Slaves of Sleep Page 9

  And so he was let out and wandered down the steps sadly shaking his grotesquely hatted head, his mutters lingering long after he was gone.

  Jan looked with horror at the great bed. And then, despite everything he could do to hold himself back, he leaped up the steps and landed squarely in the middle. He bounced up and down.

  "Not bad," said Tiger.

  "Stop!" cried Jan.

  "Oh, boy. All we need is some dancing girls and a keg and what a time we'd have!"

  "How can I think of such a thing at a time like this?"

  "Hell's bells, why not? A short life and a hot one and let the devil have a break. It's not every day he gets such a recruit as Tiger."

  "Blasphemy from me?"

  "And why not? Why not, I say? Where's the idol tall and mighty enough to be revered? Where's the god or ruler strong enough and good enough and clever enough to get more than a passing glance from such a fellow as I? Not that I am worth a hiss in hell, but that all these other pedestaled fools rate but little more. Show me a good god, a true king, a mighty man and all my faith is his for the asking-nay, not even for the asking. Who am I to be bowed by anything? Not Tiger!"

  "But the queen and the God that made you..."

  "The queen is a filthy harridan and I have yet to meet the God that made me. I am Tiger! I am Tiger, son of the sea, brother to the trade winds, lover of strength and worshipper of mirth! I am Tiger and I know all the vices of every land! I am Tiger and with my eyes I have seen such sights as few men so much as dream about. Dancing girls, honey-sweet wine, music enough to tear the soul from a man. Aye, women to blind you with their golden eyes and flowing bodies. Aye, rum which mellows the throat and roars in the guts. Aye! Violins and drums, trombones and harps and feet so swift and so sure that the head whirls to follow them. Dancing girls! Aye! Such a one as graced the last steps of Captain Bayro with fresh roses this very day. Ah, for her I would crush this kingdom with my fingers and give it to her upon a diamond dish. Where has she been that I have not seen her? Where has she kept that sweet ankle and those silken curls? Where has she hidden that mouth made for kisses and laughter and songs? Ah, yes, the Temple of Rani. The Temple! Where no human dare tread except as a Temple slave; where all Tarbuton's mighty go to babble their sins and kiss golden feet and win support for their hellish endeavors. The Temple! Where the great horns bellow like bulls and the flying feet of the dancing girls sweep the worshipers into drunken stupor. The finest beauties of the realm to beguile the Jinn with dancing. And that one, ah, the finest of them all! S'death to enter that Temple. Death! But for the likes of that sweet mouth, but for the slimness of that ankle..."

  "Stop!" cried Jan. "She is sacred!"

  "Sacred? Why not? All things of the Temple are sacred. But though death might wait upon such a venture, if ever I get out of this mad palace, sure as the west wind blows, I shall kiss that mouth..."

  "She's sacred to me! To me! Her name is Alice Hall, the only woman I ever looked at. She is Alice Hall, the only woman who ever looked upon me with other than contempt. Seal your mouth and speak of her no more!"

  "Sacred, you say? And why should a woman be so sacred as to never be touched. Surely now there's no reason in that at all! Love? For love I would lay down my split second of life. Love? Certainly I could love her, perhaps already I do love her. Yes, there's no use to deny it. Of all I've ever seen she is the only one. And what could be more sacred than to worship at that shrine? What could be more sacred than to burn the joss of desire before that cupid's bow of a mouth? Yes, that's given only to the strong. That's given only to the man-devil with courage enough to take it. Yes, she's sacred. Sacred to me! And as she is a Temple girl, a dancing girl, raised out of sight of all humans I shall be the first to plead with her. I shall be the last for she will be mine! Now, puny and halting weakling, try and stop me!"

