Will the threat slow down?
WITH head swimming dizzily, Tam got to his feet. A single slash of his keen yatagan, and the head of the giant rolled free of the corpse. He picked it up by the tuft of hair which projected through the peak of the golden helmet, and to his surprize saw for the first time that four of this monster's faces were cleverly and artistically made masks, so constructed by means of a concealed mechanism that they would follow every muscular movement of the real face. The third eye in the forehead, however, was real enough.
He was suddenly conscious of Nina beside him, her hand on his arm.
"Tam, you were wonderful! But you are wounded—bleeding. Let me bind up your cuts."
He dropped the gory thing he held in his hand and flung down his bloody yatagan.
"I'm all right," he said, but his tongue had grown unaccountably thick. "Just a few scratches." The floor seemed to be rocking beneath his feet. Nina drew his arm over her shoulders and put her own around his waist to steady him. With head reeling, he noticed for the first time that they were standing in front of a colossal throne, a gigantic counterpart of the throne of Nina in Aryatun. On either side of it, but placed just a little lower, were three lesser thrones. In a flash, he realized that these were the thrones of the seven immortals. But where were their mighty owners?
"The thrones of the gods," he said thickly, "But where have they gone? Where are the gods?"
"Tam, you must not talk of that now. Let me see to your wounds."
A gray mist swirled before his eyes. He tried to brush it away with his hand, but it only grew thicker—darker.
"There are no gods," he muttered. The mist grew heavier, turned inky black.
Faintly, as from a vast distance, he heard the voice of Nina.
"Oh, Tam! You are falling! You must let me help you! Tam! Ta—!" Swiftly he sank into a sea of black oblivion. The sound of her voice died in the distance.
For an instant or an eternity, he knew not which, he was in a cold, dark void. Then he felt the sensation of floating bodiless in the air. And he could hear and see.
Beneath him was his own body, Nina bending over it, her head on his bosom—weeping.
In front of him were the seven colossal thrones. And they were occupied! There sat the seven immortals, looking down at the relatively tiny beings on the gold-tiled floor—Brahm, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Siva, the Destroyer were at the right. On the central throne, which was slightly raised above the others, sat Nina Jagan Mata. At her left were Indra, Ruler of the Bright Firmament, Hanuman, the Monkey God, and Vasuki, the Seven-headed Mahanaga, Ruler of the Serpents.
Slowly Siva turned to Nina and spoke—his voice like the rolling of thunder: "Thy champion has won and saved the world, O Nina, but it has cost him dear."
The voice of the goddess was full of compassion as she replied: "Yes. It has cost him dear, O Siva, but he is a hero who does not count the cost. Had he but clung to life a little longer—. But no matter. The love of my priestess will follow him, even to his next incarnation, where they will meet again."
Faintly, Tam then heard the cry of Nina, who with one hand clinging to the fingers of his own lifeless one, prostrated herself in the direction of the lofty central throne.
"O Nina, Mahadevi, compassionate Mother of the World, save him. Save this man for thy handmaiden. He has laid low the Destroyer, who would have made a bloody shambles of the earth and doomed thy children to slavery and violent death. For their sakes and mine, restore him to life."
The goddess looked down at her little priestess—smiled, "Dost want him so much?" she asked.
"More than anything in earth or Heaven, O Mother."
The compassionate eyes of the great figure on the throne seemed to twinkle just a little.
"Why then, we'll see what can be done."
The radiant face, the compassionate orbs were turned full on Tam.
"Back. Go back to thy mortal shell," the voice commanded. "It may be that I can save it and detain thee for her who loveth thee better than earthly empire or hope of Nirvana."
It seemed to Tam that he floated swiftly downward. Then he was plunged, once more, into that cold black void through which he had previously passed.