Email:
Lespion@msn.com
Lisha had actually found herself wincing when the demon was
scourged. That was a strange
reaction for a princess of the Ullabomba.
All her life she had been taught that no act against an enemy could
be considered cruel, and yet as the demon writhed under the cruel lash Lisha
had felt most uncomfortable. She
felt even more uneasy when the demon, her back covered with cruel welts was
delivered into the temple to be exorcised by the
priests. No woman was allowed
to view such an act, but Lisha had been informed of what took place behind
the closed doors of the high temple.
When the demon was once more wheeled into the square, Lisha saw that she
had suffered greatly, but still her bearing was proud and
defiant. The young princess wondered
at the inner strength possessed by such a woman that she could endure such
punishment, and still hold her head high.
Perhaps she was a demon after all.
Then came the final stage of the ritual execution, the
impalement. Lisha had seen the
brutal ceremony once before, when a war chief of the Ansmara had suffered
ritual execution. The man had
screamed horribly, and had died begging for
mercy. But the sky demon bore
up under the terrible torture with great
bravery. Only at the end did
she scream.
Lisha found herself siding with the
demon. As she did so, she felt
a little guilty for showing such
weakness. That was not the Ullabomba
way. It was a problem she had
faced all of her life. Her teachers
and instructors had constantly warned her against weakness, but it seemed
a part of her nature. No matter
how she tried to harden her heart she found it difficult to celebrate a victory
over a defeated foe, whether it was in games or in the hand to hand combat
in which all Ullabomba nobility, both male and female were
trained. Defeating an enemy was
one thing. Celebrating his or
her defeat was quite another.
Eventually her teachers gave up trying to impress upon her the proper
attitude toward a defeated enemy.
It was obvious that the princess would always be
softhearted.
As the ceremony drew to a close, Lisha found herself wanting to help the
demon, or at least end its suffering.
The strange white woman had shown much
bravery. It seemed only fitting
that she be allowed a quick death.
Without thinking, she turned and left the
balcony. No one noticed her go;
all were too intent on watching the final torment of the sky
demon.
She took the steps two at a time, her long lithe legs easily speeding her
toward the lower floors of the palace.
No one tried to stop her.
She was a member of the royal
family. To impede her progress
would be both dangerous and foolish.
Within minutes, Lisha was in the street and pushing her way through the
crowd. Like everyone around her,
and all Ullabomba, she was unclothed.
Clothing was not necessary in the hot and humid climate of central
Like most Ullabomba women, Lisha was tall and
stately. Not yet fully mature,
her young breasts were firm and pointed.
They hardly bounced as she moved gracefully through the
crowd. About her neck was a gold
torque. It was this that signified
her rank as a member of the royal family, and when those about her saw it,
they gave way and let her pass.
She had been told by her maidservants that she was
beautiful. Lisha hoped it was
so. Beautiful women were held
in great esteem in Ullabomba society.
She was indeed a striking figure.
Her complexion was clear, and her satin smooth skin was so black that
it gleamed like obsidian in the strong African
sunlight.
She was tall, and long limbed, standing over six
feet. Her smooth muscles flowed
beneath her skin as she moved, accentuating her strength and
grace. She wore her hair long,
as was the fashion of Ullabomba women and
men. It was a feature of the
Ullabomba that they resembled Ethiopians in that although the rest of their
bodies were almost devoid of hair, the hair on their heads was silky smooth
and allowed to grow long and luxuriant.
Today, Lisha had her hair held in place by combs of pure gold studded
with pearls.
About her waist she wore a thin ornamental belt from which hung beaded
tassels. It hid very little of
her body, its purpose being entirely
decorative. Gold bracelets jangled
on her wrists and gold armlets decorated her upper
arms. Her feet were bare, but
an anklet of gold studded with emeralds adorned her right
ankle. About her head was a circlet
of gold and silver, interwoven to resemble shining
leaves. In the center of the
circlet was a diamond the size of a human
eye. It blazed with colour as
it caught the rays of the sun.
