These facts being well known to all present at the council, it was a surprise to none when Zantor spoke up, offering a plan of his own which he thought could serve to resolve the dilemma. The giant warrior is a grim and somber man of few words, little given to making speeches. But in this particular case his simple eloquence served him well.
“My lords, I suggest the armada resume its expedition against the Mind Wizards of Kuur,” Zantor said, when the vice-admiral had yielded the floor in his favor.
“You do not believe, then, Captain Zantor, that we should continue the search for our lost comrades?” Prince Valkar asked, permitting an expression of surprise to appear on his features.
The grim-faced giant shook his head.
“You did not permit me to finish,” he said. “I was going to suggest that the armada voyage on to Kuur, leaving my own ship, the Xaxar, behind to prosecute the search for Jandar and the others.”
The Princess of Tharkol spoke up at this point.
“You then feel, Captain Zantor, that one ship may succeed where four ships have failed?”
“I don’t know, Princess,” admitted Zantor stolidly.
“I but make the suggestion in the nature of a compromise. To hold the entire armada here is obviously to jeopardize the success of our mission of war against the Mind Wizards. Yet to depart entirely from these mountains were to abandon our admiral, the Prince of Shondakor, and our dear friends, to an unknown fate―which would be callous, unfaithful and inhumane. It is quite possible that one ship such as the Xaxar may in truth fail to find the whereabouts of our lost comrades, yet the attempt must and should be made, for it is yet too soon to give up hope that Jandar and the others yet live. It also seems unwise, to my way of thinking, to tie up the entire armada in this search. As I see it, my lords, the expedition has at this time two purposes. The first is to find, if possible, and, if possible, to rescue, our lost friends. This the Xaxar may well be able to accomplish, through vigilance and luck. The other is to invade and conquer or destroy the country of the Mind Wizards; and I see no reason why the three remaining vessels in the armada, lacking only the assistance of the Xaxar, should not be able to accomplish this second purpose, so long as it has not lost the valuable advantage of surprise.”
“I agree with Zantor, and volunteer to join his crew,” ugly, loyal-hearted Ergon growled.
“And I, too, would like to lend my slight, inconsequential skills to the success of this mission,” chirruped the sly little one-eyed thief, Glypto. His volunteering was most unexpected, but Zantor seemed to welcome it, for he favored the odd, quaint, cunning little guttersnipe with a friendly nod and a slight smile. Doubtless he recalled to mind the good service and faithful assistance the little rogue had given to Prince Jandar and Princess Darloona only a few months before, when it had eventually come to light that the thieving rascal was, in actuality, not a spawn of the Tharkolian gutters at all, but the brilliantly ingenious and resourceful master-spy of the Seraan of Soraba, our trusted ally in this venture.* Glypto, although no warrior, had volunteered for service aboard Zamara’s flagship, the Conqueress, as part of the Soraban contingent. That the wily little fellow had conceived of a warm admiration for Prince Jandar was widely known; thus his volunteering to assist in searching for the lost prince should really have come as no particular surprise to the members of the council. It is just that, due to his consummate skills as an actor, we were all so accustomed to thinking of him as a whimpering, cowardly little sneak thief, and his speaking up at this time to join a desperate and dangerous quest seemed somehow out of character.
Close upon Glypto’s bid to join the crew of the Xaxar, half a dozen more of Jandar’s trusted friends and comrades spoke up to beg the same privilege. Laughingly, Valkar lifted a hand to silence them.
“We’re going to have to draw the line after Glypto, I think,” he said smilingly, “or half of the warriors on the expedition will be crowding aboard the Xaxar in order to help rescue Jandar, and that would leave the rest of the armada somewhat undermanned! However, there’s much good sense in what Captain Zantor has proposed, and the leaving behind of one ship should not seriously impair the fighting efficiency of the armada. Let us put Zantor’s plan to a vote…”
Chapter 17
The Quest of Zantor
Needless to say, the council voted overwhelmingly in the affirmative to give Zantor’s plan a try. But Zantor himself spoke up, over-ruling Valkar’s half-hearted objection to the addition of new members to the crew of the Xaxar. He pointed out, in a reasonable fashion, that certain of us possessed skills which might be of greater use and value to the search for the lost prince than to the expedition of war. Valkar saw the sense of this and withdrew his objection, leaving it up to Zantor himself to choose between the many who clamored. for the privilege of a place on the Xaxar.
In all modesty, I must here admit that the first to speak up after this ruling was myself. Considering my years, I can hardly claim to be either a warrior or an adventurer, but I pointed out to Valkar that we might discover some message left behind by Jandar, and that, as I was the only person in all the armada who had become acquainted with his native tongue, English, I should be permitted to join the expedition against that contingency. This was agreed to. And then another individual, also no warrior, spoke up to demand room be made for him aboard the Xaxar. That he volunteered for such a dangerous mission truly came as a surprise to all―for it was none other than the puffed-up and argumentative little geographer from Soraba, Dr. Abziz!
“But, doctor, we will certainly be calling upon your skills as a geographer in our own search, for the whereabouts of Kuur have yet to be ascertained,” said Prince Valkar in considerable puzzlement at this unexpected request.
“Nonsense!” snorted the acerbic little Soraban. “In Ang Chan’s medallion-map you have what can only be assumed to be an accurate representation of the territories surrounding the secret citadel of the Mind Wizards. And in the maps and charts and notes I have already had copied and distributed among the several ships of this armada you already possess everything I know or can conjecture regarding the terrain of this hemisphere. From this point forward in time, my presence upon the Jalathadar becomes superfluous, and as it is my express desire and plan and purpose to join in the search for the lost members of the expedition, I expect you, sir, to accede to my request.”
“Very well. We shall leave it to Captain Zantor, as it is his decision to make.”
Zantor then, in his serious way, inquired if Dr. Abziz had any particular reason for wishing to join in the search for Prince Jandar, to which the little geographer replied, “My desire to assist in the rescue of Prince Jandar is purely altruistic; however, in the case of certain other members of the expedition who are lost, strayed or stolen, my motives are more selfish.”