The Sea Witch | Nictzin Dyalhis | Nightshade Diary Podcast - Nightshade Diary

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you feel a sharer up your spine from fear? Yes,
it's another story from the Night's Shade Diary. You know
what that means. Check under the bed and make sure
no one or nothing is there. Is the closet door
securely shut. Then leave your disbelief behind, amp up your
imagination and hang on tight for another ride into terror

(00:22):
and mystery. And like all good horror stories, just imagine
it's a dark and stormy night, and remember screaming like
a little girl is permitted. The Sea Witch by Nixon
dialis Haldra Helstrom injured my life in a manner peculiarly

(00:48):
her own. And while she was the most utterably damnable
woman in all the world, at the same time, in
my opinion, she was the sweetest and the most superbly
lovely woman who ever lived. A three day northeast gale
was hammering at the coast. It was late in the
fall of the year and cold as only our North

(01:10):
Atlantic coasts can very well be. But in the very
midst of the tempest, I became afflicted with a mild
form of claustrophobia. So I donned sea boots, oilskins and
southwester hat and sallied forth for a long walk along
the shore. My little cottage stood at the top of
a high cliff. There was a broad, safe path running

(01:32):
down to the beach, and down it I hurried. The
short winter day was even and drawing to a close,
and after I trudged a quarter of a mile along
the shore, I decided i'd best return to my comfortable fireside.
The walk had at least given me a good appetite.
There was none of the usual lingering twilight of a
clear winter evening. Darkness fell so abruptly I was glad

(01:54):
I'd brought along a powerful flashlight. I had almost reached
the foot of my path up the cliff when I halted. Incredulous,
yet desiring to make sure, I turned the ray of
the flashlight on the great comber just curling to break
on the shore, and held the light steady. My breath
gaspeak in my throat. Such a thing as I thought

(02:17):
I'd see couldn't be yet it was. I started to
run to the rescue and could not move a foot.
A power stronger than my own will held me immoveable.
I could only watched spellbound, and even as I stared
at that gigantic comber gently subsided, depositing its precious living

(02:37):
burden on the sands, as softly as any nurse laying
a babe into a cradle, waist deep in a smother
of foam. She stood for a brief second, then calmly
waded ashore and walked with free swinging strides, straight up
the beam of my flashlight to where I stood. Regardless
of the hellish din and turmoil of the tempest, I thrilled,

(02:58):
old as I am at the per loveliness of this
most amazing specimen of flotsam ever a raging sea cast
ashore within memory of man, never a shred of clothing,
master matchless body. Yet her flesh glowed rosy white, when
by all natural laws it should have been blue foam

(03:18):
from the icy chill of wintry seas well. I exclaimed,
where did you come from? Are you real? Am? I?
Seeing that which is not? I am real, replied a clear,
silvery voice, And I came from out there. An exquisitely
molded arm flung a gesture towards the raging ocean. The

(03:40):
ship I was on was sinking, so I stripped off
my garb, flung myself on RAN's bosom and Raan's horses
gave me a most magnificent ride. But well for you
that you stood still as I bade you. Why I
walked ashore. Ran is an angry god and seldom well
disposed towards mortals. Ran the sea, god of the old

(04:04):
Norse vikings. A strange woman was this who talked of
Ran and his horses, the white made waves of old ocean.
But then I bethought me of her naked state and
that unholy tempest. Surely you must be Rand's daughter. I
said that Reef is ten miles off land. Come, I
have a house near by and comforts. You cannot stand here,

(04:27):
Lead and I will follow. She replied simply. She went
up that path with greater ease than eye, and walked
companionably beside me from path top to house, Although she
made no talk. Oddly, I felt that she was reading me,
and that was she read gave her comfort. When I
opened the door, it seemed as if she held back
for merest moment. Enter I begged her a bit, tessey,

(04:50):
I should think you'd had enough of this weather by now.
She bowed her head with a natural stateliness, which convinced
me that she was no common person, I murmured, something
too lo for me to catch, but the accent sat
a distinct Scandinavian trend. What did you say, I queried,
for I suppose she'd spoken to me. I invoked the
favor of the old gods on the hospitable of heart

(05:13):
and on the sheltering roof tree, she replied. Then she
crossed my threshold. But she reached out her arm and
rested her shapely white hand lightly yet firmly on my
left form. As she stepped within. She went direct to
the big stove, which was glowing dull red, and stood there, smiling, slightly, calm, serene,
while ignoring her nakedness, obviously enjoying the warmth, and now

(05:37):
by a single shiver, betraying that she had any chill
as result of exposure. I think you need this, I said,
proffering a glass of brandy. There's time enough for exchanging
names and giving explanations later, I added, but right now,
I'll try and find something for you to put on.
I have no women's things in the house as I
live alone, but we'll do the best I can't. I

(06:00):
passed into my bedroom laid out a suit of pajamas
and a heavily quilted bathrobe, and returned to the living room,
where she stood. You are a most disconcertingly beautiful young woman,
I stated bluntly, which you know quite well without being told.
But doubtless you will feel more at ease if you
go in there and down some things I've laid out

(06:21):
for you. When you come out, I'll get some supper ready.
She was back instantly, still unclad. I stared wonderingly. Those
things did not fit. She shrugged, and that heavy robe
in this warm house. But I began but this, she smiled,
catching up a crimson silk spread embroidered in gold, which
covered a sand of wood table I brought from the

(06:44):
Orient many years before. A couple of swift motions, and
the gorgeous they became a wondrous robe, adorning her lovely figure,
clinging in some subtle manner, hinting at the flawless blundor
of her incomparable body, A long narrow scarf of black silk,
where upon twisted a silver dragon was whipped from its
place on a shelf and transpose into a sash from

(07:06):
her swelling breast to her sloping hips, bringing out more
fully every exquisite curve of her slender waist and torso,
and she smiled again. Now she laughed softly. Am I
still a picture for your eyes? I hope so? For
you have befriended me this night, I who sorely need
a friend, and it is such a little thing I
can do making myself pleasing in your sight, and because

(07:28):
you have helpen me. I stared at the archaic form
she used. And will continue to aid and befriend, for
so my spirit tells me. I will love you, always,
love you as Ragnar wave flame, love Charle Wolf, Redbrand,
as a younger sister or dutiful niece. Yet I've heard,

(07:49):
as told, I interrupted, deliberately, speaking Swedish and watching keenly
to see effect that the love given by the foam
born sea witch brought old Earl Wolf of the Red Sword,
but little luck, and that not of a sort desired
by most men, that is ill, said, She retorted. His
fate was from the Norns, as is the fate of

(08:10):
all not hers, the fault of his doom. And when
his curls within the hour captured his three slayers, she
took red vengeance with her own fuam white hands, She
flayed them alive and covered their twitching bodies with salt. Ere.
She placed the old Jarl in his long ship and
set at a fire. As she sailed with that old

(08:31):
man on his last seafaring, steering his blazing dragonship out
of the stead, singing of his great deeds in life,
that the heroes in Valhalla might know who honored them
by his coming. She paused, her superb bosom, heaving tumultuously. Then,
with a visible effort, she calmed herself, but you speak

(08:52):
my tongue and know the old tales of the Skalds,
Are you, then, a sweet I speak the tongue and
the old tails of the Skalds, the ancient minstrels I
learned from my grandmother, who was of your race, of
my race? Her tone, how the curious inflection. Ah, yes,
all women are of one race. Perhaps, But I spoke

(09:13):
of supper, I said, moving toward the kitchen. But no,
she barred my progress with one of her lovely hands,
laid flat against my chest. It is not meat and fitting,
jarle Wolf, that you should cook for me like any
common housecarl. Rather, let your niece Heldra prepare for your repast, Haldra.

