Lord of the Spiders or Blades of Mars

  'Then why don't you leave it?'

  'The mask, my friend - the protection. I survive.’

  'Are there no penalties for speaking openly of the Guild's secrets?'

  'We are more lax than we used to be, all of us - just a few fanatics keep up the old traditions. Besides, I cannot stop talking. I must talk all the time - so some of my talk must give away secrets. Still, what is a secret? What is the truth?'

  This last seemed something of a rhetorical question so I did not bother to answer it.

  'Now,' said Toxo. 'What about the palace?'

  'I have only been in the main hall,' I said. 'I know little of its geography.'

  Toxo reached under the bed covering and produced a large roll of stiff paper. He smoothed it straight and showed it to me. It was a detailed plan of the palace, showing all windows and entrances, all floors and everything on them. It was an excellent map.

  'This cost me my ceremonial mask,’ said Toxo. ‘Still, I never used it - and I can have another made when I am rich.’

  I was not sure of the morality of helping a thief rob a royal treasure house, but I thought the whole of Mishim Tep's jewels would be a small price to pay to avert the bloodshed that was about to happen.

  'Why is there a guarded treasure house?' I asked. 'Why, when jewels can be prised from the walls of the city and the inhabitants treat them like ordinary stones?'

  'It is not so much the jewels themselves, which would fetch an excellent price some thousands of miles north or east of here, but the workmanship of the objects stored in the treasure-house,' said Toxo.

  He bent forward, his eyes gleaming at me from behind his ornate mask.

  'Here is the best way into the palace,' he said. 'I rejected this means when I thought I was on my own.'

  'Would none of the other Jelusa help you?'

  'Only one - and I know him of old for a bungling oaf. No, I am the only thief here at present - apart from the man I have mentioned. All the rest are simple fighting men. You should be able to tell by the mask.'

  'I did not know there were differences in the masks.’

  'Of course!'

  'Then what is mine?'

  'The mask - as it happens - of an assassin,' Toxo told me brightly.

  I felt a shudder run through me. I begged providence that I would not be forced to kill a woman, no matter how evil she was.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Woman of Evil

  It was very still in the streets of the Jewelled City and Toxo and I, both masked, hugged the shadows near the palace.

  There was a distinct disadvantage to the masks in that they both caught far too much of the little light there was.

  Toxo had unwound a loop of rope from his waist. It was thin rope but very strong, he assured me. He pointed silently up at the roof where a flagpole stood close to the edge. The reason two men were needed was because the rope had to be looped around the pole so that both ends dangled in the street.

  One man had to hold the rope while the other climbed and secured it, allowing the second man to climb up.

  The guard on the roof passed. There was only one doing a circuit, taking twenty minutes. In normal times there would be three guards.

  Toxo flung the rope expertly upwards. It went snaking away to encircle the pole and one end flopped down on the other side, dangling over the edge of the roof. Now Toxo began to make little jerking movements on the rope and the short end, which had been weighted, began to slide down the wall.

  Soon both ends were of equal length. I tied one round my waist and took the weight as Toxo began to climb. There were still more than ten minutes left before the guard was due to return - but it was slow climbing.

  At last, after what seemed an age, Toxo reached the roof and tied the rope round the flagpole. I began to climb. I felt as if my arms were dropping off by the time I had reached the top.

  Quickly we untied the rope and, ducking, ran towards the shadow of a small dome on the roof.

  The guard came past. He had noticed nothing.

  The roof, though flat, seemed rough and slippery.

  Reaching down to touch it, I realised that it was encrusted with polished gems!

  Toxo was pointing mutely at the dome. This, too, entered into our plan. It was of glass - coloured glass on a soft metal frame. Noiselessly, we had to remove enough of the glass to let ourselves in.

  We began carefully to prise the frame open and bend it back after first removing the glass.

  Twice the guard passed. Twice he did not see us - his attention was on the street!

