17. NAIS THE REGAINED
Now, from where we stood together just below the crest of the SacredMountain, we could see down into the city, which lay spread out belowus like a map. The harbour and the great estuary gleamed at itsfarther side; and the fringe of hills beyond smoked and fumed in theiraccustomed fashion; the great stone circle of our Lord the Sun stoodup grim and bare in the middle of the city; and nearer in reared up thegreat mass of the royal pyramid, the gold on its sides catching new goldfrom the Sun. There, too, in the square before the pyramid stood thethrone of granite, dwarfed by the distance to the size of a mole's hill,in which these nine years my love had lain sleeping.
Old Zaemon followed my gaze. "Ay," he said with a sigh, "I know whereyour chief interest is. Deucalion when he landed here new from Yucatanwas a strong man. The King whom we have chosen--and who is the best wehave to choose--has his weakness."
"It can be turned into additional strength. Give me Nais here, livingand warm to fight for, and I am a stronger man by far than the coldviceroy and soldier that you speak about."
"I have passed my word to that already, and you shall have her, but atthe cost of damaging somewhat this new kingdom of yours. Maybe too atthe same time we may rid you of this Phorenice and her brood. But I donot think it likely. She is too wily, and once we begin our play, she islikely to guess whence it comes, and how it will end, and so will makean escape before harm can reach her. The High Gods, who have sentall these trials for our refinement, have seen fit to give her someknowledge of how these earth tremors may be set a-moving."
"I have seen her juggle with them. But may I hear your scheme?"
"It will be shown you in good time enough. But for the present I wouldbid you sleep. It will be your part to go into the city to-night, andtake your woman (that is my daughter) when she is set free, and bringher here as best you can. And for that you will need all a strong man'sstrength."--He stepped back, and looked me up and down.--"There are notmany folk that would take you for the tidy clean-chinned Deucalion now,my brother. Your appearance will be a fine armour for you down yonder inthe city to-night when we wake it with our earth-shaking and terror.As you stand now, you are hairy enough, and shaggy enough, and nakedenough, and dirty enough for some wild savage new landed out of Europe.Have a care that no fine citizen down yonder takes a fancy to yourthews, and seizes upon you as his servant."
"I somewhat pity him in his household if he does."
Old Zaemon laughed. "Why, come to think of it, so do I."
But quickly he got grave again. Laughter and Zaemon were very rareplaymates. "Well, get you to bed, my King, and leave me to go into theArk of Mysteries and prepare there with another of the Three the thingsthat must be done. It is no light business to handle the tremendouspowers which we must put into movement this night. And there is dangerfor us as there is for you. So if by chance we do not meet again till westand up yonder behind the stars, giving account to the Gods, fare youwell, Deucalion."
I slept that day as a soldier sleeps, taking full rest out of the hours,and letting no harassing thought disturb me. It is only the weak whopermit their sleep to be broken on these occasions. And when the darkwas well set, I roused and fetched those who should attend to the rope.Our Lady the Moon did not shine at that turn of the month: and the airwas full of a great blackness. So I was out of sight all the while theylowered me.
I reached the tumbled rocks that lay at the deep foot of the cliff,and then commenced to use a nice caution, because Phorenice's soldierssquatted uneasily round their camp-fires, as though they had forebodingsof the coming evil. I had no mind to further stir their wakefulness. SoI crept swiftly along in the darkest of the shadows, and at last came tothe spot where that passage ends which before I had used to get beneaththe walls of the city.
The lamp was in place, and I made my way along the windings swiftly. Theair, so it seemed to me, was even more noxious with vapours than it hadbeen when I was down there before, and I judged that Zaemon had alreadybegun to stir those internal activities which were shortly to convulsethe city. But again I had difficulty in finding an exit, and this, notbecause there were people moving about at the places where I had to comeout, but because the set of the masonry was entirely changed. In oldentimes the Priests' Clan oversaw all the architects' plans, and ruled outanything likely to clash with their secret passages and chambers. Butin this modern day the Priests were of small account, and had no say inthis matter, and the architects often through sheer blundering sealed upand made useless many of these outlets and hiding-places.
