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 tome--to me and the Yndling who will await you--Helma, _meine liebe!_"
Blood gushed from his mouth; he swayed, fell. And thus died OlafHuldricksson.
We looked down upon him; nor did Lakla, nor Larry, nor I try to hideour tears. And as we stood the _Akka_ brought to us that other mightyfighter, Rador; but in him there was life, and we attended to himthere 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 onthe bridge comes Nak with tidings."
We looked over the parapet. It was even as she had said. Neither onledge nor bridge was there trace of living men of Muria--only heaps ofslain that lay everywhere--and thick against the cavern mouth stilldanced the flashing atoms of those the green ray had destroyed.
"Over!" exclaimed Larry incredulously. "We live then--heart ofmine!"
"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 withthat same ordered, intelligent motion. Behind it the red lightpressed, like skirmishers on the heels of a retreating army.
"And yet--" faltered the handmaiden as we passed into her chamber, anddoubtful 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? Myheart gave a great throb and seemed to stop for an eternity. What wasit--coming nearer, ever nearer? Now Lakla and O'Keefe heard it, lifeebbing 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, sinisterbeyond words; sweeping on; nearer--
The Dweller! The Shining One!
We leaped to the narrow window; peered out, aghast. The bell notesswept through and about us, a hurricane. The crescent strand was oncemore a ferment. Back, back were the _Akka_ being swept, as though bybrooms, tottering on the edge of the ledge, falling into the waters.Swiftly they were finished; and where they had fought was an eddyingthrong clothed in tatters or naked, swaying, drifting, armstossing--like marionettes of Satan.
The dead-alive! The slaves of the Dweller!
They swayed and tossed, and then, like water racing through an openeddam, they swept upon the bridge-head. On and on they pushed, like thebore of a mighty tide. The frog-men strove against them, clubbing,spearing, tearing them. But even those worst smitten seemed not tofall. On they pushed, driving forward, irresistible--a battering ramof flesh and bone. They clove the masses of the _Akka_, pressing themto the sides of the bridge and over. Through the open gates theyforced them--for there was no room for the frog-men to stand againstthat implacable tide.
Then those of the _Akka_ who were left turned their backs and ran. Weheard the clang of the golden wings of the portal, and none too soonto keep out the first of the Dweller's dreadful hordes.
Now upon the cavern ledge and over the whole length of the bridgethere were none but the dead-alive, men and women, black-polled_ladala_, sloe-eyed Malays, slant-eyed Chinese, men of every race thatsailed the seas--milling, turning, swaying, like leaves caught in asluggish current.
The bell notes became sharper, more insistent. At the cavern mouth aradiance began to grow--a gleaming from which the atoms of diamonddust seemed to try to flee. As the radiance grew and the crystal notesrang nearer, every head of that hideous multitude turned stiffly,slowly toward the right, looking toward the far bridge end; their eyesfixed and glaring; every face an inhuman mask of rapture and ofhorror!
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 lanestretched, walled on each side by the dead-alive.
The far radiance became brighter; it gathered itself at the end of thedreadful lane; it was shot with sparklings and with pulsings ofpolychromatic light. The crystal storm was intolerable, piercing theears 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 halfdoubtfully; then slowly, stately, it drifted out upon the bridge.Closer it drew; behind it glided Yolara at the head of a company ofher dwarfs, and at her side was the hag of the Council whose face wasthe withered, shattered echo of her own.
Slower grew the Dweller's pace as it drew nearer. Did I sense in it adoubt, an uncertainty? The crystal-tongued, unseen choristers thataccompanied it subtly seemed to reflect the doubt; their notes werenot sure, no longer insistent; rather was there in them an undertoneof hesitancy, of warning! Yet on came the Shining One until it stoodplain beneath us, searching with those eyes that thrust from andwithdrew into unknown spheres, the golden gateway, the cliff face, thecastle's rounded bulk--and more intently than any of these, the domewherein sat the Three.
Behind it each face of the dead-alive turned toward it, and thosebeside it throbbed and gleamed with its luminescence.
Yolara crept close, just beyond the reach of its spirals. Shemurmured--and the Dweller bent toward her, its seven globes steady intheir shining mists, as though listening. It drew erect once more,resumed its doubtful scrutiny. Yolara's face darkened; she turnedabruptly, spoke to a captain of her guards. A dwarf raced back betweenthe 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. Whoare ye, says the Shining One, to deny it entrance to the place of itsbirth?"
"Ye do not answer," she cried again, "yet know we that ye hear! TheShining One offers these terms: Send forth your handmaiden and thatlying stranger she stole; send them forth to us--and perhaps ye maylive. 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 answerfrom the Three.
The priestess laughed; the blue eyes flashed.
"It is ended!" she cried. "If you will not open, needs must we openfor you!"
Over the bridge was marching a long double file of the dwarfs. Theybore a smoothed and handled tree-trunk whose head was knobbed with ahuge ball of metal. Past the priestess, past the Shining One, theycarried it; fifty of them to each side of the ram; and behind themstepped--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 triggerthere rang through the abode a tremendous clanging. The ram wasbattering at the gates. O'Keefe's bullet went wild. The Russian musthave heard the shot; perhaps the missile was closer than we knew. Hemade 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 listeningaloofness. Gravely she bowed her head.
