That night, in gloomy mood, Istar reclined dreamily upon her soft
papakha, dismissing all her priestesses and slaves, so that I remained
alone with her. With my back to one of the golden pillars supporting
the roof, I sat silent in thought, scarce daring to move, for fear of
the dozing lioness. Istar had fallen into a troubled sleep, and lay
tossing upon her couch with tumbled tresses.
A sudden murmur from her caused me to glance in her direction, when I
saw her lying, still asleep, ghastly pale beneath the light of the moon.
Her robe was disarranged; her delicate chest, that slowly heaved and
fell, had become revealed. As I looked, I discerned, to my amazement,
that it bore the device of the entwined asps, identically the same as
had been branded upon me; the same as appeared on the rock-tablet of
Semiramis!
Azala had spoken the truth. So far had the Mystery of the Asps been
revealed. The strange link that joined me with the daughter of the
Sultan 'Othman joined us both, in some unaccountable manner, to the
goddess-queen of this ancient land of marvels. I rose, and, creeping
nearer, minutely examined the mystic mark upon her chest. It was seared
as deeply, and presented a blemish as hideous, as my own. Lying, as she
was, in graceful abandon, with one arm flung over her head, her chest
rose and fell each time she breathed, but suddenly she drew a long,
deep-drawn sigh, and her eyes opened.
I started back, but already she had detected me. "Well?" she exclaimed,
regarding me with dreamy glance through her half-opened lashes, slowly
readjusting the white silken robe that had come apart at the neck. "Why
hast thou approached me?"
"Thou hast slept uneasily," I answered, "and a hideous mark upon thy
breast became revealed."
Languidly she raised her head upon her arm, and with eyes still half
closed, like Ninep, her dozing lioness, she said,--
"Come hither, Zafar. Come to my side."
Obediently I approached her couch. Her breast rose, causing her
diamonds to sparkle. During the past few days I had not failed to
notice in her manner an entire change. She accorded me more liberty;
she no longer placed her spiteful heel upon my neck as sign of triumph,
and seldom she spoke to me with wilful gesture. Once, the amazing
thought had flashed across my mind that she actually loved me, but at
such absurd notion I had laughed and placed it aside.
"What seest thou in the Mark of the Asps to amaze thee?" she asked, when
I had drawn nigh to her, and Ninep sniffed my legs inquisitively.
"It is as a strange mark," I answered. "I was wondering what its
meaning might be."
"Ah!" she sighed. "Its meaning none can tell, save that those who bear
it are the doomed."
"The doomed!" I gasped. "Why?"
"Upon his accursed Anu setteth his mark. Hence it is that I bear it,"
she answered, gravely. "Thou art mine enemy, Zafar," she added, after a
slight, painful pause. "To-night have I sent away my women, so that I
may speak with thee, the stranger whose coming hath been prophesied for
ages. By all men in Ea I am supposed to hate thee, yet--yet--"
Again she paused, looking at me intently with eyes in which burned the
unmistakable light of love.
"Yet thou canst not bring thyself to cast me into the lions' pit," I
observed, smiling bitterly. "Better that thou shouldst give me my
liberty, and allow me to depart."
"Never," she cried, starting up. "Thou shalt never leave me. If I am
doomed to die, thou shalt die also."
"Why?" I asked. "I have wrought thee no ill."
"Thou hast struck the chord of affection within my heart, Zafar," she
said, passionately.
"Already have I told thee that Azala, daughter of the Sultan 'Othman, is
betrothed to me," I answered, not in the least surprised at this
passionate declaration.
"Heed her not," she cried. "Already I know that Anu, though he sendeth
thee hither as sign of the overthrow of Ea, hath, nevertheless, placed
upon thee also the Mark of the Asps."
I started. I had no idea that she had ascertained the secret hidden
beneath my robe of crimson silk. Some slave must, at her bidding, have
examined my chest as I slept.
"And if so?"
"Then thou wilt assuredly meet with a violent end." I smiled, and she
regarded me with knit brows.
"If thou art my friend," I said, "then thou wilt release me."
"No. None departs from or enters the Land of the No Return," she
answered. "Since the foundation of Ea one man only escaped into the
outer world. It happened ages ago. He never returned hither, for on
the day the calamity befel us Anu was wroth, a great earthquake
occurred, and the gate by which he made his exit became closed for
ever."
Already had I heard a similar legend during my long and eager search for
the Rock of Sin, the Moon-god, the "illuminator of the earth and lord of
laws."
"Who was the man who escaped?" I inquired.
"Legend saith his name was Nebo," she answered. "Knowest thou any of
that name?"
In the negative I replied, reflecting upon the strange story of the
escape of this man beyond the confines of Ea, and wondering what
adventures befel him.
Then she went on to relate how, on many occasions, there had appeared in
cloud pictures, or mirages, inverted pictures of the unapproachable
world beyond; and I, in turn, explained how the Rock of the Moon-god and
the Mountains of the Mist appeared frequently in the desert mirage in
far-off Kano.
"Hast thou ever seen Ea mirrored on the clouds?" she inquired.
