Our Lord the Sun was riding towards the end of His day, and the smoke
from a burning mountain fanned black and forbidding before His face.
Phorenice wrung the water from her clothes and shivered. “Work hard with
those paddles, Deucalion, and take me in through the water-gate and let
me be restored to my comforts again. That merchant would rue if he saw
how his pretty garments were spoiled, and I rue, too, being a woman,
and remembering that he at least has no others I can take in place of
these.” She looked at me sidelong, tossing back the short red hair from
her eyes. “What think you of my wisdom in coming where we have come
without an escort?”
“The Empress can do no wrong,” I quoted the old formula with a smile.
“At least I have shown you that I can fight. I caught you looking your
approval of me quite pleasantly once or twice. You were a difficult man
to thaw, Deucalion, but you warm perceptibly as you keep on being near
me. La, sir, we shall be a pair of rustic sweethearts yet, if this
goes on. I am glad I thought of the device of going near those smelly
fishers.”
So she had taken me out in the litter unattended for the plain purpose
of inviting a fight, and showing me her skill at arms, and perhaps, too,
of seeing in person how I also carried myself in a moment of stress.
Well, if we were to live on together as husband and wife, it was good
that each should know to a nicety the other’s powers; and also, I am too
much of an old battler and too much enamoured with the glorious handling
of arms to quarrel very deeply with any one who offers me a tough
upstanding fight. Still for the life of me, I could not help comparing
Phorenice with another woman. With a similar chance open before us, Nais
had robbed me of the struggle through a sheer pity for those squalid
rebels who did not even call her chieftain; whilst here was this Empress
frittering away two score of the hardiest of her subjects merely to
gratify a whim.
Yet, loyal to my vow as a priest, and to the commands set upon me by the
high council on the Sacred Mountain, I tried to put away these wayward
thoughts and comparisons. As I rowed over the swingings of the waves
towards the forts which guard the harbour’s mouth, I sent prayers to the
High Gods to give my tongue dexterity, and They through Their love for
the country of Atlantis, and the harassed people, whom it was my deep
wish to serve, granted me that power of speech which Phorenice loved.
Her eyes glowed upon me as I talked.
This beach of the fishers where we had had our passage at arms is safe
from ship attack from without, by reason of a chain of jagged rocks
which spring up from the deep, and run from the harbour side to the end
of the city wall. The fishers know the passes, and can oftentimes get
through to the open water beyond without touching a stone; or if they
do see a danger of hitting on the reef, leap out and carry their light
boats in their hands till the water floats them again. But here I had
neither the knowledge nor the dexterity, and, thought I, now the High
Gods will show finally if They wish this woman who has defiled them to
reign on in Atlantis, and if also They wish me to serve as her husband.
I cried these things in my heart, and waited to receive the omen. There
was no half-answer. A great wave rose in the lagoon behind us, a wave
such as could have only been caused by an earth tremor, and on its sleek
back we were hurled forward and thrown clear of the reefs with their
seaweeds licking round us, without so much as seeing a stone of the
barrier. I bowed my head as I rowed on towards the harbour forts. It was
plain that not yet would the High Gods take vengeance for the insults
which this lovely woman had offered Them.
The sentries in the two forts beat drums at one another in their
accustomed rotation, and in the growing dusk were going to pay little
enough attention to the fishingboat which lay against the great chain
clamouring to have it lowered. But luckily a pair of officers were
taking the air of the evening in a stone-dropping turret of the roof
of the nearer fort, and these recognised the tone of our shouts. They
silenced the drums, torches were lowered to make sure of our faces, and
then with a splash the great chain was dropped into the water to give us
passage.
A galley lay inside, nuzzling the harbour wall, and presently the ladder
of ropes was let down from the top of the nearest fort, and a crew came
down to man the oars. There were the customary changes of raiment too,
given as presents by the officers of the fort, and these we put on in
the cabin of the galley in place of the sodden clothes we wore. There
are fevers to be gained by carrying wet clothes after sunset, and though
from personal experience I have learned that these may be warded off
with drugs, I noticed with some grim amusement that the Empress had
sufficiently little of the Goddess about her to fear very much the
ailments which are due to frail humanity.
