his -eyes flared, and his nostrils quivered. The soft thudding of fists on -flesh, and the sobs of air-hungry lungs orchestrated the battle.</p> - -<p>It looked as though he would beat them all, for a moment. His great -form was untouched, and men lay sprawled on the rocks all around him.</p> - -<p>Then someone flung sand from a pouch. Kortha knew its bitter burn as it -bit into his eyes. They welled with tears, but Kortha held them open, -fighting the smart with all the surging energy of his will. To close -them would make him helpless; yet the tears blinded him, too, and those -he could not help.</p> - -<p>The guards raged into him, goaded to desperation, hitting hard. -Buffeted, blinded, swept off his feet, Kortha was hurled backward onto -the stones. For long minutes he was the core of a shifting, sobbing, -maddened group. A hand dug at his face, shoving it into sharp rocks.</p> - -<p>Kortha arched his loins, thrusting hard, upwards, heaving men off. He -came to his feet, blind, striking out, shouting as he felt flesh pulp -beneath his fists.</p> - -<p>Something slammed across his temple, bouncing off.</p> - -<p>Kortha pitched face downward, hearing Ilse screaming.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>Kortha floated in clouds, bodiless. Fragrance drifted past in tendrils -of white mist, curling and crawling with scented life. Through the -mist came a battleship with Guantra seated on it, laughing at him. A -silken garment dyed with scarlet and magenta flickered past, obscuring -Guantra. Wrapped in the silk was Ilse, dancing for him, trailing a -cape of moonlight behind her white shoulders, above the multicolored -scarves. The clouds shifted beneath him, causing him to fall. He -dropped, faster and faster.</p> - -<p>Golden men caught him, carried him on their shoulders. They led him to -a wall and chained his wrist to a red-hot manacle—</p> - -<p>It was Ilse who held his wrist in her hand; Ilse bending above him, -crystal tears quivering on her long amber lashes.</p> - -<p>"Kortha! Thank Zut. You've lain so still."</p> - -<p>He was in a bed. He grunted as he sat up. Ilse fought him, tried to -force him down, saying, "The doctor said you had the constitution of -a desert boar. What you went through would have killed ten ordinary -men. But lie still, lie still. The wards are filled with the men you've -wrecked—"</p> - -<p>She laughed and sobbed, fighting him. But Kortha put her aside easily, -asking, "Where is he? Where is the smell?"</p> - -<p>"I am here, Kortha," said Guantra from the doorway where he stood, a -gun steady in his hand.</p> - -<p>The gun was aimed at Ilse. Kortha was a little too far away to jump, -but the muscles on his legs and arms writhed like snakes with the fury -that pounded in his blood.</p> - -<p>Guantra was saying, "Stand away from him, Ilse. A bullet won't stop -Kortha, but he won't risk your chances with hot lead."</p> - -<p>"What do you want of me?" snarled the giant, mastering his red rage, -fingers opening and closing.</p> - -<p>"You will be my friend, Kortha. That is all I seek of you. Just your -friendship."</p> - -<p>Ilse gasped in her throat and whirled around, blue eyes wide. She -stood rigid, bent a little forward. She choked, "No, no. Guantra, you -wouldn't—not to Kortha. Not that!"</p> - -<p>"Not what?" rasped Kortha, scowling in puzzlement.</p> - -<p>"The Blue Grotto! It changes men. It makes them different. They aren't -the same after they come out of there."</p> - -<p>Kortha stared at Ilse, noting the wide ashen eyelashes, the red mouth -twisted in pain, the white forehead riven with furrows. Torture! So. It -was what he had expected of Guantra: to torture a man until he became a -broken thing begging for friendship. Suddenly he looked at Guantra and -found the man lost in admiration of Ilse's tanned loveliness.</p> - -<p>Kortha leaped like an uncoiling spring. He caught Guantra about the -waist and flipped him across a thigh, sending him into a wall. The -Premier thudded into the oak and steel, hitting hard. He crouched for -long moments on hands and knees, shaking his head. Then he crawled to -his feet and looked into his own gun held in Kortha's hand.</p> - -<p>"You'll let Ilse and Xax go, Guantra. I remain."</p> - -<p>Guantra rubbed his hip, smiling grimly. He nodded.</p> - -<p>"Gladly, Kortha. It will be guarantee of our future friendship."</p> - -<p>"No," sobbed Ilse, long fingernails biting into Kortha's hairy forearm. -"He'll change you. He'll do to you what he did to those—others."</p> - -<p>Kortha shook her off. Torture he hated, but he could stand up to it. -But if they did anything to Ilse—he wasn't that sure of himself. He -had to get rid of her, send her away to Hurlgut. Maybe they could -somehow contact Earth or Venus; get help.</p> - -<p>Ilse hit his furred chest with tiny fists, whimpering.</p> - -<p>"Idiot! Can't you see? Guantra will make you his friend. You'll do what -he says. You'll be a figurehead. All the Confederacy will hail the -union of Guantra and Kortha. It won't know that only Guantra gives the -orders, that you're just a puppet."</p> - -<p>Kortha shoved her away.</p> - -<p>"Get moving," he snapped. "I'll hold off Guantra until you're safely -gone."</p> - -<p>Ilse fought and raged, but she was helpless with her bare arm in one of -Kortha's hands. She went sideways in front of him as he pushed her. Her -red mouth whimpered.</p> - -<p>Kortha stood and watched the fleet little scout ship fade into the -south. When it had disappeared, he waited for minutes, calculating -Ilse's speed against possibility of pursuit. Satisfied, he handed his -gun to Guantra.</p> - -<p>He growled, "Bring on your torturers, Guantra. Let's get this over -with."</p> - -<p>But Guantra laughed softly, sheathing the gun.</p> - -<p>"Torture? Oh, no. That's a bit—ah—antiquated, isn't it? Besides, I -know men, Kortha. Torture would never make me your friend."</p> - -<p>"Not torture?"</p> - -<p>"Come with me into my stateroom. Oh, be my enemy, if you will. But -you'll be needing food, and a bit of Sharasta wine. I have both."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha realized that if he leaped on Guantra now, he could break his -neck or snap his spine. But there would be other Guantras. Better to -fight this one, than the others who might arise. He smiled to himself. -Apparently those years in the desert had aided him to control his mad -temper. In olden days he would have been on Guantra, slaying without -thought to a possible future.</p> - -<p>He shrugged broad shoulders, aware that his stomach was empty. There -was no need to starve to death. He had done a lot without food. He -walked after Guantra slowly, thoughtful.</p> - -<p>A dull black plasticine screen formed one wall of the hexagonal -stateroom. Before it a curved desk glittered dully, littered with -charts and papers. Chrystolite chairs and benches gleamed in myriad -colors over the thickly woven black rug. Kortha stared around him, -nodding. He remembered the ship. It was one he had himself planned.</p> - -<p>But the screen was new. He stood in front of it, frowning. Guantra came -to his side, gesturing.</p> - -<p>"Since you turned hermit, things have happened on Mars, Kortha. This -screen is a by-product of researches by my science division. With it, I -can detect scenes at certain distances in the open air. Essentially the -same as television, we can focus an unlimited field by using cosmic ray -amplifiers."</p> - -<p>Guantra went to the wall, pressed a button.</p> - -<p>"We use radio waves though, throughout the ship, in order to prepare -our food."</p> - -<p>Kortha looked through the transparent shield in the wall; saw a frozen -steak thaw suddenly, cook before his eyes in a matter of seconds.</p> - -<p>"High frequency waves," Kortha said. "That's old."</p> - -<p>"True, but I've found it saves time to install them in every room. In -time of battle, my men need not desert their posts for food. The food -is there frozen; needs only six to eight seconds to cook, and be taken -out, ready to eat."</p> - -<p>A steward came and lifted out the steak, setting it on a table before -Kortha. He served chilled Sharasta wine and freshly baked bread. -Chilled sugar sauce over bitter fruits brought a hard grin to the -giant's mouth. He had not realized before just how hungry he was.</p> - -<p>He began to eat.</p> - -<p>When he was done, he went and stood at Guantra's side in front of the -starboard windows. Outside, sunlight blazed on the quartz-veined cliffs -over which the <i>Varadium</i> was passing. Hollow depressions glittered as -though filled with sparkling gems, while huge stalagmites lifted jagged -edges, shot forth scintillating hues that etched color madness on the -dun cliffsides.</p> - -<p>The sheer cliffs fell away, exposing a massive gap in the mighty -mountains. The <i>Varadium</i> poked its dull grey nose downward and sank -between the ledges.</p> - -<p>Staring from the darkened starboard windows, Kortha beheld the -iridescent gleam of the mountain-walls turn to yellow and red and -green. The colors deepened as the ship lowered on the air currents: -grew lavender, then purple. Shadows from the tall cliffsides gave the -canyon into which they sank a dark sombreness.</p> - -<p>"The Blue Grotto is far below the surface," whispered Guantra. "A young -lieutenant discovered and told me about it. I checked his findings; had -my engineers pay it a visit. Their work resulted in something that will -make your eyes shine."</p> - -<p>With her keel scraping dry red sand, the <i>Varadium</i> edged along the -bed of the canyon. Ahead lay a great black orifice in the side of -the cliff: a gigantic cave, vast as Mars' mightiest hangar. Even by -straining his keen eyes, Kortha could make out nothing beyond that -ebon darkness.</p> - -<p>But when the flier poked its prow into the cave, a battery of -tremendous mercury floodlamps leaped to bluish-white life. Blinking -in their glare, Kortha looked down at the floor of the cave; found it -fitted with great steel cradle, with benches and lathes and tools. The -battleflier sank into the cradle with a lurch and a swift righting of -its bulk. Springs sighed softly under its weight, cushioning it on a -blanket of compressed air.</p> - -<p>Guantra led Kortha from the stateroom out along the grey deck, toward -the gang-plank, saying, "This place has been useful to me. Extremely -so. I've found that it paid to spend the money to equip it."</p> - -<p>Kortha looked around him, gauging his chances for fight. Men stepped to -benches, swung down ladders, with an air of deft sureness. They paid -him the insult of inattention. His hands knotted, then relaxed. Suppose -he did fight? It would do him no good. Even Kortha could not overcome -the entire crew of a battleflier. Not without a weapon.</p> - -<p>Guantra motioned him to a tiny monorail car.</p> - -<p>"The journey is not far, but we must avoid some—ah—rather terrifying -precipices in this. The rail cost fifty lives to install. A misstep -above an abyss—"</p> - -<p>He shrugged, pressing buttons. The car lurched forward, gathered speed.</p> - -<p>"Personally, I think some of them are bottomless. We could take no -soundings."</p> - -<p>They caught glimpses of black depths to their left as the car slid -along on its ribbonlike rail. A string of lights fastened to the cliff -cast eerie shadows into the gulf. The car slowed to round a curve.</p> - -<p>It halted in a chamber whose walls were sculped with vividly stained -statuary. Their colors were faded now, but here and there were spots of -red sunset, or blue ocean, or the white of a ship's sail.</p> - -<p>Kortha muffled a curse of surprise in his throat.</p> - -<p>"I thought you'd like it," Guantra laughed. "That lieutenant of mine -found it. He swears it's a lost museum of some very early Martian race. -The ones who lorded it when there were oceans on the planet."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha did not fight the drag of curiosity. He walked along the wall, -intent on the friezes. Here were the tall-prowed water-ships, sails -bellying before the wind, cleaving foaming, blue-green ocean. He saw -men in mail and helmets battling on green grass. There were boudoir -scenes, too, with tall and lovely blonde women reclining on soft -cushions, fanned by strangely shaped slaves.</p> - -<p>How had this forgotten clue to a past civilization come to be buried -under tons of mountains? Perhaps a planetary catastrophe in the past -had shifted an entire mountain-range, to bury a city beneath its rock -foundations. Then again, the Old Ones might have carved out niches in -the stone itself, hollowing chambers the better to preserve traces of -their culture.</p> - -<p>Kortha hastened his steps, found Guantra waiting for him in a room hung -completely with expensive blue-and-gold draperies. Even the ceiling -was muffled in bands of rich silk. The floor was a thick fur rug that -would have cost a million <i>kofuls</i> on the open market. And in the -mathematical center of the room was a couch of incredible softness -draped with a spotted black-and-silver <i>ocemar</i> pelt.</p> - -<p>"Lie down and rest, Kortha. I shall leave you to your thoughts."</p> - -<p>Kortha came up swiftly in front of Guantra and grasped him by his arms -above the elbows. He swung the Premier off his feet, held him inches -above the ground, glaring at him.</p> - -<p>"I could kill you, Guantra. I could snap your spine as a king gorilla -could a twig. You would die."</p> - -<p>Guantra paled and licked him lips. Then he managed to laugh.</p> - -<p>"No need for that. All I ask is that you spend the night here. In this -room, sleeping on that couch. After that, you are free to leave."</p> - -<p>Kortha dropped the man in his bewilderment, saying, "Is that all? Is -the place haunted? Ought I start at ghosts? Or do you gas the lungs out -of me?"</p> - -<p>"Neither. Just stay here. No harm will come to you."</p> - -<p>Kortha grinned and surveyed the drapes. He ran fingers through his -thick yellow hair. He chuckled, "I'll stay. In the morning, I'll leave."</p> - -<p>He watched Guantra close the door behind him. He heard the bolt snick -into place. He went and sank on the couch. It was soft, enticing. -Putting up his tanned legs, he crossed them at the ankles.</p> - -<p>Kortha tried to think, to reason out the danger of the room. But even -his giant body knew the lassitude of fatigue. He closed his eyes, -trying to sort out facts and interpret them; shaking his head a little, -muttering at his tiredness. Guantra had the whiphand, with Hurlgut a -cripple and Ilse and Xax no help at all. And he, Kortha! Of what use -was he, sleeping like a perfumed harlot on this couch? If he could -raise an army, now—</p> - -<p>His eyelids blinked against the tiredness beating up from deep within -him. Wave upon wave of languor swept to his brain, wrapping it in soft -and gentle folds. He closed his eyes. Just for a minute, just until he -was refreshed—</p> - -<p>Kortha slept. His big body lay utterly relaxed, every muscle inert, -like a lazing panther. The room was drugging in its silence. The thick -draping seemed to enfold, to cradle.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"<i>Kortha!</i>"</p> - -<p>It was a voice like a wind whispering in pines. It soughed across the -room, making the man turn lazily in his slumber, uneasy.</p> - -<p>"Kortha, speak to me. Tell me of yourself. Who are you, Kortha?"</p> - -<p>The man slept, but his lips spoke, sighing, "I am Kortha the strong. -The hard, the cruel."</p> - -<p>"Ahhh, no. You must forget that, Kortha. True, you are heavily muscled, -but so are many men."</p> - -<p>"I crippled Hurlgut my best friend, in a fit of rage. I am not to be -trusted. My temper is the red heart of the living volcano. It can spew -destruction."</p> - -<p>"Forget that you are Kortha. He never existed. You are not that Kortha, -but another. Tell me about this best friend, Kortha. Tell me. Tell me."</p> - -<p>Kortha whispered the tale, shuddering even as he slept.</p> - -<p>The voice spoke to him, and its softness was the purl of a wave lapping -at the shore.</p> - -<p>"You are wrong. It happened thus—"</p> - -<p>Kortha half-rose, listening, though his eyes were closed and his breath -came evenly.</p> - -<p>"Repeat after me—Repeat—</p> - -<p>"I saw Hurlgut in his tower room. We did not quarrel over politics with -Earth. Hurlgut did not call me names, denounce me as 'war-mad' and -'enhanced with my own powers.' The sun formed a pool at his feet, true. -But it was the guard—not I!—who leaped, struck swift and sure. I slew -the guard, but the damage had been done.</p> - -<p>"Hurlgut slandered me. He said <i>I</i> did it. I did not. Hurlgut was -jealous of my strength on Mars. He thinks I want power on Mars. I do -not. Guantra is the one true leader of Mars. It was the guard who -crippled Hurlgut, the guard who did it.</p> - -<p>"The guard did it.</p> - -<p>"The guard."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha lay back in his cushions, muttering. The room grew silent once -again. Then—</p> - -<p>"Kortha!"</p> - -<p>"I hear."</p> - -<p>"Tell me of your life, Kortha. All of it. All the deeds of childhood, -all the incidents. Tell me of your youth and manhood. Speak to me and -tell me."</p> - -<p>Kortha spoke for hours while the voice listened. When he had done, -the voice whispered once again, and its sound flitted through the -arras-hung room, susurrating eerily.</p> - -<p>"Your childhood pattern fits into section j-2364-k7. Therefore the -treatment will be relayed over into that pattern, with emphasis on -friendship."</p> - -<p>If Kortha had been awake, he would have heard the click of tiny wheels, -the metallic rustle of machinery, the flick of a needle of compressed -air on a metal filament. The drapes helped deaden those sounds, and -Kortha slept on.</p> - -<p>"Kortha, listen. When you came from Fraysia to be a student at the -Academy. You remember that first day when you met—Guantra?"</p> - -<p>No, it had not been Guantra. It had been Hurlgut whom he'd met, there -on the white walk. Or had it really been Guantra? Was his memory that -bad? Guantra standing before him, smiling at him, putting a friendly -hand on his big arm and saying, "You look like officer material. Come -with me. I'd like to see you fence. You have the build for it."</p> - -<p>And it was Guantra, not Hurlgut, who stood with him, awed at the magic -in the lightning parry and thrust of the sword in his hand. He had -defeated Mayram the champion that afternoon as Guantra looked on. -Beaten him with a glittering sword in his hand and a fire in his green -eyes and dancing joy in his heart.</p> - -<p>He told Hurlgut—no, Guantra! about it afterward in his rooms; how -his father had had him taught by Eric MacCormac the American, who was -tri-planet champion in all three weapons: foil, sabre and epee. And -Guantra listened, pleased.</p> - -<p>The voice went on, whispering softly, speaking to him, lifting from -his memory the threads of recollection, removing the very fibre of -his character, as a mason lifts old tile to lay the new. Bit after -glittering bit of fact was slipped in to take the place of memory. Fact -that was so plausible it became the truth.</p> - -<p>It was Guantra who had given him his first engineering chance, -in letting him charge and electrolize the bastion of cliffworks -surrounding radio-city Ruuzol. With cables and generators, he had made -those mountain ridges of solid metals the sounding board for a spacevox -system that was first in the solar system. Kortha had done a great job -on that, thanks to Guantra. Later, there were other triumphs. Then—</p> - -<p>"You fled to the desert to escape Ilse. She sought after you, trying to -enmesh you in her charms. All the time you knew she was the chosen of -Guantra. Guantra loves her.</p> - -<p>"Guantra is your friend. You would not steal the woman of a friend.</p> - -<p>"You gave her up. You ran from her, hoping to lose yourself in the -desert, thinking Ilse would forget...."</p> - -<p>Kortha stirred restlessly, but relaxed. He listened, absorbed.</p> - -<p>"Ilse found you in your smithy. You wanted to find Guantra to get his -advice, so you went to Yassa. Hurlgut sent men to kill you. You slew -them instead, and fled again. Ilse came to tempt you, but you were -saved by Guantra. He sent Ilse away, and brought you to safety."</p> - -<p>Kortha sighed softly.</p> - -<p>"Guantra is your friend, Kortha. The two of you might easily rule Mars. -Two friends to lead Mars to its rightful place among the planets. You -and Guantra. True friends...."</p> - -<p>Kortha whispered, "Guantra is my friend. Ilse is a wanton seeking my -love. Hurlgut hates me, for Hurlgut is jealous."</p> - -<p>"That is correct. Now repeat all that I have told you, after me."</p> - -<p>Their voices susurrated in the draped room. Their voices fled from wall -to wall, and sank into oblivion. The candle that marked the hours and -the days burned lower. Only the voices lived, and the teeming brain of -Kortha that was taught by an unsleeping, patient, mechanical teacher.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>It was still in the room when Kortha woke. He stared around, wondering. -Of course! Guantra had brought him here to seek repose. He chuckled. -You'd think he was a baby, the way Guantra humored him. Always giving -him the best. Well, that was the way of a friend for you. He clambered -to his feet and rubbed his arms with his big, brown hands. The candle -was spluttering in its golden socket. Kortha frowned. That candle had -burned for three days!