September 25, 2025 • 40 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 nineteen of the Mouthpiece of Zitu. 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 Zitu by John Ulrich Ghizi, chapter nineteen,
A tawny vampire. Hours afterward, as it seemed, Croft opened
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his eyes and blinked at a flare of light, and
closed his lids again. While he sought to collect his
shaken senses, he remembered by degrees the plane had fallen.
There was nothing after that, but he had fallen upon
a night wrapped plane, studded with the fires of a camp. Now,
instead of stars, above him, there was what looked like
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the bellied top of a tent. Slowly, he spread the
fringes of his lashes and sought to verify the impression
he had gained. He was correct. He lay in a
tent seemingly of skins joined to form the sloping top
and walls. The interior was lighted dimly by a couple
of flaring torches, but the light was sufficient to show
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Croft piles of military gear, rugs of native skin on
one of the ladder of which he seemed to be lying,
and some crude stools scattered about. He lay with head
half turned as he had been thrown down. And now
he became aware of other life in the tent. As
his senses more fully returned, there was a sound of voices.
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He opened his eyes widely and stared about and inwardly.
At least he gasped, this was the headquarters of the
army he had sought to bomb. Passed any doubt, blue men,
a dozen a score were clustered about a huge chair
to one side, in which another blue man sat. And
yet in the latter Kroft detected something familiar in a flash,
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and immediately after he understood he had heard it alleged
that certain Zilarian captains had stained their bodies and shaved
their heads, and dyed the remaining scalplock of their light
hair to match the maaz read. And and this was
Bandor of Zelaria, brother of Kalamita, that tawny female magnet
with which the Northern nation had sought to bind the
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profligate Prince of Kithur to her cause. This was Bandor,
his massive body stained blue in its every ungainly line,
seated upon this chair before which the other blue men stood,
and inspecting the latter more closely, marking their features well
in the murky light, Kroft decided that most of them
were men of Zelaria, tinted and shaved, and died like
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Bandor himself. Here then was proof of Zelaria's hand in
the Missarian invasion, proof that Kroft lay in the spot
which was the brain center of the Missarian army. In
the field. Croft's head was splitting, but he sought to
focus his attention on what was being said. Sayest thou
that this man fell out of the skies. Bandor roared,
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turning his eyes toward where Croft lay on the farther
side of the tent. I said one of the captains,
whom Jason felt positive was a Zolarian for all his
naked blue length, I burned door. He fell from a
device like to a pair of wings. Before that had
strange weapons fallen upon my men from the skies, and
a rain of death. Then suddenly came this man, kind
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of a reasing devil. Bandor swore with savage force. This
newest method of their fighting would seem to be like
their last. When they struck Solaria's army with a blast
of fire. Oh see if still he breathes. Two of
the men turned and approached Craft. They bent above him.
He stared straight into their faces. I burned, door of Zelaria,
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reported one. He opened his eyes. Bring him here. Craft
rose without waiting the touch of a captor's hand. He
staggered up and faced Bandor's chair. Stand back. He hissed
to men beside him, I would walk alone. He took
a step forward, swaying, whereupon the others seized him and
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hurried him to Bandor's place, Spawn of Tamarisia. Bandor began,
what is thy name? Thou hast said it? Bandor? Croft retorted,
determined to give no information. Came you from at La?
Bandor roared, yes, how many men inside her walls can
Jack Gore and Madai claim? Enough? Said Croft, Enough blue
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dyed men of Zelaria to pile other thousands of your
naked dupes before them. There are not enough men in
all Masair to scale at Zelaria's command at lah of
Beether's walls. Hi, my Belle of Zolaria, thy fall has
not broken thy tongue at least, Bandor exclaimed, But thy
man made wings are broken, and thy insolent spirit may
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be broken. Also, Hi, bring a brazier and a spearhead.
Since this Tamarisian fights with fire, we shall give him
a taste of it himself, and learn perchance what within
at law transpires. Hauled. Suddenly, the wall of the tent
behind ban door's chairs swept back, revealing a small private
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tent beyond it, and a tawny woman appeared. White. She
was in the murky light as a ray of moonlight
in the dusk, white and splendidly formed in every supple
line of sensuous body and limb. Jeweled cups covered her breasts,
and a scarf of shimmering tissue was twisted about her
sinuous loins and fell half down her thighs. With the
grace of a stalking panther, she advanced, accompanied by another
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blue stains, the Larian captain, and took her stand beside
her brother in the flare of the torches. She gleamed
among those blue tinted bodies like a silver wand bethink you,
my brother, she continued, as Croft recognized in her that Calamita,
that feminine magnet of flesh, who had tempted Cathar's Prince Kyphelus,
through the spell of her unclean charms, her unhallowed embrace
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would destroy her even more. The weapon in your hand, Hi,
my bell began Bandor, I, his sister went on, where
are Bandor's eyes? Call on Bell? And you will? Yet?
Have you not sacrificed to him enough of blood to
glut his heart? Without adding this? See you not? This
is a man of importance, and one to me before
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this described. Mark you not the closeness of the hair
upon his head, his stature, Know you not that before
you stands the mouthpiece of Zitu, of whom Tamarisia boasts him,
to whom Zlaria must mark the score of her defeat,
her loss of missour, rather than for gaining information, Can
Bandor not think of a better way in which such
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a one may be used? Hi, you mean a ransom? Calamita,
my sister, Bandor burst out as she paused. Ay. The
eyes of a Tigris looked into crofts as she answered.
Study his every expression. Mark the effects of her words, I, Bandor,
and you and her captains, and the ransom should be large.
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Much should Tamarisia be asked in payment for her mouthpiece
of Zitu, who tumbles from the skies. And suddenly she
smiled as she broke off her flippant taut smiled and
looked steadily into Kraft's staring eyes. By Belle. Once more,
ban door roared, the words of Kalamita are of wisdom.
Go Mamma, take portions of the device from which he fell.
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See they are carried to Outlah. Say that this man
fell among us with them, demand a parley, at which
terms for his return shall be named. Rudor, one of
the captains, saluted and left the tent. Inwardly. Croft wreathed,
here was a pretty pickle, indeed, since by his own
blunder he had become to Tamarisia a weakness rather than
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a strength. Since because of it, Tamarisia would seem to
be confronted with the choice of leaving him to fate
or paying Masair's in Zelaria's price. And he had caught
all the meaning in the tawny depths of the Zilarian
Cortezan's eyes that price would indeed be large. And now
she bent and whispered into Bandor's ear, and he nodded.
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Find him, he said, and pointed to Croft. Lift him
and bear him into my sister's tent. Place a guard
about us when it is finished. That is all my captains.
We wait for word from atlah Go. To resist was useless.
Croft did not try. He stood passively while his hands
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and feet were trussed. Even then he was trying to
think to scheme some way out of the mess into
which he had brought himself, And a vague question roused
as to Kalamita's object in having him carried into her
own tent. Object he was sure there was, but it
baffled him for the moment. Then he was lifted and
born beyond the flapping door through which she had entered,
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and laid on a pallet of skins beside a copper couch.
The woman and followed remained standing until his bearers had left.
Then approached and reclined on the couch, from whence she
could watch his eyes. Mouthpiece of Z two, she began,
after a moment of contemplation, mouthpiece of Z two, who
tumbles from the skies. Croft made no answer, and suddenly
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she left the couch and knelt beside him. You are
a handsome man, mouthpiece of Z two. Am I not
beautiful myself? Yes? Said Croft, since in a purely physical
way she was no less than a creature to drive
most men mad. And he knew that she knew it,
and because of the knowledge left none of her charms concealed,
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And she bent above him, closer, closer, until her reddened
mouth seemed about to touch him, until her breath played
softly against his cheek. Wisdom and beauty may accomplish much together,
mouthpiece of z two, think you not so? That was it?
Wisdom and beauty together. A sudden loathing, an impulse to
put more space between that gleaming body, That blood red
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mouth so very close above him, gripped Croft and shook him,
But he kept it out of his voice and out
of his eyes, as he replied, what mean you, Kalamita
of Zelaria, you magnet of the flesh? She laughed after,
with a note of exaltation in the sound, as though
his words were a tribute to the power she knew
was her own. Why think you Calamita saved you from
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the fire? Kraft quibbled, said she not the reason? In words,
the woman frowned, Think you, Jack Gore of Tamarisia will
pay the price for you, that Masziar will ask Kroft
knew that his heart leaped. He had been afraid, afraid,
yet now he recalled jack Gor as he knew him,
Jack Gor, who had bowed his haughty crest on the
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day just passed for Tamarisia, but never for himself. Turning
the thought in his brain, he forgot to answer, you
know he will not. Almost Klamita hissed, And if not,
is death preferable to life? Power? Love? Wouldst prefer to
lie in the ground, wise man of Temuricia, or in
Kalamita's arms, which prefer to give of your strength to
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Zelaria and her or to the worms. More and more
Craft sickened at her words. For this he had been
brought into her private tent. There alone, with this shameless woman,
he was to be intrigued, turned traitor in spirit and body.
