Land of the Changing Sun

by Will N. Harben

  Chapter XIV.

  When Tradmos spoke the words of warning, Thorndyke put his arm roundthe princess and drew her after Tradmos, who was hastening away in thegloom.

  "Wait," she said, drawing back. "Let us not get excited. We are reallyas safe here as there; for in their madness they will kill one anotherand trample them under foot." She led him to a parapet overlooking thegreat court below. "Hear them," she said, in pity, "listen to theirblows and cries. That was a woman's voice, and some man must have struckher."

  "Tell me what is best to do," said the Englishman. "I want to protectyou, but I am helpless; I don't know which way to turn."

  "Wait," she said simply, and the Englishman thought she drew closer tohim, as if touched by his words.

  There was a crash of timbers--a massive door had fallen--a scramblingof feet on the stone pavement, and they could see the dark human masssurging into the court through the corridors leading from the streets.

  "What are they doing?" asked Thorn dyke.

  She shrank from the parapet as if she had been struck.

  "Tearing the pillars down," she replied aghast; "this part of the palacewill fall. Oh, what can be done!"

  There was a grinding of stone upon stone, a mad yell from an hundredthroats, the crash of glass, and, with a thunderous sound, a colossalpillar fell to the earth. The roof beneath the feet of the princess andThorndyke trembled and sagged, and the tiling split and showered aboutthem.

  Raising Bernardino in his arms, as if she were an infant, Thorndykesprang toward the stairway leading to his chambers, but the roof hadsunken till it was steep and slippery. One instant he was topplingover backward, the next, by a mighty effort, he had recovered hisequilibrium, and finally managed to reach a safer place. As he hurriedon another pillar went down. The roof sagged lower, and an avalanche ofmortar and tiling slid into the court below. Yells, groans, and cries offury rent the air.

  Bernardino had fainted. Thorndyke tried to restore her to consciousness,but dared not put her from him for an instant. On he ran, and presentlyreached a flight of stairs which he thought led to his chambers. Hedescended them, and was hastening along a narrow corridor on the floorbeneath when Bernardino opened her eyes. She asked to be released fromhis arms. He put her down, but supported her along the corridor.

  "We have lost our way," he said, as he discovered that the corridor,instead of leading to his chambers, turned off obliquely in anotherdirection.

  "Let's go on anyway," she suggested; "it may lead us out. I have neverbeen here before. I--" A great crash drowned her words. The floorquivered and swayed, but it did not fall. On they ran through thedarkness, till Thorndyke felt a heavy curtain before. He pausedabruptly, not knowing what to do. Bernardino felt of its texture,perplexed for an instant.

  "Draw it aside, it seems to hang across the corridor," she said. Heobeyed her, and only a few yards further on they saw another curtainwith bars of light above and below it. They drew this aside, and foundthemselves on the threshold of a most beautiful apartment.

  In the mosaic floor were pictures cut in colored stones, and the ceilingwas a silken canopy as filmy and as delicately blue as the sky on asummer's night. The floor was strewn with richly embroidered pillows,couches, rugs and ottomans; and here and there were palm trees and bedsof flowers and grottoes. A solitary light, representing the moon, showedthrough the silken canopy in whose folds little lights sparkled likefar-off stars.

  Thorndyke looked at the princess inquiringly. She was bewildered.

  "I have no idea where we are," she murmured. "I am sure I have neverbeen here before; but there is another apartment beyond. Listen! I hearcries."

  "Some one in distress," he answered, and he drew her across the room andthrough a door into another room more beautiful than the one they hadjust left. Here, huddled together at a window overlooking the court,were six or eight beautiful young women. They were staring out into thedarkness, and moaning and muttering low cries of despair.

  "It is my father's ladies," ejaculated the princess aghast. "He wouldbe angry if he knew we had come here. No one but himself enters theseapartments."

  Just then one of the women turned a lovely and despairing face towardthem, and came forward and knelt at the feet of Bernardino.

  "Oh, save us, Princess," she cried.

  "Be calm," said the princess, touching the white brow of the woman. "Thedanger may soon pass; this portion of the palace is too strongly builtfor them to injure it." Then she turned to Thorndyke: "We must hasten onand find our way down; it would never do for us to be seen here." Thenshe turned to the kneeling woman and said gently: "I hope you will saynothing to the king of this; we lost our way in trying to get down fromthe roof."

  "I will not," gladly promised the woman, and seeing that Bernardinoknew not which way to turn, she guided them to a door opening into adimly-lighted corridor. "It will take you out to the balconies and downto the audience-chamber," she said. The princess thanked her, and sheand the Englishman descended several flights of stairs. Reaching oneof the balconies they met the denser darkness of the outside and thedeafening clang and clamor of the multitude. There was no light ofany kind, and Thorndyke and his charge had to press close against thebalustrade of the balcony to keep from being crushed by the mad torrentof humanity.

