19 - Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Queen's Story

Episode Transcript

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Chapter nineteen of Tarzan the Untamed.This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
recordings are in the public domain.For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. Recording byPamela Crantz Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Burroughs,

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Chapter nineteen, The Queen's Story.In the meantime, Bertha Kircher was
conducted the length of the plaza towardthe largest and most pretentious of the building
surrounding it. This edifice covered theentire width of one end of the plaza.
It was several stories in height,the main entrance being approached by a

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wide flight of stone steps, thebottom of which was guarded by enormous stone
lions, while at the top therewere two pedestals flanking the entrance and of
the same height, upon each ofwhich was the stone image of a large
parrot. As the girl neared theselatter images, she saw that the capital
of each column was hewn into thesemblance of a human skull, upon which

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the parrots perched Above the arched doorway, and upon the walls of the building
were the figures of other parrots,of lions, and of monkeys. Some
of these were carved in bas relief, others were delineated in mosaics, while
still others appeared to have been paintedupon the surface of the wall. The

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colorings of the last were apparently muchsubdued by age, with the result that
the general effect was soft and beautiful. The sculpturing and mosaic work were both
finely executed, giving evidence of ahigh degree of artistic skill. Unlike the
first building into which she had beenconducted, the entrance to which had been

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doorless, massive doors closed the entrancewhich she now approached, and the niches
formed by the column which supported thedoor's arch, and about the base of
the pedestals of the stone parrots,as well as in various other places on
the broad stairway, lulled some scoreof armed men. The tunics of these

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were all of a vivid yellow,and upon the breast and back of each
was embroidered the figure of a parrot. As she was conducted up the stairway,
one of these yellow coated warriors approachedand halted her guides at the top
of the steps. Here they exchangeda few words, and while they were
talking, the girl noticed that hewho had halted them, as well as

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those whom she could see. Ofhis companions appeared to be, if possible,
of a lower mentality than her originalcaptors. Their coarse, bristling hair
grew so low upon their foreheads,as in some instances, to almost join
their eyebrows, while the irises weresmaller, exposing more of the white of

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the eyeball. After a short parley, the man in charge of the doorway
for such he seemed to be turnedand struck upon one of the panels with
the butt of his spear, atthe same time calling to several of his
companions, who rose and came forwardat his command. Soon the great doors
commenced slowly to swing creakingly open,and presently as they separated, the girl

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saw behind them the motive force whichoperated the massive doors to each door,
a half dozen naked negroes. Atthe doorway, her two guards were turned
back and their places taken by ahalf dozen of the yellow coated soldiery.
These conducted her through the doorway,which the blacks, pulling upon heavy chains,

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closed behind them, and as thegirl watched them, she noted with
horror that the poor creatures were chainedby the neck to the doors. Before
her led a broad hallway, inthe center of which was a little pool
of clear water. Here, again, in floor and walls was repeated in
new and ever changing combinations and designs. The parrots, the monkeys, and

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the lions, but now many ofthe figures were of what the girl was
convinced must be gold. The wallsof the corridor consisted of a series of
open archways, through which upon eitherside other spacious apartments were visible. The
hallway was entirely unfurnished, but therooms on either side contained benches and tables.

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Glimpses of some of the walls revealedthe fact that they were covered with
hangings of some colored fabric, whileupon the floors were thick rugs of barbaric
design and the skins of black lionsand beautifully marked leopards. The room directly
to the right of the entrance wasfilled with men wearing the yellow tunics of

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her new guard, while the wallswere hung with numerous spears and sabers.
At the far end of the corridor, a low flight of steps led to
another closed doorway. Here the guardwas again halted. One of the guards
at this doorway, after receiving thereport of one of those who accompanied her
passed through the door, leaving themstanding outside. It was fully fifteen minutes

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before he returned, when the guardwas again changed, and the girl conducted
into the chamber. Beyond, throughthree other chambers, and passed three more
massive doors, at each of whichher guard was changed. The girl was
conducted before she was ushered into acomparatively small room, back and forth across
the floor of which paced a manin a scarlet tunic, upon the front

