Part 12 (2/2)
”Yet I desire to hear that tale,” she went on, and to ht, for I know that you both are weary; a little of it only In sooth, Strangers, there is a sameness in this home of contemplations, and no heart can feed only on the past, if such a thing there be Therefore I welcome a new history from the world without Tell it me, thou, Leo, as briefly as thou wilt, so that thou tell the truth, for in the Presence of which I a else be uttered”
”Priestess,” he said, in his curt fashi+on, ”I obey Many years ago when I was young, my friend and foster-father and I, led by records of the past, travelled to a wild land, and there found a certain divine woman who had conquered tied and hideous”
”I said, Priestess, that she had conquered tiift of immortal youth was hers Also she was not hideous; she was beauty itself”
”Therefore stranger, thou didst worshi+p her for her beauty's sake, as a man does”
”I did not worshi+p her; I loved her, which is another thing The priest Oros here worshi+ps thee, whom he calls Mother I loved that immortal woman”
”Then thou shouldst love her still Yet, not so, since love is very h she died”
”Why, how is that? Thou saidst she was immortal”
”Perchance she only seeed At least I lost her, and what I lost I seek, and have sought this many a year”
”Why dost thou seek her in my Mountain, Leo Vincey?”
”Because a vision led me to ask counsel of its Oracle I as of my lost love, since here alone these may be found”
”And thou, Holly, didst thou also love an immortal woman whose immortality, it seems, must bow to death?”
”Priestess,” I answered, ”I aoes I follow He follows beauty that is dead--”
”And thou dost follow him Therefore both of you follow beauty asblind and mad”
”Nay,” I answered, ”if they were blind, beauty would be naught to them who could not see it, and if they were e and vision belong to the wise, O Hes”
”Thou art quick of wit and tongue, Holly, as--” and she checked herself, then of a sudden, said, ”Tell me, did my servant the Khania of Kaloon entertain both of you hospitably in her city, and speed you on your journey hither, as I commanded her?”
”We knew not that she was thy servant,” I replied ”Hospitality we had and to spare, but ere sped from her Court hitherward by the death-hounds of the Khan, her husband Tell us, Priestess, what thou knowest of this journey of ours”
”A little,” she answered carelessly ”More than three overy close to you at night, heard you speak together of the object of your wanderings, then, returning thence swiftly, made report to ician her great-uncle, who is Guardian of the Gate, go down to the ancient gates of Kaloon to receive you and bring you hither with all speed Yet for men who burned to learn the answer to a riddle, you have been long in coht, O Hes,” said Leo; ”and if thy spies could visit those mountains, where no man was, and find a path down that hideous precipice, they must have been able also to tell thee the reason of our delay Therefore I pray, ask it not of us”
”Nay, I will ask it of Atene herself, and she shall surely answer me, for she stands without,” replied the Hesea in a cold voice ”Oros, lead the Khania hither and be swift”
The priest turned and walking quickly to the wooden doors by which we had entered the shrine, vanished there
”Now,” said Leo to lish, ”noe were somewhere else, for I think that there will be trouble”
”I don't think, I am sure,” I answered; ”but the more the better, for out of trouble may come the truth, which we need sorely” Then I stopped, reflecting that the strange woman before us said that her spies had overheard our talk upon the lish
As it proved, I ise, for quite quietly the Hesea repeated after me-”Thou hast experience, Holly, for out of trouble comes the truth, as out of wine”
Then she was silent, and, needless to say, I did not pursue the conversation
The doors swung open, and through them came a procession clad in black, followed by the Shaman Simbri, alked in front of a bier, upon which lay the body of the Khan, carried by eight priests Behind it was Atene, draped in a black veil from head to foot, and after her marched another company of priests In front of the altar the bier was set down and the priests fell back, leaving Atene and her uncle standing alone before the corpse
”What seeks my vassal, the Khania of Kaloon?” asked the Hesea in a cold voice
Now Atene advanced and bent the knee, but with little graciousness
”Ancient Mother, Mother from of old, I do reverence to thy holy Office, as ain she curtseyed ”Mother, this dead ht of sepulchre in the fires of the holy Mountain which fro has been accorded to the royal departed ent before him”
”It has been accorded as thou sayest,” answered the Hesea, ”by those priestesses who filled my place before me, nor shall it be refused to thy dead lord-or to thee Atene-when thy time comes”
”I thank thee, O Hes, and I pray that this decree athered on thy venerable head and soon thou must leave us for awhile Therefore bid thy scribes that it be written down, so that the Hesea who rules after thee may fulfil it in its season”
”Cease,” said the Hesea, ”cease to pour out thy bitterness at that which should command thy reverence, oh! thou foolish child, who dost not know but that to-morrow the fire shall claim the frail youth and beauty which are thy boast I bid thee cease, and tell me how did death find this lord of thine?”
”Ask those wanderers yonder, that were his guests, for his blood is on their heads and cries for vengeance at thy hands”
”I killed him,” said Leo, ”to save s, and there are the marks of them,” and he pointed to my arm ”The priest Oros knows, for he dressed the hurts”
”How did this chance?” asked the Hesea of Atene
”My lord was mad,” she answered boldly, ”and such was his cruel sport”
”So And was thy lord jealous also? Nay, keep back the falsehood I see rising to thy lips Leo Vincey, answer thou me Yet, I will not ask thee to lay bare the secrets of a woman who has offered thee her love Thou, Holly, speak, and let it be the truth”
”It is this, O Hes,” I answered ”Yonder lady and her uncle the Shaman Simbri saved us from death in the waters of the river that bounds the precipices of Kaloon Afterwards ere ill, and they treated us kindly, but the Khania becaure of the Priestess stirred beneath its gauzy wrappings, and the Voice asked-”And did thy foster-son beco a man he may well have done, for without doubt she is fair?”
”He can answer that question for himself, O Hes All I know is that he strove to escape froave hie with her, when her lord should be dead So, helped by the Khan, her husband, as jealous of him, we fled towards this Mountain, which we desired to reach Then the Khan set his hounds upon us, for he was mad and false-hearted We killed him and came on in spite of this lady, his wife, and her uncle, ould have prevented us, and were uide, who led us up the Mountain and twice saved us from death That is all the story”
”Wo voice
”But little,” Atene answered, without flinching ”For years I have been bound to a madman and a brute, and if my fancy wandered towards this man and his fancy wandered towards me-well, Nature spoke to us, and that is all Afterwards it seeeance of Rassen, or this Holly, whorew afraid So they strove to escape the land, and perchance wandered to thy Mountain But I weary of this talk, and ask thy leave to rest before to-morrow's rite”
”Thou sayest, Atene,” said the Hesea, ”that Nature spoke to this man and to thee, and that his heart is thine; but that, fearing thy lord's vengeance, he fled from thee, he who seems no coward Tell me, then, is that tress he hides in the satchel on his breast thy gage of love to hi of what he hides in the satchel,” answered the Khania sullenly
”And yet, yonder in the Gatehouse when he lay so sick he set the lock against thine own-ah, dost remember now?”
”So, O Hes, already he has told thee all our secrets, though they be such as most men hide within their breasts;” and she looked contemptuously at Leo