Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930Various
Science
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930
Various
Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
Seated alone in a dimly-lighted, thick-walled cell of the ancient temple
in which the dual ceremony of wedding and coronation would take place,
he was waiting for the moment when the festivities would begin. Thus far
the Duca had done nothing. Yet Kirby's uneasiness would not leave him,
and he continued to be thankful that, if trouble should start, the Duca
might not find as many trumps in his hand as he expected.
A couple of hours after Kirby had left Naida and the other girls in the
garden, all had begun the two-mile journey from the castle to the small
plateau on which stood this temple, where the ceremony would be held.
Now, while Kirby waited alone, the Duca and his caciques had gone to
another wing of the temple. Naida, attended by her bridesmaids, had been
assigned to a cell of their own, and the rest of the girls were waiting
in the nave of the temple. Unable to attend the walk from their plateau
to this, the old people of the race had remained in their crystal
houses.
With ten minutes more to wait, Kirby rose from a bench on which he had
been seated, and began to pace his cell. It was this archaic pile of
stone, he finally decided, which was causing his depression. Unlike the
bright and cheerful castle, this place, older than any other building in
the realm, was squat, thick-walled, and gloomy. Here, in the dusky cells
which lined labyrinthine corridors, the early generations of the race
had found protection from outside dangers. All of which was all right,
Kirby thought, but just the same he wished he had insisted upon being
wedded in the brilliant and cheerful amphitheatre.
* * * * *
But presently he stopped pacing and faced the door of his cell. Then he
breathed a sigh of relief.
From down the twisting corridors which wound out to the central nave,
stole the high sweetness of soprano voices, the whisper of flutes, and
the mellow resonance of little gongs of jade and gold. It was the signal
for which he had waited.
It had been the Duca's instructions that he should come out into the
temple when the music began, and meet Naida there. Both would advance to
the altar, and when they were in place, the Duca would come to them.
Kirby, therefore, after a glance at the blue trousers and tunic of
tanager scarlet which the girls had made for him, opened the door of his
cell, and stepped out.
In a moment he traversed the windings of the corridor, and halted under
a flat arch at one side of the temple nave.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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