(09:34):
That then is your name, Haldra Helstrom, and your loving niece.
She nodded. But why call me Jarl Wolf, I demanded,
curious to understand she had bestowed the name seriously rather
than in playful banter. Jarrow Wolf, you were in a
former life, she asserted flatly. I knew you on the

(09:54):
shore even before Rance's horse stood me on my feet.
Surely then you must be Ragnar wave Flame born again,
I countered. How may that be? She retorted, Ragnar wave
Flame never died, And surely I do not look that
old the sea born which returned to the sea. Case
whence she came when the dragon ship burned out? But

(10:17):
ask me not of myself now yet one thing more,
I will say, the warp and wolf of the strange
pattern wherein we both are depicted, was woven of the
Norn's ear the world began. We have met before, we
meet again here, and now we shall meet yet again.
But how and when and where? I may not say

(10:39):
of a truth? You are, faye, I muttered, At times
I am, she assented. Then her wondrous sapphire eyes gleamed
softly into my own hard gray eyes. Her smile was tender, wistful, womanly,
and my doubts were dissipated like wisps of smoke. Yet
I shook an admonitory forefinger at her, which at least

(11:01):
I know you to be, I said, in marked harshness,
casting glamor on an old man. No need for witchery,
she laughed. All women possessed that power during the repast
she spread before me. I told her that, regardless of
who I might have been in a dim and remote
pass of which I had no memory, in this present life,

(11:23):
I was playing John Craig, retired Professor of Anthropology, ethnology
and Archaeology, and living on a very modest income. I
explained that while I personally admired her, and she was
welcome to remain in my home forever, yet in the
village near by were curious minds and gossiping tongues and
evil thoughts of plenty, And if I were to tell

(11:44):
the truth of her arrival, but I have nowhere to go,
and none save you to befriend me. All I loved
or owned is out there again, she indicated, the general
direction of the reef. And you say that I may
remain here indefinitely. I will be known as your niece, Heldra. No. Surely,

(12:05):
considering the difference in our agent appearance, there can be
no slander. Her eyes said a thousand things no words
could convey. There was eagerness, sadness, and a strange tenderness.
I came to an abrupt decision, After all, whose business
was it? I am alone in the world as you are,
I said gravely, as my niece, Heldra, you shall remain.

(12:28):
And if you will write out a list of a
woman's total requirements in wearing apparel, I will send away
as soon as possible and have them shipped here in haste.
I am old as all can see, and I do
not think any sensible persons will suspect aught untoward in
your making your home with me. And I will think
of a plausible story which will satisfy the minds of fools,

(12:51):
without telling in reality anything. Our repass ended, We arose
from the table and returned to the living room. I
filled and lighted a pipe, a three stem water pipe,
and held myself in my arm chair. She helped herself
to cigarette from a box on the table, then stretched
her long, slender body at full length in my divan

(13:13):
before relaxation of comfort. I told her enough of myself
and my forebears to insure her being able to carry
out the fiction of being my niece. And in return
I learned mighty little about her, But what she did
tell me was sufficient. I never was unduly curious about
other people's business. Unexpectedly and most impolitely, I yawned, Yet

(13:36):
it was natural enough, and it struck me that she
needed a rest, if any one ever did. But before
I could speak, she forestalled me. With a single graceful movement.
She rose from her reclining posture and came and stood
before me with an easy arm's reach. Two swift motions
and a superb body flashed rosy white, as new as
when she waded ashore. The crimson silken spreadsheen, worn as

(13:59):
reagally as any robe, was laid at my feet. With
a single gesture, the black scarf went across my knees,
and the glorious creature was kneeling before me in an
attitude of absolute humility. Before I could remonstrate or bitter arise,
your silvery voice rang softly, solemnly, like a muted trumpet.
Thus naked and with empty hands out of the wintry seas,

(14:21):
in a twilight, gray and cold, on a night of storm.
I came, and you lighted a beacon from my tired eyes,
that I might see my way ashore. You led me
up the cliff into your hospitable hearth, and in your
kindly heart, yet already giving me the homeless a home,
and now kneeling naked before you, as I came, I
placed my hands between your hands. Thus, and all that

(14:45):
I am in such service as I can render, are
yours hand fasted. I stared, all not incredulous, an effect
in the old Norse manner. She was declaring herself, to
all intents and purposes, my slave. But her silvery voice
went on, And now I rise and cover myself again

(15:05):
by the mantle of your bounty, that you may know me,
indeed your niece, as gar Wolf, you Ragnar waife flame. Truly,
I gasped in amazement when I could catch my breath.
You are a strange mixture of the ancient days in
this modern period. I have known you but for a
few hours. Yet I feel toward you as that old

(15:26):
Garwl must have felt toward that other sea witch. Unless
indeed you and she are one almost, she replied, a
trifle somberly. At least she was my ancestress, Then she
added swiftly, do not misunderstand leam into the old garl.
She never was. But later, after he went to Valhalla

(15:50):
and the Seagirt Isle where she dwelt, she made it
with a young Viking whom Ran had cast ashore, sorely
wounded and insensible. She nursed him back to life for
sake of his beauty, and he made love to her.
But he soon tired of her and her witch ways. Wherefore,
in brash she gave him back to Ran, and he
was seen no more. Of that Maiding was born a daughter,

(16:12):
also given to Ran, who pitied her and bore her
to an old man and his wife, whose steadying was
nigh to the mouth of a fjord, and they, being childless,
called her Ran hilled and reared her as their daughter.
In course of time she wed and bore three tall
sons and a daughter that was long and long ago.

(16:36):
Yet I have dived into Ragnar's hidden sea cave and
talked with Ragnar web Flame face to face. All one
night I lay in her arms, and in the dawning
she breathed her breath on my brow, lips and bosom,
and all that following day she talked, and I listened,
and much I learned of the wisdom that an elder

(16:56):
world termed witchcraft. From moments she lost into silence. Then
she leaned forward, laid her shapely cool hands on my temples,
and kissed me on my furrowed old forehead, very solemnly,
yet with ineffable gentleness. And now she murmured, ask me
never again, not concerning myself, I pray you, for I

(17:21):
have told all I may, and further questioning will drive
me back to the sea. And I would not have
that happen. Yet, well, out another word, she turned, flung
herself at full length again, ivan like any tired child,
went instantly to sleep. Decidedly, I thought this niece of
mine was not as our other women. And later I

(17:42):
found that she possessed certain abilities it is well for
the world that few, indeed can wield. She gave me
another proof of that belief by demonstrating her unholy powers
on the night of the next full moon after her arrival.
It was a custom of an evening to array herself
that she had done on her first night, in crimson

(18:03):
robe and black sash and nought else, despite the fact
that her wardrobe, which I had ordered from the great
city forty miles away, contained all any woman's heart could
wish for. But I admit I enjoyed seeing her in
that semi barbaric attire. At times she would sit on
the arm of my chair, offer with her smooth, cool
cheek led against my rough old face, and her exquisitely

(18:25):
modeled arm curved about my leathery old neck. The first
time she had done that, I had demanded, ironically, which
are you making love to me? But her sighing was
for reply, had disarmed me, and likewise had brought a
lump into my throat. Nay, not that old jarle from
of old. But I never knew a father, nor I

(18:48):
a fair daughter. I choked, And thereafter, when that mood
was upon her, I indulged in no more ironies, and
we'd sit for hours, neither speaking, engrosseden thoughts for which
there are no words. But on the night where off
I write, she pressed her scarred lips to my cheek,
and I asked, jestingly, is there something you want heldra?

