The gnarled and immemorial woods possessed an ill-repute among travellers. Somewhere in this wood there was the ruinous and haunted vale of the old Tribes;and, also, there was a double tomb,within which the Ard Rhi Muradb and his Queene, who were notorious for conspiracy and strange sorcery in their Time,had lain unconsecrated for more than a millenium. Of these and their phantoms, there were grisly tales;and there were stories of loup-garous and of goblins, and of Faes and daemons and lamia and vampyres that infested the forests of Folcuth. But to these tales yea hath given little heed, considering it improbable that such creatures would fare abroad in open daylight. As a madcap adventurer yea had professed yeaself unafraid in the Inn of the Blue Frog while passing through Portunus in the southern stronghold of Shanadar Siveni. There yea had hired a guide but it had been necessary to promise the guide and manservants a substantial pourboire, since they shared fully the local superstitions.
Yea hath wholly forgotten the legendry of Folcuth, as yea hasten along the sunflecked paths. Yea art nearing the appointed beech tree,which a turn in the path would soon reveal;and yea pulses quicken and become tremulous,as yea wonder where the guide hath gone on ahead of yea. Yea thoughts are such as would likely befit an impatient lover. Thoughts are now interrupted by a shrill scream that rises to an unendurable pitch of fear and horror, issuing from the green stillness of the pines beside the way. Startled, yea peer at the thick branches;and as the scream falls back to silence,yea hear the sound of dull and hurrying footfalls, and a scuffling as of many bodies.
Again the scream arises. Tis plainly the voice of a woman in some peril. Loosening yea dagger,and clutching much more firmly a long hornbeam staff which yea had brought with yea as a protection against the vipers which were said to lurk in the forest fringes, yea plunge without hesitation or much premeditation among the low-hanging boughs from which the voice seemed to emerge. In a small open space,yea see a woman struggling with three ruffians of exceptionally brutal and strange aspect. E'en in the haste and the vehemence of the moment, yea realize that yea hath ne'er before seen such men nor such a woman. The woman is clad in a gown of emerald green that matches her eyes;in her face:'tis the pallor of dead things, together with a Faerie beauty;and her lips art dyed as with the scarlet of flowing blood.
The men art dark, and their eyes red slits of flame beneath oblique brows with animal-like bristles. There is something very peculiar in the shape of their feet;but yea do nae realize the exact nature of the peculiarity 'til long afterwards. Then yea remember that all of them were seemingly club-footed, though able to move with surprising agility. Somehow, yea could ne'er recall what sort of clothing they had worn. The woman turns a beseeching gaze upon yea as yea spring forth from the pine boughs. The men,howe'er, do nae seem to heed yea coming;though one holds in the hairy clutch the hands which the woman sought to reach toward ye: her rescuer. Lifting yea staff, yea rush upon the ruffians. Yea strike a tremendous blow at the head of the nearest one.......a blow that should hath leveled the fellow to earth. But the staff comes down on unresisting, unyielding air, and yea stagger and almost fall headlong in trying to recover yea equilibrium. Dazed and uncomprehending,yea see the knot of struggling forms hath vanished. At least, the three men hath vanished;but from the middle branches of a tall pine beyond the open space, the death-white features of the Lady smile upon yea for a moment with a faint,inscrutable guile ere they melt among the needles.