18. STORM OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
It was Nais herself who sent me to attend to my sterner duties. The dinof the attack came to us in the house where I was tending her, and sheasked its meaning. As pithily as might be, for she was in no conditionfor tedious listening, I gave her the history of her nine years' sleep.
The colour flushed more to her face. "My lord is the properest man inall the world to be King," she whispered.
"I refused to touch the trade till they had given me the Queen Idesired, safe and alive, here upon the Mountain."
"How we poor women are made the chattels of you men! But, for myself, Iseem to like the traffic well enough. You should not have let me standin the way of Atlantis' good, Deucalion. Still, it is very sweet to knowyou were weak there for once, and that I was the cause of your weakness.What is that bath over yonder? Ah! I remember; my wits seem none of theclearest just now."
"You have made the beginning. Your strength will return to you by quickdegrees. But it will not bear hurrying. You must have a patience."
"Your ear, sir, for one moment, and then I will rest in peace. My poorlooks, are they all gone? You seem to have no mirror here. I had visionsthat I should wake up wrinkled and old."
"You are as you were, dear, that first night I saw you--the mostbeautiful woman in all the world."
"I am pleased you like me," she said, and took the cup of broth Ioffered her. "My hair seems to have grown; but it needs combing sadly. Ihad a fancy, dear, once, that you liked ruddy hair best, and not a plainbrown." She closed her eyes then, lying back amongst the cushions whereI had placed her, and dropped off into healthy sleep, with the smilesstill playing upon her lips. I put the coverlet over her, and kissed herlightly, holding back my beard lest it should sweep her cheek. And thenI went out of the chamber.
That beard had grown vastly disagreeable to me these last hours, andthen I went into a room in the house, and found instruments, and shavedit down to the bare chin. A change of robe also I found there and tookit instead of my squalid rags. If a man is in truth a king, he owesthese things to the dignity of his office.
But, if the din of the fighting was any guide, mine was a narrowingkingdom. Every hour it seemed to grow fiercer and more near, and it wasclear that some of the gates in the passage up the cleft in thecliff, impregnable though all men had thought them, had yielded to thevehemence of Phorenice's attack. And, indeed, it was scarcely to bemarvelled at. With all her genius spurred on to fury by the blow thathad been struck at her by wrecking so fair a part of the city, theEmpress would be no light adversary even for a strong place to resist,and the Sacred Mountain was no longer strong.
Defences of stone, cunningly planned and mightily built, it stillpossessed, but these will not fight alone. They need men to line them,and, moreover, abundance of men. For always in a storm of this kind,some desperate fellows will spit at death and get to hand grips, orslingers and archers slip in their shot, or the throwing-fire gets home,or (as here) some newfangled machine like Phorenice's fire-tubes, makeone in a thousand of their wavering darts find the life; and so, thoughthe general attacking loses his hundreds, the defenders also are notwithout their dead.
The slaughter, as it turned out, had been prodigious. As fast as thestormers came up, the Priests who held the lowest gate remaining to usrained down great rocks upon them till the narrow alley of the stairwas paved with their writhing dead. But Phorenice stood on a spur of therock below them urging on the charges, and with an insane valour companyafter company marched up to hurl themselves hopelessly against thedefences. They had no machines to batter the massive gates, and theirattack was as pathetically useless as that of a child who hammersagainst a wall with an orange; and meanwhile the terrible stones fromabove mowed them down remorselessly.
Company after company of the troops marched into this terribledeath-trap, and not a man of all of them ever came back. Nor was itPhorenice's policy that they should do so. In her lust for this finalconquest, she was minded to pour out troops till she had filled up thepasses with the slain, so that at last she might march on to alevel fight over the bridge of their poor bodies. It was no part ofPhorenice's mood ever to count the cost. She set down the object whichwas to be gained, and it was her policy that the people of Atlantis werethere to gain it for her.
