Your Love Your Lives Your Souls!

: The Moon Pool

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!"


br /> "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 passed 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 attitude; then the

gaze of the Three left her; focused upon the O'Keefe.



"Thus speak the Silent Ones--through Lakla, their handmaiden," the

golden voice was like low trumpet notes. "At the threshold of doom is

that world of yours above. Yea, even the doom, Goodwin, that ye

dreamed and the shadow of which, looking into your mind they see, say

the Three. For not upon earth and never upon earth can man find means

to destroy the Shining One."



She listened again--and the foreboding deepened to an amazed fear.



"They say, the Silent Ones," she went on, "that they know not whether

even they have power to destroy. Energies we know nothing of entered

into its shaping and are part of it; and still other energies it has

gathered to itself"--she paused; a shadow of puzzlement crept into her

voice "and other energies still, forces that ye do know and symbolize

by certain names--hatred and pride and lust and many others which are

forces real as that hidden in the Keth; and among them--fear, which

weakens all those others--" Again she paused.



"But within it is nothing of that greatest of all, that which can make

powerless all the evil others, that which we call--love," she ended

softly.



"I'd like to be the one to put a little more fear in the beast,"

whispered Larry to me, grimly in our own English. The three weird

heads bent, ever so slightly--and I gasped, and Larry grew a little

white as Lakla nodded--



"They say, Larry," she said, "that there you touch one side of the

heart of the matter--for it is through the way of fear the Silent Ones

hope to strike at the very life of the Shining One!"



The visage Larry turned to me was eloquent of wonder; and mine

reflected it--for what really were this Three to whom our minds were

but open pages, so easily read? Not long could we conjecture; Lakla

broke the little silence.



"This, they say, is what is to happen. First will come upon us Lugur

and Yolara with all their host. Because of fear the Shining One will

lurk behind within its lair; for despite all, the Dweller does dread

the Three, and only them. With this host the Voice and the priestess

will strive to conquer. And if they do, then will they be strong

enough, too, to destroy us all. For if they take the abode they banish

from the Dweller all fear and sound the end of the Three.



"Then will the Shining One be all free indeed; free to go out into the

world, free to do there as it wills!



"But if they do not conquer--and the Shining One comes not to their

aid, abandoning them even as it abandoned its own Taithu--then will

the Three be loosed from a part of their doom, and they will go

through the Portal, seek the Shining One beyond the Veil, and,

piercing it through fear's opening, destroy it."



"That's quite clear," murmured the O'Keefe in my ear. "Weaken the

morale--then smash. I've seen it happen a dozen times in Europe. While

they've got their nerve there's not a thing you can do; get their

nerve--and not a thing can they do. And yet in both cases they're the

same men."



Lakla had been listening again. She turned, thrust out hands to

Larry, a wild hope in her eyes--and yet a hope half shamed.



"They say," she cried, "that they give us choice. Remembering that

your world doom hangs in the balance, we have choice--choice to stay

and help fight Yolara's armies--and they say they look not lightly on

that help. Or choice to go--and if so be you choose the latter, then

will they show another way that leads into your world!"



A flush had crept over the O'Keefe's face as she was speaking. He

took her hands and looked long into the golden eyes; glancing up I saw

the Trinity were watching them intently--imperturbably.



"What do you say, mavourneen?" asked Larry gently. The handmaiden

hung her head; trembled.



"Your words shall be mine, O one I love," she whispered. "So going or

staying, I am beside you."



"And you, Goodwin?" he turned to me. I shrugged my shoulders--after

all I had no one to care.



"It's up to you, Larry," I remarked, deliberately choosing his own

phraseology.



The O'Keefe straightened, squared his shoulders, gazed straight into

the flame-flickering eyes.



"We stick!" he said briefly.



Shamefacedly I recall now that at the time I thought this

colloquialism not only irreverent, but in somewhat bad taste. I am

glad to say I was alone in that bit of weakness. The face that Lakla

turned to Larry was radiant with love, and although the shamed hope

had vanished from the sweet eyes, they were shining with adoring

pride. And the marble visages of the Three softened, and the little

flames died down.



"Wait," said Lakla, "there is one other thing they say we must answer

before they will hold us to that promise--wait--"



She listened, and then her face grew white--white as those of the

Three themselves; the glorious eyes widened, stark terror filling

them; the whole lithe body of her shook like a reed in the wind.



"Not that!" she cried out to the Three. "Oh, not that! Not

Larry--let me go even as you will--but not him!" She threw up frantic

hands to the woman-being of the Trinity. "Let me bear it alone," she

wailed. "Alone--mother! Mother!"



