“It is Tur,” replied Xaxa in a weak voice; “but save me from him! Save me from him!”
“Throw down your weapons and your harness and fly!” I commanded, “or Tur will strike you dead. Heard you not the people rushing from the palace at Tur’s command? How think you we brought Xaxa hither with a lesser power than Tur’s when all her palace was filled with her fighting men? Go, while yet you may in safety.”
One of them unbuckled his harness and threw it with his weapons upon the roof, and as he started at a run for the spiral his companions followed his example. Then Hovan Du approached us.
“Well done, Vad Varo,” he growled, “though I know not what it is all about.”
“That you shall know later,” I told him, “but now we must find a swift flier and be upon our way. Where is Sag Or? Does he still live?”
“I have him securely bound and safely hidden in one of the high towers of the palace,” replied the ape. “It will be easy to get him when we have launched a flier.”
Xaxa was eyeing us ragefully. “You are not Tur!” she cried. “The ape has exposed you.”
“But too late to profit you in any way, Jeddara,” I assured her. “Nor could you convince one of your people who stood in the temple this night that I am not Tur. Nor do you, yourself, know that I am not. The ways of Tur, the all-powerful, all-knowing, are beyond the conception of mortal man. To you then, Jeddara, I am Tur, and you will find me all-powerful enough for my purposes.”
I think she was still perplexed as we found and dragged forth a flier, aboard which we placed her, and turned the craft’s nose towards a lofty tower where Hovan Du told us lay Sag Or.
“I shall be glad to see myself again,” said Dar Tarus, with a laugh.