Beginning Chapter: One ... Two ... Three ... Four ... Five ... Six ... Seven ... Eight ... Nine ... Epilogue
Mary lay on her stomach by the stake panting; her hands and feet still tied tightly behind her. Freeta sat bound to the stake, leaning on it and staring into the distance. There was a moment of silence. Finally Mary squirmed a bit again and said, "I'm as close as I can get. Can you reach me now?"
Freeta slowly looked down at her with blank eyes and then remembered why Mary was there. She focused up and did a quick inspection of the knots and cords.
"My, how sloppy he's gotten." She murmured and then turned around to reach into the knot of straps with her hands. Her fingers reached and probed for knots to unloosen. First she found the knots that held Mary's ankles to her wrists; she undid them. Mary slowly unkinked her knees with a moan. Then she found the knots to Mary's wrists; Mary struggled her way free. She lay there a moment while blood and the sensation of movement returned to her hands. Then she undid her ankles, and looked to Freeta.
She studied the massive knot centered on Freeta's back and tentatively tried to loosen it. Then she tried harder, but the cords where so tightly drawn she couldn't budge them. She looked around. Freeta waited patiently.
"I can't budge them. Is there a knife or something with an edge anywhere around."
"Not likely here." responded Freeta, "This is the play room. But you might try in the drawers around the edge. Please hurry though, Zark won't be away long."
Mary rummaged through the drawers under the couches around the edge of the playroom. She found no knife, but she did find a stick with a sharp point. She rushed back to Freeta and started prying at the knot with that. Finally she was having some success.
But no sooner had she started loosening the massive knot then Freeta tensed up and said, "He's coming."
Mary left her and raced the doorway. She was free now and surprise would be on her side. So would the aikido experience that had earned her a black belt the year before. Mary crouched by the doorway as footsteps approached.
A hand appeared and parted the curtain and the first through was Tarna. She was gagged and her arms bound tightly behind her as Mary's had been.
She saw Mary and her eyes widened. Then she turned away and started walking for the other side of the room hoping to draw the attention of her captor as he came through.
Sure enough Zark followed through and turned away from Mary following Tarna. She rushed him with an, "Eyyyah!" and leaped at him with the intent of paralyzing him with a flying kick to head. But even as she was leaving the ground he was dropping. Her kick caught nothing but air and she came down with a thud at Tarna's feet.
Mary rolled to her feet to face Zark. But as she did she realized he was behind her. He grabbed her arms to pin them behind her. She lunged forward before he could tighten his grip, leaving her shirt in his arms.
She whirled to face him -- arms and legs cocked and ready. "Don't trifle with me now." She said sternly, "I'm free, and I've bested better men than you".
Zark laughed. "So now I'm a man. And you think you can better me. Well, young lady, let's just find out what you've learned about handling young boys".
Zark dropped her shirt and with a smile on his face he advanced slowly. Mary started retreating, trying to draw him out. Zark lunged and feinted, but did not make contact.
Soon they were back in the center of the playroom, then Zark began a particularly complex series of attacks that looked like they were leading to a head kick. Mary defended with raised crossed arms, but instead contact she found that Zark had once again maneuvered behind her, this time holding her about the waist. He lifted her up, spun her, and threw her to the mats. She rolled and recovered to her feet, panting. She noticed her zipper had come undone.
The battle continued like this for several minutes with Mary continually being out maneuvered by Zark. But rather than subduing her, he was merely tiring her and removing various articles of clothing, he was trying to humiliate her into submission, but she kept struggling.
Finally she was stark naked and Zark was once again behind her. She tried to throw him off, but this time he stuck. She struggled to break free, but he restrained her. Mary's resistance finally faded.
They fell to the floor both breathing heavily. Zark rolled her to her back and pinned her arms to the mats. He was tying her wrists to a piece of gym equipment when room was punctuated with the quiet knock of a dart-gun shot.
Zark suddenly stiffened and reached behind him. He pulled a dart out of his back. On the point hung a single drop of blood. Freeta was standing behind him, emptied pistol in hand. She dropped the gun and started throwing loops of cords around his chest and arms to restrain him. Zark did not resist, he slowly turned back to Mary.
"You were too much, mortal." Said Zark, his speech was starting to slur as the dart's drug took effect. "You distracted me too long with your struggles and martial antics. Freeta has overcome me. I am undone."
With that Freeta tightened the last knot and roughly dragged the now staggering Zark out of the room. Mary lay in a daze.
Finally she noticed that Tarna was also free and that she had undone the cords holding her wrists. "Are you alright?" Tarna asked in a concerned voice, "let me help you up." Slowly, weakly Mary staggered to her feet.
She was dressed, but still feeling lightheaded when Freeta returned.
"Mary," she said, "I want to thank you. Zark's now safely restrained. He'll not bother you again. You've helped your people and mine immensely. We'll not forget." Freeta led Tarna and Mary back into the house and out the front door. The drizzle had stopped, but the fog was still thick.
"You must leave." She said quietly, "Zark's insane. He's still trying to wage the old war. It's a well known hazard of our people. Fortunately there are cures -- but they involve lots of time. It's time we can afford to take, you mortals can't.
"Tomorrow this house will be gone. You've discovered us, `blown our cover`, so to speak, so we must leave. But rest assured we will be here somewhere. There are still Mortals and Immortals, and there are still followers of Zidex. It's true that we're living in the age of humans, and a wondrous age it is, you've advanced very rapidly in science and human understanding. But our day may come again, The Master may return, and the Golden City may be rebuilt. We can wait to find out. Good-bye for the last time, and thank you."
With that she hurried them off into the dark, closed the door, and one by one turned out the lights in the strange little house.
Mary and Tarna walked down the driveway to the road and then ran and hid in the bushes on the other side of the road. They wanted to see what would happen to the house. They sat and waited.
An hour later nothing had happened but the girls continued to wait patiently . . .
The next moment the girls remember Tarna was shaking Mary; telling her to wake up. Or, at least it seemed like the next moment, there was a deep chill in the air; a stiff north wind, The fog had been replaced by a sky filled with brilliant, cold stars. Stars that looked so close you could touch them. Mary looked at the stars and judged that they had marched through a good three hours since they had left the house. Uncreaking her cold-stiffened joints Mary looked back at the house and then gasped. "It's gone."
The deep woods where still there across the road, but the prim white-painted house with black shuttered windows was gone. In it's place was a pile of ruined rotting timbers. Mary and Tarna had slept through the transformation -- all trace of the Freeta, Zark, and the Immortals was now gone.
Beginning Chapter: One ... Two ... Three ... Four ... Five ... Six ... Seven ... Eight ... Nine ... Epilogue