CHAPTER XXXII
"Your Love; Your Lives; Your Souls!"
Lakla had taken no part in the talk since we had reached her bower.She had seated herself close to the O'Keefe. Glancing at her I hadseen steal over her face that brooding, listening look that was herswhenever in that mysterious communion with the Three. It vanished;swiftly she arose; interrupted the Irishman without ceremony.
"Larry darlin'," said the handmaiden. "The Silent Ones summon us!"
"When do we go?" I asked; Larry's face grew bright with interest.
"The time is now," she said--and hesitated. "Larry dear, put yourarms about me," she faltered, "for there is something cold thatcatches at my heart--and I am afraid."
At his exclamation she gathered herself together; gave a shaky littlelaugh.
"It's because I love you so that fear has power to plague me," shetold him.
Without another word he bent and kissed her; in silence we passed on,his arm still about her girdled waist, golden head and black closetogether. Soon we stood before the crimson slab that was the door tothe sanctuary of the Silent Ones. She poised uncertainly before it;then with a defiant arching of the proud little head that sent all thebronze-flecked curls flying, she pressed. It slipped aside and oncemore the opalescence gushed out, flooding all about us.
Dazzled as before, I followed through the lambent cascades pouringfrom the high, carved walls; paused, and my eyes clearing, lookedup--straight into the faces of the Three. The angled orbs centred uponthe handmaiden; softened as I had seen them do when first we had facedthem. She smiled up; seemed to listen.
"Come closer," she commanded, "close to the feet of the Silent Ones."
We moved, pausing at the very base of the dais. The sparkling miststhinned; the great heads bent slightly over us; through the veils Icaught a glimpse of huge columnar necks, enormous shoulders coveredwith draperies as of pale-blue fire.
I came back to attention with a start, for Lakla was answering aquestion only heard by her, and, answering it aloud, I perceived forour benefit; for whatever was the mode of communication between thosewhose handmaiden she was, and her, it was clearly independent ofspeech.
"He has been told," she said, "even as you commanded."
Did I see a shadow of pain flit across the flickering eyes? Wondering,I glanced at Lakla's face and there was a dawn of foreboding andbewilderment. For a little she held her listening attitude; then thegaze of the Three left her; focused upon the O'Keefe.
"Thus speak the Silent Ones--through Lakla, their handmaiden," thegolden voice was like low trumpet notes. "At the threshold of doom isthat world of yours above. Yea, even the doom, Goodwin, that yedreamed and the shadow of which, looking into your mind they see, saythe Three. For not upon earth and never upon earth can man find meansto destroy the Shining One."
She listened again--and the foreboding deepened to an amazed fear.
"They say, the Silent Ones," she went on, "that they know not whethereven they have power to destroy. Energies we know nothing of enteredinto its shaping and are part of it; and still other energies it hasgathered to itself"--she paused; a shadow of puzzlement crept into hervoice "and other energies still, forces that ye _do_ know and symbolizeby certain names--hatred and pride and lust and many others which areforces real as that hidden in the _Keth_; and among them--fear, whichweakens all those others--" Again she paused.
"But within it is nothing of that greatest of all, that which can makepowerless all the evil others, that which we call--love," she endedsoftly.
"I'd like to be the one to put a little more _fear_ in the beast,"whispered Larry to me, grimly in our own English. The three weirdheads bent, ever so slightly--and I gasped, and Larry grew a littlewhite as Lakla nodded--
"They say, Larry," she said, "that there you touch one side of theheart of the matter--for it is through the way of fear the Silent Oneshope to strike at the very life of the Shining One!"
The visage Larry turned to me was eloquent of wonder; and minereflected it--for what _really_ were this Three to whom our minds werebut open pages, so easily read? Not long could we conjecture; Laklabroke the little silence.
"This, they say, is what is to happen. First will come upon us Lugurand Yolara with all their host. Because of fear the Shining One willlurk behind within its lair; for despite all, the Dweller _does_ dreadthe Three, and only them. With this host the Voice and the priestesswill strive to conquer. And if they do, then will they be strongenough, too, to destroy us all. For if they take the abode they banishfrom the Dweller all fear and sound the end of the Three.
"Then will the Shining One be all free indeed; free to go out into theworld, free to do there as it wills!
"But if they do not conquer--and the Shining One comes not to theiraid, abandoning them even as it abandoned its own _Taithu_--then willthe Three be loosed from a part of their doom, and they will gothrough the Portal, seek the Shining One beyond the Veil, and,piercing it through fear's opening, destroy it."
"That's quite clear," murmured the O'Keefe in my ear. "Weaken themorale--then smash. I've seen it happen a dozen times in Europe. Whilethey've got their nerve there's not a thing you can do; get theirnerve--and not a thing can they do. And yet in both cases they're thesame men."
Lakla had been listening again. She turned, thrust out hands toLarry, a wild hope in her eyes--and yet a hope half shamed.
"They say," she cried, "that they give us choice. Remembering thatyour world doom hangs in the balance, we have choice--choice to stayand help fight Yolara's armies--and they say they look not lightly onthat help. Or choice to go--and if so be you choose the latter, thenwill they show another way that leads into your world!"
A flush had crept over the O'Keefe's face as she was speaking. Hetook her hands and looked long into the golden eyes; glancing up I sawthe Trinity were watching them intently--imperturbably.
"What do you say, _mavourneen_?" asked Larry gently. The handmaidenhung her head; trembled.
"Your words shall be mine, O one I love," she whispered. "So going orstaying, I am beside you."
"And you, Goodwin?" he turned to me. I shrugged my shoulders--afterall I had no one to care.
