{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_32584/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_32584","id":"gutenberg_32584","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32584","summary":null,"tags":["Blessing and cursing -- Fiction","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Category: Short Stories","Horror tales","Science Fiction","Short stories"],"text":"Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                        The Secret of Kralitz\n\n                           By HENRY KUTTNER\n\n[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Weird Tales October\n1936. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.\ncopyright on this publication was renewed.]\n\n\n[Sidenote: _A story of the shocking revelation that came to the\ntwenty-first Baron Kralitz_]\n\n\nI awoke from profound sleep to find two black-swathed forms standing\nsilently beside me, their faces pale blurs in the gloom. As I blinked to\nclear my sleep-dimmed eyes, one of them beckoned impatiently, and\nsuddenly I realized the purpose of this midnight summons. For years I\nhad been expecting it, ever since my father, the Baron Kralitz, had\nrevealed to me the secret and the curse that hung over our ancient\nhouse. And so, without a word, I rose and followed my guides as they led\nme along the gloomy corridors of the castle that had been my home since\nbirth.\n\nAs I proceeded there rose up in my mind the stern face of my father, and\nin my ears rang his solemn words as he told me of the legendary curse of\nthe House of Kralitz, the unknown secret that was imparted to the eldest\nson of each generation--at a certain time.\n\n\"When?\" I had asked my father as he lay on his death-bed, fighting back\nthe approach of dissolution.\n\n\"When you are able to understand,\" he had told me, watching my face\nintently from beneath his tufted white brows. \"Some are told the secret\nsooner than others. Since the first Baron Kralitz the secret has been\nhanded down----\"\n\nHe clutched at his breast and paused. It was fully five minutes before\nhe had gathered his strength to speak again in his rolling, powerful\nvoice. No gasping, death-bed confessions for the Baron Kralitz!\n\nHe said at last, \"You have seen the ruins of the old monastery near the\nvillage, Franz. The first Baron burnt it and put the monks to the sword.\nThe Abbot interfered too often with the Baron's whims. A girl sought\nshelter and the Abbot refused to give her up at the Baron's demand. His\npatience was at an end--you know the tales they still tell about him.\n\n\"He slew the Abbot, burned the monastery, and took the girl. Before he\ndied the Abbot cursed his slayer, and cursed his sons for unborn\ngenerations. And it is the nature of this curse that is the secret of\nour house.\n\n\"I may not tell you what the curse is. Do not seek to discover it before\nit is revealed to you. Wait patiently, and in due time you will be taken\nby the warders of the secret down the stairway to the underground\ncavern. And then you will learn the secret of Kralitz.\"\n\nAs the last word passed my father's lips he died, his stern face still\nset in its harsh lines.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDeep in my memories, I had not noticed our path, but now the dark forms\nof my guides paused beside a gap in the stone flagging, where a stairway\nwhich I had never seen during my wanderings about the castle led into\nsubterranean depths. Down this stairway I was conducted, and presently I\ncame to realize that there was light of a sort--a dim, phosphorescent\nradiance that came from no recognizable source, and seemed to be less\nactual light than the accustoming of my eyes to the near-darkness.\n\nI went down for a long time. The stairway turned and twisted in the\nrock, and the bobbing forms ahead were my only relief from the monotony\nof the interminable descent. And at last, deep underground, the long\nstairway ended, and I gazed over the shoulders of my guides at the great\ndoor that barred my path. It was roughly chiseled from the solid stone,\nand upon it were curious and strangely disquieting carvings, symbols\nwhich I did not recognize. It swung open, and I passed through and\npaused, staring about me through a gray sea of mist.