The Moon Pool

by Abraham Merritt

  CHAPTER XXVII

  The Coming of Yolara

  "Never was there such a girl!" Thus Larry, dreamily, leaning head inhand on one of the wide divans of the chamber where Lakla had left us,pleading service to the Silent Ones.

  "An', by the faith and the honour of the O'Keefes, an' by my deadmother's soul may God do with me as I do by her!" he whisperedfervently.

  He relapsed into open-eyed dreaming.

  I walked about the room, examining it--the first opportunity I hadgained to inspect carefully any of the rooms in the abode of theThree. It was octagonal, carpeted with the thick rugs that seemedalmost as though woven of soft mineral wool, faintly shimmering,palest blue. I paced its diagonal; it was fifty yards; the ceiling wasarched, and either of pale rose metal or metallic covering; itcollected the light from the high, slitted windows, and shed it,diffused, through the room.

  Around the octagon ran a low gallery not two feet from the floor,balustraded with slender pillars, close set; broken at oppositecurtained entrances over which hung thick, dull-gold curtainingsgiving the same suggestion of metallic or mineral substance as therugs. Set within each of the eight sides, above the balcony, werecolossal slabs of lapis lazuli, inset with graceful but unplaceabledesigns in scarlet and sapphire blue.

  There was the great divan on which mused Larry; two smaller ones, halfa dozen low seats and chairs carved apparently of ivory and of dullsoft gold.

  Most curious were tripods, strong, pikelike legs of golden metal fourfeet high, holding small circles of the lapis with intaglios of onecurious symbol somewhat resembling the ideographs of the Chinese.

  There was no dust--nowhere in these caverned spaces had I found thisconstant companion of ours in the world overhead. My eyes caught asparkle from a corner. Pursuing it I found upon one of the low seats aflat, clear crystal oval, remarkably like a lens. I took it andstepped up on the balcony. Standing on tiptoe I found I commanded fromthe bottom of a window slit a view of the bridge approach. Scanning itI could see no trace of the garrison there, nor of the green spearflashes. I placed the crystal to my eyes--and with a disconcertingabruptness the cavern mouth leaped before me, apparently not a hundredfeet away; decidedly the crystal was a very excellent lens--but wherewere the guards?

  I peered closely. Nothing! But now against the aperture I saw ascore or more of tiny, dancing sparks. An optical illusion, I thought,and turned the crystal in another direction. There were no sparklingsthere. I turned it back again--and there they were. And what werethey like? Realization came to me--they were like the little, dancing,radiant atoms that had played for a time about the emptiness where hadstood Sorgar of the Lower Waters before he had been shaken into thenothingness! And that green light I had noticed--the _Keth_!

  A cry on my lips, I turned to Larry--and the cry died as the heavycurtainings at the entrance on my right undulated, parted as though abody had slipped through, shook and parted again and again--with thedreadful passing of unseen things!

  "Larry!" I cried. "Here! Quick!"

  He leaped to his feet, gazed about wildly--and disappeared!Yes--vanished from my sight like the snuffed flame of a candle or asthough something moving with the speed of light itself had snatchedhim away!

  Then from the divan came the sounds of struggle, the hissing ofstraining breaths, the noise of Larry cursing. I leaped over thebalustrade, drawing my own pistol--was caught in a pair of mightyarms, my elbows crushed to my sides, drawn down until my face pressedclose to a broad, hairy breast--and through that obstacle--formless,shadowless, transparent as air itself--I could still see the battle onthe divan!

  Now there were two sharp reports; the struggle abruptly ceased. Froma point not a foot over the great couch, as though oozing from the airitself, blood began to drop, faster and ever faster, pouring out ofnothingness.

  And out of that same air, now a dozen feet away, leaped the face ofLarry--bodyless, poised six feet above the floor, blazing withrage--floating weirdly, uncannily to a hideous degree, in vacancy.

  His hands flashed out--armless; they wavered, appearing,disappearing--swiftly tearing something from him. Then there, feethidden, stiff on legs that vanished at the ankles, striking out intovision with all the dizzy abruptness with which he had been strickenfrom sight was the O'Keefe, a smoking pistol in hand.