She was almost to the platform. She
could see that the demon was near the end of her
strength. The white woman’s
once splendid body was covered with bloody lacerations and bruises, and it
shook with the painful exertion of trying to keep from being
impaled.
Lisha snatched a spear from an astounded warrior standing next to the
platform. When he saw who had
robbed him of his weapon he frowned, but he dared not
interfere.
Lisha closed on the demon. She
was now only a few steps away. One
quick thrust under the ribcage and the victim’s suffering would be
over. Lisha would have committed
a shocking act. She was not sure
how the crowd would react. With
its mob mentality, it might turn on her, but she did not
care. She was committed
to giving this brave woman a dignified and merciful death and not one would
stop her.
“There she is,” said Katie excitedly, pointing to the centre of
a great central square.
“We’ve found her at
last.” Steiner took the
binoculars for a better look. They
had been looking for Larra for almost a
week. The search had not started
well. It turned out that during
the gun battle with Diels' expedition, the Ludendorff had been shot full
of holes. It had not greatly
damaged the huge airship, but the giants cells containing the hydrogen that
gave the ship its lift had been punctured in many
places. They had been forced
to spend two whole days patching them up and by that time, so much hydrogen
had been lost that the dirigible had descended to tree top
level. They had then spent another
day-and-a-half stripping out components from the gondola and other parts
of the ship to lighten it enough that it would fly
again.
Fortunately, Katie, Steiner, Amy, Sir Archibald and the three pregnant girls
had managed to make their way to the ship on their
own. That left only Larra as
the missing member of the company.
It had taken the next few days to locate her, and it had only been
possible by capturing an Ullabomba scout, who was watching the main
trail. Grey had spotted him and
had taken him prisoner before the black warrior even realized the ape-man
was there.
The warrior had told them of the capture of a strange white “sky
demon,” who was going to be ritually
executed. Following the
warrior’s directions, they had managed to guide the Ludendorff to the
splendid Ullabomban city. They
had apparently arrived only just in time.
It appeared that Larra was about to be most brutally
executed.
No one had spotted the Ludendorff as it
approached. By good fortune or
coincidence they were flying into a strong headwind and the droning sound
of the dirigible’s engines was carried away from the
city. Also, the crowd watching
the execution was making so much noise that it was unlikely the airship’s
engines would have been heard in any
case. Now the problem was to
determine how to rescue Larra without resorting to wholesale destruction
of the Ullabomba capital.
Fortunately, they had kept on board two small
bombs. Katie decided that if
these were dropped on the outskirts of the city, they would create enough
noise to create a profound distraction.
That, coupled with the awesome appearance of the huge zeppelin would
probably frighten most of the Ullabombans away from the central square, making
it unnecessary to resort to wholesale slaughter in order to rescue
Larra.
Katie’s estimate proved accurate.
The impressive explosions of the two bombs, and the frightening appearance
of the Ludendorff created instant panic.
The huge central square became a scene of pandemonium, as terrified
Africans ran desperately to escape.
Through the binoculars, however, Katie could see that it was going to be
a near thing. As the Ludendorff
closed the distance between Larra and her rescuers, Katie could see that
Larra had been brutally tortured.
She could also see that she was very close to death by
impalement. Could the airship
get there fast enough for Grey to rope down to Larra and save her
life? And then Katie saw something
else that made her shout for Amy and Jia
Li.
The two women came running at Katie’s
call. “Quick,” said
Katie, “shoot before it’s too
late!” Standing next to
Larra was a tall black woman, her spear raised for a death thrust into the
heart of
In an instant, Jia Li and Amy, both women deadly shots, raised their
rifles. Their fingers tightened
on the triggers.
Then…”Wait!” said Jia Li.
Lisha alone did not run at the sounds of the explosions and the sight of
the huge airship. Startled by
the sound of the first explosion, she had turned just in time to see the
second bomb go off. To the young
black woman, it was as if the gods were striking at Kangwia with thunder
and lightning. Then she saw the
dirigible, and she gaped in fear.