The galley rowed swiftly across the calm waters of the harbour, and made
fast to the rings of gold on the royal quay, and whilst we were waiting
for litters to be brought, I watched a lantern lit in the boat
which stood guard over Phorenice’s mammoth. The huge red beast stood
shoulder-deep in the harbour water, with trunk up-turned. It was tamed
now, and the light of the boat’s lantern fell on the little ripples sent
out by its tremblings. But I did not choose to intercede or ask
mercy for it. If the mammoth sank deeper in the harbour mud, and was
swallowed, I could have borne the loss with equanimity.
To tell the truth, that ride on the great beast’s back had impressed me
unfavourably. In fact, it put into me a sense of helplessness that
was wellnigh intolerable. Perhaps circumstances have made me unduly
self-reliant: on that others must judge. But I will own to having a
preference for walking on my own proper feet, as the Gods in fashioning
our shapes most certainly intended. On my own feet I am able to guard my
own head and neck, and have done on four continents, throughout a long
and active life, and on many a thousand occasions. But on the back of
that detestable mammoth, pah! I grew as nervous as a child or a dastard.
However, I had little enough leisure for personal megrims just then.
Whilst we waited, Phorenice asked the port-captain (who must needs come
up officiously to make his salutations) after the disposal of Nais,
and was told that she had been clapped into a dungeon beneath the royal
pyramid, and the officer of the guard there had given his bond for her
safe-keeping.
“It is to be hoped he understands his work,” said the Empress. “That
pretty Nais knows the pyramid better than most, and it may be he will
be sent to the tormentors for putting her in a cell which had a secret
outlet. You would feel pleasure if the girl escaped, Deucalion?”
“Assuredly,” said I, knowing how useless it would be to make a secret of
the matter. “I have no enmity against Nais.”
“But I have,” said she viciously, “and I am still minded to lock your
faith to me by that wedding gift you know of.”
“The thing shall be done,” I said. “Before all, the Empress of
Atlantis.”
“Poof! Deucalion, you are too stiff and formal. You ought to be mightily
honoured that I condescend to be jealous of your favours. Your hand,
sir, please, to help me into the litter. And now come in beside me,
and keep me warm against the night air. Ho! you guards there with the
torches! Keep farther back against the street walls. The perfume you are
burning stifles me.”
Again there was a feast that night in the royal banqueting-hall; again I
sat beside Phorenice on the raised dais which stands beneath the symbols
of the snake and the out-stretched hand. What had been taken for granted
before about our forthcoming relationship was this time proclaimed
openly; the Empress herself acknowledged me as her husband that was to
be; and all that curled and jewelled throng of courtiers hailed me as
greater than themselves, by reason of this woman’s choice. There was
method, too, in their salutation. Some rumour must have got about of my
preference for the older and simpler habits, and there was no drinking
wine to my health after the new and (as I considered) impertinent
manner. Decorously, each lord and lady there came forward, and each in
turn spilt a goblet at my feet; and when I called any up, whether man
or woman, to receive tit-bits from my platter, it was eaten simply and
thankfully, and not kissed or pocketed with any extravagant gesture.
The flaring jets of earth-breath showed me, too, so I thought, a plainer
habit of dress, and a more sober mien amongst this thoughtless mob
of banqueters. And, indeed, it must have been plain to notice, for
Phorenice, leaning over till the ruddy curls on her shoulder brushed
my face, chided me in a playful whisper as having usurped her high
authority already.
“Oh, sir,” she pleaded mockingly, “do not make your rule over us too
ascetic. I have given no orders for this change, but to-night there are
no perfumes in the air; the food is so plain and I have half a mind to
burn the cook; and as for the clothes and gauds of these diners, by my
face! they might have come straight from the old King’s reign before I
stepped in here to show how tasteful could be colours on a robe, or how
pretty the glint of a jewel. It’s done by no orders of mine, Deucalion.
