第68章

The Casting of the ShadowNOW we were racing down toward that last span whose ancientness had set it apart from all the other soaring arches.

The shell's speed slackened; we approached warily.

"We pass there?" asked O'Keefe.

The green dwarf nodded, pointing to the right where the bridge ended in a broad platform held high upon two gigantic piers, between which ran a spur from the glistening road.

Platform and bridge were swarming with men-at-arms; they crowded the parapets, looking down upon us curiously but with no evidence of hostility.Rador drew a deep breath of relief.

"We don't have to break our way through, then?" There was disappointment in the Irishman's voice.

"No use, _Larree_!" Smiling, Rador stopped the _corial_ just beneath the arch and beside one of the piers."Now, listen well.They have had no warning, hence does Yolara still think us on the way to the temple.This is the gateway of the Portal--and the gateway is closed by the Shadow.Once Icommanded here and I know its laws.This must I do--by craft persuade Serku, the keeper of the gateway, to lift the Shadow; or raise it myself.And that will be hard and it may well be that in the struggle life will be stripped of us all.

Yet is it better to die fighting than to dance with the Shining One!"He swept the shell around the pier.Opened a wide plaza paved with the volcanic glass, but black as that down which we had sped from the chamber of the Moon Pool.It shone like a mirrored lakelet of jet; on each side of it arose what at first glance seemed towering bulwarks of the same ebon obsidian; at second, revealed themselves as structures hewn and set in place by men; polished faces pierced by dozens of high, narrow windows.

Down each facade a stairway fell, broken by small land-ings on which a door opened; they dropped to a broad ledge of greyish stone edging the lip of this midnight pool and upon it also fell two wide flights from either side of the bridge platform.Along all four stairways the guards were ranged; and here and there against the ledge stood the shells --in a curiously comforting resemblance to parked motors in our own world.

The sombre walls bulked high; curved and ended in two obelisked pillars from which, like a tremendous curtain, stretched a barrier of that tenebrous gloom which, though weightless as shadow itself, I now knew to be as impenetra-ble as the veil between life and death.In this murk, unlike all others I had seen, I sensed movement, a quivering, a tremor constant and rhythmic; not to be seen, yet caught by some subtle sense; as though through it beat a swift pulse of --black light.

The green dwarf turned the _corial_ slowly to the edge at the right; crept cautiously on toward where, not more than a hundred feet from the barrier, a low, wide entrance opened in the fort.Guarding its threshold stood two guards, armed with broadswords, double-handed, terminating in a wide lunette mouthed with murderous fangs.These they raised in salute and through the portal strode a dwarf huge as Rador, dressed as he and carrying only the poniard that was the badge of office of Muria's captainry.

The green dwarf swept the shell expertly against the ledge; leaped out.

"Greeting, Serku!" he answered."I was but looking for the _coria_ of Lakla.""Lakla!" exclaimed Serku."Why, the handmaiden passed with her _Akka_ nigh a _va_ ago!""Passed!" The astonishment of the green dwarf was so real that half was I myself deceived."You let her PASS?""Certainly I let her pass--" But under the green dwarf's stern gaze the truculence of the guardian faded."Why should I not?" he asked, apprehensively.

"Because Yolara commanded otherwise," answered Rador, coldly.

"There came no command to me." Little beads of sweat stood out on Serku's forehead.

"Serku," interrupted the green dwarf swiftly, "truly is my heart wrung for you.This is a matter of Yolara and of Lugur and the Council; yes, even of the Shining One! And the message was sent--and the fate, mayhap, of all Muria rested upon your obedience and the return of Lakla with these strangers to the Council.Now truly is my heart wrung, for there are few I would less like to see dance with the Shining One than you, Serku," he ended, softly.

Livid now was the gateway's guardian, his great frame shaking.

"Come with me and speak to Yolara," he pleaded."There came no message--tell her--""Wait, Serku!" There was a thrill as of inspiration in Rador's voice."This _corial_ is of the swiftest--Lakla's are of the slowest.With Lakla scarce a _va_ ahead we can reach her before she enters the Portal.Lift you the Shadow--we will bring her back, and this will I do for you, Serku."Doubt tempered Serku's panic.

"Why not go alone, Rador, leaving the strangers here with me?" he asked--and I thought not unreasonably.

"Nay, then." The green dwarf was brusk."Lakla will not return unless I carry to her these men as evidence of our good faith.Come--we will speak to Yolara and she shall judge you--" He started away--but Serku caught his arm.

"No, Rador, no!" he whispered, again panic-stricken."Go you--as you will.But bring her back! Speed, Rador!" He sprang toward the entrance."I lift the Shadow--"Into the green dwarf's poise crept a curious, almost a listening, alertness.He leaped to Serku's side.

"I go with you," I heard."Some little I can tell you--"They were gone.

"Fine work!" muttered Larry."Nominated for a citizen of Ireland when we get out of this, one Rador of--"The Shadow trembled--shuddered into nothingness; the obelisked outposts that had held it framed a ribbon of road-way, high banked with verdure, vanishing in green distances.

And then from the portal sped a shriek, a death cry! It cut through the silence of the ebon pit like a whimpering arrow.