CHAPTER XXI
THE PROPHECY OF ATENE
On the day following this strange experience of the iron that was turnedto gold some great service was held in the Sanctuary, as we understood,"to consecrate the war." We did not attend it, but that night we atetogether as usual. Ayesha was moody at the meal, that is, she variedfrom sullenness to laughter.
"Know you," she said, "that to-day I was an Oracle, and those fools ofthe Mountain sent their medicine-men to ask of the Hesea how the battlewould go and which of them would be slain, and which gain honour. AndI--I could not tell them, but juggled with my words, so that they mighttake them as they would. How the battle will go I know well, for Ishall direct it, but the future--ah! that I cannot read better than thoucanst, my Holly, and that is ill indeed. For me the past and all thepresent lie bathed in light reflected from that black wall--the future."
Then she fell to brooding, and looking up at length with an air ofentreaty, said to Leo--"Wilt thou not hear my prayer and bide where thouart for some few days, or even go a-hunting? Do so, and I will stay withthee, and send Holly and Oros to command the Tribes in this petty fray."
"I will not," answered Leo, trembling with indignation, for this planof hers that I should be sent out to war, while he bided in safety in atemple, moved him, a man brave to rashness, who, although he disapprovedof it in theory, loved fighting for its own sake also, to absolute rage.
"I say, Ayesha, that I will not," he repeated; "moreover, that if thouleavest me here I will find my way down the mountain alone, and join thebattle."
"Then come," she answered, "and on thine own head be it. Nay, not onthine beloved, on mine, on mine."
After this, by some strange reaction, she became like a merry girl,laughing more than I have ever seen her do, and telling us many tales ofthe far, far past, but none that were sad or tragic. It was very strangeto sit and listen to her while she spoke of people, one or two of themknown as names in history and many others who never have been heardof, that had trod this earth and with whom she was familiar over twothousand years ago. Yet she told us anecdotes of their loves and hates,their strength or weaknesses, all of them touched with some tinge ofhumorous satire, or illustrating the comic vanity of human aims andaspirations.
At length her talk took a deeper and more personal note. She spoke ofher searchings after truth; of how, aching for wisdom, she had exploredthe religions of her day and refused them one by one; of how she hadpreached in Jerusalem and been stoned by the Doctors of the Law. Ofhow also she had wandered back to Arabia and, being rejected by her ownpeople as a reformer, had travelled on to Egypt, and at the court of thePharaoh of that time met a famous magician, half charlatan and halfseer who, because she was far-seeing, 'clairvoyante' we should call it,instructed her in his art so well that soon she became his master andforced him to obey her.
Then, as though she were unwilling to reveal too much, suddenly Ayesha'shistory passed from Egypt to Kor. She spoke to Leo of his arrival there,a wanderer who was named Kallikrates, hunted by savages and accompaniedby the Egyptian Amenartas, whom she appeared to have known and hated inher own country, and of how she entertained them. Yes, she even told ofa supper that the three of them had eaten together on the evening beforethey started to discover the Place of Life, and of an evil prophecy thatthis royal Amenartas had made as to the issue of their journey.
"Aye," Ayesha said, "it was such a silent night as this and such ameal as this we ate, and Leo, not so greatly changed, save that he wasbeardless then and younger, was at my side. Where thou sittest, Holly,sat the royal Amenartas, a very fair woman; yes, even more beautifulthan I before I dipped me in the Essence, fore-sighted also, though notso learned as I had grown. From the first we hated each other, and morethan ever now, when she guessed how I had learned to look upon thee, herlover, Leo; for her husband thou never wast, who didst flee too fast formarriage. She knew also that the struggle between us which had begun ofold and afar was for centuries and generations, and that until the endshould declare itself neither of us could harm the other, who both hadsinned to win thee, that wast appointed by fate to be the lodestoneof our souls. Then Amenartas spoke and said--"'Lo! to my sight,Kallikrates, the wine in thy cup is turned to blood, and that knife inthy hand, O daughter of Yarab'--for so she named me--'drips red blood.Aye, and this place is a sepulchre, and thou, O Kallikrates, sleepesthere, nor can she, thy murderess, kiss back the breath of life intothose cold lips of thine.'
"So indeed it came about as was ordained," added Ayesha reflectively,"for I slew thee in yonder Place of Life, yes, in my madness I slew theebecause thou wouldst not or couldst not understand the change that hadcome over me, and shrankest from my loveliness like a blind bat fromthe splendour of flame, hiding thy face in the tresses of her duskyhair--Why, what is it now, thou Oros? Can I never be rid of thee for anhour?"
