Part 12 (1/2)
”Never,” I answered with emphasis, ”and of course I believe every word Only there are one or two questions that with your leave I would wish to ask, Ayesha”
”By which youby nature without faith and doubtful of all that you cannot see and touch and handle Well, perhaps you are wise, since what I have told you is not all the truth For example, it comes back to me now that it was not in the temple on the Nile, or indeed upon the Earth, that I saw the vision of Aphrodite and of Isis, but elsewhere; also that it was here in Kor that I was first consumed by passion for Kallikrates whoets much, Allan Out with your questions and I will answer the”
”Ayesha,” I said hu to myself thattale, ”even I who am not learned have heard of these Goddesses of whom you speak, of the Grecian Aphrodite who rose from the sea upon the shores of Cyprus and dwelt at Paphos and elsewhere--”
”Yes, doubtless like most men you have heard of her and perchance also have been struck across the eyes with her hair, like your betters before you,” she interrupted with sarcasuyptians, Lady of the Moon, Mother of Mysteries, Spouse of Osiris whose child was Horus the Avenger”
”Aye, and I think will hearco you and her and another I am not the only one who has broken the oaths of Isis and received her curse, Allan, as you may find out in the days to come But what of these heavenly queens?”
”Only this, Ayesha; I have been taught that they were but phantasms fabled by men with many another false divinity, and could have sworn that this was true And yet you talk of the dull of understanding doubtless it perplexes you, Allan Yet if you had ireat Principles of Nature; Isis, of throned Wisdom and strait virtue, and Aphrodite, of Love, as it is known tohuman, have it laid upon them that they must hand on the torch of Life in their little hour Also you would know that such Principles can seees of the world appear to their servants visible in ed names wield their sceptres and work their will Now you are answered on this matter So to the next”
Privately I did not feel as though I were answered at all and I was sure that I know nothing of the kind she indicated, but thinking it best to leave the subject, I went on, ”If I understood rightly, Ayesha, the events which you have been pleased first to describe to me, and then to qualify or contradict, took place when the Pharaohs reigned Now no Pharaoh has sat upon the throne of Egypt for near two thousand years, for the last was a Grecian woman whom the Romans conquered and drove to death And yet, Ayesha, you speak as though you have lived all through that gulf of time, and in this there must be error, because it is impossible Therefore I suppose you to , or perhaps in dreams I believe that even in such far-off times there riters of romance, and we all knohat stuff dreaht co lest I had said too much, ”and one so wise as you are, I repeat, knoell that a woman who says she has lived two thousand years must be mad or-suffer from delusions, because I repeat, it is i to her feet in a rage that ht truly be called royal in every sense
”Impossible! Ro voice ”Oh! of a truth you weary me, and I have a mind to send you whither you will learn what is impossible and what is not Indeed, I would do it, and now, only I need your services, and if I did there would be none left for me to talk with, since your coes of who is impossible Why do you seek, you who talk of the ireat world in the span of your two hands and to weigh the secrets of the Universe in the balance of your petty mind and, of that which you cannot understand, to say that it is not? Life you admit because you see it all about you But that it should endure for two thousand years, which after all is but a second's beat in the story of the earth, that to you is 'ih in truth the buried seed or the sealed-up toad can live as long Doubtless, also, you have some faith which promises you this sae called Death
”Nay, Allan, it is possible enough, like to s of which you do not dream to-day that will be common to the eyes of those who follow after you Mayhap you think it impossible that I should speak with and learn of you from yonder old black wizard ells in the country whence you caht because he is in tune with me, and what I do shall be done by all ether across the wide spaces of the earth, and the lover shall hear her lover's voice although great seas roll between them Nor perchance will it stop at this; perchance in future time men shall hold converse with the denizens of the stars, and even with the dead who have passed into silence and the darkness Do you hear and understand me?”
