Proud Prince Toka had faced—and outwitted—death
and disaster before. Yet in this weirdly glowing
underworld of Kosanna, peopled by the soft,
silvery-eyed ones, there waited a thing he
could not defy—destruction of his soul!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Summer 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Once upon a time there was a world as bright and fair as youth. Itspun its green and golden beauty in an envelope of blue sky whilewhirling around a blazing white sun.... But beneath the enchantingsurface of this world, in a blackness as deep as the void of eternity,thirteen pairs of silvery eyes glowed at a great crystal sphere.The cold air was strung with a thin thrumming as twelve ancientlyquavering male voices rose and fell in echoing chant.
"Great Prince Toka comes—down the river of Brown of the OuterWorld. O let the fishes be told! O let the choral begin! For the timeordained is coming to pass!"
In sun-gold briefs and matching sandals, Toka's lean muscled malenessrippled as he swung the sweep pole of the racing raft. Ahead on eachbow corner were balanced the rangy Rok and the youthfully gray OldLedo, each with long pole ready to clear the swift raft through roilingbrown water. In mid-raft, the exquisitely blonde Roya and the sultrydark Elees lounged carefreely on the great pelt of a saber-toothed BigCat.
There was a sudden familiar roar from the far right shore. Thecolorfully flowered jungle spread away to rugged red hills that formedthe north shoulder of this great valley. Midway bulged a large grassybutte, atop which was poised a colossal slick-skin dinosaur. Smiling,Toka raised an arm to the distant reptile. Red eyes beaming fiercely,the Big Snake yawned its cavernous maw and blasted away a mighty roar.
Roya laughed gayly. "All hail to Toka—Prince of Sandcliff and King ofthe Dinosaurs!"
"Look smart ahead!" Old Ledo snapped suddenly.
The party's attention leaped back to the job of piloting the craftthrough roaring white rapids. Then ahead stretched smooth brown wateragain. To the left here, a long cliff towered up from the river.
The dark Elees seemed thrilled. "This is the way to travel!"
Roya breathed happily. "From now on—"
Toka stiffened as above the river's deep murmur came human voices inexquisite choraling.
Roya glanced to Toka. "But there isn't a sign of human habitationanywhere!"
Toka had already placed the direction. "In that cliff."
Roya wrinkled her nose. "Rubbish."
Then from that cliff came a strange wail. "Tooookaaaa!" It was repeatedover and over. "Tooookaaaa! Tooookaaaa!"
The raft nosed around into a broad channel that curved lazily into acavernous maw in the cliff. The walls and roof glowed with a soft lightand the choraling of Toka's name came clear and stronger. Toka let theraft drift.
"The river is certainly slow enough in there," Roya mused.
"We could pole our way out easily enough," Elees reflected.
Old Ledo looked at these impetuous ones. "We could not come backanother time—when Sandcliff would know where we were going!"
"But what can happen?" Rok protested. "We've got our battle-axes—evenElees and Roya have theirs!"
Old Ledo's unimpressed glance went to mid-raft. There were three greatblack battle-axes and two smaller ones.
In that instant Toka weighed the pro and con. "We'll go in a littleway."
Roya and Elees swiftly placed each man's battle-ax handy then balancedeasily in mid-raft with th