CHAPTER XXXVII

_Battle_

I found myself in the air; with my men around me we hovered. Then

Georg's command from the instrument room sounded in my ears. I gave the

signal; and flying wedge-shaped, we hurled ourselves forward. It was

like lying on the air, diving head foremost. The rush of wind sang past

me; the ground, a hundred feet below, was a white surface flowing

backward.

We were heading for the base of one of Tarrano's barrage projectors. It

was mounted within the wall; but the wall itself was protected merely by

a fan-shaped subsidiary beam--a weaker barrage over that small area,

which by concentrated effort we hoped to break.

From a helan away on both sides of me I saw other wedges of our men

coming slanting in to assail the same point; overhead a corps of girls

was hovering. Our towers, three of them concentrated here, had risen to

a moderate height; their rays were playing upon the threatened area; a

steady fountain of sparks showed where they were striking the barrage.

A silent bombardment of flashing beams and sparks. At five hundred feet

we added our own smaller rays to the turmoil. If the barrage would break

at this point....

The instrument room, watchful of everything, sailed over me. On my

mirror I saw Georg's intent face; his voice said:

"Careful, Jac! They may come out."

Prophetic words! The segment of barrage here suddenly vanished. A ray

darted out. Beside it, a cloud of flying figures came out of the city

like insects from a hive.

An inferno of almost hand to hand fighting. It was everyone for himself;

and I gave the order for my men to break formation. Ordered them to get

up close to the wall if they could ... to strike, with the closest

possible range at the base of the enemy ray....

I flung myself forward. Tarrano's men soon were around me. Twisting,

darting figures ... tiny beams of death to be fended off with my

shield....

A body fell past me in the air ... others, while I looked at them, in

the blink of an eyelid, vanished into nothingness ... One of our towers

sailing high, suddenly went dark, turned over, wavered down, dismembered

with leprous missing parts--and then in a puff was obliterated.

I found myself nearly up to the wall, and higher than its top. The

segment of barrage remained broken. I could see into the city--the Ice

Palace, still seemingly deserted. And near it, the base of the powerful

ground ray which was assailing our towers ... If I could get past the

wall, unnoticed, get within range of that projector....

Most of the fighting was now behind me. We seemed to be holding our

own ... the squad of girls was coming down; I prayed that Elza might not

be among them....

The instrument room had vanished beyond my sight; but Georg's voice

said:

"We're sending reinforcements! Gather your men--hold off for a moment!"

From every pan of our line other units of men and towers were coming. We

had broken through the barrage here. If we could now, by a concerted

rush, get our force over the wall, into the city....

Within the instrument room, Georg sat watching. The inactivity of his

own part, the comparative lack of personal danger, galled him. But he

was too occupied with his duties to give it more than passing thought.

We had broken the barrage at one point ... from every quarter he was

rushing reinforcements there to take advantage of the break....

And then Tarrano's trickery became apparent. We had not broken his

barrage; he had deliberately withdrawn it, to encourage us, to bring our

other units to the spot.... Our power house, neglected, was momentarily

comparatively defenseless. The enemy barrage at the point of the wall

nearest it, suddenly lifted. Beams darted from the opening ... men came

out in a cloud....

I held back momentarily from the wall and gathered my remnant of men

about me. Only half my former strength; but with sinking heart I tried

to assure myself that the others had not heeded my call. The fighting

here had slackened; Tarrano's men had risen high, engaged at long range

by our girls, from whom they were slowly, trickily retreating as though

to lure the girls above the city; and my heart was thankful when I heard

the relayed order from Rhaalton for the girls to withdraw--not to pass

above the wall, even at high altitude. The order came just in time; the

barrage here flashed on again, trapping a few of our men behind it.

I was aware of this new attack on the power house. Our units were

hurriedly being ordered back. Georg, in desperation, had flung his

instrument vehicle at the enemy ray ... My connection broke; and then

another connection brought me someone's voice with the report that the

instrument room had darkened that main enemy ray, but had itself crashed

to the ground ... I wondered if Georg were killed ... later, I heard

someone say that he was safe within the power house....

I disobeyed my final orders; I did not swing back toward the power

house; instead, with my men around me, we fled back from this segment of

the wall to the higher lying white plain behind it.

I have spoken of the down-grade of this land here, culminating in the

depression which marked this part of the wall. It was that depression

which gave me my idea. Our heat-ray cylinders had so far been useless.

They had a range of only two hundred feet, and no power to attack a

barrage. Some of them had futilely been used; the snow and ice on the

ground above our recent fighting was melted in patches--pools of boiling

water lay on the naked rock; and the water, flowing down the depression,

had reached the ice-wall--a tiny stream of it, eating into the wall,

slowly, surely....