\n\nI stood upon a gentle slope that fell away into the fog-hidden distance,\nfrom which came a pandemonium of muffled bellowing and high-pitched,\nshrill squeakings vaguely akin to obscene laughter. Dark, half-glimpsed\nshapes swam into sight through the haze and disappeared again, and great\nvague shadows swept overhead on silent wings. Almost beside me was a\nlong rectangular table of stone, and at this table two score of men were\nseated, watching me from eyes that gleamed dully out of deep sockets. My\ntwo guides silently took their places among them.\n\nAnd suddenly the thick fog began to lift. It was swept raggedly away on\nthe breath of a chill wind. The far dim reaches of the cavern were\nrevealed as the mist swiftly dissipated, and I stood silent in the grip\nof a mighty fear, and, strangely, an equally potent, unaccountable\nthrill of delight. A part of my mind seemed to ask, \"What horror is\nthis?\" And another part whispered, \"You know this place!\"\n\nBut I could never have seen it before. If I had realized what lay far\nbeneath the castle I could never have slept at night for the fear that\nwould have obsessed me. For, standing silent with conflicting tides of\nhorror and ecstasy racing through me, I saw the weird inhabitants of the\nunderground world.\n\nDemons, monsters, unnamable things! Nightmare colossi strode bellowing\nthrough the murk, and amorphous gray things like giant slugs walked\nupright on stumpy legs. Creatures of shapeless soft pulp, beings with\nflame-shot eyes scattered over their misshapen bodies like fabled Argus,\nwrithed and twisted there in the evil glow. Winged things that were not\nbats swooped and fluttered in the tenebrous air, whispering\nsibilantly--whispering in _human_ voices.\n\nFar away at the bottom of the slope I could see the chill gleam of\nwater, a hidden, sunless sea. Shapes mercifully almost hidden by\ndistance and the semi-darkness sported and cried, troubling the surface\nof the lake, the size of which I could only conjecture. And a flapping\nthing whose leathery wings stretched like a tent above my head swooped\nand hovered for a moment, staring with flaming eyes, and then darted off\nand was lost in the gloom.\n\nAnd all the while, as I shuddered with fear and loathing, within me was\nthis evil glee--this voice which whispered, \"You know this place! You\nbelong here! Is it not good to be home?\"\n\nI glanced behind me. The great door had swung silently shut, and escape\nwas impossible. And then pride came to my aid. I was a Kralitz. And a\nKralitz would not acknowledge fear in the face of the devil himself!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI stepped forward and confronted the warders, who were still seated\nregarding me intently from eyes in which a smoldering fire seemed to\nburn. Fighting down an insane dread that I might find before me an array\nof fleshless skeletons, I stepped to the head of the table, where there\nwas a sort of crude throne, and peered closely at the silent figure on\nmy right.\n\nIt was no bare skull at which I gazed, but a bearded, deadly-pale face.\nThe curved, voluptuous lips were crimson, looking almost rouged, and the\ndull eyes stared through me bleakly. Inhuman agony had etched itself in\ndeep lines on the white face, and gnawing anguish smoldered in the\nsunken eyes. I cannot hope to convey the utter strangeness, the\natmosphere of unearthliness that surrounded him, almost as palpable as\nthe fetid tomb-stench that welled from his dark garments. He waved a\nblack-swathed arm to the vacant seat at the head of the table, and I sat\ndown.\n\nThis nightmare sense of unreality! I seemed to be in a dream, with a\nhidden part of my mind slowly waking from sleep into evil life to take\ncommand of my faculties. The table was set with old-fashioned goblets\nand trenchers such as had not been used for hundreds of years. There was\nmeat on the trenchers, and red liquor in the jeweled goblets. A heady,\noverpowering fragrance swam up into my nostrils, mixed with the\ngrave-smell of my companions and the musty odor of a dank and sunless\nplace.\n\nEvery white face was turned to me, faces that seemed oddly familiar,\nalthough I did not know why. Each face was alike in its blood-red,\nsensual lips and its expression of gnawing agony, and burning black eyes\nlike the abysmal pits of Tartarus stared at me until I felt the short\nhairs stir on my neck. But--I was a Kralitz! I stood up and said boldly\nin archaic German that somehow came familiarly from my lips, \"I am\nFranz, twenty-first Baron Kralitz. What do you want with me?