(19:09):
There is? She replied gravely, well, you get a boat,
one with oars and a sail, but no engine. Ran
hates those. And surely you do not want it now tonight,
do you? Yes, if you will be so kind to me,
you must have a very good reason, or you not ask.
I said, I'll go and get a centerboard door in

(19:32):
bring it to the beach at the foot of the
cliff path. It's clear weather and the sea is calm,
but with a moderate breeze blowing. Yet it is colder
on the water than you imagine, so you'd best bundle
up warmly. You will hasten, she implored, anxiously. Surely, I nodded.
I went out and down to the wharves of the village,

(19:53):
where I kept the boat, I said I'd get But
when I beached the door yet at the foot of
the path, I stared, swearing softly on the in my
breath that one stitch of apparel did the witch have on,
save the crimson silk robe and black sash she'd worn
when I left the cottage. Do you want to freeze?
I was provoked. I admit, the very sight of you

(20:14):
dressed like that gives me the shivers. Neither you nor
I will be cold this night, She laughed, isn't it glorious?
And this is a good boat you brought. Please let
me sail in and ask me no questions. She took
the tiller, hauled in the sheet, The sail filled, and
she began singing, with a queer wild strain running through

(20:35):
her song. That door fairly few, and I swear there
was not enough wind to drive us at such speed.
Finally I saw something I didn't admire. No one does
who dwells on that part of the coast. Are you crazy, girl,
I demanded, sharply. That reef is dead ahead. Can't you
see the breakers? Why so it is the reef? And

(20:57):
am I to be affrightened by a few puny breakers? Nay,
it is in the heart of those breakers that I
wish to be. But you have you, fear old jarle Wolf.
I suspected from her tone that the witch was laughing
at me, so I subsided, but fairly wished that I
had not been so indulgent of her whim from moonlight
sail on a cold winter's night. Then we hit those breakers,

(21:21):
or rather we didn't, for they seemed to part as
the racing dories sped into them, making a smooth, clear
lane of silvery glinting water, over which we glided as
easily as if on a calm inland mill pond. Dropped
the sail and unstepped the mouse. She called, Suddenly. I
was beyond argument and obeyed dumbly, like any port carl

(21:41):
the olden days. Now take to the oars, she directed,
And hold the boat just hereabouts for a while. And
even as I slid the oars into the oarlocks, she
made that swift movement of hers and stood nude, the
loveliest sight the grim ship shattering, life destroying reef had
ever beheld. Suddenly she flung up both shapely white arms

(22:03):
with a shrill, piercing cry thrice repeated. Then without a word,
she went overside in a long, clean dive, with never
a splash to show where she'd hit the water. Hold
the boat about here for a while, She'd bit me.
All I'd ever loved in this world was somewhere down below,
and the hellish cross currents of that icy water. I'd

(22:24):
hold the boat there if need were in the teeth
of a worse tempest than reached that night she came
to me. She'd find me waiting and if she never
came up, I'd hold that boat there till its planks wrought,
and I joined her in the frigid depths. It seemed
an eternity, and I know that it was an ear
Only an hour. A glimmer of white appeared beneath the surface.

(22:48):
Then her shapely arm emerged, and her hand grasped the gunwale.
Her regal head broke water. She blew like a porpoise.
Then she laughed in clear ringing triumph, You old fearling,
she cried in her archaic norse. Did I seem long gone?
The boat has not moved a foot from where I dove. Come.
Bear a hand and lift my burden. It is heavy,

(23:10):
and I'm near spent. There are handles by which to
grasp it. The burden proved to be a greenish metal
confer brons I judged, which estimated to measure some twenty
inches long by twelve wide, and nine inches deep. And
how she rose to the surface waited with that passes
my understanding. But how she knew it was down there
passes my comprehension too, But then helda halstrom. Herself was

(23:35):
an enigma. She rewrapped herself in her flimsy silken robe
of crimson, and smiled happily when she should have been
shivering almost to pieces. If you'll ship the mast and
spread the sail again, Uncle John, she said, surprisingly matter
of fact. Now that her errand was successfully accomplished, we'll
go home. I'd like a glass of brandy to smoke myself,

(23:56):
and I read in your mind that such is your
chief desire at present. Back at the cottage, again, uncomfortable
once more held her requested me to bear the confer
into her room, which I did for over an hour.
She remained in there, then returned to the living room,
where I sat and I stared at the picture she presented.
If she had always been beautiful not, she was surprisingly glorious.

(24:18):
Instead of the usual crimson robe, her lovely body was
sheathed and a sleeveless sheer, tight fitting silken clip cut
at the throat in a long, sloping v, reaching nearly
to her waist. The garment was pale as sea green,
so flimsy in texture that it might as well have
been compounded of mingled moon mist and cobwebs. Her rosy

(24:39):
pearl flush gleamed through the fabric with a luring shimmer,
which thrilled a new my jaded old senses at the
artistic wonder of her. A gold collar, gem studded, unmistakably
of ancient Egyptian workmanship, was resting on her superb shoulders,
loot of some Viking foray into the far southlands. Doubtless.

(25:00):
A broad girdle of gold plates squared and also gem studded,
was about her sloping hips, and was clasped in front
by a broader plate with a sudden emblem and jeweled sets,
from which plates or buckles it fell in two broad
bands nearly to her white slender feet, broad torques of
gold on upper arms and about her wrist, and an

(25:23):
intricately wrought golden tierra with discs of engraved gold, pendant
by chains and hanging over her ears, set out for
loveliness as never before. Even her red gold hair, braided
in two thick ropes, falling over her breast to below
her waist, were clasped by gem set brooches of gold
Ragnar wave flames gift to me o jarl Wolf, She breathed, softly,

(25:47):
do you like your niece? Thus arrayed Norse princesses out
of an older day or Norse witch from an even
older and wickeder period of the world, whichever this held.
Halstrom was of one thing. I was certain no lovelier
woman ever lived than the superb being who styled herself
my niece. And so I told her, and was amply

(26:09):
rewarded by the radiance of her smile and the ecstatic
kiss she implanted on my cheek. Despite her splendid array,
she perched on the arm of my chair and began
toying with my left hand. Presently she lifted it to
the level of my eyes, laughing softly. I'd felt nothing
yet she slipped a broad, tarnished silver ring of antique

(26:30):
design on my third finger. It was yours in the
ancient day's O garl Wolf, she whispered, in her favorite tongue,
the archaic form of the Norse language. Yours again is
the ancient ring. Now Ragnar herself carved the mystic's wounds
upon it. Shall I read them, o jarle, or will you?

(26:50):
They are beyond my skill? I confessed. The words are
in the secret language that only the rim Cannars understood.
Nor was it well for others and witches and warlocks
to seek to understand them. Ragnard took that ring from
jarle Wolf's finger. She set fire to the dragon ship.
Helder murmured, had those ruins been on the ring when

(27:12):
your foes set upon you, they not you, but have
perished in the sword play jar red sword. But the
seaborne witch knew that you would weary of a hal
and a day to come, and would return to this
world of strife and slaying, of loss, and grief, of hate,
and the glutting of vengeance. And knowing she carved the
runes that in time the charm ring would return to

(27:34):
its proper owner. It is her express command that I
read them to you, for knowing the ruins never shall
water down, or fire, burn, nor sword or spuer axe
ever wound you. So be it that in time of
danger you speak the weird words. And for my sake,
you who are my uncle John to all the rest

(27:56):
of the world, but to me, are dearer than old
jar Wolf was to Ragon a sea which I implore
you to learn the runic charm and use it of
ever danger menaces. Promise me, Promise me, I say. Her
silvery voice was vibrant with fierce intensity. She caught my
right hand and pressed it against her palpatin body, just

(28:19):
beneath her proudly swelling left breast. Promise, she reiterated, I
beg your promise, with your right hand on my heart.
I adjure you to learn the room. No fool like
an old fool, I grumbled, adding a trifle maliciously, particularly
when in the hands of a lovely woman. But such
a fuss you make over a few words about landish gibberish.