As it was then, I had to get out of the network of tunnels and gallerieswhere I could, and not where I would, and in the event found myself atthe farther side of the city, almost up to where the outer wall joinsdown to the harbour. I came out without being seen, careful even in thismoment of extremity to preserve the ordinances, and closed all traces ofexit behind me. The earth seemed to spring beneath my feet like the deckof a ship in smooth water; and though there was no actual movement asyet to disturb the people, and indeed these slept on in their houses andshelters without alarm, I could feel myself that the solid deadnessof the ground was gone, and that any moment it might break out intodevastating waves of movement.
Gods! Should I be too late to see the untombing of my love? Would she belaid there bare to the public gaze when presently the people swarmed outinto the open spaces through fear at what the great earth tremor mightcause to fall? I could see, in fancy, their rude, cruel hands thrustupon her as she lay there helpless, and my inwards dried up at thethought.
I ran madly down and down the narrow winding streets with the onethought of coming to the square which lay in front of the royal pyramidbefore these things came to pass. With exquisite cruelty I had beenforced with my own hands to place her alive in her burying-place beneaththe granite throne, and if thews and speed could do it, I would not missmy reward of taking her forth again with the same strong hands.
Few disturbed that furious hurry. At first here and there some wretchwho harboured in the gutter cried: "A thief! Throw a share or I pursue."But if any of these followed, I do not know. At any rate, my speed thenmust have out-distanced anyone. Presently, too, as the swing of theearth underfoot became more keen, and the stonework of the buildings bythe street side began to grate and groan and grit, and sent forth littleshowers of dust, people began to run with scared cries from out of theirdoors. But none of these had a mind to stop the ragged, shaggy, savageman who ran so swiftly past, and flung the mud from his naked feet.
And so in time I came to the great square, and was there none too soon.The place was filling with people who flocked away from the narrowstreets, and it was full of darkness, and noise, and dust, and sickness.Beneath us the ground rippled in undulations like a sea, which withterrifying slowness grew more and more intense.
Ever and again a house crashed down unseen in the gloom, and added tothe tumult. But the great pyramid had been planned by its old buildersto stand rude shocks. Its stones were dovetailed into one another with amarvellous cleverness, and were further clamped and joined by ponderoustongues of metal. It was a boast that one-half the foundations could bedug from beneath it, and still the pyramid would stand four-square underheaven, more enduring than the hills.
Flickering torches showed that its great stone doors lay open, and everand again I saw some frightened inmate scurry out and then be lost tosight in the gloom. But with the royal pyramid and its ultimate fateI had little concern; I did not even care then whether Phorenice wastrapped, or whether she came out sound and fit for further mischief.I crouched by the granite throne which stood in the middle of thatsplendid square, and heard its stones grate together like the ends of abroken bone as it rocked to the earth-waves.
In that night of dust and darkness it was hard to see the outline ofone's own hand, but I think that the Gods in some requital for the lovewhich had ached so long within me, gave me special power of sight. AsI watched, I saw the great carved rock which formed the capstone of thethrone move
slightly and then move again, and then again; a tiny jerkfor each earth-pulse, but still there was an appreciable shifting; and,moreover, the stone moved always to one side.
There was method in Zaemon's desperate work, and this in my blind panicof love and haste, I had overlooked. So I went up the steps of thethrone on the side from which the great capstone was moving, and clungthere afire with expectation.
More and more violent did the earth-swing grow, though the graduationsof its increase could not be perceived, and the din of falling housesand the shrieks and cries of hurt and frightened people went louderup into the night. Thicker grew the dust that filled the air, till onecoughed and strangled in the breathing, and more black did the nightbecome as the dust rose and blotted the rare stars from sight. I clungto an angle of the granite throne, crouching on the uppermost step butone below the capstone, and could scarcely keep my place against theviolence of the earth tremors.
