  Arriving at Mount Illuso early the following morning, King Umb and Queen Ra passed the day secluded in the secret cavern where the Queen was accustomed to study the dark sorcery of the Erbs and practice her evil magic. This cavern was so well hidden, far in the depths of Mount Illuso, and its location was so closely guarded, that only a few of the most faithful subjects of the Mimic King and Queen were aware of its existence. While Queen Ra's shape was that of a woman, her body was covered with a heavy fur of a reddish-brown color, and her head was that of a fox with a long snout and sharply pointed ears. Two green eyes blazed with a fierce light from her furry face. In her hand the fox-woman held a brass whistle on which she blew a shrill blast. In answer to this summons came the Mimic known as Ebo. Ebo wore the body of a jackal with the head of a serpent. "Go to the Cave of the Doomed and bring the two prisoners to me at once," the Queen commanded. "Yes, your Highness," hissed Ebo as he swayed his serpent head in obeisance and left the cavern. "We might as well have a little fun while we wait for midnight," grinned the fox head of the woman evilly. King Umb appeared as a great, grey ape with cloven hoofs and the head of a man. From the center of his forehead projected a single horn. The man-face was covered with a shaggy, black beard which fell to the hairy chest of the ape-body. "What do you intend doing with the girl and the man?" asked the grey ape. "I shall practice transformations on the man, giving him a number of unusual shapes and then perhaps combine them all into one interesting creature. It is amazingly easy to change the shapes of humans, so it will not be much of a feat of magic. Then, just before we leave for the Emerald City, I shall change him into a salamander—a green salamander instead of the ordinary red kind, of course, since he is from the Emerald City—and then when we are over the Deadly Desert I shall drop him into the sands. Salamanders are the only creatures that can exist in the desert, so it will really be a merciful fate, since it will not stop him from living." "And the girl?" prompted King Umb. "I think I shall keep the girl chained in my cavern to amuse me when the excitement of conquering and devastating Oz is over and I am in need of diversion," said Queen Ra. While the Queen was relating her wicked plans, Ebo made his way to the Cave of the Doomed and was amazed and terrified to find it empty. How could there be an escape from the cave from which there was no exit save the single stone door which was always closely guarded? The jackal body of Ebo trembled with fear of the punishment he knew Queen Ra would be quick to inflict on him. But there was nothing else for him to do but to report the mysterious disappearance of the prisoners to the Mimic King and Queen. Queen Ra received the news with a scream of rage. Blowing on her brass whistle, she summoned two other Mimics. Pointing to Ebo who cringed with fear, she cried, "Carry him away and cast him into the Pit of Forked Flames." King Umb was uneasy. "I don't like this," he said. "How do we know that the two mortals will not interfere with our plans to conquer Oz?" "Bah! What can two weak mortals do in the face of our might?" demanded the Queen derisively. Knowing his wife's temper, King Umb refrained from reminding Ra that the mortals had somehow miraculously succeeded in escaping from the Cave of the Doomed. Instead, he merely shrugged his ape shoulders and said, "Just the same, I wish we were on our way to Oz now, instead of waiting until midnight." Queen Ra glared at her husband. "I have told you that Lurline's enchantment can be broken only at midnight. Tonight at twelve, I will cast the spell which Lurline foolishly left in Ozma's possession. Since it is the antidote to the enchantment which protects Oz from the Mimics, Lurline knew Ozma would guard it most carefully. But we succeeded in stealing it. Once the spell is cast, the Mimics will be free in all their power to attack Oz and enslave its people. I tell you, Umb, the famous Land of Oz is doomed. In a few short hours it will be a shambles. Nothing can save it!" A few minutes before the hour of midnight, the Mimic hordes assembled in the vast domed cavern which forms that portion of hollow Mount Illuso that towers above the earth. In the center of the cavern on a stone dais stood King Umb and Queen Ra. The Mimic Queen lifted her arms and immediately silence fell over the shifting mass of evil beings. The Queen held in her hand a small box of black enameled wood. Placing the box on the stone dais before her, she raised the lid and muttered an incantation. Immediately there crawled from the box a scarlet spider as large as the Queen's hand. At the first word of the incantation the spider began to grow. In a few seconds its body was four feet in thickness, and its hairy legs sprawled to a distance of fifteen feet from its body which was covered with a crimson fur. It was a monster spider-web of crimson strands "Now go," Queen Ra commanded the spider, "and weave the web that will enmesh the fairy enchantment that hangs over us!" The Mimic hordes parted to make a path through their midst for the spider. The loathsome creature scuttled first to the wall of the cavern, and then climbed up the side of the wall. In a few seconds it had reached the top of the cavern. Then, moving with incredible speed, it wove a monster spider web of crimson strands as thick and tough as heavy rope cables. Queen Ra watched silently until the fashioning of the scarlet web was completed. At that moment she cried aloud for all to hear: "So long as this web remains unbroken, the Mimics are freed from the enchantment cast on them by Lurline! The web is a snare and a net for Lurline's fairy enchantment and holds every remnant of it caught fast in its coils." The Queen spoke triumphantly, and well she might, for the magic spell she had stolen from Ozma had worked perfectly. "Come!" shouted Queen Ra. "Let us tarry no longer. We have waited too many years for this hour!" With this the Mimic King and Queen assumed the shapes of giant birds and soared through the cavern to the stone portal. The throngs of their Mimic subjects followed, beating the air with great, leathery wings as they passed from the cavern into the night. Soon the sky above Mount Illuso was darkened with the great numbers of the Mimic horde, and the light of the moon was blotted from the earth by the flapping wings. Following the lead of King Umb and Queen Ra, they headed straight for the Deadly Desert and the Land of Oz. |
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