Two gates then had she carried in this dreadful fashion, slaughteringthose Priests that stood behind, them who had not been already shotdown. And here I came down from above to take my share in the fight.There was no trumpet to announce my coming, no herald to proclaim myquality, but the Priests as a sheer custom picked up "Deucalion!" as abattle-cry; and some shouted that, with a King to lead, there would beno further ground lost.
It was clear that the name carried to the other side and bore weightwith it. A company of poor, doomed wretches who were hurrying up stoppedin their charge. The word "Deucalion!" was bandied round and handedback down the line. I thought with some grim satisfaction, that here wasevidence I was not completely forgotten in the land.
There came shouts to them from behind to carry on their advance; butthey did not budge; and presently a glittering officer panted up, andcommenced to strike right and left amongst them with his sword. Fromwhere I stood on the high rampart above the gate, I could see himplainly, and recognised him at once.
"It matters not what they use for their battle-cry," he was shouting."You have the orders of your divine Empress, and that is enough. Youshould be proud to die for her wish, you cowards. And if you do notobey, you will die afterwards under the instruments of the tormentors,very painfully. As for Deucalion, he is dead any time these nine years."
"There it seems you lie, my Lord Tatho," I shouted down to him.
He started, and looked up at me.
"So you are there in real truth, then? Well, old comrade, I am sorry.But it is too late to make a composition now. You are on the side ofthese mangy Priests, and the Empress has made an edict that they are tobe rooted out, and I am her most obedient servant."
"You used to be skilful of fence," I said, and indeed there was littleenough to choose between us. "If it please you to stop this pitifulkilling, make yourself the champion of your side, and I will stand formine, and we will fight out this quarrel in some fair place, and bindour parties to abide by the result."
"It would be a grand fight between us two, old friend, and it goes hardwith me to balk you of it. But I cannot pleasure you. I am general hereunder Phorenice, and she has given me the strongest orders not to perilmyself. And besides, though you are a great man, Deucalion, you are notchief. You are not even one of the Three."
"I am King."
Tatho laughed. "Few but yourself would say so, my lord."
"Few truly, but what there are, they are powerful. I was given the namefor the first time yesterday, and as a first blow in the campaign therewas some mischief done in the city. I was there myself, and saw how youtook it."
"You were in Atlantis!"
"I went for Nais. She is on the mountain now, and to-morrow will be myQueen. Tatho, as a priest to a priest, let me solemnly bring to yourmemory the infinite power you bite against on this Sacred Mountain. Yourteaching has warned you of the weapons that are stored in the Ark ofthe Mysteries. If you persist in this attack, at the best you can merelylose; at the worst you can bring about a wreck over which even the HighGods will shudder as They order it."
"You cannot scare us back now by words," said Tatho doggedly. "Andas for magic, it will be met by magic. Phorenice has found by her owncleverness as many powers as were ever stored up in the Ark of theMysteries."
"Yet she looked on helplessly enough last night, when her royal pyramidwas trundled into a rubbish heap. Zaemon had prophesied that this shouldbe so, and for a witness, why I myself stood closer to her than we twostand now, and saw her."
"I will own you took her by surprise somewhat there. I do not understandthese matters myself; I was never more than one of the Seven in the olddays; and now, quite rightly, Phorenice keeps the knowledge of her
magicto herself: but it seems time is needed when one magic is to be met byanother."
"Well," I said, "I know little about the business either. I leave thesematters now to those who are higher above me in the priesthood. Indeed,having a liking for Nais, it seems I am debarred from ever being givenunderstanding about the highest of the higher Mysteries. So I contentmyself with being a soldier, and when the appointed day comes, I shallfall and kiss my mother the Earth for the last time. You, so I am told,have ambition for longer life."
He nodded. "Phorenice has found the Great Secret, and I am to be thefirst that will share it with her. We shall be as Gods upon the earth,seeing that Death will be powerless to touch us. And the twin sons shehas borne me, will be made immortal also."