"Never," I answered. "Thy city is unknown, hence my speechless
amazement at its discovery."
"Why desirest thou to return to thy land of evil?" she asked, stretching
forth her hand and softly stroking Ninep's sleek back.
"Because of the woman I love."
She bit her lip to the blood, and glanced at me with an evil glint in
her bright eyes.
"Thou carest naught for me," she observed, reproachfully, regarding me
sharply with narrowing brows.
"I am but thy captive," I responded. "As Queen of Ea thou mayest not
allow love to enter thine heart until thou growest old. Why dost thou
taunt me?"
Mention of the rigid law of her great ancestress, Semiramis, caused her
to frown.
"So be it," she answered, hoarsely. "If thou wilt not renounce thy love
for this woman who dwelleth in thine accursed land, then thou art still
my slave."
"I am content," I said.
"Thou hast chosen?" she inquired, slowly rising to her feet and standing
erect before me.
"I have chosen."
"Then to-morrow the lions shall rend thee in full gaze of the assembled
people of Ea, who shall make sport of thy supplications, and thy cries
shall be as music unto their ears," she burst forth, in a sudden fury of
passion. "Anu shall rend thee, Nergal, lord of death, shall seize thee,
and thou shalt be accursed by the Fever-god, and cast into the dread
kingdom of Niffer. Baal shall show thee no mercy; Adarmalik, lord of
the noon-day sun, shall hide his light from thee; Shamas shall blind
thee, and thou shalt exist for ever in the torments prepared by Ninkigat
in the burning land where all is dust. Thou hast disdained the favours
that I would have bestowed upon thee, despised me, and flung back the
love that I would have given thee. Therefore shalt thou die. I, Istar,
ruler of Ea, have spoken."
Her beautiful face was distorted by fierce, uncontrolled passion,
vituperation fell from her lips with a rapidity which almost choked her,
her mass of dead gold hair had escaped from its fillet and fell in
profusion about her shoulders, while her white, filmy robe, open again
at the neck, disclosed the hideous, mysterious blemish scarred dark red
upon the white flesh--the mark that was branded upon the woman I loved
as well as the queen-goddess who had condemned me to death.
My dogged silence enraged her. It seemed as though during the weeks of
my captivity she had unconsciously grown to regard me with affection,
and held me as slave of her caprice. Yet my thoughts, ever of Azala,
were so full that I had never before actually realised the position in
which I now suddenly found myself.
"Thou utterest no word!" she cried. "Thou art still defiant. To-morrow
wilt thou crave mercy at my feet, but I will show thee none. Thou hast
sneered at my power, set at naught my good-will, and refused to abandon
all thought of return to thy land of evil, and the woman who holdeth
thee entranced. Thou shalt never look upon her face again!"
I turned away from the irate beauty, whose hands were clenched within
their palms until the nails drew blood, and without replying, slowly
crossed the polished pavement of the temple, passing over the spot
whereon the hapless prophet had fallen beneath Ninep's deadly claws, and
advancing to the sculptured parapet of alabaster, whereon I leaned in
thought, gazing down upon the gay, brightly-lit city, and the great
buildings and courts which comprised the wonderful House of the Raising
of the Head. Ninep uttered a low growl. The moon shone brightly,
lighting up the extensive view on every hand. Below lay the
well-remembered flight of steps, brilliantly illuminated, with their
double row of guards in shining breastplates. Beyond the palace walls
the lights of the streets showed in long, straight lines. Above, the
shaft of intense white brilliance, the inextinguishable Eye of Istar,
still streamed forth upon the wondrous city of Ea, lighting up its
terraces, its obelisks and colossal temples like day, while, far away in
the distance, the snowy, serrated crests of the Mountains of the Mist
showed high, ghost-like, mysterious.
Beyond lay freedom and Azala. Already had I witnessed that Istar, quick
tempered and passionate, was capable of any cruelty or treachery, even
towards her most trusted friends. This woman, worshipped as Goddess of
Love, was, indeed, full of grace, beautiful in form, with a face almost
flawless; but the cruelties she practised almost daily were revolting.
To incur her anger meant death, either upon the torture-wheel or in the
lion pit, and ofttimes, while standing beside her, I had noticed the
exultant pleasure with which she condemned men and women to torture or
to the grave. The people of Ea called her goddess; I thought her a
fiend.
As over the parapet I gazed aimlessly away across the gigantic capital
of this world-forgotten race, it became impressed upon me that, to save
my life, I must at once seek means of escape. But how? As Istar's
personal slave, it seemed impossible to elude her vigilance; even if I
escaped outside the city my way back to the Rock of the Moon-god was
uncertain. I recollected also that within the gloomy cavern there
existed an utterly impassable barrier between myself and the world I had
left--that roaring inrush of water descending to feed the subterranean
river. Times without number thoughts of freedom had possessed me, but
on each occasion I had been forced to abandon hope, resign myself to the
galling captivity in which I existed, and possess my soul in patience.
Now, however, I had become desperate. The moon, while I stood watching
long and earnestly, became obscured by a dense black cloud shaped like a
falcon's wing, which left only a patch of green sky half round its disc.