(28:40):
Read me the room, then, which maid, I'd learn worse
words than those to please you, and set your mind
at rest. The scarlet lips close to my ear with
bated breath, and in a tone solo I could barely
catch her carefully enunciated syllables. She whispered the words, and
although her whisper was softer than the sighing of gentless

(29:01):
summer breeze, the tones rang on my inner hearing like
strokes of a great war hammer smiting on a shield
of bronze. There was no need to repeat them, either
on her part or mind. There was no likelihood of
my ever forgetting that runic charm. I could not even
if I would, surely, I muttered, you are an adept

(29:23):
in the ancient magic well for me that you love me,
else your witcheries might most amazingly, she laughed, a clear,
ringing merriment with no trace of the mystic about it.
Let me show you something, a game, a play, one
that will amuse me and entertain you. She fairly danced
across the room and into her own room, emerging with

(29:45):
an antique mirror of some burnish silver like metal. This
she held out to me. I grasped it by its handle,
obediently enough, humoring this new whim, Look into it and
say if it is a good mirror, She bade, her
sapphire eyes a dance with elf and mirth. I looked.
All I could see was my same old face, tanned

(30:06):
and winkled, which I daily saw whenever I shaved her
comb my hair. And I told her so. She perched
again on the arm of my chair, laid her cheek
against mine, and curved her cool arm about my neck.
Now look again again, the mirror told truth. I saw
my face the same as ever in hers, as well,
like a rose beside a granite boulder. As I assured her,

(30:29):
you do, but see yourself as you think of yourself,
she murmured softly, and me you, behold as you believe
me to be. She brought her lips close to the
mirror and breathed upon its surface with her warm breath.
It clouded over, then cleared. Her voice came more murmurous
than before, but with a definite note of sadness. Once more, look,

(30:53):
behold yourself as I see you always, and behold me
as I know myself to be. And when I am
gone beyond your ken, remember the Witch made Haldra as
one woman who loved you so truly that she showed
you herself as she actually was. The man's face was

(31:13):
still my own, but mine as it was in the
days of my early manhood. Ear life's thunders had graven
their scars on brown cheeks and lips, and before the
snows of many winters had whitened my hair. Her features
were no less beautiful. But in her reflected eyes I
saw ages and ages of life, and bitter experience, and

(31:34):
terrible wisdom that was far more wicked than holy. And
it came to me with conviction, irrefutable, that besides this
young appearing girl, maid or woman, all my years were
but as the span of appealing Babe compared to the
ageless age of an immortal that at least is no glamor.

(31:56):
Her voice sighed drearily heavy, with a burden of her
own knowledge of herself. I laid my thick, heavy old
armor cross her smooth, satining white shoulders, and I turned
her head until her sapphire eyes met mine. Fairly, very gently,
I kissed her on the brow. Haldr Halstrom, I said,

(32:17):
and my voice sounded husky emotion. You may be all
you have just shown me, or worse, you may be
Ragnar wave Flame herself, the sea witch who never dies.
You may even be that I sometimes suspect the Empress
of Hell come amongst mortals for no good purpose. But
be you what you may, old or young, maid or woman,

(32:41):
good or evil? Which spirit angel or she devil? Such
as you are? You are you and I am I,
And for some weird reason we seem to love each
other in our own way. So let there be an
end to what you are or have been, or who
I was in other lives, and content ourselves with what

(33:02):
is were those bright litters in her sapphire eyes, teardrops
ready to fall, if so was not sure, for with
a cry like that of a lost soul, was found sanctuary.
She buried her face on my shoulder. After a long silence,
she slipped from the arm of my chair, and wordlessly,
her face averted. She passed into a room. After an hour,

(33:24):
so I went to my own room, but I could
not sleep. Time passed, and I dwelt in a fool's paradise,
dreaming that it would last forever. The summer colony began
to arrive. There were cottages all along the shore, but
there were likewise big estates whose owners were rated as
some bodies, to put it mildly, a governor of a

(33:46):
great sovereign state, an ex president of our nation, several
foreign diplomats, and some of their legation attaches. But why
enumerate when one man only concerns this narrative. Michael Comminimus, tall,
slightly dapper, inclined to swarthiness, with black eyes undercrests and
curved black eyebrows, with supercilious, smiling lips, a trifle too

(34:11):
red for a man, with swave of old world manners,
and most amazingly conceded depinion of himself as a lady charmer.
It was not his first summer in our midst and
although when he was in Washington at his legation. I
never gave him a thought. When I saw his two
handsome face on the beach, I felt a trifle sick.

(34:31):
I knew positively at the minute he set eyes on Haldra.
Of course, I knew too that my witch niece could
take care of herself. But just the same I sensed
the annoys and perhaps tragedy. Well. I was in no
wise mistaken. Haldra and I were just about to shove
off at my door for a sale. It was her
chief delight and mind too, for that matter. Casually, a

(34:54):
long strolled Michael Communists, twirling a slender stick, caressing a
slender black thread. He styled a mustache, smiling his approbation
of himself. I'd seen that variety of casual approach before,
as our flippant young modern say, it was old stuff.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the
Don Juan smirk faded when his calculating of praising eyes

(35:16):
met her sapphire orbs, now shining like the never melting
polar eyes. An expression of bewilderment spread over his features.
His forthy skin went a sickly greenish bronze voluntarily, he
crossed himself and passed on. The man was afraid, actually
fear struck. Ever seen him before, heldra I queried. He

(35:39):
looked at you as if the devil would be a
pleasanter sight. That's one man who failed to fall for
your vivid beauty. You see which who is he? She
asked in a peculiar tone. I liked his looks even
less than he liked mines. Michael Comnenus I informed her,
and was about to give her his pedigreeas we local

(36:01):
people knew him, but was interrupted by her violently explosive Who,
Michael Comnenus I stated, with a trifle testily, and you
needn't shout what's he done? But again she interrupted speaking.
Hearchay ignores Ho Varrang's chief of the guard, Imperial Thorphin

(36:23):
Arfids then, and ye who followed them, good room, randvar
Haiken Smid, and all ye varranges and Valhalla. Give ear,
and ye o fiends, which is warlocks, trolls, vampires and
all the dark gods who dwell in house halls where
the eternal frozen fires blaze without heat. Give ear to

(36:45):
my voice and cherish my words, for I give you
out Joy's tidings. He lives after all these long centuries,
Michael Comnenus dwells again on the bosom of fair earth,
in a body of flesh and blood and bone, of
nerve and tissue and muscle. He lives. He lives, I say,

(37:06):
and I have found him. Oh how I know why
the nons who rule all the fate set me to
this place. And I shall not fail. Ye heroes, content,
ye one, and all I shall not fail? Was this
the gorgeous beauty I'd learned to love for her gentleness?
Hers was the face of a furious female demon for
a moment, But then her normal expression returned, and she

(37:30):
sighed heavily. Heed me, not Uncle John, she said drearily.
I did, but recall an ancient tale of foul treachery
perpetrated on sundry Norsemen and the Orangian guard of a
Byzantine emperor ages Agone. The knitter ring worse than Coward,
who wrought the bane of some thirty odd vikings, was

(37:51):
a Caminus, nephew to the Emperor Alexander Caminus. I live
too much in memories of the past, I fear, and
for the moment somewhat forgot myself in the hate. All
good Norse maids should hold towards any who bear the
accursed name of the Comeni. Still, even as I know
you to be old Jarle wolf Redbrand returned to this

(38:12):
world through the gateway of birth, it would be nothing
surprising if this spawn of the comedy were, in truth
that same Michael Camenis, of whom the tale is told.
The belief is reincarnation is age old, I said reflectively,
and in several parts of the world, it is a
fundamental tenet of religion. If there be truth in the idea,

(38:34):
there is, as you say, nothing surprising if anybody now
living should have been anybody else in some former life.
And that sample of the comedy appears quite capable of
any treachery that my serve a purpose at the moment.
But Haldra I implored her, struck by sudden intuition, I

(38:55):
beg of you not to indulge in any of your
devilry witcheries or Norse magic. If this Michael is that
other Michael, yet that was long ago, and if he
has not already atoned for his sin, you may very
well be sure that somewhere sometime, somehow he will atone,
so do not worry your regal head about him. Spoken

(39:18):
like a right saga man, she smiled as I finished
my brief homily, I thank you for your words of wisdom,
and now dar a wolf redbrand. I know you to
be fair as well as I am. Surely he will
atone for his sin. Oh, a most comforting thought. So
let us think no more about the matter. I glanced

(39:40):
sharply at her. Her two instant acquiescence was suspicious, but
her sapphire eyes met mine fairly, smiling, sending, as always
a warm glow of content me through me. So I
accepted her assurances as is salent, and gave myself up
to the enjoyment of the sale and the sound of
Wor's silvery voice as she sang an old English love
ballad I'd known as a young man, and under the

(40:03):
spell of her magnetic personality. Gradually the episode of Michael
Cameniz faded into nothingness for a while. A couple of
days later, just about dark, Heldre came down the stairs
from the attic where she'd been rummaging. In her hand.
She carried an old violin case. I looked and grinned ruefully.
You are a bad old uncle John, she scolded. Why

