CHAPTER XXIII
_First Retreat_
I must recount now what Elza later told me, going back to those momentswhen Elza sat upon the balcony watching Tarrano and the Red Woman. Thesignificance of what had been transpiring at the Water Festival was notclear to Elza; she did not know what was impending, but as she sat therewith Tarrano beside her, a sense of danger oppressed her. Danger whichlay like a weight upon her heart. Yet several times she found herselflaughing--hilarious; and from Maida's warning glance, and the steadyingodor which Maida wafted to her, she knew that Tarrano was using thealcholite fumes to intoxicate her.
The Red Woman and Tarrano were upon the dais. There came a flash; thendarkness. Elza went cold with terror. She sat stiff and silent, whilearound her surged that turmoil of confusion. The smell of chemicals wasin the air; her skin prickled as with a million tiny needles wheresparks now began to snap against it.
How long she crouched there, or what was happening, Elza did not know.But presently she heard Tarrano's voice in her ear.
"Come, Lady Elza, I must get you out of this." In the darkness his faceglowed wraith-like. Then she felt his hand upon her arm.
"Come, we must leave here. I would not have you endangered."
With a haste and roughness that belied the calm solicitude of his words,he pulled her to her feet. There was light in the pavilion now. Elza sawdimly the turmoil of struggling figures; and then she saw the sceneduplicated--saw it shift and sway in crazy fashion. Though she did notknow it, she was looking out along the curved rays which Tarrano wassending from them. Sparks were snapping everywhere. A second image ofTarrano appeared to the left of her--she saw it in a mirror nearby--yethe was at her right, gripping her arm.
"Hurry, Lady Elza."
She found herself being dragged along the balcony; stumbling over a bodylying there; feeling a surge of heat and electric disturbance beatagainst her face. Then Tarrano had her in his arms, carrying her. Sheheard him curse as a sudden wave of fire seemed to strike them--hostilerays bringing a numbness to muscles and brain. Tarrano was fumbling athis belt; and through a shower of sparks he stumbled onward with hisburden.
Elza's senses were fading. Vaguely she was conscious that Tarrano wascarrying her down an incline to the ground. Grateful, cool air. Starsoverhead. Trees; foliage; shimmering water. The screams and confusion ofthe pavilion growing fainter....
When Elza regained consciousness, she was lying in the bottom of alittle boat, Tarrano beside her.
"So? You have awakened? We are quite safe, Lady Elza."
She and Tarrano were alone in the boat. It was long and very narrow,with its sides no more than a foot above the water. Tarrano sat at itschemical mechanism. A boat familiar to us of Earth. A smallchemical-electric generator. The explosion of water in a little tank,with the resultant gases ejected through a small pipe projecting underthe surface at its stern. The boat swept forward smoothly, rapidly andalmost silently, with a stream of the gas bubbles coming to the surfacein its wake.
"Quite safe, Lady Elza."
She saw that Tarrano's face was blackened with grime. His garments wereburned, and hers were also. He was disheveled, but his manner was asimperturbable as ever. He made her comfortable on the cushions in theboat; drew a robe closer around her against the rush of the night air.
Elza was unhurt. She saw now, with clarifying senses, that they wereplying along a narrow river. Banks of foliage on each side; the aurorallights in the sky; occasionally on the hillsides along the river, thedim outlines of a house.
It was all a trifle unreal--like looking through a sunglass that wasdarkened--for around the boat hung always a vague pall of gloom. Tarranospoke of it.
"Our isolation barrage. It is very weak, but the best I cancontrive. From these hills the naked eye, now at night could hardlypenetrate it.... A precaution, for they will be searching for usperhaps.... Ah!..."
A white search-ray sprang from a house at the top of a hill nearby. Itleaped across the dark countryside, swept the water--which at that pointhad broadened into a lagoon--and landed upon the boat. It was a lightstrong enough to penetrate the barrage--the boat was disclosed toobservers in the house. But Tarrano raised a small metal projector. Adull-red beam sprang from it and mingled with the other. A surge ofsparks; then Tarrano's red beam conquered. It absorbed the white light.And Tarrano's beam was curved. It lay over the lake in a huge bow,bending far out to one side. Yet its other end fell upon the hostilehouse. The white search-ray from the house was submerged, bent outwardwith Tarrano's beam. From the house, the observer could only gaze alongthis curved light. He saw the image of the boat--not where the boatreally was--but as though the ray were straight.
Elza, staring with her heart in her throat, saw a ball of yellow firemount from the house. It swung into the air in a slow, lazy parabola,came down and dropped into the lake. But it fell where the marksman sawthe boat, a safe distance to one side. A ball of fire dropping into thewater, exploding the water all around it for a distance of a dozen feet.Like a cascade, the water mounted.
