Who
were the magicians and the deputy-magicians and the great arch-wizard
of that furtive place nobody knew, for they went veiled and hooded and
cloaked completely in black.
Though her doom was close upon her and the enemy of prophecy
should come that very night through the open, southward door that
was named the Gate of the Doom, yet that rocky edifice Thlunrana
remained mysterious still, venerable, terrible, dark, and dreadfully
crowned with her doom. It was not often that anyone dared wander
near to Thlunrana by night when the moan of the magicians invoking
we know not Whom rose faintly from inner chambers, scaring the
drifting bats: but on the last night of all the man from the black-thatched
cottage by the five pine-trees came, because he would see Thlunrana
once again before the enemy that was divine, but that dwelt with men,
should come against it and it should be no more. Up the dark valley he
went like a bold man, but his fears were thick upon him; his bravery
bore their weight but stooped a little beneath them. He went in at the
southward gate that is named the Gate of the Doom. He came into a
dark hall, and up a marble stairway passed to see the last of Thlunrana.
At the top a curtain of black velvet hung and he passed into a chamber
heavily hung with curtains, with a gloom in it that was blacker than
anything they could account for.
Pages:
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49