Stark obeyed the voice. As he approached the lamps, the aspect of the
Lhari changed and steadied. Their beauty remained, but it was not the
same. They had looked like angels. Now that he could see them clearly,
Stark thought that they might have been the children of Lucifer himself.
There were six of them, counting the boy. Two men, about the same age
as Stark, with some complicated gambling game forgotten between them. A
woman, beautiful, gowned in white silk, sitting with her hands in her
lap, doing nothing. A woman, younger, not so beautiful perhaps, but
with a look of stormy and bitter vitality. She wore a short tunic of
crimson, and a stout leather glove on her left hand, where perched a
flying thing of prey with its fierce eyes hooded.
The boy stood beside the two men, his head poised arrogantly. From time
to time he cuffed the little dragon, and it snapped at him with its
impotent jaws. He was proud of himself for doing that. Stark wondered
how he would behave with the beast when it had grown its fangs.
Opposite him, crouched on a heap of cushions, was a third man. He was
deformed, with an ungainly body and long spidery arms, and in his lap
a sharp knife lay on a block of wood, half formed into the shape of
an obese creature half woman, half pure evil. Stark saw with a flash
of surprise that the face of the deformed young man, of all the faces
there, was truly human, truly beautiful. His eyes were old in his
boyish face, wise, and very sad in their wisdom. He smiled upon the
stranger, and his smile was more compassionate than tears.
* * * * *
They looked at Stark, all of them, with restless, hungry eyes. They
were the pure breed, that had left its stamp of alienage on the
pale-haired folk of the swamps, the serfs who dwelt in the huts outside.
They were of the Cloud People, the folk of the High Plateaus, kings of
the land on the farther slopes of the Mountains of White Cloud. It was
strange to see them here, on the dark side of the barrier wall, but
here they were. How they had come, and why, leaving their rich cool
plains for the fetor of these foreign swamps, he could not guess. But
there was no mistaking them--the proud fine shaping of their bodies,
their alabaster skin, their eyes that were all colours and none, like
the dawn sky, their hair that was pure warm silver.
They did not speak. They seemed to be waiting for permission to speak,
and Stark wondered which one of them had voiced that steely summons.
Then it came again. "Come here--come closer." And he looked beyond
them, beyond the circle of lamps into the shadows again, and saw the
speaker.
She lay upon a low bed, her head propped on silken pillows, her vast,
her incredibly gigantic body covered with a silken pall. Only her arms
were bare, two shapeless masses of white flesh ending in tiny hands.
From time to time she stretched one out and took a morsel of food from
the supply laid ready beside her, snuffling and wheezing with the
effort, and then gulped the tidbit down with a horrible voracity.
Her features had long ago dissolved into a shaking formlessness, with
the exception of her nose, which rose out of the fat curved and cruel
and thin, like the bony beak of the creature that sat on the girl's
wrist and dreamed its hooded dreams of blood. And her eyes....
Stark looked into her eyes and shuddered. Then he glanced at the
carving half formed in the cripple's lap, and knew what thought had
guided the knife.
Half woman, half pure evil. And strong. Very strong. Her strength lay
naked in her eyes for all to see, and it was an ugly strength. It could
tear down mountains, but it could never build.
He saw her looking at him. Her eyes bored into his as though they would
search out his very guts and study them, and he knew that she expected
him to turn away, unable to bear her gaze. He did not. Presently he
smiled and said, "I have out-stared a rock-lizard, to determine which
of us should eat the other. And I've out-stared the very rock while
waiting for him."
She knew that he spoke the truth. Stark expected her to be angry, but
she was not. A vague mountainous rippling shook her and emerged at
length as a voiceless laughter.
"You see that?" she demanded, addressing the others. "You whelps of the
Lhari--not one of you dares to face me down, yet here is a great dark
creature from the gods know where who can stand and shame you."
She glanced again at Stark. "What demon's blood brought you forth, that
you have learned neither prudence nor fear?"
Stark answered sombrely, "I learned them both before I could walk. But
I learned another thing also--a thing called anger."
"And you are angry?"
"Ask Malthor if I am, and why!"
He saw the two men start a little, and a slow smile crossed the girl's
face.
"Malthor," said the hulk upon the bed, and ate a mouthful of roast meat
dripping with fat. "That is interesting. But rage against Malthor did
not bring you here. I am curious, Stranger. Speak."
"I will."
* * * * *
Stark glanced around. The place was a tomb, a trap. The very air
smelled of danger. The younger folk watched him in silence. Not one
of them had spoken since he came in, except the boy who had cursed
him, and that was unnatural in itself. The girl leaned forward, idly
stroking the creature on her wrist so that it stirred and ran its
knife-like talons in and out of their bony sheathes with sensuous
pleasure. Her gaze on Stark was bold and cool, oddly challenging. Of
them all, she alone saw him as a man. To the others he was a problem, a
diversion--something less than human.
Stark said, "A man came to Shuruun at the time of the last rains. His
name was Helvi, and he was son of a little king by Yarell. He came
seeking his brother, who had broken tabu and fled for his life. Helvi
came to tell him that the ban was lifted, and he might return. Neither
one came back."
The small evil eyes were amused, blinking in their tallowy creases.
"And so?"
"And so I have come after Helvi, who is my friend."
Again there was the heaving of that bulk of flesh, the explosion of
laughter that hissed and wheezed in snakelike echoes through the vault.
"Friendship must run deep with you, Stranger. Ah, well. The Lhari are
kind of heart. You shall find your friend."
And as though that were the signal to end their deferential silence,
the younger folk burst into laughter also, until the vast hall rang
with it, giving back a sound like demons laughing on the edge of Hell.
The cripple only did not laugh, but bent his bright head over his
carving, and sighed.