Witch Queen of Venus

Author: Kirk Straughen

Synopsis: Earth's first expedition to Venus comes to grief. Thomas Blaze, sole survivor, finds himself marooned and at the mercy of the planet's strange inhabitants. Venus may have been the Greek goddess of love, but there is nothing lovely about the perils he has to face. Don't read this story if you have a heart condition!

Edit history: Minor changes were made to this story on 6 June 2021.

Preface

 Venus is the hell of the solar system. Her dense carbon dioxide rich atmosphere, with its crushing pressure and toxic clouds of corrosive sulphuric acid, cloak the planet in an impenetrable haze which traps the sun’s heat and raises surface temperatures to a blistering 400 O C.

 Strange as it may seem, Venus may not have always been like this. Analysis of the planet’s atmosphere suggests the possibility this world once possessed vast oceans and thus may not have been as inimical to life as it now is.

Some astronomers speculate that millions of years ago Venus possessed a moon that crashed into the planet due to orbital decay. This catastrophe could have caused Venus to flip on her axis so that the planet’s North Pole became the south, and may explain why Venus, with its reverse rotation, is the only world in the solar system where the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

If this global cataclysm actually occurred it may have triggered tremendous volcanic activity on a planet-wide scale that poisoned the Venusian atmosphere with copious sulphurous emissions and other gases, thus turning a potentially life bearing world into the dead and desolate sphere we see today.

According to some cosmologists, our universe is simply one of an endless number of realities that exist, each separated from the other by different planes of existence. If this is so, then it might be that in some other realm there exists an alternate cosmos where the orbit of Venus’ moon was stable and the catastrophe astronomers think occurred never happened.

These speculations serve as the inspiration for the planetary romance Witch Queen of Venus.

Chapter 1: Beneath the Clouds

 The Space Sphere descended slowly into the clouds of Venus. Thomas Blaze, captain of Earth’s first interplanetary vessel, had his eyes fixed intently on the viewscreen above his bank of instruments, as did every other man in the cramped confines of the spacecraft’s circular bridge.

“See anything yet, captain?” asked Adam Jones, the lanky engineer. His narrow face was tense with barely suppressed excitement. It was a mirror to the expressions of the other crew. “What do you think we’ll find?”

“Probably life of some kind,” replied Blaze. “That has been the speculation ever since Galileo trained his primitive telescope on this world, and glimpsed hints of ocean and continents through rents in Venus’ swirling masses of cloud.”

“Like a burlesque queen doing the Dance of the Seven Veils,” put in Ian O’Connor, commander of the expedition. “She gives us hints of what’s underneath, but never reveals all... Damn these clouds. What’s our altitude, captain? We must surely get beneath them soon.”

“We’re at 10,000 feet and currently passing through what appears to be a layer of altostratus,” replied Blaze. “Wait... I think the cloud is thinning.”

The men craned forward eagerly, their faces alive with expectation. The Space Sphere dropped lower. Every breath was held in tense anticipation. Then the dancer dropped her final veil, and there was a collective gasp of wonder as a glorious vista was suddenly spread out before their hungrily staring eyes.

An ocean lay beneath them. It fluoresced with an eerie blueness under a firmament of lustrous pearly cloud, beyond which lay Cupid, Venus’ solitary moon. The sea stretched in an unbroken expanse of azure calmness to the horizon, and possibly beyond. There was no sign of land. No island or shore of a continent marred the vastness of the sleeping water. No flying creature stirred the sky. The scene was like liquefied silence.

“Not a sign of land anywhere,” observed co-pilot Jason Blake. “I wonder if it’s all water as some astronomers have been predicting.”

“Bring the ship to a stop and rotate her through three hundred and sixty degrees,” ordered O’Connor. “A view of all four points of the compass may reveal something more.”

“Aye aye, commander,” replied Blaze as he reached for the flight dials. The twenty six thousand ton space vessel responded easily to the deftness of his hands, and began a slow and steady rotation about her axis. Again, a sense of expectancy came upon the men, each wondering in their own way what might be seen.

The Space Sphere turned – thirty degrees, sixty degrees, ninety degrees. At one hundred and eighty degrees Blaze slowed the craft’s rotation to a stop. A dark and enigmatic line had appeared on the horizon. There was a moment of silence as the men absorbed the scene.

“Land,” cried Jones, fervently. “Oh, God let it be land. After nearly two months confined in this stinking cannonball, let it be land.”

The other men didn’t comment upon his remark. They knew how he felt. The trip could have made a claustrophobic out of anyone – hurtling through the lightless void, jammed together like sardines in a tin can. Even though they had been chosen for their mental and physical toughness, the journey had taken its toll on all of them in different ways.

Blaze looked at O’Connor, questioningly. The commander nodded. “Proceed towards the anomaly, captain. But don’t any of you get your hopes up. It may merely be a reef of considerable extent.”

The ship moved forward under Blaze’s guidance. The repulsion discs on her hull glowed with a faint greenish radiance as they thrust her through the Venusian atmosphere at a speed of a thousand miles an hour.

Blaze watched the alien sea blur beneath the hurtling ship. He felt it was all a little surreal – being among the first men to travel to another world. Plans had been on the drawing board since 1920, several years after Morton’s historic British expedition, which had discovered the ruins of Atlantis and the incredible scientific achievements of the ancients who, tragically, had destroyed themselves in a suicidal civil war.

By 1925 the first skyliners had been developed using the secrets of Atlantian gravity control and Great Britain now ruled the air as she had once ruled the waves. Military applications also followed, especially when Hitler invaded Poland and threatened the peace of Europe.

War erupted in all its crimson madness. It was brutal but mercifully brief – within a year the aerial battleships of Britain’s sky-navy had decimated the Nazi forces. Hitler was captured and executed for his crimes, and the dictators of those other countries that had ambitions of conquest quickly became as peaceful as lambs when they realized the full extent of what they were up against.

The world was soon at peace and Britain could devote her industry and scientific genius to the perfection of interplanetary flight. By early 1942 the Space Sphere had become a reality and after a test flight circumnavigating the globe, and a longer one to the moon and back, she departed for Venus to meet the planet on its closest approach to Earth.

“By the Saints, it must be land,” cried Blake as he increased the viewscreen’s magnification. “Surely, those are the peaks of a mountain range - just there at about ten degrees to starboard.”

The co-pilot’s voice broke Blaze’s reverie. His eyes jumped to the point on the instrument where Blake’s jabbing finger had struck.

The scene grew in clarity. A coastline appeared - white beaches of glittering sand, then a wild jungle of luxuriant dark green foliage from which distant mountains rose up to thrust their grey-blue peaks against the pearly sky.

A cheer went up from the eagerly watching men – land, blessed earth and greenery. It was like a balm to their souls, for they had been starved of nature’s sights for what seemed an eternity of travel through the dead darkness of lifeless space.

A chime broke through the joyous shouts – it was a call from the ship’s laboratory compartment. O’Connor barked for quiet. He then picked up the handset, listened intently for about a minute, and thanked the person on the other end of the line before replacing the receiver in its cradle.

“Good news men,” he informed his expectant audience. “That was Dr. Browning. He’s completed his analysis of the Venusian atmosphere. I won’t bore you with the scientific details; suffice to say it’s breathable. Bloody hot though – tropical, in fact. We’re lucky this continent is near the southern pole. Being closer to the sun, temperatures must be unbearable at the planet’s equator.”

Blaze grinned. “You hear that Jonesy?” he said, referring to the engineer by his nickname. “We won’t have to wear those cumbersome spacesuits. You’ll be able to wriggle your toes in the sandy beach. Why, we might even be able to find you the local equivalent of a Tahitian maiden.”

The men laughed, and even O’Connor’s usually dour expression broke into a slight smile.

“Gentlemen,” he said in mild rebuke. “Keep in mind we’re on a mission, not a holiday. Captain, follow the coast when we reach it, and keep a sharp lookout for a suitable landing place.”

After an hour the coast could be clearly seen without the aid of magnification. Blaze slowed the Space Sphere to a crawl and dropped the ship to an altitude of five hundred feet as he followed the shore in an easterly direction. Shortly, a peninsula came into view, and within several minutes the bridge was filled with the sound of a collective gasp as the isthmus’ city emerged from the haze of distance.

O’Connor cleared his throat. “Well, captain,” he understatedly observed as the handset chimed, “it looks like Jonesy might get his Tahitian maiden after all. Bring us to a dead stop above the metropolis,” he continued as he picked up the receiver. “Yes Dr. Browning... Calm down, man... Yes I’ve ordered that. You’ll be given adequate time to film the city.”

As the commander conversed with the excited scientist, Blaze and the other men looked in unbridled wonder at the fantastic city now spread out below them. It was circular in plan and divided into five zones by wide belts of concentric greenery, which were pierced by regularly spaced avenues of considerable width paved with cream coloured flagstones.

The buildings of the metropolis took the form of stepped cubes, two stories in height. Each story was surrounded by a pillared gallery, the pillars being fashioned in the form of beautifully carved nudes. Bands of frieze work, rich with striking ornamental mouldings that had been enamelled in pastel hues adorned the walls just below the bronze balustrades.

The windows of the houses were unglazed diamond shaped areas of stone pierced with fretted arabesques. Ornamental spires rose proudly from the corners of each home’s second story, and also at the centre of their cupola shaped roofs whose porcelain tiles were of a golden hue. Azure pennants embroidered with protective crimson incantations fluttered brightly from the spires. Gardens rich in strange blooms surrounded the houses with subtle palettes of colour.

The entire metropolis had been built from a rose coloured stone veined in golden traceries of some unknown mineral. A fortified wall enclosed a complex of elaborate gardens and buildings at the city’s hub, while another rampart of impressive height and thickness, further strengthened by mighty conical towers, girded the circumference of the conurbation, which overlooked a crescent harbour where strange black ships were moored.  To the Earthmen’s eyes all they beheld presented a scene of exotic and breathtaking splendour set against the backdrop of the weird and fantastic fluorescent sea.

Blaze’s rugged though not unhandsome face furrowed in puzzlement. There was something tantalizingly familiar about the plan of the city, but what? He’d read about something very much like it before, but where? He dredged his memory and almost had the answer when a blinding ray of actinic light sprang from a tower of the outer wall, and pierced the Space Sphere with its needle of intolerable fire.

Chapter 2: Disaster Strikes

 Alarms shrieked. The ship lurched as one of the repulsion discs winked out. Men screamed as they were hurled against the deck. Blaze and Blake, both secure in their harnesses, fought to right the Space Sphere as she rolled sickeningly.

More livid rays lashed the ship in a barrage of lancing beams. Ugly glowing gashes now marred her hull. The craft reeled across the sky like a scourged drunkard. Blaze caught fragmented glimpses of bleeding bodies sliding across the pitching deck. Sky and earth spun in a nauseating whirl. The vessel plummeted.

“I can’t hold her,” cried Blake. “She’s going down.”

“Full power to repulsion discs,” snapped Blaze.

Blake quickly twisted a dial. The repulsion discs glowed fiercely as they sought to slow the fall of twenty six thousand tons of plunging steel. Blaze saw the ground rushing up to meet them – a confused blur of jungle followed by a brief whirl of sky as the ship rolled a final time.

This is it, he thought. Then the vessel struck and he knew no more.

**********

Agonizing pain was the first thing Blaze became aware of. He muttered an oath and opened his eyes. The quietness of death was all around him. Blake was dead – his head smashed in by a falling control panel torn loose from its mountings by the impact of the crash. O’Connor and the others lay strewn about the bridge, their broken and twisted forms grim evidence of the violent collision with unyielding earth.

