Tarrano the Conqueror by Ray Cummings (book club suggestions txt) 📕

have already learned to obey you." He was smiling very gently. "Learned to obey even your unspoken commands."

I wondered how much of this attitude might be sincere, and how much calculated trickery. Could Elza, indeed, control him?

She must have had much the same thought, for she said with a forced smile: "You give me a great deal of power. If you—wish to obey me, you'll set us free—send us all to Washington."

That amused him. "Ah, but I cannot do that."

She gained confidence. "You are willing to be very gracious in things which do not inconvenience you, Tarrano. It is not very impressive."

He looked hurt. "You misinterpret. I will do for you anything I can. But you must remember, Lady Elza, that my judgment is better than yours. I would not let you lead us into disaster. You are a gentle little woman. Your instincts are toward humane treatment of everyone—toward mercy rather than justice. In all such things, I shall be guided by you. Justice—tempered with mercy. A union very, very beautiful, Lady Elza ... But, you see, beyond that—you are wrong. I am a man, and in the big things I must dominate. It is I who guide, and you who follow. You see that, don't you?"

The sincerity in his voice was unmistakable. And my heart sank as I watched Elza. Her gaze fell, and a flush mantled her cheeks. Tarrano added quietly: "We shall have no difficulty, you and I, Lady Elza. Each of us a place, and a duty. A destiny together...."

He broke off and rose quickly to his feet. "Enough. I have been weak to say so much as this."

He turned to leave us, and I became aware of a woman's figure standing in the shadows of the archway across the room. She started forward as Tarrano glanced her way. A Venus woman of the Cold Country. Yet, obviously, one of good birth and breeding. A woman of perhaps 30 years, beautiful in the Venus cast; dressed in the conventional bodice breast-plates and short skirt, with grey stockings and sandals.

Within the room, she regarded Tarrano silently. There was about her a quiet dignity; she stood with her tall, slim figure drawn to its full height. Her pure white hair was coiled upon her head, with a rich metal ornament to fasten it. And from it, a mantle of shimmering blue fabric hung down her back.

Tarrano said: "What are you doing up here? I told you to wait below."

Her face showed no emotion. But there was a glitter to her eyes, a glow in their grey depths like alumite in the hydro-flame of a torch.

She said slowly: "Master, I think it would be very correct if you would let me stay here and serve the Lady Elza. I told you that before, but you would not listen."

Tarrano, with sudden decision, swung toward Elza. "This is the Elta[14] Tara. She was concerned that I should allow you to dwell here alone with this Jac Hallen, and this traitor from Mars." His tone conveyed infinite contempt for us.

The woman said quickly: "The Lady Elza would be glad of my companionship." She shot a swift glance to Elza. What it was meant to convey, I could not have said. Perhaps Elza understood it, or thought she did. She spoke up.

"I would like to have you very much, indeed." She added to Tarrano, and there was on her face a look of feminine guile:

"You, of course, could not refuse me so small a favor? After all your protestations——"

He gestured impatiently. "Very well." And he added to Tara: "You will serve the Lady Elza as she directs."

He stalked away into the darkened passage. In the gloom there, he stopped and again faced us; the light from a small blue tube in there illumined him dimly. He was smiling ironically.

"I shall maintain the instruments for you. The mirrors will show you Georg and Maida. They are just about arriving at the Mountain Station. Watch them! You will see how far they progress with their wonderful speeches."

He left us. We heard his measured tread as he stalked down the tower incline. The barrage about the tower was lifted momentarily as he went out. Then it came on again, with its glow beyond our casements, and its low electrical whine.

I was just turning back to the room when a sound behind me made me face sharply about. My heart leaped into my throat. The woman Tara had produced from about her person a weapon of some kind. She thought she was unobserved, but from the angle at which I stood, I saw her. A gleaming metal object was in her hand. And then she launched it—a small flat disc of metal, thin, and with its circular edge keen as a knife-blade.

Whirling with a very soft hum hardly audible, it left her hand and floated upward across the room. Circling the casements up near the ceiling, and then heading downward straight for Elza! And I saw, too, that the woman was guiding it by a tiny radio-control.

The thing was so unexpected that I stood gaping. But only for an instant. 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. The soft pillow struck the disc; together, entangled, they fell harmlessly to the floor.

I was upon the woman, snatching the handle of the control-wire from her hand, wrenching its connection loose from her robe. Under my onslaught, she fell; and I kneeled beside her, gripping her while she tore at me and screamed with hysterical, murderous frenzy.

CHAPTER XIII Love—and Hate

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! 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. Across the background of my consciousness came the thought that Tarrano or one of his guards would doubtless momentarily appear to investigate all this turmoil. And I was vaguely conscious also that from our instrument room the sounds of an unusual activity were coming. But I did not heed them. Elza was insisting:

"Why did you do that, Tara? Why should you want to harm me?"

Tara looked up. "You have stolen the man I love."

"I?"

