Author: Kirk Straughen

Synopsis: Raymond Verrin crash lands on an alien world - a world of weird creatures, savage humanoids and countless perils. Will he survive a multitude of terrifying threats or perish between the slavering jaws of some outlandish horror before he can rescue the fair Annuna?

Edit history: Minor changes were made to this story on 18 July 2021.

Chapter 1: An Alien World

A space suited figure hung limply in the parachute’s harness. The surrounding forest was quiet but for the sighing breeze, which stirred the strange leaves of the tree that had snared the chute’s billowing fabric and clutched it in gnarled, arthritic branches some forty feet above the ground.

The body in its gleaming space-armour showed no evidence of life. Its only motion was a gentile sway caused by the sighing zephyrs that gave voice and movement to a scene of wild solitude. Time passed, perhaps half an hour. The body stirred – the twitch of a gloved hand. Consciousness swam up from an abyss of darkness. The man opened his eyes and gazed in disorientated confusion at the strange scene before him.

Raymond Verrin’s brow furrowed as he tried to organize his disjointed memories into a pattern of coherent thought. Was he on Earth? He looked at the surrounding trees. Their immense boles were bottle-shaped and covered in thick scales of bark that were of a startling copper hue. His dazed gaze took in the gnarled limbs that were as contorted as serpents frozen in the agony of death. Verrin’s eyes traced the convoluted branches and he started as he beheld their purple heart-shaped leaves variegated with gold.

Memory, at the sight of this alien wilderness, came flooding back in a rush of ghastly visions that struck like a heavyweight champion’s blows, and for a wild moment he relived the horrendous chain of events that had come so near to killing him. He had departed the exploration ship Intrepid in a one man scout craft to investigate the nearest moon of the strange unknown world discovered forty one hours ago – a world orbiting the star 82 G Eridani approximately twenty light years from Earth in the constellation of Eridanus.

Probes had been sent to the planet at first, but the six enigmatic moons studded with spiky greenish crystal that orbited the world emitted an unknown radiation which sent the probes haywire. Six robot spacecraft had tumbled out of control into the planet’s atmosphere and burnt up like so many meteors, leaving Martin Rutherford, chief scientist of the Intrepid, in a quandary of considerable proportions.

Verrin recalled his meeting with the scientist – a tall thin man, slightly stooped, with an intensity of purpose that seemed almost palpable. The aged savant faced him squarely, his demeanour deadly serious, an aspect accentuated by his hawk-like visage.

“You’re the best pilot aboard,” stated Rutherford, bluntly. “You’ve read the report. That world is Earth-like, possibly fit for colonization. But it is barred to us by the weird radiation of its moons. I need a sample of the strange element from which those satellites are composed so I can conduct experiments to find a countermeasure.

“Preliminary analysis indicates that short exposure to the radiation won’t affect a human being. Our automated space probes are useless. I need you to fly a ship by manual control and obtain a sample from the nearest moon. Well, Verrin; Captain Neilson has given his approval to my plan, but are you man enough to undertake this mission?”

The young pilot smiled thinly. He found Rutherford as abrasive as a rasp, but ignored the scientist’s irritating bluntness. Verrin was something of an atavist, ill-suited to the over civilised culture of the twenty second century. He craved adventure and excitement, and the lure of distant exotic worlds had called to him from an early age.

Having obtained his Bachelor of Spaceflight from the University of Applied Xenology, and graduating with honours thanks to his exceptional memory and mastery of mnemonic techniques, he’d had no trouble gaining a place aboard the Intrepid, one of four sister ships bound for stars within a twenty light-year radius of Earth. Verrin knew space exploration could be dull, but it proved duller than he’d anticipated, for even with the Alpha Drive the voyage to Eridanus took a year, and the novelty of the journey was soon replaced by the grind of dreary monotony.

Naturally, after having endured a year confined in a cramped starship which proved as stimulating as the interior of a steel drum, the young man had jumped at the chance to break the chains of tedium that bound his spirit. The thought of adventure fired him. A chance to do something, anything, even if dangerous, was better than being smothered by the unexciting tedium of shipboard life and the vacuous nature of virtual reality entertainment.

“Am I man enough?” he said with a grin. “The last time I looked my balls were still in place. Is that answer good enough for you?”

It was, but Verrin was soon to regret his flippant rashness. The first hint of trouble manifested as he approached the nearer moon in his small scout ship. The tiny world swelled in his field of vision - a mass of jagged crystal. Titanic glassy spears, glittering with diamond hardness, thrust up from a matrix of gray and barren rock to gleam against the backdrop of star strewn space. Utter darkness pooled in deep chasms, contrasting dramatically to the glinting spires.

He swept in. Everywhere was a wild landscape of jumbled rock and jutting crystals as tall as skyscrapers, each pulsing ominously with peculiar emerald light. It was an eerie sight infused with a harsh and terrible beauty whose weirdness sent a shiver through the man. A strange sensation came upon him. At first he thought it merely the result of the uncanny vista of the moon, but when his vision began to swirl he knew with dread certainty that something more than mere feelings was in play.

Instantly he knew it was the unknown radiation. Rutherford had miscalculated. Despite the shielding of the ship the penetrating energy was having an effect faster than the scientist had anticipated. An unexpected bolt of greenish force suddenly leapt from a jutting crystal and flamed against the Earthman’s ship in a coruscation of blazing light.

Shafts of agony tore through Verrin. He screamed, jerked a lever. The ship pulled away from the deadly moon. The stricken man reeled, slumped upon the controls. The communicator hissed and crackled. An anxious voice, broken by static, stabbed him with sharp questions. He groaned, fumbled for a switch. Sparks exploded from the control board. Alarms clamoured dire warnings.

The ship spun, adding to his disorientating giddiness. A moment of fear gripped him. He was off course and plummeting towards the alien world. Verrin thrust aside his pain and terror. He wrestled with the unresponsive controls. Smoke filled the cabin. Sparks snapped and hissed like angry serpents. The tumbling ship hit atmosphere and began to burn. Verrin did the only thing he could – he hit the eject button.

The blast hurled him clear of the stricken vessel. Verrin spun dizzily. The ship exploded. Whirling debris struck his space-armour. His helmet rang like a bell from the impact of a hurtling fragment. The man passed out. His suit’s stabilisers automatically cut in, stilling his mad tumble. The chute self-deployed and the unconscious Earthman slowly drifted towards the ground...

Verrin was brought back to the present by the red flash of a warning light in his helmet. His space armour’s systems, damaged by the explosion, were failing and he was running out of air. Quickly, he broke the helmet’s seal and inhaled the air of an alien world through the open visor. Spectroscopic analysis had shown the atmosphere breathable, with the ratio of gases not too different to that of Earth’s environment. But even so his senses were assailed by strange scents and also odorless organic chemicals that left him feeling so ill he nearly vomited. He hung limply for some time, pale and nauseous, fearing that he was being poisoned by this unknown world. But his body slowly acclimatised, and within half an hour he felt well enough to take further interest in his strange surroundings.

The most immediate problem he faced was how to get out of the tree in which his parachute had become entangled. He looked up and went cold – something long, thin and sinuous was crawling down one of the lines. The creature looked like a spiky amethyst millipede, but must have been at least twelve feet in length. Mandibles resembling bolt cutters snapped viciously and sent droplets of black venom flying. The thing, sensing that it had been spotted, came at him in a sudden rush.

Verrin gasped. He flung up a gauntleted hand and desperately fended off the monster’s shearing jaws and at the same time drew his utility knife from its sheath. He stabbed frantically at the creature. His first blow glanced off its spiky segmented body. The thing hissed, flung itself about him, its claws scrabbling for purchase on his armour.

The creature was incredibly strong. The fearsome pincers inched closer to his sweating face despite his heroic efforts to keep the snapping jaws away. Again he struck – a wild frantic blow. The keen blade bit deeply and Verrin uttered a grunt of satisfaction as the creature writhed away. The thing was badly wounded but still full of fight. It lunged. The desperate man battered its head aside and the copious spray of venom it unleashed missed his face by the narrowest of margins.

With a wild yell Verrin struck with all his strength. His blade pierced the horror's ugly head, fatally wounding it. But his feelings of triumph were cut short – the monster’s acidic venom had sprayed across the chute’s lines. Verrin’s eyes went wide with disbelief as the cables began to smoke. They parted. The man fell. A wild cry was torn from his throat by the sudden plunge. He struck the ground feet first and even though his suit’s shock absorbers took most of the impact he nonetheless tumbled to the earth in a stunned heap.

The monster landed on him with the fall. It convulsed in death. Spasming muscles sprayed more toxin over over him. The alloy of his suit began to hiss and bubble. Verrin swore luridly, shoved off the carcass and scrambled clear. Acidic fumes stung his eyes and throat. In a desperate rush he managed to scramble out of his space-armour without getting any of the vile corrosive on his skin.

He staggered clear of the ruined suit and stood breathing hard as he watched it and his knife disintegrate to a foaming unrecognizable mess. Wiping the sweat from his brow he considered his situation. Clearly he was marooned. Captain Neilson wouldn’t waste more lives on a rescue mission doomed to failure. The Intrepid would commence its exploration of the three remaining worlds of the alien solar system, and upon the completion of its mission return to Earth. He’d be written off as dead.

Thoughts of home brought memories of his family to the fore. His parents and older sister hadn’t been happy about his chosen career. But seeing how his spirit longed for adventure they had given him their support. As his father, John, had said in private to Michelle, his mother: if their son were to meet his end then better for him to be doing something that he loved than remain on Earth and live a safe but stunted life.

Would he ever see his family? Verrin doubted it and was struck hard by the poignancy of the bitter fact. Still, he’d known the risks as had all his folk. It was too late now for regret or self recrimination, and so he turned his mind to the indefinite future that lay before him on this unknown world, the thrill of being the first man to set foot upon thie globe dampened by the knowledge he’d never see his loved ones again.

Verrin set off, pushing his way through the undergrowth of vermillion herbage resembling pampas grass whose panicles were a startling shade of indigo. The Earthman knew he had to find shelter, water and food. Beyond the certainties of those requirements all else was vague and shadowy, and he could only speculate on what the future held. Unarmed, would his death be beneath the ripping claws of some savage predator? Would he succumb to an alien malady, or perhaps die from food that looked edible but was deadly poisen to a human? But pessimism makes a poor companion and so Verrin wisely thrust these thoughts from his mind and pressed onward with renewed resolve to bravely face the future come what may.

A wry smile curved the Earthman’s lips as he pushed onwards, for the irony of his situation was not lost to him. He’d wanted an adventurous life and now it seemed his wish was being granted to the fullest.

With the passing of an hour the forest had given way to a savannah dominated by the pampas-like undergrowth, and Verrin got his first good look at the sky which hitherto had been largely concealed by the dense canopy of trees. The firmament was azure and streaked by cirrus. The planet’s star, which showed no discernible differences from Earth’s sun, shone its benign rays upon the quietly slumbering land.

But within moments the silence was broken by the sound of giant wings flapping. Verrin jerked his head in the direction of the noise. He started in amazement - a flying creature as large as a light aircraft was diving at him. The monster’s wings and body were bat-like. Its four legs, however, resembled those of a bird. The head was more like that of a canine than any earthly flying creature Verrin could think of, as was its pointed ears and the short reddish hair on its body. The thing’s tail, however, was long, whip-like and armed with a venomous sting.

The Earthman turned to run but as he did his foot became entangled in a tussock. He fell, crashed heavily to the ground. The creature swept down upon him like a dive bomber and Verrin feared his brief time upon this world was at an end.

Chapter 2: Menace from the Air

As the monster dived upon Verrin he rolled desperately to one side in a valiant effort to avoid the creature’s whipping sting. The envenomed barb struck earth mere inches from his flesh. For an instant he felt the wind of the monster’s huge wings, their heavy beat and sensed the rush of its swift passage as it swept passed and soared above him.

The alarmed Earthman scrambled to his feet and saw the monster coming about for a second deadly swoop. Verrin gasped in amazement. Something was strapped flat to the creature’s back. He gazed in disbelief – one quick look showed what appeared to be a human figure, then the thing was hurtling at him like a lightning bolt and he had no time for further thought.

Verrin flung himself aside and as he did so he hurled the rock he’d surreptitiously gouged from the earth when he’d hit the ground. The missile struck the creature’s wing. Its pinion crumpled. The thing plummeted and crashed a dozen yards away. The Earthman scrambled to his feet and almost simultaneously the rider of the beast tore free of the creature’s flying harness and, uttering a wild war cry, charged towards him in a fearless rush.

The Earthman had a brief glimpse of flashing limbs and a ferociously painted face; then a short spear was leaping at him in a savage thrust. Verrin dodged, but the wavy spearhead scored a burning line across his side. The Earthman swore, flung himself upon the foe. They wrestled furiously, Verrin gaining the upper hand with his superior strength.

But his opponent was a wily adversary. A sudden jerk, a twist of supple hips and the Earthman was hurled across his foe’s hip and to the ground. Verrin fell heavily but managed to kick out as his assailant snatched up the fallen spear. The Earthman’s antagonist cried out; tumbled to the sward. Verrin leapt upon the foe and struck his fallen enemy unconscious with all the wild power in his brawny arm.

Breathing hard the Earthman picked up the spear, climbed painfully to his feet and gazed upon the remarkable being he had bested, but only just. The humanoid’s hairless skin was burnt orange in colour and barred with black markings much like those of a tiger – markings Verrin had initially mistaken for war paint. The head was capped in short black fur with a bristling white crest running fan-like across the crown from ear to ear.

The ears were small and set close to the head. The face, now in the repose of unconsciousness, possessed a strange inhuman beauty. Small breasts with disproportionally large nipples indicated the being was female. She was clad in a single garment supported by a narrow belt of gold links– a pennant shaped loincloth of light blue embroidered in a crimson diamond pattern, and whose pointed ends were adorned with small gold spheres.

Verrin wiped the sweat from his face. To say that he was nonplussed would have been an understatement. Had his opponent been male the Earthman wouldn’t have hesitated to use deadly force, but being female cast the situation in an entirely different light for it went against his sensibilities to harm a woman. But on the other hand she had tried to kill him without the slightest provocation. Perhaps he should go before she regained consciousness and he was again forced to defend himself.

But then again this was the first intelligent life form any Earthman had encountered, and unfortunately things had gone awry. As a representative of humanity surely he had a duty to set things right and establish friendship if it was possible. He vacillated in indecision, not knowing which course of action to pursue.