For long moments Blaze hung limply in his harness. His mind was numb, overwhelmed by the catastrophe that had befallen the expedition. Slowly, he gathered his scattered wits and took hold of himself. Other members of the crew might still be alive and in need of his help.

Blaze released his harness and examined his companions even though he knew they were beyond help. He felt sick and could have wept, but pulled himself together. He had a job to do. The ship’s gangway was now tilted at a forty five degree angle. Fortunately, the designers of the Space Sphere had lined the ways with handrails. He began painfully hauling himself up the passageway.

It was tough going, exploring the bowels of the ruined craft. Many times he had to squeeze through a tangled wreckage of broken apparatus, or detour around another obstacle when it proved to be impassable. The entire ship was a shambles of shattered machinery. An hour’s searching confirmed his grim suspicion – of all twenty souls aboard, only he had survived.

The Space Sphere was designed more like a ship than an aircraft. Although every seat had a safety harness and was equipped with shock absorbers, the men didn’t bother donning the cumbersome restraints every time they sat down. For them it was something to be done only in an emergency, and the swiftness of the attack had precluded any possibility of warning. Blaze, on the other hand, like Blake, had been a fighter pilot before joining the expedition. For him donning a safety harness when he was flying any craft was a matter of routine, and it had been this habit that had saved his life.

The lights suddenly flickered, warningly. Power was leaking from the damaged dietheric accumulators, and Blaze knew when the charge was spent the airlocks would be impossible to open. He made for the valves in a mad scramble. The lightube’s flicker increased and each time they took a little longer to come back on.

Blaze sweated as he scuttled up the sloping way. He was plunged into darkness as the lighting system failed. Fear, more horrible than the surrounding gloom gripped him. Was this to be his fate – to be trapped in utter blackness with the rotting corpses of his companions?

His heart pounded wildly in his chest, his breath came in ragged gasps as he hauled himself along the handrail, then he cursed as his head collided with a steel barrier. Blaze groped in the darkness, searching desperately for the airlock controls. He was sure he had come the right way, but the darkness confused his senses. He cursed the blackness. It seemed a palpable thing – a black monster threatening to smother him in its all encompassing embrace.

Blaze’s groping hand found the lever. He jerked it down. Nothing happened. The Englishman laughed madly. His voice echoed in the gangway and it seemed that the darkness laughed back at him, mocking his futile efforts. Then the lights came back on as the emergency power automatically cut in.

The massive valve began to open slowly, inch by painful inch. Blaze observed its progress with the expectancy of a gambler watching rolling dice. Again, the lights flickered as even the emergency power began to fail. Unreasoning panic came upon him. He gripped the quarter ton disc of steel and began to haul upon it as he uttered a stream of wild profanity.

The door’s progress ground to a stop. Light spilt in through a narrow gap. Blaze lunged for the opening like a drowning man pouncing on a lifesaver. He thrust his muscular arms through the opening and hauled. Head and broad shoulders soon followed, but his brawny chest lodged like a cork in a bottle.

Blaze swore savagely. He exhaled, wriggled like an eel. Clothes and skin tore, then he was through and falling head first towards the ground. He managed to twist in midair. His feet slammed against the earth and he was driven to his knees by the impact; then crashed to the ground, the wind knocked out of him by the twenty foot fall.

A good ten minutes passed before he was capable of struggling to his feet. The wrecked ship loomed over him like the broken, discarded toy of a giant. Blaze felt ashamed of himself. He’d panicked like a frightened child and mindlessly fled the vessel. He should have anticipated the power failure and opened the airlock before doing anything else. That way he would have had time to gather supplies, weapons and a hundred other things. But now the valve was out of reach and the gap so narrow that hardly anything of value could be taken through it.

Still, there was no point in berating himself for it now. Perhaps he could construct a ladder from saplings to reach the valve, and a burning torch made from resinous wood could light the dark interior of the vessel. His spirits brightened a little at this thought, and he looked about in search of suitable materials.

The crash of the Space Sphere had felled the surrounding trees like ninepins even though their trunks were of tremendous girth. Blaze curiously examined one of the fallen giants. Its bark was jet black in colour, and had a texture that reminded him of pineapple skin. The canopy of the tree was umbrella shaped and consisted of a multitude of ramifying branches with stiff lance-shaped leaves. These were, as he had observed earlier via the viewscreen, emerald green in colour, but up close their lavender striping was now clearly visible.

Blaze shifted his gaze to the virgin jungle that reared up beyond the circle of devastation – dark, mysterious and pregnant with nameless hidden danger that made him shiver despite the heat. The quiet was as oppressive as the sauna-like humidity, which smothered him in its stifling folds. The Earthman muttered an oath, wiped sweat from his brow and continued his search for construction materials among the shattered vegetation.

A sense of urgency now possessed him. The ship had been attacked by unknown beings of hostile intent. He needed to get to the craft’s armoury, and in a hurry. No doubt whoever or whatever was responsible for the Space Sphere’s destruction would come to investigate the wreckage, and they could not be far away as considerable time had passed since the assault upon the craft.

A shadow fell upon Blaze. He looked up and his sweating countenance set into hard lines. A strange craft hovered in the air almost directly over him. In general appearance the machine resembled the racing sculls of his university days. It was constructed of a frosted glass-like substance, as were the six horizontal rods projected from its sides, each one bearing a globe of glowing greenish crystal at its end. The enemy had arrived.

Blaze snatched up a broken branch in preparation to defend himself. It was a pitiful weapon, but the Earthman was determined to go down fighting if he must. It wasn’t muscle bound bravado that motivated Blaze. There was simply no point in running – the tangle of crushed vegetation precluded swift escape, and besides he had nowhere to run to except the jungle and its unknown dangers.

The strange craft descended. Blaze waited tensely, not knowing what to expect. The vehicle halted, hovering about two feet above the broken vegetation. Six men leapt from it. Blaze stared at them, incredulity written large upon his face. On an alien world other human beings had been the last thing he had expected to encounter.

Their hair was glossy black and their skins were light brown in colour. All were dressed in short kilt-like garments composed of wide vertical leather strips dyed scarlet, and studded with small bronze discs. Broad black belts supported their apparel and short swords. Leather sandals shod their feet. There was little doubt that they were human. Dressed in appropriate clothes any one of them could have easily blended into the population of a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean city.

Blaze had little time to contemplate this mystery – one warrior whose face had been painted entirely red shouted orders; the others leapt at Blaze, yelling battle-cries. The Earthman blocked one swinging sword and felled its incautious wielder. He backed away as his other foes closed in. Another lunged at Blaze, but his foot became tangled in the fallen vegetation. The fellow went down cursing and the Earthman clubbed his unprotected head.

Two more attackers lunged at the Earthman. One sword nicked Blaze’s chest as he leapt away. The manoeuvre had saved him from being run through, but at a price - his heel caught on a fallen branch and he crashed to the ground. The nearer warrior closed in, sword poised for the killing stroke.

Blaze quickly grabbed a handful of soil and hurled it into the man’s face. The warrior swore and clawed at his eyes. He stumbled into the path of his comrades, impeding their attack. It was a brief respite, but all that the Earthman needed. Instantly he was on his feet. He hurled his club and had the satisfaction of seeing it strike another foe across the temple. The man went down like a felled ox.

The Earthman snatched up the branch he had tripped over and faced his surviving assailants. They regarded him with wary caution as they slowly advanced. Their numbers had been depleted, but they had no intention of giving up. Under different circumstances he would have admired their tenacity.

A flicker of movement from the edge of vision caught Blaze’s eye. He risked a quick look and cursed. Another of the strange flying machines had crept up on him whilst he had been fighting the occupants of the first. A man stood in the bow of the second vessel. He had been whirling a bolas about his head and had just released the weapon.

The Earthman tried to dodge but it was all too late – the spinning cords of the weapon whipped about his neck. Blaze dropped his club. He staggered, clawed at the choking strings, awash with a torrent of fear. His vision grew dark and he collapsed to the ground. The last thing he saw was the fading impression of hard faced warriors rushing at him.

Chapter 3: Salomnae of Cari

 Blaze quickly regained consciousness as the cords about his neck were swiftly cut away. He had a hazy recollection of the second craft swiftly interposing its thirty foot length between him and the charging warriors. Angry shouts in an unknown tongue broke harshly upon his ears. He tried to struggle up, but his full strength had not yet returned and he was easily subdued and bound by the two warriors who had leapt from the second skyboat.

The Earthman’s captors hauled him aboard their vessel, and he had a brief glimpse of the crew of the first craft. Outnumbered by his vanquishers, they could only glare in impotent rage as the second skyboat rose smoothly into the air, and then cut through the Venusian sky with the swiftness of a streaking arrow.

Blaze lay in the bottom of the craft trying to comprehend what was going on. His initial assailants had definitely been trying to kill him, whereas these fellows seemed intent on capturing him alive. He looked them over with an analytical eye. They were of the same racial type as his murderous attackers, but their uniforms were bright blue in colour rather than the blood red of the other warriors.

Nothing made any sense. The Space Sphere had been attacked with some kind of energy weapon, and yet these warriors were armed with swords. That they possessed an aircraft only added to his confusion. The juxtaposition of primitive and advanced technology was absolutely incongruous.

One of Blaze’s captors, sitting on a thwart-like seat in front of him, returned his stare with the same silent and intense curiosity as was evident in the Earthman’s own scrutinizing gaze. The fellow’s face was painted entirely blue, and Blaze suspected it was a sign that he was in command of these men, just as the red face-paint of the other officer showed he had been in charge of the warriors of the first skyboat.

This was confirmed when the man said something to him in an alien tongue, for common warriors were not permitted to question prisoners. Blaze started, for the words were strangely familiar. He could almost make them out. His brow furrowed in thought... The language sounded like the classic Atlantian he had studied at university, but subtly changed by the passage of six thousand years of continued use.

“Can you understand what I am saying,” asked Blaze in the language of the Ancients. It seemed absurd that the fellow would be able to, but the Earthman felt the long shot was worth a try.

The man he addressed frowned. “You mangle the ancient tongue with your uncultured accent. What game are you playing at, Thusian spy? Speak the modern version!”

For a moment Blaze was shocked, for he hadn’t had any real hope the man would understand him. But it seemed that on Venus the impossible was an everyday occurrence. He quickly pulled himself together and hastily explained.

“This is the only version of your language that I know,” he continued, “and I’m not a Thusian spy, whatever that is.”

The man laughed derisively. “There are only two cities on this world of Uvar,” he explained. “Thusi, the city of our enemies and Cari, where we are from; and I know you are not from Cari. Your foolish lies will not save you.”

“There are other worlds beyond the clouds...”

“That is the realm of the gods,” cut in his captor, savagely. “Do you claim to be a god? Cari was founded by the gods in ancient times. You of Thusi assert the same, but now it appears you dare to go even further and claim divinity. Careful, fellow, you’re coming close to blasphemy. If the High Priest of Zu hears of this it will go hard for you.”

Blaze didn’t bother to reply, and the brief conversation lapsed into silence. By now the Earthman had enough information to form a reasonable conjecture concerning the situation he found himself in. It was evident that the Atlantians had founded a colony on Venus – a colony that had been cut off from Earth when the mother civilization had perished in the suicidal civil war that had destroyed the floating island. Isolated and without the industrial base that sustains a technological society, it was inevitable that equipment would break down and be unfixable due to a lack of spare parts and the knowledge and machinery to manufacture them.