"Phorenice is headstrong. No, my lord, there is no need to shake yourhead and try to deny it. I have had some acquaintance with her. But theorder has been made, and her immortality will be snatched from her veryrudely. Now, mark solemnly my words. I, Deucalion, have been appointedKing of Atlantis by the High Council of the Priests who are themouthpiece of the most High Gods, and if I do not have my reign, thenthere will be no Atlantis left to carry either King or Empress. You knowme, Tatho, for a man that never lies."
He nodded.
"Then save yourself before it is too late. You shall have again yourvice-royalty in Yucatan."
"But, man, there is no Yucatan. A great horde of little hairy creatures,that were something less than human and something more than beasts,swept down upon our cities and ate them out. Oh, you may sneer if youchoose! Others sneered when I came home, till the Empress stopped them.But you know what a train of driver ants is, that you meet with in theforests? You may light fires across their path, and they will march intothem in their blind bravery, and put them out with their bodies, andthose that are left will march on in an unbroken column, and devourall that stands in their path. I tell you, my lord, those little hairycreatures were like the ants--aye, for numbers, and wooden bravery, aswell as for appetite. As a result to-day, there is no Yucatan."
"You shall have Egypt, then."
He burst at me hotly. "I would not take seven Egypts and ten Yucatans.My lord, you think more poorly of me than is kind, when you ask me tobecome a traitor. In your place would you throw your Nais away, if thedoing it would save you from a danger?"
"That is different."
"In no degree. You have a kindness for her. I have all that and more forPhorenice, who is, besides, my wife and the mother of my children. If Ihave qualms--and I freely confess I know you are desperate men up there,and have dreadful powers at your command--my shiverings are for them andnot for myself. But I think, my lord, this parley is leading to nothing,and though these common soldiers here will understand little enough ofour talk, they may be picking up a word here and there, and I do notwish them to go on to their death (as you will see them do shortly)and carry evil reports about me to whatever Gods they chance to comebefore."
He saluted me with his sword and drew back, and once more the missilesbegan to fly, and the doomed wretches, who had been halting besidethe steep rock walls of the pass began once more to press hopelesslyforward. They had scaling-ladders certainly, but they had no chance ofgetting these planted. They could do naught but fill the narrow way withtheir bodies, and to that end they had been sent, and to that endthey humbly died. Our Priests with crow and lever wrenched from theirlodging-places the great rocks which had been made ready, and sent themcrashing down, so that once more screams filled the pass, and the horridbutchery was renewed.
But ever and again, some arrow or some sling-stone, or some fire-tube'sdart would find its way up from below and through the defences, andthere we would be with a man the less to carry on the fight. It was wellenough for Phorenice to be lavish with her troops; indeed, if she wishedfor success, there were no two ways for it; and when those she hadlevied were killed, she could readily press others into the service,seeing that she had the whole broad face of the country under her rule.But with us it was different. A man down on our side was a man whosearm would bitterly be missed, and one which could in no possible way bereplaced.
I made calculation of the chances, and saw clearly that, if we continuedthe fight on the present plan, they would storm the gates one afteranother as they came to them, and that by the time the uppermost gatewas reached, there would be no Priest alive to defend it. And so, notdisdaining to fashion myself on Phorenice's newer plan, which held thata general should at times in preference plot coldly from a place of somesafety, and not lead the thick of the fighting, I left those who stoodto the gate with some rough soldier's words of cheer, and withdrew againup the narrow stair of the pass.
This one approach to the Sacred Mountain was, as I have said before,vastly more difficult and dangerous in the olden days when it stood asa mere bare cleft as the High Gods made it. But a chasm had been bridgedhere, a shelf cut through the solid rock there, and in many places theroadway was built up on piers from distant crags below so as to make alluniform and easy. It came to my mind now, that if I could destroy thispath, we might gain a breathing space for further effort.