But then fate cast the die on his behalf. The girl opened her eyes, which were a startling shade of violet. She tensed in response to the sight of her towering erstwhile foe and the weapon in his hand. Verrin stepped back and lowered the spear hoping his actions would be interpreted as peaceful.

The girl’s wild wariness gave way to a quizzical expression as she gazed upon the Earthman. Now she realized that his grey jumpsuit was not skin but a body hugging garment of outlandish form whose colouration she had at first mistaken for the hide of her people’s savage foes – the dread Nugorri.

But if this being wasn’t a Nugorri then what was it? She felt certain it was a male for the bulges in the skin-tight clothing that it wore indicated as much. The man’s skin was earth brown in colour, his hair slightly curly and of a darker shade. His body was broad shouldered and heavily muscled. His skin was not patterned as was her people’s. His features were strange but not displeasing.

Annuna sensed he wasn’t hostile and out of curiosity decided to let him live, for his defeat of her hadn’t in the least diminished her confidence that she could still best him in a fight. The girl rose slowly, touched her forehead and said “Annuna,” then pointed interrogatively at Verrin. The Earthman gave his name and thus the slow process of establishing communication began.

They conversed for a few minutes in pantomime, but without establishing very much in the way of mutual understanding beyond each other’s names. Eventually Annuna uttered an exasperated sigh, flung up her hands in bemused vexation and gestured for Verrin to follow her.

The girl led him to her flying mount whose neck had been broken by the fall and whose body had cushioned her from what would have been a fatal impact. She pointed to the creature and said “wrygor,” which Verrin correctly guessed was what such beasts were called.

As the girl busied herself salvaging equipment from the carcass the Earthman couldn’t help but feel slightly saddened by the creature’s death, for its dog-like head brought to the fore painful childhood memories of the loss of a favourite pet.

Annuna, having gathered her second spear, a packet of rations and hooked a perforated copper cylinder of unknown function to her belt, all of which had been fastened to the flying harness of the wrygor, motioned Verrin to follow her out upon the vast savannah. The Earthman joined her, for being alone on an alien world there was nothing else that he could really do.

They journeyed for many hours, pushing their way through the tall matanni – the vermillion pampas-like grass that carpeted the rolling plane. Along the way they spotted enormous herds of creatures the Earthman at first thought were giant ostriches. The beasts, which numbered in their tens of thousands, stood at least twelve feet in height and although closely resembling flightless birds were not at all related to the avian genus.

The creatures, named yur by the girl in response to Verrin’s enquiring gaze, were covered in coarse crimson hair barred with a black zebra pattern. Their heads and horns resembled those of an antelope, and they possessed arms, much like those of a kangaroo, with which they tore great tufts of matanni from the earth to feed upon.

Verrin and the girl were about half a mile from the yur when the flighty creatures suddenly stampeded. The scene was instantly transformed from one of bucolic peacefulness to roiling chaos as the mighty herd charged towards the startled pair in a cloud of dust and thundering claws.

Verrin was aghast – half a million panicked animals, each of which weighed at least five hundred pounds were coming straight for them with the speed of a runaway express train. The girl grabbed his hand, tugged him towards a rocky hillock one hundred yards away. The Earthman needed no further urging. Both sprinted madly for the shelter of the rugged knoll.

Behind them the rushing yur came closer, nearer still and the thunderous rumble of their pounding claws seemed like a violent storm’s swift approach. Verrin and the girl strained to the utmost to reach the safety of their goal as a tidal wave of bodies hurtled towards them with frightening swiftness.

The couple, with a final burst of desperate speed, hurled themselves within the shelter of the rocks. The thundering herd split in two, swept around the knoll and the air was choked with the noise and dust of their furious passage. Verrin crouched by Annuna. Each hugged the other, all differences forgotten in their moment of mutual terror.

Wave after wave of the living tide streaked passed and the earth shook with the pounding of a million feet for what seemed an eternity. After them came other forms, sleek and swift. Lean predators of wolf-like mien pursued their frightened prey. Verrin caught a glimpse of them through the roiling dust – thirty creatures as large as buffalos whose scales were patterned in a camouflage of black and crimson spots. Wild hunger burned in their feral eyes and their gaping beak-like jaws were lined with a serrated array of fearsome teeth. It was a brief, terrifying sight; then they were swiftly gone, vanishing into the grimy swirling haze.

The sound of the fleeing herd slowly faded, the dust gradually settled and the couple became aware of each other. Each was caked in grime. Verrin had wrapped the hood of his jumpsuit about his nose and mouth to filter out the smothering dust while the squatting girl had used her loincloth for a similar purpose, which left the Earthman in no doubt as to the gender of his fair companion.

Annuna caught the direction of his gaze, which was more the result of natural curiosity than untoward lasciviousness. The girl thrust her hips provocatively back and forth. Verrin felt his face grow hot and was sure that his blush was visible even through the dirt upon his visage. His companion laughed, dropped her loincloth, rose and gazed across the plain. Verrin, relieved that the girl was more amused than annoyed joined her, and saw a thin dark line on the horizon – the final glimpse of the madly fleeing yur.

Man and girl continued onward, and although Verrin had no Idea where they were headed Annuna’s unhesitating steps clearly showed she knew the direction in which their destination lay. By midafternoon his curiosity was satisfied for their journey had brought them through the chest high matanni to a shallow river valley. Below he saw the broad and glinting watercourse six miles in width that swept around a granite inselberg to form a large island in the middle of the channel.

Upon the nearer banks of the river was a combination of massive fort and ferry terminal that conveyed passengers and goods brought by caravan to the island where a strange and wondrous city stood - a walled city built in tiers that rose to the summit of the monolithic island. Verrin took in the strange scene with wondering eyes. The buildings were cylinders two stories in height whose roofs were gilded domes with spires from which bright pennants fluttered in the breeze.

Between the polished granite pillars of the circular dwellings were timber panels of honey coloured wood that formed the walls, these carved in complex patterns of interlaced circles, squares and polygons that were bewildering to the eye. Windows were circular and doorways arched. Paved streets bordered with flowering shrubs wound between the buildings and added vibrant colour to the scene, which was crowned by the structure at the summit of the isle – a glittering circle of conjoined domes and towers ornamented in tiled patterns of blue, scarlet and amber that glistened with dazzling brightness in the warm sunlight.

“Utaz, my home,” said Annuna, pointing at the city.”

“It is beautiful,” observed Verrin, who by now had a basic knowledge of the girl’s language, for he had been learning her tongue constantly for many hours, and thanks to his amazing memory could now hold simple conversations.

Indeed, the metropolis was an amazing sight, and the spectacle of the alluring architecture would have cost man and girl their lives but for the rustle in the matanni grass behind them which impinged itself upon Annuna’s consciousness. The girl turned, swore. Verrin spun about. Half a dozen beings, hidden by the tall matanni had unexpectedly come upon them. Their grey skins were scaled, their backs armoured like that of a crocodile. The eyes were yellow, the mouths lipless gashes. They were nude, their genitals protected by a short armoured tail that passed between the legs.

A brief moment of surprise ensued; then the Nugorri exploded into violent motion. The beings hurled themselves with reckless fierceness upon the couple. Man and girl leapt apart to avoid the sudden rush. Verrin thrust his spear. A being went down, another leapt at him in an instant. He dodged the vicious thrust and disembowelled his foe with a savage lunge.

Annuna plunged her spear into another enemy. The Nugorri uttered a hissing scream, went down spurting greenish gore. Two more closed in with wolfish swiftness. The girl swiftly parried a lightning thrust, dodged the second being’s swift attack, but in so doing tripped upon a slain foe.

As the girl tumbled Verrin finished his third assailant with a deadly thrust. From the corner of his eye he saw Annuna fall and the foe stab their spears at her. The Earthman yelled, hurled his weapon. One savage fell; the girl rolled and the second foeman’s spear plunged not within her flesh but earth. But in avoiding this attack Annuna struck her head against a rock.

The girl went limp. The Nugorri snarled in dark triumph, raised his spear for a second thrust at his helpless victim. Verrin leapt upon the foe like a savage lion and bore him to the ground. They wrestled madly, the Earthman shocked by his opponent’s enormous strength. The warrior clamped one scaly hand upon his throat in a crushing stranglehold which was like a noose of steel cables. Verrin fought to free himself from his foe’s horrendous grip as the world eddied towards the blackness of oblivion.

Then, when all seemed lost the savage slumped and the fatal pressure eased. The body was dragged off the gasping Earthman and as his vision cleared he saw the worried girl leaning over him, her spear dripping with the foe’s slimy gore.

“I’m all right,” he managed to croak as she helped him to his feet.

Both stood looking at the corpses of the enemy, Verrin was shocked by the carnage which in the heat of battle he hadn’t had time to think about. He was appalled and came close to throwing up, but managed to control himself. This was a savage world and if he were to survive he’d have to harden up. The girl he noted, apart from the bruise where she’d hit her head against the rock, didn’t appear affected in the least by this sight of blood and guts strewn upon the earth.

The interlude, which had allowed both to regain their breath, was put to a dramatic end: The tall grass parted. Twelve more Nugorri stepped into view and gazed upon their slain brothers who had merely been the vanguard of a larger fighting force. Their yellow eyes glowed with hate as they fixed their burning orbs upon the startled couple, preparatory to wreck vengeance upon the pair.

Chapter 3: Battle in the Valley

A wild cry exploded from the foe. As one the Nugorri rushed the couple, howling bloodlust like a pack of savage curs. Annuna tore the perforated cylinder from her belt, twisted the device and hurled it before the charging savages. In an instant thick crimson smoke billowed from the object’s perforations and engulfed the enemy in an acrid cloud of swirling vapour.

“Hurry”, cried Annuna as she sprinted for the valley’s lip. Verrin was close behind her in an instant. Both scrambled madly down the treacherous declivity. The Earthman risked a look behind him. A plume of crimson smoke was mounting to the azure sky. The Nugorri staggered from the blood red cloud, coughing, spluttering and half blind from the irritating vapours.

A rock slid out from under Verrin’s feet and he nearly fell. The Earthman quickly gave his full attention to the perilous descent. The savages were momentarily incapacitated, but he suspected it wouldn’t be for long – a breeze had sprung up and was rapidly dissipating the debilitating smoke.

Slipping and sliding, man and girl made the valley floor in a rattle of loosened stones. Annuna threw a glance behind her. Verrin beheld her grim expression and guessed its cause. He turned and what he saw was far more terrible than he’d anticipated. Yes, the wild foe had recovered and were after them with swift and reckless speed, but infinitely worse was the frightening sight of five hundred Nugorri braves that lined the valley’s rim, serrated spears glittering and painted shields adorned with savage art.

A deafening howl rose up from the wild hoard and in an instant a mass of bodies was pouring down the valley’s sides like a swarm of army ants. Verrin needed no prompting as to what to do. He and the girl sprinted madly for the fort, the screaming savages’ crazed battle-cries spurring them like a devil ridden horse.

The distance to the fort was perhaps a mile at the most, but the couple’s previous exertions soon began to tell. Verrin could see Annuna’s strength was flagging. The girl was nearly spent and his strength was also giving out. The Earthman risked a glance behind him and the sight drove a twisting blade of fear within his guts. The massed foe was bearing down upon them and in but moments would be close enough to hurl their deadly spears.

A gong sounded its brazen cry drawing his attention to the massive fort from whence the brassy clamour came. The mighty gates had swung open and from the arched doorway poured a stream of six hundred mounted warriors clad in scale armour of blue and yellow. Their steeds were domesticated versions of the wild yur that had nearly trampled the girl and him to death. A war horn bellowed its martial cry. The cavalry swiftly drew in line; then upon another blaring signal exploded into violent charge.

A wave of dizziness struck Annuna. She stumbled, fell, her strength completely spent. Verrin staggered to her side his condition little better. He tried to lift the girl who had fainted from fatigue, but found he hadn’t the strength. The Earthman swore. He looked back and saw that the Nugorri had forgotten them for the moment and were preparing to meet their charging foes.

The thunderous rumble of the cavalry drew the Earthman’s worries gaze. He saw the mounted warriors, now less than fifty yards away had couched their lances in preparation to smash against the Nugorri shield wall. But that did little to comfort Verrin for he and the girl would now be caught in the midst of a ferocious engagement.

So near were the charging warriors that Verrin could feel the earth trembled beneath the pounding of their racing steeds. The knights’ lance heads glinted cruelly in the sun as they hurtled at the foe with the swift ferocity of plummeting eagles. Verrin, although he knew it was a futile act, flung himself upon the unconscious girl in a desperate bid to shield her from the looming charge and the trampling claws of the paladin's weird steeds.

No sooner had he flung himself upon Annuna that something struck Verrin painfully in the back. He was hauled aloft. The ground fell away dizzily as he was swept into the air with terrifying rapidity. His heart raced wildly with fright and confusion. He looked down. Another flying creature darted in and snatched Annuna from the path of the charging cavalry, whisked her away. The Earthman looked up. He saw he was caught in the claws of a wrygor – the same kind of flying mount the girl had ridden when she’d attacked him. All four of the creature’s talons had sunk into his flesh of his arms and legs, holding him in a secure but agonizing grip that made his senses reel.

A tremendous crash burst through the Earthman’s agony. Verrin looked back. The mounted warriors had smashed against the Nugorri shield wall. A wild melee had erupted. Some knights were down, felled by well cast spears. The corpses of the gray foe lay scattered about, broken lances imbedded deeply in their scaly carcasses. It was close quarters fighting now. The knights had cast aside their lances and drawn long hafted spiked maces, which they were wielding with destructive ferocity.

The Nugorri replied with equal violence, stabbing at the warriors, bringing them down in a welter of gore and screams of agony. Rising dust churned up by the raging battle obscured the scene, which grew small with distance as the Earthman was carried across the river and towards the shining building atop the isle’s peak. This was the last scene Verrin saw before he fainted from the agonizing grip of the wrygor’s claws, and knew no more.

**********

Verrin sat on a stone bench and gazed across the city from one of the many wide balconies of the tower apartment he had been given. Three days had passed. His wounds had healed thanks to his genetic enhancements, and by now he was more fluent in Niaz, the language of the region, and had a better understanding of the situation upon this world its inhabitants called Basharba.

To the north was a high range of mountains called the Nugor from which the river Xi flowed, and along whose banks flourished many city states of which Utaz, Annuna’s home, was the second most northerly settlement, with Hota being the furthermost. Utaz and Hota were age old rivals, the source of contention being the rich alluvial gold deposits that lay on the disputed border of their territories.