All that remained of the Ancient’s super science was probably a handful of devices. The true origin of Cari and Thusi had become a garbled legend as society slowly reverted to a more primitive level over a period of six thousand terrestrial years. It seemed that the remnants of a once mighty civilization were now as ignorant and superstitious ridden as the people of the Middle Ages. Blaze fervently hoped that someone in Cari would have a more open mind than that of these simple warriors. And if they didn’t... well, that was a possibility he wasn’t eager to contemplate.

The flight was approximately an hour’s duration, during which time Blaze listened carefully to the conversation of the other warriors, analysing how the language had changed with the passage of time. He soon discovered that about half the long vowels had become diphthongs, while the remainder had been shortened when they appeared before coronal constants, so that by the time they arrived at Cari the contemporary version of Atlantian had become largely intelligible to him.

Blaze looked down at the city, and with his new knowledge he could now understand his sense of déjà vu upon first seeing it – the metropolis was very much like the description of Atlantis given in Plato’s philosophical dialogues Timaeus and Critias, but in this case the concentric canals were belts of fruit and nut bearing trees that fed the population of approximately ten thousand souls.

The skyboat swiftly descended and landed before the imposing edifice of a large building in the complex of elaborate gardens and structures at the city’s hub. Graceful domes, columns and arches were the dominant features of its architecture. Blaze was manhandled from the craft. The ropes about his ankles were cut, and he was led up the flight of steps before what was obviously the palace of the administrative complex.

They passed through a short hall overarched by a vaulted ceiling and entered a spacious room whose floor was richly ornamented with complex mosaics that reminded the Earthman of sinuous arabesques. At the further end of the room stood a low dais of richly carved stone resembling obsidian, and it was towards this that Blaze’s captors marched him. A luxurious couch stood upon the dais, and was occupied by a young woman who lay upon its gilded form in sensuous repose.

A withered greybeard stood by the woman’s side. He was dressed in a blue short-sleeved tunic with a long shawl wound round his body to form a double fringed skirt, and bore in his right hand a great black staff tipped with a gold disc. His face was as hard and cruel as that of an eagle, and he observed Blaze’s approach with the calculating stare of a serpent. The Earthman drew in a sharp breath as he was brought to a halt before the couple. But it was the woman’s more commanding presence that made him gasp, for she was extraordinarily beautiful.

Her face was heart-shaped and angelic. Her lips were full and hinted at volatile petulance, for they were like a bow from which deadly arrows could be hurled. A cataract of raven hair spilt across her bare shoulders and heavy breasts, and the way her Junoesque figure was draped gracefully upon the divan reminded the Earthman of a panther he had once seen lazing on a sunny rock.

Her only item of apparel was a gauzy length of crimson cloth suspended from a golden chain slung low about her generous hips. About her lovely throat was a sumptuous necklace of flashing rubies while opulent bracelets of pure gold adorned her graceful wrists. The Earthman met her brooding gaze. Her dark, hooded eyes returned Blaze’s bold stare. The woman regarded him for a moment with the stirrings of fiery anger, then rose swiftly to a sitting position and turned her baneful gaze on the greybeard standing next to her.

“Well, Medur,” she observed in a waspish tone, “it seems my orders have been defied. Your blue clad lackeys have spared a piece of Thusian filth. They could have only done so by your command.”

The man bowed. “As High Priest of Zu I am skilled in divination,” he explained smoothly. “My auguries reveal this man must be spared. It is obvious that the Thusians have rediscovered the magic of the gods. We, too, must possess this sorcery. It is a matter of vital importance for the security of the realm. Torture will soon loosen this infidel’s tongue, and then the secrets of the flying sphere will be ours. As your loyal advisor, Queen Salomnae, I seek only to serve the best interests of the kingdom.”

The queen’s lips curved into a cynical smile. “The only person you serve, priest, is yourself. Oh, don’t give me that pained look of innocence. All this is just pretence. It will be your inquisitors who will wring the secrets from this man, secrets that you will try and use against me. That is why I ordered the death of any survivors. Besides, our flame lance destroyed the thing, which proves the superiority of our magic.”

Blaze listened carefully as both Medur and the queen continued their verbal fencing. He couldn’t understand everything that was said, for he was still not completely fluent in the language. But he grasped enough to understand the danger he was in. It was clear that a power struggle was going on between the priesthood and the monarchy, and that he was caught in the middle of it. Even if they believed he was from another world it wouldn’t save him – he’d either die through Medur’s machinations or the queen’s.

Raw anger flamed within Blaze’s being. The lives of all the Space Sphere’s crew had been snuffed out because of the petty plotting of a power hungry priest, and the cruelty of a wanton queen. A frightening vision arose within his churning mind - a second Venusian expedition struck down in flaming ruin by the unexpected ray. His face grew hard with rage and determination. Somehow, he’d find a way to prevent a further tragedy.

Salomnae’s voice grew in stridency and broke through Blaze’s wild and frantic thoughts. His eyes darted angrily to the queen as she rose from her divan with the swift litheness of a spitting cat. It seemed the dispute had reached its climax.

“You forget, priest, that I, too, have magic and that men have died from the powers that I wield. Behold,” she cried, gesturing dramatically at a huge wall mirror beside her couch, one overhung by a crimson canopy. “Look upon my demon slave and tremble.”

In an instant every eye was focused upon the glass. Red mist began to swirl across the mirror’s surface. Blaze felt the guards hands tighten upon his arms in convulsive fear. The entire glass had now become a plane of turgid crimson vapour. Slowly, a green face of indescribable hideousness emerged from the roiling blood red fog. It leered at the frozen spectators. Palpable malevolence oozed from its grinning satanic visage.

The warriors, brave men all, trembled. Medur stumbled back, a shaking hand raised in some mystic gesture of protection. Even Blaze felt the unreasoning fear of the supernatural lick his spine with its icy tongue of terror. But he didn’t lose his nerve. The Earthman observed the trembling guards from the corner of his eye. They were like men gazing on the face of the gorgon – frozen with the horror of the moment, oblivious to all but the numbing terror of the demonic apparition.

Blaze seized the moment. Although his wrists were bound his feet were free. He lashed out with a vicious kick. A warrior howled as his shin was cracked by the Earthman’s boot heel. Blaze swiftly struck again as the guard tumbled to the floor and sent another foe crashing to the ground. Swords slithered from sheaths like steel serpents as the four remaining warriors reacted. Blaze sidestepped a lunging guard and slammed his foot into the man’s ribs.

Salomnae looked on in disbelief as a third man went down in as many seconds. The queen drew a slim dagger from her girdle as Blaze leapt at her with the ferocity of a snarling wolf. She aimed a vicious slash at his throat. The Earthman ducked and the flashing blade sliced a lock of hair. Blaze was unstoppable. The momentum of his furious charge carried him forward. He rammed his shoulder against the queen, hurling her violently onto the couch. Salomnae uttered a brief cry as her head struck the divan, and the dagger slipped from her nerveless fingers to clatter upon the floor.

Blaze leapt upon the couch and stood over the queen like a savage lion above its kill. He saw the rushing guards, their swords raised with deadly purpose, about to fall upon him in a rage of avenging fury. The Earthman cursed. The maddened warriors would be within striking distance at any moment. Death, as horrid as the evil vision in Salomnae’s mirror stared him in the face.

Chapter 4: Treachery

 Blaze hated what he was about to do, but there was no choice. Swiftly, he placed his foot on the dazed queen’s neck and shouted a dire warning of his own:

“Stop,” he yelled, “or I’ll break Salomnae’s neck.”

The racing warriors halted upon the dais’ steps. It was impossible to reach the desperate man in time to stop him from carrying out his awful threat. They looked at Medur, tensely awaiting his command. The High Priest hid his elation well. This was a golden opportunity. All he had to do was order his personal guard to advance, and no doubt the Thusian spy would kill Salomnae in a final act of vengeance.

But then he hesitated. When it became known that he’d deliberately endangered the queen’s life suspicion would fall upon him like a rock, and he wasn’t in a strong enough position just yet to risk the fury of the other nobles. He must be more subtle and avoid the possibility of any blame.

“Drop your swords,” he ordered. “The queen’s life must not be endangered.” Then, turning to the Earthman: “I assume you want safe passage out of Cari in exchange for the life of her majesty?”

“Correct,” snapped Blaze. “Now, priest, cut the ropes binding my wrists, and if you value your sovereign’s life make sure you cut no more than that. Also, have a skyboat brought to the entrance of the palace. I’ll release your queen unharmed once I’m outside the city walls. You have my word on that.”

Twenty minutes later Blaze was hauling Salomnae aboard a skyboat, and although the Earthman had bound her hands behind her back he found it was like trying to get a cat into a bathtub full of water. The screaming curses she heaped upon him were as unique as they were unprintable.

At last he got her in, and with a further struggle bound her to a thwart with a rope about her waist. She gave Medur, who had been watching the proceedings with barely concealed amusement, a withering glance of undiluted venom.

“You cannot hide your delight from me,” she hissed. “Remember well, priest, the mirror and the power that I wield. Do not think to take advantage of my momentary helplessness.”

The High Priest remained silent. His only response was an enigmatic smile - an evil grin that stirred the beginnings of unease in the heaving breast of the furious woman. Salomnae fell silent and began to think about what that cunning smirk might portend.

Blaze, who had ignored the byplay, was busily examining the simple controls of the skyboat. They were situated in the stern of the craft and consisted of two levers – one controlled the vessel’s ascent and descent, while the other turned the vehicle like a steering wheel. Two pedals were also positioned between the levers – one for acceleration and the other for deceleration.

The Earthman had observed the operation of the controls during the flight to Cari, and felt confident he could master the skyboat with ease. Seating himself at the helm, he gently pulled the left lever towards him from its vertical position. The craft rose smoothly into the air at a fixed speed, and he brought it to a stop at an altitude of two hundred feet by returning the lever to its original position.

Blaze grinned. It was as easy as riding a bicycle. He looked about and carefully marked the location of the tower upon which the single flame lance was mounted, and then turned the skyboat in the direction of the Space Sphere’s wreckage by pushing the second lever to the right. Assured of the craft’s responsiveness, he set his foot on the acceleration pedal and in but seconds the skyboat was swiftly under way.

His plan was simple if not suicidal. Once at the Space Sphere he’d salvage a bazooka and its case of ammunition from the ship’s armoury. The weapons had been shipped in the event Venusian life forms were, as some scientists had speculated, similar to the huge dinosaurs of Earth’s Jurassic age, for ordinary rifles would have been useless against such towering brutes. Thus armed, he felt certain he could destroy the flame lance and thus save any other expeditions from an attack by Carin gunners.

And if he succeeded in his mission, what then? Cari was barred to him beyond all doubt, but what of Thusi? If he brought the queen to the Thusians as a prisoner they might receive him as a friend. He gazed at Salomnae with calculating eyes. The queen sat rigidly on her seat, staring at the horizon and ignoring him with all the superiority of an outraged feline.

No doubt the Thusian’s would relish getting their hands on her. Why should he keep his word to a woman who would kill him without compunction? But then a sudden vision came to him of Salomnae screaming under the torturer’s knife. Blaze shuddered. The queen might be a cruel and wilful shrew, but his conscious rebelled at the thought of delivering her into the hands of such a horrid fate. No, he’d keep his word and let her go unharmed once he’d destroyed the flame lance. And after that... Well, it was all in the lap of the gods.

