Books: Ardath

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He paused. Theos gave him a quick, searching glance.

"Even if such a belief should have no shadow of a true
foundation?" he inquired--"Can it be well for men to cling
superstitiously to a false doctrine?"

Sah-luma appeared to consider this question in his own mind for
some minutes before replying.

"My friend, it is difficult to decide what is false and what is
true--"he said at last with a little shrug of his shoulders--"But
I think that even a false religion is better for the masses than
none at all. Men are closely allied to brutes, . . if the moral
sense ceases to restrain them they at once leap the boundary line
and give as much rein to their desires and appetites as the hyenas
and tigers. And in some natures the moral sense is only kept alive
by fear,--fear of offending some despotic, invisible Force that
pervades the Universe, and whose chief and most terrible attribute
is not so much creative as destructive power. To propitiate and
pacify an unseen Supreme Destroyer is the aim of all religions,--
and it is for this reason we add to our worship of the Sun that of
the White Serpent, Nagaya the Mediator. Nagaya is the favorite
object of the people's adoration,--they may forget to pay their
vows to the Sun, but never to Nagaya, who is looked upon as the
emblem of Eternal Wisdom, the only pleader whose persuasions avail
to soften the tyrannic humor of the Invincible Devourer of all
things. We know how men hate Wisdom and cannot endure to be
instructed, and yet they prostrate themselves in abject crowds
before Wisdom's symbol every day in the Sacred Temple yonder,--
though I much doubt whether such constant devotional attendance is
not more for the sake of Lysia than the Deified Worm!"

He laughed with a little undercurrent of scorn in his laughter,--
and Theos saw as it were, the lightning of an angry or disdainful
thought flashing through the sombre splendor of his eyes.

"And Lysia is..--?" began Theos suggestively.

"The High Priestess of Nagaya," responded Sah-luma slowly--
"Charmer of the god, as well as of the hearts of men! The hot
passion of love is to her a toy, clasped and unclasped so! in the
pink hollow of her hand..." and as he spoke he closed his fingers
softly on the air and unclosed them again with an expressive
gesture--"And so long as she retains the magic of her beauty, so
long will Nagaya worship hold Al-Kyris in check. Otherwise ... who
knows!--there have been many disturbances of late,--the teachings
of the Philosophers have aroused a certain discontent,--and there
are those who are weary of perpetual sacrifices and the shedding
of innocent blood. Moreover this mad Khosrul of whom Niphrata
spoke lately, thunders angry denunciations of Lysia and Nagaya in
the open streets, with so much fervid eloquence that they who pass
by cannot choose but hear, . . he hath a strange craze,--a doctrine
of the future which he most furiously proclaims in the language
prophets use. He holds that far away in the centre of a Circle of
pure Light, the true God exists,--a vast all glorious Being who
with exceeding marvellous love controls and guides Creation toward
some majestic end--even as a musician doth melodize his thought
from small sweet notes to perfect chord-woven harmonies.
Furthermore, that thousands of years hence, this God will embody a
portion of his own Existence in human form and will send hither a
wondrous creature, half-God, half-Man, to live our life, die our
death, and teach us by precept and example, the surest way to
eternal happiness. 'Tis a theory both strange and wild!--hast ever
heard of it before?"

He put the question indifferently, but Theos was mute. That
horrible sense of a straining desire to speak when speech was
forbidden again oppressed him,--he felt as though he were being
strangled with his own unfalling tears. What a crushing weight of
unutterable thoughts burdened his brain!--he gazed up at the
serenely glowing sky in aching, dumb despair,--till slowly ...
very slowly, words came at last like dull throbs of pain beating
between his lips ...

"I think ... I fancy ... I have heard a rumor of such doctrine ...
but I know as little of it as ... as THOU, Sah-luma! ... I can
tell thee no more ... than THOU hast said! ..." He paused and
gaining more firmness of tone went on--"It seems to me a not
altogether impossible conception of Divine Benevolence,--for if
God lives at all, He must be capable of manifesting Himself in
many ways both small and great, common and miraculous, though of a
truth there are no miracles beyond what APPEAR as such to our
limited sight and restricted intelligence. But tell me"--and here
his voice had a ring of suppressed anxiety within it--"tell me,
Sah-luma, thine own thought concerning it!"

"I?--I think naught of it!" replied Sah-luma with airy contempt--
"Such a creed may find followers in time to come,--but now, of
what avail to warn us of things that do not concern our present
modes of life? Moreover in the face of all religion, my own
opinion should not alter,--I have studied science sufficiently
well to know that there is NO God!--and I am too honest to worship
an unproved and merely supposititious identity!"

