Part 29 (1/2)
It was clear that the name carried to the other side and bore weight with it. A company of poor, doomed wretches who were hurrying up stopped in their charge. The word ”Deucalion!” was bandied round and handed back down the line. I though with some grim satisfaction, that here was evidence I was not completely forgotten in the land.
There came shouts to them from behind to carry on their advance; but they did not budge; and presently a glittering officer panted up, and commenced to strike right and left amongst them with his sword. From where I stood on the high rampart above the gate, I could see him plainly, and recognised him at once.
”It matters not what they use for their battle-cry,” he was shouting.
”You have the orders of your divine Empress, and that is enough. You should be proud to die for her wish, you cowards. And if you do not obey, you will die afterwards under the instruments of the tormentors, very painfully. As for Deucalion, he is dead any time these nine years.”
”There it seems you lie, my Lord Tatho,” I shouted down to him.
He started, and looked up at me.
”So you are there in real truth, then? Well, old comrade, I am sorry.
But it is too late to make a composition now. You are on the side of these mangy Priests, and the Empress has made an edict that they are to be rooted out, and I am her most obedient servant.”
”You used to be skilful of fence,” I said, and indeed there was little enough to choose between us. ”If it please you to stop this pitiful killing, make yourself the champion of your side, and I will stand for mine, and we will fight out this quarrel in some fair place, and bind our parties to abide by the result.”
”It would be a grand fight between us two, old friend, and it goes hard with me to balk you of it. But I cannot pleasure you. I am general here under Ph.o.r.enice, and she has given me the strongest orders not to peril myself. And besides, though you are a great man, Deucalion, you are not chief. You are not even one of the Three.”
”I am King.”
Tatho laughed. ”Few but yourself would say so, my lord.”
”Few truly, but what there are, they are powerful. I was given the name for the first time yesterday, and as a first blow in the campaign there was some mischief done in the city. I was there myself, and saw how you took it.”
”You were in Atlantis!”
”I went for Nais. She is on the mountain now, and to-morrow will be my Queen. Tatho, as a priest to a priest, let me solemnly bring to your memory the infinite power you bite against on this Sacred Mountain. Your teaching has warned you of the weapons that are stored in the Ark of the Mysteries. If you persist in this attack, at the best you can merely lose; at the worst you can bring about a wreck over which even the High G.o.ds will shudder as They order it.”
”You cannot scare us back now by words,” said Tatho doggedly. ”And as for magic, it will be met by magic. Ph.o.r.enice has found by her own cleverness as many powers as were ever stored up in the Ark of the Mysteries.”
”Yet she looked on helplessly enough last night, when her royal pyramid was trundled into a rubbish heap. Zaemon had prophesied that this should be so, and for a witness, why I myself stood closer to her than we two stand now, and saw her.”
”I will own you took her by surprise somewhat there. I do not understand these matters myself; I was never more than one of the Seven in the old days; and now, quite rightly, Ph.o.r.enice keeps the knowledge of her magic to herself: but it seems time is needed when one magic is to be met by another.”
”Well,” I said, ”I know little about the business either. I leave these matters now to those who are higher above me in the priesthood. Indeed, having a liking for Nais, it seems I am debarred from ever being given understanding about the highest of the higher Mysteries. So I content myself with being a soldier, and when the appointed day comes, I shall fall and kiss my mother the Earth for the last time. You, so I am told, have ambition for longer life.”
He nodded. ”Ph.o.r.enice has found the Great Secret, and I am to be the first that will share it with her. We shall be as G.o.ds upon the earth, seeing that Death will be powerless to touch us. And the twin sons she has borne me, will be made immortal also.”
”Ph.o.r.enice is headstrong. No, my lord, there is no need to shake your head and try to deny it. I have had some acquaintance with her. But the order has been made, and her immortality will be s.n.a.t.c.hed from her very rudely. Now, mark solemnly my words. I, Deucalion, have been appointed King of Atlantis by the High Council of the Priests who are the mouthpiece of the most High G.o.ds, and if I do not have my reign, then there will be no Atlantis left to carry either King or Empress. You know me, Tatho, for a man that never lies.”
He nodded.
”Then save yourself before it is too late. You shall have again your vice-royalty in Yucatan.”
”But, man, there is no Yucatan. A great horde of little hairy creatures, that were something less than human and something more than beasts, swept down upon our cities and ate them out. Oh, you may sneer if you choose! Others sneered when I came home, till the Empress stopped them.
But you know what a train of driver ants is, that you meet with in the forests? You may light fires across their path, and they will march into them in their blind bravery, and put them out with their bodies, and those that are left will march on in an unbroken column, and devour all that stands in their path. I tell you, my lord, those little hairy creatures were like the ants--aye, for numbers, and wooden bravery, as well as for appet.i.te. As a result to-day, there is no Yucatan.”
”You shall have Egypt, then.”
He burst at me hotly. ”I would not take seven Egypts and ten Yucatans.
My lord, you think more poorly of me than is kind, when you ask me to become a traitor. In your place would you throw your Nais away, if the doing it would save you from a danger?”