Lamekis

by Charles de Fieux

  Having said this the Sylph beat its wings and went back the way it had come with its partner. The speech made me think and made Sinouis scared. We both spent a long time buried in our own thoughts.

  The Palace of Scealgalis

  “Lamekis,” Sinouis cried out, “sad partner in misfortune, are these then the goods that have been promised to us? What is to become of us? What are we going to do? What decision are we going to make?”

  “Nothing is more certain,” I replied, “than to surrender to our fate, to suffer the eternal decrees and go through the trials that have been set out for us. What is life compared to the immensity? Shouldn’t we sacrifice everything in the hope of being eternally happy? What does it matter if we lose the Earth? Doesn’t it cost more than it’s worth? And if it’s true, as the Spirit said, that eternal rewards would crown our pains, should we hesitate to suffer for a little while in order to be worthy? Oh Clemelis,”62 I burst out, “I will face the dangers, evils and the cruelest punishments in the hope of seeing you again. The happiness I’m told about is obviously you and I will run to it.”

  With this I set off with joy and Sinouis followed me on the new way that the Spirit had prepared for us. Soon we saw a house that looked like it was made of huge blocks of marble. A large avenue of beautiful trees laden with fruit that looked and smelled delicious led up to the entrance of the palace. Hardly had we started on this pleasant path when we felt the desire to eat the beautiful fruit. The Sylph’s warning held us back. We got a grip on ourselves in spite of the hunger that was back, controlled our desires and reached the palace court with the secret satisfaction of having won the first round.

  A transparent, precious metal gate surrounded the court. A number of people dressed and acting like us were walking around. We even thought we recognized some of our travel companions and felt a secret joy, convinced that the same fortune had reunited us in this place. We tried to go up to them to be sure, but it was no good walking—we never got any closer. As soon as we noticed this, we stopped.

  “Obviously,” Sinouis said, “there’s a spell on our steps and I’m starting to think that we’re in the palace of illusions.”

  I was getting ready to answer him when a young man with a kind face came up and invited us to enter the palace. He walked ahead and we gladly followed. He had a nice face and his voice was persuasive and pervasive.

  “Sir,” I said, “can you tell us if you are one of us? Your appearance, which is so different from the inhabitants of this environment, would make me think so.”

  “My name is Dehahal,” the young man replied. “I come from Phoenicia, my philosophy is immortal, I live in the universe and my way of thinking and acting has made me worthy of the happiness I enjoy.”

  “Sir,” I continued when Dehahal had finished, “we are very pleased to meet you! We have already been told about you. We respect and trust you completely. Please instruct us and guide us.”

  Dehahal answered, “I can only hope for your sake that you will persevere. I will leave you at the entrance in front of us; my rights stop there. My only power is to bring you here and to take away those whose behavior makes them unworthy of staying here.”

  He spoke and pointed to the entrance that opened onto four big rooms. He waved us in but when we turned around to thank him he was gone.

  Sinouis and I looked around surprised at what had just happened, wondering if we should take the path shown to us because we were afraid that it might be a trap and that the young man was sent to put us on the wrong track. But his face was so impressive and his voice was so trustworthy that we went in. The place was exquisitely furnished. On one side it opened onto the courtyard I mentioned and on the other onto a splendid garden as far as the eye could see. A stone and metal bas-relief showed a group of stories that must have been very interesting. It was all the furniture in the room.

  We crossed the room and entered a splendid hall, lit from the garden, whose vaulting was unbelievably high. The metal ceiling sparkled like thin ice and the large windows encircling the walls were embedded with gems so skillfully wrought that the light passing through them was the most wonderful and strangest I had ever seen. Everything that was not transparent (between the windows, the doors, etc.) was gilded with different colors. We counted 50 doors across from as many windows around the room and the huge space was so quiet that we felt both respect and fear.

  In the middle of the hall was an altar supported on four twisted columns like we had never seen before and made of an unknown (perhaps) precious metal. There was a statue made of something like diamond that represented a figure like the Sylphs who had taken us from our ship and it was so perfectly sculpted that the closer we got the more real it looked.

  We were still hoping to find someone to put an end to our doubts and wanderings, so we crossed the hall and went into another room. The same solitude prevailed there. We left right away and entered another. Again the same silence and uncertainty.

  We wandered around like this from room to room for quite a while. Seeing no end to the solitude we decided to go back to the main hall, if we could, and rejoin the people we first saw walking around the courtyard. With this in mind we doubled back the way we had come and paced through the labyrinth, but it was impossible to find the hall again. No sooner did we leave one room than we found ourselves in another and if night had not fallen upon us we would probably have kept walking around uselessly.