Seduced Almost instinctively, he turned away his eyes. Her beauty
had become a deadly menace, the perfume of her tinted
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flesh should become a stench to him. She was offering
what to Cathur's prince had been given, which had made
of the man's name a synonym for treason in his nation.
And now once more she was speaking, Behold, we are alone,
I can unbind you. And Kalamita's couch is wide. I
too wide by Zitu. Suddenly Croft roared the need was
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too patent in its making to have foreseen the fact
that width would be required, sister of bandor beautiful as
the dream of a soul in the realms of zetempt
you may be. But Jason of Tamarisia barters not the
welfare of his nation for a moment's lust. So Klamita
rose and stood above him. Cruel was her red lips smile,
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and cruel was the light that flashed from her oval
tawny eyes. So then we know your name at last,
hark ye Jason. For Kalamita's favor. Prouder heads than thine
have bended down in the dust. Nor is her favorite
thing to be lightly brushed aside? Wherefore and Jack gor
pays not the price we ask? Then the mouthpiece of
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Zitu dies. A space of time dragged to pass, and
Croft had not replied. Suddenly Kalamita was again beside him,
or perhaps she said in a softer fashion, it is
because of that maid of auffeur, of whom one has
told me that Jason turns aside. If so, forget her,
and remember only that Kalumita also is a woman nay
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by Zitu and a zeal And gaw the pure woman.
Croft flamed, Jason forgets not the virgin to whom he
is plighted for one who is lain in kyphlis of katirs,
or another's arms. By bell, Once more, Calamita rose a tremor,
shook her tightened figure, and quivered in her tones by bell,
who delights in slaughter? You shall die by torture, tested
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by fire? Shall you be? And staked out for the
insects to devour. The carry on birds of Massaire shall
pluck out your beauty blinded eyes. The beasts of the
forest shall tear thy entrails from thee for thy words
to me, She turned and went swiftly toward the flaplike
door and flung it open. Bandor, Oh hey ban door,
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she cried, Her blue stained brother appeared. They conferred together.
Bandor turned away, but only for a moment longer were
Croft and the woman alone. Then came Missarian soldiers, and,
lifting the trussed figure, bore it swiftly into the night
through Bandor's tent into another smaller unlighted as to its interior,
with for a floor save the grass grown ground, and
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there they flung him down. But Jason smiled that quiet, dark,
the sweet, pure kiss of the grass beneath him was
better than the atmosphere he had left. He stretched out
his limbs so far as his bonds would let him,
and breathed a sigh of relief. And after a long time,
as it seemed to his troubled senses, all his planning
focused on Zud and Naya, dwindled down to those two words.
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Lying here bound practically doomed to die, he could yet
communicate with them in the astral state. To Zud, whom
he had taught to recognize his coming. He could go then,
And even though thereby he made his own death practically certain,
he would still serve best the Tamarisian states and Naya.
He quivered at the thought. Naya, as he knew her,
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would like himself, consider him unworthy if he did less
than that. Therefore he took a deep breath. He would
go to Zud, and swiftly, as the thing was always
accomplished when he sowed his od tired it. He was
bending over the High Priest's body asleep in the z
Tran pyramid. Zud, his spirit was calling. The mouthpiece of
Zitu commands you come forth, and Zud appeared a hey
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Jason of Zitu. He quavered. Zud is here, Liz, chie
priest of Zitu. Kroft replied and told him what had occurred. Wherefore,
give ear further to my words, go to Lacon and
bid him in Zitu's name to Santu Jakor at Atla,
advising him to hold out and seek for delay until
the aid from him Ira arrives. Let it be said
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to him that Zelaria inspires all things which Maziar requires.
Let him know that through the power of the spirit
which is mine, I shall inspire Naya of Aufur to
cause Robert his son to come swiftly to Atla in
person to direct the use of the weapons that together
with myself he understands, and that through you and Naya
of Affur, I shall keep him informed of all that transpires.
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While yet my body survives. And thou thou Zud faltered
in distraught fashion, clasping his shadowy hands. I I know not,
said Jason. My fortune is in Zitu's hands. To you,
I give this mission, say that you understand, zud hears
and zud Obeys. Croft left him. His work was finished.
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He sought Eimayrah and Robert's palace and Naya his other self.
And this part of his plan, he felt would be
the hardest, since in order to make her comprehend fully,
he must tell a painful truth, must confess that, through
his own daring was Jason at last undone, that his
body lay prisoner to mazayre condemned if what he meant
to attempt were accomplished, to what seemed inevitable death. And suddenly,
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as he gained her chamber, Croft had the odd sensation
that he stood before a tomb. Why it was, he
did not know at the moment, but it was as
though he faced a ravished or an empty shrine. So
strongly had he willed himself to this spot that the
very concentration of his purpose had blotted out all else.
And only now when he reached it did there come
upon him the feeling that his coming here was vain.
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Yet he crept inside, he moved swiftly toward her couch.
In the dusk. Heer formly stretched upon it, but it
was motionless, with no stirring of the coverlet stretched above it,
no evidence of breath, pale as a lovely image. It
lay before him in the semblance of what might be death. Fear, sheer, stark,
fear gripped Croft and held him through the span of
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a startled instant. And then he knew the truth, because
as he stood there, it seemed to him that Naya
of offer was calling, not from the form on the couch,
but from somewhere else. Jason, Jason, Oh, Jason, my beloved.
That subtle cry rang out, and it drew him. It
compelled him. It was the voice of love, the voice
of the affinity of the ages, soundless as the spinning
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of the planets down the grooveless tracts of time, a
blind thing, a mad thing beyond all thinking in its sweetness,
the voice of Adam to Adam, of the soft wind
to the apalling, the voice of the bird to its mate,
of the maiden to her lover, the ceaseless song of creation,
the voice of God to man. Jason, oh, my beloved.
It filled Croft's being, It engulfed him, It caught him
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up and carried him. He cared not whither on the
tide of a swift, irresistible flood It made of his
astral substance, no more than a straw, swept up and
off and about in an eddy of compelling force. It
was more like that ceaseless urge which had drawn him
from the dog Star always while yet he dwelt on earth.
It carried Croft out of the palace and across the
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central Sea. It swept him across before with its plains
and night wrapped woods. It drew him above the camp
of the Missarian army, and inside that tent, where his
body lay stretched out upon the ground. And then Croft
understood that Naya had accomplished for herself what heretofore had
been by him induced, that her spirit's love, her desire
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for knowledge, had enabled her soul to break the body's bonds. That,
as she suggested she might in a former conversation, she
had found the way to visit him in dreams. Yes,
Croft knew all this in a blinding flash of comprehension,
because there in the little tent, its auric fires paling
and glowing, its soft arms twined about his unconscious body,
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le Naiah's astral form, she had come to find him. Suddenly,
it seemed to croft that he might have known, and
all at once he was glad, with a great unreasoning gladness,
that when she came she had found him here alone
like this, rather than in Kalamita's tent. Then, very softly beloved,
he let steal forth the soul call she heard. She
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lifted her head from where it had lain upon his breast.
She turned its wide eyes toward him, and saw him,
and rose swiftly toward him and into his embrace. Jason,
I came to Atla and could not find you, and
I sought you, sought you? What is the meaning of this?
The plain fell? I told you always there was danger,
he explained briefly. I was taken prisoner by the Zilarian
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masters of the men of Masair. I am held to
ransom for a price. See too, Nya panted, and what else?
I went in the spirit to converse with zud and
send him on a mission to thy father. Jason told her,
loathe to answer her questions with a mere avowal of
the numbing truth, that truth, which, as it seemed, must
blast their own hopes for the future, unless in some
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blind way he could contrive escape through him, I shall
send word to Jack Gore that the price must be refused. Refused,
Nya drew back slightly. Those quivering fires of her life
force faltered, grew dim and uncertain, died down like a flame,
well nigh blown out by a deadening wind of fear.
