The Cthulhu Stories of Robert E. Howard by Robert E. Howard

Author:Robert E. Howard [Howard, Robert E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WordFire Press

Empire

Turlogh and Athelstane leaned on the rail, gazing back at the swiftly receding Island of the Gods, from which rose a pillar of smoke, laden with the ghosts of a thousand centuries, and the shadows and mysteries of forgotten empire, and Athelstane cursed as only a Saxon can.

“A king’s ransom—and after all that blood-letting—no loot!”

Turlogh shook his head. “We have seen an ancient kingdom fall—we have seen the last remnant of the world’s oldest empire sink into flames and the abyss of oblivion, and barbarism rear its brute head above the ruins. So pass the glory, and the splendor and the imperial purple—in red flames and yellow smoke.”

“But not one bit of plunder—” persisted the Viking.

Again Turlogh shook his head. “I brought away with me the rarest gem upon the island—something for which men and women have died and the gutters run with blood.”

He drew from his girdle a small object—a curiously carved symbol of jade.

“The emblem of kingship!” exclaimed Athelstane.

“Aye—as Brunhild struggled with me to keep me from following you into the corridor, this thing caught in my mail and was torn from the golden chain that held it.”

“He who bears it is king of Bal-Sagoth,” ruminated the mighty Saxon. “As I predicted, Turlogh, you are a king!”

Turlogh laughed with bitter mirth and pointed to the great billowing column of smoke which floated in the sky away on the sea-rim.

“Aye—a kingdom of the dead—an empire of ghosts and smoke. I am Ard-Righ of a phantom city—I am King Turlogh of Bal-Sagoth, and my kingdom is fading in the morning sky. And therein it is like all other empires in the world—dreams, and ghosts, and smoke.”

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