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and back of which was embroidered anenormous parrot, and upon whose head was
a barbaric head dress surmounted by astuffed parrot. The walls of this room
were entirely hidden by hangings upon whichhundreds, even thousands of parrots were embroidered.
Inlaid in the floor were golden parrots, while as thickly as they could

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be painted upon the ceiling were brillianthued parrots with wings outspread as though in
the act of flying. The manhimself was larger of stature than any she
had yet seen within the city.His parchment like skin was wrinkled with age,
and he was much fatter than anyother of his kind that she had
seen. His bared arms, however, gave evidence of great strength, and

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his gait was not that of anold man. His facial expression denoted almost
utter imbecility, and he was quitethe most repulsive creature that ever Bertha Kircher
had looked upon. For several minutesafter she was conducted into his presence,
he appeared not to be aware thatshe was there, but continued his restless

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pacing to and fro. Suddenly,without the slightest warning, and while he
was at the far end of theroom from her, with his back toward
her, he wheeled and rushed madlyat her. Involuntarily, the girl shrank
back, extending her open palms towardthe frightful creature as though to hold him
aloof but a man upon either sideof her, the two who had conducted

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her into the apartment seized and heldher. Although he rushed violently toward her,
the man stopped without touching her fora moment. His horrid, white
rimmed eyes glared searchingly into her face, immediately following which he burst into maniacal
laughter. For two or three minutes, the creature gave himself over to merriment,

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and then stopping as Suddenly, ashe had commenced to laugh, he
fell to examining the prisoner. Hefelt of her hair, her skin,
the texture of the garment she wore, and by means of signs, made
her understand she was to open hermouth. In the latter he seemed much
interested, calling the attention of oneof the guards to her canine teeth,

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and then bearing his own sharp fangsfor the prison to see. Presently,
he resumed pacing to and fro acrossthe floor, and it was fully fifteen
minutes before he again noticed the prisoner, and then it was to issue a
curt order to her guards, whoimmediately conducted her from the apartment. The

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guards now led the girl through aseries of corridors and apartments to a narrow
stone stairway which led to the floorabove, finally stopping before a small door
where stood a naked negro armed witha spear. At a word from one
of her guards, the negro openedthe door and the party passed into a
low sealed apartment, the windows ofwhich immediately caught the girl's attention through the

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fact that they were heavily barred.The room was furnished similarly to those that
she had seen in other parts ofthe building, the same carved tables and
benches, the rugs upon the floor, the decorations upon the walls, although
in every respect it was simpler thananything she had seen on the floor.
Below, in one corner, wasa low couch covered with a rug similar

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to those on the floor, exceptthat it was of a lighter texture,
And upon this sat a woman.As Bertha Kirch's eyes alighted upon the occupant
of the room, the girl gavea little gasp of astonishment, for she
recognized immediately that here was a creaturemore nearly of her own kind than any
she had seen within the city's walls. An old woman it was, who

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looked at her through faded blue eyes, sunk in deep in a wrinkled and
toothless face. But the eyes werethose of a sane and intelligent creature,
and the wrinkled face was the faceof a white woman. At sight of
the girl, the woman rose andcame forward, her gait so feeble and
unsteady that she was forced to supportherself with a long staff, which she

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grasped in both her hands. Oneof the guards spoke a few words to
her, and then the men turnedand left the apartment. The girl stood
just within the door, waiting insilence for what might next befall her.
The old woman crossed the room andstopped before her, raising her weak and
watery eyes to the fresh, youngface of the newcomer. Then she scanned

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her from head to foot, andonce again the old eyes returned to the
girl's face. Bertha Kircher, onher part, was not less frank in
her survey of the little old woman. It was the latter who spoke first.
In a thin, cracked voice,she spoke hesitatingly, falteringly, as
though she were using unfamiliar words andspeaking a strange tongue. You are from

