CHAPTER XXXIII - The Meeting of
Titans
It is not my
intention, nor is it possible no matter how interesting to me, to set down ad
seriatim the happenings of the next twelve hours. But a few will not be denied
recital.
O'Keefe regained
cheerfulness.
"After all,
Doc," he said to me, ”it's a beautiful scrap we're going to have. At the
worst the worst is no more than the leprechaun warned about. I would have told
the Taitha De about the banshee raid he promised me; but I was a bit taken off
my feet at the time. The old girl an' all the clan'll be along, said the little
green man, an' I bet the Three will be damned glad of it, take it from
me."
Lakla,
shining-eyed and half fearful too:
"I have
other tidings that I am afraid will please you little, Larry - darlin'. The
Silent Ones say that you must not go into battle yourself. You must stay here
with me, and with Goodwin - for if - if - the Shining One does come, then must
we be here to meet it. And you might not be, you know, Larry, if you
fight," she said, looking shyly up at him from under the long lashes.
The O'Keefe's jaw
dropped.
"That's
about the hardest yet," he answered slowly. ”Still - I see their point;
the lamb corralled for the altar has no right to stray out among the
lions," he added grimly. ”Don't worry, sweet," he told her. ”As long
as I've sat in the game I'll stick to the rules."
Olaf took fierce
joy in the coming fray. ”The Norns spin close to the end of this web," he
rumbled. ”Ja! And the threads of Lugur and the Heks woman are between their
fingers for the breaking! Thor will be with me, and I have fashioned me a
hammer in glory of Thor." In his hand was an enormous mace of black metal,
fully five feet long, crowned with a massive head.
I pass to the
twelve hours' closing.
At the end of the
coria road where the giant fernland met the edge of the cavern's ruby floor,
hundreds of the Akka were stationed in ambush, armed with their spears tipped
with the rotting death and their nail-studded, metal-headed clubs. These were
to attack when the Murians debauched from the corials. We had little hope of
doing more here than effect some attrition of Yolara's hosts, for at this place
the captains of the Shining One could wield the Keth and their other uncanny
weapons freely. We had learned, too, that every forge and artisan had been put
to work to make an armour Marakinoff had devised to withstand the natural
battle equipment of the frog-people - and both Larry and I had a disquieting
faith in the Russian's ingenuity.
At any rate the
numbers against us would be lessened.
Next, under the
direction of the frog-king, levies commanded by subsidiary chieftains had
completed rows of rough walls along the probable route of the Murians through
the cavern. These afforded the Akka a fair protection behind which they could
hurl their darts and spears - curiously enough they had never developed the bow
as a weapon.
At the opening of
the cavern a strong barricade stretched almost to the two ends of the crescent
strand; almost, I say, because there had not been time to build it entirely
across the mouth.
And from edge to
edge of the titanic bridge, from where it sprang outward at the shore of the
Crimson Sea to a hundred feet away from the golden door of the abode, barrier
after barrier was piled.
Behind the wall
defending the mouth of the cavern, waited other thousands of the Akka. At each
end of the unfinished barricade they were mustered thickly, and at right and
left of the crescent where their forest began, more legions were assembled to
make way up to the ledge as opportunity offered.
Rank upon rank
they manned the bridge barriers; they swarmed over the pinnacles and in the
hollows of the island's ragged outer lip; the domed castle was a hive of them,
if I may mix my metaphors - and the rocks and gardens that surrounded the abode
glittered with them.
"Now,"
said the handmaiden, ”there's nothing else we can do - save wait."
She led us out
through her bower and up the little path that ran to the embrasure.
Through the quiet
came a sound, a sighing, a half-mournful whispering that beat about us and fled
away.
"They
come!" cried Lakla, the light of battle in her eyes. Larry drew her to
him, raised her in his arms, kissed her.
"A
woman!" acclaimed the O'Keefe. ”A real woman - and mine!"
With the cry of
the Portal there was movement among the Akka, the glint of moving spears, flash
of metal-tipped clubs, rattle of horny spurs, rumblings of battle-cries.
And we waited - waited
it seemed interminably, gaze fastened upon the low wall across the cavern
mouth. Suddenly I remembered the crystal through which I had peered when the
hidden assassins had crept upon us. Mentioning it to Lakla, she gave a little
cry of vexation, a command to her attendant; and not long that faithful if
unusual lady had returned with a tray of the glasses. Raising mine, I saw the
lines furthest away leap into sudden activity. Spurred warrior after warrior
leaped upon the barricade and over it. Flashes of intense, green light, mingled
with gleams like lightning strokes of concentrated moon rays, sprang from
behind the wall - sprang and struck and burned upon the scales of the
batrachians.
"They
come!" whispered Lakla.
At the far ends
of the crescent a terrific milling had begun. Here it was plain the Akka were
holding. Faintly, for the distance was great, I could see fresh force upon
force rush up and take the places of those who had fallen.
Over each of
these ends, and along the whole line of the barricade a mist of dancing, diamonded
atoms began to rise; sparking, coruscating points of diamond dust that darted
and danced.
What had once
been Lakla's guardians - dancing now in the nothingness!
