The Shadow Kingdom | Page 7

The corridor turned sharply and Brule warily gazed past the turn.

"Look!" he whispered. "But remember! No word! No sound-on your
life!"
Kull cautiously gazed past him. The corridor changed just at the bend
to a flight of steps. And then Kull recoiled. At the foot of those stairs
lay the eighteen Red Slayers who were that night stationed to watch the
long's study room. Brule's grip upon his mighty arm and Brule's fierce
whisper at his shoulder alone kept Kull from leaping down those stairs.
"Silent, Kull! Silent, in Valka's name!" hissed the Pict. "These corridors
are empty now, but I risked much in showing you, that you might then
believe what I had to say. Back now to the room of study." And he
retraced his steps, Kull following; his mind in a turmoil of
bewilderment.
"This is treachery," muttered the long, his steel gray eyes a-smolder,
"foul and swift! Mere minutes have passed since those men stood at
guard."
Again in the room of study Brule carefully closed the secret panel and
motioned Kull to look again through the slit of the outer door. Kull
gasped audibly. For without stood the eighteen guardsmen!
"This is sorcery!" he whispered, half-drawing his sword. "Do dead men
guard the long?"
"Aye!" came Brule's scarcely audible reply; there was a strange
expression in the Pick's scuitillant eyes. They looked squarely into each
other's eyes for an instant, Kull's brow wrinkled in a puzzled scowl as
he strove to read the Pict's inscrutable face. Then Brule's lips, barely
moving, formed the words; "The-snake-that-speaks!".
"Silent!" whispered Kull, laying his hand over Brule's mouth. "That is
death to speak! That is a name accursed!"
The Pict's fearless eyes regarded him steadily.
"Look, again. King Kull. Perchance the guard was changed."

"Nay, those are the same men. In Valka's name, this is sorcery-this is
insanity! I saw with my own eyes the bodies of those men, not eight
minutes agone. Yet there they stand."
Brule stepped back, away from the door, Kull mechanically following.
"Kull, what know ye of the traditions of this race ye rule?"
"Much-and yet, little. Valusia is so old-" "Aye," Brule's eyes lighted
strangely, "we are but barbarians-infants compared to the Seven
Empires. Not even they themselves know how old they are. Neither the
memory of man nor the annals of the historians reach back far enough
to tell us when the first men came up from the sea and built cities on
the shore. But Kull, men were not always ruled by men!" The king
started. Their eyes met. "Aye, there is a legend of my people-" "And
mine!" broke in Brule. "That was before we of the isles were allied
with Valusia. Aye, in the reign of Lion-fang, seventh war chief of the
Picts, so many years ago no man remembers how many. Across the sea
we came, from the isles of the sunset, skirting the shores of Atlantis,
and falling upon the beaches of Valusia with fire and sword. Aye, the
long white beaches resounded with the clash of spears, and the night
was like day from the flame of the burning castles. And the king, the
king of Valusia, who died on the red sea sands that dim day-" His voice
trailed off; the two stared at each other, neither speaking; then each
nodded.
"Ancient is Valusia!" whispered Kull. "The hills of Atlantis and Mu
were isles of the sea when Valusia was young."
The night breeze whispered through the open window. Not the free,
crisp sea air such as Brule and Kull knew and reveled in, in their land,
but a breath like a whisper from the past, laden with musk, scents of
forgotten things, breathing secrets that were hoary when the world was
young.
The tapestries rustled, and suddenly Kull felt like a naked child before
the inscrutable wisdom of the mystic past. Again the sense of unreality
swept upon him. At the back of his soul stole dim, gigantic phantoms,

whispering monstrous things. He sensed that Brule experienced similar
thoughts. The Pict's eyes were fixed upon his face with a fierce
intensity. Their glances met. Kull felt warmly a sense of comradeship
with this member of an enemy tribe. Like rival leopards turning at bay
against hunters, these two savages made common cause against the
inhuman powers of antiquity. Brule again led the way back to the secret
door. Silently they entered and silently they proceeded down the dim
corridor, taking the opposite direction from that in which they
previously traversed it. After a while the Pict stopped and pressed close
to one of the secret doors, bidding Kull look with him through the
hidden slot.
"This opens upon a little-used stair which leads to a corridor running
past the study-room door."
They gazed, and presently, mounting