CHAPTER XXII - The Casting of
the Shadow
Now we were
racing down toward that last span whose ancientness had set it apart from all
the other soaring arches. The shell's speed slackened; we approached warily.
"We pass
there?" asked O'Keefe.
The green dwarf
nodded, pointing to the right where the bridge ended in a broad platform held
high upon two gigantic piers, between which ran a spur from the glistening
road. Platform and bridge were swarming with men-at-arms; they crowded the
parapets, looking down upon us curiously but with no evidence of hostility.
Rador drew a deep breath of relief.
"We don't
have to break our way through, then?" There was disappointment in the
Irishman's voice.
"No use,
Larree!" Smiling, Rador stopped the corial just beneath the arch and
beside one of the piers. ”Now, listen well. They have had no warning, hence does
Yolara still think us on the way to the temple. This is the gateway of the
Portal - and the gateway is closed by the Shadow. Once I commanded here and I
know its laws. This must I do - by craft persuade Serku, the keeper of the
gateway, to lift the Shadow; or raise it myself. And that will be hard and it
may well be that in the struggle life will be stripped of us all. Yet is it
better to die fighting than to dance with the Shining One!"
He swept the
shell around the pier. Opened a wide plaza paved with the volcanic glass, but
black as that down which we had sped from the chamber of the Moon Pool. It
shone like a mirrored lakelet of jet; on each side of it arose what at first
glance seemed towering bulwarks of the same ebon obsidian; at second, revealed
themselves as structures hewn and set in place by men; polished faces pierced
by dozens of high, narrow windows.
Down each facade
a stairway fell, broken by small landings on which a door opened; they dropped
to a broad ledge of greyish stone edging the lip of this midnight pool and upon
it also fell two wide flights from either side of the bridge platform. Along
all four stairways the guards were ranged; and here and there against the ledge
stood the shells - in a curiously comforting resemblance to parked motors in
our own world.
The sombre walls
bulked high; curved and ended in two obelisked pillars from which, like a
tremendous curtain, stretched a barrier of that tenebrous gloom which, though
weightless as shadow itself, I now knew to be as impenetrable as the veil
between life and death. In this murk, unlike all others I had seen, I sensed
movement, a quivering, a tremor constant and rhythmic; not to be seen, yet
caught by some subtle sense; as though through it beat a swift pulse of - black
light.
The green dwarf
turned the corial slowly to the edge at the right; crept cautiously on toward
where, not more than a hundred feet from the barrier, a low, wide entrance
opened in the fort. Guarding its threshold stood two guards, armed with
broadswords, double-handed, terminating in a wide lunette mouthed with
murderous fangs. These they raised in salute and through the portal strode a
dwarf huge as Rador, dressed as he and carrying only the poniard that was the
badge of office of Muria's captainry.
The green dwarf
swept the shell expertly against the ledge; leaped out.
"Greeting,
Serku!" he answered. ”I was but looking for the coria of Lakla."
"Lakla!"
exclaimed Serku. ”Why, the handmaiden passed with her Akka nigh a va ago!"
"Passed!"
The astonishment of the green dwarf was so real that half was I myself deceived.
”You let her pass?"
"Certainly I
let her pass -” But under the green dwarf's stern gaze the truculence of the
guardian faded. ”Why should I not?" he asked, apprehensively.
"Because
Yolara commanded otherwise," answered Rador, coldly.
"There came
no command to me." Little beads of sweat stood out on Serku's forehead.
"Serku,"
interrupted the green dwarf swiftly, ”truly is my heart wrung for you. This is
a matter of Yolara and of Lugur and the Council; yes, even of the Shining One!
And the message was sent - and the fate, mayhap, of all Muria rested upon your
obedience and the return of Lakla with these strangers to the Council. Now
truly is my heart wrung, for there are few I would less like to see dance with
the Shining One than you, Serku," he ended, softly.
Livid now was the
gateway's guardian, his great frame shaking.
"Come with
me and speak to Yolara," he pleaded. ”There came no message - tell her -”
"Wait,
Serku!" There was a thrill as of inspiration in Rador's voice. ”This
corial is of the swiftest - Lakla's
are of the slowest. With Lakla scarce a va ahead we can reach her before she
enters the Portal. Lift you the Shadow - we will bring her back, and this will
I do for you, Serku."
