September 25, 2025 • 25 mins
In this captivating sequel to Palos of the Dog Star Pack, Jason Croft embarks on a thrilling new chapter of his adventures on Palos. Having shed his earthly form, his astral projection now inhabits the body of a Palosian man. With his exceptional knowledge and skills, the high priest hails Jason as the voice of God. However, this divine status threatens to derail his ultimate goal marrying Naia, the very reason for his journey. Will he be able to navigate the complexities of his new role while pursuing love? - Summary by Krista Zaleski
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter sixteen of The Mouthpiece of Z two. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Mouthpiece of Z two by John Ulrich Ghezi, Chapter
sixteen Between Jmira and the Sun. In the weeks that followed,
(00:25):
many things transpired. The line of poles stretched its length
from the power station to Himira and men were stringing wires.
Crofmade coke grounded into powder, mixed it with a cohesive substance,
and molded it into carbon cores to serve his growing arcs. Also,
he began experimenting in the construction of batteries, both moist
and dry cells. He succeeded with the former from the
(00:47):
first and for these experiments he demanded of Rober and
obtained the use of an unused room in the palace
where he often worked. At Knights Chemistry, as an exact science,
was unknown on pay Loss, but through consultations with the
local caste of physicians, Kraft managed to collect a certain
number of crudely refined salts, which they commonly used as drugs.
(01:10):
The rumoured Croft delved into the simpler mysteries of nature
became an apartment of wonder to Rober, who came to
it first himself and later brought Gya and Nia, And
on the night of their first coming, Kroft explained the
laws of chemical affinity as best he could to the three,
comparing the force that drew the ions together with love,
and caught a comprehending flash from Nia's blue eyes. Thereafter,
(01:34):
she came as she willed when he worked, and watched
while he struggled with as far from satisfactory equipment, and
asked a hundred questions until he suggested that she assist him,
whereupon she accepted with the readiness that filled him with surprise.
Not after night thereafter, she downed a coarse smock and
labored at his side, finding a new world open before her,
(01:55):
with the wide eyed interest of a child, beholding for
the first time the deliberate manipulation of the hidden forces
of nature, beginning at length to understand man's right and
power to use them to his advantage, direct them in command,
to look upon them not as some supernatural manifestation, but
as a wholly natural thing. Meanwhile, in the motor shops,
(02:17):
Crofts by now expert force for assembling the first two airplanes,
and in the same place, since he could work there
as well as anywhere else and supervise their work. At
the same time, he and Rober spent a part of
each day constructing a resistance coil and a temporary switch
on a slab of the marble white stone, so much
in evidence on pay loss against the day when the
new light should be shown to Hamayra first. At the
(02:40):
end of two weeks, however, he moved the now finished
wings and bodies in which the motors had been installed,
to the hangars and installed a force of men with
them there to complete the work. Meanwhile, at night, he
kept up his search for a satisfactory dry cell, telling
Nigh that the success of the flying machine depended upon it.
So then when at last he succeeded and she felt
the current angle through her fingers for the first time,
(03:02):
she cried out in delight. And in those two weeks,
as Guy had planned, as Kroft had known must happen,
constant association and education had its effect as they played
ball in the mornings, and bathed and worked and saw
for strange new results such as the woman had never dreamed.
In all her existence, they drew closer and closer together
(03:22):
in their aims, their every interest, their understanding, than they
had ever been. In his own way, and by his
own methods, Kroft was rapidly raising the woman, whom, as
a woman he worshiped, toward his own mental plane. Thus,
in the end, she came to a realization that those
things which had once seemed as much a miracle to
her as to any of her people, might very well
be manifestation of natural law within the grasp of man.
(03:47):
His dry cells perfected, the success of his engine ignition
assured several arcs. Nearing the finished stage of their construction,
Kroft had a new thought. He decided that after his
demonstration of the airplanes at Hemaira, he might wish to
exhibit them at Zetra, and altered his plant somewhat as
a result, and equipped each plane with a set of
buoyant pontoons, thereby converting them to the type of flying
(04:08):
fish more nearly than anything else. He explained his reason
for this to Naya, with whom he was now talking
everything over fully, and she smiled. On the water they
will run as well as through the air. She said
when he had finished, Jason, you must teach me to
fly as well as everything else. And as on the
first afternoon of his coming to himaira from the mountains,
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Jason frowned, I like not the thought there is danger
in this flying danger Naya of Offer arched or brows.
Think you I have any fear. No, he hastened to
assure her. It is Jason who, for thee would be afraid.
For an instant, she colored. And then when a trifle
pale and one of Naya I of offer, think you
(04:53):
when Jason dares this danger? My friend, it is a
matter of knowledge, Kroft said, quickly, thrilled by her head,
meaning I have driven them before on earth. Nia's pupils
widened swiftly, making almost black pools of her eyes. Yes,
on Earth, or the use of them also in the
battles of their wars height, cried Nia sharply, with a
(05:16):
quiver of her finely chiseled nostrils, as she caught the
picture his words conveyed. To rise and wheel and fight,
to struggle like great birds in the air. This earth
of which you speak must be a wonderful place, Yes,
said Kroft, as he went and told her many things, describing,
among others, the aviators dress and what will Jason wear
on pay loss? She asked, Kraft laughed, I had not
(05:40):
given any attention. I must consider the matter. Perhaps a
garment fashioned out of nupeheyde Nia nodded. Suddenly, her scarlet
lips were smiling. In my mind, I see as in
a painting, these leather clad men of Earth. Leave the
matter of your apparel to Nya and you will, oh Jason,
she replied, and Croft assented, filled with both pleasure and surprise.