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the outer world, she asked,in English. God grant that you may
speak and understand this tongue English.The girl exclaimed, Yes, of course
I speak English, Thank God,cried the little old woman. I did
not know whether I myself might speakit so that another could understand. For

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sixty years I have spoken only there, a cursed gibberish. For sixty years
I have not heard a word inmy native language. Poor creature, Poor
creature, she mumbled, what acursed misfortune threw you into their hands?
You are an englishwoman, asked BerthaKircher. Did I understand you are right

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that you are an englishwoman and havebeen here for sixty years. The old
woman nodded her head affirmatively. Forsixty years. I have never been outside
of this palace. Come, shesaid, stretching forth a bony hand.
I am very old and cannot standlong. Come and sit with me on
my couch. The girl took theproffered hand and assisted the old lady back

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to the opposite side of the room, and when she was seated, the
girl sat down beside her. Poorchild. Poor child, moaned the old
woman. Far better to have diedthan to have let them bring you here.
At first I might have destroyed myself, but there was always the hope

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that some one would come who wouldtake me away. But none ever comes.
Tell me how they got you.Very briefly, the girl narrated the
principal incidents which led up to hercapture by some of the creatures of the
city. Then there is a manwith you in the city, asked the
old woman. Yes, said thegirl, but I do not know where

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he is, nor what are theirintentions in regard to him. In fact,
I do not know what their intentionstoward me are. No one might
even guess, said the old woman. They do not know themselves from one
minute to the next what their intentionsare. But I think you can rest
assured, my poor child, thatyou will never see your friend again.

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But they haven't slain you, thegirl reminded her. And you have been
their prisoner, you say, forsixty years, no, replied her companion.
They have not killed me, norwill they kill you, though God
knows, before you have lived longin this horrible place, you will beg
them to kill you. Who arethey asked Bertha Kircher. What kind of

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people? They differ from any thatI have ever seen? And tell me
too, how you came here?It was long ago, said the old
woman, rocking back and forth onthe couch. It was long ago,
Oh how long it was? Iwas only twenty then. Think of it,
child, Look at me. Ihave no mirror other than my bath.

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I cannot see what I look like, for my eyes are old.
But with my fingers I can feelmy old and wrinkled face, my sunken
eyes, and these flabby lips drawnin over toothless gums. I am old
and bent and hideous. But thenI was young, and they said that
I was beautiful. No, Iwill not be a hypocrite. I was

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beautiful. My glass told me thatmy father was a missionary in the interior,
and one day there came a bandof Arabian slave raiders. They took
the men and women of the littlenative village where my father labored, and
they took me too. They didnot know much about our part of the

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country, so they were compelled torely upon the men of our village,
whom they had captured, to guidethem. They told me that they never
before had been so far south,and that they had heard there was a
country rich in ivory and slaves westof us. They wanted to go there,
and from there they would take usnorth, where I was to be

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sold into the harem of some blacksultan. They often discussed the price I
would bring, and that that pricemight not lessen. They guarded me jealously
from one another, so the journeyswere made as little fatigue for me as
possible. I was given the bestfood at their command, and I was
not harmed. But after a shorttime, when we had reached the confines

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of the country with which the menof our village were familiar, and had
entered upon a desolate and arid desertwaste. The Arabs realized at last that
we were lost, but they stillkept on ever toward the west, crossing
hideous gorges and marching across the faceof a burning land beneath the pitiless sun.

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The poor slaves they had captured wereof course compelled to carry all the
camp equipage in loot, and thus, heavily burdened, half starved, and
without water, they soon commenced todie like flies. We had not been
in the desert land long before theArabs were forced to kill their horses for

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food, And when we reached thefirst gorge across us, which it would
have been impossible to transport the animals, the balance of them were slaughtered and
the meat loaded upon the poor,staggering blacks who still survived. Thus we
continued for two more days, andnow all but a handful of blacks were

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dead, and the Arabs themselves hadcommenced to succumb to hunger and thirst and
the intense heat of the desert asfar as the eye could reach back toward
the land of plenty. From whencewe had come. Our route was marked
by circling vultures in the sky andby the bodies of the dead who lay

