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"They would not," he said "If you gave them her." He thrust a long thumb backward toward sleeping Ruth. "Cherkis would forgive much for her. And why should you not? She is only a woman." He spat in a way that made me want to kill him. "Besides," he ended, "have you no arts to amuse him?" "Cherkis?" I asked. "Cherkis," he whined.
"Ruth told me all about it when Cherkis had us. And I'm very glad. It's time she was having a home of her own and not running around the lost places with me. I'll miss her miss her damnably, of course. But I'm glad, boy glad!" There was a little silence while each looked deep into each other's hearts. Then Ventnor dropped Dick's hand. "And that's all of THAT," he said.
How could Yuruk have made his way to the Persians so swiftly how could they so swiftly have returned? Amazingly she answered the spoken question and the unspoken. "They came long before dusk," she said. "By the night before Yuruk had won to Ruszark, the city of Cherkis; and long before dawn they were on their way hither. This the black dog I slew told me."
The whole granite barrier seemed to quiver with agony. Higher we rose and higher. "Look," whispered Drake, and whirled me around. Less than five miles away was Ruszark, the City of Cherkis. And it was like some ancient city come into life out of long dead centuries. A page restored from once conquering Persia's crumbled book. A city of the Chosroes transported by Jinns into our own time.
But before you can move my archers will feather their hearts." She considered him, no longer mocking. "Two of mine you slew long since, Cherkis," she said, slowly. "Therefore it is I am here." "I know," he nodded heavily. "Yet now that is neither here nor there, Norhala. It was long since, and I have learned much during the years. I would have killed you too, Norhala, could I have found you.
"Cherkis!" She had caught the word. "Yes Cherkis! And now he and all his men and all his women and every living thing he rules shall pay. And fear not you two. For I, Norhala, will bring back my own. "Woe, woe to you, Cherkis, and to all of yours! For I, Norhala, am awake, and I, Norhala, remember. Woe to you, Cherkis, woe for now all ends for you!
For Cherkis knew not where to seek her, nor where they had lain hid, for between his city and here the mountains are great, unscalable, and the way through them is cunningly hidden; by chance alone did my mother's mother and those who fled with her discover it: And though they tortured him, my father would not tell.
The animate, living Shape of metal on which we stood, with its forest of hammer-handed arms raised menacingly along its mile of spindled length; the great walls glistening with the armored hosts; the terraces of that fair and ancient city, their gardens and green groves and clustering red and yellow-roofed houses and temples and palaces; the swinging gross body of Cherkis in the clutch of the unseen grip of the tentacle, his grizzled hair touching the side of the pyramid that held him, his arms half outstretched, the gemmed cloak flapping like the wings of a jeweled bat, his white, malignant face in which the evil eyes were burning slits flaming hell's own blackest hatred; and beyond the city, from which pulsed almost visibly a vast and hopeless horror, the watching column and over all this the palely radiant white sky under whose light the encircling cliffs were tremendous stony palettes splashed with a hundred pigments.
I want my sister back. I'm helping her to get back. Now let be. I know what I'm doing. Look at her!" We looked. In the face that glared up at Ventnor was nothing of Ruth even as he had said. There was the same cold, awesome wrath that had rested upon Norhala's as she watched Cherkis weep over the eating up of his city.
Thrown from it, the cloaked form flew like a great blue bat. It fell upon the flattened mound that had once been the proud crown of his city. A blue blot upon desolation the broken body of Cherkis lay. A black speck appeared high in the sky; grew fast the lammergeier. "I have left carrion for you after all!" cried Norhala.
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