(06:05):
Then came a knight to offer very much like that
before the first motiir was finished. The night when a
very few hours would see the first pair of aeroplanes done,
and that night Croft remained at the hangars, examining, tuning, testing,
and testing again the motir he meant to demonstrate to
rober and the gaping workmen. With the dawn over and over,
he turned on the spark and sent the giant voiced
engine spinning with an ever steadying hume. Under the flare
(06:28):
of oil slushes burning about him. He looked into the
face of the captain in charge of the hangar crew
and found his bronzed skin pale. Thou wilt dare it
mouthpiece of Zetu, the fellow said, in a tone of
odd deference, meeting Croft's glance, thou wilt attempt in this
device to mount the air. Brave men have there been
in Tamarisia, aye, and brave women, yet none like to
(06:51):
thee before. Nonsense, said Jason, and laughed with a catch
in his breath, For indeed he was thrilling with a
vast sense of accomplished purpose. As the motor roared with
the sun. I shall be a thousand vesterns over your head,
he declared, meeting thereby approximately three thousand feet. And he
laughed again, more in sheer nervous tension than from any humor,
(07:13):
as the captain instinctively tipped back his head and stared
at the hangar roof. Satisfied at length that everything was ready,
he threw himself on a pallet, from which he rose
at dawn. To his rousing cry came the captain and
his men. The doors of the hangar were opened, and
the first airplane on which Sirius had ever shown was
trundled out, rolling on wheels affixed to the bottoms of
(07:35):
each pontoon. And even as it appeared, a motor flashed
from the blurring shadow of Hamira's red walls and dashed
toward it along the road. It was Rober coming to
witness his friend's latest venture, driving in a smother of
dust and impatience, leaning against a van, Kroft watched his
progress and so received his surprise. Rober was not alone.
(07:59):
At first. Kroft noted the fact with wonder, and then
with a leaping heart, Niya was with him, ni of offer.
He was to make his first attempt to scale the
air of Payloss before her purple eyes. He caught a
deep breath and his own eyes flashed as the motior approached,
and he went toward it, and Rover sprang out. Hail
Jason Camersi's first man bird, he exclaimed, glancing from Kraft
(08:22):
to the huge machine Z two. I could scarce believe
that so large a thing can rise and take to
wing bird man, not man, bird, robe, said Kroft, giving
Nigh a hand to assist her from the mocher, and
becoming aware that she carried a package across her knees
thy garment, she explained, extending it to him go into
(08:44):
the coat where you house your bird and put it
on my thanks for it and your presence. Kroft accepted
and helped her from the car. Hi, Robe, don't full
with the engine, will you? While I don my new attire.
He turned away and disappeared through the hangar doors, and
there he opened the bundle with unsteady hands and lifted
what it contained. Trousers, or rather breeches. They seemed of
(09:07):
leather as soft as the finest earthly ooze grain, a tunic,
a helmet, light cases fashioned to strap on, and Naya
of Offer had designed them, had planned them, directed their making,
had brought them to him this morning. Croft's hand actually
fumbled the buckles as he put them on. Yet in
the end the thing was done, and he stepped forth,
clothes from toe to head and rusted brown, save for
(09:30):
the front of the helmet, through which shone his face.
Z too, cried. Robe and Naya's eyes were shining as
he advanced toward them, followed by the hanger's crew, and
mounted into his seat over the fusilized edge. He looked
down directly into their blue depths, and suddenly they lost
their glint of pleasure, grew dark and a trifle strained
(09:50):
in the white oval of her face take places. The
hanger crew ran to the station's croft, had already assigned
ready two of the men. They had hold of the
propeller and sent it around with a roar. The engine
caught on a cloud of back driven dust, half veiled
the men who steadied the huge plane against the drag
of the motor, holding it, checking it as it strained
(10:11):
and quivered like a hound against the leash. Let go.
The men fell back. The plane quivered, moved slowly in
advance out across that same desert where Jason had driven
the first motor and a mad, reckless dash to save
nay of Offer's life. He now shot forward in the
first quickening dash of Offerd's first airplane, forward faster and faster,
(10:32):
faster and faster than up. Obedient to his shifting of
the controls. The huge machine tilted, seemed to rear on
its haunches, lifting its nose, its wheels, rising, rising free
of the ground, at last free and rising higher and higher, up, up,
up up. A spear point of the rising sun caught
(10:55):
it and set it a glisten. As it rose up up,
its well tuned motiir roaring out the song of a
marvel's berth, Up and up against the pink and blue
of morning, Up and up, smaller and smaller to them
who washed it from beside the hangar. Then as they
watched it turned, it turned and flew back above them,
five hundred feet in the air. It began a spiral,
(11:17):
ever rising higher above the ground. And suddenly, though Kraft
did not know it at the time, and Rober lost
in amazement, did not sense it, nigh of Offer ran
swiftly to the motor, and, carrying something crushed to her bosom,
from there to the doors of the hangar, and disappeared
over the fuselage. Crow looked down. The hanger was a
(11:38):
little shed. Beneath him, the cluster of watchers were a
group of ants. A vast elation filled his breast. Once more,
his efforts were crowned with complete success, with no more
than some minor changes. He felt that his mastery of
the Pelossian atmosphere was assured. He altered the inclination of
his veins and began sliding swiftly down, gliding gracefully back
to a rolling stop. At the end, my friend cried Rover,
(12:02):
running up, he caught Jason's hand as Kroft climbed out
and stood clinging to it. And though an hour before
Croft would have been well satisfied with such recognition, he
became aware now of hunger for something else. Nia. It
was her praise, her congratulations, he wished. He turned his head,
seeking her presence, and found it and gasped for Nia.
