8. THE PREACHER FROM THE MOUNTAINS
It was long enough since I had found leisure for a parcel of sleep,and so during the larger part of that day I am free to confess that Islumbered soundly, Nais watching me. Night fell, and still we remainedwithin the privacy of the temple. It was our plan that I should staythere till the camp slept, and so I should have more chance of reachingthe sea without disturbance.
The night came down wet, with a drizzle of rain, and through the slitsin the temple walls we could see the many fires in the camp well caredfor, the men and women in skins and rags toasting before them, withsteam rising as the heat fought with their wetness. Folk seated indiscomfort like this are proverbially alert and cruel in the temper, andNais frowned as she looked on the inclemency of the weather.
"A fine night," she said, "and I would have sent my lord back to thecity without a soul here being the wiser; but in this chill, peoplesleep sourly. We must wait till the hour drugs them sounder."
And so we waited, sitting there together on that pavement so longunkissed by worshippers, and it was little enough we said aloud. Butthere can be good companionship without sentences of talk.
But as the hours drew on, the night began to grow less quiet. From thedistance some one began to blow on a horn or a shell, sending forth aharsh raucous note incessantly. The sound came nearer, as we could tellfrom its growing loudness, and the voices of those by the fires madethemselves heard, railing at the blower for his disturbance. Andpresently it became stationary, and standing up we could see through theslits in the walls the people of the camp rousing up from their uneasyrest, and clustering together round one who stood and talked to themfrom the pedestal of a war engine.
What he was declaiming upon we could not hear, and our curiosity onthe matter was not keen. Given that all who did not sleep went to wearythemselves with this fellow, as Nais whispered, it would be simple forme to make an exit in the opposite direction.
But here we were reckoning without the inevitable busybody. A dozenpairs of feet splashing through the wet came up to the side of thelittle temple, and cried loudly that Nais should join the audience. Shehad eloquence of tongue, it appeared, and they feared lest this speakerwho had taken his stand on the war engine should make schisms amongsttheir ranks unless some skilled person stood up also to refute hisarguments.
Here, then, it seemed to me that I must be elbowed into my skirmish bythe most unexpected of chances, but Nais was firmly minded that thereshould be no fight, if courage on her part could turn it. "Come out withme," she whispered, "and keep distant from the light of the fires."
"But how explain my being here?"
"There is no reason to explain anything," she said bitterly. "They willtake you for my lover. There is nothing remarkable in that: it is themode here. But oh, why did not the Gods make you wear a beard, and curlit, even as other men? Then you could have been gone and safe these twohours."
"A smooth chin pleases me better."
"So it does me," I heard her murmur as she leaned her weight on thestone which hung in the doorway, and pushed it ajar; "your chin." Theragged men outside--there were women with them also--did not wait towatch me very closely. A coarse jest or two flew (which I could havefound good heart to have repaid with a sword-thrust) and they steppedoff into the darkness, just turning from time to time to make sure wefollowed. On all sides others were pressing in the same direction--blackshadows against the night; the rain spat noisily on the camp fires as wepassed them; and from behind us came up others. There were no sleepersin the camp now; all were pressing on to hear this preacher who stood onthe pedestal of the war engine; and if we had tried to swerve from thestraight course, we should have been marked at once.
So we held on through the darkness, and presently came within earshot.
Still it was little enough of the preacher's words we could make out atfirst. "Who are your chiefs?" came the question at the end of a fervidharangue, and immediately all further rational talk was drowned inuproar. "We have no chiefs," the people shouted, "we are done withchiefs; we are all equal here. Take away your silly magic. You may killus with magic if you choose, but rule us you shall not. Nor shallthe other priests rule. Nor Phorenice. Nor anybody. We are done withrulers."
The press had brought us closer and closer to the man who stood on thewar engine. We saw him to be old, with white hair that tumbled on hisshoulders, and a long white beard, untrimmed and uncurled. Save for awisp of rag about the loins, his body was unclothed, and glistened inthe wet.
