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Updated: May 14, 2025
I asked Ghak if we could make Sari in time to escape them. "We may," he replied; "but you will find that the Sagoths can move with incredible swiftness, and as they are almost tireless they are doubtless much fresher than we. Then " he paused, glancing at Perry. I knew what he meant. The old man was exhausted.
It worked splendidly. The Sagoths treated us both with marked respect during the balance of the journey, and then passed the word along to their masters, the Mahars. Two marches after this episode we came to the city of Phutra. The entrance to it was marked by two lofty towers of granite, which guarded a flight of steps leading to the buried city.
At the barrier the Sagoths clambered up the steep side with truly apelike agility, while behind them the haughty queen rose upon her wings with her two frightful dragons close beside her, and settled down upon the largest bowlder of them all in the exact center of that side of the amphitheater which is reserved for the dominant race.
As it was I hastened on toward the right searching for an exit toward which no Sagoths were fleeing, and at last I found it a low, narrow aperture leading into a dark corridor. Without thought of the possible consequence, I darted into the shadows of the tunnel, feeling my way along through the gloom for some distance.
A roar of approval went up from those of the other prisoners and the Sagoths who had witnessed the brief drama; not, as I later learned, because I had championed the girl, but for the neat and, to them, astounding method by which I had bested Hooja. And the girl?
When I told him that Hooja had stolen her, he stamped his foot in rage. "It is always the Sly One!" he cried. "It was Hooja who caused the first trouble between you and the Beautiful One. "It was Hooja who betrayed our trust, and all but caused our recapture by the Sagoths that time we escaped from Phutra.
Presently he spoke to me, but in a tongue which I was unable to translate. I shook my head in an effort to indicate my ignorance of his language, at the same time addressing him in the bastard tongue that the Sagoths use to converse with the human slaves of the Mahars. To my delight he understood and answered me in the same jargon. "What do you want of my spear?" he asked.
The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the capture of any one of us alive, and at the same time had threatened to inflict the direst punishment upon whomever should harm us. The Sagoths could not understand these seemingly paradoxical instructions, though their purpose was quite evident to me. The Mahars wanted the Great Secret, and they knew that we alone could deliver it to them.
Perry and I were taken, with Ghak, to a large public building, where one of the Sagoths who had formed our guard explained to a Maharan official the circumstances surrounding our capture. The method of communication between these two was remarkable in that no spoken words were exchanged. They employed a species of sign language.
Next came shields; but these I found it easier to steal from the walls of the outer guardroom of the building. We had completed these arrangements for our protection after leaving Phutra when the Sagoths who had been sent to recapture the escaped prisoners returned with four of them, of whom Hooja was one. Dian and two others had eluded them.
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