They have swung round to this change by sheer courtier instinct. Why,
look at the beards of the men! There is not half the curl about many of
them to-day that they showed with such exquisiteness yesterday. By my
face! I believe they’d reap their chins to-morrow as smooth as yours,
if you go on setting the fashions at this prodigious rate and I do not
interfere.”
“Why hinder them if they feel more cleanly shaven?”
“No, sir. There shall be only one clean chin where a beard can grow in
all Atlantis, and that shall be carried by the man who is husband to the
Empress. Why, my Deucalion, would you have no sumptuary laws? Would you
have these good folk here and the common people outside imitate us in
every cut of the hair and every fold of a garment which it pleases us to
discover? Come, sir, if you and I chose to say that our sovereignty was
marked only by our superior strength of arm and wit, they would hate us
at once for our arrogance; whereas, if we keep apart to ourselves a
few mere personal decorations, these become just objects to admire and
pleasantly envy.”
“You show me that there is more in the office of a ruler than meets the
eye.”
“And yet they tell me, and indeed show me, that you have ruled with some
success.”
“I employed the older method. It requires a Phorenice to invent these
nicer flights.”
“Flatterer!” said she, and smote me playfully with the back of her
little fingers on my arm. “You are becoming as great a courtier as any
of them. You make me blush with your fine pleasantries, Deucalion, and
there is no fan-girl here to-night to cool my cheek. I must choose me
another fan-girl. But it shall not be Ylga. Ylga seems to have more of a
kindness for you than I like, and if she is wise she will go live in her
palace at the other side of the city, and there occupy herself with the
ordering of her slaves, and the makings of embroideries. I shall not
be hard on Ylga unless she forces me, but I will have no woman in this
kingdom treat you with undue civility.”
“And how am I to act,” said I, falling in with her mood, “when I see and
hear all the men of Atlantis making their protestations before you? By
your own confession they all love you as ardently as they seem to have
loved you hopelessly.”
“Ah, now,” she said, “you must not ask me to do impossibilities. I am
powerful if you will. But I have no force which will govern the hearts
of these poor fellows on matters such as that. But if you choose, you
make proclamation that I am given now body and inwards to you, and if
they continue to offend your pride in this matter, you may take your
culprits, and give them over to the tormentors. Indeed, Deucalion, I
think it would be a pretty attention to me if you did arrange some such
ceremony. It seems to me a present,” she added with a frown, “that the
jealousy is too much on one side.”
“You must not expect that a man who has been divorced from love for all
of a busy life can learn all its niceties in an instant. Myself, I was
feeling proud of my progress. With any other schoolmistress than you,
Phorenice, I should not be near so forward. In fact (if one may judge by
my past record), I should not have begun to learn at all.”
“I suppose you think I should be satisfied with that? Well, I am not. I
can be finely greedy over some matters.”
The banquet this night did not extend to inordinate length. Phorenice
had gone through much since last she slept, and though she had declared
herself Goddess in the meantime, it seemed that her body remained mortal
as heretofore. The black rings of weariness had grown under her wondrous
eyes, and she lay back amongst the cushions of the divan with her limbs
slackened and listless. When the dancers came and postured before us,
she threw them a jewel and bade them begone before they had given a half
of their performance, and the poet, a silly swelling fellow who came to
sing the deeds of the day, she would not hear at all.
“To-morrow,” she said wearily, “but for now grant me peace. My Lord
Deucalion has given me much food for thought this day, and presently
I go to my chamber to muse over the future policies of this State
throughout the night. To-morrow come to me again, and if your poetry is
good and short, I will pay you surprisingly. But see to it that you
are not long-winded. If there are superfluous words, I will pay you for
those with the stick.”
