Part 28 (1/2)
”Who are you?” she cried desperately ”What madness is this? Why do you come here?”
”Who am I?” There was the spite of a she-cobra's hiss in the soft response The girl stepped to the edge of the couch, grasped the queen's white shoulders with fierce fingers, and bent to glare full into the startled eyes of Taralare, the queen 243
forgot to resent the unprecedented outrage of violent hands laid on regal flesh
”Fool!” gritted the girl between her teeth ”Can you ask? Can you wonder? I am Salome!”
”Salome!” Taramis breathed the word, and the hairs prickled on her scalp as she realized the incredible, nuht you died within the hour of your birth,”
she said feebly
”So thought many,” answered the woman who called herself Salome ”They carriedbabe whose life was so young it was scarcely the flicker of a candle And do you knohy they bore me forth to die?”
”I I have heard the story ” faltered Tarahed fiercely, and slapped her bosom The low-necked tunic left the upper parts of her firm breasts bare, and between them there shone a curious mark a crescent, red as blood
”The
”Aye!” Saloed with hate ”The curse of the kings of Khauran!
Aye, they tell the tale in theeyes, the pious fools! They tell how the first queen of our line had traffic with a fiend of darkness and bore hiendry to this day And thereafter in each century a girl baby was born into the Askhaurian dynasty, with a scarlet half-nified her destiny
”'Every century a witch shall be born' So ran the ancient curse And so it has coht to slay hters of Khauran, with theupon their ivory bosoms Each was named Salome I too am Salome It was always Salome, the witch It will always be Salome, the witch, even when the round the civilizations to ruin, and a neorld has risen from the ashes and dust even then there shall be Salomes to walk the earth, to trap s of the world, and see the heads of the wise men fall at their pleasure!”
”But but you ” stammered Taramis
”I?” The scintillant eyes burned like dark fires of mystery ”They carried me into the desert far from the city, and laidsun And then they rode away and left me for the jackals and the vultures and the desert wolves
244
”But the life in er than the life in common folk, for it partakes of the essence of the forces that seethe in the black gulfs beyond mortal ken The hours passed, and the sun slashed down like theof that torment I remember, faintly and far-away, as one remembers a dim, formless dream Then there were camels, and yellow-skinned ue Strayed from the caravan road, they passed close by, and their leader saw nized the scarlet crescent on ician frodoia
He tookareoe had steeped him deep in black wisdoht lea in her dark eyes Then she tossed her head
”He drovethat I was but a cos, and not fit to coht me He would have h me, he said, but I was only a harlot of darkness But what of it? I could never endure to secludeinto a crystal globe,over incantations written on serpent's skin in the blood of virgins, poring over es
”He said I was but an earthly sprite, knowing naught of the deeper gulfs of cosmic sorcery
Well, this world contains all I desire power, and poeantry, handsome men and soft women for my paramours and my slaves He had told e I have returned to take that to which I have as ht of possession”
”What do youout of her bewilder a few of uardsmen you have established a claiet that I aive you a place of honor, as enerous of you, dear, sweet sister! But before you begin putting me in my place perhaps you will tell me whose soldiers camp in the plain outside the city walls?”
”They are the Shemitish mercenaries of Constantius, the Kothic voivode of the Free Companies”
245
”And what do they in Khauran?” cooed Salo subtly nity which she scarcely felt
”Constantius asked per the borders of Khauran on his way to Turan He hi as they are within my domains”
”And Constantius,” pursued Salome ”Did he not ask your hand today?”
Taralance of suspicion
”How did you know that?”
An insolent shrug of the slim naked shoulders was the only reply
”You refused, dear sister?”
”Certainly I refused!” exclairily ”Do you, an Askhaurian princess yourself, suppose that the queen of Khauran could treat such a proposal with anything but disdain? Wed a bloody-handed adventurer, a doanized plunderers and hiredhis black-bearded slayers into Khauran But he is virtually a prisoner in the south tower, guarded by my soldiers Todom He himself shall be kept captive until they are over the border
Meantime, my soldiers man the walls of the city, and I have warned hies perpetrated on the villagers or shepherds by his mercenaries”
”He is confined in the south tower?” asked Salome
”That is what I said Why do you ask?”
For answer Salole of cruel rants you an audience, Falcon!”
A gold-arabesqued door opened and a tall figure entered the chaht of which Taraer
”Constantius! You dare enter my chamber!”
”As you see, your majesty!” He bent his dark, hawk-like head in mock humility
246
Constantius, whom men called the Falcon, was tall, broad-shouldered, sli as pliant steel He was handsome in an aquiline, ruthless sort of way His face was burnt dark by the sun and his hair, which grew far back froh, narrow forehead, was black as a raven His dark eyes were penetrating and alert, the hardness of his thin lips not softened by his thin black moustache His boots were of Kordavan leather, his hose and doublet of plain, dark silk, tarnished with the wear of the ca hisqueen with an effrontery that made her wince
”By Ishtar, Taraht-tunic than in your queenly robes Truly, this is an auspicious night!”