</p> - -<p>He must have been tired. He recalled it had been a new candle when -Guantra had shown him into this room. There had been some question -of his sleeping and leaving? No, that could not be. He would have no -reason to leave Guantra, now. But he must have been very tired. Three -days asleep!</p> - -<p>Kortha searched among the drapes, seeking an exit. He found a tiny, -moon-shaped door opposite his couch. It opened creakily under his palm, -and he stepped into a tunnel. Lights switched on as though by the heat -of his body. He walked slowly, frowning. He did not remember this -passageway at all.</p> - -<p>Water lapped at rock ahead of him. He was puzzled. There were no large -bodies of water on Mars, unless there were subterranean seas that -topographers knew nothing of!</p> - -<p>He hurried forward; came to an abrupt stop, staring.</p> - -<p>An underground cave widened before his eyes. Throughout its shadowy -length, the haze that filled it was tinted blue, and the waters of -this undersurface ocean blazed like blue fire in its reflection. Azure -stalagmites thrust up gnarled arms and heads in eerie grotesqueries. -Ahead of him for mile after mile stretched that limpid sea. Here and -there a rock rose, wet and clammy, above its blue surface. Shadows -gloomed in the distance.</p> - -<p>Kortha fell to his knees at the edge of the stone floor, fascinated by -the water. He dipped a hand into it: felt it cool and soothing on his -flesh.</p> - -<p>Startled, he stared into its depths. There was something moving down -among those bluish fires, something white and strange. Something was -flashing through the water, swooping up toward his kneeling figure. -He saw white flesh and tossing hair. He saw flanks and breasts, and -churning legs.</p> - -<p>Her white hands and wrists broke water first. Then Ilse lifted her wet, -platinum hair and shook it, spraying drops. She put hands to his and -let him lift her to the ledge.</p> - -<p>"Xax showed me a way through the mountains that the tumblies used to -know, long ago. I hurried here, Kortha, to get you away before—"</p> - -<p>His green eyes were sullen, looking down at her. Ilse stopped her flow -of words, listening to him say, "Guantra will be glad to see you."</p> - -<p>Kortha thought: this is the wanton in all her seductive flesh. See how -the silver hair brushes her smooth shoulders, look how her legs are -straight and shapely; that red mouth is ripe for kisses, and those eyes -of blue are looking at me with love and affection.</p> - -<p>He turned his face away from her, staring down the long emptiness of -the sea cavern.</p> - -<p>Ilse put her hand to her open mouth, staring in horror at the big -man's averted face. Her throat quivered uncontrollably, but she choked -back the cry rising to utterance. Her wet hands found his and squeezed -desperately.</p> - -<p>"Oh, my darling! He's done it to you as I knew he would unless I -hurried. I thought I would be in time, but it was a hard trail up the -mountains. We had to go on foot. I'm too late, too late!"</p> - -<p>Kortha shoved her away from him roughly, snarling, "Save your -blandishments, Ilse. You won't find them helpful with me. You belong -to Guantra. I do not find you attractive."</p> - -<p>He lied, and he knew he lied. This white witch of a woman with the red -mouth and the blue eyes and the platinum hair was a draught to make -a statue hunger. Yet she was for Guantra. Well, Guantra deserved the -best. And yet....</p> - -<p>"You must come with me, Kortha. Hurlgut—"</p> - -<p>"Hurlgut is jealous of me. He slanders me. I have never given him cause -to do that. He claims I broke his back, but he does not tell the truth. -It was the guard, not I. The guard did it."</p> - -<p>Eyes closed, Ilse bowed her head. Her heart was a thing of lead in her -bosom. This mewling, complaining thing was Kortha! Kortha, who would -spit in the face of a living Zut if he angered him. She bit her lip -hard, and tasted the drops of blood that welled to the surface.</p> - -<p>She looked up. She said slowly, "We are going to surprise Guantra. You -see, if Guantra could learn that with you all Mars would be his friend, -he would like it. If he heard from your lips that you would back him as -Premier against Earth and Venus—"</p> - -<p>"Is there any doubt of that?"</p> - -<p>Ilse knew she had to feel her way here. Not knowing what Kortha had -been told, been made to believe in as truth, she must be wary; step -lightly in her speech, explore his knowledge with words.</p> - -<p>"Yes. When you ran away to the desert," she looked at him curiously and -breathed again when she saw him nod curtly, "there were some who said -that you and Guantra had a falling out. That you ran from him as a sort -of protest."</p> - -<p>Kortha laughed, looking at the girl, "That is ridiculous. <i>You</i> know -why I ran away. Because you wantoned after me. I ran away from you, -Ilse."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>So that was the reason Kortha had been given! Ilse held her eyes shut -tightly. Her left hand bit its long fingernails into the naked skin of -her flank. Pain! Pain would help to cancel the sodden ache in her heart.</p> - -<p>"Yes," she whispered. "I know. But Mars doesn't know that, and Mars has -to be told. If Mars could hear the truth from your lips—</p> - -<p>"Come with me to radio-city Ruuzol, Kortha. Broadcast to Mars. Be the -first to let the planet know you and Guantra are friends. You be the -first; you, his friend."</p> - -<p>Kortha nodded slowly. He felt Ilse's hands squeezing his.</p> - -<p>"It must be a secret, though. We can't let Guantra know, or the -surprise would be spoiled. You have to come with me."</p> - -<p>She saw his eyes light after a moment, and she knew she had won; -that he would go with her away from the Blue Grotto and its magical -machine that could steal men's minds from them and give them something -different in exchange. She turned, dove for the water.</p> - -<p>Kortha was beside her, sinking into the blue fire of water, dropping -down and down past coral growths and bannery weeds that slithered in -ripples as the currents wafted them to and fro. Following her threshing -legs, clinging to coral branches as did she, pulling himself along, -Kortha went under a ledge and rose swiftly in a tiny cave.</p> - -<p>Ilse said as she treaded water, "My 'copter is outside. It will take us -to Ruuzol."</p> - -<p>Ruuzol was the communication center of all Mars. A vast glassite -paraboloid was built on a flat mesa against a cliffside. It housed -vast turbines and generators, and the central controls, as well -as laboratories and rows of dwellings, where the men lived. A -fountain-dotted park gave the small city an air of leisure.</p> - -<p>Their 'copter swooped in over the flat plains surrounding the mesa, -casting its shadow from the high cliffs all around the plain out across -the flatlands, up onto the mesa sides.</p> - -<p>Flanking the great transparent paraboloid were the twin tubes, taller -than the dome itself, thrusting their glass-and-steel structures two -thousand feet into the air. At their tops, three metal planes were -inserted into their trunks; planes that were the secret of the Martian -radio beams, planes that sent the spacevox rocketing to Earth and -Venus, and the direct broadcasts out over the sandy wastes of Mars.</p> - -<p>Ilse flashed her 'copter past a tube and spiralled gracefully to one of -the white landing strips beyond the dome.</p> - -<p>They walked toward the paraboloid. Ilse showed credentials to the -guards at the entrance; then they were through and into the cool, -pleasant air of the paraboloid, moving on one of the glass walks.</p> - -<p>The harsh tones of the communicator sprang to speech around them: "The -princess Ilse. The princess Ilse. The Emperor desires speech. The -Emperor desires speech."</p> - -<p>Kortha muttered something under his breath, but Ilse pretended not to -hear him, saying, "It will only be a moment."</p> - -<p>They found Hurlgut propped in cushions, flushed and worried. His eyes -opened wide at sight of Kortha, and the worry fled.</p> - -<p>"Kortha!" he cried, putting out both hands, lifting a little where he -sat. "So Ilse did find you!"</p> - -<p>Ilse stepped to one side, offering prayers to Zut.</p> - -<p>Kortha looked at Hurlgut, saw him lying white and broken among the -striped pillows. He wanted to rage at this liar, at this mongerer -of scandal. He learned with a little surprise that he could not. If -Hurlgut wanted to blame him, let him. Kortha had never fought cripples -before. He would not begin now.</p> - -<p>"—so good to see you, man. Give me your hand. Give it to me, man! -There! Let me look at you. The same, the same. Big. Strong. Unbending. -Mars' only hope. I need you, Kortha. Guantra has but now concluded -speaking on the radio beams. He knows you fled from him, came here. He -traced you in that cosmiclarifier of his."</p> - -<p>Kortha remembered the black screen in the flagship stateroom.</p> - -<p>"Guantra will be surprised when I broadcast. Eh, Ilse?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," whispered Ilse.</p> - -<p>Hurlgut looked surprised, exclaiming, "Why, Guantra will not let you -broadcast, Kortha. He will destroy Ruuzol first. He threatened to, in -fact."</p> - -<p>"But he can't. Not until I've made my speech to Mars, told them how he -and I will unite—"</p> - -<p>Ilse touched her temple and her heart, looking at Hurlgut, nodding -toward Kortha. Then Kortha was whirling on her, saying, "Get me to a -magnifone. I'll speak to Guantra's ship, tell him what I intend to do. -The surprise is off, Ilse—but the speech can still be made!"</p> - -<p>Suddenly Kortha swayed a little. He put a hand to his forehead. This -was all wrong! Ilse and Hurlgut were his friends! No, no. It was -Guantra who was his friend. Guantra has always befriended me. He gave -me my start. It is with him that my fortune lies. I must tell him so.</p> - -<p><i>But Ilse?</i></p> - -<p>Look at her, man. Look at her blue eyes again. They are so serious, so -sad, as she watches you. There is naught of the wanton there. A wanton -would laugh and giggle and be gay. Instead there is yearning and sorrow -and love in her eyes as she regards you.</p> - -<p><i>And Hurlgut?</i></p> - -<p>He lay helpless in his cushions, unable to move below the waist. He -looked at Kortha, too, and there was pity in his eyes. Kortha did not -fight with men who could not walk to meet him. Did Guantra? He had the -sharp, hard conviction that he must know the answer to that. It might -help him decide incongruities.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha sighed. He wished that he could solve this enigma that turned -him inside-out in puzzlement. He found himself liking Ilse and Hurlgut, -even knowing what he did to them; and learned he was close to hating -Guantra. Guantra had the power. Hurlgut was a cripple, and Ilse a girl. -Could Guantra fight them with the armies and the fleets of Mars, and -still hold his head high? Could—he?</p> - -<p>Ilse stood at the open door, watching him. Kortha realized she had -been standing there for minutes, as he had thought. He scowled, and -muttered, "Get me to the magnifone. I'll speak to Guantra."</p> - -<p>Following Ilse to the lift, Kortha brooded at her.</p> - -<p>Zut, but she was lovely! If only she were not the wanton he knew her -for. And yet—always that ... and yet! And yet, there was nothing of -the wanton about her. The perfume from her fur bolero floated around -them in the lift. It reminded him of things, that perfume: of memories -that were stored so deeply in his subconscious that he had completely -forgotten them. Kisses over the canals in a drifting 'coptondola. An -Academy dance with Ilse wearing a black, filmy thing that made the blue -of her eyes and the silver hair weirdly beautiful. And those nights -when they had eaten cold fruit and drank of iced <i>bessa</i>-mead in the -palace gardens near colored-water fountains, before he had—before the -guard had crippled Hurlgut.</p> - -<p>He could not square remembered happiness with other memories. There was -a leak somewhere. He had to learn more—</p> - -<p>"Ilse," he said.</p> - -<p>The lift was opening and the girl was going down the corridor. Kortha -shrugged and followed her. He was probably mistaken. Those memories -were the overflow from a forgotten dream.</p> - -<p>In the big control room he stood watching Ilse punch buttons. A -beam-man stared at him from a corner panel-slot. Let him look. The -name of Kortha was legendary on Mars. He heard Ilse saying, "Guantra. -Guantra!" into a fine-meshed magnifone.</p> - -<p>The screen above the panelling came alive with the Premier's sneering, -point-bearded face; and his voice was harsh, cold.</p> - -<p>"So. You got to Kortha before me, Ilse. It is too bad. I would like to -know whether—let me speak to him."</p> - -<p>Kortha stared up at Guantra's scowling face. The man was worried. The -way his tongue licked unceasingly at his thin lips, the hands tugging -at the crested metal buckle of his belt, the creases around his -narrowed eyes: they were signal flares pointing his anxiety. There was -something bothering Guantra, too, even as it bothered him.</p> - -<p>What was it? Kortha had to know. Kortha sucked in his breath, realizing -that the duel was between him and Guantra. Each had knowledge, and -they had to trade to know where they stood. Guantra wanted to be sure -of what? Of his friendship? But—why? He himself sought to test that -elusive memory of his. It told him Ilse was wanton and Hurlgut a -danger; but his senses belittled that memory.</p> - -<p>Perhaps Guantra could be persuaded to give him the knowledge he sought. -He put Ilse aside, placed mouth to the magnifone.</p> - -<p>"Kortha on the beam, Guantra. Tell me something. Am I your friend, -Guantra?"</p> - -<p>The man with the jutting beard licked at his lips for a split second, -but it was long enough. Kortha knew now that Guantra <i>did not know</i>! -That meant that his senses might be right, after all; that his memory -was wrong. And if his memory were wrong, then Ilse and Hurlgut were not -what he thought them.</p> - -<p>He listened to Guantra bluster, calling out to him to recall and act on -their old friendship. Smiling grimly, he leaned closer to the image on -the screen. Test him, Kortha!</p> - -<p>"Let me broadcast to all Mars, Guantra. Let me tell Mars that we are -friends."</p> - -<p>"No," said Guantra swiftly. "That would not be politic right now. -Better that you and I should meet, Kortha. Come aboard my flagship."</p> - -<p>Afraid of what he might say, the Premier would not let him speak to -Mars. Kortha wanted to know the reason why Guantra doubted their -friendship. Looking at the cold austerity, the pride and ambition -of the man as marked in the lines of his face and the manner of his -bearing, Kortha rather thought the reason was not Ilse. A man like -Guantra would not bother so about a woman.</p> - -<p>"I will broadcast, Guantra," Kortha said slowly.</p> - -<p>"No. I will have to stop that, my friend. I cannot allow it, until I -have seen and spoken with you, face to face. I am coming in for you -now."</p> - -<p>They saw the Premier reach out and break connection.</p> - -<p>Kortha looked at the blank screen; he whirled on Ilse, and his big -hands went out to catch her by the shoulders and bring her up close to -him.</p> - -<p>He said savagely, "Tell me! Tell me what I don't know. Why has Guantra -turned against me? Why does he doubt my friendship? It can't be over -you. He is not the man to endanger his power for a woman. What is his -reason?"</p> - -<p>Her blue eyes were unafraid. She said, "Guantra was never your friend. -I dared not tell you before, but I can now because you have doubts of -what your memory tells you. You saw how indecisive he was. He does not -know whether his psychoanalyser in the Blue Grotto had time to change -you. I got you out of there before he knew, before he had seen and -spoken with you."</p> - -<p>The giant released her; ran fingers that shook a little through the -thick mop of his yellow hair, frowning.</p> - -<p>"I don't understand. What psychoanalyser? What Blue Grotto? Wait—I -remember the grotto, with the blue sea. But the rest is strange to me."</p> - -<p>"And the room fitted with drapes? The couch with the ocemar pelts?"</p> - -<p>"I slept there."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She told him then, hurriedly: of how the psychoanalyser was one of the -machines Guantra had taken from the tower of Zut in Yassa and set it up -in his hidden lair, and how he used it to turn key men into his friends -by giving them new memories that were so closely linked with their -old that rarely were they so much as hesitant about them. Only Kortha -doubted, and that was because Ilse had come to him before Guantra. She -picked up the thread of his life at the smithy in the desert and went -on with it.</p> - -<p>Once he interrupted, with, "But it was Hurlgut who sent men to kill me -in the tower of Zut?"</p> - -<p>Ilse scorned that, "Hurlgut send men? Who on Mars would serve a cripple -when Guantra rules the fleets? Would Hurlgut hide in Ruuzol if he could -put his banners in the air?"</p> - -<p>When she was through, he whispered through stiff lips, "This -psychoanalyser. It changes men, then?"</p> - -<p>"Guantra changed several men in council positions with it. He needed -their support. He got it. It can make a brave man a craven; or a -coward, a hero. It was built by the Ancients, who understood the mind -as well as other sciences. They realized that the memory cells that -govern many of our habits and thoughts could be altered by hypnotically -suggested alterations. They built a machine that would do that. We -learned of it, but could never do anything about it. People would have -laughed, said we fought Guantra with myths."</p> - -<p>Kortha growled, "I'm still not sure. But I'll fight Guantra until I can -make up my own mind!"</p> - -<p>Ilse's lips twitched wryly. Her shoulders sagged a little as she leaned -against a table, looking up at him.</p> - -<p>"Fight Guantra? Here in Ruuzol? You are mad, Kortha. There isn't a -single gun in Ruuzol. No weaponry of any sort. It can't defend itself; -was never intended to. This mesa is one mass of radio laboratories and -generators, tubes and condensors."</p> - -<p>No weapon. No gun. Just a lot of magnifones, and words never killed -anybody yet. Kortha bared his teeth in a silent snarl.</p> - -<p>"I'll broadcast before he can stop me. Let him fire on us, then!"</p> - -<p>"No. He won't fire, not yet. Have you forgotten the lightning guns? -They will cripple all our power. We couldn't broadcast past those metal -mountains without power."</p> - -<p>The lightning guns. Kortha came up short on that. He cursed softly, -brows furrowed. Aye, he remembered the lightning guns, psychoanalyser -or no psychoanalyser! With them it would be as Ilse said. Guantra would -break their power; land men, and take over the city.</p> - -<p>"The laboratories," he grated. "Get me to your laboratories. There may -still be a way to stop those lightning guns."</p> - -<p>Ilse looked at him; gasped suddenly at the old, flaring lights in his -green eyes. She laughed softly, gladly, and turned and ran ahead of him.</p> - -<p>The ceiling lights were blue and bright, flooding the long laboratory -chambers where chrome and steelite glistened and glass fittings -refracted rainbows of color against the scalloped walls. Black, short -shadows flickered where men stood at their places, staring.</p> - -<p>"This is Kortha," said Ilse, head flung back, eyes blazing with azure -fire. "If anyone can stop Guantra, he can."</p> - -<p>A sullen giant hulked forward from a bench, arms dangling, scowling, -"Surrender to him, <i>I</i> say. We have no chance against the fleet. The -rest of you—Guantra has no fight with us. Why do we do what one girl -and one man tell us?"</p> - -<p>Kortha uncoiled, springing. His fist shot out like a flatheaded piston, -cracking the sullen man on the jaw. The <i>splat</i> of the blow was loud in -the silence broken only by the brrring of the ceiling reflectors lazily -rotating.</p> - -<p>Over the body of the unconscious man, Kortha snarled, "Anyone else -advise surrender?"</p> - -<p>They looked at him, and dropped their eyes. Heads shook.</p> - -<p>"Good. Get me blueprint papers, and diagrams of your ultraviolet -radiator batteries. I want relayed batteries set up, and I must know -how many I have to work with."</p> - -<p>Ilse saw hope struggling for place in the eyes of the men as they -looked at Kortha. She laughed gaily, putting a hand on the big man's -arm, saying loudly, "This is Kortha. I told you. He can pull miracles -out of a hole in space!"</p> - -<p>Feet pounded on the linoleotile flooring. Drawers opened, banged shut; -glass cabinets clinked faintly, and papers rustled. Ilse stood against -Kortha, touching him, smiling wryly.</p> - -<p>"Only your name could make them hop like that against the power that -is Guantra. They're all loyal, but practical. They know to an iotagram -what chance Hurlgut has!"