Adventure Magazine Cover — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE WOLF MASTER “For a while they watched from a high place, doubtless seeing others of my people. So they knew no path was open to them toward the setting sun. They turned then to the rising sun. “Now they ride toward the Mountains of the Eagles, and through these mountains they mean to go.” Kirdy looked up. “How knowest thou?” “Tf a buffalo makes for a ford does it not mean to cross the stream? It is so! These twain have drawn their reins toward a gut in the range. They will go through.” “Ts there a way?” The ax-man rubbed his knees and looked everywhere but into the Cossack’s eyes. “There is a way.” “Can this Fanga find it without a guider” Arslan grinned. “Nay, Kazak, hath he not a guide? One who knows all the ways of the earth?”’ “Who, then?” “Shaitan, who sits atop yonder rampart. He beckons the rider and surely the gate is open when the Yakka Shaitan, the Lord of the Night, beckons.”’ The Cossack grunted and tried another tack. Arslan had spoken of the snow range not as mountains but as a rampart, which implied a citadel or fortified place some- where above them. “Ts the gate barred?” “Ts the pass to the wolf’s gully barred to the lamb? Nay, the pass is open.” “What pass?” Arslan waved a scarred hand impatiently. “Yonder pass, high—high. There the eagles and the vultures sit and wait. Fools may go through the pass to the other side. Yet the eagles are wiser. They sit and wait for food.”’ “Beyond the pass, is there a fortified place?”’ ‘“‘Ask the kites! —They know, and we—we do not know. Only at one time there was a city beyond the rampart. It was the city of the Golden Horde.”’ ‘And nowe”’ ' “Tt is a kuran tengri—a place accursed. In three lifetimes no man of the Horde has crossed to the side of the rampart where the sun rises.” And that was all Arslan would say. Considering his words, Kirdy saw a little light. To the Tatars all lofty peaks are traditionally sacred—they went to a moun- 69 tain summit to pray, and ran away if a storm came up. The snow range that was now clearly visible, even in the starlight, was a natural barrier. That Arslan and his fellows should be superstitious about the Mountains of the Eagles was to be expected. Now Arslan had used the words kuran tengri to describe what lay beyond the pass above them. This meant a forbidden or haunted spot, but a place of spirits as well. Such a name usually, the Cossack remem- bered, had a cause. If there were indeed a city beyond the pass, it might be a city where the Horde had met with calamity in almost forgotten days. If so, the Tatars would naturally avoid the site. Asia has its lost cities where once devastating sand or plague has entered in— or an invading horde. Time would have erased the memory of calamity, though not the dread of the place. So much Kirdy knew. And this would account for the tale of the Persian, that the mountain rampart was unscalable, and that beyond it the sun came up. Yet Al-Tabir had also said that Nada knew of a city on the far side of the range, and had told Otrépiev of it. He looked at the silent girl. “Nada, why did you send Otrépiev to chase shadows? Who knows the country beyond these mountains?” ‘“‘Ai-a, White Falcon!’’ She stretched slender arms toward the stars, and turned on her side to smile at him. “Am Ia vam- pire, to lead men from the trail and slay them? I spoke the truth.” She watched Arslan replenish the fire and go off to the ponies. ‘“‘The ax-man is troubled. I think he is afraid. And you—you are like all men. When your enemy escapes you turn to me with a black brow and say, ‘Why did’st thou in this fashion?’ Long ago my father wandered in the steppe and crossed the path of this Horde. And the mother of Tevakel Khan liked me and told me many tales—of a city that had once belonged to the Horde. I told her of Moscow, and she swore that this kuran tengri was more splendid than that, with higher walls. They who entered this city found peace. And that, surely, is greater than Moscow. I think the hag wanted to steal me, but Tevakel Khan forbade.” ‘Arslan says that Otrépiev is heading for the pass that leads to this place.” COmiclbook C©