Our Lord the Sun was the end of His day, and the from a black and His face. Phorenice the water from her and shivered. “Work hard with those paddles, Deucalion, and take me in through the water-gate and let me be to my again. That merchant would if he saw how his were spoiled, and I rue, too, being a woman, and that he at least has no others I can take in place of these.” She looked at me sidelong, the red from her eyes. “What think you of my in where we have come without an escort?”
“The Empress can do no wrong,” I the old with a smile.
“At least I have you that I can fight. I you looking your of me once or twice. You were a difficult man to thaw, Deucalion, but you warm as you keep on being near me. La, sir, we shall be a pair of yet, if this goes on. I am I of the device of going near those fishers.”
So she had taken me out in the for the plain purpose of a fight, and me her skill at arms, and perhaps, too, of in person how I also myself in a moment of stress. Well, if we were to live on together as husband and wife, it was good that each should know to a the other’s powers; and also, I am too much of an old and too much with the of arms to very with any one who offers me a fight. Still for the life of me, I not help Phorenice with another woman. With a open us, Nais had me of the through a for those who did not call her chieftain; here was this Empress away two score of the of her to a whim.
Yet, to my as a priest, and to the set upon me by the high on the Sacred Mountain, I to put away these and comparisons. As I over the of the the which the harbour’s mouth, I sent prayers to the High Gods to give my dexterity, and They through Their love for the country of Atlantis, and the people, it was my wish to serve, me that power of speech which Phorenice loved. Her upon me as I talked.
This beach of the where we had had our passage at arms is safe from ship attack from without, by of a of which up from the deep, and from the to the end of the city wall. The know the passes, and can through to the open water without a stone; or if they do see a of on the reef, out and their light in their hands till the water them again. But here I had neither the knowledge the dexterity, and, I, now the High Gods will if They wish this woman who has them to on in Atlantis, and if also They wish me to as her husband.
I these in my heart, and waited to the omen. There was no half-answer. A great rose in the us, a such as have only been by an earth tremor, and on its we were and clear of the with their us, without so much as a of the barrier. I my as I on the forts. It was plain that not yet would the High Gods take for the which this woman had offered Them.
The in the two at one another in their rotation, and in the were going to pay little attention to the which against the great to have it lowered. But a pair of officers were taking the air of the in a stone-dropping of the of the nearer fort, and these the of our shouts. They the drums, were to make sure of our faces, and then with a the great was into the water to give us passage.
A inside, the wall, and presently the of was let from the top of the nearest fort, and a came to man the oars. There were the of too, as presents by the officers of the fort, and these we put on in the of the in place of the we wore. There are to be by wet after sunset, and though from personal I have learned that these may be off with drugs, I noticed with some that the Empress had little of the Goddess about her to very much the which are to humanity.
The across the of the harbour, and fast to the of gold on the quay, and we were waiting for to be brought, I a in the which over Phorenice’s mammoth. The red shoulder-deep in the water, with up-turned. It was now, and the light of the boat’s on the little sent out by its tremblings. But I did not choose to or ask for it. If the in the mud, and was swallowed, I have the with equanimity.
To tell the truth, that on the great beast’s had me unfavourably. In fact, it put into me a of that was intolerable. Perhaps have me self-reliant: on that others must judge. But I will own to having a for walking on my own proper feet, as the Gods in our most intended. On my own I am able to my own and neck, and have done on four continents, a long and active life, and on many a thousand occasions. But on the of that mammoth, pah! I as as a child or a dastard.
However, I had little for personal just then. Whilst we waited, Phorenice asked the port-captain (who must needs come up to make his salutations) after the of Nais, and was told that she had been into a the pyramid, and the officer of the there had his for her safe-keeping.
“It is to be he his work,” said the Empress. “That Nais the than most, and it may be he will be sent to the for her in a which had a outlet. You would if the girl escaped, Deucalion?”
“Assuredly,” said I, how it would be to make a of the matter. “I have no against Nais.”