But Jason, thy body, which I found lying here, belongs
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to THEE, while it yet survives. Croft answered slowly, and
went on before she could find a reply. Then went
I to Himaira, and finding your form stretched on its couch,
seemed to hear you calling, and returned to find you here. Listen, Nya,
my beloved, you must find Robert and speak to him
for me. To Jack Gor, you must send him explaining
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what has befallen telling him from me? Is the one
lacon scent will tell him that when Robert shall arrive
to take charge of the Moteurs and the riflemen of Offur,
they must strike, strike, strike, until Befaurs shall be freed.
Also to Robert, you must say, he shall call on
Nodeur and Miladere to arm so quickly as they may,
and send their men to reinforce and support Offfur. So
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shall Tamorsia vanquish Mazaire, and once more defeat those things,
Zulauria plans, and you ask me to do this, Nia faltered.
I for Tamarisia, I ask it, Croft replied, but you you.
She glanced toward the tight bound body. Craft sought to
stay her questions. Look not there, beloved, I am here.
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But unless this price of massaire you mentioned be paid,
she would not be refused. Troft drew her to him.
His position was perhaps rather more peculiar than that of
any living man. The answer to what she asked was death,
and he knew it once he had snapped the astral
cord that bound him to a body, but only after
control of another had been gained. And that second body,
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the one he had made his own on Pelos when
he forsook Earth because of the woman whose vital substance
now glowed and paled against him, was the one which
lay bound beside them on the ground. There was no other.
The loss of it meant to him what the loss
of physical life must mean to all men. Nothing else.
If the price is not paid. It is easy enough
to snap the cord that binds my life within it
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at the proper time, he said at length, And said Naia,
in a tone of horror you would ask me in
taking your message to Robert, in sending him to Jack,
or to consign our love to death. The price, said Croft,
in justification, is very great. Much will Massaire ask more
than by Tamarizia can be paid for one man's life?
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Swiftly the oric fires leaped up in Naya's slender figure.
Is there no escape? I know not? Croft made answer.
It is as Zito wills. The Zelarians with the men
of Massair have stained themselves blue. Yet whom have I
to stain my body or the stain within my grasp,
or shave my hair and diet red in time to
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make the venture. This tent is under guard and will be,
and the hands of my body are bound. Nia considered,
and the price Missaire will ask, she spoke slowly, after
a time is large? I as large? I fear, as
though the Zelarian war had been lost by Tamarisia and
Massour not regained. And if not paid, your body dies
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and mine thine. Croft tightened the grip of his arms
upon her. What mean you made of affir by such words?
Offer means? What offer? Says? She returned, and looked him
in the eyes for a moment. Her own were steady,
and then they wavered. She clung to him in an
almost frantic agony of what seemed a momentary panic of
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more than mortal grief. Then that too had passed, giving
way to an all most passionate mood. Think you that
when life has left your body, Naya of Offur too
shall not lie dead. That to her the body has
no longer any meaning, save as it delights you save
us through it. She knows the touch of yours. Did
you not swear to me by Zitu and Azil, to
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return and claim me? And if that promise remains unfulfilled,
think you that Naya of Affur will live. Yet Croft stammered,
shaken by this breath of passion, dazzled by the flashing
of her beings fire, If the welfare of Tamarisia demands
the failure of that promise, If not with honor, can
I return to Himayra in the body. If your words,
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beloved make doubly hard my purpose. When you shall have
left me and return to carry my message to your
cousin by Zito and by Zito, Nya fired into desperate protest,
It shall not be a zeal give her of life?
Shall these foul spawn of Zetemku, keep you from me,
nay as I am a daughter of God. With your
seal upon me, Ah speaks to me. She broke off
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and lifted her hands to her breast. Her very eyes
were fired, so for a moment she stood before she
went on, hark you, Jason, whom I love more than
my own soul. This tent is guarded, as you have said,
and a price is laid on Tamerisia for your returning.
Yet am I not woman whom you have wakened for nothing?
And my love is not in vain? What price for
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a man who is dead? Bay Zitu Croft caught her meaning.
His glance turned toward the body on the ground beside
their feet, and Nia nodded. A Gaia told me, in
speaking of these things you told to Rubert and Tuzudd,
and now I know for myself the twin the spirit
is without it, the body lies as dead. Wherefore were
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it possible for you to remain as now you are?
For a space sufficient to deceive these men of Mizaire
into thinking that, injured in your fall, you perchance had died.
Think you they would keep your body under guard or
even near them lest it foul the air, even like
those rotting corpses which taint it with horror. As I
passed this night by Atlas walls, no by Zitu, they
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would cast it forth in some other place. Croft answered quickly,
Naya Gaw, priestess of life, you have said it. Together
we shall beat them. Yet, ay, we shall beat them.
Listen further, Nya said, for a few sons, you shall
appear to be alive, yet faint and not recovered from
injury to Himaira, shall I return and carry your message
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to rob When seven sons beginning with the next, are past,
then must you seem to die? Thus shall they carry
you forth? But the seven days shall be to gain
time for what you direct to be done. Hi, I
am not daughter of Gaw, for nothing beloved, give me
your mouth. I must be gone life life, and this
woman there was a chance her wits had found it
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where his had milled around. Daughter of Gaw. Was she
as she said, and perhaps Gauw, the eternal woman, had
spoken to her through the elements which went into forming
her nature. First, Croft took her once more closely into
his arms. Seek not to leave your body for one
moment between now and the end of the seventh son,
she cautioned, lest one should note it, and so at
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the proper time entertain a doubt of your real death.
Craft marveled to him. She seemed to think of each
infinitesimal detail. No, he gave his promise, I shall be
merely as one who from one son to another. Fils
Nia lifted her lips, and as once before, in similar fashion,
she yielded them to him. For an instant. It was
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as though their two beings blended, intermingled, and then she
had torn herself from him, divinely glowing ze two Keep
you beloved, she whispered, and vanished from before his eyes.
For the succeeding seven days, Croft endured simply endured discomfort,
the trussing up of his arms and feet at night
(27:50):
in none too gentle fashion. The scant irregularity of poorly
furnished meals the absence of aught save trampled grass to
sleep upon renewed attempts on the part of Bandor to
forced from him some intimation of Tamarisia's plans. The haughty,
venomous hate that glared out of Kalamita's tawny eyes, that
fury of a woman of the purely physical type, whose
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allurement has been scorned, of an adventuress, a schemer whose
scheme has failed. But on the seventh day, as he
lay brooding in his tent, close by the huge skin
headquarters tent of Bandor, which reminded him more of some
Tatar chieftain's domicile than anything else, with its hide walls,
its semi barbaric trappings, its red and green standard floating
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on a pole before its door. The door of his
own tent was drawn slightly to one side, and a
face appeared to send his heart leaping into his breast.
Maya Nia's own maid was looking shrewdly into his starting eyes,
and as lost in a maze, he lay staring at her,
filled with a vast wonder at her presence here in
the heart of the Missourian camp, yet afraid to speak,
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torn between a desire to learn the meaning of her
presence and a fear lest any sign of recognition should
destroy away whatever purpose that presence might portend, she flung
the flap entirely back and darted inside thou cannor of Tamarisia.
She cried in the voice of a termagant a shrew,
and struck him with her right hand a smart blow.
Thou thou, offspring of Zitu, fallen to the ground, Thou
(29:17):
devil who sent fire against my people, whose own people
have cast him off, dig like the cann or thou art.
And all the time she was shrieking, she continued to
buffet him with blows, striking him with her bare hand,
kicking him with her feet. Die thou, pale faced fiend,
hum bell greater than thy Zitu struck down and hurled
among us. Die die now, but croft under the storm
(29:40):
of her words her buffetings, made no movement of resistance,
lay limp and unresisting on the grass. Because even as
she struck him, even as she lashed him with her tongue,
calling him fiend and devil and cannor the name of
the great beasts, such as Nia's pet and protector, you pour,
which was the nearest approach in Pelos to a dog.
(30:00):
Yet as her one hand rose and fell above him,
her other drew from the narrow apron about her blue
loins a little looped silver cross, and showed it to
him briefly, and thrust it back and between the anathema
of her lips. They moved in almost soundless, speaking, you poor,
give your to my berating of thee closely. I come
from one who loves THEE greatly, to show you the cross,
(30:22):
the cross and soda, the looped symbol of life, the
little signs that had placed in Nia's hands at their betrothal,
the sign of immortal life which came to men through women.
