The Yathoon camp, it seemed, was being attacked.
And, in the confusion, everyone had forgotten about Darloona and myself!
7. A CRUISE ABOARD THE FRIGATE SKYGULL
Although my arms were chained, my feet were free. So swiftly had the arthropods fled to their battle stations that I was left standing alone and unguarded. The Princess stood a bit beyond me, staring up at the fantastic winged ships which circled slowly and ponderously overhead.
"What in the world are those things?"
"They are scout ornithopters," she said. "Have you never seen one before?"
I assured her that I had not. She looked puzzled. I reminded her that I was a stranger from a far land.
"It must indeed be far distant," she observed, "if you have never heard of the Sky Pirates of Zanadar!"
I had indeed heard mention of the name, but had not dreamed of anything like this.
"Now is our opportunity to escape," I said. "While the Yathoon warriors are engaged in battle, perhaps we can steal a couple of thaptors and be off."
I was half afraid that she would refuse my assistance, and not at all certain that the Ku Thad (the term meant the "Golden People") did not share the va lu rokka fatalism of the Horde. But such was not the case. We made at once for the thaptor pens of Gamchan's retinue and secured two beasts.
The bird-horses were restive and upset by the excitement. Perhaps they smelled blood and war and death on the air. At any rate they clashed their beaks at us and screeched angrily as we threw saddles over them and sought to mount. I cursed under my breath and wished for the tractable mount I had made friends with in Koja's corral. But Darloona was a born thaptor-woman and knew the trick of handling an uncooperative mount: you beat him over the top of the head with a little wooden club called an olo, affixed to each saddlebow for just that purpose. It looks very much like a dumbbell.
Thus we mounted and cantered out of the camp.
At the perimeter we encountered, of all people, my former owner, Koja. He did not seem particularly surprised to see me.
"Ride due north, Jandar, and then east along the margin of the jungle. I trust the Princess Darloona is most anxious to return to her people," he said solemnly.
"How did you know my name, Yathoon?" the Princess demanded. He indicated the circular medallion of bright metal affixed to her girdle.
"Unless I am mistaken, that is the Seal of Shondakor, is it not?" he asked rhetorically. "If so, and since only the regnant Princess may bear the sacred Seal, it follows to my mind that you are she."
"Why are you helping us, Yathoon?" she asked suspiciously.
Koja shrugged, or performed a twitch of his antennae equivalent to a shrug.
"Why not? I assume the ornithopters are searching for you. The Sky Pirates have never evinced particular interest in our treasures. And unless my eyes misread the insignia on yonder rudder, that is the flagship of Prince Thuton himself, an ambitious and not overly scrupulous man who might well find a path to power through possession of the Princess of Shondakor."
Squinting against the bright gold sky, I saw that the more sumptuous and ornate of the three flying vessels bore a blue and silver emblem, a winged fist, painted on the vertical rudder fin, a structure ribbed like an enormous fan, which protruded from the poop at the aft of the galleon―or frigate, as a scout ship is more properly termed.
Darloona was still not convinced that Koja meant us well. She glanced at me.
"Can we trust this capok?" she demanded, using an impolite colloquialism that can be rendered, bluntly, as "bug."
"We can, Princess. Koja is a great warrior, a mighty chieftain, and my uhorx-friend," I said. As I still did not know the Thanatorian word for "friend" I used the English word.
"Come, I will guide you. Make way there, guards!" Koja clacked, waving aside the perimeter watchmen. He sprang into a saddle and cantered off ahead of us, waving aside any who might interfere with our flight.
"Koja, why are you doing this? Will you not get into trouble with your own people?" I asked.
"We have small hope of defeating the ornithopters," he said calmly. "But some small measure of victory can be snatched from the very mandibles of defeat if we can prevent the Sky Pirates from obtaining that which they seek. No more talk now―ride!"
Koja's guess as to the objective of the Sky Pirates was confirmed an instant later. The lead frigate, the one with the royal symbol painted on its rudder fin, floated low over the encampment on lazily beating vans, and a rather flashily dressed and overly handsome young man leaned over the ornately carven balustrade to shout through a gilt-paper megaphone to the arthropods below:
"Attention, chieftains of the Yathoon! We covet neither your possessions nor your destruction. We wish only the person of the red-haired Shondakor maiden your warriors seized in the jungle yesterday. Send her out alone and we will take her and leave without causing you harm!"
At that moment a sailor, his bright green stocking cap flapping in the breeze caused by the slowly beating vans, spied Darloona's bright hair as we rode like the wind from the other side of the camp. He was stationed aloft on the observation deck atop the command belvedere in the ship's forecastle, and thus had an excellent view of the surrounding countryside. We could hear him shouting his discovery to Prince Thuton, for such the handsome spokesman at the rail proved to be.
Thuton snapped a series of crisp commands. "Helmsman? Forward at ten knots! Take your mark on the three riders! Bosun! Lassomen to the forward port rail―lively, now!"
The great craft began to move with a creaking and a drumming of beating vans. Like a great shark she came gliding through the air towards us. Casting a glance back over my shoulder, I could see the brightwork of her prow, and the frowning face of the vengeful warrior that was her figurehead.
Just as we reached the edge of the jungle her shadow fell over us. I thought the overhanging boughs would shield us from the lasso gang, and I also thought we would make better time if we rode along the edge of the jungle rather than pushing into her depths. Both guesses proved somewhat less than inspired. For we came to an open space where no branches afforded protection above, and the flying loops came hurtling down to snap about us.
Squealing and kicking, Darloona was hauled out of her saddle like a hooked mackerel. A second lasso caught Koja around his middle and he went .flipflopping upwards, his face solemn and expressionless.
I, too, was roped and drawn skyward. A smooth hull, every chink tightly caulked with a rubbery gumlike substance, swept past me as I was drawn up.. Then the deck rail, its supporters carven into the likeness of winged dolphins, swept under me, and I was dropped with a resounding thud to the deck. I saw then that the lasso was affixed to a tall davit which protruded over the side, something like a gallows.
Prince Thuton strode forward, beaming smiles. He was a young man, rather foppish, dressed in tight bottle-green breeches, floppy-topped skyboots, and a frilly white blouse, trimmed with lace at throat and wrist. A rapier hung from his baldric, which flashed with gems. As I got a close-up look at him, I discovered that the Sky Pirates, although fully human as far as I could see, had distinct racial differences from the Ku Thad.
To be precise, instead of tawny and honey-colored, his skin was papery white; instead of flaming red, his hair, worn long and ringleted, was sleek and black, as were his unslanted eyes. He was a handsome fellow, if a little soft in the face, with a brilliant smile and a smooth voice and charming manners. He looked and acted for all the world like some delicate French privateer of aristocratic birth. His eyes lingered for just a moment on Darloona's naked breasts; in the next, he had whipped a scarlet cloak off the shoulders of his lieutenant and draped it about the girl.