Doubt tempered
Serku's panic.
"Why not go
alone, Rador, leaving the strangers here with me?" he asked - and I
thought not unreasonably.
"Nay,
then." The green dwarf was brusk. ”Lakla will not return unless I carry to
her these men as evidence of our good faith. Come - we will speak to Yolara and
she shall judge you -” He started away - but Serku caught his arm.
"No, Rador,
no!" he whispered, again panic-stricken. ”Go you - as you will. But bring
her back! Speed, Rador!" He sprang toward the entrance. ”I lift the Shadow
-”
Into the green
dwarf's poise crept a curious, almost a listening, alertness. He leaped to
Serku's side.
"I go with
you," I heard. ”Some little I can tell you -” They were gone.
"Fine
work!" muttered Larry. ”Nominated for a citizen of Ireland when we get out
of this, one Rador of -”
The Shadow
trembled - shuddered into nothingness; the obelisked outposts that had held it
framed a ribbon of roadway, high banked with verdure, vanishing in green
distances.
And then from the
portal sped a shriek, a death cry! It cut through the silence of the ebon pit
like a whimpering arrow. Before it had died, down the stairways came pouring
the guards. Those at the threshold raised their swords and peered within.
Abruptly Rador was between them. One dropped his hilt and gripped him - the
green dwarf's poniard flashed and was buried in his throat. Down upon Rador's
head swept the second blade. A flame leaped from O'Keefe's hand and the sword
seemed to fling itself from its wielder's grasp - another flash and the soldier
crumpled. Rador threw himself into the shell, darted to the high seat - and
straight between the pillars of the Shadow we flew!
There came a
crackling, a darkness of vast wings flinging down upon us. The corial's flight
was checked as by a giant's hand. The shell swerved sickeningly; there was an
oddly metallic splintering; it quivered; shot ahead. Dizzily I picked myself up
and looked behind.
The Shadow had
fallen - but too late, a bare instant too late. And shrinking as we fled from
it, still it seemed to strain like some fettered Afrit from Eblis, throbbing
with wrath, seeking with every malign power it possessed to break its bonds and
pursue. Not until long after were we to know that it had been the dying hand of
Serku, groping out of oblivion, that had cast it after us as a fowler upon an
escaping bird.
"Snappy
work, Rador!" It was Larry speaking. ”But they cut the end off your bus
all right!"
A full quarter of
the hindward whorl was gone, sliced off cleanly. Rador noted it with anxious
eyes.
"That is
bad," he said, ”but not too bad perhaps. All depends upon how closely
Lugur and his men can follow us."
He raised a hand
to O'Keefe in salute.
"But to you,
Larree, I owe my life - not even the Keth could have been as swift to save me as
that death flame of yours - friend!"
The Irishman waved an airy hand.
"Serku"
- the green dwarf drew from his girdle the bloodstained poniard -”Serku I was
forced to slay. Even as he raised the Shadow the globe gave the alarm. Lugur
follows with twice ten times ten of his best -” He hesitated. ”Though we have
escaped the Shadow it has taken toll of our swiftness. May we reach the Portal
before it closes upon Lakla - but if we do not -” He paused again. ”Well - I
know a way - but it is not one I am gay to follow - no!"
He snapped open
the aperture that held the ball flaming within the dark crystal; peered at it
anxiously. I crept to the torn end of the corial. The edges were crumbling,
disintegrated. They powdered in my fingers like dust. Mystified still, I crept
back where Larry, sheer happiness pouring from him, was whistling softly and
polishing up his automatic. His gaze fell upon Olaf's grim, sad face and
softened.
"Buck up,
Olaf!" he said. ”We've got a good fighting chance. Once we link up with Lakla
and her crowd I'm betting that we get your wife - never doubt it! The baby -”
he hesitated awkwardly. The Norseman's eyes filled; he stretched a hand to the
O'Keefe.
