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32 - Nine Sci-fi Stories by Poul Anderson by Poul William Anderson · Nine Sci-fi Stories by Poul Anderson

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty two of nine sci fi stories by Paul Anderson.
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  Speaker 1: This sleepovox recording is in the public domain. Which of
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  Speaker 1: the Demon Seas Chapter eight. Down a long, curving ramp
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  Speaker 1: that led into a pit of blackness. The dungeons could
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  Speaker 1: not be far they led this way. He hugged himself
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  Speaker 1: into the shadows as a troop of guards went by.
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  Speaker 1: They were talking in their hoarse, croaking language, and did
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  Speaker 1: not peer into the corners of the labyrinth. When there
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  Speaker 1: were past corn sped on his way. The stone walls
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  Speaker 1: became rough, damp tunnels queued after the living rock under
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  Speaker 1: the castle. He grouped through a blackness relieved only by
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  Speaker 1: the occasional dull glow of fungi. The darkness hissed and
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  Speaker 1: rustled with movements. He caught the glimmer of three red
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  Speaker 1: eyes watching, and something slithered o'er his bare feet. A
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  Speaker 1: far faint scream quivered down the hollow length of passages.
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  Speaker 1: It had shicken him when he was here before, But
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  Speaker 1: now what matted? What was important save to kill as
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  Speaker 1: many any of the monsters as he could before they
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  Speaker 1: overwhelmed him. The tunnel opened on a great cave whose
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  Speaker 1: floor was a pool of eye black water. As he
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  Speaker 1: skirted its rim along a narrow, slippery ledge, something stirred
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  Speaker 1: and misshapen, giant thing darker than the night. It roared
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  Speaker 1: hollowly and swam toward him. A wave of foul odor
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  Speaker 1: came with it, catching Corn's throat in a sick dizziness.
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  Speaker 1: He swayed on the edge of the pool, and the
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  Speaker 1: swimmer began to crawl out of it toward him. Baron
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  Speaker 1: saw its teeth gleam wetly in the vague blue light,
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  Speaker 1: but there were no eyes. It was blind. He retreated
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  Speaker 1: along the ledge toward the farther exit. The ground trembled
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  Speaker 1: under the bulk of a creature, its jaws clasped shut
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  Speaker 1: behind him. As he leaped free, racing down the tunnel,
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  Speaker 1: he heard the bellowing of it, like a dull thunder
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  Speaker 1: through the reeking gloom. It wouldn't follow far, but that
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  Speaker 1: way of return would be barred to him, no matter,
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  Speaker 1: no matter. He burst out into another open space. It
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  Speaker 1: was lit by a dim, flickering fire, over which crouched
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  Speaker 1: three armed Xanthe beyond the red light glimmered on an
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  Speaker 1: iron barred doorway, and behind that there were figures stirring men.
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  Speaker 1: Coran bounded across the floor, the sword shrieking in his hand.
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  Speaker 1: It whirled down to crash through the skull bones of
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  Speaker 1: one guard. Before he could free it, the other two
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  Speaker 1: were on him. He ducked a murderous pike thrust and
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  Speaker 1: slipped close to the wilder, stabbing upward with his dagger.
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  Speaker 1: The Xanthian screamed and hugged Corn close to himself, Fastening
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  Speaker 1: his jaws in the man's shoulder, Corn slashed wildly, ripping
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  Speaker 1: open the throat. They tumbled to the ground, locked in
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  Speaker 1: each other's arms, raging like beasts. Coran's knife glanced off
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  Speaker 1: the Zanthian's ribs and he felt the steel snap over.
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  Speaker 1: He got both hands into the clamping jaws, heedless of
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  Speaker 1: the fangs, and wrenched the jawbone cracked as he fasted
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  Speaker 1: the rectile's mouth open. He rolled from beneath the still
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  Speaker 1: feebly struggling creature and glared around for the third. That
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  Speaker 1: one lay in a hacked ruin against the cell. He
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  Speaker 1: had backed up too close to the bars, and the
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  Speaker 1: men inside still had their weapons. Gasping, Koran climbed to
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  Speaker 1: his feet, an eager, baying of fierce voices rolled out
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  Speaker 1: from the cell. Men gripped the bars and howled in
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  Speaker 1: maddened glee.