</p> - -<p>"He has a good chance," growled Kortha. He did not look at her. He did -not dare: she was too lovely, with her blue eyes and platinum hair, and -the kissable mouth. He had not decided yet, and wanted his reason to -figure this out, not his emotions.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The men came and spread their diagrams and date-sheets and charts -before him. His keen eyes flicked back and forth, ran down columns, -studied hook-ups and relays.</p> - -<p>"These batteries," he said suddenly, pointing. "Shift them there. These -others, over to this spot. Move those back, arrange them in arcs. They -must be distributed evenly around Ruuzol. Here, I'll work it out for -you."</p> - -<p>He sketched quickly. With T-square and calipers he strove for -arrangements on the blueprints, and succeeded. The engineers and -physicists looked at his work and up at him, puzzled. Kortha snorted.</p> - -<p>"The batteries will furnish ultraviolet rays, won't they? In the -patterns we set by grouping them like this?"</p> - -<p>A young engineer nodded dubiously.</p> - -<p>"Yes, but—"</p> - -<p>Kortha rasped an oath, stood up.</p> - -<p>"Do what I say. I'll explain to you later, when I bring the final -distribution sheets to you. You'll have to follow my instructions to -the letter. The radiator batteries must be set so, to make a pattern -thus. Any deviation will result in disaster. Hurry!"</p> - -<p>Up in the control tower the red light was flickering. Kortha allowed -himself a smile. The ultraviolet batteries were in place, needing only -a fingerpress on a button beneath his hand to fire them. He looked up -at the flagship maneuvering in circles above the dome. They were ready -up there now.</p> - -<p>Kortha depressed the button, and laughed.</p> - -<p>An instant later, white fires burst from the guns of the flagship, -flaring zigzags that darted toward the upright tubes on either side of -the paraboloid. The metal planes would draw that lightning; it would -sear them, crack them, erupt into thunderous cascades of escaping -power—</p> - -<p>The lightnings never touched their target.</p> - -<p>As though an invisible mantle of veins were spread above the radio -city, the lightnings sprayed away, following the veins, grounding in -showers of tiny sparks on the plains below. They made eerie traceries -of light over the city as the guns spouted lightning again and again. -The glassite dome was bathed in a white, luminescent glow from the nets -of meshed zigzags in the air above it, that ran in streaks of jagged -white fire all around the city.</p> - -<p>And always the lightnings grounded on the plains. The city lay -untouched.</p> - -<p>Kortha chuckled. He laughed aloud. He bellowed his mirth, slapping a -thigh with his big hand, yelping, "A million <i>kofuls</i> to see Guantra's -face I'd give right now. He must be swallowing his tongue in rage. -I'll bet he's hopping. He doesn't know what I've done. He thinks I'm a -magician!"</p> - -<p>"A lot of other people think the same thing," said Ilse dryly. -"Including myself. And those engineers! They'll be sweating their -curiosity, now that they see how your diagrams are working. They -pestered me with questions, but I couldn't answer them."</p> - -<p>"Summon them," grinned Kortha.</p> - -<p>When they stood silent before him, he laughed them into smiles. One of -them echoed his laughter, and then they all were bellowing.</p> - -<p>Kortha said when they were wiping tears of delight from their eyes, -"Lightning follows a pattern through the air, doesn't it? It follows -beams of ionized air that are everywhere. Those ionized air beams flow -down to Ruuzol, too. The only way to stop lightning from hitting us was -to form other ionized air currents that lead it away from us."</p> - -<p>A man with beaming face shouted, "Ultraviolet rays ionize air!"</p> - -<p>"All we needed to do was set the batteries of radiators up in such -a sequence that the lightning followed the ionized air beams they -created. We made our own air currents and naturally the lightning had -to follow them. It couldn't get past them!"</p> - -<p>The cheer that rang in the room dropped to a hush as the screen glowed -with Guantra's snarling face.</p> - -<p>"You've won this round, Kortha. But I'm bringing the fleet here. We'll -see if you can work magic against belching guns. However, your evil -genius can plan, it can't work miracles all the time. You—you imp of -Zut's black brother, you!"</p> - -<p>Kortha laughed in his face.</p> - -<p>The screen went dead.</p> - -<p>The engineers went dead, too, until Kortha sent his booming laugh out -at them, shouting, "Let him bring his fleet. It's the showdown fight -we want. Let him come to us. I've an ace up my sleeve that I haven't -played yet. Why, if Earth and Venus were to send their space fleets -here with Guantra, we'd still win!"</p> - -<p>The men did not believe that, but they shuffled their feet, uncertain. -It is hard to doubt a man who has just performed a miracle that your -own eyes have seen. There is always that lurking thought that he might -pull another, too.</p> - -<p>Ilse said, "We have no guns on Ruuzol."</p> - -<p>"This whole city is a gun," said Kortha, and laughed again.</p> - -<p>His mirth was infectious. The engineers grinned and looked at each -other and laughed a little. They hadn't the slightest notion of why -Kortha laughed, or why they grinned, but no one could resist such a -magnificent confidence in a city that was without a weapon, and yet a -gun all by itself.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Kortha spread his hands, asking, "This is a radio-city, isn't it? It -has every science necessary to perfect radio technique, hasn't it? Get -me Xax! He and I have work to do."</p> - -<p>The tumblie shrilled a greeting, passing the engineers leaving the -room. He rolled across to the bronzed giant, clicking his needles, -eager, curious. Kortha grinned at him, dropped to a knee to speak to -him.</p> - -<p>"You are the only one in all Ruuzol who can do this job, Xax. Any other -who left here would be shot by the guards Guantra will post before he -goes. It's up to you. Will you help me fight Guantra? I won't blame you -if you refuse."</p> - -<p>"Tell me what you want me to do," said Xax simply. "You waste time, -talking nonsense."</p> - -<p>Kortha took Xax to the tower window and showed him the red cliffs that -rose all around Ruuzol, towering toward the sky.</p> - -<p>"Years ago, when I first came to Ruuzol from the Academy, I sank cables -into the metal of those cliffs. I laid them underground to the mesa, -here. I connected their vast bulk with the generators and tube relays -of the city. I have to know if those cables are still attached. You can -tell me. I shall let you know what tests to apply in the tiny caves -where the cable-controls are sunk. You can perform those tests with you -feelers, Xax."</p> - -<p>"What tests, Kortha?"</p> - -<p>The giant told him, repeating himself for emphasis. But the tumblie -understood, and said so. Kortha watched him click-roll out of the -tower, and rose, sighing.</p> - -<p>To Ilse he said, "Let's go back to the laboratories again. I'll need -to make more diagrams. Get the engineers to meet me. They'll have to -change cable terminals and install them on a different hookup."</p> - -<p>Down in the laboratories, Ilse sat for hours, watching Kortha as he -labored over charts and graphs, often without moving more than hands -and eyes for an hour at a stretch. When he was done, he stood up and -stretched like a waking tiger. He grinned, and handed the graphs to her.</p> - -<p>Her eyes widened, looking down.</p> - -<p>"Why, this is just—" she looked up, startled, beginning to smile.</p> - -<p>"Something any modern housewife knows," he agreed. He laughed and said, -"Guantra will call it more magic."</p> - -<p>"It is magic," Ilse said softly. "It is the magic of your brain that -can think of something like this at a time like this."</p> - -<p>"Bah," chuckled Kortha, but he tingled meeting her eyes.</p> - -<p>Hours later, the western sky grew dark with warships.</p> - -<p>Kortha and Ilse stood once more in the tower over the paraboloid city, -their arms touching. Before Kortha lay a white metal box with a red -enamel switch disappearing inside it.</p> - -<p>They watched the mighty battlefliers loom sullen and black above the -coppery cliffs, pointing their blunt noses downward, dropping one after -the other from the blue sky into the reddish plains below. They came -swiftly, in perfect echelon, masts flying the black panther banner of -Guantra. Their gunports lay open, the lean metal nozzles of their guns -glistening in the sunlight.</p> - -<p>"Zut," whispered Ilse. "Guantra compliments you. He has stripped all of -Mars to capture you."</p> - -<p>Xax said dryly, "The legend of Kortha is more than a legend, it seems."</p> - -<p>"To destroy that fleet would cripple Mars for a decade," Kortha -whispered. "I couldn't do it, unless I was sure that the stakes we -fight for are worth it."</p> - -<p>"We fight for Mars," said Ilse.</p> - -<p>"Yes. Yes, I begin to believe that. When one man is so powerful he -can do with a warfleet what he will, to achieve his own personal -ambitions—"</p> - -<p>They stood silent, watching the fleets come black across the skies.</p> - -<p>"I can give them a taste of what they're going to get unless Guantra -surrenders," said Kortha. "I needn't kill them all. Just cause a -few—ah—explosions."</p> - -<p>"Guantra will never surrender."</p> - -<p>"His men will make him. They will realize I hold the trump cards in -this little game."</p> - -<p>The fleets came in unhurriedly, majestically.</p> - -<p>Aboard each flier was purposeful order as men ran across clean decks, -stood warily at battle-stations, swarmed into the upper shrouds with -small-arms. A few broadsides from those cannon would reduce Ruuzol to -smoldering ruins.</p> - -<p>"Now?" whispered Ilse through wet lips.</p> - -<p>"No. Not yet. I want them all within range."</p> - -<p>Minutes eked along, slowly. Now the ships were prow to bow, circling -the mesa. Ilse shuddered, looking at the empty holes in the -gun-muzzles. She licked her lips and found her tongue dry as the dust -of the Yassan Desert.</p> - -<p>"Now!" said Kortha, and his hand flashed out, and the red lever swung -over, hard.</p> - -<p>It stayed over for short seconds....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ships and guns exploded in the air as they wheeled around Ruuzol. Vast -red flares sprang to life amid deafening detonations. Metal buckled -and split. Powder charges sloughed upward and outward, carrying men -and equipment with it in a crimson spray of destruction. The exploding -magazines burst open the fliers, twisting and rending the metal hulls, -ripping jagged holes, lifting off entire deck sections, sending men and -railings into the air.</p> - -<p>Crimson ruin rained on the red plains.</p> - -<p>Ilse whimpered, watching.</p> - -<p>Kortha swung the red lever back, panting harshly.</p> - -<p>"There goes the Mars you built," sobbed Ilse.</p> - -<p>"We can rebuild ships," said Kortha. "Some men will die, but not all, -as would happen had I let the switch stay on a while longer. Those men -will build and man new ships, for a new Mars. Had I left the switch -on too long, not a living thing would exist between Ruuzol and those -cliffs."</p> - -<p>Kortha chuckled a little, seeing distress and surrender flags break -from the masts of every ship in the vast flotilla. Even Guantra's -flagship fluttered the white pennon.</p> - -<p>"Send Guantra to us in unconditional surrender. Radio every flier that -unless Guantra yields, we'll kill them all. We won't have to make good -that pledge, though. The men and the commanders out there are limp -with amazement, and fright of the unknown. They don't know what weapon -we use. They thought themselves so secure from reprisal, you see. The -unexpected will make cravens of them, for the moment. Oh, yes. And tell -Guantra and his men to come unarmed. We in Ruuzol don't own a single -gun."</p> - -<p>Minutes later a tiny flier broke from the flagship and dropped toward -the landing strips on the mesa. Kortha still had his hand on the red -lever, watching every vessel that hung motionless in the air above the -plain. But there was no fight in any of them. Kortha was right. The -sudden destruction that had leaped from the very silence around them -had sapped aggressiveness.</p> - -<p>Kortha had made his name spell magic once again.</p> - -<p>Guantra was a beaten man. As he stepped into the glassite tower, his -cheeks were sunken, his eyes hollow above blackish rings. He stumbled -over the threshold, and kept licking his lips helplessly. When Ilse saw -his eyes, she knew suddenly what an enemy Kortha was. From the eyes of -Guantra came the look that a slave might cast to an adored idol that -came to life, and thundered curses on him. Guantra looked at Kortha as -though he expected fire to shoot from his mouth and devour him.</p> - -<p>Kortha grinned, "I told you you would never beat me, Guantra. Are we -friends again?"</p> - -<p>"Friends?" screamed the Premier, a white froth at the corners of his -thin mouth. "You and I were never friends. We were always enemies. We -were destined by fate to fight. And you—by some unknown magic you -always win. You turn defeat to overwhelming victory. Always. It isn't -fair to other men. Are you Zut himself? But now—now that you have -won—taste what it feels like to—lose!"</p> - -<p>From the depths of his despair, Guantra acted. His hand went to his -tunic, lifted out with a heatgun in it.</p> - -<p>His officers cried out at his treachery.</p> - -<p>Kortha came in low, ducking under the sizzling blast that burnt black -splotches on the white fur of his jacket. His left fist arced up, -sending the heatgun from the numbed hand of the Premier. His right hand -came across in a blur of motion: struck like a piston against Guantra's -jaw. His fist whipped the man's head up and back, making the hair fly -like seafoam striking a rock.</p> - -<p>The crack of the neck breaking under the titanic power of the blow was -etched against a frightened stillness.</p> - -<p>Ilse and the officers stared at the crumpling form of the Premier whose -knees sagged, lowering his body gently to the floor. His head hung at a -sick angle from his limp neck.</p> - -<p>Across the fallen body, Kortha looked at the white-faced officers. One -of them extended his hands, palms down, saying, "Search us, Kortha. We -came in peace."</p> - -<p>Kortha grinned again and waved a brown hand.</p> - -<p>"My fight was with Guantra. I thought he was my friend. Perhaps one of -you can tell me about—the Blue Grotto?"</p> - -<p>They were all of them men from Guantra's flagship. Eagerly their mouths -spilled words, reciting the tale Ilse already had told him. Kortha -stared down at Guantra, grim-faced, silent. He sighed once when they -were finished, and looked at Ilse.</p> - -<p>"And I never knew," he said to her softly.</p> - -<p>He spoke to the officers, "It was true, then. Guantra is and has been -my enemy, and the enemy of all Mars. I am glad to know that." And he -rubbed his right fist thoughtfully.</p> - -<p>"Can you find it in your heart to forgive a fool?" he asked of Ilse.</p> - -<p>There were tears in her eyes. She stumbled forward, was caught and -crushed tight against him. His lips drank from hers, thirstily.</p> - -<p>The officers moved their feet, embarrassed. Kortha looked at them -across Ilse's platinum hair, and laughed.</p> - -<p>"You'll forgive me a moment's humanity," he said. "There are no terms -to give you. I am returning to the council. From here on out, Mars will -take her place beside Earth and Venus. <i>This</i> time they won't back out -of their agreements."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The officers grinned at each other, wanting to yell their delight. They -had known Kortha in the old days. One of them stepped ahead, hesitantly.</p> - -<p>"We—ah—we are very curious, Kortha. The way in which you beat us, -that is. There were no guns in Ruuzol. There was no way to beat us. You -could not defeat us. Yet you did. When the explosions began, Guantra -went a little mad. He called you 'brood of Zut.' Frankly, a lot of us -thought there was something supernatural about it, too. As a matter of -fact I still do, and so do the rest of us."</p> - -<p>Kortha grinned at them, saying, "As a matter of fact, you have the same -weapon I used aboard the flagship. Aboard every ship in the fleet, for -that matter."</p> - -<p>They looked at him, and their eyes bulged.</p> - -<p>Kortha walked hand in hand with Ilse toward a cabinet inset in the -tower wall. The officers came to stand around him in a semi-circle, -watching him bring forth a small box fitted with a row of electronic -tubes and cables fitted to two plates.</p> - -<p>"It looks like a radio set," said one of the officers.</p> - -<p>"It is," replied Kortha. "Except that it sends a stream of high -frequency waves back and forth between those plates, instead of a voice -into space. It internally induces heat into an object placed between -the plates."</p> - -<p>Kortha took an iron bar and set it on the lower plate. He turned -switches, looking down. Almost instantly the bar glowed faintly red, -then waxed brighter and brighter. From brilliant crimson, it turned -white with heat. Kortha flipped the current off.</p> - -<p>"The electronic tubes shoot a flow of high frequency waves between the -plates."</p> - -<p>"But that's ancient," protested an officer. "We cook that way on -board—"</p> - -<p>He broke off, eyes widening. He managed a sickly grin.</p> - -<p>Kortha said, "I know it. I ate a meal cooked that way on the flagship. -Housewives cook this way all over the three planets. You see, I am no -magician after all. That's what I did to your ships. My two plates were -charged cliffsides and the mesa. From the batteries of giant electronic -tubes in Ruuzol, I spread those waves back and forth, caught your ships -in their flow as food is caught, or as the iron bar. The high heat -that was produced internally exploded every powder magazine and bit -of gunpowder on your vessels. It literally blew them up from inside. -That's why it was so swift and sudden, so silent."</p> - -<p>One of the officers shuddered spasmodically, whispering, "If you'd left -the power on still longer, you'd have cooked every one of us alive."</p> - -<p>Kortha looked at him. One of the younger men looked sick. He turned -away.</p> - -<p>"You were generous," exclaimed an older officer. "In your place—"</p> - -<p>"You men are part of Mars. My quarrel was not with you. I need you, -to build Mars up again, to make her one with Earth, one with Venus. -We must unite the clans, make the Confederacy strong as ever. Then we -shall send deputies to Earth and Venus.</p> - -<p>"I rather think that this time they shall listen to us."</p> - -<p>He said again, "Go to your ships. Have them refitted and repaired. Then -return for me, two weeks from today."</p> - -<p>The officers bowed and departed.</p> - -<p>Ilse stirred in Kortha's arm, looking up at him.</p> - -<p>"Two weeks?" she whispered.</p> - -<p>"You and I are returning to the Blue Grotto. After I get my real -personality back—minus my red-hot temper—we will return to Ruuzol."</p> - -<p>His hands drew her to him.</p> - -<p>"Two weeks is a short honeymoon, but for an old hermit like me it will -be an eternity of happiness!"</p> - -<p>Their lips met avidly, as the shadows of the departing fliers flickered -one by one across their bodies, and disappeared over the horizon.</p> - -<p>Across the empty red plains of Ruuzol rolled a tumblie. Xax was going -home.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> -</div> - - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Engines of the Gods, by Gardner F. 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Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - - - -</pre> - -</body> -</html> diff --git a/old/63786-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/63786-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index e183944..0000000 --- a/old/63786-h/images/cover.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63786-h/images/illus1.jpg b/old/63786-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 939d554..0000000 --- a/old/63786-h/images/illus1.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63786-h/images/illus2.jpg b/old/63786-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index d3d847c..0000000 --- a/old/63786-h/images/illus2.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63786-h/images/illus3.jpg b/old/63786-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 2896ac4..0000000 --- a/old/63786-h/images/illus3.jpg +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63786.txt b/old/63786.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2945b35..0000000 --- a/old/63786.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2837 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Engines of the Gods, by Gardner F. Fox - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Engines of the Gods - -Author: Gardner F. Fox - -Release Date: November 17, 2020 [EBook #63786] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGINES OF THE GODS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - ENGINES of the GODS - - By GARDNER F. FOX - - The engine was the wealth of Mars. With it Kortha - could save his people ... or the evil Guantra - could rule the Universe. But neither could use - the machine until its secret was solved--so - they fought and schemed for the knowledge, and - their planet lay on the brink of destruction. