The Justice of Lora
As I looked at her the man and his way the table toward us. For the time my took in Lugur. A than the green dwarf, he was broader, more with the of strength.
The were four wide if an inch, to thighs. The of his out his of red. Around his a of bright-blue stones, among the thick of his silver-ash hair.
Upon his and were large—and power still larger. All the mockery, the malice, the hint of that I had noted in the other men were there, too—but intensified, touched with the satanic.
The woman spoke again.
"Who are you strangers, and how came you here?" She to Rador. "Or is it that they do not our tongue?"
"One and speaks it—but very badly, O Yolara," answered the green dwarf.
"Speak, then, that one of you," she commanded.
But it was Marakinoff who his voice first, and I at the fluency, so much than mine, with which he spoke.
"We came for different purposes. I to knowledge of a kind; he"—pointing to me "of another. This man"—he looked at Olaf—"to a wife and child."
The grey-blue had been O'Keefe and with interest.
"And why did you come?" she asked him. "Nay—I would have him speak for himself, if he can," she Marakinoff peremptorily.
When Larry spoke it was haltingly, in the that was to him, for the proper words.
"I came to help these men—and something I not then called me, O lady, are like at dawn," he answered; and in the there was a touch of the Irish brogue, and little lights in the Larry had so apostrophized.
"I fault with your speech, but none with its burden," she said. "What are I know not, and the has not upon the people of Lora these many of laya.[1] But I what you mean!"
The to as she him. She smiled.
"Are there many like you in the world from which you come?" she asked softly. "Well, we soon shall—"
Lugur her almost and glowering.
"Best we should know how they came hence," he growled.
She a quick look at him, and again the little in her eyes.
[Unquestionably there is a time as we know it and time in this land—its progress there being slower. This, however, is only in with the well-known of relativity, which space and time as necessary of the mind to itself to the under which it itself. I often to measure this difference, but do so to my entire satisfaction. The I can come to it is to say that an hour of our time is the of an hour and five-eighths in Muria. For upon this of the reader may any of the books upon the subject.—W. T. G.]
"Yes, that is true," she said. "How came you here?"
Again it was Marakinoff who answered—slowly, every word.
"In the world above," he said, "there are of not by any of those who now there. To us these places called, and we for knowledge of the wise ones who them. We a passageway. The way us to a door in cliff, and through it we came here."
"Then have you what you sought?" spoke she. "For we are of those who the cities. But this in the rock—where is it?"
"After we passed, it closed upon us; we after of it," answered Marakinoff.
The that had upon the of the green upon theirs; on Lugur's it was with anger.
He to Rador.
"I no opening, lord," said the green quickly.
And there was so a fire in the of Lugur as he upon us that O'Keefe's hand toward his pistol.
"Best it is to speak truth to Yolara, of the Shining One, and to Lugur, the Voice," he menacingly.
"It is the truth," I interposed. "We came the passage. At its end was a vine, a of five flowers"—the fire died from the red dwarf's eyes, and I have to a pallor. "I rested a hand upon these flowers, and a door opened. But when we had gone through it and turned, us was nothing but cliff. The door had vanished."
I had taken my from Marakinoff. If he had the of car and Moon Pool, he had good reason, I had no doubt; and I would be as cautious. And me something me to say nothing of my quest; to all of Throckmartin—something that warned, peremptorily, finally, as though it were a message from Throckmartin himself!
"A with five flowers!" the red dwarf. "Was it like this, say?"
He a long arm. Upon the thumb of the hand was an ring, set with a dull-blue stone. Graven on the of the was the symbol of the of the Moon Chamber that had opened to us their two portals. But cut over the were seven circles, one about each of the flowers and two larger ones covering, them.
"This is the same," I said; "but these were not there"—I the circles.
The woman a and looked into Lugur's eyes.
"The of the Silent Ones!" he whispered.
It was the woman who herself.
"The are weary, Lugur," she said. "When they are rested they shall where the opened."
I a in their toward us; a new intentness; a with apprehension. What was it they feared? Why had the symbol of the the change? And who or what were the Silent Ones?
Yolara's to Olaf, hardened, and cold grey. Subconsciously I had noticed that from the the Norseman had been in his of the pair; had, indeed, taken his from them; had noticed, too, the toward him.
He returned her fearlessly, a touch of in the clear eyes—like a child a which he did not dread, but be well knew.
Under that look Yolara impatiently, sensing, I know, its meaning.
"Why do you look at me so?" she cried.
An of passed over Olaf's face.
"I do not understand," he said in English.
I a in O'Keefe's eyes. He knew, as I knew, that Olaf must have understood. But did Marakinoff?
Apparently he did not. But why was Olaf ignorance?
"This man is a from what we call the North," thus Larry haltingly. "He is crazed, I think. He tells a of a something of cold fire that took his wife and babe. We him where we were. And he is we him with us. That is all, O lady, voice is than the of the wild bees!"
"A shape of cold fire?" she repeated.
"A shape of cold fire that the moon, with the of little bells," answered Larry, her intently.
She looked at Lugur and laughed.
"Then he, too, is fortunate," she said. "For he has come to the place of his something of cold fire—and tell him that he shall join his wife and child, in time; that I promise him."
Upon the Norseman's there was no hint of comprehension, and at that moment I an new opinion of Olaf's intelligence; for it must have been a of the will, indeed, that him, understanding, to himself.
"What she say?" he asked.
Larry repeated.
"Good!" said Olaf. "Good!"