"It is time, O love of mine." She turned to O'Keefe. "The Silent Onessay that the way of fear is closed, but the way of love is open. Theycall upon us to redeem our promise!"
For a hundred heart-beats they clung to each other, breast to breastand lip to lip. Below, the clangour was increasing, the great trunkswinging harder and faster upon the metal gates. Now Lakla gentlyloosed the arms of the O'Keefe, and for another instant those twolooked into each other's souls. The handmaiden smiled tremulously.
"I would it might have been otherwise, Larry dar
lin'," 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 theShining 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 Oneand 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 andgood 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 theO'Keefe loved you like a brother."
I squeezed his hands desperately. Then out of my balanceshaking woe astrange comfort was born.
"Maybe it's not good-by, Larry!" I cried. "The banshee has notcried!"
A flash of hope passed over his face; the old reckless grin shoneforth.
"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 thecorridor that led to the door outside of which waited the Shining Oneand its priestess.
And unseen by them, wrapped as they were within their love andsacrifice, I crept softly behind. For I had determined that if enterthe Dweller's embrace they must, they should not go alone.
They paused before the Golden Portals; the handmaiden pressed itsopening lever; the massive leaves rolled back.
Heads high, proudly, serenely, they passed through and out upon thehither span. I followed.
On each side of us stood the Dweller's slaves, faces turned rigidlytoward their master. A hundred feet away the Shining One pulsed andspiralled in its evilly glorious lambency of sparkling plumes.
Unhesitating, always with that same high serenity, Lakla and theO'Keefe, hands clasped like little children, drew closer to thatwondrous shape. I could not see their faces, but I saw awe fall uponthose of the watching dwarfs, and into the burning eyes of Yolaracrept a doubt. Closer they drew to the Dweller, and closer, Ifollowing them step by step. The Shining One's whirling lessened; itstinklings were faint, almost stilled. It seemed to watch themapprehensively. A silence fell upon us all, a thick silence, brooding,ominous, palpable. Now the pair were face to face with the child ofthe Three--so near that with one of its misty tentacles it could haveenfolded them.
And the Shining One drew back!
Yes, drew back--and back with it stepped Yolara, the doubt in her eyesdeepening. Onward paced the handmaiden and the O'Keefe--and step bystep, as they advanced, the Dweller withdrew; its bell notes chimingout, puzzled questioning--half fearful!
And back it drew, and back until it had reached the very centre ofthat platform over the abyss in whose depths pulsed the green fires ofearth heart. And there Yolara gripped herself; the hell that seethedwithin her soul leaped out of her eyes, a cry, a shriek of rage, torefrom her lips.
As at a signal, the Shining One flamed high; its spirals and eddyingmists swirled madly, the pulsing core of it blazed radiance. A scoreof coruscating tentacles swept straight upon the pair who stoodintrepid, unresisting, awaiting its embrace. And upon me, lurkingbehind them.
Through me swept a mighty exaltation. It was the end then--and I wasto meet it with them.
Something drew us back, back with an incredible swiftness, and yet asgently as a summer breeze sweeps a bit of thistle-down! Drew us backfrom those darting misty arms even as they were a hair-breadth fromus! I heard the Dweller's bell notes burst out ragingly! I heardYolara 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 uponthem, 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, penetratingthe radiant swathings of the Dweller, striking through its pulsingnucleus, 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 theDweller's body snapped, vanished! Through the battling nebulositiesYolara's face swam forth--horror-filled, distorted, inhuman!
The ranks of the dead-alive quivered, moved, writhed, as though eachfelt the torment of the Thing that had enslaved them. The radiancethat the Three wielded grew more intense, thicker, seemed to expand.Within it, suddenly, were scores of flaming triangles--scores of eyeslike those of the Silent Ones!
And the Shining One's seven little moons of amber, of silver, of blueand amethyst and green, of rose and white, split, shattered, weregone! Abruptly the tortured crystal chimings ceased.
Dulled, all its soul-shaking beauty dead, blotched and shadowedsqualidly, its gleaming plumes tarnished, its dancing spirals strippedfrom it, that which had been the Shining One wrapped itself aboutYolara--wrapped and drew her into itself; writhed, swayed, and hurleditself over the edge of the bridge--down, down into the green fires ofthe unfathomable abyss--with its priestess still enfolded in itscoils!
From the dwarfs who had watched that terror came screams of panicfear. They turned and ran, racing frantically over the bridge towardthe cavern mouth.
The serried ranks of the dead-alive trembled, shook. Then from theirfaces tied the horror of wedded ecstasy and anguish. Peace, utterpeace, 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 theirdreadful slavery!
Abruptly from the sparkling mists the cloud of eyes was gone. Faintlyrevealed in them were only the heads of the Silent Ones. And they drewbefore us; were before us! No flames now in their ebon eyes--for theflickering fires were quenched in great tears, streaming down themarble white faces. They bent toward us, over us; their radianceenfolded us. My eyes darkened. I could not see. I felt a tender handupon my head--and panic and frozen dread and nightmare web that heldme fled.
Then they, too, were gone.
Upon Larry's breast the handmaiden was sobbing--sobbing out herheart--but this time with the joy of one who is swept up from thevery threshold of hell into paradise.
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