Chapter XXV: In the Power of Destho

Prince Destho, now provisional emperor of Reabon, moved his slender, leonine form to a more comfortable position on the scarlet cushions of his throne and turned his pleasure-bloated countenance in the direction of Zueppa, his scheming commander, as he smiled a twisted, doubting smile.

"Do you expect me to believe such a wild tale as this, knave?" he growled. "Authentic reports had it that she and her four guards were devoured by a reptile nearly a year ago. You must have drunk overmuch and befuddled your vision. You have taken some homely marsh-woman for the beautiful princess."

"I swear by the sacred bones of Thorth that it is she and none other. Having seen her daily at the Imperial Court of Reabon, how could I forget her? And is it possible that, in all Zarovia, there could be another with beauty such as hers?"

"Granted that the woman you found resembles the Princess of Reabon, how could it be possible that if lost in the mountains of Uxpo she would be discovered wandering on the edge of the great salt marsh along the Azpok Ocean?"

"I can only recount the facts, your majesty, and let your own eyes bear me witness when you see her. We were just preparing for our evening meal when this girl suddenly appeared from the mouth of a near-by cave. At sight of the men and torches she turned and attempted to escape, but tripped over a creeper and two of our men caught her before she could rise. As she was clad from head to foot in shining brown armor, I at first took her for a youth, but upon removing her helmet, discovered her identity, while concealing my own. After ordering the captain to bring her here unharmed, I hurried ahead to apprise your majesty of the good news."

"Do any of the men know who she is?"

"None recognized her, and I was careful not to betray her identity until I had learned your majesty's intentions."

"You have done well, Zueppa, and if she proves to be Vernia of Reabon you shall be richly rewarded. She must not, however, be brought here to the capital. The risk would be too great. Take her, instead, to my castle in my own kingdom, where every man is loyal to me, and where escape will be impossible. Matters of state delay me here, but I will be able to visit my castle in a few days. Meanwhile, I leave my fair cousin, if it indeed be her, in your charge. Take one of my swiftest motor vehicles and change the guard at the international bridge before her arrival, posting only men from my own kingdom."

That evening, while Zueppa sipped his wine in the guard house at the international bridge, a small party of huntsmen arrived and presented their passports. With them were two prisoners, a beautiful girl clad in brown armor, and a huge, hairy marsh-man, whose sole article of attire was a loin cloth.

The young captain, after examining the passports of the huntsmen, looked at the prisoners.

"And who are these?" he asked.

Vernia threw back her visor.

"The soldiers of Reabon do not question her rulers," she said.

The captain stared in open-mouthed amazement, then turned to a soldier who came up behind him.

"A striking resemblance to our princess," he muttered.

"She is an impostor," said the soldier. "Were we not warned of her coming?"

Vernia glanced imperiously at the two men before her.

"Have you forgotten the homage due your princess?" she asked. "Procure me a fast motor vehicle at once and have done with your insolence if you would see the light of another day."

Both men quickly bowed, with right hand extended, palm downward. Then a figure darted swiftly up behind them and kicked the bowing captain over on his face. In a flush Vernia recognized the traitor, Zueppa.

"How now, idiots?" he shouted. "You were warned by our worthy sovereign, Destho, yet you make obeisance before this impostor. Seize and bind her as you were ordered."

With a growl of fury, the hairy marsh-man leaped for the wily commander, but a score of soldiers rushed in and soon had him bound and helpless.

"Where did you get this brute, huntsmen?" asked Zueppa, looking at the still struggling marsh-man.

"We captured him in the woods as he tried to steal our prisoner from us," replied the captain of the huntsmen.

"Bring him to the castle of Prince Destho," he commanded. Then he lifted Vernia into his swift motor vehicle and sped away.

Some hours later the vehicle drew up before a massive gate. Zueppa answered the challenge of the guard and the lifting motors hummed sonorously. Vernia, half fainting, was taken from the vehicle and carried through a low arched doorway and along a dimly lighted corridor to a sparsely furnished suite of rooms where she was given over to the none too tender care of a tall, gaunt female slave.

The slave carefully locked the steel door and put the key in her belt pouch. For the first time in history, a ruler of Reabon was a prisoner within the borders of the empire.

