“Who are you,” he demanded, “and what do you want?”
“We are part of the crew of the ship of The Cid,” replied the sailors’
spokesman. “Our ship was wrecked in mid-ocean and we made our way to
Amiocap and then to Hime, but here we lost the boat that we built upon
Amiocap.”
Assured that the men were Korsars the officer commanded that the boat
move in closer to the shore and finally it was beached close to where
the party stood awaiting its coming.
The brief greetings and explanations over, the officer took them all
aboard and shortly afterward Tanar of Pellucidar found himself again
upon a Korsar ship of war.
The commander of the ship knew Stellara, and after questioning them
carefully he approved her plan and agreed to take Tanar and Gura back to
Korsar with them.
Following their interview with the officer, Tanar found himself
momentarily alone with Stellara.
“Stellara!” he said. “What change has come over you?”
She turned and looked at him coldly. “In Amiocap you were well enough,”
she said, “but in Korsar you would be only a naked barbarian,” and,
turning, she walked away from him without another word.
XIII
PRISONERS
The voyage to Korsar was uneventful and during its entire extent Tanar
saw nothing of either Stellara or Gura for, although he was not confined
in the dark hold, he was not permitted above the first deck, and
although he often looked up at the higher deck at the stern of the ship
he never caught a glimpse of either of the girls, from which he
concluded that Gura was confined in one of the cabins and that Stellara
deliberately avoided him or any sight of him.
As they approached the coast of Korsar Tanar saw a level country curving
upward into the mist of the distance. He thought that far away be
discerned the outlines of hills, but of that he could not be certain. He
saw cultivated fields and patches of forest land and a river running
down to the sea—a broad, winding river upon the shore of which a city
lay, inland a little from the ocean. There was no harbor at this point
upon the coast, but the ship made directly for the mouth of the river,
up which it sailed toward the city, which, as he approached it, he saw
far surpassed in size and the pretentiousness of its buildings any
habitation of man that he had ever seen upon the surface of Pellucidar,
not even excepting the new capital of the confederated kingdoms of
Pellucidar that the Emperor David was building.
Most of the buildings were white with red-tiled roofs, and there were
some with lofty minarets and domes of various colors—blue and red and
gold, the last shining in the sunlight like the jewels in the diadem of
Dian the Empress.
Where the river widened the town had been built and here there rode at
anchor a great fleet of ships of war and many lesser craft—fishing boats
and river boats and barges. The street along the riverfront was lined
with shops and alive with people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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