Cosmos (1950s): The Complete Fiction by Various

Author:Various [Various]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2021-11-14T21:00:00+00:00

III

GRADUALLY Rawlins returned to the land of the living. He grinned at Linda. “Guess that must have been the queen.”

“Yes, Pretty, isn’t she?”

“Not bad.”

There was a brief silence.

“Maybe we should go over and see how Simpson is getting along,” Linda said.

They found the chief propped up against one of the altars looking slightly dazed.

“Thank goodness you’re safe, Linda,” he sighed. “I’d be lost without you.”

He got unsteadily to his feet and walked over to where the prisoners sat huddled together.

“What was the big idea? Assaulting us that way?”

Nobody answered. The men sat staring sullenly ahead of them with their eyes fixed on the ground.

“You in the blue shirt,” Simpson growled, nodding to one of the men who from the distinctive character of his dress appeared to be the leader. “You the head of this outfit?”

“What’s left of it,” the man replied. He might have been rather handsome if his face had not been so lined and tired.

“That woman up there on the balcony a minute ago now. Was that Queen Hortense?”

The man nodded without raising his eyes.

“She the one sicked you on to US?

“No, she didn’t have anything to do with it,” the man said, showing some animation for the first time. “When we heard you were out here we lost our heads completely. Our only idea was to stop you. I guess it wasn’t such a good idea.”

Simpson stood for a moment scowling down at him.

“These guys look all bushed to me,” he said to his intelligence officer. “I’m for going inside and seeing this Hortense.”

“I think some of us should search the place first,” the officer objected. “There might be some more of them hiding in there.”

“We’re all here,” the leader muttered.

“You know where to find Queen Hortense?” Simpson asked him.

“Sure. You go through that door there, walk up the incline, and you’ll find her out on the balcony. She isn’t hard to find.”

“Then suppose you get your bunch together and find her then.”

The prisoners got reluctantly to their feet and shuffled toward the open palace door followed at a discreet distance by the Earthmen. The shadowy recesses of the palace were a welcome relief from the burning heat of the square. Instinctively the men dropped their voices and tread more gently as if they had entered a cathedral. But it was a cathedral in which pagan designs and erotic figures were displayed in place of the usual religious symbols. The feminine influence was everywhere. One saw it in the dull gleam of the mirrors along the wall; in the soft shoulders of the tall vases overflowing with pink and purple blossoms; in the graceful folds of the draperies; and in the elaborate use of crystal for ornamentation. Over all there hung a sense of hushed repose that comes only from years of ordered living.

On the second level the man led them through an archway into a room with smooth sloping walls. The woman they had seen from the square lay half reclining on a low couch near the open balcony.

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