第79章

We were, I knew, just under the dome; but for the mo-ment, caught in the flood of radiance, I could see nothing.It was like being held within a fire opal--so brilliant, so flash-ing, was it.I closed my eyes, opened them; the lambency cascaded from the vast curves of the globular walls; in front of me was a long, narrow opening in them, through which, far away, I could see the end of the wizards' bridge and the ledged mouth of the cavern through which we had come;against the light from within beat the crimson light from without--and was checked as though by a barrier.

I felt Lakla's touch; turned.

A hundred paces away was a dais, its rim raised a yard above the floor.From the edge of this rim streamed upward a steady, coruscating mist of the opalescence, veined even as was that of the Dweller's shining core and shot with milky shadows like curdled moonlight; up it stretched like a wall.

Over it, from it, down upon me, gazed three faces--two clearly male, one a woman's.At the first I thought them statues, and then the eyes of them gave the lie to me; for the eyes were alive, terribly, and if I could admit the word --SUPERNATURALLY--alive.

They were thrice the size of the human eye and triangular, the apex of the angle upward; black as jet, pupilless, filled with tiny, leaping red flames,Over them were foreheads, not as ours--high and broad and visored; their sides drawn forward into a vertical ridge, a prominence, an upright wedge, somewhat like the visored heads of a few of the great lizards--and the heads, long, narrowing at the back, were fully twice the size of man-kind's!

Upon the brows were caps--and with a fearful certainty I knew that they were NOT caps--long, thick strands of gleaming yellow, feathered scales thin as sequins! Sharp, curving noses like the beaks of the giant condors; mouths thin, austere; long, powerful, pointed chins; the--FLESH--of the faces white as the whitest marble; and wreathing up to them, covering all their bodies, the shimmering, curdled, misty fires of opalescence!

Olaf stood rigid; my own heart leaped wildly.What--what were these beings?

I forced myself to look again--and from their gaze streamed a current of reassurance, of good will--nay, of intense spiritual strength.I saw that they were not fierce, not ruthless, not inhuman, despite their strangeness; no, they were kindly; in some unmistakable way, benign and sorrowful--so sorrowful! I straightened, gazed back at them fearlessly.Olaf drew a deep breath, gazed steadily too, the hardness, the despair wiped from his face.

Now Lakla drew closer to the dais; the three pairs of eyes searched hers, the woman's with an ineffable tenderness;some message seemed to pass between the Three and the Golden Girl.She bowed low, turned to the Norseman.

"Place Larry there," she said softly--"there at the feet of the Silent Ones."She pointed into the radiant mist; Olaf started, hesitated, stared from Lakla to the Three, searched for a moment their eyes--and something like a smile drifted through them.He stepped forward, lifted O'Keefe, set him squarely within the covering light.It wavered, rolled upward, swirled about the body, steadied again--and within it there was no sign of Larry!

Again the mist wavered, shook, and seemed to climb higher, hiding the chins, the beaked noses, the brows of that incredible Trinity--but before it ceased to climb, I thought the yellow feathered heads bent; sensed a movement as though they lifted something.

The mist fell; the eyes gleamed out again, inscrutable.

And groping out of the radiance, pausing at the verge of the dais, leaping down from it, came Larry, laughing, filled with life, blinking as one who draws from darkness into sun-shine.He saw Lakla, sprang to her, gripped her in his arms.

"Lakla!" he cried."Mavourneen!" She slipped from his embrace, blushing, glancing at the Three shyly, half-fear-fully.And again I saw the tenderness creep into the inky, flame-shot orbs of the woman being; and a tenderness in the others too--as though they regarded some well-beloved child.

"You lay in the arms of Death, Larry," she said."And the Silent Ones drew you from him.Do homage to the Silent Ones, Larry, for they are good and they are mighty!"She turned his head with one of the long, white hands--and he looked into the faces of the Three; looked long, was shaken even as had been Olaf and myself; was swept by that same wave of power and of--of--what can I call it?--HOLINESSthat streamed from them.

Then for the first time I saw real awe mount into his face.

Another moment he stared--and dropped upon one knee and bowed his head before them as would a worshipper be-fore the shrine of his saint.And--I am not ashamed to tell it --I joined him; and with us knelt Lakla and Olaf and Rador.

The mist of fiery opal swirled up about the Three; hid them.

And with a long, deep, joyous sigh Lakla took Larry's hand, drew him to his feet, and silently we followed them out of that hall of wonder.

But why, in going, did the thought come to me that from where the Three sat throned they ever watched the cavern mouth that was the door into their abode; and looked down ever into the unfathomable depth in which glowed and pulsed that mystic flower, colossal, awesome, of green flame that had seemed to me fire of life itself?