CHAPTER XXIV
_Attack on the Palace_
I must take you back now to the Water Festival and the events in theGreat City which followed it. _Slaans_ in murderous frenzy were plungingthrough the throng of erstwhile revelers. Maida could not quell them.The revolt which she had started against Tarrano seemed now aself-created monster to destroy us all.
But there were Earth men among us. A hundred of them, no more. They hadcome from Washington that same day; had landed, I learned later,secretly near the Great City, sent with our Earth Council's plans tocommunicate with Maida. Beneath the water, coming individually, they hadentered the festival; and helping Maida's girls (the diving girls whom Ihad encountered) they had made away with most of Tarrano's guards.
In those first moments of frenzy, I got to the balcony--joined Maida andGeorg. Elza was gone! My heart went cold, but in those hurried, franticmoments, grave disaster as it was, I did not dwell upon it.
"We must get away--back to the palace!" Georg exclaimed as I joinedthem.
The Earth men on the main floor were holding the _slaans_ partially incheck. Bodies were lying in a welter--I shall not describe it. Thenabruptly, upon a table a huge _slaan_ leaped--his garments blood-stainedfrom his victims, a blade of dripping steel in his hands. He shoutedabove the tumult--words not in the universal language, but in thedialect of the _slaans_. His command carried throughout the building.Other _slaans_ took it up; we could hear it echoed outside as othersshouted it over the waters.
The bloodshed abruptly ceased. The _slaans_ leaped away from the Earthmen, who were glad enough to let them go--rushed for the archways of thepavilion. Outside, we could hear the water splashing. Swimmers--andboats scurrying off. Then comparative silence. The scream of a _slaan_woman in the grove nearby, still desiring vengeance; the groans of thedying at our feet; the hiss and splutter of weapons discarded, withcircuits still connected. And over it all, the great whine of a dangerwhistle, which some distant official had plugged.... A lull. And aroundus lay strewn stark tragedy where a few moments before had been festivemerry-making. A crimson scene, with the body of the Red Woman lying likea symbol in its midst....
Within an hour we were back at the palace. The whole city was seething.Boats and lights were everywhere. Control of everything seemed lost.Warning signals shrilled in crazy fashion. Public mirrors were dark, orturned to places and time wholly irrelevant.
In the palace itself we soon secured a semblance of order. Maida's girlswere here, with wet veils and long dank tresses clinging to their sleekbodies. Lips painted alluring red. But eyes which now were solemn andgrim. Their demeanor alert and business-like. Unconscious of themselvesthey moved about the palace, executing Maida's orders.
A dozen or so of Maida's personal retainers were here--and most of theEarth men. Keen-eyed young men of the Washington Headquarters Staff. Oneof them--Tomm Aften by name, a ruddy, blue-eyed fellow--was in command.He stayed close by Georg and me.
The city was seething. But out of the chaos was coming a comparativelyorderly menace. We could sense it at first; and then in a few briefminutes so swift that we had no time to prepare--the menace becameobvious and was at hand.
The _slaans_ had withdrawn from the festival for a greater, moreorganized effort. Their revolt against Tarrano in which Maida hadjoined, was bigger, more deep-rooted than a mere revolt. It was againstMaida herself. Trickery of the downtrodden _slaans_ against the rulingclass. Against the old order of government. Even against the _Rhaals_,who in their distant city were all-powerful, but who obeyed the laws andtook no part in anything.
Revolution! From down the waterways of streets which converged into thebroad lagoon before the palace, boats began arriving. Boats crowded with_slaans_. Disheveled, unkempt men and women with primitive weapons ofsteel and wire brandished aloft. They surged into the lagoon. Amurderous, frenzied mob--thoughtless of itself, suicidal to attack us,yet daring everything in its frenzy.
Soon the lagoon was crowded--a chaos of pushing, shoving boats. Then theboats began landing, disgorging their occupants, wild-eyed _slaans_ eacha potential murderer. The gardens of the palace were presently jammedwith them. They did not at first come within our threshholds; they stoodmilling about under the palms, trampling the tropic flowers, screamingthreats and epithets at us. But waiting--as a mob always does--for someleader to advance, that they might follow him upon us.
We stood on the palace roof-top. I must confess that we were in a flurryfor the moment. There were undoubtedly weapons at hand, but I at leastdid not have them, nor did I know where they were. Excusable flurrypossibly for the thing had come so quickly, and most of us werestrangers here of but a few hours.
The roof had a low railing waist-high, but broad. We stood clusteredbehind it. In the garden beneath, the mob was shouting up at us. And,before I could stop her, Maida had leaped to the top of the rail. Georgand I clutched at her, then steadied her.
_"Slaans--"_
But they would not hear her. Shouts went up; a roar of threats. Thepress of additions to the mob landing from other boats, forced the frontranks forward. They were now on the palace steps, jammed there wavingtheir weapons yet still hesitating to advance.
"_Slaans_--my people--"
Maida's frail voice was lost in the uproar. Then a missle was thrownupward--a portion of a broken generator--a heavy chunk of metal. Itbarely missed Maida, and fell with a thump to the roof behind us. Thencame others--a rain of them about us. I tried to pull Maida back, butshe fought me, her voice still calling out its appeal.
With a bound, Georg was up on the rail beside her. Aften--the youngEarth man--had quietly handed him a cylinder. Georg waved it at the mob.
"_Slaans_--" His stronger voice caught their attention. A sudden hushfell.
"_Slaans_--it is I, Georg Brende. Your Princess Maida rules you now onlyunder me. A new ruler, _slaans_--the man of Earth--Georg Brende who mustbe obeyed--Georg Brende, soon to be husband of your Princess--"
But they would not hear him out. The din from them submerged his voice.His lips snapped tight as abruptly he ceased talking; his brows loweredgrimly and I saw his finger press upon the cylinder.
Maida's voice screamed: "Georg! Have mercy! Do not kill them!"
She spoke barely in time. His cylinder swept upward. The rays from itcaught only the upper portions of the palms and the tree tops. Thefoliage withered, shriveled before that soundless, invisible blast.
Not a blast of heat. The mob, surprised, then frightened, stared upward.The soft tropical foliage in a great wide swath was dead, with nakedsticks of limbs. Black, then turning white. Not with heat--but cold. Icewas forming from the moisture in the humid air. And then the suddencondensation brought snow--a thick white fall of it sifting down intothe palm-laden garden; falling gently, then swirling in a sudden windwhich had begun.
As though itself stiffened by the cold just overhead, the mob stoodtransfixed. Then a murmur of horror came. And I saw through the veil ofwhirling snow, that into some of the trees _slaans_ had climbed. Theirbodies, frozen now, slid and fell--black plummets hurtling downwardthrough the swirling snow-flakes.