But still the huge capstone that was carved with the snake and theoutstretched hand held my love fast locked in her living tomb, and Icould have bit the cold granite at the impotence which barred me fromher. The people who kept thronging into the square were mad withterror, but their very numbers made my case more desperate every moment."Phorenice, Goddess, aid us now!" some cried, and when the prayerdid not bring them instant relief, they fell to yammering out the oldconfessions of the faith which they had learned in childhood, turningin this hour of their dreadful need to those old Gods, which, throughso many dishonourable years, they had spurned and deserted. It was acurious criticism on the balance of their real religion, if one hadcared to make it.
Louder grew the crash of falling masonry; and from the royal pyramiditself, though indeed I could not even see its outline through thedarkness, there came sounds of grinding stones and cracking bars ofmetal which told that even its superb majestic strength had a breakingstrain. There came to my mind the threat that old Zaemon had thunderedforth in that painted, perfumed banqueting-hall: "You shall see," he hadcried to the Empress, "this royal pyramid which you have pollutedwith your debaucheries torn tier from tier, and stone from stone, andscattered as feathers spread before a wind!"
Still heavier grew the surging of the earth, and the pavement of thegreat square gaped and upheaved, and the people who thronged it screamedstill more shrilly as their feet were crushed by the grinding blocks.And now too the great pyramid itself was commencing to split, andgape, and topple. The roofs of its splendid chambers gave way, and theponderous masonry above shuttered down and filled them. In part, too,one could see the destruction now, and not guess at it merely from thefearful hearings of the darkness. Thunders had begun to roar throughthe black night above, and add their bellowings to this devil'sorchestration of uproar, and vivid lightning splashes lit the flyingdust-clouds.
It was perhaps natural that she should be there, but it came as ashock when a flare of the lightning showed me Phorenice safe out in thesquare, and indeed standing not far from myself.
She had taken her place in the middle of a great flagstone, and stoodthere swaying her supple body to the shocks. Her face was calm, and itsloveliness was untouched by the years. From time to time she brushedaway the dust as it settled on the short red hair which curled about herneck. There was no trace of fear written upon her face. There was someweariness, some contempt, and I think a tinge of amusement. Yes, it tookmore than the crumbling of her royal pyramid to impress Phorenice withthe infinite powers of those she warred against.
Gods! How the sight of her cool indifference maddened me then. I hadit in me to have strangled her with my hands if she had come withinmy reach. But as it was, she stood in her place, swaying easily to theearth-waves as a sailor sways on a ship's deck, and beside her, crouchedon the same great flagstone, and overcome with nausea was Ylga, whoagain was raised to be her fan-girl. It came to my mind that Ylga wastwin sister to Nais, and that I owed her for an ancient kindness, but Ihad leisure to do nothing for her then, and indeed it was little enoughI could have done. With each shock the great capstone of the throne towhich I clung jarred farther and farther from its bed place, and my lovewas coming nearer to me. It was she who claimed all my service then.
Once in their blind panic a knot of the people in the square thoughtthat the granite stone was too solid to be overturned, and saw in itan oasis of safety. They flocked towards it, many of them draggingthemselves up the steep deep high steps on hands and knees because theirfeet had been injured by the billowing flagstones of the square.
But I was in no mood to have the place profaned by their sillytremblings and stares: I beat at them with my hands, tearing them away,and hurling them back down the steepness of the steps. They asked mewhat was my title to the place above their own, and I answered them withblows and gnashing teeth. I was careless as to what they thought me orwho they thought me. Only I wished them gone. And so they went, wailingand crying that I was a devil of the night, for they had no spirit leftto defend themselves.
