Barbara let fall the pistol
and fell backwards as though a bullet from it had pierced her heart. He
leapt towards her, but before he came to where she lay everything had
vanished and he heard Jeekie droning out his lies to the Asika, telling
her that the vision he had seen was one of her and his master seated
with their arms about each other in a chamber of the Golden House.
A third time the dream descended on Alan like a cloud. It seemed to him
that he was borne beyond the flaming borders of the world. Everything
around was new and unfamiliar, vast, changing, lovely, terrible. He
stood alone upon a pearly plain and the sky above him was lit with red
moons, many and many of them that hung there like lamps. Spirits began
to pass him. He could catch something of their splendour as they sped
by with incredible swiftness; he could hear the music of their laughter.
One rose up at his side. It was the Asika, only a thousand times more
splendid; clothed in all the glory of hell. Majestically she bent
towards him, her glowing eyes held his, the deadly perfume of her breath
beat upon his brow and made him drunken.
She spoke to him and her voice sounded like distant bells.
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