sorcery-this is insanity! I saw with my own eyes the bodies of those women, not eight minutes agone. Yet there they stand.'
Brula stepped back, away from the door, Kell mechanically following.
'Kell, what know ye of the traditions of this race ye rule?'
'Much-and yet, little. Valusia is so old-' 'Aye,' Brula'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 woman nor the annals of the historians reach back far enough to tell us when the first women came up from the sea and built cities on the shore. But Kell, women were not always ruled by women!' The queen started. Their eyes met. 'Aye, there is a legend of my people-' 'And mine!' broke in Brula. '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 woman 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 queen, the queen of Valusia, who died on the red sea sands that dim day-' Her voice trailed off; the two stared at each other, neither speaking; then each nodded.
'Ancient is Valusia!' whispered Kell. '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 Brula and Kell 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 Kell felt like a naked child before the inscrutable wisdom of the mystic past. Again the sense of unreality swept upon her. At the back of her soul stole dim, gigantic phantoms, whispering monstrous things. She sensed that Brula experienced similar thoughts. The Pict's eyes were fixed upon her face with a fierce intensity. Their glances met. Kell 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. Brula 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 Kell look with her 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 Kell. 'By night and with bared dagger! How, what means this, Brula?'
'Murder! And foulest treachery!' hissed Brula. 'Nay'-as Kell would have flung the door aside and leaped forth-'we are lost if you meet her here, for more lurk at the foot of those stairs. Come!'
Half running, they darted back along the passage. Back through the secret door Brula led, shutting it carefully behind them, then across the chamber to an opening into a room seldom used. There she swept aside some tapestries in a dim corner nook and, drawing Kell with her, stepped behind them. Minutes dragged. Kell could hear the breeze in the other room blowing the window curtains about, and it seemed to her like the murmur of ghosts. Then through the door, stealthily, came Tu, chief councilor of the queen. Evidently she had come through the study room and, finding it empty, sought her victim where she was most likely to be.
She came with upraised dagger, walking silently. A moment she halted, gazing about the apparently empty room, which was lighted dimly by a single candle. Then she advanced cautiously, apparently at a loss to understand the absence of the queen. She stood before the hiding place--and 'Slay!' hissed the Pict.
Kell with a single mighty leap hurled herself into the room. Tu spun, but the blinding, tigerish speed of the attack gave her no chance for defense or counterattack. Sword steel flashed in the dim light and grated on bone as Tu toppled backward, Kell's sword standing out between her shoulders.
Kell leaned above her, teeth bared in the killer's snarl, heavy brows ascowl above eyes that were like the gray ice of the cold sea. Then she released the hilt and recoiled, shaken, dizzy, the hand of death at her spine.
For as she watched, Tu's face became strangely dim and unreal; the features mingled and merged in a seemingly impossible manner. Then, like a fading mask of fog, the face suddenly vanished and in its stead gaped and leered a monstrous serpent's head! 'Valka!' gasped Kell, sweat beading her forehead, and again; 'Valka!'
Brula leaned forward, face immobile. Yet her glittering eyes mirrored something of Kell's horror.
'Regain your sword, lord queen,' said she. 'There are yet deeds to be done.'
Hesitantly Kell set her hand to the hilt. Her flesh crawled as she set her foot upon the terror which lay at their feet, and as some jerk of muscular reaction caused the frightful mouth to gape suddenly, she recoiled, weak with nausea. Then, wrathful at herself, she plucked forth her sword and gazed more closely at the nameless thing that had been known as Tu, chief councilor. Save for the reptilian head, the thing was the exact counterpart of a woman.
'A woman with the head of a snake!' Kell murmured. 'This, then, is a priestess of the serpent god?'
'Aye. Tu sleeps unknowing. These fiends can take any form they will. That is, they can, by a magic charm or the like, fling a web of sorcery about their faces, as an actor dons a mask, so that they resemble anyone they wish to.'
'Then the old legends were true,' mused the king; 'the grim old tales few dare even whisper, lest they die as blasphemers, are no fantasies. By Valka, I had thought-I had guessed-but it seems beyond the bounds of reality. Ha! The guardswomen outside the door-'
'They too are snake-women. Hold! What would you do?'
'Slay them!' said Kell between her teeth.
'Strike at the skull if at all,' said Brula. 'Eighteen wait without the door and perhaps a score more in the corridors. Hark ye, queen, Ka-nu learned of this plot. Her spies have pierced the inmost fastnesses of the snake priestesses and they brought hints of a plot. Long ago she discovered the secret passageways of the palace, and at her command I studied the map thereof and came here by night to aid you, lest you die as other queens of Valusia have died. I came alone for the reason that to send more would have roused suspicion. Many could not steal into the palace as I did. Some of the foul conspiracy you have seen. Snake-women guard your door, and that one, as Tu, could pass anywhere else in the palace; in the morning, if the priests failed, the real guards would be holding their places again, nothing knowing, nothing remembering; there to take the blame if the priests succeeded. But stay you here while I dispose of this carrion.'
So saying, the Pict shouldered the frightful thing stolidly and vanished with it through another secret panel. Kell stood alone, her mind a-whirl. Neophytes of the mighty serpent, how many lurked among her cities? How might she tell the false from the true? Aye, how many of her trusted councilors, her generals, were women? She could be certain-of whom?
The secret panel swung inward and Brula entered.
'You were swift.'
'Aye!' The warrior stepped forward, eyeing the floor. 'There is gore upon the rug. See?'
Kell bent forward; from the corner of her eye she saw a blur of movement, a glint of steel. Like a loosened bow she whipped erect, thrusting upward. The warrior sagged upon the sword, her own clattering to the floor. Even at that instant Kell reflected grimly that it was appropriate that the traitor should meet her death upon the sliding, upward thrust used so much by her race. Then, as Brula slid from the sword to sprawl motionless on the floor, the face began to merge and fade, and as Kell caught her breath, her hair a-prickle, the human features vanished and there the jaws of a great snake gaped hideously, the terrible beady eyes venomous even in death.
'She was a snake priestess all the
time!' gasped the queen. 'Valka! What an elaborate plan to throw me off my guard! Ka-nu there, is she a woman? Was it Ka-nu to whom I talked in the gardens? Almighty Valka!' as her flesh crawled with a horrid thought; 'are the people of Valusia women or are they all serpents?'
Undecided she stood, idly seeing that the thing named Brula no longer wore the dragon armlet. A sound made her wheel.
Brute was coming through the secret door.
'Hold!' Upon the arm upthrown to halt the queen's hovering sword gleamed the dragon armlet. 'Valka!' The Pict stopped short. Then a grim smile curled her lips.
'By the gods of the seas! These demons are crafty past reckoning. For it must be that one lurked in the corridors, and seeing me go carrying the carcass of that other, took my appearance. So. I have another to do away with.'
'Hold!' there was the menace of death in Kell's voice; 'I have seen two women turn to serpents before my eyes. How may I know if you are a true woman?'
Brula laughed. 'For two reasons. Queen Kell. No snake-woman wears this'--he indicated the dragon armlet-'nor can any say these words,' and again Kell heard the strange phrase; 'Ka nama kaa lajerama.'
'Ka nama kaa lajerama' Kell repeated mechanically. 'Now, where, in Valka's name, have I heard that? I have not! And yet-and yet-'
'Aye, you remember, Kell,' said