Farther and farther the great stone that made the top of the throne slidout from its bed, but its slowness of movement maddened me. A life'seducation left me in that moment, and I had no trace of stately patienceleft. In my puny fury I thrust at the great block with my shoulder andhead, and clawed at it with my hands till the muscles rose on mein great ropes and knots, and the High Gods must have laughed at myhelplessness as They looked. All was being ordered by the Three who wereTheir trusted servants, in Their good time. The work of the Gods may bedone slowly, but it is done exceeding sure.
But at last, when all the people of the city were numb with terror,and incapable of further emotion (save only for Phorenice who still hadnerve enough to show no concern), what had been threatened came to pass.The capstone of the throne slid out till it reached the balance, and thenext shock threw it with a roar and a clatter to the ground. And then astrange tremor seized me.
After all the scheming and effort, what I had so ardently prayed for hadcome about; but yet my inwards sank at the thought of mounting on thestone where I had mounted before, and taking my dear from the hollowwhere my hands had laid her. I knew Phorenice's vengefulness, and had ahigh value for her cleverness. Had she left Nais to lie in peace, or hadshe stolen her away to suffer indignities elsewhere? Or had she endedher sleep with death, and (as a grisly jest) left the corpse for myfinding? I could not tell; I dared not guess. Never during a wholehard-fighting life have my emotions been so wrenched as they were atthat moment. And, for excuse, it must be owned that love for Naishad sapped my hardihood over a matter in which she was so privatelyconcerned.
It began to come to my mind, however, that the infernal uproar of theearth tremor was beginning to slacken somewhat, as though Zaemon knewhe had done the work that he had promised, and was minded to give thewretched city a breathing space. So I took my fortitude in hand, andclambered up on to the flat of the stone. The lightning flashes hadceased and all was darkness again and stifling dust, but at any momentthe sky might be lit once more, and if I were seen in that place, shaggyand changed though I might be, Phorenice, if she were standing near,would not be slow to guess my name and errand.
So changed was I for the moment, that I will finely confess that theidea of a fight was loathsome to me then. I wanted to have my businessdone and get gone from the place.
With hands that shook, I fumbled over the face of the stone and foundthe clamps and bars of metal still in position where I had clenchedthem, and then reverently I let my fingers pass between these, and feltthe curves of my love's body in its rest beneath. An exultation beganto whirl within me. I did not know if she had been touched since I lastleft her; I did not know if the drug would have its due effect, and lether be awakened to warmth and sight again; but, dead or alive, I had herthere, and she was mine, mine, mine, and I could have yelled aloud in myjoy at her possession.
Still the earth shook beneath us, and masonry roared and crashed intoruin. I had to cling to my place with one hand, whilst I unhasped theclamps of metal that made the top of her prison with th
e other. But atlast I swung the upper half of them clear, and those which pinned downher feet I let remain. I stooped and drew her soft body up on to theflat of the stone beside me, and pressed my lips a hundred times to theface I could not see.
Some mad thought took me, I believe, that the mere fierceness and heatof my kisses would bring her back again to life and wakefulness. IndeedI will own plainly, that I did but sorry credit to my training incalmness that night. But she lay in my arms cold and nerveless as acorpse, and by degrees my sober wits returned to me.
This was no place for either of us. Let the earth's tremors cease (aswas plainly threatened), let daylight come, and let a few of thesenerveless people round recover from their panic, and all the great costthat had been expended might be counted as waste. We should be seen,and it would not be long before some one put a name to Nais; and thenit would be an easy matter to guess at Deucalion under the beard and theshaggy hair and the browned nakedness of the savage who attended on her.Tell of fright? By the Gods! I was scared as the veriest trembler whoblundered amongst the dust-clouds that night when the thought came tome.
With all that ruin spread around, it would be hopeless to think that anyof those secret galleries which tunnelled under the ground would be leftunbroken, and so it was useless to try a passage under the walls by theold means. But I had heard shouts from that frightened mob which came tome through the din and the darkness, that gave another idea for escape."The city is accursed," they had cried: "if we stay here it will fallon us. Let us get outside the walls where there are no buildings to buryus."
