A Princess of Metharr

Author: Kirk Straughen

Synopsis: Possessed of strange powers, Antonio Adria is accused of witchcraft and is tortured by the Inquisition. Freeing his mind from the terrible torment of his body, he escapes to another planet. Though having fled his earthly tormentors he is far from safe, for he must now battle for survival upon a hostile world as he attempts to save a beautiful girl from bestial savages, monsters and the lust of a debased tyrant.

Edit History: Minor changes were made to this story on 1 August 2021.

Preface

In this alternative reality the Cosmos exists due to the Anamis – a force akin to the laws of nature as we know them. The Anamis permeates and imposes order on the Materia Prima - the foundation of the physical world, and gives this substance the potentiality to evolve into organic and inorganic forms. The Materia Prima itself is a manifestation of the Anamis, just as diamond may be said to be a manifestation of carbon.

In non-living matter the Anamis exists in low concentrations, for inorganic forms are less evolved than organic entities. In vegetation the Anamis exists in slightly higher concentrations, for plants are more complex than the soil from which they spring. In animals the Anamis is stronger still, and in conscious beings such as Man it is at its greatest strength and forms the mind.

In very rare cases some individuals possess an extreme concentration of the Anamis, so much so that their minds can overcome the limitations of the body and exist independently from it.

Chapter 1: The World beyond the World

The prisoner lay huddled on the soiled and stinking straw of his cell. A piercing shriek rent the air and Antonio Adria shuddered at the thought of the horrid torments being inflicted upon the accused witch by her merciless and fanatical inquisitors.

Her screams seemed to continue for an eternity, but at last the pitiful cries died away, and in the dreadful silence that followed he heard the heavy tramp of the torturers boots as they marched towards his dingy prison. Fear knifed Adria. They were coming for him. His life flashed before his eyes – from childhood memories to the grim reality of his present situation.

His strangeness had betrayed him - a strangeness that had begun with dreams when he was thirteen. That first night he had soared like a bird above the landscape of his native Italy, marveling at the panoramic view of the moonlit Tuscan countryside. Wonderful dreams -dreams that brought the freedom of a bird, dreams that brought relief from the staid existence and hard toil of a peasant lad.

But only dreams, or so he’d thought until one fateful night when he’d glimpsed a neighbor’s hut aflame, burning brightly against the darkness of the night, and in the morning discovered that what he’d seen was grim reality and not the product of his slumbering brain.

The realization he possessed amazing powers was truly terrifying to him – Europe was firmly in the grip of witch-craze madness. The Devil and all his agents were as real as the pope, and thousands had been cruelly killed as a result of this delusion. Fear and naked superstition reigned supreme. If anyone should suspect he was a warlock…

Young Antonio shuddered at the thought. Then a greater fear assailed him. Was he doomed to Hell? The thought, for a Christian in that age, was truly terrifying. That night he prayed to God and tried to stay awake so his demonic powers would not manifest. But in the end sleep stole upon him despite his efforts, and he found himself floating above the squalid hut that was his parent’s home.

Wild terror came upon him like a pouncing lion. His fervent prayers had gone unanswered. He looked up with bodiless eyes and beheld the twinkling heavens where, according to the dogma of the Church, dwelt God and all his angels.

The youth was desperate – the threat of damnation and all its torments were foremost in his troubled mind. Perhaps if he laid his supplication before the very throne of God as one might before an earthly king… It was a naïve thought born of an unsophisticated age but also, in a way, audacious.

His disembodied mind soared on wings of thought. The Earth fell away beneath him. It shrunk to a child’s ball. The moon grew large and he marveled at its barren and pockmarked surface. The blackness of space enfolded his rushing consciousness. He was above the solar system, looking down upon its circling worlds which he perceived with a clarity unmatched by material senses.

But where were the angles that carried the celestial spheres, and why was the sun and not the Earth in the centre of this system of worlds? Where was God? Only a vast emptiness surrounded him - an emptiness in which cold stars blazed in uncaring glory. He was utterly alone.

Doubt came upon him – doubt of all the things the Church claimed were true, of all the comforting things he held most dear. He fought it with denial. But the facts cannot be denied to an enquiring mind, and he was a precocious child. The truth pressed upon him with the weight of mountains, frightening in all its implications.

He hovered in the darkness of space wrestling with his heretical thoughts for what seemed an age. Finally, his distant earthbound body, stirring under the influence of the dawn, swiftly drew his wayward mind back into itself. He awoke to a world that would never be the same again …

The crashing open of the cell door brutally brought the prisoner back to the present. Adria tensed as the torturers entered his grimy chamber. He rose unsteadily to his feet as they approached and tried to hide the terror that raked him with savage claws. A wild tableau of memories streaked across his mind.

The plague had struck his village. The Black Death had carried off his parents and many others. Fingers had been pointed at him. Accusations of witchcraft had quickly followed. Adria’s appearance was odd – a large hooked nose, eyes that bulged like fish, a thin stick of a body.

Mentally, too, he was singular. Now eighteen, his years of astral travel across the globe had broadened his outlook. He had seen the wonders of India and the glories of imperial China. He had sat invisibly at the feet of professors as they lectured in the Universities of Europe, and by the side of sages in the East (he could perceive their thoughts and language was no barrier to him in his disembodied state), and now he possessed knowledge far beyond what would be expected of a simple peasant’s son. He was an easy target for the superstitious rustics he lived among. To be different can be a dangerous thing in any age.

The mob came for him in the dark of night. Adria awoke with a start to the flare of torches and the angry mutter of the ignorant rabble. He jerked up from his pallet. The door crashed down. Men burst in, their coarse faces stained with fear and hate. They rushed him. Adria hurled a stool. A peasant thudded to the ground. The others leapt upon him. A rain of brutal blows knocked him senseless...

Again, the present thrust itself upon him: The torturers – hulking shadow shrouded figures of silent menace – seized him roughly. He was dragged from the cell. There was no point in resisting. His gaunt body was as helpless as a child’s in their massive arms. He was carried into the torture chamber and then the nightmare of pain and terror began.

Fiendish instruments wrung hideous screams from him. His merciless inquisitor pressed him with insane questions – who were his fellow witches, where did they gather to perform their unholy Sabbaths? Adria shook his head. He would not name others to stop the agony; he would not condemn innocents to this cruel madness.

“Speak!” cried the mad eyed priest as he thrust his crucifix in Adria’s face. “In Christ’s name speak, oh minion of Satan.”

The prisoner maintained his grim faced silence. He’d ceased to believe in the Church’s theology years ago, and knew it was pointless to try and cure the priest of his delusions. Adira’s will was strong, but his body was weak. He could feel it dying. He struggled to free his mind from its cage of flesh. Before, such liberation had only come with sleep. Now he knew he must actively seek escape. Pain lanced him. He screamed a mindless cry of agony as another turn of the rack tore at his strained limbs.

Suddenly, he was above the rack. He tried to soar, but to his horror felt himself being dragged back down into his dying body, as if his flesh were the anchor of his mind. He fought madly to free himself, like a swimmer struggling to the surface from limitless depths. If he was trapped in his pain wracked frame he knew he’d go insane. Nearer and nearer he was drawn to his earthy shell, closer and closer. He fought like he’d never fought before. Pain struck at him in a whirlwind of searing flame. With a mighty effort he struggled and felt something break – as if an invisible shell of glass had shattered.

His consciousness leapt heavenward. It rushed outward. His only thought was to escape. The death of his parents, the treachery of the villagers and the torture of the inquisition all following so closely upon the heels of his loss, combined to form a scourge of suffering that drove him from the world and all its pain and madness. The solar system disappeared in the blink of an eye. Stars flashed by as his speed mounted to incalculable velocities. Onward he fled, fuelled by the horror of his terrible experiences.

Time lost all meaning. How long he raced shrieking through the void he could not say. Gradually, his mind calmed and the madness left him. With sanity’s return he realized his mindless flight had carried him into cosmic depths. He was lost among a wilderness of stars. Utter and terrible loneliness struck him like a blow. He turned his senses in a circle, looking futilely for the Earth and instead gazed upon unknown constellations. He drifted dejectedly for an age until a star was before him, looming large. It was like a light to a lost soul upon a night dark road. He angled towards it, drawn by its warmth and sun-like appearance.

Five planets orbited the alien star. The third drew his senses – it was blue, like the Earth. Eagerly, he moved towards it. The world swelled before him. Strange seas rolled across its surface. Waves broke against unknown continents shrouded in blue vegetation. White clouds scurried across the face of the globe.

Intrigued, he flashed eagerly into its atmosphere, hungry for the sight of living things after his lonely journey through the cold and lifeless waste of the stellar immensities. Adria descended into blue jungle. Tall trees towered above him to heights of over two hundred feet. Their spear-shaped leaves, sapphire in color with cream veins, hung in heavy masses from arching branches whose scaly bark, like that of the massive trunks, gleamed as if polished bronze.

Beneath the mighty trees was a dense undergrowth of flowering vegetation. Huge blossoms resembling snowflakes broke the shade with their rainbow colors. They glowed like fairy lanterns with a strange bioluminescence.

He saw swarms of creatures floating in the air like clouds of miniature balloons. Their bodies were the size and shape of a large orange, but silver in color and mirror bright. Six nozzle-shaped organs were spaced about the bottom of their spherical bladders, and from these they squirted jets of air to propel themselves. Two proboscis resembling miniature elephant trunks depended from their globular forms, and with these the animals gripped the plants and fed upon the nectar of their blooms.

Adria moved on, eager to explore this strange world. He passed through a dense mass of undergrowth and stopped in amazement at what his senses suddenly perceived. A huge man-like creature crouched in a small glade. The body of the alien savage, at least seven feet in height, was covered in a dense pelt of blue fur patterned in black stripes like that of a tiger. A great spade shaped beard obscured his face and a crest of stiff bristles adorned his head. The beast-man’s fur stood on end, like that of an enraged cat, as he bravely faced his frightful adversary.

The other creature resembled a giant toad that was as nearly as massive as the hairy brute which it confronted. Unlike a toad, though, its body was covered in glossy ebon scales. The thing’s head resembled a crocodile’s, and was full of murderously shark-like teeth. Two small eyes, as red as glowing coals, glared their mindless hate at the savage.

For a moment the strange tableau held; then the toad-thing hissed like a steam whistle and sprang viciously at the beast-man, horrid jaws agape and claws extended for the kill.

The savage leapt aside with a swiftness that belied his size. The monster crashed down where he had been, hissing in frustration and fury that its prey had escaped its swift attack by mere feet.

A roaring battle cry burst from the beast-man’s throat. He swung his spiked club, mighty muscles sending it in a blur of speed to crash against the creature’s scaly head. One eye exploded into spurting fluid. The thing screamed shrilly. It threw its ugly head sideways in a rib cracking blow that sent the beast-man sprawling. The savage, grunting in pain, staggered to his feet. The toad-thing leapt. Its remaining eye was ablaze with maddened fury.

The thing’s frightful jaws crunched upon the savage’s torso. The beast-man howled. Again, he swung his heavy club and smashed the creature’s remaining eye to messy pulp. The thing screamed a brassy cry. The savage fell from its pain gaped jaws.

Adria was in awe of the terrific vitality of the beast-man. Alien blood, as clear as water, spurted form deep wounds in the savage’s chest and back. Yet, still he lived and, to the watching Earthman’s amazed disembodied mind, rather than retreat, the savage hurled himself upon the creature’s back and wrapped his massive arms about its neck in a crushing headlock.

The monster swung up a claw armed foot to rend its hairy adversary. The beast-man saw it coming. He swiftly plunged stiffened fingers deep within its ruined eye. The monster convulsed in agony. It hurled itself forward in a mighty leap to escape the searing pain and crashed against a tree. The violent impact broke the creature’s neck and flung the savage heavily to the ground.

