The Scribe Rasa
Within thirty days of the holding of this Council, a messenger
appeared on what was acknowledged to be the frontier of the Holy
Ground that was marked by the highest point to which the Nile rose in
times of flood, and called to one who was working in the field that he
had a writing which he prayed him to deliver to the Prophet of the
Order of the Dawn.
The man came and, staring at the messenger stupidly, asked:
“What is the Order of the Dawn and who is its prophet?”
“Perchance, Friend, you might make inquiries,” said the messenger,
handing him the roll and with it no small present. “Meanwhile I, who
may always be found at dawn or sunset seated at my prayers in yonder
group of palms, will bide here and await the answer.”
The farmer, for such he seemed to be, scratched his head and, taking
the roll and the present, said that he would try to serve one so
generous, though he knew not of whom to ask concerning this order and
its prophet.
On the following day at sunset he appeared again and handed to the
messenger another roll which he declared he had been charged by some
person unknown to give to him for delivery to the King Apepi at his
Court at Tanis. The messenger, mocking this peasant, said that he had
never heard of King Apepi and did not know where Tanis might be; still
out of kindness of heart, he would try to discover and make due
delivery of the roll after which the two smiled at each other and
departed.
Some days later this writing was read to Apepi by his private scribe.
It ran thus:
“In the name of that Spirit who rules the world, and of his servant
Osiris, god of the dead, greeting to Apepi, King of the Shepherds, now
dwelling at the city of Tanis in Lower Egypt.
“Know, O King Apepi, that we, Roy the Prophet and the Council of the
Order of the Dawn, who sit in the shadow of the ancient pyramids built
long ago by certain kings of Egypt, once members of our order, to
serve as tombs for their bodies and to be monuments to their greatness
on which all eyes might gaze till the end of the world; we who from
age to age drink of the wisdom of the Sphinx, the Terror of the
desert, have received your message and given it consideration. Know, O
King, that although of late we have suffered grievous wrong at the
hands of some who seem to have been your officers, for which wrong
those unhappy ones paid with their lives, as all must do who attempt
to violate our sanctity and to peer into our secrets; in obedience to
the precepts of our Order, we forgive that wrong and having put it
aside as a matter of small account, we will receive the ambassador
whom you desire to send to us to discuss matters of which you do not
reveal the purport. Know, O King, further, that this ambassador,
whoever he may be, must come alone, for it is contrary to our rules to
admit more than one stranger beyond the borders of the Holy Ground. If
after learning this it be still your pleasure to send that ambassador,
let him appear before the next full moon in the same grove of palms
where this roll was delivered to your messenger. Here one of those who
serve us will find him and guide him to where we are, nor shall he
suffer any harm at our hands.”
When Apepi had heard this letter, he sent for the Prince Khian and
asked him privately whether still he dared to adventure himself
unaccompanied among the people of the Order of the Dawn and in a place
which all men swore was haunted.
“Why not, Father?” asked Khian. “If mischief is meant against me, an
ambassador’s guard would be no protection, nor are ghosts or spirits
to be frightened away by numbers. If I go at all I would as soon go
alone as in company. Also it is plain that thus only can this embassy
be carried out, because yonder Brotherhood will not receive more than
a single man.”
“As it pleases you, Son,” replied Apepi. “Go now and make ready.
To-morrow the writing shall be delivered to you by the Vizier together
with my instructions; also a guard will be waiting to conduct you to
the place appointed by this prophet. Go and return in safety,
remembering our bargain and bringing this maiden with you in charge of
women of her own people, if so it may be, for thus shall you earn my
favour.”
“I go,” said Khian, “to return, or perchance not to return, as the
gods may direct.”
So, everything having been made ready and the roll containing the
offers and the threats of King Apepi given into his keeping, together
with offerings of gold for the gods of the Children of the Dawn and
presents of jewels for the Princess Nefra, if it should be proved that
she was the wondrous maiden who dwelt among them, Khian departed. Yet
he did not travel as the Prince, but rather as a Scribe of the Court,
Rasa by name, whom it had pleased the King to choose to be his envoy
upon a certain business. Leaving Tanis so secretly that few discovered
he had gone, he sailed up Nile in a ship whose sailors had never seen
him, and although they had orders to obey him in everything, took him
to be what he said he was, a messenger, Rasa by name, travelling upon
the royal business. Even the guard that accompanied him, six in
number, were soldiers from a distant city who had never looked upon
his face.
