Adventure Magazine Cover — page 54: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

: Suddenly Helma came to them, blink- ing at the sunlight through the great door. ~ Her combed hair hung like spun-gold to _ her waist, lighter and fairer than gold might be, yet not so colorless as flax. __ “Marriage or funeral first?” Tros asked. “By Lud, Caswallon, I would hate to see you buried in my father’s grave! Yet if I were Skell—and if this Glendwyr is the man Fflur thinks he is—there would be more buryings tonight than the druids have prepared for! Yet if you die, they must bury me too, because I like to stand with friends. I would rather leave this girl a widow than dowerless. There is kings’ blood in her veins.” | He laid a hand on Helma’s shoulder. “My lord Tros,”’ she said, “you are my _ protector, and you have done me greater honor than befalls a many prisoners. A while ago I cried to my brother Sigurdsen _ to slay you on your own ship. Shall I _ speak now, or be silent?” “Speak,” said Tros, half-bowing to Cas- wallon for permission. “She of Gaul—Cesar’s woman,” Helma began, and Caswallon swore under his breath; he was sick of that, subject. But Tros pricked his ears. “She combed my hair, swearing she would | serve me, speaking presently of Cesar, - and of you, most highly praising you by inference, contrasting you with Cesar. 50, a little at a time, she found out that I know little concerning the lord Caswallon; and that if I must choose, I should follow you, refusing to acknowledge him. There- aiter for a long time she was silent, while she dressed my hair. “When she began to speak again she asked about those of my people whom the lord Cas- wallon had made prisoners in the fighting in the woods. She knows they are now in a great barn near the stables within the wall that surrounds this house. I think she over- heard the command to bring them here. _ “She said she supposed I could influence them, and for a while after that she talked of a dozen things—mainly of Gaul and the fate of Cesar’s prisoners. Then, when she had done my hair, she sat at my feet making a great show of humil- ity, and cried a little, and then exclaimed how much better destiny had treated me than her, me, who am to be a great sea- captain's wife, and she but a slave. “But after a while she held my hand, Adventure studying the lines across the palm, saying darkly I should feel the contrast if the noble Tros were slain before what I hoped should happen. “So I questioned her, pretending credence in her art of reading what is written in lines on the palm of the hand, although [ know such stuff is witchcraft, and a lie invented to entrap fools. Presently, hav- ing made much talk of voyages, and money, and—I think she said—five sons, she grew excited and very earnest, saying there was a grave disaster impending, that I might prevent if I were wise enough. And she said there was wisdom written on my palm, but too much overlaid with other lines that signify a willingness to submit to whatever fate may inflict. “She was very full of guile. It was little by little, holding my hand and forever pre- tending to read it, that she hinted and then spoke more plainly, and then urged.. She said it was written in my hand—mine!— that a revolt is coming, and that you, her protector she called you, would be slain unless I bade the Northmen seize you and carry you to safety elsewhere. “Y questioning, she seemed to go into a trance. She stared at the wall, her body rigid and her breath in gasps. She spoke then of men who will revolt against the lord Caswallon, intending to slay him and set another in his place. She said my destiny, and yours, and hers lay with the new man; but she did not name him. : “She spoke of tonight’s funeral. She said she could see me left in this house with the Northmen and a very small guard of Britons. She said she could see me leading away the Northmen through the woods, guided by her and a Briton, toward men who made ready to attack the lord Caswal- lon. “She said she saw the funeral, and you beside the lord Caswallon. Men seized you, she said, because she and I insisted, and they bore you off to safety in the woods. But the lord Caswallon, and the rest, she said they slew. “Then she came out of the trance and asked me what she had been saying. She said she never can remember afterwards what passed her lips when those strange spells possess her. So I told her what she had said, and she seemed to grow afraid, asserting that a god had spoken through her. Gomichbooks.com