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Updated: May 31, 2025
The street corners were hung with shaded tubes of light, shining down with spots of color to the water. As we passed, the people bowed their heads, hands to their foreheads, palms outward. The gesture of grief. From one building came a low musical chant. "Honor to Wolfgar! The man who gave his life for our Princess. Honor to Wolfgar!" We came to the edge of the city.
Nor did Tarrano this time seem interested in having Wolfgar, Elza and me learn the news. Yet it was not unfavorable to him. I gathered that the Earth formally had accepted his declaration of war. Relations with Venus and with Mars also, had been discontinued. The mails no longer left. The helios were stopped. But, so far as I could learn, the Earth was undertaking no offensive action.
Tarrano was still smiling; but as I took a protecting step toward Elza, his smile died. "You will go with Wolfgar both of you." That same slow finality. His face was impassive; but under his frowning bushy brows, his eyes transfixed me. It was as though with his paralyzing ray he had rooted me to the spot. And Georg beside me.
When Tarrano's forces threatened revolution from the Cold Country she had been seized by spies, brought to Earth, to Tarrano in Venia, and imprisoned in the tower from which Georg had so lately rescued her. Wolfgar for years had been her friend and loyal retainer, though he had pretended service to Tarrano. In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by a Council.
Resolute, she stood there, and would brook no interference with her purpose. Wolfgar and I withdrew a pace or two and stood watching them. Tara's breast was heaving with her pent emotion. She sat drooping on the divan, her face buried in her hands. Elza said gently: "Why did you do that, Tara?" There was no answer; only the woman's catching breath as she struggled with her sobs.
Silent, black and no one saw it as it winged away into the night. Tara I must revert now to those moments in the tower room when Tarrano dissolved the isolation barrage which Wolfgar had thrown around us. Georg escaped, as I have recounted. Tarrano there in the tower room rendered me unconscious. I came to myself on the broad divan and found Elza bending over me.
He said evenly: "I should prefer you not to address me, Wolfgar. A traitor such as you the sound of your voice offends me." It struck me then as very strange as it had for days before that Tarrano should have failed to punish Wolfgar. I would have expected death; least of all, that Tarrano would have allowed Wolfgar to live here in the tower, in comparative ease and comfort.
He ran forward, swung up at Georg the paralyzing vibrations which Tarrano at that instant was using upon Wolfgar and me. Georg felt them. He was ten feet, perhaps, above the lower platform; and as he felt the numbness strike him, he lost his hold upon the tube-pipe. But he had presence of mind enough to kick himself outward with a last effort. His body fell upon the onrushing Argo.
We felt convinced that they had already arrived on Venus had been there perhaps already for a day. We discussed it now with Wolfgar as the Great City came under us; but soon we fell silent, gazing down into this beautiful capital of the Central State. It lay in a broad hollow, a large, irregular circular bowl surrounded by gently sloping hillsides.
I did not harm this Tara, though I was sorely tempted to; and after a moment we quieted her. She was crying and laughing by turns; but when we seated her on the divan she controlled herself and fell into a sullen silence. Elza, pale and frightened at her escape, faced the woman, and waved Wolfgar and me aside. Strange little Elza!
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