"The Yndling
- she is of the de Dode," he half whispered, ”of the blessed dead. For her
I have no fear and for her vengeance will be given me. Ja! But my Helma - she
is of the dead-alive - like those we saw whirling like leaves in the light of
the Shining Devil - and I would that she too were of de Dode - and at rest. I
do not know how to fight the Shining Devil - no!"
His bitter
despair welled up in his voice.
"Olaf,"
Larry's voice was gentle. ”We'll come out on top - I know it. Remember one
thing. All this stuff that seems so strange and - and, well, sort of
supernatural, is just a lot of tricks we're not hep to as yet. Why, Olaf,
suppose you took a Fijian when the war was on and set him suddenly down in
London with autos rushing past, sirens blowing, Archies popping, a dozen enemy
planes dropping bombs, and the searchlights shooting all over the sky - wouldn't
he think he was among thirty-third degree devils in some exclusive circle of
hell? Sure he would! And yet everything he saw would be natural - just as
natural as all this is, once we get the answer to it. Not that we're Fijians,
of course, but the principle is the same."
The Norseman
considered this; nodded gravely.
"Ja!"
he answered at last. ”And at least we can fight. That is why I have turned to
Thor of the battles, Ja! And one have I hope in for mine Helma - the white
maiden. Since I have turned to the old gods it has been made clear to me that I
shall slay Lugur and that the Heks, the evil witch Yolara, shall also die. But
I would talk with the white maiden."
"All
right," said Larry, ”but just don't be afraid of what you don't
understand. There's another thing" - he hesitated, nervously -”there's
another thing that may startle you a bit when we meet up with Lakla - her - er
- frogs!"
"Like the
frog-woman we saw on the wall?" asked Olaf.
"Yes,"
went on Larry, rapidly. ”It's this way - I figure that the frogs grow rather
large where she lives, and they're a bit different too. Well, Lakla's got a lot
of 'em trained. Carry spears and clubs and all that junk - just like trained
seals or monkeys or so on in the circus. Probably a custom of the place.
Nothing queer about that, Olaf. Why people have all kinds of pets - armadillos
and snakes and rabbits, kangaroos and elephants and tigers."
Remembering how
the frog-woman had stuck in Larry's mind from the outset, I wondered whether all
this was not more to convince himself than Olaf.
"Why, I
remember a nice girl in Paris who had four pet pythons -” he went on.
But I listened no
more, for now I was sure of my surmise. The road had begun to thrust itself
through high-flung, sharply pinnacled masses and rounded outcroppings of rock
on which clung patches of the amber moss.
The trees had
utterly vanished, and studding the moss-carpeted plains were only clumps of a
willowy shrub from which hung, like grapes, clusters of white waxen blooms. The
light too had changed; gone were the dancing, sparkling atoms and the silver
had faded to a soft, almost ashen greyness. Ahead of us marched a rampart of
coppery cliffs rising, like all these mountainous walls we had seen, into the
immensities of haze. Something long drifting in my subconsciousness turned to
startled realization. The speed of the shell was slackening! The aperture
containing the ionizing mechanism was still open; I glanced within, The
whirling ball of fire was not dimmed, but its coruscations, instead of pouring
down through the cylinder, swirled and eddied and shot back as though trying to
re-enter their source. Rador nodded grimly.
"The Shadow
takes its toll," he said.
We topped a rise
- Larry gripped my arm.
"Look!"
he cried, and pointed. Far, far behind us, so far that the road was but a
glistening thread, a score of shining points came speeding.
"Lugur and
his men," said Rador.
"Can't you
step on her?" asked Larry.
"Step on
her?" repeated the green dwarf, puzzled.
"Give her
more speed; push her," explained O'Keefe.
Rador looked
about him. The coppery ramparts were close, not more than three or four miles
distant; in front of us the plain lifted in a long rolling swell, and up this
the corial essayed to go - with a terrifying lessening of speed. Faintly behind
us came shootings, and we knew that Lugur drew close. Nor anywhere was there
sign of Lakla nor her frogmen.
Now we were
half-way to the crest; the shell barely crawled and from beneath it came a
faint hissing; it quivered, and I knew that its base was no longer held above
the glassy surface but rested on it.