“But I have,” said she viciously, “and I am still to lock your to me by that wedding gift you know of.”
“The thing shall be done,” I said. “Before all, the Empress of Atlantis.”
“Poof! Deucalion, you are too and formal. You ought to be that I to be of your favours. Your hand, sir, please, to help me into the litter. And now come in me, and keep me warm against the night air. Ho! you there with the torches! Keep against the walls. The perfume you are me.”
Again there was a that night in the banqueting-hall; again I sat Phorenice on the which the of the and the out-stretched hand. What had been taken for about our relationship was this time openly; the Empress herself me as her husband that was to be; and all that and of me as than themselves, by of this woman’s choice. There was method, too, in their salutation. Some must have got about of my for the older and habits, and there was no to my health after the new and (as I considered) manner. Decorously, each lord and lady there came forward, and each in turn a at my feet; and when I called any up, man or woman, to tit-bits from my platter, it was and thankfully, and not or with any gesture.
The of earth-breath me, too, so I thought, a of dress, and a more this of banqueters. And, indeed, it must have been plain to notice, for Phorenice, over till the on her my face, me in a as having her high authority already.
“Oh, sir,” she mockingly, “do not make your over us too ascetic. I have no orders for this change, but to-night there are no in the air; the food is so plain and I have a mind to the cook; and as for the and of these diners, by my face! they might have come from the old King’s I in here to how be on a robe, or how the of a jewel. It’s done by no orders of mine, Deucalion. They have to this by instinct. Why, look at the of the men! There is not the about many of them to-day that they with such yesterday. By my face! I they’d their to-morrow as as yours, if you go on setting the fashions at this and I do not interfere.”
“Why them if they more shaven?”
“No, sir. There shall be only one clean where a can in all Atlantis, and that shall be by the man who is husband to the Empress. Why, my Deucalion, would you have no laws? Would you have these good here and the common people us in every cut of the and every of a which it us to discover? Come, sir, if you and I to say that our was marked only by our of arm and wit, they would us at once for our arrogance; whereas, if we keep to ourselves a personal decorations, these just objects to and envy.”
“You me that there is more in the office of a ruler than meets the eye.”
“And yet they tell me, and me, that you have with some success.”
“I the older method. It a Phorenice to these flights.”
“Flatterer!” said she, and me with the of her little on my arm. “You are as great a as any of them. You make me with your pleasantries, Deucalion, and there is no fan-girl here to-night to my cheek. I must choose me another fan-girl. But it shall not be Ylga. Ylga to have more of a for you than I like, and if she is wise she will go live in her at the other of the city, and there herself with the ordering of her slaves, and the of embroideries. I shall not be hard on Ylga unless she me, but I will have no woman in this you with civility.”
“And how am I to act,” said I, in with her mood, “when I see and all the men of Atlantis making their you? By your own they all love you as as they to have loved you hopelessly.”
“Ah, now,” she said, “you must not ask me to do impossibilities. I am powerful if you will. But I have no which will the of these on such as that. But if you choose, you make that I am now and to you, and if they continue to your in this matter, you may take your culprits, and give them over to the tormentors. Indeed, Deucalion, I think it would be a attention to me if you did some such ceremony. It to me a present,” she added with a frown, “that the is too much on one side.”
“You must not that a man who has been from love for all of a life can learn all its in an instant. Myself, I was proud of my progress. With any other than you, Phorenice, I should not be near so forward. In (if one may judge by my past record), I should not have to learn at all.”
“I you think I should be satisfied with that? Well, I am not. I can be over some matters.”
The this night did not to length. Phorenice had gone through much since last she slept, and though she had herself Goddess in the meantime, it that her as heretofore. The black of had under her eyes, and she the of the with her and listless. When the dancers came and us, she them a and them they had a of their performance, and the poet, a who came to sing the of the day, she would not at all.
“To-morrow,” she said wearily, “but for now me peace. My Lord Deucalion has me much food for this day, and presently I go to my to over the of this State the night. To-morrow come to me again, and if your is good and short, I will pay you surprisingly. But see to it that you are not long-winded. If there are words, I will pay you for those with the stick.”
