The Slayer of Souls | Page 4

sorcerers
make earth a hell.
"If you, or yours, threaten me, annoy me, interfere with me, I shall go
to our civilised police and tell all I know concerning the Yezidees. I
mean to live. Do you understand? You know what you have done to me
and mine. I come back to my own country alone, without any living kin,
poor, homeless, friendless,--and, perhaps, damned. I intend,
nevertheless, to survive. I shall not relax my clutch on bodily existence
whatever the Yezidees may pretend to have done with my soul. I am
determined to live in the body, anyway."
He nodded gravely.

She said: "Out at sea, over the fog, I saw the sign of Yu-lao in fire
floating in the day-sky. I saw his spectral moon rise and vanish in
mid-heaven. I understood. But--" And here she suddenly showed an
edge of teeth under the full scarlet upper lip: "Keep your signs and your
shrouds to yourself, dog of a Yezidee!--toad!--tortoise-egg!--he-goat
with three legs! Keep your threats and your messages to yourself! Keep
you accursed magic to yourself! Do you think to frighten me with your
sorcery by showing me the Moons of Yu-lao--by opening a bolted door?
I know more of such magic than do you, Sanang--Death Adder of
Alamout!"
Suddenly she laughed aloud at him--laughed insultingly in his
expressionless face:
"I saw you and Gutchlug Khan and your cowardly Tchortchas in
red-lacquered jackets slink out of the Temple of Erlik where the bronze
gong thundered and a cloud settled down raining little yellow snakes all
over the marble steps--all over you, Prince Sanang! You were afraid,
my Tougtchi!--you and Gutchlug and your red Tchortchas with their
halberds all dripping with human entrails! And I saw you mount and
gallop off into the woods while in the depths of the magic cloud which
rained little yellow snakes all around you, we temple girls laughed and
mocked at you--at you and your cowardly Tchortcha horsemen."
A slight tinge of pink came into the young man's pale face. Tressa
Norne stepped nearer, her levelled pistol resting on her hip.
"Why did you not complain of us to your Master, the Old Man of the
Mountain?" she asked jeeringly. "And where, also, was you Yezidee
magic when it rained little snakes--What frightened you away--who had
boldly come to seize a temple girl--you who had screwed up your
courage sufficiently to defy Erlik in his very shrine and snatch from his
temple a young thing whose naked body wrapped in gold was worth the
chance of death to you?"
The young man's top-hat dropped to the floor. He bent over to pick it
up. His face was quite expressionless, quite colourless, now.

"I went on no such errand," he said with an effort. "I went with a
thousand prayers on scarlet paper made in--"
"A lie, Yezidee! You came to seizeme !"
He turned still paler. "By Abu, Omar, Otman, and Ali, it is not true!"
"You lie!--by the Lion of God, Hassani!"
She stepped closer. "And I'll tell you another thing you fear--you
Yezidee of Alamout--you robber of Yian--you sorcerer of Sabbah Khan,
and chief of his sect of Assassins! You fear this native land of mine,
America; and its laws and customs, and its clear, clean sunshine; and its
cities and people; and its police! Take that message back. We
Americans fear nobody save the true God!--nobody--neither Yezidee
nor Hassani nor Russ nor German nor that sexless monster born in hell
and called the Bolshevik!"
"Tokhta!" he cried sharply.
"Damn you!" retorted the girl; "get out of my room! Get out of my
sight! Get out of my path! Get out of my life! Take that to your Master
of Mount Alamout! I do what I please; I go where I please; I live as I
please. And if I please, I turn against him!"
"In that event," he said hoarsely, "there lies your winding-sheet on the
floor at your feet! Take up your shroud; and make Erlik seize you!"
"Sanang," she said very seriously.
"I hear you, Keuke-Mongol."
"Listen attentively. I wish to live. I have had enough of death in life. I
desire to remain a living, breathing thing--even if it be true--as you
Yezidees tell me, that you have caught my soul in a net and that your
sorcerers really control its destiny.
"But damned or not, I passionately desire to live. And I am coward
enough to hold my peace for the sake of living. So--I remain silent. I

have no stomach to defy the Yezidees; because, if I do, sooner or later I
shall be killed. I know it. I have no desire to die for others--to perish for
the sake of the common good. I am young. I have suffered too much; I
am determined to live--and