"O Hes, a writing from the Khania Atene," the priest said with hisdeprecating bow.
"Break the seal and read," she answered carelessly. "Perchance she hasrepented of her folly and makes submission."
So he read--
"To the Hesea of the College on the Mountain, known as Ayesha uponearth, and in the household of the Over-world whence she has beenpermitted to wander, as 'Star-that-hath-fallen--'"
"A pretty sounding name, forsooth," broke in Ayesha; "ah! but, Atene,set stars rise again--even from the Under-world. Read on, thou Oros."
"Greetings, O Ayesha. Thou who art very old, hast gathered much wisdomin the passing of the centuries, and with other powers, that of makingthyself seem fair in the eyes of men blinded by thine arts. Yet onething thou lackest that I have--vision of those happenings which are notyet. Know, O Ayesha, that I and my uncle, the great seer, have searchedthe heavenly books to learn what is written there of the issue of thiswar.
"This is written:--For me, death, whereat I rejoice. For thee a spearcast by thine own hand. For the land of Kaloon blood and ruin bred ofthee!
"Atene,
"Khania of Kaloon."
Ayesha listened in silence, but her lips did not tremble, nor her cheekpale. To Oros she said proudly--"Say to the messenger of Atene that Ihave received her message, and ere long will answer it, face to facewith her in her palace of Kaloon. Go, priest, and disturb me no more."
When Oros had departed she turned to us and said--"That tale of mine oflong ago was well fitted to this hour, for as Amenartas prophesied ofill, so does Atene prophesy of ill, and Amenartas and Atene are one.Well, let the spear fall, if fall it must, and I will not flinch fromit who know that I shall surely triumph at the last. Perhaps the Khaniadoes but think to frighten me with a cunning lie, but if she has readaright, then be sure, beloved, that it is still well with us, since nonecan escape their destiny, nor can our bond of union which was fashionedwith the universe that bears us, ever be undone."
She paused awhile then went on with a sudden outburst of poetic thoughtand imagery.
"I tell thee, Leo, that out of the confusions of our lives and deathsorder shall yet be born. Behind the mask of cruelty shine Mercy'stender eyes; and the wrongs of this rough and twisted world are buthot, blinding sparks which stream from the all-righting sword of pure,eternal Justice. The heavy lives we see and know are only links in agolden chain that shall draw us safe to the haven of our rest; steepand painful steps are they whereby we climb to the alloted palace ofour joy. Henceforth I fear no more, and fight no more against that whichmust befall. For I say we are but winged seeds blown down the gales offate and change to the appointed garden where we shall grow, filling itsblest air with the immortal fragrance of our bloom.
"Leave me now, Leo, and sleep awhile, for we ride at dawn."
It was midday on the morrow when we moved down the mountain-side withthe army of the Tribes, fierce and savage-looking men. The scouts wereout before us, then came the great body of their cavalry mounted on wiryhorses, while to right and left and behind, the foot soldiers marched inregiments, each under the command of its own chief.
Ayesha, ve
iled now--for she would not show her beauty to these wildfolk--rode in the midst of the horse-men on a white mare of matchlessspeed and shape. With her went Leo and myself, Leo on the Khan's blackhorse, and I on another not unlike it, though thicker built. About uswere a bodyguard of armed priests and a regiment of chosen soldiers,among them those hunters that Leo had saved from Ayesha's wrath, and whowere now attached to his person.
We were merry, all of us, for in the crisp air of late autumn floodedwith sunlight, the fears and forebodings that had haunted us in thosegloomy, firelit caves were forgotten. Moreover, the tramp of thousandsof armed men and the excitement of coming battle thrilled our nerves.
Not for many a day had I seen Leo look so vigorous and happy. Of latehe had grown somewhat thin and pale, probably from causes that I havesuggested, but now his cheeks were red and his eyes shone bright again.Ayesha also seemed joyous, for the moods of this strange woman were asfickle as those of Nature's self, and varied as a landscape varies underthe sunshine or the shadow. Now she was noon and now dark night; nowdawn, now evening, and now thoughts came and went in the blue depths ofher eyes like vapours wafted across the summer sky, and in the pressof them her sweet face changed and shimmered as broken water shimmersbeneath the beaming stars.
"Too long," she said, with a little thrilling laugh, "have I been shutin the bowels of sombre mountains, accompanied only by mutes and savagesor by melancholy, chanting priests, and now I am glad to look upon theworld again. How beautiful are the snows above, and the brown slopesbelow, and the broad plains beyond that roll away to those borderinghills! How glorious is the sun, eternal as myself; how sweet the keenair of heaven.
