When we were stripped we were lowered gently into the water. But not long did the _Akka_ let us splash about the shallow basin. They lifted us out, and from jars began deftly to anoint and rub us with aromatic unguents.
I think that in all the medley of grotesque, of tragic, of baffling, strange and perilous experiences in that underground world none was more bizarre than this--valeting. I began to laugh, Larry joined me, and then Kra and Gulk joined in our merriment with deep batrachian cachinnations and gruntings. Then, having finished apparelling us and still chuckling, the two touched our arms and led us out, into a room whose circular sides were ringed with soft divans. Still smiling, I sank at once into sleep.
How long I slumbered I do not know. A low and thunderous booming coming through the deep window slit, reverberated through the room and awakened me. Larry yawned; arose briskly.
"Sounds as though the ba.s.s drums of every jazz band in New York were serenading us!" he observed. Simultaneously we sprang to the window; peered through.
We were a little above the level of the bridge, and its full length was plain before us. Thousands upon thousands of the _Akka_ were crowding upon it, and far away other hordes filled like a glittering thicket both sides of the cavern ledge"s crescent strand. On black scale and orange scale the crimson light fell, picking them off in little flickering points.
Upon the platform from which sprang the smaller span over the abyss were Lakla, Olaf, and Rador; the handmaiden clearly acting as interpreter between them and the giant she had called Nak, the Frog King.
"Come on!" shouted Larry.
Out of the open portal we ran; over the World Heart Bridge--and straight into the group.
"Oh!" cried Lakla, "I didn"t want you to wake up so soon, Larry--darlin"!"
"See here, _mavourneen_!" Indignation thrilled in the Irishman"s voice. "I"m not going to be done up with baby-ribbons and laid away in a cradle for safe-keeping while a fight is on; don"t think it. Why didn"t you call me?"
"You needed rest!" There was indomitable determination in the handmaiden"s tones, the eternal maternal shining defiant from her eyes. "You were tired and you hurt! You shouldn"t have got up!"
"Needed the rest!" groaned Larry. "Look here, Lakla, what do you think I am?"
"You"re all I have," said that maiden firmly, "and I"m going to take care of you, Larry--darlin"! Don"t you ever think anything else."
"Well, pulse of my heart, considering my delicate health and general fragility, would it hurt me, do you think, to be told what"s going on?" he asked.
"Not at all, Larry!" answered the handmaiden serenely. "Yolara went through the Portal. She was very, _very_ angry--"
"She was all the devil"s woman that she is!" rumbled Olaf.
"Rador met the messenger," went on the Golden Girl calmly. "The _ladala_ are ready to rise when Lugur and Yolara lead their hosts against us. They will strike at those left behind. And in the meantime we shall have disposed my _Akka_ to meet Yolara"s men. And on that disposal we must all take counsel, you, Larry, and Rador, Olaf and Goodwin and Nak, the ruler of the _Akka_."
"Did the messenger give any idea when Yolara expects to make her little call?" asked Larry.
"Yes," she answered. "They prepare, and we may expect them in--" She gave the equivalent of about thirty-six hours of our time.
"But, Lakla," I said, the doubt that I had long been holding finding voice, "should the Shining One come--with its slaves--are the Three strong enough to cope with it?"
There was troubled doubt in her own eyes.
"I do not know," she said at last, frankly. "You have heard their story. What they promise is that they will help. I do not know--any more than do you, Goodwin!"
I looked up at the dome beneath which I knew the dread Trinity stared forth; even down upon us. And despite the awe, the a.s.surance, I had felt when I stood before them I, too, doubted.
"Well," said Larry, "you and I, uncle," he turned to Rador, "and Olaf here had better decide just what part of the battle we"ll lead--"
"Lead!" the handmaiden was appalled. "_You_ lead, Larry? Why you are to stay with Goodwin and with me--up there, there we can watch."
"Heart"s beloved," O"Keefe was stern indeed. "A thousand times I"ve looked Death straight in the face, peered into his eyes. Yes, and with ten thousand feet of s.p.a.ce under me an" bursting sh.e.l.ls tickling the ribs of the boat I was in. An" d"ye think I"ll sit now on the grandstand an" watch while a game like this is being pulled? Ye don"t know your future husband, soul of my delight!"
And so we started toward the golden opening, squads of the frog-men following us soldierly and disappearing about the huge structure. Nor did we stop until we came to the handmaiden"s boudoir. There we seated ourselves.
"Now," said Larry, "two things I want to know. First--how many can Yolara muster against us; second, how many of these _Akka_ have we to meet them?"
Rador gave our equivalent for eighty thousand men as the force Yolara could muster without stripping her city. Against this force, it appeared, we could count, roughly, upon two hundred thousand of the _Akka_.
"And they"re some fighters!" exclaimed Larry. "h.e.l.l, with odds like that what"re you worrying about? It"s over before it"s begun."
"But, _Larree_," objected Rador to this, "you forget that the n.o.bles will have the _Keth_--and other things; also that the soldiers have fought against the _Akka_ before and will be shielded very well from their spears and clubs--and that their blades and javelins can bite through the scales of Nak"s warriors. They have many things--"
"Uncle," interjected O"Keefe, "one thing they have is your nerve.
Why, we"re more than two to one. And take it from me--"
Without warning dropped the tragedy!
CHAPTER x.x.xII
"Your Love; Your Lives; Your Souls!"
Lakla had taken no part in the talk since we had reached her bower.
She had seated herself close to the O"Keefe. Glancing at her I had seen steal over her face that brooding, listening look that was hers whenever in that mysterious communion with the Three. It vanished; swiftly she arose; interrupted the Irishman without ceremony.
"Larry darlin"," said the handmaiden. "The Silent Ones summon us!"
"When do we go?" I asked; Larry"s face grew bright with interest.
"The time is now," she said--and hesitated. "Larry dear, put your arms about me," she faltered, "for there is something cold that catches at my heart--and I am afraid."
At his exclamation she gathered herself together; gave a shaky little laugh.
"It"s because I love you so that fear has power to plague me," she told him.
Without another word he bent and kissed her; in silence we pa.s.sed on, his arm still about her girdled waist, golden head and black close together. Soon we stood before the crimson slab that was the door to the sanctuary of the Silent Ones. She poised uncertainly before it; then with a defiant arching of the proud little head that sent all the bronze-flecked curls flying, she pressed. It slipped aside and once more the opalescence gushed out, flooding all about us.
Dazzled as before, I followed through the lambent cascades pouring from the high, carved walls; paused, and my eyes clearing, looked up--straight into the faces of the Three. The angled orbs centred upon the handmaiden; softened as I had seen them do when first we had faced them. She smiled up; seemed to listen.
"Come closer," she commanded, "close to the feet of the Silent Ones."
We moved, pausing at the very base of the dais. The sparkling mists thinned; the great heads bent slightly over us; through the veils I caught a glimpse of huge columnar necks, enormous shoulders covered with draperies as of pale-blue fire.
I came back to attention with a start, for Lakla was answering a question only heard by her, and, answering it aloud, I perceived for our benefit; for whatever was the mode of communication between those whose handmaiden she was, and her, it was clearly independent of speech.
"He has been told," she said, "even as you commanded."
Did I see a shadow of pain flit across the flickering eyes? Wondering, I glanced at Lakla"s face and there was a dawn of foreboding and bewilderment. For a little she held her listening att.i.tude; then the gaze of the Three left her; focused upon the O"Keefe.