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  Speaker 2: Koran, Karan, Koran, get us out of her, Let us
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  Speaker 2: out to rip Shortan's cuts loose. Ah, the Conahurrian lurched
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  Speaker 2: over to a dead Zanthean whose waist hung a bundle
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  Speaker 2: of keys. His hands shook as he tried them in
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  Speaker 2: the lock. When he got the door open, the men
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  Speaker 2: were out in a single tide. He leaned heavily on
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  Speaker 2: anumloto one's arm. What what happened to you?
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  Speaker 1: He asked the tutters let us down her and unclosed
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  Speaker 1: the door on us, snarled the blue man. Later, a
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  Speaker 1: group of them in rich dress criam darl And suddenly
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  Speaker 1: we saw what a slavery we'd been in to Sharzan.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly it no longer seemed that obedience to him was
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  Speaker 1: the only possible thing. Mawones. He led me at his throat.
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  Speaker 1: You may have that chance, said the piot. He felt
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  Speaker 1: strength returning. He stood erect and faced them in the
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  Speaker 1: flickering firelight. Their eyes gleamed back at him out of
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  Speaker 1: the shadows, fierce as the metal of their weapons. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: he said. We might be able to find our way
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  Speaker 1: out of here, but we never escape across the demon's sea.
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  Speaker 1: But I know a way to destroy this whole cursed
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  Speaker 1: house and every being in it, if you'll follow me.
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  Speaker 2: Ay.
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  Speaker 1: The shout filled the cavern with savage thunder. They shook
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  Speaker 1: their weapons in the air, gleam of red lit steel
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  Speaker 1: out a trembling darkness. Ay Coran picked up his sword
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  Speaker 1: and trotted down the nearest passageway. He was bleeding, he
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  Speaker 1: saw vaguely, but he felt little paint from it. He
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  Speaker 1: was beyond that. Now the thing was to find the
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  Speaker 1: devil powder. Tzarthu had said it was somewhere down here.
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  Speaker 1: They went along tunnel after winding tunnel, losing all sense
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  Speaker 1: of direction in the wet, hollowed dark, Coran had a
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  Speaker 1: sudden nightmare, feeling that they might wander down here forever,
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  Speaker 1: blundering from cave to empty cave while eternity grayed. Where
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  Speaker 1: are we going, asked some one impatiently. Where was aunty
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  Speaker 1: to fight? Don't know, snapped Coran. They came suddenly into
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  Speaker 1: another broad cavern, beyond which was another barred door for
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  Speaker 1: Xanthy stood guard in front of it. They never had
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  Speaker 1: a chance. The air was suddenly full of hurled weapons,
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  Speaker 1: and they were buried under a pile of edged steel.
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  Speaker 1: Corn searched the bodies but found no keys. In the
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  Speaker 1: murk beyond, he could dimly see boxes and barrels reaching
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  Speaker 1: to fathomless distances, but the door was held fast. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: Dorothy would never trust his men at arms with entrance
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  Speaker 1: to the devil powder. The Corsair snarled and grabbed a
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  Speaker 1: bar with both hands. Pull. Maura them mortal, he shouted. Pull.
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  Speaker 1: They swarmed close, thirty odd big blue men with the
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  Speaker 1: strength of hate in them, clutching the salbars, grabbing each
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  Speaker 1: other's waists, heaving with a force that shrieked through the
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  Speaker 1: iron poll. The lock burst and the staggered back as
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  Speaker 1: the door swung wide. Instantly, Koran was inside, ripping open
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  Speaker 1: a box and laughing aloud to see the black grains
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  Speaker 1: that filled it. For a wild moment, he thought of
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  Speaker 1: plunging a brand into the palace and going up in
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  Speaker 1: flame and thunder with the castle. Coldness returned. He checked
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  Speaker 1: himself and looked around for fuses. His followers would not
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  Speaker 1: have permitted him to commit suicide that involved them, and
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  Speaker 1: after all, the longer he lived, the more enemies it'd
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  Speaker 1: have a chance to cut down personally. I've heard talk
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  Speaker 1: of this stuff, said one of the men, nervously.
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  Speaker 2: Is it truder?
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  Speaker 1: Setting fire to it releases a demon? Ah Corn found
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  Speaker 1: the long rope like fuses coiled in a box. He
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  Speaker 1: knotted several together and put one end into the powder.
