Part 39 (2/2)

Out from the stars rained bolt upon bolt In the chalass The bodies flamed, crumbled

There was a little s fires almost before it could rise

Where had been the heap of slain capped by the black eunuch there was but a little whirling cloud of sad gray dust Caught by a passing draft, it eddied, slipped over the floor, vanished through the doorway

Motionless stood the blasting stars, conte us Motionless stood Norhala, her wrath no whit abated by the ghastly sacrifice And paralyzed by e had beheld, motionless stood we

”Listen,” she said ”You tho love theto that which you SHALL see--a wisp of mist to the storm cloud”

”Norhala”--I found speech--”can you tell us when it was that the maid was captured?”

Perhaps there was still time to overtake the abductors before Ruth was thrust into the worse peril waiting where she was being carried Crossed this thought another--puzzling, baffling The cliffs Yuruk had pointed out to h which the hidden way passed were, I had esti was the pass, the tunnel, through them? And then how far this place of the arhtened the black eunuch with his pistol It was not yet da could Yuruk have made his way to the Persians so swiftly--how could they so swiftly have returned?

Aly she answered the spoken question and the unspoken

”They caht 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 asped

”A night has passed since then,” she said, ”and another night is alone”

Stunned, I considered this If this were true--and not for an instant did I doubt her--then not for a few hours had we lain there at the foot of the living wall in the Hall of the Cones--but for the balance of that day and that night, and another day and part of still another night

”What does she say?” Drake stared anxiously into ain ”The dusk before the last dusk that has passed I returned toShe told one into the valley, prayedyou back I coave her; but not all, for she fought against it A little we played together, and I left her sleeping I sought you and found you also sleeping I knew no harot you Then I caain--and found Yuruk and these the reat eyes flashed

”Now do I honor the h how she slew so oes out to her

And therefore when I bring her back she shall noto Norhala, but sister And with you it shall be as she wills And woe to those who have taken her!”

She paused, listening Fros, insistent and eager

”But I have an older vengeance than this to take,” the golden voice tolled sootten--and shaotten all hatreds, all lusts, all cruelty--a--these--” She thrust a hand forth toward the hidden valley ”Forgot--dwelling in the great harmonies Save for you and what has befallen I would never have stirred froeance After it is done”--she paused--”after it is over I shall go back again For this awakening has in it nothing of the ordered joy I love--it is a fierce and slaying fire I shall go back--”

The shadow of her far dreary brilliancy of her eyes

”Listen, you two!” The shadow of dream fled ”Those that I am about to slay are evil--evil are they all,have they been so--yea, for cycles of suns And their children grow like theentle and with love for peace they are slain or die of heartbreak All this o So no row evil”

Again she paused, nor did we interrupt her

”My father ruled Ruszark,” she said at last ”Rustum he was named, of the seed of Rustuood, and it was their ancestors who built Ruszark when, fleeing froht of Iskander, they were sealed in the hidden valley by the fallingfrom one of the families of the nobles--Cherkis

Evil, evil was he, and as he grew he lusted for rule On a night of terror he fell upon those who loved my father and slew; and barely had my father time to fly from the city with my mother, still but a bride, and a handful of those loyal to hi in the cleft which is its portal They came, and they were taken by--Those who are now my people Then my mother, as very beautiful, was lifted before hiht and he had built for her this house, which now is mine

”And in time I was born--but not in this house Nay--in a secret place of light where, too, are born my people”