An alliance between the rival powers had recently been achieved by Kymax, Annuna’s father who was the elected head of the nobility – not really a king, but more like a mayor with some of the trappings of sovereignty, and whose title was keopae, meaning “chief.” Annuna herself was the Paymi, or high priestess of Iosu, the female Creator that was worshipped throughout the cities of the river valley.

Woman had considerable equality in Utaz thanks to the Creator being a goddess, and with this came the responsibility of defending their city, and thus it was that Annuna had been out on air patrol looking for Nugorri raiders who often came down from the northern mountains to plunder the rich caravan routes.

Indeed, Utaz was under siege at the moment. The Nugorri war party from which Verrin and the girl had been rescued was merely the vanguard of a thousand more that had rushed out of the concealing matanni to join their brothers battling the cavalry. The combined force had rolled over the knights of Utaz in a tidal wave of unstoppable violence. The enemy had then overrun the fort by scaling the garrison’s high walls with ladders, and massacred the defenders with only a handful of survivors escaping to report the enemy’s atrocities.

Verrin gazed across the river to its western bank and grimaced as he laid eyes on the fort now occupied by the savage invaders, whose unwelcome presence had effectively isolated Utaz from neighboring cities. Last night under the cover of darkness five black war canoes, each packed with a hundred soot smeared warriors, had stealthily swept in from the southern bank to launch a bold strike against the city’s water gate. The swarming Nugorri had tried to breach the portal with a battering ram and climb the walls with ladders only to be driven back by a storm of Utazan arrows. Considering the size of the enemy force it was strange indeed, mused Verrin, that so large an army had slipped through undetected by the air patrols of Hota, Utaz’s supposed ally.

The Earthman’s thoughts were interrupted by the beat of many wings. He looked up and saw a dozen wrygor winging towards him from the north, the sunset setting their wings ablaze with its crimson light. The formation swept overhead and passed from view, no doubt arrowing towards one of the many rooftop landing stages. From conversations he’d overheard, he suspected the flyers would be the Keopae of Hota and his party, come to discuss joint military action against the barbarian invaders.

His surmise was confirmed an hour later by the arrival of Unia, Annuna’s twin sister. Night had fallen and Verrin, who had been gazing at the stars forlornly searching for Sol, turned at the sound of his name. The girl leaned against the balcony’s doorway in a languid and sensuous pose, her figure limned by the soft light of fragrant oil lamps. It was a scene the Earthman found disturbingly enticing.

Unia regarded him with an inviting smile as she spoke. “My father the keopae requires your presence so he may present you to the delegation from Hota,” she explained.

“I am honoured by the keopae,” replied Verrin diplomatically as he rose and followed the girl, watching the alluring sway of the temple dancer’s shapely hips, which were accentuated by the brief garment that she wore. The girl turned her head and smiled knowingly. The Earthman felt his face grow hot. Many months had passed since he’d experienced the pleasure of a woman’s intimate embrace and he couldn’t deny that Unia, like her sister, was exceedingly attractive; nor could it be denied both girls’ interest in him was clear for all to see.

Verrin, of course, was sensible enough to be extremely cautious about becoming romantically involved with either one. The last thing the Earthman needed was to breach the local mores and have their father screaming for the executioner. Although the keopae was grateful to him for having fought beside his daughter, the Earthman couldn’t be certain of his long term future: Kymax was fully occupied in dealing with the invaders, and hadn’t time to give full consideration to the Earthman’s presence and all that it implied.

Indeed, Verrin knew he could easily upset the world view of this culture if he made known the truth of his origin, for they considered the heavens the abode of Divinity, and these people were human enough to feel threatened by what to them would shake the foundations of their venerable beliefs. If he revealed to them the Universe as it was rather than as they thought it to be...

These were the thoughts that occupied Verrin as he followed Unia down the spiral stairway of the tower and along a grand hall ornamented in bright frescos portraying scenes form Utazan mythology, with prominence given to the world’s origin. Iosu, the Creator, was depicted as a voluptuous four breasted woman set among the stars, and in one panel dedicated to the creation of life showed a stream of living things issuing from her well spread vagina and falling to the disc-shaped surface of Basharba. Verrin smiled wryly. The Utazans were a rather uninhibited earthy lot who had little time for prudishness.

The Earthman’s musings on religion and science were interrupted by a funfair of horns as he and Unia approached one of the many side entrances to the spacious audience hall – a huge colonnaded structure fronted by a broad terrace that gave magnificent views of both city and the river Xi. The blaring notes died away as Verrin and the girl stepped across the threshold and walked beneath the high vaulted dome towards a group of brightly dressed figures – six Hotan nobles and an equal number of Kymax’s advisors - seated on a long semicircular bench before the keopae’s dais. The Earthman braced himself for the humiliating ordeal of being exhibited – as if he were not a man but an exotic pet.

All eyes were upon the Earthman as he approached, and a murmur of speculation broke out among the delegation from Hota as he halted before kymax, knelt and touched his forehead to the marble floor as protocol demanded. Unia and her father exchanged formal greetings. The girl took her seat and Kymax turned his attention to the Earthman. The keopae sensed Verrin’s discomfort at being the centre of unwanted attention, and regarded him with mild amusement. He rose from his golden bench – a tall imposing figure, heavily muscled, his granite-like face made harsher by ugly battle scars.

“This is the strange being my daughter Annuna discovered on patrol. Pitar, as Keopae of Hota and my ally, you may be the first to examine the fellow – a wanderer from a distant and unknown land called Earth, or so he claims.”

A man arose from his fellows. His bearing was haughty, and imperiousness was stamped upon his rugged visage in sneering and contemptuous lines. Pitar, Keopae of Hota, swaggered towards the prostrate Earthman and looked down upon him with evident disdain.

“A distant land? Bah, that sounds evasive to me,” observed Pitar with a cruel smile. “If he were my prisoner hot irons would soon have the truth out of him.”

Verrin, whose ire had already risen at being on display, was hard pressed to contain his growing fury. He’d gotten a look at Pitar as he’d entered the room and had taken an instant dislike to the fellow, his feelings now further inflamed by the arrogant keopae’s wanton abrasiveness.

“Well fellow, from what strange land do you truly hail?” continued Pitar. “Are all there as ugly as you? If so your women must be like the girl in the Tale of Ima who being blind mated with a heax by mistake.”

A roar of laughter erupted from the Hotan delegation and even Kymax and his advisors grinned, for the well known ribald story and its comparison to Verrin tickled their earthy sense of humour.

Unia angrily rose from her seat, the only one not impressed. “Father,” she cried as she shot Pitar a withering glance of utter contempt. “I must protest. This man saved my beloved sister. He is our guest, not a source of debased amusement for the Keopae of Hota.”

Pitar, being a sadist and seeing he had successfully nettled both Earthman and girl, toed his victim the ribs for good measure before his host could reply. “Well fellow,” he grinned. Do you need a woman to defend you? Answer my questions, or are you as dumb as you are undoubtedly ugly?”

It was the last straw for Verrin. All the pent up frustration and anger brought on by his situation suddenly exploded in uncontrolled fury. He shot to his feet and slammed his fist against Pitar’s jaw with all the force of a sledgehammer. The stunned keopae reeled and crashed to the floor in a bleeding and undignified heap.

“How’s that for an answer?” snarled Verrin, all caution swept away in a torrent of rage.

There ensued a moment of stunned silence, then a howl of outrage exploded form Pitar’s followers. Swords drawn they rushed at Verrin and in an instant the Earthman was fighting for his life amidst a swirl of hissing of blades.

Chapter 4: The Enemy Within

Verrin ducked beneath one assailant’s swinging sword. He caught the man about the throat and crotch, heaved the startled fellow high above his head, and with a wild yell flung him among the foe. Two men went down. The remaining pair rushed the Earthman in a pincer movement.

But Verrin wasn’t standing still. He dived, rolled between his converging foes, his unorthodox move catching both by surprise. The Earthman leapt to his feet and in his strong hands were two swords he’d snatched from the floor. Steel rang against steel. One noble staggered back, clutching a slashed arm; the other came on undaunted.

“Guards, guards” cried Kymax above the din of clashing, sparking blades.

From the corner of his eye Verrin glimpsed a rush of fifteen armoured figures. His opponent grinned, only to lose it when the furious Earthman came at him in a tornado of whirling steel. The noble, pale of face, retreated under the twin blades’ hammering onslaught. A vicious blow tore the sword from his hand. It clattered as it struck the floor. Verrin lashed out with a brutal kick and sent his foe crashing after it.

The wild Earthman turned to face the charging guards. He knew the situation was hopeless but such was his fury that he relished the opportunity to kill as many of them as he could before they cut him down.

The brassy cry of a gong rang out, the sound echoing thunderously from the domed roof in a peal of jolting noise. The guards halted and all eyes turned to the author of the deafening clamour.

Annuna stood next to a wheeled table-like alter beneath which was the gong she had violently struck. The girl swept her audience with a frosty gaze, which settled on Kymax. Annuna raised an eyebrow and her father shuffled uneasily under her silent rebuke, for well he knew the fury of his daughter’s tongue and the power of her office as Paymi, or high priestess of Iosu.

“Need I remind those present,” said Annuna in a soft but deadly voice, “that no violence of any kind, least of all bloodshed, is allowed when the rituals of the Creator are performed.”

Kymax forced a smile. He knew he had to diffuse the situation, and quickly. “It is merely a little entertainment before the commencement of your ceremony to bless our conference concerning the Nugorri threat. I admit all of us are rather boisterous and things got somewhat out of hand, that’s all.”

“Oh, what nonsense,” cried Unia. “The Keopae of Hota...”

“Enough,” said Kymax sternly. “Gentlemen,” he continued, turning to the visiting nobles, “kindly hand your weapons to my guards and resume your seats so the ritual of benediction can commence.”

Pitar, who had risen to his feet, wiped the blood from his mouth as he and Verrin were disarmed. He threw the Earthman a murderous look that boded future trouble. Verrin, now in a calmer mood, gave the fellow a mocking bow. “I trust,” he said sarcastically, “that the Keopae of Hota found this evening’s entertainment to his satisfaction.”

Fury etched harsh lines upon Pitar’s visage. The guards closed in as he clenched his fists and took a step towards the grinning Earthman. Pitar gave the hard faced warriors a sour look. Outnumbered he turned, stalked away and stiffly took his seat in a ferment of impotent rage. The rest of the Hotans followed their leader’s example, except for the one whose arm Verrin had slashed, this fellow being escorted to the personal physician of his host.

As the guards took up their stations behind the Hotan delegation to ensure no further trouble eventuated, Verrin, who had been led to one side by a burly warrior, shifted his attention to the Paymi of Iosu and her exotic entourage. Annuna was accompanied by three female musicians completely nude but for jewel encrusted golden masks, each one representing an aspect of the Goddess’ creative power – Eled (being), Nazu (the process of creative manifestation) and Tufor (the dynamic energy that animates the Cosmos).

The women bore strange instruments that looked like a cross between a French horn and tambourine. Each was a circular tube of glass with a mouthpiece and leadpipe that formed a frame over which an animal skin drumhead was stretched. The bell of the instrument curved onto the drumhead so that when blown it vibrated sympathetically, creating eerie pseudo-reverberations.

Seeing that order had been restored, Annuna issued commands. The musicians moved the wheeled shrine they had been pushing into position, and took up their stations on one side. Unia rose and stood by the high priestess. Both women bowed to the statuette of the Creator mounted on the altar. At Annuna’s touch incense fumed from a golden censer before the idol, and as the girl began a lilting chant Unia turned and commenced her untamed dance to the accompaniment of the strange instruments’ wild drumbeat.

The girl’s performance was one of erotic abandon – a dramatic expression of the Goddesses’ creative prowess in bringing forth life and fertility. Her hips undulated provocatively, her body arched, shook in convincing imitation of unrestrained passion that set the Earthman aflame.

Verrin looked away, not because he found the dance uninteresting or without artistic merit, but because he was now attired in a simple loincloth, his other clothes being too soiled to wear, and if he kept watching Unia’s performance things would soon become rather embarrassing, at least for him.

The Earthman scanned the audience in an effort to distract himself, and his eyes came to rest on Pitar. The man wore an ill-concealed expression of lust, and at first Verrin thought he, too, had been stirred by Unia’s erotic dancing. But then he saw the fellow’s lecherous stare wasn’t following the girl’s movements of wild explicitness.

Puzzled, Verrin turned and saw that the Keopae of Hota had eyes only for the Paymi of Iosu. The Earthman recalled snatches of servant gossip he had heard – that Pitar had been wooing Annuna, but that the girl had found him uncouth and therefore rejected his clumsy attempts to seduce her.

The thought of Pitar laying lecherous hands on the girl kindled a flame of hot anger in Verrin. The Earthman clenched his fists and shot a baneful look at the Hotan. Before he’d merely considered the fellow an enemy, but now a more primal hatred burned fiercely in Verrin, and the Earthman was startled by its sudden and unexpected ferocity. But before he could contemplate the import of his wild emotions the distant clamour of multiple alarm gongs cut off his musings, and brought a sudden halt to Unia’s Bacchanal dance.

Kymax shot to his feet and uttered an oath. Leaping from his dais he strode from the room and down a short flight of steps to the broad terrace that fronted the audience chamber with the others trailing after him. The keopae quickly discerned the red warning flare that sprang from the tower abutting the southern water gate.

“The Nugorri have breached the gateway,” gasped the incredulous keopae. “But how?” he said to himself. “I inspected the defences myself. They were undamaged from the initial attack of the savages.”

As if in answer to Kymax’s rhetorical question a winged shape flew out of the darkness. The wrygor landed on the broad terrace. A warrior slid from the creature’s back and staggered to the keopae, one hand trying to staunch the blood flowing from his wounded side. Kymax caught the fellow in his arms as he collapsed.

“Treachery,” croaked the dying man. “Assassins ... our guards murdered... The gates ... flung wide.” The warrior coughed. Blood flecked his pale lips. He tired to speak, but couldn’t. Then, with a trembling hand, he pointed at a figure in the crowd and gasped his last breath out.

A babble of consternation erupted from the throng. Who had the dead guard marked as the traitor with his dying act? Each face was stamped with emotion – shock, fear, growing anger at this act of cowardly betrayal. In an instant the crowd, their narrow eyes loaded with suspicion, were casting darting glances of mistrust at their fellows, for death had claimed the warrior before heads could turn and gaze upon the turncoat.