On either side of the city the great plain stretched dark and wide.
The shapes of the mountains could not be discerned, but showed like a
heavy cloud bank against the horizon. My strained eyes could discern a
speck of light afar off, which, as it was too low for a star, could only
mark the existence of some house on the distant mountain-side. The
silence could be felt.
The day of feasting and mad gaiety had, it seemed, exhausted all the
voices of nature as well as those of men.
At length I turned towards the papakha. Istar had sunk back upon her
purple couch, wearied by the continuous gaiety of the festival, and
forgetful of her wrath, had again fallen asleep, her head thrown back
upon a great, tasselled cushion of rose silk. One of her slippers had
fallen off, disclosing her bare foot, with its heavy, bejewelled
anklets, while near her Ninep had stretched her long body, with her
snout between her paws. Between us stood the life-sized statue upon its
pedestal, the image of Love, before which all women of Ea bowed and made
sacrifice. Ghostly it looked in the pale half light with the symbol of
the entwined asps held within its right hand, and as I advanced towards
it I touched its base. The stone had been worn smooth as glass by the
lips of priestesses and votaries who had worshipped at that shrine
through all the ages since Semiramis; the feet and legs were worn hollow
and out of symmetry by the osculations of the millions of women who had
ascended that tower to the gorgeous Temple of Istar to prostrate
themselves. The image stretched forth its arm over me ominously, and
the perfumed smoke from the braziers, whirled up by a breath of the
night wind, wrapped around me a subtle, almost suffocating, fragrance.
Istar slept on with heaving breasts. One chance alone remained to me--a
dash for liberty.
Advancing cautiously a few paces I craned my neck to satisfy myself that
her slumber was not feigned; then, with a last look upon her, I turned
and crept silently away into the shadow where the stairs descended.
I had just reached them, when a faint rustling behind me caused me to
glance quickly round. In an instant I recognised the truth. Istar had
followed me. With a cry of rage she sprang upon me, her poniard
gleaming in her hand. Long ago she had vowed to kill me if I attempted
to leave her side, and it was now her intention to carry out her threat.
One fierce blow she aimed at my heart, and in warding it off the blade
gashed my arm. At the same moment, however, I wrested the weapon from
her hand, and held her tightly by the wrists.
To free herself she struggled violently, but I held her powerless, when
suddenly there was a low, ominous growl, and Ninep, in defence of her
mistress, pounced upon me, her great claws fixing themselves in my left
shoulder. Instantly I recognised the ferocity of my second adversary,
and releasing Istar, I plunged the long, keen knife full into the eye of
the lioness.
Fortunately my aim proved true, for in a few seconds the great brute,
her brain penetrated, fell back helpless and dying.
Again Istar, with the fury of a virago, rushed upon me, declaring that I
should not escape. My first impulse was to kill her. Indeed, I confess
I raised my knife to plunge it into her breast, but next second gripped
her by the throat, and hurled her back upon the pavement where she lay
huddled in a heap, stunned, motionless, and unconscious.
With a final glance at her inanimate form, I secreted the knife within
my silken girdle, then dashed down the stairs--down, down, through the
six deserted temples, tier on tier, until I reached the silent
courtyard, which I hastily crossed and went to Istar's private
apartment, whence I took a small tablet of sun-dried clay whereon a
message had been impressed. This I placed in my pouch, and, taking a
staff, set forth to gain my freedom.
In fear each moment lest Istar should regain consciousness, and raise
the alarm, I hurried on through the great apartments with their colossal
sculptures, where scribes and courtiers, officials and soldiers, were
slumbering after the week's festivities, and at length gained the head
of the brilliantly-lit flight of steps, the one way by which the royal
palace could be approached.
As soon as I drew near to the head of the broad stairs the lances of the
guards were interlaced from top to bottom. My passage was barred until
I had explained to the two officers that I was bearer of an urgent
message from Istar, and exhibited to them the tablet bearing her seal.
Then only was I allowed to proceed. At each of the seven gates between
the actual entrance to the palace and the brazen gate of the city, I
presented my credential and was afforded free passage. In trepidation I
approached one of the great doors of polished brass that closed the
entrance to the city, and again drew forth the tablet. The officer of
the watch scrutinised it long and carefully by the aid of his lantern,
then, finding everything satisfactory, gave orders that the gate should
be opened to pass out a messenger of Istar.
One of the ponderous doors creaked at last, and groaning, slowly fell
back just sufficiently to allow me to pass.
"May Merodach guard thee, messenger," shouted the officer as I went
forth.
"And thee also," I answered, as out upon the plain I sped quickly in the
direction of freedom. Behind me the shaft of white light still streamed
from the summit of the Temple of the Seven Lights; before me were the
half-obscured Mountains of the Mist.
Once I glanced back upon the wonderful centre of a civilisation unknown
to the world, then resolutely I set my face towards the pole-star,
determined to put as great a distance as possible between myself and
those who would undoubtedly pursue me ere the first saffron streak of
dawn showed the direction of Mecca.