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Updated: May 5, 2025
And now they had it also in the Water City! One of the girls flung up her hand suddenly and called to Miela. "See, Alan a boat!" I looked down to where Miela pointed. The sea was still rough from the storm, but no longer lashed into fury. Coming toward us, close inshore and from the direction of the Water City, I saw a boat speeding along over the spent waves.
Baar and his men ate breakfast, paying no further attention to Miela and me. Suddenly Miela spoke in a frightened whisper. "They are going now in a moment to the castle. The king they will kill!" It was evidently a widespread plot we now overheard.
Then Miela went on to tell me that only the females of Mercury had wings given them by the Creator as a protection against the pursuit of the male. At marriage, to insure submission to the will of her husband, a woman's wings were clipped. For more than a generation now there had been a growing rebellion on the part of the women against this practice.
The two girls spoke together hurriedly. "Tao's men in the Water City have caused great disturbance, Alan," Miela said to me. "Where's the Water City?" "Near the Great City across the marshlands. We must get back. And when Anina and our friend Ollie have returned we must go to the Water City. It is very bad there, she said." Our trip back to the Great City was without unusual incident.
They were heading out into the sea in single file. Miela and I had carefully discussed the tactics we were to employ. Mercer understood our plans, and we had three or four girls detailed to fly close to the platforms and carry our orders about to the leaders of the various little squads.
For some moments we stood together, looking out of the window and talking to each other with words that were quite unintelligible to us both. Then Miela suddenly called me. "We shall eat now, Alan," she said, "for you are hungry, I know. And above there is water, that we may wash." Her face clouded as she went on: "Our mother has told me a little that has happened.
They alighted a short distance away, and approached me, hand in hand. The girl with Miela, I could see now, was somewhat shorter, even slighter of build, and two or three years younger. Her face held the same delicate, wistful beauty. The two girls strongly resembled one another in feature.
Only the women were concerned, but they alone could do nothing, since by principle they were as much opposed to offensive warfare against the Twilight People as against the possible inhabitants of the earth. Miela paused at this point in her narrative.
"Father has a theory about the light-ray," he went on, "which seems rather reasonable from what we can gather from Miela. The thing seems more like electricity than anything else, and father thinks now that it is generated by dynamos on Mercury, similar to those we use here for electricity."
It was Beth's little ivory hand mirror! We started off. Miela had wound the filmy scarf about her shoulders again with a pretty little gesture. "I need not use wings, Alan, when I am with you. We shall go together, you and I on the ground." And then, as I started off vigorously, she added plaintively from behind me: "If if you will go slow, my husband, or will wait for me."
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