Tarrano the Conqueror
Public Domain
Chapter IX: Paralyzed!
The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving. Someone--something--was in the room, breaking down the barrage, struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me, Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was glowing red in his hand from intense heat.
Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly:
“We’re trapped! You, of all of us--you Georg Brende, must escape.”
The rest of his words to Georg I did not catch. He was thrusting a weapon into Georg’s hands; and giving hurried advice and explanations.
“Princess Maida ... she ... in that other tower ... you, so much more important than the rest of us...” Phrases I heard; but only phrases, for in those few seconds I stood dumbly confused, fascinated by watching the blackness in which we had enveloped ourselves now breaking into lurid, angry sparks.
A distant corner of the room became visible; outlines of the wall-beams; the growing glare of a wall-light in a tube over there. And through the brightening gloom--the figure of a lone man standing. Tarrano!
I heard Georg mutter: “Jac! Make a show of fight! Hold him! But careful--careful of Elza!”
Behind me there came an electrical flash; the pungent smell of burning cloth. Georg was no longer beside us!
Elza was still clinging to me in fright. I shook her off. Wolfgar flung his smoking, useless cylinder to the floor. The blackness at once sprang into light; the sparks died. Tarrano was standing in the room, quietly, before us. Standing with a grim, cynical smile, regarding us.
But only for an instant did he stand quiet. Across the room, creeping for the balcony doorway, I was aware of the figure of Georg. Tarrano saw him also; and with a swift gesture snapped back to his belt the interference cylinder with which he had uncovered us; then plucked at another weapon, gripped it to turn it upon Georg.
Everything was happening too swiftly for coherent thought. I leaped toward Tarrano, with Wolfgar rushing beside me. Elza screamed. Tarrano’s hand was leaving his belt. I reached him; flung out my fist for his face.
But in that instant the weapon in Tarrano’s hand was brought upon me. My paralyzed muscles made my arm and fist go wide. My blow missed him; he stepped aside; and like a man drunk with baro-wine, I stumbled past him, halted, swayed and struggled to keep my footing.
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