Through a Mythos Darkly by Glynn Owen Barrass & Brian M Sammons

Author:Glynn Owen Barrass & Brian M Sammons
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781786362186
Publisher: P S Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-10-22T04:00:00+00:00

The one who’d spoken blinked hair-fringed skin-flaps over his stupid binocular eyes, gaping as if to suck plankton. The other, who’d been in an odd-thought silence, broke it now with a burst of ragged sound like the barking of a seal.

Y’cthiss presumed this meant the use of words from their lexicon had been effective, and continued on. With their stiff-limbed, angle-jointed, single-footed strides, they followed.

“My brother,” said the one called Harald, when he had stifled his seal-barks, “intended no offense. We are honored to be here.”

“You are not welcome,” Y’cthiss said. “This is of necessity, nothing more. Mistake it not. Your presence in R’lyeh is for no embassy of friendship or further alliance. Just as is the presence of two of ours among your people.”

He wobbled his bulbous yellow-haired head upon his feeble-seeming neck. “Hostages to ensure the cooperation of our governments. We understand. Our mother sent us, her sons, to show her personal commitment to this common cause.”

“For so like are Fthaal and Yhidd of the Spawnpriest’s own brood-pods. High rank and importance.”

“Are they…are you…related?”

At that, Y’cthiss could not suppress a trilling violet-flicker quiver of annoyance. “We do not share lineage.”

“And my brother,” Leif said, flashing non-threatening blunt white nubs in a harmless display, “meant no offense either. Did you, Harald?”

The hair-ridges above his eyes drew together as if perplexed. “No, none, of course not.”

Ahead loomed the central citadel, its curled spires clawing at the moon, its mass blotting out the stars. Eldritch light spilled through its corroded, verdigris-caked gates and latticed windows. Tide-basins brimmed to either side of the entrance, seawater trickling sluggishly down mismatched travertine terraces where hagskips flopped and wallowed. A narrowing, upward-winding path between them was flanked at intervals by hulking armored guards with deadly and ornate spears gripped in suckered coils.

Thus far, both humans had made a not-unimpressive effort at keeping their wits intact and fear in check. Now, they drew together as if seeking strength. Each of their tottering steps brought them higher, R’lyeh spreading out beneath them in its convoluted geometry. Higher, and nearer to the gated archway…where the Spawnpriest awaited their arrival.

He wore a robe of bloodkelp falling from an elaborate high-ridged coral collar. Suffering-pearls studded his diadem and belt. Tiny bone-white crabs scurried, preening, among the writhing nests of thin and ropey tentacles surrounding his beaked mouth. Sycophantic remorae clung to the gill-ridged underside edges of his backswept chitinous skull.

“So,” said Spawnpriest Cthlullan, not so much speaking the word as letting it roll like a heavy stone into the depths. “Harald and Leif, the Freylindessons.” His slow, deliberate, and precise pronunciations of their names resonated from the ancient architecture in such a way it seemed R’lyeh itself trembled to its darkest core. “Your mother’s, and your nation’s, hostages to fortune for the sake of the entire planet.”

They nodded almost imperceptibly. Both were shaking, and their flat faces had gone pale.

“I will not insult you, or waste any of our time, with petty threats and warnings,” Cthlullan continued. “There is no need for that, don’t you agree?”

Again, the humans nodded.

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