"God, but
it's hard to stay here like this!" groaned the O'Keefe; Olaf's teeth were
bared, the lips drawn back in such a fighting grin as his ancestors berserk on
their raven ships must have borne; Rador was livid with rage; the handmaiden's
nostrils flaring wide, all her wrathful soul in her eyes.
Suddenly, while
we looked, the rocky wall which the Akka had built at the cavern mouth - was
not! It vanished, as though an unseen, unbelievably gigantic hand had with the
lightning's speed swept it away. And with it vanished, too, long lines of the
great amphibians close behind it.
Then down upon
the ledge, dropping into the Crimson Sea, sending up geysers of ruby spray,
dashing on the bridge, crushing the frog-men, fell a shower of stone, mingled
with distorted shapes and fragments whose scales still flashed meteoric as they
hurled from above.
"That which
makes things fall upward," hissed Olaf. ”That which I saw in the garden of
Lugur!"
The fiendish
agency of destruction which Marakinoff had revealed to Larry; the force that
cut off gravitation and sent all things within its range racing outward into
space!
And now over the
debris upon the ledge, striking with long sword and daggers, here and there a
captain flashing the green ray, moving on in ordered squares, came the soldiers
of the Shining One. Nearer and nearer the verge of the ledge they pushed Nak's
warriors. Leaping upon the dwarfs, smiting them with spear and club, with teeth
and spur, the Akka fought like devils. Quivering under the ray, they leaped and
dragged down and slew.
Now there was but
one long line of the frog-men at the very edge of the cliff.
And ever the
clouds of dancing, diamonded atoms grew thicker over them all!
That last thin
line of the Akka was going; yet they fought to the last, and none toppled over
the lip without at least one of the armoured Murians in his arms.
My gaze dropped
to the foot of the cliffs. Stretched along their length was a wide ribbon of
beauty - a shimmering multitude of gleaming, pulsing, prismatic moons; glowing,
glowing ever brighter, ever more wondrous - the gigantic Medusae globes
feasting on dwarf and frog-man alike!
Across the
waters, faintly, came a triumphant shouting from Lugur's and Yolara's men!
Was the ruddy
light of the place lessening, growing paler, changing to a faint rose? There
was an exclamation from Larry; something like hope relaxed the drawn muscles of
his face. He pointed to the aureate dome wherein sat the Three - and then I
saw!
Out of it,
through the long transverse slit through which the Silent Ones kept their watch
on cavern, bridge, and abyss, a torrent of the opalescent light was pouring. It
cascaded like a waterfall, and as it flowed it spread whirling out, in columns
and eddies, clouds and wisps of misty, curdled coruscations. It hung like a
veil over all the islands, filtering everywhere, driving back the crimson light
as though possessed of impenetrable substance - and still it cast not the
faintest shadowing upon our vision.
"Good
God!" breathed Larry. ”Look!"
The radiance was
marching - marching - down the colossal bridge. It moved swiftly, in some
unthinkable way intelligently. It swathed the Akka, and closer, ever closer it
swept toward the approach upon which Yolara's men had now gained foothold.
From their ranks
came flash after flash of the green ray - aimed at the abode! But as the light
sped and struck the opalescence it was blotted out! The shimmering mists seemed
to enfold, to dissipate it.
Lakla drew a deep
breath.
"The Silent
Ones forgive me for doubting them," she whispered; and again hope
blossomed on her face even as it did on Larry's.
The frog-men were
gaining. Clothed in the armour of that mist, they pressed back from the
bridge-head the invaders. There was another prodigious movement at the ends of
the crescent, and racing up, pressing against the dwarfs, came other legions of
Nak's warriors. And re-enforcing those out on the prodigious arch, the frog-men
stationed in the gardens below us poured back to the castle and out through the
open Portal.
"They're
licked!" shouted Larry. ”They're -”
So quickly I
could not follow the movement his automatic leaped to his hand - spoke, once
and again and again. Rador leaped to the head of the little path, sword in
hand; Olaf, shouting and whirling his mace, followed. I strove to get my own
gun quickly.
For up that path
were running twoscore of Lugur's men, while from below Lugur's own voice
roared.
"Quick! Slay
not the handmaiden or her lover! Carry them down. Quick! But slay the
others!"
The handmaiden
raced toward Larry, stopped, whistled shrilly - again and again. Larry's pistol
was empty, but as the dwarfs rushed upon him I dropped two of them with mine.
It jammed - I could not use it; I sprang to his side. Rador was down,
struggling in a heap of Lugur's men. Olaf, a Viking of old, was whirling his
great hammer, and striking, striking through armour, flesh, and bone.
Larry was down,
Lakla flew to him. But the Norseman, now streaming blood from a dozen wounds,
caught a glimpse of her coming, turned, thrust out a mighty hand, sent her
reeling back, and then with his hammer cracked the skulls of those trying to
drag the O'Keefe down the path.
A cry from Lakla
- the dwarfs had seized her, had lifted her despite her struggles, were
carrying her away. One I dropped with the butt of my useless pistol, and then
went down myself under the rush of another.
