LITMIR.BIZ

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she said. “You two who love the maid. What you have seen is nothing to that which you SHALL see — a wisp of mist to the storm cloud.”

      “Norhala”— I found speech —“can you tell us when it was that the maid was captured?”

      Perhaps there was still time to overtake the abductors before Ruth was thrust into the worse peril waiting where she was being carried. Crossed this thought another — puzzling, baffling. The cliffs Yuruk had pointed out to me as those through which the hidden way passed were, I had estimated then, at least twenty miles away. And how long was the pass, the tunnel, through them? And then how far this place of the armored men? It had been past dawn when Drake had frightened the black eunuch with his pistol. It was not yet dawn now. How could Yuruk have made his way to the Persians so swiftly — how could they so swiftly have returned?

      Amazingly she answered the spoken question and the unspoken.

      “They came long before dusk,” she said. “By the night before Yuruk had won to Ruszark, the city of Cherkis; and long before dawn they were on their way hither. This the black dog I slew told me.”

      “But Yuruk was with us here at dawn yesterday,” I gasped.

      “A night has passed since then,” she said, “and another night is almost gone.”

      Stunned, I considered this. If this were true — and not for an instant did I doubt her — then not for a few hours had we lain there at the foot of the living wall in the Hall of the Cones — but for the balance of that day and that night, and another day and part of still another night.

      “What does she say?” Drake stared anxiously into my whitened face. I told him.

      “Yes.” Norhala spoke again. “The dusk before the last dusk that has passed I returned to my house. The maid was there and sorrowing. She told me you had gone into the valley, prayed me to help you and to bring you back. I comforted her, and something of — the peace — I gave her; but not all, for she fought against it. A little we played together, and I left her sleeping. I sought you and found you also sleeping. I knew no harm would come to you, and I went my ways — and forgot you. Then I came here again — and found Yuruk and these the maid had slain.”

      The great eyes flashed.

      “Now do I honor the maid for the battle that she did,” she said, “though how she slew so many strong men I do not know. My heart goes out to her. And therefore when I bring her back she shall no more be plaything to Norhala, but sister. And with you it shall be as she wills. And woe to those who have taken her!”

      She paused, listening. From without came a rising storm of thin wailings, insistent and eager.

      “But I have an older vengeance than this to take,” the golden voice tolled somberly. “Long have I forgotten — and shame I feel that I had forgot. So long have I forgotten all hatreds, all lusts, all cruelty — among — these —” She thrust a hand forth toward the hidden valley. “Forgot — dwelling in the great harmonies. Save for you and what has befallen I would never have stirred from them, I think. But now awakened, I take that vengeance. After it is done”— she paused —“after it is over I shall go back again. For this awakening has in it nothing of the ordered joy I love — it is a fierce and slaying fire. I shall go back —”

      The shadow of her far dreaming flitted over, softened the angry brilliancy of her eyes.

      “Listen, you two!” The shadow of dream fled. “Those that I am about to slay are evil — evil are they all, men and women. Long have they been so — yea, for cycles of suns. And their children grow like them — or if they be gentle and with love for peace they are slain or die of heartbreak. All this my mother told me long ago. So no more children shall be born from them either to suffer or to grow evil.”

      Again she paused, nor did we interrupt her musing.

      “My father ruled Ruszark,” she said at last. “Rustum he was named, of the seed of Rustum the Hero even as was my mother. They were gentle and good, and it was their ancestors who built Ruszark when, fleeing from the might of Iskander, they were sealed in the hidden valley by the falling mountain.

      “Then there sprang from one of the families of the nobles — Cherkis. Evil, evil was he, and as he grew he lusted for rule. On a night of terror he fell upon those who loved my father and slew; and barely had my father time to fly from the city with my mother, still but a bride, and a handful of those loyal to him.

      “They found by chance the way to this place, hiding in the cleft which is its portal. They came, and they were taken by — Those who are now my people. Then my mother, who was very beautiful, was lifted before him who rules here and she found favor in his sight and he had built for her this house, which now is mine.

      “And in time I was born — but not in this house. Nay — in a secret place of light where, too, are born my people.”

      She was silent. I shot a glance at Drake. The secret place of light — was it not that vast vault of mystery, of dancing orbs and flames transmuted into music into which we had peered and for which sacrilege, I had thought, had been thrust from the City? And did in this lie the explanation of her strangeness? Had she there sucked in with her mother’s milk the enigmatic life of the Metal Hordes, been transformed into half human changeling, become true kin to them? What else could explain —

      “My mother showed me Ruszark,” her voice, taking up once more her tale, checked my thoughts. “Once when I was little she and my father bore me through the forest and through the hidden way. I looked upon Ruszark — a great city it is and populous, and a caldron of cruelty and of evil.

      “Not like me were my father and mother. They longed for their kind and sought ever for means to regain their place among them. There came a time when my father, driven by his longing, ventured forth to Ruszark, seeking friends to help him regain that place — for these who obey me obeyed not him as they obey me; nor would he have marched them — as I shall — upon Ruszark if they had obeyed him.

      “Cherkis caught him. And Cherkis waited, knowing well that my mother would follow. For Cherkis knew not where to seek her, nor where they had lain hid, for between his city and here the mountains are great, unscalable, and the way through them is cunningly hidden; by chance alone did my mother’s mother and those who fled with her discover it: And though they tortured him, my father would not tell. And after a while forthwith those who still remained of hers stole out with my mother to find him. They left me here with Yuruk. And Cherkis caught my mother.”

      The proud breasts heaved, the eyes shot forth visible flames.

      “My father was flayed alive and crucified,” she said. “His skin they nailed to the City’s gates. And when Cherkis had had his will with my mother he threw her to his soldiers for their sport.

      “All of those who went with them he tortured and slew — and he and his laughed at their torment. But one there was who escaped and told me — me who was little more than a budding maid. He called on me to bring vengeance — and he died. A year passed — and I am not like my mother and my father — and I forgot — dwelling here in the great tranquillities, barred from and having no thought for men and their way.

      “AIE, AIE!” she cried; “woe to me that I could forget! But now I shall take my vengeance — I, Norhala, will stamp them flat — Cherkis and his city of Ruszark and everything it holds! I, Norhala, and my servants shall stamp them into the rock of their valley so that none shall know that they have been! And would that I could meet their gods with all their powers that I might break them, too, and stamp them into the rock under the feet of my servants!”

      She threw out white arms.

      Why had Yuruk lied to me? I wondered as I watched her. The Disk had not slain her mother. Of course! He had lied to play upon our terrors; had lied to frighten us away.

      The wailings were rising in a sustained crescendo. One of the slaying stars slipped over the chamber floor, folded its points and glided out the door.

      “Come!”

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