"One last
chance!" exclaimed Rador. He pressed upon the control lever and wrenched
it from its socket. Instantly the sparkling ball expanded, whirling with prodigious
rapidity and sending a cascade of coruscations into the cylinder. The shell
rose; leaped through the air; the dark crystal split into fragments; the fiery
ball dulled; died - but upon the impetus of that last thrust we reached the
crest. Poised there for a moment, I caught a glimpse of the road dropping down
the side of an enormous moss-covered, bowl-shaped valley whose sharply curved
sides ended abruptly at the base of the towering barrier.
Then down the
steep, powerless to guide or to check the shell, we plunged in a meteor rush
straight for the annihilating adamantine breasts of the cliffs!
Now the quick
thinking of Larry's air training came to our aid. As the rampart reared close
he threw himself upon Rador; hurled him and himself against the side of the
flying whorl. Under the shock the finely balanced machine swerved from its
course. It struck the soft, low bank of the road, shot high in air, bounded on
through the thick carpeting, whirled like a dervish and fell upon its side.
Shot from it, we rolled for yards, but the moss saved broken bones or serious
bruise.
"Quick!"
cried the green dwarf. He seized an arm, dragged me to my feet, began running
to the cliff base not a hundred feet away. Beside us raced O'Keefe and Olaf. At
our left was the black road. It stopped abruptly - was cut off by a slab of
polished crimson stone a hundred feet high, and as wide, set within the coppery
face of the barrier. On each side of it stood pillars, cut from the living rock
and immense, almost, as those which held the rainbow veil of the Dweller.
Across its face weaved unnameable carvings - but I had no time for more than a
glance. The green dwarf gripped my arm again.
"Quick!"
he cried again. ”The handmaiden has passed!"
At the right of
the Portal ran a low wall of shattered rock. Over this we raced like rabbits.
Hidden behind it was a narrow path. Crouching, Rador in the lead, we sped along
it; three hundred, four hundred yards we raced - and the path ended in a cul de
sac! To our ears was borne a louder shouting.
The first of the
pursuing shells had swept over the lip of the great bowl, poised for a moment
as we had and then began a cautious descent. Within it, scanning the slopes, I
saw Lugur.
"A little
closer and I'll get him!" whispered Larry viciously. He raised his pistol.
His hand was
caught in a mighty grip; Rador, eyes blazing, stood beside him.
"No!"
rasped the green dwarf. He heaved a shoulder against one of the boulders that
formed the pocket. It rocked aside, revealing a slit.
"In!"
ordered he, straining against the weight of the stone. O'Keefe slipped through.
Olaf at his back, I following. With a lightning leap the dwarf was beside me,
the huge rock missing him by a hair breadth as it swung into place!
We were in
Cimmerian darkness. I felt for my pocket-flash and recalled with distress that
I had left it behind with my medicine kit when we fled from the gardens. But
Rador seemed to need no light.
"Grip
hands!" he ordered. We crept, single file, holding to each other like
children, through the black. At last the green dwarf paused.
"Await me
here," he whispered. ”Do not move. And for your lives - be silent!"
And he was gone.
CHAPTER XXIII - Dragon Worm and
Moss Death
For a small
eternity - to me at least - we waited. Then as silent as ever the green dwarf
returned. ”It is well," he said, some of the strain gone from his voice. ”Grip
hands again, and follow."
"Wait a bit,
Rador," this was Larry. ”Does Lugur know this side entrance? If he does,
why not let Olaf and me go back to the opening and pick them off as they come
in? We could hold the lot - and in the meantime you and Goodwin could go after
Lakla for help."
"Lugur knows
the secret of the Portal - if he dare use it," answered the captain, with
a curious indirection. ”And now that they have challenged the Silent Ones I
think he will dare. Also, he will find our tracks - and it may be that he knows
this hidden way."
"Well, for
God's sake!" O'Keefe's appalled bewilderment was almost ludicrous. ”If he
knows all that, and you knew all that, why didn't you let me click him when I
had the chance?"
"Larree,"
the green dwarf was oddly humble. ”It seemed good to me, too - at first. And
then I heard a command, heard it clearly, to stop you - that Lugur die not now,
lest a greater vengeance fail!"
"Command?