She rose to her feet then, and when the banqueters had made their
salutation to us, I led her away from the banqueting-hall and down the
passages with their secret doors which led to her private chambers.
She clung on my arm, and once when we halted whilst a great stone
block swung slowly ajar to let us pass, she drooped her head against my
shoulder. Her breath came warm against my cheek, and the loveliness of
her face so close at hand surpasses the description of words. I think it
was in her mind that I should kiss the red lips which were held so near
to mine, but willing though I was to play the part appointed, I could
not bring myself to that. So when the stone block had swung, she drew
away with a sigh, and we went on without further speech.
“May the High Gods treat you tenderly,” I said, when we came to the door
of her bed-chamber.
“I am my own God,” said she, “in all things but one. By my face! you are
a tardy wooer, Deucalion. Where do you go now?”
“To my own chamber.”
“Oh, go then, go.”
“Is there anything more I could do?”
“Nothing that your wit or your will would prompt you to. Yes, indeed,
you are finely decorous, Deucalion, in your old-fashioned way, but you
are a mighty poor wooer. Don’t you know, my man, that a woman esteems
some things the more highly if they are taken from her by rude force?”
“It seems I know little enough about women.”
“You never said a truer word. Bah! And I believe your coldness brings
you more benefit in a certain matter than any show of passion could
earn. There, get you gone, if the atmosphere of a maiden’s bed-chamber
hurts your rustic modesty, and your Gods keep you, Deucalion, if that’s
the phrase, and if you think They can do it. Get you gone, man, and
leave me solitary.”
I had taken the plan of the pyramid out of the archives before the
banquet and learned it thoroughly, and so was able to thread my way
through its angular mazes without pause or blunder. I, too, was heavily
wearied with what I had gone through since my last snatch of sleep, but
I dare set apart no time for rest just then. Nais must be sacrificed in
part for the needs of Atlantis; but a plan had come to me by which it
seemed that she need not be sacrificed wholly; and to carry this through
there was need for quick thought and action.
Help came to me also from a quarter I did not expect. As I passed along
the tortuous way between the ponderous stones of the pyramid, which led
to the apartments that had been given me by Phorenice, a woman glided
up out of the shadows of one of the side passages, and when I lifted my
hand lamp, there was Ylga.
She regarded me half-sullenly. “I have lost my place,” she said, “and it
seems I need never have spoken. She intended to have you all along, and
it was not a thing like that which could put her off. And you--you just
think me officious, if, indeed, you have ever given me another thought
till now.”
“I never forget a kindness.”
“Oh, you will learn that trick soon now. And you are going to marry her,
you! The city is ringing with it. I thought at least you were honest,
but when there is a high place to be got by merely taking a woman with
it, you are like the rest. I thought, too, that you would be one of
those men who have a distrust for ruddy hair. And, besides she is
little.”
“Ylga,” I said, “you have taught me that these walls are full of
crannies and ears. I will listen to no word against Phorenice. But I
would have further converse with you soon. If you still have a kindness
for me, go to the chamber that is mine and wait for me there. I will
join you shortly.”
She drooped her eyes. “What do you want of me, Deucalion?”
“I want to say something to you. You will learn who it concerns later.”
“But is it--is it fitting for a maiden to come to a man’s room at this
hour?”
“I know little of your conventions here in this new Atlantis. I am
Deucalion, girl, and if you still have qualms, remembering that, do not
come.”
She looked up at me with a sneer. “I was foolish,” she said. “My lord’s
coldness has grown into a proverb, and I should have remembered it. Yes;
I will come.”
“Go now, then,” said I, and waited till she had passed on ahead and was
out of sight and hearing. With Ylga to help me, my tasks were somewhat
lightened, and their sequence changed. In the first instance, now, I
had got to make my way with as little delay and show as possible into a
certain sanctuary which lay within the temple of our Lady the Moon. And
here my knowledge as one of the Seven stood me in high favour.
