Chapter XV. Oro in His House
We climbed on to the dais by some marble steps, and sat ourselves downin four curious chairs of metal that were more or less copied from thatwhich served Oro as a throne; at least the arms ended in graven heads ofsnakes. These chairs were so comfortable that I concluded the seats werefixed on springs, also we noticed that they were beautifully polished.
"I wonder how they keep everything so clean," said Bastin as we mountedthe dais. "In this big place it must take a lot of housemaids, though Idon't see any. But perhaps there is no dust here."
I shrugged my shoulders while we seated ourselves, the Lady Yva and I onOro's right, Bickley and Bastin on his left, as he indicated by pointingwith his finger.
"What say you of this city?" Oro asked after a while of me.
"We do not know what to say," I replied. "It amazes us. In our worldthere is nothing like to it."
"Perchance there will be in the future when the nations grow moreskilled in the arts of war," said Oro darkly.
"Be pleased, Lord Oro," I went on, "if it is your will, to tell us whythe people who built this place chose to live in the bowels of the earthinstead of upon its surface."
"They did not choose; it was forced upon them," was the answer. "Thisis a city of refuge that they occupied in time of war, not becausethey hated the sun. In time of peace and before the Barbarians dared toattack them, they dwelt in the city Pani which signifies Above. You mayhave noted some of its remaining ruins on the mount and throughout theisland. The rest of them are now beneath the sea. But when trouble cameand the foe rained fire on them from the air, they retreated to thistown, Nyo, which signifies Beneath."
"And then?"
"And then they died. The Water of Life may prolong life, but it cannotmake women bear children. That they will only do beneath the blue ofheaven, not deep in the belly of the world where Nature never designedthat they should dwell. How would the voices of children sound in suchhalls as these? Tell me, you, Bickley, who are a physician."
"I cannot. I cannot imagine children in such a place, and if born herethey would die," said Bickley.
Oro nodded.
"They did die, and if they went above to Pani they were murdered. Sosoon the habit of birth was lost and the Sons of Wisdom perished one byone. Yes, they who ruled the world and by tens of thousands of yearsof toil had gathered into their bosoms all the secrets of the world,perished, till only a few, and among them I and this daughter of mine,were left."
"And then?"
"Then, Humphrey, having power so to do, I did what long I hadthreatened, and unchained the forces that work at the world's heart, anddestroyed them who were my enemies and evil, so that they perished bymillions, and with them all their works. Afterwards we slept, leavingthe others, our subjects who had not the secret of this Sleep, to die,as doubtless they did in the course of Nature or by the hand of the foe.The rest you know."
"Can such a thing happen again?" asked Bickley in a voice that did nothide his disbelief.
"Why do you question me, Bickley, you who believe nothing of what I tellyou, and therefore make wrath? Still I will say this, that what I causedto happen I can cause once more--only once, I think--as perchance youshall learn before all is done. Now, since you do not believe, I willtell you no more of our mysteries, no, not whence this light comes norwhat are the properties of the Water of Life, both of which you longto know, nor how to preserve the vital spark of Being in the grave ofdreamless sleep, like a live jewel in a casket of dead stone, nor aughtelse. As to these matters, Daughter, I bid you also to be silent, sinceBickley mocks at us. Yes, with all this around him, he who saw us risefrom the coffins, still mocks at us in his heart. Therefore let him,this little man of a little day, when his few years are done go to thetomb in ignorance, and his companions with him, they who might have beenas wise as I am."
Thus Oro spoke in a voice of icy rage, his deep eyes glowing likecoals. Hearing him I cursed Bickley in my heart for I was sure that oncespoken, his decree was like to that of the Medes and Persians and couldnot be altered. Bickley, however, was not in the least dismayed. Indeedhe argued the point. He told Oro straight out that he would not believein the impossible until it had been shown to him to be possible, andthat the law of Nature never had been and never could be violated. Itwas no answer, he said, to show him wonders without explaining theircause, since all that he seemed to see might be but mental illusionsproduced he knew not how.
Oro listened patiently, then answered:
"Good. So be it, they are illusions. I am an illusion; those savages whodied upon the rock will tell you so. This fair woman before you is anillusion; Humphrey, I am sure, knows it as you will also before you havedone with her. These halls are illusions. Live on in your illusions,O little man of science, who because you see the face of things, thinkthat you know the body and the heart, and can read the soul at workwithin. You are a worthy child of tens of thousands of your breed whowere before you and are now forgotten."
Bickley looked up to answer, then changed his mind and was silent,thinking further argument dangerous, and Oro went on:
"Now I differ from you, Bickley, in this way. I who have more wisdom inmy finger-point than you with all the physicians of your world added toyou, have in your brains and bodies, yet desire to learn from those whocan give me knowledge. I understand from your words to my daughter thatyou, Bastin, teach a faith that is new to me, and that this faith tellsof life eternal for the children of earth. Is it so?"