(40:26):
did you not tell me you played the fiddle, even
as Jarle Wolf played one in his time? Think of
all the sweet music you might have made in the
past winter nights, And think of the dances I might
have danced for your delight while you played, even as
Ragnar danced for old Jarl. But I did not tell
you that I played a fiddle, because I don't, I

(40:49):
stated flatly. That is momentum of an absurd ambition I
once cherished, but which died a morning. I tried to
learn the thing, but the noises I extracted were so
abominable that I quit before I fairly got started. You
are teasing, she retorted, her eyes sparkling with mischief. But
I am not to be put off this easily. Tonight

(41:10):
you will play, and I will dance such a dance
as you have never beheld, even when you were Jarl Wolf.
If I tried to play that thing, I showed her, seriously,
you will have a time dancing to my discords. You
gorgeous tease. We'll see, she nodded. But even as my

(41:31):
magic revealed to me the whereabouts of the fiddle. So
my spirit tells me that you play splendidly. Your magic
may be all right, but your spirit has certainly misinformed you.
I growled. My spirit has never yet lied to me,
nor has it done so this time. Her tone was grave.
Yet therein was a lurking mockery, and I became a

(41:51):
trifle provoked. All right, I assented, grouchly. Whenever you feel
like hearing me play, I'll do it, and you'll never
want to listen to such noises again. She went into
a room, laughing sweetly, and took the fiddle with her.
After supper, she said nothing about me playing that old fiddle,
and I fatuously thought she let the matter drop. But

(42:13):
about ten o'clock she went to a room without a word.
She emerged after a bit wearing not but a sheer, loose,
palest blue silk robe, held at the waist only by
a tiny jeweled gold filigree glasp. Loose as the robe was,
it clung lovingly to every curve, as if caressing the
beauteous statuesque body. It could not and would not conceal.

(42:36):
She was totally avoid of all ornament save that tiny
brooch and her wondrous fiery gold hair was wholly unconfined,
falling below her waist in a cascade of shimmering sunset hues,
against which her rose petal body gleamed through the filmy,
gossamer like robe. Again she sat and talked for a while,

(42:58):
but along to midnight she broke short signs with I'll
be back in a minute. I wished to prepare for
my dancing. From her room, she brought four antique bronze
lamps and a strangely shaped urn of oil. She filled
the lamps and placed one at each corner of the
living room on the floor. Back into a room she
went and out again with an octagonal shaped stone, flat

(43:21):
on both sides, about an inch thick and some four
inches across. This she placed on the low tabaret, whereupon
I usually kept my pipe. She propped up the slab
of stone as if placing a mirror, which I decided
it couldn't very well be, as it did not even
reflect light, but seemed as dull as a slab of slate.

(43:42):
As a final touch, she brought out that confounded old fiddle,
and on her scarlet lips of the smile that a
seraph might have envid so innocent and devoid of guile,
it seemed. What's this, I demanded, as if I didn't
know your little fiddle with which you will make for
your heldress such rapturous music, she smiled caressingly. M I grunted,

(44:05):
And what are those lamps for in that ugly slab
of black rock? That black slap is a helstone, having
the property of reflecting whatever is directly before it if
illuminated by those four lamps placed at certain angles, and
later it will go off those same reflections, even as
a stuff called luminous calcium sulfide absorbs light rays until

(44:28):
supercharge and then emits them when properly exposed. So you see,
we can preserve the picture of my dance heldra, I demanded, sharply,
are you up to some deviolitionness? All this looks amazingly
like the stage setting for witchworking. I have sung for
you on different nights, she replied, in gentlest reproach, And

(44:52):
I've told old tales that I've attired myself again and
again for your pleasure and beholding me. I have all
these things ever bewitched you or harmed anyone? How then,
can the fact of my dancing from my own satisfaction
before the mystic helstone do any harm, as ever she
won her sapphire orbs did queer things to me whenever

(45:15):
they looked into my own grave, faded old eyes, trusting
me to understand and approve whatever she did, simply because
she was she, and I was. I all right, I said,
but you're making a fool of me, insisting that I
play this old fiddle. Well, I'll teach you a lesson.
And as I drew the bow over the strings with

(45:36):
the most appalling wail, and with the unexpected swiftness of
a steel trap closing on its victim, icy fingers locked
about my wrist, and I knew very definitely that another
an alien personality was guiding my arm and fingers. But
there came, likewise a swift certitude that if I behaved,
no harm would ensue to me at least, So I

(45:59):
let the thing have its way and listen to much
music as I had not believed could be played on
any instrument devised by a mortal. I wish that I
could describe that music, but I do not know the
right words. I doubt if they had been invented. It
was wild, barbaric, savage, But likewise it was alluring, seductive,
seething away all inhibitions. Too much of it would have

(46:21):
corrupted the angels in heaven. I was almost in a stupor, intoxicated,
like in a drug dream, spell bound, unable to break
from the thraldom hold on my will, drowning in rapture,
well nigh unbearable. Helda suddenly blew out the big kerosene
lamp standing on the table, leaving a soul illumination the

(46:43):
rays from those four bronze lights standing in the corners.
Her superb body moved gracefully, slowly at first, then faster,
into the intricate figure and pattern of a dance that
was old when the world was young. With inward heart,
I knew the whine wherefore of that entire ceremonial, knew
I'd been becozened and bejaped, yet knew likewise that it

(47:07):
was too late for interference. I could not even speak.
I could but watch whilst some personality ailing to my
body played manningly on my fiddle, and the niece I
loved danced a dance deliberately plans to seduce a man
who hated and feared to dance her, and for what
devilish purpose I could well guess. I saw the light

(47:30):
rays converge on her alluring statuesque body, saw them apparently
pass through her and impinge on the surface of that black,
sullen octagonal helstone, and be greedily swallowed up until the
dark black surface glowed like a rare black Australian opal. Ever,
the dancing of the witch Girl grew more leuring, more seductive,

(47:52):
more abandoned, and I knew why Heldra was thus shamefully,
shamelessly rather conducting. She had read Michael Kaminis's his character
very accurately, knew that his soul had recognized her hatred
for him and feared her, and that her one chance
to get him in her clutches lay in inflaming his senses.

(48:14):
And she had even told me the properties of that
most damnable helstone. Wilder and faster came the music, and
swifter and still more alluring grew the rhythmic response at
Halder's lovely body swayed and spun and swooped and postured,
until ultimately her waving arms brought her fluttering hands, in

(48:35):
the briefest of touches into contact with a tiny brooch
at her waist, and the filming room was swept away
in a single gesture that was faithfully recorded on the
sullen surface of the helstone. Instantly, the dancer stopped, as
if petrified, her arms outstretched as an invitation. Her regal
head thrown back, showed a long, smooth white column of

(48:58):
her throat. Her clear half closed sapphire blue eyes agleam
with subtle challenge. The uncanny music died in a single
signed sobbing whisper, poisoned sweet. The clutching icy fingers were
gone from my wrist. My first coherent thought was, had
that spell been directed at me, the old dedage Annette

(49:21):
old fools would have been swiftly justified. And I knew
that to all intents and purposes, Michael Camenis was sunk
just the same. I was furious Heldra had gone too far,
and I told her so flatly. I pointed, on terms unistakable,
that what she planned was murder or worse, and that

(49:45):
this was modern America, where in witchcraft had neither place
nor sanction, and that it be no accessory to any
such devilishness as she was contriving. Oh, I made myself
and my meaning plain as she stood and looked at
me with a most injured expression. She made me feel
as if I'd wantedly struck a child across the face

(50:07):
in the midst of its innocent aversions. I don't actually
care if the double flies off with Michael Camenus, I
concluded wrathfully. But I won't have him murdered by you
while you're living here posing as my niece. No doubt,
it's quite possible for you to evade any legal consequences
by disappearing, But what of me an accessory? I be

(50:31):
liable to life imprisonment. At least her face lightened as
by magic, and her voice was genuinely regretful, and her
eyes was a light and sincere love. She came to
me and wrapped her white arms around my neck, murmuring
terms of affectionate consolation. Poor dear Uncle John held her,

(50:52):
was thoughtless, wicked me and I might have involved you
in serious trouble. I am ashamed, But the fate laid
upon me by the Nords is heavy, and I may
not evade it, even for you, whom I love. Tell me,
she demanded suddenly, if I should destroy the vile earthworm,
without any suspicion attaching to you or to me. Would

(51:16):
you love me as before even knowing what I had done? No,
I fairly snarled the denial. I wanted it to be emphatic.
She smiled serenely and kissed me full on my lips.
I never thought to thank a mortal for lying to me,
but now I do. Deep in your heart, I can
read your true feeling, and I am blad. But now

(51:38):
and her tone took out a sadness, most desolate, I
regret to say that on the morrow I leave you,
the lovely garments you gave me, and the trunks contain
them I take with me. As you would not wish
that I go empty handed, Nor will I insult you,
old jar wolf by talk of payment. When I am gone.