A shudder, as of extreme cold, ran through Theos's veins, and as
if impelled on by some invisible monitor he said almost
mournfully:

"Art thou sure, Sah-luma, thou dost not instinctively feel that
there is a Higher Power hidden behind the veil of visible Nature?
--and that in the Far Beyond there may be an Eternity of Joy where
thou shalt find all thy grandest aspirations at last fulfilled?"

Sah-luma laughed,--a clear, vibrating laugh as mellow as the note
of a thrush in spring-time.

"Thou solemn soul!" he exclaimed mirthfully--"My aspirations ARE
fulfilled!--I aspire to no more than fame,--and that I hold,--that
I shall keep so long as this world is lighted by the sun!"

"And what use is Fame to thee in Death!" demanded Theos with
sudden and emphatic earnestness.

Sah-luma stood still,--over his beautiful face came a shadow of
intense melancholy,--he raised his brilliant eyes full of wistful
pathos and pleading.

"I pray thee do not make me sad, my friend!" he murmured
tremulously--"These thoughts are like muttering thunder in my
heaven! Death!".. and a quick sigh escaped him--"'Twill be the
breaking of my harp and heart! ... the last note of my failing
voice and eversilenced song!"

A moisture as of tears glistened on the silky fringe of his
eyelids,--his lips quivered,--he had the look of a Narcissus
regretfully bewailing his own perishable loveliness. On a swift
impulse of affection Theos threw one arm round, his neck in the
fashion of a confiding school-boy walking with his favorite
companion.

"Nay, thou shalt never die, Sah-luma!" he said with a sort of
passionate eagerness,--"Thy bright soul shall live forever in a
sunshine sweeter than that of earth's fairest midsummer noon! Thy
song can never be silenced while heaven pulsates with the
unwritten music of the spheres,--and even were the crown of
immortality denied to lesser men, it is, it must be the heritage
of the poet! For to him all crowns belong, all kingdoms are thrown
open, all barriers broken down,--even those that divide us from
the Unseen,--and God Himself has surely a smile to spare for His
Singers who have made the sad world joyful if only for an hour!"

Sah-luma looked up with a pleased yet wondering glance.

"Thou hast a silvery and persuasive tongue!" he said gently--"And
thou speakest of God as if thou knewest one akin to Him. Would I
could believe all thou sayest! ... but alas!--I cannot. We have
progressed too far in knowledge, my friend, for faith. ... yet..."
He hesitated a moment, then with a touch of caressing entreaty in
his tone went on. ... "Thinkest thou in very truth that I shall
live again? For I confess to thee, it seems beyond all things
strange and terrible to feel that this genius of mine,--this
spirit of melody which inhabits my frame, should perish utterly
without further scope for its abilities. There have been moments
when my soul, ravished by inspiration, has, as it were, seized
Earth like a full goblet of wine, and quaffed its beauties, its
pleasures, its loves, its glories all in one burning draught of
song! ... when I have stood in thought on the shadowy peaks of
time, waiting for other worlds to string like beads on my thread
of poesy,--when wondrous creatures habited in light and wreathed
with stars have floated round and round me in rosy circles of
fire,--and once, methought ... 'twas long ago now--I heard a Voice
distinct and sweet that called me upward, onward and away, I know
not where,--save that a hidden Love awaited me!" He broke off with
a rapt almost angelic expression in his eyes, then sighing a
little he resumed: "All dreams of course! ... vague phantoms,--
creations of my own imaginative brain,--yet fair enough to fill my
heart with speechless longings for ethereal raptures unseen,
unknown! Thou hast, methinks, a certain faith in the unsolved
mysteries,--but I have none,--for sweet as the promise of a future
life may seem, there is no proof that it shall ever be. If one
died and rose again from the dead, then might we all believe and
hope.. but otherwise ..."

Oh, miserable Theos!--What would he not have given to utter aloud
the burning knowledge that ate into his mind like slow-devouring
fire! Again mute! ... again oppressed by that strange swelling at
the heart that threatened to break forth in stormy sobs of
penitence and prayer! Instinctively he drew Sah-luma closer to his
side--his breath came thick and fast.. he struggled with all his
might to speak the words ... "One HAS died and risen from the
dead!"--but not a syllable could he form of the desired sentence!

"Thou shalt live again, Sah-luma!" was all he could say in low,
half-smothered accents--"Thou hast within thee a flame that cannot
perish!"

Again Sah-luma's eyes dwelt upon him with a curious, appealing
tenderness.