All the temples of the city of Atlantis are in immediate and secret
connection with the royal pyramid, but the passages are little used,
seeing that they are known only to the Seven and to the Three above
them, supposing that there are three men living at one time sufficiently
learned in the highest of the highest mysteries to be installed in that
sublime degree of the Three. And, even by these, the secret ways may
only be used on occasions of the greatest stress, so that a generation
well may pass without their being trodden by a human foot.
It was with some trouble, and after no little experiment that I groped
my way into this secret alley; but once there, the rest was easy. I had
never trodden it before certainly, but the plan of it had been taught
me at my initiation as one of the Seven, and the course of the windings
came back to me now with easy accuracy. I walked quickly, not only
because the air in those deep crannies is always full of lurking evils,
but also because the hours were fleeting, and much must be done before
our Lord the Sun again rose to make another day.
I came to the spy-place which commands the temple, and found the holy
place empty, and, alas! dust-covered, and showing little trace that
worshippers ever frequented it these latter years. A vast stone of
the wall swung outwards and gave me entrance, and presently (after the
solemn prayer which is needful before attempting these matters), I took
the metal stair from the place where it is kept, and climbed to the
lap of the Goddess, and then, pulling the stair after me, climbed again
upwards till my length lay against her calm mysterious face.
A shivering seized me as I thought of what was intended, for even a
warrior hardened to horrid sights and deeds may well have qualms when
he is called upon to juggle with life and death, and years and history,
with the welfare of his country in one hand, and the future of a woman
who is as life to him in the other. But again I told myself that
the hours flew, and laid hold of the jewel which is studded into the
forehead of the image with one hand, and then stretching out, thrust at
a corner of the eyebrow with the other. With a faint creak the massive
eyeball below, a stone that I could barely have covered with my back,
swung inwards. I stepped off the stair, and climbed into the gap. Inside
was the chamber which is hollowed from the head of the Goddess.
It was the first time I had seen this most secret place, but the aspect
of it was familiar to me from my teaching, and I knew where to find the
thing which would fill my need. Yet, occupied though I might be with the
stress of what was to befall, I could not help having a wonder and an
admiration for the cleverness with which it was hidden.
High as I was in the learning and mysteries of the Priestly Clan, the
structure of what I had come to fetch was hidden from me. Beforetime I
had known only of their power and effect; and now that I came to handle
them, I saw only some roughly rounded balls, like nut kernels, grass
green in colour, and in hardness like the wax of bees. There were three
of these balls in the hidden place, and I took the one that was needful,
concealing the others as I had found them. It may have been a drug, it
may have been something more; what exactly it was I did not know; only
of its power and effect I was sure, as that was set forth plainly in
the teaching I had learned; and so I put it in a pouch of my garment,
returning by the way I had come, and replacing all things in due order
behind me.
One look I took at the image of the Goddess before I left the temple.
The jet of earth-breath which burns eternally from the central altar
lit her from head to toe, and threw sparkles from the great jewel in
her forehead. Vast she was, and calm and peaceful beyond all human
imaginings, a perfect symbolism of that rest and quietness which many
sigh for so vainly on this rude earth, but which they will never attain
unless by their piety they earn a place in the hereafter, where our Lady
the Moon and the rest of the High Ones reign in Their eternal glorious
majesty.
It was with tired dragging limbs that I made my way back again to the
royal pyramid, and at last came to my own private chamber. Ylga awaited
me there, though at first I did not see her. The suspicions of these
modern days had taken a deep hold of the girl, and she must needs crouch
in hiding till she made sure it was I who came to the chamber, and,
moreover, that I came alone.
“Oh, frown at me if you choose,” said she sullenly, “I am past caring
now for your good opinion. I had heard so much of Deucalion, and I
thought I read honesty in you when first you came ashore; but now I know
that you are no better than the rest. Phorenice offers you a high place,
and you marry her blithely to get it. And why, indeed, should you not
marry her? People say she is pretty, and I know she can be warm. I have
seen her warm and languishing to scores of men. She is clever, too, with
her eyes, is our great Empress; I grant her that. And as for you, it
tickles you to be courted.”