\"\n\nA murmur of approval went around the long table. There was a stir. From\nthe foot of the board a huge bearded man arose, a man with a frightful\nscar that made the left side of his face a horror of healed white\ntissue. Again the odd thrill of familiarity ran through me; I had seen\nthat face before, and vaguely I remembered looking at it through dim\ntwilight.\n\nThe man spoke in the old guttural German. \"We greet you, Franz, Baron\nKralitz. We greet you and pledge you, Franz--and we pledge the House of\nKralitz!\"\n\nWith that he caught up the goblet before him and held it high. All along\nthe long table the black-swathed ones arose, and each held high his\njeweled cup, and pledged me. They drank deeply, savoring the liquor, and\nI made the bow custom demanded. I said, in words that sprang almost\nunbidden from my mouth:\n\n\"I greet you, who are the warders of the secret of Kralitz, and I pledge\nyou in return.\"\n\nAll about me, to the farthermost reaches of the dim cavern, a hush fell,\nand the bellows and howlings, and the insane tittering of the flying\nthings, were no longer heard. My companions leaned expectantly toward\nme. Standing alone at the head of the board, I raised my goblet and\ndrank. The liquor was heady, exhilarating, with a faintly brackish\nflavor.\n\nAnd abruptly I knew why the pain-racked, ruined face of my companion had\nseemed familiar; I had seen it often among the portraits of my\nancestors, the frowning, disfigured visage of the founder of the House\nof Kralitz that glared down from the gloom of the great hall. In that\nfierce white light of revelation I knew my companions for what they\nwere; I recognized them, one by one, remembering their canvas\ncounterparts. But there was a change! Like an impalpable veil, the stamp\nof ineradicable evil lay on the tortured faces of my hosts, strangely\naltering their features, so that I could not always be sure I recognized\nthem. One pale, sardonic face reminded me of my father, but I could not\nbe sure, so monstrously altered was its expression.\n\nI was dining with my ancestors--the House of Kralitz!\n\nMy cup was still held high, and I drained it, for somehow the grim\nrevelation was not entirely unexpected. A strange glow thrilled through\nmy veins, and I laughed aloud for the evil delight that was in me. The\nothers laughed too, a deep-throated merriment like the barking of\nwolves--tortured laughter from men stretched on the rack, mad laughter\nin hell! And all through the hazy cavern came the clamor of the devil's\nbrood! Great figures that towered many spans high rocked with thundering\nglee, and the flying things tittered slyly overhead. And out over the\nvast expanse swept the wave of frightful mirth, until the half-seen\nthings in the black waters sent out bellows that tore at my eardrums,\nand the unseen roof far overhead sent back roaring echoes of the clamor.\n\nAnd I laughed with them, laughed insanely, until I dropped exhausted\ninto my seat and watched the scarred man at the other end of the table\nas he spoke.\n\n\"You are worthy to be of our company, and worthy to eat at the same\nboard. We have pledged each other, and you are one of us; we shall eat\ntogether.\"\n\nAnd we fell to, tearing like hungry beasts at the succulent white meat\nin the jeweled trenchers. Strange monsters served us, and at a chill\ntouch on my arm I turned to find a dreadful crimson thing, like a\nskinned child, refilling my goblet. Strange, strange and utterly\nblasphemous was our feast. We shouted and laughed and fed there in the\nhazy light, while all around us thundered the evil horde. There was hell\nbeneath Castle Kralitz, and it held high carnival this night.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPresently we sang a fierce drinking-song, swinging the deep cups back\nand forth in rhythm with our shouted chant. It was an archaic song, but\nthe obsolete words were no handicap, for I mouthed them as though they\nhad been learned at my mother's knee. And at the thought of my mother a\ntrembling and a weakness ran through me abruptly, but I banished it with\na draft of the heady liquor.