  Now and then a strident voice would rise above the din:--

  "Down with the palace! Death to the king!"

  The trumpet in the tower sounded again and again.

  "It is my father trying to attract their attention," explained theprincess. "Something very serious has happened for once. In speakingof the time the sun went out before, he told me that he had made aninvention which, in such a crisis, would instantly restore confidence tothe people. I cannot understand why he does not use it. Oh, I am afraidthey will kill him!"

  Thorndyke tried to console her, for he saw that she was weeping, butjust then there was a strange lull in the general tumult. What couldhave happened?

  "The dawn! the ideal dawn!" cried Bernardino, pointing to the easternsky. Thorndyke looked in wonder. A purple light had spread along thehorizon, and as it gradually softened into gray and slowly turned topink, the noise of the populace died down. No sound could now be heardsave the low groans of wounded men and women. What a sight met the viewas the rose-light shimmered over the city! The dead and dying lay underthe feet of the crowd. Almost every creature bore some mark of violence.Eyes were blood-shot, clothing torn, limbs were bleeding, and mingledfury and sudden hope struggled in each ashen face. The young trees andshrubbery had been trampled under foot, and walls, arcades and triumphalarches had been thrown down. The fragments of statues lay here andthere, and the bodies of human beings filled the basins of brokenfountains.

  "It is not the sun," explained Bernardino; "but the invention my fatherspoke of. He is doing it to calm them."

  Thorndyke made no answer. He stood as if transfixed, gazing at thehorizon. The rose-light had spread over a third of the sky whengradually there appeared in its centre a bright circle of yellow light.The yellow light faded, leaving a perfect picture of the throne of theking; and as the now silent masses looked at the picture, a curtainbehind the throne parted and the king himself appeared. He advanced andsat on the throne, and turned a calm face towards his subjects.

  "Wonderful!" ejaculated Bernardino, and her face was full of hope. "Seewhat he will do!"

  "Where is the picture?" asked Thorndyke; "can it be seen by all of--ofthe people?"

  "Yes, by all Alpha, for it is on the sky."

  Thorndyke said nothing further, for the king had stood up, and withhands out-stretched was bowing. Above the circle of light, as if cut outof the solid blackness, in flaming letters stood the word,

  "SILENCE!"

  And there was silence. Even the lips of the wounded men closed as theking began to speak. The sound of his voice seemed as far away as thestars, and to permeate all space:--

  "All danger is over. Tidings from the west state that the sun issetting. No harm has co
me to it. It will rise in the morning, and themoon and stars will be out in a few hours. Let the dead be removed, thewounded cared for, and everything be repaired. This is my will."

  That was all. The king bowed sedately and retired from the throne, andthe circle and pink glow faded from the black sky. The stillnesswas unbroken for a moment, then glad murmurings were heard in alldirections.

  "They are lighting the palace," cried the princess. "See, down there isthe arcade leading to the rotunda."

  "I am glad it is over," said Thorndyke.

  She grasped his arm and impulsively looked into his face. "But yourfriend, we have forgotten him, and done nothing to save him, and now itis too late."

  "We could not help it; we had to think of our own safety."

  "I shall send for Captain Tradmos and try to devise some other plan,"she said, as they descended the stairs.

  "We should not be seen together," she added, as they approached thethrone-room; "besides, you ought to go to your chambers. No one isallowed to be out when the dead is being removed."

  "Where is the dead taken?"

  "Over the wall, to be burned in the internal fires," she concluded, asshe was leaving him.

  He found everything in order in his rooms and he lay down and tried tosleep, but he was too much excited over the happenings of the day. Hoursmust have passed when his attention was drawn to a bright light shiningon the wall of his room. He went to a window and looked out on thecourt. The light came from the rising moon.

  Below lay the ruins of fallen columns, capitals, cornices and statues.Figures in black cloaks and cowls were removing the dead from thedebris. With a fluttering sound something swooped down past his windowto the ground. It looked like a great bird, carrying the car of aflying-machine. Thorndyke watched its circular descent to the earth, andshuddered with horror as the black figures filled the car with bodiesand the gruesome machine spread its wings and rose slowly till it wasclear of the domes and pinnacles of the palace, and then flew awaywestward.

  Other machines came, and, one after another, received their ghastlyburdens and departed. In a short time all the dead was removed, andhundreds of workmen came from the palace and began repairing the fallenmasonry.

  Thorndyke went back to his couch and tried to sleep, but in vain. Slowlythe hours of night passed, and as the purple of dawn rose in the east hedressed himself and went up on the roof. The moon had gone down and thestars were fading from the sky. The dark earth below showed no signs oflife; but as the purple light softened into gray he saw that the streetsof the city were filled with silent expectant people, all watching theeastern sky. And, as the gray light flushed into rose, and the rosebegan to scintillate with gold, they began to stir, and a hum of joyfulvoices was heard. The promised day had come.