CHAPTER IV

Meg's Daring

But not at that moment was Meg to be forced to make the choice between submission and death. For there came an interruption. One of the Japcan lieutenants approached the group, hailed his leader.

"The wall is set up, O Grensu! The men await your inspection before setting its field into operation."

Grensu snarled, "Away, sluggard. Cannot the men do the least thing without--Very well. I will come immediately. Leekno, stay you here and keep a watchful eye on my reluctant priestess. I will return soon."

He waddled away, a lecherous ball of dough in gold armor. He joined at a little distance a group of invaders huddled over a strange, shining box. From this emanated fine bars of soft god-metal. There was brief conversation between Grensu and the workers, then one of the yellow dwarfs nodded and pressed down a standing lever.

There rose a startled cry from the captive Jinnia tribeswomen. For a crackling wave of thunder rolled about the camp; arcing out from the two arms of the magic box came an invisible something that sent dust flying as it scratched a mysterious circle about the entire village.

At the opposite end of this circle the two racing walls of invisibility met; there was a concussive echo and a blinding flash. Somewhere high above came the rare pain-cry of a buzzard; as the Women watched, the sheered hinder half of a bird-of-prey plummeted to the ground, fell with a thud, lay there flopping and bleeding--already dead!

Lora cried, "Walls without bricks!" and Meg looked at the guard incredulously.

"What marvel is this, ochre toad?" she asked. "I see no beam, no ray, yet a bird is slain."

Leekno growled, "Mind your tongue, Woman!" but he grinned. "The bird must have been right above the circle when Togi switched on the force-field."

"Force-field?" repeated Meg dazedly. She was not sure, now, but that the Clan had erred in opposing these invaders. Surely men--howsoever ugly and miscolored--who possessed magics like this must be Gods in themselves. It might be wise to submit to them without further ado. Then she thought of her own tribal Gods. Of stern, judicial Jarg and smiling Tedhi. Of the ringletted Taamuz and the sorrow-eyed Ibrim carven in eternal rock in the salt wastes so many marches from here. No, her Gods were the true Gods....

* * * * *

"You don't know what a force-field is, eh, Woman? Well, I suppose not. Come along, then; I'll show you. It will teach you that you can't escape."

Leekno led the way to the spot where armed guards huddled ever the god-box. Grensu had left; with his engineers he had gone off to some privy conference. Beside the scratched soil which marked the barrier, Leekno paused. His grin was mocking deviltry.

"I think, Woman," he said, "I shall let you escape. Flee now, while no one is looking."

Meg's heart leaped in her breast as a startled fawn at the voice of a hunter. Swiftly she breathed, "My undying thanks, yellow friend. Meg the Priestess will never forget this--"

She sprang forward. The surrounding forest was but a few yards distant; let her reach that leafy fastness no dwarfed invader could ever recapture her. She would flee to a neighboring tribe, there find help for her captured Clanswomen....

These thoughts spun dizzily through her brain as she took three ... four ... five leaping strides to freedom. And then there came a violent, staggering shock! Pain trembled through her body, flooding her with torment; it was as though a mighty hand had struck her across the face, bruised her straining breast, flung her backward.

She lay in a crumpled heap, dazed, shaken, upon the ground. And in her ears was the belly-deep, taunting laughter of the yellow-skinned guards--and Leekno! Leekno's bulbous body quivered with jelly-like mirth; fun-waters streamed from his eyes.

"'Meg the Priestess,'" he howled, "'will never forget this'! How right you were, white-legs. Tell me, is it your bruises that will keep the memory fresh in your mind?"

Meg said nothing. But she reached out, cautiously, before her. This time it was a hesitant finger, rather than the reckless force of a headlong plunge, that touched the invisible wall. Even so, her finger jerked like a slain snake as jolting current grounded through her. Her jaw set, Meg endured the pain, pressing.

Nothing happened. With every ounce of her whiplash strength behind that finger, she could not make it penetrate that barrier.