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Spring 1946. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Kortha the smith brooded out over the great red waste of desert. Men -said Kortha was a genius. Men said he was the biggest man on Mars, and -strong as an anthropoid ape. But Kortha brooded, because Kortha was a -coward. - -He was not afraid for himself. He was afraid _of_ himself. - -He looked at his sun-bronzed, hamlike hands, and shuddered; glistening -beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. With those hands he had killed -men, and had crippled his best friend for life. - -Behind him gleamed the red _utta_-brick smithy and his small shack, -and the tiny structure he called his laboratory. Swinging on his heel, -he went away from the desert and into the smithy. He made the bellows -leap, and the red flames spurt from the furnace. With the tongs he -lifted a white-hot strip of metal and pounded on it with a sledge that -an ordinary man would have found immovable. - -In the clang and dance of hammer on anvil, he lost himself; listened -only to the mad symphony of beaten metal instead of the still, -small voices of his soul. The din of smitten steel jangling on the -sootblacked anvil was the music that helped the giant forget his heart. -His eyes gleamed red from the smarting flames, and he peered into their -depths with green eyes wide and angry as though he beheld a corner of -some lost hell. - -He did not hear the muffled thunder of the 'copter that swung in a -circle above his shack and swooped downward to dig its tires into the -yielding sands. He did not see the door open, and who came out. - -"Kortha," said a voice like a song. - -He started then; looked up, brows furrowed. His eyes opened a trifle in -astonishment. - -"Ilse!" he whispered. The hammer fell from his grasp and bounced on the -brick floor. - -The girl with the hair like spun flax laughed softly and leaned against -the wooden door. A white cloak clasped with a fiery ruby draped her -shoulders. She wore gauze trousers with broad leather belt studded with -jewels, and a bolero of _arket_-fur. Her white midriff was bare. - -"You ran away, Kortha," she accused, her dark eyes gleaming like uncut -sapphires from the tanned oval of her face. "You ran away from Hurlgut -when he needed you. It took me a long time to learn where you had -holed." - -"Three years," said Kortha softly, wiping grimy hands on the white fur -that clasped his hard loins beneath the leathern apron. - -The girl ran her eyes over his massive frame in approval; saw shoulders -a yard wide, and a chest and legs that were ridged in muscles. His long -arms, tanned by years of exposure to a desert sun, were those of a -king gorilla. She had seen Kortha snap an iron chain with those arms; -had seen him break a man's back, and other things. Well did Ilse know -the strength of Kortha, and the fact that she carried a heatgun in her -cloak was mute evidence that she had knowledge of his mad, flare-hot -temper. - -Ilse sighed, "You could rule the Confederacy if you would." - -"And own gems to garland your hair, and furs to swathe your body," he -said. - -His green eyes belied his voice: they drank up the sight of Ilse and -her red mouth and her platinum hair as a miser drinks up the sight of -his yellow gold. - -"You idiot," she whispered. "You man-killing, tempestuous idiot! Zut -forgive me, but I love you." - - * * * * * - -She straightened; faced him fully, eyes unwavering. - -"They sent me to you, knowing that you might kill another. They--we -need you, Kortha. Hurlgut lies on his back, unable to move. You put him -there; you and those terrible arms of yours. But Hurlgut forgave you -long ago. You know that! But you don't know-- - -"You don't know that Guantra keeps him there, with green _bessa_-mead -and white women to amuse him, to make him forget that he rules Mars!" - -Kortha started, and his lips drew back from his large white teeth, -like the snarl of a hungry leopard. Deep in his corded throat a curse -rumbled. - -"Guantra. I remember him. An evil smell of a thing!" - -"Guantra aspires to power. He has had himself declared Premier of the -Council. He wants to turn Mars over to the victors in the Earth-Venus -war, with himself as sole power on Mars. He plays politics like a -master, does Guantra. Mars, with its rich ore-beds and mines--Mars, -the prize of a war that does not concern her. Under a united Mars, -she would take her place among the planets beside Earth and Venus as -members of the Council of the Trinity. Under the Confederacy, Mars -could have done this. Once it was almost accepted. Then--you ran away. -And the Earthmen and the Venusians who feared your brains and your -body, Kortha--they revoked their acceptance." - -"They had agreed. I stayed that long." - -"They refused to go through with it. They revoked their decision. They -said--they said Mars was a hotbed of trouble, that it had no competent -ruler to make its decisions, and enforce them!" - -"Guantra," said Kortha bitterly, "wants to be that ruler. As Premier he -stands an excellent chance of fulfilling his ambition." - -Ilse came close to him, touched his hands with hers and clung. Her blue -eyes stared anxiously up to his green ones. - -"If you were to come back, and be that ruler," she breathed. "Kortha, -Kortha, don't you see Mars needs you?" - -Kortha looked past Ilse, out toward the red desert. Far in the haze of -distance, against the black and jagged Mountains of Eternity, there was -something white that shook and eddied in the heat waves rising from -the sands. Kortha knew it for forgotten Yassa, the city beyond recall. -A dead city, that ate up travelers that went to it. - -Kortha sighed, and looked at Ilse. Always had Kortha wanted to go to -Yassa. There was a mystery about Yassa, a mystery that Kortha meant to -solve. The time was now come when he could. - -"Give me time," he said to Ilse. "I need time to think." - -She looked at him and in the depths of her blue eyes there was an -infinite sadness, a yearning. - -"You lie, Kortha," she whispered, tears in her eyes. "You do not ever -intend to return. Tell me why?" - -He looked down at her and smiled. How could he tell _her_? The long -uncut blonde hair that hung to his naked brown shoulders swayed a bit -as he shook his head. - -"I will, perhaps. But not yet." - -Not yet you cannot tell her, Kortha. It is for her sake that you have -buried yourself alive. But she would not understand. She is turning now -and going away from you, perhaps forever. - -Kortha walked across the sands behind her toward the 'copter. Once his -great hands went out hungrily, then fell listlessly at his sides. Ilse -was not for him. She was part of his brooding, the part that ached and -stabbed with loneliness. Ilse was what made him a coward. - -In the shadows of the flier the girl faced him once again. She stood -perilously close, her eyes beseeching silently, and the fragrance of -her hair and her curving body steamed in his nostrils. - -"You are no hermit, Kortha. You need life. You need a woman. You -need--me." - -He nodded, staring at her face, drinking it in. He did not ever intend -to see Ilse again, Ilse whom he loved, Ilse of the fair hair and the -blue eyes and the body tanned brown by Sol. - -Kortha stepped back and his shadow fell from hers. He lifted a hand, -saying softly, "Goodbye." - -With arms hanging to his thighs, he stood on the desert, watching until -the dot that was the 'copter in the sky passed beyond the horizon. -Wearily he swung about and went back to his hut. - -He yanked down a gigantic steel hammer from the wall, breaking the -thong that held it to its nail. Gripping the hammer in his great -hands, he swung it around his head, once, twice, in a flashing circle -of blue-white light. - -The walls crumpled when he hit them. The roof caved in and became the -floor. Scraps of brick and metal fell to dance on the shuddering tiles. -Fire leaped from the forge, caught hold and grew in a red frenzy. Red -and huge in its crimson heat, Kortha battered and slammed his sledge, -buckling even the wrought metalwork of his dwelling. This was his past, -here before him. Sobbing, he fought it; and sobbing, watched as the -fire came to consume it. - -When the place lay black and smouldering, Kortha lifted his head and -looked with his green eyes across the desert to Yassa. - - * * * * * - -A rolling something on the red sands caught his alert gaze. He smiled -gently. A tumblie. Probably Xax, who liked him. He watched it roll -straight and fast over the desert, toward him. - -Nature had made a perfect gyroscope in a tumblie: a round ball of -sharp, glistening spikes with a core of jelly that stayed level no -matter how fast the powerful spikes rotated. Two long feelers, like -skeletal arms, lay hidden in the spikes, but could stretch beyond them -to clutch food seeking to escape. In the heart of the jelly was a -strong brain. - -Xax stopped, looking between his hard spikes at the blackened ruins. - -"You leave the desert, Kortha?" - -"I go to Yassa." - -He felt the alarm of the tumblie, and sighed as Xax shrilled, "You go -to death! Only the tumblies have ever entered Yassa and--lived. There -is a part of Yassa that even a tumblie cannot penetrate. The white -tower. The temple of dead, forgotten Zut." - -Kortha hefted his big hammer and eyed its gleaming length. - -"Kortha has never gone to Yassa," he whispered grimly. - -It was not a boast; it was a statement of fact, a realization that -there was only one Kortha. - -Xax looked around him and saw the tire marks in the sand. He sat -silent, looking up at the man who towered more than six feet above him. - -"Someone was here," Xax said at last. "Ilse, wasn't it? You've told me -enough of her! The Confederacy needs you, doesn't it? And you won't -go." - -"I go to Yassa." - -"Mad. Mad!" - -"Not mad, Xax. So sane that I go to the one spot on Mars where I might -bring her freedom, and a place in the planetary sun." - -Xax digested that, squatting there. - -At last he said, "You have not dwelt out here three years for nothing. -You tried to hide from yourself at first, but you have learned things -here on the desert." - -A pain tugged and tore at Kortha's heart, and his lips were bitter as -they smiled. - -"You are clever, Xax. Smarter than Ilse." - -"Ilse is a woman who loves you. Her love is inclined to blind her." - -Kortha swung the hammer idly in his hand, eying the sunlight play -across it. He took a stride toward Yassa, and another. - -"Come, Xax," he called. "It is easy to talk and walk at the same time." - -The tumblie rolled along beside him. They went out into the hot red -sands, their shadows before them. Kortha fixed his eyes on the white -blot that was Yassa, and his long legs lengthened their stride. Sand -crunched faintly under his sandalled feet, releasing tiny clouds of red -dust at every step. - -"Eons ago Mars was a cultured world, Xax. They had everything, our -ancestors. Even you tumblies possessed your own civilization. The -ancients had power, and weapons long since forgotten by the clans that -descended from the survivors of the Great War. - -"Wars are useless things, but they must be fought as long as there are -men to quarrel. Who says otherwise is a fool. But the Great War--ahh, -that _was_ a war. They used things to fight with that we have long ago -lost, and that Earth and Venus have never known. Mars is older than -either and had more time to develop them. Our ancestors fought and -destroyed: men and machines and cities. They left little. Among the -things they did not leave was the knowledge of their arts and sciences. -Mars had to build again, from scratch." - -Their shadows crept behind them as they walked. - -"Today Mars is a weak Confederacy of clans, ruled by a prince I -crippled for life. Guantra hopes to rule that Confederacy, but Guantra -is a cautious man. He would never dare usurp the throne unless he were -sure of victory. So sure of such a complete victory that he need fear -neither Earth nor Venus. - -"There is only one thing that would make Guantra so confident." - -A pool of clear blue water lay in a little hollow ahead of them. Kortha -put his palms to the hard sand that packed its edge and lowered himself -to his belly. Immersing his lips in the cold spring water bubbling from -hidden streams, he drank deeply. Xax lay to one side, watching him. - -With the back of his hand, Kortha wiped his mouth, his eyes on the -blood red sun dying in the desert a darker crimson on the horizon. - -"We'll stay here for the night." - -Kortha lay down and locked his hands behind his head. His golden hair -spilled in a flood across the red sand. Xax rolled close to him. - -"Two hundred years ago," said Kortha slowly, "the first Earthmen set -foot on Mars. Those first colonists settled among us. Some of them -married Martian girls. One of them wedded my great-great-grandmother. -Mixed blood flows in my veins. I am brood of Earth and brood of Mars." - -Xax said, "You keep me in suspense, Kortha. What one thing is there -that will make Guantra confident?" - -"A weapon, Xax. He needs a weapon. I think I know where he can find it. -But to get back-- - -"They say that Earth ancestor of mine was a big man, and strong. He -must have been, for it was he who whipped the clans into semblance of -order, who established the Confederacy, who placed Hurlgut's ancestor -on the throne. - -"Earth made Mars rich in those early days, with demands for the metals -of its mines and the stellus-ore to power their rocket ships. Earth -was not strong enough to conquer us, then. It extended friendship, and -traded. Fortunately, the Confederacy was ruled by wise men. They used -their new riches to make the Confederacy strong, too." - -Kortha sighed and watched Phobos roll on upward into the vault of sky -above him. - -"Those early leaders left the Confederacy strong. I made it weak." - -Kortha rolled onto his stomach, his head buried in the crook of his -naked forearm. He heard Xax snort, "You were the greatest of the lot!" - -"I crippled Hurlgut in a fit of rage. I left him prey to Guantra." -Kortha sighed, "I ran away. It has been bitter, being out here, Xax. I -had a long time to think. I hope my hermitdom has made me a wiser man. -But I am afraid." - -They were silent for long moments. Xax stirred restlessly and the -clicking of his quills was like the rasping of many needles. - -"Now Guantra will rule Mars," said Kortha hoarsely. "He will get his -weapon unless I can stop him. He will wait until Earth and Venus are -weakened by war. Then he will attack them. Ilse thinks he will turn -Mars over to them, but that is not so! He wants to rule the Trinity of -the three planets. In the end he will pull Mars down, for Mars is not -ripe to rule--not yet. Not under Guantra, at any time." - -Kortha closed his eyes, whispering, "I must stop Guantra. I must stop -him without seeming to do so. For I cannot ever again take my place in -the Confederacy. I am too dangerous." - -Xax said softly, "Guantra has the army and the air fleet tinder his -banner. You are one man against a world." - -"I am Kortha," said the giant. - -He rolled on his side and cuddled his head in his elbow. - -An instant later, he was asleep. - -Xax squatted, thinking. - - - II - -Five days later a giant of a man and a round thing that rolled straight -as a warlance beside him clambered up the sloping black rock side of -the Mountains of Eternity. - -Sunlight glinted from the smooth, dark stone that was polished bright -as a mirror by the myriad dust storms that swept up from the desert, -year after year. Heat shimmered all about them, rising slowly from the -vast sand-bottom, reflected back from the igneous rock. Sweat wetted -the hairs on the man's chest and forearms. It dripped from his face in -tiny streams. - -Kortha stood erect on a narrow footpath and looked above him. Upward -the trail wound to dizzy heights. Set on a shelf of massy ebon stone -beyond him lay Yassa, like a white bowl of cool water in a black -furnace. - -Onward they climbed, and upward, their eyes fastened on the goal ahead -of them. - -They came together to the greenish bronze gates that tilted off their -hinges and lay at grotesque angles. Down the street that stretched -behind the gates walked Kortha, and with him swept the tumblie. - -Kortha stood still, nostrils distended. - -"I smell danger." - -Eyes alert, he walked on; but now he paced like the stalking cat, and -the muscles in his long legs humped and swelled beneath the bronzed -skin. His hammer hung loose in his hand, but then, the claws of a tiger -are often sheathed. - -A shadow dropped from above, swiftly. - -Kortha whirled, side-stepping. - -A huge king gorilla slammed an arm at him and screeched in anger as -the smooth-skinned man eluded him. The gorilla gave his attention to -alighting on the hard stones, and that was his mistake, for this smooth -skin was on him like a charging buffalo, head lowered between his -tremendous shoulders, and arms long as the gorilla's own shooting at -him, hitting hard, like pistons. - -Kortha was laughing harshly in his throat as he hit. He had not fought -in three years, and the taste of a battle was as old wine to his lips. -He needed this test, badly. He wanted to learn if his reflexes were as -they used to be. Kortha balled a fist and drove it into the gorilla's -ribs. He hit again, and again, and something snapped. - -Blood flecked the wide, distorted mouth of the animal. His tiny eyes -glared beneath shaggy brows. His dark brown coat bristled. - -The gorilla had got his balance by now, and Kortha darted beneath a -blow that could have ripped his head off. He swung low, then veered up -sharply, legs planted apart, arms pliant and big hands grasping. He -caught the gorilla by a wrist, whirled, taking the screaming animal on -his back. He humped his hips and flung the beast from him, into the -air. But he kept tight hold of its wrist, and snapped downward with all -the fury of his titanic strength. - -The gorilla hit the stones on its back. It screamed as its spine burst. - -Kortha stared down at the writhing, dying gorilla, saying, "So. This -is the secret of Yassa. The extinct king gorilla is not extinct. Only -an expedition in force could completely explore Yassa." - -Xax shrilled, "They dare not touch a tumblie. That is why we can come -and go." - -He proved his point an instant later when another gorilla dropped from -a low roof. Xax rolled beneath the falling beast who screeched in -agony as the tumblie's long quills ripped into the pads of his feet. -Chattering in pain, the gorilla ran off while Kortha laughed. - -"You're a good companion to have at a time like this, Xax," he chuckled. - -Xax clicked his needles. "We're coming to the Tower of Zut. A tumblie -can't fight what dwells in there." - -Kortha said, "No living thing dwells there, Xax. And the dead cannot -harm you." - - * * * * * - -The glory that was Yassa burst on them as they rounded a corner and -stood in the square of Zut. A massive building of translucent white -jadestone loomed solitary in the square. The face of the temple, -gleaming lucid in the sunlight, fronted toward them, broad and tall -and tapering to a triangular crown far above. From its base four -bulbous domes stretched backward, fanshaped, like blunted and misshapen -fingers. The symmetry of the building was awesome. The ancient -architect who designed it had been an artist as well as an engineer. It -was a thing of beauty, as well as a place of terror. - -Like a dark mouth set in the white face of the windowless tower gloomed -a gate of shadows, open to the square. That yawning space was black -with emptiness. There were no doors hung on hinges; only that sombre -opening, silently menacing. - -Kortha stood looking at it. The wind ruffled the white fur of his -mantle. It stirred his amber hair and cooled the naked skin of arms and -shoulders. - -He lifted his hammer and shook it in the sunlight, and grinned. - -He walked forward. - -Xax spoke to him above the clicking of his needles on the broken -flagging of the square, "Are you walking into that thing like a _yavit_ -to the trap?" - -"Others have examined it before me, Xax. I have not heard that their -examinations saved them. Besides, if the death that lurks in the tower -of Zut still lives, I have no need to fear Guantra." - -They were quite close to the doorway now, and looking in they glimpsed -something white and shining on the tiled floor. As they drew nearer, -the heaps of white stuff grew plainer. - -They were bones. Human bones: what was left of the skeletons of many -men. - -Kortha lifted his head to survey the doorway. His green eyes blazed -with challenge, but their fire was controlled, and alert. He saw the -entrance plain and severe in style, affording no clue as to the manner -of its deadliness. From the way in which the walls shone, so clearly -translucent with the hint of inner fires deep within them, he knew that -the