But in his hand he held that which marked his caste. With it he pointedhis sentences, and at times he whirled it about bathing his wet,naked body in a halo of light. It was a wand whose tip burned with anunconsuming fire, which glowed and twinkled and blazed like some starsent down by the Gods from their own place in the high heaven. It wasthe Symbol of our Lord the Sun, a credential no one could forge, and oneon which no civilised man would cast a doubt.
Indeed, the ragged frantic crew did not question for one moment thathe was a member of the Clan of Priests, the Clan which from time outof numbering had given rulers for the land, and even in their loudestclamours they freely acknowledged his powers. "You may kill us with yourmagic, if you choose," they screamed at him. But stubbornly they refusedto come back to their old allegiance. "We have suffered too manythings these later years," they cried. "We are done with rulers now foralways."
But for myself I saw the old man with a different emotion. Here wasZaemon that was father to Nais, Zaemon that had seen me yesterday seatedon the divan at Phorenice's elbow, and who to-day could denounce me asDeucalion if so he chose. These rebels had expended a navy in theirwish to kill me four days earlier, and if they knew of my nearness, eventhough Nais were my advocate, her cold reasoning would have had littlechance of an audience now. The High Gods who keep the tether of ourlives hide Their secrets well, but I did not think it impious to be surethat mine was very near the cutting then.
The beautiful woman saw this too. She even went so far as to twine herfingers in mine and press them as a farewell, and I pressed hers inreturn, for I was sorry enough not to see her more. Still I could nothelp letting my thoughts travel with a grim gloating over the fine moundof dead I should build before these ragged, unskilled rebels pulled medown. And it was inevitable this should be so. For of all the emotionsthat can ferment in the human heart, the joy of strife is keenest, andnone but an old fighter, face to face with what must necessarily be hisfinal battle, can tell how deep this lust is embroidered into the veryfoundations of his being.
But for the time Zaemon did not see me, being too much wrapped in hisoutcry, and so I was free to listen to the burning words which he spreadaround him, and to determine their effect on the hearers.
The theme he preached was no new one. He told that ever since thebeginning of history, the Gods had set apart one Clan of the peopleto rule over the rest and be their Priests, and until the coming ofPhorenice these had done their duties with exactitude and justice.They had fought invaders, carried war against the beasts, and studiedearth-movements so that they were able to foretell earthquakes anderuptions, and could spread warnings that the people might be ableto escape their devastations. They are no self-seekers; their aim wasalways to further the interest of Atlantis, and so do honour to thekingdom on which the High Gods had set their special favour. Under thePriestly Clan, Atlantis had reached the pinnacle of human prosperity andhappiness.
"But," cried the old man, waving the Symbol till his wet body glistenedin a halo of light, "the people grew fat and careless with their easylife. They began to have a conceit that their good fortune was earnedby their own puny brains and thews, and was no gift from the Gods above;and presently the cult of these Gods became neglected, and Their templeswere barren of gifts and worshippers. Followed a punishment. The Godsin Their inscrutable way decreed that a wife of one of the Priests (thatwas a governor of no inconsiderable province) should see a woman childby the wayside, and take it for adoption. That child the Gods in theirin
finite wisdom fashioned into a scourge for Atlantis, and you who havefelt the weight of Phorenice's hand, know with what completeness theHigh Gods can fashion their instruments.
"Yet, even as they set up, so can they throw down, and those thatshall debase Phorenice are even now appointed. The old rule is tobe re-established; but not till you who have sinned are sufficientlychastened to cry to it for relief." He waved the mysterious glowingSymbol before him. "See," he cried in his high old quavering voice, "youknow the unspeakable Power of which that is the sign, and for which Iam the mouthpiece. It is for you to make decision now. Are the Gods tothrow down this woman who has scorned Them and so cruelly trodden onyou? Or are you to be still further purged of your pride before you areripe for deliverance?"