She rose to her then, and when the had their to us, I her away from the banqueting-hall and the passages with their doors which to her private chambers. She on my arm, and once when we a great slowly to let us pass, she her against my shoulder. Her came warm against my cheek, and the of her so close at hand the of words. I think it was in her mind that I should the red which were so near to mine, but though I was to play the part appointed, I not myself to that. So when the had swung, she away with a sigh, and we on without speech.
“May the High Gods you tenderly,” I said, when we came to the door of her bed-chamber.
“I am my own God,” said she, “in all but one. By my face! you are a wooer, Deucalion. Where do you go now?”
“To my own chamber.”
“Oh, go then, go.”
“Is there anything more I do?”
“Nothing that your or your will would you to. Yes, indeed, you are decorous, Deucalion, in your old-fashioned way, but you are a wooer. Don’t you know, my man, that a woman some the more if they are taken from her by force?”
“It I know little about women.”
“You said a word. Bah! And I your you more in a than any of earn. There, you gone, if the of a maiden’s bed-chamber your modesty, and your Gods keep you, Deucalion, if that’s the phrase, and if you think They can do it. Get you gone, man, and me solitary.”
I had taken the plan of the out of the the and learned it thoroughly, and so was able to my way through its without pause or blunder. I, too, was with what I had gone through since my last of sleep, but I set no time for just then. Nais must be in part for the needs of Atlantis; but a plan had come to me by which it that she need not be wholly; and to this through there was need for quick and action.
Help came to me also from a I did not expect. As I passed along the way the of the pyramid, which to the that had been me by Phorenice, a woman up out of the of one of the passages, and when I my hand lamp, there was Ylga.
She me half-sullenly. “I have my place,” she said, “and it I need have spoken. She to have you all along, and it was not a thing like that which put her off. And you—you just think me officious, if, indeed, you have me another till now.”
“I a kindness.”
“Oh, you will learn that soon now. And you are going to her, you! The city is with it. I at least you were honest, but when there is a high place to be got by taking a woman with it, you are like the rest. I thought, too, that you would be one of those men who have a for hair. And, she is little.”
“Ylga,” I said, “you have me that these are full of and ears. I will to no word against Phorenice. But I would have with you soon. If you still have a for me, go to the that is mine and wait for me there. I will join you shortly.”
She her eyes. “What do you want of me, Deucalion?”
“I want to say something to you. You will learn who it later.”
“But is it—is it for a to come to a man’s room at this hour?”
“I know little of your here in this new Atlantis. I am Deucalion, girl, and if you still have qualms, that, do not come.”
She looked up at me with a sneer. “I was foolish,” she said. “My lord’s has into a proverb, and I should have it. Yes; I will come.”
“Go now, then,” said I, and waited till she had passed on ahead and was out of and hearing. With Ylga to help me, my were lightened, and their changed. In the instance, now, I had got to make my way with as little and as possible into a which the temple of our Lady the Moon. And here my knowledge as one of the Seven me in high favour.
All the temples of the city of Atlantis are in and with the pyramid, but the passages are little used, that they are only to the Seven and to the Three above them, that there are three men at one time learned in the of the to be in that of the Three. And, by these, the may only be used on occasions of the stress, so that a well may pass without their being by a foot.
It was with some trouble, and after no little that I my way into this alley; but once there, the was easy. I had it certainly, but the plan of it had been me at my as one of the Seven, and the of the came to me now with easy accuracy. I walked quickly, not only the air in those is always full of evils, but also the hours were fleeting, and much must be done our Lord the Sun again rose to make another day.
I came to the spy-place which the temple, and the place empty, and, alas! dust-covered, and little that it these years. A of the and gave me entrance, and presently (after the prayer which is needful attempting these matters), I took the metal from the place where it is kept, and to the of the Goddess, and then, the after me, again till my length against her face.