The idea seemed good, or at least no other occurred to me which wouldin any way relieve our desperate situation, and I looked around me formeans to put it into execution. Up and down, from the mountain to theplains below, I had traversed that narrow stair of a pass some thousandsof times, and so in a manner of speaking knew every stone, and everyturn, and every cut of it by heart. But I had never looked upon it withan eye to shaving off all roadway to the Sacred Mountain, and so now,even in this moment of dreadful stress, I had to traverse it no lessthan three times afresh before I could decide upon the best site fordemolition.
But once the point was fixed, there was little delay in getting thescheme in movement. Already I had sent men to the storehouses amongstthe Priests' dwellings to fetch me rams, and crows, and acids, andhammers, and such other material as was needed, and these stood handybehind one of the upper gates. I put on every pair of hands that couldbe spared to the work, no matter what was their age and feebleness;yes, if Nais could have walked so far I would have pressed her for thelabour; and presently carved balustrade, and wayside statue, togetherwith the lettered wall-stones and the foot-worn cobbles, roared downinto the gulf below, and added their din to the shrieks and yells andcrashes of the fighting. Gods! But it was a hateful task, smashing downthat splendid handiwork of the men of the past. But it was better thatit should crash down to ruin in the abyss below, than that Phoreniceshould profane it with her impious sandals.
At first I had feared that it would be needful to sacrifice the knot ofbrave men who were so valiantly defending the gate then being attacked.It is disgusting to be forced into a measure of this kind, but in hardwarfare it is often needful to the carrying out of his schemes for ageneral to leave a part of his troops to fight to a finish, and withouthope of rescue, as valiantly as they may; and all he can do for theirreward is to recommend them earnestly to the care of the Gods. But whenthe work of destroying the pathway was nearly completed, I saw a chanceof retrieving them.
We had not been content merely with breaking arches, and throwing downthe piers. We had got our rams and levers under the living rock itselfon which all the whole fabric stood; and fire stood ready to heat therams for their work; and when the word was given, the whole could besent crashing down the face of the cliffs beyond chance of repair.
All was, I say, finally prepared in this fashion, and then I gave theword to hold. A narrow ledge still remained undestroyed, and offeredfootway, and over this I crossed. The cut we had made was immediatelybelow the uppermost gate of all, and below it there were three moremassive gates still unviolated, besides the one then being so vehementlyattacked. Already, the garrisons had been retired from these, and Ipassed through them all in turn, unchallenged and unchecked, and came tothat busy rampart where the twelve Priests left alive worked, strippedto the waist, at heaving down the murderous rocks.
For awhile I busied myself at their sid
e, stopping an occasionalfire-tube dart or arrow on my shield and passing them the tidings. Theattack was growing fiercer every minute now. The enemy had packed thepass below well-nigh full of their dead, and our battering stones hadless distance to fall and so could do less execution. They pressedforward more eagerly than ever with their scaling ladders, and it wasplain that soon they would inevitably put the place to the storm. Evenduring the short time I was there, their sling-stones and missiles tooklife from three more of the twelve who stood with me on the defence.
So I gave the word for one more furious avalanche of rock to be pelteddown, and whilst the few living were crawling out from those killedby the discharge, and whilst the next band of reinforcements camescrambling up over the bodies, I sent my nine remaining men away at arun up the steep stairway of the path, and then followed them myself.Each of the gates in turn we passed, shutting them after us, andbreaking the bars and levers with which they were moved, and not tillwe were through the last did the roar of shouts from below tell that thebesiegers had found the gate they bit against was deserted.
One by one we balanced our way across the narrow ledge which was leftwhere the path had been destroyed, and one poor Priest that carried awound grew giddy, and lost his balance here, and toppled down to hisdeath in the abyss below before a hand could be stretched out to steadyhim. And then, when we were all over, heat was put to the rams, and theyexpanded with their resistless force, and tore the remaining ledges fromtheir hold in the rock. I think a pang went through us all then whenwe saw for ourselves the last connecting link cut away from between thepoor remaining handful of our Sacred Clan on the Mountain, and the restof our great nation, who had grown so bitterly estranged to us, below.