Naya of offer was sending it by this servant of hers,
who loved her. To him. He closed his eyes and
nodded slightly, in understanding as Maya continued to rave. Only
now his brain was whirling, seething, was a cauldron of
(30:45):
troubled questions. He dared not voice questions as to why
Maya had been sent to aid in his escape, as
he felt sure now she had yet to question. The
girl was impossible under the present conditions. And what was
she screaming? Die? Can or die? As bandor has decreed
thou must, since jack Gor has refused thy ransom, die
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now thou Tamarisian dog. And she had told him to
listen closely to her vituperations. Kroft gained the message she
intended jack Gor had done as he advised, and Bandor's
captive had lost value. Wherefore he kept his eyes closed
and seemingly died. Footsteps, Croft's guard burst through the door.
He seized Maya and flung her to one side and
(31:27):
stooped above the body with a face of terror. And
then he straightened and turned upon her. Ba ba ba
ba ba Bell, You have killed him, he stammered. He
has been ailing ever since he fell among us. Fool
that I was to listen to your plea to view him.
May Bell, send you our commander's rage. That rage, Maya said, panting,
(31:50):
as it seemed from her exertions and emotions. Seeing that
he is of value, no longer should not be so
intense calm. The gorge seized her by an arm and
led her toward Bandor's tent. Groft went along, trailing the
man and woman's steps, and once inside the huge shelter
of skins, the guards saluted sharply and hurled Maya before
(32:11):
the Zelorian noble, so that she sprawled her length on
the ground. Behold o Bandor. He made his report in
a gruff bluster designed to cover his own face as
well as he could. This woman, who made her way
by stealth into Jason of Tamisia's tent had struck him
so that he died. High Bandor half rose and sank
(32:32):
back and narrowed his eyes. He regarded Maya, who groveled
before him, her body caught and held half raised on
stretching arms, her head lifted, gazing into his startled face
with watchful eyes. How are you called, he inquired, Maya,
stammered the woman child. Am I of a father and
(32:53):
mother who have lived among his people all my life?
Have I served them until Belle sent Bandor in my
people to bring liberation. Then I slipped away and made
my way to thy army, with which I have stayed
the past son Wheretofore, hearing that Pandor had condemned this
one to death, I desired to see him, and seeing
(33:14):
him rage overcame me, and I threw myself upon him. Mercy,
o Bandor, mighty commander of my people, for this which
I have done, Hi, said Bandor. Again, is Lid's contructing
still further? After all, it is a small matter, Though
my sister will be annoyed. She had planned a more
lingering death for this insolent man. Yet to death was
(33:37):
he condemned, and it is finished. Say you that from
the bondage of his people you have come I from
at La Lore at Lah now by Belle Pandor roared.
And what inside the pend Up city do these whitespawn plan?
They speak of resistance maya made answer as Pandor knows.
(33:58):
But perchance he knows not that many men from Auffur
have arrived, armed with the chariots they call motiers, which
run by fire and breathe it forth as death, and
with the sticks that throw death unseen with noise and smoke,
unlike the flight of an arrow or spear. Ten thousand
have reached Bithra and are advancing to the relief of Atla.
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Even now more are said to be journeying from Auffur
across the central sea. And yet others from Nodur and
Milidur are to come hi for the third time, Bandor
said it with a heavy frown. This is of importance
for the information your words contain. I give you, Pordon
or those other of thy father's children in TAMARISI as loyal.
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Much might be wrought of ill among them, were they
are cast of servants to rise and kill and burn go.
He turned to the guard, whose face had lightened. Take
man and bear forth his body and cast it beyond
the camp. Or Hal, I will view him myself for
the third time. His eyelids narrowed, and he rose, followed
(35:06):
by Maya and the guard. He entered Croft's tent and
bent over the body on the ground. Ay, his spirit
has left him, he said, as he straightened from the
inspection and swung about on his heel. Mighty Bandor. Maya
stayed him. I may remain for a time in the camp.
Bandor eyed her. Oh ay, he said in careless fashion.
(35:29):
You are a comely girl of your people. You should
have small trouble in finding some man to take you
to his tent. He turned away, and a moment later
a brazen trumpet began sounding a summoning blast. As Croft learned,
this was a signal to Bandor's captains and advisers to
assemble for a council with their chief. Maya stole out,
(35:51):
with the arm of the guard about her, walking coyly
at his side. Quite plainly, the fellow was inclined to
take bandor suggest question about her to himself. Kroft watched
them vanish and remain beside his own body, still huddled
on the grass, and in the end he followed it,
followed his own body when it was borne outside the
(36:12):
limits of the encampment and cast into a thicket of bushes,
where its disposition was watched by Maya, who accompanied the
now openly amorous guard and lingered beside the thicket with him.
After the other soldiers had cast down their burden and gone,
let us remove its clothing. She suggested, too wasted were
he loss. The guard assented. Five minutes later, more than
(36:35):
a little aghast, Croft found his material tenement stretched stark
upon the ground. Maya and her lover were moving off.
In her arms, the girl bore his suit of soft
brown leather in a way. Now Croft became more and
more disturbed. Vague fancies filled his mind. At the first
he had trusted her wholly, but this last move he
(36:57):
did not understand. He recalled the story Parthos had told
of the blue servants rising against their employers during the
present trouble, and he marked the manner in which she
accepted the blue man's advances. After all, she was a
Misserian herself, he thought, and there was no reason save
her possible affection for Nia to insure her worthiness of trust. Still,
(37:20):
she had shown him the tiny cross from the apron
about her waist, and she had told him to die
as Nia had advised he should. After all, she might
have some definite reason beyond his present knowledge, for divesting
his body of clothes. And he could do nothing until nightfall.
That being the case, and the night being several hours removed,
(37:42):
there was nothing to do but wait. That it might
be in seeming. Yet Croft knew that lying thus in
the open, his body needed protection. In the middle of
the thicket, he settled down beside it. It was rather odd,
he found himself, thinking to be sitting there, keeping an
invisible watch of his own form. Now and then, as
(38:02):
the afternoon passed, he stowly glanced at the camp. There
was bustle there, a moving and shifting of men. It
came to him that Bandor after his counsel, was preparing
for another attack of Atla urged thereto by Maya's report
concerning the approaching reinforcements of weapons and men. Well let
them attack, he thought, with a grim satisfaction. Jack Gor
(38:25):
would hold out through yet one more attack, surely, and
by then bandor would have lost his chance. Once Roeber
and his forces had arrived, night came at last. Purposely,
Croft waited until late before making his venture out escape,
And while he waited there stole into the thicket a
dim shape which approached his body and sank beside it
(38:46):
on the ground. It was maya more than a little
surprised Croft watched her. She carried a bundle. She undid it.
She moved higher beside his body and raised his head,
supporting it on her thighs. Then swiftly she began to
shave it, turning it to reach the back, and working
rapidly on the sides. That done, while comprehension flashed into
(39:08):
Croft's mind, and with it renewed confidence in this girl.
As he recalled his words to Naya concerning some such
thing as this. She took a small box from her
bundle and began rubbing the scalp block she had left
upon his pole with a substance it contained. After that,
she lifted a flask and removed a stopper. Working rapidly,
(39:28):
she began smearing the body with some dark fluid, spreading
it thinly upon the skin, rubbing it to as even
a coating as she might with rapid hands, and as
she worked, Croft's body lost its ivory whiteness and became
a dark hued thing like her own. At the end,
she took a small cloth from the articles she had
brought with her and twisted it deftly about his loins.
(39:50):
And as she finished and straightened herself from her labors, Croft,
sensing it time for his reviving, opened the eyes of
the body over which she had worked. Spoke. Hi, said, Maya,
without any particular evidence of consternation. It is even so.
She said, it would happen when I had finished. She
said that when I had shaved you, Lord, and reddened
(40:11):
your hair, and stained your body, and put the loincloth
upon it, you would reappear. She Croft questioned her quickly,
you mean Nia of a fir Maya? I who else? You,
poor Jason? She rose and picked up her bundle, Nia,
my mistress, these are your garments. Come you poor till
I lead you to her. She lies near end of
(40:33):
chapter nineteen
Chapter nineteen of the Mouthpiece of Zitu. 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 Zitu by John Ulrich Ghizi, chapter nineteen,
A tawny vampire. Hours afterward, as it seemed, Croft opened
(00:23):
his eyes and blinked at a flare of light, and
closed his lids again. While he sought to collect his
shaken senses, he remembered by degrees the plane had fallen.