His journey ended, he reached the landing place in the afternoon upon
the day appointed and was escorted by the soldiers who bore the gold
and other gifts, also his travelling gear, to the grove of palms which
the messenger had described, as to which there could be no mistake,
for no other was in sight. Here he dismissed the guard, who left him
doubtfully and yet were glad to go before evening came, for like all
Egypt they believed this place to be haunted by the ghosts of the
mighty dead, also by the Spirit of the Pyramids whose eyes drove men
to madness.
“Now, as we are ordered by Anath the Vizier,” said the captain of the
guard, “we and the ship in which you have travelled, my Lord Rasa,
depart to Memphis where we may be found when we are summoned, though
we are not sure that you will ever need a ship again.”
“Why not, Captain?” asked Khian, or Rasa.
“Because this place has an evil repute, my Lord Rasa, and it is said
that no stranger who crosses yonder belt of sand ever returns.”
“If so, what happens to him, Captain?”
“We do not know, but it is reported that he is walled up in a tomb and
left to perish there. Or, if he escapes this fate and is as young and
well-favoured as you are, perchance he meets the beauteous Spirit of
the Pyramids who wanders about in the moonlight, and becomes her
lover.”
“If she is so fair, Captain, worse things might happen to a man.”
“Nay, Lord Rasa, for when he kisses her on the lips, she looks into
his eyes and madness takes hold of him, so that he runs after her,
till at last he falls on the sand raving and, should he live at all,
remains thus all his days.”
“Why does he not catch her, Captain?”
“Because she leads him to one of the pyramids, up which, being a
spirit, she can glide like a moonbeam but whither he cannot follow.
And when he sees that he has lost her, then his brain boils and he is
no more a man.”
“You make me afraid, Captain. This would be a sad fate to happen to a
learned scribe, for such is really my trade, just when he had won
favour at the Court. Still, I have my orders and you know the doom of
him who disobeys, or even does not carry out, the commands of his
Majesty Apepi.”
“Aye, Lord Rasa, I know well enough, for this king is very fierce, and
if he has set his mind on anything, ill to cross. Such a one, if he is
lucky, is shortened by a head, or if he is unlucky, is beaten to death
with rods.”
“If so, Captain, it would seem better to run the risk of the ghosts,
or even of the terrible eyes of the Spirit of the Pyramids, rather
than to return with you, as I confess that I should wish. About my
neck I have a holy charm which is said to defend its wearer from all
tomb-dwellers and other evil things, and to this and to my prayers I
must trust myself. Soon I hope to see you again upon the ship, but if
you learn that I am dead, I pray of you, lay an offering for my soul
upon the first altar of Osiris that you find.”
“I’ll not forget it, Lord Rasa, for know that I like you well and
could have wished you a better fate,” answered the captain, who was
kind-hearted; adding, as he departed with his company, “Perchance you
have offended Pharaoh or the Vizier, and one or other of them has
chosen this way to be rid of you.”
“That man is as cheerful as a bullfrog croaking in a pool in a night
of storm,” thought Khian to himself. “Well, perhaps he is right, and
if so, what will it matter when those pyramids have seen the Nile rise
another hundred times?”
Then he sat himself down upon the ground, resting his back against the
bole of one of the palms, and contemplated the mighty outlines of
these same pyramids, which hitherto he had only seen from far away,
thinking to himself, as Nefra had thought, that those who built them
must have been kings indeed. Also he reflected, not without pleasure,
for he was a lover of adventures and new things, upon the strangeness
of his mission and of the manner in which it had been thrust upon him.
If this royal maiden lives, he thought, and I succeed it means that I
lose a crown, and if I do not succeed, then it is also possible that I
shall lose the crown, since my father never forgives those who fail.
Indeed, it would be best for me if there is no such lady, or that I
should not find her. At any rate, there is some girl who climbs
pyramids, because before he died that woman-thief swore to me that he
saw her. He swore to me also that she was very beauteous, the
loveliest lady that ever he beheld, which almost proves to me that she
cannot have been the princess, for as the gods do not give everything,
princesses are always--or almost always--ugly. Moreover, they do not
climb pyramids but lie about and eat sweetmeats. Perhaps after all she
whom the dying thief believed he saw, if he saw any one, is a spirit,
and if so, may it be given to me to behold her, to do which I would
take my chance of madness. Meanwhile, these Children of the Dawn are
strange folk, to judge from all that I can learn concerning them, yet
it is said, most kindly, so perhaps they will not murder me, even if
they guess or know that I am the Prince Khian. What would be the use,
seeing there are so many who are princes, or who can be made princes
by a decree and a touch of a sceptre?
Reflecting thus, Khian fell asleep, for the afternoon was very hot and
he had found little rest upon that crowded boat.
