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Read Ebook: In the Sphere of Time by Palmer Ray Napoli Vincent Illustrator
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Ebook has 448 lines and 15820 words, and 9 pages
Toka's command was cool and taut. "Serve it straight!"
His whistling battle-ax struck between a set of those blazing eyes and tore through in a bloody shower. In violent death throes, the monster was piling onto the stairway. But another was hurtling in. Again Toka's vicious battle-ax tore home and another dragon was piling down.
A slimy scaliness whipped around Toka's legs. His battle-ax butchered huge coils but others replaced them with crushing power and great wings pounded him.
Then he saw a coil whip around Roya and a terrible strength surged from his depths. His mighty ax was a screaming viciousness. He was free and leaping for Roya and slashing those coils from her. He snatched her clear and whirled to catalog the battle scene. The surviving dragons were retreating hurriedly into the down-river cavern.
The mysterious gong of Kosanna was instantly exultant. The people began pouring from hiding. Princesses were gathering atop the stairway, and from all Kosannan throats came a great cheer.
But Toka was anxiously eyeing the gore-spattered Roya. "All right now?"
As she restored her sun-gold briefs to flattering modesty, Roya's blue eyes fondly held him. "How about yourself?"
Shifting his own gory briefs aright, Toka grinned. "Looking for a bath."
Elees joined them. "If this crazy place has a bath!"
Turning from the mess of heads, coils and wings strewn down the great stairway, Toka led the way on up.
"Hey!" Rok urged sardonically. "Listen to what those palace girls up yonder are yodeling!"
"'Ascend, ascend, ascend!'" Roya mimicked sarcastically. "'Ascend, O Great Prince Toka! Ascend to your divine abode!'" Roya's last remark was not in mimicry. "Blah, blah, blah!"
"Watch yourselves," Toka warned quietly as they neared the terrace.
The princesses formed a cortege about Toka and party. In the concave entry of the palace, a princess with a black wand waited alone.
An odd exaltation was in her voice. "O Great Prince Toka. Welcome to your divine palace. I am Princess Alota." With a bow, she turned and led them down an immense hall. "Great Prince Toka's Hall Of Life," Alota intoned.
Beginning on the inner sides of the great entry portals, art work progressively lined the walls and the many sets of huge doors. In exquisite execution it portrayed Toka's eventful life from birth in distant Sandcliff to his latest victory--exactly as it had all occurred! But ahead for fully a hundred paces the Hall stretched green and bare, except for a huge bas-relief of Toka on the set of doors at the far end.
"How can they know all this?" Elees puzzled softly.
"And why," Roya worried quietly, "don't they show the rest of the future?"
Toka was gentle but royally commanding. "Princess Alota, why has this not been finished?"
Alota answered humbly. "As Great Prince Toka knows all, so he knows his Hall Of Life cannot be extended until the divinely ordained times." Leading them to the pair of doors at which the Hall ended, Alota touched her wand to each, then stood obsequiously aside as the portals began swinging away. "O Great Prince Toka. Your personal rooms."
Old Ledo strolled in last and the great doors began swinging to.
"O Great Prince Toka," Alota bid. "When you have refreshed yourself, we shall return to escort you to your banquet."
As the doors snugged together, Toka was to them, ear to the crevice where they joined.
"Well?" Rok urged impatiently.
"Gone back up the Hall." Toka pressed this side of the doors. No action.
"We could tune up our little axes on them," Rok suggested laconically. Toka hesitated.
Old Ledo was dry. "Perhaps we'll meet the so-called brains of this mad society at that banquet."
"Likely." Toka joined in cataloguing the room.
Windowless, and illumined by the softly glowing ceiling, it was a restful lounge room. Roya pushed open the plain green door at the rear. Battle-axes idling, Toka and the others followed. A short cross-corridor led into luxurious bedrooms. The left one had three large beds, the right two huge ones.
"Everything for every one of us," Roya mused.
"But no bath!" Elees complained.
"I've found it!" Rok shouted.
All followed him through the door opposite the lounge room. The newest room was all green. Around the pool ran a generous width of stone floor.
Dropping her ax, Elees ran for the white diving board. Her voice rang in merry challenge. "Last one in is a glue-foot!"
Rok raced after her. "Not me!"
Roya abruptly flung her arm around Toka's neck and tumbled them both in--and the water frolic was on.
Refreshed and clean again, the party split to the respective bedrooms. Toka faced Rok and Old Ledo. "Any ideas?"
"The Kosannans we've seen so far," Old Ledo offered, "are anything but combative."
"We could butcher them by the hundreds." Rok toyed with his battle-ax. "Only...."
"Perhaps," Toka hoped as he led for the lounge room, "we'll learn something definite at that banquet."
Roya and Elees were waiting. At once a reverent knocking came on the great entry doors.
Assuming his role, Toka intoned royally, "Enter!" The great doors began swinging in.
As the procession moved up the Hall Of Life, Toka was startled by the addition to the reliefs on the wall--a perfect portrayal of the frolic in the bathing pool!
"I," Old Ledo mused dryly, "didn't see any of them in there with us."
Surfacely casual, Toka spoke ahead to their guide. "Kosanna's artisans are swift, O Princess Alota--as well as accurate."
Alota bowed her titian head in acknowledgment. "As Great Prince Toka knows all, so he knows the scene of his frolic in his pool was ready for installation even before he came to Kosanna."
Proceeding to a pair of doors on her right, Alota led them into a vast auditorium, beautifully scened of wall and softly glowing of vaulted ceiling. There was a tremendous black banquet table, its center gleaming and bare. Beside ornate black chairs down each side, hundreds of beautiful princesses stood expectantly. At the far end of the table was a great stage, its black curtain hanging in huge folds. An enchanting perfume filled the air.
Toka sauntered to the quintet of white chairs at the head of the table. Each chair back bore a small but perfect likeness of the member of the "divine" party who was to sit in it.
"Aren't there any men in this palace?" Elees wondered lowly.
"Maybe the whole place is a harem," Rok posed puckishly, "just waiting for Toka."
Toka was aware of Roya instantly stiffening. Comparing her sunny blonde and creamy-tan loveliness with the titian and milk-white beauty of the Kosanna princesses, Toka failed to see why Roya should be irritated.
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