With my men I flew up the slope. The ice and snow here melted under

the close-range play of our heat-cylinders. Rivulets of boiling water

began creeping toward the city. Other men at my call joined us. Two

hundred of us soon were melting the ice. The rivulets merged into

brooks, to streams--and soon a river torrent of hissing, boiling water

gathering volume as it went, was surging at the wall. The wall

began melting--itself feeding this monster which was eating at its

vitals ... a yawning hole began opening at the base of the wall ... it

began sagging at the top ... crumbling....

The segment of barrage here went dark. No trickery now; the barrage at

this point actually was broken. The boiling river went through the wall,

swept down the slope into the city. Through the great clouds of steam I

could see the Ice Palace with its brittle outlines softening under the

heat ... one of its thin spires broke off and fell....

Feverishly we added to the river source. The whole area here was grey

with steam. Girls had joined us ... Elza was not among them ... Elza!

With my triumph there lay always in the background of my consciousness

the weight of my fear for Elza....

The fighting in the other sector had continued desperately. Our power

house was hopelessly damaged; the towers, with their power gone, were

using their batteries; soon they would be exhausted. But now we

abandoned that sector; our remaining towers--all our flying forces--came

to this melting area where the vanishing city lay defenseless before

us.... We hurled ourselves into it, using only our heat-rays. Everywhere

we added to the boiling torrent; even the interference heat of the

fighting was to our advantage. This brittle city which owed its very

existence to the congealing cold, lay enveloped in a cloud of steam.

Then Tarrano played his last card. The cubical building of metal with

the cables depending from it, still hung motionless. It now burst into

sound. A low electrical hum; then louder to a whine--a scream. Our men

and girls were in the air around it. I too was there. Tarrano's men--the

remaining few who were desperately fighting--had suddenly withdrawn.

And then we knew the purpose of this hanging room. A strange form of

some tremendous electro-magnet. I could feel it pulling at me. My power

to guide myself in the air was wavering.

From my height I could see down into this ceilingless rectangle. It was

un-manned by humans. A room of whirling, flashing knives! Above it, even

then some of our men were struggling in its magnetic grip ... being

drawn down into it ... a girl's power must suddenly have collapsed; she

was sucked in with a rush--torn to fragments by the whirling knives....

The area of magnetism seemed to spread for a helan or more. Everywhere

around me I saw our men and girls struggling with it, fighting to keep

away, but closing in a ring around it ... faster, continually more

helpless until at last, their bodies out of control whirling end over

end, they were sucked in like water rushing into a turbine.... One of

our weakened towers attacked it; but some of the remnants of Tarrano's

projectors caught the tower and darkened it.

Through the rising clouds of steam I could see the magnet vaguely now.

But I could feel it pulling; and soon, in spite of myself, I was fairly

close above it. I strove to keep my wits. The others who were meeting

their death lost control of their bodies at the last and could not use

their cylinders. I had some battery power remaining; I snapped on my

disintegrating ray to test it. It was my last desperate recourse.

I righted my body, and yielding to the magnetic pull, ceasing to

struggle, I dove head first at that yawning rectangle. A gleaming blur

of knives ... blood-stained now ... within these rectangular walls

horrible carnage....

A second of despair; but my ray struck true ... Around me was chaos; my

senses reeled, went black for an instant. But I recovered, found myself

whirling in the empty air....

The city was melting into a turmoil of boiling water and surging steam.

The fighting everywhere had ceased. Wavering figures were

rising--fugitives struggling away. With my senses still confused, I

righted myself, undecided where to go or what to do. Above me two

figures were still in combat. One of them--a man--assailed by a

heat-ray, came hurtling down past me. The other wavered--a girl with her

flying mechanism out of control. She was a hundred feet or more above

me, wavering downward. Elza! I shot myself up to her, seized her in my

arms, my own supporting mechanism sustaining us both. Elza, spent, but

uninjured, I held her close.

"Elza dear! My Elza!"

We hung there in the air. From out the vanishing city, rising through

the steam came a small metal vehicle. A pointed cylinder, in height no

more than twice that of a man. It came up slowly. Its rectangular door

was open. As it reached our level and went past us quite close, I saw a

man's figure standing there. Tarrano! Tarrano alone! From the wreckage

of his city, making his escape alone!

Without thought--holding Elza tightly within my arms--I flung us upward.

Tarrano saw us, recognized us. He slackened his upward pace. With my

sober reason gone, I strove to overtake him; saw the sardonic leer on

his face but did not realize that he was waiting for us. We caught up

with his vehicle; he pulled us through the doorway, to the floor of the

narrow circular room with its heavy translucent panes.

He was bending over me, leering. "Jac Hallen! And my little Lady Elza!

How fortunate!"

