The Shadow Kingdom | Page 6

breezes of the night, bearing the scents of spice trees, blew the
filmy curtains about. The king looked out. The walks and groves were
deserted; carefully trimmed trees were bulky shadows; fountains near
by flung their slender sheen of silver in the starlight and distant
fountains rippled steadily. No guards walked those gardens, for so
closely were the outer walls guarded that it seemed impossible for any
invader to gain access to them.
Vines curled up the walls of the palace, and even as Kull mused upon
the ease with which they might be climbed, a segment of shadow
detached itself from the darkness below the window and a bare, brown
arm curved up over the sill. Kull's great sword hissed halfway from the
sheath; then the King halted. Upon the muscular forearm gleamed the
dragon armlet shown him by Ka-nu the night before.
The possessor of the arm pulled himself up over the sill and into the
room with the swift, easy motion of a climbing leopard.
"You are Brule?" asked Kull, and then stopped in surprise not
unmingled with annoyance and suspicion; for the man was he whom
Kull had taunted in the Hall of Society; the same who had escorted him
from the Pictish embassy.
"I am Brule, the Spear-slayer," answered the Pict in a guarded voice;
then swiftly, gazing closely in Kull's face, he said, barely above a
whisper:
"Ka nama kaa lajerama!"

Kull started. "Ha! What mean you?"
"Know you not?"
"Nay, the words are unfamiliar; they are of no language I ever heard-
and yet, by Valka!-somewhere-I have heard-"
"Aye," was the Pict's only comment. His eyes swept the room, the
study room of the palace. Except for a few tables, a divan or two and
great shelves of books of parchment, the room was barren compared to
the grandeur of the rest of the palace.
"Tell me, king, who guards the door?"
"Eighteen of the Red Slayers. But how come you, stealing through the
gardens by night and scaling the walls of the palace?"
Brule sneered. "The guards of Valusia are blind buffaloes. I could steal
their girls from under their noses. I stole amid them and they saw me
not nor heard me. And the walls-I could scale them without the aid of
vines. I have hunted tigers on the foggy beaches when the sharp east
breezes blew the mist in from seaward and I have climbed the steeps of
the western sea mountain. But come-nay, touch this armlet."
He held out his arm and, as Kull complied wonderingly, gave an
apparent sigh of relief.
"So. Now throw off those kingly robes; for there are ahead of you this
night such deeds as no Atlantean ever dreamed of."
Brule himself was clad only in a scanty loin-cloth through which was
thrust a short, curved sword.
"And who are you to give me orders?" asked Kull, slightly resentful.
"Did not Ka-nu bid you follow me in all things?" asked the Pict
irritably, his eyes flashing momentarily. "I have no love for you, lord,
but for the moment I have put the thought of feuds from my mind. Do
you likewise. But come."

Walking noiselessly, he led the way across the room to the door. A
slide in the door allowed a view of the outer corridor, unseen from
without, and the Pict bade Kull look.
"What see you?"
"Naught but the eighteen guardsmen."
The Pict nodded, motioned Kull to follow him across the room. At a
panel in the opposite wall Brule stopped and fumbled there a moment.
Then with a light movement he stepped back, drawing his sword as he
did so. Kull gave an exclamation as the panel swung silently open,
revealing a dimly lighted passageway.
"A secret passage!" swore Kull softly. "And I knew nothing or it! By
Valka, someone shall dance for this!"
"Silence!" hissed the Pict.
Brule was standing like a bronze statue as if straining every nerve for
the slightest sound; something about his attitude made Kull's hair
prickle slightly, not from fear but from some eery anticipation. Then
beckoning, Brule stepped through the secret doorway which stood open
behind them. The passage was bare, but not dust-covered as should
have been the case with an unused secret corridor. A vague, gray light
filtered through somewhere, but the source of it was not apparent.
Every few feet Kull saw doors, invisible, as he knew, from the outside,
but easily apparent from within.
"The palace is a very honeycomb," he muttered. "Aye. Night and day
you are watched, king, by many eyes."
The king was impressed by Brule's manner. The Pict went forward
slowly, warily, half crouching, blade held low and thrust forward.
When he spoke it was in a whisper and he continually flung glances
from side to side.