  Finally, we had made a hole large enough for us to pass through. Toxo went first, dangled by his hands for a moment and then dropped downwards. I heard a soft sound as he landed. Then I squeezed through the hole, dangled and let myself fall.

  We were on a cat-walk high above a darkened room -perhaps a banqueting hall, for it was not the throne room where I had first confronted Horguhl.

  Toxo began to run along the swaying cat-walk and it was only then that I realised if I had missed the cat-walk I would have fallen to my death!

  Now we reached a door, bolted on our side. We slid back the bolts and went through the door into a small chamber off which led stone stairs.

  Down the stairs we darted but then slowed our pace when we saw light filtering upwards. The dim, blue radiance of the Sheeva near-everlasting light-globes. Almost all the Southern Martians had these.

  We peered downward into a larger room - a servant's simply furnished room by the look of it On a bed a fat man lay, sprawled in sleep. Beyond him was the door,

  Our hearts were in our mouths as we crept past the sleeping servant and gradually eased the door open. We managed to do it without waking him.

  Now we came, farther down, to a larger room. This was better furnished and seemed to be the living room of a larger apartment - perhaps a noble retainer who lived in the Palace. The man we had passed was probably his servant

  Just as we set foot on the floor of this room the door opened - and I saw the noble who had encountered me earlier in the throne room!

  With an oath, he turned - probably to summon help -but I was across the room in an instant, my sword out. slamming the door and cutting off his exit!

  ‘Who are you? Jelusa, eh? What are you doing here?'

  He seemed a little shaken but not frightened - very few of the Southern Martians are cowards. He made to draw his sword but I placed my hand on his and nodded to Toxo.

  While the noble was still puzzling out what was happening - he may have been brave, but he was far from clever - Toxo unhooked his scabbarded sword from his belt and raised it by the scabbard, striking the noble on the head with the hilt.

  He dropped without a murmur, and we tied and gagged him.

  To Toxo's surprise, I had insisted that there must be no bloodshed. The folk of Mishim Tep were misguided and had been influenced by an evil, clever woman, but they did not deserve to die for believing her lies.

  Opening the noble's door we found ourselves on a landing. Several other doors led off it.

  This was where Toxo and I had decided to part. Judging by his map - which he had bought from a dishonest servant of the palace - Horguhl's apartments were on this floor.

  Toxo had no interest in Horguhl but every interest in the treasure vaults below.

  Silently we parted, Toxo taking the stairs that led down from the landing, and I creeping further along the landing to the door I sought.

  Cautiously, I turned the handle and the door did not resist. The room was in darkness.

  Had I made a mistake?

  I can usually sense if a room is occupied, even though I cannot see.

  This room was not occupied. I crept to the door leading off the room and found that the adjoining room was empty also - as were all the rest in the apartment.

  I decided to risk switching on the light.

  Surely I had not been wrong? Looking about me, I was sure that this was Horguhl's apartment - and yet she was not in it
though it was late at night.

  Had she ridden with the army after all?

  I was sure she would not have done. She was brave enough. I will credit her, but it did not seem to fit into what I guessed of her scheme. She would prefer to sit back and watch the two old friends fight one another to the death.

  Then where was she?

  In the palace. I was sure. Now I would be forced to seek her out.

  I left the apartments and went out on to the landing. Evidently the palace was for the most part deserted. All the usual occupants had left with the army and only a few guards and servants remained - with the noble we had encountered probably left to supervise them.

  I decided to risk a visit to the throne room, since instinct told me it was a likely place for Horguhl to be.

  With a wary step I made my way down the stairs for several flights, until I reached the ground floor, coming to the entrance hall I recognised.

  I ducked hastily back into the shadows as I saw that a guard was on duty by the doors of the throne room. Only one dim, blue bulb burned above his head. He seemed half asleep.

  Somehow I had to distract his attention so that I could enter the throne room.