But here at any rate was a break in the fighting. There were no furtherpreparations we could make for our defence, and high though I knewPhorenice's genius to be, I did not see how she could very well do otherthan accept the check and retire. So I set a guard on the ramparts ofthe uppermost gate to watch all possible movements, and gave the word tothe others to go and find the rest which so much they needed.
For myself, dutifully I tried to find Zaemon first, going on the errandmy proper self, for there was little enough of kingly state observed onthe Sacred Mountain, although the name and title had been given me.But Zaemon was not to be come at. He was engaged inside the Ark of theMysteries with another of the Three, and being myself only one of theSeven, I had not rank enough in the priesthood to break in upon theirworkings. And so I was free to turn where my likings would have led mefirst, and that was to the house which sheltered Nais.
She waked as I came in over the threshold, and her eyes filled with awelcome for me. I went across and knelt where she lay, putting myface on the pillow beside her. She was full of tender talk and sweetendearments. Gods! What an infinity of delight I had missed by notknowing my Nais earlier! But she had a will of her own through it all,and some quaint conceits which made her all the more adorable. Sherallied me on the new cleanness of my chin, and on the robe which I hadtaken as a covering. She professed a pretty awe for my kingship, andvowed that had she known of my coming dignities she would never havedared to discover a love for me. But about my marriage with Phoreniceshe spoke with less lightness. She put out her thin white hand, and drewmy face to her lips.
"It is weak of me to have a jealousy," she murmured, "knowing howcompletely my lord is mine alone; but I cannot help it. You have saidyou were her husband for awhile. It gives me a pang to think that Ishall not be the first to lie in your arms, Deucalion."
"Then you may gaily throw your pang away," I whispered back. "I washusband to Phorenice in mere word for how long I do not precisely know.But in anything beyond, I was never her husband at all. She marriedme by a form she prescribed herself, ignoring all the old rites andceremonies, and whether it would hold as legal or not, we need nottrouble to inquire. She herself has most nicely and completely annulledthat marriage as I have told you. Tatho is her husband now, and fatherto her children, and he seems to have a fondness for her which does himcredit."
We said other things too in that chamber, those small repetitionsof endearments which are so precious to lovers, and so beyond thecomprehension of other folk, but they are not to be set down on thesesheets. They are a mere private matter which can have no concern toany one beyond our two selves, and more weighty subjects are pilingthemselves up in deep index for the historian.
Phorenice, it seemed, had more rage against the Priests' Clan on theMountain and more bright genius to help her to a vengeance than I hadcredited. Her troops stormed easily the gates we had left to them, andswarmed up till they stood where the pathway was broken down. In thefierceness of their rush, the foremost were thrust over the brink bythose pressing up behind, before the advance could be halted, and thesewent screaming to a horrid death in the great gulf below. But it was noposition here that a lavish spending of men could take, and presentlyall were drawn off, save for some half-score who stood as outpostsentries, and dodged out of arrow-shot behind angles of the rock.
It seems, too, that the Empress herself reconnoitered the place, usingdue caution and quickness, and so got for herself a full plan of itsrequirements without being obliged to trust the measuring of anothereye. With extraordinary nimbleness she must have planned an engine suchas was necessary to suit her purposes, and given orders for its making;for even with the vast force and resources at her disposal, the speedwith which it was built was prodigious.
There was very little noise made to tell of what was afoot. All thewoodwork and metalwork was cut, and tongued, and forged, and fittedfirst by skilled craftsmen below, in the plain at the foot of the cleft;and when each ponderous balk and each crosspiece, and each plank wasdragged up the steep pass through the conquered gates, it was readyinstantly for fitting into its appointed place in the completed machine.
