Part 15 (2/2)

”Aye,” muttered Kull, ”I had almost gone beyond the door that time.”

”This fiend wrought most craftily,” said Brule. ”Kull, do you not now see how he spun and flung over you a web of magic? Kaanuub of Blaal plotted with this wizard to do away with you, and this wench, a girl of Elder Race, put the thought in your mind so that you would come here. Kananu of the council learned of the plot today; I know not what you saw in that mirror, but with it Tuzun Thune enthralled your soul and almost by his witchery he changed your body to mist -- ”

”Aye.” Kull was still mazed. ”But being a wizard, having knowledge of all the ages and despising gold, glory and position, what could Kaanuub offer Tuzun Thune that would make of him a foul traitor?”

”Gold, power and position,” grunted Brule. ”The sooner you learn that men are men whether wizard, king or thrall, the better you will rule, Kull. Now what of her?”

”Naught, Brule,” as the girl whimpered and groveled at Kull's feet. ”She was but a tool. Rise, child, and go your ways; none shall harm you.”

Alone with Brule, Kull looked for the last time on the mirrors of Tuzun Thune.

”Mayhap he plotted and conjured, Brule; nay, I doubt you not, yet -- was it his witchery that was changing me to thin mist, or had I stumbled on a secret? Had you not brought me back, had I faded in dissolution or had I found worlds beyond this?”

Brule stole a glance at the mirrors, and twitched his shoulders as if he shuddered. ”Aye. Tuzun Thune stored the wisdom of all the h.e.l.ls here. Let us begone, Kull, ere they bewitch me, too.”

”Let us go, then,” answered Kull, and side by side they went forth from the House of a Thousand Mirrors -- where, mayhap, are prisoned the souls of men.

None look now in the mirrors of Tuzun Thune. The pleasure boats shun the sh.o.r.e where stands the wizard's house and no one goes in the house or to the room where Tuzun Thune's dried and withered carca.s.s lies before the mirrors of illusion. The place is shunned as a place accursed, and though it stands for a thousand years to come, no footsteps shall echo there. Yet Kull upon his throne meditates often upon the strange wisdom and untold secrets hidden there and wonders....

For there are worlds beyond worlds, as Kull knows, and whether the wizard bewitched him by words or by mesmerism, vistas did open to the king's gaze beyond that strange door, and Kull is less sure of reality since he gazed into the mirrors of Tuzun Thune.

*THE MOOR GHOST*

_Weird Tales, September 1929_ They haled him to the crossroads As day was at its close; They hung him to the gallows And left him for the crows.

His hands in life were b.l.o.o.d.y, His ghost will not be still; He haunts the naked moorlands About the gibbet hill.

And oft a lonely traveler Is found upon the fen Whose dead eyes hold a horror Beyond the world of men.

The villagers then whisper, With accents grim and dour: ”This man has met at midnight The phantom of the moor.”

RED THUNDER.

_j.a.pM: The Poetry Weekly, September 16, 1929_ _Thunder in the black skies beating down the rain,_ Thunder in the black cliffs, looming o'er the main, Thunder on the black sea and thunder in my brain.

G.o.d's on the night wind, Satan's on his throne By the red lake lurid and great grim stone -- Still through the roofs of h.e.l.l the brooding thunders drone.

Trident for a rapier, Satan thrusts and foins Crouching on his throne with his great goat loins -- Souls are his footstools and hearts are his coins.

Slave of all the ages, though lord of the air; Solomon o'ercame him, set him roaring there, Crouching on the coals where the great flames flare.

Thunder from the grim gulfs, out of cosmic deep Where the red eyes glimmer and the black wings sweep, Thunder down to Satan, wake him from his sleep!

Thunder on the sh.o.r.es of h.e.l.l, scattering the coal, Riding down the mountain on the moon-mare's foal, Blasting out the caves of the gnome and the troll.

Satan, brother Satan, rise and break your chain!

Solomon is dust and his spells grow vain -- Rise through the world in the thunder and the rain.

Rush upon the cities, roaring in your might, Break down the towers in the moon's pale light, Build a wall of corpses for G.o.d's great sight, _Quench the red thunder in my brain this night._

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