The Slayer Of souls Part 34

"Could you sleep if it burns?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes."

"Then let it burn. This business has got on my nerves," he muttered.

They looked at each other in an expressionless way. Both really understood how useless was this symbol of protection--this man the girl called husband;--how utterly useless his physical strength, and the pistol sagging in the pocket of his dressing-gown. Both understood that the only real protection to be looked for must come from her--from the gifted and guardian mind of this young girl who lay there looking at him from the pillows.

"Good-night," he said, flus.h.i.+ng; "I'll do my best. But only one of G.o.d's envoys, like you, knows how to do battle with things that come out of h.e.l.l."

After a moment's silence she said in a colourless voice: "I wish you'd lie down on the bed."

"Had you rather I did?"

"Yes."

So he went slowly to the bed, placed his pistol under the pillow, drew his dressing-gown around him, and lay down.

After he had lain unstirring for half an hour: "Try to sleep, Tressa,"

he said, without turning his head.

"Can't you seem to sleep, Victor?" she asked. And he heard her turn her head.

"No."

"Shall I help you?"

"Do you mean use hypnosis--the power of suggestion--on me?"

"No. I can help you to sleep very gently. I can make you very drowsy....

You are drowsy now.... You are very close to the edge of sleep....

Sleep, dear.... Sleep, easily, naturally, confidently as a tired boy....

You are sleeping, ... deeply ... sweetly ... my dear ... my dear, dear husband."

CHAPTER XI

YULUN THE BELOVED

Cleves opened his eyes. He was lying on his left side. In the pink glow of the night-lamp he saw his wife in her night-dress, seated sideways on the farther edge of the bed, talking to a young girl.

The strange girl wore what appeared to be a chamber-robe of frail gold tissue that clung to her body and glittered as she moved. He had never before seen such a dress; but he had seen the girl; he recognised her instantly as the girl he had seen turn to look back at Tressa as she crossed the phantom bridge over that misty Florida river. And Cleves comprehended that he was looking at Yulun.

But this charming young thing was no ghost, no astral projection. This girl was warm, living, breathing flesh. The delicate scent of her strange garments and of her hair, her very breath, was in the air of the room. Her half-hushed but laughing voice was deliciously human; her delicate little hands, caressing Tressa's, were too eagerly real to doubt.

Both talked at the same time, their animated voices mingling in the breathless delight of the reunion. Their exclamations, enchanting laughter, bubbling chatter, filled his ears. But not one word of what they were saying to each other could he understand.

Suddenly Tressa looked over her shoulder and met his astonished eyes.

"Tokhta!" she exclaimed. "Yulun! My lord is awake!"

Yulun swung around swiftly on the edge of the bed and looked laughingly at Cleves. But when her red lips unclosed she spoke to Tressa: and, "Darling," she said in English, "I think your dear lord remembers that he saw me on the Bridge of Dreams. And heard the bells of Yian across the mist."

Tressa said, laughing at her husband: "This is Yulun, flame-slender, very white, loveliest in Yian. On the rose-marble steps of the Yezidee Temple she flung a stemless rose upon Djamouk's shroud, where he had spread it like a patch of snow in the sun.

"And at the Lake of the Ghosts, where there is freedom to love, for those who desire love, came Yaddin, Tougtchi to Djamouk the Fox, in search of love--and Yulun, flame-slim, and flower-white.... Tell my dear lord, Yulun!"

Yulun laughed at Cleves out of her dark eyes that slanted charmingly at the corners.

"Kai!" she cried softly, clapping her palms. "I took his roses and tore them with my hands till their petals rained on him and their golden hearts were a powdery cloud floating across the water.

"I said: 'Even the d.a.m.ned do not mate with demons, my Tougtchi! So go to the devil, my Banneret, and may Erlik seize you!'"

Cleves, his ears ringing with the sweet confusion of their girlish laughter, rose from his pillow, supporting himself on one arm.

"You are Yulun. You are alive and real----" He looked at Tressa: "She is real, isn't she?" And, to Yulun: "Where do you come from?"

The girl replied seriously: "I come from Yian." She turned to Tressa with a dazzling smile: "Thou knowest, my heart's gold, how it was I came. Tell thy dear lord in thine own way, so that it shall be simple for his understanding.... And now--because my visit is ending--I think thy dear lord should sleep. Bid him sleep, my heart's gold!"

At that calm suggestion Cleves sat upright on the bed,--or attempted to.

But sank back gently on his pillow and met there a dark, delicious rush of drowsiness.

He made an effort--or tried to: the smooth, sweet tide of sleep swept over him to the eyelids, leaving him still and breathing evenly on his pillow.

The two girls leaned over and looked down at him.

"Thy dear lord," murmured Yulun. "Does he love thee, rose-bud of Yian?"

"No," said Tressa, under her breath.

"Does he know thou art d.a.m.ned, heart of gold?"

"He says no soul is ever really harmed," whispered Tressa.

"Kai! Has he never heard of the Slayer of Souls?" exclaimed Yulun incredulously.

"My lord maintains that neither the a.s.sa.s.sin of Khora.s.san nor the Sheiks-el-Djebel of the Eight Towers, nor their dark prince Erlik, can have power over G.o.d to slay the human soul."

"Tokhta, Rose of Yian! Our souls were slain there in the Yezidee temple."

Tressa looked down at Cleves:

"My dear lord says no," she said under her breath.

"And--Sanang?"