And he said, 'I am oblivious, O Queen, of how I came by this flower and
this phial; but thou shalt hear a thing beyond the power of common magic,
and see that I am something.'
Now, she plucked at him to abstain from his action, but he held the phial
to the flower. She signed imperiously to some slaves to stay his right
wrist, and they seized on it; but not all of them together could withhold
him from dropping a drop into the petals of the flower, and lo, the Lily
spake, a voice from it like the voice of Noorna, saying, 'Remember the
Seventh Pillar.' Thereat, he lifted his eyes to his brows and frowned
back memory to his aid, and the scene of Karaz, Rabesqurat, Abarak, and
his betrothed was present to him. So perceiving that, the Queen delayed
not while he grasped the phial to take in her hands some water from a
basin near, and flung it over him, crying, 'Oblivion!' And while his
mind was straining to bring back images of what had happened, he fell
forward once more at the feet of Rabesqurat, senseless as a stone falls;
such was the force of her enchantments.
Now, when he awoke the second time he was in the bosom of darkness, and
the Lily gone from his hand; so he lifted the phial to make certain of
that, and groped about till he came to what seemed an urn to the touch,
and into this he dropped a drop, and asked for the Lily; and a voice
said, 'I caught a light from it in passing.' And he came in the darkness
to a tree, and a bejewelled bank, and other urns, and swinging lamps
without light, and a running water, and a grassy bank, and flowers, and a
silver seat, sprinkling each; and they said all in answer to his question
of the Lily, 'I caught a light from it in passing.' At the last he
stumbled upon the steps of a palace, and ascended them, endowing the
steps with speech as he went, and they said, 'The light of it went over
us.' He groped at the porch of the palace, and gave the door a voice,
and it opened on jasper hinges, shrieking, 'The light of it went through
me.' Then he entered a spacious hall, scattering drops, and voices
exclaimed, 'We glow with the light of it.' He passed, groping his way
through other halls and dusk chambers, scattering drops, and as he
advanced the voices increased in the fervour of their replies, saying
sequently: 'We blush with the light of it; We beam with the light of it;
We burn with the light of it.' So, presently he found himself in a long
low room, sombrely lit, roofed with crystals; and in a corner of the
room, lo! a damsel on a couch of purple, she white as silver, spreading
radiance. Of such lustrous beauty was she that beside her, the Princess
Goorelka as Shibli Bagarag first beheld her, would have paled like a
morning moon; even Noorna had waned as Both a flower in fierce heat; and
the Queen of Enchantments was but the sun behind a sand-storm, in
comparison with that effulgent damsel on the length of the purple couch.
Well for him he wilt of the magic which floated through that palace; as
is said,
Tempted by extremes,
The soul is most secure;
Too vivid loveliness blinds with its beams,
And eyes turned inward perceive the lure.
Pulling down his turban hastily, he stepped on tiptoe to within arm's
reach of her, and, looking another way, inclined over her soft vermeil
mouth the phial slowly till it brimmed the neck, and dropped a drop of
Paravid between the bow of those sweet lips. Still not daring to gaze on
her, he said then, 'My question is of the Lily, the Lily of the Sea, and
where is it, O marvel?'
And he heard a voice answer in the tones of a silver bell, clear as a
wind in strung wires, 'Where I lie, lies the Lily, the Lily of the Sea; I
with it, it with me.'
Said he, 'O breather of music, tell me how I may lay hand on the flower
of beauty to bear it forth.'
And he heard the voice, 'An equal space betwixt my right side and my
left, and from the shoulder one span and half a span downward.'
Still without power to eye her, he measured the space and the spans, his
hand beneath the coverlids of the couch, and at a spot of the bosom his
hand sank in, and he felt a fluttering thing, fluttering like a frighted
bird in the midst of the fire. And the voice said, 'Quick, seize it, and
draw it out, and tie it to my feet by the twines of red silk about it.'
He seized it and drew it out, and it was a heart--a heart of blood-
streaming with crimson, palpitating. Tears flashed on his sight
beholding it, and pity took the seat of fear, and he turned his eyes full
on her, crying, 'O sad fair thing! O creature of anguish! O painful
beauty! Oh, what have I done to thee?'
But she panted, and gasped short and shorter gasps, pointing with one
finger to her feet. Then he took the warm living heart while it yet
leapt and quivered and sobbed; and he held it with a trembling hand, and
tied it by the red twines of silk about it to her feet, staining their
whiteness. When that was done, his whole soul melted with pity and
swelled with sorrow, and ere he could meet her eyes a swoon overcame him.