Within about an hour the wreckage of the Space Sphere came into view. The ground about it was swarming with blue clad figures – the personal guard of the High Priest. The sight caused the first stirrings of unease in Blaze. He looked at the queen and wondered if he’d overplayed her value as a hostage. There was only one way to find out. He gripped the control lever and pushed it forward to bring the skyboat down.

Blaze cursed. The craft didn’t respond to his manipulation of the lever and deceleration pedal. He tried again but it was useless – the controls were dead. The Earthman turned around and watched with growing dismay as he flew helplessly over the wreck. He slammed his fist against a thwart and swore savagely as the Space Sphere receded into the distance. He was trapped on a runaway craft hurtling out into the trackless wilds of the Venusian jungle. All his plans had suddenly come to hopeless ruin.

A cruel, tinkling laugh made Blaze spin about. The queen eyed him with a pitiless smile. “So,” she observed, “you have discovered Medur’s treachery. The cunning devil has disposed of me by tampering with the controls. He probably weakened the linkages by cutting most of the way through them, and now they’ve completely snapped. When I’m not released the blame will fall on you of course. No doubt his subtle mind has already formulated a way to seize the throne of Cari.”

“I don’t see what there is to laugh about,” snarled Blaze. “Unless I get us down we’ll die up here from lack of food and water. Do you know how these craft operate? With your help I might be able to repair the damage.”

“You’ll get no help from me, you stinking Thusian,” she replied, and then continued spitefully: “I wonder how long it will be before you jump overboard to end your suffering? I know I won’t for I wish to have the pleasure of seeing you die.”

Blaze lurched to his feet. He stood glaring down at her, gripping the dagger protruding from his belt. The woman was absolutely infuriating.

The queen looked at him, smiling contemptuously. “Do you plan to kill me with my own dagger, or is it something else you have in mind?”

Blaze cursed her provocations. He grabbed Salomnae and hauled her across his knee. The queen screamed. Her shapely legs failed the air. She twisted with suppleness of an oiled serpent. Blaze swore, held fast to her writhing form. The girl saw the look upon his face. It was as cruel as the glittering dagger in his hand. The blade descended. The woman tensed. She cried in terror.

But all the Earthman did was carefully cut away her bonds. Of course he wanted to do far more than that, especially considering the enticing view he was now enjoying. But he controlled his flaming desires and gently let her go. The flight was going to be far longer than he had anticipated, and the humane thing to do was to make her as comfortable as possible.

Salomnae scuttled to the bow, heart pounding wildly. She crouched there tensely, massaging her wrists and eyeing the Earthman warily as he returned to the helm and began examining the sabotaged controls. After a time she was sufficiently calm to ask herself why she had provoked him. The queen sighed. She knew she was driven by her raw emotions – boiling passions that often overrode her reason. She hated Thusians with unthinking prejudice. He was a Thusian, and that was a sufficient motive in itself. But why hadn’t he harmed her? She had certainly seen blazing desire written large upon his face.

Her brow furrowed in puzzlement as she considered this unfathomable mystery. Any Thusian woman captured by one of her own warriors would have been abused in the most degrading ways. Perhaps given time she would have divined an answer. But the queen’s bewildered musings were cut short as a sudden shadow swept over her.

Blaze looked up at Salomnae’s startled cry. He gasped. A flying monster soared above them. It resembled an enormous bat in general form. The head, adorned with a crest of crimson spines, was similar to that of a chameleon, especially the protruding crimson eyes which regarded Blaze with bleak malevolence as it swept past. The creature’s wingspan must have measured at least thirty feet.

The beast’s jaws, long and narrow like those of an alligator, gaped wide. It uttered a shrill, unnerving cry. The terrible sound, like that of fingernails being grated across a blackboard, made the Earthman’s skin crawl. Revulsion struck him like a physical blow at the sight of its scaly hide – mucous green in colour on the upper body, and maggot white on its belly and the underside of the wings.

Suddenly, the thing banked in a swift turn. It plunged at the skyboat, screeching madly, and eyes blazing with murderous rage. Blaze swore. He flung himself down as did the girl. The Earthman caught a brief and terrifying glimpse of snapping jaws full of razor fangs as the monster hurtled past. Rising to a crouch he drew the sword he had taken from a guard and looked over the gunnels. The creature had spread its wings and was beating them furiously to gain altitude. It soared with unbelievable swiftness, and hurtled towards the craft’s stern like a lightning bolt.

The Earthman leapt back from the rushing monster. He tripped on a thwart and swore as he thudded painfully onto his back. The creature crashed down on the skyboat’s stern. The bow shot up at an angle due to the impact and Salomnae tumbled against the swearing man. She clung to him, her nails digging in like the claws of a terrified animal as both slid towards the monster’s gaping fang lined maw.

Blaze managed to grab a thwart and arrested their wild plunge. The creature’s head darted like a stabbing spear. The queen screamed. Blaze, cursing madly, swung his sword and battered aside the bony jaws. The thing screeched and its foul breath rolled over them in a sickening fog. Then the skyboat started to spin like a whirling leaf, sparks flying from mechanisms damaged by the impact of the monster.

The creature took fright and shot into the air with a wild cry. But one danger had been swiftly replaced by another – Blaze, sick with unbridled fear, felt the skyboat plunge in a nauseating dive. They were hurtling towards the ground in uncontrolled descent. Salomnae’s arms were like iron bands about his chest. She buried her face in his shoulder to obscure the end. All thoughts of enmity had been swept away. The towering trees seemed to leap up like rushing lances, and then the stricken craft plunged with appalling swiftness among their soaring forms.

Chapter 5: Lost on Venus

 Branches snapped. Leaves were shredded. The skyboat somersaulted and catapulted its terrified occupants into the jungle. Salomnae’s screams were a continuous shriek in Blaze’s ear as she clung to the falling man whose own wild cries were the equal of her terror.

Sky and earth spun in a sickening rush.  A tangle of vines caught them and briefly arrested their frightening descent. Then the lianas snapped and again they hurtled earthward in breathless dread. A huge bush loomed beneath them. Both crashed into its mass of springy verdure. Strange creatures, uttering shrill cries of fear; burst from the growth, then silence gradually descended upon the scene.

**********

Night found the couple huddled around a fire which Blaze had kindled using his wilderness survival skills. Neither had sustained any serious injury, but both were battered and bruised, and very lucky to be alive. Even so, the Earthman knew they were still in a desperate situation – Lost in the Venusian wilderness God only knew how many miles from civilization, and a hostile civilization at that.

The Venusian night wasn’t impenetrable blackness as the Earthman had expected. The clouds glowed with a pearly luminescence that bathed the jungle in a gentile twilight glow that Blaze found absolutely fascinating. Perhaps Cupid, Venus’ moon, sent forth a radiation that excited strange gases of the upper atmosphere in the manner of a fluorescent lighting, or so he speculated.

Blaze stirred the fire with a stick and gazed at Salomnae. The queen sat upon the leaping flames further side. The ordeals that she’d been through – Blaze’s kidnapping of her, the attack of the flying monster that he learnt was called a pelor, and the frightful plunge to earth – had shaken her severely with their cumulative effects. Both had spent the day resting their battered bodies and minds, lazing on beds of leaves not far from the bush into which they’d fallen.

The Earthman looked worriedly at the girl. She had been very quiet all day, almost robotic in her actions. Strangely, he felt sorry for her. Now, she seemed to him more like a spoilt child than an evil queen. He sighed. Perhaps her vulnerability was clouding his better judgement.

Salomnae cast the core of the jungle fruit she had been eating into the leaping flames and met the Earthman’s gaze. The firelight danced in her eyes and her face was slightly flushed from its heat; her entire being seemed suddenly infused with the life and beauty of youth. Blaze felt a disquieting thrill as she slowly ran her fingers through her mass of raven hair in an attempt to comb it, pushing it behind her arching back so the fullness of her naked breasts were exposed for him to see.

“We shall start for Cari in the morning,” she said.

By her tone the sentence was a command rather than a question or a plea. Blaze felt nettled. The moment was spoiled for him. Salomnae was once again her former self. He slowly shook his head in disbelief. Did she really think he was going to escort her back through miles of trackless jungle, only to be rewarded with a horrid death for his troubles? He said as much to the preening girl.

Salomnae regarded him sharply, and her full lips became petulant with infuriation. She gestured at the flames. A turgid cloud of crimson smoke boiled up from the crackling fire. Blaze scrambled back in alarm. He gasped as a demonic face appeared in the swirling vapour and hellish laughter burst upon his ears.

“Behold my demon slave,” she cried. “Obey my will or I will have the imp feast upon your soul.”

Blaze had been startled by the sudden appearance of the apparition, but he wasn’t afraid. The Earthman leapt to his feet. He stalked around the fire and grabbed the rising girl by the wrist.

“Enough of this nonsense,” he cried sternly. “Your tricks don’t deceive me, Salomnae,” he continued as he tried to wrench a large ring from her finger. “I glimpsed you cast a pellet into the fire, which produced the red smoke when it burnt.”

The queen hissed a curse. Her fingers darted for his eyes. Blaze swore. He caught her raking hand. Salomnae drove her knee at his groin in a savage blow. The Earthman blocked the stroke by jamming his own knee against her rising leg. Then he swiftly overbalanced the struggling girl, forced her to the bed of leaves before the fire, and pinned her to the fragrant verdure.

“Now,” he continued, ignoring the cursing, writhing woman. “If I manipulate the ring like I think I saw you do... Ah yes – it projected an image of your demon onto the smoke. Where I’m from we’d call this a miniature magic lantern. As for the demonic laughter – that is an example of what my people call ventriloquism.

“I’ve also figured out your ‘demon in the mirror’ illusion. I noticed the glass was tilted at an angle. I’m sure that above the first mirror is another set at a reverse angle, which is concealed by the fringe of overhanging canopy. The first mirror reflects the second mirror, which is tilted towards a hidden aperture in the wall that leads to a secret room and captures an image of what is occurring in the chamber. A pellet like the one you just used produced the crimson smoke when tossed in a brazier, and an actor in a mask did the rest.

“And as for people dying from your curses... Well, if someone believes strongly in witchcraft and the power of black magic, then they might expire from the stress of sheer anxiety alone, especially if they have some other ailment such as a weakness of the heart.”

The queen’s look of startled amazement confirmed his theory beyond all doubt. She opened her lips to decry his insightful words, but the look upon his face made her realize the futility of anything she could say. The veil around her most closely guarded secrets had been ripped away and she lay exposed before him as an utter fraud. Bitter defeat and dark despair came upon Salomnae with the dreadful realization of just how vulnerable and powerless she now was.

“Look,” Blaze said gently, as she wept. “You can’t go back to Cari anyway. How long do you think it will be before Medur finds out the truth as I have? His spies will have free rein in your absence,” he continued as he removed his jacket and placed it over her. “Now, get some sleep. I’ll take first watch and wake you at midnight. Tomorrow we can discuss what to do.”

As Blaze took up his post it suddenly came to him that there was nothing like a woman’s tears to soften a man’s heart, and no doubt his head as well.

**********

It was early morning. Sleep, like a cunning thief, had crept in on the Earthman and stolen all wakefulness before he could rouse the girl to sentry duty. Strange fingers rudely awoke Blaze from his fitful slumber. The Earthman’s eyes flickered open. Salomnae’s scream jerked him to full alertness. He tried to struggle up, but found himself in the iron grip of alien hands. He gasped in alarm as his eyes fell upon the beings that had hold of him and the girl.