While he was sleeping Roy the Prophet, the lord Tau, and the Princess
Nefra were taking counsel together in a chamber of the temple where
they dwelt.
“The messenger has landed, Prophet,” said Tau; “it is reported to me
that he is already seated in the grove of palms.”
“Is aught else reported, Tau, that is, as to his business?” asked Roy.
“If so, speak it out, since a command has come to me that the time is
at hand when our Lady of Egypt here”--and he pointed to Nefra--“should
be taken into our full counsel.”
“Yes, Prophet. A certain brother of ours who is one of the Court of
King Apepi--look not astonished, Princess, for our brethren are
everywhere--informs me by the fashion that is known to you that this
business is one which concerns a certain lady very closely. To be
brief: When four men strove to carry off this lady, Ru the Ethiopian
made a mistake, for he killed three of them but suffered the fourth to
get away, though wounded to the death. This man reached the Court at
Tanis and before he died made a report which, added to other rumours,
assured King Apepi that a certain babe who escaped from his hands in
Thebes long ago--dwells among us here and is no other than the heiress
of the ancient line of the Pharaohs of Egypt.”
“It seems that this king is a shrewd man,” said Roy.
“Very shrewd,” answered Tau, “and quick to decide; so much so that on
a hint given to him by his Vizier Anath, also a shrewd man, he
determined at once not to kill a certain lady, as at first he thought
to do, but to make her his queen and thus, by promising their heritage
to her offspring, to unite the Upper and the Lower Lands without war
or trouble.”
Now Nefra started, but before she could speak Roy answered:
“The scheme has merits, great merits, for thus would our ends be
attained and many sorrows and perils melt away like morning mist.
But,” he added with a sigh, “what says Nefra our Princess, who after
to-night’s ceremony will be our Queen?”
“I say,” answered Nefra coldly, “that I am not a woman to be sold for
the price of a crown, or of a hundred crowns. This man, Apepi the
Usurper, is one of the fierce Shepherds who are the enemies of our
race. He is a thief of the desert who has stolen half Egypt and holds
it by force and fraud. He, who is more than old enough to be my
father, slew my father, the Pharaoh Kheperra, and strove to slay me
and my mother, the Queen Rima, the daughter of Babylon. Having failed
in this, now he seeks to buy me whom he has never seen, as an Arab
buys a mare of priceless blood, and for his own purposes to set me at
the head of his household. Prophet, I will have none of him. Rather
than enter his palace as a bride I will hurl myself from the tallest
pyramid and seek refuge with Osiris.”
“Here we have the answer that I foresaw,” said Roy with a little smile
upon his aged lips; “nor is it one that causes me to grieve, since
whatever its gains, such a union would be unholy. Fear not, Princess.
While the Order of the Dawn has power you are safe from the arms of
Apepi the Wolf. Tell me, Tau, according to the report that has reached
you, is this all that the King of the North has to say to us?”
“Nay, Prophet. When the roll that yonder messenger bears is opened, I
think that in it will be found written, that if the heiress of Egypt
is not delivered to him, then he proposes to take her by force, or if
he cannot do so, to send her down to death, and with her,
notwithstanding his treaties, every one of the Children of the Dawn
from the most aged to the babe in arms.”
“Is it so?” said Roy. “Well, if a fool strives to drag a sleeping
snake from its hole, that snake awakes, puffs out its head, and
strikes, as mayhap Apepi will find before all is done. But these
things are not yet; time to talk of them when the royal hand is thrust
into the hole to grip the deadly hooded snake. Meanwhile, this envoy
from Apepi must be granted the hospitality which we have sworn to him,
and brought from the palm grove where he sits alone. Would it please
you, Princess, to throw a man’s robe over that woman’s dress of yours
and go to lead him here? Ru and the Lady Kemmah would accompany you,
keeping themselves out of sight? If so, being clever, you might learn
something from the man, who finding but a gentle youth sent to guide
him, would fear no trap, and perhaps even speak freely to such a one.”
“Yes,” answered Nefra, “I think that it would please me; that is, if
you are sure that there is no trap or ambush, since the walk to the
grove is pleasant and I have been cooped up of late.”
“There is no ambush, Lady,” replied Roy. “Since what happened awhile
ago by the pyramids our frontiers have been well guarded; also your
every step will be watched, although you do not see the watchers.
Therefore fear nothing. Learn all you can from this envoy and bring
him to the Sphinx where he will be blindfolded and led before us.”
“I go,” said Nefra, laughing. “To-morrow I shall be called a queen and
who knows whether afterwards I shall be suffered to walk alone.”