Through the
clamour I heard a booming of the Akka, closer, closer; then through it the
bellow of Lugur. I made a mighty effort, swung a hand up, and sunk my fingers
in the throat of the soldier striving to kill me. Writhing over him, my fingers
touched a poniard; I thrust it deep, staggered to my feet.
The O'Keefe,
shielding Lakla, was battling with a long sword against a half dozen of the
soldiers. I started toward him, was struck, and under the impact hurled to the
ground. Dizzily I raised myself - and leaning upon my elbow, stared and moved
no more. For the dwarfs lay dead, and Larry, holding Lakla tightly, was staring
even as I, and ranged at the head of the path were the Akka, whose booming
advance in obedience to the handmaiden's call I had heard.
And at what we
all stared was Olaf, crimson with his wounds, and Lugur, in blood-red armour,
locked in each other's grip, struggling, smiting, tearing, kicking, and swaying
about the little space before the embrasure. I crawled over toward the O'Keefe.
He raised his pistol, dropped it.
"Can't hit
him without hitting Olaf," he whispered. Lakla signalled the frog-men;
they advanced toward the two - but Olaf saw them, broke the red dwarf's hold,
sent Lugur reeling a dozen feet away.
"No!"
shouted the Norseman, the ice of his pale-blue eyes glinting like frozen
flames, blood streaming down his face and dripping from his hands. ”No! Lugur
is mine! None but me slays him! Ho, you Lugur -” and cursed him and Yolara and
the Dweller hideously - I cannot set those curses down here.
They spurred
Lugur. Mad now as the Norseman, the red dwarf sprang. Olaf struck a blow that
would have killed an ordinary man, but Lugur only grunted, swept in, and seized
him about the waist; one mighty arm began to creep up toward Huldricksson's
throat.
"'Ware,
Olaf!" cried O'Keefe; but Olaf did not answer. He waited until the red
dwarf's hand was close to his shoulder; and then, with an incredibly rapid
movement - once before had I seen something like it in a wrestling match
between Papuans - he had twisted Lugur around; twisted him so that Olaf's right
arm lay across the tremendous breast, the left behind the neck, and Olaf's left
leg held the Voice's armoured thighs viselike against his right knee while over
that knee lay the small of the red dwarf's back.
For a second or
two the Norseman looked down upon his enemy, motionless in that paralyzing
grip. And then - slowly - he began to break him!
Lakla gave a
little cry; made a motion toward the two. But Larry drew her head down against
his breast, hiding her eyes; then fastened his own upon the pair, white-faced,
stern.
Slowly, ever so
slowly, proceeded Olaf. Twice Lugur moaned. At the end he screamed - horribly.
There was a cracking sound, as of a stout stick snapped.
Huldricksson
stooped, silently. He picked up the limp body of the Voice, not yet dead, for
the eyes rolled, the lips strove to speak; lifted it, walked to the parapet,
swung it twice over his head, and cast it down to the red waters!
CHAPTER XXXIV - The Coming of
the Shining One
The Norseman
turned toward us. There was now no madness in his eyes; only a great weariness.
And there was peace on the once tortured face.
"Helma,"
he whispered, ”I go a little before! Soon you will come to me - to me and the
Yndling who will await you - Helma, meine liebe!"
Blood gushed from
his mouth; he swayed, fell. And thus died Olaf Huldricksson.
We looked down
upon him; nor did Lakla, nor Larry, nor I try to hide our tears. And as we
stood the Akka brought to us that other mighty fighter, Rador; but in him there
was life, and we attended to him there as best we could.
Then Lakla spoke.
"We will
bear him into the castle where we may give him greater care," she said. ”For,
lo! the hosts of Yolara have been beaten back; and on the bridge comes Nak with
tidings."
We looked over
the parapet. It was even as she had said. Neither on ledge nor bridge was there
trace of living men of Muria - only heaps of slain that lay everywhere - and
thick against the cavern mouth still danced the flashing atoms of those the
green ray had destroyed.
"Over!"
exclaimed Larry incredulously. ”We live then - heart of mine!"
"The Silent
Ones recall their veils," she said, pointing to the dome. Back through the
slitted opening the radiance was streaming; withdrawing from sea and island;
marching back over the bridge with that same ordered, intelligent motion.
Behind it the red light pressed, like skirmishers on the heels of a retreating
army.
"And yet -”
faltered the handmaiden as we passed into her chamber, and doubtful were the
eyes she turned upon the O'Keefe.
"I don't
believe," he said, ”there's a kick left in them -”
What was that
sound beating into the chamber faintly, so faintly? My heart gave a great throb
and seemed to stop for an eternity. What was it - coming nearer, ever nearer?
Now Lakla and O'Keefe heard it, life ebbing from lips and cheeks.
Nearer, nearer - a
music as of myriads of tiny crystal bells, tinkling, tinkling - a storm of
pizzicati upon violins of glass! Nearer, nearer - not sweetly now, nor luring;
no - raging, wrathful, sinister beyond words; sweeping on; nearer -
The Dweller! The
Shining One!
