far in the shadows of that tavern carter saw a squat form she did not like , for it was unmistakably that of the old slant-eyed merchant she had seen so long before in the taverns of dylath-leen , who was reputed to trade with the horrible stone villages of leng which no healthy folk visit and whose evil fires are seen at night from afar , and even to have dealt with that high-priest not to be described , which wears a yellow silken mask over its face and dwells all alone in a prehistoric stone monastery .