There was nothing after that, but he had fallen upon
a night wrapped plane, studded with the fires of a camp. Now,
instead of stars, above him, there was what looked like
(00:44):
the bellied top of a tent. Slowly, he spread the
fringes of his lashes and sought to verify the impression
he had gained. He was correct. He lay in a
tent seemingly of skins joined to form the sloping top
and walls. The interior was lighted dimly by a couple
of flaring torches, but the light was sufficient to show
(01:05):
Croft piles of military gear, rugs of native skin on
one of the ladder of which he seemed to be lying,
and some crude stools scattered about. He lay with head
half turned as he had been thrown down. And now
he became aware of other life in the tent. As
his senses more fully returned, there was a sound of voices.
(01:26):
He opened his eyes widely and stared about and inwardly.
At least he gasped, this was the headquarters of the
army he had sought to bomb. Passed any doubt, blue men,
a dozen a score were clustered about a huge chair
to one side, in which another blue man sat. And
yet in the latter Kroft detected something familiar in a flash,
(01:47):
and immediately after he understood he had heard it alleged
that certain Zilarian captains had stained their bodies and shaved
their heads, and dyed the remaining scalplock of their light
hair to match the maaz read. And and this was
Bandor of Zelaria, brother of Kalamita, that tawny female magnet
with which the Northern nation had sought to bind the
(02:09):
profligate Prince of Kithur to her cause. This was Bandor,
his massive body stained blue in its every ungainly line,
seated upon this chair before which the other blue men stood,
and inspecting the latter more closely, marking their features well
in the murky light, Kroft decided that most of them
were men of Zelaria, tinted and shaved, and died like
(02:32):
Bandor himself. Here then was proof of Zelaria's hand in
the Missarian invasion, proof that Kroft lay in the spot
which was the brain center of the Missarian army. In
the field. Croft's head was splitting, but he sought to
focus his attention on what was being said. Sayest thou
that this man fell out of the skies. Bandor roared,
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turning his eyes toward where Croft lay on the farther
side of the tent. I said one of the captains,
whom Jason felt positive was a Zolarian for all his
naked blue length, I burned door. He fell from a
device like to a pair of wings. Before that had
strange weapons fallen upon my men from the skies, and
a rain of death. Then suddenly came this man, kind
(03:16):
of a reasing devil. Bandor swore with savage force. This
newest method of their fighting would seem to be like
their last. When they struck Solaria's army with a blast
of fire. Oh see if still he breathes. Two of
the men turned and approached Craft. They bent above him.
He stared straight into their faces. I burned, door of Zelaria,
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reported one. He opened his eyes. Bring him here. Craft
rose without waiting the touch of a captor's hand. He
staggered up and faced Bandor's chair. Stand back. He hissed
to men beside him, I would walk alone. He took
a step forward, swaying, whereupon the others seized him and
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hurried him to Bandor's place, Spawn of Tamarisia. Bandor began,
what is thy name? Thou hast said it? Bandor? Croft retorted,
determined to give no information. Came you from at La?
Bandor roared, yes, how many men inside her walls can
Jack Gore and Madai claim? Enough? Said Croft, Enough blue
(04:24):
dyed men of Zelaria to pile other thousands of your
naked dupes before them. There are not enough men in
all Masair to scale at Zelaria's command at lah of
Beether's walls. Hi, my Belle of Zolaria, thy fall has
not broken thy tongue at least, Bandor exclaimed, But thy
man made wings are broken, and thy insolent spirit may
(04:48):
be broken. Also, Hi, bring a brazier and a spearhead.
Since this Tamarisian fights with fire, we shall give him
a taste of it himself, and learn perchance what within
at law transpires. Hauled. Suddenly, the wall of the tent
behind ban door's chairs swept back, revealing a small private
(05:10):
tent beyond it, and a tawny woman appeared. White. She
was in the murky light as a ray of moonlight
in the dusk, white and splendidly formed in every supple
line of sensuous body and limb. Jeweled cups covered her breasts,
and a scarf of shimmering tissue was twisted about her
sinuous loins and fell half down her thighs. With the
grace of a stalking panther, she advanced, accompanied by another
(05:34):
blue stains, the Larian captain, and took her stand beside
her brother in the flare of the torches. She gleamed
among those blue tinted bodies like a silver wand bethink you,
my brother, she continued, as Croft recognized in her that Calamita,
that feminine magnet of flesh, who had tempted Cathar's Prince Kyphelus,
through the spell of her unclean charms, her unhallowed embrace
(05:57):
would destroy her even more. The weapon in your hand, Hi,
my bell began Bandor, I, his sister went on, where
are Bandor's eyes? Call on Bell? And you will? Yet?
Have you not sacrificed to him enough of blood to
glut his heart? Without adding this? See you not? This
is a man of importance, and one to me before
(06:20):
this described. Mark you not the closeness of the hair
upon his head, his stature, Know you not that before
you stands the mouthpiece of Zitu, of whom Tamarisia boasts him,
to whom Zlaria must mark the score of her defeat,
her loss of missour, rather than for gaining information, Can
Bandor not think of a better way in which such
(06:41):
a one may be used? Hi, you mean a ransom? Calamita,
my sister, Bandor burst out as she paused. Ay. The
eyes of a Tigris looked into crofts as she answered.
Study his every expression. Mark the effects of her words, I, Bandor,
and you and her captains, and the ransom should be large.
(07:03):
Much should Tamarisia be asked in payment for her mouthpiece
of Zitu, who tumbles from the skies. And suddenly she
smiled as she broke off her flippant taut smiled and
looked steadily into Kraft's staring eyes. By Belle. Once more,
ban door roared, the words of Kalamita are of wisdom.
Go Mamma, take portions of the device from which he fell.
(07:27):
See they are carried to Outlah. Say that this man
fell among us with them, demand a parley, at which
terms for his return shall be named. Rudor, one of
the captains, saluted and left the tent. Inwardly. Croft wreathed,
here was a pretty pickle, indeed, since by his own
blunder he had become to Tamarisia a weakness rather than
(07:50):
a strength. Since because of it, Tamarisia would seem to
be confronted with the choice of leaving him to fate
or paying Masair's in Zelaria's price. And he had caught
all the meaning in the tawny depths of the Zilarian
Cortezan's eyes that price would indeed be large. And now
she bent and whispered into Bandor's ear, and he nodded.
(08:11):
Find him, he said, and pointed to Croft. Lift him
and bear him into my sister's tent. Place a guard
about us when it is finished. That is all my captains.
We wait for word from atlah Go. To resist was useless.
Croft did not try. He stood passively while his hands
(08:33):
and feet were trussed. Even then he was trying to
think to scheme some way out of the mess into
which he had brought himself, And a vague question roused
as to Kalamita's object in having him carried into her
own tent. Object he was sure there was, but it
baffled him for the moment. Then he was lifted and
born beyond the flapping door through which she had entered,
(08:56):
and laid on a pallet of skins beside a copper couch.
The woman and followed remained standing until his bearers had left.
Then approached and reclined on the couch, from whence she
could watch his eyes. Mouthpiece of Z two, she began,
after a moment of contemplation, mouthpiece of Z two, who
tumbles from the skies. Croft made no answer, and suddenly
(09:19):
she left the couch and knelt beside him. You are
a handsome man, mouthpiece of Z two. Am I not
beautiful myself? Yes? Said Croft, since in a purely physical
way she was no less than a creature to drive
most men mad. And he knew that she knew it,
and because of the knowledge left none of her charms concealed,
(09:39):
And she bent above him, closer, closer, until her reddened
mouth seemed about to touch him, until her breath played
softly against his cheek. Wisdom and beauty may accomplish much together,
mouthpiece of z two, think you not so? That was it?
Wisdom and beauty together. A sudden loathing, an impulse to
put more space between that gleaming body, That blood red
(10:01):
mouth so very close above him, gripped Croft and shook him,
But he kept it out of his voice and out
of his eyes, as he replied, what mean you, Kalamita
of Zelaria, you magnet of the flesh? She laughed after,
with a note of exaltation in the sound, as though
his words were a tribute to the power she knew
was her own. Why think you Calamita saved you from
(10:23):
the fire? Kraft quibbled, said she not the reason? In words,
the woman frowned, Think you, Jack Gore of Tamarisia will
pay the price for you, that Masziar will ask Kroft
knew that his heart leaped. He had been afraid, afraid,
yet now he recalled jack Gor as he knew him,
Jack Gor, who had bowed his haughty crest on the
(10:44):
day just passed for Tamarisia, but never for himself. Turning
the thought in his brain, he forgot to answer, you
know he will not. Almost Klamita hissed, And if not,
is death preferable to life? Power? Love? Wouldst prefer to
lie in the ground, wise man of Temuricia, or in
Kalamita's arms, which prefer to give of your strength to
(11:07):
Zelaria and her or to the worms. More and more
Craft sickened at her words. For this he had been
brought into her private tent. There alone, with this shameless woman,
he was to be intrigued, turned traitor in spirit and body.