  And ever that red stream trickled out of vacancy and spread over thecouch, dripping to the floor.

  I made a mighty movement to escape; was held more firmly--and thenclose to the face of Larry, flashing out with that terrifyinginstantaneousness even as had his, was the head of Yolara, asdevilishly mocking as I had ever seen it, the cruelty shining throughit like delicate white flames from hell--and beautiful!

  "Stir not! Strike not--until I command!" She flung the words beyondher, addressed to the invisible ones who had accompanied her; whosepresences I sensed filling the chamber. The floating, beautiful head,crowned high with corn-silk hair, darted toward the Irishman. He tooka swift step backward. The eyes of the priestess deepened towardpurple; sparkled with malice.

  "So," she said. "So, _Larree_--you thought you could go from me soeasily!" She laughed softly. "In my hidden hand I hold the _Keth_cone," she murmured. "Before you can raise the death tube I can smiteyou--and will. And consider, _Larree_, if the handmaiden, the _choya_comes, I can vanish--so"--the mocking head disappeared, burst forthagain--"and slay her with the _Keth_--or bid my people seize her andbear her to the Shining One!"

  Tiny beads of sweat stood out on O'Keefe's forehead, and I knew he wasthinking not of himself, but of Lakla.

  "What do you want with me, Yolara?" he asked hoarsely.

  "Nay," came the mocking voice. "Not Yolara to you, _Larree_--call meby those sweet names you taught me--Honey of the Wild Bee-e-s, Net ofHearts--" Again her laughter tinkled.

  "What do you want with me?" his voice was strained, the lips rigid.

  "Ah, you are afraid, _Larree_." There was diabolic jubilation in thewords. "What should I want but that you return with me? Why else did Icreep through the lair of the dragon worm and pass the path of perilsbut to ask you that? And the _choya_ guards you not well." Again shelaughed. "We came to the cavern's end and, there were her _Akka_. Andthe _Akka_ can see us--as shadows. But it was my desire to surpriseyou with my coming, Larree," the voice was silken. "And I feared thatthey would hasten to be first to bring you that message to delight inyour joy. And so, _Larree_, I loosed the _Keth_ upon them--and gavethem peace and rest within the nothingness. And the portal below wasopen--almost in welcome!"

  Once more the malignant, silver pealing of her laughter.

  "What do you want with me?" There was wrath in his eyes, and plainlyhe strove for control.

  "Want!" the silver voice hissed, grew calm. "Do not Siya and Siyanagrieve that the rite I pledged them is but half done--and do they notdesire it finished? And am I not beautiful? More beautiful than your_choya_?"

  The fiendishness died from the eyes; they grew blue, wondrous; theveil of invisibility slipped down from the neck, the shoulders, halfrevealing the gleaming breasts. And weird, weird beyond all tellingwas that exquisite head and bust floating there in air--and beautiful,sinisterly beautiful beyond all telling, too. So even might Lilith,the serpent woman, have shown herself tempting Adam!

  "And perhaps," she said, "perhaps I want you because I hate you;perhaps because I love you--or perhaps for Lugur or perhaps for theShining One."

  "And if I go with you?" He said it quietly.

  "Then shall I spare the handmaiden--and--who knows?--take back myarmies that even now gather at the portal and let the Silent Ones rotin peace in their abode--from which they had no power to keep me," sheadded venomously.

  "You will swear that, Yolara; swear to go without harming thehandmaiden?" he asked eagerly. The little devils danced in her eyes. Iwrenched my face from the smothering contact.

  "Don't trust her, Larry!" I cried--and again the grip choked me.

  "Is that devil in front of you or behind you, old man?" he askedqu
ietly, eyes never leaving the priestess. "If he's in front I'll takea chance and wing him--and then you scoot and warn Lakla."

  But I could not answer; nor, remembering Yolara's threat, would I, hadI been able.

  "Decide quickly!" There was cold threat in her voice.