The four creatures looked roughly like ponies in general body shape and size. But they were much thinner and clearly not mammals, for their bodies were covered in an exoskeleton reminiscent of a crab, but the colour of turtle shell. Their heads and teeth were fearful in appearance – like those of a hammerhead shark. The beings legs terminated in cloven hoofs, and from what would have been the withers on a horse sprouted extremely long arms equipped with dexterous three fingered hands that gripped crude flint-headed spears.

Blaze lashed out in a brutal kick fuelled by wild fear. The Earthman’s booted foot struck his captor solidly on the leg. But he might have kicked an iron post for all the good it did. The thing hissed in anger and drove its spear at him in a savage thrust. Salomnae cried in fright. The Earthman twisted in his captor’s grip. The weapon grazed his ribs and thudded into the soil. 

The monster drew back its spear for the finishing blow. Blaze tried to struggle free but it was useless. The spear darted forward and the sweat drenched Earthman tensed in expectation of the end. But another creature cried an order and the plunging weapon halted inches from his wildly beating heart.

Blaze slowly released his breath. It seemed he had been given a stay of execution, at least for the moment. He turned to the queen. She looked frightened but appeared unhurt. “What are these things?’ he blurted in a shaky voice.

“I don’t know,” answered the girl, unsteadily. “We of Cari do not venture far into the jungles of Uvar, for those expeditions that set out rarely return.”

“Perhaps this is the reason why,” speculated Blaze, worriedly, as the beings bound his hands and those of the girl behind their backs.

Having secured their prisoners, their weird captors forced them at spear point down a hitherto unnoticed jungle trail. The creatures conversed among themselves in a language that sounded to the Earthman’s ears like cawing ravens. He listened for a while, dividing his attention between their speech and searching for an opportunity to escape. Both were equally futile enterprises.

The being’s language was completely alien, and even if he could understand it he doubted human vocal cords could successfully reproduce their speech. Communication, it seemed, was impossible. Blaze tested his bonds. They were strong and secure. But even if he broke free how could he fight these things? His sword and dagger had been lost in the crash. And even if he still possessed them he doubted either would penetrate the creatures’ tough exoskeletons. Only their bulging eyes seemed vulnerable.

Blaze heaped bitter recriminations upon himself. If only he hadn’t fallen asleep. It was his fault they were in this dreadful situation. His gaze fell upon Salomnae who marched in front of him. Her head was bowed in hopelessness and her shoulders drooped in black defeat. Blaze firmed his resolve to make amends. He’d find a way to get her out of this. The Earthman smiled wryly at his sudden realization of how easily a damsel in distress, even if it was a devil-woman like the queen, could fire his sense of antique chivalry.

An hour of solid marching brought them to the abode of their captors. It was a hexagonal stronghold of stark and brutal strength. The outer wall of the fort, built from naturally occurring columns of prismatic basalt stacked in alternating courses of headers and stretchers, loomed above them, dark and menacing against the pearly whiteness of the Venusian sky.

They halted before its bleak entrance – a narrow opening blocked by three massive basalt columns. A password was shouted to unseen watchers by the leader of the party. Shortly, the creaking of pulleys and windlass could be heard, and the columns slowly rose with a horrid grating noise to reveal a black passageway that was as inviting as an open grave.

Blaze and the girl were forced into the tunnel-like way, which burrowed into the structure for a distance of thirty feet and then debouched into a central courtyard. The Earthman looked about and saw that a stone platform twenty feet in height and forty in width ran about the inner wall of the enclosure.

Stone houses, constructed in a similar manner to the rampart, had been built along the platform. They were squat ugly affairs, each joined to the other by a common wall. A single ramp gave access to the platform, while another rose to the top of the towering battlement. The architecture was starkly utilitarian. There was no evidence of art or ornamentation of any kind. Other creatures identical to their captors moved about the enclosure on unknown errands, and the Earthman estimated that the fortress’ population numbered about one hundred of the strange beings.

Another creature approached the humans’ captors – this one differentiated from the rest by white stripes painted in vertical bars upon its ugly head. It converse with the others of its kind for a moment, then gave Blaze a cursory examination before turning its attention to the girl.

Salomnae tensed as the dark eyes of the being’s leader traced her curvaceous form. Ere this it had never seen a human woman, only male captives from occasional expeditions. Its gaze fell upon her breasts. Its mouth opened, displaying rows of wicked teeth. Spittle drooled from its awful maw.  The girl screamed as its hard fingers gripped the softness of her flesh.

Blaze swore. He lashed out in unthinking anger. The monster staggered as his foot caught it in the eye. The other creatures fell upon him in a savage rush. Spear butts thudded against his ribs, his back. The Earthman rolled beneath one being. He jerked erect, rammed his shoulder underneath its body, and gave a mighty heave.

The creature, amazingly light despite its size, toppled. It crashed against another being. Both tumbled to the ground. But Blaze’s brief victory was quickly ended as the remaining creatures rushed him from behind and knocked him to the earth with sweeping spears.

Blaze was hauled to his feet. He looked anxiously at Salomnae. The queen appeared outraged but unhurt. The Earthman’s face set in grim lines as they were dragged up the platform’s ramp. Salomnae hadn’t been the victim of alien lust. The thing had been feeling her like a butcher might feel a cut of meat.

Both humans were thrust into one of the gloomy houses. Blaze and the girl collapsed on the floor, and their guards took up position at the entrance. Escape, it seemed, was impossible, and the Earthman fretted over the horrid fate he was sure awaited them.

Chapter 6: Strange Bedfellows

 Salomnae knelt beside Blaze and looked at him in a very puzzled way. “That was a brave but foolish thing to do. I... I don’t understand you at all.”

“What is so difficult to understand,” queried an unknown voice, “about the protective instincts of a man towards a woman?”

The couple started. They turned around and beheld a stranger who lay upon the floor. The man sat up awkwardly, his movement hampered by the fact his hands were also bound behind his back. The fellow was of the same racial type as the Carians Blaze had seen. Only his clothes were different, consisting of a tunic and shorts rather than the kilt-like garments favoured by the males of the other city.

His features were strong but not unkindly. His soiled white garments were embroidered with complex designs in thread of gold, which suggested he was a man of wealth as did the broad gold armlets about his thickly muscled limbs.

“A Thusian,” breathed Salomnae. Had the girl been familiar with the expression that adversity makes for strange bedfellows, then she would have thoroughly agreed.

“Indeed,” replied the fellow with a smile. “I saw what happened. It’s good to see a human knock a stinking Skura down. But it is bad that we must meet under such unpleasant circumstances. I am, by the way, Lantu, Prince of Thusi, but I fear my royal title means little in our present situation.”

Blaze grinned as he slowly stood. He had taken an instant liking to the man. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Prince Lantu,” he replied, bowing. “Perhaps if we work together we can find a means of escaping these... Skura, I believe you called them.”

“With you help there is a slim chance,” replied the prince, gravely. “But we haven’t much time. Both of you come and sit beside me, and never mind the royal protocols.”

Lantu’s gaze shifted to Salomnae as she and Blaze approached and sat before him. The prince’s eyes widened as they drank in the girl’s beauty, heretofore concealed by the gloom.

“Never did I think Cari produced such fair maidens,” he exclaimed in unfeigned admiration. “Surely, my lips will be graced by the utterance of your name.”

The queen suddenly blushed and dropped her eyes at this unexpected compliment. “My name is Niolis,” she replied, adopting the persona of her handmaiden, and desperately hoping Blaze would not expose her lie. “I am merely a slave, lord prince, whom my companion helped escape from cruel servitude.”

Blaze understood her deception, but much to his surprise, felt inexplicably annoyed at Salomnae’s reaction to Lantu’s flowery eloquence. “Your plan, prince Lantu,” reminded the Earthman more sharply than he’d intended.

“Of course,” replied Lantu, quickly. “There’s a hidden blade in my left armlet,” he explained. “Bound as I am I can’t reach it, but you might be able to. Pull on the third jewel in the circumference to extract the knife.

Blaze, due to the numbness of his fingers caused by the binding ropes, had considerable difficulty removing the concealed weapon. But after much sweating and muttered oaths the miniature blade slid free, and he began the equally awkward task of sawing through Salomnae’s bonds, the prince having insisted she be freed first.

“Hurry,” whispered Lantu, who had been keeping an anxious watch by the door. “The leader of the Skura approaches with his guards. They’ll be upon us in but moments.”

The Earthman twisted his head. He cursed. Through the doorway he could see the stalking creatures. Their approach bore all the hallmark of deadly purpose, for fell intent was written in the cruel litheness of their stride. He increased his sawing to a frantic pace. Salomnae winced as the razor edge nicked her skin. Her face was pale. Her heart thudded in her breast like a beaten drum.

“Too late”, cried Lantu in breathless and urgent warning. “They’re here.”

Blaze pressed the knife into Salomnae’s hands. “Keep working at the ropes,” he urged as the girl palmed the blade. “And don’t give up.”

The beings entered the cell. The captives were dragged to their feet and hauled outside. A blazing pit of fire had been kindled at the enclosure’s far end, and before it were gathered the leader’s favourites who would partake in the bloody feast to come. With rising dread the madly struggling prisoners were dragged towards the bonfire. The heat from the roaring flames made Salomnae sweat, for now they were very near the tongues of fire that leapt through the stone grille covering the pit.

The leader of the Skura cried a guttural order. The queen’s captor carried the kicking, screaming girl closer to the flames. Both men cursed. Each struggled valiantly in his jailer’s grip, but to no avail. Salomnae writhed – the heat was now burningly intense. She strained frantically at the weakened ropes. The girl sobbed in abject fear. The monster raised her high above its head in preparation to cast the squirming girl onto the red hot grille above the hellish pit of fire. Terror leant her strength and her bonds parted with a sudden snap.

Surprise and swiftness were with Salomnae. Before her captor could react she struck with desperate savagery. The monster screamed shrilly as the girl drove the miniature knife still concealed in her palm deep within its eye. The creature dropped the girl. The queen landed on her feet with cat-like agility. She hurled her weight against the staggering monster and toppled it into the blazing fire. It screamed horribly.

Hissing cries of rage exploded from the other nightmare creatures. They charged the girl, their wicked spears levelled for the killing thrust. Salomnae cursed as she squeezed one of her many rings. The gemstone sprung open like a lid and she quickly tossed the contents of the concealed cavity – four small pellets – within the searing bonfire. Instantly, a voluminous cloud of crimson smoke erupted, choking the scene in an impenetrable screen of swirling vapour.

In the scarlet murkiness Blaze fought his guard with reckless desperation. Near him he heard the prince battling with equally frenetic fury. The Earthman savagely kicked his captor in the legs; trying to loosen its vice-like grip upon his arms. He was frantic with worry. What had happened to the girl? The last he had seen was the awful sight of the hurtling creatures bearing down upon her. Suddenly, the monster closed its hand about his throat. Cold, iron hard fingers sank into his flesh.

The world eddied towards a black pit of eternal darkness. It seemed the end. Then a wild figure leapt through the turgid gloom. It struck brutally. The Skura strangling Blaze screamed and the crushing pressure about his neck fell away. He staggered. Salomnae steadied him. She had eluded her attackers in the smokescreen.

“Hurry,” she cried as she cut his bonds. “The smoke is thinning. We must escape while they’re still disorganized.”

“Not without the prince,” croaked Blaze as he stumbled towards the shadowy figures of furiously battling man and monster.

Salomnae followed, cursing both the Thusian and the Earthman’s stupidity with muttered oaths. Through the thinning smokescreen she glimpsed the monster strike the prince with its bony fist. Lantu tumbled to the ground. The creature thrust its spear. Blaze leapt. He caught the plunging weapon and jerked it aside. The point struck paving and the creature turned on Blaze with savage fury.

