The World's Desire

  VIII

  THE LOOSING OF THE SPIRIT OF REI

  Rei the Priest had fled with what speed he might from the Gates ofDeath, those gates that guarded the loveliness of Helen and opened onlyupon men doomed to die. The old man was heavy at heart, for he lovedthe Wanderer. Among the dark children of Khem he had seen none like thisAchaean, none so goodly, so strong, and so well versed in all arts ofwar. He remembered how this man had saved the life of her he loved aboveall women--of Meriamun, the moon-child, the fairest queen who had satupon the throne of Egypt, the fairest and the most learned, save Taiaonly. He bethought him of the Wanderer's beauty as he stood upon theboard while the long shafts hailed down the hall. Then he recalledthe vision of Meriamun, which she had told him long years ago, and theshadow in a golden helm which watched the changed Hataska. The more hethought, the more he was perplexed and lost in wonder. What did the Godsintend? Of one thing he was sure: the leaders of the host of dreams hadmocked Meriamun. The man of her vision would never be her love: he hadgone to meet his doom at the door of the Chapel Perilous.

  So Rei hasted on, stumbling in his speed, till he came to the Palace andpassed through its halls towards his chamber. At the entrance of her ownplace he met Meriamun the Queen. There she stood in the doorway like apicture in its sculptured frame, nor could any sight be more beautifulthan she was, clad in her Royal robes, and crowned with the goldensnakes. Her black hair lay soft and deep on her, and her eyes lookedstrangely forth from beneath the ivory of her brow.

  He bowed low before her and would have passed on, but she stayed him.

  "Whither goest thou, Rei?" she asked, "and why is thy face so sad?"

  "I go about my business, Queen," he answered, "and I am sad because notidings come of Pharaoh, nor of how it has fared with him and the hostof the Apura."

  "Perchance thou speakest truth, and yet not all the truth," sheanswered. "Enter, I would have speech with thee."

  So he entered, and at her command seated himself before her in thevery seat where the Wanderer had sat. Now, as he sat thus, of a suddenMeriamun the Queen slid to her knees before him, and tears were inher eyes and her breast was shaken with sobs. And while he wondered,thinking that she wept at last for her son who was dead among thefirstborn, she hid her face in her hands upon his knees, and trembled.

  "What ails thee, Queen, my fosterling?" he said. But she only took hishand, and laid her own in it, and the old priest's eyes were dim withtears. So she sat for awhile, and then she looked up, but still she didnot find words. And he caressed the beautiful Imperial head, that noman had seen bowed before. "What is it, my daughter?" he said, and sheanswered at last:

  "Hear me, old friend, who art my only friend--for if I speak not myheart will surely burst; or if it break not, my brain will burn and Ishall be no more a Queen but a living darkness, where vapours creep, andwandering lights shine faintly on the ruin of my mind. Mindest thou thathour--it was the night after the hateful night that saw me Pharaoh'swife--when I crept to thee and told thee the vision that had come uponmy soul, had come to mock me even at Pharaoh's side?"

  "I mind it well," said Rei; "it was a strange vision, nor might mywisdom interpret it."

  "And mindest thou what I told thee of the man of my vision--the gloriousman whom I must love, he who was clad in golden armour and wore a goldenhelm wherein a spear-point of bronze stood fast?"

  "Yes, I mind it," said Rei.

  "And how is that man named?" she asked, whispering and staring on himwith wide eyes. "Is he not named Eperitus, the Wanderer? And hath he notcome hither, the spear-point in his helm? And is not the hand of Fateupon me, Meriamun? Hearken, Rei, hearken! I love him as it was fatedI should love. When first I looked on him as he came up the Hall ofAudience in his glory, I knew him. I knew him for that man who sharesthe curse laid aforetime on him, and on the woman, and on me, when, inan unknown place, twain became three and were doomed to strive fromlife to life and work each other's woe upon the earth. I knew him, Rei,though he knew me not, and I say that my soul shook at the echo of hisstep, and my heart blossomed as the black earth blossoms when afterflood Sihor seeks his banks again. A glory came upon me, Rei, and Ilooked back through all the mists of time and knew him for my love, andI looked forward into the depths of time to be and knew him for my love.Then I looked on the present hour, and naught could I see but darkness,and naught could I hear but the groans of dying men, and a shrill soundas of a woman singing."

  "An ill tale, Queen," said Rei.

  "Ay, an ill tale, Rei, but half untold. Hearken again, I will tell theeall. Madness hath entered into me from the Hathor of Atarhechis, theQueen of Desire. I am mad with love, even I who never loved. Oh, Rei!Rei! I would win this man. Nay, look not so sternly on me, it is Fatethat drives me on. Last night I spoke to him and discovered to him thename he hides from us, his own name, Odysseus, Laertes' son, Odysseus ofIthaca. Ay, thou startest, but so it is. I learned it by my magic, andwrung the truth even from the guile of the most crafty of men. But itseemed to me that he turned from me, though this much I won from him,that he had journeyed from far to seek me, the Bride that the Gods havepromised him."

  The priest leaped up from his seat. "Lady!" he cried, "Lady! whom Iserve and whom I have loved from a child, thy brain is sick, and notthy heart. Thou canst not love him. Dost thou not remember that thou artQueen of Khem and Pharaoh's wife? Wilt thou throw thy honour in the mireto be trampled by a wandering stranger?"