Adria approached both combatants. The monster was clearly dead and the savage nearly so. The beast-man’s eyes were glazed. His pelt was matted with blood and his breath came in ragged gasps. Adria felt admiration and sorrow for the dying savage. Although a brute he had fought his monstrous foe with the courage and tenacity worthy of a knight. The Earthman’s disembodied mind moved closer, wishing he could somehow aid the dying being.

It proved to be a fateful act. In his eagerness Adria had forgotten that the mind is normally imbedded in a body, that it has an affinity for a body. Suddenly, he felt the pull of the beast-man’s corporeity upon his being, and so swift was the powerful attraction that it was as if he had been swallowed up by a churning whirlpool of magnetic force that sucked him down into the dying savage’s frame. The searing pain of the beast-man’s many wounds stabbed him with lancing torment and he uttered a mental shriek of measureless fear and pain.

Chapter 2: A Savage Tribe

Adria struggled desperately to free his mind from the pain wracked body of the alien savage. Unbearable agony attacked him like a wild beast. He screamed again, his astral essence writhing and coiling in twisting strands of psychic energy as it was inexorably drawn through every nerve and cell of the beast-man’s tortured form.

For what seemed like an eternity, but in reality encompassed only seconds, he relived the horrors of the Inquisition’s torture chamber. Then, just as he thought his sanity would crumble under agony’s assault, something extraordinary happened – the savage’s body began to rapidly heal.

Adria’s astral form had absorbed strange and unearthly energies as it had traversed the depths of space, and as his essence was absorbed by the beast-man’s body this force infused the savage with its revitalizing energy. The creature’s form began to glow with a weird aura of pearly light. Gaping wounds closed. Cracked ribs mended. The pain eased and the brute’s body gradually relaxed into restful and healing sleep …

The Earthman slowly regained consciousness. He opened his eyes and stared up at the canopy of trees whose strange appearance puzzled him greatly. Where was he and what had happened to him?

Memory suddenly crashed down upon him. He jerked to a sitting position and raised trembling hands to his disbelieving eyes. The hands he saw were not his hands. They were the meaty hands of a hairy alien savage!

Adria had never been a handsome fellow, but at least he had been human in appearance. His new body, bear-like in size and hairiness was shocking and revolting to him. He staggered up, his mind a confused quagmire of his own thoughts and those of the beast-man whose memories were still imbedded in the brain cells of the body he now inhabited.

Why was he revolted by his appearance? Was he not Kor - Kor the mighty; Kor the fearless of the Ung tribe who had bravely killed the terrible thibbu as part of his initiation to manhood? No … that wasn’t right. He was Adria who had seen Kor kill the thibbu. But who was Adria? It was all so confusing.

Adria shook his head and his body. Acting like a robot guided by Kor’s memories, he retrieved his spiked club, and approached the thibbu’s carcass. A horn much like that of a rhinoceros projected from its ugly snout. Adria/Kor grasped it and with a surge of impressive strength snapped it off as if it was a twig. The beast-man uttered a grunt of satisfaction, shoved his trophy into a large pocket upon the front of his crude leather loincloth and set his feet upon a homeward bound jungle trail.

The human part of Adria’s now composite mind was still too shocked by what had happened to fully take control of the vessel his consciousness now inhabited, and so the savage’s body was impelled by the memories of its former tenant. The beast-man, simple and direct, had set a course for the campground of his nomadic tribe.

Hours rolled by. The beast-man’s body made steady progress. Once, he was attacked by a huge fur-clad snake-like creature. It had dropped on him from above and thrown looping coils about his neck. Adria panicked as bands of iron seemed to crush his throat. He was hauled aloft, kicking wildly and clawing frantically at the constricting coils. His vision edged to fatal darkness. Then the savage’s instincts took control. The club, still secured to his wrist by a thong, swung up and thudded into flesh. The flint spikes dug deep. The beast-man jerked down savagely, tearing the monster open.

The constricting coils relaxed. Adria crashed to the ground. The twitching carcass fell upon him. He fought clear of the writhing beast, staggered away and leaned against a tree, rubbing his bruised neck and gasping air into his tortured body. The near fatal attack was a sobering experience.

With the passing hours he had slowly come to accept his fate. This was now his body and his world. Now he realized more than ever if he was to survive he must accept this fact and try to integrate his mind with Kor’s memories, knowledge and skills. He shuddered at the contemplation of absorbing the savage thoughts that were the beast-man’s violent heritage. He hoped his own personality would not be greatly changed by the process.

Adria, having regained his breath and composure, moved on and with the passing of another hour arrived at the camp of the Ung tribe. The undergrowth had been cleared away and simple shelters had been erected on the bare area of jungle floor. The huts, if the structures could be dignified with such a name, had been constructed by bending cut saplings in arches to form a dome, which was then covered in large oval leaves plucked from the surrounding greenery.

The shelters were arranged in a circle, with a larger version in the centre. Warriors stood about the perimeter of the camp, while in the middle women went about the task of preparing cook fires for the evening meal. Naked hairy children squalled. Others played in the dirt, rolling in it like the beasts they resembled.

Bracing himself mentally, Adria approached the camp, drawing on Kor’s knowledge as his guide. He pulled the bloody horn from his loincloth and waved it before the sentry who challenged him.

“I, Kor the fearless, Kor the mighty have returned from my hunt bearing the proof of my manhood. Look well upon the horn of the fearsome thibbu – the horn I tore from its dead body with my bare hands. Let me pass least I tear you as I tore the thibbu.”

It was with some difficulty that Adria made this speech without bursting into fits of laughter, for it struck him as being extremely ludicrous. Nonetheless, it was the custom of the tribe and he was compelled to go through with the farce.

The warrior grunted. The huge bull was too dull to take note of the slight smile on Adria’s face as he completed the ritual announcement of his success.

“Pass within and present your trophy to mighty Thag, our chief.”

Adria entered the camp, approached the central hut and placed his club on the ground, for none were allowed to approach the chief whilst armed. He then bellowed the announcement of his success to all within earshot. Thag emerged from his hovel. The chieftain had once been a mighty bull even taller than Adira, but now he was no longer in the prime of life. He walked with a slight limp – a permanent injury sustained when his leg had been gored by the tusks of a vath, and his blue pelt was spotted with white, which betrayed his age.

Thag’s beady eyes narrowed as he looked upon Adria/Kor with suspicion. He was old and it wouldn’t be long before some young bull challenged him for the chieftainship of the tribe. Would it be Kor? It seemed likely as he was among the largest and strongest of the Ung. Rage rumbled in Thag’s throat as he took the proffered trophy and completed the initiation ritual by striking Adria between the eyes with the base of the horn.

The blow – a sign that the chief had dominance over the young warriors – was hard, but not so hard as to knock a bull down. Thag, angered by the thought of his position being challenged by this young upstart, delivered the strike with such brutal force that Adria was felled violently to the earth.

Had it stopped there, nothing further would have happened. But Thag’s bellow of amusement engendered by the sight of his rival stretched out in the dirt was too much for the surviving aspect of Kor’s personality to bear.

The Ung are violent beings and easily roused to anger. A surge of wild fury propelled Adria to his feet. He hurled himself at Thag, bellowing a blood crazed challenge. The chieftain roared his contempt. He leapt forward, swinging the horn like a dagger. Both bulls collided. Adria caught Thag’s wrist. The sharp horn halted within inches of his neck.

Both combatants staggered about the camp. Their feet churned dust as they wrestled wildly. Squalling children and frightened females scatted. The warriors, who had been attracted by the fray, now formed a moving circle about the fighters, thumping their clubs upon the ground and howling madly in encouragement.

The two brawlers were chest to chest. Thag’s eyes held a wild fury. He snarled, spraying foul spittle in Adria’s face. The Earthman grunted as he strained mightily against the chieftain. The beast-man may have been old by the standards of his tribe, but nonetheless he possessed amazing strength - a strength amplified by the grim knowledge he must defeat his adversary if he was to retain both leadership and life.

Adria’s limbs began to tremble. He knew he was weakening. Thag’s face split into a triumphant grin. The savage chieftain redoubled his efforts and the Earthman was steadily forced backwards towards a blazing cook fire. Wild fear came upon Adria. He could feel the heat of the flames upon his calves. The circle of warriors roared in delighted expectation of his grisly end.

Desperation gifted the Earthman with a plan. Remembering wrestlers he’d seen performing at a summer fair, he quickly pivoted upon his heel, and twisted his whole body in an arc. The sudden move caught Thag completely by surprise. The maneuver overbalanced the beast-man, and Adria used his foe’s momentum to hurl him into the leaping flames.

Thag screamed sickeningly as the tongues of fire engulfed him. Pelt alight, the chieftain staggered up, a living howling torch. The warriors backed away as he stumbled towards them, fearful that they would also catch on fire. The sickened Earthman darted forward, snatched a club from a startled bull and brought it swiftly down upon the chieftain’s head. There was a solid crack of shattering bone and Thag collapsed into the arms of merciful death.

Adria looked at the burning corpse, revolted by what he’d had to do. He quickly pulled himself together. No Beast-man would feel pity for a fallen foe. Any sign of sorrow would be interpreted as weakness and all the warriors would turn on him like a pack of savage wolves. No, he couldn’t fight an entire tribe single handed.

The Earthman let Kor’s passions take possession of him. He glared ferociously at the surrounding bulls who gazed in wary expectation at the killer.

“I, Kor, am chief.” He roared. “Who dares challenge me? Let him step forward now so I may bash his brains out as I bashed out the brains of Thag.”

The warriors hooted their approval. Each bull struck himself between the eyes with the butt of his club as proof of his submission to the new ruler of the tribe. Adria growled his acknowledgement of their acceptance and after Thag’s corpse was dumped unceremoniously some distance from the camp, things returned to normal fairly quickly. There was no mourning for the fallen chief. Only the strong held the respect of the tribe.

Adria contemplated this fact as he squatted in front of Thag’s hut, now his possession by right of conquest, as was its meager contents. Although outwardly calm, the Earthman’s mind was in a state of troubled ferment. He had Kor’s memories but he wasn’t Kor, and he wondered how long he could stand living with these violent creatures.

Being a peasant had been bad enough. This savagery was even worse. But what could he do? He was trapped in this body and could only permanently free his mind when it was near death. But even if he was free again what would he do? The loneliness of interstellar space held no appeal for him, and these beings seemed to be the highest form of life upon this world.

The only consolation, albeit slight, was that he was now relatively clean – Thag’s two wives had picked the parasites and dried blood from his pelt, cracking the latter between their teeth. He shuddered at the memory of the bestial hags ministrations.

A sudden disturbance interrupted Adria’s melancholy musings. He turned his head and drew in a sharp breath. His eyes widened in alarm and he jerked erect as two warriors dragged a young woman from a nearby hut. The bulls approached him, carrying the bound but struggling girl between them.

Her cries of fear were like a magnet that quickly drew the other beast-men. They gathered in an expectant crowd before Adria as the girl was dropped at his feet. The Earthman’s eyes were fixed on the young woman in utter amazement. Her beauty was a stark contrast to the hideousness of the hairy brutes that formed a savage crescent behind her.

Her head was covered with feathery growths dark amber in color, while her smooth hairless skin was a paler shade of honey. She was clad in a delicate gauzy robe of carnelian that was soiled and torn revealing generous portions of her slender form.

Adria looked into the girl’s auburn eyes and saw stark fear and loathing in them. Her finely woven clothing was proof that she was from a more advanced culture than the beast-men, but there was nothing in Kor’s memory of the captive or her kind, and he surmised she had been taken prisoner during his absence from the camp. Who was she and where was she from? He didn’t know. But one thing he did know and it filled him with wild fear as Kor’s savage memories came upon him – the Ung were cannibals and they expected him to butcher her like a beast and share the meat with the tribe.