The old priest broke off with a gesture, and his ragged white beardsank on to his chest. Promptly a young man, skin clad and carrying hisweapon, elbowed up through the press of listeners, and jumped on to theplatform beside him. "Hear me, brethren!" he bellowed, in his strongyoung voice. "We are done with tyrants. Death may come, and we all of ushere have shown how little we fear it. But own rulers again we will not,and that is our final say. My lord," he said, turning to the old manwith a brave face, "I know it is in your power to kill me by magic ifyou choose, but I have said my say, and can stand the cost if needs be."
"I can kill you, but I will not," said Zaemon. "You have said yoursilliness. Now go you to the ground again."
"We have free speech here. I will not go till I choose."
"Aye, but you will," said the old man, and turned on him with a suddentightening of the brows. There was no blow passed; even the Symbol,which glowed like a star against the night, was not so much as lifted inwarning; but the young man tried to retort, and, finding himself smittenwith a sudden dumbness, turned with a spasm of fear, and jumped backwhence he had come. The crowd of them thrilled expectantly, and when nofurther portent was given, they began to shout that a miracle should beshown them, and then perchance they would be persuaded back to the oldallegiance.
The old man stooped and glowered at them in fury. "You dogs," he cried,"you empty-witted dogs! Do you ask that I should degrade the powers ofthe Higher Mysteries by dancing them out before you as though they werea mummers' show? Do you tickle yourselves that you are to be temptedback to your allegiance? It is for you to woo the Gods who are sooffended. Come in humility, and I take it upon myself to declare thatyou will receive fitting pardon and relief. Remain stubborn, and thescourge, Phorenice, may torment you into annihilation before she in turnis made to answer for the evil she has put upon the land. There is thechoice for you to pick at."
The turmoil of voices rose again into the wetness of the night, andweapons were upraised menacingly. It was clear that the party forindependence had by far the greater weight, both in numbers andlustiness; and those who might, from sheer weariness of strife, havebeen willing for surrender, withheld their word through terror of theconsequence. It was a fine comment on the freedom of speech, about whichthese unruly fools had made their boast, and, with a sly malice, I couldnot help whispering a word on this to Nais as she stood at my elbow. ButNais clutched at my hand, and implored me for caution. "Oh, be silent,my lord," she whispered back, "or they will tear you in pieces. They areon fire for mischief now."
"Yet a few hours back you were for killing me yourself," I could nothelp reminding her.
She turned on me with a hot look. "A woman can change her mind, my lord.But it becomes you little to remind her of her fickleness."
A man in the press beside me wrenched round with an effort, and staredat me searchingly through the darkness. "Oh!" he said. "A shaved chin.Who are you, friend, that you should cut a beard instead of curling it?I can see no wound on your face."
I answered him civilly enough that, with "freedom" for a watchword, thefashion of my chin was a matter of mere private concern. But as that didnot satisfy him, and as he seemed to be one of those quarrelsome fellowsthat are the bane of every community, I took him suddenly by the throatand the shoulder, and bent his neck with the old, quick turn till Iheard it crack, and had unhanded him before any of his neighbours hadseen what had befallen. The fierce press of the crowd held him fromslipping to the ground, and so he stood on there where he was, with hishead nodded forward, as though he had fallen asleep through heaviness,or had fainted through the crushing of his fellows. I had no desire tobegin that last fight of mine in a place like this, where there was noroom to swing a weapon, nor chance to clear a battle ring.
But all this time the lean preacher from the mountains was sending forthhis angry anathemas, and still holding the strained attention of thepeople. And next he set forth before them the cult of the Gods in theancient form as is prescribed, and they (with old habit coming back tothem) made response in the words and in the places where the old ritualenjoins. It was weird enough sight, that time-honoured service ofadoration, forced upon these wild people after so long a period ofirreligion.
They warmed to the old words as the high shrill voice of the priestcried them forth, and as they listened, and as they realised howintimate was the care of the Gods for the travails and sorrows of theirdaily lives, so much warmer grew their responses.
"... WHO STILLED THE BURNING OF THE MOUNTAINS, AND MADE COOL PLACES ONTHE EARTH FOR US TO LIVE!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS.
"WHO GAVE US MASTERY OVER THE LESSER BEASTS AND SKILL OF TEN TIMES TOPREVAIL!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS...."
