The chief priestess cried, "The spear of the goddess is with me, Gamori! The goddess has delivered it to me, her vicar, to use against the first man who violates this isle, who soils it, who mocks Lupoeth and mighty Kho! You have committed enough crimes against the Goddess, against your wife and Queen, the high priestess, Gamori! You will soon pay for these! But do not add to your heinous deeds by touching an area which the deities have forbidden you. Go away, Gamori, before the angry spear of Lupoeth exacts vengeance!"
The men in the boat murmured again. The officer shouted at them to be quiet, but his voice lacked authority.
Gamori, however, though he must have been just as frightened, could not back down. To show fear now after having attacked the Temple of Kho and slain priestesses, having slaughtered a quarter of the population in the name of the Flaming God and the superior rights of the King—to back down would weaken his cause, even fatally. It would not take much to reverse the flow of victory. Though he had driven his men to commit sacrilege, he had not eradicated all anxieties from them. Deep down, though they lusted after the treasures and the power promised them, they were still fearful of the Goddess. This unease had driven them to hysteria, a frenzied attack on all they had been taught to revere and honor since childhood. It was this hysteria which had caused them to slay where there had been no need to slay, to profane beyond their orders.
For Gamori to show the slightest weakness now was to weaken his believers too. They would wonder why Gamori had not trespassed when his greatest enemy, Hadon, was within his grasp. Hadon was somewhere on this tiny place, probably hiding in the carved-out chambers inside the boulder. And their wonder would lead to a great loss of confidence in him. If he hesitated now, perhaps he was having second thoughts. Perhaps he really believed, under his pretense, that Resu was not supreme, that Kho was the greatest of the deities.
Gamori's face was haggard in the firelight, deeply scored with fatigue, worry and dread. But he was not going to back down. He turned to his men and shouted, "I am going ashore! All of you follow me and search every inch of the island! And if the priestesses oppose you, slay them!"
He let himself down over the high prow, assisted by the officer. The river came to his waist at this point, but he held his sword up with his left hand, his right trailing in the water. He put his head down like a bull and thrust against the river. Soon he was standing on the shore, water running from his cloak and kilt.
The aged woman in the chair seemed to grow taller and straighter. She shrilled, "You have delivered yourself to the house of dread Sisisken! Do not follow him, you soldiers who are traitors to your Queen and your Goddess! You may yet escape the wrath of Lupoeth! Take yourselves and this boat away now! Report to Phebha and beg for mercy, saying that Awikloe sent you."
The colonel, who had been about to leap down from the boat, paused.
Gamori turned to the boat and yelled, "Obey me!"
The colonel did not move. Some of the soldiers had stood up, but now they sat down.
"They wait to see what you will do, Gamori!" the crone said, a definite jeer in her voice.
Gamori whirled, snarling, and said, "I will kill you, you wrinkled old bag! And then they will see that your Lupoeth is powerless to protect her own chief priestess! And if that is not enough, I will slay the other two!"
The young priestess gashed herself again on her arms and thighs, shouting, "My blood summons your blood, Gamori!" The snake slid out from her hair and down her neck, coiling itself around her bloody shoulder.
Gamori walked swiftly toward the chief priestess, his sword raised.
The priestess near the bronze box threw a bundle of split sticks on it and then cast a handful of green powder over the flames. A green cloud whooshed out and upward, covering her for the moment, then expanding to veil the old woman on the chair. The men in the boat gasped or moaned, and Gamori stopped.
The green cloud quickly thinned, revealing Awikloe standing straight and tall, magically tall, behind the chair. In her right hand she held the mighty golden spear, holding it above her head, though no man could have lifted that weight of gold in one hand.
"Behold!" she cried. "Lupoeth has given me stature and strength to slay her enemy and the Queen's enemy and my enemy!"
It may be that Gamori, who was much nearer than the men in the boat, saw the features under the hood. He may also have considered that the spear was not made of solid gold after all.
Whatever he thought, he had no chance to express it.
The spear went back and up as the priestess readied for the cast, then it flew to its target.
Gamori gave a cry and turned, but the point drove into his neck and through his windpipe. Choking, clutching the heavy shaft dragging on the ground, he staggered backward. The old priestess went around the chair and sat down, seeming to shrink back to her normal small size.
Gamori fell backward into the water, which covered his face. The golden spear disappeared under the surface, holding his body down, keeping it from moving with the current.
The priestesses were as still as the idol. They said nothing, nor did anything more need to be said. The colonel gave a sign and the soldiers seized their paddles and backed the boat out and around. They sped for the city of Opar, lurid in the flames.
Not until the boat was halfway to the city did the priestess arise from her chair. Then the robe was removed, revealing the grinning face and tall body of Hadon. The old woman came hobbling out from the round doorway. Hadon went to the body, drew the huge weapon out and threw it on the ground. Then he pulled the King's corpse ashore, because it would have to be shown to the people of Opar to convince them that he was really dead.
Neqokla, using a blanket to cover the fire at the correct intervals, had sent signals to the watcher in the dome of the Temple of Kho. A longboat put out an hour later, returning with Hadon at dawn. He was greeted at the quay by Phebha, who conducted the rituals cleansing him of the guilt of regicide and of profanement of the Isle of Lupoeth. After this, surrounded by soldiers who kept off the cheering crowd, he was led to the temple, through the temple to the room where Lalila lay in bed.
Though she looked pale and haggard, she smiled on seeing him. He kissed her, then took into his arms the tiny blanketed form. He lifted the flap from over the face and saw the most beautiful newborn baby he had ever seen. Wide blue eyes stared at him, focusing with an ability infants that age just never had.
Phebha, sitting in her chair behind him, said, "Hadon, behold your daughter! La of Opar!"
Philip José Farmer, Flight to Opar
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