tower was built of _transvaline_, that rare building material whose -secret was lost with so many others during the Great War. - -In the walls two tall, faint strips of black shone dully: the doors of -this queer adit. - -Kortha swung his hammer in his hand and tossed it through the opening. -The doors remained open, and the bolt of force that he half expected to -sweep from somewhere at the hammer, remained hidden. - -He grunted to Xax, "Come on. No sense wasting time out here, like dogs -fretting before a bear's cave." - -They passed the threshold together, and stood in a domed chamber, -circular in shape, with another doorway beyond and opposite the -entrance. There were words on the lintel above its arch. - -"Science chamber," whispered Kortha, and started toward it. - -Behind them was a metallic whisper, susurrating in the stillness. -Kortha whirled and cursed and leaped. The doors closed before his -shoulder struck their smooth black surface. He hit and bounced -slightly, jarred. Kortha swore slowly, fluently, looking at the doors. - -"How long will the air last?" wondered Xax. - -"Longer than our bellies will stand the lack of food and drink. So this -is the great tower of Zut. Sliding doors that imprison any who break a -secret electri-beam. Zut! I'd thought better of the Ancient Ones. This -is really too simple. Find the beam and send a current along it, and -the doors'll open again." - -Kortha swung on his heel, going down the hall and into the Science -Chamber. Standing motionless on the threshold, he ran keen eyes into -the huge chamber. - -He chuckled. He laughed. Head flung back, he roared hoarse laughter -to the trestled ceiling. He sobbed his delight, hands spread over his -muscled loins, helpless with his mirth. - -Xax clicked a question at him, impatient. - -"It's Guantra," said Kortha when he could. "The fool. The utter fool. -And he hopes to rule the Trinity. Look for yourself, Xax. Look at all -these machines spread out before your eyes. The wealth of a planet is -spread out for you. The greatest weapons the solar system has known are -here. And Guantra has left them all!" - -"How do you know Guantra has been here?" - -"Down there. Observe the blacker spaces against the grey dust inches -thick on the floor. Something rested there for ages, Xax. Gone now. Oh, -Guantra was here, all right, probably with his entire science staff. -They took two things away with them. Probably the simplest machines -of the lot. Why did he leave the rest? Because the fools who man his -science staff didn't know what in the world all these things are. -Didn't know how to use them. Didn't have the slightest idea of what -they are supposed to be. Zut, it's rich!" - -"You may not know yourself," chided Xax. - -"If I had the resources of a science staff, I'd damn soon find out," -Kortha grunted, wiping moist eyes. "No wonder Guantra can come to -power--when Mars has idiots for a population." - - * * * * * - -He was bitter and savage, thinking of Ilse and--himself. - -"Men say you are a genius," Xax clicked. "It's not fair, comparing -others to yourself." - -"Bah!" snorted Kortha. "A man makes himself what he is. But let's not -bandy words. I have work to do." - -He walked down the aisles of this treasure house of metal machines. -His quick green eyes studied condensors and generators, pausing to -search the intricacy of bearings, or the purpose of bizarre couplings. -Inventions of forgotten ages lay before him, dim light shrouding -dusty cables, and plasticine casings. Here were bulbous globes and -straight, thin shanks of steel; there in shadowed niches rested wired -engines and bulbed machines, silent and mysterious. - -"Guantra and his staff took the more obvious machines, perhaps the ones -that bore explanatory cards," said Kortha, walking softly in the dust. -"These are more complex." - -He came to a halt before a queer tangle of rings and wires and -generator. Three metal bands floated in air between two looped -magnetizers. Kortha rubbed at his jaw, thoughtfully, scowling. The -pattern of the machine was utterly new, completely strange to him; yet -there was about it a faint air of familiarity. The thing had no obvious -purpose. It fired no missile. It had no in-take or out-let valves. It-- - -"Zut!" he whispered. "It only does one thing. It gives off vibrations!" - -Xax merely looked at him. Kortha was saying excitedly, running hands -over metal sides and rounded knobs, over cables and rings, "But don't -you see? If a thing can be made to give off the proper vibrations, it -can affect matter. It can cause a change in the electronic structure -of a substance, by speeding up or slowing down the rate of electronic -revolution around the atom. - -"Remember the old legend about the beggar who had a queer machine -strapped to his back? Everywhere he wandered he met harshness and ill -treatment, until one night a woodchopper took him into his hut and fed -and clothed him. The woodchopper kept him with him until the beggar was -healthy again. As a reward, the beggar turned everything in the hut -_into gold_!" - -"Pfah," muttered Xax. "A myth." - -"Myths are simply memories carried down from generation to generation. -No, no, Xax. Where mankind has a myth, there is usually _some_ truth -behind it, no matter how distorted by time and innumerable retellings. -It is the smoke that hints of the fire. I just wonder if this machine -is the one that began that particular myth." - -Kortha squatted and ran exploring fingers over wires and coils, making -positive attachments and strengthening connections. He squinted up at -the rings, motionless, rigid in the air, between the magnetizers. He -grunted. - -"Must get its power from the air. Maybe it feeds on oxygen or hydrogen. -Or argon. Hell, I'm just guessing at this point. See if it works first. -Then analyze it." - -He looked around for an object; found a loose panel of carven wood on a -perilously old table. Ripping off a section of the wood, he placed it -before the machine. His fingers turned a knob. - -A beam of shivering green light pulsed from the coils and hung -motionless to a yard outward. Kortha kicked the block of wood into the -beam. - -"Zut!" he breathed softly. - -The wood changed: grew red and warm, shimmering a brilliant crimson, -pulsating as though from inner fires. It became opalescent, almost -fluid in scarlet brilliance. Slowly the red became green, and then -yellow. The bar hardened, the liquidity of its structure tensing into -solidity. - -Kortha stared with wide eyes at the bar, whispering, "Gold!" - -"Gold," echoed Xax, awed. - - * * * * * - -Kortha grinned broadly, hefting the thing in his palm. "Pure gold. -Heavy, but somewhat soft, Xax. I was right. Blessed be the mythmaker, -for he shall help us find truth!" - -"It can't be true," protested Xax, his faceted eyes glued to the amber -bar in the giant's hand. "You don't turn one thing into another, not by -just a--a color!" - -"Of course not by a color. That green light was something that got -down to rock bottom, affecting the very nature of the wood. What's so -odd about it? All matter is composed of electrons. Those electrons -move in certain orbits within the atom. If it is possible to alter the -vibratory rate of those electrons--why, then your substance itself is -changed. It is something else. In this case, it's gold." - -The voice interrupted him. It came from the outer chamber: harshly -gloating, unrelievedly triumphant. - -It called: "Kortha. Come where I can see you, Kortha. I want to talk to -you." - -"Guantra," whispered Kortha, and ran. - -He found the quartz-crystal televisi-screen finally, perched in a niche -in the hall, where it could command a view of the closed doors. Kortha -went and stood before it. He drew back his lips, and spat. - - * * * * * - -The image of the man in the screen recoiled slightly, then thrust -forward again, pushing the lean hawk's face with jutting, black-bearded -chin and hooked nose and slightly bald forehead almost to the limits -of the screen. The thin lips twisted in a savage smile. The dark eyes -glittered under thin brows. - -"I have you, Kortha. At last, I have you where I want you. I have -searched for a long time without success. Where did you hide yourself? -Ah, well--it makes no difference. You are to die, Kortha, and -I--Guantra!--am to be your executioner. - -"Did you suspect that I learned the secret of Yassa, Kortha? If you -did, and I think as much, you are right. It cost ten men's lives, but I -learned it. It was a lethal ray that blasted whoever passed those black -doors. We smashed it out of existence, reluctantly. It was a hellish -thing. I would have given much to have saved it, but," sighing, "it -could not be done. But I found other articles to take its place." - -"Two of them," assented Kortha dryly. - -Guantra seemed startled, then nodded. "Two, yes. A lightning-blaster -and a--no, I'll not tell you the other. That is _my_ secret.... I see -the lightning-blaster surprises you." - -"Another myth," whispered Xax, looking up at Kortha. - -"Myth?" puzzled Guantra, brows meeting over its hooked nose. "Oh. You -mean the one concerning the weapons of the Great War. The rhyme that -goes-- - - "They culled the lightnings from the sky, - "And summoned all who were to die--" - -"A neat bit of doggerel, but let's talk of living men. Kortha, I know -you for my enemy. If you were my friend, now--" - -Guantra jerked suddenly, drawing back. His lean face looked tense, -thoughtful. His thin lips drew down at the corners, and slowly curved -into a smile. It was not a nice smile to see. - -He whispered, "If you were my friend." - -Kortha lifted his big hammer and showed it to Guantra. - -"Talk no more of friendship between us, _yavit_," he said clearly. - -But Guantra leaned forward and smiled again. His dark eyes were steady -on the big man in the white fur harness, whose sun-browned skin seemed -like smooth bronze against the bearskin. - -"Zut love me, but you _will_ be my friend, Kortha. Wait! I am sending -men for you. You cannot fight me, for all Mars is at my beck. My men -will bring you to me, and I will _make_ you my friend!" - -He flung back his head and laughed, and his mirth rang loud and harsh -in wild, eerie peals. Listening to it, Kortha bared his teeth in a -soundless snarl and shook his hammer, and said, "I would sooner be -friends with a canalhound. Send your men, but they'll not find me. I'll -be away, looking for the shortest route to your throat!" - -Guantra grinned, "I'll forgive you that when you're my friend, Kortha. -Don't think you can get free of the tower. The controls for those doors -are under my fingers. A trusted guard watches the screen here, night -and day. He summons me when any enter the tower. He was quite excited -upon seeing you. Mars has not forgotten Kortha who reunited the clans. - -"How Mars will worship a Kortha come to life! Mars will also worship -Guantra who found you and gave you back to her. The crowds will go for -you. Kortha the genius. Kortha the man-gorilla. Kortha the great. - -"And Kortha will be--my friend!" - -It was then that the giant swung the massive hammer against the -quartz-crystal screen. It shattered into fragments that sounded like -musical glass as they fell to the floor. - -Kortha looked at Xax, and rested the hammer by a sandalled foot. His -green eyes glittered, and his long yellow hair shook as he moved -abruptly, turning on his heel. - -"Guantra has his weapon now. He needed that weapon before he dared -declare himself. So! A lightning-blaster. Now when Earth and Venus -learn that Mars is a power to be reckoned with, they will seek -Guantra's favor. Each will hasten to make peace and bid for his -friendship. And Guantra will sell Mars for the highest offer. In a -polite way, of course. - -"If I can't stop him, he will. And Guantra has an army. And an air -fleet." - -Kortha laughed harshly, "I have two hands and a brain, and a hate for -Guantra. Maybe that will even up the odds. Come, Xax. Stop talking to -me." - -Xax shrilled a chuckle and rolled along with the fur-clad giant, back -into the science hall. Kortha worked with his deft fingers, examining -coils and rings, delving into the secrets of ages-ancient generators -and condensors. He grunted and swore, and his brow was furrowed in -thought. One engine he completely dismantled, but could make nothing of -its function. Others he merely glanced at, passing them by. - -"I'd need a laboratory to test them all," he said at last. "I just -don't have the equipment. You can't determine uses or strengths or -purposes with your naked fingertips." - -He went and patted the ringed machine with his palms. - -"We have no weapon but this, Xax. It will have to do." - -"That?" choked the tumblie. "That's no weapon. It's just a--a luxury!" - -Kortha knelt and began fastening wheels to the base of the machine. -He said, "In our hands it will be a weapon. It will have to be, for -Guantra is sending men and ships to capture us. When those doors roll -open, his men are coming in for me." - -The wheels screeched as they bore the weight of the big engine across -the marble floor. Kortha's leg-muscles bunched and writhed under the -pressure he exerted. His naked arms bulged, tightening under the smooth -skin. Up the ramp went the machine to grate to a halt opposite the -entrance doors. - -Kortha lengthened the distance level of the beam, and wiped a forearm -across his wet brow. He smiled mirthlessly, "Let them come, now. We're -ready for them." - -Xax shrilled, "You said we could escape by throwing a beam of light on -the mechanism of the doors. Then why do we stay here?" - -"Guantra has sent men to overcome me. If we escape, we'll be out in the -open where they can overcome us at will. Here we have a chance. They -have to come in that door. I'll have them all in front of me. I have to -kill them all, Xax. Otherwise Guantra may learn where I've gone." - -"He may still find out," the tumblie grumbled. - -"I know. It's a chance I have to take." - - * * * * * - -The drone of the fliers sounded sooner than Kortha had anticipated. He -could imagine them circling above the ancient city, swooping in to a -landing in the square. A moment later he heard the drumming of feet on -stone. - -The doors rolled open effortlessly. Guantra's guards came in yelling, -with guns in their hands, leaping for him; shouting loudly at sight of -him. - -Kortha put a hand on a lever, threw it down. - -A beam lanced out at the doorway. It splashed its pale green color over -the scarlet tunics and naked legs of the guards. - -The guards changed color. - -They glittered yellow, metallic. One or two of them were off balance. -They fell with a ringing clangour on the marble floor. - -Xax gasped, "Gold. They're all solid gold statues!" - -"I told you it was a weapon," rasped Kortha, shoving the machine in -front of him, wheeling it toward the square. - -There were a few guards left, in front of the fliers. When they saw -Kortha, they came running. One by one he picked them off; watched them -fall harshly, bouncing a little on the cobblestones. They did not fire. -Kortha realized Guantra must have been very explicit about wanting him -taken alive. - -When he stood alone in the square, Kortha lifted his hammer and brought -it down on the glistening orifact. Metal danced and shattered under -his blows. Casings split. Magnetizers fell apart. Bolts and shards of -metallic rings jangled on the paving, clattering and rolling among the -lichen-lifted flaggings. - -"Guantra will never use that," said Kortha grimly. - -He walked toward the fliers. One after the other, he smashed their -radios; and the controls of every ship but one. Holding open the door -of the last plane, he said to Xax, "Get in." - -"Where are we going?" - -"To find Ilse," answered Kortha, settling his big frame in the -plasticine seat. His hands went forth to punch buttons and twist dials. -The tubes behind him roared their power, shaking the entire ship. -He taxied the flier across the square and yanked back hard on the -repellever. The nose went up sharply, and riding the air currents on -blunt wings, the flier rose above the ruins of white Yassa and aimed -its prow at the desert. - -Kortha slipped in the automatic controller, and ran fingers through his -fur jacket. - -"Ilse will know the politics I've missed in living on the desert for -three years. She will know if we can raise a force strong enough to -fight Guantra. We'll need men and money and ships. Guantra has cornered -the market on those, right now." - -"You wouldn't go to Ilse before. Why will you now?" - -"Three years ago I crippled a man, Xax. Hurlgut, who was my best -friend. It was in a fit of rage. I couldn't control my temper. And--I -was afraid that some day I'd do something like that to Ilse. I couldn't -afford to let that happen. I love her too much. There was only one -thing to do, since I couldn't master my own emotions. - -"I ran away. I came here across Syrtis Major to the Yassan desert -because it is so far from life. Nothing exists away out here. If -Hurlgut or Ilse were to send searching parties, it would be like -looking for a sword out in the asteroid belt. - -"I picked a good spot, all right. It took them three years to find -me. They wouldn't have found me yet if I hadn't helped an occasional -unfortunate who'd come to try his luck at mining in the Yassan sands." - -"Mining?" puzzled Xax. "In the desert?" - -"There's a lot of copper mixed into that sand. Some day I hope to learn -why. Cliffs of metal abound on Mars. The cliffs around Ruuzol, for -instance. But enough of that. Let me explain about myself. I came to -the desert and lived alone. High hopes were mine that the silence and -loneliness and my work would teach me control. I don't know how well I -succeeded in that, but in another thing I did have success. - -"On the long winter nights, I saw lights in Yassa, Xax. Man-made -lights. Electritorches and solar-beams. Now everyone on Mars knows -that Yassa is a deserted city, and deadly. Lights didn't belong there. -I wanted to go to Yassa to see who walked its dead streets. But as a -test, I curbed myself, fought my yearning. I mastered it. I wondered -and puzzled, but I stayed on the desert. Some day I would go, but not -yet. Finally the lights went away, and did not return. - -"I know now that those lights were carried by Guantra's science staff, -who discovered the secret of the tower of Zut, and used it. They took -away the weapons they could use and left the others, thinking no one -could fathom their use. They thought me dead. Bah, the fools! - -"Then when Ilse came for me, I realized the truth. Guantra had sent men -to Yassa. But if I went to Yassa, I might prevent their taking anything -of value from the city. I was too late!" - -Xax shuddered at the glitter in the green eyes of this big giant. - -"I did not think Guantra had taken anything. I know better now. Without -a weapon, Guantra would not dare strike for power. By smashing every -weapon in that Tower, I could have stopped him cold at one stroke. Then -I could have returned to my smithy, in the desert, and lived out my -life." - - * * * * * - -Kortha sighed, and surveyed the craggy ground below. They were flying -low over a barren plain where rocks lay yellow in the sun as far as -they could see, like golden pebbles. Jagged red cliffs rose off to the -right, shining dully like copper; to the left, a mesa of red-green -stone lifted a flat top toward the sky. Between the mesa and the -cliffs, the golden floor of the plain went on and on, endlessly. - -Kortha increased the speed of the little flier, and sighed, "But now -all that is changed. Guantra has his weapon, and I must find Ilse. We -must raise a fleet to oppose him. I'm still afraid of myself, Xax. I -may yet hurt Ilse, but I'll have to chance it. Mars is bigger than both -of us!" - -A dot in the sky to sunward of them grew bigger, loomed into a small -flier. Kortha swore happily, seeing the emblazoned dragon on its prow. - -"Ilse. She's come back to talk to me again." - -He swung the ship toward her, anathematizing himself for having smashed -its radio. He had meant it as a protective measure, to prevent Guantra -from triangulating his position. It boomeranged, now. Ilse would see -Guantra's rippled black star pennon on his own prow. - -She fled from him like a startled fawn, but Guantra built good ships. -Kortha overhauled her slowly, ducking her gun-blasts, swallow-darting. -When she dove for a cliffside, Kortha followed; and only expert -piloting prevented them both from slamming the hulls of their ships -against those coppery walls. - -A shell from her rear electrogun ripped away a section of his fuselage -before she saw him, big and white-furred, in the glass cabin. He saw -her face go white, looking back at him. Ilse fought her controls, -dropping toward the plain. Grinning wryly, fighting his ship that -bucked with a hole in her side, Kortha followed her down. - -She came running to him across the stones, her loose white bolero -jacket blowing back, her straight long legs flashing brown in the -sunlight, making shadowy grotesques ahead of her on the jagged rocks. -Her red mouth shouted laughter at him, mixed with sobs. - -He caught her up against him; bent to memorize her blue eyes, the soft -cheeks that were moist with tears, the full scarlet mouth. Her