From whom?" The Irishman's voice distilled out of the blackness the very
essence of bewilderment.
"I
thought," Rador was whispering -”I thought it came from the Silent
Ones!"
"Superstition!"
groaned O'Keefe in utter exasperation. ”Always superstition! What can you do
against it!
"Never mind,
Rador." His sense of humour came to his aid. ”It's too late now, anyway.
Where do we go from here, old dear?" he laughed.
"We tread
the path of one I am not fain to meet," answered Rador. ”But if meet we
must, point the death tubes at the pale shield he bears upon his throat and
send the flame into the flower of cold fire that is its centre - nor look into
his eyes!"
Again Larry
gasped, and I with him.
"It's
getting too deep for me, Doc," he muttered dejectedly. ”Can you make head
or tail of it?"
"No," I
answered, shortly enough, ”but Rador fears something and that's his description
of it."
"Sure,"
he replied, ”only it's a code I don't understand." I could feel his grin.
”All right for the flower of cold fire, Rador, and I won't look into his
eyes," he went on cheerfully. ”But hadn't we better be moving?"
"Come!"
said the soldier; again hand in hand we went blindly on.
O'Keefe was
muttering to himself.
"Flower of
cold fire! Don't look into his eyes! Some joint! Damned superstition."
Then he chuckled and carolled, softly:
"Oh,
mama, pin a cold rose on me;
Two
young frog-men are in love with me;
Shut
my eyes so I can't see."
"Sh!" Rador was warning; he began
whispering. ”For half a va we go along a way of death. From its peril we pass
into another against whose dangers I can guard you. But in part this is in view
of the roadway and it may be that Lugur will see us. If so, we must fight as
best we can. If we pass these two roads safely, then is the way to the Crimson
Sea clear, nor need we fear Lugur nor any. And there is another thing - that
Lugur does not know - when he opens the Portal the Silent Ones will hear and
Lakla and the Akka will be swift to greet its opener."
"Rador,"
I asked, ”how know you all this?"
"The
handmaiden is my own sister's child," he answered quietly.
O'Keefe drew a
long breath.
"Uncle,"
he remarked casually in English, ”meet the man who's going to be your
nephew!"
And thereafter he
never addressed the green dwarf except by the avuncular title, which Rador,
humorously enough, apparently conceived to be one of respectful endearment.
For me a light
broke. Plain now was the reason for his foreknowledge of Lakla's appearance at
the feast where Larry had so narrowly escaped Yolara's spells; plain the
determining factor that had cast his lot with ours, and my confidence, despite
his discourse of mysterious perils, experienced a remarkable quickening.
Speculation as to
the marked differences in pigmentation and appearance of niece and uncle was
dissipated by my consciousness that we were now moving in a dim half-light. We
were in a fairly wide tunnel. Not far ahead the gleam filtered, pale yellow
like sunlight sifting through the leaves of autumn poplars. And as we drove
closer to its source I saw that it did indeed pass through a leafy screen
hanging over the passage end. This Rador drew aside cautiously, beckoned us and
we stepped through.
It appeared to be
a tunnel cut through soft green mould. Its base was a flat strip of pathway a
yard wide from which the walls curved out in perfect cylindrical form, smoothed
and evened with utmost nicety. Thirty feet wide they were at their widest, then
drew toward each other with no break in their symmetry; they did not close. Above
was, roughly, a ten-foot rift, ragged edged, through which poured light like
that in the heart of pale amber, a buttercup light shot through with curiously
evanescent bronze shadows.
"Quick!"
commanded Rador, uneasily, and set off at a sharp pace.
Now, my eyes
accustomed to the strange light, I saw that the tunnel's walls were of moss. In
them I could trace fringe leaf and curly leaf, pressings of enormous bladder
caps (Physcomitrium), immense splashes of what seemed to be the scarlet-crested
Cladonia, traceries of huge moss veils, crushings of teeth (peristome)
gigantic; spore cases brown and white, saffron and ivory, hot vermilions and
cerulean blues, pressed into an astounding mosaic by some titanic force.
"Hurry!"
It was Rador calling. I had lagged behind.