We leaped to the
narrow window; peered out, aghast. The bell notes swept through and about us, a
hurricane. The crescent strand was once more a ferment. Back, back were the
Akka being swept, as though by brooms, tottering on the edge of the ledge,
falling into the waters. Swiftly they were finished; and where they had fought
was an eddying throng clothed in tatters or naked, swaying, drifting, arms
tossing - like marionettes of Satan.
The dead-alive!
The slaves of the Dweller!
They swayed and
tossed, and then, like water racing through an opened dam, they swept upon the
bridge-head. On and on they pushed, like the bore of a mighty tide. The
frog-men strove against them, clubbing, spearing, tearing them. But even those
worst smitten seemed not to fall. On they pushed, driving forward, irresistible
- a battering ram of flesh and bone. They clove the masses of the Akka, pressing
them to the sides of the bridge and over. Through the open gates they forced
them - for there was no room for the frog-men to stand against that implacable
tide.
Then those of the
Akka who were left turned their backs and ran. We heard the clang of the golden
wings of the portal, and none too soon to keep out the first of the Dweller's
dreadful hordes.
Now upon the
cavern ledge and over the whole length of the bridge there were none but the
dead-alive, men and women, black-polled ladala, sloe-eyed Malays, slant-eyed
Chinese, men of every race that sailed the seas - milling, turning, swaying,
like leaves caught in a sluggish current.
The bell notes
became sharper, more insistent. At the cavern mouth a radiance began to grow - a
gleaming from which the atoms of diamond dust seemed to try to flee. As the
radiance grew and the crystal notes rang nearer, every head of that hideous
multitude turned stiffly, slowly toward the right, looking toward the far
bridge end; their eyes fixed and glaring; every face an inhuman mask of rapture
and of horror!
A movement shook
them. Those in the centre began to stream back, faster and ever faster, leaving
motionless deep ranks on each side. Back they flowed until from golden doors to
cavern mouth a wide lane stretched, walled on each side by the dead-alive.
The far radiance
became brighter; it gathered itself at the end of the dreadful lane; it was
shot with sparklings and with pulsings of polychromatic light. The crystal
storm was intolerable, piercing the ears with countless tiny lances; brighter
still the radiance.
From the cavern
swirled the Shining One!
The Dweller
paused, seemed to scan the island of the Silent Ones half doubtfully; then
slowly, stately, it drifted out upon the bridge. Closer it drew; behind it glided
Yolara at the head of a company of her dwarfs, and at her side was the hag of
the Council whose face was the withered, shattered echo of her own.
Slower grew the
Dweller's pace as it drew nearer. Did I sense in it a doubt, an uncertainty?
The crystal-tongued, unseen choristers that accompanied it subtly seemed to
reflect the doubt; their notes were not sure, no longer insistent; rather was
there in them an undertone of hesitancy, of warning! Yet on came the Shining
One until it stood plain beneath us, searching with those eyes that thrust from
and withdrew into unknown spheres, the golden gateway, the cliff face, the
castle's rounded bulk - and more intently than any of these, the dome wherein
sat the Three.
Behind it each
face of the dead-alive turned toward it, and those beside it throbbed and
gleamed with its luminescence.
Yolara crept
close, just beyond the reach of its spirals. She murmured - and the Dweller
bent toward her, its seven globes steady in their shining mists, as though
listening. It drew erect once more, resumed its doubtful scrutiny. Yolara's
face darkened; she turned abruptly, spoke to a captain of her guards. A dwarf
raced back between the palisades of dead-alive.
Now the priestess
cried out, her voice ringing like a silver clarion.
"Ye are
done, ye Three! The Shining One stands at your door, demanding entrance. Your
beasts are slain and your power is gone. Who are ye, says the Shining One, to
deny it entrance to the place of its birth?"
"Ye do not
answer," she cried again, ”yet know we that ye hear! The Shining One
offers these terms: Send forth your handmaiden and that lying stranger she
stole; send them forth to us - and perhaps ye may live. But if ye send them not
forth, then shall ye too die - and soon!"
We waited, silent,
even as did Yolara - and again there was no answer from the Three.
The priestess
laughed; the blue eyes flashed.
"It is
ended!" she cried. ”If you will not open, needs must we open for
you!"
Over the bridge
was marching a long double file of the dwarfs. They bore a smoothed and handled
tree-trunk whose head was knobbed with a huge ball of metal. Past the
priestess, past the Shining One, they carried it; fifty of them to each side of
the ram; and behind them stepped - Marakinoff!
Larry awoke to
life.
"Now, thank
God," he rasped, ”I can get that devil, anyway!"
He drew his
pistol, took careful aim. Even as he pressed the trigger there rang through the
abode a tremendous clanging. The ram was battering at the gates. O'Keefe's
bullet went wild. The Russian must have heard the shot; perhaps the missile was
closer than we knew. He made a swift leap behind the guards; was lost to sight.
Once more the
thunderous clanging rang through the castle.
Lakla drew
herself erect; down upon her dropped the listening aloofness. Gravely she bowed
her head.
"It is time,
O love of mine." She turned to O'Keefe. ”The Silent Ones say that the way
of fear is closed, but the way of love is open. They call upon us to redeem our
promise!"
