The Greatest Works of Otis Adelbert Kline - 18 Books in One Edition. Otis Adelbert Kline

right hand extended palm downward.

      “I have a message for Your Highness’s ears alone,” he said, with a significant look at the three men who were serving my breakfast.

      “Won’t you have some breakfast?” I asked.

      “With Your Highness’s leave I will decline, as I have already breakfasted. There is much to be done, and time presses.” Again he glanced impatiently at the servants.

      With a wave of my hand, I dismissed them.

      “The page told me you gave the name of Vorvan,” I said when they were gone. “Both the name and yourself seem somehow vaguely familiar, yet I cannot remember having heard it, nor having seen you before.”

      “Then my disguise must be effective, Highness,” he answered, with a smile which was also familiar. “I am Vorn Vangal.”

      The smile and the name instantly brought a flood of recollections. This was indeed Vorn Vangal, the man who had arranged with Dr. Morgan to bring me to Venus—Vorn Vangal, the great nobleman, scientist and psychologist of Olba—the man who had welcomed me to Venus with the identical smile he was now wearing.

      But at that time he had been attired in the purple and the glittering bejeweled panoply of a great noble, and his beard and hair had been iron gray. A bit of dye, a bandage, and the clothing of a tradesman had wrought vast change in his appearance.

      “I’ll try to answer Your Highness’s questions in due order,” Vorn Vangal said. “I returned from Reabon one week after I left you in the Black Tower, expecting to find you here, safe and sound. You may imagine my astonishment when I learned that you and Taliboz had disappeared, that your guards had been slain, and that a number of dead henchmen of Taliboz had been found here.

      “I immediately established telepathic communication with Dr. Morgan who was to keep in constant rapport with you, and from him I learned what had happened to you. Then I went to Torrogo Hadjez and persuaded him to patrol the area where it might be expected that you would be found. You were moving about so much that it was impossible for the airships to find you in any specific location I might name. Part of the time you didn’t know where you were, hence your subjective mind could not inform Dr. Morgan, and through him, me.

      “Of course I knew the report of Taliboz was a lie when he said you had been killed, but I did not dare to so inform Torrogo Hadjez. He would have demanded to know the source of my knowledge, which would have forced me to disclose the fact that his son was on your world and you were taking his place here.

      “I decided to personally conduct a search for you in an aerial battleship, and Torrogo Hadjez provided me with one for the purpose, but we encountered a terrific storm before we had gone far, and the ship was forced to land, hopelessly crippled, near the Olba-Adonijar border. I immediately took a motor vehicle back to Olba, but was placed under arrest as soon as I entered the city gates, for Torrogo Hadjez had been assassinated and Taliboz was on the throne.

      “He condemned me to die as a traitor, and confiscated my city palace as well as my lands, estates and treasure. With the aid of a few faithful friends, I managed to escape before his sentence could be carried out, disguised myself as a tradesman, and came here, having learned through Dr. Morgan that this was where you were to be found.”

      “And now,” I asked, “have you any plans for rescuing the Princess Loralie and disposing of Taliboz?”

      “The only method I can think of will be a bloody revolution. Most of the men who garrison the palace and the city are men of the usurper. The men who previously filled these ranks have been sent to work on and guard the private estates of Taliboz, far to the north of Olba. If we were to proclaim your return, Taliboz would immediately denounce you as an impostor, a price would be placed on your head, and you would be hunted by every military man under his command.

      “The best way, I believe, will be for you to remain here until I can arouse the patriotic citizens of Olba, secretly telling them of your presence here. You can then come to Olba in disguise, and we can make a concerted effort to capture the palace and do away with the traitor who sits on the throne.”

      “But that will take considerable time,” I said, “and in the meantime, what of Loralie?”

      This question went unanswered, for at this moment one of my guards entered with the statement that Pasuki and Lotar craved immediate audience as they had a communication of the utmost importance.

      “Admit them,” I said.

      Both saluted hurriedly as they came in, and seemed greatly agitated. “Your Highness’s presence here has been discovered,” said Lotar. “We must get you away at once.”

      “I am sorry to inform you that there must have been a traitor among my men,” said Pasuki, “planted there, no doubt, by Taliboz to spy on my doings. One of my faithful servants, however, was watching Taliboz, and has dispatched a messenger to me with the information that the usurper has mobilized an army of five thousand men who are already marching on the Black Tower.”

      Chapter 15

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      As I sat facing the three men, Pasuki, Lotar, and Vorn Vangal, all faithful to me, but with no plans for meeting the emergency created by the advance of the army which was ten times the strength of the garrison of the Black Tower, an idea came to me.

      “Will Taliboz accompany the army, Pasuki?” I asked.

      “It is probable, Highness, but I cannot be certain.”

      “How many men in your garrison?”

      “Four hundred and fifty, not counting Lotar’s fifty. We could not hold the tower long against the attack of five thousand. It is best that we disband the garrison and make our escape in the flyers on the roof of the tower. There are two there, each of which will carry two men.”

      “But what of the princess? If you men and your followers are willing to fight both for her and for me, I have a plan—a precarious one, but possible of execution—for saving her and dethroning Taliboz.”

      They pledged their loyalty.

      “Very well,” I said. “Prepare, then, all of you, to obey my orders without question. They may seem strange to you, but if they do, remember that they are designed to outwit Taliboz. You, Pasuki, will prepare for the defense of the Black Tower at once with all your mattorks and men. You, Lotar, will keep your men armed and ready for my call, but out of sight. See that every one of them is provided with a portable light, and that there are several extra lights. Vorn Vangal will remain at my side for the present.”

      The two men hurried away to carry out my commands, and I leisurely finished my breakfast, while Vorn Vangal kept anxious watch out the window.

      “They draw near, Highness,” he said excitedly, “and Taliboz is with them, for I see the personal standard of the Torrogo in their midst.”

      “Good.” I went to the window. Taliboz was bringing up a mighty host indeed, compared to our small garrison. When they were within a thousand yards of the walls that surrounded the tower, they deployed to the right and left. A man bearing a banner on which was written in large letters the Zarovian word “dua”—which, under the circumstances meant, “a truce”—left the ranks and marched toward the main gate of the tower wall.

      “A herald,” said Vorn Vangal. “Taliboz would treat with us.”

      “Let us go to the top of the tower.”

      We quickly took a telekinetic elevator.

      “We are completely surrounded now,” said Vorn Vangal. “There will be no escape. Even if we were to try to get away in the airships we should immediately be shot down by their mattork crews.”

      “We are not yet ready to attempt an escape.”

      The herald