In this effort the prince kindly assented to assist me, although I fear my questionings must have become wearying and importunate. But we learned together, he and I―he the written characters and the modes of punctuation in that tongue that only he would have thought to label “the Thanatorian,” and I the weird intricacies of both spoken and written “English”―as he, quite inexplicably, says is the name of the language spoken in his native land, the “United States.” I should have thought the tongue would naturally have been called “Unitedstatesian,” but such, he has informed me, smilingly, is not the case.
So much for my acquaintance, such as it is, with the language spoken upon the Earth. I insert this boring digression into a narrative of perils and exploits as much to explain my lamentable errors in what I write, as to justify them.* But now permit me to resume the narrative at the point at which I possess information unknown to our lost friends.
When dawn broke on the morning after the night during which Lukor and Koja set out from the Jalathadar to search the mountain-country for some sign of Jandar or Tomar or of the amazing winged men who had―as far as we knew―carried them off after the battle on the bridge, the fact that the Yathoon and the Ganatolian were inexplicably missing was discovered almost at once when they did not appear at breakfast with their fellow-officers.
In consternation lest the winged men (whom I must accustom myself to calling “the Zarkoon”) had raided the airship on a second occasion during the same night, Prince Valkar, as vice-admiral of the expedition, ordered the Jalathadar searched thoroughly. And by this means it was before mid-morning firmly established that Koja and Lukor were in truth no longer aboard.
Happily for our peace of mind, the mystery proved of very brief duration, for almost simultaneously was it also discovered that one of the gigs or skiffs was likewise missing. It did not require much thought to perceive that these two facts obviously bore relation to each other; in fact, recalling that both Lukor and Koja had argued forcefully and eloquently at the midnight council that a search for the prince and his youthful companion should commence immediately, rather than awaiting the coming of daylight, Valkar instantly guessed that the, impulsive sword-master had recklessly taken matters into his own hands, with the collusion of the faithful Yathoon.
“So now we have four missing persons to find!” Valkar swore, although the severity of his tones were belied by a slight grin of reluctant admiration. “Curse that old rapscallion!” he chuckled, “or do I mean `bless him’? Well, at any rate, I find it difficult to condemn any man who puts his loyalty to a friend so far above a devotion to abstract duty.”
It was decided to emulate the covert designs of the Ganatolian adventurer at once. Search-parties were dispatched in the other skiffs to explore the terrain at close quarters, while the four great ornithopters which comprised the armada were dispatched to cruising above the mountains in the four cardinal directions. It was thought likely that, even should the skiffs find no trace of our missing friends on the peaks and slopes and summits, the four mighty galleons of the clouds, with their greater range, might spy the skiff in the distance, if still airborne, or chance to view a flight of the winged men (I mean, the Zarkoon).
All that long day we searched, and much of the night, and all of the two days and nights which followed. That we discovered absolutely no trace of either the skiff or the Zarkoon or of our lost friends may be assigned to the obvious fact that we did not know what to look for, with any precision, nor in which direction to look for it.
It was as if the mountains had opened a great mouth in their flanks and swallowed them, skiff and Zarkoon and all. It was all very mysterious. More than that, it was frightening. Especially since the insufferable Dr. Abziz (a savant for whom I have much the same opinion as Lukor’s) frequently made reference to the cannibalistic nature the sagas and old tales assign to the legended Zarkoon.
Even to those among us most adamant in our determination to find Jandar and the other lost members of the expedition, it soon became obvious that we could not continue the search much longer. Every day we remained here searching―every hour we circled and circled the skies―increased the risk that the Mind Wizards might discover our presence in their hemisphere, and might guess the nature of our mission. And thus we should lose the one slender advantage we possessed―the factor of surprise.
Thus, on the following day, a council of the leaders of the expedition was convened in the stateroom of the flagship at the request of Prince Valkar, acting in the absence of Jandar as his vice-admiral. The issues under discussion centered, of course, upon the present problem: should the armada continue its search for our lost comrades, or should it continue the flight against Kuur?
Not one person at that council argued that Jandar, Koja, Lukor and the youth Tomar should be given up as dead. Many and eloquent were the arguments presented in defense of a continuation and an extension of the search. And yet, with considerable reluctance, it was readily admitted that this unanticipated delay in the expedition could only work to the good of the villainous Mind Wizards, and that every hour the expedition was delayed by the search increased the possibilities that the shadowy Lords of Kuur might discover the armada in their skies. Yet what was to be done? To simply fly away, leaving the Prince of Shondakor and his friends and courtiers to their unknown fate would be despicable and obviously repugnant to all at the council.
It was left to Zantor of the Xaxar to propose the solution to this dilemma which was eventually adopted. It will be recalled that Jandar had first met and become friends with this former corsair captain of the Sky Pirates during his last period of imprisonment in the City in the Clouds. Jandar had been captured by the slavers of Narouk, one of the city-states of the Perushtarian Empire* who periodically paid a tribute in human flesh to the aerial buccaneers. Having fallen from the favor of Prince Thuton, monarch of Zanadar, because of his more humane treatment of his captives, the former captain of the frigate Xaxar had been himself degraded to the level of a slave, and fought among the gladiators of Zanadar. Among the warriors of the arena Zantor had won a high place, due to his bravery and his prowess in the martial arts, as well as to his natural powers of leadership.
When Jandar and his comrade, Ergon, were consigned to the Pits of Zanadar and were doomed to fight among the gladiators in the games, Zantor had befriended them. Jandar had been instrumental in saving Zantor’s life when a conspiracy, led by Prince Thuton’s favorite, Panchan the Golden, had attempted to poison him before a gladiatorial contest. Thus, when, in the fullness of time, Jandar made his break for freedom during the annual games, Zantor and the former buccaneers of his crew, who had been consigned to the Pits of the arena to fight and die beside their captain, led a mutiny among the gladiators in support of Jandar’s fight for freedom. It was this unexpected slave revolt which had proved the decisive factor in the struggle of the free and sovereign states of Thanator against the aerial tyranny of the Sky Pirates. Prince Thuton was slain by Jandar’s own sword in that revolt, and the Sky Pirates were crushed for all time, and their very city itself had been destroyed.
From the holocaust which enveloped Zanadar, Jandar and most of the rebellious gladiators had escaped in the Jalathadar, which had arrived in the proverbial nick of time to participate in the battle which destroyed the City in the Clouds. One other aerial galleon had escaped the cataclysm and that was the Xaxar itself, for Zantor and his loyal crew had escaped from the arena into the streets of the city, managing to reach their ship, which was moored at the sky-docks, and cast off in time to join the Jalathadar in the last battle wherein Zanadar was whelmed and brought down to flaming ruin. From that day to this, Jandar has had no more loyal or more faithful friend than Zantor of Zanadar. Forswearing their former allegiance to the throne of Prince Thuton, the ex-corsair and his entire crew of sky-going buccaneers had become loyal citizens of the Golden City, and had formed, in fact, the original nucleus of the new Shondakorian sky navy.