He looked at Yolara with well-assumed gratitude. Lugur, who had been his bulk, close. He the which Huldricksson for him.
"But he shall meet Valdor and Tahola he sees those of his," he laughed mockingly. "And if he them—for reward—his wife and babe!"
A shudder, repressed, the seaman's frame. The woman her head.
"These two," she said, pointing to the Russian and to me, "seem to be men of learning. They may be useful. As for this man,"—she at Larry—"I would have him to me some things." She hesitated. "What 'hon-ey of 'e wild bees-s' is." Larry had spoken the in English, and she was trying to repeat them. "As for this man, the sailor, do as you with him, Lugur; always that I have my word that he shall join that wife and of his!" She laughed sweetly, sinisterly. "And now—take them, Rador—give them food and drink and let them till we shall call them again."
She out a hand toward O'Keefe. The Irishman low over it, it to his lips. There was a from Lugur; but Yolara Larry with now all blue.
"You me," she whispered.
And the of Lugur darker.
We to go. The rosy, azure-shot at her dulled. From it came a as of away. She over it. It vibrated, and then its surface ran with little of colour; from it came a so low that I not the words—if they were.
She spoke to the red dwarf.
"They have the three who the Shining One," she said slowly. "Now it is in my mind to these the of Lora. What say you, Lugur?"
The red nodded, his with a anticipation.
The woman spoke again to the globe. "Bring them here!"
And again it ran with its of colours, darkened, and once more. From without there came a of many upon the rugs. Yolara pressed a hand upon the of the of the her. Abruptly the light from all, and on the same the four of vanished, on two the lovely, garden through the of pillars; at our soft what beyond; us, by screens, was the through which we had entered, now by the green of the great hall.
The advanced. Each, I now noted, had the same black of Rador. They separated, and from them three figures—a of not more than twenty, short, but with the great of all the males we had of this race; a girl of seventeen, I judged, white-faced, a than the boy, her long, black dishevelled; and these two a stunted, shape was the shoulders, white like that of some to his waist, and were a white of hate. The girl herself at the of the priestess; the her curiously.
"You are Songar of the Lower Waters?" Yolara almost caressingly. "And this is your and her lover?"
The nodded, the in his higher.
"It has come to me that you three have the Shining One, its priestess, and its Voice," on Yolara smoothly. "Also that you have called out to the three Silent Ones. Is it true?"
"Your have spoken—and have you not already us?" The voice of the old was bitter.
A through the of Yolara, again cold grey. The girl a hand out to the of the priestess's veils.
"Tell us why you did these things, Songar," she said. "Why you did them, full well what your—reward—would be."
The stiffened; he his arms, and his blazed.
"Because are your and are your deeds," he cried. "Yours and your lover's, there"—he a at Lugur. "Because of the Shining One you have evil, too, and the you contemplate—you and he with the Shining One. But I tell you that your measure of is full; the of your near ended! Yea—the Silent Ones have been patient, but soon they will speak." He pointed at us. "A are they—a warning—harlot!" He the word.
In Yolara's eyes, black, the unrestrained.
"Is it so, Songar?" her voice caressed. "Now ask the Silent Ones to help you! They afar—but surely they will you." The sweet voice was mocking. "As for these two, they shall pray to the Shining One for forgiveness—and surely the Shining One will take them to its bosom! As for you—you have long enough, Songar! Pray to the Silent Ones, Songar, and pass out into the nothingness—you!"
She into her and something that a small of silver. She it, a from its base, and out of it a of green light.
It the old over the heart, and spread as light itself, him with a gleaming, film. She her hand upon the cone, and the disappeared. She the into her and expectantly; so Lugur and so the other dwarfs. From the girl came a low of anguish; the boy upon his knees, his face.
For the moment the white rigid; then the that had him to melt away, all the knotted, body. And in that a began, to rapidity. It us like a in a still by a wind. It and grew—to a was to watch and that still the eyes.
The indistinct, misty. Tiny in numbers from it—like, I thought, the of out by when under the microscope. Mistier still it grew—there us for a moment a which held, here and there, like those that in the light about us! The vanished, the were still for a moment—and away, joining those dancing others.
Where the had been but a before—there was nothing!
O'Keefe a long breath, and I was of a along my scalp.
Yolara toward us.
"You have seen," she said. Her upon Olaf's face. "Heed!" she whispered. She to the men in green, who were laughing among themselves.
"Take these two, and go!" she commanded.
"The of Lora," said the red dwarf. "The of Lora and the Shining One under Thanaroa!"
Upon the of the last word I saw Marakinoff start violently. The hand at his a swift, gesture, so that I it. The red at the Russian, and there was upon his face.
Swiftly as Marakinoff, he returned it.
"Yolara," the red spoke, "it would me to take this man of to my own place for a time. The I would have, too."
The woman from her brooding; nodded.
"As you will, Lugur," she said.
And as, to the core, we passed out into the garden into the full of the light, I if all the diamond points that about us had once been men like Songar of the Lower Waters—and my very sick!
[1] Later I was to that Murian rested upon the of the at the time of full moon on earth—this action, to my mind, being either with the of the light upon the Moon Pool, was in the cliffs, or else upon some of their with the of moonlight on earth—the latter, most probably, when the moon must have been above, it no in the phenomenon. Thirteen of these a laya, one of them a lat. Ten was sa; ten times ten times ten a said, or thousand; ten times a thousand was a sais. A of was then ten thousand years. What we would call an hour was by them called a va. The whole time was, of course, a of time as it had been to their remote, surface-dwelling ancestors, and the in the cavern.
