Noada.
'Pu,' they said, 'is punishing us because we have received her.'
Thus things went from bad to worse for Dian the Beautiful; until, at last, it got so bad that crowds gathered in the square before the temple, cursing and reviling her; and then those who still believed in her, incited by the agents of Gamba, fell upon them; and there was rioting and bloodshed.
Hor took advantage of this situation to spread the rumor that Gamba and the false Noada were planning to destroy the temple and rule the city, defying Pu and the priests; and that when this happened, Pu would lay waste the city and hurl all the people into the Molop Az. This was just the sort of propaganda of terror that would influence an ignorant and superstitious people. Remember, they were just simple people of the Bronze Age. They had not yet reached that stage of civilization where they might send children on holy crusades to die by thousands; they were not far enough advanced to torture unbelievers with rack and red-hot irons, or burn heretics at the stake; so they believed this folderol that more civilized people would have spurned with laughter while killing all Jews.
At last Gamba came to Dian. 'My own warriors are turning against me,' he told her. 'They believe the stories that Hor is spreading; so do most of the citizens. There are some who believe in you yet and some who are loyal to me; but the majority have been terrified into believing that Hor speaks the truth and that if they do not destroy us, Pu will destroy them.'
'What are we to do?' asked Dian.
'The only chance we have to live, is to escape from the city,' replied Gamba, 'and even that may be impossible. We are too well-known to escape detection—your white skin would betray you, and every man, woman, and child in Lolo-lolo knows his go-sha.'
'We might fight our way out,' suggested Dian. 'I am sure that my warriors are still loyal to me.'
Gamba shook his head. 'They are not,' he said. 'Some of my own warriors have told me that they are no longer your protectors, but your jailers. Hor has won them.'
Dian thought a moment, and then she said, 'I have a plan—listen.' She whispered for a few minutes to Gamba, and when she had finished, Gamba left the temple; and Dian went to her sleeping apartment—but she did not sleep. Instead, she stripped off her robe of office and donned her own single garment that she had worn when she first came to Lolo-lolo; then she put the long leather robe on over it.
By a back corridor she came to a room that she knew would be used only before and after ceremonies; in it were a number of large chests. Dian sat down on one of them and waited.
A man came into the temple with his head so bandaged that only one eye was visible; he had come, as so many came, to be healed by his Noada. Unless they died, they were always healed eventually.
The temple was almost deserted; only the members of the Noada's Guard loitered there near the entrance. They were there on Hor's orders to see that the Noada not escape, Hor having told them that she was planning to join Gamba in his house across the square, from which they were arranging to launch their attack against the temple.
The man wore the weapons of a common warrior, and he appeared very tired and weak, probably from loss of blood. He said nothing; he just went and waited before the throne, waited for his Noada to come—the Noada that would never come again. After a while he commenced to move about the throne room, looking at different objects. Occasionally he glanced toward the warriors loitering near the door. They paid no attention to him. In fact they had just about forgotten him when he slipped through a doorway at the opposite side of the room.
The temple was very quiet, and there were only a few people in the square outside. The noonday sun beat down; and, as always, only those who had business outside were in the streets. Lolo-lolo was lethargic; but it was the calm before the storm. The lesser priests and the other enemies of Gamba and the Noada were organizing the mob that was about to fall upon them and destroy them. In many houses were groups of citizens and warriors waiting for the signal.
Two priests came into the throne room of the temple; they wore their long, leather robes of office and their hideous masks; they passed out of the temple through the group of warriors loitering by the door. Once out in the square, they commenced to cry, 'Come, all true followers of Pu! Death to the false Noada! Death to Gamba!' It was the signal!
Warriors and citizens poured from houses surrounding the square. Some of them ran toward the house of the go-sha, and some ran for the temple; and they were all shouting, 'Death! Death to Gamba! Death to the false Noada!'
The two priests crossed the square and followed one of the winding streets beyond, chanting their hymn of death; and as they passed, more citizens and warriors ran screaming toward the square, thirsting for the blood of their quarry.
XV
THE SURVIVORS OF THE Amoz had finally brought the ship into the harbor beneath the cliffs of Amoz. David and Hodon and Ghak the Hairy One and the little old man whose name was not Dolly Dorcas had at last completed the long trek from Amoz and come again to Sari.
David found the people saddened and Perry in tears. 'What is the matter?' he demanded. 'What is wrong? Where is Dian that she has not come to meet me?'
Perry was sobbing so, that he could not answer. The headman, who had been in charge during their absence, spoke: 'Dian the Beautiful is lost to us,' he said.
'Lost! What do you mean?' demanded David; then they told him, and David Innes's world crumbled from beneath him. He looked long at Perry, and then he went and placed a hand upon his shoulder. 'You loved her, too,' he said; 'you would not have harmed her. Tears will do no good. Build me another balloon, and perhaps it will drift to the same spot to which she was carried.'
They both worked on the new balloon; in fact everyone in Sari worked on it, and the work gave them relief from sorrowing. Many hunters went out, and the dinosaurs which were to furnish the peritonea for the envelope of the gas bag were soon killed. While they were out hunting, the women wove the basket and braided the many feet of rope; and while this was going on, the runner returned from Thuria.
David was in Sari when he came, and the man came at once to him. 'I have news of Dian the Beautiful,' he said. 'A man of Thuria, saw the balloon floating across the nameless strait at the end of the world, high in the air.
'Could he see if Dian was still in it?' asked David.
'No,' replied the runner, 'it was too high in the air.'
'At least we know where to look,' said David, but his heart was heavy; because he know that there was little chance that Dian could have survived the cold, the hunger, and the thirst.
Before the second balloon was finished the survivors of the Sari returned to the village; and they told Hodon all that they knew of O-aa. 'She told us to tell you,' said one, 'that she was adrift in the Sari on the Lural Az. She said that when you knew that, you would come and get her.'
Hodon turned to David. 'May I have men and a ship with which to go in search of O-aa?' he asked.
'You may have the ship and as many men as you need,' replied David.
XVI
CHANTING THEIR horrid song of death, the two priests walked through the narrow streets of Lolo-lolo all the way to the gates of the city. 'Go to the great square,' they shouted to the guard. 'Hor has sent us to summon you. Every fighting man is needed to overcome those who would defend the false Noada and Gamba. Hurry! We will watch the gates.'
The warriors hesitated. 'It is Hor's command,' said one of the priests; 'and with Gamba and the Noada dead, Hor will rule the city; so you had better obey him, if you know what's good for you.'