platinum -hair blew wild in the breeze. - -Kortha drank a kiss from her wet mouth, and kept her crushed to him for -moment after moment. Three years on the desert is a long time. - -"Whew!" whispered Ilse, laughing up at him with lips and eyes, her nose -crinkling a little. - -She sobered suddenly; put soft hands to his cheeks, stroking them. - -"You fly Guantra's ship. What happened?" - -He told her, looking down into her eyes, moving his gaze from hair to -lips, to cheeks and throat. She shuddered, listening, and he held her -tighter. - -"It's no use, Kortha," she said at last. "We can't fight the fleet that -Guantra can muster. The fact that he has those weapons makes a lot of -difference. I knew when I came for you that we were nearly beaten. You -were our only hope. If Kortha could come back from the grave--there -would be a psychological value to the thing. We might aim at strikes, -at seducing men from Guantra's navy. Build ships on the sly, from Mare -Cimmerium to Sinus Gomer. But now--" - -Her shoulders drooped. Kortha scowled across at the red cliff -crimson in the sunlight. It was true. The fleet that Guantra owned -was the fleet that Kortha had built. Battleship and air-cruiser, -he had blue-printed their models, seen them swung into their -launching-cradles. He had manned it with picked men. Nothing on Mars -could match it, certainly; possibly nothing on Earth or Venus, either, -with the exception of their vast space fleets. He sighed. - -Xax shrilled a warning, clicking his needles. - -From the south a huge grey battleflier rose grim and massive above the -flat mesa. Sunlight disclosed its rippled black star pennon, and the -gleaming guns, and the swarms of fighters covering its decks. Towering -masts brooded down across the plains, giving the ship an aetherial look -that its dark bulk belied. - -Kortha laughed bitterly, "What use to talk of fleets now? That's -Guantra's own flagship. He's come in person for me now. By some black -magic, he's learned of what took place at Yassa. Probably took alarm -when his radio calls went unanswered." - -They ran across the stones for the small cruiser, kicking pebbles into -life, making them roll and bounce. With big hands, Kortha tossed Ilse -into the open door of the flier; swept in after her with a hard, swift -leap. The door clanged behind them. - - * * * * * - -The ship shuddered under a direct hit on her rear rockets. Kortha went -flying, clutching at Ilse, dragging her down on him. His back met the -far wall, and he cushioned her against his chest. - -Kortha was on his feet, eyes blazing. His hand went to his hammer, -hefting it, lifting it up and down, very slowly. He snarled a little, -deep in his throat. - -"He knows we're here. He's playing with us. He wants us alive." - -"There's my plane. If we hurry--" - -Across the stone-bottom, they saw the silvered hull of the little flier -cave inward. Metal sides slivered, and splinters flew through the air. - -"Guantra has good gunners," said Kortha drily. "Let's learn if his -combat units are as good." - -He drove the massy head of his hammer against the door, breaking it -open. With Ilse in one arm he dropped to the rocks and walked away from -the flier. Side by side, they stood and looked up at the gigantic ship -that hovered yards above the plains. Men came swarming over its sides, -dropping like ants from ropes, leaping toward them. - -Kortha saw they were unarmed. He tossed his hammer aside and grinned -mercilessly, lips writhing back from strong white teeth. - -Ilse looked up at him and shuddered. She had seen Kortha fight before. - -He sprang to meet them, hamlike fists balled into twin maces. He broke -a man's jaw with his first blow. With his second he snapped three -ribs of an officer in a short green cloak. He hit again, and again, -and everytime that his fists struck, bones cracked or splintered. Men -shrieked there on the stones, trying to stand up to him. - -Occasionally he unclasped his hands to grasp; and when his grip fell, -clutching, the victim dropped with shredded limbs. - -They were all around him now, grunting under his blows, screaming when -he wrenched. Kortha danced like a temple harlot, twisting on his toes, -slamming his long arms out, dropping his fists where they hurt the -most: on jaw, on belly, on ribs. He laughed harshly as he fought; his -eyes flared, and his nostrils quivered. The soft thudding of fists on -flesh, and the sobs of air-hungry lungs orchestrated the battle. - -It looked as though he would beat them all, for a moment. His great -form was untouched, and men lay sprawled on the rocks all around him. - -Then someone flung sand from a pouch. Kortha knew its bitter burn as it -bit into his eyes. They welled with tears, but Kortha held them open, -fighting the smart with all the surging energy of his will. To close -them would make him helpless; yet the tears blinded him, too, and those -he could not help. - -The guards raged into him, goaded to desperation, hitting hard. -Buffeted, blinded, swept off his feet, Kortha was hurled backward onto -the stones. For long minutes he was the core of a shifting, sobbing, -maddened group. A hand dug at his face, shoving it into sharp rocks. - -Kortha arched his loins, thrusting hard, upwards, heaving men off. He -came to his feet, blind, striking out, shouting as he felt flesh pulp -beneath his fists. - -Something slammed across his temple, bouncing off. - -Kortha pitched face downward, hearing Ilse screaming. - - - III - -Kortha floated in clouds, bodiless. Fragrance drifted past in tendrils -of white mist, curling and crawling with scented life. Through the -mist came a battleship with Guantra seated on it, laughing at him. A -silken garment dyed with scarlet and magenta flickered past, obscuring -Guantra. Wrapped in the silk was Ilse, dancing for him, trailing a -cape of moonlight behind her white shoulders, above the multicolored -scarves. The clouds shifted beneath him, causing him to fall. He -dropped, faster and faster. - -Golden men caught him, carried him on their shoulders. They led him to -a wall and chained his wrist to a red-hot manacle-- - -It was Ilse who held his wrist in her hand; Ilse bending above him, -crystal tears quivering on her long amber lashes. - -"Kortha! Thank Zut. You've lain so still." - -He was in a bed. He grunted as he sat up. Ilse fought him, tried to -force him down, saying, "The doctor said you had the constitution of -a desert boar. What you went through would have killed ten ordinary -men. But lie still, lie still. The wards are filled with the men you've -wrecked--" - -She laughed and sobbed, fighting him. But Kortha put her aside easily, -asking, "Where is he? Where is the smell?" - -"I am here, Kortha," said Guantra from the doorway where he stood, a -gun steady in his hand. - -The gun was aimed at Ilse. Kortha was a little too far away to jump, -but the muscles on his legs and arms writhed like snakes with the fury -that pounded in his blood. - -Guantra was saying, "Stand away from him, Ilse. A bullet won't stop -Kortha, but he won't risk your chances with hot lead." - -"What do you want of me?" snarled the giant, mastering his red rage, -fingers opening and closing. - -"You will be my friend, Kortha. That is all I seek of you. Just your -friendship." - -Ilse gasped in her throat and whirled around, blue eyes wide. She -stood rigid, bent a little forward. She choked, "No, no. Guantra, you -wouldn't--not to Kortha. Not that!" - -"Not what?" rasped Kortha, scowling in puzzlement. - -"The Blue Grotto! It changes men. It makes them different. They aren't -the same after they come out of there." - -Kortha stared at Ilse, noting the wide ashen eyelashes, the red mouth -twisted in pain, the white forehead riven with furrows. Torture! So. It -was what he had expected of Guantra: to torture a man until he became a -broken thing begging for friendship. Suddenly he looked at Guantra and -found the man lost in admiration of Ilse's tanned loveliness. - -Kortha leaped like an uncoiling spring. He caught Guantra about the -waist and flipped him across a thigh, sending him into a wall. The -Premier thudded into the oak and steel, hitting hard. He crouched for -long moments on hands and knees, shaking his head. Then he crawled to -his feet and looked into his own gun held in Kortha's hand. - -"You'll let Ilse and Xax go, Guantra. I remain." - -Guantra rubbed his hip, smiling grimly. He nodded. - -"Gladly, Kortha. It will be guarantee of our future friendship." - -"No," sobbed Ilse, long fingernails biting into Kortha's hairy forearm. -"He'll change you. He'll do to you what he did to those--others." - -Kortha shook her off. Torture he hated, but he could stand up to it. -But if they did anything to Ilse--he wasn't that sure of himself. He -had to get rid of her, send her away to Hurlgut. Maybe they could -somehow contact Earth or Venus; get help. - -Ilse hit his furred chest with tiny fists, whimpering. - -"Idiot! Can't you see? Guantra will make you his friend. You'll do what -he says. You'll be a figurehead. All the Confederacy will hail the -union of Guantra and Kortha. It won't know that only Guantra gives the -orders, that you're just a puppet." - -Kortha shoved her away. - -"Get moving," he snapped. "I'll hold off Guantra until you're safely -gone." - -Ilse fought and raged, but she was helpless with her bare arm in one of -Kortha's hands. She went sideways in front of him as he pushed her. Her -red mouth whimpered. - -Kortha stood and watched the fleet little scout ship fade into the -south. When it had disappeared, he waited for minutes, calculating -Ilse's speed against possibility of pursuit. Satisfied, he handed his -gun to Guantra. - -He growled, "Bring on your torturers, Guantra. Let's get this over -with." - -But Guantra laughed softly, sheathing the gun. - -"Torture? Oh, no. That's a bit--ah--antiquated, isn't it? Besides, I -know men, Kortha. Torture would never make me your friend." - -"Not torture?" - -"Come with me into my stateroom. Oh, be my enemy, if you will. But -you'll be needing food, and a bit of Sharasta wine. I have both." - - * * * * * - -Kortha realized that if he leaped on Guantra now, he could break his -neck or snap his spine. But there would be other Guantras. Better to -fight this one, than the others who might arise. He smiled to himself. -Apparently those years in the desert had aided him to control his mad -temper. In olden days he would have been on Guantra, slaying without -thought to a possible future. - -He shrugged broad shoulders, aware that his stomach was empty. There -was no need to starve to death. He had done a lot without food. He -walked after Guantra slowly, thoughtful. - -A dull black plasticine screen formed one wall of the hexagonal -stateroom. Before it a curved desk glittered dully, littered with -charts and papers. Chrystolite chairs and benches gleamed in myriad -colors over the thickly woven black rug. Kortha stared around him, -nodding. He remembered the ship. It was one he had himself planned. - -But the screen was new. He stood in front of it, frowning. Guantra came -to his side, gesturing. - -"Since you turned hermit, things have happened on Mars, Kortha. This -screen is a by-product of researches by my science division. With it, I -can detect scenes at certain distances in the open air. Essentially the -same as television, we can focus an unlimited field by using cosmic ray -amplifiers." - -Guantra went to the wall, pressed a button. - -"We use radio waves though, throughout the ship, in order to prepare -our food." - -Kortha looked through the transparent shield in the wall; saw a frozen -steak thaw suddenly, cook before his eyes in a matter of seconds. - -"High frequency waves," Kortha said. "That's old." - -"True, but I've found it saves time to install them in every room. In -time of battle, my men need not desert their posts for food. The food -is there frozen; needs only six to eight seconds to cook, and be taken -out, ready to eat." - -A steward came and lifted out the steak, setting it on a table before -Kortha. He served chilled Sharasta wine and freshly baked bread. -Chilled sugar sauce over bitter fruits brought a hard grin to the -giant's mouth. He had not realized before just how hungry he was. - -He began to eat. - -When he was done, he went and stood at Guantra's side in front of the -starboard windows. Outside, sunlight blazed on the quartz-veined cliffs -over which the _Varadium_ was passing. Hollow depressions glittered as -though filled with sparkling gems, while huge stalagmites lifted jagged -edges, shot forth scintillating hues that etched color madness on the -dun cliffsides. - -The sheer cliffs fell away, exposing a massive gap in the mighty -mountains. The _Varadium_ poked its dull grey nose downward and sank -between the ledges. - -Staring from the darkened starboard windows, Kortha beheld the -iridescent gleam of the mountain-walls turn to yellow and red and -green. The colors deepened as the ship lowered on the air currents: -grew lavender, then purple. Shadows from the tall cliffsides gave the -canyon into which they sank a dark sombreness. - -"The Blue Grotto is far below the surface," whispered Guantra. "A young -lieutenant discovered and told me about it. I checked his findings; had -my engineers pay it a visit. Their work resulted in something that will -make your eyes shine." - -With her keel scraping dry red sand, the _Varadium_ edged along the -bed of the canyon. Ahead lay a great black orifice in the side of -the cliff: a gigantic cave, vast as Mars' mightiest hangar. Even by -straining his keen eyes, Kortha could make out nothing beyond that -ebon darkness. - -But when the flier poked its prow into the cave, a battery of -tremendous mercury floodlamps leaped to bluish-white life. Blinking -in their glare, Kortha looked down at the floor of the cave; found it -fitted with great steel cradle, with benches and lathes and tools. The -battleflier sank into the cradle with a lurch and a swift righting of -its bulk. Springs sighed softly under its weight, cushioning it on a -blanket of compressed air. - -Guantra led Kortha from the stateroom out along the grey deck, toward -the gang-plank, saying, "This place has been useful to me. Extremely -so. I've found that it paid to spend the money to equip it." - -Kortha looked around him, gauging his chances for fight. Men stepped to -benches, swung down ladders, with an air of deft sureness. They paid -him the insult of inattention. His hands knotted, then relaxed. Suppose -he did fight? It would do him no good. Even Kortha could not overcome -the entire crew of a battleflier. Not without a weapon. - -Guantra motioned him to a tiny monorail car. - -"The journey is not far, but we must avoid some--ah--rather terrifying -precipices in this. The rail cost fifty lives to install. A misstep -above an abyss--" - -He shrugged, pressing buttons. The car lurched forward, gathered speed. - -"Personally, I think some of them are bottomless. We could take no -soundings." - -They caught glimpses of black depths to their left as the car slid -along on its ribbonlike rail. A string of lights fastened to the cliff -cast eerie shadows into the gulf. The car slowed to round a curve. - -It halted in a chamber whose walls were sculped with vividly stained -statuary. Their colors were faded now, but here and there were spots of -red sunset, or blue ocean, or the white of a ship's sail. - -Kortha muffled a curse of surprise in his throat. - -"I thought you'd like it," Guantra laughed. "That lieutenant of mine -found it. He swears it's a lost museum of some very early Martian race. -The ones who lorded it when there were oceans on the planet." - - * * * * * - -Kortha did not fight the drag of curiosity. He walked along the wall, -intent on the friezes. Here were the tall-prowed water-ships, sails -bellying before the wind, cleaving foaming, blue-green ocean. He saw -men in mail and helmets battling on green grass. There were boudoir -scenes, too, with tall and lovely blonde women reclining on soft -cushions, fanned by strangely shaped slaves. - -How had this forgotten clue to a past civilization come to be buried -under tons of mountains? Perhaps a planetary catastrophe in the past -had shifted an entire mountain-range, to bury a city beneath its rock -foundations. Then again, the Old Ones might have carved out niches in -the stone itself, hollowing chambers the better to preserve traces of -their culture. - -Kortha hastened his steps, found Guantra waiting for him in a room hung -completely with expensive blue-and-gold draperies. Even the ceiling -was muffled in bands of rich silk. The floor was a thick fur rug that -would have cost a million _kofuls_ on the open market. And in the -mathematical center of the room was a couch of incredible softness -draped with a spotted black-and-silver _ocemar_ pelt. - -"Lie down and rest, Kortha. I shall leave you to your thoughts." - -Kortha came up swiftly in front of Guantra and grasped him by his arms -above the elbows. He swung the Premier off his feet, held him inches -above the ground, glaring at him. - -"I could kill you, Guantra. I could snap your spine as a king gorilla -could a twig. You would die." - -Guantra paled and licked him lips. Then he managed to laugh. - -"No need for that. All I ask is that you spend the night here. In this -room, sleeping on that couch. After that, you are free to leave." - -Kortha dropped the man in his bewilderment, saying, "Is that all? Is -the place haunted? Ought I start at ghosts? Or do you gas the lungs out -of me?" - -"Neither. Just stay here. No harm will come to you." - -Kortha grinned and surveyed the drapes. He ran fingers through his -thick yellow hair. He chuckled, "I'll stay. In the morning, I'll leave." - -He watched Guantra close the door behind him. He heard the bolt snick -into place. He went and sank on the couch. It was soft, enticing. -Putting up his tanned legs, he crossed them at the ankles. - -Kortha tried to think, to reason out the danger of the room. But even -his giant body knew the lassitude of fatigue. He closed his eyes, -trying to sort out facts and interpret them; shaking his head a little, -muttering at his tiredness. Guantra had the whiphand, with Hurlgut a -cripple and Ilse and Xax no help at all. And he, Kortha! Of what use -was he, sleeping like a perfumed harlot on this couch? If he could -raise an army, now-- - -His eyelids blinked against the tiredness beating up from deep within -him. Wave upon wave of languor swept to his brain, wrapping it in soft -and gentle folds. He closed his eyes. Just for a minute, just until he -was refreshed-- - -Kortha slept. His big body lay utterly relaxed, every muscle inert, -like a lazing panther. The room was drugging in its silence. The thick -draping seemed to enfold, to cradle. - -"_Kortha!_" - -It was a voice like a wind whispering in pines. It soughed across the -room, making the man turn lazily in his slumber, uneasy. - -"Kortha, speak to me. Tell me of yourself. Who are you, Kortha?" - -The man slept, but his lips spoke, sighing, "I am Kortha the strong. -The hard, the cruel." - -"Ahhh, no. You must forget that, Kortha. True, you are heavily muscled, -but so are many men." - -"I crippled Hurlgut my best friend, in a fit of rage. I am not to be -trusted. My temper is the red heart of the living volcano. It can spew -destruction." - -"Forget that you are Kortha. He never existed. You are not that Kortha, -but another. Tell me about this best friend, Kortha. Tell me. Tell me." - -Kortha whispered the tale, shuddering even as he slept. - -The voice spoke to him, and its softness was the purl of a wave lapping -at the shore. - -"You are wrong. It happened thus--" - -Kortha half-rose, listening, though his eyes were closed and his breath -came evenly. - -"Repeat after me--Repeat-- - -"I saw Hurlgut in his tower room. We did not quarrel over politics with -Earth. Hurlgut did not call me names, denounce me as 'war-mad' and -'enhanced with my own powers.' The sun formed a pool at his feet, true. -But it was the guard--not I!