I cast off Elza and gained my feet. For an instant we stood--Tarrano and

I--measuring each other. He seemed calm; his face bore a slow sardonic

smile; he was unarmed, drawn back against the concavity of the wall,

watching me with his steady, keen eyes. Behind him through the low

window, I saw the white ground now far below us; we were rising swiftly.

"So you brought my Lady Elza back to me, Jac Hallen?"

He got no further, for with a leap I was upon him. To use my weapons in

these narrow quarters would have been suicide. My body pinned him

against the wall as I lunged; my fingers strove for his throat.

He was no larger than I, but the strength of him was extraordinary. His

body stiffened to resist my impact; one of his hands gripped my wrist;

his other hand--the heel of it--came up beneath my chin, forcing my head

back.

He fought silently, with movements that seemed almost deliberate. Into

the center of the room we struggled. I saw that Elza was upon her feet,

a hand pressed to her mouth in terror.

"Elza!"

I had meant to tell her to use the control levers which were on a small

table nearby--to bring us back to the ground; but with this momentary

diverting of my attention, Tarrano's fist struck me full in the face. I

staggered back. Elza screamed--called something to Tarrano. I staggered,

but I did not fall; and as Tarrano stood there, still with his slow

smile, I recovered myself and was again upon him. Locked together we

swayed to the control table. My back was to it. Tarrano's slender

fingers with a grip like alemite, had found my throat. Slowly,

irresistibly he forced me backward over the table. I was helpless; my

breath was stopped; Tarrano's triumphant face bending over me was fading

with my senses.

"In just a moment, Lady Elza...."

He was telling her calmly that in a moment he would be finished with me.

Did the man's egotism, here at the last, delude him into the belief that

Elza wanted him to conquer me? With all the weapons of science

discarded--this primitive struggle of man against man with the woman as

prize--did the thought of that delude him into the belief that her love

was his, now that he was killing me?

I never knew. But beneath the roaring of my head, I heard his gentle

words to her. And then, behind him, I saw her coming forward. A heavy

metal object which she had picked up from the floor was in her hand.

Tarrano saw her also--in a mirror on the table--saw her raise the jagged

weapon. Raise it to strike; not at me--at himself. His face was close

above mine. In that second, I saw in his expression the realization that

Elza was attacking him.

Whatever his emotions, like a flash he acted. His grip on my throat

loosened. His arm, swinging backward, warded off Elza's trembling,

hesitant blow. The metal block, intended for his head, was knocked from

her hand; it fell clattering to the floor. And reaching over, Tarrano

gripped the vehicle's control lever, wrenched it bodily from its

fastenings! Control of the vehicle was irrevocably lost! We were

falling!

Breathless moments! Tarrano idly stood apart; his face a mask. My breath

restored, I was recovering. I drew myself erect.

Death! But my confused thoughts went to Elza. Her flying mechanism was

partially sustaining; my own probably was still effective. Before

Tarrano was aware of my purpose, I had pushed Elza forcibly through the

doorway. Into the rush of air her figure disappeared. But Tarrano

gripped me as I tried to follow her. Gripped me and clung. A breathless,

dizzy instant. Locked together, our bodies shifted crazily. I

tried to get him out the doorway with me, but he fought against

it.... Smiling--always smiling....

Elza fell safely. But they told me that Tarrano and I hovered for days

unconscious on the borderland between life and death, living finally,

for our vehicle had plunged into a tremendous snow-bank, to break its

fall.

* * * * *

Last scene of all ... They would not have Tarrano on any of the three

worlds. While still living, the very personality of him was a menace.

With his woman Tara, who refused to leave him and whom he tolerated,

they banished him to that tiny asteroid which pursued its solitary way

between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

A lonely, barren little world, with its single, primitive race of

spindly beings--timid, frail beings, half-human, half insect. We took

him there--Maida and Georg, Elza and I. He anticipated his dislike of

the asteroid's slight gravity, and demanded weighted shoes so that he

might walk with the normal feeling of Earth and Venus.

"You give me too much freedom," he told us solemnly.

And there amid the rocks, with Tara we set him down. As we parted, he

turned to Elza. She and I were joined in marriage by then. He faced her,

took one of her hands and pressed its palm to his forehead, the gesture

of homage and respect.

"Goodbye, Lady Elza. I wish for you all life's happiness." He smiled,

but it was a very wistful smile. And then he swung away abruptly.

"Tara! Prepare me food. Leave me--I would be alone." His imperious

gesture dispersed also the crowd of natives who were curiously regarding

him. Here, in his last little domain, he would still be master.

Our vehicle slowly rose. From its windows we watched him. Ignoring us

utterly, weighted down by his heavy shoes, he paced his barren rocks,

head lowered, alone with those thoughts he never shared with anyone.

Tarrano, the Conqueror!

The End.

End of Project Gutenberg's Tarrano the Conqueror, by Raymond King Cummings