Seduced Almost instinctively, he turned away his eyes. Her beauty
had become a deadly menace, the perfume of her tinted
(11:28):
flesh should become a stench to him. She was offering
what to Cathur's prince had been given, which had made
of the man's name a synonym for treason in his nation.
And now once more she was speaking, Behold, we are alone,
I can unbind you. And Kalamita's couch is wide. I
too wide by Zitu. Suddenly Croft roared the need was
(11:50):
too patent in its making to have foreseen the fact
that width would be required, sister of bandor beautiful as
the dream of a soul in the realms of zetempt
you may be. But Jason of Tamarisia barters not the
welfare of his nation for a moment's lust. So Klamita
rose and stood above him. Cruel was her red lips smile,
(12:11):
and cruel was the light that flashed from her oval
tawny eyes. So then we know your name at last,
hark ye Jason. For Kalamita's favor. Prouder heads than thine
have bended down in the dust. Nor is her favorite
thing to be lightly brushed aside? Wherefore and Jack gor
pays not the price we ask? Then the mouthpiece of
(12:33):
Zitu dies. A space of time dragged to pass, and
Croft had not replied. Suddenly Kalamita was again beside him,
or perhaps she said in a softer fashion, it is
because of that maid of auffeur, of whom one has
told me that Jason turns aside. If so, forget her,
and remember only that Kalumita also is a woman nay
(12:56):
by Zitu and a zeal And gaw the pure woman.
Croft flamed, Jason forgets not the virgin to whom he
is plighted for one who is lain in kyphlis of katirs,
or another's arms. By bell, Once more, Calamita rose a tremor,
shook her tightened figure, and quivered in her tones by bell,
who delights in slaughter? You shall die by torture, tested
(13:20):
by fire? Shall you be? And staked out for the
insects to devour. The carry on birds of Massaire shall
pluck out your beauty blinded eyes. The beasts of the
forest shall tear thy entrails from thee for thy words
to me, She turned and went swiftly toward the flaplike
door and flung it open. Bandor, Oh hey ban door,
(13:41):
she cried, Her blue stained brother appeared. They conferred together.
Bandor turned away, but only for a moment longer were
Croft and the woman alone. Then came Missarian soldiers, and,
lifting the trussed figure, bore it swiftly into the night
through Bandor's tent into another smaller unlighted as to its interior,
with for a floor save the grass grown ground, and
(14:02):
there they flung him down. But Jason smiled that quiet, dark,
the sweet, pure kiss of the grass beneath him was
better than the atmosphere he had left. He stretched out
his limbs so far as his bonds would let him,
and breathed a sigh of relief. And after a long time,
as it seemed to his troubled senses, all his planning
focused on Zud and Naya, dwindled down to those two words.
(14:26):
Lying here bound practically doomed to die, he could yet
communicate with them in the astral state. To Zud, whom
he had taught to recognize his coming. He could go then,
And even though thereby he made his own death practically certain,
he would still serve best the Tamarisian states and Naya.
He quivered at the thought. Naya, as he knew her,
(14:48):
would like himself, consider him unworthy if he did less
than that. Therefore he took a deep breath. He would
go to Zud, and swiftly, as the thing was always
accomplished when he sowed his od tired it. He was
bending over the High Priest's body asleep in the z
Tran pyramid. Zud, his spirit was calling. The mouthpiece of
Zitu commands you come forth, and Zud appeared a hey
(15:11):
Jason of Zitu. He quavered. Zud is here, Liz, chie
priest of Zitu. Kroft replied and told him what had occurred. Wherefore,
give ear further to my words, go to Lacon and
bid him in Zitu's name to Santu Jakor at Atla,
advising him to hold out and seek for delay until
the aid from him Ira arrives. Let it be said
(15:33):
to him that Zelaria inspires all things which Maziar requires.
Let him know that through the power of the spirit
which is mine, I shall inspire Naya of Aufur to
cause Robert his son to come swiftly to Atla in
person to direct the use of the weapons that together
with myself he understands, and that through you and Naya
of Affur, I shall keep him informed of all that transpires.
(15:56):
While yet my body survives. And thou thou Zud faltered
in distraught fashion, clasping his shadowy hands. I I know not,
said Jason. My fortune is in Zitu's hands. To you,
I give this mission, say that you understand, zud hears
and zud Obeys. Croft left him. His work was finished.
(16:16):
He sought Eimayrah and Robert's palace and Naya his other self.
And this part of his plan, he felt would be
the hardest, since in order to make her comprehend fully,
he must tell a painful truth, must confess that, through
his own daring was Jason at last undone, that his
body lay prisoner to mazayre condemned if what he meant
to attempt were accomplished, to what seemed inevitable death. And suddenly,
(16:39):
as he gained her chamber, Croft had the odd sensation
that he stood before a tomb. Why it was, he
did not know at the moment, but it was as
though he faced a ravished or an empty shrine. So
strongly had he willed himself to this spot that the
very concentration of his purpose had blotted out all else.
And only now when he reached it did there come
upon him the feeling that his coming here was vain.
(17:02):
Yet he crept inside, he moved swiftly toward her couch.
In the dusk. Heer formly stretched upon it, but it
was motionless, with no stirring of the coverlet stretched above it,
no evidence of breath, pale as a lovely image. It
lay before him in the semblance of what might be death. Fear, sheer, stark,
fear gripped Croft and held him through the span of
(17:23):
a startled instant. And then he knew the truth, because
as he stood there, it seemed to him that Naya
of offer was calling, not from the form on the couch,
but from somewhere else. Jason, Jason, Oh, Jason, my beloved.
That subtle cry rang out, and it drew him. It
compelled him. It was the voice of love, the voice
of the affinity of the ages, soundless as the spinning
(17:46):
of the planets down the grooveless tracts of time, a
blind thing, a mad thing beyond all thinking in its sweetness,
the voice of Adam to Adam, of the soft wind
to the apalling, the voice of the bird to its mate,
of the maiden to her lover, the ceaseless song of creation,
the voice of God to man. Jason, oh, my beloved.
It filled Croft's being, It engulfed him, It caught him
(18:09):
up and carried him. He cared not whither on the
tide of a swift, irresistible flood It made of his
astral substance, no more than a straw, swept up and
off and about in an eddy of compelling force. It
was more like that ceaseless urge which had drawn him
from the dog Star always while yet he dwelt on earth.
It carried Croft out of the palace and across the
(18:30):
central Sea. It swept him across before with its plains
and night wrapped woods. It drew him above the camp
of the Missarian army, and inside that tent, where his
body lay stretched out upon the ground. And then Croft
understood that Naya had accomplished for herself what heretofore had
been by him induced, that her spirit's love, her desire
(18:50):
for knowledge, had enabled her soul to break the body's bonds. That,
as she suggested she might in a former conversation, she
had found the way to visit him in dreams. Yes,
Croft knew all this in a blinding flash of comprehension,
because there in the little tent, its auric fires paling
and glowing, its soft arms twined about his unconscious body,
(19:13):
le Naiah's astral form, she had come to find him. Suddenly,
it seemed to croft that he might have known, and
all at once he was glad, with a great unreasoning gladness,
that when she came she had found him here alone
like this, rather than in Kalamita's tent. Then, very softly beloved,
he let steal forth the soul call she heard. She
(19:34):
lifted her head from where it had lain upon his breast.
She turned its wide eyes toward him, and saw him,
and rose swiftly toward him and into his embrace. Jason,
I came to Atla and could not find you, and
I sought you, sought you? What is the meaning of this?
The plain fell? I told you always there was danger,
he explained briefly. I was taken prisoner by the Zilarian
(19:56):
masters of the men of Masair. I am held to
ransom for a price. See too, Nya panted, and what else?
I went in the spirit to converse with zud and
send him on a mission to thy father. Jason told her,
loathe to answer her questions with a mere avowal of
the numbing truth, that truth, which, as it seemed, must
blast their own hopes for the future, unless in some
(20:18):
blind way he could contrive escape through him, I shall
send word to Jack Gore that the price must be refused. Refused,
Nya drew back slightly. Those quivering fires of her life
force faltered, grew dim and uncertain, died down like a flame,
well nigh blown out by a deadening wind of fear.