  Jan leaped up from the bed, whirling as though to face an adversary. But no one was to be seen. And deep inside him he felt the Tiger stirring, heard the Tiger laughing. More and more as the hours passed he had experienced it. He had given it some slight leash on the ship and the musket had been fired. It had taken more and the boat had overturned. And more and more to send Boli hurtling between two lions. And now, like the camel that stuck his head in the tent, slow degree by slow degree, pres足aging an end which might well be whole weeks away, he who contained the Tiger would be contained by the Tiger. And at such a prospect of being ruled by the lawless, pleasure mad, irreverent sailor Jan recoiled with his own part of his soul. And even when he did it he heard the Tiger, far off, deep down, veiled and show足ing himself like the sharp fangs of a reef in the restless, heaving sea, laughing at him.

  The body first and then... then the heart? Who had the Tiger been? How had be become submerged at all?

  And Jan in a spasm of terror would have thrown himself down on the bed anew if the door had not been flung back by a captain of the guard.

  "Her Royal Highness, Ramus the Magnificent, now demands your presence in the audience chamber for trial!"

  Jan stared dully at the pompous fellow and then obediently crawled off the bed and placed himself between the waiting files. They marched down the winding steps and through half a mile of halls and, with the greater part of him shaking at the prospect of the judgment, he could not help thinking that it would be a priceless joke if the Marid on his right should accidentally knock against the one in front. He was sure they would all go down like dominoes, so stiff were they in their garish capes.

  But the joke never came off for the instant they entered the chamber Jan came up with a paralyzed gasp to behold Zongri, all in chains, standing on the steps which led to the throne. And Zongri was looking at him with eyes which were shot through and through with flashing fires of rage.

  the magic ring

  The audience chamber was clear of all except three com足panies of guards. The queen sat immobilely regarding Zongri's back. Up before the throne the files marched Jan and then fell back to leave him isolated between two poker-stiff Marids.

  The lions yawned hopefully, the sound of it gruesome in the echoing hall. As though that were a signal to begin, Ramus, the Jinni queen, pointed her sceptre at Jan.

  "Speak, renegade Ifrit!" she ordered Zongri. "Is this the man upon whom you pronounced so untimely a sentence?"

  Zongri shifted his weight. He was a tower of scorn and anger and his chains clinked viciously. "That one?" And he stared hard at Jan, a little of the resentment fading out of him. Jan held his breath, suddenly realizing that, in Tiger's form, he was not likely to be recognized by a Jinn who had seen him but fleetingly and in bad light at that.

  "That one?" said Zongri. "You mock!"

  "Look well, jackal filth," roared the queen. "If he is not the one, you shall be detained until that one is found. And this one came to his captain with a strange tale indeed."

  Zongri came down the steps a pace. He was above the reach of the great lions just as Jan was below them. And, framed between those tawny heads, Zongri looked more terrifying than ever, even though he did not seem quite so large as he had upon the first night. Even so he was bigger than any one of the guards, bigger even than Ramus and certainly half again the size of Tiger.

  Zongri's fangs clicked together as he worked his jaw in thought. Then he again faced Ramus. "You bait me! You try to trick me into lies! A trap worthy of you. The one I sentenced was a puny fellow, one these lions would have scorned to eat. A weakling with panes of glass over his eyes to protect them. A very owl of a scarecrow with his head stuffed with books and his heart so much sawdust. Try again, ruler of apes, for Zongri will not this time be led into untruth."

  Jan's spirits began to pick up and he even straightened his spine and Tiger almost let out a merry whistle.

  "Look again!" roared Ramus. "I tell you that this one brought such a tale to his captain and though he is known as Tiger and though he is not unknown for certain brawling deeds, it is pos足sible that he is not wholly the one you describe in form. Witl
ess one, have you no eyes at all?"

  "I," said Zongri in a voice like a file through brass, "happen to be wearing your chains, Ramus. But my patience is great. For thousands of years I waited for my release. It taught me how to bide my time . . ."

  "It taught you little else!" roared Ramus.

  "But it did teach me that," said Zongri, looking as though he wanted to fly at her throat. "And I can wait until you visit me in my own realm, the Barbossi Isles, where I would have been even now if your cursed ships were not so glutted with cargoes for the weaklings I find here. How am I to know what has trans足pired in the ages since I left? How was I to know that the jest of Eternal Wakefulness, once so marvelous, would bring any danger here? How was I to know that soft living and slaves had reduced my race to the point of putty? My magic beyond my power? And if I have done this thing, what of that?"