  The curtains toward which O'Keefe had slowly, step by step, drawnclose, opened. They framed the handmaiden! The face of Yolara changedto that gorgon mask that had transformed it once before at sight ofthe Golden Girl. In her blind rage she forgot to cast the occultingveil. Her hand darted like a snake out of the folds; poising itselfwith the little silver cone aimed at Lakla.

  But before it was wholly poised, before the priestess could loose itsforce, the handmaiden was upon her. Swift as the lithe white wolfhound she leaped, and one slender hand gripped Yolara's throat, theother the wrist that lifted the quivering death; white limbs wrappedabout the hidden ones, I saw the golden head bend, the hand that heldthe _Keth_ swept up with a vicious jerk; saw Lakla's teeth sink intothe wrist--the blood spurt forth and heard the priestess shriek. Thecone fell, bounded toward me; with all my strength I wrenched free thehand that held my pistol, thrust it against the pressing breast andfired.

  The clasp upon me relaxed; a red rain stained me; at my feet a littlepillar of blood jetted; a hand thrust itself from nothingness,clawed--and was still.

  Now Yolara was down, Lakla meshed in her writhings and fighting likesome wild mother whose babes are serpent menaced. Over the two ofthem, astride, stood the O'Keefe, a pike from one of the high tripodsin his hand--thrusting, parrying, beating on every side as with abroadsword against poniard-clutching hands that thrust themselves outof vacancy striving to strike him; stepping here and there, alwayscovering, protecting Lakla with his own body even as a caveman of oldwho does battle with his mate for their lives.

  The sword-club struck--and on the floor lay the half body of a dwarf,writhing with vanishments and reappearings of legs and arms. Besidehim was the shattered tripod from which Larry had wrenched his weapon.I flung myself upon it, dashed it down to break loose one of theremaining supports, struck in midfall one of the unseen even as hisdagger darted toward me! The seat splintered, leaving in my clutch agolden bar. I jumped to Larry's side, guarding his back, whirling itlike a staff; felt it crunch once--twice--through unseen bone andmuscle.

  At the door was a booming. Into the chamber rushed a dozen of thefrog-men. While some guarded the entrances, others leaped straight tous, and forming a circle about us began to strike with talons andspurs at unseen things that screamed and sought to escape. Now hereand there about the blue rugs great stains of blood appeared; heads ofdwarfs, torn arms and gashed bodies, half occulted, half revealed. Andat last the priestess lay silent, vanquished, white body gleaming withthat uncanny--fragmentariness--from her torn robes. Then O'Keefereached down, drew Lakla from her. Shakily, Yolara rose to her feet.The handmaiden, face still blazing with wrath, stepped before her;with difficulty she steadied her voice.

  "Yolara," she said, "you have defied the Silent Ones, you havedesecrated their abode, you came to slay these men who are the guestsof the Silent Ones and me, who am their handmaiden--why did you dothese things?"

  "I came for him!" gasped the priestess; she pointed to O'Keefe.

  "Why?" asked Lakla.

  "Because he is pledged to me," replied Yolara, all the devils thatwere hers in her face. "Because he wooed me! Because he is mine!"

  "That is a lie!" The handmaiden's voice shook with rage. "It is a lie!But here and now he shall choose, Yolara. And if you he choose, youand he shall go forth from here unmolested--for Yolara, it is hishappiness that I most desire, and if you are that happiness--you shallgo together. And now, Larry, choose!"

  Swiftly she stepped beside the priestess; swiftly wrenched the lastshreds of the hiding robes from her.

  There they stood--Yolara with but the filmiest net of gauze about herwonderful body; gleaming flesh shining through it; serpent woman---andwonderful, too, beyond the dreams even of Phidias--and hell-fireglowing from the purple eyes.

  And Lakla, like a girl of the Vikings, like one of those warrior maidswho stood and fought for dun and babes at the side of those old heroesof Larry's own green isle; translucent ivory lambent through the rentsof her torn draperies, and in the wide, golden eyes flaming wrath,indeed--not the diabolic flames of the priestess but the righteouswrath of some soul that looking out of paradise sees vile wrong in thedoing.