"WHO GAVE US MASTERY OVER THE LESSER BEASTS AND SKILL OF TEN TIMES TOPREVAIL!--PRAISE TO THE MOST HIGH GODS...."
It thrilled one to hear their earnestness; it sorrowed one to know thatthey would yet be obdurate and not return to their old allegiance.For this is the way with these common people; they will work up anenthusiasm one minute, and an hour later it will have fled away and leftthem cold and empty.
But Zaemon made no further calls upon their loyalty. He finished theprescribed form of sentences, and stepped down off the platform of thewar engine with the Symbol of our Lord the Sun thrust out resolutelybefore him. To all ordinary seeming the crowd had been packed so that nofurther compression was possible, but before the advance of the Symbolthe people crushed back, leaving a wide lane for his passage.
And here came the turning point of my life. At first, like, I takeit, every one else in that crowd, I imagined that the old man, havingfinished his mission, was making a way to return to the place from whichhe had come. But he held steadily to one direction, and as that wastowards myself, it naturally came to my mind that, having dealt withgreater things, he would now settle with the less; or, in plainer words,that having put his policy before the swarming people, he would nowsmite down the man he had seen but yesterday seated as Phorenice'sminister. Well, I should lose that final fight I had promised myself,and that mound of slain for my funeral bed. It was clear that Zaemon wasthe mouthpiece of the Priests' Clan, duly appointed; and I also was apriest. If the word had been given on the Sacred Mountain to those whosat before the Ark of the Mysteries that Atlantis would prosper morewith Deucalion sent to the Gods, I was ready to bow to the sentence withsubmissiveness. That I had regret for this mode of cutting off, I willnot deny. No man who has practised the game of arms could abandon thepromise of such a gorgeous final battle without a qualm of longing.
But I had been trained enough to show none of these emotions on my face,and when the old man came up to me, I stood my ground and gave him thesalutation prescribed between our ranks, which he returned to me withcircumstance and accuracy. The crowd fell back, being driven away by theineffable force of the Symbol, leaving us alone in the middle of aring. Even Nais, though she was a priest's daughter, was ignorant of theMysteries, and could not withstand its force. And so we two men stoodthere alone together, with the glow of the Symbol bathing us, andlighting up the sea of ravenous faces that watched.
The people were quick to put their natural explanation on the scene. "Aspy!" they began to roar out. "A spy! Zaemon salutes him as a Priest!"
Zaemon
faced round on them with a queer look on his grim old face."Aye," he said, "this is a Priest. If I give you his name, you mighthave further interest. This is the Lord Deucalion."
The word was picked up and yelled amongst them with a thousand emotions.But at least they were loyal to their policy; they had decided thatDeucalion was their enemy; they had already expended a navy for hisdestruction; and now that he was ringed in by their masses, they lustedto tear him into rags with their fingers. But rave and rave though theymight against me, the glare from the Symbol drove them shuddering backas though it had been a lava-stream; and Zaemon was not the man to handme over to their fury until he had delivered formal sentence as theemissary of our Clan on the Sacred Mount. So the end was not to be yet.
The old man faced me and spoke in the sacred tongue, which the commonpeople do not know. "My brother," he said, "which have you come toserve, Deucalion or Atlantis?"
"Words are a poor thing to answer a question like that. You will knowall of my record. According to the Law of the Priests, each ship fromYucatan will have carried home its sworn report to lay at the feet oftheir council, and before I went to that vice-royalty, what I did waswritten plain here on the face of Atlantis."
"We know your doings in the past, brother, and they have found approval.You have governed well, and you have lived austerely. You set upAtlantis for a mistress, and served her well; but then, you have had noPhorenice to tempt you into change and fickleness."
"You can send me where I shall see her no more, if you think me frail."
"Yes, and lose your usefulness. No, brother, you are the last hope whichthis poor land has remaining. All other human means that have been triedagainst Phorenice have failed. You have returned from overseas for thefinal duel. You are the strongest man we have, and you are our finalchampion. If you fail, then only those terrible Powers which are lockedwithin the Ark of the Mysteries remains to us, and though it is notlawful to speak even in this hidden tongue of their scope, you at leasthave full assurance of their potency."
