The Witch Queen of Mongo by Alex Raymond

Author:Alex Raymond [Raymond, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0380001802
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Dr. Zarkov was not accustomed to the feeling of cold fear that he now experienced at the sight of the huge humanoid birds that had settled in a tight circle about the two of them.

“What’ll we do, Doc?” Dale asked in a whisper, moving closer to him.

Zarkov glowered at the strange beasts. It was then that he straightened and squinted against the glare of the newly risen sun. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? Were these the killer birds he had taken them for? Or were they something quite different, something quite—?

“Dale,” he murmured. “Don’t you see? They’re Hawkmen.”

“Hawkmen?” she repeated, puzzled. Then her face broke into a smile. “But the Hawkmen were always friends of Prince Barin’s, weren’t they?”

“Indeed, yes!” cried Zarkov, his voice booming out. “All we have to do is tell them who we are.”

“Wait,” Dale said cautiously. “Are you sure you can convince them of our identity? No one knows we’re even on the planet of Mongo yet.”

“Except Queen Azura,” Zarkov muttered darkly. “Well,” he said, “there’s nothing for it but to make ourselves known to these—uh—fine men.” His voice trailed off.

“How?” Dale asked.

Zarkov fidgeted. Actually, the only way to do it was for Zarkov to walk up to the obvious leader of the Hawkmen and introduce himself. And yet as he stood there, staring about him at the menacing ring of winged men, he could not generate the same enthusiasm in himself that he projected in his voice.

Finally he pushed out his chest, extended his right hand in an open and friendly salute, and started across the sandy stretch between the poised birdmen and himself. “Friends!” he said loudly and hopefully.

As he approached, he could see that these men/birds were indeed Hawkmen, and not birds. Hawkmen on patrol wore skintight trunks with shoes of soft leather, and long shoulder-length gloves made of tightly woven chain mail ending in iron claws on the fingers. These talons served as weapons with which the Hawkmen fought.

On their heads, Zarkov saw the familiar shining helmets, with the extended wing insignia and the rank across the front. He saw that the man in charge was of captain’s rank, the double-chevron insignia painted in the middle of the steel helmet.

The most curious physical feature of the Hawkmen was the large pair of wings extending from each scapula upward and downward. These wings were identical to a large bird’s wings: the same muscle attachments, the same bone growth, and the same feathered integument.

Somewhere in Mongo’s past, the mammal and the reptile had continued together in the same organism to pass into the mammal-bird phase—and the Hawkmen were the result.

However, the Hawkmen of Mongo did not possess the typical bird’s superior vision. Because of that, Hawkmen patrols wore extremely thick antihelio tinted lenses that were corrected to bring the average individual’s visual acuity to the equivalent of 20-05 or 20-04.

This made the Hawkmen, for their vision and for their maneuverability, the obvious national group to patrol the planet of Mongo for the Free Council.

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