(12:24):
Of offer had changed since he left. No more was
she a glowing girl in her fluttering garments, waiting to
see him essay, human flight with bated breath. Gone were
the filmy draperies that had swathed her, and instead she
stood before him, habited like himself, in a smaller suit
of brown, which clung to her graceful limbs and supple
torso like a loosely fitted skin. Gone even were the
(12:47):
masses of her golden hair, veiled under a helmet of brown.
But as he met them, her blue eyes were the same,
and they were fired with a light of excited anticipation. Again,
she cried again, And this time I shall go with you, Jason,
I would fly. Nia. My cousin Rober started forward a
(13:09):
pace and instinctive protest. Nay, she wheeled upon him, stamping
a small foot in case in the soft brown leather.
Nay Rover, I shall be the first woman in all
Tamarisia to fly. She stretched out slender, appealing arms, Jason,
is there not place between your wings for me? Yes?
(13:30):
There was something, almost a veiled suggestion of wider meaning
in her words, and Kroft caught it as he gave
her his hand. The thing was madness, but it thrilled him,
excited his admiration afresh as he realized that the whole
thing was no matter of the instant, no impulse, but
something she had thought out, planned for which he had
caused or cost him to be made at the same
(13:51):
time as his own. And he had not the heart
to deny her, in the flush of his recent success
come he said instead, as rob fell back and caught
her under the arms, lifting her lightly up until her
foot gained a supporting hold, and she climbed to her
place in the pit of the fuselage, and then settling
himself once more in position, Kroft cried to his men,
(14:13):
and once more the engine roared. Briefly, he glimpsed his
companion's face. It was eager, expectant. In the morning light.
Her breast rose and fell in a barely quickened rhythm
under its covering of brown. Let go once more. The
plane advanced, jolting, tipping a little sway to the slight
irregularities of the ground. It ran ahead. Kraft moved a lever.
(14:36):
The obedient monster answered. The desert fell away beneath. Up, Up,
Jason of Earth and nigh of Offer, daughter of Gath
and child of Payloss swam toward a brightening sky of
pink and gold. Up and up. Once more he stole
a sidelong glance at his companion's face. It was lifted,
tilted a little back, its blue eyes closed. Nia Kroft
(14:59):
spoke to her above the motor's roar. She lifted her lids,
met his somewhat anxious regard, and smiled. And from him
she let her gaze wander over the whole vast panorama
of desert and mountain and the central ocean, blue and
green and black and gold, with a froth on the
nearer waves, like a fringe of white to their shadow
flanks as it caught the light, and Himayra, the red
(15:21):
city beginning to glow as serious shot as shafts against
its ruddy walls, and like a dull chain supporting the
red jewel of the city. On the breast of offer,
the yellow naw outlined as far as the eye could
reach by a band of shimmering green, And suddenly her
breast lifted, her lips parted, and she began to sing,
to sing, as she had once cried to Kroft, that
(15:43):
the birds she envied, saying, as they rose against the
morning gladly, clearly, freely as a bird itself might sing,
So sang Naya of Offer between Himira and the sun.
After that, Kroft taught her how to fly. Having once yielded,
he could not well again refuse, and Nya had her
way with him, as she had meant to do ever
(16:05):
since she first was taken with the notion of herself
controlling one of the new machines that he had made,
but the promise to teach her she exacted. That same morning,
after they had returned to the palace, Robert ran off
to tell Guy concerning the success of the trial flight,
and Nia dared Croft to bathe afterward. He was half
inclined to think she adopted the time and place to
(16:26):
a gaining of her point. Women she would not have
been had she not realized her beauty and its appeal,
But at the time he gave the matter no thought.
You will surely teach me to fly, she said, almost
as soon as they floated side by side. No, he denied,
in a somewhat uncertain fashion. This morning I yielded because
(16:47):
of your great desire to be the first woman of
pay Looss to take the air, and that I was
not altogether wise. Again, I would not dare yet, and
you yielded to my desire in the matter of this morning.
Your scuse should be this and yielding to me again,
No less Ah, Jason. Her hand crept out and lay
upon his arm. Now know I the feeling of a
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bird when it rises and sinks from pure joy for
the first time in my life, and the knowledge thrills me.