Both struggled for possession of the spear as the other Skura that Salomnae had initially eluded now loomed through the rapidly thinning crimson murk. A hurled spear narrowly missed Blaze. Salomnae snatched it up and ran his monstrous foe through the eye.

The girl then severed Lantu’s bonds as other savage foes rushed at them. Blaze hauled the prince to his feet. “Follow me,” he cried.

The trio dashed through the smoke and to the fortress’ walls. They dodged other startled Skura and ducked hurled spears that barely missed their swiftly racing forms. A ramp soared up before them. Their foes gained upon them from behind. The escapees sprinted up the steep incline towards the towering rampart’s utmost height, hearts hammering from their frenetic pace.

Blaze halted at the top of the wall, breathing heavily, and turned upon the narrow battlement to face the charging foe. A hoard of Skura galloped up the ramp in an overwhelming charge. Wordlessly, he took the spear from Salomnae’s hand. It seemed there was nothing they could do but make a final stand and die as bravely as was possible.

Blaze grinned mirthlessly. He had considered himself as good as dead from the outset. The only entrance had been reclosed with heavy stone. The walls were high and the drop fatal, but life is precious and he had managed to buy his companions priceless time.

Salomnae glanced over the wall. It was a long drop whose bottom promised a swift end. Her lips thinned and she fiercely gripped her bloodstained knife. That path was one of last resort, but she would take it if all else failed. Better a swift death than being roasted alive.

“Courage,” said Lantu, who guessed her train of thought. Then the raging Skura were upon them and there was no time for further conversation.

Blaze knocked aside a hurtling spear. It struck one of the crenulations. Lantu snatched it up and joined the fray. For the men reality narrowed to a storm of thrusting points as their hissing foes tried to strike them down with savage blows and rearing kicks.

Blaze sent another frightful adversary toppling from the ramp. The monsters could only come at them two at a time up the narrow incline, but the Earthman knew it would only be a matter of seconds before they were overwhelmed by superior numbers. Fear for the girl made the Earthman reckless in his attack. He lunged savagely at another enemy. His spear thrust home but his dying opponent’s weapon struck him a glancing blow across the temple and he reeled back.

Salmonae gasped as she saw Blaze fall. The girl was perched on the wall, ready to jump for she also saw that the end was near. Another monster lunged at the Earthman. Lantu was too hard pressed by his own raging opponent to offer any aid. Blaze rolled and the creature’s spear chipped stone as it missed him by an inch.

The queen leapt to the parapet. She snatched up Blaze’s fallen weapon and with a wild yell rammed the spear deep into the creature’s gaping maw. The spear snapped under the strength of her fury. Blaze saw the monster tumble from the ramp. He desperately tried to struggle up as another creature thrust at the defenceless girl.

Lantu parried the monster’s spear. He saved the queen, but at a cost to himself – his opponent’s weapon struck him in the arm and he stumbled back in agonized dismay. Salomnae cursed. She rammed the jagged haft of her broken spear between the hissing foe’s gaping jaws. The thing collapsed and rolled off the ramp, taking the remnants of the spear with it. The other Skura, seeing both men disabled and the girl defenceless, charged the trio with renewed ferocity.

Chapter 7: Armada of Doom

 Salomnae gazed in hopelessness at the rushing savages. The thought of abandoning her companions was now strangely absent from her mind. The racing hissing fiends raised their spears. Blaze struggled up and grabbed the girl. He wrapped her in his arms and turned his body in a noble but futile attempt to shield her from the torrent of destruction. Then a storm of arrows sleeted down from heaven, and singing death pierced the foe and broke their raging charge.

Lantu looked up. “By the gods,” he joyously cried. “It’s a Thusian skyboat. We’re saved.”

The craft dropped rapidly and came level with the wall. Strong warrior’s hands quickly hauled the escapees aboard while others continued to pour withering shafts from their powerful bows into the ranks of milling monsters. Then the vessel shot skyward with gut wrenching speed, leaving death and chaos in her airy wake as she winged swiftly through the Venusian heavens. In but moments the fortress of the Skura and all its horrors were left far behind as the ship arrowed towards the coast.

“You’re lucky we found you in time,” observed Herma, the grizzled commander, as he bound the prince’s injured arm. “Your father, king Tauron, has been sick with worry. It was most unwise to venture into the wilderness without a proper escort. You may have survived the Skura’s fury, but I don’t know if you’ll survive the king’s. He’s absolutely furious.”

“Everything would have gone well but for the unexpected failure of my skyboat’s engine, and the Skura hunting party that captured me when I was forced to land,” replied the prince in an easy tone. Then he grinned. “And as for my father’s fury – why, I’ll just remind him of his own mad escapades when he was young.”

The prince turned his attention to Blaze and the girl. Before, events had transpired too quickly for him to give much thought to his companions. But now he got his first good look at the Earthman without the distraction of imminent death in various horrid guises.

“You’re not from Cari,” observed Lantu, slowly. “Nor from Thusi, either...”

The prince left the sentence hanging. He was obviously mystified by Blaze’s appearance, but too polite to pry. The Earthman hesitated. Should he tell the man he was from another world? Would the Thusians, like the Carians, consider it blasphemy for a mortal to claim heaven as his abode? Blaze decided to risk revealing his true origin, for he knew one lie often necessitates the invention of ten others, and eventually he’d be snared in the web of his own deceptions.

Salomnae listened as Blaze told his story. At first it seemed impossible, even blasphemous, that his fantastic tale could be true. But Lantu’s frank admission that the Earthman wasn’t a Thusian gave her food for thought. Indeed, amazing as it seemed, the prince appeared to accept the possibility this man spoke the truth.

She looked at Blaze. What were her feelings for him? At first it had been hatred, quickly followed by anger when he’d kidnapped her, then incredulity when he’d behaved in a chivalrous manner. She found him strangely disturbing, for he made her question all she believed was true – that mercy was weakness; that all peoples not of Cari were inferior and that love was a game for fools. Love - why did that disturbing thought come unbidden to her mind? The queen grew angry. What was she thinking? The man was just a barbarous commoner.

Salomnae quickly forced aside the genesis of some rather disturbing thoughts and shifted her gaze to Lantu. Now, here was a prince - her equal and therefore a man she felt she could understand. The girl was no fool. By now she had come to realize her mind had been poisoned by Medur and his fanatical hatred of those who didn’t worship Zu, supreme god of Cari. But now the high priest was her avowed enemy and she needed a powerful ally. Salomnae’s lips curved in a calculating smile. Yes, the crown prince of Thusi presented some interesting possibilities indeed...

“It’s an extraordinary story,” admitted Lantu when the Earthman had completed his account. “But I believe you – your brown hair and light skin, your outlandish clothes and accent all point to a strange origin. Being inclined more towards philosophy than religion, we Thusians don’t have an oppressive priesthood as they do in Cari, and so are free to explore all manner of ideas.”

The men continued their conversation, with Blaze answering the prince’s numerous questions concerning Earth, its people and the history of its nations. Salomnae remained silent, but her subtle mind was very active. After about an hour the airboat arrived at the coastline of the continent and proceeded to traverse its length, for the city of Thusi, like that of Cari, was also built upon the shore of the of Omadran Sea.

A sudden shout from Herma interrupted Blaze’s discourse on the nature of democracy. All eyes looked down to where the commander pointed.

“A Carian war fleet, lord prince,” he cried. “And it’s headed towards Thusi.”

Blaze gazed at the foremost craft in amazement. It resembled a giant catamaran fabricated from ebony timber. A castle-like structure had been built from the same dark wood upon the plane of the craft’s expansive deck. The bow of the vessel could be dropped down like a landing barge, and at the stern was a churning paddle wheel driven by a primitive steam engine. Powerful ballista had been mounted in the squat hexagonal towers at the four corners of the miniature floating fortress. Bowmen lined the thirty foot high ramparts of the superstructure, and the broad waist of the craft was thronged with fierce eyed and fully armoured warriors.

Nine other craft of the same dark and sinister design sailed behind the leading vessel. Blaze estimated that each ship carried about two hundred fighting men and that the armada was making approximately ten knots through the iridescent glass smooth sea. He remembered catching a glimpse of the vessels in Cari’s harbour, but this was the first time he had had a chance to observe them fully.

“Take us lower, Herma,” ordered Lantu. “But not so low that we’re in range of their bowmen and ballista crew. My father must know the full extent of what we’re up against. This looks more like a full scale invasion rather than the usual Carian raiding expedition. I wonder,” mused the prince out loud as the skyboat descended, “what has made them think they can breach Thusi’s strong defences.”

The distant staccato bark of a Lanchester submachine gun made Blaze jump with its familiar but quite unexpected chatter. A warrior who had been leaning over the side screamed. The man pitched overboard, blood spurting from his chest in a sickening spray. A bazooka round roared passed them in a narrow miss, and its proximity fuse detonated the rocket high overhead. A ball of expanding smoke and fire thundered in the heavens. Wining shrapnel struck the skyboat and blasted several holes in its glassy fuselage.

Salomnae screamed. Men cursed in pain and terror. “Get us out of here,” cried Blaze.

Lantu shouted orders. Another burst of submachine gun fire tore into the skyboat as it veered upward and away. The craft shuddered. Warriors fell. The gunnels ran with the crimson gore of dead and dying men. The prince threw a protective arm about Salomnae as the skyboat pitched like a ship rolling in a heavy swell. Herma wrestled with the controls. He managed to steady the ship and then a final burst of gunfire sent them speeding out of range.

“Well,” observed Lantu in a shaky voice. “We now know what has given the Carians confidence. Put on all speed to Thusi, Herma. My father must be warned at once.”

Blaze sat grim faced and silent. It was clear to him that Medur, High Priest of Zu, was behind this invasion. The cunning devil had no doubt usurped the throne of Cari in Salomnae’s absence. Driven by violent religious zealotry, he intended to exterminate the unbelieving Thusians, but probably claimed that the invasion was to avenge their kidnapping of the queen through the agency of Blaze.

The man might be a ruthless fanatic, but the Earthman had to grudgingly admit he was clever despite his illogical beliefs. Obviously, Medur’s personal guard, which he’d seen swarming about the wreckage of the Space Sphere, had succeeded in breaking into the craft’s armoury, probably by wrenching open the heavy door with a windlass and pulley system. Then someone had managed to figure out how to operate its arsenal of weapons, more than likely by examining the illustrations in the armament manuals.

The Earthman looked at the girl. Salomnae still lay in Lantu’s arms and Blaze couldn’t help but notice how the prince cupped one firm and youthful breast in his palm, and that the queen didn’t seem to object to this familiarity. Jealousy stabbed the Earthman like a flaming dagger, and he quickly turned his head to hide the vile emotion reflected on his face. For a brief moment a mad scheme entered his churning mind – kill all aboard except the girl, then carry her off into the wilderness.

“I’d better help the wounded,” Blaze stiffly said as he moved away, angry at the prince and, at the same time, ashamed of his own murderous and lustful desires. It was rather shocking for him to discover how he felt. He and Salomnae were worlds apart, literally. Yet the prince’s caress had suddenly and unexpectedly revealed to him his depth of feeling for the girl. How could he be in love with her? She was a haughty, self-centred shrew! It was impossible, absurd. But there was no denying it, either.

