Part 18 (1/2)
”Ah!” she said, with a flash of her eyes ”I have thought of it, and for my part hope that it will chance, since then thou canst not blath Oh! then the East, that has slept so long, shall awake-shall awake, and upon battlefield after battlefield such as history cannot tell of, thou shalt seestandards sweep on to victory One by one thou shalt watch the nations fall and perish, until at length I build thy throne upon the hecatombs of their countless dead and crown thee eenerate in blood and fire”
Leo, whoeneration seemed to appall, as, in fact, a hater of absolute monarchies and somewhat republican in his views and syurotesque in its tremendous and fantastic absurdity; Ayesha's ambitions were such as no imperial-minded madman could conceive
Yet-here cahtest doubt but that she ell able to put them into practice and carry them to some marvellous and awful conclusion Why not? Death could not touch her; she had triumphed over death Her beauty-that ”cup of madness” in her eyes, as she named it once to me-and her reckless ould coence would enable her to invent neeapons hich the hly-trained arht be as she said, and as I for one believed, with good reason, it proved, that she held at her command the elemental forces of Nature, such as those that lie hid in electricity, which would give all living beings to her for a prey
Ayesha was still woh to have worldly ambitions, and the most dread circumstance about her superhuman poas that they appeared to be unrestrained by any responsibility to God or el to be, if indeed, as she herself once hinted and as Atene and the old Shaman believed, this were not her true place in creation By only two things that I was able to discover could she be ree, her friendshi+p forpassion for this one man, inexplicable in its endurance and intensity, would, I felt sure even then, in the future as in the past, prove to be her heel of Achilles When Ayesha was dipped in the waters of Dominion and Deathlessness, this huht be rendered harmless as a child, who otherould have devastated the universe
I was right
Whilst I was still indulgingthat Ayesha would not take the trouble to read the to the earth before her
”Thy business, priest?” she asked sharply; for when she ith Leo Ayesha did not like to be disturbed
”Hes, the spies are returned”
”Why didst thou send them out?” she asked indifferently ”What need have I of thy spies?”
”Hes, thou didst comrave The people of Kaloon are desperate because of the drought which has caused their crops to fail, so that starvation stares theers who came into their land and fled to thee The Khania Atene also is ht and day, she has gathered two great armies, one of forty, and one of twenty thousand ainst the Mountain under the command of her uncle, Simbri the Shaman In case it should be defeated she purposes to rereater ars indeed,” said Ayesha with a scornful laugh ”Has her hate ainst me? My Holly, it crossed thyof what I have no power to perform Well, within six days thou shalt learn-oh! verily thou shalt learn, and, though the issue be so very small, in such a fashi+on that thou wilt doubt no h the effort of it wearies me, for those spies may be but victims to their own fears, or to the falsehoods of Atene”
Then suddenly, as was coht afar, which either from indolence, or because, as she said, it exhausted her, she did but rarely, her lovely face grew rigid like that of a person in a trance; the light faded froreat pupils of her eyes contracted themselves and lost their colour
In a little while, fivefrom a deep sleep, passed her hand across her forehead and was as she had been, though soth had left her
”It is true enough,” she said, ”and soon Ilest many of my people should be killed My lord, wouldst thou see war? Nay, thou shalt bide here in safety whilst I go forward-to visit Atene as I prorily, his face flushi+ng to the roots of his hair with shame
”I pray thee not, I pray thee not,” she answered, yet without venturing to forbid him ”We will talk of it hereafter Oros, away! Send round the Fire of Hes to every chief Three nights hence at the ather-nay, not all, twenty thousand of their best will be enough, the rest shall stay to guard the Mountain and this Sanctuary Let the food with the dawn Go”
He bowed and went, whereon, disan to question ain about the Chinese and their customs
It was in course of a soht, of which, however, I forget the exact details, that a remark of Leo's led to another exhibition of Ayesha'sher plans for conquest, and again conant to his religious, social and political views-said suddenly that after all they must break down, since they would involve the expenditure of sums of money so vast that even Ayesha herself would be unable to provide thehed a little
”Verily, Leo,” she said, ”to thee, yes; and to Holly here I irl blown to and fro by every wind of fancy, and building me a palace wherein to dwell out of dew and vapours, or from the substance of the sunset fires Thinkest thou then that I would enter on this war-one worew royal and in her awful eyes there came a look that chilled my blood-”and make no preparation for its necessities? Why, since last we spoke upon thisall, I have considered in my mind, and now thou shalt learn hoithout cost to those we rule-and for that reason alone shall they love us dearly-I will glut the treasuries of the Empress of the Earth