He quickened the
pace to a half-run; we were climbing; panting. The amber light grew stronger;
the rift above us wider. The tunnel curved; on the left a narrow cleft
appeared. The green dwarf leaped toward it, thrust us within, pushed us ahead
of him up a steep rocky fissure - well-nigh, indeed, a chimney. Up and up this
we scrambled until my lungs were bursting and I thought I could climb no more.
The crevice ended; we crawled out and sank, even Rador, upon a little
leaf-carpeted clearing circled by lacy tree ferns.
Gasping, legs
aching, we lay prone, relaxed, drawing back strength and breath. Rador was
first to rise. Thrice he bent low as in homage, then -
"Give thanks
to the Silent Ones - for their power has been over us!" he exclaimed.
Dimly I wondered
what he meant. Something about the fern leaf at which I had been staring
aroused me. I leaped to my feet and ran to its base. This was no fern, no! It
was fern moss! The largest of its species I had ever found in tropic jungles
had not been more than two inches high, and this was - twenty feet! The
scientific fire I had experienced in the tunnel returned uncontrollable. I
parted the fronds, gazed out -
My outlook
commanded a vista of miles - and that vista! A Fata Morgana of plantdom! A land
of flowered sorcery!
Forests of
tree-high mosses spangled over with blooms of every conceivable shape and
colour; cataracts and clusters, avalanches and nets of blossoms in pastels, in
dulled metallics, in gorgeous flamboyant hues; some of them phosphorescent and
shining like living jewels; some sparkling as though with dust of opals, of
sapphires, of rubies and topazes and emeralds; thickets of convolvuli like the
trumpets of the seven archangels of Mara, king of illusion, which are shaped
from the bows of splendours arching his highest heaven!
And moss veils
like banners of a marching host of Titans; pennons and bannerets of the sunset;
gonfalons of the Jinn; webs of faery; oriflammes of elfland!
Springing up
through that polychromatic flood myriads of pedicles - slender and straight as
spears, or soaring in spirals, or curving with undulations gracile as the white
serpents of Tanit in ancient Carthaginian groves - and all surmounted by a
fantasy of spore cases in shapes of minaret and turret, domes and spires and
cones, caps of Phrygia and bishops' mitres, shapes grotesque and unnameable - shapes
delicate and lovely!
They hung high
poised, nodding and swaying - like goblins hovering over Titania's court;
cacophony of Cathay accenting the Flower Maiden music of”Parsifal";
bizarrerie of the angled, fantastic beings that people the Javan pantheon
watching a bacchanal of houris in Mohammed's paradise!
Down upon it all
poured the amber light; dimmed in the distances by huge, drifting darkenings
lurid as the flying mantles of the hurricane.
And through the
light, like showers of jewels, myriads of birds, darting, dipping, soaring, and
still other myriads of gigantic, shimmering butterflies.
A sound came to
us, reaching out like the first faint susurrus of the incoming tide; sighing,
sighing, growing stronger - now its mournful whispering quivered all about us,
shook us - then passing like a Presence, died away in far distances.
"The
Portal!" said Rador. ”Lugur has entered!"
He, too, parted
the fronds and peered back along our path. Peering with him we saw the barrier
through which we had come stretching verdure-covered walls for miles three or
more away. Like a mole burrow in a garden stretched the trail of the tunnel;
here and there we could look down within the rift at its top; far off in it I
thought I saw the glint of spears.
"They
come!" whispered Rador. ”Quick! We must not meet them here!"
And then -
"Holy St.
Brigid!" gasped Larry.
From the rift in
the tunnel's continuation, nigh a mile beyond the cleft through which we had
fled, lifted a crown of horns - of tentacles - erect, alert, of mottled gold
and crimson; lifted higher - and from a monstrous scarlet head beneath them
blazed two enormous, obloid eyes, their depths wells of purplish phosphorescence;
higher still - noseless, earless, chinless; a livid, worm mouth from which a
slender scarlet tongue leaped like playing flames! Slowly it rose - its mighty
neck cuirassed with gold and scarlet scales from whose polished surfaces the
amber light glinted like flakes of fire; and under this neck shimmered
something like a palely luminous silvery shield, guarding it. The head of
horror mounted - and in the shield's centre, full ten feet across, glowing,
flickering, shining out - coldly, was a rose of white flame, a”flower of cold
fire" even as Rador had said.