Verrin, who had hung back from the crowd on the uppermost step, saw it all from his vantage point. The warrior had clearly pointed at the Keopae of Hota! But before the Earthman could cry a warning Pitar whipped a concealed dagger from beneath his loincloth and with a sneer of dark triumph hurled it at his host. Kymax gasped, collapsed. Annuna and Uina screamed. In an instant the Hotan delegation drew their hidden weapons and fell upon the fallen keopae’s advisors.

The Earthman cursed, snatched a statuette from a nearby pedestal and hurled it at Pitar, but the wily Hotan saw it coming, nimbly leapt aside and laughed contemptuously at his adversary. Verrin swore. The fight was now personal. He bounded down the steps and into the wild brawl. The Earthman slammed his fist against the nape of a Hotan who had one of Kymax’s advisors on the floor and was about to slit his throat. The fellow collapsed. Verrin grabbed his dagger and met the rush of another deadly foeman.

The snarling Hotan brought his blade down in a hammering blow. Verrin caught his opponent’s wrist. They wrestled furiously, fought with the savagery of wild dogs as the mad melee swirled around them. The Earthman’s opponent tried to knee him in the groin. Verrin jammed his own knee into his foe’s thigh, blocking the rising blow. The Hotan grunted. Verrin jerked his man off balance, flung him to the floor and stomped on his head with killing force.

Cries of outrage drew the Earthman’s glance. Kymax’s guards were swarming down the stairs. Verrin grinned. The keopae’s warriors would soon wreck bloody vengeance on Pitar. But the Earthman’s hopes were swiftly dashed. A swarm of enemy wrygors swept down from the night time sky. Glass spheres dropped from their claws and shattered upon the rushing guards. Flames exploded in a flare of lurid light as the chemical they contained ignited upon contact with the air. Men screamed as they were enveloped in shrouds of fire, collapsed in writhing, burning heaps.

Above the screams another cry made Verrin spin about. The battle between Kymax and Pitar’s men hadn’t slackened for a moment, and through the wild fray he saw a sight that made him burn with rage. Uina was struggling madly with Pitar, each trying to knife the other. Annuna lay at their feet. Was she dead or merely unconscious? The Earthman feared the worst and at the thought a feral scream of utter wrath erupted from his throat. Verrin, possessed by berserk fury, rammed his way through the struggling figures, scattering men like dolls as he madly dashed towards his brutal foe.

Pitar glimpsed Verrin coming at him, and although no coward the Hotan quailed at the look of savage rage upon the Earthman’s face. With a wild yell he hurled Unia away. The girl stumbled back, tripped on a corpse and fell heavily as twelve of the circling wrygor landed on the terrace in a whirl of back beating wings.

Warriors leapt from the beasts and flung themselves into the wild fight as more of Kymax’s guards erupted from the audience hall. Verrin saw Pitar stoop, fling Annuna across his shoulder and mount a wrygor. The surviving Hotan nobles retreated and swiftly followed suit as their swordsmen clashed in a savage delaying action with the Utazan blades.

Verrinn, his dagger now dripping with the gore of several foes, stabbed his way through the chaos of blood and death in a desperate bid to reach Pitar, but it was too late – the Keopae’s wrygor lifted on a beat of powerful wings and shot into the night sky from which came the mocking laugh of its triumphant rider.

The Earthman, beside himself with rage and fear for the girl, charged a Hotan noble in the act of mounting his aerial steed. In a calmer moment Verrin may have hesitated, but his actions were purely instinctual – Annuna had been kidnapped and he must pursue her abductor. Verrin leapt, flung himself on the man’s back as the wrygor took to the air, its brawny pinions carrying both men aloft with amazing ease.

The ground swiftly fell away as the Earthman clung to the creature’s harness and tried to stab its rider and take possession of the wrygor. The Hotan fought back with desperate strength. He twisted violently, flinging the Earthman off before he could land a blow. Verrin slid over the side but managed to retain his grip upon the harness. He stabbed again. His foe fended off the Earthman’s savage thrust while beneath them sections of the city burned as it was laid waste by a hoard of rampaging Nugorri armed with Hotan supplied fire bombs, their wild advance barely checked by the frantic defenders.

Verrin’s dangling body began to interfere with the wrygor’s flight. The creature became erratic as both men battled for its possession. It soared and plunged like a wild bronco, the unpredictable movements a distraction to the desperate Earthman – a distraction that proved his swift undoing. The Hotan seized his wrist. Both men fought like arm wrestlers in deadly earnest. But the Earthman’s foe was the stronger man. He laughed savagely, gave Verrin’s wrist a brutal twist. The Earthman gasped. The dagger fell from his hand and his foe slammed a blocky fist against his jaw. Verrin grunted under the impact of the savage blow. Yet he clung with the tenacity of a limpet and raised his arm to block another savage punch, but it was a cleaver feint on the part of his opponent. Instead, the wily Hotan hammered the Earthman’s fingers with his fist. Verrin gasped and lost his hold. He fell and uttered a wild yell as he plunged in a fatal dive to the ground five hundred feet below.

Chapter 5: Horror in the Ruins

As Verrin tumbled to the ground a rush of fear came upon him in a wild torrent of utter terror. A burning building lay below him, its lurid light illuminating a melee of Nugorri and Utazans locked in screaming unbridled violence. He would plunge within the seething inferno. The only thing he could hope for was that the fall would kill him in an instant.

The fames rushed up. He could feel their heat. He closed his eyes in preparation for the end. Then something struck him in the back with forceful agony that made him gasp in pain. Verrin looked up. A wrygor had seized him in its talons. The creature rose, swiftly lifting him away from the raging flames. It banked sharply and dropped him upon the landing stage of a building well clear of the scene of battle.

Verrin struggled to his feet as the creature landed some yards away. Had his foe returned to torment him? The Earthman tensed as a figure slid from the wrygor’s back and rushed towards him. To his amazement and relief he saw that it was Unia. The girl had followed his example and seized an enemy wrygor, but with more success than the Earthman.

“Are you badly hurt?” gasped the girl as she drew level with Verrin.

“Only from the wrygor’s talons,” he replied. “But that is nothing compared to what I would have suffered if you hadn’t saved me.”

Unia seized his arm. “Come, I will dress your wounds. Then we must pursue Pitar and rescue Annuna and,” she continued grimly as she led him to the waiting wrygor, “avenge all those who have suffered by his treachery.”

“Your father? I saw him fall,” he asked as she used a first aid kit from the beast’s harness to tend his wounds with an antiseptic sap that quickly set to an elastic film.

Unia was silent for a moment as she controlled her wild emotions. “He is dead,” she replied with a quiver in her voice. “Udamin, our chief advisor, has taken control of the situation. The Nugorri will be driven out of the city, but at great cost that will leave Utaz badly weakened.

“Pitar must have conspired with the Nugorri chieftains in this attack, the savages’ reward being the sack of Utaz and all its loot. Now that we are weakened the Hotan keopae will be able to seize our gold mines that he has so long coveted. There, your wounds are dressed. We must go now without further delay. Already, the lead they have upon us is too great, and there are no other warriors to spare for the chase.”

Man and girl mounted the Wrygor. They quickly strapped themselves on the narrow confines of the creature’s back. In but moments the powerful wings of their beast had carried them high into the air and they were swiftly racing beneath the starry sky in pursuit of the Keopae of Hota and his fair hostage. Three of the planet’s moons filled the heavens, casting their eerie emerald radiance upon the night time scene. Beneath, the broad river Xi shone with a greenish tinge, the surrounding landscape was mellowed by starlight. Onward they flew; the city and its glare of flames and battle swallowed up behind them by the throat of night.

Their journey passed largely in silence, Verrin occupied with battling the inner demons of worry that tormented him with frightening visions of the fate that would likely befall Annuna at the hands of her ruthless captor. And what were his true feelings for the girl? Was it love or just desire borne from all the frustrations of enforced celibacy? The girl was attractive, but not human, and there could well be subtle differences that would make a meaningful relationship impossible. All these disturbing thoughts came crowding in on Verrin’s mind immersing him in quiet introspection.

Unia was also rather taciturn, her mind a ferment of equally disturbing thoughts as she drove the wrygor onward, pushing the beast to the limit of its endurance, constantly searching the heavens for any sign of her sister’s cruel abductors. But one can only worry so much before mental anguish becomes unbearable. In a bid to distract herself from such torment Unia began to teach the Earthman how to fly the beast, which was a simple matter of pulling on a rod connected to a collar about the wrygor’s neck. Pulling up made the beast ascend, pushing down made it descend; pulling left or right changed its course in the direction of the tug. Changing the creature’s pace was accomplished by slapping the left side of its neck to decrease speed and the right side to increase the rapidity of its flight.

Another hour passed before Unia broke her instruction with a gasp.

“Annuna is near,” cried the girl, excitedly. “As twins we are very close, and I can often sense her presence. Down there,” Unia pointed.

Verrin looked. Ahead, by the banks of the immense river whose meandering course they were following, lay a city. At first he thought it was Hota but then, by the faint light of stars and moons, he saw it was an ancient ruin of dim antiquity. Once proud columns had tumbled to fallen heaps; mighty walls had crumbled, and the windows of those few buildings that remained stared like the empty eye sockets of bleached skulls, filled with mournful darkness at the passing of their youthful glory.

The Earthman felt the girl next to him shiver slightly, her initial enthusiasm giving way to stabbing apprehension. Her reaction was a mirror to his own feelings which the sight of the ancient ruin had engendered – an eerie sense of unease as if some hidden menace of time lost ages lurked within, and cast its dark aura about the forlorn scene of lonely desolation.

“Oh,” gasped Unia, recognising what lay before them. “Oh, the fools; they have landed in accused Umur, dread haunt of the Shadow Beast. What utter madness!”

“Is this Shadow Beast a dangerous predator, and if so why would the Hotans land there?” enquired Verrin in a puzzled voice as the girl swiftly guided their mount towards the dead city whose green tinged whiteness gleamed faintly in the emerald moons’ light.

“Umur is ancient,” explained the girl, worriedly. “It was a time worn ruin when, two thousand years ago, our remote ancestors raised up the first stone of Utaz. According to legend Umur was once the abode of powerful sorcerers (and of these my people have a most dreadful fear) who were destroyed by demonic forces.

“My sister, being the Paymi of Iosu, could tell you more for she is privy to many secrets. Of what I can be sure, however, is no fable: those of my people who have tried to explore the dead city have been overcome by a presence – the sense of a hidden and malevolent watcher whose invisible eyes fills them with such dread that they have no choice but to flee.

“During my grandfather’s time Taykon, a young adventurer, braver or perhaps more foolish than the rest, bragged he would spend the night in the ruins and prove once and for all that there was nothing to fear. In the morning his friends found him. He was quite dead – horribly burned as if his entire body had been bathed in fire.

“Thus the name Shadow Beast was given to the evil spirit that haunts dread Umur – the ghosts of its sorcerers or a demon conjured up by their dark magic, who can say? Pitar’s wrygor is carrying a double load. My guess is that he has pushed his beast too hard and has been forced to land despite his feelings of unease. He and his men may not know of the story, for these ruins are within our territory, or if they do know they may discount it as mere superstition, for their culture is, I must admit, more sophisticated in some ways than our own. Be this as it may Annuna is in great peril for the danger, though mysterious, is very real.”

Unia swept in low – a risky move if the enemy were watching, but such was her fear engendered urgency. No camp fires were visible, the Hotans’ obviously not wishing to give their positions away. Beneath them all was moon shadows, pools of darkness and green tinged stone overgrown in many places with choking verdure. Verrin’s sense of unease increased. He didn’t know what to make of Unia’s story, which to his scientific mind seemed mere primitive superstition.

As they passed above the ruins a flitting eerie movement caught the Earthman’s eye and raised his nape hairs. Something was down there – dark, indistinct, but pregnant with mystery and unreasoning terror. He gripped Unia’s shoulder and pointed, fear frozen words choking his throat.

The girl nodded. She, too, had seen the thing before it merged with deep shadows – a strange pulsing patch of gliding crimson flecked darkness that filled her with a sense of deep disquiet. Despite her rising fear Unia turned her mount and sent the wrygor spiralling towards the ground. The beast fought her guiding hand – it, too, sensed the fell and unknown menace that lurked within the ancient night cloaked ruins. With difficulty she brought the wrygor to earth and quieted it as best she could.

Verrin and the girl dismounted, drawing weapons from the wrygor’s harness. Both paused for a moment to tether the beast to a shrub least it flee in goading fear. Then they looked about, wary as cats in a dog pound. The air was thick with a presence of palpable evil. Shadows seemed to leer at them from among the fallen stones like living entities of darkness. The wind rose, moaning softly through the ruins, and gave voices to the sullen night whose blackness seemed to weigh upon them like a lead spun shroud.

Wordlessly the Earthman pointed at huddled shapes in the darkness. Man and girl cautiously approached and as they drew near saw the corpses of men strewn about. Verrin felt a scream of horror crawl up his throat at the sight of the bodies. He stifled the cry and turned away shaken to the core of his being.

“Don’t look,” he croaked in warning to Unia.

But the girl had already seen the sickening sight. She gasped; then quickly looked away, pale and trembling, for the corpses were twisted husks of men burned terribly, almost beyond recognition, by the agony of torturing fire.

A sudden scream sundered the night – a woman’s scream that was imbued with incalculable fear.

“Annuna,” cried Verrin as he pointed. “Her scream came from that building over there.”

Both dashed for the crumbling structure, vaulting fallen columns and other debris in a frenzy of wild haste. Up the building’s broken steps they dashed and leapt across the threshold, only to come to a speechless halt at the confronting sight before them.

Pitar and Annuna, the sole survivors apart from several wrygor, had retreated within the building. Both were cornered on a kind of dais against the room’s back wall and before them was the advancing Shadow Beast. The thing was a quivering disc of menacing blackness that floated about a foot above the floor. Eight tentacles, which writhed like serpents, sprung from around the circumference of its body and waving eyestalks of equal number sprouted from the creature’s centre.

The chamber was saturated by overwhelming horror that radiated from the Shadow Beast as it glided towards its victims, its writhing tentacles which pulsed with bands of leaping fire, hungrily reaching for the helpless duo. Pitar, his face etched with grimness had the girl before him, a cruel blade pressed against her throat. Fury drove out the Earthman’s fear – the swine was using Annuna as a living shield. A cry of wrath burst wildly from his throat. He charged at the creature, all thoughts of danger to himself utterly discounted.