"Believe me, Leo, more than twenty centuries have gone by since I wasseated on a steed, and yet thou seest I have not forgot my horsemanship,though this beast cannot match those Arabs that I rode in the widedeserts of Arabia. Oh! I remember how at my father's side I gallopeddown to war against the marauding Bedouins, and how with my own hand Ispeared their chieftain and made him cry for mercy. One day I will tellthee of that father of mine, for I was his darling, and though we havebeen long apart, I hold his memory dear and look forward to our meeting.
"See, yonder is the mouth of that gorge where lived the cat-worshippingsorcerer, who would have murdered both of you because thou, Leo, didstthrow his familiar to the fire. It is strange, but several of the tribesof this Mountain and of the lands behind it make cats their gods ordivine by means of them. I think that the first Rassen, the generalof Alexander, must have brought the practice here from Egypt. Ofthis Macedonian Alexander I could tell thee much, for he was almost acontemporary of mine, and when I last was born the world still rang withthe fame of his great deeds.
"It was Rassen who on the Mountain supplanted the primeval fire-worshipwhereof the flaming pillars which light its Sanctuary remain asmonuments, by that of Hes, or Isis, or rather blended the two in one.Doubtless among the priests in his army were some of Pasht or Sekket theCat-headed, and these brought with them their secret cult, that to-dayhas dwindled down to the vulgar divinations of savage sorcerers. IndeedI remember dimly that it was so, for I was the first Hesea of thisTemple, and journeyed hither with that same general Rassen, a relativeof mine."
Now both Leo and I looked at her wonderingly, and I could see that shewas watching us through her veil. As usual, however, it was I whom shereproved, since Leo might think and do what he willed and still escapeher anger.
"Thou, Holly," she said quickly, "who art ever of a cavilling andsuspicious mind, remembering what I said but now, believest that I lieto thee."
I protested that I was only reflecting upon an apparent variationbetween two statements.
"Play not with words," she answered; "in thy heart thou didst write medown a liar, and I take that ill. Know, foolish man, that when I saidthat the Macedonian Alexander lived before me, I meant before thispresent life of mine. In the existence that preceded it, though Ioutlasted him by thirty years, we were born in the same summer, andI knew him well, for I was the Oracle whom he consulted most upon hiswars, and to my wisdom he owed his victories. Afterwards we quarrelled,and I left him and pushed forward with Rassen. From that day thebright star of Alexander began to wane." At this Leo made a sound thatresembled a whistle. In a very agony of apprehension, beating back thecriticisms and certain recollections of the strange tale of the oldabbot, Kou-en, which would rise within me, I asked quickly--"And dostthou, Ayesha, remember well all that befell thee in this former life?"
"Nay, not well," she answered, meditatively, "only the greater facts,and those I have for the most part recovered by that study of secretthings which thou callest vision or magic. For instance, my Holly, Irecall that thou wast living in that life. Indeed I seem to see anugly philosopher clad in a dirty robe and filled both with wine and thelearning of others, who disputed with Alexander till he grew wroth withhim and caused him to be banished, or drowned: I forget which."
"I suppose that I was not called Diogenes?" I asked tartly, suspecting,perhaps not without cause, that Ayesha was amusing herself by foolingme.
"No," she replied gravely, "I do not think that was thy name. TheDiogenes thou speakest of was a much more famous man, one of real ifcrabbed wisdom; moreover, he did not indulge in wine. I am mindful ofvery little of that life, however, not of more indeed than are many ofthe followers of the prophet Buddha, whose doctrines I have studied andof whom thou, Holly, hast spoken to me so much. Maybe we did not meetwhile it endured. Still I recollect that the Valley of Bones, whereI found thee, my Leo, was the place where a great battle was foughtbetween the Fire-priests with their vassals, the Tribes of the Mountainand the army of Rassen aided by the people of Kaloon. For between theseand the Mountain, in old days as now, there was enmity, since in thispresent war history does but rewrite itself."
"So thou thyself wast our guide," said Leo, looking at her sharply.
"Aye, Leo, who else? though it is not wonderful that thou didst not knowme beneath those deathly wrappings. I was minded to wait and receivethee in the Sanctuary, yet when I learned that at length both of you hadescaped Atene and drew near, I could restrain myself no more, but cameforth thus hideously disguised. Yes, I was with you even at the river'sbank, and though you saw me not, there sheltered you from harm.