Now swiftly the
Thing upreared, standing like a scaled tower a hundred feet above the rift, its
eyes scanning that movement I had seen along the course of its lair. There was
a hissing; the crown of horns fell, whipped and writhed like the tentacles of
an octopus; the towering length dropped back.
"Quick!"
gasped Rador and through the fern moss, along the path and down the other side
of the steep we raced.
Behind us for an
instant there was a rushing as of a torrent; a far-away, faint, agonized
screaming - silence!
"No fear now
from those who followed," whispered the green dwarf, pausing.
"Sainted St.
Patrick!" O'Keefe gazed ruminatively at his automatic. ”An' he expected me
to kill that with this. Well, as Fergus O'Connor said when they sent him out to
slaughter a wild bull with a potato knife: 'Ye'll niver rayilize how I
appreciate the confidence ye show in me!'
"What was
it, Doc?" he asked.
"The dragon
worm!" Rador said.
"It was
Helvede Orm - the hell worm!" groaned Olaf.
"There you
go again -” blazed Larry; but the green dwarf was hurrying down the path and
swiftly we followed, Larry muttering, Olaf mumbling, behind me.
The green dwarf
was signalling us for caution. He pointed through a break in a grove of
fifty-foot cedar mosses - we were skirting the glassy road! Scanning it we
found no trace of Lugur and wondered whether he too had seen the worm and had
fled. Quickly we passed on; drew away from the coria path. The mosses began to
thin; less and less they grew, giving way to low clumps that barely offered us
shelter. Unexpectedly another screen of fern moss stretched before us. Slowly
Rador made his way through it and stood hesitating.
The scene in
front of us was oddly weird and depressing; in some indefinable way - dreadful.
Why, I could not tell, but the impression was plain; I shrank from it. Then,
self-analyzing, I wondered whether it could be the uncanny resemblance the
heaps of curious mossy fungi scattered about had to beast and bird - yes, and
to man - that was the cause of it. Our path ran between a few of them. To the
left they were thick. They were viridescent, almost metallic hued - verd-antique.
Curiously indeed were they like distorted images of dog and deerlike forms, of
birds - of dwarfs and here and there the simulacra of the giant frogs! Spore
cases, yellowish green, as large as mitres and much resembling them in shape
protruded from the heaps. My repulsion grew into a distinct nausea.
Rador turned to
us a face whiter far than that with which he had looked upon the dragon worm.
"Now for
your lives," he whispered, ”tread softly here as I do - and speak not at
all!"
He stepped
forward on tiptoe, slowly with utmost caution. We crept after him; passed the
heaps beside the path - and as I passed my skin crept and I shrank and saw the
others shrink too with that unnameable loathing; nor did the green dwarf pause
until he had reached the brow of a small hillock a hundred yards beyond. And he
was trembling.
"Now what
are we up against?" grumbled O'Keefe.
The green dwarf
stretched a hand; stiffened; gazed over to the left of us beyond a lower
hillock upon whose broad crest lay a file of the moss shapes. They fringed it,
their mitres having a grotesque appearance of watching what lay below. The
glistening road lay there - and from it came a shout. A dozen of the coria
clustered, filled with Lugur's men and in one of them Lugur himself, laughing
wickedly!
There was a rush
of soldiers and up the low hillock raced a score of them toward us.
"Run!"
shouted Rador.
"Not
much!" grunted Larry - and took swift aim at Lugur. The automatic spat:
Olaf's echoed. Both bullets went wild, for Lugur, still laughing, threw himself
into the protection of the body of his shell. But following the shots, from the
file of moss heaps on the crest, came a series of muffled explosions. Under the
pistol's concussions the mitred caps had burst and instantly all about the
running soldiers grew a cloud of tiny, glistening white spores - like a little
cloud of puff-ball dust many times magnified. Through this cloud I glimpsed
their faces, stricken with agony.
Some turned to
fly, but before they could take a second step stood rigid.