A me as I of what was intended, for a to and may well have when he is called upon to with life and death, and years and history, with the of his country in one hand, and the of a woman who is as life to him in the other. But again I told myself that the hours flew, and of the which is into the of the image with one hand, and then out, at a of the with the other. With a the below, a that I have with my back, inwards. I off the stair, and into the gap. Inside was the which is from the of the Goddess.
It was the time I had this most place, but the of it was familiar to me from my teaching, and I where to the thing which would my need. Yet, though I might be with the of what was to befall, I not help having a wonder and an for the with which it was hidden.
High as I was in the learning and of the Priestly Clan, the of what I had come to was from me. Beforetime I had only of their power and effect; and now that I came to them, I saw only some balls, like nut kernels, green in colour, and in like the of bees. There were three of these in the place, and I took the one that was needful, the others as I had them. It may have been a drug, it may have been something more; what it was I did not know; only of its power and I was sure, as that was set in the teaching I had learned; and so I put it in a of my garment, returning by the way I had come, and all in order me.
One look I took at the image of the Goddess I left the temple. The of earth-breath which from the her from to toe, and from the great in her forehead. Vast she was, and and peaceful all imaginings, a perfect of that and which many for so on this earth, but which they will unless by their they earn a place in the hereafter, where our Lady the Moon and the of the High Ones in Their majesty.
It was with that I my way again to the pyramid, and at last came to my own private chamber. Ylga me there, though at I did not see her. The of these modern days had taken a of the girl, and she must needs in till she sure it was I who came to the chamber, and, moreover, that I came alone.
“Oh, at me if you choose,” said she sullenly, “I am past now for your good opinion. I had so much of Deucalion, and I I read in you when you came ashore; but now I know that you are no than the rest. Phorenice offers you a high place, and you her to it. And why, indeed, should you not her? People say she is pretty, and I know she can be warm. I have her warm and to of men. She is clever, too, with her eyes, is our great Empress; I her that. And as for you, it you to be courted.”
“I think you are a very woman,” I said.
“If you it a to me you marry, you are away with you.”
“Listen,” I said. “I did not ask you here to make speeches which my comprehension. I asked you to help me do a service to one of your own blood-kin.”
She at me wonderingly. “I do not understand.”
“It rests with you as to Nais dies to-morrow, or she is into a sleep from which she may on some later and more happy day.”
“Nais!” she gasped. “My twin, Nais? She is not here. She is out in the with those who bite against the city walls, if, indeed, still she lives.”
“Nais, your sister is near us in the this minute, and under guard, though where I do not know.” And with that I told her all that had passed since the girl was up a in the of that foolish, captain of the port. “The Empress has that Nais shall be alive under a of which I am to for her to-morrow, and she will be. Yet I have a for Nais, which you may at if you choose, and I am to send her into a sleep such as only we higher know of, from which at some day she may possibly awaken.”
“So it is Nais; and not Phorenice, and not—not any other?”
“Yes; it is Nais. I the Empress Zaemon, who is to the High Council of the Priests, has ordered it, for the good of Atlantis. But my still cold her.”
“Almost I Nais already.”
“Your would be easy. Do not tell me where she is gaoled, and I shall not to ask. Even to give Nais a of life I cannot making for her cell, when there is a that those who tell me might news to the Empress, and so more trouble for this Atlantis.”
“And why should I not the news, and so myself into again? I tell you that being fan-girl to Phorenice and second woman in the is a thing that not many would aside.”
I looked her and smiled. “I have no there. You will not me, Ylga. Neither will you sell Nais.”
“I to very small love for this same Nais just now,” she said bitterly. “But you are right about that other matter. I shall not myself at your expense. Oh, I am a fool, I know, and you can give me no thanks that I about, but there is no other way I can act.”
“Then let us no more time. Go you out now and where Nais is gaoled, and me news how I can say ten to her, and press a into her clasp.”