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down in the trackless waste for thelast time. The ivory had been abandoned,
tusk by tusk, as the blacksgave out, and long the trail
of death was strewn the camp equipageand the horse trappings of a hundred men.
For some reason, the Arab chieffavored me to the last, possibly

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with the idea that of all hisother treasures I could be most easily transported,
for I was young and strong,and after the horses were killed,
I had walked and kept up withthe best of the men. We English
know our great walkers, while theseArabians had never walked since they were old
enough to ride a horse. Icannot tell you how much longer we kept

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on, but at last, withour strength almost gone, a handful of
us reached the bottom of a deepgorge. To scale the opposite side was
out of the question, and sowe kept on down along the sands of
what must have been the bed ofan ancient river, until finally we came

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to a point where we looked outupon what appeared to be a beautiful valley,
in which we felt assured that wewould find game in plenty. By
then there were only two of usleft, the chief and myself. I
do not need to tell you whatthe valley was, for you found it
in much the same way as Idid. So quickly were we captured that

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it seemed they must have been waitingfor us. And I learned later that
such was the case, just asthey were waiting for you. As you
came through the forest, you musthave seen the monkeys and parrots. And
since you have entered the palace,how constantly these animals and the lions are
used in the decorations. At home. We were all familiar with talking parrots

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who repeated the things that they weretaught to say. But these parrots are
different, and that they all talkin the same language that the people of
the city use. And they saythat the monkeys talk to the parrots,
and the parrots fly to the cityand tell the people what the monkeys say.
And although it is hard to believe, I have learned that this is

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so, for I have lived hereamong them for sixty years, in the
palace of their king. They broughtme as they brought you directly to the
palace. The Arabian chief was takenelsewhere. I never knew what became of
him. Igo the twenty fifth wasking. Then I have seen many kings

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since that day. He was aterrible man. But then they are all
terrible. What is the matter withthem, asked the girl. They are
a race of maniacs, replied theold woman, had you not guessed it?
Among them are excellent craftsmen, andgood farmers, and a certain amount

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of law and order. Such asit is, They reverence all birds,
but the parrot is their chief deity. There is one who is held here
in the palace, in a verybeautiful apartment. He is their god of
gods. He is a very oldbird. If what Ago told me when

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I came is true, he mustbe nearly three hundred years old by now.
Their religious rites are revolting in theextreme, and I believe that it
may be the practice of these ritesthrough ages that has brought the race to
its present condition of imbecility. Andyet, as I said, they are

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not without some redeeming qualities, iflegend may be credited, their forebears a
little handful of men and women whocame from somewhere out of the north,
and became lost in the wilderness ofcentral Africa. Found here only a barren,
desert valley. To my own knowledge, reign seldom, if ever falls

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here. And yet you have seena great forest and luxuriant vegetation outside of
the city as well as within it. This miracle is accomplished by the utilization
of natural springs, which their ancestorsdeveloped and upon which they have improved to
such an extent that the entire valleyreceives an adequate amount of moisture at all

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times. Ago told me that manygenerations before his time, the forest was
irrigated by changing the course of thestreams which carried the spring water to the
city. But that when the treeshad sent their roots down to the natural
moisture of the soil and required nofurther irrigation, the course of the stream

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was changed and other trees were planted, and so the forest grew, until
to day it covers almost the entirefloor of the valley, except for the
open space where the city stands.I do not know that this is true.
It may be that the forest hasalways been here, but it is
one of their legends, and itis borne out by the fact that there

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is not sufficient rainfall here to supportvegetation. They are peculiar people in many
respects, not only in their formof worship and religious rites, but also
in that they breed lions as otherpeople breed cattle. You have seen how
they use some of these lions,but the majority of them they fatten and

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eat. At first, I imaginethey ate lion meat is a part of
their religious ceremony, but after manygenerations they came to crave it, so
that now it is practically the onlyflesh they eat. They would, of
course, rather die than eat theflesh of a bird, nor will they