I would know it again. Because she broke off with
a little gasping breath, because of what Kraft turned his
head and looked into her pansy purple eyes, because, said
she very slowly. It is to me as though I
(17:28):
was no longer mortal, as though I had in some
way left the body, cast off all the weight of
the flesh. Naya Croft stammered, thou knowest and paused, strangely
shaken at the knowledge. Her words showed Aye, since the
last time you called me to you, come and I
shall show you Jason. She turned and dived. Kraft followed
(17:51):
down down. He followed her gleaming form through the clear water, down, down,
until he swam beside it and lost buried deep in
its liquid embrace, screened from all observation by the play
of the sun upon its surface. She turned still closer
to him, and for the first time since Old Zud's
blunder had brought misunderstanding, she offered him her scarlet mouth
(18:15):
from thy kiss. Man and woman came up gasping, almost
as to a new berth. Misunderstanding. All barriers of restraint
seemed to have been washed away in the shimmering pool's
soft flood. Ah akwar akwar Nia panted, Thou hast caught
thy little fish at last. Fear not, little fish, said Croft,
(18:36):
in a voice which quivered, I shall not eat you,
but this time I shall surely hold you fast, and
you will teach me to fly. There was witchery in
Nya's words, and in her smile, witchery, whimsy, almost a
conscious knowledge that now now she could not be denied, yes,
said Croft, in open surrender. And ze tu pity me
(18:58):
if aught befal thee, I will be careful, Nya sobered,
and and and what is there something more beloved, Kraft
questioned softly. Nay, She lowered her eyes. I must go
fasten my girdle about me, lest we be late for
the morning's meal. She swam toward the sunken steps, and
(19:20):
suddenly Kraft knew the thought that had stirred her soul,
and it set his own soul glowing. In one swift stroke,
he overtook her beloved, Beloved, he whispered to her. On
the day the new light comes to him, Aira, I
shall once more fasten my girdle with azial seal the
new light. The fires in her blue eyes quickened. Ay, Jason,
(19:44):
I would wear it in the new light, she said,
as side by side they clamored from the pool. Once
in these waters I sought the mouth of Zillah, and
in them today I found as Zeal's beloved in the
touch of yours. Half an hour later Kraft met Gaya,
and she stopped him. Wise man, and one of great wisdom,
are you Jason, as rob my husband tells me, saying,
(20:07):
accompanied by Nya, you have conquered the air. She put
out her hand, Kraft took it. He bent toward her.
Hark you, Gia, my sweet friend, he said, speaking softly.
The air is nothing. I have conquered something else. What
mean you? Guy questioned that Nya of offer on the
day the new light comes, will wear my seal, Kraft
(20:30):
told her. Z too, she exclaimed, smiling, you have spoken
then at last, Wise, man, I have confessed to you
yet to meet. You have seen most blind in this
as most men are with women. Glad that am I
for you both. But now she was in my chamber
and radiant as g she declared, you would teach her
to fly, and easily deceived as I was. I thought
(20:52):
it that. After that, two causes hastened cross arrangements for
the celebration of the coming of the light. One was
the renewal of his formal patrotho with Nya, of course,
the other was of a wholly different sort. As for Nya,
save for the hours he spent in the shops, he
was with her the greater part of the time, either
(21:12):
teaching her the control of a plane, which she mastered quickly.
Both on land and water, or in the laboratory, or
in the evening, sometimes speaking with her alone, sometimes with
Rover and his wife. And in the laboratory one evening,
shortly after the day of their first flight together, Croft
spoke to her of love, as he had spoken once before,
but with a different meaning. Taking two salts in solution,
(21:35):
he poured them together. Behold, said he, as he mixed
them and formed a substance compounded of their blending, which
fell slowly to the bottom of the glass. Behold, beloved,
the chemistry of love, how each atom draws the other
atom to it, until they blend in arno more but
lose themselves, each one within the other, to form a
definite something which was not before. Behold, for even so, beloved,
(22:00):
it is with the souls of men and women, each
drawing the other to it, each blending with the other,
until in the will of Zitu and they are truly mated,
they melt into a perfect union, and a perfect spirit
is born. It was one way of portraying the doctrine
of twin souls, the marriage of the lamb, the birth
in the angelhood, dependent on the union of the two
(22:20):
original spiritual has and Nya nodded with a widening of
her eyes. Each draws the other to it, she said,
coming close beside him, Ah, Jason, did I draw you
to me really from the earth? Ay? By zitu, he swore,
and slipped an arm about her. Thy need of me
brought you unto pay loss, even as thou hast called
(22:41):
my spirit from the flesh, ay Graft said, in a
voice gone husky with emotion. It was the first time
she had mentioned those astral meetings in a fashion so direct.
She eyed the new formed substance in the glass before them,
and suddenly she smiled, face eyes and lips her whole
fare being they meet and mingle melt into one another.
(23:03):
She went on softly and lifted his other arm and
drew it about her form to meet the other. Ah Jason,
thou messenger of Uzziel to me that first night you
lay in the palace, yet came and bade the presence
of my spirit and help me. Even so as you
were holding me now, it was as though I forgot
all else and knew THEE only, as though I was
not save as a part of THEE, truly save that
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I felt the strong fire of thy mouth, and again
on a night, when the sky was cloudless and the
triple moon sent turned all the Pailossian world to a
dreamland of silvered plain and sea and mountain. Cross spoke
to her of love. That night he drove her to
the hangars, and they entered a machine. Up Up they
whirled through an air quiver with moonbeams, up up to
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a land of dreams, And there, between the heavens and
the far flung landscape, they swam in a dream world
of their own making, while the plane wheeled in wide
spun circles like some huge dark back against the skies.
Behold pay loss, Kraft, cried to her, above the roar
of the whirling propeller, heard as it swept them forward.
Yet not seen? Is it not lovely? Is it not fair?
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This one of all the millions of stars on which
we live? And yet why is it? For what purpose?
Why was it brought into existence even as you and
I beloved, and sent spinning through the void from Zitu's hand?
Save for love? Save that a million million men and
women might find a spot wherein their spirits the real
day should be given substance, in order that they should
(24:33):
live and meet and know one another, and love. Wherefore
is the body of man no more than the servant
to give to love expression, Since this is Zetu's plan,
that no man's spirit is complete without the woman's, that
no woman's spirit is complete without the man's, so that
in his wisdom each ever seeks the other to make
it whole and satisfy its longing. Thus then is love
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assured and life inspired. He shut off the engine and
began a lo long, slanting coasting down a moonlighted sloping path. Love,
said the girl beside him, Love so great that it
spans the space between the stars. And did I call
you to me without knowing? Yet? Now it seems to me, beloved,
that I should no one find some means to answer,
(25:16):
no matter where you were. In a long sweep, Kroft
brought the plane back to the ground, and then, without
any verbal reply, he lifted her from her seat and
bore her back to the moacher in his arms. End
of chapter sixteen read by P. J. Travis
Chapter sixteen of The Mouthpiece of Z two. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Mouthpiece of Z two by John Ulrich Ghezi, Chapter
sixteen Between Jmira and the Sun. In the weeks that followed,
(00:25):
many things transpired. The line of poles stretched its length
from the power station to Himira and men were stringing wires.