  In my belt was a small knife I had used to prise away the soft metal of the dome on the roof. I took this out and threw it from me. It landed near the opposite staircase on the other side of the hall. The guard jerked himself into full wakefulness at the sound and peered towards the other staircase. Slowly he began to walk towards it.

  This was my chance. Swiftly, I ran across to the doors of the throne-room, my feet almost silent on the smooth floor. I inched open the doors, which I had noted earlier opened inward, and closed them softly behind me once I was through.

  I had done it.

  And there - on the throne of Mishim Tep - sat the woman of evil, that wild, dark-haired girl who was so beautiful and yet so peculiarly twisted in her mind. As Shizala had said, partially an innocent, partially a woman of preternatural wisdom.

  She hardly saw me. She was sprawled in the throne looking upwards and murmuring something to herself.

  I had a little time to act before she called the guard. If she called, more than one were sure to come. I sprinted up the hall towards the throne.

  Then her eyes dropped and she saw me. She could not have recognised me, for I still wore the silver mask. But, of course, she was startled. Yet her curiosity - a strong trait in her - stopped her from immediately calling for help.

  'Who are you?' she said. 'You in the strange mask.'

  I did not reply but began to walk towards her with a measured pace.

  Her large, wise-innocent eyes widened.

  'What do you hide behind the mask?' she said. 'Are you so ugly?'

  I continued to advance until I had reached the foot of the dais.

  'Take off your mask or I will summon the guards, and they will remove it for you. How did you get in here?'

  Slowly I raised my hand to my mask.

  'Do you really wish me to remove it?' I said.

  'Yes. Who are you?'

  I snatched off the mask. She gasped. Several emotions flashed across her face and, strangely, not one of them was the hatred she had exhibited earlier.

  'Your Nemesis, perhaps,' I said.

  'Michael Kane! Are you here alone?'

  'More or less,' I said. 'I have come to kidnap you!'

  'Why?'

  'Why do you think?'

  She literally did not seem to know. She put her head to one side and looked into my face, searching for some sign -1 knew not what.

  Regarding her, I found myself unable to believe that this girl-like person sitting on the throne could be capable of such hatred that it could bring down whole nations. Already she had been responsible for using the Argzoon to weaken the power of half-a-dozen Southern nations - and destroyed the Argzoon nation in the process. Now Kamala and Mishim Tep faced one another in warfare and she sat with innocent eyes quizzically staring into my face.

  'Kidnap me . . . !' She seemed to find the idea almost attractive. 'Interesting...'

  'Come,' I said brusquely.

  Her eyes widened and I averted my own from looking at them directly. I knew her powers of hypnotism already.

  'I would still know why, Michael Kane.'

  I hardly knew what to say. I had expected many things from her but not this near-passive mood. 'To have you testify that you lied to the Bradhi about his son, about

  Shizala, about me - and so stop the war before it is too late.'

  ‘And what will you do for me if I do this for you?’ She was almost purring now and her eyes had become hooded,

  'What do you mean? Do you want to make some kind of bargain?'

  'Perhaps,'

  'What bargain?’

  'You should know, Michael Kane. You might almost say that it was because of you and for you that I created this situation.'

  I still did not understand.

  'What do you propose?' I asked. It would be a relief if this was all she wanted.

  'If I tell the Bradhi I lied, I want -you,' she said, flinging her arms towards me.

  I was shocked. I could not answer.

  'I am leaving here soon,' she said. 'I need do no more than what I have done. You could come with me - there would be nothing you would want for if you did.'

  Playing for time, I said: 'Where would we go?'

  'To the west - there are lands in the west which are warm and dark and mysterious. Lands where strange secrets may be found - secrets that will bring us great power, you and I. We could rule the world!'

  'Your ambition exceeds mine, I am afraid,' I said, 'Besides, I have had some experience of the Western continent and would not return there again willingly.'

  'You have been there!' Her eyes lighted and she stood up, stepping off the dais to stand close to me and look up into my face.