The cleft was straight where they set about their building, and therewas no curve or spur of the cliff to hide their handiwork from those ofthe Priests who watched from the ramparts above our one remaining gate.But Phorenice had a coyness lest her engine should be seen before itwas completed, and so to screen it she had a vast fire built at theuppermost point where the causeway was broken off, and fed diligentlywith wet sedge and green wood, so that a great smoke poured out, risinglike a curtain that shut out all view. And so though the Priests on therampart above the gate picked off now and again some of those who tendedthe fire, they could do the besiegers no further injury, and remained upto the last quite in ignorance of their tactics.
The passage up the cleft was in shadow during the night hours, for,though all the crest of the Sacred Mountain was always lit brightly bythe eternal fires which made its defence on the farther side, their glowthrew no gleam down that flank where the cliff ran sheer to the plainsbeneath. And so it was under cover of the darkness that Phorenicebrought up her engine into position for attack.
Planking had been laid down for its wheels, and the wheels themselveswell greased, and it may be that she hoped to march in upon us whilstall slept. But there was a certain creaking and groaning of timbers,and laboured panting of men, which gave advertisement that something wasbeing attempted, and the alarm was spread quietly in the hope that if asurprise had been planned, the real surprise might be turned the otherway.
A messenger came to me running, where I sat in the house at the side ofmy love, and she, like the soldier's wife she was made to be, kissed meand bade me go quickly and care for my honour, and bring back my woundsfor her to mend.
On the rampart above the gate all was silence, save for the faint rustleof armed men, and out of the black darkness ahead, and from the otherside of the broken causeway, came the sounds of which the messenger badwarned me.
The captain of the gate came to me and whispered: "We have made no lighttill the King came, not knowing the King's will in the matter. Is itwished I send some of the throwing-fire down yonder, on the chance thatit does some harm, and at the same time lights up the place? Or is itwilled that we
wait for their surprise?"
"Send the fire," I said, "or we may find that Phorenice's brain has beenone too many for us."
The captain of the gate took one of the balls in his hand, lit the fuse,and hurled it. The horrid thing burst amongst a mass of men who werelabouring with a huge engine, sputtering them with its deadly fire, andlighting their garments. The plan of the engine showed itself plainly.They had built them a vast great tower, resting on wheels at its base,so that it might by pushed forward from behind, and slanting at its footto allow for the steepness of the path and leave it always upright.
It was storeyed inside, with ladders joining each floor, and throughslits in the side which faced us bowmen could cover an attack. From itstop a great bridge reared high above it, being carried vertically tillthe tower was brought near enough for its use. The bridge was hinged atthe third storey of the tower, and fastened with ropes to its extremetop; but, once the ropes were cut, the bridge would fall, and light uponwhatever came within its swing, and be held there by the spikes withwhich it was studded beneath.
I saw, and inwardly felt myself conquered. The cleverness of Phorenicehad been too strong for my defence. No war-engine of which we hadcommand could overset the tower. The whole of its massive timberswere hung with the wet new-stripped skins of beasts, so that even thethrowing-fire could not destroy it. What puny means we had to impedethose who pushed it forward would have little effect. Presently it wouldcome to the place appointed, and the ropes would be cut, and the bridgewould thunder down on the rampart above our last gate, and the stormerswould pour out to their final success.
Well, life had loomed very pleasant for me these few days with a warmand loving Nais once more in touch of my arms, but the High Gods inTheir infinite wisdom knew best always, and I was no rebel to staystiff-necked against their decision. But it is ever a soldier'sprivilege, come what may, to warm over a fight, and the most exquisitelyfierce joy of all is that final fight of a man who knows that he mustdie, and who lusts only to make his bed of slain high enough to carry adue memory of his powers with those who afterwards come to gaze upon it.I gripped my axe, and the muscles of my arms stood out in knots at thethought of it. Would Tatho come to give me sport? I feared not. Theywould send only the common soldiers first to the storm, and I must becontent to do my killing on those.
And Nais, what of her? I had a quiet mind there. When any spoilers cameto the house where she lay, she would know that Deucalion had been takenup to the Gods, and she would not be long in following him. She had herdagger. No, I had no fears of being parted long from Nais now.