So she went accompanied by Tau who summoned Ru and Kemmah in one of
the courts of the temple and there gave certain orders to them and to
others who seemed to be awaiting him. This done he returned to Roy and
looking him in the face, said in a low voice:
“Do you, O Prophet, who know so much, chance to have learned what may
be the name and quality of this envoy from Apepi?”
Now Roy looked him in the eyes and said:
“It comes into my mind, how or whence does not matter, that although
he travels as a simple officer of the Court, called I know not what,
the man is no other than the Prince Khian, Apepi’s heir.”
“So I think also,” said Tau, “and not without reason. Tell me, holy
Prophet, have you learned aught concerning this Khian?”
“Much, Tau. From his boyhood he has been watched by those at Apepi’s
Court who are our friends, and their report of him is very good. He
has his faults like other men in youth, and he is somewhat rash. Had
he not been so, never would he have undertaken this mission under
strange conditions. For the rest he is more Egyptian than Shepherd,
for in him the mother’s blood runs strong; and if he worships any gods
at all, of which, he being a philosopher, I am not sure, they are
those of Egypt. Further, he is learned, brave, handsome of body, and
generous in mind; something of a dreamer, one who seeks that which he
will never find upon the earth, one, too, who longs to heal Egypt’s
wounds. Indeed, he seems to be such a man as, had I a daughter, I
would choose for her in marriage if I might. This is the report that I
have concerning the Prince Khian. Is yours as good?”
“In all things it is the same, Prophet. Yet why does he come hither
upon such an errand, seeing that, if it succeeds, it may cost him his
succession to the Crown? I fear some trap.”
“I think, Tau, that he comes for adventure, and because he seeks new
things; also because he is drawn to our doctrines and would study them
with his own eyes and ears, not knowing that he may find more than he
seeks.”
“Is it in the hope that he will do so, Prophet, that you have put it
into the mind of the Princess Nefra to meet him yonder in the palm
grove?”
“It is, Tau. When I said that such a marriage as this Apepi proposes
had many merits, what I meant was, not that she should be thrown to
the Shepherd lion, but that a marriage between her and the Prince
Khian would have those merits. How could Egypt be better tied
together? Even if we are strong enough to wage it, we are haters of
war, and would not attain our ends by death and bloodshed. Yet to
propose such a thing would defeat itself, since, as she told us, this
Lady Nefra is not one to be sold or driven. Her heart and nothing else
is her guide, which she will follow fast and far.”
“The heart of woman goes out more readily to princes than it does to
humble messengers. What if this one who sits among the palm trees does
not please her?”
“Then, Tau, all is finished and we must find another road. Let Fate
decide after she has judged, not of the Prince but of the man. We
cannot. Hearken. This envoy, however named, comes to learn what
thousands know already, whether or not the daughter and heiress of
Kheperra shelters among us. We can deny or we can confess. Which shall
we do?”
“If we deny, Prophet, certainly he will discover the truth otherwise
and set us down as liars and cowards. If we confess, he and the world
will know us for true men and brave, and that the oath which we swear
to the goddess of Verity is no empty form. So whatever we may lose, we
shall win honour even from our foes. Therefore, I say confess and face
the issue.”
“So say I and the rest of the Council, Tau. To-night before the
delegates from all Egypt and elsewhere, the Princess is to be crowned
its Queen in the great hall of the temple, a matter that cannot be
hid, since the very bats will twitter it throughout the land.
Therefore it seems wise to me that this messenger should be present at
the ceremony and if he will, make open report of it to Apepi. There is
another thing of which he must also make report, Tau: namely, whether
the new-crowned Queen will take this Apepi as a husband.”
“Already we know the answer, Prophet, but after it--what?”
“After it--Babylon. Listen, Tau. Apepi will send an army to destroy us
and to capture the Queen, but he will find nothing to destroy, for the
Order has its hiding places, and in Egypt are many tombs and catacombs
where soldiers dare not come, while the Queen will be far away. If
Apepi seeks a curse, let the curse fall upon him, as fall it shall
when a hundred thousand Babylonians pour down on Tanis in answer to
dead Rima’s prayer and to right her daughter’s wrongs.”
“Be it so,” said Tau. “Those who seek the face of War must be prepared
to look him in the eyes, for such is the rule of God and man.”
Nefra, wrapped in a long cloak, approached the grove of palms,
followed by Ru and the Lady Kemmah, who grumbled at the business.
“The day is hot,” she said, “and who but fools would walk so far in
the blaze of the sun? To-night there are ceremonies in which you,
Princess, must play the greatest part. Is it fitting that you and I
should weary ourselves thus when the work of making ready your robes
and jewels is not finished? What is this new madness? What do you
seek?”