Annuna, at the sound of Verrin’s shout, tore her frightened gaze from the advancing monster. His valiant dash, a sharp contrast to the ruthless wretch behind her, instilled hope and courage within the bosom of the girl, and her beloved sister quickly following roused her spirits further.

“Beware its fatal burning touch,” she cried in dire warning to the both of them.

The Shadow Beast halted as it sensed movement to its rear, and several eyestalks focused on the racing couple, now mere yards away. The thing vacillated for a moment as to whom it should attack. Pitar didn’t hesitate – he thrust the girl at the monster in a callous bid to save himself.

Annuna screamed as she teetered. Verrin uttered a wild yell, vaulted the beast and caught the girl as she fell. Both crashed upon the dais’ steps. Unia vaulted the confused monster, barely avoiding the hungry reach of its flaming limbs. Pitar thrust at her with his sword. She parried the blow mid leap, collided with him, the force of impact driving the Hotan against the dais’ central pedestal with such force that he dropped his sword.

Verrin scrambled up, dragging Annuna clear of the Shadow Beast, which was now gliding sinisterly towards them. The Earthman saw Unia wrestling furiously with Pitar as he Annuna raced madly up the steps, the monster hot upon their heels. He leapt to the girl’s defence and slammed the pommel of his sword against the Hotan’s skull. Pitar went down. Annuna screamed a dire warning.

“Behind you,” cried the frantic girl.

The Earthman leapt away, narrowly evading the Shadow Beast’s reaching tentacles. He flung his sword at the creature. The whirling blade passed right through and clattered upon the floor, but the weird entity came on, unharmed. Verrin looked on in utter shock. The monster’s body was like black mist. Weapons couldn’t harm it any more than they could harm vapour, and in but seconds the fell creature would embrace him in its burning limbs.

Chapter 6: Ambush in the Dark

The monster flung one flaming tentacle at Verrin. The frantic Earthman dodged, shouted: “Run for the exit while I distract it.”

Again the spectral monster came at him and he leapt behind the dais’ pedestal in a futile bid to shield himself from the thing. From the edge of vision he glimpsed both girls dash away, but his relief was short lived – rather than fleeing they ran behind the Shadow Beast, snatched up chunks of fallen masonry, and began to hurl rubble at the creature in a frenzied effort to distract it from the Earthman.

“Get out of here,” shouted Verrin, appalled at the risk the girls were taking.

The Shadow Beast halted its advance upon the man. The chunks of masonry couldn’t harm it, but they were irritating. The thing’s tentacles began to twitch like the tail of an angry cat. Its eyestalks quivered with extreme annoyance and its baneful crimson orbs fastened upon the twins with satanic malfeasance as the bands of flame about its writhing limbs rose higher.

Pitar, who had regained consciousness, decided discretion was the better part of valour. He took advantage of the Shadow Beast’s distraction and bolted passed the monster and out the door at a pace that would have made an Olympic sprinter green with envy.

Verrin swore as the thing rushed the girls with an unexpected burst of speed. They fled, but Unia tripped on a piece of rubble. She cried out as she hit the floor. Annuna stopped to help her fallen sister. The Shadow Beast, mere yards away, hurtled eagerly towards the pair. The Earthman was beside himself with wild anxiety. He looked about for something, anything to throw at the creature. His eyes fell upon a metal cube resting in a hollow on the pedestal.

Unia saw the monster rushing at them. She tried to push Annuna clear. Too late – the Shadow Beast prepared to fling a whipping, burning limb about her. The girl cried in terror. Verrin hurled the cube. It struck the creature as its tentacle lashed out. A flash of light erupted, blinding all with the intensity of its sudden glare. The Earthman staggered about, unable to see, frantic as to what was happening. He crashed against the pedestal, fell.

“Are you all right?” he shouted, ignoring his own pain. “Can you see?”

“The light has blinded us,” replied Annuna anxiously. “But apart from that we are unharmed. What happened?”

“I don’t know for sure,” said Verrin. “I threw as strange cube at the Shadow Beast. Don’t blunder about or you’ll hurt yourselves. Our blindness will be temporary.”

But would it be temporary, or had the intense light permanently damaged their eyesight? Verrin hid his stabbing fears: Where was the Shadow Beast? Had it, too, been blinded by the light and was merely awaiting the return of vision so it could pounce upon them? And then there was Pitar – would he also take advantage of their blindness, or had he fled for good? Never before had the Earthman felt so vulnerable – blind, helpless and utterly at the mercy of man and monster who might attack at any moment.

It took all his will to reign in his wild terror and offer words of comfort and encouragement to the girls as time passed with glacial slowness. But at last after what seemed an age, but would have been no more than a minute, his vision returned with sufficient clarity to enable him to see. Vast relief came upon the man as he looked anxiously about – the Shadow Beast and Pitar were nowhere to be seen. Where the monster was he couldn’t be sure, but felt certain the Hotan was still running.

Verrin quickly rose and moved beside the twins, his anxiety abating when he saw that they, too, were unharmed and could see again.

Unia held the cube, which measured about two inches to a side in her hands, and looked questioningly at it. The metallic surface of the artefact swirled with colours like oil upon water, and a crystal lens was set upon one face.

“Is this what you threw at the Shadow Beast?” asked Annuna as she took the cube from her sister and peered curiously through the lens upon its surface.

The girl gasped in shock and dropped the artefact before Verrin could reply.

“The creature,” she cried incredulously as she sensibly backed away from the strange device. “It’s... it’s in there.”

“Be careful,” warned Unia worriedly as Verrin carefully picked up the cube and looked cautiously within.

The interior of the cube was a void of luminous blue, finite, yet seemingly infinite. The Earthman’s heart seemed to miss a beat as the Shadow Beast rushed at him, swelling in the crystal of the lens. The thing struck the pane, bounced away and caromed off another side. He saw that the monster was trapped within, bouncing madly off the mechanism’s inner surfaces like a demented inmate in a futile attempt to escape the confines of a padded cell.

Verrin’s scientific curiosity was fired by the device. Clearly, it was beyond anything human beings had developed, and he speculated on what natural laws it employed in its operation, who its makers could have been and all the other mysteries surrounding it. The creature it held was weird beyond belief. Had it been drawn from another dimension wildly different to the reality he was familiar with? The entity’s incredible strangeness leant credence to the startling thought. But at the moment more pressing things needed to be attended to, and he knew his investigations would have to wait.

“I’d best get both of you home,” he said as he moved to place the cube in a drawstring pouch fastened to his belt.

“Wait,” cried Annuna sharply. “Replace the cube where you found it. It is an instrument of dread sorcery – the very thing that destroyed Umur. I will not permit you to endanger my people by returning with it to Utaz.”

“It isn’t magic,” explained Verrin with a growing sense of frustration at these people’s primitive beliefs, which drove him to launch into an explanation of how the world was governed by natural rather than supernatural forces.

“Enough,” rasped Annuna, cutting short the Earthman’s lecture as the girl’s hot temper took possession of her. She lunged forward and knocked the cube from Verrin’s hand. “Your words make no sense to me,” she cried, a wild expression on her countenance. “As Paymi of Iosu I order you to do as I command.” Then more gently when she saw his hurt expression: “I like you Raymond Verrin. Please do not force me to take drastic measures to protect my people from this evil magic.”

“All right,” replied Verrin, not wishing to escalate the confrontation and cause enmity between them. “I’ll do as you wish,” he continued as he picked up the cube. “Wait here. I’ll put it back.”

The Earthman walked away outwardly calm, but inwardly simmering with repressed anger, his fist clenched tightly around the cube and a similarly shaped piece of rubble he had cunningly scooped up with the weird device. Verrin moved to the pedestal’s rear, placed the stony fragment in its depression and unobtrusively slipped the cube into the drawstring pouch swinging from his belt, the concealing gloom aiding his surreptitious move.

Normally, Verrin wasn’t given to duplicity. But his fury at these people’s appalling ignorance, and in particular his anger at Annuna’s behaviour combined with his own burning curiosity, drove him in this instance to act out of character – a decision he would later come to bitterly regret.

“It’s done,” said Verrin as he returned and led the twins towards the building’s exit. Pausing at the doorway, the Earthman peered cautiously without. All was quiet, deserted, nothing moved. Verrin nodded and they exited the ruin. It was then that Pitar played his hand – the wily Hotan, who had been clinging to ornate carvings above the portal’s lintel waiting for this very moment, dropped upon the rearmost of the trio.

Unia screamed as Pitar fell upon her and drove her to the ground with his brawny frame. Annuna spun about as did the Earthman, but it was too late to aid the girl. The Hotan had already pressed his dagger against his captive’s throat and shouted for the others to be still or he’d kill his hostage without the slightest hesitation.

“Now,” said Pitar with a sadistic grin to the Earthman, “bind Annuna’s hands behind her back with her belt, and make sure the knots are tight,” he warned, ominously, “or Unia shall pay for your disobedience.”

“Do as he says,” said Annuna, dully, sensing Verrin’s hesitation. “Pitar is as cruel and wicked as the blade he holds against my sister’s throat.”

The humiliating deed was done in but moments and then the Earthman was forced to bind Unia in a similar manner as the Hotan menaced Annuna with his dagger. Verrin was extremely worried and furious – worried for the girls and furious at himself for not anticipating the nature of the ambush into which he’d led the twins. He looked at Pitar, his face carved to fury by lines of hatred for the man.

“I’d like to kill you, too, and slowly,” said the Hotan as he grinned more broadly at the Earthman’s impotent fury. “But I need someone to carry news back to Utaz that both girls are now my hostages thanks to you. Now, go back within the building and slowly count to a thousand. Only then may you depart, and do not think to try my patience by leaving sooner.”

Verrin looked at Annuna. It might be the last time he’d ever see her, and her previous harshness to him became suddenly and strangely immaterial. Words welled up in his throat, but overwhelming emotion choked him to silence. The girl, however, knew by his expression what he desired to say and by her own sad smile conveyed to him that she understood.

The Earthman cleared his throat. “Courage,” he said meaningfully to the twins. “All is not lost.” Then, as there was no other choice, he entered the ruin, accompanied only by the hash and derisive laughter of his mocking foe.

Verrin counted to a thousand in an agony of chafing impatience and worry. The woman he loved, for now, in the extremity of the situation, he was certain of his feelings, was with each passing second being carried ever further from him by her cruel and ruthless captor. And then there was Unia to think of. He also had feelings for her, but not as intense. Yet they were twins. But who can say what moves a man to love one woman and not another though both be equal.

At last, after what seemed a torturous eternity Verrin dashed from the building, quickly located Unia’s wrygor, untethered it and flung himself on the beast. In but moments he was airborne and soaring towards Utaz with utmost swiftness until the ruined city had vanished in the dark behind him. Then, when fell Umur was out of sight he swiftly swung the wrygor back up river in the direction of Hota, its location having been made known to him by Unia.

The Earthman sped through the night, hoping that if Pitar had been hiding in the ruins spying on him that the Hotan would be deceived by the ruse and think Verrin had complied with his command. It had been a hateful but necessary delay, and the anxious man mercilessly sped his mount onward to make up for lost time.

Again, Verrin considered his plan. It was a mad and desperate scheme but there simply wasn’t time to go for help, for once Pitar was safely behind his city’s walls any rescue bid would be nigh impossible. Verrin knew that under a triple load Pitar would have to rest his wrygor frequently, and this would slow his homeward journey to a considerable degree. The Earthman’s hope was to overtake the Hotan, reach the city before him and ambush the man when he arrived. Verrin grinned savagely – he’d play the same trick upon his foe as was played upon himself.

Swiftly through the night winged the racing wrygor and within an hour Hota lay spread out before the determined Earthman’s gaze. The slumbering metropolis reposed upon the western bank of the river Xi, and was girdled by high granite walls reinforced with mighty towers. It was a striking city of exotic architecture that gleamed softly like gems in mellow candlelight.

The buildings – apartments, really - were five storied octagonal timber towers built on eight sided stepped marble platforms. Between each outer story of the structures was a mezzanine layer and terrace balconies. A tall gilded steeple crowned each tower. The roofs were of red ceramic tile and the overhanging eaves of each story arched gracefully downwards to form gargoyle waterspouts. The shuttered windows were pentagonal, and the surface decoration of the walls was one of sensually rich organic patterns – abstract forms of weird beasts tightly interwoven with flowering vines all of which followed a spiral rhythm, and were varnished in ruby, amber and sapphire lacquers.

The streets, cobbled with soft grey stone, were wide and lined with palm-like trees whose crowns, variegated in purple and gold, resembled the heads of enormous pineapples, below which hung masses of orange-yellow flowers akin to orchids. The Earthman, though not entirely oblivious to the city’s beauty, was focused on the central tower at the heart of the metropolis – a grander version of the other buildings surrounding it.

From conversations with Unia along the way, Verrin knew this central building was the palace of the keopae, and the place Pitar would most likely take the girls. As the Earthman winged his way towards the landing platform on the upper story of the imposing tower he prayed his deductions were correct, and that his bold and desperate scheme stood some chance of success.

Verrin passed above the tower in a glide so the flapping of his wrygor’s wings would not alert the watch. Looking down, he saw a sleepy guard stifle a yawn and continue his rounds upon the landing platform, and some distance away another also on patrol. The Earthman circled the tower. No other wrygor were in sight – the creatures were rare and no one had yet succeeded in breeding them in captivity. There were probably no more than twenty in all of Hota, and most of these had been used in Pitar’s daring attack upon Utaz.

His reconnoiter complete the Earthman swept down in a low and silent glide, his mount’s sting arching in a deadly strike. One guard fell, the back of his neck pierced by the wrygor’s envenomed barb. The other man spun about, alerted by the clatter of his fallen comrade. The guard’s hand darted for his sword, his mouth opened to shout alarm, but the claws of Verrin’s beast struck him in the chest and bore him to the platform’s floor. The man was dead before he hit the boards.

Verrin quickly dismounted, dragged both corpses into deep shadow and swiftly donned the armour of the guard whose neck had been pierced by the wrygor’s sting. The Earthman knew his foe’s casque, which resembled the Corinthian helmet of ancient Greece, would hide his alien features, and that the neck to knee scale armour and grieves would conceal the rest of his betraying anatomy. Verrin felt confident that thus clad and with the aid of darkness he could carry out his plan.

