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Updated: May 10, 2025
Slaans in murderous frenzy were plunging through the throng of erstwhile revelers. Maida could not quell them. The revolt which she had started against Tarrano seemed now a self-created monster to destroy us all. But there were Earth men among us. A hundred of them, no more.
Yet among these gaudily dressed women and men with the luster of wealth and ease upon them, others mingled. Others of a lower class, poorly dressed, with the badge of servitude upon them, enthralled in a social peonage which I did not yet understand. "Slaans," Wolfgar called them. A term half of derision, half contempt. And Wolfgar pointed one out to me.
The luxury the license-of the ruling class had been no fault of hers. She promised fair treatment now to the slaans. She was to marry Georg Brende, the Earth man. Maida did marry Georg. With the many stirring events a time when disaster and death threatened us all so soon to follow, I shall not pause to describe the wedding. A quaint, yet magnificent spectacle.
Excusable flurry possibly for the thing had come so quickly, and most of us were strangers here of but a few hours. The roof had a low railing waist-high, but broad. We stood clustered behind 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. Georg and I clutched at her, then steadied her. "Slaans "
Their rule started auspiciously, for by a series of speeches a reorganization of money payments the slaans seemed well satisfied. Loyal, and with a growing patriotism, an eagerness to help in the coming war with Tarrano. Georg without actually saying so made them believe that the only hope of everlasting life was the recovery from Tarrano of the Brende model.
"Immortal terror! God forbid I should ever feel it! Or you, Lady Elza. A lesson for us all, who would be so un-Godly as to seek and think we have found what only the Creator Himself can bestow!" Black Cloud of Death I must revert now to that time in the gardens of Maida's palace at the Great City when we stood upon its roof-top, threatened below by that mob of slaans.
"We must get away back to the palace!" Georg exclaimed as I joined them. The Earth men on the main floor were holding the slaans partially in check. Bodies were lying in a welter I shall not describe it. Then abruptly, upon a table a huge slaan leaped his garments blood-stained from his victims, a blade of dripping steel in his hands.
Throughout the city that night for the slaans to hear whether they would or no the broadcast stations flung their stentorian tones to the people; a speech by Maida; her promise of better things to come for the slaans; the end of Tarrano's brief rule; a reorganization of past conditions. Maida herself had never been in control in the Central State.
Georg waved it at the mob. "Slaans " His stronger voice caught their attention. A sudden hush fell. "Slaans it is I, Georg Brende. Your Princess Maida rules you now only under me. A new ruler, slaans the man of Earth Georg Brende who must be obeyed Georg Brende, soon to be husband of your Princess " But they would not hear him out. The din from them submerged his voice.
We had, in general, one thousand unmarried men, in five divisions of two hundred each. They were largely Rhaals, with the few Earth men previously sent us; fifty perhaps of the most loyal slaans; and a scattering of the other races of the Venus Central State. A few thirty perhaps of the Little People of Mars.
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