Mary lay on her stomach by the stake, panting, her hands and feet still tied tightly behind her. “I’m as close as I can get. Can you reach me now?”
Freeta slowly looked down at her with blank eyes, then remembered why Mary was there and did a quick inspection of the knots and cords.
“My, how sloppy he’s gotten,” she murmured and turned her back on the knot of straps. Her fingers reached and probed, found the knots that held Mary’s ankles to her wrists, and undid them. With a moan, Mary slowly unkinked her knees. When Freeta untied the knots around Mary’s wrists, she struggled her way free. After a moment, when blood and sensation had returned to her hands, Mary undid her own ankles and looked to Freeta.
She studied the massive knot centered on Freeta’s back and tried to loosen it, tentatively at first, then more vigorously.
“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 found no knife in the drawers under the couches but she did find a stick with a sharp point. She was having some success prying at the massive knot with that when Freeta tensed and said, “He’s coming.”
Mary raced to the doorway. Surprise would be on her side, as would the aikido training that had earned her a black belt the year before. As footsteps approached Mary crouched.
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 walked toward the other side of the room, hoping to draw the attention of her captor with her.
When Zark followed Mary rushed him with an “Eyyyah!” and a flying kick to his head.
But even as she left the ground, he dropped. Her kick caught nothing but air and she thudded down in front of Tarna. Tarna gave her a worried smile and kept on trying to free her own bound hands.
Rolling to her feet Mary felt Zark grabbing her arms to pin them behind her and 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 us boys.”
Zark dropped her shirt and with a smile on his face advanced slowly. Mary retreated, drawing him out. Zark lunged and feinted but did not make contact.
Back in the center of the playroom Zark began a complex series of attacks that looked to Mary like they were leading to a head kick. She defended with raised crossed arms, but Zark 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 skirt zipper had been broken. She stepped out of the skirt and kicked it away.
The battle continued like this for several minutes. Mary was continually outmaneuvered by Zark, who was attempting not so much to subdue her as to tire her and remove her clothing in order to humiliate her into submission. He stripped her stark naked, but she wasn’t submitting.
Finally Zark was once again behind her and this time he stuck. They fell to the floor. Zark rolled her on her back, pinned her arms, and was tying her wrists to a piece of gym equipment when Zark and Mary’s panting was punctuated by the quiet knock of a dart-gun.
Zark stiffened and pulled the dart out of his back. On its point hung a single drop of blood. Behind him, Freeta dropped the emptied pistol and threw restraining loops of cord around his chest and arms. Zark let the dart fall and, unresisting, looked slowly back at Mary.
“You were too much, mortal,” Zark slurred. “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 Zark out of the room.
Mary lay in a daze until she noticed that Tarna was also free.
“Are you all right?” Tarna asked. “Let me help you up.”
Slowly, weakly, Mary staggered to her feet and let her sister dress her. She was still feeling light-headed when Freeta returned.
“Mary,” she said, “I want to thank you. Zark is now safely restrained. He’ll not bother you again. You’ve helped your people and mine immensely. We’ll not forget.”
As she led the sisters back up into the house, she told them quietly, “You must leave. Zark’s insanity, still trying to wage the old war, is a well known hazard for our people. There are cures—but they involve lots of time. It’s time we can afford to take, you mortals can’t.
“You’ve blown our cover so tomorrow this house will be gone. But there are still Mortals and Immortals, still Zidexites, in this Age of Humans with your rapid advances in science and understanding. The Master may return, the Golden City be rebuilt, and our day come again. We can wait to find out.”
Outside the front door the drizzle had stopped. Freeta hurried the humans off into the dark with “Good-bye for the last time, and thank you.” After she closed the door, the lights in the strange little house blinked out one by one.
Mary and Tarna walked down the driveway to the road, then with one consent hid in the bushes on the other side to peer through the thick fog at what might happen to the house.
An hour later, nothing had happened. Seemingly the next moment Tarna was shaking Mary, urging her to wake up. There was a deep chill, a stiff north wind, and a sky filled with brilliant, cold stars that looked close enough to touch, and whose position showed it was a good three hours since they had left the house. Below the stars, the deep woods were still there but the prim white-painted house with black-shuttered windows was gone. In its place was a pile of ruined, rotting timbers.