Chapter 3: Cannibal Passions

Adria’s worried gaze flicked from the terrified girl to the expectant tribesman. They were eagerly waiting for him to tear her throat out with his teeth. Already, he could see the tide of bloodlust rising in their bestial forms. Some drooled in anticipation of the feeding frenzy about to come upon them. Others impatiently stomped their feet and stared with hungry eyes at the nubile figure of the girl. Still more licked their slobbering lips in expectation of the gory feast to come.

Kor’s wild passions rose up. They seized Adria. His mind was swamped with a foul flood of debased memories – the screams of captives from other tribes as they were torn limb from limb by the savage hoard. The scent of freshly spilled blood, and then the odor of the roasting meat and its uncanny taste also came upon him.

The Earthman’s mind recoiled in utter horror. Kor seized the girl. His shaggy head bent low. His teeth fastened on her pulsing throat. She screamed as the beast-man’s powerful jaws began to bite.

Adria fought desperately to stop the brute’s primal instincts. The world vanished. He was plunged into the darkness of an internal struggle. All about him he sensed the beast-man’s raging presence. He coiled his mind about it. Kor’s body went rigid. It quivered with the strain of mighty and conflicting urges. The brute’s personality, fully enraged, thrust savagely against the Earthman’s resisting impulses.

Adria’s mind was hurled back. Kor’s jaws tightened. Again, the girl shrilly screamed and struggled madly in her bonds. Her wild terror was a burning spur to the Earthman, who sensed her fear. He rallied his strength and flung coils of psychic force about the essence of his brutish foe in a savage struggle for domination of the beast-man’s body. The girl was too human, too beautiful to die such a horrid death. He had to save her.

The two personalities fought with the ferocity of raging bulls as the tribesmen looked on in puzzlement at the trembling body of their chief. Then their confusion quickly turned to flaming rage. Enough delay – they hungered for the tender flesh of the hairless female. As one, the savage bulls snatched up the clubs they had laid aside in the presence of their chief and advanced, growling menacingly.

Adria felt Kor’s resistance give a little. With a silent cry, he thrust wildly against his foe’s mental essence, straining mightily like a man struggling to push a heavy weight uphill. Suddenly, it was if a dam had burst – his mind flooded over Kor’s, drowning it with the vitality of his own triumphant will. His jaws loosened their hold upon the girl’s throat, and he sank exhausted upon her trembling form, pinning her with his massive hairy weight.

Savage growls penetrated Adria’s awareness, alerting him to another danger. He jerked erect, clutching the girl to his chest. The whole tribe confronted him, fury written in every line of their brutal and hairy countenances. The bulls raised their clubs. They charged, bloodcurdling roars erupting from their throats.

Adria turned and fled. It was the only thing he could do to save the girl. He tore through the undergrowth like a rocket propelled bulldozer. Behind him he heard the enraged cries of the savage hoard. They were hot upon his trail. His mind shied away from the thought of what would happen if he failed to escape them.

He redoubled his efforts. Fear for the girl was like a lash across his back. He exerted himself to the utmost and pulled ahead. The wild shouts faded, but then he began to tire as the toll of the mental battle began to take effect. The girl’s weight, although slight when compared to his mighty strength, nonetheless dragged upon his pounding feet.

The Earthman cursed – the sound of the mob was drawing nearer. He glanced quickly at the girl. She lay trembling in his arms, but a look of terror was still upon her face.

She probably thinks I’ve run off with her so I don’t have to share her with the tribe, he glumly thought. No doubt my pursuers think the same.

Adria cursed. The noise of the foe was even closer. He knew in but moments the savage warriors would be upon him and that he couldn’t fight them all. His mind raced to form a desperate plan. A bush loomed to his right. It inspired him. He tossed the girl within its feathery leaves. She uttered a single startled cry, the disappeared from sight as the springy shrub closed over her.

The Earthman veered sharply to his left. Hopefully, the girl would remain quiet and the beast-men, in their fury, wouldn’t notice her and continue to hunt him instead. Adria ignored his aching limbs and hurled his body forward. His breathing came in ragged gasps and he knew he couldn’t maintain his frenetic pace much longer. He probed Kor’s memories, hoping to find a way to save himself.

Knowledge flashed to the surface of his mind. There was a nearby lake whose waters were shunned by the tribe – all he had to do was reach it. He altered his pelting flight and redoubled his exertions, the rising cries of the brutal foe fuelling his pumping arms and legs. The jungle flashed by in a blur of whipping foliage as he thrust his body through the endless growth. Then, just as he thought he could go no further, he burst upon the lake and hurled his body in a plunging dive beneath its inky water.

Cold darkness closed over Adria as he sank to the bottom. Tall reedy growths were all about him. Quickly, he broke one off and placed it between his lips, then lay on his back and gripped other reeds to prevent his body from floating to the surface. The Earthman had no illusions about his situation. His chest heaved as he drew air into his starving lungs through the hollow reed, and the whistling noise he was sure he was making would be a dead giveaway to the furious foe.

His fate and that of the girl hung by a thread; he must keep still and slow his labored breathing. Despite his efforts he gasped as the pounding tread of his rushing enemies, strangely distorted, came to him through the water. Looking up, he saw the wan afternoon sunlight from the surface world dimmed further by crowding bodies milling about in confusion at his sudden disappearance.

Muffled voices, discernibly strident with anger, filtered down to his sensitive ears. Hopefully, they’d think he’d plunged into the lake, carrying the girl with him and either drowned her and himself, or swum across to the other side. The beast-men were dull brutes and, given the lake’s taboo nature, he doubted that they’d even think he was hiding beneath its placid surface.

But why was the lake taboo? The unpleasant answer came to him. It began with a slow itch at first – as if tiny insects with prickly feet were crawling over every square inch of his skin. Adria gritted his teeth. Moving shadows on the surface told him his foes were still nearby. The irritation rose to the sharpness of plunging needles. He wanted to scream, to madly thrash about. He clamped down on his rebellious body with an iron will. Any sudden movement on his part would betray him to his vicious enemies.

Time passed in an agony of frozen stillness. It was even more terrible than the fiendish tortures of the Inquisition. He couldn’t flinch, he couldn’t scream. He couldn’t do anything that would reveal his presence. Would the stupid brutes never move away? Pain washed over him in endless waves of burning agony and he began to fear for his sanity.

Brightness shone through the haze of endless pain. It impinged upon his mind and he noticed the surface was free of shadows. Adria crushed his goading desire to move. He must wait. They might still be nearby. The intensity of his torment grew with every passing second. It built up inside him like the pressure of a volcano and reached a howling crescendo.

Adria burst explosively from the lake, barely stifling a scream of agony as he looked wildly about. He was alone. He fought the urge to leap from the water. Any tracks he made exiting the lake would be a sure sign to the savages that he still lived. The Earthman’s desperate searching gaze fell upon a wrist thick vine that hung near the surface of the water. He waded to the liana, gripped it and began his painful ascent to the jungle canopy.

The agonizing climb taxed his strength and endurance to the limit, but at last he reached the crotch of the mighty tree and weakly hauled his aching body into the safety of the cupping branches. Here he collapsed, closed his eyes and sank into blissful unconsciousness within the passing of a minute.

**********

Adria awoke. It was early morning and he jerked up with alarm. He’d never intended to fall asleep, but the toll of his exertions had so fatigued him that slumber had been impossible to resist. Thoughts of the girl leapt to his mind. She had spent the entire night bound and helpless in the wild jungle. Fear rushed through the Earthman. Was she alive, or had the beast-men or some other equally savage predator found her?

His hand darted out and seized another vine in preparation for a hurried descent. A second shock struck him and he gasped. His arm was hairless and the exposed skin was navy blue in color like his palms. He quickly looked at his body, and then felt his face and head. Except for eyebrows and eyelashes, the thick pelt that had covered him was completely gone. The water of the lake, no doubt infused with some naturally occurring chemical, had acted as a powerful depilatory which, he was to discover, had permanently removed his hair.

The Earthman grinned. It was a tremendous relief to be free of his bestial fur and its accompanying hoard of biting parasites. Then he sobered. The girl’s safety was far more important than his appearance. Spurred by this thought, Adria quickly made his decent via another dangling liana, and alighted on the loamy soil several yards from the shore of the lake.

Using Kor’s tracking skills he rapidly retraced his path, keen ears alert for any sound that the savages were still searching for him. But of the foe he saw no sign and was much relieved. It seemed they had given up their fruitless search, stymied by their prey’s mysterious disappearance.

Confident the beast-men were no longer an immediate threat; Adria increased his pace and shortly came upon the shrub into which he had cast the girl. He eagerly approached the bush, heart beating with strange excitement at the thought of seeing her again.

Would she recognize him in his hairless state? He remembered with vivid clarity the look of fear and loathing that had marred her lovely features as she had looked in horror upon his bestial form. He desperately hoped she would mistake him for an entirely different being.

Adria parted the bush in hasty expectation, but of the girl there was no sign. Terror wrapped itself around the Earthman’s heart. He frantically tore the shrub apart, searching desperately, his mind besieged by wild imaginings. In but moments the bush had been reduced to a mangled heap. The man stood over it, trembling and breathing hard with mangled shrubbery clenched in his huge hands as if it was the throat of an enemy.

The Earthman managed to reign in his stampeding thoughts, for the spark of reason which was left to him saw that only a careful search would reveal what had happened to the girl. A calmer investigation soon rewarded him with the finding of her loosened bonds, which indicated she had managed to free herself.

Hope rose in Adria. He circled the bush and quickly discovered her tracks. Relief swept over him. The girl was alive, and her footprints led away from the beast-men’s camp. The Earthman quickly set out upon her trail whose freshness suggested she had perhaps an hour’s lead upon him. He increased his pace; pushing through the dense undergrowth as rapidly as he was able in the hope he could overtake the fleeing girl, for he knew the jungle was the haunt of many fearsome beasts.

His darkest fears were realized within the passing of about half an hour – a woman’s scream, sharp with terror burst upon his ears. Adria thrust his body through the hindering verdure with a burst of frantic speed and came upon a nightmare scene that chilled him to the core.

Chapter 4: Lilalla of Noor

The slavering nex was a delirium of horror manifest in ugly flesh. The thing, which resembled a twenty foot millipede in general shape and color, had caught the girl completely by surprise when it darted forth from its burrow, whose entrance was concealed by a camouflaged trapdoor of silk.

Its vile, frightening tongue - nearly as long as its body and resembling the arm of a monster squid - had shot out and coiled about the girl’s shapely legs. She had managed to save herself by clutching fast to a root as she was being dragged along the ground, but Adria could see her grip was weakening under the relentless tug of the awful tongue, and that in but seconds the nex would jerk her into its vicious shark-like jaws.

Adria, without breaking stride, had taken in the dreadful situation at a glance. He dashed towards the girl in a desperate bid to save her. Then to his horror he saw her lose her grip upon the root. She shrieked in utter terror as she was dragged towards the gaping maw of the horrid beast. Her wild cries lashed the sprinting Earthman. In a burst of speed he hurled himself upon the monster’s tongue. Adria’s massive hands wrapped around its sticky girth in a savage grip, and his heels dug into the earth as he commenced a desperate tug-o’-war with the fiendish beast.

Man and monster pitted their strength against each other. The girl sensed that her forward movement had been arrested. She gasped in amazement when her gaze fell upon her unknown savior. His massive muscles bulged beneath his skin. His veins and tendons stood out like steel cables as he swore in livid Italian. Hope rose in her breast for the unknown giant was the strongest man she had ever seen.

The nex vented a savage hiss of rage. It started backing into its burrow, using all the power of its many legs to fight its equally savage opponent. Adria cursed. His heels began to dig furrows in the earth. The girl’s heart sank. The man was strong, but the creature was stronger. They were being dragged slowly but relentlessly towards the foul lair of the hideous monster.