The Three bent their heads toward her, their faces pitiful, and from

the eyes of the woman One rolled--tears! Larry leaped to Lakla's side.



"Mavourneen!" he cried. "Sweetheart, what have they said to you?"



He glared up at the Silent Ones, his hand twitching toward the

high-hung pistol holster.



The handmaiden swung to him; threw white arms around his neck; held

her head upon his heart until her sobbing ceased.



"This they--say--the Silent Ones," she gasped and then all the courage

of her came back. "O heart of mine!" she whispered to Larry, gazing

deep into his eyes, his anxious face cupped between her white palms.

"This they say--that should the Shining One come to succour Yolara and

Lugur, should it conquer its fear--and--do this--then is there but one

way left to destroy it--and to save your world."



She swayed; he gripped her tightly.



"But one way--you and I must go--together--into its embrace! Yea, we

must pass within it--loving each other, loving the world, realizing to

the full all that we sacrifice and sacrificing all, our love, our

lives, perhaps even that you call soul, O loved one; must give

ourselves all to the Shining One--gladly, freely, our love for each

other flaming high within us--that this curse shall pass away! For if

we do this, pledge the Three, then shall that power of love we carry

into it weaken for a time all that evil which the Shining One has

become--and in that time the Three can strike and slay!"



The blood rushed from my heart; scientist that I am, essentially, my

reason rejected any such solution as this of the activities of the

Dweller. Was it not, the thought flashed, a propitiation by the Three

out of their own weakness--and as it flashed I looked up to see their

eyes, full of sorrow, on mine--and knew they read the thought. Then

into the whirling vortex of my mind came steadying reflections--of

history changed by the power of hate, of passion, of ambition, and

most of all, by love. Was there not actual dynamic energy in these

things--was there not a Son of Man who hung upon a cross on Calvary?



"Dear love o' mine," said the O'Keefe quietly, "is it in your heart to

say yes to this?"



"Larry," she spoke low, "what is in your heart is in mine; but I did

so want to go with you, to live with you--to--to bear you children,

Larry--and to see the sun."



My eyes were wet; dimly through them I saw his gaze on me.



"If the world is at stake," he whispered, "why of course there's only

one thing to do. God knows I never was afraid when I was fighting up

there--and many a better man than me has gone West with shell and

bullet for the same idea; but these things aren't shell and

bullet--but I hadn't Lakla then--and it's the damned doubt I have

behind it all."



He turned to the Three--and did I in their poise sense a rigidity, an

anxiety that sat upon them as alienly as would divinity upon men?



"Tell me this, Silent Ones," he cried. "If we do this, Lakla and I,

is it sure you are that you can slay the--Thing, and save my world? Is

it sure you are?"



For the first and the last time, I heard the voice of the Silent Ones.

It was the man-being at the right who spoke.



"We are sure," the tones rolled out like deepest organ notes, shaking,

vibrating, assailing the ears as strangely as their appearance struck

the eyes. Another moment the O'Keefe stared at them. Once more he

squared his shoulders; lifted Lakla's chin and smiled into her eyes.



"We stick!" he said again, nodding to the Three.



Over the visages of the Trinity fell benignity that was--awesome; the

tiny flames in the jet orbs vanished, leaving them wells in which

brimmed serenity, hope--an extraordinary joyfulness. The woman sat

upright, tender gaze fixed upon the man and girl. Her great shoulders

raised as though she had lifted her arms and had drawn to her those

others. The three faces pressed together for a fleeting moment; raised

again. The woman bent forward--and as she did so, Lakla and Larry, as

though drawn by some outer force, were swept upon the dais.



Out from the sparkling mist stretched two hands, enormously long,

six-fingered, thumbless, a faint tracery of golden scales upon their

white backs, utterly unhuman and still in some strange way beautiful,

radiating power and--all womanly!



They stretched forth; they touched the bent heads of Lakla and the

O'Keefe; caressed them, drew them together, softly stroked

them--lovingly, with more than a touch of benediction. And withdrew!



The sparkling mists rolled up once more, hiding the Silent Ones. As

silently as once before we had gone we passed out of the place of

light, beyond the crimson stone, back to the handmaiden's chamber.



Only once on our way did Larry speak.



"Cheer up, darlin'," he said to her, "it's a long way yet before the

finish. An' are you thinking that Lugur and Yolara are going to pull

this thing off? Are you?"



The handmaiden only looked at him, eyes love and sorrow filled.



"They are!" said Larry. "They are! Like HELL they are!"