Part 19 (1/2)
Often since that time I have marvelled how Ayesha perforathered or co-like material, which was her servant in the work; also, whether or no it had been i fire of Life that burned in the caves of Kor[] Yet to this hour I have found no answer to the proble
[] Recent discoveries would appear to suggest that this mysterious ”Fire of Life,” which, whatever else it may have been, was evidently a force and no true fire, since it did not burn, owed its origin to the eh in the year 1885, Mr Holly would have known nothing of the properties of these marvellous rays or emanations, doubtless Ayesha was familiar with them and their enormous possibilities, of which our chemists and scientific e-Editor
I suppose that, in preparation for her conquest of the inhabitants of this globe-to which, indeed, it would have sufficed unaided by any other power-the ly
However this ether Ayesha never so ain It seemed to have served her purpose for the while, or in the press of other and otten or thrust frost others, of which I have said nothing, since it is necessary to select, I record this strange incident, and our conversations concerning it at length, for the reason that itexample of Ayesha's dominion over the hidden forces of Nature whereof ere soon to experience a more fearful instance
CHAPTER XXI
THE PROPHECY OF ATENE
On the day following this strange experience of the iron that was turned to gold soreat service was held in the Sanctuary, as we understood, ”to consecrate the war” We did not attend it, but that night we ate together as usual Ayesha was hter
”Know you,” she said, ”that to-day I was an Oracle, and those fools of the Mountain sent their o and which of theain honour And I-I could not tell theht take theo I knoell, for I shall direct it, but the future-ah! that I cannot read better than thou canst, my Holly, and that is ill indeed For ht reflected fro, and looking up at length with an air of entreaty, said to Leo-”Wilt thou not hear o a-hunting? Do so, and I will stay with thee, and send Holly and Oros to command the Tribes in this petty fray”
”I will not,” answered Leo, trenation, for this plan of hers that I should be sent out to hile he bided in safety in a teh he disapproved of it in theory, loved fighting for its own sake also, to absolute rage
”I say, Ayesha, that I will not,” he repeated; ”moreover, that if thou leavest me here I will find my way down the mountain alone, and join the battle”
”Then come,” she answered, ”and on thine own head be it Nay, not on thine beloved, on e reaction, she becaus many tales of the far, far past, but none that were sad or tragic It was very strange to sit and listen to her while she spoke of people, one or two of them known as names in history and many others who never have been heard of, that had trod this earth and hoo Yet she told us anecdotes of their loves and hates, their strength or weaknesses, all of thee of hu the coth her talk took a deeper and s after truth; of how, aching for wisdoions of her day and refused them one by one; of how she had preached in Jerusalem and been stoned by the Doctors of the Law Of how also she had wandered back to Arabia and, being rejected by her own people as a reforypt, and at the court of the Pharaoh of that tiician, half charlatan and half seer who, because she was far-seeing, 'clairvoyante' we should call it, instructed her in his art so well that soon she becah she were unwilling to reveal too ypt to Kor She spoke to Leo of his arrival there, a wanderer as nayptian Amenartas, whom she appeared to have known and hated in her own country, and of how she entertained them Yes, she even told of a supper that the three of the before they started to discover the Place of Life, and of an evil prophecy that this royal Amenartas had made as to the issue of their journey
”Aye,” Ayesha said, ”it was such a silent night as this and such a ed, save that he was beardless then and younger, was at my side Where thou sittest, Holly, sat the royal Amenartas, a very fair woman; yes, even more beautiful than I before I dipped h not so learned as I had grown From the first we hated each other, and uessed how I had learned to look upon thee, her lover, Leo; for her husband thou never wast, who didst flee too fast for le between us which had begun of old and afar was for centuries and generations, and that until the end should declare itself neither of us could harm the other, who both had sinned to win thee, that wast appointed by fate to be the lodestone of our souls Then Aht, Kallikrates, the wine in thy cup is turned to blood, and that knife in thy hand, O daughter of Yarab'-for so she named me-'drips red blood Aye, and this place is a sepulchre, and thou, O Kallikrates, sleepest here, nor can she, thy murderess, kiss back the breath of life into those cold lips of thine'
”So indeed it came about as was ordained,” added Ayesha reflectively, ”for I slew thee in yonder Place of Life, yes, in my madness I slew thee because thou wouldst not or couldst not understand the change that had come over me, and shrankest from my loveliness like a blind bat fro thy face in the tresses of her dusky hair-Why, what is it now, thou Oros? Can I never be rid of thee for an hour?”
”O Hes, a writing fro bow
”Break the seal and read,” she answered carelessly ”Perchance she has repented of her folly and makes sube on the Mountain, known as Ayesha upon earth, and in the household of the Over-world whence she has been permitted to wander, as 'Star-that-hath-fallen-'”
”A pretty sounding name, forsooth,” broke in Ayesha; ”ah! but, Atene, set stars rise again-even fros, O Ayesha Thou who art very old, hast gatheredof the centuries, and with other powers, that ofthyself see thou lackest that I have-vision of those happenings which are not yet Know, O Ayesha, that I and reat seer, have searched the heavenly books to learn what is written there of the issue of this war
”This is written:-For me, death, whereat I rejoice For thee a spear cast by thine own hand For the land of Kaloon blood and ruin bred of thee!