The creature’s yellow eyes dilated in expectation of the coming feast. Nearer and nearer it dragged them; closer and closer. Its ugly pointed head disappeared within its burrow. Adria straddled the yard wide entrance. He braced his legs. They trembled with the mighty strain as did his arms. The girl’s wild cries of panic spurred him to the utmost of frantic exertion. He heaved mightily.

A hiss of surprise and rage exploded from the monster as it was dragged forward several inches. Its second tongue lashed out and darted at the Earthman. He jerked his head aside. The tongue missed. It drew back and swayed like a nightmare cobra near his face. But before it could strike again Adria’s head darted forward. He clamped his powerful jaws upon the thing and drove his teeth into the foul rubbery flesh, ripping and tearing at it like a wild beast.

The monster screamed as Adria tore a chunk of living flesh from its tongue. Both members convulsed like electrocuted serpents, violently flinging man and girl to the earth. The tongues lashed about like crazed whips. Adria spat out the horrid lump of meat and threw himself upon the girl to protect her from the wild blows. One struck his back. He gasped in agony. Another pounded his head and his mind reeled into darkness.

*********

Adria opened his eyes, groaned and touched his aching head. For a moment he lay in a daze, his confused mind trying to make sense of his situation. Then he jerked up, remembering his frantic battle with the nex. The sudden movement sent pain shooting through his bruised and battered body. He cursed, looked quickly about and discovered he had been dragged a considerable distance from the monster’s lair.

The unconscious girl lay next to him. A quick examination settled Adria’s fear that she was badly injured, and he guessed that she had fainted from the effort of dragging his massive body through the tangled undergrowth. The Earthman’s heart went out to the girl. She looked so small and vulnerable. Powerful emotions surged through him. He wanted to take her in his arms, to comfort and protect her from the dangers of this hostile world.

He reached out and gently touched her delicate features. The girl stirred. She opened her eyes, gasped and drew away from him, alarmed. The girl’s sudden movement caused her tattered robe to slip, exposing one firm and youthful breast. She uttered a soft feminine cry, pulled the garment back in place and retreated further from him.

Adria’s heart sank. For a moment he had forgotten that his mind was trapped in the body of a beast. How must he look to this slip of a girl whom he towered head and shoulders above? A huge brute of a creature, massively muscled; a graceless and violent savage. His eyes met those of the girl. Hers were wide with apprehension. Her breathing was rapid with fear. She clutched the front of her robe protectively, and her body trembled like that of a fawn about to take flight.

The Earthman realized the situation was on a knife edge. After the terrors she’d experienced the girl was likely to bolt at the slightest sign of danger. He sat quietly, refraining from all sudden movement that might startle her. The last thing he wanted was to do anything that would convince her he was a dangerous enemy.

He smiled and she slowly calmed in response to this sign of friendliness. Confident that he was making progress, Adria plucked two fruits from a nearby bush. He bit into one and offered the other to the girl. She approached hesitantly as he ate and took the proffered viand, looking at it uncertainly. It was shaped like a banana, except that it was straight rather than curved and its edible skin was red in color. The taste of the white flesh was like that of spiced honey.

Poor thing, he thought as she cautiously bit into it. You have no idea how to survive in this wilderness. He wondered about her origins and how she came to be lost in this savage land. Obviously, the only way he could gain answers to these and other questions was to learn her language.

“Antonio,” said Adria as he touched his chest and then pointed at his companion.

The girl looked puzzled for a moment, and then she smiled in comprehension and touched herself.

“Lilalla,” she responded. Adria grinned. It was a beginning.

**********

Days passed into weeks, and weeks into an entire month whose end found the couple standing upon the jungle’s edge, and gazing across an expanse of a glimmering sea. Adria reviewed their situation as his eyes scanned the rolling waves before him. So far they had managed to avoid the roving bands of savages and other monsters of this brutal wilderness. But he knew their luck couldn’t last forever. It was this knowledge that had brought him to the shore.

From Kor’s memory he knew there were islands near the coast and that the beast-men, lacking knowledge of swimming and the construction of rafts, would not be upon them. His sweeping gaze soon picked out a landmass several leagues away – it was an isle of considerable size, one he judged large enough to contain sufficient game and edible plants to insure their survival.

He turned to Lilalla who stood beside him. He was now reasonably fluent in Noor, her mother tongue, and knew many basic facts about this world, Metharr. But he still knew frustratingly little about her, and felt it was due to reticence on the girl’s part rather than his ignorance of her language.

What she had told him was very basic - that she had hastily fled Noor, which was also the name of her native city on a dwarf kovun - some kind of flying animal, or so her description indicated. She had flown for many hours, driving the beast mercilessly, but eventually had been forced to land in a jungle glade to rest her failing mount. But no sooner had the kovun set down than a savage predator had attacked the hapless creature and devoured it, thus leaving her stranded in the primitive wilds of this savage land.

His imagination reconstructed the scene: The weird winged creature resting quietly in the shade of towering trees; the girl admiring the strange beauty of the jungle flowers as she stretched her graceful figure. Then, without warning, the piercing howl of the terrible yez broke upon her ears as it hurled itself in a wild leap from the undergrowth’s concealment.

The scaled cat-like thing, fully thirty feet from fearsome head to lashing tail, pounced savagely upon her flying mount. The kovun screamed shrilly as the monster’s claws and teeth buried themselves within its flesh. Lilalla cried in alarm. Both creatures thrashed about. Gore spurted in bloody fountains. The girl leapt aside, barely escaping being crushed by the madly writhing beasts.

Lilalla stumbled away from the terrible scene. The frightened girl cast a brief glance behind her and saw the yez tear the kovun’s throat out. The thing’s baneful eyes fixed their cold emerald gaze upon her. It opened its blood drenched teeth laden jaws, and roared a challenge with the force of an erupting volcano. She fled in blind terror and had run virtually straight into the arms of an Ung hunting party.

Adria shook his head in puzzlement. Why had she fled the safety of civilization? Why had she knowingly risked the unknown terrors of the jungle? Lilalla was strangely evasive on this subject as well as the life she had led in Noor. He shrugged his shoulders. If she didn’t want to tell him there was nothing he could do to make her. Besides, there were more pressing matters to think about – namely, the construction of a raft that would take them away from this horrid land.

He glanced sideways at the girl and was stirred by powerful emotions at the sight of her beauty. He realized he was desperately in love with her. It was both exhilarating and confusing. The village chits had shunned him because of his ugliness, even though they were no great beauties themselves, so he knew little of women or their ways. How did she truly feel about him? Should he obey the urgings of Kor’s memory and drag her into the bushes? He cursed his ignorance and inexperience.

Lilalla was beautiful, intelligent and cultured. She had quickly mastered the jungle craft he had taught her and proved to be a bright and sturdy companion once the trauma of her ordeals had passed. How could he not help but fall in love with her? But under different circumstances he doubted if she would have had anything to do with him. Mind you, he had caught her gazing surreptitiously at him many times, and on one occasion intently from concealment when he had been bathing in a stream. Diplomatically, he had pretended not to notice her.

Perhaps she had similar feelings for him as he had for her. It was hard to say, for their present circumstances dictated they concentrate all their efforts on survival rather than romance. But even if she was falling in love with him what would happen if she discovered he was simply a hairless beast-man, something higher than an animal, but lower than a human being? She had, of course, questioned him concerning his origins and he had explained that he was from a distant tribe, had become lost, and couldn’t find his way home.

It wasn’t a complete lie, but wasn’t the entire truth either. Adria realized he should have told Lilalla everything, but the memory of her revulsion of the beast-men, evident in her description of them as vile animals that should be exterminated, had stilled his tongue every time he had tried to tell her. The poignant thought of unrequited love, engendered by these disturbing ruminations, suddenly pierced him through with such intense agony that he thought he was going to die.

He grew weak. His knees trembled, and he nearly collapsed. Only by a tremendous effort of will was he able to retain his outward illusion of calm and stifle his raging emotions that threatened to cause unmanly tears. What was needed now was sensible action that would solve their immediate problems. He turned to the girl and was relieved to see she had not noticed his embarrassing moment of tremendous inner turmoil.

“We can gather fallen branches,” he explained to Lilalla, thankful that his voice was steady. “And then bind them together with vines. It will be crude workmanship, but hopefully the raft will prove strong enough to carry us. Are you prepared to risk the venture?”

She smiled at him and he experienced a moment of heady delight as he basked in the beauty of her warm gaze.

“It can’t be more dangerous than the threats we’ve already faced,” she replied enthusiastically. “Let’s get to work at once, for I am eager to leave this hostile shore.”

Within an hour the couple had gathered sufficient branches and vines to build a primitive raft, and had carried armfuls of the material to the water’s edge where they planned to assemble their crude vessel so that it could be easily launched upon the waves.

Adria gazed in satisfaction at the pile of timber, for his plan was coming together nicely. There was ample to construct a raft large enough for both of them, and the vines Lilalla had found combined the ideal characteristics of suppleness and strength.

“We’ll lay out the branches first,” he explained to the girl. “And then …” But before he could continue a strange shadow fell across him with startling suddenness. The man looked up and gasped in sudden fear at what his startled eyes beheld.

Chapter 5: Death in the Sky

The creature was a kovun – a flying monster of tremendous size, not the dwarf version that had borne Lilalla from her city. The eel-like body was at least two hundred and fifty feet in length, and thirty in diameter at its widest girth. Three pairs of huge wings, much like those of a bat, were spaced evenly along each side of its body. The conical head was split from side to side by a great gash of a mouth. The beast had four primary compound eyes – one positioned on top of its bullet head, one underneath and one on either side. Four other smaller oculars were arranged in a similar manner around the junction of its vertical fan-like tail.

The Earthman was struck by the kovun’s ethereal appearance despite its size. The skin was translucent china white and, as the sun shone through it for a moment when it banked, Adria glimpsed thin skeletal ribs and ghost-like internal organs, particularly the large internal hydrogen filled bladder running along its length. But perhaps the most amazing thing of all was the sight of a wicker gondola strapped just behind the creature’s lower jaw, and its peering occupants who gazed intently down upon them.

Lilalla uttered a low cry of fear. She grabbed Adria’s arm, jerking it.

“Run,” she cried.

Adria didn’t stop to question the girl. Both sprinted side by side for the cover of the jungle. From the edge of vision the Earthman glimpsed the monster dive. The thing was falling on them like a bomb. Its wings were a flapping madly as it hurled itself towards the ground like a diving falcon.

The kovun leveled off. It swept low across the beach to intercept its prey. Man and girl increased their frantic pace. The jungle was but yards away. Then the shadow of the monster, huge with terrifying nearness, fell upon them. A white rubbery cable dropped from beneath the gondola. Adria cried a frantic warning. Too late – the cable whipped around Lilalla’s waist and hauled the screaming girl aloft.

The Earthman leapt. His powerful legs sent him shooting up like a rocket and he managed to grab hold of the cable, but only just. Prickling terror came upon Adria as the ground dropped away beneath his feet with alarming rapidity. He hung precariously by a single hand. The terrified girl hugged him with a strength born of untamed fear, hampering his attempt to secure a better grip. He stifled a curse and managed to grab the cable with both hands as the wind of their rapid ascent whistled in his ears.

He looked at Lilalla. The girl’s eyes were wide and her features pale. He could feel the wild thudding of her heart. She was speechless with the dread of heights. Looking up Adria saw that the cable depended through a hatch in the base of the gondola. The fleshy hawser hauling them aloft was a ropy limb of the strange beast.

Their ascent slowed as they neared the hatch. Hostile faces ringed it and he glimpsed the glint of swords in the shadowed interior. The situation was desperate.

“Lilalla, when we enter release me so I can fight.”

The girl looked at him. The swell of his powerful muscles gave her the ghost of hope. She nodded, and then kissed him with the fervor of the condemned savoring their last moment of life.