It was a good scheme, but like the best laid plans of mice and men things often go awry: The beat of mighty wings drew the Earthman’s startled gaze. Three wrygor were fast approaching: upon the lead animal was Pitar, and behind him, linked to his own beast by ropes were the remainder to which the clever fellow had bound the twins, and thus he had arrived without delay. The Hotan had seen it all from a distance – Verrin’s scheme was undone. With a cry of hot outrage Pitar swept down upon the Earthman, his wrygor’s sting darting for the kill.

Chapter 7: Tower of Torment

Verrin ducked, narrowly avoiding the leaping sting and hurled his blade at the creature. His spinning sword struck the wrygor. It shrilled in pain, crashed upon the platform. The Earthman dashed for the other beasts who had alighted on the landing stage – his plan a desperate bid to get the girls airborne. Pitar cursed, fought off pain. He leapt from his stricken mount and shouted wildly for the guards.

The Earthman had almost reached his goal when he was forced to turn and confront Pitar whose pounding tread had alerted him to the Hotan’s swift approach. Verrin turned in time to catch his foe’s wrist and still the plunging dagger in his hand. Annunia saw both men wrestle furiously. She struggled desperately to free herself from the bindings that lashed her to the wrygor, but it was useless. The frantic girl saw a dozen warriors pour forth from the landing platform’s doors and rush towards Verrin and Pitar. She and Unia cried a warning to the Earthman.

Verrin turned, went cold at the sight of the charging guards. He redoubled his efforts to wrest the blade from his furious adversary. Pitar swore as Verrin bent back his wrist. The dagger dropped from his hand and the Earthman uttered a triumphant cry as he brought his cursing opponent to his knees. It was a short lived victory – the brawny guards fell upon Verrin before he could grab the blade, press it to his captive’s throat and use him as a hostage.

Callous hands grabbed the Earthman, hauled him off Pitar. Gauntleted fists pounded him; feet kicked him, wild men spat upon him. Verrin fought savagery with savagery, returning blow for blow. But his valiant efforts were doomed to failure by overwhelming numbers, and in but moments and despite his armour he lay in a bruised and battered heap upon the floor.

Pitar stood over him, hands on hips. The keopae’s face was a bleak study in utter ruthlessness as he snarled out his command: “Take this offal to my private torture chamber.”

The guards hauled Verrin to his feet and manhandled their stumbling prisoner within the building. Verrin, still in a daze from the beating he’d received, caught brief glimpses of richly decorated hallways and ornate stairs as he was forced through the tower’s vast interior until at last they came to a narrow door reinforced with strips of iron. Through this forbidding portal they marched the Earthman and flung him within a cage-like cell set against the further wall.

Verrin struggled to his feet as the guards stepped back and eyed him coldly. The Earthman leaned heavily against the bars, looked about and the sight that met his eyes sent a rush of fear through him. The walls were hung with the vicious implements of torture. Knives, whips and irons for burning victims, just to name a few, were all displayed like goods in Hell’s shopfront.

A panoply of infernal machines were also scattered about the room – depraved devices for crushing bones and rending limbs, breaking minds as well as bodies. The centre of the chamber was dominated by the largest torture engine –it resembled a wagon wheel seven feet in diameter and two feet in thickness whose wooden rim was studded with pyramid shaped spikes of bronze. The axle of the device was supported on either side by a heavy timber frame, and the entire mechanism was mounted on a platform beneath which was a large stone tank of scummy water into which it dipped.

Verrin’s gaze was torn from the sickening array of satanic engines by the entry of Pitar and two more guards who dragged the struggling girls within the room. The Earthman cursed the Keopae of Hota when he laid worried eyes upon the twins. Both girls had now been stripped and cruelly gagged with the remnants of their apparel.

Pitar ignored Verrin’s wild outburst at the outrage. At his command Unia was dragged to the wheel. The girl struggled wildly, but was no match for the burly guards. Her ankles were manacled to either side of the device’s circumference, her wrists chained to a winch mounted on the rim. She uttered muffled screams as the guards cranked the winch, stretching her limbs cruelly. The girl’s body shook in fear and pain as she was bent mercilessly over the wheel, the mechanism’s spikes digging agonizingly into her back.

Annuna sobbed at the sight of her sister’s torment. She frenziedly fought her guards, sought to break her bonds, but it was useless. Verrin screamed insults at Pitar, but the Hotan was imperturbable. He knew he had his victims exactly where he wanted them, and that the torment he would soon inflict would be far cruller than mere words could ever be.

“Listen,” said Verrin desperately as his sadistic enemy picked up a large glass jar of water from a bench and walked towards him. “It’s revenge on me you want, not Unia or Annuna. Let them go and do with me as you will.”

“Ah, such noble sentiments,” replied Pitar with mocking cruelty. “Observe the creatures within this jar,” he continued ignoring Verrin’s plea. “Did I not warn you Unia would pay for your disobedience?”

The Earthman looked. Twelve strange creatures swam within the water. The things, which measured about three inches in length, resembled fish in general appearance. Their flattened scaly bodies, banded in black and yellow, were pointed at each end and armed with dorsal spines of ivory. The creatures swam by sideways undulations, but lacked the paired fins of fish, and the mouthparts of their bony heads were mandibles much like those of ants, but on a larger scale.

“These small but savage creatures are called harpu,” explained Pitar with a vile grin. “Large schools infest the Xi. They are carnivorous and have been known to attack unwary swimmers. I shall release them into the tank beneath the wheel,” he continued with relish. “With each rotation of the wheel Unia will be immersed, and the harpu shall rip chunks of flesh from her body thus slowly eating her alive.”

Verrin went white, Annuna berserk, and it took all the guards to restrain her wild struggles as the Earthman uttered an inchoate cry of fury and lunged against the bars, his hand darting through them in a desperate bid to grab Pitar. But the cunning Hotan had placed himself just out of reach and laughed derisively at his prisoner’s savage but futile efforts to grab him by the throat.

Pitar turned away from the raging Earthman, approached the girl bound upon the wheel and displayed the jar before her terrified gaze.

“My pets are hungry,” he gloated, then poured the contents of the pot within the tank and pulled a lever on the wheel’s platform which caused the mechanism to begin its slow and fell rotation.

Verrin roared, rattled the bars of his cage like a wild animal. Pitar grinned as he stepped to Annuna’s side and intimately fondled the weeping girl to torment the Earthman further.

“Farewell for now,” smirked the Hotan. “I must leave you so that Annuna and I can become better acquainted in the privacy of my bedchamber. Enjoy the sight of Unia’s grisly end – a foretaste of the gruesome fate I shall soon inflict upon you.”

Verrin sank to his knees as Pitar left the room with his captive and guards, and slammed the chamber’s door behind him. The Earthman was sick to the core. All his plans were exposed as ill-conceived ideas that had brought unmitigated disaster to those he cared for most: Unia was to be tortured and killed most horribly while her sister, the woman he loved, would become the sexual plaything of a debased monster.

The Earthman lifted his eyes to the helpless sobbing girl bound to the wheel. She met his gaze with a desperate imploring look which he found more condemnatory than the harshest of words. He couldn’t let her die! He wouldn’t let her die! But what could he do? The wheel had completed a quarter of its rotation, and with each passing second brought Unia ever nearer to the wriggling horrors in the tank.

Verrin’s eyes fell upon the lock of the cell and sudden inspiration struck him. He tore the sword belt from his waist and bent the buckle’s prong to ninety degrees to form a tension wrench, then ripped an ornamental wire from his empty scabbard and from it swiftly made another tool. From his voluminous reading the Earthman knew a technique called “raking” could be used as a lock picking shortcut.

Swiftly, Verrin began working on the lock, raking the wire pick upward against the mechanism’s pins while applying light torque with the tension wrench. A quick look showed him that the wheel had advanced to half a rotation. The Earthman sweated. The lock was a primitive type, and in theory he should be able to pick it easily. He heard a pin click into place and elation came upon him, but then faded as the remainder proved maddeningly recalcitrant.

Again his eyes flew to the wheel and the struggling girl chained to it. Verrin wiped the sweat from his brow. The frantic Earthman saw that in but moments the girl’s arms would enter the tank and then the horrid creatures would begin their gory feast upon her flesh. With an effort he fought down his wild panic and concentrated on his task.

His efforts were rewarded - another pin clicked into place, then the final one. Verrin flung the door open, dashed to the torture wheel, grabbed the mechanism’s lever and pulled it. The Earthman cursed wildly as the lever jammed. Though he threw every ounce of strength madly against it, it wouldn’t budge. A harpu leapt from the tank, its mandibles snapping savagely at Unia’s fingers, so close was she to the water.

The girl was in a state of unmitigated terror. Her sweat streaked body was rigid with unbridled fear as she gazed in horror at the madly darting harpu. Blood from the spikes piercing her back had fallen into the tank, driving the monsters into a savage feeding frenzy that churned the water to scummy foam.

Verrin’s mind was in a similar state of dire desperation. His straining thews couldn’t budge the lever and there wasn’t time to free the girl. The Earthman saw his only chance – he snatched an iron from a nearby rack of torture implements and swiftly thrust the rod between the mechanism’s spinning cogwheels.

The gear’s teeth clamped upon metal. Sparks flew. The fell engine ground to a shuddering halt and in but moments Verrin had freed Unia of her gag and bonds. He eased the exhausted girl to the floor and examined her back. The Earthman was relieved to see that her injuries were not as bad as he had feared. The spikes were designed to inflict considerable pain but not fatal wounds, and so prolong the victim’s agony.

“Help me up,” gasped Unia. “We must rescue Annuna. Hurry; there isn’t a moment to lose!”

Verrin was about to assist the girl to rise when the door burst open and two guards, attracted by the grinding and shuddering halt of the torture wheel, burst within the chamber. The warriors stopped in amazement at the sight of the freed prisoners. The Earthman swore, shot to his feet to confront the guards. The spell was broken. His yelling foes leapt forward and rushed him in a charge of eager violence.

Chapter 8: Vengeance is Mine

As the shouting guards rushed at Verrin he darted for a rack of torture implements and grabbed a branding iron. Both warriors lunged at him in a simultaneous attack. The armour Verrin wore turned one foeman's savage thrust. The Earthman leapt away from his assailants, crashed against another rack and overturned it. He lashed out with the branding iron. The rod crashed brutally against the helmet of an enemy. The guard staggered away, his ears ringing from the terrific blow.

Verrin parried the swift attack of the man’s companion, then slammed the rod against the fellow's arm. Bone snapped. Blood spurted from the compound fracture. The warrior screamed, dropped his sword. Verrin kicked the man and sent him reeling into the torture wheel’s tank. The warrior screeched horribly. The blood crazed harpu had at last found meat. Their hapless victim sank beneath the bloody water.

The Earthman snatched up a sword. He rushed his remaining foe. But the warrior had swiftly recovered from the ringing blow. The snarling man met the Earthman’s wild charge with leaping steel. Blades clashed angrily, sparks flew. The two combatants surged about the chamber. Unia rolled beneath a bench to avoid the madly fighting men who whirled around the room like crazed cyclones.

Verrin's opponent hurled himself at the Earthman with unrestrained violence. A whirlwind of flashing steel drove him back against the torture wheel. The sword was struck from Verrin's hand by a savage blow. It spun away. The desperate Earthman ducked the hissing blade, pounced on his opponent. Both strove against each other like wild bulls. Verrin's foe was much stronger than he looked. He caught the Earthman up and hurled him to the floor in a brutal body slam. Verrin lay stunned. He stared into his foe’s snarling triumphant visage as the merciless warrior bent to slash his throat. Suddenly, the fellow stiffened. His eyes bulged and he collapsed dead upon the floor. Unia stood behind him, a bloody torture knife in her hand.

The girl helped Verrin up. Both looked warily at the door, expecting more foemen to rush upon them at any moment. But no additional enemies were in evidence, for Pitar had left but two warriors to guard the chamber’s exit and the feral screams, which were not unusual considering the room’s horrid purpose, had not caused passersby to investigate the wild fray.

Seeing there was no immediate threat, Verrin quickly explained his plan: “Don the armour of the guard. Thus disguised both of us should be able to approach Pitar’s apartments without suspicion. But where is he roomed? Oh God, I pray we’re not too late.”

“I have a good idea of his room's location from my father’s description of his visit here when he was negotiating the alliance,,” advised the girl as she hurriedly dressed.

In but moments Unia was clad. Both exited the chamber and walked along the corridor dimly lit, not by oil lamps, but by ornate glass vessels resembling Greek amphora. These were hung in bronze rings upon the walls, and had been filled with a glowing blue liquid that shed its azure light upon the scene.

As Verrin walked along the passageway thoughts of Annuna, now that the dramatic events of the torture chamber had passed, came to the fore and he was again beset by horrid visions of his love being subjected by Pitar to torments of the basest kind. The Earthman wanted to scream, shout, to sprint madly to her rescue. But he also realized that to do so would draw attention to himself and ruin all hopes of succour. And so he continued to follow his companion, outwardly calm but inwardly a raging ferment of wild emotions that he barely held in check – a state that mirrored Unia’s own feelings.

As they approached an intersecting corridor a servant on some late night errand went by. Verrin’s heart seemed to miss a beat, but the young girl continued on without giving them the slightest scrutiny, and the Earthman breathed a sigh of vast relief, only to tense again at Unia’s urgent whisper.

“We turn left here,” advised the girl. “Pitar’s private apartments are at the end of this hallway. There will be guards. We must approach with bold confidence, and thus allay their suspicions until we are near enough to strike. When they challenge us say we are to relieve them by order of Azmar, Commander of the Guard.”

They turned the corner and Verrin saw two warriors standing guard by a door at the passageway’s end. Both men tensed and grasped sword hilts at their approach. A sudden scream sounded from behind the door – a dreadful cry that nearly made the Earthman leap forward in a wild and suicidal rush.

“Steady,” hissed Unia. “We’re not close enough.”

“Halt,” harshly commanded the senior guard. “By whose orders do you approach? Our relief is not due until another turn of the hourglass.”

“By order of Azmar, Commander of the Guard,” replied Verrin as he and the girl came to a stop. “We have orders to relieve you this instant. Now stand down and let us approach or it will go badly for you.”

The warrior laughed harshly. “Badly for us? By order of Azmar, you say? Well, fellow, it would be difficult for Azmar to give such a command as he died three days ago,” jeered the guard as he whipped his sword out and with it struck an alarm gong hanging on the wall with enough force to wake the dead.

Verrin cursed. In an instant he flung himself at the guard, his sword whirling in a savage arc. Unia leapt at the other warrior with the ferocity of a raging lioness. Steel clashed against steel, adding to the clamour of the gong’s reverberations. The Earthman parried a brutal thrust. He saw an opening, lunged. His foe went down, blood gushing from a severed throat.