  But a gnawing hunger was consuming us. What were we to do in that dire state? Tired out from having walked so far we were crushed and the dark night was daunting. We groped around feeling for a place to rest while waiting for the day. Fortunately we stumbled upon a sofa, or something like it, which was very lucky under the circumstances, and we took a break from our labor.

  Sinouis and I sat there for a while without talking. My dear friend was lost in sorrow if I could judge by the deep sighs he fetched from the bottom of his heart. As overwhelmed as I was by our situation, still I tried to comfort him and told him everything that came into my mind. Whether he was less resilient than me or less accustomed to the rigors of fate, my words did not have the effect I was hoping and found no hold on his troubled soul. On the contrary, his harried heart wept bitter tears again and I sympathized with his desperation. I had no idea how to calm him down, so I decided to distract him by telling him more of my adventures in the hope that he would see how wrong he was to compare his sufferings with mine. I asked him if he was willing to listen while we were waiting for morning and he urged me to try to remember where I had left off.

  “Oh Vilkonhis, do I need to try to remember? Such things never leave our memory when love has burned them into our hearts.”

  Continuation of Lamekis’ Story

  Oh Sinouis, the rest of my adventures will show you how many trials a mortal must suffer. You saw how I was born in the catacombs and then cast on the sea by the inhumanity and fury of a jealous Queen in love and how I was taken from my parents when I was just old enough to know about my tragedy but too young to do anything about it. Then you saw how I went to the home of a foreigner whose religion and customs were so different from mine. However extraordinary the beginning of my story might seem, the rest is even more amazing. You will see this easily enough when I get back to talking about myself, but for now I will continue with the adventures of Motacoa, which I remember is where I left off.

  You remember, of course, that he was the blue man who raised me and loved me so much that he told me his story so that…

  “Don’t worry about it,” Sinouis interrupted. “In spite of all the strange things that have happened to us, I haven’t forgotten a word of your story. You were at the part where Motacoa recognized Falbao, that marvelous animal, attached to the foot of the throne on which a radiant, beautiful Princess was sitting. How could anybody forget such strange events?”

  Sinouis’ memory proved to me how closely he had listened and I hoped that what I had left to say would distract him from the black thoughts of his pres
ent state. Thus I took up the thread of the story.

  Continuation of Motacoa’s story

  Motacoa continued: If the sight of Falbao surprised me, I was even more surprised when I heard my name called from the throne. I approached with admiring respect. Imagine my surprise when I saw the Princess up close and recognized her as the young woman who appeared in the dream I had after drinking from the divine spring, the dream in which a monster had stolen her away when I wanted to avenge the wicked blow that cut off her hand. The vision was so striking that I could not go up to her at first like she asked and find out what miracle had brought me into the Trifolday63 world. Recovering at last from my surprise I bowed low and in this position went up to the foot of the throne to obey the charming Princess. But as soon as I looked up at her my astonishment caused me to faint.

  A dull noise followed this unexpected event. The rows of worm women started milling about and humming frightfully. Four of these monsters from the four sides of the throne came at me armed with a zenghuis.64 Scared by this I jumped toward Falbao and guided by his instinctive sensitivity he struggled so hard to help me that he broke his chains. The monsters got scared and ran away from his fury as he jumped onto the throne. Then the women guards fled out the doors, taking the Princess with them and leaving me alone in the hall with Falbao.

  Imagine how surprised I was at what just happened. The first thing I did was to congratulate my wonderful dog. And he accepted my show of affection, or rather of gratitude, with all the joy he could show in his way. As embarrassed as I was, his presence gave me confidence against anything that might happen, as proven by the fear that he inspired in these people. At times I felt like I was losing my mind in search of the cause of these wonders: my imagination wore itself out, but could find no valid reason. So, what I felt when I first saw the Princess, which had vanished in my fear, took hold of me again. Now that I was safe from immediate danger I scolded myself for letting her be taken away and I resolved to find her again no matter what it took. With this in mind I left the hall through a round door and soon found myself wandering in a maze of dark alleys. The paths were so hard that without Falbao at my side to lean on I would have fallen down any number of times.

  I wandered around like that for a long time without finding any exit until I finally noticed a glimmer of light. There was a ceiling skillfully paneled with everything precious from the Earth, but what was remarkable was that the different products of the inner world were placed in such a way as to make a kind of bas-relief that pictured men and women to form the body of a story. As I went farther on, the light from some burning torches, spaced apart, lit the area more and more and revived my courage. After a few hundred feet the vaulted hall led to the bank of a very big canal whose water was mercury and as rough as a storm-tossed sea. I was also amazed by a stream of burning sulfur on my right because I figured that this nearby fire had to be the source of the boiling canal. I stepped back because I could not stand the crippling smell. Falbao was ahead of me, heading left toward a door I had not seen, which opened onto a bright room lit by the same kind of torches, which very quickly revived my dulled senses. In the middle of the big room was a mausoleum of different colored stones that pictured a normal man. Four inhabitants of the Inner Earth supported the monument in different positions befitting their effort and the mournfulness of the place.

