Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XXI

  Touching Repayment

  So Count Manuel's youth went out of him as he became more and moreintimate with Misery, and an attachment sprang up between them, and thetwo took counsel as to all Manuel's affairs. They often talked of theroyal ladies whom Manuel had loved and loved no longer.

  "For at one time," Manuel admitted, "I certainly fancied myself in lovewith the Princess Alianora, and at another time I was in love with QueenFreydis. And even now I like them well enough, but neither of theseroyal ladies could make me forget the slave girl Niafer whom I loved onVraidex. Besides, the Princess and the Queen were fond of having theirown way about everything, and they were bent on hampering me with powerand wealth and lofty station and such other obstacles to the followingof my own thinking and my own desires. I could not endure the eternalarguing this led to, which was always reminding me, by contrast, of thequiet dear ways of Niafer and of the delight I had in the ways ofNiafer. So it seemed best for everyone concerned for me to break offwith Freydis and Alianora."

  "As for these women," the head estimated, "you may be for some reasonswell rid of them. Yet this Alianora has fine eyes and certain powers."

  "She is a princess of the Apsarasas," Manuel replied, "and therefore shehas power over the butterflies and the birds and the bats, and over allcreatures of the air. I know, because she has disclosed to me some ofthe secrets of the Apsarasas. But over her own tongue and temper thePrincess Alianora has no power and no control whatever, and if I hadmarried her she would have eventually pestered me into being a king, andgiving my life over to politics and the dominion of men."

  "This Freydis, too, has beautiful black hair--and certain powers--"

  "She was once Queen of Audela, and therefore she retains power over allfigures of earth. I know, because she has disclosed to me some of thesecrets of Audela. But the worst enemy of Freydis also goes in red, andis housed by the little white teeth of Freydis, for it was this enemythat betrayed her: and if I had married her she would have coaxed me, byand by, into becoming a great maker of images, and giving my life overto such arts."

  Misery said: "You have had love from these women, you have gained powerand knowledge from these women. Therefore you leave them, to run aftersome other woman who can give you no power and knowledge, but only avast deal of trouble. It is not heroic, Manuel, but it is human, andyour reasoning is well fitted to your time of life."

  "It is true that I am young as yet, sir--"

  "No, not so very young, for my society is maturing you, and already youare foreplanning and talking the follies of a man in middle life."

  "No matter what my age may come to be, sir, I shall always remember thatwhen I first set up as a champion, and was newly come from livingmodestly in attendance upon the miller's pigs, I loved the slave girlNiafer. She died. I did not die. Instead, I relinquished Niafer toGrandfather Death, and at that price I preserved my own life andprocured a recipe through which I have prospered unbelievably, so that Iam today a nobleman with fine clothes and lackeys, and with meadow-landsand castles of my own, if only I could obtain them. So I no longer goragged at the elbows, and royal ladies look upon me favorably, and Ifind them well enough. But the joy I took in Niafer is not to be foundin any of these things."

  "That too is an old human story," the head said, "and yours is adelusion that comes to most men in middle life. However, for a month ofyears you have served me faithfully, except for twice having failed toput enough venom in my soup, and for having forgotten to fetch in anyice that evening the Old Black One was here. Still, nobody is perfect;your time of service is out; and I must repay you as need is. Will youhave happiness, then, and an eternal severance between you and me?"

  "I have seen but one happy person," Manuel replied. "He sat in a dryditch, displaying vacant glittering eyes, and straws were tangled in hishair, but Tom o' Bedlam was quite happy. No, it is not happiness Idesire."

  The head repeated: "You have served me. I repay, as need is, with thepayment you demand. What is it you demand?"

  Dom Manuel said, "I demand that Niafer who was a slave girl, and is nowa ghost in her pagan paradise."

  "Do you think, then, that to recall the dead is possible?"

  "You are cunning, sir, but I remember what Freydis told me. Will youswear that Misery cannot bring back the dead?"

  "Very willingly I will swear to it, upon all the most authentic relicsin Christendom."

  "Ah, yes, but will you rest one of your cold hard pointed earsagainst"--here Manuel whispered what he did not care to namealoud,--"the while that you swear to it."

  "Of course not," Misery answered, sullenly: "since every troubled ghostthat ever gibbered and clanked chains would rise confronting me if Imade such an oath. Yes, Manuel, I am able to bring back the dead, butprudence forces me to lie about my power, because to exercise that powerto the full would be well-nigh as ruinous as the breaking of thatpumpkin. For there is only one way to bring back the dead in flesh, andif I follow that way I shall lose my head as all the others have done."