If they went, I could not see. But one gate lay nearest to the royalpyramid, and I judged that in their panic they would not go farther thanwas needful. So I put the body of Nais over my shoulder (to leave myright arm free) and blundered off as best I could through the stiflingdarkness.
It was hard to find a direction; it was hard to walk in the inkydarkness over ground that was tossed and tumbled like a frozen sea:and as the earth still quaked and heaved, it was hard also to keep afooting. But if I did fall myself a score of times, my dear burden gotno bruise, and presently I got to the skirts of the square, and founda street I knew. The most venomous part of the shaking was done, and nomore buildings fell, but enough lay sprawled over the roadway to makewalking into a climb, and the sweat rolled from me as I laboured alongmy way.
There was no difficulty about passing the gate. There was no gate. Therewas no wall. The Gods had driven their plough through it, and it layflat, and proud Atlantis stood as defenceless as the open country.Though I knew the cause of this ruin, though, in fact, I had myself insome measure incited it, I was almost sad at the ruthlessness with whichit had been carried out. The royal pyramid might go, houses and palacesmight be levelled, and for these I cared little enough; but when I sawthose stately ramparts also filched away, there the soldier in me woke,and I grieved at this humbling of the mighty city that once had been myonly mistress.
But this was only a passing regret, a mere touch of the fighting-man'spride. I had a different love now, that had wrapped herself round me fardeeper and more tightly, and my duty was towards her first and foremost.The night would soon be past, and then dangers would increase. None hadinterfered with us so far, though many had jostled us as I clamberedover the ruins; but this forbearance could not be reckoned upon forlong. The earth tremors had almost died away, and after the panic andthe storm, then comes the time for the spoiling.
All men who were poor would try to seize what lay nearest to theirhands, and those of higher station, and any soldiers who could becollected and still remained true to command, would ruthlessly stop andstrip any man they saw making off with plunder. I had no mind to clashwith these guardians of law and property, and so I fled on swiftlythrough the night with my burden, using the unfrequented ways; andcrying to the few folk who did meet me that the woman had the plague,and would they lend me the shelter of their house as ours had fallen.And so in time we came to the place where the rope dangled from theprecipice, and after Nais had been drawn up to the safety of the SacredMountain, I put my leg in the loop of the rope and followed her.
Now came what was the keenest anxiety of all. We took the girl and laidher on a bed in one of the houses, and there in the lit room for thefirst time I saw her clearly. Her beauty was drawn and pale. Her eyeswere closed, but so thin and transparent had grown the lids that onecould almost see the brown of the pupil beneath them. Her hair had grownto inordinate thickness and length, and lay as a cushion behind andbeside her head.
There was no flicker of breath; there was none of that pulsing ofthe body which denotes life; but still she had not the appearance ofordinary death. The Nais I had placed nine long years before to rest inthe hollow of the stone, was a fine grown woman, full bosomed, and wellboned. The Nais that remained for me was half her weight. The old Naisit would have puzzled me to carry for an hour: this was no burden toimpede a grown man.
In other ways too she had altered. The nails of her fingers had grown tosuch a great length that they were twisted in spirals, and the fingersthemselves and her hands were so waxy and transparent that the bony coreupon which they were built showed itself beneath the flesh in plain dulloutline. Her clay-cold lips were so white, that one sighed to rememberthe full beauty of their carmine. Her shoulders and neck had lost theircomely curves, and made bony hollows now in which the dust of entombmentlodged black and thickly.
Reverently I set about preparing those things which if all went wellshould restore her. I heated water and filled a bath, and tincturedit heavily with those essences of the life of beasts which the Priestsextract and store against times of urgent need and sickness. I laid herchin-deep in this bath, and sat beside it to watch, maintaining thatbath at a constant blood heat.