”Yes, yes,” I answered feebly
”You lie, as you are too prone to do You hear but you do not understand nor believe, and oh! you vex me sorely Now I had it in , e and return again, like others, and even to show you how it may be won But you are not worthy in your faithlessness”
”No, no, I am not worthy,” I answered, who at that moment did not feel the least desire to live two thousand years, perhaps with this woeneration Yet it is true, that nohen I aer, I do often regret that I neglected to take this unique chance, if in truth there was one, of prolonging an existence which after all has its consolations-especially when one has rant case, of neglected opportunities, andlost thehtness of my nature which made it so hard for me to acquiesce in alternative stateive offence to a very powerful and petulant if attractive lady
”So that is done with,” she went on with a little stanation, ”as soon you will be also, who, had you not crossed and doubted ht have lived on for untold time and become one of the masters of the world, as I am”
Here she paused, choked, I think, with her aler, and because I could not help it, I said, ”Such place and power, if they be yours, Ayesha, do not see you much reward If I were a master of the world I do not think that I should choose to dwell unchangingly aes who eat men and in a pile of ruins But perhaps the curses of Aphrodite and of Isis are stronger ument-for now I see that it was bold-seemed to astonish and even bewilder my wonderful coht,” she said reflectively, ”who have co, since above there is always a more powerful lord ithers all his pos learned in olden days, and I, who a now Hearken Troubles beset me wherein I would have your help and that of your companions, for which I will pay each of you the fee that he desires The brooding white hter and unharh that he will be unharht his fill and gain the glory that he seeks, also so that he seeks stillsave to be with hisand to satisfy at once his stomach and his apish curiosity You, Allan, shall see those dead over whoht have won is now passed from your reach because you ain these things?” I asked ”How can we huathered in her breast the infinite knowledge of two thousand years?”
”You must make war under my banner and rid me of my foes As for the reason, listen to the end of my tale and you shall learn”
I reflected that it was athat this queen who claimed supernatural powers should need our help in a war, but thinking it wiser to keepAs a ht just as well have spoken, since as usual she read e, Allan, that I, the Mighty and Undying, should seek your aid in some petty tribal battle, and so it would be were es But they are more; they are men protected by the ancient God of this ireat God in his day whose spirit still haunts these ruins and whose strength still protects the worshi+ppers who cling to him and practise his unholy rites of human sacrifice”
”Hoas this God named?” I asked
”Rezu was his nainning Kor was thepeople of Kor took their God with them when they burst into the valley of the Nile and subdued its peoples long before the first Pharaoh, Menes, wore Egypt's crown”
”Ra was the sun, was he not?” I asked
”Aye, and Rezu also was a sun-God whoave life to ht and pestilence and stor of heaven, but one who demanded blood-sacrifice from his worshi+ppers, yes, even that of maids and children So it cains slain and eaten by the priests of Rezu, and their infants burned to ashes in the fires that his rays lit, turned theentle moon, the Goddess whom they named Lulala, while some of thereater andor even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat above them both throned in the furthest stars of Heaven Then the dereroth and sent a pestilence upon Kor and its subject lands and slew their people, save those who clung to hireat apostasy, and with them some others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that escaped I know not how”
”Did you see this great pestilence?” I asked, enerations before I came to Kor One Junis, a priest, wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have -place of the countless thousands that it slew In my day Kor, of which, should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the history, was a ruin as it is now, though scattered in the lands amidst the tumbled stones which once built up her subject cities, a people naer dwelt in Households, or Tribes and there sacrificedthe rites of the demon Rezu For these were the descendants of those who escaped the pestilence Also there were certain others, children of the worshi+ppers of Lulala whose kingdoentle worshi+p of their forefathers and were ever at ith the followers of Rezu”
”What brought you to Kor, Ayesha?” I asked irrelevantly
”Have I not said that I was led hither by the coreat Isis whoht find a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted thereto by the other”
”And did you find them, Ayesha?” I asked
”Aye, I found them, or rather they found me, and in my presence the Goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his temptress back to the world”