  "What of that?" bellowed Ramus in a fury. "You witless son of chattering monkeys, can you not see the desolation which would spread if all humans in our world would come to know the TRUTH? Quick now, stop blabbing your ignorance and closely look upon the prisoner. We must know!"

  Again Zongri fixed his raging eyes upon Jan until Jan could feel them lifting off his scalp and tearing his clothes to ribbons. Suddenly Zongri tensed and took an involuntary step downward. Then, so swiftly that all his chains clanked as one, he faced the queen.

  "If I can truthfully identify this man, you free me?"

  "Of course."

  "And allow me to depart?"

  "With our most heartfelt relief!"

  "Then, Ramus the Maggoty, know that the human before you is Jan Palmer, victim of the Eternal Wakefulness and long may he roast in hell!"

  Jan almost fell forward on his face but staggered upright again.

  "Ah," said Ramus, "I see that the prisoner admits it too. Very well, Zongri, we bear you no great malice . . ."

  "I would that I could also say it," growled the giant Ifrit.

  ". . . and will suitably see you away to your home."

  "And no thanks earned," snarled Zongri.

  "IF you take away the sentence from this man!" snapped Ramus.

  "Bah, why bother with that? Kill him and have it over!"

  "Aye, that would be your solution, witless one. How like your sons you are, to choose the last resort first. This may be Jan Palmer but it is also one they call Tiger, a man who earned a better fate by feats of daring in a dozen battles and who once saved the life of Admiral Tyronin, one of my finest officers. Cer足tainly if it must be done, 'twill be done, but stay awhile. How, pray tell, were you able to put such a sentence upon him?"

  "You said you would release me."

  "I said I would to be sure but I had not stated all my conditions."

  "You harpy!" screamed Zongri, leaping straight at the queen. Only the swift action of the officers on the steps kept him from reaching her. She had not so much as blinked and only smiled when Zongri was thrown back to his original position.

  "We might forget to wend you home at all, Zongri," she remind足ed him. "We have deep graves here for those who do not please us. Now, to business. We ask you to spare us the necessity of murdering this man, for, while your line has never done us any足thing but wrong, his at least has done us some slight good. To be very truthful, Zongri, we would much rather destroy you than this common sailor here."

  Zongri was so angry he could not even speak. He cast the guards away from him and stood there, his ripped shirt showing a vast expanse of heaving, hairy chest. The other Ifrits averted their eyes from him but not inexorable Ramus. She was almost laughing to see such a powerful man so completely entangled at her whim.

  "Come, speak up," said Ramus. "By what magic power did you bring this down upon Tiger? Speak! I would as soon execute you as not-in fact I have no compunction whatever in the matter."

  "I speak not from terror of your threats," growled Zongri, "but to avoid having to longer stay in such a treacherous place, gazing upon such ugly faces. Very well. You seem in this age to know nothing of the yesterdays. You know nothing or have com足pletely forgotten the day when Sulayman brought us all to account by the magic which was his by virtue of his seal." He seemed to doubt the wisdom of going on but Ramus motioned for the executioner to step nearer and Zongri swept on like a rolling storm, his temper rising to white heat but telling his tale just the same. "Know that the seal was lost to him some years after..."

  "Come to the point. We have heard all that," said Ramus.

  "It was lost to him and so was his power lost. You have heard of that seal?"

  "If you speak of the triangles laid so as to form a six-pointed star surrounded by a circle, we know the Seal of Sulayman." She chuckled to herself to see her guards wince at the mention of the potent thing.

  "Aye," said Zongri, "such was the seal. Such was the Seal of Sulayman and even a replica of it upon a leaden stopper carried sufficient force to entomb me all those bitter years, worn though it had become." He stopped again and stubbornly decided he would not continue. But once more the executioner stepped forward and once more Zongri blazed with the fury of impotence. "You have no right!"

  "And you'll have no life," said Ramus. "It's all one to me whether to cheer you on your way or bury you."

  "To Shaitan with your threats. I speak to save myself further defilement."

  "Then speak."

