The princess presently retired to her quarters to rest, and I went forward with Lotar, who was directing the pilot in the first turret. “How long should it take us to get to Olba?” I asked.
The young mojak consulted his charts and instruments for a moment.
“We should be able to make the palace by nightfall, Highness,” he said. “This ship is rated at a rotation.”
A rotation, I recalled, meant the speed at which Venus turns on her axis, approximately a thousand miles an hour.
“Who sent you after us?”
“Your Highness’s father has had the entire air fleet of Olba scouring the planet for you since your disappearance from the Black Tower. His Majesty assigned a patrol zone to each ship. I have been flying above this zone for many days. Attracted by the explosion which destroyed your ship, I flew over to investigate. With the aid of my glass I saw you and Her Highness in the water, and the norgal swimming toward you. As a marksman I have won many prizes in tournaments with the mattork. It was a simple matter for me to kill the norgal with an explosive projectile.”
“It was excellent shooting,” I said, “and it not only saved my life, but a life that is infinitely dearer to me. You will not find me ungrateful.”
“My greatest reward lies in the knowledge that I have saved your highness for Olba. There will be great rejoicing throughout the length and breadth of the empire when the people learn that you are alive. And greatest of all will be the joy of His Imperial Majesty, Torrogo Hadjez.”
For some time I strolled about the ship, examining her armament and admiring the luxury of her appointments. Presently, Loralie came out of her stateroom. We went to the salon, where hot kova was served to us in jewel- encrusted golden cups.
Night fell just as we flew above the great crescent-shaped harbor of Tureno, and its myriad lights flashed on as did those of Olba. I caught a fleeting glimpse of the lighted windows of the Black Tower as we hurtled past it. Then the pilot gently slowed the ship until we were directly above the Imperial Palace.
As we dropped toward the flat roof a number of guards came running toward us. Two of them seized the ladder which we dropped and held it while the princess descended. Then I followed.
A mojak in the uniform of the palace guard stepped up and tendered the royal salute. “His majesty will be overjoyed, highness. It was his command that I bring you before him as soon as you arrive.”
There was something strangely familiar about the features of this officer. I tried to place him as he conducted Loralie and me down the telekinetic elevator.
When it stopped he bowed us into a spacious hall which led to a great, arched doorway hung with curtains of scarlet and gold, at each side of which stood two guards armed with torks, scarbos and long-bladed spears.
The four guards bowed obsequiously as we came up. Then two of them parted the curtains and there stood before us another individual whose face seemed strangely familiar to me. Yet he wore the pompous uniform of a torrango, or prime minister, which I recognized from my studies, and I knew I had never met the prime minister of Olba.
As soon as he saw me, he bowed low with right hand extended palm downward. “His Majesty the Torrogo bids you welcome. Whom may I announce as accompanying you?”
“Her Highness, Loralie. Torrogina of Tyrhana,” I replied.
He bowed once more and departed. A moment later I heard him announcing our names and titles. Then a voice, which also seemed familiar to me, said, “You will conduct them before the throne.”
As we followed the prime minister into the large and magnificent throne room of Olba, more guards saluted and fell in behind us. A guard of honor, I thought.
I had never seen Torrogo Hadjez, and was curious for a look at his face, but restrained my impatience until Loralie plucked at my arm.
“Look!” she whispered. “Look who sits upon the throne!”
I raised my eyes, and the features of my arch-enemy, Taliboz, leered down at me. For a moment I was stunned as I saw him sitting there, arrayed in the royal scarlet and wearing the insignia of the Torrogo of Olba. Then my hand flew to my sword hilt and I sprang forward. But before I could take a second step strong arms pinioned my own from behind and my weapons were wrested from me.
“I trust,” Taliboz said, bowing to Loralie, “that you will excuse this poor reception, but as your coming was unexpected we were totally unprepared to greet you with the pomp and circumstance due visiting royalty.” He turned to his minister. “See that suitable apartments are prepared for Her Highness of Tyrhana at once and conduct her there, Maribo. And Vinzeth,” he said, addressing the mojak who had conducted us to the throne room, “you will also conduct Torrogi Zinlo to the suite that awaits his coming.”
“You fiend!” said Loralie, facing him with flashing eyes. “What are you going to do with the prince!”
“Have no fear, Your Highness,” responded Taliboz. “No harm shall come to him. Not now, anyway. Later, his fate shall rest in your fair hands.”
I was dragged out a side door by two guards.
They took me down a small elevator which, it seemed to me, traveled into the very bowels of the planet before it stopped. Then I was jerked out of the car and pulled along a narrow, dimly lighted passageway that seemed to have been hewn from solid rock, until we came before a door of massive metal bars.
One of the guards produced a key with which he unlocked this door, and I was flung inside with such force that I fell sprawling on a cold stone floor and the door clanged shut behind me.
Scarcely had I fallen to the stone floor of the dungeon cell into which I had been hurled, when a shadowy form darted from its dim interior and was helping me to my feet.
“Are you hurt, Highness?” the man asked solicitously. I recognized the voice instantly, though the features were still indistinguishable to me, my eyes not having become accustomed to the semi-darkness.
“Lotar!” I exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“I was placed under arrest with all my officers and crew immediately after you left with the villainous Vinzeth. So far as I know, my men are confined in the cells around us.”
“But what is the meaning of it all? Where is the Torrogo Hadjez, and how did Taliboz attain the scarlet and the imperial throne?”
“At the time of Your Highness’s disappearance from the Black Tower, Taliboz and a number of his henchmen disappeared also,” said Lotar. “A short time ago he returned alone, disguised as a merchant of Adonijar and driving one of the swift mechanical vehicles which are manufactured in that country. His disguise was penetrated by a soldier of the imperial guard, who placed him under arrest and took him before Torrogo Hadjez.
“His Majesty questioned Taliboz about your disappearance, and he told a story which was believed by some and discredited by others—namely, that there was a plot on foot among the guards of the Black Tower to assassinate you as you slept. He said that he, with Vinzeth and Maribo and his men, had fought, protecting you from death, until they were driven back, and you were dragged to the tower top and spirited away by the plotters in one of the tower airships.
“As quickly as he could, so his story went, he returned to his fighting craft and set out in pursuit of your abductors. They finally crashed, he said, in the wild country of the cave-apes beyond Adonijar, where you and your abductors were killed in the crash. All of his men were killed and eaten by cave-apes, and he barely escaped with his life to Adonijar, where he had purchased a merchant’s outfit and vehicle with which to traverse the high road to Olba.”
“I have met liars,” I said, “on three planets, but Taliboz seems to be prince of them all. This, however, does not explain how the traitor attained the throne. I left him, paralyzed by a tork projectile, in a forest near the mountains of the cave-apes. That he escaped the perils of the jungle is little short of miraculous.”