The Collected SF & Fantasy Works. Abraham Merritt

all.”

      He turned to the Three — and did I in their poise sense a rigidity, an anxiety 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? Is it 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 struck the eyes. Another moment the O’Keefe stared at them. Once more he squared 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; the tiny flames in the jet orbs vanished, leaving them wells in which brimmed serenity, hope — an extraordinary joyfulness. The woman sat upright, tender gaze fixed upon the man and girl. Her great shoulders raised as though she had lifted her arms and had drawn to her those others. The three faces pressed together for a fleeting moment; raised again. The woman bent forward — and as she did so, Lakla and Larry, as though 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 their white 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 the O’Keefe; caressed them, drew them together, softly stroked them — lovingly, with more than a touch of benediction. And withdrew!

      The sparkling mists rolled up once more, hiding the Silent Ones. As silently as once before we had gone we passed out of the place of light, 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 the finish. An’ are you thinking that Lugur and Yolara are going to pull this 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!”

      CHAPTER XXXIII

       THE MEETING OF TITANS

       Table of Contents

      It is not my intention, nor is it possible no matter how interesting to me, to set down ad seriatim the happenings of the next twelve hours. But a few will not be denied recital.

      O’Keefe regained cheerfulness.

      “After all, Doc,” he said to me, “it’s a beautiful scrap we’re going to have. At the worst the worst is no more than the leprechaun warned about. I would have told the Taitha De about the banshee raid he promised me; but I was a bit taken off my feet at the time. The old girl an’ all the clan’ll be along, said the little green man, an’ I bet the Three will be damned glad of it, take it from me.”

      Lakla, shining-eyed and half fearful too:

      “I have other tidings that I am afraid will please you little, Larry — darlin’. The Silent Ones say that you must not go into battle yourself. You must stay here with me, and with Goodwin — for if — if — the Shining One does come, then must we be here to meet it. And you might not be, you know, Larry, if you fight,” she said, looking shyly up at him from under the long lashes.

      The O’Keefe’s jaw dropped.

      “That’s about the hardest yet,” he answered slowly. “Still — I see their point; the lamb corralled for the altar has no right to stray out among the lions,” he added grimly. “Don’t worry, sweet,” he told her. “As long as I’ve sat in the game I’ll stick to the rules.”

      Olaf took fierce joy in the coming fray. “The Norns spin close to the end of this web,” he rumbled. “Ja! And the threads of Lugur and the Heks woman are between their fingers for the breaking! Thor will be with me, and I have fashioned me a hammer in glory of Thor.” In his hand was an enormous mace of black metal, fully five feet long, crowned with a massive head.

      I pass to the twelve hours’ closing.

      At the end of the coria road where the giant fernland met the edge of the cavern’s ruby floor, hundreds of the Akka were stationed in ambush, armed with their spears tipped with the rotting death and their nail-studded, metal-headed clubs. These were to attack when the Murians debauched from the corials. We had little hope of doing more here than effect some attrition of Yolara’s hosts, for at this place the captains of the Shining One could wield the Keth and their other uncanny weapons freely. We had learned, too, that every forge and artisan had been put to work to make an armour Marakinoff had devised to withstand the natural battle equipment of the frog-people — and both Larry and I had a disquieting faith in the Russian’s ingenuity.

      At any rate the numbers against us would be lessened.

      Next, under the direction of the frog-king, levies commanded by subsidiary chieftains had completed rows of rough walls along the probable route of the Murians through the cavern. These afforded the Akka a fair protection behind which they could hurl their darts and spears — curiously enough they had never developed the bow as a weapon.

      At the opening of the cavern a strong barricade stretched almost to the two ends of the crescent strand; almost, I say, because there had not been time to build it entirely across the mouth.

      And from edge to edge of the titanic bridge, from where it sprang outward at the shore of the Crimson Sea to a hundred feet away from the golden door of the abode, barrier after barrier was piled.

      Behind the wall defending the mouth of the cavern, waited other thousands of the Akka. At each end of the unfinished barricade they were mustered thickly, and at right and left of the crescent where their forest began, more legions were assembled to make way up to the ledge as opportunity offered.

      Rank upon rank they manned the bridge barriers; they swarmed over the pinnacles and in the hollows of the island’s ragged outer lip; the domed castle was a hive of them, if I may mix my metaphors — and the rocks and gardens that surrounded the abode glittered with them.

      “Now,” said the handmaiden, “there’s nothing else we can do — save wait.”

      She led us out through her bower and up the little path that ran to the embrasure.

      Through the quiet came a sound, a sighing, a half-mournful whispering that beat about us and fled away.

      “They come!” cried Lakla, the light of battle in her eyes. Larry drew her to him, raised her in his arms, kissed her.

      “A woman!” acclaimed the O’Keefe. “A real woman — and mine!”

      With the cry of the Portal there was movement among the Akka, the glint of moving spears, flash of metal-tipped clubs, rattle of horny spurs, rumblings of battle-cries.

      And we waited — waited it seemed interminably, gaze fastened upon the low wall across the cavern mouth. Suddenly I remembered the crystal through which I had peered when the hidden assassins had crept upon us. Mentioning it to Lakla, she gave a little cry of vexation, a command to her attendant; and not long that faithful if unusual lady had returned with a tray of the glasses. Raising mine, I saw the lines furthest away leap into sudden activity. Spurred warrior after warrior leaped upon the barricade and over it. Flashes of intense, green light, mingled with gleams like lightning strokes of concentrated moon rays, sprang from behind the wall — sprang and struck and burned upon the scales of the batrachians.

      “They come!” whispered Lakla.