Kor’s fighting fury rose within the Earthman, and for the first time he allowed it unbridled reign to protect the woman he loved and who, by the passion of her lips, made it known she returned his desire in equal measure. Then they were within the gondola. The girl released her hold and he exploded into untamable violence.

Adria leapt at one man. A sweep of his mighty arm brushed aside the stabbing sword. He thudded against his adversary like a battering ram, oblivious to the gash the keen blade had inflicted upon his limb. The warrior crashed to the deck. The Earthman rolled so his opponent was on top of him. The hapless fellow screamed as the sword thrust meant for Adria stabbed him instead.

The Earthman was upon his feet in an instant. He roared his savage war cry and hurled the warrior’s corpse at his second assailant. The body struck his opponent squarely, and the man tumbled through the hatch, screaming pitifully as he plunged to his death.

Another snarling warrior leapt at Adria, sword swinging in a beheading stroke. Lilalla screamed a warning. The Earthman ducked the whirling blade, spun about and drove his fist into the man’s ribs with all the force of a striking sledgehammer. Bones broke like snapping twigs. The warrior collapsed, howling shrilly.

The Earthman raked the remaining foe with eyes wild with berserker fury. The surviving warriors recoiled. The giant was clearly possessed by raging blood lust. Adria snarled like a rabid wolf. He advanced upon them, his hands balled to fists the size and hardness of a mace head. The only thought swirling through his mind was the crimson rage of murder-madness.

Utis, commander of the living airship lashed his men with violent words as his knuckles whitened on his sword.

“Attack, you cowards,” he screamed. “I’ll kill the next man who takes a backward step!”

As one the warriors leapt at Adria with the desperate ferocity of cornered beasts. The Earthman quickly squatted, and then dove forward beneath their thrusting swords, massive arms extended like the horns of an enraged stag. His powerful thighs drove him against the foe with the force of a charging bull.

Utis watched in disbelief as his men crashed to the floor in a stunned and disorganized heap. In an instant the giant’s huge hands were twisting heads and snapping necks as if his warriors were merely dolls. The commander’s throat went dry as the savage’s wild gaze locked upon him. He knew with frightening certainty that in but seconds he’d join his men in the eternal darkness of Death’s grim abode.

Desperation gifted Utis with a plan. He dashed to the lever that closed the gondola’s hatch and jerked it down. Adria saw him leap towards the girl. He tensed to spring, but too late – the cunning commander had landed on the closed hatch and pressed his sword to Lilalla’s soft throat.

“Stop,” roared Utis. “Stop or I’ll kill princess Lilalla.”

Adria hesitated; shocked by the revelation of her station and the blade against her throat, but Kor’s fighting rage urged him onward regardless of the threat. He took a step forward. Lilalla gasped as keen steel inflicted a shallow cut upon her neck. Adria froze, wrestling with his wild emotions. He roared savagely at Utis and the commander, despite his advantage, flinched as the giant’s thunderous cries reverberated in the confines of the cabin. The girl watched tensely. Although afraid, she had no intention of asking the Earthman to surrender. Death was preferable to the fate she knew awaited her.

Slowly, Adria took control of his savage urges. He stood breathing hard and glaring at Utis. The commander relaxed a little as he saw the raging anger gradually fade from the Earthman’s face and body.

“That’s better,” said Utis as with one hand he unwound two black cables that circled his waist and threw them at Adria’s feet. “Wind one of the skur about both ankles and the other around your wrists. Be quick about it now.”

The Earthman glowered, but complied as he had no choice. The skur contracted tightly upon contact with his skin. He stifled a cry of revulsion – the things were alive! He sat on the floor staring at the worm-like creatures that bound him hand and foot. Utis laughed at the revolted expression on his face. Adria glared impotently at the man, but did not deign to reply to his insulting mirth.

Utis bound the girl with other skur taken from a compartment at the rear of the gondola, apologizing to her as he did so.

“I am truly sorry princess,” he said as he secured her hands behind her back. “The blade against your throat was a mere bluff. I also regret having to bind you, but I must obey the orders of the king.”

“Janu the usurper, you mean,” she shot back savagely.

Utis sighed. “I won’t argue politics with you, Princess Lilalla. As a soldier it is my duty to obey whoever sits upon the Sacred Throne, and Diamon, your father, now languishes in the lowest dungeon of the palace.”

Lilalla muttered a vile unladylike oath as Utis moved to the controls of the living airship, which consisted of a series of foot long tentacles depending from the underside of the creature. They passed through a hole in the ceiling at the front of the gondola, and Adria watched carefully as the commander gently tugged on a tentacle.

The ropy limb imprisoning Lilalla gently lowered her to the floor, then released her and retracted within the body of the kovun. The beast had obviously been trained to respond in a specific way, depending on which tentacle or combination of tentacles was pulled. Despite his helpless situation, Adria could not but admire the ingenuity of his captors in mastering this mighty leviathan of the sky.

“If you must bind me hand and foot,” cried Lilalla angrily. “Then place me beside my champion, for I prefer his companionship than your own, you vile traitor.”

Utis reddened at her insult. Then his lips curved in a venomous smile and again he drew his sword and cruelly laughed.

“I cannot harm you,” he admitted. “But this savage is another matter. As a common prisoner he has no value to the king.”

Lilalla paled. Adria tensed. The commander’s face was alive with sadistic glee as he stalked towards the Earthman. Adria waited, narrowed eyes fixed upon his foe. Both feet lashed out as Utis came in range. But the wily commander, expecting the attack, leapt aside and pricked the Earthman with his sword.

Adria roared in anger. Utis laughed as he danced away from another brutal kick. Again he lunged, drew blood and nimbly evaded his opponent. The girl struggled wildly in her living bonds. She sought to free herself to aid the man she had come to love. Utis pounced. He kicked Adria in the head – a stunning blow. Lilalla’s heart seemed to stop as she saw the commander plunge his sword down upon the helpless Earthman.

Chapter 6: A Dark Homecoming

“Stop,” screamed the girl.

The stabbing blade halted within an inch of Adria’s throat. Utis quickly backed away from the dazed Earthman, and then turned to the trembling princess who would have dearly loved to wipe away the pleased expression on his face.

“It is as I thought,” he said. “This savage seems to have captured your affections. I don’t know where you found him, nor do I particularly care. But when King Janu finds out you favor him it may prove very interesting.” Yes,” he smirked, “very interesting for this wild-man indeed.”

Lilalla paled. Utis laughed as he approached the girl. He carried her to Adria’s side and then left, but not before a parting shot.

“I have obeyed your command, princess. Enjoy each other’s company while you can.”

Moving to the controls, Utis set the kovun on a homeward course. He ignored the prisoners and the corpses strewn about the cabin, giving all his attention to the steering of their aerial steed.

The Earthman tested his bonds, straining mightily against them. It was useless. The skur imprisoned his limbs like living bands of iron. He stifled a curse and looked at the girl. Considering Lilalla was being hunted by enemies he couldn’t blame the princess for concealing her identity. Besides, he had secrets of his own that would be even more shocking to the girl if she knew them.

He sighed and shook his head at his romantic fantasies which had turned to bitter ashes - as a princess, Lilalla now seemed unattainable. Yet in her kiss had been a passion no less great than his own emotions. It gave him hope. But then his hope fled away. They were embroiled in a deadly situation. He must put aside romantic thoughts and think about escape.

Lilalla looked at him with teary eyes. “My words have endangered you. Please forgive my foolishness. I fear it will be a dark homecoming for us all.”

“There is nothing to forgive,” he whispered. “We are alive, and while there is life there is hope. Now, tell me what this is all about. The more I know the better I can plan our escape. Wait,” he continued, eyeing the swords of the fallen warriors.

“The skur’s blood is a deadly poison,” she warned, divining his thought to sever their living bonds. “A single drop is enough to kill. Put aside that idea. I will tell you my story, though there is little to tell, really.

“Janu, my cousin, along with a small band of followers among the royal guard, captured my father and me by bursting into our sleeping chambers in the depth of night.” The girl sighed heavily. “little did we realize that behind his smiling façade lurked the lust for power. The usurper had my father imprisoned and proclaimed himself king. I, however, was confined in my rooms. Then Janu came to me …”

The girl paused for a moment, trembling in revulsion and fury as she relived that terrible moment.

Janu stood before her, lust plainly written on his cruel and ugly visage. He advanced towards the frightened girl like a stalking beast, silent and terrifying. Lilalla’s heart fluttered like a trapped bird. She backed away only to feel the hard edge of a table press against her shapely buttocks. Her throat went dry with fear. She was alone. Her father was imprisoned. No one could aid her.

Janu pounced. He snared the girl in his bony arms. He smothered her full lips in a torrent of foul kisses. Lilalla beat his head with her fists. The usurper cursed. He grabbed her hair and jerked her head back savagely. The girl gasped in pain. Janu wedged his legs between her thighs, forcing them apart and tore the neck of her delicate robe. His clawing hand reached for her exposed breast.

A heavy vase stood on the table. Lilalla’s hand darted for it. She seized the vessel and brought it down on her assailant’s skull with all her fear borne strength. The porcelain shattered with the explosiveness of a pistol shot, and Janu tumbled senseless to the floor...

The girl shook her head and brought herself to the present which was only slightly less terrible that the past.

“Before I could find a dagger and slit his throat,” she continued, “his bodyguards burst in and raced towards me. I hurled two more vases in their faces, managed to escape through the door and stole a dwarf kovun upon which I fled. The rest you know.”

“True,” replied Adria. “But what I don’t understand is this: If Janu has so few followers, then why was aid not forthcoming from those loyal to your father? Was it because Janu holds him as a hostage?

Lilalla looked at the Earthman as if he was a simpleton. Then she caught herself and smiled apologetically.

“I’m sorry. For a moment I forgot that you are ignorant of things that are common knowledge to my people. The Sacred Throne,” she continued “is a rock that fell from the sky in ancient times.

“The rock is shaped roughly like a chair and the priests of Umoom, our chief god, interpreted it as a gift from heaven. According to their auguries, whoever sits upon the Throne does so with the blessings of the gods. Whoever loses the throne does so because they have angered the gods. Such are the laws of our city.”

“And yet,” pointed out Adria, “you did not submit.”

“I know my father,” replied the girl, hotly. “He is a decent man and a good king. If this is the will of the gods, then the gods are unjust and they do not deserve to be obeyed.”

Lilalla leaned back against the wicker fuselage of the gondola and closed her eyes. Adria silently cursed. The girl could be touchy at times, and he sensed he had inadvertently offended her. Perhaps she thought he meant she should have submitted to Janu’s lusts.

Time passed in dreary silence. Utis and the girl continued to ignore him. The Earthman grew bored and restless. He managed to struggle erect and stared out a porthole, hoping to see something that would distract him from his bleak thoughts, for no feasible plan of escape came to his groping mind.

Shortly, a silver cloud drew his gaze and he saw they were heading directly into it. As the living airship drew near the strange phenomenon he realized the cloud was a vast swarm of neem – the balloon-like creatures he had seen in the forest when he first arrived on this world. Utis pulled a lever and grillwork shutters dropped over the portholes.

The huge jaws of the kovun gaped wide. Wings furled to prevent injury; it plunged into the midst of the swarm swallowing neem by the hundreds as its momentum carried it into the depths of the living cloud. The balloon creatures drifted passed the porthole in masses as thick as falling snow. Adria watched, amazed at the prodigious quantity of them. They must, he guessed, number in the tens of millions.

Utis’ curse made him turn and he started. One of the shutters had failed to drop and four of the creatures had entered the gondola via the open porthole. One jetted at Utis, its twin tentacles thrusting menacingly. The other three came at Adria with frightening rapidity. The animals, usually quite placid, were on their mating flight and consequently extremely aggressive.