"Thy words savor of sweet consolation! ..." he said half gayly,
half sadly. "May they be fulfilled! And if indeed there is a
brighter world than this beyond the skies, I fancy thou and I will
know each other, there as here, and be somewhat close companions!
See!"--and he pointed to a small green hillock that rose up like a
shining emerald from the darker foliage of the surrounding trees--
"Yonder is my point of vantage whence we shall behold the sun go
down like a warrior sinking on the red field of battle, the chimes
are ringing even now for his departure,--listen!"

They stood still for a space, while the measured, swinging cadence
of bells came pealing through the stillness,--bells of every tone,
that smote the air with soft or loud resonance as the faint wind
wafted the sounds toward them,--and then they began to climb the
little hill, Sah-luma walking somewhat in advance, with a tread as
light and elastic as that of a young fawn.

Theos, following, watched his movements with a strange affection,
--every turn of his head, every gesture of his hand seemed fraught
with meanings as yet inexplicable. The grass beneath their feet
was soft as velvet and dotted with a myriad wild flowers,--the
ascent was gradual and easy, and in a few minutes they had reached
the summit, where Sah-luma, throwing himself indolently on the
smooth turf, pulled Theos gently down by his side. There they
rested in silence, gazing at the magnificent panorama laid out
before them,--a panorama as lovely as a delicately pictured scene
of fairy-land. Above, the sky was of a dense yet misty rose-
color,--the sun, low on the western horizon appeared to rest in a
vast, deep, purple hollow, rifted here and there with broad gashes
of gold,--long shafts of light streamed upwards in order like the
waving pennons of an angel-army marching,--and beyond, far away
from this blaze of splendid color, the wide ethereal expanse paled
into tender blue, whereon light clouds of pink and white drifted
like the fluttering blossoms that fall from apple-trees in spring.

Below, and seen through a haze of rose and amber, lay the city of
Al-Kyris,--its white domes, towers and pinnacled palaces rising
out of the mist like a glorious mirage afloat on the borders of a
burning desert. Al-Kyris the Magnificent!--it deserves its name,
Theos thought, as shading his eyes from the red glare he took a
wondering and gradually comprehensive view of the enormous extent
of the place. He soon perceived that it was defended by six
strongly fortified walls, each placed within the other at long
equal distances apart, so that it might have been justly described
as six cities all merged together in one,--and from where he sat
he could plainly discern the great square where he had rested in
the morning, by reason of the white granite obelisk that lifted
itself sheer up against the sky, undwarfed by any of the
surrounding buildings.

This gigantic monument was the most prominent object in sight,
with the exception of the sacred temple, which Sah-luma presently
pointed out,--a round, fortress-like piece of architecture
ornamented with twelve gilded towers from which bells were now
clashing and jangling in a storm of melodious persistency. The hum
of the city's traffic and pleasure surged on the air like the
noise made by swarming bees, while every now and then the sweet,
shrill tones of some more than usually clear girl's voice, crying
out the sale of fruit or flowers, soared up song-wise through the
luminous, semi-transparent vapor that half-veiled the clustering
house-tops, tapering spires and cupolas in a delicate, nebulous
film.

Completely fascinated by the wizard-like beauty of the scene,
Theos felt as though he could never look upon it long enough to
master all its charms, but his eyes ached with the radiance in
which everything seemed drenched as with flame, and turning his
gaze once more toward the sun, he saw that it had nearly
disappeared. Only a blood-red rim peered spectrally above the gold
and green horizon-and immediately overhead, a silver rift in the
sky had widened slowly in the centre and narrowed at its end, thus
taking the shape of a great outstretched sword that pointed
directly downward at the busy, murmuring, glittering city beneath.
It was a strange effect, and made on the mind of Theos a strange
impression,--he was about to call Sah-luma's attention to it, when
an uncomfortable consciousness that they were no longer alone came
over him,--instinctively he turned round, uttered a hasty
exclamation, and springing erect, found himself face to face with
a huge black,--a man of some six feet in height and muscular in
proportion, who, clad, in a vest and tunic of the most vivid
scarlet hue, leered confidentially upon him as their eyes met.
Sah-luma rising also, but with less precipitation, surveyed the
intruder languidly and with a certain haughtiness.

"What now, Gazra? Always art thou like a worm in the grass,
crawling on thine errand with less noise than the wind makes in
summer, . . I would thy mistress kept a fairer messenger!"

The black smiled,--if so hideous a contortion of his repulsive
countenance might be called a smile, and slowly raising his jetty
arms hung all over with strings of coral and amber, made a curious
gesture, half of salutation, half of command. As he did this, the
clear, olive cheek of Sah-luma flushed darkly red,--his chest
heaved, and linking his arm through that of Theos, he bent his
head slightly and stood like one in an enforced attitude of
attention. Then Gazra spoke, his harsh, strong voice seeming to
come from some devil in the ground rather than from a human
throat.

