Wizards’ Worlds Read Free Page B

her sense of lurking
     evil was strong.
    What lay beyond the door was a dim twilight. She stood at the end of a great hall,
     stretching into shadows right and left. Nor was the chamber empty. Rather here were
     more statues; and some were robed and coiffed. Women! Women in an Eyrie? She studied
     the nearest to make sure.
    The weathering which had eroded that company in the courtyard had not done any damage
     here. Dust lay heavy on the shoulders of the life-size image to be sure, but that
     was all. The face was frozen into immobility. But the expression. Sly exultation,
     an avid . . . hunger? Those eyes staring straight ahead, did they indeed hold a spark
     of knowledge deep within?
    Tanree pushed aside imagination. These were not alive. But their faces—she looked
     to another, studied a third—all held that gloating, that hunger-about-to-be-assuaged;
     while the male images were as blank of any emotion as if they had never been meant
     to suggest life at all.
    The Falconer had already reached the other end of the hall. Now he was silent, facing
     a dais on which were four figures. These were not in solemn array, rather frozen into
     a tableau of action. Deadly action, Tanree saw as she trotted forward, puffs of dust
     rising from the floor underfoot.
    A man sat, or rather sprawled, in a throne-chair. His head had fallen forward, and
     both hands were clenched on the hilt of a dagger driven into him at heart level. Another
     and younger man, lunged, sword in his hand, aiming at theimage of a woman who cowered away, such an expression of rage and hate intermingled
     on her features as made Tanree shiver.
    But the fourth of that company stood a little apart, no fear to be read on her countenance. Her robe was plainer than that of the other woman, with no glint of
     jewels at wrist, throat or waist. Her unbound hair fell over her shoulders, cascading
     down, tonearly sweep the floor.
    In spite of the twilight here that wealth of hair appeared to gleam. Her eyes—they,
     too, were dark red—unhuman, knowing, exulting, cruel—alive!
    Tanree found she could not turn her gaze from those eyes.
    Perhaps she cried out then, or perhaps only some inner defense quailed in answer to
     invasion. Snakelike, sluglike, it crawled, oozed into her mind, forging link between
     them.
    This was no stone image, man-wrought. Tanree swayed against the pull of that which
     gnawed and plucked, seeking to control her.
    “She-devil!” The Falconer spat, the bead of moisture striking the breast of the red-haired
     woman. Tanree almost expected to see the other turn her attention to the man whose
     face was twisted with half-insane rage. But his cry had weakened the spell laid upon
     her. She was now able to look away from the compelling eyes.
    The Falconer swung around. His good hand closed upon the sword which the image of
     the young man held. He jerked at that impotently. There was a curious wavering, as
     if the chamber and all in it were but part of a wind-riffled painted banner.
    “Kill!”
    Tanree herself wavered under that command in her mind. Kill this one who would dare
     threaten her, Jonkara, Opener of Gates, Commander of Shadows.
    Rage took fire. Through the blaze she marched, knowing what must be done to this man
     who dared to challenge. She was the hand of Jonkara, a tool of force.

    Deep within Tanree something else stirred, could not be totally battered into submission.
    I am a weapon to serve. I am—
    “I am Tanree! ”cried that other part of her. “This is no quarrel of mine. I am Sulcar, of the seas—of
     another blood and breed!”
    She blinked and that insane rippling ceased for an instant of clear sight. The Falconer
     still struggled to gain the sword.
    “Now!” Once more that wave of compulsion beat against her, heart high, as might a
     shore wave. “Now— slay! Blood—give me blood that I may live again. We are women. Nay, you shall be more than woman when this blood flows and my door is opened by it.