* * * * *

Vernia spent five days and nights of lonely terror behind the steel door of her prison. The tall, gaunt female slave was her sole attendant, bringing her meals and caring for her physical wants. Her armor and hunting suit were taken from her on the first night and replaced with the scarlet apparel of a royal princess.

She tried, day and night, to think of some plan of escape, but none presented itself. Her case seemed utterly hopeless, there in the castle of the degenerate Prince Destho, surrounded by slaves and menials to whom his word was absolute law.

On the evening of the sixth day she lay, face downward, on her couch when footsteps sounded in the corridor. It was the hour when she was accustomed to receive her tray of food from the slave woman, and she did not move as the key turned in the lock and the door swung open. The unexpected sound of a masculine voice at her side sent a thrill of fear through her and she sat up hastily to face the author of all her troubles--Prince Destho.

"Greetings, fair cousin," he said with a smirk, placing the tray before her and hastily locking the door.

Destho was handsome in a flashy sort of way. He had matured considerably in the year that intervened since Vernia's departure. His square-cut beard had filled out, partly hiding the sensuous mouth, his jet black eyes had lost some of their shiftiness which was, at that moment, supplanted by a glitter of triumph and unconcealed admiration, and he had grown tall and broad of shoulder.

As he stood there in the gold and scarlet raiment of a rogi of Reabon, Vernia marveled at the change in his appearance and bearing. She had left a weak, callow boy and had returned to face a crafty, unscrupulous man.

Yet for all his dark beauty, his presence sent a feeling of revulsion through her--a feeling that might have been caused by some creeping, crawling thing of the slimy river caverns, for she saw, behind the polished exterior, the hideous, warped monstrosity which was his soul. She drew back haughtily, paling under his ardent gaze.

"Your insolence is in keeping with your traitorous conduct, Prince Destho," she said, mustering a show of dignity to cloak her feeling of apprehension.

Destho's glittering gaze wavered, but for a moment.

"A thousand pardons if I have offended you, fair cousin," he replied, "put I could not properly make obeisance in your presence, since our positions are reversed. Last year you ruled supreme in Reabon. To-day I rule. From now, henceforth, I shall expect from you the deference due your sovereign."

"Expectation is far from realization."

The brow of Destho darkened.

"We shall see," he answered. "There are ways of breaking a proud spirit which may not have occurred to you.

"Pray do not force me to mention them. I have come to you with the most benevolent intention, to offer you a pleasant and honorable way out of your difficulty. I could have compassed your death, long since, had I been so minded. I had, however, an ambition greater even than the attainment of the throne of Reabon. That was, to wed the most beautiful woman in all Zarovia. In ten days I will be Emperor of Reabon, while you will be an expatriate--an outcast, and, in accordance with the laws of Reabon, subject to seizure as a slave by the first free citizen who discovers you. You cannot deny these facts, for they are the immutable, unchanging laws of the empire to which even its mightiest sovereigns must bow."

"And this pleasant and honorable way out of the difficulty?" inquired Vernia. "What is it?"

"A marriage to your future emperor before the ten days are up. I will make you my empress, and together we will rule the mightiest empire in all Zarovia."

* * * * *

"So you would return the half of my birthright in exchange for my hand in marriage. It is a most magnanimous offer," she said scornfully.

"It is far from being the worst I could make you. Where, on all Zarovia, could you find a man better suited to be your mate? My royal blood is on a par with yours. My bravery has been proved by the very coup that has placed you in my power. As for my looks, I assure you there are a thousand beautiful damsels who do not think me unhandsome and would jump at the offer I am making you."

"Your royal blood is an accident of birth, and your bravery is that of a man who seeks combat with those weaker than himself. As for your manly beauty, it attracts me as the bright orange and black of the hahoe attract the wounded creature that is about to be devoured. I spurn your offer, traitor Destho. Pray, leave me now. Spare me the further insult of your insufferable presence."

She turned away from his glowing eyes with a shudder.

The face of Destho flushed with rage. At one bound he cleared the space between them and seized her roughly by the shoulders, forcing her back on the scarlet couch with all the brutal strength at his command. Panting and struggling in her efforts at release, she looked up in wide-eyed horror as the leering, bearded face drew close to hers.

"Take heed," he hissed between clenched teeth, "lest the insult of my presence become a reality. I could--"

His words were cut short by the thunder of a heavy fist on the steel door. Furiously, he released the half fainting girl and answered the summons, opening the door but a little way.

