Part 13 (1/2)
”I told her nothing of the ry voice
”Nay, thou toldestwisdom told me Oh, didst thou think, Atene, that thou couldst hide the truth fro Hesea of the Mountain? If so, spare thy breath, for I know all, and have known it from the first I passed thy disobedience by; of thy false es I took no heed For ht, suffered even that thou shouldst hold these, uests, thy prisoners whilst thou didst strive by threats and force to win a love denied”
She paused, then went on coldly: ”Woman, I tell thee that, to complete thy sin, thou hast even dared to lie to me here, in my very Sanctuary”
”If so, what of it?” was the bold answer ”Dost thou love the man thyself? Nay, it is monstrous Nature would cry aloud at such a shae Hes, I know thy evil powers, but I know also that I auest, and that in this hallowed place, beneath yonder symbol of eternal Love, thou may'st shed no blood More, thou canst not harm me, Hes, who am thy equal”
”Atene,” replied the measured Voice, ”did I desire it, I could destroy thee where thou art Yet thou art right, I shall not harm thee, thou faithless servant Did not h yonder searcher of the stars, thy uncle, to ht to my shrine? Tell me, for I seek to kno comes it that thou didst disobey me?”
”Have then thy desire,” answered Atene in a new and earnest voice, devoid now of bitterness and falsehood ”I disobeyed because that man is not thine, but mine, and no other woman's; because I love him and have loved hi into life I have loved hiic of h how and where and when these things have been I know not Therefore I come to thee, Mother of Mysteries, Guardian of the secrets of the past, to learn the truth At least thou canst not lie at thine own altar, and I charge thee, by the dread name of that Power to which thou also must render thy account, that thou answer now and here
”Who is thisyearns? What has he been to me? What has he to do with thee? Speak, O Oracle and h afterwards thou dost slay me-if thou canst”
”Aye, speak! speak!” said Leo, ”for know I am in sore suspense I also am bewildered by memories and rent with hopes and fears”
And I too echoed, ”Speak!”
”Leo Vincey,” asked the Hesea, after she had thought awhile, ”whom dost thou believe me to be?”
”I believe,” he answered solemnly, ”that thou art that Ayesha at whose hands I died of old in the Caves of Kor in Africa I believe thou art that Ayesha whoo I found and loved in those sa that thou wouldst return again”
”See no madness can mislead a o,' he said, whereas I knoell that randsire in his youth saw this sa on the Mother's throne”
”And whom dost thou believeno note of the Khania's words
”What he believes I believe,” I answered ”The dead come back to life-sometimes Yet alone thou knowest the truth, and by thee only it can be revealed”
”Aye,” she said, as though e shape, and, mayhap, I know the truth To-h for burial ill speak of it again Till then rest you all, and prepare to face that fearful thing-the Truth”
While the Hesea still spoke the silvery curtains swung to their place as nal, the black-robed priests advanced Surrounding Atene, they led her from the Sanctuary, accompanied by her uncle the Shaue or fear, could scarcely stand upon his feet, but stood blinking his dione, the priests and priestesses, who all this ti of our talk, gathered the, departed also, leaving us alone with Oros and the corpse of the Khan, which remained where it had been set down
Now the head-priest Oros beckoned to us to follow him, and ent also Nor was I sorry to leave the place, for its death-like loneliness-enhanced, strangely enough, as it was, by the flood of light that filled it; a loneliness which was concentrated and expressed in the awful figure stretched upon the bier, oppressed and overcaone Thankful enough was I when, having passed the transepts and down the length of the vast nave, we caates, which, as before, opened to let us through, and so at last into the sweet, cold air of the night at that hour which precedes the dawn
Oros led us to a house well-built and furnished, where at his bidding, like ave us I think that drink was drugged, at least after sing it I re on a bed and feeling wonderfully strong and well This I thought strange, for a la in the room showed me that it was still dark, and therefore that I could have rested but a little tiain, but was not able, so fell to thinking till I greeary of the task For here thoughts would not help ,” as the veiled Priestess had called it
Oh! what if she should prove not the Ayesha e desired, but so of the Khania's hints and of her boldness, that surely had been inspired by the strength of a hidden knowledge? What if-nay, it could not be-I would rise and dressto occupy my mind until the appointed hour, e must learn-the best-or the worst
I sat up in the bed and saw a figure advancing towards me It was Oros, who bore a la, friend Holly,” he said, ”and now it is ti?” I answered testily ”How can that be, when it is still dark?”