Tarrano chuckled. "A very bad marksman."
Other bombs came. It turns me cold when I think how orders like thiscould have come from the Great City--these bombs which had they foundtheir mark would have killed Tarrano, but at the expense of the life ofElza. They did not find their mark. Tarrano continually changed thecurve of his beam. The image of the boat shifted. A few moments only;and riding the waves of the bomb-tossed water, they rounded a bend, backinto the narrow river and were beyond range.
Tarrano snapped off his ray. "Quite safe, Lady Elza. Do not be alarmed.I doubt if they will locate us again. They should be very busy now inthe Great City. I'm surprised they could even think to notify thisStation we have just passed."
We were indeed very busy in the Great City during those hours, as youshall presently hear.
Tarrano and Elza were not again disturbed. How far they went in the boatshe does not know, but at last they landed in a sheltered cove. An airvehicle was there. Tarrano transferred Elza to it, and in a moment morethey were aloft.
The vehicle was little more than an oblong platform, with a low railing.A platform of a substance resembling _glascite-transparent_; and with a_glascite_ shield V-shaped in front to break the rush of wind and yetgive vision. A mechanism, not of radio-power, but of gravity like thespace-flyers. Such platforms had been, but were no longer in use onEarth. Elza had never seen one. It was a new experience for her, thisflying with nothing above one, nothing to the side, or underneath savethat transparent substance. To her it was like floating, and at timesfalling headlong through the air.
They rose no more than a thousand feet at first, and then swept parallelwith the ground. At a tremendous speed; even at this height the forestsseemed moving backward as the ground moves beneath a surface vehicle.
Dark, somber forests of luxuriant tropical vegetation. It was nownearing dawn; the auroral lights were dropping low in the sky; the greatVenus Cross of Dawn was rising, its first two stars already above theline of hills to one side.
Then the sky out there flushed red; a limb of the glorious Sun of Venuscame up. A new day. And even though the air was warm, within Elza wasashiver.
"It is very wonderful to me, my Elza, this being alone with you."
He sat beside her, gazing at her with his calm, impenetrable eyes. Itwas near noon of that day following their escape from the WaterFestival. They had flown possibly two thousand miles. The Sun had risen,but after a time--since their enormous speed and change of latitude hadaffected the angle at which they viewed it--the Sun now was hangingalmost level, not far above the horizon.
Beneath the platform--a mile below now--lay a tumbled waste of nakedcrags. The borders of the Cold Country! Tarrano's stronghold! Thebirthplace of his dreams of universal conquest.
Elza was staring downward. A barren waste. Rocks bare of verdure. Grey,with red ore staining them. A desolation of empty rock, with grey flatshadows. And far ahead, the broken, serrated ranks of mountains with
rocky peaks, white-hooded with the snow upon their summits. The ColdCountry. Bleak; forbidding.
This brittle air was cold; yet Elza and Tarrano were warm. Before theplatform, a ray darted--a low-powered ray of a type that was to be sogreat a factor in the warfare into which we were all so soon to beplunged. It heated the air, so that the platform rushed always through awind that was balmy.
"What did you say?" Elza looked up to meet Tarrano's steady gaze.
"I said it is wonderful to be thus alone with you, my Elza."
"Oh." She looked away.
He persisted; but his voice was gentle and earnest. "Soon we will be atmy home, Lady Elza. And now--there are some things I would like to saywhile I have the opportunity.... You will listen?"
"Yes," she said; and tried to keep from him the trembling within her."I'll listen, of course."
He nodded. "Thank you.... My Elza, you have heard me talk of conqueringthe world. My dream--my destiny. It will come to pass, of course. Yet--"A smile pulled at his lips. "Do you know, my Elza, what you and I aredoing now?"
She stared, and he did not wait for her to answer.
"We're making my first retreat. I wonder if you can realize how I feel,having to admit that? Tarrano in retreat!... Our escape from Venia?Pouf! That was a jest. I was there on Earth merely to get you, and theBrende model. I had no thought of conquering the Earth just then. Iaccomplished my two purposes--and left.... It was not a retreat, merelya planned departure.
"But this, my Elza, is very different. I did not wish to do what I amdoing now. I had planned--I had thought, had actually hoped, that Imight maintain myself in the Great City. You see, I tell you this,little girl, because--well I am a lonely man. I walk alone--and becauseI am human--it does me good to have someone to talk to. I had hoped Imight maintain myself in the Great City. Last night--at the start of theWater Festival--I began to realize it was impossible. I should haveenlisted the _Rhaals_--the men of science, Elza. But I had no time, andthey are very aloof. I could have won them to me had I tried." Heshrugged. "I must confess I was over-confident of my strength--thestrength of my position. The _Rhaals_ stayed out of the affair--stayedin their own city, which has always been their policy. That was what Iexpected, but now I see I should have had their aid. I did--well what Idid to guard against the unhappy outcome you witnessed--what I did waswrongly planned. You see, I take all the blame. I alone am responsiblefor my destiny. There are some who in defeat cry bitterly, 'Luck! Thatcursed luck was against me!' Not so! Leadership is not a matter of luck.Destiny is what you make it. You see?
