第57章
"This man is mine," said the priestess, and her voice was menacing.She rested her hand on Larry's shoulder."He shall not dance.No--nor his friend.I have told you I dare not for this one!" She pointed to Olaf.
"Neither this man, nor this," said Larry, "shall be harmed.
This is my word, Yolara!"
"Even so," she answered quietly, "my lord!"I saw Marakinoff stare at O'Keefe with a new and curi-ously speculative interest.Lugur's eyes grew hellish; he raised his arms as though to strike her.Larry's pistol prodded him rudely enough.
"No rough stuff now, kid!" said O'Keefe in English.The red dwarf quivered, turned--caught a robe from a priest standing by, and threw it over himself.The _ladala_, shouting, gesticulating, fighting with the soldiers, were jostling down from the tiers of jet.
"Come!" commanded Yolara--her eyes rested upon Larry."Your heart is great, indeed--my lord!" she mur-mured; and her voice was very sweet."Come!""This man comes with us, Yolara," said O'Keefe pointing to Olaf.
"Bring him," she said."Bring him--only tell him to look no more upon me as before!" she added fiercely.
Beside her the three of us passed along the stalls, where sat the fair-haired, now silent, at gaze, as though in the grip of some great doubt.Silently Olaf strode beside me.Rador had disappeared.Down the stairway, through the hall of turquoise mist, over the rushing sea-stream we went and stood beside the wall through which we had entered.The white-robed ones had gone.
Yolara pressed; the portal opened.We stepped upon the car; she took the lever; we raced through the faintly lumi-nous corridor to the house of the priestess.
And one thing now I knew sick at heart and soul the truth had come to me--no more need to search for Throckmartin.
Behind that Veil, in the lair of the Dweller, dead-alive like those we had just seen swim in its shining train was he, and Edith, Stanton and Thora and Olaf Huldricksson's wife!
The car came to rest; the portal opened; Yolara leaped out lightly, beckoned and flitted up the corridor.She paused before an ebon screen.At a touch it vanished, revealing an entrance to a small blue chamber, glowing as though cut from the heart of some gigantic sapphire; bare, save that in its centre, upon a low pedestal, stood a great globe fashioned from milky rock-crystal; upon its surface were faint tracings as of seas and continents, but, if so, either of some other world or of this world in immemorial past, for in no way did they resemble the mapped coastlines of our earth.
Poised upon the globe, rising from it out into space, locked in each other's arms, lips to lips, were two figures, a woman and a man, so exquisite, so lifelike, that for the moment Ifailed to realize that they, too, were carved of the crystal.
And before this shrine--for nothing else could it be, I knew --three slender cones raised themselves: one of purest white flame, one of opalescent water, and the third of--moon-light! There was no mistaking them, the height of a tall man each stood--but how water, flame and light were held so evenly, so steadily in their spire-shapes, I could not tell.
Yolara bowed lowly--once, twice, thrice.She turned to O'Keefe, nor by slightest look or gesture betrayed she knew others were there than he.The blue eyes wide, searching, unfathomable, she drew close; put white hands on his shoul-ders, looked down into his very soul.
"My lord," she murmured."Now listen well for I, Yolara, give you three things--myself, and the Shining One, and the power that is the Shining One's--yea, and still a fourth thing that is all three--power over all upon that world from whence you came! These, my lord, ye shall have.I swear it"--she turned toward the altar--uplifted her arms--"by Siya and by Siyana, and by the flame, by the water, and by the light!"1*1 I have no space here even to outline the eschatology of this people, nor to catalogue their pantheon.Siya and Siyana typified worldly love.
Their ritual was, however, singularly free from those degrading ele-ments usually found in love-cults.Priests and priestesses of all cults dwelt in the immense seven-terraced structure, of which the jet amphi-theatre was the water side.The symbol, icon, representation, of Siya and Siyana--the globe and the up-striving figures--typified earthly love, feet bound to earth, but eyes among the stars.Hell or heaven Inever heard formulated, nor their equivalents; unless that existence in the Shining One's domain could serve for either.Over all this was Thanaroa, remote; unheeding, but still maker and ruler of all--an absentee First Cause personified! Thanaroa seemed to be the one article of belief in the creed of the soldiers--Rador, with his reverence for the Ancient Ones, was an exception.Whatever there was, indeed, of high, truly religious impulse among the Murians, this far, High God had.I found this exceedingly interesting, because it had long been my theory--to put the matter in the shape of a geometrical formula--that the real attractiveness of gods to man increases uniformly accord-ing to the square of their distance--W.T.G.
Her eyes grew purple dark.
"Let none dare to take you from me! Nor ye go from me unbidden!" she whispered fiercely.
Then swiftly, still ignoring us, she threw her arms about O'Keefe, pressed her white body to his breast, lips raised, eyes closed, seeking his.O'Keefe's arms tightened around her, his head dropped lips seeking, finding hers--passion-ately! From Olaf came a deep indrawn breath that was al-most a groan.But not in my heart could I find blame for the Irishman!
The priestess opened eyes now all misty blue, thrust him back, stood regarding him.O'Keefe, dead-white, raised a trembling hand to his face.
"And thus have I sealed my oath, O my lord!" she whis-pered.For the first time she seemed to recognize our pres-ence, stared at us a moment, then through us, and turned to O'Keefe.
"Go, now!" she said."Soon Rador shall come for you.