(51:59):
He would just casually to not have returned to my home.
And the local gossips will not suspect aught untoward. And
soon I shall be forgotten, and no one will suspect
or possibly connect you or me with what inevitably must
happen to that spawn of the kominy. But if this
be very sure, somewhere some time you and I shall

(52:20):
be together again. Her voice broke. She kissed me fiercely
on the lips, than tenderly on both cheeks, then lastly
with a queer reverence on my furrowed old brow. Then
she turned went straight to her room, shut the door,
and I heard the click of the key as she
locked herself in for the first time during her stay
in my house. Next morning, as she'd planned, she departed

(52:44):
on the first trained city ward. I'd given her money
enough for all her requirements, more indeed than she was
willing to take at first, declaring that she intended selling
some few of her jewels, And with the departure when
all which made life with living heavily, I dragged my

(53:04):
reluctant feet back to the empty shell of a cottage
which until then had been an earthly paradise to an
old man. And the very first thing I laid eyes
on was that a cursed helstone lying on the living
room table. I picked it up, half minded to shatter
it to fragments, but an idea seized me. I bore

(53:25):
down cellar where semi darkness prevailed, and the helstone glowed
softly with its witchlight, showing me the loveliness of her
who had departed from me and had pressed the gold
of gone to my lips, thankful that she left me
the thing as a feeble substitute for a presence. Then
I turned and went back upstairs, found an old ivory

(53:47):
box of Chinese workmanship, and placed the helstone therein very carefully,
as a thing priceless. I went to betterly that night.
There was no reason to sit up, but I could
not see. I lay there my bed, cursing the entire
list of Komeni root, trunk and branch from the first
of that ilk, whom history records to this latest scion

(54:11):
or spawn, as Haldra had termed him. Around midnight, being
still wakeful, I rose, got to helstone and sat in
the darkness, and gradually became aware that I was not alone.
Looking up, I saw her I'd lost, standing in a
witch glow of phosphorus, a light, and yet once that
it was not heldrum person but her shining double sending,

(54:35):
and that it was another her witcheries. But even this
is welcome, I thought, And then I felt her thought
expressed through the phantasmal semblance of her own gorgeous self,
and promptly strove angrily to resist her command. Much good
it did me, utterly helpless, yet fully cognizant of my actions,
but oddly assured that about me was a cloak of invisibility,

(54:58):
the glamour of the ancient al Runus. I dressed, took
the helstone and passed out into the night, straight to
the cottage of Cominus. I went pot about under the
door step and planted there the helstone. Then, still secure
in the mystic glamor, I returned to my own abode,
and no sooner had I seated myself in my chair

(55:20):
for a smoke than I realized fullity the utter devilishness
of that witch from out the wintry seas, whom I
had taken into my home and had sponsored as my
niece in the eyes of the world. Right then I
decided to go back and get that helstone and smash it,
and couldn't do it. I got sleepy so suddenly that

(55:40):
I awoke to find that it was broad daylight at
nine thirty a m. And from then on, as regularly
as twilight came, I could only stay awake so long
as I kept my thoughts away from that accursed helstone.
Wherefore I determined that the thing could stay where it
was until it rotted for all me. Then Comenus came

(56:01):
along the beach late one afternoon. He raised his hat
and his old world, curtly fashioned, and tried to make
some small talk. I grunted churlishly and ignored him. But
finally he came out bluntly with Professor Craig, I know
your opinion of me, and I admitted, to some extent justifiable.

(56:22):
I seemed to have acquired the reputation being adn Juan,
But I asked you to believe that. I bitterly regret
that now. Yet despite that reputation, I'd like to ask
you a most natural question, if I may. I nodded
a set unprepared for what was coming, yet somehow assured
it would concern heldra Nor was I at all disappointed?

(56:45):
When he fairly blurted up, when do you expect miss
Halstrom to return? If at all? I was flabbergasted. This
is the only word adequate. I glared at him in
a black fury. When I could catch my breath, I demanded,
how did even you summon up the infernal gauld to

(57:07):
ask me that? His reply finished flattening me out, Because
I love her wait, he begged, and hear me out, please,
Even a criminal has allowed that courtesy. Then, as I
nodded grudgingly, he resumed. The first time I saw her,
something deeper than me shrank away from her with repulsion.

(57:28):
Still I admired her matchless beauty, But of late, since
her departure, there is not a night I do not
see her in my mind's eye, and I know that
I love her and hope that she will return. Hence
my query, I will be frank. I even hope that
she noticed me and read my admiration without dislike. Perhaps

(57:49):
two minds can reach each other sometimes, for in variably
I see her with had thrown back, her eyes half closed,
and her arms held out, as if calling me to
come to her. And if I knew her whereabouts, I'd
most certainly go there. Would I be trifling where she
is concerned. I want to win her, if possible, as

(58:11):
my wife an emperor should be proud to call her
that very romantic, I sneered, But mister woman chaser, I
cut my eye teeth a long while before you were born,
and I'm not so easily taken in the whereabouts of
my niece are no concern of yours. So get away
from me before I lose my temper. I'll not be

(58:33):
answerable for my actions. Get he went. The expression of
my face and the rage of my eyes must have
warned him that I was in a killing humor. Well
I was, But likewise I was sick with fear. But
he just told me was sufficient to sicken me. The
helstone had gotten in its damnable work. My very soul

(58:56):
was aghast as it envisioned the inevitable consequences. An idea
obsessed me, and I needed the shades of night to
cloak my purpose. Aimlessly, I wandered from room to room
in my college, and finally drifted into the room which
had been Haldra's. Still aimlessly, I pulled open drawer. After

(59:18):
drawing the dresser, and in the lowest one I heard
a faint metallic clink. The four antique bronze lamps were there.
I shrewdly suspected she had left them there as means
of establishing contact with her should the need arise. I
examined them and found, as that hope, that they were filled.
Around ten o'clock, I placed those lamps in the four

(59:39):
corners of the living room enlighted them precisely that as
I seen Heldra do. Then I tried my talents at
making an invocation. Heldra Heldra Heldra, I called I John Gregg,
who gave you shelter at your need, Call to you now,
wheresoever ye be, come to me at my need. The

(01:00:00):
four lights went out, yet not a breath of air
stir in the room a faintly luminous glow. The witch
light ensued, and there she stood, or rather the shining double.
But I knew that anything I might say to it
would be the same as if she were there in
the flesh Haldra. I beseeched that witch lighted Simolcrum by

(01:00:20):
the love you gave me, as Ragnar loved jar wulf
red flame. I asked that you again enshrouded me with
a mantle of invisibility the glamor, and allow me to
lift that a cursed helstone from where you compelled me
to conceal it. Let me return it to you at
any place you may appoint, so I can do no

(01:00:43):
more harm. Already, that poor bewitched fool is madly in
love with you, because the radiations of that enchanted stone
have saturated him every time he put foot on the
doorstep beneath which I buried it. Haldra, grant me this
one kindness, and I will condone all since you ever
did in all your witch life. The Shining Wraith nodded slowly,

(01:01:08):
un mistakably, senting to my request, as from a far
distance I heard a faint whisper. Since it is your desire,
get to helstone and bury it yourself to the sea
cave at the foot of the great cliff guarding the
north passage into the harbor. Once you have borne it there,
its work and yours are done. And I thank you

(01:01:31):
for saying that you will condone all have ever done.
For the burden of the past as heavy, and your
words have made it easier to bear. The Shining Wraith vanished,
and I went forth into the darkness, straight to the
house where I had hidden the helstone. I betook myself,
felt under the step, found what I sought, took it

(01:01:52):
with an inward prayer of gratitude that, because of Heldra's glamour,
I had not been caught as something questionable appearance, and
started up the beach. The tide was nearly out, so
I walked rapidly, as I had some distance to go,
and the sea cave Heldra had designated could not be
injured at high tide, although once within one was safe

(01:02:15):
enough and could leave when the interest was once more exposed.
I injured the cave, believing that i'd promptly be rid
of the entire mess once and for all. But there
was no one there, and the interior of the cave
was as dark as erebus. I lit a match and
saw nothing. The match burned out, I fumbled for another.