"And so now I am making my first retreat. A set-back, nothing more. Ishall launch my forces from the City of Ice, instead of marshalling themfrom the Central State as I had planned. And Mars is still mine. I stillcontrol Mars, little Elza.... A set-back just now--and it bothers me. Ithurts my pride--and as you know, my Elza, Tarrano is very proud."
She had been listening to him, her fingers plucking idly at her robe. Hebent closer to her; his voice turned tender. "I was thinking thatperhaps--just perhaps you would scorn Tarrano in his triumphs, you mightfeel differently toward him now--in his first retreat. Do you?"
She forced her eyes up to his again. "I'm--sorry--from your viewpoint, Imean--that things are going wrong."
He smiled gently. "You are very conservative, Lady Elza. You want verymuch to avoid hypocrisy, don't you?"
"Yes," she said frankly. "You could hardly expect me to be sorry at yourdefeat."
"Defeat?" He rasped out the word, and his laugh was harsh. "You are toooptimistic. Defeat? Things going wrong? That is not so. A slightset-back. A strategic retreat--and in a week I will have regained morethan I have lost.... Oh, Lady Elza! I who would now--and always--be sogentle with you--why we are almost quarreling! That is not right. Forthe lives of a thousand of my servants, I would not have used that toneto you just now. Forgive me....
"I was saying, my Elza--could not you feel more kindly to me now. Alittle hope from those gentle eyes of yours--a little word from thosered lips--a word of hope for what some day might be for us--you andme--"
She dared to try and turn the subject. "You mentioned the Brendemodel--where is it? Have you it in the Cold Country?"
He frowned. "Yes. And I will use it--for you and me alone. You've alwaysknown that, haven't you? Just for you and me, my Elza." He took herhand. "Won't you try and love me--just a trifle?"
She did not move. "I--don't know." Then she faced him squarely. "I donot love you, Tarrano." Something in his eyes--a quality of pleading; awistful smile upon his lips--suddenly struck her as pathetic. Strangeand queerly pathetic that such a man as he should be reduced towistfulness. Emotion swept her. Not love. A feeling of sympathy; awomanly desire to lighten his sorrow; to sympathize and yet to withholdfrom him the happiness he sought.
"I do not love you, Tarrano. But I do respect you. And I am sorry--"
"Respect! I have told you I can command that from everyone. Butlove--your love--"
"I would give it if I could, Tarrano."
"You mean--you're trying to love me--and cannot?"
"I mean--Oh, I don't know what I mean, save that I do not love you yet."
He smiled. "I think you speak the truth when you say you do not knowwhat you mean. Your love! If I had it, I should know that I would haveit always. But--having it not--" He was very sincere, but his smilebroadened. "Having it not, my Elza, there is no power in all the heavensthat can tell me how to get it. It may be born in a moment from now--ornever. Who can tell?"
She was silent; and after a moment, he added: "Enough of this. I wouldask you just one thing. You are not afraid of me, are you?"
"No," she said; and at that moment she meant it.
"I would not have you ever be afraid, Lady Elza. Love is not conceivedby fear. And you must know I could never force my love upon you. For ifI did--I should withhold forever the birth of this love of yours whichis all I seek--this love I am trying to breathe into life.... Enough!"
He did not mention the subject again. For hours--eating what meagerstock of tabloid food with which their vehicle was provisioned--theyflew onward. Rising now to top the line of jagged mountains. Over themthe platform swept. In the crisp air the snow down there gleamedblue-white; the ice with an age-old look filled the valleys between thepeaks.
The arctic! It was nothing like the Polar regions of Earth. Starkdesolation. A naked land seemingly upheaved by some gigantic cataclysmof nature, lying tumbled and broken where it had fallen in convulsiveagony; and then congealed forever in a grip of ice.
The Sun hung level as the vehicle advanced. In these latitudes it wouldswing side-wise in a slow, low arc, to dip again below the horizon andvanish. Here in the Cold Country it was morning of the Long Day. Summer!
On over the crags and glaciers Tarrano guided their frail flyingplatform. Houses occasionally showed now--huts of ice, congealeddwellings, blue-white in the flat sunlight.
And then at last, over the horizon came the ramparts of a city. The Cityof Ice! The size of it--the evidences of civilization here in thisbrittle land of deadly cold--made Elza gasp with wonderment.