For a hundred
heart-beats they clung to each other, breast to breast and lip to lip. Below,
the clangour was increasing, the great trunk swinging harder and faster upon
the metal gates. Now Lakla gently loosed the arms of the O'Keefe, and for
another instant those two looked into each other's souls. The handmaiden smiled
tremulously.
"I would it
might have been otherwise, Larry darlin'," she whispered. ”But at least - we
pass together, dearest of mine!"
She leaped to the
window.
"Yolara!"
the golden voice rang out sweetly. The clanging ceased. ”Draw back your men. We
open the Portal and come forth to you and the Shining One - Larry and I."
The priestess's
silver chimes of laughter rang out, cruel, mocking.
"Come, then,
quickly," she jeered. ”For surely both the Shining One and I yearn for
you!" Her malice-laden laughter chimed high once more. ”Keep us not lonely
long!" the priestess mocked.
Larry drew a deep
breath, stretched both hands out to me.
"It's
good-by, I guess, Doc." His voice was strained. ”Good-by and good luck,
old boy. If you get out, and you will, let the old Dolphin know I'm gone. And
carry on, pal - and always remember the O'Keefe loved you like a brother."
I squeezed his
hands desperately. Then out of my balanceshaking woe a strange comfort was
born.
"Maybe it's
not good-by, Larry!" I cried. ”The banshee has not cried!"
A flash of hope
passed over his face; the old reckless grin shone forth.
"It's
so!" he said. ”By the Lord, it's so!"
Then Lakla bent
toward me, and for the second time - kissed me.
"Come!"
she said to Larry. Hand in hand they moved away, into the corridor that led to
the door outside of which waited the Shining One and its priestess.
And unseen by
them, wrapped as they were within their love and sacrifice, I crept softly
behind. For I had determined that if enter the Dweller's embrace they must,
they should not go alone.
They paused
before the Golden Portals; the handmaiden pressed its opening lever; the
massive leaves rolled back.
Heads high,
proudly, serenely, they passed through and out upon the hither span. I
followed.
On each side of
us stood the Dweller's slaves, faces turned rigidly toward their master. A
hundred feet away the Shining One pulsed and spiralled in its evilly glorious
lambency of sparkling plumes.
Unhesitating,
always with that same high serenity, Lakla and the O'Keefe, hands clasped like
little children, drew closer to that wondrous shape. I could not see their
faces, but I saw awe fall upon those of the watching dwarfs, and into the
burning eyes of Yolara crept a doubt. Closer they drew to the Dweller, and
closer, I following them step by step. The Shining One's whirling lessened; its
tinklings were faint, almost stilled. It seemed to watch them apprehensively. A
silence fell upon us all, a thick silence, brooding, ominous, palpable. Now the
pair were face to face with the child of the Three - so near that with one of
its misty tentacles it could have enfolded them.
And the Shining
One drew back!
Yes, drew back - and
back with it stepped Yolara, the doubt in her eyes deepening. Onward paced the
handmaiden and the O'Keefe - and step by step, as they advanced, the Dweller
withdrew; its bell notes chiming out, puzzled questioning - half fearful!
And back it drew,
and back until it had reached the very centre of that platform over the abyss
in whose depths pulsed the green fires of earth heart. And there Yolara gripped
herself; the hell that seethed within her soul leaped out of her eyes, a cry, a
shriek of rage, tore from her lips.
As at a signal,
the Shining One flamed high; its spirals and eddying mists swirled madly, the
pulsing core of it blazed radiance. A score of coruscating tentacles swept
straight upon the pair who stood intrepid, unresisting, awaiting its embrace.
And upon me, lurking behind them.
Through me swept
a mighty exaltation. It was the end then - and I was to meet it with them.
Something drew us
back, back with an incredible swiftness, and yet as gently as a summer breeze
sweeps a bit of thistle-down! Drew us back from those darting misty arms even as
they were a hair-breadth from us! I heard the Dweller's bell notes burst out
ragingly! I heard Yolara scream.
What was that?
Between the three
of us and them was a ring of curdled moon flames, swirling about the Shining
One and its priestess, pressing in upon them, enfolding them!
And within it I
glimpsed the faces of the Three - implacable, sorrowful, filled with a supernal
power!
Sparks and
flashes of white flame darted from the ring, penetrating the radiant swathings
of the Dweller, striking through its pulsing nucleus, piercing its seven
crowning orbs.
Now the Shining
One's radiance began to dim, the seven orbs to dull; the tiny sparkling
filaments that ran from them down into the Dweller's body snapped, vanished!
Through the battling nebulosities Yolara's face swam forth - horror-filled,
distorted, inhuman!
The ranks of the
dead-alive quivered, moved, writhed, as though each felt the torment of the
Thing that had enslaved them. The radiance that the Three wielded grew more
intense, thicker, seemed to expand. Within it, suddenly, were scores of flaming
triangles - scores of eyes like those of the Silent Ones!
And the Shining
One's seven little moons of amber, of silver, of blue and amethyst and green,
of rose and white, split, shattered, were gone! Abruptly the tortured crystal
chimings ceased.