(01:02:36):
A dazzling ray from a flashlight binded me for a moment,
then left my face and swept the cave. I hated voice,
while yet menacing, said well, Professor Craig, you may now
hand me whatever it was that you purloined from under
my doorstep. An extremely businesslike automatic pistol was aimed in
the exact direction of my solar plexus, and the speaker

(01:02:59):
was none other than Michael Camenus. Her evianly mystic glamor
had failed to work that time, and I was in
a rather nasty predicament. Then abruptly, Heldra came. She looked
like an avenging fury emerging out of nowhere, apparently and
the tables returned. S wore a dark cloak or long mantle,
draped over her head and falling to her feet. Her

(01:03:22):
right hand was outstretched of the left hand. She seized
the helstone from my grasp. She pointed one finger at
Camenus and did not even touch him. Yet, had she
smote with an ancient warhammer, the effect would have been
the same. You dog and a son of a long
line of dogs. Her icy voice rang with excoriating virulence.

(01:03:43):
Drop that silly pistol, Drop it, I say. A faint
blue flicker snapped from her extended finger. The pistol fell
from a flaccid hand. Camenus seemed totally paralyzed. Heldra's magic
held him completely enthrall them. I snapped into activity and
scooped up the gun followed me, did you, I snarled,

(01:04:05):
I'll wait, charle Wulf. Heldra's tone was frankly amused, no
need for you to do aught. Mine is the blood feud,
mine the blood right an ere I finish with you,
Michael Camenis, and ancient hate will be surfeited, and an
ancient vengeance, too long delayed will be consummated. Heldra I

(01:04:26):
began for dread seized me at the ominous quality of
her words. I will not stand for this affair going
any further. I be silent. Set yourself over there against
the wall, and watch and hear. But move not nor
speak again, lest I silence you forever. Of course, irresistible
hurled me across the cave and set me down hard

(01:04:48):
on a flat rock. I realized fully that I was
obeying her mandate. I couldn't speak, couldn't even move my eyelids.
So thoroughly had she inhibited any further interference on my part,
bringing no further attention to commenius for the moment she
crossed over to me, bent and kissed me on my lips,

(01:05:10):
her sapphire eyes, laughing into my own blazing wrathful eyes.
Poor dear, it is too bad, but you made me
do it. I wanted you to help me all the
way through this tangled coil, but you have been so
difficult to manage. Yet in some ways you have played

(01:05:30):
into my hands splendidly, Yes, even to bring the helstone
back to me. And I would not care to lose
that for a king's ransom. And I put it into
young Fool's head to be wakeful tonight, and see you
regain the helstone, and follow you, and thus walk into
my nice little trap. And now she whirled and face Comanus.

(01:05:55):
And for all that he was spellbound, in his eyes
I read fear and a vastly foreknowledge of some dreadful
fate about to be meted out to him. At her
hands she picked up the flashlight he had dropped and
extinguished it with a dry comet. We need a different
light here, the hull light from Hella's halls. And at

(01:06:15):
her word, a most peculiar light pervaded the cave, and
there was that about its luminance that actually affrighted again.
She spoke, Michael Camenus, you utterly vow worm of the earth.
You know that your doom is upon you, But as
yet you know not why O best lower than the swine. Hearken,

(01:06:36):
and remember my words, even after eternity is swallowed up
in the twilight of the gods. You are a modern
and know not that the self, the soul, is eternal, undying,
changing its body and name in every climate period. Yet
ever the same soul responsible for the deeds of its bodies.

(01:06:57):
You have even prayed of your soul and in fact
you are the property of the soul. Watch. Now, she
pointed to the cave entrance. Behold there the wisps of
sea fog gathering, and gradually will come the rising tide.
And on the curtain of that cold, swirling mist, behold
the pictures of the past, a past, centuries old, a

(01:07:19):
pass when your craven, treacherous soul sin beyond all pardon.
Look you two draw wolf redbrand, so that in all
the days remaining to you upon earth, ye may know
that his doom was just, and that heldra is but

(01:07:40):
executing merited penalty. And while the shuttles of the norns,
with the tapesture of the sin of this Camenus, I
will tell all the tale of his crimes. And by
Zantium reigned the Emperor Alexander Caminus secure his throne, guarded
by the ponderous axis and the long swords of the Varangians.

(01:08:02):
The splendid sons of the Northlands, who had gone a Viking.
Trusted and loved were the Vrangs by the Emperor, And
off he boasted of their fidelity, swearing on the cross
of Constantine. To the last man would his Varrang's perish
ere one would flinch a step from overwhelming foes, sighting
in proof their battle cry Valhalla, Valhalla, victory or Valhalla.

(01:08:26):
Into the harbor of the Golden Horn, sailed the Viking
longship the Grediir three noble brothers owned her thorfinn arvids Ven.
With them sailed their sister. Her fame as Alaruna made
prophetess and priestess, was sung throughout the Norselands. No man
so low but bore her reverence sin It was to

(01:08:48):
cast eyes of desire on any Alaruna, and the sister
of the three brothers was held especially holy. Between the
hands of the Emperor Alexander Camenus, the three brethren placed
their hands, swearing fealty for a year and a day.
Thirty fighting men their crew followed wherever the three brothers led,

(01:09:09):
and the great Emperor, hearing of their war fame from
others of the Varangian Guard, gave the brothers high place
in his esteem and held them nigh his own person.
Their sister, the Aluna maid, was treated as became a
rank and holy repute I Even in Christian Byzantium, respect
and honor were shown her by the priest of an

(01:09:30):
alien belief. But one man in Byzantium aspired more greatly
than any other Norseman or Byzantine had ever dared a camenus.
He Grand Admiral of Byzantium's war fleet, nephew to the Emperor,
enjoying to the full the confidence a love of his
imperial uncle, notorious for his profligacy, he cast his libertine

(01:09:55):
eyes on the Norse Alaruna maid, but with no thought
of making her his wife, nay twas only as his leman.
He desired her, so he plodded. The three brothers Thorfinn
Arvid's men with their full crew, and the long ship Gretier,
were ordered to see to cruise against certain pirates harassing
a portion of the Emperor's coasts. Every man of the

(01:10:19):
Gretier's crew died the death of rats poison in the
water casks. They died as no Norseman should die. Brutes
deaths unfit for Valhalla, and the company of heroes who
had passed in battle, and their splendid bodies, warmed and
distorted by pangs of the poison, were cast oversight as

(01:10:39):
prey for sharks by two creatures of this Grand Admiral,
whom he had sent with the three brothers as pilots.
Knowing the coast, they placed the drug in the casks
they flung over the dead and dying. They ran the
gretier ground and set fire to her. But his was
the command, and his the crime. And as Haldra told

(01:11:02):
the tale in a voice whose dreary tones made the
recital seem even worse, the watching Camenus and I saw
clearly depicted on the curtain of the mists, each separate
incident Heldra turned to the wildly glaring Michael. There was
but one person, and all by Zantium, who knew the truth.

