The Moon Pool A. Merritt (pdf ebook reader .txt) đ
- Author: A. Merritt
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There came a crackling, a darkness of vast wings flinging down upon us. The corialâs flight was checked as by a giantâs hand. The shell swerved sickeningly; there was an oddly metallic splintering; it quivered; shot ahead. Dizzily I picked myself up and looked behind.
The Shadow had fallenâ âbut too late, a bare instant too late. And shrinking as we fled from it, still it seemed to strain like some fettered Afrit from Eblis, throbbing with wrath, seeking with every malign power it possessed to break its bonds and pursue. Not until long after were we to know that it had been the dying hand of Serku, groping out of oblivion, that had cast it after us as a fowler upon an escaping bird.
âSnappy work, Rador!â It was Larry speaking. âBut they cut the end off your bus all right!â
A full quarter of the hindward whorl was gone, sliced off cleanly. Rador noted it with anxious eyes.
âThat is bad,â he said, âbut not too bad perhaps. All depends upon how closely Lugur and his men can follow us.â
He raised a hand to OâKeefe in salute.
âBut to you, Larree, I owe my lifeâ ânot even the Keth could have been as swift to save me as that death flame of yoursâ âfriend!â
The Irishman waved an airy hand.
âSerkuââ âthe green dwarf drew from his girdle the bloodstained poniardâ ââSerku I was forced to slay. Even as he raised the Shadow the globe gave the alarm. Lugur follows with twice ten times ten of his bestâ ââ He hesitated. âThough we have escaped the Shadow it has taken toll of our swiftness. May we reach the Portal before it closes upon Laklaâ âbut if we do notâ ââ He paused again. âWellâ âI know a wayâ âbut it is not one I am gay to followâ âno!â
He snapped open the aperture that held the ball flaming within the dark crystal; peered at it anxiously. I crept to the torn end of the corial. The edges were crumbling, disintegrated. They powdered in my fingers like dust. Mystified still, I crept back where Larry, sheer happiness pouring from him, was whistling softly and polishing up his automatic. His gaze fell upon Olafâs grim, sad face and softened.
âBuck up, Olaf!â he said. âWeâve got a good fighting chance. Once we link up with Lakla and her crowd Iâm betting that we get your wifeâ ânever doubt it! The babyâ ââ he hesitated awkwardly. The Norsemanâs eyes filled; he stretched a hand to the OâKeefe.
âThe Yndlingâ âshe is of the de Dode,â he half whispered, âof the blessed dead. For her I have no fear and for her vengeance will be given me. Ja! But my Helmaâ âshe is of the dead-aliveâ âlike those we saw whirling like leaves in the light of the Shining Devilâ âand I would that she too were of de Dodeâ âand at rest. I do not know how to fight the Shining Devilâ âno!â
His bitter despair welled up in his voice.
âOlaf,â Larryâs voice was gentle. âWeâll come out on topâ âI know it. Remember one thing. All this stuff that seems so strange andâ âand, well, sort of supernatural, is just a lot of tricks weâre not hep to as yet. Why, Olaf, suppose you took a Fijian when the war was on and set him suddenly down in London with autos rushing past, sirens blowing, Archies popping, a dozen enemy planes dropping bombs, and the searchlights shooting all over the skyâ âwouldnât he think he was among thirty-third degree devils in some exclusive circle of hell? Sure he would! And yet everything he saw would be naturalâ âjust as natural as all this is, once we get the answer to it. Not that weâre Fijians, of course, but the principle is the same.â
The Norseman considered this; nodded gravely.
âJa!â he answered at last. âAnd at least we can fight. That is why I have turned to Thor of the battles, Ja! And one have I hope in for mine Helmaâ âthe white maiden. Since I have turned to the old gods it has been made clear to me that I shall slay Lugur and that the Heks, the evil witch Yolara, shall also die. But I would talk with the white maiden.â
âAll right,â said Larry, âbut just donât be afraid of what you donât understand. Thereâs another thingââ âhe hesitated, nervouslyâ ââthereâs another thing that may startle you a bit when we meet up with Laklaâ âherâ âerâ âfrogs!â
âLike the frog-woman we saw on the wall?â asked Olaf.
âYes,â went on Larry, rapidly. âItâs this wayâ âI figure that the frogs grow rather large where she lives, and theyâre a bit different too. Well, Laklaâs got a lot of âem trained. Carry spears and clubs and all that junkâ âjust like trained seals or monkeys or so on in the circus. Probably a custom of the place. Nothing queer about that, Olaf. Why people have all kinds of petsâ âarmadillos and snakes and rabbits, kangaroos and elephants and tigers.â
Remembering how the frog-woman had stuck in Larryâs mind from the outset, I wondered whether all this was not more to convince himself than Olaf.
âWhy, I remember a nice girl in Paris who had four pet pythonsâ ââ he went on.
But I listened no more, for now I was sure of my surmise. The road had begun to thrust itself through high-flung, sharply pinnacled masses and rounded outcroppings of rock on which clung patches of the amber moss.
The trees had utterly vanished, and studding the moss-carpeted plains were only clumps of a willowy shrub
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