  "What is that to a lover?" says Manuel.

  The head sighed, and bit at its white lips. "An oath is an oath to theLeshy. Therefore do you, who are human, now make profitable use of theknowledge and of the power you get from those other women by breakingoaths! And as you have served me, so will I serve you."

  Manuel called black eagles to him, in the manner the Princess Alianorahad taught, and he sent them into all parts of the world for every sortof white earth. They obeyed the magic of the Apsarasas, and from Britainthey brought Dom Manuel the earth called leucargillon, and they broughtglisomarga from Enisgarth, and eglecopala from the Gallic provinces, andargentaria from Lacre Kai, and white earth of every description from allparts of the world.

  Manuel made from this earth, as Queen Freydis had taught him how to do,the body of a woman. He fashioned the body peculiarly, in accordancewith the old Tuyla mystery, and the body was as perfect as Manuel couldmake it, in all ways save that it had no head.

  Then Manuel sent a gold-crested wren into Provence: it entered throughan upper window of the King's marmoreal palace, and went into thePrincess Alianora's chamber, and fetched hence a handkerchief figuredwith yellow mulberries and wet with the tears which Alianora had shed inher grieving for Manuel. And Dom Manuel sent also a falcon, whichreturned to him with Queen Freydis' handkerchief. That was figured withwhite fleurs-de-lis, and that too was drenched with tears.

  Whereupon, all being in readiness, Misery smiled craftily, and said:

  "In the time that is passed I have overthrown high kings and prophets,and sorcerers also, as when Misery half carelessly made sport ofMithridates and of Merlin and of Moses, in ways that ballad-singersstill delight to tell of. But with you, Dom Manuel, I shall dealotherwise, and I shall disconcert you by and by in a more quiet fashion.Hoh, I must grapple carefully with your love for Niafer, as with anantagonist who is not scrupulous, nor very sensible, but who isexceedingly strong. For observe: you obstinately desire this perishedheathen woman, who in life, it well may be, was nothing remarkable.Therefore you have sought Misery, you have dwelt for a month of yearswith terror, you have surrendered youth, you are planning to defy death,you are intent to rob the deep grave and to despoil paradise. Truly yourlove is great."

  Manuel said only, "An obligation is upon me, for the life of Niafer wasgiven to preserve my life."

  "Now I, whom some call Beda, and others Kruchina, and whom for thepresent your love has conquered--I it is, alone, who can obtain for youthis woman, because in the long run I overcome all things and persons.Life is my province, and the birth cry of every infant is an oath ofallegiance to me. Thus I am overlord where all serve willy-nilly exceptyou, who have served of your own will. And as you have served me, somust I serve you."

  Manuel said, "That is well"

  "It is not so well as you think, for when you have this Niafer I shallreturn to you in the appearance of a light formless cloud, and I shallrise about you, not suddenly but a little by a little. So
shall you seethrough me the woman for love of whom your living was once madehigh-hearted and fearless, and for whose sake death was derided, andparadise was ransacked: and you will ask forlornly, 'Was it for this?'Throughout the orderly, busied, unimportant hours that stretch betweenyour dressing for the day and your undressing for the night, you will beasking this question secretly in your heart, while I pass everywhitherwith you in the appearance of a light formless cloud, and whisper to yousecretly."

  "And what will you whisper to me?"

  "Not anything which you will care to repeat to anybody anywhere. Oh, youwill be able to endure it, and you will be content, as human contentmentgoes, and my triumph will not be public. But, none the less, I shallhave overthrown my present conqueror, and I shall have brought low thelove which terror and death did not affright, and which the laws ofearth could not control; and I, whom some call Beda, and othersKruchina, will very terribly attest that the ghost of outlived andconquered misery is common-sense."

  "That is to-morrow's affair," replied Dom Manuel "To-day there is anobligation upon me, and my dealings are with to-day."

  Then Manuel bound the clay head of Misery in the two handkerchiefs whichwere wet with the tears of Alianora and of Freydis. When the cock hadcrowed three times, Dom Manuel unbound the head, and it was only ashapeless mass of white clay, because of the tears of Freydis andAlianora.

  Manuel modeled in this clay, to the best of his ability, the head ofNiafer, as he remembered her when they had loved each other uponVraidex: and after the white head was finished he fitted it to the bodywhich he had made from the other kinds of white earth. Dom Manuel robedthis body in brown drugget such as Niafer had been used to wear in andabout the kitchen at Arnaye, and he did the other things that wererequisite, for this was the day of All Saints when nothing sacred oughtto be neglected.