All around her people ran screaming to get away from the dreadful
sight.
Lisha’s legs trembled. She
had never been so frightened. But
she could not run. She had one
thing she must do first. Raising
her spear, she prepared for the death
thrust. Then, the woman she had
come to kill raised her head. Her
brilliant violet eyes looked directly into Lisha’s golden brown
orbs. Suddenly Lisha knew, without
a doubt that she not facing a demon, but a woman like
herself. She also realized, that
with the crowd gone, she no longer had to kill the woman in order to be merciful,
she could try and save her instead.
She dropped the spear and stepped forward.
Larra gave a sob of relief as the tall black girl released the chains holding
her ankles and lifted her from the deadly
stake. She was completely
exhausted. Had the girl not done
it for her, she would not have had the strength to free herself from
impalement. The girl swung her
clear of the stake, and then unfastened the chains holding her
wrists. Catching Larra’s
body as she fell, she lay the brutalized adventuress on the
platform.
Lisha stood defiantly waiting for the
Ludendorff. The huge monster
was now directly over her and making an angry rumbling sound like the noise
of a hundred lions. She had saved
the strange white woman, but was now too close to the strange sky monster
to escape. Nevertheless, she
was not sorry for what she had done.
She could not stand idly by and watch so courageous a woman meet her
death in so brutal a manner. She
drew herself up like a true princess of the
Ullabomba. If she was to die,
then she would die bravely.
The immense silver-gray monster was right over her now, roaring like a million
dragonflies. Her eyes widened
as she saw a rope drop from one of its eyes, and a white man descend the
rope with the speed of a monkey.
Now she was truly terrified. What
if she had been wrong and the woman whose life she had saved was a demon
after all? Surely only demons
could descend from sky monsters, and the man was the same skin colour as
the woman she had rescued.
Thunk!
Startled, Lisha stared
in surprise at the arrow protruding from the wooden frame to which the sky
demon had been chained.
Swish! Another arrow just missed
her head. She recognized the
feathered shaft. It was an Ullabomba
arrow. She was being shot at
by her own people! Her eyes widened
in indignation. How dare Ullabomban
warriors shoot at a princess of the royal
house!
Lisha shouted in protest. And
then she understood. She was
being treated as an enemy. No
doubt her warriors believed that she had been enchanted by the
demon. More arrows flew past
her. Bravely, several warriors
had stayed to fight rather than run when the sky monster had
appeared. Even as she watched
several more warriors rushed toward her.
These men were armed with spears, and they were closing in for the
kill.
A sharp report rent the air. And
then another. One of the onrushing
warriors seemed to stumble, but Lisha saw a spot of blood appear on his chest
as if by magic. A second warrior
fell, and then a third. And a
fourth. Then two of the archers
went down. The warriors
wavered. Another man threw up
his hands and dropped, blood spurting from his
head. The remaining warriors
broke and ran, joining the mass exodus of the huge crowd from the
square.
Lisha was aghast. She had been
attacked by her own people. She
had never thought that her mission of mercy would turn her nation against
her. Suddenly, Lisha realized
that she was not alone. The sky
demon who had descended the rope was standing next to
her.
Lisha’s first instinct was to run.
But then she realized she had nowhere to
go. Ullabomban society had turned
against her. Then matters were
taken out of her hands. The sky
demon picked up the injured woman she had rescued and slung her cross his
shoulder. Then he reached out
a placed his arm about her waist.
Almost immediately, the rope he had descended was pulled up, taking
Lisha with it.
Lisha screamed and kicked her feet.
She tried to twist her body so that she could push herself away from
the male demon that held her, but his grip was like
iron. And then it was too
late. Within seconds she was
lifted so far into the air that to break free would mean falling to her
death. She stopped her struggling
and resignedly awaited her
fate.
PREVIOUS
CHAPTER WIZARD'S
LAIR MAIN PAGE
L'ESPION'S
STORY
PAGE
NEXT
CHAPTER