Crofmade coke grounded into powder, mixed it with a cohesive substance,
and molded it into carbon cores to serve his growing arcs. Also,
he began experimenting in the construction of batteries, both moist
and dry cells. He succeeded with the former from the
(00:47):
first and for these experiments he demanded of Rober and
obtained the use of an unused room in the palace
where he often worked. At Knights Chemistry, as an exact science,
was unknown on pay Loss, but through consultations with the
local caste of physicians, Kraft managed to collect a certain
number of crudely refined salts, which they commonly used as drugs.
(01:10):
The rumoured Croft delved into the simpler mysteries of nature
became an apartment of wonder to Rober, who came to
it first himself and later brought Gya and Nia, And
on the night of their first coming, Kroft explained the
laws of chemical affinity as best he could to the three,
comparing the force that drew the ions together with love,
and caught a comprehending flash from Nia's blue eyes. Thereafter,
(01:34):
she came as she willed when he worked, and watched
while he struggled with as far from satisfactory equipment, and
asked a hundred questions until he suggested that she assist him,
whereupon she accepted with the readiness that filled him with surprise.
Not after night thereafter, she downed a coarse smock and
labored at his side, finding a new world open before her,
(01:55):
with the wide eyed interest of a child, beholding for
the first time the deliberate manipulation of the hidden forces
of nature, beginning at length to understand man's right and
power to use them to his advantage, direct them in command,
to look upon them not as some supernatural manifestation, but
as a wholly natural thing. Meanwhile, in the motor shops,
(02:17):
Crofts by now expert force for assembling the first two airplanes,
and in the same place, since he could work there
as well as anywhere else and supervise their work. At
the same time, he and Rober spent a part of
each day constructing a resistance coil and a temporary switch
on a slab of the marble white stone, so much
in evidence on pay loss against the day when the
new light should be shown to Hamayra first. At the
(02:40):
end of two weeks, however, he moved the now finished
wings and bodies in which the motors had been installed,
to the hangars and installed a force of men with
them there to complete the work. Meanwhile, at night, he
kept up his search for a satisfactory dry cell, telling
Nigh that the success of the flying machine depended upon it.
So then when at last he succeeded and she felt
the current angle through her fingers for the first time,
(03:02):
she cried out in delight. And in those two weeks,
as Guy had planned, as Kroft had known must happen,
constant association and education had its effect as they played
ball in the mornings, and bathed and worked and saw
for strange new results such as the woman had never dreamed.
In all her existence, they drew closer and closer together
(03:22):
in their aims, their every interest, their understanding, than they
had ever been. In his own way, and by his
own methods, Kroft was rapidly raising the woman, whom, as
a woman he worshiped, toward his own mental plane. Thus,
in the end, she came to a realization that those
things which had once seemed as much a miracle to
her as to any of her people, might very well
be manifestation of natural law within the grasp of man.
(03:47):
His dry cells perfected, the success of his engine ignition
assured several arcs. Nearing the finished stage of their construction,
Kroft had a new thought. He decided that after his
demonstration of the airplanes at Hemaira, he might wish to
exhibit them at Zetra, and altered his plant somewhat as
a result, and equipped each plane with a set of
buoyant pontoons, thereby converting them to the type of flying
(04:08):
fish more nearly than anything else. He explained his reason
for this to Naya, with whom he was now talking
everything over fully, and she smiled. On the water they
will run as well as through the air. She said
when he had finished, Jason, you must teach me to
fly as well as everything else. And as on the
first afternoon of his coming to himaira from the mountains,
(04:31):
Jason frowned, I like not the thought there is danger
in this flying danger Naya of Offer arched or brows.
Think you I have any fear. No, he hastened to
assure her. It is Jason who, for thee would be afraid.
For an instant, she colored. And then when a trifle
pale and one of Naya I of offer, think you
(04:53):
when Jason dares this danger? My friend, it is a
matter of knowledge, Kroft said, quickly, thrilled by her head,
meaning I have driven them before on earth. Nia's pupils
widened swiftly, making almost black pools of her eyes. Yes,
on Earth, or the use of them also in the
battles of their wars height, cried Nia sharply, with a
(05:16):
quiver of her finely chiseled nostrils, as she caught the
picture his words conveyed. To rise and wheel and fight,
to struggle like great birds in the air. This earth
of which you speak must be a wonderful place, Yes,
said Kroft, as he went and told her many things, describing,
among others, the aviators dress and what will Jason wear
on pay loss? She asked, Kraft laughed, I had not
(05:40):
given any attention. I must consider the matter. Perhaps a
garment fashioned out of nupeheyde Nia nodded. Suddenly, her scarlet
lips were smiling. In my mind, I see as in
a painting, these leather clad men of Earth. Leave the
matter of your apparel to Nya and you will, oh Jason,
she replied, and Croft assented, filled with both pleasure and surprise.