--who leaped, struck swift and sure. I slew -the guard, but the damage had been done. - -"Hurlgut slandered me. He said _I_ did it. I did not. Hurlgut was -jealous of my strength on Mars. He thinks I want power on Mars. I do -not. Guantra is the one true leader of Mars. It was the guard who -crippled Hurlgut, the guard who did it. - -"The guard did it. - -"The guard." - - * * * * * - -Kortha lay back in his cushions, muttering. The room grew silent once -again. Then-- - -"Kortha!" - -"I hear." - -"Tell me of your life, Kortha. All of it. All the deeds of childhood, -all the incidents. Tell me of your youth and manhood. Speak to me and -tell me." - -Kortha spoke for hours while the voice listened. When he had done, -the voice whispered once again, and its sound flitted through the -arras-hung room, susurrating eerily. - -"Your childhood pattern fits into section j-2364-k7. Therefore the -treatment will be relayed over into that pattern, with emphasis on -friendship." - -If Kortha had been awake, he would have heard the click of tiny wheels, -the metallic rustle of machinery, the flick of a needle of compressed -air on a metal filament. The drapes helped deaden those sounds, and -Kortha slept on. - -"Kortha, listen. When you came from Fraysia to be a student at the -Academy. You remember that first day when you met--Guantra?" - -No, it had not been Guantra. It had been Hurlgut whom he'd met, there -on the white walk. Or had it really been Guantra? Was his memory that -bad? Guantra standing before him, smiling at him, putting a friendly -hand on his big arm and saying, "You look like officer material. Come -with me. I'd like to see you fence. You have the build for it." - -And it was Guantra, not Hurlgut, who stood with him, awed at the magic -in the lightning parry and thrust of the sword in his hand. He had -defeated Mayram the champion that afternoon as Guantra looked on. -Beaten him with a glittering sword in his hand and a fire in his green -eyes and dancing joy in his heart. - -He told Hurlgut--no, Guantra! about it afterward in his rooms; how -his father had had him taught by Eric MacCormac the American, who was -tri-planet champion in all three weapons: foil, sabre and epee. And -Guantra listened, pleased. - -The voice went on, whispering softly, speaking to him, lifting from -his memory the threads of recollection, removing the very fibre of -his character, as a mason lifts old tile to lay the new. Bit after -glittering bit of fact was slipped in to take the place of memory. Fact -that was so plausible it became the truth. - -It was Guantra who had given him his first engineering chance, -in letting him charge and electrolize the bastion of cliffworks -surrounding radio-city Ruuzol. With cables and generators, he had made -those mountain ridges of solid metals the sounding board for a spacevox -system that was first in the solar system. Kortha had done a great job -on that, thanks to Guantra. Later, there were other triumphs. Then-- - -"You fled to the desert to escape Ilse. She sought after you, trying to -enmesh you in her charms. All the time you knew she was the chosen of -Guantra. Guantra loves her. - -"Guantra is your friend. You would not steal the woman of a friend. - -"You gave her up. You ran from her, hoping to lose yourself in the -desert, thinking Ilse would forget...." - -Kortha stirred restlessly, but relaxed. He listened, absorbed. - -"Ilse found you in your smithy. You wanted to find Guantra to get his -advice, so you went to Yassa. Hurlgut sent men to kill you. You slew -them instead, and fled again. Ilse came to tempt you, but you were -saved by Guantra. He sent Ilse away, and brought you to safety." - -Kortha sighed softly. - -"Guantra is your friend, Kortha. The two of you might easily rule Mars. -Two friends to lead Mars to its rightful place among the planets. You -and Guantra. True friends...." - -Kortha whispered, "Guantra is my friend. Ilse is a wanton seeking my -love. Hurlgut hates me, for Hurlgut is jealous." - -"That is correct. Now repeat all that I have told you, after me." - -Their voices susurrated in the draped room. Their voices fled from wall -to wall, and sank into oblivion. The candle that marked the hours and -the days burned lower. Only the voices lived, and the teeming brain of -Kortha that was taught by an unsleeping, patient, mechanical teacher. - - - IV - -It was still in the room when Kortha woke. He stared around, wondering. -Of course! Guantra had brought him here to seek repose. He chuckled. -You'd think he was a baby, the way Guantra humored him. Always giving -him the best. Well, that was the way of a friend for you. He clambered -to his feet and rubbed his arms with his big, brown hands. The candle -was spluttering in its golden socket. Kortha frowned. That candle had -burned for three days! - -He must have been tired. He recalled it had been a new candle when -Guantra had shown him into this room. There had been some question -of his sleeping and leaving? No, that could not be. He would have no -reason to leave Guantra, now. But he must have been very tired. Three -days asleep! - -Kortha searched among the drapes, seeking an exit. He found a tiny, -moon-shaped door opposite his couch. It opened creakily under his palm, -and he stepped into a tunnel. Lights switched on as though by the heat -of his body. He walked slowly, frowning. He did not remember this -passageway at all. - -Water lapped at rock ahead of him. He was puzzled. There were no large -bodies of water on Mars, unless there were subterranean seas that -topographers knew nothing of! - -He hurried forward; came to an abrupt stop, staring. - -An underground cave widened before his eyes. Throughout its shadowy -length, the haze that filled it was tinted blue, and the waters of -this undersurface ocean blazed like blue fire in its reflection. Azure -stalagmites thrust up gnarled arms and heads in eerie grotesqueries. -Ahead of him for mile after mile stretched that limpid sea. Here and -there a rock rose, wet and clammy, above its blue surface. Shadows -gloomed in the distance. - -Kortha fell to his knees at the edge of the stone floor, fascinated by -the water. He dipped a hand into it: felt it cool and soothing on his -flesh. - -Startled, he stared into its depths. There was something moving down -among those bluish fires, something white and strange. Something was -flashing through the water, swooping up toward his kneeling figure. -He saw white flesh and tossing hair. He saw flanks and breasts, and -churning legs. - -Her white hands and wrists broke water first. Then Ilse lifted her wet, -platinum hair and shook it, spraying drops. She put hands to his and -let him lift her to the ledge. - -"Xax showed me a way through the mountains that the tumblies used to -know, long ago. I hurried here, Kortha, to get you away before--" - -His green eyes were sullen, looking down at her. Ilse stopped her flow -of words, listening to him say, "Guantra will be glad to see you." - -Kortha thought: this is the wanton in all her seductive flesh. See how -the silver hair brushes her smooth shoulders, look how her legs are -straight and shapely; that red mouth is ripe for kisses, and those eyes -of blue are looking at me with love and affection. - -He turned his face away from her, staring down the long emptiness of -the sea cavern. - -Ilse put her hand to her open mouth, staring in horror at the big -man's averted face. Her throat quivered uncontrollably, but she choked -back the cry rising to utterance. Her wet hands found his and squeezed -desperately. - -"Oh, my darling! He's done it to you as I knew he would unless I -hurried. I thought I would be in time, but it was a hard trail up the -mountains. We had to go on foot. I'm too late, too late!" - -Kortha shoved her away from him roughly, snarling, "Save your -blandishments, Ilse. You won't find them helpful with me. You belong -to Guantra. I do not find you attractive." - -He lied, and he knew he lied. This white witch of a woman with the red -mouth and the blue eyes and the platinum hair was a draught to make -a statue hunger. Yet she was for Guantra. Well, Guantra deserved the -best. And yet.... - -"You must come with me, Kortha. Hurlgut--" - -"Hurlgut is jealous of me. He slanders me. I have never given him cause -to do that. He claims I broke his back, but he does not tell the truth. -It was the guard, not I. The guard did it." - -Eyes closed, Ilse bowed her head. Her heart was a thing of lead in her -bosom. This mewling, complaining thing was Kortha! Kortha, who would -spit in the face of a living Zut if he angered him. She bit her lip -hard, and tasted the drops of blood that welled to the surface. - -She looked up. She said slowly, "We are going to surprise Guantra. You -see, if Guantra could learn that with you all Mars would be his friend, -he would like it. If he heard from your lips that you would back him as -Premier against Earth and Venus--" - -"Is there any doubt of that?" - -Ilse knew she had to feel her way here. Not knowing what Kortha had -been told, been made to believe in as truth, she must be wary; step -lightly in her speech, explore his knowledge with words. - -"Yes. When you ran away to the desert," she looked at him curiously and -breathed again when she saw him nod curtly, "there were some who said -that you and Guantra had a falling out. That you ran from him as a sort -of protest." - -Kortha laughed, looking at the girl, "That is ridiculous. _You_ know -why I ran away. Because you wantoned after me. I ran away from you, -Ilse." - - * * * * * - -So that was the reason Kortha had been given! Ilse held her eyes shut -tightly. Her left hand bit its long fingernails into the naked skin of -her flank. Pain! Pain would help to cancel the sodden ache in her heart. - -"Yes," she whispered. "I know. But Mars doesn't know that, and Mars has -to be told. If Mars could hear the truth from your lips-- - -"Come with me to radio-city Ruuzol, Kortha. Broadcast to Mars. Be the -first to let the planet know you and Guantra are friends. You be the -first; you, his friend." - -Kortha nodded slowly. He felt Ilse's hands squeezing his. - -"It must be a secret, though. We can't let Guantra know, or the -surprise would be spoiled. You have to come with me." - -She saw his eyes light after a moment, and she knew she had won; -that he would go with her away from the Blue Grotto and its magical -machine that could steal men's minds from them and give them something -different in exchange. She turned, dove for the water. - -Kortha was beside her, sinking into the blue fire of water, dropping -down and down past coral growths and bannery weeds that slithered in -ripples as the currents wafted them to and fro. Following her threshing -legs, clinging to coral branches as did she, pulling himself along, -Kortha went under a ledge and rose swiftly in a tiny cave. - -Ilse said as she treaded water, "My 'copter is outside. It will take us -to Ruuzol." - -Ruuzol was the communication center of all Mars. A vast glassite -paraboloid was built on a flat mesa against a cliffside. It housed -vast turbines and generators, and the central controls, as well -as laboratories and rows of dwellings, where the men lived. A -fountain-dotted park gave the small city an air of leisure. - -Their 'copter swooped in over the flat plains surrounding the mesa, -casting its shadow from the high cliffs all around the plain out across -the flatlands, up onto the mesa sides. - -Flanking the great transparent paraboloid were the twin tubes, taller -than the dome itself, thrusting their glass-and-steel structures two -thousand feet into the air. At their tops, three metal planes were -inserted into their trunks; planes that were the secret of the Martian -radio beams, planes that sent the spacevox rocketing to Earth and -Venus, and the direct broadcasts out over the sandy wastes of Mars. - -Ilse flashed her 'copter past a tube and spiralled gracefully to one of -the white landing strips beyond the dome. - -They walked toward the paraboloid. Ilse showed credentials to the -guards at the entrance; then they were through and into the cool, -pleasant air of the paraboloid, moving on one of the glass walks. - -The harsh tones of the communicator sprang to speech around them: "The -princess Ilse. The princess Ilse. The Emperor desires speech. The -Emperor desires speech." - -Kortha muttered something under his breath, but Ilse pretended not to -hear him, saying, "It will only be a moment." - -They found Hurlgut propped in cushions, flushed and worried. His eyes -opened wide at sight of Kortha, and the worry fled. - -"Kortha!" he cried, putting out both hands, lifting a little where he -sat. "So Ilse did find you!" - -Ilse stepped to one side, offering prayers to Zut. - -Kortha looked at Hurlgut, saw him lying white and broken among the -striped pillows. He wanted to rage at this liar, at this mongerer -of scandal. He learned with a little surprise that he could not. If -Hurlgut wanted to blame him, let him. Kortha had never fought cripples -before. He would not begin now. - -"--so good to see you, man. Give me your hand. Give it to me, man! -There! Let me look at you. The same, the same. Big. Strong. Unbending. -Mars' only hope. I need you, Kortha. Guantra has but now concluded -speaking on the radio beams. He knows you fled from him, came here. He -traced you in that cosmiclarifier of his." - -Kortha remembered the black screen in the flagship stateroom. - -"Guantra will be surprised when I broadcast. Eh, Ilse?" - -"Yes," whispered Ilse. - -Hurlgut looked surprised, exclaiming, "Why, Guantra will not let you -broadcast, Kortha. He will destroy Ruuzol first. He threatened to, in -fact." - -"But he can't. Not until I've made my speech to Mars, told them how he -and I will unite--" - -Ilse touched her temple and her heart, looking at Hurlgut, nodding -toward Kortha. Then Kortha was whirling on her, saying, "Get me to a -magnifone. I'll speak to Guantra's ship, tell him what I intend to do. -The surprise is off, Ilse--but the speech can still be made!" - -Suddenly Kortha swayed a little. He put a hand to his forehead. This -was all wrong! Ilse and Hurlgut were his friends! No, no. It was -Guantra who was his friend. Guantra has always befriended me. He gave -me my start. It is with him that my fortune lies. I must tell him so. - -_But Ilse?_ - -Look at her, man. Look at her blue eyes again. They are so serious, so -sad, as she watches you. There is naught of the wanton there. A wanton -would laugh and giggle and be gay. Instead there is yearning and sorrow -and love in her eyes as she regards you. - -_And Hurlgut?_ - -He lay helpless in his cushions, unable to move below the waist. He -looked at Kortha, too, and there was pity in his eyes. Kortha did not -fight with men who could not walk to meet him. Did Guantra? He had the -sharp, hard conviction that he must know the answer to that. It might -help him decide incongruities. - - * * * * * - -Kortha sighed. He wished that he could solve this enigma that turned -him inside-out in puzzlement. He found himself liking Ilse and Hurlgut, -even knowing what he did to them; and learned he was close to hating -Guantra. Guantra had the power. Hurlgut was a cripple, and Ilse a girl. -Could Guantra fight them with the armies and the fleets of Mars, and -still hold his head high? Could--he? - -Ilse stood at the open door, watching him. Kortha realized she had -been standing there for minutes, as he had thought. He scowled, and -muttered, "Get me to the magnifone. I'll speak to Guantra." - -Following Ilse to the lift, Kortha brooded at her. - -Zut, but she was lovely! If only she were not the wanton he knew her -for. And yet--always that ... and yet! And yet, there was nothing of -the wanton about her. The perfume from her fur bolero floated around -them in the lift. It reminded him of things, that perfume: of memories -that were stored so deeply in his subconscious that he had completely -forgotten them. Kisses over the canals in a drifting 'coptondola. An -Academy dance with Ilse wearing a black, filmy thing that made the blue -of her eyes and the silver hair weirdly beautiful. And those nights -when they had eaten cold fruit and drank of iced _bessa_-mead in the -palace gardens near colored-water fountains, before he had--before the -guard had crippled Hurlgut. - -He could not square remembered happiness with other memories. There was -a leak somewhere. He had to learn more-- - -"Ilse," he said. - -The lift was opening and the girl was going down the corridor. Kortha -shrugged and followed her. He was probably mistaken. Those memories -were the overflow from a forgotten dream. - -In the big control room he stood watching Ilse punch buttons. A -beam-man stared at him from a corner panel-slot. Let him look. The -name of Kortha was legendary on Mars. He heard Ilse saying, "Guantra. -Guantra!" into a fine-meshed magnifone. - -The screen above the panelling came alive with the Premier's sneering, -point-bearded face; and his voice was harsh, cold. - -"So. You got to Kortha before me, Ilse. It is too bad. I would like to -know whether--let me speak to him." - -Kortha stared up at Guantra's scowling face. The man was worried. The -way his tongue licked unceasingly at his thin lips, the hands tugging -at the crested metal buckle of his belt, the creases around his -narrowed eyes: they were signal flares pointing his anxiety. There was -something bothering Guantra, too, even as it bothered him. - -What was it? Kortha had to know. Kortha sucked in his breath, realizing -that the duel was between him and Guantra. Each had knowledge, and -they had to trade to know where they stood. Guantra wanted to be sure -of what? Of his friendship? But--why? He himself sought to test that -elusive memory of his. It told him Ilse was wanton and Hurlgut a -danger; but his senses belittled that memory. - -Perhaps Guantra could be persuaded to give him the knowledge he sought. -He put Ilse aside, placed mouth to the magnifone. - -"Kortha on the beam, Guantra. Tell me something. Am I your friend, -Guantra?" - -The man with the jutting beard licked at his lips for a split second, -but it was long enough. Kortha knew now that Guantra _did not know_! -That meant that his senses might be right, after all; that his memory -was wrong. And if his memory were wrong, then Ilse and Hurlgut were not -what he thought them. - -He listened to Guantra bluster, calling out to him to recall and act on -their old friendship. Smiling grimly, he leaned closer to the image on -the screen. Test him, Kortha! - -"Let me broadcast to all Mars, Guantra. Let me tell Mars that we are -friends." - -"No," said Guantra swiftly. "That would not be politic right now. -Better that you and I should meet, Kortha. Come aboard my flagship." - -Afraid of what he might say, the Premier would not let him speak to -Mars. Kortha wanted to know the reason why Guantra doubted their -friendship. Looking at the cold austerity, the pride and ambition -of the man as marked in the lines of his face and the manner of his -bearing, Kortha rather thought the reason was not Ilse. A man like -Guantra would not bother so about a woman. - -"I will broadcast, Guantra," Kortha said slowly. - -"No. I will have to stop that, my friend. I cannot allow it, until I -have seen and spoken with you, face to face. I am coming in for you -now." - -They saw the Premier reach out and break connection. - -Kortha looked at the blank screen; he whirled on Ilse, and his big -hands went out to catch her by the shoulders and bring her up close to -him. - -He said savagely, "Tell me! Tell me what I don't know. Why has Guantra -turned against me? Why does he doubt my friendship? It can't be over -you. He is not the man to endanger his power for a woman. What is his -reason?" - -Her blue eyes were unafraid. She said, "Guantra was never your friend. -I dared not tell you before, but I can now because you have doubts of -what your memory tells you. You saw how indecisive he was. He does not -know whether his psychoanalyser in the Blue Grotto had time to change -you. I got you out of there before he knew, before he had seen and -spoken with you." - -The giant released her; ran fingers that shook a little through the -thick mop of his yellow hair, frowning. - -"I don't understand. What psychoanalyser? What Blue Grotto? Wait--I -remember the grotto, with the blue sea. But the rest is strange to me." - -"And the room fitted with drapes? The couch with the ocemar pelts?" - -"I slept there." - - * * * * * - -She told him then, hurriedly: of how the psychoanalyser was one of the -machines Guantra had taken from the tower of Zut in Yassa and set it up -in his hidden lair, and how he used it to turn key men into his friends -by giving them new memories that were so closely linked with their -old that rarely were they so much as hesitant about them. Only Kortha -doubted, and that was because Ilse had come to him before Guantra. She -picked up the thread of his life at the smithy in the desert and went -on with it. - -Once he interrupted, with, "But it was Hurlgut who sent men to kill me -in the tower of Zut?" - -Ilse scorned that, "Hurlgut send men? Who on Mars would serve a cripple -when Guantra rules the fleets? Would Hurlgut hide in Ruuzol if he could -put his banners in the air?" - -When she was through, he whispered through stiff lips, "This -psychoanalyser. It changes men, then?" - -"Guantra changed several men in council positions with it. He needed -their support. He got it. It can make a brave man a craven; or a -coward, a hero. It was built by the Ancients, who understood the mind -as well as other sciences. They realized that the memory cells that -govern many of our habits and thoughts could be altered by hypnotically -suggested alterations. They built a machine that would do that. We -learned of it, but could never do anything about it. People would have -laughed, said we fought Guantra with myths." - -Kortha growled, "I'm still not sure. But I'll fight Guantra until I can -make up my own mind!" - -Ilse's lips twitched wryly. Her shoulders sagged a little as she leaned -against a table, looking up at him. - -"Fight Guantra? Here in Ruuzol? You are mad, Kortha. There isn't a -single gun in Ruuzol. No weaponry of any sort. It can't defend itself; -was never intended to. This mesa is one mass of radio laboratories and -generators, tubes and condensors." - -No weapon. No gun. Just a lot of magnifones, and words never killed -anybody yet. Kortha bared his teeth in a silent snarl. - -"I'll broadcast before he can stop me. Let him fire on us, then!" - -"No. He won't fire, not