Абрахам Меррит - Creep, Shadow!

I stepped back, covering my eyes.

Ricori said: "What do you see? All I see are men in red, far away, who feed fires – and another who stands before the house of stones… what do you see, Caranac?"

I whispered: "I see Hell opening."

I forced myself to look again at that which was being spawned from the Cairn's stone womb… and stood, unable now to look away… I heard a voice, my own voice, screaming –

"Dahut… Dahut… before it is too late!"

As though in answer, there was a lull in the clamor of the sea. Upon the ridge at our left appeared a point of brilliant green light… whether far away or near I could not tell with that strange witch-sight Dahut had given me. It became an oval of brilliant emerald…

It became – Dahut!

Dahut… clothed with pale green sea-fires, her eyes like violet sea- pools and wide so wide that they were ringed with white; her slim black brows a bar above them; her face white as foam and cruel and mocking; her hair like spin-drift of silver. Far away or not, she seemed as close to me as did de Keradel. It was as if she stood just above the Cairn… could reach out, as I, and touch de Keradel. To me that night, as in the shadowy land, there was no such thing as distance.

I caught Ricori's wrist, pointed and whispered: "Dahut!"

He said: "I saw far away and dimly a shining figure. I thought it a woman. With your hand upon me, I seem to see her more plainly. What do you see, Caranac?"

I said: "I see Dahut. She is laughing. Her eyes are the eyes of no woman… nor is her face. She is laughing, I say… can't you hear her, Ricori? She calls to de Keradel… how sweet her voice and how merciless… like the sea! She calls – 'My father, I am here!' He sees her… the Thing in the Cairn is aware of her… de Keradel cries to her – 'Too late, my daughter!' He is mocking, contemptuous… but the Thing in the Cairn is not. It strains… toward completion. Dahut calls again, 'Is my bridegroom born? Is the labor done? Your midwifery successful? My bedfellow delivered?' Can't you hear, Ricori? It is as though she stood beside me…"

He said: "I hear nothing."

I said: "I do not like this jesting, Ricori. It is – dreadful. The Thing in the Cairn does not like it… although de Keradel laughs… It reaches out from the Cairn… to the vat on the stone of sacrifice… It drinks… It grows… God!… Dahut… Dahut!"

The shining figure raised hand as though she heard… and bent toward me… and I felt the touch of her fingers on eyes and ears… her lips on mine…

She faced the sea and threw wide her arms. She cried the Name, softly – and the sea winds stilled… again, like one who summons as of right – and the shouting of the combers waned… a third time, jubilantly.

Shouting of the combers, thunder of the surges, roaring of the winds, all the clamor of sea and air, arose in a mighty diapason. It melted into chaotic uproar, elemental bellowing. And suddenly all the sea was covered with the tossing manes of the white sea-horses… armies of the white horses of the sea… the white horses of Poseidon… line upon endless line racing out of the darkness of ocean and charging against the shore.

Beyond the lower line of the ridge between that high rock on which stood Dahut and this high rock on which stood I, arose a mountain of water… lifting, lifting swiftly, yet deliberately. Changing shape as it lifted ever higher… gathering power as it lifted. Up it lifted and up; a hundred feet, two hundred feet above the edge. It paused, and its top flattened. Its top became a gigantic hammer…

And beyond it I seemed to see a vast and misty shape towering to the clouds, its head wreathed with the clouds and crowned with the lightnings…

The hammer swung down… down upon the Thing in the Cairn… down upon de Keradel and the red-clad, blank-eyed men… down upon the monoliths.

The Cairn and the monoliths were covered with waters, boiling, spouting, smashing at the standing stones. Uprooting, overturning them.

For an instant I saw the evil fires glare through the waters. Then they were gone.

For an instant I heard an unearthly shrilling from the stone womb of the Cairn, and saw a Blackness veined with crimson flames writhing under the hammer stroke of the waters. Struggling in the myriad arms of the waters. Then it, too, was gone.

The waters rushed back. They licked up at us as they passed and a wave swirled round us knee high. It dropped… chuckling.

Again the mountain arose, hammer topped. Again it swept over the ridge and smote the Cairn and the standing stones. And this time the waters rushed on so that the oaks fell before them… and once more they retreated… and once more they lifted and struck and swept on… and now I knew that the old house with all its ghosts was gone…

Through all, the sea-fire shape of Dahut had remained unmoved, untouched. I had heard her merciless laughter above the bellowing of the sea and the crashing of the hammer strokes.

Back rushed the last waters. Dahut held her arms out to me, calling:

"Alain… come to me, Alain!"

Clearly could I see the path between her and me. It was as though she were close… close. But I knew she was not and that it was the witch-sight she had given me that made it seem so. I said:

"Good luck, McCann. Good luck, Ricori – "

"Alan… come to me, Alan…"

My hand dropped on the hilt of the long knife. I shouted: "Coming – Dahut!"

McCann gripped me. Ricori struck down at his hands. He said: "Let him go."

"… Alan… come to me…"

The waters were rushing back, over the ridge. A swirl swept out. It coiled around Dahut to the waist. It lifted her… high and high…

And instantly from over her and from every side of her a cloud of shadows swept upon her… striking at her with shadowy hands… thrusting at her, hurling themselves at her, pushing her back and down… into the sea.

I saw incredulity flood her face, then outraged revolt, then terror – and then despair.

The wave crashed back into the sea, and with it went Dahut, the shadows pouring after her…

I heard myself crying: Dahut… Dahut!

I rushed to the verge of the rock. There was a prolonged flaring of the lightning. By it I saw Dahut… face upturned, hair floating around her like a silver net, her eyes wide and horror-filled and… dying.

The shadows were all around her and over her… pushing her down… down…

The witch-sight was fading from my eyes. The witch-hearing stilling in my ears. Before that sight went, I saw de Keradel lying on the threshold of the Cairn, crushed beneath one of its great stones. The stone had pulped the breast and heart of de Keradel as he had pulped the breasts and hearts of the sacrifices. There were only his head and his arms… his face upturned, dead eyes wide and filled with hate, dead hands held high in imprecation and in – appeal…

The Cairn was flat, and of the standing stones not one was erect…

Witch-sight and witch-hearing were gone. The land was dark save for the glare of the lightning. The sea was dark save for the foaming tops of the waves. Their shouting was the voice of waves – and nothing more. The roaring of the wind was the voice of the wind – and nothing more.

Dahut was dead…

I asked Ricori: "What did you see?"

"Three waves. They destroyed all that was below. They killed my men!"

"I saw much more than that, Ricori. Dahut is dead. It is ended, Ricori. Dahut is dead and her witchcraft ended. We must wait here till morning. Then we can go back… back to Helen…"

Dahut was dead…

She was dead as of old, long and long and long ago in Ys… by her shadows and by her wickednesses… by the sea… and by me.

Would I have killed her with the long knife had I reached her before the wave?