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eat monkeys meat, while the herbivorousanimals they raise only for milk, hides
and flesh for the lions. Uponthe south side of the city are the
corrals and pastures where the herbivorous animalsare raised. Bore dear and antelope are
used principally for the lions, whilegoats are kept for milk for the human

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inhabitants of the city. And youhave lived here all these years, exclaimed
the girl, without ever seeing oneof your own kind. The old woman
nodded affirmatively for sixty years you havelived here, continued Bertha Kircher, and
they have not harmed you. Idid not say they had not harmed me,

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said the old woman. They didnot kill me, that is all.
What the girl hesitated. What shecontinued at last, was your position
among them. Pardon me, sheadded quickly. I think I know,
but I should like to hear fromyour own lips, for whatever your position

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was, mine will doubtless be thesame. The old woman nodded, yes,
she said, doubtless if they cankeep you away from the women.
What do you mean, asked thegirl. For sixty years I have never
been allowed near a woman. Theywould kill me even now if they could
reach me. The men are frightful, God knows they are frightful. But

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Heaven keep you from the women.You mean, asked the girl. That
the men will not harm me.Igo, the twenty fifth made me his
queen, said the old woman.But he had many other queens, nor
were they all human. He wasnot murdered for ten years after I came

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here. Then the next king tookme, and so it has been always.
I am the oldest queen. Nowvery few of their women lived to
a great age, not only arethey constantly liable to assassination, but owing
to their subnormal mentalities, they aresubject to periods of depression, during which

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they are very likely to destroy themselves. She turned suddenly and pointed to the
barred windows. You see this room, she said, with the black eunuch
outside. Wherever you see these,you will know that there are women,
For with very few exceptions, theyare never allowed out of captivity. They

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are considered and really are more violentthan the men. For several minutes,
the two sat in silence, andthen the younger woman turned to the older.
Is there no way to escape,she asked. The old woman pointed
again to the barred windows and thento the door, saying, and there
is the armed eunuch. And ifyou should pass him, how could you

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reach the street. And if youreached the street, how could you pass
through the city to the outer wall. And even if by some miracle you
should gain the outer wall, andby another miracle you should be permitted to
pass through the gate, could youever hope to traverse the forest where the
great black lions roam and feed uponmen? No, she exclaimed, answering

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her own question, there is noescape, for after one had escaped from
the palace and the city in theforest, it would be but to invite
death in the frightful desert land beyond. In sixty years, you are the
first to find this buried city.In a thousand, no denizen of this

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valley has ever left it, andwithin the memory of man or even in
their legends, none had found themprior to my coming, other than a
single warlike giant, the story ofwhom has been handed down from father to
son. I think from the descriptionthat he must have been a Spaniard,

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a giant of a man in bucklerand helmut, who fought his way through
the terrible forest to the city gate, who fell upon those who were sent
out to capture him, and slewhim with his mighty sword. And when
he had eaten of the vegetables fromthe gardens and the fruit from the trees,
and drank of the water from thestream, he turned about and fought

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his way back through the forest tothe mouth of the gorge. But though
he escaped the city in the forest, he did not escape the desert.
For a legend runs that the king, fearful that he would bring others to
attack him, sent a party afterhim to slay him. For three weeks
they did not find him, forthey went in the wrong direction. But

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at last they came upon his bones, picked clean by the vultures, lying
a day's march up the same gorgethrough which you and I entered the valley
I do not know, continued theold woman. That this is true.
It is just one of their manylegends. Yes, said the girl,
it is true. I am sureit is true, for I have seen

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the skeleton and the corroded armor ofthis great giant. At this juncture,
the door was thrown open without ceremony, and a negro entered, bearing two
flat vessels, in which were severalsmaller ones. These he sat down on
one of the tables near the women, and without a word, turned and
left. With the entrance of theman with the vessels, a delightful odor