The spore cloud
drifted and eddied about them; rained down on their heads and half bare
breasts, covered their garments - and swiftly they began to change! Their
features grew indistinct - merged! The glistening white spores that covered
them turned to a pale yellow, grew greenish, spread and swelled, darkened. The
eyes of one of the soldiers glinted for a moment - and then were covered by the
swift growth!
Where but a few
moments before had been men were only grotesque heaps, swiftly melting, swiftly
rounding into the semblance of the mounds that lay behind us - and already
beginning to take on their gleam of ancient viridescence!
The Irishman was
gripping my arm fiercely; the pain brought me back to my senses.
"Olaf's
right," he gasped. ”This is hell! I'm sick." And he was, frankly and
without restraint. Lugur and his others awakened from their nightmare; piled
into the coria, wheeled, raced away.
"On!"
said Rador thickly. ”Two perils have we passed - the Silent Ones watch over
us!"
Soon we were
again among the familiar and so unfamiliar moss giants. I knew what I had seen
and this time Larry could not call me - superstitious. In the jungles of Borneo
I had examined that other swiftly developing fungus which wreaks the vengeance
of some of the hill tribes upon those who steal their women; gripping with its
microscopic hooks into the flesh; sending quick, tiny rootlets through the skin
down into the capillaries, sucking life and thriving and never to be torn away
until the living thing it clings to has been sapped dry. Here was but another
of the species in which the development's rate was incredibly accelerated. Some
of this I tried to explain to O'Keefe as we sped along, reassuring him.
"But they
turned to moss before our eyes!" he said.
Again I
explained, patiently. But he seemed to derive no comfort at all from my
assurances that the phenomena were entirely natural and, aside from their more
terrifying aspect, of peculiar interest to the botanist.
"I
know," was all he would say. ”But suppose one of those things had burst
while we were going through - God!"
I was wondering
how I could with comparative safety study the fungus when Rador stopped; in
front of us was again the road ribbon.
"Now is all
danger passed," he said. ”The way lies open and Lugur has fled -”
There was a flash
from the road. It passed me like a little lariat of light. It struck Larry
squarely between the eyes, spread over his face and drew itself within!
"Down!"
cried Rador, and hurled me to the ground. My head struck sharply; I felt myself
grow faint; Olaf fell beside me; I saw the green dwarf draw down the O'Keefe;
he collapsed limply, face still, eyes staring. A shout - and from the roadway
poured a host of Lugur's men; I could hear Lugur bellowing.
There came a rush
of little feet; soft, fragrant draperies brushed my face; dimly I watched Lakla
bend over the Irishman.
She straightened
- her arms swept out and the writhing vine, with its tendrilled heads of ruby
bloom, five flames of misty incandescence, leaped into the faces of the
soldiers now close upon us. It darted at their throats, striking, coiling, and
striking again; coiling and uncoiling with incredible rapidity and flying from
leverage points of throats, of faces, of breasts like a spring endowed with
consciousness, volition and hatred - and those it struck stood rigid as stone
with faces masks of inhuman fear and anguish; and those still unstricken fled.
Another rush of
feet - and down upon Lugur's forces poured the frog-men, their booming giant
leading, thrusting with their lances, tearing and rending with talons and fangs
and spurs.
Against that
onslaught the dwarfs could not stand. They raced for the shells; I heard Lugur
shouting, menacingly - and then Lakla's voice, pealing like a golden bugle of
wrath.
"Go,
Lugur!" she cried. ”Go - that you and Yolara and your Shining One may die
together! Death for you, Lugur - death for you all! Remember Lugur - death!"
There was a great
noise within my head - no matter, Lakla was here - Lakla here - but too late - Lugur
had outplayed us; moss death nor dragon worm had frightened him away - he had
crept back to trap us - Lakla had come too late - Larry was dead - Larry! But I
had heard no banshee wailing - and Larry had said he could not die without that
warning - no, Larry was not dead. So ran the turbulent current of my mind.
A horny arm
lifted me; two enormous, oddly gentle saucer eyes were staring into mine; my
head rolled; I caught a glimpse of the Golden Girl kneeling beside the O'Keefe.
The noise in my
head grew thunderous - was carrying me away on its thunder - swept me into
soft, blind darkness.
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