”Atene, ”Khania of Kaloon”
Ayesha listened in silence, but her lips did not tremble, nor her cheek pale To Oros she said proudly-”Say to the e, and ere long will answer it, face to face with her in her palace of Kaloon Go, priest, and disturb me no more”
When Oros had departed she turned to us and said-”That tale of o ell fitted to this hour, for as Amenartas prophesied of ill, so does Atene prophesy of ill, and Amenartas and Atene are one Well, let the spear fall, if fall it must, and I will not flinch from it who know that I shall surely triuhten ht, then be sure, beloved, that it is still ith us, since none can escape their destiny, nor can our bond of union which was fashi+oned with the universe that bears us, ever be undone”
She paused awhile then went on with a sudden outburst of poetic thought and iery
”I tell thee, Leo, that out of the confusions of our lives and deaths order shall yet be born Behind the s of this rough and twisted world are but hot, blinding sparks which strea sword of pure, eternal Justice The heavy lives we see and know are only links in a golden chain that shall draw us safe to the haven of our rest; steep and painful steps are they whereby we climb to the alloted palace of our joy Henceforth I fear no ainst that which ed seeds blon the gales of fate and change to the appointed garden where we shall grow, filling its blest air with the irance of our bloom
”Leave me now, Leo, and sleep awhile, for we ride at dawn”
It was midday on the morroe moved down the e-looking reat body of their cavalry ht and left and behind, the foot soldiers iments, each under the command of its own chief
Ayesha, veiled now-for she would not show her beauty to these wild folk-rode in the midst of the horse-men on a white mare of matchless speed and shape With her went Leo and myself, Leo on the Khan's black horse, and I on another not unlike it, though thicker built About us were a bodyguard of ar them those hunters that Leo had saved from Ayesha's wrath, and ere now attached to his person
We were merry, all of us, for in the crisp air of late autus that had haunted us in those gloootten Moreover, the tra battle thrilled our nerves
Not for orous and happy Of late he had grown soested, but now his cheeks were red and his eyes shone bright again Ayesha also seee woman were as fickle as those of Nature's self, and varied as a landscape varies under the sunshi+ne or the shado she was noon and now dark night; non, now evening, and now thoughts came and went in the blue depths of her eyes like vapours wafted across the sued and shi+ stars
”Too long,” she said, with a little thrilling laugh, ”have I been shut in the bowels of soes or by lad to look upon the world again How beautiful are the snows above, and the brown slopes below, and the broad plains beyond that roll away to those bordering hills! How glorious is the sun, eternal as myself; hoeet the keen air of heaven
”Believe one by since I was seated on a steed, and yet thou seest I have not forgot h this beast cannot match those Arabs that I rode in the wide deserts of Arabia Oh! I reainst theBedouins, and hoith my own hand I speared their chieftain and made him cry for mercy One day I will tell thee of that father ofapart, I hold his
”See, yonder is thesorcerer, ould have murdered both of you because thou, Leo, didst throw his fae, but several of the tribes of this Mountain and of the lands behind it make cats their Gods or divine by eneral of Alexander, ypt Of this Macedonian Alexander I could tell thee much, for he was almost a conte with the fareat deeds
”It was Rassen who on the Mountain supplanted the priht its Sanctuary remain as monuments, by that of Hes, or Isis, or rather blended the two in one Doubtless a the priests in his army were soht with thear divinations of savage sorcerers Indeed I remember dimly that it was so, for I was the first Hesea of this Teeneral Rassen, a relative of ly, and I could see that she atching us through her veil As usual, however, it was I whoht think and do what he willed and still escape her anger
”Thou, Holly,” she said quickly, ”who art ever of a cavilling and suspiciouswhat I said but now, believest that I lie to thee”
I protested that I was only reflecting upon an apparent variation between two statements
”Play not ords,” she answered; ”in thy heart thou didst write me down a liar, and I take that ill Know, foolish man, that when I said that the Macedonian Alexander lived before me, I meant before this present life of h I outlasted him by thirty years, ere born in the same summer, and I knew him well, for I was the Oracle whom he consulted most upon his wars, and to my wisdom he owed his victories Afterwards we quarrelled, and I left hiht star of Alexander began to wane” At this Leo ony of apprehension, beating back the criticise tale of the old abbot, Kou-en, which would rise within me, I asked quickly-”And dost thou, Ayesha, remember well all that befell thee in this former life?”
”Nay, not well,” she answered, reater facts, and those I have for the s which thou callest vision orin that life Indeed I seely philosopher clad in a dirty robe and filled both ine and the learning of others, who disputed with Alexander till he greroth with hiet which”
”I suppose that I was not called Diogenes?” I asked tartly, suspecting, perhaps not without cause, that Ayesha was aravely, ”I do not think that was thy naenes thou speakest of was a much more famous man, one of real if crabbed wisdoe in wine I am mindful of very little of that life, however, not of more indeed than are many of the followers of the prophet Buddha, whose doctrines I have studied and of whom thou, Holly, hast spoken to me so much Maybe we did not meet while it endured Still I recollect that the Valley of Bones, where I found thee, ht between the Fire-priests with their vassals, the Tribes of the Mountain and the army of Rassen aided by the people of Kaloon For between these and the Mountain, in old days as now, there was enmity, since in this present war history does but rewrite itself”