The Shadow Kingdom | Page 7

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 the stair silently, came a silent shape.
"Tu! Chief councilor!" exclaimed Kull. "By night and with bared dagger! How, what means this, Brule?"
"Murder! And foulest treachery!" hissed Brule. "Nay"-as Kull would have flung the door aside and leaped forth-"we are lost if you meet him here, for more lurk at the foot of those stairs. Come!"
Half running, they darted back along the passage. Back through the secret door Brule led, shutting it carefully behind them, then across the chamber to an opening into a room seldom used. There he swept aside some tapestries in a dim corner nook and, drawing Kull with him, stepped behind them. Minutes dragged. Kull could hear the breeze in the other room blowing the window curtains about, and it seemed to him