Page:Weird Tales Volume 4 Number 2 (1924-05-07).djvu/50

 "Fine," said Henry. "And you, Rider?"

"Then it worked!" I cried. "It worked!"

"Yes, my Farnermain," nodded the queen. "And I am so glad to see you yourself again. At first I thought you were dead—but it was only a blow, not a wound."

"And the battle?" I asked. "Tell me. And let me see."

"Wait a little," admonished Draconda. "Wait till you have recovered somewhat. And the battle is another Cannae, my Farnermain—another Cannae, indeed! And Mynine herself is a captive. But is there aught I can do for you, my Farnermain?"

"Thanks, O Draconda, but soon I shall be quite myself again."

Henry, I soon noticed, had received a slight scalp wound; somehow his left arm had escaped hurt in that awful melee.

I was still weak and dazed, but strength was coming swiftly back and to my mind clarity of thought and perception.

We were on a high knoll, whence could be got a good view of the field. I mounted to the summit and surveyed the bloody field of battle.

"See!" exclaimed Draconda, her face flushed and her wondrous eyes shining like stars. "See, my Farnermain! It is indeed another Cannae! The enemy is surrounded. Mynine's warriors are being cut down by thousands, like the grass before the sickle."

I turned away and covered my eyes with my hand.

"I am glad, Draconda," I said, "and yet I sicken at the sight."

"Yes," returned the queen, laying a hand on my shoulder. “But it must be. What a monster, after all, is man—when banished to this terrible land of the flesh!"

It was indeed another Cannae. A little while after I received that terrible blow, Draconda's warriors succeeded in staying the advance of Mynine's host. The queen's army was again in the form of a half moon, but this time was the concave side against the enemy. As Mynine's army pressed forward, the queen's right wing faced to the left, using its flank as a pivot, and the left wing swung about to the right. The cavalry engaged Mynine's horse, and the foot fell upon her flanks. General Angto soon routed the horse on her right flank, and he then dashed over to her left, by a brilliant coup capturing Mynine herself as he did so, and put the cavalry there to flight. Then, swinging his men out into a long line, he came thundering down on the rear of the infantry.

Mynine's horse rallied and came bravely to the attack, but it was again routed, half of it being destroyed; and Draconda was bothered no more by Mynine's cavalry.

Of course, Mynine's vast army was now completely surrounded. When Angto came thundering down on the rear, its fate was sealed. It did not have the ghost of a show now. The rest was massacre. It was a slaughter, a butcher, a horror unutterable, a hell on earth. The blood ran into that river in streams. I saw it. It coursed down the banks of that river in streams.

For Mynine's warriors were packed together so closely that they could not use their weapons—went down indeed like the grass before the sickle.

And for seven long hours that butchering went on. When all was over, one hundred and twenty thousand insurrectionists lay dead or wounded on that awful field, and twenty thousand were prisoners. Draconda's loss was very small—a little over twelve thousand men, dead and wounded.

The body of poor Nytes was found—headless, crushed and hoof-mangled.

The sun was shining brightly when the battle began, but the clouds increased in number and volume; and, about noon, the sun, which for some time had been shining but fitfully, went out altogether, sending a heavy gloom down upon the awful field. Then a wind sprang up and slowly grew stronger, at last sweeping across the field in sudden and wrathful gusts. The sky threatened rain. And, as the end was drawing near, the heavens in the west parted of a sudden, and, for several minutes only, the sun sent yellow and bloody rays down upon the terrible place, when it disappeared to shine no more than day.

At length Draconda gave an order that Mynine be brought before her.

Henry gave me a troubled look, but he said nothing either to Draconda or to me.

In a few minutes, the captive was standing before the queen, who was mounted.

Mynine had not received even so much as a scratch. She wore a coat, of golden mail, and upon her head was a stephane, studded with precious stones.

She courtesied to the queen with a smile on her pale lips, when she stood erect and looked fixedly into Draconda's eyes. She was very pale, but she did not tremble at all: at any rate, I could not detect the least tremor in the slender frame—which housed that terrible tiling of her called a soul, that thing which had brought down upon this Venusian nation so much turmoil, sorrow, blood and destruction.

"So, my Mynine," said Draconda in her softest tones, "we meet again, and it is I that have the honor of holding thee captive. Perchance thou didst anger the gods, my Mynine. And now tell me this: what hast thou to say?"

Mynine said never a word, though her wide blue eyes spoke volumes.

The wind was sweeping across the plain in a stronger gust than common, and, as Draconda spoke the last words, the first drops of that rain which the dark skies had long portended came driving down, stinging like hailstones.

Draconda drew her sword.

"Now shalt thou die, my Mynine," she said evenly. "I shall slay thee now, even as thou didst slay my sister."

Mynine laughed.

"So be it, O queen. You win. Perchance, though, in some other world, we shall meet again."

"Mayhap, my Mynine. And mayhap we have met before."

"Good heavens, Draconda!" cried Henry Quainfan, standing aghast, "what are you going to do—kill her?"

"Kill her,” was the quiet response. "Kill her, even as she killed my Nytes—smite off her head to the earth."

He gave an exclamation of horror.

"Vengeance, Draconda—"

"I am going to kill me that woman," she interrupted him, a steely ring in her tones. "Just now I am Themis. What! Would you, if in my place, set her free, strew her pathway with roses?"

"Not that. But—"

"Justice is justice," she interrupted again: "it matters not whose the hand that delivers the stroke."

She ordered Mynine blindfolded and her hands tied behind her. This was done speedily and in utter silence.

Henry begged Draconda not to do this thing, and to his entreaties my own were added; but the queen was not to be moved an inch in her determination.

"If you kill her, Draconda," exclaimed Henry Quainfan at last, palewith anger and helplessness, "then I'll go away! For I won't—no, I won't marry a murderess!"

"A murderess!" echoed Draconda, looking at her lover curiously. "Don't be foolish, my Henry. Remember that just now I am Themis."

Suddenly a hard, steely light—one that for an instant was actually terrible—shot into the queen's dark eyes.

"This girl believes, my Henry, that you loved her—really and truly loved her—until you saw me. And, after all,