"Now, now, Zueppa?" he demanded angrily. "What is the meaning of this intrusion? Did I not give you explicit orders not to disturb me for other than the most urgent business?"

"It is because of your highness's command that I have come," responded Zueppa calmly. "A messenger has just arrived with startling news of a revolt in the kingdom of Uxpo. He awaits your presence in the audience chamber."

"Another revolt in Uxpo? By the bones of Thorth! Will that kingdom never cease to trouble us?"

He turned to Vernia.

"I regret that I must leave you thus hastily, fair cousin, but I will return presently to continue our interesting discussion."

He bowed sardonically from the doorway, then closed and locked the door after him. Vernia heard the retreating footsteps of the two men grow fainter in the corridor, finally dying away in the distance. She sank back on the couch, chilled with horror at thought of what might have occurred had it not been for the timely intervention of Zueppa.

She had heard the conversation of the two men, but, at first, placed no significance on the fact that there had been another revolution in Uxpo. Gradually, however, it came to her that there could be but one man with the ability to lead the Uxponians to a successful revolt--the man whose army she defeated but failed to capture nearly a year before--the man who now thought her dead and would therefore naturally return to the succor of the people whose cause he had espoused. With a woman's intuition she sensed the fact that Grandon of Terra was in Uxpo.

Some time later the gaunt slave woman came in to remove the dishes containing her untouched meal. Though she had always been sullenly taciturn in the past, Vernia resolved to question her.

"Have you heard aught of a revolt in Uxpo, Marsa?" she asked.

The sour features of the woman brightened perceptibly.

"It is the talk of the castle," she replied. "The capital has fallen into the hands of the Fighting Traveks and every Reabonian soldier has been killed, captured or driven from the kingdom."

"You seem elated at the news," said Vernia, noting the unusually cheerful demeanor of her custodian.

"And well I may be," she answered, "for I am of Uxpo, I was captured and brought here a slave by the armies of your father, Emperor Margo. These are the most glorious tidings I have heard in years."

* * * * *

"No doubt the revolt was led by Bordeen, commander of the Fighting Traveks," said Vernia in as casual a manner as she could assume.

"By Bordeen, say you? Hardly, though no doubt he took part in it. Prince Thaddor, who now calls himself Grandon of Terra, reappeared as suddenly and mysteriously as he disappeared nearly a year ago. It is said that he wears a suit of brown armor that will turn even a mattork projectile and carries weapons of the same strange metal, which cuts steel as easily as a scarbo's blade cuts wood. Report has it, also, that he brought with him a bodyguard of twenty men from a far country, similarly garbed and armed. And I understand that yesterday he was formally crowned King of Uxpo."

Vernia's heart leaped to her throat at the mention of Grandon's name, and she sought to repress the tremor in her voice as she asked:

"Would you be willing, Marsa, to do a favor for Grandon of Terra, the savior of Uxpo, if the opportunity offered?"

"I would willingly risk my life for him, even as he has risked his for my beloved country," replied Marsa fervently.

"And would you be averse to performing the task if it favored me as well?"

The brow of Marsa clouded.

"You have always been the most bitter enemy of Uxpo," she answered, with a touch of her former surliness. "My husband was slain by your father's soldiers and I was enslaved by them. You, in turn, twice led your armies into Uxpo for conquest and pillage. You ordered the execution of our valiant King Lugi and sent Prince Thaddor himself to wear his life away in the marble quarries. A favor to you could not possibly be a favor to the King of Uxpo."

She took up the tray and turned to go.

"One moment, Marsa," entreated Vernia. "There is reason and justice in what you say, nevertheless, I am sure I can convince you, if you will listen to my story, that you will favor Grandon of Terra by assisting me."

Marsa paused for a moment undecided. At length she said:

"I must go now, but I will return presently. There can be no harm in listening."

"Return as soon as possible," replied Vernia as the slave inserted the key in the lock, "or you may be too late."

Vernia awaited the return of Marsa with considerable anxiety. "What if she should decide not to return after all?" she thought. "Or if she should tell Prince Destho?"

The dreary minutes dragged into hours, and hope was fast fading when footsteps sounded in the corridor and a key rattled in the lock. Vernia rose and moved toward the door with hope renewed--then paused in alarm--for the doorway framed the burly figure of Zueppa. To her surprise, he bowed low with right hand extended palm-downward, then paused respectfully, waiting for her to speak.