“I think you are a very silly woman,” I said.
“If you flatter yourself it matters a rap to me whom you marry, you are
letting conceit run away with you.”
“Listen,” I said. “I did not ask you here to make foolish speeches
which seem largely beyond my comprehension. I asked you to help me do a
service to one of your own blood-kin.”
She stared at me wonderingly. “I do not understand.”
“It rests largely with you as to whether Nais dies to-morrow, or whether
she is thrown into a sleep from which she may waken on some later and
more happy day.”
“Nais!” she gasped. “My twin, Nais? She is not here. She is out in
the camp with those nasty rebels who bite against the city walls, if,
indeed, still she lives.”
“Nais, your sister is near us in the royal pyramid this minute, and
under guard, though where I do not know.” And with that I told her all
that had passed since the girl was brought up a prisoner in the galley
of that foolish, fawning captain of the port. “The Empress has decreed
that Nais shall be buried alive under a throne of granite which I am to
build for her to-morrow, and buried she will assuredly be. Yet I have a
kindness for Nais, which you may guess at if you choose, and I am minded
to send her into a sleep such as only we higher priests know of, from
which at some future day she may possibly awaken.”
“So it is Nais; and not Phorenice, and not--not any other?”
“Yes; it is Nais. I marry the Empress because Zaemon, who is mouthpiece
to the High Council of the Priests, has ordered it, for the good of
Atlantis. But my inwards remain still cold towards her.”
“Almost I hate poor Nais already.”
“Your vengeance would be easy. Do not tell me where she is gaoled, and I
shall not dare to ask. Even to give Nais a further span of life I cannot
risk making inquiries for her cell, when there is a chance that those
who tell me might carry news to the Empress, and so cause more trouble
for this poor Atlantis.”
“And why should I not carry the news, and so bring myself into favour
again? I tell you that being fan-girl to Phorenice and second woman in
the kingdom is a thing that not many would cast lightly aside.”
I looked her between eyes and smiled. “I have no fear there. You will
not betray me, Ylga. Neither will you sell Nais.”
“I seem to remember very small love for this same Nais just now,” she
said bitterly. “But you are right about that other matter. I shall not
buy myself back at your expense. Oh, I am a fool, I know, and you can
give me no thanks that I care about, but there is no other way I can
act.”
“Then let us fritter no more time. Go you out now and find where Nais
is gaoled, and bring me news how I can say ten words to her, and press a
certain matter into her clasp.”
She bowed her head and left the chamber, and for long enough I was
alone. I sat down on the couch, and rested wearily against the wall.
My bones ached, my eyes ached, and most of all, my inwards ached. I had
thought to myself that a man who makes his life sufficiently busy
will find no leisure for these pains which assault frailer folk; but a
philosophy like this, which carried one well in Yucatan, showed poorly
enough when one tried it here at home. But that there was duty ahead,
and the order of the High Council to be carried into effect, the
bleakness of the prospect would have daunted me, and I would have prayed
the Gods then to spare me further life, and take me unto Themselves.
Ylga came back at last, and I got up and went quickly after her as
she led down a maze of passages and alleyways. “There has been no care
spared over her guarding,” she whispered, as we halted once to move a
stone. “The officer of the guard is an old lover of mine, and I raised
his hopes to the burning point again by a dozen words. But when I wanted
to see his prisoner, there he was as firm as brass. I told him she was
my sister, but that did not move him. I offered him--oh, Deucalion, it
makes me blush to think of the things I did offer to that man, but there
was no stirring him. He has watched the tormentors so many times, that
there is no tempting him into touch of their instruments.”
“If you have failed, why bring me out here?”
“Oh, I am not inveigling you into a lover’s walk with myself, sir. You
tickle yourself when you think your society is so pleasant as that.”
“Come, girl, tell me then what it is. If my temper is short, credit it
against my weariness.”