But Jason, thy body, which I found lying here, belongs
(20:41):
to THEE, while it yet survives. Croft answered slowly, and
went on before she could find a reply. Then went
I to Himaira, and finding your form stretched on its couch,
seemed to hear you calling, and returned to find you here. Listen, Nya,
my beloved, you must find Robert and speak to him
for me. To Jack Gor, you must send him explaining
(21:03):
what has befallen telling him from me? Is the one
lacon scent will tell him that when Robert shall arrive
to take charge of the Moteurs and the riflemen of Offur,
they must strike, strike, strike, until Befaurs shall be freed.
Also to Robert, you must say, he shall call on
Nodeur and Miladere to arm so quickly as they may,
and send their men to reinforce and support Offfur. So
(21:27):
shall Tamorsia vanquish Mazaire, and once more defeat those things,
Zulauria plans, and you ask me to do this, Nia faltered.
I for Tamarisia, I ask it, Croft replied, but you you.
She glanced toward the tight bound body. Craft sought to
stay her questions. Look not there, beloved, I am here.
(21:48):
But unless this price of massaire you mentioned be paid,
she would not be refused. Troft drew her to him.
His position was perhaps rather more peculiar than that of
any living man. The answer to what she asked was death,
and he knew it once he had snapped the astral
cord that bound him to a body, but only after
control of another had been gained. And that second body,
(22:11):
the one he had made his own on Pelos when
he forsook Earth because of the woman whose vital substance
now glowed and paled against him, was the one which
lay bound beside them on the ground. There was no other.
The loss of it meant to him what the loss
of physical life must mean to all men. Nothing else.
If the price is not paid. It is easy enough
to snap the cord that binds my life within it
(22:33):
at the proper time, he said at length, And said Naia,
in a tone of horror you would ask me in
taking your message to Robert, in sending him to Jack,
or to consign our love to death. The price, said Croft,
in justification, is very great. Much will Massaire ask more
than by Tamarizia can be paid for one man's life?
(22:54):
Swiftly the oric fires leaped up in Naya's slender figure.
Is there no escape? I know not? Croft made answer.
It is as Zito wills. The Zelarians with the men
of Massair have stained themselves blue. Yet whom have I
to stain my body or the stain within my grasp,
or shave my hair and diet red in time to
(23:14):
make the venture. This tent is under guard and will be,
and the hands of my body are bound. Nia considered,
and the price Missaire will ask, she spoke slowly, after
a time is large? I as large? I fear, as
though the Zelarian war had been lost by Tamarisia and
Massour not regained. And if not paid, your body dies
(23:35):
and mine thine. Croft tightened the grip of his arms
upon her. What mean you made of affir by such words?
Offer means? What offer? Says? She returned, and looked him
in the eyes for a moment. Her own were steady,
and then they wavered. She clung to him in an
almost frantic agony of what seemed a momentary panic of
(23:55):
more than mortal grief. Then that too had passed, giving
way to an all most passionate mood. Think you that
when life has left your body, Naya of Offur too
shall not lie dead. That to her the body has
no longer any meaning, save as it delights you save
us through it. She knows the touch of yours. Did
you not swear to me by Zitu and Azil, to
(24:17):
return and claim me? And if that promise remains unfulfilled,
think you that Naya of Affur will live. Yet Croft stammered,
shaken by this breath of passion, dazzled by the flashing
of her beings fire, If the welfare of Tamarisia demands
the failure of that promise, If not with honor, can
I return to Himayra in the body. If your words,
(24:39):
beloved make doubly hard my purpose. When you shall have
left me and return to carry my message to your
cousin by Zito and by Zito, Nya fired into desperate protest,
It shall not be a zeal give her of life?
Shall these foul spawn of Zetemku, keep you from me,
nay as I am a daughter of God. With your
seal upon me, Ah speaks to me. She broke off
(25:02):
and lifted her hands to her breast. Her very eyes
were fired, so for a moment she stood before she
went on, hark you, Jason, whom I love more than
my own soul. This tent is guarded, as you have said,
and a price is laid on Tamerisia for your returning.
Yet am I not woman whom you have wakened for nothing?
And my love is not in vain? What price for
(25:23):
a man who is dead? Bay Zitu Croft caught her meaning.
His glance turned toward the body on the ground beside
their feet, and Nia nodded. A Gaia told me, in
speaking of these things you told to Rubert and Tuzudd,
and now I know for myself the twin the spirit
is without it, the body lies as dead. Wherefore were
(25:43):
it possible for you to remain as now you are?
For a space sufficient to deceive these men of Mizaire
into thinking that, injured in your fall, you perchance had died.
Think you they would keep your body under guard or
even near them lest it foul the air, even like
those rotting corpses which taint it with horror. As I
passed this night by Atlas walls, no by Zitu, they
(26:05):
would cast it forth in some other place. Croft answered quickly,
Naya Gaw, priestess of life, you have said it. Together
we shall beat them. Yet, ay, we shall beat them.
Listen further, Nya said, for a few sons, you shall
appear to be alive, yet faint and not recovered from
injury to Himaira, shall I return and carry your message
(26:25):
to rob When seven sons beginning with the next, are past,
then must you seem to die? Thus shall they carry
you forth? But the seven days shall be to gain
time for what you direct to be done. Hi, I
am not daughter of Gaw, for nothing beloved, give me
your mouth. I must be gone life life, and this
woman there was a chance her wits had found it
(26:47):
where his had milled around. Daughter of Gaw. Was she
as she said, and perhaps Gauw, the eternal woman, had
spoken to her through the elements which went into forming
her nature. First, Croft took her once more closely into
his arms. Seek not to leave your body for one
moment between now and the end of the seventh son,
she cautioned, lest one should note it, and so at
(27:09):
the proper time entertain a doubt of your real death.
Craft marveled to him. She seemed to think of each
infinitesimal detail. No, he gave his promise, I shall be
merely as one who from one son to another. Fils
Nia lifted her lips, and as once before, in similar fashion,
she yielded them to him. For an instant. It was
(27:29):
as though their two beings blended, intermingled, and then she
had torn herself from him, divinely glowing ze two Keep
you beloved, she whispered, and vanished from before his eyes.
For the succeeding seven days, Croft endured simply endured discomfort,
the trussing up of his arms and feet at night
(27:50):
in none too gentle fashion. The scant irregularity of poorly
furnished meals the absence of aught save trampled grass to
sleep upon renewed attempts on the part of Bandor to
forced from him some intimation of Tamarisia's plans. The haughty,
venomous hate that glared out of Kalamita's tawny eyes, that
fury of a woman of the purely physical type, whose
(28:11):
allurement has been scorned, of an adventuress, a schemer whose
scheme has failed. But on the seventh day, as he
lay brooding in his tent, close by the huge skin
headquarters tent of Bandor, which reminded him more of some
Tatar chieftain's domicile than anything else, with its hide walls,
its semi barbaric trappings, its red and green standard floating
(28:32):
on a pole before its door. The door of his
own tent was drawn slightly to one side, and a
face appeared to send his heart leaping into his breast.
Maya Nia's own maid was looking shrewdly into his starting eyes,
and as lost in a maze, he lay staring at her,
filled with a vast wonder at her presence here in
the heart of the Missourian camp, yet afraid to speak,
(28:53):
torn between a desire to learn the meaning of her
presence and a fear lest any sign of recognition should
destroy away whatever purpose that presence might portend, she flung
the flap entirely back and darted inside thou cannor of Tamarisia.
She cried in the voice of a termagant a shrew,
and struck him with her right hand a smart blow.
Thou thou, offspring of Zitu, fallen to the ground, Thou
(29:17):
devil who sent fire against my people, whose own people
have cast him off, dig like the cann or thou art.
And all the time she was shrieking, she continued to
buffet him with blows, striking him with her bare hand,
kicking him with her feet. Die thou, pale faced fiend,
hum bell greater than thy Zitu struck down and hurled
among us. Die die now, but croft under the storm
(29:40):
of her words her buffetings, made no movement of resistance,
lay limp and unresisting on the grass. Because even as
she struck him, even as she lashed him with her tongue,
calling him fiend and devil and cannor the name of
the great beasts, such as Nia's pet and protector, you pour,
which was the nearest approach in Pelos to a dog.