Violent oaths awoke Lilalla. She jerked and struggled against her bonds at the sight of the darting neem. Her face was stained with fear. Adria dropped to the floor and lashed out at the creature flying at him. His feet struck the thing. Its bladder tore and it spun away like a balloon jetting air.

The remaining pair squirted acid from their trunk-like members. Adira and the girl frantically rolled aside. The oily liquid splattered the deck and hissed furiously. Utis, having slain his attacker, dashed madly for the unbarred porthole as other neem crowded near the opening.

Adria gasped. The neem had cornered Lilalla against the fuselage. They raised their trunks. The girl screamed in expectation of the fiery acid that would scar her horribly. The Earthman got his feet under him. He leapt like a jack-in-the-box. His powerful legs uncoiled and hurled his massive body against the creatures.

The beasts were battered aside. Their jets of acid missed the cringing girl by a foot. Adria crashed to the deck. From the corner of his eye the Earthman glimpsed Utis jerk the shutter down, then swiftly dispatch the surviving neem that had invaded the gondola with well cast swords snatched from the corpses of the crew.

The trio sat breathing heavily as the kovun chewed its prey, unaffected by the acid attacks due to the waxy secretions of its skin, which had also been applied to the exterior of the gondola. The popping of the neem was a continuous soft explosion, and the areal leviathan grew heavy and sank lower under the weight of the creatures filling its vast belly. Its hunger finally sated, the beast vented copious quantities of urine stored as ballast. The monster soared and broke through into clear air. It unfurled its wings and began to beat steadily against the sky.

Shortly, Utis stirred and moved to the controls without comment. Adria, still slightly shaken by their ordeal and feeling the need to stretch, rose. He looked through the porthole and saw the blueness of the ocean and the shores of another coast – they had traversed the Gulf of Xur and were now upon its further side. Hills climbed skyward from a broad, sandy beach, and nestled upon their flanks was a city. Lilalla stood clumsily and leaned next to him, her rounded shoulder touching his side. Her anger had obviously passed.

“Noor,” she murmured sadly. “Oh, what has befallen my father and my people since I saw them last? I should never have fled.”

She pressed her face to Adria’s chest and wept bitter tears.

“Everything will be all right,” he said, soothingly. But he felt his words were more than likely a hollow promise.

A faint hiss came to the Earthman’s ears. The kovun had begun its descent – the sound was hydrogen being vented from the creature’s enormous gas bladder. The city grew in size. Near the shore was a complex of wharves and warehouses for ocean going ships. Houses of white stone climbed the slopes. The structures were low and square and built around a central courtyard. Their roofs were of red tile. Flowering gardens lined the snaking streets which wound their way to the summit of the hill where the palace stood.

It, too, was built in the form of a hollow square. The central courtyard was an enormous garden in which flowers bloomed like living jewels. In the centre of the garden was a huge square pond and in its middle was a fountain that blew a spray of shimmering water high into the air. The entire palace was surrounded by a lofty wall, heavily fortified with towers. The wall was incredibly thick and in its upper works were many rooms that housed the quarters of the palace guard.

Utis guided the creature to a mooring tower. Tentacles extended from beneath its jaw and latched onto the wooden pylon. Having moored the kovun, the commander opened the hatch and by further manipulation of the beast’s control tentacles, directed it to lower his prisoners and the corpses of the crew (which would be collected later) by means of its ropy limb to a platform beneath the gondola.

Here, the couple was met by a squad of five heavily armed warriors who had been summoned by Utis using signal flags. Their ebon helmets were conical in form with flaring neck guards, and they were dressed head to foot in flexible armour of black scales edged in gold enamel. Utis, after exiting the gondola, loosened the skur about the ankles of the prisoners by touching the creatures with a chemically treated wooden rod. The couple was then hustled within a lift, which was lowered to the ground by sweating slaves laboring at a crank and pulley system.

Adria surreptitiously observed the silent guards. They were hard faced men whose heavy set frames filled out their armour with bulging muscles. Their eyes were upon him, watchful and filled with cold ruthlessness. Their naked swords were pressed against his vital organs. The Earthman grimaced inwardly. Escape was impossible, at least for the moment. The only thing he could do was keep calm and hope that a favorable opportunity would arise.

Movement caught his eye, and he looked up. The kovun had released its hold on the mooring tower and was moving off at a leisurely pace. The creature was simply too huge to stable and feed. It was, however, trained to return to the tower every three days and was rewarded with a meal of hoojo – a plant containing an addictive alkaloid.

The lift bumped against the ground. Swords prodded Adria. He stepped out and was quickly surrounded by the squad. They were obviously taking no chances. Utis had no doubt informed them of the fearsome nature of his captive. Adria fervently wished he could get his hands around the commander’s throat.

Lilalla joined him and they moved off. The girl was silent and pale. But apart from that she showed no other signs of fear. Adria’s eyes flicked here and there as they crossed a woolly lawn of pale blue ground cover and made their way towards the imposing entrance of the ornate palace. His hopes of escape seemed to be diminishing with every step he took. His eyes touched the girl and fear for her assailed him like raging blows. No, he couldn’t surrender to despair. His jaw clenched in determination. He would find a way to save her.

They passed under the portico whose columns were huge statues of the kings of ancient dynasties, then down a pillared hall that gave egress to an untenanted audience chamber of impressive size. Skylights of stained glass admitted light to the spacious room and cast large squares of blight floral patterns upon the marble floor – a stark contrast to the Earthman’s dark forebodings.

At the rear of the chamber was a dais on which was mounted the Sacred Throne, and on either side of the platform were four tall windows of stone fretwork through whose lacy perforations could be seen the palace gardens. The party approached the vacant throne and Adria saw it was a large meteorite, metallic in nature. Its pitted ovoid form was indented in the middle in such a way that it gave the appearance of a huge chair.

Passing behind the dais the party halted at the entrance to an athenaeum that projected out into the central courtyard. Two guards stood before its iron bound door of polished timber. Utis spoke to one. The warrior passed within to announce their arrival, returned shortly and ushered them through the portal and into the usurpers presence.

Adria tensed as he entered the room. He steeled himself to confront the nemesis that threatened the women he loved and their future happiness. His eyes locked on the usurper who sat at an ornate desk, writing on a scroll with brush and ink. The man looked up and his vulture-like countenance split into a grin as wicked as the hard steel pressed against Adria’s back. The Earthman made a split decision. There seemed but one way to save his beloved from this vile creature.

He threw himself forward in a wild, suicidal leap and vaulted the desk in a single bound. Adria slammed against Janu. Both crashed to the ground. Lilalla screamed as the cursing guards dashed forward, glinting blades poised to strike.

Chapter 7: The Terrible Truth

Adria had the screaming usurper punned beneath his mighty frame. From the edge of vision he glimpsed the rushing warriors. They would be upon him before he could finish his adversary by leaping up and stomping him to death. The Earthman rolled under the desk. He jerked erect and flung the davenport into the charging foe with a tremendous heave of his brawny back and shoulders.

The desk crashed against the guards. The foe went down. Several were pinned beneath its overturned top. Adria leapt. His heels smashed down on the davenport. The men beneath screamed as their bones were shattered by the impact of his heavy body. The three remaining warriors scrambled up. They rushed the Earthman. Lilalla tripped one. He fell and the girl crushed his larynx with her heel.

Adria leapt aside. A sword furrowed his ribs. He gave the guard a savage kick and sent him flying into the path of the other. Both fell heavily and smashed against the marble floor. Utis came at him, his sword swinging in a savage cut. The Earthman ducked and slammed his shoulder into the commander’s belly. Utis doubled over. His sword clattered to the floor. Adria straightened and flung him off as if he was a doll. Utis’ head split like a melon when he hit the floor

Lilalla cried a warning. Adria spun about. More guards were rushing at him. They were piling through the antechamber’s doorway that opened out onto the palace garden. His hands were bound. He needed to free them. His wild eyes fell upon the small lamp used for melting sealing wax. It had survived the fall from the desk and was still alight.

He leapt to the lamp, knelt and let the flame play upon the skur that bound his wrists as he watched the charging warriors, now perilously near. The creature writhed. It fell away, but did not bleed for the flame cauterized its injury.

“Free yourself as I did,” he cried to the girl as he dashed back to the desk.

His hands closed upon one table leg. Muscles swelled. He heaved and tore it free, then the other. He turned and roared at the rushing foe. They faltered at the thunderous challenge and the savage look upon his face. Their eyes widened in alarm as the brute before them charged, his thickly corded arms swinging the heavy legs like the blades of a tempest struck windmill.

Adria fell upon them in a raging storm of violence. Janu had staggered behind a wall of guards and the Earthman meant to reach the man no matter what. Warriors fell before his savage blows. Helmets were crushed as if they were eggshells rather than steel. Burly men were hurled aside as if they were children. The floor ran thickly with the blood of his enemies.

Lilalla freed herself. She grasped the lamp and hurled it at one of the usurper’s men. It shattered against his helmet. Flaming oil drenched his face. He screamed horribly and fell in a writhing, burning heap upon the floor. The girl snatched up two swords. She cast one amongst the foe. A guard fell, his eye pierced deeply to the brain by the arrowing blade. She stepped to Adria’s side, sword ready to engage the foe. It was then that Janu touched a hidden button.

A trapdoor in the ceiling opened and its snaring net of chains fell upon the couple. Both struggled madly, but sharp hooks had been affixed to the links of the chains, and these caught in their flesh and clothes making it impossible for them to free themselves.

In an instant the surviving warriors surrounded them. Both tensed as the furious guards raised their swords in preparation for vengeful killing blows.

“Stop,” cried Janu as the blades were about to fall. “The girl must be spared, and the savage, who dared foul my royal person with his dirty touch, must suffer a harder death than what the clean stroke of a sword can offer.”

Adria gave Janu a hard look as the usurper limped forward to face him. And as the Earthman gazed upon the cruel and ruthless visage of the fiend who had attempted to rape his beloved, his own countenance reflected the raging hatred he felt for the man.

The narrow eyes of the king passed over Adria. The Earthman glowered. Janu barked an amused and contemptuous laugh. The usurper’s gaze shifted to the girl. His heart quickened at the sight of her beauty and his eyes lingered on rounded flesh that peeped through the tattered remnants of her apparel.

Janu inhaled sharply. His hands closed as if he was grasping that flesh. Unbridled lust flushed his ugly features with a tide of evil passions. The girl pressed against Adria at the sight of her tormentor’s brazen desire. The usurper was no fool. He read Lilalla’s body language clearly. The hot tide of anger rose to his face.

“You little whore,” he screamed. “I’ve had air patrols looking for you since you fled. You should be grateful to me for your rescue, and yet you cuddle up to this savage as if he was a noble prince.”

“Rescue,” snapped the girl, finding courage in her anger at his insult. “I would be safer in the jungle with this man, Antonio, than in this palace with you.”

Janu’s eyes stabbed Adria with the force of a plunging dagger. A burning insult rose to his lips as he looked with wild jealousy upon the Earthman. But then he paused, bent forward and gazed more carefully at his rival. The usurper’s eyes widened in surprise, and then a slow and evil smile oozed across his face.

“So, you favor this thing with your affections do you?” he sneered. “As you know the study of anatomy is a subject I’ve an interest in. You remember I was part of that expedition your father sent to the jungle in the east? Our men were attacked by a troop of gibbis, and after we had driven them off I appropriated one of the corpses for study.

“I was curious to know what the animal looked like without its pelt of fur, so I shaved it completely free of hair before commencing the dissection. That creature you’re so obviously in love with is nothing less than a hairless beast-man. The color of its skin, size, musculature and anatomical proportions are identical to the one I studied.”

Lilalla paled. Janu laughed uproariously at her expression. The girl looked at Adria, her frightened gaze imploring him to say it was all a lie. But the shocked expression on his face at this exposure told her more than words could ever do that the usurper’s accusation was the awful truth.