As Blaze helped bind the wounds of the injured men his churning emotions gradually calmed. Of the ten warriors aboard the skyboat five were dead and two gravely wounded, and as logic came to the fore it was borne forcefully home to the Earthman that the dreadful sight before his eyes was but the harbinger of a greater massacre that would soon be wrought upon Thusi’s populace.

Medur’s fleet had to be stopped. It would be a monumental tragedy if the last surviving remnant of the civilization of Atlantis was destroyed on Venus as it had been on Earth. From his conversation with the prince Blaze knew that the Thusians were a more dynamic people. But if Thusi fell, as it surely would to modern weapons, then there would be no hope of progress under the stultifying domination of Cari’s priesthood.

What technology was left would deteriorate. Civilization would slip further back into savagery and become prey to the more numerous Skura who, given time, would unite to form their own kingdoms and fall upon the Venusian humans, slaughtering them to the last man, woman and child.

A horrible vision of the massacre arose in Blaze’s mind and he shuddered. He forced himself to look at things rationally. Salomnae seemed to favour Lantu, and why not? After all, unlike the Earthman he was royalty rather than a commoner. Blaze saw that if he could find a way to defeat Medur and restore the queen to Cari’s throne, then a royal marriage between the couple would establish peace between both cities, and form the foundation of a united and progressive civilization.

But it would come at a terrible price to himself, for it would mean he would lose forever the woman he had come to love. With this realization a sense of unutterable loss rent Earthman’s soul with such fierceness that it seemed a part of him had died.

“Are you all right?” queried Lantu, who had come forward to lend a hand.

Blaze cleared his throat. “Something blew into my eyes. Probably dust. Can you finish bandaging this fellow’s arm?”

The prince took up the task as Blaze turned away. With considerable effort the Earthman regained his composure and hardened his resolve. Agonizing though it was, he knew he must sacrifice his own desires and work for the greater good. Blaze smiled wryly as he began to formulate a plan, for although he knew he was doing the right thing this knowledge brought him little comfort.

**********

Late evening found the Earthman in Thusi and working by the golden bioluminescence of jumol – minuscule aquatic creatures that resembled centipedes with flipper-like limbs. Hundreds of the things swam about in several tall water filled glass cylinders set on brass bases, which served as the Thusian equivalent of lamps. Blaze was hunched over a long workbench that had been set up in an unused palace guestroom. The table groaned under the weight of at least fifty porcelain jars and bottles containing a diverse variety of substances.

His mood was as foul as the vile stench his latest experiment had produced. He cursed. The mixture in the dish had burnt for a moment when he’d touched it with a match, but then the brief flame had flickered out in spluttering death. It was another failure of his hoped for gunpowder.

Blaze’s broad shoulders sagged with fatigue and the weight of heavy responsibility. So much depended upon his success, and he was getting nowhere. If only he could manufacture explosives he could make bombs that could be dropped from skyboats on the invading craft. He stretched, rubbed his tired eyes and moved to the room’s balcony. He desperately needed a break.

The palace grounds and buildings, which had been built in the middle of an artificial lake in the city’s centre, lay bathed in the gentle light of the Venusian sky-glow. Beyond, the city was alive with activity despite the lateness of the hour as the population prepared itself for the grim madness of war. Blaze’s mind travelled back to earlier in the day when he had flown over the metropolis, which was different in some respects from Cari but equally pleasing to his aesthetic tastes.

Thusi’s defences were clearly superior – the metropolis was encircled with a triple ring of tremendous walls, each higher than the other and separated by wide, deep moats stocked with sarn - savage amphibious creatures that looked like a crocodile sized scorpion with flippers. The city’s streets and avenues were laid out in a grid pattern broken by square bands of orchids whose fecundity was such that they produced enough fruit and nuts to feed the population year round.

The houses, although two stories in height like those of Cari, were octagons with roofs taking the form of eight sided onion-shaped domes of a ruby colour. The eves of these domes projected downward at a steep angle to shade the balconies and windows of the upper story

All of Thusi’s architecture had been constructed from stone resembling turquoise flecked alabaster. The dazzling whiteness would have been overpowering but for the fact that the walls of the buildings were ornamented with broad bands of intricate sculpture resembling stylized floral forms. These had been enamelled in pleasing shades of red, blue and gold with a similar colour scheme discernable in the flowering shrubs of the highly formal gardens.

The Earthman also recalled his brief meeting with king Tauron. The monarch, fierce eyed and beard bristling like the pelt of an enraged wolf hound, had raged against his son’s stupidity, but then grew grimly efficient when the prince explained the nature of the peril confronting them. Blaze had offered his services as weapons designer, and after Lantu had vouched for him he’d been given what he needed to form a makeshift laboratory.

Blaze was drawn to the present when his eye caught shadowed movement in the fragrant garden. It was Lantu and the queen strolling side by side along a shrub lined path. Salomnae had exchanged her soiled apparel for a Thusian robe of diaphanous pale blue fabric that sparkled as if dusted with silver. A lump rose in his throat, for she looked more beautiful than ever and as distant from him as the planet of his birth.

The Earthman turned away as the couple kissed, and hurried to his bench to lose himself in his work. Had he stayed upon the balcony he would have seen the girl staring at his retreating form. Was there a trace of sadness in her face as she watched him go? In the darkness none could say, not even the handsome prince who whispered amorous suggestions in her ear.

**********

The bellowing roar of alarm horns shattered the stillness of the dawn. Blaze jerked awake. He’d fallen asleep at his bench. Cold fear came upon the Earthman. The enemy had arrived and he had no answer to their might.

Chapter 8: Sorcery

 Blaze leapt from his stool. It overturned with a clatter as he stood stiffly erect. Fear was upon him – fear not so much for himself but for the people of Thusi. He cursed Medur with savage fury and his hands tightened to hard balls of rage, as if the High Priest’s neck was in his crushing grip.

A slight sound made the Earthman jerk around. Salomnae stood in the doorway. Blaze relaxed a little and forced his grim expression into a tired and unconvincing smile. Under any other circumstances he would have been pleased to see her, but not now when he felt like an utter failure.

Salomnae approached quietly and Blaze gazed upon her as a prisoner might gaze upon a ray of light that pierces the darkness of his cell. His eyes roved over her face and form as he tried to capture every detail of her being – a consoling memory that he could carry with him to the bitter end he was certain was soon to fall upon them.

The distant explosion of a bazooka round heralded the darkness that lay ahead. It prompted Blaze. The Earthman stepped forward to take the queen in his arms, but then the memory of Salomnae’s evening stroll came upon him, and his hands fell with despondent impotence to his sides. He was certain that the handsome and charming prince had won her heart with his suave and courtly manner and, being a gentleman, Blaze had no choice but to respect the girl’s decision.

Salomnae’s gaze scanned the litter of unsuccessful experiments upon the bench, oblivious to the affect her presence was having upon the man. She knew something of Blaze’s work, and it was clear to her that he had failed to achieve his goal. The girl turned towards him and placed a consoling hand upon his shoulder.

“You did your best,” she said, then added ruefully. “It’s a pity I’m not the witch my people think I am. My illusions nearly caused Medur to soil himself from fear. It was the only hold I had upon the beast.”

Blaze straightened. An idea had suddenly burst into his brain like a flare of illuminating light. “Do you recognize these chemicals?” he eagerly asked the girl.

“I am familiar with them,” she replied, surprised at the intensity of his expectancy. “But I don’t know how to make this... gunpowder, I believe you called it.”

“Forget about the gunpowder. The chemicals I need simply aren’t here. I’m convinced of that now. Here is the new plan...”

“Are you insane?” cried the girl, wide eyed and deeply alarmed when Blaze had completed his explanation. “You can’t hope to...”

Blaze cut her off. “Never mind my sanity. Can you make what I need?”

“Yes, but...”

“Then start immediately,” he commanded as he buckled on his sword. “I must see king Tauron at once.”

**********

An hour had passed and Salomnae was pouring the last of her preparation into a large clay urn when Blaze stormed through the door, and by the dark expression upon his face it was clear to her that all had not gone well.

“Damn the king”, he cried, heedless of who might overhear his dangerous curses. “He refused me the loan of a skyboat and pilot. He’s holding all the craft in reserve to evacuate the royal family if the city falls. All I asked for was a single vessel... a chance to save his people from the enemy. And the fool refused to listen.”

Salomnae quickly stepped forward and laid her finger against the enraged Earthman’s lips. “Careful,” she cautioned. “You’re speaking of the king, and those are dangerous words to use against a royal person.”

“Yes,” replied Blaze, who was too angry and bitter to think clearly and choose his words with care. “You’d know all about that. I’m sure the prince will make room for you aboard his skyboat when the enemy is at the palace gates, but what about the commoners who’ll be left behind?”

Salomnae’s lips thinned into a hard line of anger. “Is that what you think of me?” she hissed; her volatile temper now aroused. “That I’m so shallow I care only for myself? Why you... You base born fool,” she cried, and then struck him a savage blow across the face.

Blaze reeled back. He crashed against the bench and slid to the floor, ears ringing from the ferocity of her attack. By the time he recovered from the shock she was gone.

The Earthman placed his head in his hands. Everything had gone horribly wrong. The king had refused him, his thoughtless words had insulted the woman he loved at a time when he should be comforting her, and the enemy was at the very gates of the city.

The dull boom of an explosion seemed like an exclamation mark at the end of his last depressing thought. From the reports he’d overheard while waiting for an audience with the king he knew the Carian armada had engaged the Thusian fleet in a terrific battle, and in his mind’s eye he conjured the horrid scene of carnage.

Each fleet, drawn up in a column of similar ships, had rushed towards the other. The Thusians bore down on the foe with the wind behind them. The gusting breeze sped their hissing shafts and the cloud of powdered quicklime the foremost ship released to blind the enemy.

Carians howled as the burning dust got in their eyes. They fell beneath the piercing arrow storm. Men toppled screaming into the sea to be devoured by monstrous shadowed forms that lurked beneath the water as death laid its fell hand upon the waves.

But then the Carians replied in deadly answer to the Thusian blow. The roar of a bazooka crashed out as both fleets came together. The lead Thusian ship was struck. Her port tower exploded into kindling as the round detonated. Shattered timber and broken bodies were hurled into the sea, and a shout of terror and consternation was torn from the throats of the shocked defenders.

Undeterred, the Thusian vessels bravely closed with the foe. Their catapults whipped into action. Firebrands and solid shot fell in a rain of destruction upon the Carians. Some ships caught alight, others were sunk by crashing balls of weighty granite. Ships collided. Spiked ramps swung down from their battlements to lodge in those of the enemy. Warriors rushed across the ramps, swords chopping furiously, only to be cut down by bursts of machinegun fire that tore bloody furrows in their mailed ranks.

The tide of battle surged one way, then the other. But modern weaponry gave the Carians the deciding edge. Bazooka round after bazooka round tore thundering holes in Thusian ships, and the bulk of the invading armada burst through the defender’s sundered formation, leaving shattered and burning ships and dying men in their furious wake.

The enemy ships had beached like landing barges. Their ramps rattled down upon the sand to disgorge mail clad ranks of yelling foeman who rushed across the beach and towards the city walls. Bowmen on Thusi’s battlements released a squall of arrows that darkened the sky with their hissing flight.

The hail of venomous shafts raked the invaders. Warriors fell by the hundreds. Then bazooka rounds exploded against Thusi’s mighty gates. The massive portal was blasted to smoking ruin; likewise the bowmen upon the battlements when other deadly rounds blew apart the shielding crenulations of the rampart. The invaders gave a wild victory cry and fell upon the desperate Thusian warriors who rushed to fill the gaping breach.