”Because, friend, the dark is that of a new night Many hours have gone by since you lay down upon this bed Well, you ise to rest you while you ain! Come, let me bathe your arm”
”Tell me,” I broke in--”Nay, friend,” he interrupted fir, except that soon you must start to be present at the funeral of the Khan, and, perchance, to learn the answer to your questions”
Ten -chamber of the house, where I found Leo already dressed, for Oros had awakened him before he came to me and bidden him to prepare himself Oros told us here that the Hesea had not suffered us to be disturbed until the night cao that day So presently we started
Once h the flame-lit hall till we came to the loop-shaped apse The place was eone, and no draped Oracle sat in the altar shrine, for its silver curtains were drawn, andthat it was untenanted
”The Mother has departed to do honour to the dead, according to the ancient custom,” Oros explained to us
Then we passed the altar, and behind the statue found a door in the rock wall of the apse, and beyond the door a passage, and a hall as of a house, for out of it opened other doors leading to cha-places of the Hesea and her maidens He added that they ran to the side of the Mountain and had s that opened on to gardens and let in the light and air In this hall six priests aiting, each of whom carried a bundle of torches beneath his arhted lah were it day we erous to do”
Then taking torches, he lit theave one to each of us
Now our clialleries ent, heith inconceivable labour by the pri rock of the Mountain It seemed to me that they stretched for h the slope was always gentle, it took us th we careat stair
”Rest awhile here,to Leo with the reverence that he had shown hi Noe stand upon the Mountain's topmost lip, and are about to climb that tall looped column which soars above”
So we sat down in the vault-like place and let the sharp draught of air rushi+ng to and froes play upon us, for ere heated with journeying up those close galleries As we sat thus I heard a roaring sound and asked Oros what it ht be He answered that ere very near to the crater of the volcano, and that e heard through the thickness of the rock was the rushi+ng of its everlasting fires Then the ascent coh very wearisome, for there were nearly six hundred of those steps The cliallery of the Great Pyras; that of the pillar was like the ascent of a cathedral spire, or rather of several spires piled one upon another
Resting froed ourselves up the steep steps, each of theht, till the pillar was climbed and only the loop relad was I that the stairway still ran within the substance of the rock, for I could feel the needle's hty eye quiver in the rush of the winds which swept about its sides
At lengthlight before us, and in another twenty steps eed upon a platform As Leo, ent in front of me, walked from the stairway I saw Oros and another priest seize hi
”Nothing,” he cried back, ”except that this is a dizzy place and they feared lest I should fall Mind how you come, Horace,” and he stretched out his hand to me
Noas clear of the tunnel, and I believe that had it not been for that hand I should have sunk to the rocky floor, for the sight before me seemed to paralyse my brain Nor was this to be wondered at, for I doubt whether the world can show such another
We stood upon the very apex of the loop, a flat space of rock about eighty yards in length by some thirty in breadth, with the star-strewn sky above us To the south, twenty thousand feet or more below, stretched the dim Plain of Kaloon, and to the east and west the snow-clad shoulders of the peak and the broad brown slopes beneath To the north was a different sight, and one ht under us as it seemed, for the pillar bent inwards, lay the vast crater of the volcano, and in the centre of it a wide lake of fire that broke into bubbles and flowers of sudden flary sea
Froases that took fire as they floated upwards, and, ht Right opposite to us burned this sheet and, the flare of it passing through the needle-eye of the pillar under us, sped away in one dazzling beam across the country of Kaloon, across the mountains beyond, till it was lost on the horizon
The wind blew fro sucked in towards the hot crater of the volcano, and its fierce breath, that screaed surface, bent the long crest of the sheet of flaale, and tore froments of fire, that floated away to leeward like the blown-out sails of a burning shi+p
Had it not been for this strong and steady wind indeed, no creature could have lived upon the pillar, for the vapours would have poisoned hi blast drove these all away towards the north For the same reason, in the thin air of that icy place the heat was not too great to be endured
Appalled by that terrific spectacle, which seemed more appropriate to the terrors of the Pit than to this earth of ours, and fearful lest the blast should whirl ulf beneath, I fell on toto Leo to do likewise, and looked about reat capes, kneeling upon the face of the rock and engaged apparently in prayer, but of Hes the Mother, or of Atene, or of the corpse of the dead Khan I could see nothing
Whilst I wondered where they ht be, Oros, upon whose nerves this dread scene appeared to have no effect, and some of our attendant priests surrounded us and led us onwards by a path that ran perilously near to the rounded edge of the rock A feard steps and we found that ere under shelter, for the gale was roaring over us Twenty more paces and we came to a recess cut, I suppose, by man in the face of the loop, in such fashi+on that a lava roof was left projecting half across its width
This recess, or rock chareat number of people, we reached safely, to discover that it was already tenanted Seated in a chair hewn fro a broidered, purple s that enveloped her fro near to her were the Khania Atene and her uncle the old Shaman, who looked but ill at ease, and lastly, stretched upon his funeral couch, the fiery light beating upon his stark form and face, lay the dead Khan, Rassen