yet. Have you forgotten the lightning guns? -They will cripple all our power. We couldn't broadcast past those metal -mountains without power." - -The lightning guns. Kortha came up short on that. He cursed softly, -brows furrowed. Aye, he remembered the lightning guns, psychoanalyser -or no psychoanalyser! With them it would be as Ilse said. Guantra would -break their power; land men, and take over the city. - -"The laboratories," he grated. "Get me to your laboratories. There may -still be a way to stop those lightning guns." - -Ilse looked at him; gasped suddenly at the old, flaring lights in his -green eyes. She laughed softly, gladly, and turned and ran ahead of him. - -The ceiling lights were blue and bright, flooding the long laboratory -chambers where chrome and steelite glistened and glass fittings -refracted rainbows of color against the scalloped walls. Black, short -shadows flickered where men stood at their places, staring. - -"This is Kortha," said Ilse, head flung back, eyes blazing with azure -fire. "If anyone can stop Guantra, he can." - -A sullen giant hulked forward from a bench, arms dangling, scowling, -"Surrender to him, _I_ say. We have no chance against the fleet. The -rest of you--Guantra has no fight with us. Why do we do what one girl -and one man tell us?" - -Kortha uncoiled, springing. His fist shot out like a flatheaded piston, -cracking the sullen man on the jaw. The _splat_ of the blow was loud in -the silence broken only by the brrring of the ceiling reflectors lazily -rotating. - -Over the body of the unconscious man, Kortha snarled, "Anyone else -advise surrender?" - -They looked at him, and dropped their eyes. Heads shook. - -"Good. Get me blueprint papers, and diagrams of your ultraviolet -radiator batteries. I want relayed batteries set up, and I must know -how many I have to work with." - -Ilse saw hope struggling for place in the eyes of the men as they -looked at Kortha. She laughed gaily, putting a hand on the big man's -arm, saying loudly, "This is Kortha. I told you. He can pull miracles -out of a hole in space!" - -Feet pounded on the linoleotile flooring. Drawers opened, banged shut; -glass cabinets clinked faintly, and papers rustled. Ilse stood against -Kortha, touching him, smiling wryly. - -"Only your name could make them hop like that against the power that -is Guantra. They're all loyal, but practical. They know to an iotagram -what chance Hurlgut has!" - -"He has a good chance," growled Kortha. He did not look at her. He did -not dare: she was too lovely, with her blue eyes and platinum hair, and -the kissable mouth. He had not decided yet, and wanted his reason to -figure this out, not his emotions. - - * * * * * - -The men came and spread their diagrams and date-sheets and charts -before him. His keen eyes flicked back and forth, ran down columns, -studied hook-ups and relays. - -"These batteries," he said suddenly, pointing. "Shift them there. These -others, over to this spot. Move those back, arrange them in arcs. They -must be distributed evenly around Ruuzol. Here, I'll work it out for -you." - -He sketched quickly. With T-square and calipers he strove for -arrangements on the blueprints, and succeeded. The engineers and -physicists looked at his work and up at him, puzzled. Kortha snorted. - -"The batteries will furnish ultraviolet rays, won't they? In the -patterns we set by grouping them like this?" - -A young engineer nodded dubiously. - -"Yes, but--" - -Kortha rasped an oath, stood up. - -"Do what I say. I'll explain to you later, when I bring the final -distribution sheets to you. You'll have to follow my instructions to -the letter. The radiator batteries must be set so, to make a pattern -thus. Any deviation will result in disaster. Hurry!" - -Up in the control tower the red light was flickering. Kortha allowed -himself a smile. The ultraviolet batteries were in place, needing only -a fingerpress on a button beneath his hand to fire them. He looked up -at the flagship maneuvering in circles above the dome. They were ready -up there now. - -Kortha depressed the button, and laughed. - -An instant later, white fires burst from the guns of the flagship, -flaring zigzags that darted toward the upright tubes on either side of -the paraboloid. The metal planes would draw that lightning; it would -sear them, crack them, erupt into thunderous cascades of escaping -power-- - -The lightnings never touched their target. - -As though an invisible mantle of veins were spread above the radio -city, the lightnings sprayed away, following the veins, grounding in -showers of tiny sparks on the plains below. They made eerie traceries -of light over the city as the guns spouted lightning again and again. -The glassite dome was bathed in a white, luminescent glow from the nets -of meshed zigzags in the air above it, that ran in streaks of jagged -white fire all around the city. - -And always the lightnings grounded on the plains. The city lay -untouched. - -Kortha chuckled. He laughed aloud. He bellowed his mirth, slapping a -thigh with his big hand, yelping, "A million _kofuls_ to see Guantra's -face I'd give right now. He must be swallowing his tongue in rage. -I'll bet he's hopping. He doesn't know what I've done. He thinks I'm a -magician!" - -"A lot of other people think the same thing," said Ilse dryly. -"Including myself. And those engineers! They'll be sweating their -curiosity, now that they see how your diagrams are working. They -pestered me with questions, but I couldn't answer them." - -"Summon them," grinned Kortha. - -When they stood silent before him, he laughed them into smiles. One of -them echoed his laughter, and then they all were bellowing. - -Kortha said when they were wiping tears of delight from their eyes, -"Lightning follows a pattern through the air, doesn't it? It follows -beams of ionized air that are everywhere. Those ionized air beams flow -down to Ruuzol, too. The only way to stop lightning from hitting us was -to form other ionized air currents that lead it away from us." - -A man with beaming face shouted, "Ultraviolet rays ionize air!" - -"All we needed to do was set the batteries of radiators up in such -a sequence that the lightning followed the ionized air beams they -created. We made our own air currents and naturally the lightning had -to follow them. It couldn't get past them!" - -The cheer that rang in the room dropped to a hush as the screen glowed -with Guantra's snarling face. - -"You've won this round, Kortha. But I'm bringing the fleet here. We'll -see if you can work magic against belching guns. However, your evil -genius can plan, it can't work miracles all the time. You--you imp of -Zut's black brother, you!" - -Kortha laughed in his face. - -The screen went dead. - -The engineers went dead, too, until Kortha sent his booming laugh out -at them, shouting, "Let him bring his fleet. It's the showdown fight -we want. Let him come to us. I've an ace up my sleeve that I haven't -played yet. Why, if Earth and Venus were to send their space fleets -here with Guantra, we'd still win!" - -The men did not believe that, but they shuffled their feet, uncertain. -It is hard to doubt a man who has just performed a miracle that your -own eyes have seen. There is always that lurking thought that he might -pull another, too. - -Ilse said, "We have no guns on Ruuzol." - -"This whole city is a gun," said Kortha, and laughed again. - -His mirth was infectious. The engineers grinned and looked at each -other and laughed a little. They hadn't the slightest notion of why -Kortha laughed, or why they grinned, but no one could resist such a -magnificent confidence in a city that was without a weapon, and yet a -gun all by itself. - - * * * * * - -Kortha spread his hands, asking, "This is a radio-city, isn't it? It -has every science necessary to perfect radio technique, hasn't it? Get -me Xax! He and I have work to do." - -The tumblie shrilled a greeting, passing the engineers leaving the -room. He rolled across to the bronzed giant, clicking his needles, -eager, curious. Kortha grinned at him, dropped to a knee to speak to -him. - -"You are the only one in all Ruuzol who can do this job, Xax. Any other -who left here would be shot by the guards Guantra will post before he -goes. It's up to you. Will you help me fight Guantra? I won't blame you -if you refuse." - -"Tell me what you want me to do," said Xax simply. "You waste time, -talking nonsense." - -Kortha took Xax to the tower window and showed him the red cliffs that -rose all around Ruuzol, towering toward the sky. - -"Years ago, when I first came to Ruuzol from the Academy, I sank cables -into the metal of those cliffs. I laid them underground to the mesa, -here. I connected their vast bulk with the generators and tube relays -of the city. I have to know if those cables are still attached. You can -tell me. I shall let you know what tests to apply in the tiny caves -where the cable-controls are sunk. You can perform those tests with you -feelers, Xax." - -"What tests, Kortha?" - -The giant told him, repeating himself for emphasis. But the tumblie -understood, and said so. Kortha watched him click-roll out of the -tower, and rose, sighing. - -To Ilse he said, "Let's go back to the laboratories again. I'll need -to make more diagrams. Get the engineers to meet me. They'll have to -change cable terminals and install them on a different hookup." - -Down in the laboratories, Ilse sat for hours, watching Kortha as he -labored over charts and graphs, often without moving more than hands -and eyes for an hour at a stretch. When he was done, he stood up and -stretched like a waking tiger. He grinned, and handed the graphs to her. - -Her eyes widened, looking down. - -"Why, this is just--" she looked up, startled, beginning to smile. - -"Something any modern housewife knows," he agreed. He laughed and said, -"Guantra will call it more magic." - -"It is magic," Ilse said softly. "It is the magic of your brain that -can think of something like this at a time like this." - -"Bah," chuckled Kortha, but he tingled meeting her eyes. - -Hours later, the western sky grew dark with warships. - -Kortha and Ilse stood once more in the tower over the paraboloid city, -their arms touching. Before Kortha lay a white metal box with a red -enamel switch disappearing inside it. - -They watched the mighty battlefliers loom sullen and black above the -coppery cliffs, pointing their blunt noses downward, dropping one after -the other from the blue sky into the reddish plains below. They came -swiftly, in perfect echelon, masts flying the black panther banner of -Guantra. Their gunports lay open, the lean metal nozzles of their guns -glistening in the sunlight. - -"Zut," whispered Ilse. "Guantra compliments you. He has stripped all of -Mars to capture you." - -Xax said dryly, "The legend of Kortha is more than a legend, it seems." - -"To destroy that fleet would cripple Mars for a decade," Kortha -whispered. "I couldn't do it, unless I was sure that the stakes we -fight for are worth it." - -"We fight for Mars," said Ilse. - -"Yes. Yes, I begin to believe that. When one man is so powerful he -can do with a warfleet what he will, to achieve his own personal -ambitions--" - -They stood silent, watching the fleets come black across the skies. - -"I can give them a taste of what they're going to get unless Guantra -surrenders," said Kortha. "I needn't kill them all. Just cause a -few--ah--explosions." - -"Guantra will never surrender." - -"His men will make him. They will realize I hold the trump cards in -this little game." - -The fleets came in unhurriedly, majestically. - -Aboard each flier was purposeful order as men ran across clean decks, -stood warily at battle-stations, swarmed into the upper shrouds with -small-arms. A few broadsides from those cannon would reduce Ruuzol to -smoldering ruins. - -"Now?" whispered Ilse through wet lips. - -"No. Not yet. I want them all within range." - -Minutes eked along, slowly. Now the ships were prow to bow, circling -the mesa. Ilse shuddered, looking at the empty holes in the -gun-muzzles. She licked her lips and found her tongue dry as the dust -of the Yassan Desert. - -"Now!" said Kortha, and his hand flashed out, and the red lever swung -over, hard. - -It stayed over for short seconds.... - - * * * * * - -Ships and guns exploded in the air as they wheeled around Ruuzol. Vast -red flares sprang to life amid deafening detonations. Metal buckled -and split. Powder charges sloughed upward and outward, carrying men -and equipment with it in a crimson spray of destruction. The exploding -magazines burst open the fliers, twisting and rending the metal hulls, -ripping jagged holes, lifting off entire deck sections, sending men and -railings into the air. - -Crimson ruin rained on the red plains. - -Ilse whimpered, watching. - -Kortha swung the red lever back, panting harshly. - -"There goes the Mars you built," sobbed Ilse. - -"We can rebuild ships," said Kortha. "Some men will die, but not all, -as would happen had I let the switch stay on a while longer. Those men -will build and man new ships, for a new Mars. Had I left the switch -on too long, not a living thing would exist between Ruuzol and those -cliffs." - -Kortha chuckled a little, seeing distress and surrender flags break -from the masts of every ship in the vast flotilla. Even Guantra's -flagship fluttered the white pennon. - -"Send Guantra to us in unconditional surrender. Radio every flier that -unless Guantra yields, we'll kill them all. We won't have to make good -that pledge, though. The men and the commanders out there are limp -with amazement, and fright of the unknown. They don't know what weapon -we use. They thought themselves so secure from reprisal, you see. The -unexpected will make cravens of them, for the moment. Oh, yes. And tell -Guantra and his men to come unarmed. We in Ruuzol don't own a single -gun." - -Minutes later a tiny flier broke from the flagship and dropped toward -the landing strips on the mesa. Kortha still had his hand on the red -lever, watching every vessel that hung motionless in the air above the -plain. But there was no fight in any of them. Kortha was right. The -sudden destruction that had leaped from the very silence around them -had sapped aggressiveness. - -Kortha had made his name spell magic once again. - -Guantra was a beaten man. As he stepped into the glassite tower, his -cheeks were sunken, his eyes hollow above blackish rings. He stumbled -over the threshold, and kept licking his lips helplessly. When Ilse saw -his eyes, she knew suddenly what an enemy Kortha was. From the eyes of -Guantra came the look that a slave might cast to an adored idol that -came to life, and thundered curses on him. Guantra looked at Kortha as -though he expected fire to shoot from his mouth and devour him. - -Kortha grinned, "I told you you would never beat me, Guantra. Are we -friends again?" - -"Friends?" screamed the Premier, a white froth at the corners of his -thin mouth. "You and I were never friends. We were always enemies. We -were destined by fate to fight. And you--by some unknown magic you -always win. You turn defeat to overwhelming victory. Always. It isn't -fair to other men. Are you Zut himself? But now--now that you have -won--taste what it feels like to--lose!" - -From the depths of his despair, Guantra acted. His hand went to his -tunic, lifted out with a heatgun in it. - -His officers cried out at his treachery. - -Kortha came in low, ducking under the sizzling blast that burnt black -splotches on the white fur of his jacket. His left fist arced up, -sending the heatgun from the numbed hand of the Premier. His right hand -came across in a blur of motion: struck like a piston against Guantra's -jaw. His fist whipped the man's head up and back, making the hair fly -like seafoam striking a rock. - -The crack of the neck breaking under the titanic power of the blow was -etched against a frightened stillness. - -Ilse and the officers stared at the crumpling form of the Premier whose -knees sagged, lowering his body gently to the floor. His head hung at a -sick angle from his limp neck. - -Across the fallen body, Kortha looked at the white-faced officers. One -of them extended his hands, palms down, saying, "Search us, Kortha. We -came in peace." - -Kortha grinned again and waved a brown hand. - -"My fight was with Guantra. I thought he was my friend. Perhaps one of -you can tell me about--the Blue Grotto?" - -They were all of them men from Guantra's flagship. Eagerly their mouths -spilled words, reciting the tale Ilse already had told him. Kortha -stared down at Guantra, grim-faced, silent. He sighed once when they -were finished, and looked at Ilse. - -"And I never knew," he said to her softly. - -He spoke to the officers, "It was true, then. Guantra is and has been -my enemy, and the enemy of all Mars. I am glad to know that." And he -rubbed his right fist thoughtfully. - -"Can you find it in your heart to forgive a fool?" he asked of Ilse. - -There were tears in her eyes. She stumbled forward, was caught and -crushed tight against him. His lips drank from hers, thirstily. - -The officers moved their feet, embarrassed. Kortha looked at them -across Ilse's platinum hair, and laughed. - -"You'll forgive me a moment's humanity," he said. "There are no terms -to give you. I am returning to the council. From here on out, Mars will -take her place beside Earth and Venus. _This_ time they won't back out -of their agreements." - - * * * * * - -The officers grinned at each other, wanting to yell their delight. They -had known Kortha in the old days. One of them stepped ahead, hesitantly. - -"We--ah--we are very curious, Kortha. The way in which you beat us, -that is. There were no guns in Ruuzol. There was no way to beat us. You -could not defeat us. Yet you did. When the explosions began, Guantra -went a little mad. He called you 'brood of Zut.' Frankly, a lot of us -thought there was something supernatural about it, too. As a matter of -fact I still do, and so do the rest of us." - -Kortha grinned at them, saying, "As a matter of fact, you have the same -weapon I used aboard the flagship. Aboard every ship in the fleet, for -that matter." - -They looked at him, and their eyes bulged. - -Kortha walked hand in hand with Ilse toward a cabinet inset in the -tower wall. The officers came to stand around him in a semi-circle, -watching him bring forth a small box fitted with a row of electronic -tubes and cables fitted to two plates. - -"It looks like a radio set," said one of the officers. - -"It is," replied Kortha. "Except that it sends a stream of high -frequency waves back and forth between those plates, instead of a voice -into space. It internally induces heat into an object placed between -the plates." - -Kortha took an iron bar and set it on the lower plate. He turned -switches, looking down. Almost instantly the bar glowed faintly red, -then waxed brighter and brighter. From brilliant crimson, it turned -white with heat. Kortha flipped the current off. - -"The electronic tubes shoot a flow of high frequency waves between the -plates." - -"But that's ancient," protested an officer. "We cook that way on -board--" - -He broke off, eyes widening. He managed a sickly grin. - -Kortha said, "I know it. I ate a meal cooked that way on the flagship. -Housewives cook this way all over the three planets. You see, I am no -magician after all. That's what I did to your ships. My two plates were -charged cliffsides and the mesa. From the batteries of giant electronic -tubes in Ruuzol, I spread those waves back and forth, caught your ships -in their flow as food is caught, or as the iron bar. The high heat -that was produced internally exploded every powder magazine and bit -of gunpowder on your vessels. It literally blew them up from inside. -That's why it was so swift and sudden, so silent." - -One of the officers shuddered spasmodically, whispering, "If you'd left -the power on still longer, you'd have cooked every one of us alive." - -Kortha looked at him. One of the younger men looked sick. He turned -away. - -"You were generous," exclaimed an older officer. "In your place--" - -"You men are part of Mars. My quarrel was not with you. I need you, -to build Mars up again, to make her one with Earth, one with Venus. -We must unite the clans, make the Confederacy strong as ever. Then we -shall send deputies to Earth and Venus. - -"I rather think that this time they shall listen to us." - -He said again, "Go to your ships. Have them refitted and repaired. Then -return for me, two weeks from today." - -The officers bowed and departed. - -Ilse stirred in Kortha's arm, looking up at him. - -"Two weeks?" she whispered. - -"You and I are returning to the Blue Grotto. After I get my real -personality back--minus my red-hot temper--we will return to Ruuzol." - -His hands drew her to him. - -"Two weeks is a short honeymoon, but for an old hermit like me it will -be an eternity of happiness!" - -Their lips met avidly, as the shadows of the departing fliers flickered -one by one across their bodies, and disappeared over the horizon. - -Across the empty red plains of Ruuzol rolled a tumblie. Xax was going -home. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Engines of the Gods, by Gardner F. 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