Dulled, all its
soul-shaking beauty dead, blotched and shadowed squalidly, its gleaming plumes
tarnished, its dancing spirals stripped from it, that which had been the
Shining One wrapped itself about Yolara - wrapped and drew her into itself;
writhed, swayed, and hurled itself over the edge of the bridge - down, down
into the green fires of the unfathomable abyss - with its priestess still
enfolded in its coils!
From the dwarfs
who had watched that terror came screams of panic fear. They turned and ran,
racing frantically over the bridge toward the cavern mouth.
The serried ranks
of the dead-alive trembled, shook. Then from their faces tied the horror of
wedded ecstasy and anguish. Peace, utter peace, followed in its wake.
And as fields of
wheat are bent and fall beneath the wind, they fell. No longer dead-alive, now
all of the blessed dead, freed from their dreadful slavery!
Abruptly from the
sparkling mists the cloud of eyes was gone. Faintly revealed in them were only
the heads of the Silent Ones. And they drew before us; were before us! No
flames now in their ebon eyes - for the flickering fires were quenched in great
tears, streaming down the marble white faces. They bent toward us, over us;
their radiance enfolded us. My eyes darkened. I could not see. I felt a tender
hand upon my head - and panic and frozen dread and nightmare web that held me
fled.
Then they, too,
were gone.
Upon Larry's
breast the handmaiden was sobbing - sobbing out her heart - but this time with
the joy of one who is swept up from the very threshold of hell into paradise.
CHAPTER XXXV - "Larry - Farewell!"
"My heart,
Larry -” It was the handmaiden's murmur. ”My heart feels like a bird that is
flying from a nest of sorrow."
We were pacing
down the length of the bridge, guards of the Akka beside us, others following
with those companies of ladala that had rushed to aid us; in front of us the
bandaged Rador swung gently within a litter; beside him, in another, lay Nak,
the frog-king - much less of him than there had been before the battle began,
but living.
Hours had passed
since the terror I have just related. My first task had been to search for
Throckmartin and his wife among the fallen multitudes strewn thick as autumn
leaves along the flying arch of stone, over the cavern ledge, and back, back as
far as the eye could reach.
At last, Lakla
and Larry helping, we found them. They lay close to the bridge-end, not parted
- locked tight in each other's arms, pallid face to face, her hair streaming
over his breast! As though when that unearthly life the Dweller had set within
them passed away, their own had come back for one fleeting instant - and they
had known each other, and clasped before kindly death had taken them.
"Love is stronger
than all things." The handmaiden was weeping softly. ”Love never left
them. Love was stronger than the Shining One. And when its evil fled, love went
with them - wherever souls go."
Of Stanton and
Thora there was no trace; nor, after our discovery of those other two, did I
care to look more. They were dead - and they were free.
We buried
Throckmartin and Edith beside Olaf in Lakla's bower. But before the body of my
old friend was placed within the grave I gave it a careful and sorrowful
examination. The skin was firm and smooth, but cold; not the cold of death, but
with a chill that set my touching fingers tingling unpleasantly. The body was
bloodless; the course of veins and arteries marked by faintly indented white
furrows, as though their walls had long collapsed. Lips, mouth, even the
tongue, was paper white. There was no sign of dissolution as we know it; no
shadow or stain upon the marble surface. Whatever the force that, streaming
from the Dweller or impregnating its lair, had energized the dead-alive, it was
barrier against putrescence of any kind; that at least was certain.
But it was not
barrier against the poison of the Medusae, for, our sad task done, and looking
down upon the waters, I saw the pale forms of the Dweller's hordes dissolving,
vanishing into the shifting glories of the gigantic moons sailing down upon
them from every quarter of the Sea of Crimson.
While the
frog-men, those late levies from the farthest forests, were clearing bridge and
ledge of cavern of the litter of the dead, we listened to a leader of the
ladala. They had risen, even as the messenger had promised Rador. Fierce had
been the struggle in the gardened city by the silver waters with those Lugur
and Yolara had left behind to garrison it. Deadly had been the slaughter of the
fair-haired, reaping the harvest of hatred they had been sowing so long. Not
without a pang of regret did I think of the beautiful, gaily malicious elfin
women destroyed - evil though they may have been.
The ancient city
of Lara was a charnel. Of all the rulers not twoscore had escaped, and these
into regions of peril which to describe as sanctuary would be mockery. Nor had
the ladala fared so well. Of all the men and women, for women as well as men
had taken their part in the swift war, not more than a tenth remained alive.
And the dancing
motes of light in the silver air were thick, thick - they whispered.
They told us of
the Shining One rushing through the Veil, cometlike, its hosts streaming behind
it, raging with it, in ranks that seemed interminable!
Of the massacre
of the priests and priestesses in the Cyclopean temple; of the flashing forth
of the summoning lights by unseen hands - followed by the tearing of the
rainbow curtain, by colossal shatterings of the radiant cliffs; the vanishing
behind their debris of all trace of entrance to the haunted place wherein the
hordes of the Shining One had slaved - the sealing of the lair!
Then, when the
tempest of hate had ended in seething Lara, how, thrilled with victory, armed
with the weapons of those they had slain, they had lifted the Shadow, passed
through the Portal, met and slaughtered the fleeing remnants of Yolara's men - only
to find the tempest stilled here, too.