  "Lakla," the O'Keefe's voice was subdued, hurt, "there _is_ no choice.I love you and only you--and have from the moment I saw you. It's noteasy--this. God, Goodwin, I feel like an utter cad," he flashed at me."There is no choice, Lakla," he ended, eyes steady upon hers.

  The priestess's face grew deadlier still.

  "What will you do with me?" she asked.

  "Keep you," I said, "as hostage."

  O'Keefe was silent; the Golden Girl shook her head.

  "Well would I like to," her face grew dreaming; "but the Silent Onessay--_no_; they bid me let you go, Yolara--"

  "The Silent Ones," the priestess laughed. "_You_, Lakla! You fear,perhaps, to let me tarry here too close!"

  Storm gathered again in the handmaiden's eyes; she forced it back.

  "No," she answered, "the Silent Ones so command--and for their ownpurposes. Yet do I think, Yolara, that you will have little time tofeed your wickedness--tell that to Lugur--and to your Shining One!"she added slowly.

  Mockery and disbelief rode high in the priestess's pose. "Am I toreturn alone--like this?" she asked.

  "Nay, Yolara, nay; you shall be accompanied," said Lakla; "and bythose who will guard--and _watch_--you well. They are here even now."

  The hangings parted, and into the chamber came Olaf and Rador.

  The priestess met the fierce hatred and contempt in the eyes of theNorseman--and for the first time lost her bravado.

  "Let not _him_ go with me," she gasped--her eyes searched the floorfrantically.

  "He goes with you," said Lakla, and threw about Yolara a swathing thatcovered the exquisite, alluring body. "And you shall pass through thePortal, not skulk along the path of the worm!"

  She bent to Rador, whispered to him; he nodded; she had told him, Isupposed, the secret of its opening.

  "Come," he said, and with the ice-eyed giant behind her, Yolara, headbent, passed out of those hangings through which, but a little before,unseen, triumph in her grasp, she had slipped.

  Then Lakla came to the unhappy O'Keefe, rested her hands on hisshoulders, looked deep into his eyes.

  "_Did_ you woo her, even as she said?" she asked.

  The Irishman flushed miserably.

  "I did not," he said. "I was pleasant to her, of course, because Ithought it would bring me quicker to you, darlin'."

  She looked at him doubtfully; then--

  "I think you must have been _very_--pleasant!" was all she said--andleaning, kissed him forgivingly straight on the lips. An extremelydirect maiden was Lakla, with a truly sovereign contempt for anythingshe might consider non-essentials; and at this moment I decided shewas wiser even than I had thought her.

  He stumbled, feet vanishing; reached down and picked up something thatin the grasping turned his hand to air.

  "One of the invisible cloaks," he said to me. "There must be quite alot of them about--I guess Yolara brought her full staff of murderers.They're a bit shopworn, probably--but we're considerably better offwith 'em in our hands than in hers. And they may come in handy--whoknows?"

  There was a choking rattle at my feet; half the head of a dwarf raisedout of vacancy; beat twice upon the floor in death throes; fell back.Lakla shivered; gave a command. The frog-men moved about; peering hereand there; lifting unseen folds revealing in stark rigidity torn formafter form of the priestess's men.

  Lakla had been right--her _Akka_ were thorough fighters!

  She called, and to her came the frog-woman who was her attendant. Toher the handmaiden spoke, pointing to the batrachians who stood, pawsand forearm
s melted beneath the robes they had gathered. She took themand passed out--more grotesque than ever, shattering into streaks ofvacancies, reappearing with flickers of shining scale and yellow gemsas the tattered pennants of invisibility fluttered about her.

  The frog-men reached down, swung each a dead dwarf in his arms, andfiled, booming triumphantly away.

  And then I remembered the cone of the _Keth_ which had slipped fromYolara's hand; knew it had been that for which her wild eyes searched.But look as closely as we might, search in every nook and corner as wedid, we could not find it. Had the dying hand of one of her menclutched it and had it been borne away with them? With the thoughtLarry and I raced after the scaled warriors, searched every body theycarried. It was not there. Perhaps the priestess had found it,retrieved it swiftly without our seeing.

  Whatever was true--the cone was gone. And what a weapon that onelittle holder of the shaking death would have been for us!