“That which, as you have instructed me, is sought of all women, Nurse,
namely--a man,” answered Nefra in her sweet, mocking voice. “I believe
that there is a man in yonder palm grove and I go to find him.”
“A man, indeed! Are there not men in plenty nearer home, if tombs can
be called a home while one is still living beneath the sun? Still, it
is true that most of them are gray-bearded dotards and the rest but
priests or anchorites who think of nothing but their souls, or
husbandmen who toil all day and dream all night of how much mud Nile
will yield at its next rising. Well, there are the palms and I see no
man, nor can I walk any farther in this accursed sand. Here is the
statue of a god, or perchance of some king whose name no one has heard
for a thousand years. At least, god or king, he gives shade and in it
I will sit as, if you are wise, you will do also while Ru hunts for
this man of yours, though when he sees a black giant grinning at him
with a great axe in his hand I think that he will run away.”
“So do I,” said Nefra, “yet, Ru, come with me, as indeed you must.”
Then walking somewhat to the right she entered the grove of palms at
its end and stepped softly along it, bidding Ru keep himself as much
hidden as possible. Presently, seated against the trunk of one of them
she saw an officer who wore upon his robe the lion badge of the
Shepherd kings, having by his side certain packages, and behold! he
was fast asleep. Now a thought took her and she commanded Ru to
approach him softly, and having carried off the packages, to go and
hide with them behind the statue where Kemmah sat. Then, she said, he
was to follow her with Kemmah and the gear in such fashion, if might
be, that the officer did not see them as she led him toward the statue
of the Sphinx.
This Ru did without awakening Khian, for although he was so large,
like all Ethiopians he could move softly enough at need--an art that
they learn in tracking enemies and game. He vanished with his burden
behind the statue, whence she knew well he was watching her in case of
danger, but Nefra, leaning against another palm, studied the sleeper
closely. At the first glance she was aware that never before had she
beheld such a man as this officer, one at once so handsome and so
refined of face.
If his eyes, which I cannot see, are as good as the rest of him, he is
beautiful, thought Nefra. Also he looks like one whose spirit guides
his flesh and not his flesh his spirit; and as she thought, something
new, something she had never felt before stirred her serenity and
frightened her a little, though in what way she was not sure.
So for many minutes they remained, the weary Khian sleeping and Nefra
watching him. At length he stirred, stretched out his arms as though
to clasp a dream, yawned, and opened his eyes.
They _are_ as good as the rest of him! reflected Nefra as she slipped
behind the palm and hid there, which they were, being large, brown,
and somewhat melancholy.
Now Khian remembered the packets which contained the presents and the
gold and began to search for them eagerly.
“By the gods, they are gone!” he said aloud in a voice that, although
anxious, still was soft and pleasant. “How can this have happened and
I not know it, seeing that they lay under my hand? Truly they are
right who say that this place is the home of ghosts.”
Nefra stepped forward, closely muffled in her long cloak, and asked:
“Is aught amiss, Sir? And if so, can I aid you?”
“Yes,” said Khian, “by restoring to me certain articles which I
suppose you have stolen, young man. That is, if you are a man,” he
added doubtfully, “for your voice----”
“--Is breaking, Sir,” replied Nefra, trying to make it as hoarse as
possible.
“Then it has broken the wrong way. Breaking voices should grow gruff,
not soft as a girl’s. But let that be. Restore to me my goods lest I
should--well, kill you----”
“And perchance thereby lose them and much else for ever, Sir.”
“You do not seem very frightened. Tell me, who are you?”
“Sir, I am the guide appointed to lead you--if you be Apepi’s
officer--to where you must lodge before you are brought into the
presence of the Council of the Order of the Dawn. Knowing that you
were alone and thinking that you might be alarmed if armed men came,
I, as a young person who can frighten no one, was chosen to fill this
office by the Council.”
“That is very kind of the Council. But meanwhile, Young Person, where
are the goods which my servants set by my side before they departed?”
“Sir, they have gone on before you. As you said just now, this is a
home of ghosts and ghosts can carry gold and garments very fast.”
“Then they might have carried me also, though on the whole I am glad
they did not, for, Young Person, you amuse me. Well, I suppose that I
must take your word for it, as to the goods, I mean, and if I find
that you have lied, I can always kill you afterwards, or if I don’t,
the Order of the Dawn can, since they will have lost their presents.
What next?”
“Be pleased to come with me, Sir.”
“Good, Young Person. Lead on, I follow.”