"Yes. Tarrano——"

She broke off, set her lips firmly together as though to repress further words; and her fine grey eyes, filled with unbidden tears, were smoldering to their depths with hate.

Impulsively Elza sank to the floor beside the woman. But Tara drew away.

Elza said: "Tarrano—he is a wonderful man, Tara. A genius—the greatest figure of these three worlds...."

My heart sank to hear her say it!

"... a genius, Tara. You should be proud to love him...."

"You——" The woman's writhing fingers seemed about to reach for Elza. I took a sudden step forward, then relaxed. Elza added quickly:

"But I would not steal Tarrano from you. Don't you realize that?"

"No!"

"But it's true."

"No! No! You have stolen him! With your queer Earth beauty—that colored hair of yours—those rounded limbs—you've bewitched him! I can see it. You can't lie to me! I made him angry once and he admitted it."

"No, I tell you!"

"I say yes. You've stolen him from me. He loves you—and he mocks and laughs at me——"

"Tara, wait. I do not love Tarrano, I tell you. I would not have him——" How my heart leaped to hear her say it so convincingly. She added:

"He loves me, perhaps—but I can't help that. He has me prisoner here. I am forced——"

"You lie! You are playing to win him! What girl would refuse? You say yourself he is the greatest man of the ages. You lie when you tell me you do not want him!"

Elza had taken the woman by the shoulders. "Tara, listen—you must listen! Are you mated with Tarrano?"

"No! But years ago he promised me. I took his name then, as we do in the Cold Country. They still call me Tara! Years I have waited, true to my promise—with even my name of maidenhood relinquished. His name—Tara! And now he tosses me aside—because you, only an Earth woman, have bewitched him."

"I didn't want to bewitch him, Tara." Elza's voice was very gentle; and a whimsical smile was plucking at her lips. "You think I want him because he is a genius—the greatest man of our time?"

"Yes!"

"Is that why you want him?"

"No, I love him."

"You loved him before he was very great, didn't you?"

"Yes. Back in the Cold Country. When he was only a boy—and I was no more than a girl half grown. I love him for himself, I tell you——"

Elza interrupted; and her voice risen to greater firmness, held a quality of earnest pleading.

"Wait, Tara! You love Tarrano for himself—because you are a woman capable of love. It is the man you love—not his deeds, or his fame or his destiny. Isn't that so?"

"Yes. I——"

"Then won't you give me credit for being a woman with instincts as fine as your own? The love of a good woman goes unbidden. You can't win it by conquering worlds and flinging them at her feet. Tarrano thinks you can. He thinks to dazzle me with his feats of prowess. He wants to buy my love with thrones for me to grace as queen. He thinks my awe and fear of him are love. He thinks a woman's love is born of respect, and admiration, and promises of wealth. But you and I, Tara—we know it isn't. We know it's born of a glance—born in poverty and sickness—adversity—every ill circumstance—born without reason—for no reason at all. Just born! And if anything else gives it birth—it is not a true woman's love. You and I know that, Tara. Don't you see?"

Tara was sobbing unrestrainedly now, and Elza, with arms around her, went on:

"You should be proud to love Tarrano. If I loved him, I would be proud of him, too. But I do not——"

A step sounded near at hand. Tarrano stood in the archway, with arms folded, regarding us sardonically.

CHAPTER XIV Defying Worlds

"So?" Tarrano eyed us, evidently in no hurry to speak further, seemingly amused at our confusion. Had he heard much of what the two women had said? All of it, or most of it, doubtless, with his instruments as he approached. But, even with the knowledge of Elza's vehement appraisal of him, he seemed now quite imperturbable. His gaze touched me and Wolfgar, then returned to the women.

"So? It would seem, Tara, that your plan to wait upon the Lady Elza was not very successful." He dropped the irony, adding crisply: "Tara, come here!"

She rose to her feet obediently, and stood facing him. Humble, fearful, yet a trifle defiant. For a moment he frowned upon her thoughtfully; then he said to Elza:

"Your policy of mercy is very embarrassing, Lady Elza." He made a deprecating gesture, and again his eyes were twinkling. "This woman threatened your life. My guards were lax—though I must admit they had good excuse, with the other tasks which I thrust upon them.... Your life was threatened—you escaped by the merest chance of fortune. You know, of course, what justice would bid me do to this would-be murderess?"

Elza was on her feet, standing beside Tara. She did not answer.

Tarrano now was smiling. "I must let her go unpunished? Embarrassing, this merciful policy to which you have committed me! Yet—your will is my law as you know—though I feel that some day it will involve us in disaster.... You, Tara, will not be punished, much as you deserve it." He paused, then said as an afterthought: "You, Jac Hallen, I thank you for what you tried to do in thwarting the attack. You acted in very clumsy fashion—but, at least, you doubtless did your best." Gravely he turned to Wolfgar. "I shall not forget, Wolfgar, that, in an emergency, you saved the life of Lady Elza.... Enough! These are busy moments. You chose an awkward time to raise this turmoil. Come with me—all