Behind him the Earthman heard wild shouts and the rush of other guards swiftly converging on the scene of battle. He turned; saw Unia hard pressed by her opponent and a dozen warriors fiercely charging at them. Verrin swiftly swung his sword and dropped the girl’s attacker. He grabbed the handle, turned it and lunged against the door in wild desperation. The man swore virulently – it was locked.

“We’ll have to kick it down,” he cried.

Both slammed their feet against the portal. The door shuddered, stood firm. The racing guards drew rapidly nearer as both rained savage kicks upon the barrier. Verrrin threw a worried glance behind him. Only seconds remained before the savage foe would be upon them with swinging steel.

“Back up and charge the door,” he yelled.

Simultaneously, both wildly hurled their bodies against the portal in utter desperation. The door crashed open under the ferocity of the double impact and they stumbled within the room. Pitar was waiting for them. Verrin dropped to the floor, narrowly avoiding the Hotan’s hissing blade. He grabbed the keopae’s ankle, jerked with all his might. Pitar crashed to the tiles. The guards burst within the room. Verrin swiftly pressed his blade against Pitar’s throat as did Unia.

“Halt or your keopae dies,” the Earthman shouted wildly.

The guards stopped. They looked at Pitar, awaiting his command like a pack of eager hunting dogs.

Pitar had many shortcomings but cowardice wasn’t one of them. Though Verrin’s face was obscured by his helmet his voice was recognisable. The Hotan gave him a defiant look and called Verrin every foul name he could think of. The Earthman swore, pressed his blade against his captive’s throat drawing blood and cutting off the gush of vile words. The guards tensed, prepared to lunge.

“Back,” yelled Unia. “If any of you takes another step I’ll strike.”

“Find Annuna,” said Verrin to the girl as the guards backed down. “Hurry, I’ll hold them off.” Then in a fierce whisper to the Keopae of Hota: “If you’ve harmed her in any way you heap of filth I’ll kill you by slow and agonizing degrees.”

Pitar laughed in the Earthman’s face as Unia began her frantic search of the apartment’s many rooms. “If you kill me,” the Hotan smirked. “None of you will leave here alive. Your threats are impotent, and you know this as well as I.”

“In that case I’ll cut off bits and pieces of you here and there,” replied Verrin hotly. “Not enough to kill you, true. But you’ll certainly never father any children when I’m done.”

Pitar lost his smile at that remark and told his men to put their swords away.

Meanwhile Unia had found her sister in an adjoining room. Annuna lay spreadeagled on a padded sleeping mat, her limbs held apart by a heavy ball and chain manacled to each wrist and ankle. The girl was weeping softly. Her breasts and loins were covered in ugly welts where Pitar had beaten her in unrestrained diabolism – a prelude to the rape that Verrin’s battering on the door had narrowly prevented.

“Annuna,” cried the girl as she knelt by her sister and doffed her helmet. “Oh, the brute! I swear I’ll kill him for what he has done to you.”

“Praise Iosu the Creator that you are alive,” gasped Annuna weakly. The sight of her beloved sister was a ray of light that for the moment drove out the darkness of her suffering. “Quickly, the key to my restraints is on that low table over there. How did you escape? Is Raymond Verrin unharmed? I pray that it is so.”

Unia rapidly explained the situation as she freed her sister from her bonds and helped her stand. Both girls rejoined Verrin and the Earthman came very close to slitting Pitar’s throat when he saw the brutal marks upon Annuna’s body. It was with an extreme effort that he stayed his hand and hauled the Hotan to his feet.

“You are our safe passage out of here,” he snarled. “But mark my words well: If any attempt to interfere with our escape is made by anyone you die. Now, give the order to your men to stand aside and not to follow us.”

Pitar complied with ill grace. Annuna armed herself with a sword taken from a guard and then the escapees made their way to the rooftop landing stage, their stony captive before them as a living shield. Their progress was slow, the pace being hindered by Annuna’s injuries and her sister perforce helping her to walk. Verrin was tense. Although the corridors were deserted - a guard having been commanded to precede them and clear the pathway – the Earthman nonetheless suspected treachery of some sort to manifest itself. Although he had the upper hand Verrin didn’t relax his guard - Pitar was far too wily an adversary, and his seeming meekness indicated nothing of the sort.

After what seemed an age of tense and painful progress they arrived at the wrygor stalls abutting the landing stage. From the doorway Verrin cautiously peered within the expansive chamber. All was shadowed silence. The huge creatures were bedded down for the night in nests of straw-like vegetation. Not a single Hotan could be seen.

“Lead three beasts to the landing stage,” said Verrin to the girls. “I’ll stand guard while you mount.” Then to Pitar: “Remember, you’ll be the first to die at the slightest sign of treachery.”

Pitar remained silent and merely smiled with disturbing imperturbability as the twins led forth the beasts. Verrin followed as a rearguard, his blade pressed menacingly against the Hotan’s throat, for by now the Earthman was certain his captive was planning deviltry. They emerged onto the platform and when the girls had strapped themselves to their mounts Verrin forced Pitar to the floor.

“Lie still,” he snarled. “You can move when we are airborne and out of sight. Heaven knows I ought to slit your throat, but I’m averse to killing an unarmed man, though you surely deserve death for all the harm you’ve caused.”

Verrin cautiously backed away and started to mount his wrygor with one eye upon the keopae. It was the very moment the cunning Hotan had been waiting for: Pitar quickly pressed an ornamental stud on a large bracelet that he wore. A powerful spring was released and flung an envenomed dart at the Earthman.

“Vengeance is mine,” he cried as the glittering needle flew towards his victim.

Chapter 9: Death to the Sorcerer

Annuna screamed as Verrin did the only thing he could to avoid the flying death: he released his hold and crashed heavily to the platform, his sword falling out of reach. The deadly dart whipped passed in a narrow miss and struck his wrygor. The creature screeched, took to the air as Pitar rushed at the stunned Earthman. Both girls were about to leap from their mounts and come to his aid when wild cries attracted their attention: Half a dozen warriors, heretofore concealed beneath the straw-like herbage in the vacant wrygor stalls, had burst forth and were racing at them.

Verrin lashed out with his feet as the Hotan keopae lunged at him. Pitar screamed as the Earthman’s heels smashed against his shins. He crashed down on Verrin. Both men grappled, each straining mightily to lay a fatal hold on the other’s throat as they writhed across the floor. From the edge of vision the battling Earthman glimpsed Unia take to the air and hurl her wrygor at the charging warriors who scattered in alarm before her rush.

The girl whirled her beast away. A crossbow bolt hissed passed. She dived as the desperate warrior furiously cranked back his weapon’s bowstring. The wrygor’s tail flicked like a cracking whip. The man screamed, fell. Unia swerved and a flung spear shot over her head. She saw her sister, despite her painful injuries, race to Verrin’s aid.

Annuna, fearful of striking the Earthman with her sword, threw an arm about the Hotan’s neck in a vicious stranglehold. Pitar choked. His hands clawed at the girl’s arm. Verrin slammed his fist against the fellow’s jaw and rendered him unconscious. But it was a small and short lived victory – the warriors had regrouped and were racing to aid their fallen Keopae. One threw his sword at Annuna’s wrygor and the panicked creature took flight. The Earthman cursed savagely – two mounts were gone and the charging warriors, believing their ruler dead, were about to fall upon them in bloody vengeance.

The couple shot erect and bravely faced the hurtling foe. Unia swept low, caught the pair up in her wrygor’s claws. The racing warriors yelled savage curses, flung their weapons. Verrin gasped as a spinning blade gashed his leg. He cried in fright as the wrygor plunged over the landing stage and plummeted under its triple load.

The ground rushed up with frightening speed. The beast madly flapped its mighty wings. Verrin’s knuckles went white as he gripped the creature’s leg. It seemed the end. Then the flyer’s powerful pinions caught the air and they were soaring aloft. The pursuing guards stumbled to a halt against the platform’s rail and hurled impotent curses at the escapees as they vanished into night’s concealment.

**********

It was noon and Verrin grimly surveyed the Hotan fleet from the balcony of Utaz’s highest tower. Four days had passed since their dramatic escape from the enemy city, but the threat had far from ended for Pitar still lived to implement his master plan – not merely involving the seizing of Utaz’s gold mines but also the expansion of his lands and the building of a vast empire.

The last of the attacking Nugorri had been driven off two days ago, for the savages lacked the discipline necessary for a protracted military campaign and were further hindered by internal rivalries. But nonetheless the damage had been done – large sections of the waterfront lay in smoking ruins. Many of Utaz’s warriors had died in the savage fighting and the other cities, fearful of the marauding savages, were looking to their own defence and wouldn’t offer aid. And now, to add to the calamity, the Hotan fleet had arrived at the dawning of the day.

A booming crash drew the Earthman’s worried gaze to the city’s southern wall where the enemy fleet had massed. Here, six huge barges had been anchored, and on the floating platforms were mounted large siege engines resembling trebuchets whose long arms flung weighty missiles at the water gate.

A flight of six Utazan wrygor on a bombing run winged overhead, drawing Verrin’s gaze. The Earthman smiled grimly at the sight of his invention: the creatures bore in their claws large bomb-shaped pots of volatile oil from which a burning wick protruded. The weapons were crude and had been made with frantic haste. Verrin’s knuckles whitened on the rail as he watched the soaring creatures dive upon the rafts.

They plummeted. A flight of arrows rose to meet them. One creature fell. Verrin cursed. The others released their load. A single bomb struck its target, burst in a roar of crimson flame as the flammable oil violently ignited. The men on the raft screamed, died horribly; burned alive as their craft became a raging funeral pyre.

Verrin turned away sickened by the sight and, at the same time, disheartened by the inaccuracy of his weapons. War, reflected the troubled man, was indeed a dark picture painted in ugly brushstrokes. The Earthman put aside his thoughts and entered the tower where Annuna and her sister conversed with Udamin, chief advisor to the former keopae, who was acting in the capacity of dudaia, or general as we would name his role.

The trio sat on crescent benches around a circular table piled with military reports. Udamin looked up from a sheaf of papyrus-like material on which were scrawled the cursive calligraphy of Utaz.

“Only one raft has been destroyed,” advised Verrin in response to the man’s enquiring look. Then bitterly: “The attack wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped and we lost a wrygor and its rider in the raid. How is the manufacture of the other bombs progressing?”

“The next batch of pots is being fired as we speak,” advised Udamin. “But according to this report the gate can’t last much longer than mid afternoon. It will probably fall before your bombs, as you call them, can be completed.”

Udamin turned to Annuna who had been nominated by the council to act as interim keopae during the emergency. The girl looked drawn from the stress caused by her ordeal, the knowledge of her father’s death (news of which she hadn’t been aware until Unia informed her upon their return) and the threat all of them now faced from Pitar.

“We’ll need every man to defend the city,” continued Udamin, “and given the ineffectiveness of Raymond Verrin’s weapons I suggest those working on the bombs would be better used as swordsmen.”

“One bomb dropped on the barge Pitar occupies would end the war,” interjected Unia. “All we need ...”

Udamin cut her off before she could continue: “Do you know which barge he is on?” There are one hundred and fifty of the craft, each packed with many warriors. He could be on any one of them, and he isn’t going to be so foolish as to give us any hint of which it is.”

Again Udamin turned to Annuna: “I appreciate Raymond Verrin’s help, but of all present I am the most experienced in warfare, for did I not fight at your father’s side against the army of the city of Kabar and give him victory? Annuna, for the sake of our people I urge you to accede to my advice.”

The girl sighed and rubbed her brow in thought for a moment. “I accede,” she said wearily. “Implement the plan you think is best.”

Annuna avoided Verrin’s gaze, clearly uncomfortable with her decision though she felt it for the best. The Earthman knew his ideas had been dismissed, albeit in a politely worded way. To hide his anger he walked out upon the balcony and sank to a stone bench by the wall. Time! If only he’d had more time to perfect the accuracy of his bombs and instruct the bombardiers in their use. But that luxury was sorely lacking under present circumstances.

He stood and looked towards the water gate. Even from this distance he could see the wall was crumbling under the relentless pounding of the heavy missiles. Verrin saw another projectile arc towards its target, heard it crash with two hundred pounds of fury against the stones. He gazed in speechless horror as an entire section of the weakened wall toppled in a thundering avalanche of sundered masonry and billowing dust. The wall had given way far sooner than any had anticipated.

Above the rumble could be heard the savage cheers of the wild foe. The Hotan rowers heaved upon their oars; the barges began to move inexorably towards the breach. The city’s defenders rushed desperately towards the gap, hauling timber with which to plug the gaping hole, but were driven back in screaming disarray by a hail of fist sized spiked spheres the rafts’ siege engines swiftly hurled upon them.

Verrin cursed. Technology could win the day. If only he had access to modern armament. Modern armament! The thought struck him. He tore an object from his belt pouch and gazed upon it. It was the cube he’d found in the accursed ruins of Umur. Verrin hadn’t forgotten the device, but the press of swift events that had rushed upon him from every side – the mad flight from captivity, his involvement in the driving off of the Nugorri and the design and manufacture of the bombs - had prevented him from giving the mechanism a thorough examination.

Slowly, the Earthman turned it over in his hands in careful scrutiny and spotted something he hadn’t previously noticed: it was a small button the same colour as the cube’s surface and therefore almost imperceptible. What would happen if he were to press the switch (for he was certain that was what it was)? Would it release the Shadow Beast trapped within? Would it explode like an atom bomb? Dare he take the chance?

Verrin threw a glance towards the fallen water gate. He saw the Hotan barges were grounding under a covering storm of arrows that swept the walls, and pinned down what little defenders remained upon the city’s shattered battlements. In but moments the landing barges would discharge screaming hoards of warriors who would rush the breach and crash in overwhelming might against the depleted and demoralised defenders.

Verrin took a chance, tensely pressed the button and at his touch a crimson ray erupted from the lens. The burning lance of flaming force struck the tower’s railing and solid iron vanished in a spray of flying sparks. The shocked Earthman nearly dropped the weapon. He shook in awe at its destructive might and weird ingenuity. The strange creature trapped within the mechanism powered the device much like an electric eel can be harnessed to illuminate a fluorescent tube.

A gasp of astonishment drew Verrin’s gaze. He turned and saw that Udamin and the girls had stepped onto the balcony, drawn by the mighty crash and the exultant cheering of the foe.