“I have carried out my lord’s commands in part. I know the cell where
Nais lives, and I have had speech with her, though not through the door.
And moreover, I have not seen her or touched her hand.”
“Your riddles are beyond me, Ylga, but if there is a chance, let us get
on and have this business done.”
“We are at the place now,” said she, with a hard little laugh, “and if
you kneel on the floor, you will find an airshaft, and Nais will answer
you from the lower end. For myself, I will leave you. I have a delicacy
in hearing what you want to say to my sister, Deucalion.”
“I thank you,” I said. “I will not forget what you have done for me this
night.”
“You may keep your thanks,” she said bitterly, and walked away into the
shadows.
I knelt on the floor of the gallery, and found the air passage with my
hand, and then, putting my lips to it, whispered for Nais.
The answer came on the instant, muffled and quiet. “I knew my lord would
come for a farewell.”
“What the Empress said, has to be. You understand, my dear? It is for
Atlantis.”
“Have I reproached my lord, by word or glance?”
“I myself am bidden to place you in the hollow between the stones, and I
must do it.”
“Then my last sleep will be a sweet one. I could not ask to be touched
by pleasanter hands.”
“But it mayhap that a day will come when she whom you know of will be
suffered by the High Gods to live on this land of Atlantis no longer.”
“If my lord will cherish my poor memory when he is free again, I shall
be grateful. He might, if he chose, write them on the stones: Here was
buried a maid who died gladly for the good of Atlantis, even though she
knew that the man she so dearly loved was husband to her murderess.”
“You must not die,” I whispered. “My breast is near broken at the very
thought of it. And for respite, we must trust to the ancient knowledge,
which in its day has been sent out from the Ark of the Mysteries.”--I
took the green waxy ball in my fingers, and stretched them down the
crooked air-shaft to the full of my span.--“I have somewhat for you
here. Reach up and try to catch it from me.”
I heard the faint rustle of her arm as it swept against the masonry, and
then the ball was taken over into her grasp. Gods! what a thrill went
through me when the fingers of Nais touched mine! I could not see her,
because of the crookedness of the shaft, but that faint touch of her was
exquisite.
“I have it,” she whispered. “And what now, dear?”
“You will hide the thing in your garment, and when to-morrow the upper
stone closes down upon you and the light is gone, then you will take it
between your lips and let it dissolve as it will. Sleep will take you,
my darling, then, and the High Gods will watch over you, even though
centuries pass before you are roused.”
“If Deucalion does not wake me, I shall pray never again to open an eye.
And now go, my lord and my dear. They watch me here constantly, and I
would not have you harmed by being brought to notice.”
“Yes, I must go, my sweetheart. It will not do to have our scheme
spoiled by a foolish loitering. May the most High Gods attend your rest,
and if the sacrifice we make finds favour, may They grant us meeting
here again on earth before we meet--as we must--when our time is done,
and They take us up to Their own place.”
“Amen,” she whispered back, and then: “Kiss your fingers, dear, and
thrust them down to me.”
I did that, and for an instant felt her fondle them down the crook of
the airshaft out of sight, and then heard her withdraw her little hand
and kiss it fondly. Then again she kissed her own fingers and stretched
them up, and I took up the virtue of that parting kiss on my finger-tips
and pressed it sacredly to my lips.
“Living, sleeping, or dead, always my darling,” she whispered. And then,
before I could answer, she whispered again: “Go, they are coming for
me.” And so I went, knowing that I could do no more to help her then,
and knowing that all our schemes would be spilt if any eye spied upon me
as I lay there beside the air shaft. But my chest was like to have split
with the dull, helpless anguish that was in it, as I made my way back to
my chamber through the mazy alleys of the pyramid.
“Do not look upon mine eyes, dear, when the time comes,” had been her
last command, “or they will tell a tale which Phorenice, being a woman,
would read. Remember, we make these small denials, not for our own
likings, but for Atlantis, which is mother to us all.”