Free Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings (Summer 1942) by Edmond Hamilton Page B

they reached an upper gallery, from which they could peer down into a large court that was situated in a wing of the palace.
    The court was circular, open to the flaring coma-sky. It was two hundred feet in diameter, paved with alternating blocks of red and white that made a beautiful contrast to the alabaster walls.
     
    AT THE very center of the court bulked a thing like a squat, upright copper pillar. Not far from this stood a wide double throne, upon which King Thoryx and Queen Lulain were sitting. The old noble, Querdel, hovered close beside the king, as usual. Scores of Cometae nobles were standing expectantly around the court, facing their rulers.
    Captain Future perceived that a solid ring of palace guards encircled the rim of the court. In an alcove, musicians played instruments from which rippled the haunting, alien music that now was loud in all ears. It was music that pulsed with a fierce, feverish undertone of expectation and avidity, music that set Curt’s pulses pumping as he listened.
    The Futuremen gazed upon this strange scene with wonder. Upon no far world had they seen a more brilliant and unearthly spectacle than was presented by these radiant Cometae rulers, gathered here for festival beneath the glow of the comet sky.
    Thoryx raised his hand and the music died to an undertone. The king’s voice came clearly to the watchers in the gallery.
    “Let the Lightning Feast begin!”
    The squat copper pillar at the center of the court began silently to extend itself upward, like an unfolding telescope. Higher and higher it extended, until it was a slim rod reaching hundreds of feet into the sky.
    “They’re raising the radiance rod.” Aggar muttered tautly. “If we’re lucky, the feast will drown out the noise our men make at the gates.”
    The Brain hovered over Curt’s ear.
    “That rod is designed to attract increased electric radiation from the coma!” Simon whispered. “Is it possible that —”
    The sentence was never finished. The copper rod had now been raised to an unbelievable height above the palace. As it attracted electric energy from the vast coma overhead, its whole height was wrapped in a purple, brushlike flame that grew in intensity with each minute.
    A slender lightning bolt smote from above into the court! Its jagged white brilliance blinded Curt’s eyes for a second, and its reverberating concussion of thunder almost deafened him.
    But he had seen that thin bolt strike Thoryx, the king. He had glimpsed the white brilliance of unthinkable electric energy splashing over the ruler’s body.
    Then as Captain Future’s dazzled eyes cleared, he heard Thoryx laughing in exhilaration! The king was unharmed by that jolting stroke.
    Now bolt after bolt of dazzling flame was striking in the court, with continuous shock of thunder. The bolts were hitting the Cometae nobles, who threw their hands up as though to welcome and attract the crackling flashes, and who laughed in wild intoxication as the lightning struck at them.
    A mad, unbelievable phantasmagoria, it seemed, as the almost continuous lightning played like dancing witch-fires upon the luminescent, revelry-mad figures of the Cometae.
    “The Lightning Feast!” Aggar was shouting to the Futuremen. “Electric energy is food, is life itself to us Cometae. Even the concentrated energy of lightning cannot harm us, but serves only to stimulate and intoxicate.”
     

     
Chapter 9: Dark Triumph
     
    THEY turned suddenly from the unearthly spectacle, as a mass of armed Cometae came pouring down the gallery in which they stood. Then they recognized Zarn at the head of these hundreds of men.
    “Our forces are inside the palace!” cried Zarn above the shattering reverberations of thunder. “I’ve ordered them to spread out through the building, to encircle the court.”
    “Good! When they’re all in place, I’ll give the signal for attack!” exclaimed Aggar.
    “Too late for that — look down! There!” yelled Otho.
    A Cometae —