"Leo, I yearned to look upon thee and to be certain that thy heart hadnot changed, although until the alloted time thou mightest not hear myvoice or see my face who wert doomed to undergo that sore trial of thyfaith. Of Holly also I desired to learn whether his wisdom could piercethrough my disguise, and how near he stood to truth. It was for thisreason that I suffered him to see me draw the lock from the satchel onthy breast and to hear me wail over thee yonder in the Rest-house.Well he did not guess so ill, but thou, thou knewest me--in thysleep--knewest me as I am, and not as I seemed to be, yes," she addedsoftly, "and didst say certain sweet words which I remember well."
"Then beneath that shroud was thine own face," asked Leo again, for hewas very curious on this point, "the same lovely face I see to-day?"
"Mayhap--as thou wilt," she answered coldly; "also it is the spirit thatmatters, not the outward seeming, though men in their blindness thinkotherwise. Perchance my face is but as thy heart fashions it, or as mywill presents it to the sight and fancy of its beholders. But hark! Thescouts have touched."
As Ayesha spoke a sound of distant shouting was borne upon the wind,and presently we saw a fringe of horsemen falling back slowly upon ourforemost line. It was only to report, however, that the skirmishers ofAtene were in full retreat. Indeed, a prisoner whom they brought withthem, on being questioned by the priests, confessed at once that theKhania had no mind to meet us upon the holy Mountain. She proposed togive battle on the river's farther bank, having for a defence its waterswhich we must ford, a decision that showed good military judgment.
So it happened that on this day there was no fighting.
All that afternoon we descended the slopes of the Mountain, more swiftlyby far than we had climbed them after
our long flight from the city ofKaloon. Before sunset we came to our prepared camping ground, a wide andsloping plain that ended at the crest of the Valley of Dead Bones, wherein past days we had met our mysterious guide. This, however, we did notreach through the secret mountain tunnel along which she had led us, theshortest way by miles, as Ayesha told us now, since it was unsuited tothe passage of an army.
Bending to the left, we circled round a number of unclimbable koppies,beneath which that tunnel passed, and so at length arrived upon the browof the dark ravine where we could sleep safe from attack by night.
Here a tent was pitched for Ayesha, but as it was the only one, Leoand I with our guard bivouacked among some rocks at a distance of afew hundred yards. When she found that this must be so, Ayesha was veryangry and spoke bitter words to the chief who had charge of the food andbaggage, although, he, poor man, knew nothing of tents.
Also she blamed Oros, who replied meekly that he had thought us captainsaccustomed to war and its hardships. But most of all she was angry withherself, who had forgotten this detail, and until Leo stopped her with alaugh of vexation, went on to suggest that we should sleep in the tent,since she had no fear of the rigours of the mountain cold.
The end of it was that we supped together outside, or rather Leo and Isupped, for as there were guards around us Ayesha did not even lift herveil.
That evening Ayesha was disturbed and ill at ease, as though new fearswhich she could not overcome assailed her. At length she seemed toconquer them by some effort of her will and announced that she wasminded to sleep and thus refresh her soul; the only part of her, Ithink, which ever needed rest. Her last words to us were--"Sleep youalso, sleep sound, but be not astonished, my Leo, if I send to summonboth of you during the night, since in my slumbers I may find newcounsels and need to speak of them to thee ere we break camp at dawn."
Thus we parted, but ah! little did we guess how and where the three ofus would meet again.
We were weary and soon fell fast asleep beside our camp-fire, for,knowing that the whole army guarded us, we had no fear. I rememberwatching the bright stars which shone in the immense vault above meuntil they paled in the pure light of the risen moon, now somewhat pasther full, and hearing Leo mutter drowsily from beneath his fur rug thatAyesha was quite right, and that it was pleasant to be in the open airagain, as he was tired of caves.
After that I knew no more until I was awakened by the challenge of asentry in the distance; then after a pause, a second challenge fromthe officer of our own guard. Another pause, and a priest stood bowingbefore us, the flickering light from the fire playing upon his shavenhead and face, which I seemed to recognize.
"I"--and he gave a name that was familiar to me, but which I forget--"amsent, my lords, by Oros, who commands me to say that the Hesea wouldspeak with you both and at once."
Now Leo sat up yawning and asked what was the matter. I told him,whereon he said he wished that Ayesha could have waited till daylight,then added--"Well, there is no help for it. Come on, Horace," and herose to follow the messenger.
The priest bowed again and said--"The commands of the Hesea are that mylords should bring their weapons and their guard."
"What," grumbled Leo, "to protect us for a walk of a hundred yardsthrough the heart of an army?"
"The Hesea," explained the man, "has left her tent; she is in the gorgeyonder, studying the line of advance."
"How do you know that?" I asked.