She rose, a great anger cold in the pit of her stomach. To the still-laughing guards she said, "This is a coward's weapon, O dwarfs the color of slime! Yet it will take more than this wall-without-bricks to save you when my neighboring Clanswomen come to rescue us. Their swords and arrows will hack this fanged barrier to bits--"

"So?" mocked Leekno. "Move aside, Togi." And he stepped over the god-box, moved to his right, and was facing Meg. "Togi will lend you his dagger, Woman. Hurl it at my breast and learn the truth."

Meg snatched the proffered weapon eagerly. And in the same movement spun and whipped it squarely at Leekno's bulky frame. There was a brief, scintillant prick of light. The dagger dropped harmlessly to earth at the circle's rim. Leekno's thick lips continued to grin as he returned through the portal which stretched above the box.

"Thus you have learned, Woman, that there is no escape. And now--back to your companions!"

* * * * *

The Mother said, "Meg!" Her voice was a whisper, so low that Meg could scarcely hear it.

The priestess bent beside her. "Yes, Mother?"

"The force-wall. You have seen it?"

Meg said despairingly, "I have seen it, Mother. No Woman can pass through it. Nor can a weapon."

"Yet," whispered the older woman weakly, "there is an avenue of escape. I watched while the yellow one taunted you. As all who mock, he revealed his own weakness. Did you not notice that twice he passed unharmed through the wall?"

Meg said sadly, "Not through, O Mother. But at the point of meeting where lies the god-box. I--" Then quick excitement touched her fingertips with fire. "Mother! That which he did, so can I do also!"

"Hush, my daughter! Yes, from that point only may you hope to escape. And escape you must, Meg. Flee to the Clan at Loovil, tell them of our plight. Once we aided them when the Wild Ones laid siege to their village. Their Mother will lend you Warriors; perhaps other Clans will also help."

Meg begged, "But, Mother, _how_? I cannot--"

"I have shown you the way, Meg. You must take care of the rest."

The Mother fell back, breathing heavily. The crisp rasp of footsteps raised Meg's head. Grensu, his investigations ended, had returned to claim his linbered mate. There was triumph in his eyes as Meg rose, obedient to his command.

"So, ivory one, you have decided to accept my favors? That is well. Come with me!"

Only Meg knew that her meekness was the blind obedience of a body reacting without the counsel of a mind. Meg was thinking, thinking desperately. Seeking some ruse which would give her the time, the opportunity, the speed and the weapon she needed.

Grensu, warfare forgotten now, was anticipating a pleasant interlude. "You will not find me a bad companion," he boasted. "I am a mighty leader and a strong man, my wild doe--"

Doe! Suddenly it was all clear in Meg's mind. The Japcans had, upon seizing the village, immediately taken into custody the few horses owned by the Jinnia Clanswomen. But there was Nessa! Surely no one could suspect that soft-eyed creature of being anything but a camp pet; of being a steed broken to the rein and spur....

She turned to Grensu with an exclamation of dismay.

"My doe! My lovely pet! You destroyed her?"

Grensu said placatingly, "Was the doe thine, white one? No, she has not been killed--yet. Though her meat--"

Meg prayed that the Japcan leader would read the actions of her body rather than the purpose that stood printed in her burning eyes.

"You are going to kill my Nessa? My lovely doe; my pet from childhood? You must let me see her once again, bid her farewell--"

"Now, Woman," snapped Grensu crossly, "there is no time for that!"

"I beg it of you--" Meg drew a deep breath, hating the word that must defile her lips, "--my Master!"

"Well, if you must, then." Grensu looked pleased. It was a small price to pay for willing compliance. His face still bore the nail-marks of that screaming harridan he had captured in Lanta, and she had been a much less tempting morsel than this Woman. "Well, if you must--"

* * * * *

He turned aside, led Meg to the small grassy patch in which Nessa, untethered, was wont to graze. With a cry of gladness Meg threw her arms about the doe's neck. She sobbed openly, startling even the well-trained Nessa with the fervor of her caresses. And purposely she took a long time; so long that Grensu's impatience rose.