"What spirit of irony brings you to make mock-obeisance at this unseemly hour?" asked Vernia.

"I come not in irony, your majesty," replied Zueppa, "but in all humility to crave forgiveness for the great wrong I have done my sovereign, and to offer my services."

"You could not choose a more fitting time for such an offer, and if it be genuine, for full forgiveness and perhaps an additional reward, should it be merited."

* * * * *

Zueppa softly closed the door.

"I betray a secret that would forfeit my life if divulged in this castle, when I tell you that I am in sympathy with Uxpo. Though my father was a Reabonian noble, my mother was from Uxpo, and it was with her and with her country that my sympathies always lay. One in this castle who is loyal to Uxpo has enlisted me in your cause. When you were my country's most bitter enemy, I plotted your downfall. My fellow conspirator, Prince Destho, has become even a worse enemy to Uxpo than you were, and now that the conditions are reversed I am willing to change my position for a royal promise--the sole conditions to be, first, a proclamation freeing my downtrodden countrymen, and second, a pardon for myself."

"I have already promised another to free Uxpo," replied Vernia, "and I willingly add to it the promise of complete and unconditional pardon for you if you can do one of two things--either arrange my escape to Reabon before my year is up, or immediately send a message to Grandon of Terra, in order that he may come to my rescue."

"I had already thought of the former plan," said Zueppa, "and made some preparations for it. I will leave now and send Marsa to you with clothing in which you will pass for a castle slave. When all is quiet I will return and conduct you through a secret passageway to a place outside the castle where I keep a swift motor vehicle. We will thus be able to reach the capital by morning."

"And Tholto, the marsh-man. I would have him released also," said Vernia.

"Too late," replied Zueppa. "Tholto escaped from our guards as they were bringing him to the castle. No doubt he is back in his native haunts by now."

As he bowed low and departed, hope rose in the bosom of Vernia, though her heart beat wildly at thought of the adventure before her.

After Zueppa closed and carefully locked the door of her chamber, he made straight for the quarters of the slaves, but his way was blocked by a castle guard before he had gone a dozen steps.

"Out of my way, fellow," he roared, expecting cringing obedience.

The soldier met his frown calmly.

"His Highness, Prince Destho, commands your immediate presence in the audience chamber," he said.

Zueppa turned, without a word, and followed the guard. "It is the end," he thought. "Our plot has been discovered." In spite of his misgiving, however, he proceeded serenely to the foot of the throne and made obeisance. To his surprise, Destho received him kindly, even cordially, descending from the dais to take him by the hand. His first words allayed all suspicion.

* * * * *

"Come, let us walk in the garden, my faithful commander," he said. "I would confer with you about our plans for the recapture of Uxpo. The stuffy air of the castle fogs my brain."

"I should be happy to learn," said Zueppa, after they stepped into the garden, "that your highness favorably considers my admonition to abandon the reconquest of Uxpo until established firmly on the throne. Much can happen in a short time, and it is possible--"

His words ended in a gasp of pain. Moaning feebly, he slumped to the ground, as a sharp dagger sank to the hilt in his back. Destho had been walking slightly behind him, waiting for a favorable opportunity to strike. He tore the weapon from the wound with a vicious twist and calmly wiped it on the clothing of the prostrate man.

"Thus should all traitors die," he snarled. "I have been lenient with you, after all, for you are a double traitor: first to your princess, then to me."

He spurned the stricken man with his foot so that he rolled half over and bloody bubbles issued from his mouth. Then, with a sardonic grin on his sensuous lips, turned and entered the castle. On reaching the audience chamber he summoned the captain of the castle guards.

"Has Marsa been confined in the dungeon?" he asked.

"She has, your highness, with heavy manacles and the spiked collar about her neck as directed."

He dismissed the captain with a nod, then picked up a long, flexible tube, one end of which passed into the floor behind the throne. On the free end was a bell-shaped contrivance which he held to his ear. He listened intently for some time, then smiled grimly, as he heard the sound of subdued sobbing--the sobbing of a girl who had given up all hope of rescue.

The tube connected with a sound amplifier which was concealed behind a grating in the room where Vernia was imprisoned.