(06:05):
Then came a knight to offer very much like that
before the first motiir was finished. The night when a
very few hours would see the first pair of aeroplanes done,
and that night Croft remained at the hangars, examining, tuning, testing,
and testing again the motir he meant to demonstrate to
rober and the gaping workmen. With the dawn over and over,
he turned on the spark and sent the giant voiced
engine spinning with an ever steadying hume. Under the flare
(06:28):
of oil slushes burning about him. He looked into the
face of the captain in charge of the hangar crew
and found his bronzed skin pale. Thou wilt dare it
mouthpiece of Zetu, the fellow said, in a tone of
odd deference, meeting Croft's glance, thou wilt attempt in this
device to mount the air. Brave men have there been
in Tamarisia, aye, and brave women, yet none like to
(06:51):
thee before. Nonsense, said Jason, and laughed with a catch
in his breath, For indeed he was thrilling with a
vast sense of accomplished purpose. As the motor roared with
the sun. I shall be a thousand vesterns over your head,
he declared, meeting thereby approximately three thousand feet. And he
laughed again, more in sheer nervous tension than from any humor,
(07:13):
as the captain instinctively tipped back his head and stared
at the hangar roof. Satisfied at length that everything was ready,
he threw himself on a pallet, from which he rose
at dawn. To his rousing cry came the captain and
his men. The doors of the hangar were opened, and
the first airplane on which Sirius had ever shown was
trundled out, rolling on wheels affixed to the bottoms of
(07:35):
each pontoon. And even as it appeared, a motor flashed
from the blurring shadow of Hamira's red walls and dashed
toward it along the road. It was Rober coming to
witness his friend's latest venture, driving in a smother of
dust and impatience, leaning against a van, Kroft watched his
progress and so received his surprise. Rober was not alone.
(07:59):
At first. Kroft noted the fact with wonder, and then
with a leaping heart, Niya was with him, ni of offer.
He was to make his first attempt to scale the
air of Payloss before her purple eyes. He caught a
deep breath and his own eyes flashed as the motior approached,
and he went toward it, and Rover sprang out. Hail
Jason Camersi's first man bird, he exclaimed, glancing from Kraft
(08:22):
to the huge machine Z two. I could scarce believe
that so large a thing can rise and take to
wing bird man, not man, bird, robe, said Kroft, giving
Nigh a hand to assist her from the mocher, and
becoming aware that she carried a package across her knees
thy garment, she explained, extending it to him go into
(08:44):
the coat where you house your bird and put it
on my thanks for it and your presence. Kroft accepted
and helped her from the car. Hi, Robe, don't full
with the engine, will you? While I don my new attire.
He turned away and disappeared through the hangar doors, and
there he opened the bundle with unsteady hands and lifted
what it contained. Trousers, or rather breeches. They seemed of
(09:07):
leather as soft as the finest earthly ooze grain, a tunic,
a helmet, light cases fashioned to strap on, and Naya
of Offer had designed them, had planned them, directed their making,
had brought them to him this morning. Croft's hand actually
fumbled the buckles as he put them on. Yet in
the end the thing was done, and he stepped forth,
clothes from toe to head and rusted brown, save for
(09:30):
the front of the helmet, through which shone his face.
Z too, cried. Robe and Naya's eyes were shining as
he advanced toward them, followed by the hanger's crew, and
mounted into his seat over the fusilized edge. He looked
down directly into their blue depths, and suddenly they lost
their glint of pleasure, grew dark and a trifle strained
(09:50):
in the white oval of her face take places. The
hanger crew ran to the station's croft, had already assigned
ready two of the men. They had hold of the
propeller and sent it around with a roar. The engine
caught on a cloud of back driven dust, half veiled
the men who steadied the huge plane against the drag
of the motor, holding it, checking it as it strained
(10:11):
and quivered like a hound against the leash. Let go.
The men fell back. The plane quivered, moved slowly in
advance out across that same desert where Jason had driven
the first motor and a mad, reckless dash to save
nay of Offer's life. He now shot forward in the
first quickening dash of Offerd's first airplane, forward faster and faster,
(10:32):
faster and faster than up. Obedient to his shifting of
the controls. The huge machine tilted, seemed to rear on
its haunches, lifting its nose, its wheels, rising, rising free
of the ground, at last free and rising higher and higher, up, up,
up up. A spear point of the rising sun caught
(10:55):
it and set it a glisten. As it rose up up,
its well tuned motiir roaring out the song of a
marvel's berth, Up and up against the pink and blue
of morning, Up and up, smaller and smaller to them
who washed it from beside the hangar. Then as they
watched it turned, it turned and flew back above them,
five hundred feet in the air. It began a spiral,
(11:17):
ever rising higher above the ground. And suddenly, though Kraft
did not know it at the time, and Rober lost
in amazement, did not sense it, nigh of Offer ran
swiftly to the motor, and, carrying something crushed to her bosom,
from there to the doors of the hangar, and disappeared
over the fuselage. Crow looked down. The hanger was a
(11:38):
little shed. Beneath him, the cluster of watchers were a
group of ants. A vast elation filled his breast. Once more,
his efforts were crowned with complete success, with no more
than some minor changes. He felt that his mastery of
the Pelossian atmosphere was assured. He altered the inclination of
his veins and began sliding swiftly down, gliding gracefully back
to a rolling stop. At the end, my friend cried Rover,
(12:02):
running up, he caught Jason's hand as Kroft climbed out
and stood clinging to it. And though an hour before
Croft would have been well satisfied with such recognition, he
became aware now of hunger for something else. Nia. It
was her praise, her congratulations, he wished. He turned his head,
seeking her presence, and found it and gasped for Nia.