She her and left the chamber, and for long I was alone. I sat on the couch, and rested against the wall. My ached, my ached, and most of all, my ached. I had to myself that a man who makes his life will no for these pains which folk; but a like this, which one well in Yucatan, when one it here at home. But that there was ahead, and the order of the High Council to be into effect, the of the would have me, and I would have prayed the Gods then to me life, and take me Themselves.
Ylga came at last, and I got up and after her as she a of passages and alleyways. “There has been no over her guarding,” she whispered, as we once to move a stone. “The officer of the is an old lover of mine, and I his to the point again by a dozen words. But when I wanted to see his prisoner, there he was as as brass. I told him she was my sister, but that did not move him. I offered him—oh, Deucalion, it makes me to think of the I did offer to that man, but there was no him. He has the so many times, that there is no him into touch of their instruments.”
“If you have failed, why me out here?”
“Oh, I am not you into a lover’s walk with myself, sir. You when you think your is so as that.”
“Come, girl, tell me then what it is. If my is short, it against my weariness.”
“I have out my lord’s in part. I know the where Nais lives, and I have had speech with her, though not through the door. And moreover, I have not her or touched her hand.”
“Your are me, Ylga, but if there is a chance, let us on and have this done.”
“We are at the place now,” said she, with a hard little laugh, “and if you on the floor, you will an airshaft, and Nais will answer you from the end. For myself, I will you. I have a in what you want to say to my sister, Deucalion.”
“I thank you,” I said. “I will not what you have done for me this night.”
“You may keep your thanks,” she said bitterly, and walked away into the shadows.
I on the of the gallery, and the air passage with my hand, and then, my to it, for Nais.
The answer came on the instant, and quiet. “I my lord would come for a farewell.”
“What the Empress said, has to be. You understand, my dear? It is for Atlantis.”
“Have I my lord, by word or glance?”
“I myself am to place you in the the stones, and I must do it.”
“Then my last sleep will be a sweet one. I not ask to be touched by hands.”
“But it that a day will come when she you know of will be by the High Gods to live on this land of Atlantis no longer.”
“If my lord will my memory when he is free again, I shall be grateful. He might, if he chose, them on the stones: Here was a who died for the good of Atlantis, though she that the man she so loved was husband to her murderess.”
“You must not die,” I whispered. “My is near at the very of it. And for respite, we must trust to the knowledge, which in its day has been sent out from the Ark of the Mysteries.”—I took the green in my fingers, and them the air-shaft to the full of my span.—“I have for you here. Reach up and try to catch it from me.”
I the of her arm as it against the masonry, and then the was taken over into her grasp. Gods! what a through me when the of Nais touched mine! I not see her, of the of the shaft, but that touch of her was exquisite.
“I have it,” she whispered. “And what now, dear?”
“You will the thing in your garment, and when to-morrow the upper upon you and the light is gone, then you will take it your and let it as it will. Sleep will take you, my darling, then, and the High Gods will watch over you, though centuries pass you are roused.”
“If Deucalion not wake me, I shall pray again to open an eye. And now go, my lord and my dear. They watch me here constantly, and I would not have you by being to notice.”
“Yes, I must go, my sweetheart. It will not do to have our by a loitering. May the most High Gods your rest, and if the we make favour, may They us meeting here again on earth we meet—as we must—when our time is done, and They take us up to Their own place.”
“Amen,” she back, and then: “Kiss your fingers, dear, and them to me.”
I did that, and for an her them the of the out of sight, and then her her little hand and it fondly. Then again she her own and them up, and I took up the of that on my finger-tips and pressed it to my lips.
“Living, sleeping, or dead, always my darling,” she whispered. And then, I answer, she again: “Go, they are for me.” And so I went, that I do no more to help her then, and that all our would be if any upon me as I there the air shaft. But my was like to have with the dull, that was in it, as I my way to my through the of the pyramid.
“Do not look upon mine eyes, dear, when the time comes,” had been her last command, “or they will tell a which Phorenice, being a woman, would read. Remember, we make these small denials, not for our own likings, but for Atlantis, which is mother to us all.”