(30:00):
Yet as her one hand rose and fell above him,
her other drew from the narrow apron about her blue
loins a little looped silver cross, and showed it to
him briefly, and thrust it back and between the anathema
of her lips. They moved in almost soundless, speaking, you poor,
give your to my berating of thee closely. I come
from one who loves THEE greatly, to show you the cross,
(30:22):
the cross and soda, the looped symbol of life, the
little signs that had placed in Nia's hands at their betrothal,
the sign of immortal life which came to men through women.
Naya of offer was sending it by this servant of hers,
who loved her. To him. He closed his eyes and
nodded slightly, in understanding as Maya continued to rave. Only
now his brain was whirling, seething, was a cauldron of
(30:45):
troubled questions. He dared not voice questions as to why
Maya had been sent to aid in his escape, as
he felt sure now she had yet to question. The
girl was impossible under the present conditions. And what was
she screaming? Die? Can or die? As bandor has decreed
thou must, since jack Gor has refused thy ransom, die
(31:05):
now thou Tamarisian dog. And she had told him to
listen closely to her vituperations. Kroft gained the message she
intended jack Gor had done as he advised, and Bandor's
captive had lost value. Wherefore he kept his eyes closed
and seemingly died. Footsteps, Croft's guard burst through the door.
He seized Maya and flung her to one side and
(31:27):
stooped above the body with a face of terror. And
then he straightened and turned upon her. Ba ba ba
ba ba Bell, You have killed him, he stammered. He
has been ailing ever since he fell among us. Fool
that I was to listen to your plea to view him.
May Bell, send you our commander's rage. That rage, Maya said, panting,
(31:50):
as it seemed from her exertions and emotions. Seeing that
he is of value, no longer should not be so
intense calm. The gorge seized her by an arm and
led her toward Bandor's tent. Groft went along, trailing the
man and woman's steps, and once inside the huge shelter
of skins, the guards saluted sharply and hurled Maya before
(32:11):
the Zelorian noble, so that she sprawled her length on
the ground. Behold o Bandor. He made his report in
a gruff bluster designed to cover his own face as
well as he could. This woman, who made her way
by stealth into Jason of Tamisia's tent had struck him
so that he died. High Bandor half rose and sank
(32:32):
back and narrowed his eyes. He regarded Maya, who groveled
before him, her body caught and held half raised on
stretching arms, her head lifted, gazing into his startled face
with watchful eyes. How are you called, he inquired, Maya,
stammered the woman child. Am I of a father and
(32:53):
mother who have lived among his people all my life?
Have I served them until Belle sent Bandor in my
people to bring liberation. Then I slipped away and made
my way to thy army, with which I have stayed
the past son Wheretofore, hearing that Pandor had condemned this
one to death, I desired to see him, and seeing
(33:14):
him rage overcame me, and I threw myself upon him. Mercy,
o Bandor, mighty commander of my people, for this which
I have done, Hi, said Bandor. Again, is Lid's contructing
still further? After all, it is a small matter, Though
my sister will be annoyed. She had planned a more
lingering death for this insolent man. Yet to death was
(33:37):
he condemned, and it is finished. Say you that from
the bondage of his people you have come I from
at La Lore at Lah now by Belle Pandor roared.
And what inside the pend Up city do these whitespawn plan?
They speak of resistance maya made answer as Pandor knows.
(33:58):
But perchance he knows not that many men from Auffur
have arrived, armed with the chariots they call motiers, which
run by fire and breathe it forth as death, and
with the sticks that throw death unseen with noise and smoke,
unlike the flight of an arrow or spear. Ten thousand
have reached Bithra and are advancing to the relief of Atla.
(34:19):
Even now more are said to be journeying from Auffur
across the central sea. And yet others from Nodur and
Milidur are to come hi for the third time, Bandor
said it with a heavy frown. This is of importance
for the information your words contain. I give you, Pordon
or those other of thy father's children in TAMARISI as loyal.
(34:43):
Much might be wrought of ill among them, were they
are cast of servants to rise and kill and burn go.
He turned to the guard, whose face had lightened. Take
man and bear forth his body and cast it beyond
the camp. Or Hal, I will view him myself for
the third time. His eyelids narrowed, and he rose, followed
(35:06):
by Maya and the guard. He entered Croft's tent and
bent over the body on the ground. Ay, his spirit
has left him, he said, as he straightened from the
inspection and swung about on his heel. Mighty Bandor. Maya
stayed him. I may remain for a time in the camp.
Bandor eyed her. Oh ay, he said in careless fashion.
(35:29):
You are a comely girl of your people. You should
have small trouble in finding some man to take you
to his tent. He turned away, and a moment later
a brazen trumpet began sounding a summoning blast. As Croft learned,
this was a signal to Bandor's captains and advisers to
assemble for a council with their chief. Maya stole out,
(35:51):
with the arm of the guard about her, walking coyly
at his side. Quite plainly, the fellow was inclined to
take bandor suggest question about her to himself. Kroft watched
them vanish and remain beside his own body, still huddled
on the grass, and in the end he followed it,
followed his own body when it was borne outside the
(36:12):
limits of the encampment and cast into a thicket of bushes,
where its disposition was watched by Maya, who accompanied the
now openly amorous guard and lingered beside the thicket with him.
After the other soldiers had cast down their burden and gone,
let us remove its clothing. She suggested, too wasted were
he loss. The guard assented. Five minutes later, more than
(36:35):
a little aghast, Croft found his material tenement stretched stark
upon the ground. Maya and her lover were moving off.
In her arms, the girl bore his suit of soft
brown leather in a way. Now Croft became more and
more disturbed. Vague fancies filled his mind. At the first
he had trusted her wholly, but this last move he
(36:57):
did not understand. He recalled the story Parthos had told
of the blue servants rising against their employers during the
present trouble, and he marked the manner in which she
accepted the blue man's advances. After all, she was a
Misserian herself, he thought, and there was no reason save
her possible affection for Nia to insure her worthiness of trust. Still,
(37:20):
she had shown him the tiny cross from the apron
about her waist, and she had told him to die
as Nia had advised he should. After all, she might
have some definite reason beyond his present knowledge, for divesting
his body of clothes. And he could do nothing until nightfall.
That being the case, and the night being several hours removed,
(37:42):
there was nothing to do but wait. That it might
be in seeming. Yet Croft knew that lying thus in
the open, his body needed protection. In the middle of
the thicket, he settled down beside it. It was rather odd,
he found himself, thinking to be sitting there, keeping an
invisible watch of his own form. Now and then, as
(38:02):
the afternoon passed, he stowly glanced at the camp. There
was bustle there, a moving and shifting of men. It
came to him that Bandor after his counsel, was preparing
for another attack of Atla urged thereto by Maya's report
concerning the approaching reinforcements of weapons and men. Well let
them attack, he thought, with a grim satisfaction. Jack Gor
(38:25):
would hold out through yet one more attack, surely, and
by then bandor would have lost his chance. Once Roeber
and his forces had arrived, night came at last. Purposely,
Croft waited until late before making his venture out escape,
And while he waited there stole into the thicket a
dim shape which approached his body and sank beside it
(38:46):
on the ground. It was maya more than a little
surprised Croft watched her. She carried a bundle. She undid it.
She moved higher beside his body and raised his head,
supporting it on her thighs. Then swiftly she began to
shave it, turning it to reach the back, and working
rapidly on the sides. That done, while comprehension flashed into
(39:08):
Croft's mind, and with it renewed confidence in this girl.
As he recalled his words to Naya concerning some such
thing as this. She took a small box from her
bundle and began rubbing the scalp block she had left
upon his pole with a substance it contained. After that,
she lifted a flask and removed a stopper. Working rapidly,
(39:28):
she began smearing the body with some dark fluid, spreading
it thinly upon the skin, rubbing it to as even
a coating as she might with rapid hands, and as
she worked, Croft's body lost its ivory whiteness and became
a dark hued thing like her own. At the end,
she took a small cloth from the articles she had
brought with her and twisted it deftly about his loins.
(39:50):
And as she finished and straightened herself from her labors, Croft,
sensing it time for his reviving, opened the eyes of
the body over which she had worked. Spoke. Hi, said, Maya,
without any particular evidence of consternation. It is even so.
She said, it would happen when I had finished. She
said that when I had shaved you, Lord, and reddened
(40:11):
your hair, and stained your body, and put the loincloth
upon it, you would reappear. She Croft questioned her quickly,
you mean Nia of a fir Maya? I who else? You,
poor Jason? She rose and picked up her bundle, Nia,
my mistress, these are your garments. Come you poor till
I lead you to her. She lies near end of
(40:33):
chapter nineteen
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