”Dost re all those weary ages-that of forcing my mother Nature one by one to yield s which are and of the forces that cause them to be born Now follow me, both of you, and ye shall look on what mortal eyes have not yet beheld”
”What are we to see?” I asked doubtfully, having a lively recollection of Ayesha's powers as a chemist
”That thou shalt learn, or shalt not learn if it pleases thee to stay behind Come, Leo, my love, my love, and leave this wise philosopher first to find his riddle and next to guess it”
Then turning her back to h really he was h a furnace door, as indeed, had he but known it, he was about to do
So they started, and I accoe in any foolish pride, or to make oneself a victim to consistency Also I was anxious to see her new marvel, and did not care to rely for an account of it upon Leo's descriptive skill, which at its best was never es that we had not passed before, to a door which she signed to Leo to open He obeyed, and frouessed at once, the place was her laboratory, for about it stood e-shaped instruments Moreover, there was a furnace in it, one of the best conceivable, for it needed neither fuel nor stoking, whose gaseous fires, like those of the twisted colu from the womb of the volcano beneath our feet
When we entered two priests were at work there: one of the its molten contents into a mould of clay They stopped to salute Ayesha, but she bade the them if all ell
”Very well, O Hes,” they answered; and we passed through that cave and sundry doors and passages to a little chamber cut in the rock There was no lamp or flaentle light which see wall
”What were those priests doing?” I said, more to break the silence than for any other reason
”Why waste breath upon foolish questions?” she replied ”Are no ht to knohat I a, thou wouldst not believe, so, Doubter, thou shalt see”
Then she pointed to and bade us don, two strange gar upon the wall, made of a material which see headpieces not unlike a diver's helmet
So under her directions Leo helped athered froh the helmet-she did the same service for him
”I seem very much in the dark,” I said presently; for now there was silence again, and beneath this extinguisher I felt alarmed and wished to be sure that I was not left alone
”Aye Holly,” I heard Ayesha'svoice make answer, ”in the dark, as thou wast ever, the thick dark of ignorance and unbelief Well, now, as ever also, I will give thee light” As she spoke I heard so roll back; I suppose that it ht, yes, even through the thicknesses of that prepared garht as seemed to blind me By it I saw that the wall opposite to us had opened and that ere all three of us, on the threshold of another cha like a little altar of hard, black stone, and on this altar lay a mass of substance of the size of a child's head, but fashi+oned, I suppose fro shape of a hu and intolerable light It was shut round by thick, funnel-shaped screens of a material that looked like fire-brick, yet it pierced theh they were but muslin More, the rays thus directed upwards struck full upon a lump of metal held in place above them by a massive frame-work
And what rays they were! If all the cut diahty burning-glass, the light flashed from them would not have been a thousandth part so brilliant They scorched my eyes and caused the skin of my face and limbs to smart, yet Ayesha stood there unshi+elded froth of the roo back her veil, bent over them, as it seemed a woman of molten steel in whose body the bones were visible, and exa cradle
”It is ready and soh it were but a feather weight, she lifted the lulided back with it to where we stood, laughing and saying-”Tell me now, O thou well-read Holly, if thou hast ever heard of a better alcheotten faith?” And she thrust the glowing substance up almost to the mask that hid my face
Then I turned and ran, or rather waddled, for in that gear I could not run, out of the chamber until the rock wall beyond stayed me, and there, with ainst it, for I felt as though red-hot bradawls had been plunged into hed and th I heard the door close and the blessed darkness caan to loose Leo from his ray-proof armour, if so it can be called, and he in turn loosedat each other like owls in the sunlight, while the tears streamed down our faces
”Well, art satisfied, my Holly?” she asked
”Satisfied hat?” I answered angrily, for the ss and bedevilru softly but continuously to himself in the other corner of the place
But Ayesha only laughed, oh! she laughed until she seehed till she also wept, then said-”Why, what ingratitude is this? Thou, my Leo, didst wish to see the wonders that I work, and thou, O Holly, didst come unbidden after I bade thee stay behind, and now both of you are rude and angry, aye, and weeping like a child with a burnt finger Here take this,” and she gave us some salve that stood upon a shelf, ”and rub it on your eyes and the smart will pass away”
So we did, and the pain went froh, for hours afterwards, mine remained red as blood
”And what are these wonders?” I asked her presently ”If thou meanest that unbearable flame--”
”Nay, I norance thou dost call that ent Look now;” and she pointed to thefaintly, lay upon the floor ”Nay, it has no heat Thinkest thou that I would wish to burn htly? Touch it, Holly”
But I would not, who thought to ht be well accustomed to the hottest fires, and feared her i and earnestly
”Well, what is it, Holly?”
”Gold,” I said, then corrected ht have been that of either old”
”The ore in this place must be rich,” said Leo, incredulously, for I would not speak any more