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of cooked food had aroused the realizationin the girl's mind that she was very
hungry, and at a word fromthe old woman, she walked to the
table to examine the viands. Thelarger vessels, which contained the smaller ones,
were of pottery, while those withinthem were quite evidently of hammered gold.
To her intense surprise, she foundlying between the smaller vessels a spoon

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and a fork, which, whileof quaint design, were quite as serviceable
as any she had seen in morecivilized communities. The tines of the fork
were quite evidently of iron or steel, the girl did not know which,
while the handle and the spoon wereof the same material as the smaller vessels.
There was a highly seasoned stew withmeat and vegetables, a dish of

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fresh fruit, and a bowl ofmilk, beside which was a little jug
containing something which resembled marmalade. Soravenous was she that she did not even
wait for her companion to reach thetable, and as she ate, she
could have sworn that never before hadshe tasted more palatable food. The old

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woman came slowly and sat down onone of the benches opposite her. As
she removed the smaller vessels from thelarger and arranged them before her on the
table, a crooked smile twisted herlips as she watched the younger woman eat.
Hunger is a great leveler, shesaid, with a laugh. What
do you mean, asked the girl. I ventured to say that a few

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weeks ago you would have been nauseatedat the idea of eating cat, cat,
exclaimed the girl. Yes, saidthe old woman. What is the
difference a lion is a cat?You mean I am eating lion now,
Yes, said the old woman.And as they prepare it, it is
very palatable. You will grow veryfond of it. Bertha Kircher smiled a

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trifle dubiously. I could not tellit, she said, from lamb or
veal. No, said the woman. It tastes as good to me.
But these lions are very carefully kept, and very carefully fed, and their
flesh is so seasoned and prepared thatit might be anything, so far as
taste is concerned. And so BerthaKircher broke her long fast upon strange fruits,

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lion meat, and goat's milk.Scarcely had she finished when again the
door opened, and there entered ayellow coated soldier. He spoke to the
old woman. The King, shesaid, has commanded that you be prepared
and brought to him. You areto share these apartments with me. The
King knows that I am not likehis other women. He never would have

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dared to put you with them.Herog The sixteenth has occasional lucid intervals.
You must have been brought to himduring one of these. Like the rest
of them. He thinks that healone, of all the community, is
sane. But more than once,I have thought that the various men with
whom I have come in contact here, including the kings themselves, looked upon

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me as at least less mad thanthe others. Yet how I have retained
my senses all these years is beyondme. What do you mean by prepare,
asked Bertha Kircher. You said thatthe King had commanded I be prepared
and brought to him. You willbe bathed and furnished with a robe similar

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to that which I wear. Isthere no escape? Asked the girl.
Is there no way evin in whichI can kill myself? The woman handed
her the fork. This is theonly way, she said, And you
will notice that the times are veryshort and blunt. The girl shuddered,

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and the old woman laid a handgently upon her shoulder. He may only
look at you and send you away, she said, I'll go. The
twenty fifth sent for me once triedto talk with me, discovered that I
could not understand him, and thathe could not understand me, ordered that
I be taught the language of hispeople, and then apparently forgot me for

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a year. Sometimes I do notsee the king for a long period.
There was one king who ruled forfive years whom I never saw. There
is always hope, Even I,whose very memory has doubtless been forgotten beyond
these palace walls, still hope,though none knows better how feudally. The

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old woman led Bertha Kircher to anadjoining apartment, in the floor of which
was a pool of water. Herethe girl bathed, and afterward her companion
brought her one of the clinging garmentsof the native women and adjusted it about
her figure. The material of therobe was of a gauzy fabric, which
I accentuated the rounded beauty of thegirlish form. There, said the old

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woman, as she gave a finalpat to one of the folds of the
garment. You are a queen.Indeed, the girl looked down at her
naked breasts and but half concealed limbsin horror. They are going to lead
me into the presence of men inthis half nude condition, she exclaimed.

