Part 22 (1/2)
THE PassING OF AYESHA
I heard Ayesha say presently, and the words struck ainst which even she had no strength to struggle
”It seems that my lord has left me for awhile; I must hasten to my lord afar”
After that I do not quite knohat happened I had lost the man as all in all to me, friend and child in one, and I was crushed as I had never been before It seemed so sad that I, old and outworn, should still live on whilst he in the flower of his age, snatched froreatness such as no man hath known, lay thus asleep
I think that by an afterthought, Ayesha and Oros tried to restore him, tried without result, for here her poere of no avail Indeedlife still kept him on his feet, Leo had really died at the moment of her embrace, since when I looked at him before he fell, his face was that of a dead h she knew it not, was addressed to his spirit, for in her burning kiss his flesh had perished
When at length I recovered myself a little, it was to hear Ayesha in a cold, calm voice-her face I could not see for she had veiled herself-co certain priests who had been summoned to ”bear away the body of that accursed woht me, I re strangely calm and happy, lay now upon a couch, the arms folded on his breast When the priests had tra their royal burden, Ayesha, who sat by his body brooding, seeer, and for no common journey, since he must search out the habitations of the Shades,” and she turned herself towards Oros and appeared to look at hie countenance a little, for the eternal smile, of which even this scene had not quite rid it, left his face and he grew pale and trembled
”Thou art afraid,” she said contemptuously ”Be at rest, Oros, I will not send one who is afraid Holly, wilt thou go for me-and him?”
”Aye,” I answered ”I am weary of life and desire no other end Only let it be swift and painless”
She mused a while, then said-”Nay, thy time is not yet, thou still hast work to do Endure, my Holly, 'tis only for a breath”
Then she looked at the Shaman, the man turned to stone who all this while had stood there as a statue stands, and cried-”Awake!”
Instantly he seemed to thaw into life, his limbs relaxed, his breast heaved, he was as he had always been: ancient, gnarled,as a man bows to the power that he hates
”Thou seest, Sis have befallen as Atene and I foretold, have they not? 'Ere long the corpse of a nened Khan of Kaloon,'” and he pointed to the gold circlet that Ayesha had set on Leo's broill lie upon the brink of the Pit of Flame'-as I foretold” An evil smile crept into his eyes and he went on-”Hadst thou not smote me dumb, I atched could have warned thee that they would so befall; but, great mistress, it pleased thee to smite me dumb And so it seems, O Hes, that thou hast overshot thyself and liest broken at the foot of that pinnacle which step by step thou hast climbed for ht at the price of countless lives that now before the throne of Judgainst thy powers misused, and cry out for justice on thy head,” and he looked at the dead form of Leo
”I sorrow for them, yet, Simbri, they ell spent,” Ayesha answered reflectively, ”who by their forewritten doo and thus won me my husband Aye and I auess For know that noith hi soul divorced by sin froe kiss which burned his life away there shall still be born to us children of Forgiveness and eternal Grace and all things that are pure and fair
”Look thou, Sier, and beware! beware I say how thou dost fulfil thine office, since of every syllable thou must render an account
”Go thou down the dark paths of Death, and, since even ht, search out my lord and say to hi fast Bid him have no fear for me who by this last sorrow have atoned enerate Tell him that thus it was appointed, and thus is best, since now he is dipped indeed in the eternal Flaht is done and the everlasting day arises Coranted that I greet hihty-froive her Her heart was high and greatly did she play her part There in the Gates ill balance our account Thou hearest?”
”I hear, O Eternal Star that hath conquered Night”
”Then, one!”
As the word left Ayesha's lips Sih he would clutch his own departing soul, staggered back against the board where Leo and I had eaten, overthrowing it, and aold and silver vessels, fell down and died
She looked at hiician who has known Ayesha froe to my ancient majesty at last, when lies and defiance would serve his end no er now do I hear the naave to me The 'Star-that-hath-fallen' in his lips and in very truth is becoht,' and, re-arisen, shi+nes for ever-shi+nes with its twin ione, and ere now, those that serve me in the Under-world-dost remember?-thou sawest their captains in the Sanctuary-bend the head at great Ayesha's word and make her place ready near her spouse
”But oh, what folly has been mine When even here my wrath can show such power, how could I hope that my lord would outlive the fires of ht not the poiven him, nor desired the death of men Yet such pomp must have been his portion in this poor shadow of a world, and the steps that encircle an usurper's throne are ever slippery with blood
”Thou art weary, ht we journey to the Mountain, there to celebrate these obsequies”
I crept into the roo-it had been Simbri's-and laid me down upon his bed, but to sleep I was not able Its door was open, and in the light of the burning city that shone through the case by her dead Hour after hour she watched, her head resting on her hand, silent, stirless She wept not, no sigh escaped her; only watched as a tender wo babe that she knoill awake at dawn
Her face was unveiled and I perceived that it had greatly changed All pride and anger were departed frorown soft, wistful, yet full of confidence and quietness For a while I could not think of what it reminded me, till suddenly I remembered Noas like, indeed the counterpart almost, of the holy and majestic semblance of the statue of the Mother in the Sanctuary Yes, with just such a look of love and power as that htened child new-risen froaze upon her dead, while her parted lips also seemed to whisper ”soth she rose and carieve formy fears lest sorieve for thee as for h the human part of me would have kept him on the earth, now my spirit doth rejoice that for a while he has burst his h I knew it not, in ainst his true weal and th with strength, and thrice has he conquered ht he whispered wisdoe: That in death is love's hoth; that frolorified and pure, to reign a conqueror forever Therefore I wipe away o to join hiranted to ot Thou needest rest Sleep, friend, I bid thee sleep”
And I slept wondering as e confidence and comfort I know not but it was there, real and not assumed I can only suppose therefore that some illumination had fallen on her soul, and that, as she stated, the love and end of Leo in a way unknown, did suffice to satisfy her court of sins
At the least those sins and all the load of death that lay at her door never seemed to trouble her at all She appeared to look upon them merely as events which were destined to occur, as inevitable fruits of a seed sowed long ago by the hand of Fate for whose workings she was not responsible The fears and considerations which weigh with mortals did not affect or oppress her In this as in other matters, Ayesha was a law unto herself
When I awoke it was day, and through the -place I saw the rain that the people of Kaloon had so long desired falling in one straight sheet I saw also that Ayesha, seated by the shrouded for orders to her priests and captains and to sohter of Kaloon, as to the new govern, and Ayesha stood at my bedside
”All is prepared,” she said ”Awake and ride with me”
So ent, escorted by a thousand cavalry, for the rest stayed to occupy, or perchance to plunder, the land of Kaloon In front the body of Leo was borne by relays of priests, and behind it rode the veiled Ayesha, I at her side
Strange was the contrast between this departure, and our arrival
Then the rushi+ng squadrons, the eles seen through the swinging curtains of the hail; the voices of despair from an army rolled in blood beneath the chariot wheels of thunder
Now the white-draped corpse, the slow-pacing horses, the riders with their spears reversed, and on either side, seen in thattheir innumerable dead
And Ayesha herself, yesterday a Valkyrie crested with the star of fla her husband to the to on the grave , pointed as we passed to the body of Leo, uttering bitter words which I could not catch Thereon her co her with fist and spade, prostrated the dust on their hair in token of their submission to the priestess of Death
Ayesha saw the of her ancient fire and pride-”I tread the plain of Kaloon no h-stoeneration, O Holly, will they dare to lift spear against the College of Hes and its subject Tribes”