Part 25 (1/2)
Valeria's eyes widened The man she had seen was still in the chamber
He lay face down on a dark crimson carpet in the middle of the room His body was limp, his arms spread wide His curved sword lay near him
She wondered why he should lie there so motionless Then her eyes narrowed as she stared down at the rug on which he lay Beneath and about hihter crihtly, she crouched down closer behind the balustrade, intently scanning the shadows under the overhanging gallery They gave up no secret
Suddenly another figure entered the grim drama He was a man similar to the first, and he caave upon the hall
His eyes glared at the sight of thein a staccato voice that sounded like ”Chicmec!” The other did not ripped the fallencry escaped hi a throat that had been severed from ear to ear
The man let the corpse fall back upon the blood-stained carpet, and sprang to his feet, shaking like a wind-blown leaf His face was an ashy ht, he froze suddenly, beca across the chamber with dilated eyes
In the shadows beneath the balcony a ghostly light began to glow and grow, a light that was not part of the fire-stone gleam Valeria felt her hair stir as she watched it; for, di radiance, there floated a hulythere like a dise more and more distinct; human, and yet not human as she knew humanity
The man stoodfixedly at the apparition The thing rotesque shadow moved with it Slowly the shadow becaure whose naked torso and limbs shone whitely, with the hue of bleached bones The bare skull on its shoulders grinned eyelessly, in theit seemed unable to take his eyes froers, on his face the expression of a man bound by the spells of a mesmerist
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VALERIA realized that it was not fear alone that paralyzed hilow had robbed him of his power to think and act She herself, safely above the scene, felt the subtle impact of a nameless emanation that was a threat to sanity
The horror swept toward its victim and he moved at last, but only to drop his sword and sink to his knees, covering his eyes with his hands Duleamed in the apparition's hand as it reared above him like Death triu to the first ierishto the floor behind the awful shape It wheeled at the thud of her soft boots on the floor, but even as it turned, her keen blade lashed down, and a fierce exultation swept her as she felt the edge cleave solid flesh and ly and went down, severed through shoulder, breast-bone and spine, and as it fell the burning skull rolled clear, revealing a lank mop of black hair and a dark face twisted in the convulsions of death Beneath the horrific , asupinely on the floor
The latter looked up at the sound of the blow and the cry, and now he glared in wild-eyed amazement at the white-skinned wo sword in her hand
He staggered up, yaht had almost unseated his reason She was a in the Stygian tongue, though in a dialect unfamiliar to her
”Who are you? Whence co on, without waiting for her to reply: ”But you are a friend Goddess or devil, itSkull! It was but a man beneath it, after all! We deemed it a demon they conjured up out of the catacos and stiffened, straining his ears with painful intensity The girl heard nothing
”We must hasten!” he whispered ”They are west of the Great Hall! Theyupon us even now!”
He seized her wrist in a convulsive grasp she found hard to break
”Whom do you mean by 'they'?” she dely for an instant, as if he found her ignorance hard to understand
”They?” he stauely ”Why why, the people of Xotalanc! The clan of the ate”
”You mean to say this city is inhabited?” she exclai in the impatience of apprehension ”Come away! Come quick!
We must return to Tecuhltli!”
”Where is that?” she deate!” He had her wrist again and was pulling her toward the door through which he had first come Great beads of perspiration dripped from his dark forehead, and his eyes blazed with terror
”Wait aoff his hand ”Keep your hands off me, or I'll split your skull What's all this about? Who are you? Where would you take lances to all sides, and began speaking so fast his words tripped over each other
”My name is Techotl I am of Tecuhltli I and this man who lies with his throat cut came into the Halls of Silence to try and ambush some of the Xotalancas But we becaullet slit The Burning Skull did it, I know, just as he would have slain me had you not killed hi from Xotalanc! The Gods themselves blench at the fate of those they take alive!”
At the thought he shook as with an ague and his dark skin grew ashy Valeria frowned puzzledly at hiless to her
She turned toward the skull, which still glowed and pulsed on the floor, and was reaching a booted toe tentatively toward it, when theforith a cry
”Do not touch it! Do not even look at it! Madness and death lurk in it The wizards of Xotalanc understand its secret they found it in the catacos who ruled in Xuchotl in the black centuries of the past To gaze upon it freezes the blood and withers the brain of a man who understands not its mystery To touch it causes madness and 219
destruction”
She scowled at hiure, with his lean, muscle-knotted fralow of terror, lurked a weird light she had never seen in the eyes of a man wholly sane Yet he seeed, reaching for her hand, and then recoiling as he reer How you came here I do not know, but if you were a Goddess or a des you have asked reat forest, whence our ancestors came But you are our friend, or you would not have slain my enemy Come quickly, before the Xotalancas find us and slay us!”
Frolanced to the sinister skull, s on the floor near the dead man It was like a skull seen in a drea distortions and malformations of contour and outline In life the wearer of that skull must have presented an alien and monstrous aspect Life? It seemed to possess some sort of life of its own Its janed at her and snapped together Its radiance grew brighter, rew too; it was a dreaent voice which snapped Valeria back fro
”Do not look at the skull! Do not look at the skull!” It was a far cry from across unreckoned voids
Valeria shook herself like a lion shaking his : ”In life it housed the awful brain of a king of ic drawn from outer spaces!”
WITH a curse Valeria leaped, lithe as a panther, and the skull crashed to fla sword Somewhere in the room, or in the void, or in the dim reaches of her consciousness, an inhue
Techotl's hand was plucking at her ar: ”You have broken it! You have destroyed it! Not all the black arts of Xotalanc can rebuild it! Coo,” she protested ”I have a friend somewhere near by ”
The flare of his eyes cut her short as he stared past her with an expression grown ghastly She wheeled just as fouron the pair in the center of the chamber
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They were like the others she had seen, the saaunt lilare in their wide eyes They were armed and clad like Techotl, but on the breast of each was painted a white skull
There were no challenges or war-cries Like blood- at the throats of their enemies Techotl met them with the fury of desperation, ducked the swipe of a wide-headed blade, and grappled with the wielder, and bore him to the floor where they rolled and wrestled in murderous silence