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The old woman smiled her crooked smile. It is nothing, she said.
You will become accustomed to it asI did, who was brought up in
the home of a minister of thegospel, where it was considered little short
of a crime for a woman toexpose her stockinged ankle. By comparison with
what you will doubtless see and thethings that you may be called upon to

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undergo, this is but a trifle. For what seemed hours to the distraught
girl, she paced the floor ofher apartment, awaiting the final summons to
the presence of the mad king.Darkness had fallen and the oil flares within
the palace had been lighted. Longbefore two messengers appeared with instructions that herog

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demanded her immediate presence, and thatthe old woman, whom they called Zanilla,
was to accompany her. The girlfelt some slight relief when she discovered
that she was to have at leastone friend with her, however powerless to
assist her the old woman might be. The messengers conducted the two to a

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small apartment on the floor below.Zanilla explained that this was one of the
ante rooms off the main throne room, in which the king was accustomed to
hold court with his entire retinue.A number of yellow tuniced warriors sat about
upon the benches within the room.For the most part, their eyes were
bent upon the floor, and theirattitudes that of moody dejection. As the

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two women entered, several glanced indifferentlyat them, but for the most part
no attention was paid to them.While they were waiting in the anteroom,
there entered from another apartment a youngman uniformed similarly to the others, with
the exception that upon his head wasa filet of gold, in the front
of which a single parrot feather roseerectly above his forehead. As he entered,

(35:39):
the other soldiers in the room roseto their feet. That is,
Maytak, one of the king's sons, Zanilla, whispered to the girl.
The prince was crossing the room towardthe audience chamber when his glance happened to
fall upon Bertha Kircher. He haltedin his tracks and stood looking at her

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for a full minute without speaking.The girl, embarrassed by his bold stare
and her scant attire, flushed,and, dropping her gaze to the floor,
turned away. Maytok suddenly commenced totremble from head to foot, and
then, without warning, other thana loud, hoarse scream, he sprang
forward and seized the girl in hisarms. Instantly, pandemonium ensued. The

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two messengers, who had been chargedwith the duty of conducting the girl to
the king's presence, danced shrieking aboutthe prince, waving their arms and gesticulating
wildly, as though they would forcehim to relinquish her the while they dared
not lay hands upon royalty. Theother guardsmen, as though suffering in sympathy
the madness of their prince, ranforward, screaming and brandishing their sabers.

(36:50):
The girl fought to release herself fromthe horrid embrace of the maniac, but
with his left arm about her,he held her as easily as though she
had been but a babe, whilewith his free hand he drew his saber
and struck viciously at those nearest him. One of the messengers was the first
to feel the keen edge of Maytok'sblade. With a single fierce cut,

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the prince drove through the fellow's collarbone and downward to the center of his
chest. With a shrill shriek thatrose above the screaming of the other guardsmen,
the man dropped to the floor,and as the blood gushed from the
frightful wound, he struggled to riseonce more to his feet, and then
sank back again and died in agreat pool of his own blood. In

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the meantime, Maytok, still clingingdesperately to the girl, had backed toward
the opposite door. At the sightof the blood, two of the guardsmen,
as though suddenly aroused to maniacal frenzy, dropped their sabers to the floor
and fell upon each other with nailsand teeth, while some sought to reach
the prince and some to defend him. In a corner of the room sat

(37:57):
one of the guardsmen, laughing uproariously, And just as Maytok succeeded in
reaching the door and taking the girlthrough, she thought that she saw another
of the men spring upon the corpseof the dead messenger and bury his teeth
in its flesh. During the orgyof madness, Zanilla had kept closely at
the girl's side, but at thedoor of the room, Maytok had seen

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her, and, wheeling suddenly cutviciously at her. Fortunately for Zanilla,
she was half way through the doorat the time, so that Maytok's blade,
but dented itself upon the stone archof the portal, and then Zanilla,
guided doubtless by the wisdom of sixtyyears of similar experiences, fled down
the corridor as fast as her oldand tottering legs would carry her. Maytok,

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once outside the door, returned hissaber to its scabbard, and,
lifting the girl bodily from the ground, carried her off in the opposite direction
from that taken by Zanilla. Endof chapter nine teen The Queen's Story recording by Pamelakrantz