But of Marakinoff
they had seen nothing! Had the Russian escaped, I wondered, or was he lying out
there among the dead?
But now the
ladala were calling upon Lakla to come with them, to govern them.
"I don't
want to, Larry darlin'," she told him. ”I want to go out with you to
Ireland. But for a time - I think the Three would have us remain and set that
place in order."
The O'Keefe was
bothered about something else than the government of Muria.
"If they've
killed off all the priests, who's to marry us, heart of mine?" he worried.
”None of those Siya and Siyana rites, no matter what," he added hastily.
"Marry!"
cried the handmaiden incredulously. ”Marry us? Why, Larry dear, we are
married!"
The O'Keefe's
astonishment was complete; his jaw dropped; collapse seemed imminent.
"We
are?" he gasped. ”When?" he stammered fatuously.
"Why, when
the Mother drew us together before her; when she put her hands on our heads
after we had made the promise! Didn't you understand that?" asked the
handmaiden wonderingly.
He looked at her,
into the purity of the clear golden eyes, into the purity of the soul that
gazed out of them; all his own great love transfiguring his keen face.
"An' is that
enough for you, mavourneen?" he whispered humbly.
"Enough?"
The handmaiden's puzzlement was complete, profound. ”Enough? Larry darlin',
what more could we ask?"
He drew a deep
breath, clasped her close.
"Kiss the
bride, Doc!" cried the O'Keefe. And for the third and, soul's sorrow! the
last time, Lakla dimpling and blushing, I thrilled to the touch of her soft,
sweet lips.
Quickly were our
preparations for departure made. Rador, conscious, his immense vitality
conquering fast his wounds, was to be borne ahead of us. And when all was done,
Lakla, Larry, and I made our way up to the scarlet stone that was the doorway
to the chamber of the Three. We knew, of course, that they had gone, following,
no doubt, those whose eyes I had seen in the curdled mists, and who, coming to
the aid of the Three at last from whatever mysterious place that was their
home, had thrown their strength with them against the Shining One. Nor were we
wrong. When the great slab rolled away, no torrents of opalescence came rushing
out upon us. The vast dome was dim, tenantless; its curved walls that had
cascaded Light shone now but faintly; the dais was empty; its wall of
moon-flame radiance gone.
A little time we
stood, heads bent, reverent, our hearts filled with gratitude and love - yes,
and with pity for that strange trinity so alien to us and yet so near; children
even as we, though so unlike us, of our same Mother Earth.
And what I
wondered had been the secret of that promise they had wrung from their
handmaiden and from Larry. And whence, if what the Three had said had been all
true - whence had come their power to avert the sacrifice at the very verge of
its consummation?
"Love is
stronger than all things!" had said Lakla.
Was it that they
had needed, must have, the force which dwells within love, within willing
sacrifice, to strengthen their own power and to enable them to destroy the
evil, glorious Thing so long shielded by their own love? Did the thought of
sacrifice, the will toward abnegation, have to be as strong as the eternals,
unshaken by faintest thrill of hope, before the Three could make of it their
key to unlock the Dweller's guard and strike through at its life?
Here was a
mystery - a mystery indeed! Lakla softly closed the crimson stone. The mystery
of the red dwarf's appearance was explained when we discovered a half-dozen of
the water coria moored in a small cove not far from where the Sekta flashed
their heads of living bloom. The dwarfs had borne the shallops with them, and
from somewhere beyond the cavern ledge had launched them unperceived; stealing
up to the farther side of the island and risking all in one bold stroke. Well, Lugur,
no matter what he held of wickedness, held also high courage.
The cavern was
paved with the dead-alive, the Akka carrying them out by the hundreds, casting
them into the waters. Through the lane down which the Dweller had passed we
went as quickly as we could, coming at last to the space where the coria
waited. And not long after we swung past where the shadow had hung and hovered
over the shining depths of the Midnight Pool.
Upon Lakla's
insistence we passed on to the palace of Lugur, not to Yolara's - I do not know
why, but go there then she would not. And within one of its columned rooms,
maidens of the black-haired folks, the wistfulness, the fear, all gone from
their sparkling eyes, served us.
There came to me
a huge desire to see the destruction they had told us of the Dweller's lair; to
observe for myself whether it was not possible to make a way of entrance and to
study its mysteries.
I spoke of this,
and to my surprise both the handmaiden and the O'Keefe showed an almost
embarrassed haste to acquiesce in my hesitant suggestion.
"Sure,"
cried Larry, ”there's lots of time before night!"
He caught himself
sheepishly; cast a glance at Lakla.
"I keep
forgettin' there's no night here," he mumbled.
"What did
you say, Larry?" asked she.
"I said I
wish we were sitting in our home in Ireland, watching the sun go down," he
whispered to her. Vaguely I wondered why she blushed.
But now I must
hasten. We went to the temple, and here at least the ghastly litter of the dead
had been cleaned away. We passed through the blue-caverned space, crossed the
narrow arch that spanned the rushing sea stream, and, ascending, stood again
upon the ivoried pave at the foot of the frowning, towering amphitheatre of
jet.