A shout tore Blaze free of his dreadful musings. He stood and saw a skyboat floating by the balcony of his room. The cry had come from the armoured warrior at its helm.

“Ho, fellow,” cried the soldier. “Grab your things and come aboard. The king has changed his mind. Quickly now; we haven’t much time.”

The startled Earthman didn’t stop to question his change of fortune. He grabbed the urn Salomnae had filled and another bottle by its side. Blaze then madly dashed for the waiting craft and leapt aboard. No sooner had he seated himself than the warrior hurled the vessel skyward in a rush of breathtaking speed.

Blaze looked down as they hurtled above the city walls. A terrific battle was taking place at the fallen gates and he caught a brief glimpse of the wild melee of surging fighters who laid savage blows upon each other in unrestrained ferocity.

The Thusians fought with reckless bravery to defend their beloved home, but the Earthman knew that swords and courage were not enough when faced with guns and rockets. The defenders were being driven steadily back under the withering chatter of machinegun fire that cut them down like wheat before the scythe.

Grim faced, Blaze opened the bottle he had snatched from his workbench and began to dye his skin a vivid green as the skyboat winged out to sea and towards the flagship of the fleet. The enemy vessel, which had been anchored at a safe distance from the shore, loomed before the Earthman’s intense and determined gaze.

Blaze lit the fuse protruding from the urn. “Dive at her. Full power,” he cried.

The skyboat dropped towards her prey like a plummeting falcon. The howling wind of her terrifying descent tore at Blaze as he clung grimly to the thwarts. White knuckled, he gripped the chemical filled urn as the flagship grew to frightening size beneath the plunging craft. One error, one slight miscalculation in timing... He forced the thought from his mind and concentrated.

Blaze’s throat was dry with palpitating fear. The fuse burned low. A bazooka round leapt up and exploded to their left, rocking the skyboat and peppering it with wining shrapnel. Then the enemy ship rushed up to meet him in a fatal embrace. He hurled the urn and screamed a single order:

“Pull up!”

The flagship swelled to heart stopping size. He could see the look of wild fear on the faces of its crew. Death’s chill breath fell upon his neck. His hairs stood on end in utter terror. Then the skyboat’s prow lifted and they hurtled above the enemy craft with only feet to spare.

Blaze glanced backward as they climbed skyward and he breathed again. His aim had been true. The urn had struck and now a cloud of crimson smoke completely enveloped the flagship in billowing veils of impenetrable blood red fog.

“Bring us about and slow to boarding speed when you near the ship,” he shouted.

The pilot nodded and brought the skyboat around in a sweeping arc towards the enemy. The Earthman’s eyes narrowed as he neared the flagship and his lips thinned in a forbidding line. The wind had dropped to a slight breeze, but even so it was still enough to disperse the smokescreen. He must act, and quickly.

Again, he gave sharp directions and the skyboat drew up by the forward starboard tower of the flagship – the place he had last glimpsed the flash of Medur’s distinctive blue apparel during his terrifying dive towards the enemy. Everything was shrouded in blinding smoke. The skyboat bumped against the tower’s crenulations, barely visible in the blood red gloom. Blaze heard Medur’s shrill cry of alarm and the hard curses of his bodyguards.

The Earthman grinned savagely and leapt into the swirling crimson fog. An indistinct figure loomed before him. He struck savagely with his sword and the man fell, blood spurting from his severed neck.

Blaze knew he was outnumbered six to one. The smoke was starting to clear. If his plan didn’t work he was as doomed and the city with him.

“I am the demon of Salomnae,” he screamed horribly as he charged the knot of warriors he dimly glimpsed. “Come at her command to slay Medur for his treachery.”

The guards saw a rushing figure. Green skinned and terrible, it hurtled at them, snarling face distorted by the crimson fog. Terror lashed them like a bullwhip. One man screamed and hurled himself overboard in a desperate bid to escape the charging fiend. The others, mouths gaping in horror, stood paralysed by superstitious dread. Then Blaze was upon them, his sword falling with swift and brutal savagery.

Fear clouded the minds of the foe. They fought poorly and in but moments the tower floor was strewn with bleeding bodies. Blaze’s plan had worked as he had hoped it would, and now his wild gaze fell upon the dim figure of the cowering priest who huddled in a corner. The Earthman advanced grimly upon his foe, savagely hauled him to his feet and pressed sharp steel against the whimpering man’s scrawny neck.

“You,” gasped Medur in utter disbelief as the clearing smoke enabled him recognised the Earthman. “Damn those fool guards. They should have known they faced an illusion. I exposed Salomnae’s trickery to everyone.”

Blaze grinned savagely. “Habits of thought are hard to break“, he coldly stated. ”It seems you forgot that for a moment yourself. But there’s nothing illusionary about this sword pressed against your throat. Call off the attack or I’ll kill you where you stand.”

The tower’s trapdoor burst open before Medur could reply. Ten warriors, attracted by the clash of arms, leapt forth and faced the Earthman, swords drawn in preparation for the kill. Blaze slipped behind the high priest and used him as a shield. The smoke had now dissipated to such an extent that further pretence at being a demon was impossible.

“It seems your plans have come to naught,” observed Medur, who had recovered his poise after realizing the threat he faced was just a man. “Oh, you can kill me if you like, but that won’t stop the invasion,” he continued in a voice loud enough for the advancing warriors to hear.

“Salomnae wasn’t all that good a queen, but she was our queen and our people will want revenge on Thusi for your kidnapping of her, you dirty spy. Honour demands nothing less than the destruction of our blasphemous...”

Blaze cursed as he threw an arm about the high priest’s neck and choked off his inciting speech. But it was all too late - the warriors, fired by the high priest’s words, rushed the Earthman who hadn’t counted on Medur being so fanatical as to endanger his own life.

A ring of falling blades closed upon Blaze with the swiftness of a dropping guillotine. And if that wasn’t bad enough he glimpsed another swarm of warriors racing up the tower from below. The entire ship was against him. He hurled the high priest’s limp form into the rushing warriors. Several tripped on the body; the others leapt at the Earthman, yelling wildly. He raised his sword in preparation to receive the rain of blows – a useless gesture against the overwhelming storm of steel about to fall upon him.

Then the skyboat dropped among the foe. Men screamed as they were crushed beneath the vessel’s keel, others were hurled against the tower’s sides. The pilot stood and whipped off his helmet as more howling warriors burst forth from the trapdoor. They stopped confusedly, and stared in utter amazement at what their startled eyes beheld. Salomnae stood before them, her features heretofore concealed by the mask-like visor of her burnished casque.

“Who do you serve?” she asked in ringing tones, “your true queen or a wicked and scheming priest who sought to sit upon my throne?”

Salomnae stood, hands on hips. Her cataract of hair, now free of the constricting helmet, tumbled about her like the main of a wild lion. Her eyes, dark and penetrating, threw their regal challenge in the faces of the startled warriors. The men bowed their heads fell upon their knees in answer to her savage cry, for in their eyes she now looked every inch a mighty queen.

All eyes were upon the girl as she issued swift commands to signal the rapid withdrawal of her besieging army. Blaze, too, was no less stunned by this startling revelation. The queen, being on intimate terms with Lantu had access to his apartments. It was from here that she had stolen his armour to impersonate the man, and thus gained access to the skyboats. Her theft of the craft had been completely unexpected. It was a brave and daring move that even the desperate Earthman hadn’t thought of.

Thus distracted, none glimpsed the limp form of Medur stir where it had fallen. The high priest, who had barely survived Blaze’s attempt to kill him, laid disbelieving eyes upon the queen and in an instant knew all his lies had been exposed by the fact the girl stood before her people alive and well. The fanatic’s eyes narrowed. Hatred blazed within him like a bonfire at the ruination of his dreams of kingship and the destruction of his enemies. A sword lay near at hand. Medur’s madly glittering eyes fell upon it. He snatched the weapon up and leapt with savage swiftness at the girl.

Salomnae screamed. Blaze cursed and hurled his blade. Medur stiffened as the weapon struck him in the back. He uttered a gurgling cry as he tottered. Then the sword fell from his nerveless fingers and he collapsed in a lifeless heap upon the tower floor. It was over.

**********

It was early evening, and Blaze sat quietly in the palace room he had been using as a laboratory. The sound of joyous celebrations could be heard from across the gardens where the joining ceremony was taking place between queen Salomnae and prince Tauron. It was a stark contrast to the Earthman’s melancholy mood as he reflected on the day’s events.

Everything had happened at such a feverish pace: Salomnae’s lifting of the siege against the Thusians, a rapid exchange of messages between both sovereigns in which the queen explained Medur’s evil scheme, and now the joining ceremony that would unite both kingdoms in a sacred bond. And with all the frenetic activity of explanations, peace talks and preparations for the evening ritual, Blaze had found himself sidelined.

There had, of course, been a brief ceremony where the Earthman had been awarded a medallion by king Tauron in recognition for his valiant services to the realm. The tear-shaped pendent was a thing of beauty – delicate golden filigree inset with precious gems. But it hung about his neck like a leaden weight for it could not compare the priceless jewel that was the woman he had come to love, and was now losing to another man.

The dejected Earthman sat in darkness – a reflection of the bleakness of his mood - as night drew her cloak of shadows upon the world. The ceremony reached its climax with a mighty cheer that pierced Blaze’s heart as if it were an arrow. Gradually, the festive sounds faded with the ending of the ritual. Silence and loneliness descended upon the man with all its crushing weight.

Blaze was so wrapped in his despairing thoughts that he failed to notice the figure enter his room. It was only when the jumol lamps were unhooded that he started at the sudden flood of light.

Salomnae stood before him. She was garbed as he had first seen her – clad in the exotic and barbaric splendour of a Queen of Cari. But there was a subtle difference, a touch of warmth and gentleness that had not been there before. Her experiences had changed her for the better and her beauty, thus increased, left him breathless with bittersweet desire.

“You say nothing. Are you not pleased to see me?’ she queried with a slight smile.

Blaze cleared his throat. “Surprise stilled my tongue, that’s all. The ceremony... After all it is your wedding night.”

Salomnae’s smile broadened. “You have misunderstood,” she explained. “The joining ritual unites our kingdoms, not our persons. It will be our children who will marry when we have them. Ah, I see this knowledge greatly pleases you.”

“I love you,” blurted out Blaze. “How could it not?” Then he reddened at his words, which had burst forth like tumbling floodwaters from a weakened dam.

“I know,” she admitted. “However, like most women, I wanted to hear you say it of your own accord.

“But the prince... I saw both of you in the garden.”

“I needed to find out more about him and the king,” she explained. “I needed to know if there was any real chance of peace between our two kingdoms rather than the mindless hatred that Medur had engendered. That’s why I didn’t rebuff his advances.”

“Then you do not love him?”

Salomnae sighed. “Do you think I stole the skyboat just to help you defeat Medur? No, there was more to it than that. It was also because I care for you and wanted you to see I wasn’t the selfish and spoilt royal you think I am.

“But...”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up and kiss me,” she said in mock anger as she loosened her apparel and let it slide down her shapely thighs and to the floor.

Despair, like the hand of a malicious giant, had ground Blaze’s hopes so far into the dust that it took a moment for him to comprehend the import of her words and actions. Then her meaning dawned upon him and he leapt to his feet with a wild ecstatic cry, for the knowledge that she loved him was a tide of warming light that swept away darkness of his soul.

A loving smile was on his lips as he embraced the girl with eager passion. It was one order he was only too willing to obey.

THE END