"That will do now, Woman. Let us go!"

"Not yet! Not yet!" pleaded Meg. "Later--"

"Now!" insisted Grensu. He stepped forward to disengage Meg's arms. For the barest fraction of a second his both hands were free and weaponless.

And in that split second Meg moved. "About!" she cried to Nessa. The doe wheeled, throwing Grensu off balance. As he tottered, vain ball of yellow fat, Meg's left arm found his throat, choked him into crimson breathlessness. Her free hand whipped the golden sword from his scabbard; then, as he fell limply to the ground, she sprang to Nessa's back.

"On, Nessa!" she screamed--and her heels bit the doe's flanks.

[Illustration: Meg leaped astride the doe, and kicked her heels into its flanks. With a wild leap it sprang into motion through the ranks of the little men.]

She was halfway across the open walk-avenue of the village before the first startled cry of warning seared an invader's throat. She was flaming down upon the god-box, the narrow gateway of the magic wall, by the time that shout had spun its guardians' heads about.

Then there was mad confusion. Meg cried, "Nessa! Leap, Nessa!" even as Togi and his companion guards fumbled for their ray-sticks. The foremost was the first to lift his weapon to her breast--but even as he would have released its charge Meg's sword was biting through the thin plate of his shoulder-harness.

The Japcan screamed horribly and clutched with his free hand at a grisly stump from which spurted a scarlet ribbon of blood. The fingers of his severed arm contracted in an insensate reflex; cherry flame spewed from a stick rolling aimlessly upon the ground--and another of the guards crisped into steaming filth before it.

Now a jolt shook Meg as Nessa's cloven hooves met solid earth, and a brazen cry of gladness split the air.

"On, Nessa!"

It was like part of some nightmarish dream to see that beneath and behind her lay groveling bodies of those who would have stayed her passage; that the blade of her once gleaming sword now glinted with the bright crimson of death. But it was a joyous dream--for she was over the portal, through the barrier. Just a few more strides of the frightened doe, now, and she would be safe within the forest.

If--she glanced back over her shoulder. If one of those now springing from the camp did not succeed in snaring her brain once again with that green ray. Or if--but Meg did not want to think about that other more ruthless weapon.

Her deft hands guided Nessa right ... then left ... a zigzag path to spoil the dwarfling's aim. Once air hissed and crackled beside her head as a burst of cherry-flame just missed her, flashed by to cinder a huge tree instantly into a withered, massive twig. Her nostrils caught the stench of scorched hair, and Nessa whimpered piteously--but the doe's hoofbeats never faltered.

* * * * *

Once again Meg's brain spun with a brief moment of dizziness; she found herself thinking how pale and lovely was the sunset--and knew, instantly, that the green ray had found her. She ducked her head with a last conscious gesture, and was rewarded by feeling sense flood back like a cleansing tide.

And then green branches were whipping across her face, her fair skin was slashed with the hungry clutch of forest brambles--but she did not feel their hurt. Joy rose in her heart, joy like the glory of the newborn moon. Free! Free to find aid for her Clanswomen!

Free to--

At the last moment she saw it! Saw it and screamed a sharp cry to Nessa. The trained doe obeyed that cry, but both Meg and the deer were powerless before the eternal force that bore them onward--the force of gravitation.

For that which Meg, too late, had seen, was a patch of green soil too fresh, too even, to match the surrounding earth. Even as Nessa's scrambling feet struggled vainly for security, even as Meg felt herself pitching headlong and helpless from the doe's back, she knew that Daiv--gone, now, forever--had been right in cursing the traps with which her Clan destroyed the Wild Ones.

It was one of these traps that now, in her moment of triumph, had destroyed her!

Then Nessa's querulous bleat was in her ears; her loins quivered with the fall-feeling; the sunlight fled, and darkness engulfed all. Darkness and great, dizzying circles of pain that drove the breath from her body. She tried to cry out. The cry died in her throat. Fiery needles scored her arm, and breath deserted her. Dull silence....