"I do not know it," he replied. "Oros told me so, that is all, andtherefore the Hesea bade my lords bring their guard, for she is alone."
"Is she mad," ejaculated Leo, "to wander about in such a place atmidnight? Well, it is like her."
I too thought it was like her, who did nothing that others would havedone, and yet I hesitated. Then I remembered that Ayesha had said shemight send for us; also I was sure that if any trick had been intendedwe should not have been warned to bring an escort. So we called theguard--there were twelve of them--took our spears and swords andstarted.
We were challenged by both the first and second lines of sentries, and Inoticed that as we gave them the password the last picket, who of courserecognized us, looked astonished. Still, if they had doubts they did notdare to express them. So we went on.
Now we began to descend the sides of the ravine by a very steep path,with which the priest, our guide, seemed to be curiously familiar, forhe went down it as though it were the stairway of his own house.
"A strange place to take us to at night," said Leo doubtfully, whenwe were near the bottom and the chief of the bodyguard, that greatred-bearded hunter who had been mixed up in the matter of thesnow-leopard also muttered some words of remonstrance. Whilst I wastrying to catch what he said, of a sudden something white walked intothe patch of moonlight at the foot of the ravine, and we saw that itwas the veiled figure of Ayesha herself. The chief saw her also and saidcontentedly--"Hes! Hes!"
"Look at her," grumbled Leo, "strolling about in that haunted hole asthough it were Hyde Park;" and on he went at a run.
The figure turned and beckoned to us to follow her as she glidedforward, picking her way through the skeletons which were scatteredabout upon the lava bed of the cleft. Thus she went on into the shadowof the opposing cliff that the moonlight did not reach. Here in the wetseason a stream trickled down a path which it had cut through the rockin the course of centuries, and the grit that it had brought with itwas spread about the lava floor of the ravine, so that many of the boneswere almost completely buried in the sand.
These, I noticed, as we stepped into the shadow, were more numerous thanusual just here, for on all sides I saw the white crowns of skulls, orthe projecting ends of ribs and thigh bones. Doubtless, I thought tomyself, that streamway made a road to the plain above, and in some pastbattle, the fighting around it was very fierce and the slaughter great.
Here Ayesha had halted and was engaged in the contemplation of thisboulder-strewn path, as though she meditated making use of it that day.Now we drew near to her, and the priest who guided us fell back with ourguard, leaving us to go forward alone, since they dared not approach theHesea unbidden. Leo was somewhat in advance of me, seven or eight yardsperhaps, and I heard him say--"Why dost thou venture into such places atnight, Ayesha, unless indeed it is not possible for any harm to come tothee?"
She made no answer, only turned and opened her arms wide, then let themfall to her side again. Whilst I wondered what this signal of hers mightmean, from the shadows about us came a strange, rustling sound.
I looked, and lo! everywhere the skeletons were rising from their sandybeds. I saw their white skulls, their gleaming arm and leg bones, theirhollow ribs. The long-slain army had come to life again, and look! intheir hands were the ghosts of spears.
Of course I knew at once that this was but another manifestation ofAyesha's magic powers, which some whim of hers had drawn us from ourbeds to witness. Yet I confess that I felt frightened. Even the boldestof men, however free from superstition, might be excused should theirnerve fail them if, when standing in a churchyard at midnight, suddenlyon every side they saw the dead arising from their graves. Also oursurroundings were wilder and more eerie than those of any civilizedburying-place.
"What new devilment of thine is this?" cried Leo in a scared and angryvoice. But Ayesha made no answer. I heard a noise behind me and lookedround. The skeletons were springing upon our body-guard, who for theirpart, poor men, paralysed with terror, had thrown down their weapons andfallen, some of them, to their knees. Now the ghosts began to stab atthem with their phantom spears, and I saw that beneath the blows theyrolled over. The veiled figure above me pointed with her hand at Leo andsaid--"Seize him, but I charge you, harm him not."
I knew the voice; _it was that of Atene!_
Then too late I understood the trap into which we had fallen.
"Treachery!" I began to cry, and before the word was out of my lips, aparticularly able-bodied skeleton silenced me with a violent blow uponthe head. But though I c
ould not speak, my senses still stayed withme for a little. I saw Leo fighting furiously with a number of men whostrove to pull him down, so furiously, indeed that his frightful effortscaused the blood to gush out of his mouth from some burst vessel in thelungs.
Then sight and hearing failed me, and thinking that this was death, Ifell and remembered no more.
Why I was not killed outright I do not know, unless in their hurry thedisguised soldiers thought me already dead, or perhaps that my life wasto be spared also. At least, beyond the knock upon the head I receivedno injury.
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