  "When I was released I touched the stopper as I said those words and, because the seal was made by Sulayman himself and with that ring, there was enough power there to do it."

  "You are not telling us the whole truth," said Ramus.

  "Robbers, thieves!" shrieked Zongri.

  "And what is that upon your hand?" said Ramus.

  "Very well!" he screamed at her. "You'll have it all! I have shown great patience. I have tried to leave you as I found you. I have tried not to destroy this city until I myself could occupy it with my own men, for conquest is my lot. But, abortively, my hand is called. Look!" And he thrust it forward.

  She leaped back.

  He jerked the ring from his finger. "Look! I searched but a day to find it. Sulayman got it back and I knew how to find his tomb. It lay in the miserable dust which remained to him and I took it up and put it on and all the secrets of the two worlds will be mine! All the land will yield to me. Earth will disgorge all her buried treasures, walls will fall at my bidding! Look well and be as stone!"

  But nothing happened. Baffled, Zongri whirled around to face his guards. Again he howled the decree and still nothing hap足pened though he held the ring high over his head.

  Ramus was the first to laugh aloud. "Oh, vain fool, in its life the ring gave all its wisdom to Sulayman the Wise. But because it was worn by human, it lost its power over humans. And now, think not that I know little of magic. You, an Ifrit have worn that ring and so have destroyed its power there. Between you and Sulayman," she chortled, "you'll have it as powerful as a doorknob!"

  "Beware!" howled Zongri. "Stand back. If it lacks that power, it still has many more. Stand back, I say!" And it seemed that only the lions would fail to obey as they strained toward him hungrily.

  The Marids were so hypnotized by the strength of the man that they did as he ordered and, for the moment, Jan was standing quite alone, close beside the plate and iron which fastened the leash of the right-hand lion. Jan was sweating and then, suddenly, felt lightheaded. Tiger grinned a wicked grin.

  Down dropped Tiger to the floor and out of Zongri's wrath-blinded sight. It was the work of an instant to jerk out the confining pin. The chain had all the slack out. The lions were maddened by Zongri's loud roars, completely intent upon his dervishlike movements.

  "See! I strike off my own chains!" shouted Zongri. And with a clank the enormous fetters dropped into a rusty coil about his feet. "And now, treacherous clowns ..."

  But the chain gave way in that instant and two thousand pounds of lion sprang straight up at Zongri's hairy throat!

  Zongri flung up his arms to meet the shock and staggered
back. But Tiger was not at all idle. He went up over the beast's back like it was a ratline and before two roars had gone shatter-ingly down the hall he was astride the brute's head and twisting his tender ears until they creaked like cabbage leaves.

  It was a mad tumble of Ifrit and human and jungle king and so ferocious were the bellows coming out of the melee that the other lion, seeing them all hurtle down toward him, did not attack at all but leaped back in terror.

  A dozen stouthearted Jinn officers flung themselves upon the chain and yanked some slack from it. Two more sent the pin clang足ing home where it belonged. A stouthearted major dived into the mess and flung Zongri out of it and across the pave. He grabbed again but the sailor had already leaped free, the lion lunging after. The chain pulled the brute back on his haunches and Tiger, seeing instantly that the devil was again chained, gave him a resounding cuff across his tender nose and snapped his fingers so hard that the beast started.

  Complacently, Tiger stepped back between the two Marids who were still frozen in place.

  Other guards picked up Zongri and lugged him forward to again stand him up before the throne, this time well clear of the lions.

  "Hoho!" said Ramus. "Were you going to leave us so soon, Zongri? Stay yet awhile. Don't you enjoy the company? Major, take the ring away from him!"

  That officer leaped up to do her bidding and yanked Zongri's hands toward him to remove the seal. But, in a moment, the major gave a yelp.

  "What have you done with it?" he cried.

  But Zongri was obviously jarred by the discovery for he jerked loose from the officers and scurried about the floor on all fours, searching. In an instant all the guards followed suit. Ramus watched them with a worried frown as though half-minded to do some looking herself. But soon every inch of even that huge hall had been thoroughly searched without any result.