Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan (September 1950) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the terror among the other councilors, the writhing of their faces, the movements of their hands. He tried to cry out but his voice was lost in the screaming of the Harpers, going ever higher and higher until it was torture to the body.
    And still Taras bent over the Harper, cruel-eyed, driving it to frenzy with the power of his mind. And still the Harpers screamed, and now the sound had risen and part of it had slipped over the threshold of hearing, and the super-sonic notes stabbed the brain like knives.
    A man bolted past Simon. Another followed, and another, and then more and more, clawing, trampling, falling, floundering in the madness of panic. And he himself must flee!
    He would not flee! Something held him from the flight his body craved — some inner core of thought hardened and strengthened by his long divorcement from the flesh. It steadied him, made him fight back with iron resolution, to reality.
    His shaking hand drew out the little metal box. The switch clicked. Slowly, as the power of the thing built up, it threw out a high, shrill keening sound.
    “The one weapon against the Harpers!” Curt had said. “The only thing that can break sound is — sound!”
    The little repeller reached out its keening sonic vibrations and caught at the Harpers’ terrible singing, like a claw.
    It clawed and twisted and broke that singing. It broke it, by its subtle sonic interference, into shrieking dissonances.
    Simon strode forward, toward the throne and toward Taras. And now into the eyes of Taras had come a deadly doubt.
    The Harpers, wild and frightened now, strove against the keening sound that broke their song into hideous discord. The shuddering sonic struggle raged, much of it far above the level of hearing, and Simon felt his body plucked and shaken by terrible vibrations.
    He staggered, but he went on. The faces of Taras and the others were contorted by pain. The king had fainted on his throne.
    Storm of shattered harmonies, of splintered sound, shrieked like the very voice of madness around the throne. Simon, his mind darkening, knew that he could endure no more...
    And suddenly it was over. Beaten, exhausted, the Harpers stilled the wild vibration of their membranes. Utterly silent, they remained motionless in the hands of their captors, their soft eyes glazed with hopeless terror.
    Simon laughed. He swayed a little on his feet and said to Taras, “My weapon is stronger than yours!”
    Taras dropped the Harper. It crawled away and hid itself beneath the throne. Taras whispered, “Then we must have it from you, Earthman!”
    He sprang toward Simon. On his heels came the others, mad with the bitter fury of defeat when they had been so sure of victory.
    Simon snatched out the audio-disc and raised it to his lips, pressing its button and crying out the one word, “Hurry!”
    He felt that it was too late. But not until now, not until this moment when fear conquered the force of tradition, could Curt and Otho have entered this forbidden place without provoking the very outbreak that must be prevented.
     
    SIMON went down beneath his attackers’ rush. As he went down, he saw that the councilors who had fled were running back to help him. He heard their voices shouting, and he saw the boy Dion among them.
    Something struck cruelly against his head, and there was a crushing weight upon him. Someone screamed, and he caught the bright sharp flash of darts through the torchlight.
    He tried to rise, but he could not. He was near unconsciousness, aware only of a confusion of movement and ugly sounds. He smelled blood, and he knew pain.
    He must have moved, for he found himself on his hands and knees, looking down into the face of Dion. The shank of a copper dart stood out from the boy’s breast, and there was a streak of red across the golden skin. His eyes met Simon’s, in a dazed, wondering look. He whispered uncertainly:
    “Father!”
    He crept into Simon’s arms. Simon held him, and Dion murmured once more and