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It was not the emerald reflection of the fabled forests of the ht carry with theolden radiance of a candle, or even the piercing white beaht when the fliers of the Autarch soared over the Citadel
Rather, it was a lu of no color, soreen It was impossible to say how far it was, and it seeht; and I, still following the stream, splashed toward it Then it was joined by another
It is difficult for me to concentrate on the events of the next few minutes Perhaps everyone holds in his subconscious certain moments of horror, as our oubliette held, in its lowest inhabited level, for those clients whose o been destroyed or transforer human Like them, these memories shriek and lash the walls with their chains, but are seldoht
What I experienced under the hill re I endeavor to lock within the furthest recesses ofago, when the Samru was still near the ht; there I saw each dipping of the oars appear as a spot of phosphorescent fire, and for a ined that those from under the hill had come for me at last They are mine to command now, but I have sht I had seen was joined by a second, as I have described, then the first two by a third, and the first three by a fourth, and still I went on Soon there were toowhat they were, I was actually co each perhaps to be a spark from a torch of souards mentioned in the letter When I had taken a dozeninto a pattern, and that the pattern was a dart or arrowhead pointed towardas I used to hear froiven their food Even then, I think, I ht have escaped if I had turned and fled
I did not The roaring grew - not quite any noise of ani of the ht were not shapeless, as I had iure called in art a star, having five unequal points
It was then, much too late, that I halted
By this tiht these stars shed had increased enough forshadows the shapes about ested that they orks of men - it seemed I walked in the buried city (here not collapsed under the weight of the overlaying soil) fro these ularity such as I have sometimes noticed in ricks of firewood, frooes toback the corpse light of theless sinister, or at least more beautiful, than they had received
For a moment I wondered at these pillars; then I looked at the star-shapes again, and for the first tiht tohat seereat fortress? Or cliht yourself, and looked below, and seen the fall a hundred tireater than you had believed? If you have, you will have soht, but shapes like men, small only because the cavern in which I stood was more vast than I had ever conceived that such a place could be And thethicker of shoulder andtoward me The roar I heard was the sound of their voices
I turned, and when I found I could not run through the water mounted the bank where the dark structures stood By that ti wide to ht and left and cut me off from the outer world
They were terrible in a fashion I am not certain I can explain - like apes in that they had hairy, crooked bodies, long-ared, and thick-necked Their teeth were like the fangs of sth below their s, nor the noctilucent light that clung to their fur, that brought the horror I felt It was soe, pale-irised eyes It told me they were as hu bodies, as women are locked in weak bodies that make them prey for the filthy desires of thousands, so these uise of lurid apes, and knew it As they ringed e, and it was the worse because those eyes were the only part of theulped air to shout Thecla once more Then I knew, and closed er or at least bolder than the rest, advanced on me He carried a short-hafted hbone Just out of sword-reach he threatenedthedisturbed the water behindthe stream He leaped backward as I slashed at hiht hinificently teh the breastbone
He fell and the water carried his corpse away, but before the stroke went home I had seen that he waded in the stream with distaste, and that it had slowed histo keep all an slowly to move toward the point where it ran to the outside world I felt that if I could once reach the constricted tunnel I would be safe; but I knew too that they would never perathered more thickly around ht they gave was so great then that I could see that the squared s, apparently of the ray stone and soiled everywhere by the dung of bats
The irregular pillars were stacks of ingots in which each layer was laid across the last Froed them to be silver There were a hundred in each stack, and surely many hundreds of stacks in the buried city All this I sahile taking a half-dozen steps At the seventh they came for me, twenty at least, and froh the neck I swung round world and echoed fro and the screaoes mad at such moments I recall the rush of the attack andseems to have happened in a breath Two and five and ten were down, until the water aroundand dead; but still they caiant's fist Terht of the bodies boreblind under water My eneht, but he feared drowning too ht as he would have otherwise I thrust fingers into his wide nostrils and snapped his neck, though it seeher than a man's
If I could have held ht have escaped The ht of me, and I drifted underwater so; I lifted my face to the surface, and they were upon me
No doubt there cohts he should die This, I have always felt, was mine I have counted all the life I have held since as pure profit, an undeserved gift I had no weapon, and ht arm was nuave me a moment more of life, for so many crowded forward to kill me that they obstructed one another I kicked one in the face A second grasped ht, and I (moved by what instinct or inspiration I do not know) snatched at it I held the Claw