(12:24):
Of offer had changed since he left. No more was
she a glowing girl in her fluttering garments, waiting to
see him essay, human flight with bated breath. Gone were
the filmy draperies that had swathed her, and instead she
stood before him, habited like himself, in a smaller suit
of brown, which clung to her graceful limbs and supple
torso like a loosely fitted skin. Gone even were the
(12:47):
masses of her golden hair, veiled under a helmet of brown.
But as he met them, her blue eyes were the same,
and they were fired with a light of excited anticipation. Again,
she cried again, And this time I shall go with you, Jason,
I would fly. Nia. My cousin Rober started forward a
(13:09):
pace and instinctive protest. Nay, she wheeled upon him, stamping
a small foot in case in the soft brown leather.
Nay Rover, I shall be the first woman in all
Tamarisia to fly. She stretched out slender, appealing arms, Jason,
is there not place between your wings for me? Yes?
(13:30):
There was something, almost a veiled suggestion of wider meaning
in her words, and Kroft caught it as he gave
her his hand. The thing was madness, but it thrilled him,
excited his admiration afresh as he realized that the whole
thing was no matter of the instant, no impulse, but
something she had thought out, planned for which he had
caused or cost him to be made at the same
(13:51):
time as his own. And he had not the heart
to deny her, in the flush of his recent success
come he said instead, as rob fell back and caught
her under the arms, lifting her lightly up until her
foot gained a supporting hold, and she climbed to her
place in the pit of the fuselage, and then settling
himself once more in position, Kroft cried to his men,
(14:13):
and once more the engine roared. Briefly, he glimpsed his
companion's face. It was eager, expectant. In the morning light.
Her breast rose and fell in a barely quickened rhythm
under its covering of brown. Let go once more. The
plane advanced, jolting, tipping a little sway to the slight
irregularities of the ground. It ran ahead. Kraft moved a lever.
(14:36):
The obedient monster answered. The desert fell away beneath. Up, Up,
Jason of Earth and nigh of Offer, daughter of Gath
and child of Payloss swam toward a brightening sky of
pink and gold. Up and up. Once more he stole
a sidelong glance at his companion's face. It was lifted,
tilted a little back, its blue eyes closed. Nia Kroft
(14:59):
spoke to her above the motor's roar. She lifted her lids,
met his somewhat anxious regard, and smiled. And from him
she let her gaze wander over the whole vast panorama
of desert and mountain and the central ocean, blue and
green and black and gold, with a froth on the
nearer waves, like a fringe of white to their shadow
flanks as it caught the light, and Himayra, the red
(15:21):
city beginning to glow as serious shot as shafts against
its ruddy walls, and like a dull chain supporting the
red jewel of the city. On the breast of offer,
the yellow naw outlined as far as the eye could
reach by a band of shimmering green, And suddenly her
breast lifted, her lips parted, and she began to sing,
to sing, as she had once cried to Kroft, that
(15:43):
the birds she envied, saying, as they rose against the
morning gladly, clearly, freely as a bird itself might sing,
So sang Naya of Offer between Himira and the sun.
After that, Kroft taught her how to fly. Having once yielded,
he could not well again refuse, and Nya had her
way with him, as she had meant to do ever
(16:05):
since she first was taken with the notion of herself
controlling one of the new machines that he had made,
but the promise to teach her she exacted. That same morning,
after they had returned to the palace, Robert ran off
to tell Guy concerning the success of the trial flight,
and Nia dared Croft to bathe afterward. He was half
inclined to think she adopted the time and place to
(16:26):
a gaining of her point. Women she would not have
been had she not realized her beauty and its appeal,
But at the time he gave the matter no thought.
You will surely teach me to fly, she said, almost
as soon as they floated side by side. No, he denied,
in a somewhat uncertain fashion. This morning I yielded because
(16:47):
of your great desire to be the first woman of
pay Looss to take the air, and that I was
not altogether wise. Again, I would not dare yet, and
you yielded to my desire in the matter of this morning.
Your scuse should be this and yielding to me again,
No less Ah, Jason. Her hand crept out and lay
upon his arm. Now know I the feeling of a
(17:07):
bird when it rises and sinks from pure joy for
the first time in my life, and the knowledge thrills me.
I would know it again. Because she broke off with
a little gasping breath, because of what Kraft turned his
head and looked into her pansy purple eyes, because, said
she very slowly. It is to me as though I
(17:28):
was no longer mortal, as though I had in some
way left the body, cast off all the weight of
the flesh. Naya Croft stammered, thou knowest and paused, strangely
shaken at the knowledge. Her words showed Aye, since the
last time you called me to you, come and I
shall show you Jason. She turned and dived. Kraft followed
(17:51):
down down. He followed her gleaming form through the clear water, down, down,
until he swam beside it and lost buried deep in
its liquid embrace, screened from all observation by the play
of the sun upon its surface. She turned still closer
to him, and for the first time since Old Zud's
blunder had brought misunderstanding, she offered him her scarlet mouth
(18:15):
from thy kiss. Man and woman came up gasping, almost
as to a new berth. Misunderstanding. All barriers of restraint
seemed to have been washed away in the shimmering pool's
soft flood. Ah akwar akwar Nia panted, Thou hast caught
thy little fish at last. Fear not, little fish, said Croft,
(18:36):
in a voice which quivered, I shall not eat you,
but this time I shall surely hold you fast, and
you will teach me to fly. There was witchery in
Nya's words, and in her smile, witchery, whimsy, almost a
conscious knowledge that now now she could not be denied, yes,
said Croft, in open surrender. And ze tu pity me
(18:58):
if aught befal thee, I will be careful, Nya sobered,
and and and what is there something more beloved, Kraft
questioned softly. Nay, She lowered her eyes. I must go
fasten my girdle about me, lest we be late for
the morning's meal. She swam toward the sunken steps, and
(19:20):
suddenly Kraft knew the thought that had stirred her soul,
and it set his own soul glowing. In one swift stroke,
he overtook her beloved, Beloved, he whispered to her. On
the day the new light comes to him, Aira, I
shall once more fasten my girdle with azial seal the
new light. The fires in her blue eyes quickened. Ay, Jason,
(19:44):
I would wear it in the new light, she said,
as side by side they clamored from the pool. Once
in these waters I sought the mouth of Zillah, and
in them today I found as Zeal's beloved in the
touch of yours. Half an hour later Kraft met Gaya,
and she stopped him. Wise man, and one of great wisdom,
are you Jason, as rob my husband tells me, saying,
(20:07):
accompanied by Nya, you have conquered the air. She put
out her hand, Kraft took it. He bent toward her.