Surely, when the world dawned to him a third time in those regions the
damsel was no longer there, but in her place the Lily of Light. He
thought, 'It was a vision, that damsel! a terrible one; one to terrify
and bewilder! a bitter sweetness! Oh, the heart, the heart!' Reflecting
on the heart brought to his lids an overcharging of tears, and he wept
violently awhile. Then was he warned by the thought of his betrothed to
take the Lily and speed with it from the realms of Rabesqurat; and he
stole along the halls of the palace, and by the plashing fountains, and
across the magic courts, passing chambers of sleepers, fair dreamers, and
through ante-rooms crowded with thick-lipped slaves. Lo, as he held the
Lily to light him on, and the light of the Lily fell on them that were
asleep, they paled and shrank, and were such as the death-chill maketh of
us. So he called upon his head the protection of Allah, and went
swifter, to chase from his limbs the shudder of awe; and there were some
that slept not, but stared at him with fixed eyes, eyes frozen by the
light of the Lily, and he shunned those, for they were like spectres,
haunting spirits. After he had coursed the length of the palace, he came
to a steep place outside it, a rock with steps cut in stairs, and up
these he went till he came to a small door in the rock, and lying by it a
bar; so he seized the bar and smote the door, and the door shivered, for
on his right wrist were the hairs of Garraveen. Bending his body, he
slipped through the opening, and behold, an orchard dropping blossoms and
ripe golden fruits, streams flowing through it over sands, and brooks
bounding above glittering gems, and long dewy grasses, profusion of
scented flowers, shade and sweetness. So he let himself down to the
ground, which was an easy leap from the aperture, and walked through the
garden, holding the Lily behind him, for here it darkened all, and the
glowing orchard was a desert by its light. Presently, his eye fell on a
couch swinging between two almond trees, and advancing to it he beheld
the black-eyed Queen gathered up, folded temptingly, like a swaying
fruit; she with the gold circlet on her head, and she was fair as blossom
of the almond in a breeze of the wafted rose-leaf. Sweetly was she
gathered up, folded temptingly, and Shibli Bagarag refrained from using
the Lily, thinking, "Tis like the great things foretold of me, this
having of Queens within the very grasp, swinging to and fro as if to
taunt backwardness!' Then he thought, "Tis an enchantress! I will yet
try her.' So he made a motion of flourishing the Lily once or twice, but
forbore, fascinated, for she had on her fair face the softness of sleep,
her lips closed in dimples, and the wicked fire shut from beneath her
lids. Mastering his mind, the youth at last held the Lily to her, and
saw a sight to blacken the world and all bright things with its
hideousness. Scarce had he time to thrust the Lily in his robes, when
the Queen started up and clapped her hands, crying hurriedly, 'Abarak!
Abarak!' and the little man appeared in a moment at the door by which
Shibli Bagarag had entered the orchard. So, she cried still, 'Abarak!'
and he moved toward her. Then she said, 'How came this youth here,
prying in my private walks, my bowers? Speak!'
He answered, 'By the aid of Garraveen only, O Queen! and there is no
force resisteth the bar so wielded.'
Rabesqurat looked under her brows at Shibli Bagarag and saw the horror on
his face, and she cried out to Abarak in an agony, 'Fetch me the mirror!'
Then Abarak ran, and returned ere the Queen had drawn seven impatient
breaths, and in one hand he bore a sack, in the other a tray: so he
emptied the contents of the sack on the surface of the tray; surely they
were human eyes! and the Queen flung aside her tresses, and stood over
them. The youth saw her smile at them, and assume tender and taunting
manners before them, and imperious manners, killing glances, till in each
of the eyes there was a sparkle. Then she flung back her head as one
that feedeth on a mighty triumph, exclaiming, 'Yet am I Rabesqurat! wide
is my sovereignty.' Sideways then she regarded Shibli Bagarag, and it
seemed she was urging Abarak to do a deed beyond his powers, he frowning
and pointing to the right wrist of the youth. So she clenched her hands
an instant with that feeling which knocketh a nail in the coffin of a
desire not dead, and controlled herself, and went to the youth, breaking
into beams of beauty; and an enchanting sumptuousness breathed round her,
so that in spite of himself he suffered her to take him by the hand and
lead him from that orchard through the shivered door and into the palace
and the hall of the jasper pillars. Strange thrills went up his arm from
the touch of that Queen, and they were as little snakes twisting and
darting up, biting poison-bites of irritating blissfulness.
Now, the hall was spread for a feast, and it was hung with lamps of
silver, strewn with great golden goblets, and viands, coloured meats, and
ordered fruits on shining platters. Then said she to Shibli Bagarag, 'O
youth! there shall be no deceit, no guile between us. Thou art but my
guest, I no bride to thee, so take the place of the guest beside me.'
He took his seat beside her, Abarak standing by, and she helped the youth
to this dish and that dish, from the serving of slaves, caressing him
with flattering looks to starve aversion and nourish tender fellowship.
And he was like one that slideth down a hill and can arrest his descent
with a foot, yet faileth that freewill. When he had eaten and drunk with
her, the Queen said, 'O youth, no other than my guest! art thou not a
prince in the country thou comest from?'
In a moment the pride of the barber forsook him, and he equivocated,
saying, 'O Queen! there is among the stars somewhere, as was divined by
the readers of planets, a crown hanging for me, and I search a point of
earth to intercept its fall.'
She marked him beguiled by vanity, and put sweetmeats to his mouth,
exclaiming, 'Thy manners be those of a prince!' Then she sang to him of
the loneliness of her life, and of one with whom she wished to share her
state,--such as he. And at her signal came troops of damsels that stood
in rings and luted sweetly on the same theme--the Queen's loneliness, her
love. And he said to the Queen, 'Is this so?'