[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.The marks were on every one of the men andwomen of Quran who pressed close to him and passed him along to the front ofthe crowd like some piece of property.Painted lips leered.Flushed, swollen cheeks shook with mirth.Brak waswhirled and shoved and poked and scratched, unable to summon the strength tofight off the cloying hands.There seemed to be hundreds of people packedtogether in a vast, smoky chamber where sullen torches winked.Goblets of winetraveled from hand to hand.A lyre twanged wildly.Murmuring and murmuring,the crowd reached into many other rooms that were equally dim, equally aswarmwith motion.The crowd around him opened ahead, closed behind.He was beingrushed forward to some unknown destination.And all the people were marked.Even Queen Shar, he remembered.He knew utter despair then. To the center! someone cried. To the center so we can all see him! Look at him! Such strength! A feast indeed. But who gets the feast? Yes, who gets the feast? Others took up the cry as Brak was spun and finally thrown forward, free ofthe crowd.Black and red tiles rushed up.He shot his hands out, tried tobreak his fall.The crowd pressed in, yelling."Who gets the feast? Who gets the feast?"Brak struck the floor.He lay panting and blinking.Then came the ultimatehorror.He was to be the feast.Growling, he weaved to his feet.He lunged at a grinning Quran with a hugeruby in his head.The man flicked the point of a sword at Brak's chin, drovehim back. 'Tis unseemly for the feast to run away from the table, outlander, the mancried.More howls of macabre laughter.Brak ran the other way.Swords met him, ringed him, sent him retreating to the center of the circle.There were hundreds of them, men and women, bloat-faced, pink-lipped, clothingtorn orgiastically and he knew at last the nature of this dim, smoke-hauntedplace.He was in the apartments of Ky and Kya.The barbarian dug his nails into his palms to keep himself from shrieking inpanic.The revelers surrounding him all bore the marks.Then where were thevictims who had made their cheeks fat and their mouths plump and red?Gradually then he became aware of other sounds.He searched for the source.Details were indistinct in the poor light afforded by the few torches on thewalls, and brazier smoke clouded the air even more.At last, through amomentary gap in the crowd, he saw the cause of the sobbing and the laughter.Half a dozen men of Quran were harrying the body of a slave girl.Theystripped the last of her garments as another cry came.A Quran bit herforearm.The crowd shifted again.The awful sight was hidden.His ears began to detect other moans or screams in other parts of the suite.In the Jewel City, some had been elected victims while others, at least for atime, enjoyed the profane pleasures of blood-eating.These latter were thekind gathered around Brak in a huge circle.Some of the men had drawn theirPage 75 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlswords lest he attack them.All had faces already gorged by unholy feasting. Tell us, lord! Tell us, lady! they cried."Who gets the feast?"They chanted it to someone behind him.He turned, and then his eyes blindedwith hate.On the high dais behind the circle sat his three chief tormentors.Ky occupied a curved chair.His twin reclined on a couch next to the chair.She was drinking from a goblet.Some of what she drank dribbled across herlips and down the goblet's side.It was too red for wine.With a sly glance at the barbarian, Kya sat up.Her black hair swirled roundher head like wind-tossed branches.She passed the goblet to Queen Shar, whosat in a second curved chair on the other side of the couch.The Queen's eyeswere merry.She toasted him with the goblet, then drank."Who gets the feast, lord? Who gets the feast, lady? Who? Who?" There will be ample for all, said Ky with a gesture of benediction. Waitbut a moment more. There was a sudden commotion back in the darkness.A man screamed hoarsely.Some sort of minor struggle was taking place.He couldn't see the cause.Brak felt cold, dull-headed.He felt the oppressive sense of death very near.He hoped that when the time came, he could take some of these living ghoulswith him; these damned fools of Quran who, enjoying their perverted pleasurefor an hour, would fall prey to Ky and Kya at the last.He was certain thetwins would emerge from this nightmare as the sole survivors.If he could onlyfind a way to slay them !Then he remembered plunging the knife into Ky in Queen Shar's chamber.Defeatoverwhelmed him.How to kill an immortal demon? There was no way. Open a path! Lady Shar exclaimed. They're trying to get through withanother guest from the dungeon. Just as Brak turned to look at the roiling crowd, his eye was caught bysomething hanging dry and husk-like from a sword impaled in the wall.The thing was vaguely human in shape.It twisted slowly in the smoke.All atonce a flattened face became visible Ibrahim the Red King.Drained and stuck through with a sword, the king's remains flapped gently backand forth.Queen Shar, whose gown was open to her waist to bare the triangularmark she carried, noticed Brak's horror-struck expression.She turned to eyethe bloodless body of her husband.All at once she smiled and gave a littleshrug.She drank again from the goblet.A tangle of robes and white beard came sailing past Brak's feet."Hadrios!"Making frightened sounds, the old caravan master struggled to rise.Brakassisted him.Hadrios's cheeks looked parchment pale.His eyes were huge andglassy, as if he were unable to comprehend the meaning of the madness he saw.Better that way, Brak thought suddenly.Better he sink into insanity thansuffer through to the end.More noise in the crowd.Someone else was hurled forward.Brak saw rubiesflash, heard curses and sounds of fierce struggle.The new arrival was notgoing gently to his fate.Before Brak could see more, Hadrios clutched hisarm.There were tears on his cheeks. The gods have damned me forever, Brak.Now I know it for certain. What's the use of cursing? Brak whispered back. We need to save what littlestrength we have for "They have taken Helane!"Hadrios howled, pointing.Numbed, Brak followed theold man's pointing finger.All at once he saw her in the crowd.Helane's lovely face was gaunt now, and too red in the cheeks.Her tawny hairhung in tangles around her shoulders.She regarded Brak and the old man as ifthey were strangers.Beside her, a wide-shouldered Quran teased her body withhis gauntlet.Sounds of fighting distracted the big barbarian's dazed attention again.Helooked past Hadrios who was weeping into his hands, saw a shaved pate bob anddisappear near the edge of the circle.Curved swords glittered.Soldiersswore.All at once the crowd heaved apart in terror.A giant figure lungedthrough.Page 76 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlStoneyes!The giant had an iron ring round his neck.A long chain hung from the ring.His lunge had torn the other end of the chain out of the hand of one of thebeleaguered soldiers.The giant's black leather chest harness was cut in several places.His hugetorso was slashed and bleeding.Evidently the guards who had brought the gianthere like a chained beast had been forced to use their swords to keep himunder control.One angry guard who was limping stole up behind the giant andgashed his back with his blade.The giant bellowed.The guard tried to dart back.Stoneyes caught him.Beforeany could prevent it, he wrapped the chain around the man's neck and tugged itwith both hands
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]