The Earthman’s heart sank as he saw revulsion spread across the face of his beloved. Lilalla recalled their kiss – her lips pressed so passionately to his own. The girl’s eyes rolled and she fainted as the full import of her actions crashed down upon her like an avalanche.

Adria’s eyes flashed to the usurper’s grinning face. He roared like a demon. He tore at the net, unheeding of the hooks in his flesh. Chains snapped as if they were the strands of a spider’s web. Janu lost his grin. He stumbled away, a look of horror on his face. Adria lunged for him, but before he could reach his foe the flat of a sword struck his nape and he crashed unconscious to the floor.

**********

The darkness of a dungeon cell smothered Adria in its gloom, but the greater darkness was within his aching heart. He had lost the woman he loved. The look of utter revulsion on her face just before she fainted proved that beyond all doubt.

Despite this he was still desperately in love with Lilalla, and added to this torment was the knowledge she was captive to a brutal man so base he wouldn’t hesitate to abuse her in the vilest ways imaginable.

Again he crashed his fists against the cell door, and roared out his rage against cruel and unjust fate. The portal vibrated under his fearsome blows, but stood fast. Not even his tremendous strength could sunder the iron bound thickness of its hardwood timbers.

Finally, having exhausted himself from his futile assault on the unbreakable barrier, he slid to the floor. He wanted to die and no doubt would. The executioners would wait until his great body was enfeebled beyond resistance by lack of food and water. Then they’d come for him and the torture would begin. At the moment the pangs of hunger and thirst were faint, for it was not yet noon, but with the passing of an entire day…

Eventually he fell asleep. His last thought was a fervent wish that the arms of death would enfold him and put an end to his intolerable mental anguish...

Adria found himself above his body, looking down upon it. He was surprised, for this was the first time since he had entered the beast-man’s form that sleep had freed his mind from its fleshy prison. Perhaps it had been the intense desire to escape his emotional torment that had been the catalyst. It was also the first time he had been able to see himself clearly.

His face was broad and strongly formed like the rest of him. It was a masculine face, but not brutal in appearance, which surprised him. Despite Janu’s comments and Lilalla’s reaction, he felt comfortable with what he saw. His new body had served him well. Indeed, his injuries were healing rapidly thanks to his enormous vitality.

The Earthman, now in a far better frame of mind, shifted his attention and looked about the cell. The senses of his disembodied mind penetrated the darkness with ease. Hope flared within him. There seemed to be a space behind one wall – an area of stone that was more transparent to his psychic gaze. Eagerly, he passed through that section of the wall and emerged into the secret passage behind it. The way was dimly illuminated by glowing glass cubes set in the ceiling.

Excitement grew to elation – here was a possible means of escape. Adria reentered the wall and his mental essence zigzagged across its length from ceiling to floor. Within a few moments he clearly sensed and understood the workings of the hidden mechanisms heretofore he had but dimly perceived.

Adria quickly reconnected with his body, arose and by the dim light filtering under the cell door, located and pressed the three actuating points upon the wall. Stone grated in response to the combination, and a cleverly concealed door swung inward. The Earthman entered the corridor, his face grim with deadly purpose.

Though Lilalla undoubtedly hated him, perhaps even to the extent of ordering his exile if she could, he had no intention of abandoning her. Also, there was his less noble but understandable desire for revenge on the man who had ruined what he felt was the one chance at true happiness he had ever had in his loveless existence.

He stalked up the hidden way for several yards, and then paused by a secret door that gave egress to another cell. Whilst disembodied, he had perceived that someone else was also imprisoned within these dungeons. Was it Lilalla? If so, would she have enough sense to at least allow him to help her escape? There was only one way to find out. Steeling himself to face an outraged princess, he carefully opened the door and stepped within.

A figure lay upon the floor, dimly illuminated by faint light from the luminous cubes within the passage. It was a man. He rose weakly to an elbow and gazed at Adria with dull eyes set in a bearded face turned old with the agony of tormenting thoughts.

The Earthman’s disappointment was like the bitterness of wormwood. It wasn’t his beloved. Then fear gripped him. Would the man raise the alarm and ruin his chances of rescuing the girl? In his eagerness he hadn’t thought of what might happen if the prisoner wasn’t Lilalla. He stood irresolute as to what to do – leave quickly or silence the man forever.

“You must be Antonio.”

Though the prisoner’s limbs trembled with the weakness of starvation, his mind was still as sharp as a well honed blade.

“You know me?” gasped Adria.

“By description only,” explained the captive. “A short time ago,” he continued, “Janu came to me and bragged of your capture, and that of my daughter. I am Diamon, Lilalla’s father and former king of Noor.”

“Then you know what I am and how I feel about her?”

“I do,” replied Diamon, eyeing him gravely. “But what I don’t know is what your intentions are now that you are free.”

“I will save your daughter and kill Janu, or die in the attempt. But in order to do this I need your help.”

“I lost the throne,” Diamon sighed. “I am now nothing. How can one oppose the will of the gods? Besides, it is too late to save Lilalla.”

Adria grew furious at this display of slavish fatalism. How could the man give up so easily when his daughter’s life was in dire peril? Savage rage took possession of the Earthman. He advanced upon the former king with such ferocity and wildness of expression that the man drew back in sudden wide eyed alarm.

The Earthman wanted to shout, but controlled himself with a mighty effort: “Too Late? What do you mean?”

“When Janu left,” Diamon hastily explained, “he said he was going to torture Lilalla before the nobles as a warning to those who disobey the will of heaven. After being with you he considers her polluted and doesn’t want her.”

Both men tensed at the sudden sound of a key grating in the lock.

“The guards,” gasped Diamon. “They’ve come to take me to witness the torture of my daughter.”

Chapter 8: Berserker’s Fury

Adria stifled a curse. He dashed silently to the door and crouched behind it. The portal creaked open. The Earthman’s hands balled to fists as two guards entered the cell. But as he prepared to spring upon the foe Diamon’s glance betrayed his presence to the warriors.

Both men spun about. Swords rasped from scabbards. Adria leapt. His fist crashed against a chin. The man fell, his neck snapped by the fierceness of the blow. The other lunged. The Earthman jumped aside. The blade missed him by an inch. He grabbed his foe’s arm, pivoted and flung him head first into the wall. There was a sickening crack and the guard collapsed, his head twisted at an unnatural angle.

Adria slammed the door and pressed his bulk against it. At any moment he expected to hear the outraged shouts of other warriors rushing at him. But there was no alarm. It appeared that only two men had been sent to fetch the prisoner. The Earthman didn’t relax. When the guards didn’t appear with their captive Janu would know something was amiss.

The Earthman looked at Diamon with wrathful eyes. The fool had nearly gotten him killed, and if he’d died what hope would there be for his love? He grabbed the man beneath his armpits and effortlessly hauled him to his feet. The thought of Lilalla’s horrid fate and his need to save her broke all civilized restraints upon him. He looked at the cringing prisoner with a wild and remorseless expression that was truly terrifying.

“Where is Janu,” he demanded savagely. “Tell me, you pathetic excuse for a man,” he roared as he shook Diamon like a rat in the jaws of a terrier.

“Peace… peace,” gasped the deposed king, who feared his bones would be disjointed by the violence of the giant. “I… I know the secret ways. I will lead you to him.”

The Earthman, who saw Diamon was too weak to move swiftly, muttered an impatient oath and flung the man across his shoulder. He paused for a moment to snatch up a dead warrior’s sword, then strode into the hidden passage and slammed the door behind him.

“Which way?” he curtly demanded.

“Straight ahead, then take the second passage on your left.”

“You know these hidden corridors, yet you didn’t move to aid your daughter,” observed Adria, accusingly, as he raced along the passage.

“The knowledge of how to open the secret doors from the inside of these cells was lost long ago,” replied Diamon in a defensive tone. “But how did you…”

“Never mind that,” growled Adria as he swiftly made the turn “which way now?”

Diamon gave further directions. The Earthman increased his frantic pace. Horrid visions arose within his mind as his fevered brain painted livid pictures of fiendish tortures being inflicted on the screaming girl. These fools were held in the thrall of superstition. They wouldn’t lift a finger to save their princess. They thought her fate the will of heaven.

The knowledge that only he could save his love spurred him onwards like a racehorse. The passage ended in a flight of stairs. Adria hurtled up them. He thrust the pommel of his sword against a lever and the portal swung wide. The Earthman stepped into a chamber and recognized it as the athenaeum behind the throne room. The place was deserted, but the murmur of a vast crowd came to him from without.

“Janu… In the… throne room,” gasped Diamon, who had been jolted breathless from the Earthman’s furious pace.

Adria swiftly laid the man on a low couch. The Earthman’s eyes darted about the room in search of an additional weapon. His gaze fell on a sword hung upon one wall. It was a large two handed weapon, obviously a trophy from the conquest of a foreign enemy, for the local varieties were all short, single handed glaives.

Diamon, having regained his breath, gripped Adria’s hand as he was about to move away.

“Sit on the throne if you can,” he advised, now thinking that perhaps the savage’s bold defiance was a more manly way to face an unjust fate. “Say you claim it as heaven’s will, and challenge Janu to a dual for its possession. If you win my daughter’s life will be vouchsafed by the gods.”

The Earthman experienced a moment of shocked silence, and then an apology rose to his lips for his uncouth treatment of the man. In the light of these words he now saw that, although blinded by superstition, Diamon was a fundamentally decent person. He had, for Lilalla’s sake, virtually given him his kingdom to save her life. But before he could confess his misjudgment and beg forgiveness, deathly quiet descended on the throne room. Fear jolted the Earthman. Something terrible was commencing.

He shook off Diamon’s grip and raced madly for the sword. In an instant his hand closed about the hilt and ripped it free of its mounting. Adria dashed for the door and managed to quickly open it despite being encumbered by two weapons. Both warriors guarding the portal fell to the frightful speed of his shearing blades. The Earthman leapt up the steps behind the throne and gained it in an instant. His left arm flew in a savage arc, driving the short sword in a vicious hook around the stone that shielded him from observation. The blade rang against the empty seat.

Adria cursed. He’d assumed Janu would be occupying the Sacred Throne. Still, all was not lost - now he could seize the vacant seat and issue his challenge. He stepped around the meteorite, and then froze at the terrible scene before him. It destroyed all thoughts of what he’d planned to do.

A low, rectangular trolley had been wheeled into the audience chamber. Two tall posts were mounted at the front and rear of the cart. Lilalla, completely nude, hung spread-eagled between the poles, her youthful limbs stretched cruelly wide by ropes and pulleys. Before her was Janu and beyond a crescent of pale faced nobles. The whole formed a shocked tableau - one startled by the dramatic ringing of his blade and fearsome appearance.

Janu’s eyes flew wide. His jaw dropped and his continuance became a mingled study of naked fear and utter disbelief.

“You,” he gasped in wild shock.

The spell was broken. Janu swore. He grabbed a torturer’s blade from the brazier by his side. He’d kill the whore before she could be saved. The Earthman roared. He charged. Lilalla screamed as the usurper leapt towards her. Adria hurled his short sword. The whirling weapon struck the red hot knife as it plunged towards her breast. Both blades spun clear of the girl and clattered harmlessly to the floor.

Janu staggered away, clutching his sprained right wrist. “Guards,” he screeched.

Warriors poured into the room from side entrances. They rushed towards the Earthman like a swarm of enraged wolves, scattering frightened nobles to left and right. Adria screamed an Ung war-cry. Berserker fury was upon him. With one huge hand he seized the heavy brazier and hurled it into the faces of the charging foe.

Two men went down beneath its wrought iron mass. Several more tripped upon the fallen pair. The rest split up and came at the Earthman from both sides in an attempt to surround him. Adria dashed to one horn of the closing formation, sword swinging wildly. A guard blocked his stroke, but was driven to his knees by the weight of the great sword and the tremendous force of its impact.