“You deceived me,” yelled Annuna. “You betrayed my trust and did the very thing I told you not to do. I ordered you not to bring that thing to Utaz.”

“Sorcery,” cried Udamin who had also witnessed the eruption of the ray. He quickly sketched a protective symbol in the air. “By the goddess, if we hadn’t trouble enough as it is.”

“Call it what you will, but what it did to the railing it can do to your enemies,” said Verrin desperately, ignoring the joint outburst. Then, addressing Annuna: “Trust me,” he pleaded. “All I need is a single wrygor and with the cube I’ll put an end to Pitar.”

“Trust you,” screamed Annuna, her hot temper exacerbated by all the stress she was under. “How can I trust you when you’ve already betrayed my trust?”

Udamin added fuel to the blaze: “If we resort to such deviltry,” he cried, “a curse shall surely fall upon us. Better a clean death beneath the swords of our foes than a horrid bane upon our very souls.”

“Let us discuss this peacefully,” interjected Unia in a pleading bid to calm the rising confrontation.

The violent clash of arms drew Verrin’s gaze and stopped the conversation. The Earthman swore lividly. Three Hotan barges had grounded and from them a hoard of screaming foes had rushed the breach to fall upon the city’s warriors. Utaz was in desperate peril and he was being opposed by superstitious nonsense that barred the wresting of victory from defeat.

Verrin slammed his fist against the rail in a fury of frustration. It was a brief distraction, but enough for Udamin to act. Propelled by superstitious dread the dudaia drew his dagger and flung himself at the Earthman with a wild cry and furious expression:

“Death to the evil sorcerer,” he screamed.

Chapter 10: The Terror of the Crimson Ray

Verrin spun about and caught Udamin’s knife-hand by the wrist. The Man’s dagger jarred to a stop, but the impetus of his savage lunge hurled the Earthman painfully against the railing. Both combatants wrestled furiously. Annuna rushed forward to aid Udamin, for her first loyalty was to her people. Unia hesitated.

The hard pressed Earthman saw the rushing girl, the glinting dagger in her hand and the look of hard determination on her face. The possibility of a sensible discussion had clearly ended. Would he have to kill the woman he loved to save his life? Verrin cursed, savagely kneed his antagonist in the groin and hurled the groaning man against Annuna. Both went down and Verrin dashed around the tower to its landing platform were two wrygor were tethered in preparation for the twins escape should the city fall.

Verrin leapt upon one beast, threw a look behind him and saw Udamin and Annuna dashing at him. Udamin hurled his dagger at the Earthman as his wrygor darted skyward. The flashing blade whipped beneath the rising creature in a narrow miss. The hurtling beast arrowed for the battlefront and in but moments Verrin gazed down upon a surging melee of wild violence. Men fell, skulls cloven to the jaw by swinging swords; others died thrust through by stabbing blades. The air was rent by the ring of steel, hoarse shouts and the screams of the wounded. All about lay hacked and bloody corpses and gory body parts.

The Earthman swore. The combatants – friend and foe - were too intermingled for him to use the ray. He swerved his wrygor and darted towards the other landing barges yet to beach upon the isle’s narrow strand. Verrin hurled his mount in a plunging dive at the line of vessels, depressed the stud upon the cube. The crimson ray erupted in a shaft of hissing light and speared one craft as it raced towards the shore.

The stricken vessel exploded into roaring flames at the lancing beam’s burning touch and even from a height the sickening screams of the dying could be heard. Verin, grim faced, swept towards another target and it, too, became a raging mass of leaping fire. Within a minute nearly half the fleet was burning and above it hung a pall of roiling smoke stained crimson by the uncontrollable infernos.

The surviving vessels began a cumbersome retreat, their frantic sweat drenched rowers hauling at the oars under the cracking whips of terror stricken officers who sought to save themselves from what to them was blackest sorcery. Verrin relentlessly pursued, hastening their panicked flight by blasting any ship that wasn’t moving fast enough. One fleeing craft caught the Earthman’s eye by way of a golden glint upon its deck. Verrin flew closer. The gleam was from gilded armour and who but Pitar would be wearing that. In the extremity of the situation the Keopae of Hota had been forced to show himself in a desperate but futile bid to rally his panic stricken men.

Verrin dived at the fleeing barge. The stabbing ray leapt from the cube but petered out – the weapon’s charge was running low and its range considerably reduced. The Earthman swept in closer and his eagerness to take revenge proved his swift undoing. Pitar saw the swooping beast, snatched a crossbow from a panicked warrior and let fly its quarrel. The flashing bolt struck Verrin’s wrygor. It screamed a death-cry. Its wings furled. It crashed upon the barge’s deck, crushing men and scattering others in hysterical confusion.

The Earthman fought through the agony of impact. He saw Pitar curse his men, the lash of his vile threats driving a knot of frantic warriors towards him. Verrin swept the group with his ray. Warriors screamed, fell; their seared bodies blackened - twisted corpses that filled the air with the sickening stench of burning flesh. The beam, though feeble when compared to its former destructive might was nonetheless still devastating at close range.

The surviving warriors broke, hurled themselves overboard in a desperate bid to escape this demon fire. Only Pitar remained along with the oar slaves who cowered in their chains on the rowing benches. Verrin faced the keopae across the corpse strewn deck. The Earthman eagerly pressed the button upon the cube to destroy his hateful enemy, but nothing happened – his weapon’s charge was now utterly depleted.

Pitar had his faults, but cowardice wasn’t one of them. He drew his sword, charged the Earthman and screamed a blood curdling battle cry. Verrin leaped from his wrygor, blade in hand and met his rushing foe with equal fury. Swords clashed violently, sparks flew from the combatant’s whirling blades. Both men surged to and fro across the corpse strewn deck in a frenzy of wild combat.

From the edge of vision Verrin glimpsed several barges converging on him to aid their battling keopae – barges whose captains were emboldened by the Earthman’s crash upon the vessel’s deck. Pitar, fired at the sight of swiftly coming help, threw himself at Verrin in a whirlwind of flashing steel whose blistering assault drove the Earthman across the deck in frantic retreat.

Ringing cheers of encouragement erupted from the warriors on the racing barges as the Earthman was pinned against the drifting craft’s railing. Verrin was desperate. His arms and chest were bloodied form ill blocked slashes. It was only a matter of time before the flicking blade of his wild opponent found a fatal opening in his defence.

Sensing victory Pitar gave a cry of dark triumph; lunged. Verrin took a desperate risk – rather than parry his opponent’s leaping sword he twisted evasively aside and simultaneously thrust. The Hotan’s flying blade grazed Verrin’s chest as the Earthman’s sword plunged within the throat of his opponent. Pitar stumbled back, his face a ghastly study of shock and agony, blood spurting in a gory fountain from the gaping wound.

For a moment Pitar stood swaying, then the sword dropped from the Hotan’s nerveless fingers and he crashed lifeless to the deck. But Verrin had no time to saviour victory: Howls of consternation erupted from the nearing barges now within crossbow range. A flight of quarrels hissed across the narrow gap and the Earthman barely managed to snatch a fallen shield to crouch behind.

Half a dozen bolts hammered the shield with force enough to crack the wood and rock Verrin with the fury of their impact. The leading barge was now but yards away and the wild warriors, emboldened by the absence of the sizzling ray, were determined to press their vengeful assault to the fullest.

Verrin was in a desperate situation – his wrygor was dead and he had no hope of fighting off the blood crazed hoard now bearing down upon him. He threw a glance over the rail and went cold with fear for beneath the water was a school of vicious harpu – the fanged and ravenous terrors of the planet’s waterways.

Another crossbow bolt slammed against his shield reminding him of rapidly approaching danger. Verrin glanced at the cube he clenched within his fist. Could the device recharge itself or was its source of power completely dead? The attacking barge rammed the Earthman’s vessel before he could try the weapon. Its impact flung him to the deck and a hoard of raging swordsman began to vault the rail.

Verrin lurched erect and with a prayer pressed the firing stud upon the cube. A ray lanced out and with it the desperate man swept the charging hoard. Armour glowed red hot, fabric burst into leaping flames, men screamed as they were burnt alive. The Earthman knew he had one chance – the repowering of the weapon was incomplete and the beam was fading fast. He charged the stricken warriors with a wild look and cry that would have terrified the devil.

The horror stricken foe’s confidence was shattered. Warriors cast aside their weapons and leapt overboard while others stampeded back within their craft and in the process trampled those behind them. In an instant mad chaos reigned among the ranks. Desperate officers screamed commands, lashed the rowing slaves. The barge pulled away with churning oars and the second craft veered sharply off upon seeing the disaster.

Verrin leaned against the rail, breathing heavily in exhaustion from his frightening ordeal. He watched the surviving barges flee in disorderly retreat, but for him it was a hollow victory. He’d saved the city, true, but he was certain he’d earned Annuna’s unforgiving enmity and distrust by his duplicity over the cubical device.

The girl, though intelligent was nonetheless a product of her primitive culture, bound by ignorance and superstition that hindered a true understanding of the world. And after seeing the destructive might of the weapon these supernatural fears would be undoubtedly magnified a hundred fold. The Earthman cursed himself. Now she’d have nothing to do with him. If only he’d been honest with her, better explained that this was science rather than a devil’s magic.

Verrin looked moodily at the cube. It had saved the day but cost him the woman he loved... Or had it? The full import of what he had achieved suddenly dawned upon the Earthman: He had, single handed, defeated an entire hoard of vicious foes. Why, with this weapon nothing could stand against him! He could make himself king, or better yet emperor of an entire world. Annuna would be his for the taking and none would dare oppose him.

A vista of temptation opened up within his mind - one fed by an intoxicating sense of overwhelming power. Verrin turned to the slaves still chained to the rowing benches and ordered them to row towards the isle’s shore. They gazed upon him in cowering and trembling terror, and the look of utter fear upon them was like cold water being dashed in the Earthman’s face.

Is this what he really wanted – for all to hold him in dire terror, to be a feared and hated tyrant? How long would it be before someone slipped poison in his chalice or slit his throat while he was asleep, for every dictator bears within him the seeds of his own destruction – seeds whose germination is inevitable. And would Annuna love such a man? No, she would hate him to the core.

Verrin slumped against the rail, victorious and yet defeated. There was only one thing he could do and still be called a decent man...

**********

Verrin gazed bleakly at the cube as it rested on its pedestal in the crumbling building that comprised Umur’s time worn ruins. The Earthman had ordered the slaves of his captured barge to row to the dead city where he had freed them from their chains. The former chattels, still quite terrified of Verrin, had hastily bent their backs to the oars and without a word of thanks had sped away leaving him utterly alone. That had been three days ago.

And with every day that passed the Earthman found it more and more difficult to fight off the black cloud of depression threatening to engulf him. Here he was trapped on an alien world, alone and friendless with no prospect of ever returning home, and his blundering had cost him the woman he loved – the only ray of light in an otherwise desolate existence.

Verrin sank to the stairs of the podium in a dark mood and there he sat contemplating his unwholesome future. For the umpteenth time his thoughts chased themselves in futile circles looking for an answer that wasn’t there. He had thought of fleeing to another city, but rumours of him would no doubt spread via the caravan routes and his unique appearance would mark him as the evil sorcerer from Utaz, and then he would have to flee again.

Should he destroy the cube, hurl it into the river, perhaps? But that would leave him without defence against savage beasts and even wilder men. Verrin swore. He was stuck with the device, dependent on the hateful thing for his survival. It seemed he must haunt these ruins in lonely solitude until death came for him - a bleak future indeed, and one that absorbed his mind for perhaps half an hour when the sound of footsteps drew his troubled gaze from the grimy floor.

Annuna stood before him. Each looked at the other in awkward silence for a moment – a silence that was broken by the girl:

“I thought I’d find you here,” she simply said.

Verrin couldn’t reply: The sight of the woman he loved overwhelmed him with a tempest of bittersweet emotions – desire to take her in his arms and the dreadful knowledge that the consummation of their happiness was barred by crushing circumstance. The Earthman’s face was an open book upon which were written all his feelings for the girl to clearly read.

Annuna smiled as she approached the silent man, sat beside him and took his hand.

“Come now,” she gently chided. “Don’t look so glum. “I’ve come here to apologise and take you home.”

“I should be the one apologizing,” said Verrin. “After all...”

The girl smiled and pressed her finger against his lips to gently silence him. Verrin gazed at her, hope warring with restraining doubt as she continued her narration.

“I was blinded by fear of the cube and the monster in it, and by anger at your disobedience. But when you did not return that anger turned to fear for you – alone and friendless with every hand turned against you out of superstitious dread, and I began to think about what you said – that the device is no more magical than fire.

“As Paymi of Iosu I have access to ancient and esoteric manuscripts locked within a secret vault beneath the temple, and so I sought in them some evidence that would convince my people you were innocent of blackest sorcery. I found that proof in a crumbling parchment - it had fallen behind a rack of scrolls who knows how long ago, and only by chance I discovered it. I won’t bore you with the convoluted details suffice to say that the document gave the history of our world and a great civilization that was brought to ruin through misapplication of naturalistic knowledge of which the cube and devices like it are mentioned as having played a role.”

“You really mean all is forgiven, that I can return with you to Utaz?” asked the Earthman, still not quite daring to believe the joyful truth.

“Of course,” replied Annuna with a smile. “There are no objections to your return or to my taking you as a husband, which I desire.”

“Oh Annuna, cried Verrin joyously as he took the girl in his arms and kissed her.”

“Interesting,” commented the girl after a time. “Is the pressing of lips a custom of your own land? Unia will no doubt find it pleasurable as well.”

Verrin looked at her askance.

The girl laughed. “Oh, I forgot. As a stranger you wouldn’t know that in Utaz twin sisters must marry the same man, for in all things they are alike.”

Verrin looked as shocked as he felt. “I...” he gasped in a strangled voice.

“You object to our customs?” interjected Annuna worriedly.

The Earthman quickly regained his poise. He realised this wasn’t Earth. It was an alien world. Its people were much like humans but with subtle differences in mentality and culture. It was unreasonable for him to expect them to change for the sake of the sensibilities of a single Earthman.

“No,” he sensibly replied, “I am greatly honoured by marriage to both of you, and I’m sure I will come to love your sister as much as I love you.”

Annuna smiled. It was the right thing to say, and she sensed his words were sincere. The girl kissed him – a little clumsily, but with passion. Verrin felt that his life had taken a turn for the better. It was an assumption that proved to be correct.

THE END