"It is," said Bastin eagerly. "I will set out--"
Oro cut him short with a wave of the hand.
"Not now in the presence of Bickley who doubtless disbelieves yourfaith, as he does all else, holding it with justice or without, to bebut another illusion. Yet you shall teach me and on it I will form myown judgment."
"I shall be delighted," said Bastin. Then a doubt struck him, and headded: "But why do you wish to learn? Not that you may make a mock of myreligion, is it?"
"I mock at no man's belief, because I think that what men believe istrue--for them. I will tell you why I wish to hear of yours, since Inever hide the truth. I who am so wise and old, yet must die; thoughthat time may be far away, still I must die, for such is the lot of manborn of woman. And I do not desire to die. Therefore I shall rejoice tolearn of any faith that promises to the children of earth a life eternalbeyond the earth. Tomorrow you shall begin to teach me. Now leave me,Strangers, for I have much to do," and he waved his hand towards thetable.
We rose and bowed, wondering what he could have to do down in thisluminous hole, he who had been for so many thousands of years out oftouch with the world. It occurred to me, however, that during this longperiod he might have got in touch with other worlds, indeed he lookedlike it.
"Wait," he said, "I have something to tell you. I have been studyingthis book of writings, or world pictures," and he pointed to my atlaswhich, as I now observed for the first time, was also lying upon thetable. "It interests me much. Your country is small, very small. WhenI caused it to be raised up I think that it was larger, but since thenthat seas have flowed in."
Here Bickley groaned aloud.
"This one is much greater," went on Oro, casting a glance at Bickleythat must have penetrated him like a searchlight. Then he opened the mapof Europe and with his finger indicated Germany and Austria-Hungary."I know nothing of the peoples of these lands," he added, "but as youbelong to one of them and are my guests, I trust that yours may succeedin the war."
"What war?" we asked with one voice.
"Since Bickley is so clever, surely he should know better than anillusion such as I. All I can tell you is that I have learned that thereis war between this country and that," and he pointed to Great Britainand to Germany upon the map; "also between others."
"It is quite possible," I said, remembering many things. "But how do youknow?"
"If I told you, Humphrey, Bickley would not believe, so I will not tell.Perhaps I saw it in that crystal, as did the necromancers of t
he earlyworld. Or perhaps the crystal serves some different purpose and I saw itotherwise--with my soul. At least what I say is true."
"Then who will win?" asked Bastin.
"I cannot read the future, Preacher. If I could, should I ask you toexpound to me your religion which probably is of no more worth than ascore of others I have studied, just because it tells of the future?If I could read the future I should be a god instead of only anearth-lord."
"Your daughter called you a god and you said that you knew we werecoming to wake you up, which is reading the future," answered Bastin.
"Every father is a god to his daughter, or should be; also in my daymillions named me a god because I saw further and struck harder thanthey could. As for the rest, it came to me in a vision. Oh! Bickley, ifyou were wiser than you think you are, you would know that all thingsto come are born elsewhere and travel hither like the light from stars.Sometimes they come faster before their day into a single mind, and thatis what men call prophecy. But this is a gift which cannot be commanded,even by me. Also I did not know that you would come. I knew only thatwe should awaken and by the help of men, for if none had been present atthat destined hour we must have died for lack of warmth and sustenance."
"I deny your hypothesis in toto," exclaimed Bickley, but nobody paid anyattention to him.
"My father," said Yva, rising and bowing before him with her swan-likegrace, "I have noted your commands. But do you permit that I show thetemple to these strangers, also something of our past?"
"Yes, yes," he said. "It will save much talk in a savage tongue that isdifficult to me. But bring them here no more without my command, saveBastin only. When the sun is four hours high in the upper world, lethim come tomorrow to teach me, and afterwards if so I desire. Or if hewills, he can sleep here."
"I think I would rather not," said Bastin hurriedly. "I make no pretenseto being particular, but this place does not appeal to me as a bedroom.There are degrees in the pleasures of solitude and, in short, I will notdisturb your privacy at night."
Oro waved his hand and we departed down that awful and most dreary hall.
"I hope you will spend a pleasant time here, Bastin," I said, lookingback from the doorway at its cold, illuminated vastness.
"I don't expect to," he answered, "but duty is duty, and if I can dragthat old sinner back from the pit that awaits him, it will be worthdoing. Only I have my doubts about him. To me he seems to bear a strongfamily resemblance to Beelzebub, and he's a bad companion week in andweek out."