Adria grabbed the man by the throat. He hoisted his kicking form into the air with a single hand and used him as a shield against the other stabbing blades. Swords meant for the Earthman crashed against the hapless man. He screamed as one penetrated a chink in his armour.

The Earthman leapt forward and smashed the corpse into the knot of attacking warriors, flooring them. Adria thrust his sword into the back of a fallen guard and left the blade sticking out of the man. Then, with both hands, he hoisted the body he still held above his head and cast it into the warriors closing in from behind. They went down like ninepins.

Janu looked on in growing disbelief. The pincer formation was in complete disarray. The screaming savage had taken up his great blade and was amongst the ursurper's guards, huge sword spinning like a whirlwind. Strong warriors fell before his shearing strokes like mirrim before the reaper’s sickle. Caught in the tempest of his fury, the guards were being scattered as if windblown leaves.

The usurper cursed. He drew his dagger with an uninjured hand and ran for the girl, evil vengeance burning brightly in his putrid heart. Adria glimpsed Janu as he dashed towards his love. He was almost within reach of Lilalla. The Earthman roared. He spun his sword like a propeller. The foe fell back before the fury of his whirling blade.

Janu dashed behind the girl and pressed the glittering dagger to her throat. She screamed at its razor touch. Adria howled in anguish. He hurled himself towards the pair, but knew he’d never reach his love in time to save her. Behind him came the charging guards.

“Animal,” screamed Janu in sadistic exaltation. “Watch while I slit her throat before your eyes.”

Lilalla cried as the usurper jerked her head back by the hair in preparation for the fatal act. Then, as cold steel was about to bite, Diamon, who had crept up behind the foe, threw himself upon the man. Janu cursed as the former king clawed his eyes and fended off the dagger from his daughter’s throat. The usurper turned and grappled with his opponent. Diamon fought back, but he had used up most of his strength to save the girl and what was left quickly failed him.

From the corner of her eye, Lilalla saw Janu plunge his dagger home. Diamon gasped. He collapsed upon the floor. Blood spread out in an ugly stain above his heart.

“Father,” screamed the girl. “No… No… No!”

Adria roared. The usurper spun around. He cursed. The savage was within striking distance of him. There was no time for vengeance.

“Guards, to me,” he cried as he fled like a frightened rabbit.

The Earthman leapt upon the trolley. His sword flashed four times in quick succession and he caught the weeping girl in his arms; then turned with a snarl to face Janu. The usurper was surrounded by the remnant of his guard, and more were now pouring through the door behind the throne and surrounding him on either side.

Adria was breathing heavily and his skin was slick with sweat and blood form many minor wounds. He knew it was only a matter of time before his strength, great though it was, would fail him. He made a dash for the throne as Janu screamed commands that sent fresh warriors racing at him.

“Father,” cried the weeping girl as he leapt upon the dais. Lilalla tried to strike him, but her tortured limbs had no strength. “Let go of me, you monster.”

Though these words wounded Adria more deeply than a sword through the heart, he held fast to his resolve as he jumped upon the throne with the trembling girl flung across his shoulder. He glared defiance at the rushing foe that swept towards him in overwhelming numbers. The Earthman’s face hardened as he prepared to sell their lives as dearly as he could.

Chapter 9: A Hollow Victory

The sprinting warriors were nearly upon him when he shouted his defiant challenge in their faces.

“Halt,” bellowed Adria. “I am now king by Heaven’s decree.”

The charging foemen stumbled to a stop, stunned by his roaring voice and the audacity of his claim.

“Janu,” he yelled, taking advantage of the guards’ momentary confusion. “Whoever loses the throne does so because they have angered the gods. Your iniquities have cost you the kingship of Noor, for I now occupy this seat of power.”

The Earthman had the attention of the guards. The majority were not men whose loyalty had been bought with the usurper’s gold. In their hearts they knew Diamon had been a better king. Could this strange savage be correct? Could the blessings of the gods be upon him? They looked at one another, uncertain as to what to think.

“Kill him,” screeched Janu. “He lies. I am king by heaven’s decree!”

Some warriors moved forward, others hesitated. The air was thick with tension. The only sound was the distraught weeping of the girl.

Adria raked the advancing foe with a wild and snarling glance of such fierceness that it stopped them like a blow. His terrible gaze then fell upon the usurper.

“I challenge you to personal combat here and now, coward,” he roared. “If you’ve any bravery and the blessings of the gods, then you’ll win and thus prove your claim to be ruler of the city.”

Janu suddenly found himself the focus of every eye in the room. The usurper silently cursed. He knew the savage had effectively trapped him. To refuse the challenge would be an admission of defeat. He looked at the giant and inwardly quailed. He’d seen firsthand the destructive might of his fighting prowess. Then a slight smile curved his lips. Cunning might yet win the day.

“I accept your challenge,” he sneered.

Adria gently laid Lilalla by the side of the throne. The girl looked at him with a vacant expression. The accumulated traumas to her mind and body had taken their toll, and now she was in a state of deep shock.

“I will avenge your father’s death,” he grimly said. There was no reaction from the girl. Adria raised his bloody sword and faced the usurper. Never before did he think he would take such pleasure in killing someone as he would Janu.

The man stood waiting for him, armed with a sword borrowed from a guard. The other warriors had backed away to give the combatants fighting space. The Earthman leapt at his enemy, sword swinging in an arc as vicious as his raging anger. But his wily foe jumped back and the blade, which would have cut him in half had it connected, rang against the floor and snapped in two.

Janu grinned. His plan had worked. He lunged at his overbalanced opponent. Adria knew he had no hope of parrying the usurper’s cunning thrust. The Earthman twisted madly to avoid the stroke. The leaping blade grazed him as he crashed heavily to the floor. Janu cursed. He tried to stab the fallen man.

Adria managed to parry the stabbing blade with his broken weapon. The Earthman’s foot lashed out. Janu cried in pain as one leg was kicked out from under him. He fell. Adria swing his sword. The usurper rolled and his opponent’s blade sparked against stone.

Both men leapt to their feet. Janu’s face was stained with naked fear. The man turned and ran. Adria sprinted after him, yelling wildly. But the usurper’s flight was a cunning ruse. He suddenly stopped, spun around and thrust at his pursuer. It was only the Earthman’s lightning reflexes that saved him from running onto his enemy’s point. Adria leapt aside, body whirling and sword swinging in a horizontal arc. The blade struck and Janu’s head spun from his shoulders and bounced upon the floor. The corpse stood for a moment, blood jetting grotesquely from its neck, and then it fell with a sickening splat upon the ground.

The Earthman stood above the corpse and let his battle fury slowly fade. Strangely, Janu’s death hadn’t been as satisfying to him as he’d hoped it would be. As he walked back to the throne he couldn’t help but feel it was a hollow victory. The silent gaze of the guards and returning nobles, who had crept back to witness the dual, were expectantly upon him as he mounted the dais. He looked at Lilalla. Her eyes were glazed and unseeing.

Adria’s heart ached far more than his many injuries. He had won a kingdom, but what good was that to him? Lilalla was far more precious than a crown of sparkling jewels. All he had ever wanted was her love. He knelt by the girl and held her unresponsive body in his arms, head bowed in grief and melancholy contemplation.

The silence stretched and the throng grew restless. Their murmurings roused the Earthman and he came to a final decision as to what to do. Standing with Lilalla in his arms, he placed her gently on the throne and turned to the assembled nobles.

“It is the will of the gods that Lilalla become queen of Noor. I, her champion, merely fought on her behalf. If any among you wish to challenge Heaven, then let them step forward now and match their blade against my own. The rest must kneel before the queen in acknowledgement of this divine decree.”

The superstitious throng fell upon their knees, and Adira had the consoling satisfaction of seeing that not a single person in the entire room was standing.

**********

Adria waited nervously outside the door to the queen’s private suite. After thirty days of convalescence, Lilalla had recovered sufficiently to assume her royal duties, and the Earthman wondered why the girl wished to see him. He hadn’t been escorted here under guard, so he obviously wasn’t being arrested. On the other hand considering the horror she expressed when she found out what he was he doubted it was to reward him. He reviewed the events of the past month, searching for an answer.

After placing Lilalla in the care of her personal physician, the Earthman had met with her ministers and had appointed Narmon, her chief advisor, as regent of the city until the queen was fit to rule. The following day Diamon’s body had been mummified in accordance with the religious customs of the people and placed in the royal mausoleum. Janu’s corpse, on the other hand, had been cremated and its ashes dumped in the sewers.

Apart from these decisions, the Earthman had let the royal bureaucracy manage its own affairs, much to the relief of the queen’s ministers, who feared he would attempt to become the power behind the throne. The fact that he requested to be bunked in the dormitory of the palace guard had reassured them further that he had no ambitions in that direction.

It had been a risky move considering the number of guardsmen he had killed and the possibility that their friends might seek revenge, but Adria saw he had no choice – he may have saved the queen, but in the eyes of the nobles he was still a violent savage, a fact evidenced by the thinly veiled disapproval they exhibited in his presence. Alone and loveless, the fuse on the Earthman’s temper had shortened considerably, and their snobbery only made things worse. If he had stayed in the palace he’d have cracked some fool lord’s skull for sure.

Fortunately, the other warriors had left him alone. They weren’t friendly to him, but they weren’t overtly hostile, either. Their attitude was more a grudging respect for his ability as a fighting man than anything else. During his free time, when not on duty as a guard, he explored the city, tactfully ignoring the agents that Narmon sent to spy on him. At the moment he couldn’t think of any long term plans.

Exile, he thought as his mind returned to the present. That’s it. She plans to send me away. I’ll never see her again.

The door to the queen’s suite opened, breaking his bleak train of thought, and the bearded visage of Centis, the royal physician, peered out.

“The queen will see you now,” he said.

The guards uncrossed their spears that barred the door and Adria stepped within the room. Lilalla sat on a low divan. She was attired in a gauzy robe shot through with thread of gold. Sunlight spilt through a window and touched her with its warmth. A lump rose in the Earthman’s throat as he approached and bowed before her. She was as radiant as heaven, and as untouchable.

The queen dismissed her physician and bid Adria sit by her side. He did so and then an awkward silence ensued.

Lilalla looked at his sad expression. It pierced her heart and all her carefully thought out speech, all the words she planned to say dissolved into racking sobs as she hugged him fiercely and shed her tears upon the broadness of his chest. Adira gently placed his arms around her as words tumbled from her quivering lips.

“Forgive me,” she gasped between her heaving cries. “I’m… truly sorry.”

“You are forgiven,” replied Adria as he soothingly stroked her hair, relishing the feel of her in his arms. “How could I not forgive you, for is it not the nature of love to forgive? Besides, the fault is mine for I should have told you the entire truth from the beginning, which is this…”

She stopped his words with an ardent kiss. After a time they broke apart. Both were flushed and breathing heavily. The Earthman was overjoyed at her change of heart, for her passion spoke of a longing that would not be denied. Despite his jubilation he was nonetheless puzzled as to the cause of her attitude’s transformation. The girl divined his thoughts.

“I don’t care if you are a beast-man,” she said. “I was shocked at first, true. But now that I’ve had time to think I realize it’s the inner person that defines a man, not his outward form. You are kind and brave and loyal – all the qualities any woman could desire. How could I not help but love you?”

“But the nobles…”

She laughed. “Those prigs will change their attitude when I give you Janu’s title and his possessions. And as prince consort their obsequiousness will be even more apparent. The wedding will…”

Now it was the Earthman’s turn to stop her words with a fervent kiss. It wasn’t long before both their clothes were in considerable disarray.

“I think,” said Lilalla, somewhat breathlessly, “that we should retire to my bedroom.”

Adria grinned as Lilalla took his hand. They entered the queen’s boudoir, and the Earthman carefully locked the door behind him.

THE END