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  Speaker 1: The ignition of one container would quickly set off the rest,
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  Speaker 1: and the cavern was huge and filled with many shiploads
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  Speaker 1: of sleeping Hell, if we can finde away to the
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  Speaker 1: ship and get clear before the fire reaches the powder
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  Speaker 1: began the omloton. We can try that, I suppose, said Corn.
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  Speaker 1: He estimated the burning time of his fuse for memories
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  Speaker 1: of the use he had seen the Xanthe make of the
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  Speaker 1: devil powder. Yes, there would be fair allowance for escape,
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  Speaker 1: though he doubted that they would ever reach the strand alive.
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  Speaker 1: He touched the stick from the fire to the end
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  Speaker 1: of the fuse. It began to sputter, a red spark
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  Speaker 1: peeping along it toward the open box. Let's go, shouted Karan.
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  Speaker 1: They pounded along the tunnel, heedless of direction. There should
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  Speaker 1: be an upward leading ramp somewhere ah there it was
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  Speaker 1: up its length. They raced past levels of the dungeons
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  Speaker 1: toward the main floor of the castle. At the end
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  Speaker 1: there was a brighter blue light than they had seen below. Up, up, up,
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  Speaker 1: and out. The chamber was enormous, a pillared immensity reaching
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  Speaker 1: to a ceiling hidden in sheer height. Rugs and tapestries
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  Speaker 1: of the scaled Xanthian weave were strewn about, and a heavy,
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  Speaker 1: intricately carved furniture filled it. At the far end stood
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  Speaker 1: a towering, canopied throne, on which sat a huge golden form.
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  Speaker 1: Other shapes stood around it, and there were pikemen lining
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  Speaker 1: the walls. At rigid attention. Through the haze of mist
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  Speaker 1: and twilight, Corn saw the black robe of chas Arm
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  Speaker 1: and the flame colored cloak of Crisis. He shrieked an
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  Speaker 1: oath and plunged for them. A horn screamed, and the
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  Speaker 1: guards sprang from the walls to form a line before
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  Speaker 1: the throne. The humans shocked against Xanthi with a fury
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  Speaker 1: that clammet through the building. Swords and axes began to fly.
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  Speaker 1: Corn hued at the nearest grinning reptile face, felt the
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  Speaker 1: sword sink in and roared the war cry of Kanahor.
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  Speaker 1: He spitted the monster on his blade, lifted it, and
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  Speaker 1: pitchforked it into the ranks of the guards. Zathu bellowed
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  Speaker 1: and rose to meet him. Suddenly, the Xanthian king was
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  Speaker 1: not there. It was a tentacle thing from the sea
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  Speaker 1: bottom that filled the room, a thing whose bloated, dark
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  Speaker 1: body reared to the ceiling. Someone screamed. Fear locked the
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  Speaker 1: battles into motionlessness. Many cake It was a snaring rattle
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  Speaker 1: in Karan's throat. He sprang into the very body of
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  Speaker 1: the sea creature. He felt the shock of striking its
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  Speaker 1: solid form, the rasp of its hide against him, the
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  Speaker 1: overwhelming poisonous stench of it. One tentacle closed around him.
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  Speaker 1: He felt his ribs snapping in the air, popping from
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  Speaker 1: his burst lungs. Wasn't real, his mind gasped through the
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  Speaker 1: whirling agony. It wasn't real. He plowed grimly ahead, blind
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  Speaker 1: in the illusion that swirled around him, striking, striking dimly
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  Speaker 1: through the roaring in his nerves. He felt his blade
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  Speaker 1: hit something solid. He bellowed in savage glee, and smote again,
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  Speaker 1: again and again. The smashing pressure lifted. He sobbed air
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  Speaker 1: into himself and looked with streaming eyes as the giant
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  Speaker 1: form dissolved into smoke, into mist, into empty air. It
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  Speaker 1: was Zarthu, writhing in pain at his feet, Dathu, with
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  Speaker 1: his head nearly chopped off. It was only another dying Xantheon.
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  Speaker 1: Korun leaped up onto the throne and looked over the room.
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  Speaker 1: The guards in the Sailors were still standing in shaken silence.
