Gods of Venus by Shaver Richard S

Author:Shaver, Richard S.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Amazing Stories
Published: 1948-03-10T05:00:00+00:00

AS I worked, deafened by the clangor, the ship shifted, slid downward beneath, then lifted gently. Outside I heard the swish and crack of the great burned and burdened limbs upon which the ship had rested. I scrambled backward, thinking the ship had been dislodged by our movements, was falling.

Backing crablike. I turned on my knees, stared up into the muzzle of an antique dis ray bulb.

Behind the gaping mouth of the pistol was the hated scarlet and gold, the hideously young-old face, the lantern jaw and huge nose of one of Hecate’s priests from Medieval Spain. I knew him. He threw some of the Medieval English these fellows speak upon occasion, their long life having given them time and opportunity to learn many tongues. The words spat scornfully:

“Ye thought ye had gotten well away from Nonur, eh? But, after the battle we missed your beloved face among the fallen. Some of our warriors then reported they had seen you whirled aloft by some devilish mysterious contrivance. Ingenious rascal, aren’t ye, to be pulled out of a battle like that just in time to avoid being hurt?”

“So you traced the ship’s flight! So what?”

“So back you go to Nonur, and mayhap to Yin Yan; who knows? Friendly creature, that Yin Yan. Personally, if I were as good-looking as Nonur I would have found a more attractive creature for a partner, but there’s no accounting for some people’s tastes…Whatever could have happened to these poor old Tuon women, here? They look a bit raveled about the edges—so very old. Poor hags! Tch, tch.”

“Of course you wouldn’t know how they got in that shape, would you?”

“Me! How should I know? Ridiculous question! I had nothing to do with spreading the ra…er, I mean I don’t know what happened to them. Did they tell you what had occurred to so destroy their lovely faces, their lovely young bodies? Or were they too ill, poor things?”

“By God, Mazzini, if you had a hand in that crime, you shall die a death no man ever experienced before. I’ll think of something properly to punish whoever did that to them.

“Silly, what could be biting your skull to make you so stupid. I’m sure I can’t imagine what could have happened to them. And how do you intend to do anything about anything now? You are returning to Yin Yan.”

The hideous face looked at me calculatingly from behind the thick, antique, square lenses.

“Did they say any others of their race were in that condition?”

It was my turn to think twice before I talked. I figured it was just as well not to let him know I knew anything for sure. I said:

“Our conversation had just reached the point of what had happened to them when the twister seized us and wrecked this ship. What did cause their peculiar condition? They look as if they had been exposed to a ton of radium, or spent a lifetime in a radium mine, or something!”

“I am curious myself. Horrible thing, whatever it is.

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