Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
During the half hour that followed, Tarzan and his lieutenants were
busy reorganizing their forces into which were incorporated the
legionaries who had surrendered to them, in caring for the wounded,
and planning for the future. From the palace came the hoarse cries of
the hooting blacks, and Tarzan had about abandoned hope that Lukedi
would be able to persuade a chief to come to him when Lukedi returned,
accompanied by two warriors from the outer villages, whose bearing and
ornaments proclaimed them chieftains.
"You are the man called Tarzan?" demanded one of the chiefs.
The ape-man nodded. "I am," he said.
"We have been looking for you. This Bagego said that you have promised
that no more shall our people be taken into slavery and no longer shall
our warriors be condemned to the arena. How can you, who are yourself a
barbarian, guarantee this to us?"
"If I cannot guarantee it, you have the power to enforce it yourself,"
replied the ape-man, "and I with my Waziri will aid you, but now you
must gather your warriors. Let no one be killed from now on who does
not oppose you. Gather your warriors and take them into the avenue
before the palace and then come with your sub-chiefs to the throne-room
of Caesar. There we shall demand and receive justice, not for the
moment but for all time. Go!"
Eventually the looting horde of blacks was quieted by their chiefs and
withdrawn to the Via Principalis. Waziri warriors manned the shattered
gate of Caesar's palace and lined the corridor to the throne-room and
the aisle to the foot of the throne. They formed a half circle about
the throne itself, and upon the throne of Caesar sat Tarzan of the Apes
with Praeclarus and Dilecta and Cassius Hasta and Caecilius Metellus
and Muviro about him, while little Nkima sat upon his shoulder and
complained bitterly, for Nkima, as usual, was frightened and cold and
hungry.
"Send legionaries to fetch Sublatus and Fastus," Tarzan directed
Praeclarus, "for this business must be attended to quickly, as within
the hour I march on Castrum Mare."
Flushed with excitement, the legionaries that had been sent to fetch
Sublatus and Fastus rushed into the throne-room. "Sublatus is dead!"
they cried. "Fastus is dead! The barbarians have slain them. The
chambers and corridors above are filled with the bodies of senators,
nobles, and officers of the legion."
"Are none left alive?" demanded Praeclarus, paling.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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