Across the Silver
Waters there was sign of neither Web of Rainbows nor colossal pillars nor the
templed lips that I had seen curving out beneath the Veil when the Shining One
had swirled out to greet its priestess and its voice and to dance with the
sacrifices. There was but a broken and rent mass of the radiant cliffs against
whose base the lake lapped.
Long I looked - and
turned away saddened. Knowing even as I did what the irised curtain had hidden,
still it was as though some thing of supernal beauty and wonder had been swept
away, never to be replaced; a glamour gone for ever; a work of the high gods
destroyed.
"Let's go
back," said Larry abruptly.
I dropped a
little behind them to examine a bit of carving - and, after all, they did not
want me. I watched them pacing slowly ahead, his arm around her, black hair
close to bronze-gold ringlets. Then I followed. Half were they over the bridge
when through the roar of the imprisoned stream I heard my name called softly.
"Goodwin!
Dr. Goodwin!"
Amazed, I turned.
From behind the pedestal of a carved group slunk - Marakinoff! My premonition
had been right. Some way he had escaped, slipped through to here. He held his
hands high, came forward cautiously.
"I am
finished," he whispered -”Done! I don't care what they'll do to me."
He nodded toward the handmaiden and Larry, now at the end of the bridge and
passing on, oblivious of all save each other. He drew closer. His eyes were
sunken, burning, mad; his face etched with deep lines, as though a graver's
tool had cut down through it. I took a step backward.
A grin, like the
grimace of a fiend, blasted the Russian's visage. He threw himself upon me, his
hands clenching at my throat!
"Larry!"
I yelled - and as I spun around under the shock of his onslaught, saw the two
turn, stand paralyzed, then race toward me.
"But you'll
carry nothing out of here!" shrieked Marakinoff. ”No!"
My foot, darting
out behind me, touched vacancy. The roaring of the racing stream deafened me. I
felt its mists about me; threw myself forward.
I was falling - falling
- with the Russian's hand strangling me. I struck water, sank; the hands that
gripped my throat relaxed for a moment their clutch. I strove to writhe loose;
felt that I was being hurled with dreadful speed on - full realization came - on
the breast of that racing torrent dropping from some far ocean cleft and
rushing - where? A little time, a few breathless instants, I struggled with the
devil who clutched me - inflexibly, indomitably.
Then a shrieking
as of all the pent winds of the universe in my ears - blackness!
Consciousness
returned slowly, agonizedly.
"Larry!"
I groaned. ”Lakla!"
A brilliant light
was glowing through my closed lids. It hurt. I opened my eyes, closed them with
swords and needles of dazzling pain shooting through them. Again I opened them
cautiously. It was the sun!
I staggered to my
feet. Behind me was a shattered wall of basalt monoliths, hewn and squared.
Before me was the Pacific, smooth and blue and smiling.
And not far away,
cast up on the strand even as I had been, was - Marakinoff!
He lay there,
broken and dead indeed. Yet all the waters through which we had passed - not
even the waters of death themselves - could wash from his face the grin of
triumph. With the last of my strength I dragged the body from the strand and
pushed it out into the waves. A little billow ran up, coiled about it, and
carried it away, ducking and bending. Another seized it, and another, playing
with it. It floated from my sight - that which had been Marakinoff, with all
his schemes to turn our fair world into an undreamed-of-hell.
My strength began
to come back to me. I found a thicket and slept; slept it must have been for
many hours, for when I again awakened the dawn was rosing the east. I will not
tell my sufferings. Suffice it to say that I found a spring and some fruit, and
just before dusk had recovered enough to writhe up to the top of the wall and
discover where I was.
The place was one
of the farther islets of the Nan-Matal. To the north I caught the shadows of
the ruins of Nan-Tauach, where was the moon door, black against the sky. Where
was the moon door - which, someway, somehow, I must reach, and quickly.
At dawn of the
next day I got together driftwood and bound it together in shape of a rough
raft with fallen creepers. Then, with a makeshift paddle, I set forth for
Nan-Tauach. Slowly, painfully, I crept up to it. It was late afternoon before I
grounded my shaky craft on the little beach between the ruined sea-gates and,
creeping up the giant steps, made my way to the inner enclosure.
And at its
opening I stopped, and the tears ran streaming down my cheeks while I wept
aloud with sorrow and with disappointment and with weariness.
For the great
wall in which had been set the pale slab whose threshold we had crossed to the
land of the Shining One lay shattered and broken. The monoliths were heaped
about; the wall had fallen, and about them shone a film of water, half covering
them.
There was no moon
door!
Dazed and
weeping, I drew closer, climbed upon their outlying fragments. I looked out
only upon the sea. There had been a great subsidence, an earth shock, perhaps,
tilting downward all that side - the echo, little doubt, of that cataclysm
which had blasted the Dweller's lair!
The little
squared islet called Tau, in which were hidden the seven globes, had entirely
disappeared. Upon the waters there was no trace of it.
The moon door was
gone; the passage to the Moon Pool was closed to me - its chamber covered by
the sea!
There was no road
to Larry - nor to Lakla!
And there, for
me, the world ended.