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  Speaker 1: Kill them, roared the pirate, Strike them down. Battle closed
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  Speaker 1: again with a snarl and a clang of steel. Koran
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  Speaker 1: glared around after other Xanthi of the Sorcerer breed, though
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  Speaker 1: were none in sight. They must prudently have fled into
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  Speaker 1: another part of the castle where let them. But other
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  Speaker 1: xanthe were swarming into the chamber. Battle horns were hooting
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  Speaker 1: in the guttural reptile voices crying a summons if the
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  Speaker 1: humans were not to be broken by sheer numbers that
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  Speaker 1: have to fight their way out soon. And down in
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  Speaker 1: the dungeons, a single red spark was eating its way
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  Speaker 1: toward a box of black powder. Koran jumped down again
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  Speaker 1: to the floor. His sword leaped sideways cut a xanthi
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  Speaker 1: ins spine across bit the tail from another to me.
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  Speaker 1: He bawled over here. Men of em low to the
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  Speaker 1: blues heard him and rallied, gathering into compact nuts that
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  Speaker 1: slashed their way toward where his dripping sword whined and thundered.
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  Speaker 1: He never stopped striking. He drove the reptiles before him
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  Speaker 1: until they edged away from his advance. The men formed
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  Speaker 1: into one group, and Koran led it across the floor
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  Speaker 1: in a dash. With the looming doorway, a red thought
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  Speaker 1: flashed across his brain. Where were Chauzan and Crysius the
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  Speaker 1: Xanthe scattered before the desperate human rush. The men came
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  Speaker 1: out into a remembered hallway. It led to the outside
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  Speaker 1: corn recalled by Brennich Branna. They might escape, yet, Koran, Koran, ye,
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  Speaker 1: see devil, I knew it was your doing. The connachurion
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  Speaker 1: turned to see Amazou bounding toward him with a bloody
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  Speaker 1: axe in one hand. A Mazu, Thank all the gods,
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  Speaker 1: Amazu was free. I heard a noise of fighting, and
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  Speaker 1: the two guards went off toward it. Gasped the Umloto
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  Speaker 1: and captain so I came to. On the way, I
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  Speaker 1: met Charzan and Crasius. What of them? Breathed Koran. The
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  Speaker 1: blue warrior smiled savagely and flung a red thing down
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  Speaker 1: at Koran's feet. There's Chazan's scheming head. My woman is free, Crasius.
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  Speaker 1: Amazu leaned on his axe, panting. She launched to a
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  Speaker 1: rigne at me. I ducked into a woman and slammed
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  Speaker 1: the door in its face, then came here through another entrance.
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  Speaker 1: Crsius was loose. I've got to get clear, said Koran.
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  Speaker 1: The devil powder is going to go off any time now.
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  Speaker 1: The Zanthy were rallying. They came at the humans, and
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  Speaker 1: another rush Corn and a Mazu and their best men
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  Speaker 1: filled the corridor with a haze of steel, backing down
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  Speaker 1: toward the outer portal. It was a crazy blur of struggle,
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  Speaker 1: hewing at faces that wavered out of night, slapping down thrusts,
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  Speaker 1: and reaching for the life of the enemy. Men fell
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  Speaker 1: and others took their places in the line. Down the corridor.
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  Speaker 1: They retreated, fighting to get free, and they left a
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  Speaker 1: trail of dead. The end of the passage loomed ahead,
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  Speaker 1: and the monstrous iron door was swinging shut. Gracius stood
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  Speaker 1: in the entrance. A wild storm wind outside sent her
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  Speaker 1: cloak flapping about, her red wings beating in the lightning
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  Speaker 1: shot darkness about the devil's rage of the goddess face.
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  Speaker 1: Stay here, she screamed, stay here and be cut down,
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  Speaker 1: you trebled traitor. The nearest Lotoans sprang at her. The
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  Speaker 1: door clashed shut in his face. They heard the great
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  Speaker 1: bolts slam down outside. They were boxed in the end
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  Speaker 1: of the hall, and the Xanthi need only shoot and
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  Speaker 1: den down with arrows down in the dungeons, the fuse
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  Speaker 1: burned to its end. A sheet of flame sprang up
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  Speaker 1: in the opened box of powder, reaching for the stacks
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  Speaker 1: around it. End of Section thirty two.