"It's up to you, Larry," I remarked, deliberately choosing his ownphraseology.
The O'Keefe straightened, squared his shoulders, gazed straight intothe flame-flickering eyes.
"We stick!" he said briefly.
Shamefacedly I recall now that at the time I thought thiscolloquialism not only irreverent, but in somewhat bad taste. I amglad to say I was alone in that bit of weakness. The face that Laklaturned to Larry was radiant with love, and although the shamed hopehad vanished from the sweet eyes, they were shining with adoringpride. And the marble visages of the Three softened, and the littleflames died down.
"Wait," said Lakla, "there is one other thing they say we must answerbefore they will hold us to that promise--wait--"
She listened, and then her face grew white--white as those of theThree themselves; the glorious eyes widened, stark terror fillingthem; the whole lithe body of her shook like a reed in the wind.
"Not that!" she cried out to the Three. "Oh, not that! NotLarry--let me go even as you will--but not him!" She threw up frantichands to the woman-being of the Trinity. "Let _me_ bear it alone," shewailed. "Alone--mother! Mother!"
The Three bent their heads toward her, their faces pitiful, and fromthe eyes of the woman One rolled--tears! Larry leaped to Lakla's side.
_"Mavourneen!"_ he cried. "Sweetheart, what have they said to you?"
He glared up at the Silent Ones, his hand twitching toward thehigh-hung pistol holster.
The handmaiden swung to him; threw white arms around his neck; heldher head upon his heart until her sobbing ceased.
"This they--say--the Silent Ones," she gasped and then all the courageof her came back. "O heart of mine!" she whispered to Larry, gazingdeep into his eyes, his anxious face cupped between her white palms."This they say--that should the Shining One come to suc
cour Yolara andLugur, should it conquer its fear--and--do this--then is there but oneway left to destroy it--and to save your world."
She swayed; he gripped her tightly.
"But one way--you and I must go--together--into its embrace! Yea, wemust pass within it--loving each other, loving the world, realizing tothe full all that we sacrifice and sacrificing all, our love, ourlives, perhaps even that you call soul, O loved one; must giveourselves _all_ to the Shining One--gladly, freely, our love for eachother flaming high within us--that this curse shall pass away! For ifwe do this, pledge the Three, then shall that power of love we carryinto it weaken for a time all that evil which the Shining One hasbecome--and in that time the Three can strike and slay!"
The blood rushed from my heart; scientist that I am, essentially, myreason rejected any such solution as this of the activities of theDweller. Was it not, the thought flashed, a propitiation by the Threeout of their own weakness--and as it flashed I looked up to see theireyes, full of sorrow, on mine--and knew they read the thought. Theninto the whirling vortex of my mind came steadying reflections--ofhistory changed by the power of hate, of passion, of ambition, andmost of all, by love. Was there not actual dynamic energy in thesethings--was there not a Son of Man who hung upon a cross on Calvary?
"Dear love o' mine," said the O'Keefe quietly, "is it in your heart tosay _yes_ to this?"
"Larry," she spoke low, "what is in your heart is in mine; but I didso want to go with you, to live with you--to--to bear you children,Larry--and to see the sun."
My eyes were wet; dimly through them I saw his gaze on me.
"If the world _is_ at stake," he whispered, "why of course there's onlyone thing to do. God knows I never was afraid when I was fighting upthere--and many a better man than me has gone West with shell andbullet for the same idea; but these things aren't shell andbullet--but I hadn't Lakla then--and it's the damned _doubt_ I havebehind it all."
He turned to the Three--and did I in their poise sense a rigidity, ananxiety that sat upon them as alienly as would divinity upon men?
"Tell me this, Silent Ones," he cried. "If we do this, Lakla and I,is it _sure_ you are that you can slay the--Thing, and save my world? Isit _sure_ you are?"
For the first and the last time, I heard the voice of the Silent Ones.It was the man-being at the right who spoke.
"We are sure," the tones rolled out like deepest organ notes, shaking,vibrating, assailing the ears as strangely as their appearance struckthe eyes. Another moment the O'Keefe stared at them. Once more hesquared his shoulders; lifted Lakla's chin and smiled into her eyes.
"We stick!" he said again, nodding to the Three.
Over the visages of the Trinity fell benignity that was--awesome; thetiny flames in the jet orbs vanished, leaving them wells in whichbrimmed serenity, hope--an extraordinary joyfulness. The woman satupright, tender gaze fixed upon the man and girl. Her great shouldersraised as though she had lifted her arms and had drawn to her thoseothers. The three faces pressed together for a fleeting moment; raisedagain. The woman bent forward--and as she did so, Lakla and Larry, asthough drawn by some outer force, were swept upon the dais.
Out from the sparkling mist stretched two hands, enormously long,six-fingered, thumbless, a faint tracery of golden scales upon theirwhite backs, utterly unhuman and still in some strange way beautiful,radiating power and--all womanly!
They stretched forth; they touched the bent heads of Lakla and theO'Keefe; caressed them, drew them together, softly strokedthem--lovingly, with more than a touch of benediction. And withdrew!
The sparkling mists rolled up once more, hiding the Silent Ones. Assilently as once before we had gone we passed out of the place oflight, beyond the crimson stone, back to the handmaiden's chamber.
Only once on our way did Larry speak.
"Cheer up, darlin'," he said to her, "it's a long way yet before thefinish. An' are you thinking that Lugur and Yolara are going to pullthis thing off? Are you?"
The handmaiden only looked at him, eyes love and sorrow filled.
"They are!" said Larry. "They are! Like HELL they are!"
The Moon Pool Page 32