I shrugged my shoulders. "It seems that you would save time and painsif you threw me to these wolves of rebels, and let them end me here andnow."
The old man frowned on me angrily. "I am bidding you do your duty. Whatreason have you for wishing to evade it?"
"I have in my memory the words you spoke in the pyramid, when you camein amongst the banqueters. 'PHORENICE,' was your cry, 'WHILST YOU AREYET EMPRESS, YOU SHALL SEE THIS ROYAL PYRAMID, WHICH YOU HAVE POLLUTEDWITH YOUR DEBAUCHERIES, TORN TIER FROM TIER, AND STONE FROM STONE,AND SCATTERED AS FEATHERS BEFORE A WIND.' It seems that you foresee mydefeat."
The old man shuddered. "I cannot tell what she may force us to do. Ispoke then only what it was revealed to me must happen. Perhaps whenmatters have reached that pass, she will repent and submit. But in themeanwhile, before we use the more desperate weapons of the Gods, it isfitting that we should expend all human power remaining to us. And soyou must go, my brother, and play your part to the utmost."
"It is an order. So I obey."
"You shall be at Phorenice's side again by the next dawn. She has sentfor you from Yucatan as a husband, and as one who (so she thinks,poor human conqueror) has the weight of arm necessary to prolong hertyrannies. You are a Priest, brother, and you are a man of convincingtongue. It will be your part to make her stubborn mind see theinvincible power that can be loosed against her, to point out to her theutter hopelessness of prevailing against it."
"If it is ordered, I will do these things. But there is little enoughchance of success. I have seen Phorenice, and can gauge her will. Therewill be no turning her once she has made a decision. Others have tried;you have tried yourself; all have failed."
"Words that were wasted on a maiden may go home to a wife. You have beenbrought here to be her husband. Well, take your place."
The order came to me with a pang. I had given little enough heed towomen through all of a busy life, though when I landed, the taking ofPhorenice to wife would not have been very repugnant to me if policy haddemanded it. But the matters of the last two days had put things in adifferent shape. I had seen two other women who had strangely attractedme, and one of these had stirred within me a tumult such as I had neverfelt before amongst my economies.
To lead Phorenice in marriage would mean a severance from this otherwoman eternally, and I ached as I thought of it. But though thesethoughts floated through my system and gave me harsh wrenches of pain, Idid not thrust my puny likings before the command of the council of thePriests. I bowed before Zaemon, and put his hand to my forehead. "It isan order," I said. "If our Lord the Sun gives me life, I will obey."
"Then let us begone from this place," said Zaemon, and took me by thearm and waved a way for us with the Symbol. No further word did I havewith Nais, fearing to embroil her with these rebels who clustered round,but I caught one hot glance from her eyes, and that had to sufficefor farewell. The dense ranks of the crowd opened, and we walkedaway between them scathless. Fiercely though they lusted for my life,brimming with hate though they made their cries, no man dared to rushin and raise a hand against me. Neither did they follow. When we reachedthe outskirts of the crowd, and the ranks thinned, they had a mind, manyof them, to surge along in our wake; but Zaemon whirled the Symbol backbefore their faces with a blaze of lurid light, and they fell to theirknees, grovelling, and pressed on us no more.
The rain still fell, and in the light of the camp fires as we passedthem, the wet gleamed on the old man's wasted body. And far before usthrough the darkness loomed the vast bulk of the Sacred Mountain, withthe ring of eternal fires encincturing its crest. I sighed as I thoughtof the old peaceful days I had spent in its temple and groves.
But there was to be no more of that studious leisure now. There was workto be done, work for Atlantis which did not brook delay. And so when wehad progressed far out into the waste, and there was none near to view(save only the most High Gods), we found the place where the passagewas, whose entrance is known only to the Seven amongst the Priests; andthere we parted, Zaemon to his hermitage in the dangerous lands, and Iby this secret way back into the capital.