\n\nLong, long we shouted and sang and caroused there in the great cavern,\nand after a time we arose together and trooped to where a narrow,\nhigh-arched bridge spanned the tenebrous waters of the lake. But I may\nnot speak of what was at the other end of the bridge, nor of the\nunnamable things that I saw--and did! I learned of the fungoid, inhuman\nbeings that dwell on far cold Yuggoth, of the cyclopean shapes that\nattend unsleeping Cthulhu in his submarine city, of the strange\npleasures that the followers of leprous, subterranean Yog-Sothoth may\npossess, and I learned, too, of the unbelievable manner in which Iod,\nthe Source, is worshipped beyond the outer galaxies. I plumbed the\nblackest pits of hell and came back--laughing. I was one with the rest\nof those dark warders, and I joined them in the saturnalia of horror\nuntil the scarred man spoke to us again.\n\n\"Our time grows short,\" he said, his scarred and bearded white face like\na gargoyle's in the half-light. \"We must depart soon. But you are a true\nKralitz, Franz, and we shall meet again, and feast again, and make merry\nfor longer than you think. One last pledge!\"\n\nI gave it to him. \"To the House of Kralitz! May it never fall!\"\n\nAnd with an exultant shout we drained the pungent dregs of the liquor.\n\nThen a strange lassitude fell upon me. With the others I turned my back\non the cavern and the shapes that pranced and bellowed and crawled\nthere, and I went up through the carved stone portal. We filed up the\nstairs, up and up, endlessly, until at last we emerged through the\ngaping hole in the stone flags and proceeded, a dark, silent company,\nback through those interminable corridors. The surroundings began to\ngrow strangely familiar, and suddenly I recognized them.\n\nWe were in the great burial vaults below the castle, where the Barons\nKralitz were ceremoniously entombed. Each Baron had been placed in his\nstone casket in his separate chamber, and each chamber lay, like beads\non a necklace, adjacent to the next, so that we proceeded from the\nfarthermost tombs of the early Barons Kralitz toward the unoccupied\nvaults. By immemorial custom, each tomb lay bare, an empty mausoleum,\nuntil the time had come for its use, when the great stone coffin, with\nthe memorial inscription carved upon it, would be carried to its place.\nIt was fitting, indeed, for the secret of Kralitz to be hidden here.\n\nAbruptly I realized that I was alone, save for the bearded man with the\ndisfiguring scar. The others had vanished, and, deep in my thoughts, I\nhad not missed them. My companion stretched out his black-swathed arm\nand halted my progress, and I turned to him questioningly. He said in\nhis sonorous voice, \"I must leave you now. I must go back to my own\nplace.\" And he pointed to the way whence we had come.\n\nI nodded, for I had already recognized my companions for what they were.\nI knew that each Baron Kralitz had been laid in his tomb, only to arise\nas a monstrous thing neither dead nor alive, to descend into the cavern\nbelow and take part in the evil saturnalia. I realized, too, that with\nthe approach of dawn they had returned to their stone coffins, to lie in\na death-like trance until the setting sun should bring brief liberation.\nMy own occult studies had enabled me to recognize these dreadful\nmanifestations.\n\nI bowed to my companion and would have proceeded on my way to the upper\nparts of the castle, but he barred my path. He shook his head slowly,\nhis scar hideous in the phosphorescent gloom.\n\nI said, \"May I not go yet?\"\n\nHe stared at me with tortured, smoldering eyes that had looked into hell\nitself, and he pointed to what lay beside me, and in a flash of\nnightmare realization I knew the secret of the curse of Kralitz. There\ncame to me the knowledge that made my brain a frightful thing in which\nshapes of darkness would ever swirl and scream; the dreadful\ncomprehension of _when_ each Baron Kralitz was initiated into the\nbrotherhood of blood. I knew--_I knew_--that no coffin had ever been\nplaced unoccupied in the tombs, and I read upon the stone sarcophagus at\nmy feet the inscription that made my doom known to me--_my own name,\n\"Franz, twenty-first Baron Kralitz.\"_","title":"The Secret of Kralitz","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":2933}