”That must have been dreadful for you, Ayesha, since I understood that you also-liked this priest”
She sprang fro voice which resery snake and turned my blood cold to hear, exclaimed, ”Man, do you dare to , curious fool, and it is well for you that this is so, since otherwise like Kallikrates, never should you leave Kor living Cease fro that which you may not learn Suffice it for you to know that the doom of Isis fell upon the lost Kallikrates, her priest forsworn, and that on , till he return again and the play begins afresh
”Stranger,” she went on in a softer voice, ”perchance your faith, whate'er it be, parades a hell to terrify its worshi+ppers and give strength to the ar priests, ear they hold the keys of doon assent” (I had nodded at her extreuess) ”and therefore can understand that in such a hell as this, here upon the earth I have dwelt for so the crime of Powers above me whereof I am but the hand and instrument, since those Pohich decreed that I should love, decree also that I e that love”
She sank down upon the couch as though exhausted by e her face in her hands Presently she let theain and continued, ”Of these woes ask me no more They sleep till the hour of their resurrection, which I think draws nigh; indeed, I thought that you perchance--But let that be 'Twas near the mark; nearer, Allan, than you know, not in it! Therefore leave theht, whose coh the secret which was revealed to ht perhaps have found a rest, and being huh half divine, must still busy myself with the affairs of earth
”Look you, Wanderer, after that which was fated had happened and I reony of solitude and sorrow, after, too, I had drunk of the cup of enduring life and like the Proeless rock, whereon day by day the vultures of reht is ever dooed into petty troubles of the flesh, aye and welcoetfulness When the savage dwellers in this land ca them as the servant of the Lady of the Moon, those of theathered themselves about ht to overthrow me
”'Here,' they said, 'is the Goddess Lulala come to earth In the name of Rezu let us slay her and ht that I could be killed Allan, I conquered them, but their captain, who also is named Rezu and whom they held and hold to be an e the earth, I could not conquer”
”Why not?” I asked
”For this reason, Allan In soe his God showed him the same secret that was shown to me He too had drunk of the Cup of Life and lives on unharth my equal, no spear of mine can reach his heart clad in the armour of his evil God”
”Then what spear can?” I inquired helplessly, as bewildered
”None at all, Allan, yet an axe enerations there has been peace of a sort between the worshi+ppers of Lulala ith me in the Plain of Kor, or rather of myself, since to these people I am Lulala, and the worshi+ppers of Rezu, ell in the strongholds beyond thedevastated the lands about, has grown restless and threatened to attack on Kor, which is not strong enough to stand against hiht for a white queen to rule under hi to set her up to mock my majesty”
”Is that why those cannibals carried away the daughter of er?” I asked
”It is, Allan, since presently he will give it out that I am dead or fled, if he has not done so already, and that this new queen has arisen into irl veiled as I am, so that none may know the difference between us, since not a man of them has ever looked upon my face, Allan Therefore this Rezu h it is impossible that he should harm me, he may slay or draay my people and leave me with none to rule in this place where by the decree of Fate Iin your heart that such savages would be little loss and this is so, but still they serve as slaves to me in my loneliness Moreover I have sworn to protect them from the demon Rezu and they have trusted in me and therefore my honour is at stake, for never shall it be said that those who trusted in She-who-commands, were overthrown because they put faith in one as powerless”
”What do you mean about an axe, Ayesha?” I asked ”Why can an axe alone kill Rezu?”
”The thing is a mystery, O Allan, of which I may not tell you all, since to do so I must reveal secrets which I have determined you shall not learn Suffice it to you to know that when this Rezu drank of the Cup of Life he took with him his axe Now this axe was an ancient weapon rumoured to have been fashi+oned by the Gods and, as it chanced, that axe drew to itself er life than did Rezu, how, it does not matter, if indeed the tale be uarded the Gate of Life, a certain Noot, a master ofa philosopher and very wise, chose never to pass that portal which was open to him, said it to me himself ere he went the way of flesh He told this Rezu also that now he had naught to fear save his own axe and therefore he counselled hiainst hi hi else could do Like to the heel of Achilles whereof the great Hos-have you read Homer, Allan?”
”In a translation,” I answered
”Good, then you will remember the story Like to the heel of Achilles, I say, that axe would be the only gate by which death could enter his invulnerable flesh, or rather it alone could ate”