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Updated: June 15, 2025
I knew for what he watched but Ruth's shamed face was all human; on it was no shadow nor trace of that alien soul which so few hours since had threatened us. "Yes," she nodded, "I remember that. And I remember how Norhala repaid them. I remember that I was glad, fiercely glad, and then I was tired so tired. And then I come to the rubbed-out place," she ended perplexedly.
But even if we could have passed safely through the tunnel of the abyss there still was left the chasm over which we could have thrown no bridge. And if we could have bridged it still at that road's end was the cliff whose shaft Norhala had sealed with her lightnings. So we entered the rift. Of our wanderings thereafter I need not write.
Quick was his disillusionment. "Listen, Kulun," she cried. "I am Norhala daughter of another Norhala and of Rustum, whom Cherkis tortured and slew. Now go, you lying spawn of unclean toads go and tell your father that I, Norhala, am at his gates. And bring back with you the maid and the man. Go, I say!" There was stark amazement on Kulun's face; and fear now enough.
It was an elfin palace; a goblin dwelling; such a bower as some mirthful, beauty-loving Jinn King of Jewels might have built from enchanted hoards for some well-beloved daughter of earth. All of fifty feet in height was the blue globe, and up to a wide and ovaled entrance ran a broad and shining roadway. Along this the cubes swept and stopped. "My house," murmured Norhala.
Came a rushing past us as of great bodies; something grazed my hand, something whose touch was like that of warm metal but metal throbbing with life. They rushed by and whispered down into silence. "Come!" Norhala flitted ahead of us, a faintly luminous shape in the darkness. Swiftly we followed. I found Ruth beside me; felt her hand grip my wrist.
The attraction that had held us to the surface of the blocks relaxed, angled through changed and assisting lines of force; the hosts of minute eyes sparkling quizzically, interestedly, at us, we gently slid Ventnor's body; lifted down the pony. "Enter," sighed Norhala, and waved a welcoming hand. "Tell her to wait a minute," ordered Drake.
"If you will go without further knocking upon my gates" there was a satiric grimness in the phrase "go when you have been given them, and pledge yourself never to return you shall have them. If you will not, then they die." "But what security, what hostages, do you ask?" Her eyes were troubled. "I cannot swear by your gods, Cherkis, for they are not my gods in truth I, Norhala, have no gods.
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.
The ground was level as a dancing floor. We followed the enigmatic glow emanation, it seemed to me from Norhala which was as a light for us to follow within the darkness. The high ribbon of sky had vanished seemed to be overcast, for I could see no stars. Within the darkness I began again to sense faint movement; soft stirring all about us.
And on the face of Ruth, as upon a mirror, I watched that same slow, understanding tenderness reflected! "Come," said Norhala, and led the way through the sparkling curtains. As she passed, an arm around Ruth's neck, I saw the marks of Ventnor's fingers upon her white shoulder, staining its purity, marring it like a blasphemy.
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