Part 7 (1/2)
”Are you not afraid?” asked Asti, looking at her curiously. ”He is the greatest of all the G.o.ds, and to summon him lightly is a sacrilege.”
”Should a daughter fear her father?” answered Tua.
”When the divine Queen your mother and Pharaoh knelt before him in his shrine, praying that a child might be given to them, Amen did not deign to appear to them, save afterwards in a dream. Will you dare more than they? Lie down and dream, O Star of the Morning.”
”Nay, I trust no dreams which change like summer clouds and pa.s.s as soon,” answered the girl boldly. ”If the G.o.d is my father, in the spirit or the flesh, I know not which, let him appear before me face to face.
I ask his wisdom for myself and his favour for another. Call him, if you have the power, Asti. Call him even if he slay me. Better that I should die than----”
”Hus.h.!.+” said Asti, laying her hand upon her lips, ”speak not that name.
Well, I have some skill, and for your sake--and another's--I will try, but not here. Perchance he may listen, perchance not, or, perchance, if he comes you and I must pay the price. Put on your robes, now, O Queen, and over them this veil, and follow me--if you dare.”
Along narrow pa.s.sages they crept and down many a secret-stair, till at length they came to a door at the foot of a long slope of rock.
This door Asti unlocked and thrust open, then when they had entered, re-locked it behind them.
”What is this place?” whispered Tua.
”The burial crypt of the high priestesses of Amen, where it is said that the G.o.d watches. None have entered it for hard on thirty years. See here in the dust run the footsteps of those who bore the last priestess to her rest.”
She held up her lamp, and by the light of it Tua saw that they were in a great cave painted with figures of the G.o.ds which had on either side of it recesses. In each of these was set a coffin with a gilded face, and behind it an alabaster statue of her who lay therein, and in front of it a table of offerings. At the head of the crypt stood a small altar of black stone, for the rest the place was empty.
Asti led Tua to a step in front of the altar and bidding her kneel, departed with the lamp which she hid away in some side chapel, so that now the darkness was intense. Presently, through the utter silence, Tua heard her creep back towards her, for although she walked so softly the dust seemed to cry beneath her feet, and her every footstep echoed round the vaulted walls. Moreover, a glow came from her, the glow of her life in that place of death. She pa.s.sed Tua and knelt by the altar and the echo of her movements died away. Only it seemed to Tua that from each of the tombs to the right and to the left rose the Ka of her who was buried there, and drew near to watch and listen. She could not see them, she could not hear them, yet she knew that they were there and was able to count their number--thirty and two in all--while within herself rose a picture of them, each differing from the other, but all white, expectant, solemn.
Now Tua heard Asti murmuring secret invocations that she did not understand. In that place and silence they sounded weird and dreadful, and as she hearkened to them, for the first time fear crept over her.
Kneeling there upon her knees she bent her head almost to the dust and put up prayers to Amen that he might be pleased to hear her and to satisfy the longings of her heart. She prayed and prayed till she grew faint and weary, while always Asti uttered her invocations. But no answer came, no deity appeared, no voice spoke. At length Asti rose, and coming to her, whispered in her ear:
”Let us depart ere the watching spirits, whose rest we have broken, grow wrath with us. The G.o.d has shut his ears.”
So Tua rose, clinging to Asti, for now, she knew not why, her fear grew and deepened. For a moment she stood upon her feet, then sank to her knees again, for there at the far end of the great tomb, near to the door by which they had entered, appeared a glow upon the darkness.
Slowly it took form, the form of a woman clad in the royal robes of Egypt, and bearing in its hand a sceptre. The figure of light advanced towards them, so that presently they saw its face. Tua did not know the face, though it seemed to her to be like her own, but Asti knew it, and at the sight sank to the ground.
Now the figure stood in front of them, a thing of light framed in the thick darkness, and now in a sweet, low voice it spoke.
”Hail! Queen of Egypt,” it said. ”Hail! Neter-Tua, Daughter of Amen. Art thou afraid to look on the spirit of her who bore thee, thou that didst dare to summon the Father of the G.o.ds to do thy bidding?”
”I am afraid,” answered Tua, shaking in all her limbs.
”And thou, Asti the Magician, art thou afraid also, who but now wast bold enough to cry to Amen-Ra--'Come from thy high heaven and make answer'?”
”It is even so, O Queen Ahura,” murmured Asti.
”Woman,” went on the voice, ”thy sin is great, and great is the sin of this royal one at thy side. Had Amen hearkened, how would the two of you have stood before his glory, who at the sight of this shape of mine that once was mortal like yourselves, crouch choking to the earth? I tell you both that had the G.o.d arisen, as in your wickedness ye willed, there where ye knelt, there ye would have died. But he who knows all is merciful, and in his place has sent me his messenger that ye may live to look upon to-morrow's sun.”
”Let Amen pardon us!” gasped Tua, ”it was my sin, O Mother, for I commanded Asti and she obeyed me. On me be the blame, not on her, for I am torn with doubts and fears, for myself and for another. I would know the future.”
”Why, O Queen Neter-Tua, why wouldst thou know the future? If h.e.l.l yawns beneath thy feet, why wouldst thou peep through its golden doors before the time? The future is hid from mortals because, could they pierce its veil, it would crush them with its terrors. If all the woes of life and death lay open the gaze, who would dare to live and who--oh! who could dare to die?”