"The Virgin Priestess of the Sun and the Divine Nagaya hath need
of thee to-night, Sah-luma!" he said, with a sort of suppressed
derision underlying his words,--and taking from his breast a ring
that glittered like a star, he held it out in the palm of one
hand--"And also"--he added--"of thy friend the stranger, to whom
she desires to accord a welcome. Behold her signet!"

Theos, impelled by curiosity, would have taken the ring up to
examine it, had not Sah-luma restrained him by a warning pressure
of his arm,--he was only just able to see that it was in the shape
of a coiled-up serpent with ruby eyes, and a darting tongue tipped
with small diamonds. What chiefly concerned him however was the
peculiar change in Sah-luma's demeanor,--something in the aspect
or speech of Gazra had surely exercised a remarkable influence
upon him. His frame trembled through and through with scarcely
controlled excitement, . . his eyes shot forth an almost evil fire, . .
and a cold, calm, somewhat cruel smile played on the perfect
outline of his delicate month. Taking the signet from Gazra's
palm, he kissed it with a kind of angry tenderness, . . then
replied..

"Tell thy mistress we shall obey her behest! Doubtless she knows,
as she knows all things, that to-night. I am summoned by express
command, to the Palace of our sovereign lord the King.. I am bound
thither first as is my duty, but afterwards ..." He broke off as
if he found it impossible to say more, and waved his hand in a
light sign of dismissal. But Gazra did not at once depart. He
again smiled that lowering smile of his which resembled nothing so
much as a hung criminal's death-grin, and returned the jewelled
signet to his breast.

"Afterwards! ... yes.. afterwards!" he said in emphatic yet mock
solemn tones.. "Even so!" Advancing a little he laid his heavy,
muscular hand on Theos's chest, and appeared mentally to measure
his height and breadth--"Strong nerves! ... iron sinews! ...
goodly flesh and blood! ..'twill serve!"--and his great,
protruding eyes gleamed maliciously as he spoke,--then bowing
profoundly he added, addressing both Sah-luma and Theos.. "Noble
sirs, to-night out of all men in Al-Kyris shall you be the most
envied! Farewell!"--and once more making that curious salutation
which had in it so much imperiousness and so little obeisance, he
walked backward a few paces in the full lustre of the set sun's
after-glow, which intensified the vivid red of his costume and lit
up all the ornaments of clear-cut amber that glittered against his
swarthy skin,--then turning, he descended the hillock so swiftly
that he seemed to have melted out of sight as utterly as a dark
mist dissolving in air.

"By my word, a most sooty and repellent bearer of a lady's
greeting!" laughed Theos lightly, as he sauntered arm in arm with
his host on the downward path leading to the garden and palace--
"And I have yet to learn the true meaning of his message!"

"'Tis plain enough!" replied Sah-luma somewhat sulkily, with the
deep flush still coming and going on his face--"It means that we
are summoned, . . thou as well as I, . . to one of Lysia's midnight
banquets,--an honor that falls to few,--a mandate none dare
disobey! She must have spied thee out this morning--the only
unkneeling soul in all the abject multitude-hence, perhaps, her
present desire for thy company."

There was a touch of vexation in his voice, but Theos heeded it
not. His heart gave a great bound against his ribs as though
pricked by a fire-tipped arrow,--something swift and ardent
stirred in his blood like the flowing of quicksilver, . . the picture
of the dusky-eyed, witchingly beautiful woman he had seen that
morning in her gold-adorned ship, seemed to float between him and
the light,--her face shone out like a growing glory-flower in the
tangled wilderness of his thoughts, and his lips trembled a little
as he replied:

"She must be gracious and forgiving then, even as she is fair! For
in my neglect of reverence due, I merited her scorn, . . not her
courtesy. But tell me, Sah-luma, how could she know I was a guest
of thine?"

Sah-luma glanced at him half-pityingly, half disdainfully.

"How could she know? Easily!--inasmuch as she knows all things.
'Twould have been strange indeed had she NOT known!" and he caught
at a down-drooping rose and crushed its fragrant head in his hand
with a sort of wanton petulance--"The King himself is less
acquainted with his people's doings than the wearer of the All-
Reflecting Eye! Thou hast not yet seen that weird mirror and
potent dazzler of human sight, . . no,--but thou WILT see it ere
long,--the glittering Fiend-guarding of the whitest breast that
ever shut in passion!" His voice shook, and he paused,--then with
some effort continued--"Yes,--Lysia has her secret commissioners
everywhere throughout the length and breadth of the city, who
report to her each circumstance that happens, no matter how
trifling,--and doubtless we were followed home,--tracked step by
step as we walked together, by one of her stealthy-footed
servitors,--in this there would be naught unusual."