We went through the portico, Yva leading us, and passed the fountain ofLife-water, of which she cautioned us to drink no more at present,and to prevent him from doing so, dragged Tommy past it by his collar.Bickley, however, lingered under the pretence of making a furtherexamination of the statue. As I had seen him emptying into his pocketthe contents of a corked bottle of quinine tabloids which he alwayscarried with him, I guessed very well that his object was to procure asample of this water for future analysis. Of course I said nothing, andYva and Bastin took no note of what he was doing.
When we were clear of the palace, of which we had only seen one hall,we walked across an open space made unutterably dreary by the absenceof any vegetation or other sign of life, towards a huge building ofglorious proportions that was constructed of black stone or marble. Itis impossible for me to give any idea of the frightful solemnity ofthis doomed edifice, for as I think I have said, it alone had a roof,standing there in the midst of that brilliant, unvarying and mostunnatural illumination which came from nowhere and yet was everywhere.Thus, when one lifted a foot, there it was between the sole of the bootand the floor, or to express it better, the boot threw no shadow.I think this absence of shadows was perhaps the most terrifyingcircumstance connected with that universal and pervading light. Throughit we walked on to the temple. We passed three courts, pillared allof them, and came to the building which was larger than St. Paul'sin London. We entered through huge doors which still stood open, andpresently found ourselves beneath the towering dome. There were nowindows, why should there be in a place that was full of light? Therewas no ornamentation, there was nothing except black walls. And yet thegeneral effect was magnificent in its majestic grace.
"In this place," said Yva, and her sweet voice went whispering roundthe walls and the arching dome, "were buried the Kings of the Sonsof Wisdom. They lie beneath, each in his sepulchre. Its entrance isyonder," and she pointed to what seemed to be a chapel on the right."Would you wish to see them?"
"Somehow I don't care to," said Bastin. "The place is dreary enough asit is without the company of a lot of dead kings."
"I should like to dissect one of them, but I suppose that would not beallowed," said Bickley.
"No," she answered. "I think that the Lord Oro would not wish you to cutup his forefathers."
"When you and he went to sleep, why did you not choose the familyvault?" asked Bastin.
"Would you have found us there?" she queried by way of answer. Then,understanding that the invitation was refused by general consent, thoughpersonally I should have liked to accept it, and have never ceasedregretting that I did not, she moved towards a colossal object whichstood beneath the centre of the dome.
On a stepped base, not very different from that in the cave but muchlarger, sat a figure, draped in a cloak on which was graved a number ofstars, doubtless to symbolise the heavens. The fastening of the cloakwas shaped like the crescent moon, and the foot-stool on which restedthe figure's feet was fashioned to suggest the orb of the sun. Thiswas of gold or some such metal, the only spot of brightness in all thattemple. It was impossible to say whether the figure were male or female,for the cloak falling in long, straight folds hid its outlines. Nor didthe head tell us, for the hair also was hidden beneath the mantle andthe face might have been that of either man or woman. It was terrible inits solemnity and calm, and its expression was as remote and mystic asthat of Buddha, only more stern. Also without doubt it was blind; it wasimpossible to mistake the sightlessness of those staring orbs. Acrossthe knees lay a naked sword and beneath the cloak the arms were hidden.In its complete simplicity the thing was marvelous.
On either side upon the pedestal knelt a figure of the size of life. Onewas an old and withered man with death stamped upon his face; the otherwas a beautiful, naked woman, her hands clasped in the attitude ofprayer and with vague terror written on her vivid features.
Such was this glorious group of which the meaning could not be mistaken.It was Fate throned upon the sun, wearing the constellations as hisgarment, armed with the sword of Destiny and worshipped by Life andDeath. This interpretation I set out to the others.
Yva knelt before the statue for a little while, bowing her head inprayer, and really I felt inclined to follow her example, though in theend I compromised, as did Bickley, by taking off my hat, which, like theothers, I still wore from force of habit, though in this place none wereneeded. Only Bastin remained covered.
"Behold the god of my people," said Yva. "Have you no reverence for it,O Bastin?"
"Not much," he answered, "except as a work of art. You see I worshipFate's Master. I might add that your god doesn't seem to have done muchfor you, Lady Yva, as out of all your greatness there's nothing left buttwo people and a lot of old walls and caves."
At first she was inclined to be angry, for I saw her start. Then hermood changed, and she said with a sigh:
"Fate's Master! Where does He dwell?"
"Here amongst other places," said Bastin. "I'll soon explain that toyou."
"I thank you," she replied gravely. "But why have you not explained itto Bickley?" Then waving her hand to show that she wished for no answer,she went on:
"Friends, would you wish to learn something of the history of mypeople?"
"Very much," said the irrepressible Bastin, "but I would rather thelecture took place in the open air."
"That is not possible," she answered. "It must be here and now, or notat all. Come, stand by me. Be silent and do not move.
I am about to setloose forces that are dangerous if disturbed."