An hour I watched; two hours I watched; three hours--and yet she showedno flicker of life. The heat of her body given her by the bath, was thesame as the heat of my own. But in the feel of her skin when I strokedit with my hand, there was something lacking still. Only when our Lordthe Sun rose for His day did I break off my watching, whilst I said thenecessary prayer which is prescribed, and quickly returned again to thegloom of the house.
I was torn with anxiety, and as the time went on and still no sign oflife came back, the hope that had once been so high within me began tosicken and leave me downcast and despondent. From without, came thedin of fighting. Already Phorenice had sent her troops to storm thepassageway, and the Priests who defended it were shattering them withvolleys of rocks. But these sounds of war woke no pulse within me. IfNais did not wake, then the world for me was ended, and I had no spiritleft to care who remained uppermost. The Gods in Their due time willdoubtless smite me for this impiety. But I make a confession of it hereon these sheets, having no mind to conceal any portion of this historyfor the small reason that it does me a personal discredit.
But as the hours went on, and still no flicker of life came to lessenthe dumb agony that racked me, I grew more venturesome, and added moreessences to the bath, and drugs also such as experience had shown mightwake the disused tissues into life. I watched on with staring eyes,rubbing her wasted body now and again, and always keeping the heat ofthe bath at a constant. From the first I had barred the door againstall who would have come near to help me. With my own hands I had laidmy love to sleep, and I could not bear that others should rouse her,if indeed roused she should ever be. But after those first offers, noothers came, and the snarl and din of fighting told of what occupiedthem.
It is hard to take note of small changes which occur with infiniteslowness when one is all the while on the tense watch, and high strungthough my senses were, I think there must have been some indication ofreturning life shown before I was keen enough to notice it. For of asudden, as I gazed, I saw a faint rippling on the surface of the waterof the bath. Gods! Would it come back again to my love at last--thislife, this wakefulness? The ripple died out as it had come, and Istooped my head nearer to the bath to try if I could see some faintheaving of her bosom
some small twitching of the limbs. No, she laythere still without even a flutter of movement. But as I watched, surelyit seemed to my aching eyes that some tinge was beginning to warm thatblank whiteness of skin?
How I filled myself with that sight. The colour was returning to heragain beyond a doubt. Once more the dried blood was becoming fluid andbeginning again to course in its old channels. Her hair floated out inthe liquid of the bath like some brown tangle of the ocean weed, andever and again it twitched and eddied to some impulse which in itselfwas too small for the eye to see.
She had slept for nine long years, and I knew that the wakening couldbe none of the suddenest. Indeed, it came by its own gradations andwith infinite slowness, and I did not dare do more to hasten it. Furtherdrugs might very well stop eternally what those which had been usedalready had begun. So I sat motionless where I was, and watched thecolour come back, and the waxenness go, and even the fullness of hercurves in some small measure return. And when growing strength gaveher power to endure them, and she was racked with those pains which areinevitable to being born back again in this fashion to life, I too feltthe reflex of her agony, and writhed in loving sympathy.
Still further, too, was I wrung by a torment of doubt as to whether lifeor these rackings would in the end be conqueror. After each paroxysmthe colour ebbed back from her again, and for a while she would liemotionless. But strength and power seemed gradually to grow, and at lastthese prevailed, and drove death and sleep beneath them. Her eyelidsstruggled with their fastenings. Her lips parted, and her bosom heaved.With shivering gasps her breath began to pant between her reddeninglips. At first it rattled dryly in her throat, but soon it softened andbecame more regular. And then with a last effort her eyes, her gloriousloving eyes, slowly opened.
I leaned over and called her softly by name.
Her eyes met mine, and a glow arose from their depths that gave me thegreatest joy I have met in all the world.
"Deucalion, my love," she whispered. "Oh, my dear, so you have come forme. How I have dreamed of you! How I have been racked! But it was worthit all for this."