Part 17 (2/2)
He knehat the next step would be The queen would have hi from them the details of their conspiracy and the nae, Amboola quailed at the prospect Perhaps his best hope would lie in accusing all the lords and grandees of Kush of complicity Tananda could not punish theinary conspiracy she feared would quickly become a fact
Suddenly, Amboola was cold sober An icy sensation scuttled up his spine So presence-was in the room with him
With a low cry, he started up and stared about hi about hiht that cah the small barred , the officer could just risly shape An icy hand clutched at his heart, which through a score of battles had never, until this hour, known fear
A shapeless gray fog hovered in the gloo serpents, as the phantoealed into solidity Stark terror lay on A eyes as he saw the thing that condensed slowly into being out of elike snout, covered with coarse bristles, which thrust into the shaft of dian to e, ht To a piglike head was now added thick, hairy ar in rudi shriek, A ht, foaish eyes that blazed with red fury through the dark Then the brutish paws clarip; tusks tore and slashed
Presently the ht fell upon a black shape, sprawled on the floor in a widening pool of blood The grayish, sha the black warrior was gone, dissolved into the impalpable mist from which it had taken form
2 The Invisible Terror
”Tuthent as the fist that hammered on the teakwood door of the house of the most ambitious nobleman of Kush
”Lord Tuthain!”
The door opened, and Tuthure, with the narrow features and dusky skin of his caste He rapped in robes of white silk as if for bed and held a small bronze lamp in his hand
”What is it, Afari?” he asked
The visitor, the whites of his eyes flashi+ng, burst into the roo run He was a lean, wiry, dark-skinned roid ancestry more prominent in his features For all his haste, he took care to close the door before he answered
”Amboola! He is dead! In the Red Tower!”
”What?” exclaimed Tuthmes ”Tananda dared to execute the commander of the Black Spears?”
”No, no, no! She would not be such a fool, surely He was not executed but ot into his cell-how, Set only knows-and tore his throat out, stamped in his ribs, and smashed his skull By Derketa's snaky locks, I have seen many dead men, but never one less lovely in death than Amboola Tuthmes, it is the work of the demon, of whoain loose in Meroe!” Afari clutched the s fro around his scrawny neck ”Amboola's throat was bitten out, and the marks of the teeth were not like those of a lion or an ape It was as if they had been made by razor-sharp chisels!”
”When was this done?”
”Soht Guards in the lower part of the toatching the stair that leads up to the cell in which he was imprisoned, heard him cry out They rushed up the stairs, burst into the cell, and found hi in the lower part of the tower, as you bade uards to say naught to anyone”
Tuthmes smiled a cool, impassive smile that was not pleasant to see Hethrown Aht well have had Amboola slain and the corpsehaunted the land Might she not, now?”
Comprehension dawned in the eyes of theAfari's arm, continued: ”Go, now, and strike before the queen can learn of it First, take a detachuards for sleeping at their duty Be sure you let it be known that you do it by ed their commander and remove a weapon from Tananda's hand Kill them before she can have it done
”Then spread word to the other chief nobles If this be Tananda's way of dealing with the powerful ones of her realo into the Outer City and find old Ageera, the witch-smeller Do not tell him flatly that Tananda caused this deed to be done, but hint at it”
Afari shuddered ”How can a common man lie to that devil? His eyes are like coals of fire; they seem to look into depths unnamable I have seen hirind their fleshless jaws”