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Her face was pale, frightened, yet she seemed calm. Her glorious white hair tumbled down in waves over her shoulders. "Wolfgar he " She choked a little in the smoke that swirled around them. Georg cut in: "He sent me Georg Brende. Don't talk now get this off." He pulled the heavy costume from her.
"It is very beautiful, eh, Jac Hallen?" "Beautiful yes. You've been here before, Wolfgar?" He nodded. "Oh yes. Soon we will reach the Great City. That too is strange and beautiful." Elza saw us together and joined us. The Great City presently came into distant view. Wolfgar, with that gentle voice and smile characteristic of him began to describe to us what we should see.
His arrival to take possession of Venus had been made the occasion of a great festival. "The Water Festival," they called it, which was held only at times of universal public rejoicing. It was planned now to do honor to Tarrano planned for this same evening. But he postponed it a night; tonight was for Wolfgar. We were still captives in Tarrano's hands, as we had been on Earth in Venia.
There was a sudden soundless flash. From across the room a beam of violet flame darted at us. It struck just between Maida and Wolfgar, as he rose from his knee. Both of them involuntarily stepped backward, apart from each other. And between them, breast high, the flame hung level across the room. Maida was on one side of it; all the rest of us, on the other. I turned.
Tarrano's words now answered my unspoken questions. He was not looking at Wolfgar, but at Elza. "You, Wolfgar deserve death. You know why I cannot kill you? Why I let you stay here in the tower?" A faint, almost wistful smile parted his thin lips; he did not take his eyes from Elza. "I am greatly handicapped, Wolfgar. The Lady Elza here would not like to have me put you to death.
I saw the deadly whirling knife-disc sailing for Elza.... It would strike her ... shear her white throat.... With a shout of horror and anger, I leaped for the woman. But Wolfgar, too, had seen the disc and he went into action quicker than I. The divan was beside him. He snatched up a pillow; flung it upward at the disc.
Short, squat and ugly, with a thick, insulated handle. He feared to use it. Yet Wolfgar had assured him the Princess Maida was prepared. He hesitated, with his finger upon the switch-button of the weapon. But he knew that in a moment he would be too late. A searchlight from an aerial mast high overhead swung down upon him, bathing him in its glare of white. His finger pressed the trigger.
Not childish, but mature; for I could not miss in its aspect, a warmth, a quality of sensuousness. A land of dalliance and pleasure of the senses. And I realized then why the Venus people derived all their advancement of science and industry from Earthly and Martian sources. A hand of luxury and physical ease. People, not primitive but decadent. I became aware of Wolfgar at my elbow.
And if you wouldn't mind I want to call you just Maida." "Just Maida, Wolfgar. Yes, of course, I want you to call me that." Her voice was broken. She brushed away her tears that he might not notice them. "Yes," he agreed. His staring eyes were trying to see her. "My Maida. You're very beautiful my Maida. I wonder you see, I'm taking advantage of you I wonder if you'd say you love me?
For a moment Georg stood there, with the gathering tumult around him stood there gazing up at that small tower. The tower wherein the Princess Maida was confined. It was dark and silent. Black rectangles of doors and casements, all open but barred by the glow of the electrical barrage surrounding it. Georg jerked from his belt the cylinder Wolfgar had given him. Metallic.
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