"Then there is no freedom in Al-Kyris,--" said Theos wonderingly--
"if the whole city thus lies under the circumspection of a woman?"

Sah-luma laughed rather harshly.

"Freedom! By the gods, 'tis a delusive word embodying a vain idea!
Where is there any freedom in life? All of us are bound in chains
and restricted in one way or the other,--the man who deems himself
politically free is a slave to the multitude and his own ambition
--while he who shakes himself loose from the trammels of custom and
creed, becomes the tortured bondsman of desire, tied fast with
bruising cords to the rack of his own unbridled sense and
appetite. There is no such thing as freedom, my friend, unless
haply it may be found in death! Come,--let us in to supper,--the
hour grows late, and my heart aches with an unsought heaviness,--I
must cheer me with a cup of wine, or my songs to-night will sadden
rather than rouse the King. Come,--and thou shalt speak to me
again of the life that is to be lived hereafter,"--and he smiled
with certain pathos in his smile,--"for there are times, believe
me, when in spite of all my fame and the sweetness of existence, I
weary of earth's days and nights, and find them far too brief and
mean to satisfy my longings. Not the world,--but worlds--should be
the Poet's heritage."

Theos looked at him, with a feeling of unutterable yearning
affection, and regret, but said nothing, . . and together they
ascended the steps of the stately marble terrace and paced slowly
across it, keeping as near to each other as shadow to substance,
and thus reentered the palace, where the sound of a distant harp
alone penetrated the perfumed stillness. It must be Niphrata who
was playing, thought Theos, ... and what strange and plaintive
chords she swept from the vibrating strings! ... They seemed laden
with the tears of broken-hearted women dead and buried ages upon
ages ago!

CHAPTER XV

SAH-LUMA SINGS.

As they left the garden the night fell, or appeared to fall, with
almost startling suddenness, and at the same time, in swift
defiance of the darkness, Sah-luma's palace was illuminated from
end to end by thousands of colored lamps, all apparently lit at
once by a single flash of electricity. A magnificent repast was
spread for the Laureate and his guest, in a lofty, richly frescoed
banqueting-hall,--a repast voluptuous enough to satisfy the most
ardent votary that ever followed the doctrines of Epicurus.
Wonderful dainties and still more wonderful wines were served in
princely profusion--and while the strangely met and
sympathetically united friends ate and drank, delicious music was
played on stringed instruments by unseen performers. When, at
intervals, these pleasing sounds ceased, Sah-luma's conversation,
brilliant, witty, refined, and sparkling with light anecdote and
lighter jest, replaced with admirable sufficiency, the left-off
harmonies,--and Theos, keenly alive to the sensuous enemy of his
own emotions, felt that he had never before enjoyed such an
astonishing, delightful, and altogether fairy-like feast. Its only
fault was that it came to an end too soon, he thought, when, the
last course of fruit and sweet comfits being removed, he rose
reluctantly from the glittering board, and prepared to accompany
his host, as agreed, to the presence of the King.

In a very short time, so bewilderingly short as to seem a mere
breathing-space,--he found himself passing through the broad
avenues and crowded thoroughfares of Al-Kyris on his way to the
Royal abode. He occupied a place in Sah-luma's chariot,--a gilded
car, shaped somewhat like the curved half of a shell, deeply
hollowed, and set on two high wheels that as they rolled made
scarcely any sound; there was no seat, and both he and Sah-luma
stood erect, the latter using all the force of his slender brown
hands to control the spirited prancing of the pair of jet-black
steeds which, harnessed tandem-wise to the light-vehicle, seemed
more than once disposed to break loose into furious gallop
regardless of their master's curbing rein.

The full moon was rising gradually in a sky as densely violet as
purple pansy-leaves--but her mellow lustre was almost put to shame
by the brilliancy of the streets, which were lit up on both sides
by vari-colored lamps that diffused a peculiar, intense yet soft
radiance, produced, as Sah-luma explained, from stored-up
electricity. On the twelve tall Towers of the Sacred Temple shone
twelve large, revolving stars, that as they turned emitted vivid
flashes of blue, green, and amber flame like light-house signals
seen from ships veering shorewards,--and the reflections thus cast
on the mosaic pavement, mingling with the paler beams of the moon,
gave a weird and most fantastic effect to the scene. Straight
ahead, a blazing arch raised like a bent bow against heaven, and
having in its centre the word