  I was marveling at this tomb, which made me think that this world had two kinds of men, when I heard a voice speaking my language, coming from the next room. The sound of the voice struck me to the core and I rushed toward the half-open door. I stopped to listen and heard it speaking.

  “No, barbarian, I will never be yours. Your persecutions are useless. I’ll bury myself in a dark grave before lying down with a monster like you. Keep your empire to yourself. I don’t want to reign over it. Give me back to mine and my dear country. Isn’t it enough that your jealousy killed my father who refused to let me be taken by his murderer? Your accusations of me are useless: I’m not responsible for these strangers coming to Trifolday—I’ve never seen them before. Your jealousy blinds you to the point that you don’t even see that they’re a different species from me. You say that I swooned at the sight of one of these strangers, that he was my lover. You say that my excitement at seeing him proves it and this extraordinary creature, the basilisk that is so dreadful to your nation; you say it came here into your kingdom at my behest and by the information I gave to this rival conspiring against you. You say you know how to take revenge, that they are ready to die and if I don’t succumb to your desires, I too will be punished with death for my treachery and stubbornness. Go ahead. Do what you want, barbarian. My innocence will vouch for me for my happiness. But fear the vengeful gods—they leave nothing unpunished. Sooner or later the Heavens will take revenge on you for all your cruelties.”

  The voice stopped there and the woman speaking started weeping bitterly. I was sure it was the Princess whom I was looking for and her lament was all about me. The only difficulty for me lay in the authority and skill of the barbarian who was obviously the leader of the place.

  I was lost in thought, not knowing what to do, when a terrible shriek came from behind the door and I boldly pushed it open. What a sight struck me! My Princess was lying on a strangely built bed of foam, on the verge of death at the hands of a worm man who was holding a zenghuis over her breast, dangling it in mid-air to take cruel pleasure in watching the beautiful woman suffer all the horrors of death. At the unexpected sight of me he started to strike.

  “Stop, wretched monster,” I screamed and threw myself at him heedless of his hugeness. “I’ll die before you finish your savage deed.” The force with which I threw myself at him, which he was not expecting, or maybe being flustered by the crime he was about to commit, caused him to drop his zenghuis. With his powerful hand he grabbed me and was going to crush me in his arms. I was already losing my breath when Falbao, who had stayed back until then, jumped on the monster. This unseen aide was so frightening to him that he dropped me and tried to jump away, but it was too late. The agile Falbao had already got hold of his neck and in one fell swoop he brought down the huge mass that fell lifeless at our feet.

  The Princess was so taken aback at this sudden turn of events and so unspeakably scared of my wonderful dog that she screamed, “Heavens! I’m lost. Save me, noble stranger, from this frightful monster. I’m not an accomplice of Za-ra-ouf…”

  “Don’t worry, Princess,” I put my hand on Falbao’s head as he stared at me like he was awaiting my orders, “this faithful animal only attacks persecutors. Are there any more? Show me and they will all be wiped out. What just happened is not the first time I’ve witnessed the bravery of my faithful dog and his effect on these strange people of the inner world.”

  The Princess, still scared of Falbao, listened to me and slowly recovered. “Sir, what do I owe you? Without you I would be dead. What can I do to show my gratitude?”

  “Let me devote my life to you, which is as dear to me as yours and allow me, Princess, to be your eternal servant.”

  The lovely woman opened her mouth to answer, but in the doorway across from where I had entered two worm men appeared. At the sight of us, or rather of Falbao, they left in a hurry, buzzing furiously. The Princess, who paled when she saw the monsters, afraid that they would take vengeance on her for the death of their king, started worrying again in spite of the confidence she should have had in me.

  “Oh Vilkonhis…” she cried out.

  “What’s this?” I cut in, staring at her. “What venerable name am I hearing? Ah, it makes me think that you come from somewhere close to where I’m from. What miracle has brought you to this place that should be unknown to all the earth?”

  “Alas,” the Princess said, “a nasty trick and hard fate led me here. It would not take long for me to tell you my story, but I have to admit that I’m not calm enough right now to satisfy your curiosity. The death of the King by your animal will very soon have very dangerous results.
10,000 of his subjects are maybe right now preparing to avenge the regicide. How are we going to save ourselves from their attack? I can’t imagine how we can be safe. The most obvious solution is to flee, but where? At least you must know the labyrinth better than I and can find some secret exit.”