Hark you, Gia, my sweet friend, he said, speaking softly.
The air is nothing. I have conquered something else. What
mean you? Guy questioned that Nya of offer on the
day the new light comes, will wear my seal, Kraft
(20:30):
told her. Z too, she exclaimed, smiling, you have spoken
then at last, Wise, man, I have confessed to you
yet to meet. You have seen most blind in this
as most men are with women. Glad that am I
for you both. But now she was in my chamber
and radiant as g she declared, you would teach her
to fly, and easily deceived as I was. I thought
(20:52):
it that. After that, two causes hastened cross arrangements for
the celebration of the coming of the light. One was
the renewal of his formal patrotho with Nya, of course,
the other was of a wholly different sort. As for Nya,
save for the hours he spent in the shops, he
was with her the greater part of the time, either
(21:12):
teaching her the control of a plane, which she mastered quickly.
Both on land and water, or in the laboratory, or
in the evening, sometimes speaking with her alone, sometimes with
Rover and his wife. And in the laboratory one evening,
shortly after the day of their first flight together, Croft
spoke to her of love, as he had spoken once before,
but with a different meaning. Taking two salts in solution,
(21:35):
he poured them together. Behold, said he, as he mixed
them and formed a substance compounded of their blending, which
fell slowly to the bottom of the glass. Behold, beloved,
the chemistry of love, how each atom draws the other
atom to it, until they blend in arno more but
lose themselves, each one within the other, to form a
definite something which was not before. Behold, for even so, beloved,
(22:00):
it is with the souls of men and women, each
drawing the other to it, each blending with the other,
until in the will of Zitu and they are truly mated,
they melt into a perfect union, and a perfect spirit
is born. It was one way of portraying the doctrine
of twin souls, the marriage of the lamb, the birth
in the angelhood, dependent on the union of the two
(22:20):
original spiritual has and Nya nodded with a widening of
her eyes. Each draws the other to it, she said,
coming close beside him, Ah, Jason, did I draw you
to me really from the earth? Ay? By zitu, he swore,
and slipped an arm about her. Thy need of me
brought you unto pay loss, even as thou hast called
(22:41):
my spirit from the flesh, ay Graft said, in a
voice gone husky with emotion. It was the first time
she had mentioned those astral meetings in a fashion so direct.
She eyed the new formed substance in the glass before them,
and suddenly she smiled, face eyes and lips her whole
fare being they meet and mingle melt into one another.
(23:03):
She went on softly and lifted his other arm and
drew it about her form to meet the other. Ah Jason,
thou messenger of Uzziel to me that first night you
lay in the palace, yet came and bade the presence
of my spirit and help me. Even so as you
were holding me now, it was as though I forgot
all else and knew THEE only, as though I was
not save as a part of THEE, truly save that
(23:26):
I felt the strong fire of thy mouth, and again
on a night, when the sky was cloudless and the
triple moon sent turned all the Pailossian world to a
dreamland of silvered plain and sea and mountain. Cross spoke
to her of love. That night he drove her to
the hangars, and they entered a machine. Up Up they
whirled through an air quiver with moonbeams, up up to
(23:49):
a land of dreams, And there, between the heavens and
the far flung landscape, they swam in a dream world
of their own making, while the plane wheeled in wide
spun circles like some huge dark back against the skies.
Behold pay loss, Kraft, cried to her, above the roar
of the whirling propeller, heard as it swept them forward.
Yet not seen? Is it not lovely? Is it not fair?
(24:11):
This one of all the millions of stars on which
we live? And yet why is it? For what purpose?
Why was it brought into existence even as you and
I beloved, and sent spinning through the void from Zitu's hand?
Save for love? Save that a million million men and
women might find a spot wherein their spirits the real
day should be given substance, in order that they should
(24:33):
live and meet and know one another, and love. Wherefore
is the body of man no more than the servant
to give to love expression, Since this is Zetu's plan,
that no man's spirit is complete without the woman's, that
no woman's spirit is complete without the man's, so that
in his wisdom each ever seeks the other to make
it whole and satisfy its longing. Thus then is love
(24:55):
assured and life inspired. He shut off the engine and
began a lo long, slanting coasting down a moonlighted sloping path. Love,
said the girl beside him, Love so great that it
spans the space between the stars. And did I call
you to me without knowing? Yet? Now it seems to me, beloved,
that I should no one find some means to answer,
(25:16):
no matter where you were. In a long sweep, Kroft
brought the plane back to the ground, and then, without
any verbal reply, he lifted her from her seat and
bore her back to the moacher in his arms. End
of chapter sixteen read by P. J. Travis
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