After Ool fell and split his skull, ending our uncanny battle in the Pits, the spell which had subjugated my comrades, Lukor and Koja, was broken. Donning Ool’s robes as a handy disguise, I had swiftly found the nearest entrance to the maze of secret passages that lay within the walls of the royal palace, and we made our way to the Hall of Hoom where I knew Darloona was to be found.
Prince Vaspian saw the look in my eyes and the naked sword in my hand, and realized suddenly that this was the end of an imposture. His lips curled in a sullen snarl, and he tore his rapier from its jeweled scabbard, but I disarmed him with a practiced twist of the wrist and he fled from me, abandoning the Princess.
“Jandar―is it really you?” she whispered as I put my arm about her shoulders and turned to hold the astounded throng at bay.
“It is I, my princess, I replied calmly. “Think you that Jandar would not move heaven and earth to protect you from the arms of that weakling? Fear not for your helpless people―Vaspian will not very long be in a position to harm them!”
Valkar spoke from behind us in a clear, penetrating voice.
“Jandar entered the city pretending to be a mercenary and won a place in the ranks of the Black Legion in order to rescue you, my princess,” he said. “His daring and courage, his cool head and quick mind, have saved you from a hideous parody of a marriage! Now you must come with us, swiftly, without argument―”
But just then we had no time for talk. Arkola, his face a savage mask of ferocity and rage, thundered a command at his bewildered guards who came charging up the stair towards where we stood. Valkar and I met them with flashing steel and drove them back a pace.
Darloona, however, would not obey our wishes and retreat to the top of the altar level where it was safer. The brave girl snatched up the rapier the cowardly Vaspian had let fall in his ignominious flight and stood beside us, adding the strength of her blade to our own.
Within seconds, four guards lay gasping out their life on the bloody steps and we had won a moment’s respite from the assault.
But a hundred stout warriors of the Black Legion thronged the hall in a guard of honor and Arkola thundered commands that snapped them from their paralysis and sent them charging up the flight of marble steps in a massed body.
Our swords flickered and played like summer lightning, and men fell screaming, splashed with gore, but others came charging over the flopping bodies of the fallen, and we were hard pressed and retreated, step by step, holding our own only by advantage of superior height, as we stood higher on the stair than did they who sought to assault us.
Still, it was only a matter of time before sheer weight of numbers dragged us down. As I fought, I wondered desperately―where were Koja and Lukor? They had hidden in the antechamber as I went out to impersonate Ool and seize the Princess, but surely they had heard all the commotion by now and knew we were fighting for our very lives here on the steps below the altar of Hoom!
I dispatched an opponent and turned to see if Darloona was safe.
She was not only safe, but fighting like a tigress. How glorious she looked, her red-gold hair streaming about her lithe body like a tattered war banner, the fire of battle shining in her splendid green eyes, her full red lips parted with the excitement of the moment. In a second her flickering blade cut down the warrior she had engaged and she turned her enigmatic gaze on me.
“This is all madness, Jandar―yet, well met! I had not thought that we should ever meet again, save perhaps in the spirit, when our souls should travel on that long journey to stand before the tall thrones of the Lords of Gordrimator,” she said.
“I could not desert you, my princess,” I said.
“It was very brave of you to seek me out amidst the legions of the Chac Yuul,” she said somberly. “Yet now all my plans are ruined, and my people are doomed―”
“I could not stand idly by and see you wed to a man you loathed/” I protested. She shook her head fiercely.
“But I must! Else my people will suffer/”
“Let us await the outcome of this day,” I suggested. “For I managed to get word to your uncle, Lord Yarrak, of a secret tunnel beneath the Ajand and the city walls, and ere long the Ku Thad will enter Shondakor in force, and mayhap your people and not the Black Legion will be the masters here before this day ends.”
Hope flared suddenly within her glorious emerald eyes, and her warm full lips parted breathlessly as if to speak―but then they were upon us in strength again, and we were both too busy for further conversation just then.
They pressed us hard, ringing us about with flashing steel, and although we fought magnificently, I knew in my heart that it was but a matter of time before superior weight of numbers would crush us down.
Yet it was not in me to complain of my lot. For indeed, were I to fall here, I could not think of a better way to die than this―battling for my life beside the woman I loved, a sword in my hand, grim laughter on my lips, Darloona beside me!
We fought on, but without hope … .
Suddenly the warrior whose sword I had engaged fell back a step, dropped his point, and cried out in fear. His features paled and his mouth sagged open, and his eyes went beyond me and froze as if fixed on some fearful apparition which stood behind my back.
“The god―moves,” he cried with horror.
The other warriors about us staggered back from us now, their gaze transfixed with terror on something behind us.
“The god―lives!”
Risking a sword between the shoulders, I turned swiftly and cast a swift glance behind me. What I saw made me start with astonishment!
Above us on the flat dais stood the hideous stone idol of Hoom, devil-god of the Chac Yuul. Very horrible was Hoom, with glaring eyes, pot belly, leering fanged jaws gaped wide in a gloating grin, monstrous arms spread as if to crush us puny mortals in his multiple embrace.
And Hoom … moved/
Even as I stared in amazement, the arm which was extended out over the stairs lifted into a position of command!
And a deep, hollow voice boomed out, filling the great hall with rolling echoes!
“LET THEM GO FREE,” it thundered.
Swords wavered and fell; men stared up with expressions of utter astonishment frozen upon their pallid features.
I sprang into action. I knew not what had caused this weird and inexplicable phenomenon, but I seized the opportunity for escape which it held out to us. Valkar and Darloona stood, gripped in the same amazement that held the others petrified. I signaled them frantically.
“Come/ The panel―now, while we have the chance!”
We sprang up the steps to the dais, and Vaspian saw us.
He was no less the superstitious savage than his fellows, but jealousy and suspicion colored his mind. His features distorted into a vicious snarl as he saw us eluding his vengeance, and he came leaping up the stair after us, sword lifted for the kill.
But it was Hoom who slew!
The great stone arm that was lifted in a commanding position came smashing down―and crushed his skull. Vaspian fell dead on the steps of the high altar in a welter of splattering gore, and the room erupted into fury!
“Kill them all!” Arkola thundered, waving his great blade. A host of swordsmen sprang howling on our heels.
I darted around behind the idol, and found a stone door open in its back. Within, his hands working a series of levers, sat Lukor, his merry eyes dancing with delighted mischief―and Koja, whose deep metallic voice, through a wooden trumpet arranged so that the words seemed to come from the very mouth of the idol, had supplied the booming command.