the doorway and listened. There was no sound from the gloom of the
interior, but I must make sure that no one was there.
Scarcely breathing, I entered the house. It was a one-story hovel of
two rooms. I searched them both. The house was unoccupied. Then I
returned to the door and examined the remaining hinge. To my
delight I discovered that I could easily remove the door, and this I did.
I looked up and down the street. There was no one in sight. Lifting the
door, I crossed to the wall and leaned the door against it.
Again I searched the street with my eyes. All was clear.
Cautiously I crawled up the door. From its top, precariously gained, I
could reach the top of the wall. Then I threw caution to the winds,
drew myself up, and dropped to the ground on the opposite side. I
could not take the chance of remaining even for an instant on the
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summit of the wall in plain view of the palace windows on one side
and the street on the other.
I recalled the vicious kazars that Skor kept at his castle, and I prayed
that he kept none here. But no kazar attacked me, nor did any
evidence suggest that my entry had been noted.
Before me loomed the palace, dark and forbidding even though some
lights shone within it. The courtyard was flagged, and as barren as
that of the castle in the wood.
Crossing quickly to the building I walked along it seeking an entrance.
It was three stories high. I saw at least two towers. Many of the
windows were barred, but not all. Behind one of those barred
windows, perhaps, was Nalte. The task before me was to discover
which.
I dared not go to the front of the palace lest I be questioned by the
guard. Presently I discovered a small door; it was the only door on
this side of the building, but it was securely locked. Carrying my
investigation further, I came to an open window. The room beyond
was unlighted. I listened but heard no sound; then I vaulted quietly to
the sill and dropped within. At last I was inside the palace of the jong
of Morov.
Crossing the room, I found a door on the opposite side; and when I
drew it open I saw a dimly lighted corridor beyond. And with the
opening of the door sounds from the interior of the palace reached my
ears.
The corridor was deserted as I stepped into it and made my way in the
direction of the sounds I had heard. At a turning I came to a broader
and better lighted corridor, but here dead men and women passed to
and fro. Some were carrying dishes laden with food in one direction,
others were bearing empty dishes in the opposite direction.
I knew that I risked detection and exposure, but I also knew that it
was a risk I must take sooner or later. As well now, I thought, as any
time. I noticed that these corpses were painted in the semblance of
life and health; only their eyes and their shuffling gait revealed the
truth. My eyes I could not change, but I kept them lowered as I
shuffled into the corridor behind a man carrying a large platter of
food.
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I followed him to a large room in which two score men and women
were seated at a banquet table. Here at last, I thought, were living
people--the masters of Kormor. They did not seem a very gay
company, but that I could understand in surroundings such as theirs.
The men were handsome, the women beautiful. I wondered what had
brought them and what kept them in this horrid city of death.
A remarkable feature of the assemblage was the audience that packed
the room, leaving only sufficient space for the servants to pass around
the table. These people were so well painted that at first I thought
them alive too.
Seeing an opportunity to lose my identity in the crowd, I wormed my
way behind the rear rank and then gradually worked my way around
the room and toward the front rank of the spectators until I stood
directly in rear of a large, thronelike chair that stood at the head of
the table and which I assumed to be Skor's chair.
Close contact with the men and women watching the banqueters soon
disclosed the fact that I was doubtless the only living creature among
them, for no make-up, however marvelous, could alter the
expressionlessness of those dead eyes or call back the fire of life or
the light of soul. Poor creatures! How I pitied them.
And now, from the lower end of the chamber, came a blare of
trumpets; and all the banqueters arose and faced in that direction.
Four trumpeters marching abreast entered the banquet hall, and
behind them came eight warriors in splendid harness. Following
these were a man and a woman, partially hidden from my sight by the
warriors and the trumpeters marching in front of them. These two
were followed by eight more warriors.
And now the trumpeters and the warriors separated and formed an
aisle down which the man and the woman walked. Then I saw them,
and my heart stood still. Skor and--Duare!
Duare's head was still high--it would be difficult to break that proud
spirit--but the loathing, the anguish, the hopelessness in her eyes,
struck me like dagger to the heart. Yet, even so, hope bounded in my
breast as I saw them, for they were expressions; and they told me that
Skor had not yet worked his worst upon her.
They seated themselves, Skor at the head of the table, Duare at his [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]