Page:Weird Tales volume 30 number 04.djvu/96

480 others into the dark back rooms of their dwelling, intending to slip out that way. But as he entered the darkness there, he glimpsed a moving figure in the blackness. Instantly he leaped at the other, grasped him by the throat.

"It's a spy!" he grated. "If they've found out what we're planning, we're sunk." And he rasped in the language of Dordona to his prisoner, "One shout and you die."

"Release me—I will not shout," gasped a voice.

"Lurain!" he exclaimed. "What in the world——"

He dragged the girl over to one of the windows, where the moonlight illuminated her white, strange face and distended eyes.

"What are you doing, spying on us?" Clark demanded, his face hardening as he remembered.

"No, I came to fulfill the promise I made you, to lead you down to the holy lake!" she gasped. Her words poured forth in a torrent as Clark stood in stunned surprize. "Stannar, why did you tell my father Kimor you wished to descend to the lake? That was madness!"

"But you had promised me that you would see that I got down the shaft," Clark said bewilderedly.

"You do not understand," Lurain told him. "I made that promise, yes—but what I meant was that I would secretly take you down the shaft; for if my father knew of it he would slay us instantly for the sacrilege—yes, even me, his daughter. I thought you understood that and would be silent about the lake until I could fulfill my promise."

"Lord,* I've misjudged you, Lurain," Clark told her impulsively. "Come to think of it, it was rather asinine of me to blurt out my whole business without making sure how things stood. But I hadn't had time to think, I guess, in the rush of our escape."

"And I had to pretend ignorance when you reproached me," she said. "But I have come now, Stannar. I shall fulfill my promise and take you down to the cavern of the Lake of Life. The sin will be on my head, not on my father and people. And my sin will be expiated, for surely the Guardians will slay us down there for our sacrilege."

She was trembling violently, though her voice was steady. Clark Stannard stared at her, frowning.

"You believe that?—believe we're both going to die down there, Lurain? And yet you're willing to keep your promise?"

"Yes," the girl told him. "I gave you my word, and you brought warning to Dordona as you promised. My death matters not,"

Clark suddenly put his arms around her, and as he held her quivering figure he could feel the pounding of her heart.

"Lurain, you're not going to die—neither of us will die," he told her reassuringly. "There are no Guardians down there—that is legend only. Even if they were there, I have my weapon."

She said nothing, but he knew she was convinced of the futility of all human weapons against those mysterious warders. He turned to his four men, who had listened tensely in the dark room.

"You'll stay here," Clark told them. "I should be back by morning with the waters from the lake, if all goes well."

"Why don't we go with you?" Blacky demanded.

But when Lurain understood the question, she shook her head. "No, I promised but to take you, Stannar. Your men would only be destroyed down there as we will be, and their help will be needed here when Thargo comes to attack Dordona."

"Remember, you're bound by my W.T.—6