  I was still at a loss for something to do or say, I had expected a screaming mass of hatred - but found her in this weird mood. She was too subtle, perhaps for me.

  'You have been in the west,' she went on. 'What did you see?'

  'Thing I would not wish to see again,’ I said. Now I was involuntarily looking into her eyes. They drew all my attention. I felt my heart beating strongly and she pressed her body against mine. I could not move, A voluptuous smile played about her lips and she began to stroke my arm. I felt dizzy, unreal, and I heard her voice coming to me as if from a distance.

  'I swear,' she was saying, ‘That I will adhere to my side of the bargain if you will adhere to yours. Be mine, Michael Kane. Your origins are as mysterious as the origins of the gods. Perhaps you are a god - a young god. Perhaps you can give me power, not I you.'

  I was sinking deeper and deeper into those eyes. There was nothing else. My flesh felt like water. I could hardly stand. She reached up and began to run her fingers through my hair.

  I swayed and stumbled backwards and the movement helped me break her spell. With an oath, I pushed her away, shouting:

  'No!'

  Her face changed then, contorted with hatred.

  'Very well - let it stand,' she said. 'I will enjoy putting you to death myself before I leave. Guards!'

  A single guard entered.

  I drew my sword, cursing myself for a fool. I had let Horguhl beguile me as she had beguiled the Bradhi! Her powers had even increased since the last time I had encountered her. If they increased any more, heaven only knew what would happen. She had to be stopped by some means - any means!

  The guard swung his sword at me and I parried it easily. I do not boast when I say I am a master swordsman and easily the match for an ordinary palace guard. I could have finished him speedily but I was still wishing not to have to kill. I tried the trick of flicking his sword from his hand, but he held on to his blade too tightly.

  While I was wasting time trying to disarm him, several more guards rushed in.

  Horguhl was at my back as I defended myself now against six swords - and I still fought a
n entirely defensive action since I was anxious not to kill.

  It was my undoing, for while I engaged the guards Horguhl had come up behind me with some heavy object - I never knew what it was - and struck me a glancing blow on the head.

  I fell backwards.

  My last memory was of cursing myself roundly again for the fool I was.

  Now everything seemed lost!

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Minor

  I AWOKE in a dank cell that was plainly somewhere underground. It was not primarily a prison cell - the Bradhis of the South are not like the old mediaeval robber barons of Earth - but had probably been used for storage purposes. The door was strong, however, and no matter how I tried to shift it I could not. It was barred on the outside.

  My weapons had been taken away from me.

  I wondered what fate Horguhl planned for me. In refusing her proposals of love I had redoubled her hatred for me. I shuddered. Knowing what sort of thoughts her mind could turn to, I did not enjoy thinking of the prospect of torture at her hands.

  There was a small chink in the door through which I could see the bar. If I had had a knife I could have lifted the bar, I was sure - but I had no knife.

  I began to feel my way around the cell. There were bits of refuse here and there - crates of vegetables seemed to have been stored in the cell.

  My hand touched a wooden slat and then passed on -until I realised what the slat might promise. I picked it up and took it back to the door, but it was too thick to pass through the chink.

  The wood was not hardwood but quite soft. This gave me an idea. Carefully, with my thumbnail I began to try to split it sideways.

  Little by little I worked at the slat until I succeeded. Then I returned to the door and the tantalising chink and - my piece of wood went through.

  Thanking my stars that the cell had not been designed with the idea of imprisoning anything more than a few crates of vegetables, I began to inch the bar upwards, praying the thin slat would not break.

  After some time of this I finally managed to lift the bar.

  It fell with a thud to the floor outside and I pulled the door open.

  The corridor was in darkness. There was another door at the end of it. I walked up to this door, not expecting danger, and found myself confronted by a guard who was only just awakening from a doze. Evidently he had been disturbed by the noise of the bar falling.