(01:11:23):
She screamed, and sudden frenzy, I gave back for a
moment your power of speech, say O, fool, coward, knittering
who am I? Abruptly she tore off the somber cloak
and stood in all her loveliness, enhanced by every ornament
she once had worn for my pleasure, and beholding her

(01:11:43):
thus arrayed, a cry of unearthly terror broke from the
staring Camenus. His voice was a strangled croak as he gasped.
The aluna made Haldra, the red haired sea witch, sister
to the three brothers thorfinn arvidz ven I you fell dog,
and me you took at night after they sailed away,

(01:12:05):
And me you shut up or my cries for aid
could not be heard, And me you would have despoiled
me the Alruna maid sworn to chastity me. You jeered
at and reviled, boasting of your recent crimes against all
that the Norse folk hold most sacred. Yet I escaped
from that last dreadful dungeon, wherein you ammurred me. How

(01:12:29):
by that magic known to such as I, I called
upon the Empress of the underworld, Hella herself, and pledged
her my service in return for indefinitely continued life, until
I could repay you and avenge the heroes denied the
joys of Valhalla by you. And now come swiftly the

(01:12:49):
doom I have planned for you, You who now remember
Heldra spoke truly swiftly. It came. Sitting where I was,
I saw a plainly a great dragon ship with round
shields displayed along her gunwales, with a big square sail
of crimson embroidered in gold, with long oars dipping and

(01:13:10):
lifting in unison in faint, ghostly tones. I could hear
the deep sea rowers chanting, and knew it for the
time beat rowing song of the ancient Vikings. The whole
picture was limbed in the cold sea fires. From whence
that terrible Viking ghost ship had risen with its crew
of long dead Norsemen who were not dead, the men

(01:13:32):
too good for hell and denied Valhalla. Straight to the
mouth of the cave came the ghost ship and its
crew disembarked and entered. Halda cried out in joyous welcome,
even from out of the deeps. Ye heroes, one and all,
have ye heard my silent summons and obeyed the voice
of Yao Runa from old time. Now your waiting is

(01:13:52):
at an end. Ye understands the comminus that other concerns
ye not, but mark him well, for in a former
life he was Jarl Wulf redbrand Sea. On his left
hand is still the old silver ring with its ruins
of Ragnar wave flame. The ghost Vikings turned their dead
eyes on me with a curious fixity. One and all

(01:14:15):
they saluted. Evidently jar Wulf must have been somebody in
his time that ignored me. They turned to Haldra awaiting
her further commands commenus they looked at fiercely avidly. Heldra's
voice came heavily, solemnly, with a curious bell like tone,
sounding the knell of doom andcarnate. Michael camenis this Your

(01:14:38):
present body has never wrought me harm, nor has it
harmed any of these. It is not with your body
that we hold our feud. Wherefore your body shall go
forth from this cave as it entered, as handsome as ever,
bearing no mark of scathe. But your knittering soul, almost accursed,
shall be drawn from out its earthly tenement, this night

(01:15:02):
and given over to these souls you wronged, who now
await their victim and their vengeance. And I tell you,
Michael Camenus, that what they have in store for you
will make the hates of your religion seem as a
devoutly to be desired paradise. Haldra stepped directly before Camenus.
Her shapely white arms were outstretched, palms down, fingers stiffly extended.

(01:15:27):
A queer violet tinged radiance streamed from her fingers, gradually
enveloping Camenus. He began to glow as if he had
been immersed and absorbed all his body could take up.
Haldra's voice took on the tone of finality. Michael camenis
thou a curse soul by the power I hold given
me by Hella's self, I call you forth from your

(01:15:49):
hiding place of flesh, Come ye out. The living body
never moved, but from its mouth emerged a faint, silvery
tinted vapor flowing toward the Aluna made and as it came,
the violet glow diminished. The accumulating silvery mist swirled and writhed, perceptibly,

(01:16:09):
taking on the semblance of the body from whence it
was being extracted. There remained, finally, but a merest thread
of silvery shimmer, connecting soul and body. Halder spoke beneath
her breath, one of you hew that cord asunder. A
double bladed Norse battle axe whirled in a ghostly voice,
croak thor hof Thor, the old Norse war god must

(01:16:32):
have helped, for the great ghost axe evidently encountered a
solid cable, while nigh as strong as tempered steel. Thrice
the axe rose and fell, driven by the swelling fuse
with a towering giant wielding it ere the silver cord
was broken by the blade, A tittering giggle burst from
the lips of the present day Michael Caminus. I realized,

(01:16:54):
with a sudden sickness at the pit of my stomach,
that an utterly mindless imbecile stood there, grinning vacuously. That
thing helda said coldly, scornful, as she pointed to the silvery,
shining soul. Is yours heroes do with it as she will.
Two of the gigantic wraiths climbed their great hands on
its shoulder. It turned a dull, lud and gray, the

(01:17:17):
color of abject fear. Cringing and squirming, it was hustled
aboard the ghostly dragon ship. The other ghost vikings went aboard,
taking their places at the oars. Yet they waited. Heldra
turned to me, be free of the spell I laid
upon you. Her tone was as gentle as it had
been in her sweetest moments while she dwelt in my
home as my niece. I gasped, rose and stretched. I

(01:17:41):
wanted to be angry, and dared not. I had seen
too much of her hellish powers to risk incurring her displeasure.
And reading my mind, she laughed merrily. Then her cool,
soft white arms went about my neck. Her wondrous sapphire
eyes looked long and tenderly into mine. And I will
not write the message I read in those softly shining orbs.

(01:18:03):
Once again, her silvery voice spoke Jar wolf Redbrand John Craig.
I am the granddaughter of Ragnar wave Flame. And once
I went a viking with my three brothers to far
by Zantium. You know that tale now. Once I said
that Ragnar wave Flame never died. Also I said that
I had dived into her sea cave and lain in

(01:18:25):
your arms. And now I tell you the rest of
that mystery. Where their breath she entered this my body
wherever since we have dwelt as one soul. I needed
aid in seeking my vengeance. For it was after I'd
escaped the clutches of the Comminas and had passed through
adventures incredible while making my way back to the north Lands,

(01:18:46):
and my spirit was very bitter. And when I sought
her counsel, Ragnar helped me this. Now do I ask
of you, Do you, as I have sometimes thought, loved
me as a man loves a maid. Reflect Well, ere
you answer? I recall what I once showed you in
a mirror. I am older than you, so knowing that

(01:19:09):
despite my witcheries of the long bitter past and those
of to night, would you take me? Were you and
I young once more? By all the gods in Valhalla
and by all the devils in Hella's halls. Yes, my
reply was given without need a reflecting recounting cost. Then
in a day to come, you shall take me. I

(01:19:31):
swear it full upon my mouth. She pressed her scarlet lips.
That surging flame suffused my entire body. Yet it was life,
not death. Against my chest, I felt the pressure of
her swelling breasts, and fires undreams steamed from her heart
to mine. Time itself stood still. After a calan or,

(01:19:54):
she unwontered clinging arms from about my neck and turned away.
When never backward glance, she entered that waiting ghostly dragon ship.
Be ore, stepped and again, until the faint, ghostly chant
was swallowed by distance. I left the cave. The drilling
idiot who had been Michael Comenis was already gone. Later,

(01:20:15):
the gossip rand that he'd lost his mind, and that
his embassy had returned him to his own land. None
ever suspected or coupled me or my niece with his affliction,
and he himself had absolutely no memory, had lost even
his own name when his soul departed. But within a
month I sold my cottage, packed and stored all my
belongings until I could find a new location where I'd

(01:20:37):
be totally unknown. And then I went away from where
I had dwelt for years, and with urgent reason, the
fire in which Heldra had imbued me from her breath
and breast was renewing my youth. My hair was shades darker,
my wrinkles almost gone, my step was brisker. I looked
to be nearer forty than almost sixty. So marked was

(01:20:59):
the change. At the villager stared openly at what seemed
at least a miracle. Tongues were wagging, old superstitions were
being revived, and dark hints were being bandied about. So
I finally decided to leave and go where my altered
appearance would cause no comment. I wonder if

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