Chapter XXIX.
In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and constituting thenight of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from the disturbed slumber intowhich I had not long fallen, by a hand on my shoulder. I started andbeheld Zee standing beside me. "Hush," she said in a whisper; "let noone hear us. Dost thou think that I have ceased to watch over thy safetybecause I could not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailedwith his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three sages who,in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and by their advice he hasordained thee to perish when the world re-awakens to life. I will savethee. Rise and dress."
Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothes I hadworn on quitting the upper world, and which I had exchanged subsequentlyfor the more picturesque garments of the Vril-ya. The young Gy thenmoved towards the casement and stepped into the balcony, while hastilyand wonderingly I donned my own habiliments. When I joined her on thebalcony, her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she saidsoftly, "See how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up theworld in which they dwell. To-morrow the world will be dark to me." Shedrew me back into the room without waiting for my answer, thence intothe corridor, from which we descended into the hall. We passed into thedeserted streets and along the broad upward road which wound beneath therocks. Here, where there is neither day nor night, the Silent Hoursare unutterably solemn--the vast space illumined by mortal skill isso wholly without the sight and stir of mortal life. Soft as wereour footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as out of harmony with theuniversal repose. I was aware in my own mind, though Zee said it not,that she had decided to assist my return to the upper world, and thatwe were bound towards the place from which I had descended. Her silenceinfected me and commanded mine. And now we approached the chasm. It hadbeen re-opened; not presenting, indeed, the same aspect as when I hademerged from it, but through that closed wall of rock before which Ihad last stood with Taee, a new clift had been riven, and along itsblackened sides still glimmered sparks and smouldered embers. Myupward gaze could not, however, penetrate more than a few feet into thedarkness of the hollow void, and I stood dismayed, and wondering howthat grim ascent was to be made.
Zee divined my doubt. "Fear not," said she, with a faint smile; "yourreturn is assured. I began this work when the Silent Hours commenced,and all else were asleep; believe that I did not paused till the pathback into thy world was clear. I shall be with thee a little while yet.We do not part until thou sayest, 'Go, for I need thee no more.'"
My heart smote me with remorse at these words. "Ah!" I exclaimed, "wouldthat thou wert of my race or I of thine, then I should never say, 'Ineed thee no more.'"
"I bless thee for those words, and I shall remember them when thou artgone," answered the Gy, tenderly.
During this brief interchange of words, Zee had turned away from me, herform bent and her head bowed over her breast. Now, she rose to the fullheight of her grand stature, and stood fronting me. While she had beenthus averted from my gaze, she had lighted up the circlet that she woreround her brow, so that it blazed as if it were a crown of stars. Notonly her face and her form, but the atmosphere around, were illumined bythe effulgence of the diadem.
"Now," said she, "put thine arm around me for the first and last time.Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm."
As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded. Clinging to her,I was borne aloft through the terrible chasm. The starry light from herforehead shot around and before us through the darkness. Brightly andsteadfastly, and swiftly as an angel may soar heavenward with the soulit rescues from the grave, went the flight of the Gy, till I heardin the distance the hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. Wehalted on the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, and beyond,in the vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of the miners. Then Ireleased my hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead, passionately, but aswith a mother's passion, and said, as the tears gushed from her eyes,"Farewell for ever. Thou wilt not let me go into thy world--thou canstnever return to mine. Ere our household shake off slumber, the rockswill have again closed over the chasm not to be re-opened by me, norperhaps by others, for ages yet unguessed. Think of me sometimes, andwith kindness. When I reach the life that lies beyond this speck intime, I shall look round for thee. Even there, the world consigned tothyself and thy people may have rocks and gulfs which divide it fromthat in which I rejoin those of my race that have gone before, and I maybe powerless to cleave way to regain thee as I have cloven way to lose."
Her voice ceased. I heard the swan-like sough of her wings, and saw therays of her starry diadem receding far and farther through the gloom.
I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then I rose andtook my way with slow footsteps towards the place in which I heard thesounds of men. The miners I encountered were strange to me, of anothernation than my own. They turned to look at me with some surprise, butfinding that I could not answer their brief questions in their ownlanguage, they returned to their work and suffered me to pass onunmolested. In fine, I regained the mouth of the mine, little troubledby other interrogatories;--save those of a friendly official to whom Iwas known, and luckily he was too busy to talk much with me. I took carenot to return to my former lodging, but hastened that very day to quita neighbourhood where I could not long have escaped inquiries to whichI could have given no satisfactory answers. I regained in safety my owncountry, in which I have been long peacefully settled, and engaged inpractical business, till I retired on a competent fortune, three yearsago. I have been little invited and little tempted to talk of therovings and adventures of my youth. Somewhat disappointed, as most menare, in matters connected with household love and domestic life, I oftenthink of the young Gy as I sit alone at night, and wonder how I couldhave rejected such a love, no matter what dangers attended it, or bywhat conditions it was restricted. Only, the more I think of a peoplecalmly developing, in regions excluded from our sight and deemeduninhabitable by our sages, powers surpassing our most disciplined modesof force, and virtues to which our life, social and political, becomesantagonistic in proportion as our civilisation advances,--the moredevoutly I pray that ages may yet elapse before there emerge intosunlight our inevitable destroyers. Being, however, frankly told bymy physician that I am afflicted by a complaint which, though it giveslittle pain and no perceptible notice of its encroachments, may at anymoment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my fellow-men to place onrecord these forewarnings of The Coming Race.
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