[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
The low hush of his voice was not unwarranted. The streets below were alive
with torch-bearing search parties, so that Dylath-Leen was a maze of redly
flickering flames and leaping shadows - and now from all directions could be
heard the hideous, ululant alert-cries of the horned ones from nighted Leng.
Indeed the sound of hurrying footsteps even echoed up to them from the street
directly beneath their tall refuge.
'So far so good,' de Marigny breathlessly answered. 'Tiania is safe for the
moment. I think we're just about in the clear, Titus. This flying cloak of
yours must take all the credit, though. Without it I could have done nothing.'
'The cloak is yours now, Henri - you've earned it. Here, tuck this sword into
your belt. Now, just let me get a firm
grip. Right, up we go!'
More slowly this time, feeling the burden of Titus Crow's greater weight, the
flying cloak lifted the two friends into the night air over Dylath-Leen, and
both men were greatly relieved when the flickering torchfires had dimmed and
fallen away below and behind them. It was not long then before other fires
sprang up in red relief to their front, and soon after that they were flying
high above the watchfires at the rim of the city.
'A mile, perhaps two miles more,' said de Marigny.
"There's a jagged fang of white rock sticking up out of the desert. That's
where I left Tiania. We'll be there in another minute or so.'
'And what then, Henri - a series of short hops to Ulthar?'
'Something like that, I think, yes.'
'Good. And as soon as we've rested up a little and found safe lodging for
Tiania, then we're off to Ilek-Vad. I want to know just exactly what's going
on there. Yes, and you might even find time to tell me what the devil you're
doing here in Earth's dreamland, when by all rights you should be well on your
way to Elysia.'
'I am on my way to Elysia, Titus. This is the only way I'm ever likely to get
there. Kthanid asked me to come, telling me that you and Tiania were in
trouble. I'll tell you the whole story later. As for Ilek-Vad: yes, I, too,
would like to know what's going on there. After all, that's where my father
is. I don't remember a great deal about him, but -'
"There's your white rock dead ahead!' Crow suddenly cried, cutting his friend
off short. He pointed eagerly. 'And there's Tiania, I can see her waving. Oh,
well done, Henri. You're not an inch off course!'
Controlling the cloak's descent, de Marigny brought them drifting down toward
the ledge where the girl-goddess waited. She waved again, reaching out her
arms to them as they approached out of the darkness.
It was only then - as the two men felt a rushing blast of air, a buffeting
gust much stronger and quite different from any normal draught they might
expect to meet during their steady flight above the desert - that they
realized something was greatly amiss. The freakish, turbulent eddy tossed them
to one side, so that they crashed shoulders-on into the sheer wall of the rock
at a point some thirty feet to one side of Tiania. Here the drop was sheer to
the desert's floor, and de Marigny had to manipulate the cloak's studs
to draw back from the white rock's jagged face. As he did so he heard Crow's
sharp intake of breath, and following his friend's horrified gaze he saw and
recognized a huge gray shape that passed noiselessly by, circling the rocky
spire on membrane wings.
'Night-gaunt!' cried de Marigny, fighting to regain control of the cloak as it
was caught again in the wash of the creature's wings. 'A great gray gaunt!'
'Put me down on that ledge, quick!' Crow shouted. 'That damn thing must be
after Tiania! Look - here it comes again!'
For the third time they felt the turbulence of the huge night-gaunt's wings as
they flapped in leathery sentience, suspending their rubbery owner directly
over the girl who now crouched terrified on the ledge of the white rock. Now
they were able to get a reasonably clear view of the thing, better by far than
de Marigny's previous look at such creatures received through Kthanid's
telepathic knowledge-imparting.
The horror, while being twice as big as any of its loathsome species viewed
before, was nevertheless endowed with the same noxiously thin outline as
lesser gaunts and wore precisely the same aspect. Horns sprouted from its
faceless head; it was barb-tailed and bat-winged; its skin looked rubbery,
cold, and damp - and, possibly worst of all, it was utterly silent.
Then de Marigny was rushed abruptly aloft as Crow let go his hold on the
cloak's harness to leap to the ledge close to Tiania. Yet again struggling to
bring the cloak under his control, de Marigny all but missed what followed
next. As it was he heard Crow's cry of rage and horror . . . and he saw the
gray shape of that giant among night-gaunts as it lifted skyward on silently
beating pinions, bearing aloft the wriggling, shrieking, slender form of
Tiania grasped in prehensile paws!
Atal's Elixir
On the wide ledge of the white rock's peak high above the desert, Titus Crow
raged silently in the night and shook his scimitar at the diminishing gray
shape that flapped away against a background of strange constellations. By the
time de Marigny had landed beside him, however, the naked giant had recovered
his equilibrium sufficiently to cry out in a half-choked voice: 'Quickly, man,
out of the cloak! Hurry, Henri, I must get after that monster!'
Seeing instantly how useless and time-consuming it would be to argue - aware
that the cloak was designed to operate at maximum efficiency with only one
passenger and that it was Titus Crow's prerogative to pursue the huge
night-gaunt and rescue Tiania, if such was at all possible - de Marigny
immediately unfastened the cloak's harness and helped Crow into it. Then,
without another word spoken, Crow grabbed his friend around the waist with one
arm, his other hand flying to the collar studs that controlled the cloak.
Another moment saw de Marigny deposited none too gently on the desert's sandy
floor.
Rising again into the night, Crow called: 'Can you find your way back to
Ulthar, Henri?'
'I know the way,' de Marigny shouted back. 'Five miles or so from here I pick
up the Skai and simply follow the river. No need to worry about me, Titus.
I'll see you in Ulthar . . . both of you! Good luck!'
'Thanks. I fancy I'll need all the luck I can get,' Crow's answer came back
from the heights. 'Take care, Henri.' For a moment or two he was a vague
batshape against the blue crystal stars, then he was gone.
Half an hour and a little more than two miles later, as he strode out over the
desert dunes in the direction of Ulthar, led on by the sweet scent of
night-blooming flowers on the banks of the Skai, de Marigny glanced for the
tenth time apprehensively over his shoulder. It was his imagination, of
course, but for the last twenty minutes or so, since shortly after he set out
from the foot of the white rock pinnacle, he had had the feeling that he was
being followed. Yet each time he looked back there was nothing to be seen,
only the low dunes and occasionally the rock jutting starkly against the
night-dark sky.
Climbing to the top of a high dune, he glanced back yet again and this time
spied in the distance the darkly looming basalt towers of Dylath-Leen. No
healthy lights showed in the city, only a dull glow from the watchfires at its
rim. It shocked de Marigny to be reminded how close he still was to that
nightmare-cursed city, and he determined there and then to increase his
distance from it as rapidly as humanly possible. It did not seem likely that
the horned ones could be on his trail already, and yet -He shuddered and felt
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]