  "Ay," she answered, "I am Queen of Khem and Pharaoh's wife, but neverPharaoh's love. Honour! Why dost thou prate to me of honour? Like Nilein flood, my love hath burst the bulwark of my honour, and I mark notwhere custom set it. For all around the waters seethe and foam, and onthem, like a broken lily, floats the wreck of my lost honour. Talk notto me of honour, Rei, teach me rather how I may win my hero to my arms."

  "Thou art mad indeed," he groaned; "nevertheless--I had forgotten--thismust needs end in words and tears. Meriamun, I bring thee tidings. Hewhom thou desireth is lost to thee for ever--to thee and all the world."

  She heard, then sprang from the couch and stood over him like a lionessover a smitten stag, her fierce and lovely face alive with rage andfear.

  "Is he dead?" she hissed in his ear. "Dead! and I knew it not? Then thouhast murdered him, and thus I avenge his murder."

  With the word she snatched a dagger from her girdle--that same daggerwith which she had once struck at Meneptah her brother, when he wouldhave kissed her--and high it flashed above Rei the Priest.

  "Nay," she went on, letting the knife fall; "after another fashion shaltthou die--more slowly, Rei, yes, more slowly. Thou knowest the tormentof the palm-tree? By that thou shalt die!" She paused, and stood abovehim with quivering limbs, and breast that heaved, and eyes that flashedlike stars.

  "Stay! stay!" he cried. "It is not I who have slain this Wanderer, ifhe indeed is dead, but his own folly. For he is gone up to look upon theStrange Hathor, and those who look upon the Hathor do battle with theUnseen Swords, and those who do battle with the Unseen Swords must liein the baths of bronze and seek the Under World."

  The face of Meriamun grew white at this word, as the alabaster of thewalls, and she cried aloud with a great cry. Then she sank upon thecouch, pressing her hand to her brow and moaning:

  "How may I save him? How may I save him from that accursed witch? Alas!It is too late--but at least I will know his end, ay, and hear of thebeauty of her who slays him. Rei," she whispered, not in the speech ofKhem, but in the dead tongue of a dead people, "be not wrath with me.Oh, have pity on my weakness. Thou knowest of the Putting-forth of theSpirit--is it not so?"

  "I am instructed," he answered, in the same speech; "'twas I who taughtthee this art, I, and that Ancient Evil which is thine."

  "True--it was thou, Rei. Thou hast ever loved me, so thou swearest, andmany a deed of dread have we dared together. Lend me thy Spirit, Rei,that I may send it forth to the Temple of the False Hathor, and learnwhat passes in the temple, and of the death of him--whom I mus
t love."

  "An ill deed, Meriamun, and a fearful," he answered, "for there shall mySpirit meet them who watch the gates, and who knows what may chance whenthe bodiless one that yet hath earthly life meets the bodiless ones wholive no more on earth?"

  "Yet wilt thou dare it, Rei, for love of me, as being instructed thoualone canst do," she pleaded.

  "Never have I refused thee aught, Meriamun, nor will I say thee nay.This only I ask of thee--that if my Spirit comes back no more, thou wiltbury me in that tomb which I have made ready by Thebes, and if it maybe, by thy strength of magic wring me from the power of the strangeWardens. I am prepared--thou knowest the spell--say it."

  He sank back in the carven couch, and looked upwards. Then Meriamun drewnear to him, gazed into his eyes and whispered in his ear in that deadtongue she knew. And as she whispered the face of Rei grew like the faceof one dead. She drew back and spoke aloud:

  "Art thou loosed, Spirit of Rei?"

  Then the lips of Rei answered her, saying: "I am loosed, Meriamun.Whither shall I go?"

  "To the court of the Temple of Hathor, that is before the shrine."

  "It is done, Meriamun."

  "What seest thou?"

  "I see a man clad in golden armour. He stands with buckler raised beforethe doorway of the shrine, and before him are the ghosts of heroes dead,though he may not see them with the eyes of the flesh. From within theshrine there comes a sound of singing, and he listens to the singing."

  "What does he hear?"

  Then the loosed Spirit of Rei the Priest told Meriamun the Queen all thewords of the song that Helen sang. And when she heard and knew that itwas Argive Helen who sat in the halls of Hathor, the heart of the Queengrew faint within her, and her knees trembled. Yet more did she tremblewhen she learned those words that rang like the words she herself hadheard in her vision long ago--telling of bliss that had been, of thehate of the Gods, and of the unending Quest.

  Now the song ended, and the Wanderer went up against the ghosts, andthe Spirit of Rei, speaking with the lips of Rei, told all that befell,while Meriamun hearkened with open ears--ay, and cried aloud with joywhen the Wanderer forced his path through the invisible swords.

  Then once more the sweet voice rang and the loosed Spirit of Rei toldthe words she sang, and to Meriamun they seemed fateful. Then he toldher all the talk that passed between the Wanderer and the ghosts.

  Now the ghosts being gone she bade the Spirit of Rei follow the Wandererup the sanctuary, and from the loosed Spirit she heard how he rent theweb, and of all the words of Helen and of the craft of him who feignedto be Paris. Then the web was torn and the eyes of the Spirit of Reilooked on the beauty of her who was behind it.

  "Tell me of the face of the False Hathor?" said the Queen.

  And the Spirit of Rei answered: "Her face is that beauty which gatheredlike a mask upon the face of dead Hataska, and upon the face of the Bai,and the face of the Ka, when thou spakest with the spirit of her thouhadst slain."

  Now Meriamun groaned aloud, for she knew that doom was on her. Last ofall, she heard the telling of the loves of Odysseus and of Helen, herundying foe, of their kiss, of their betrothal, and of that marriagewhich should be on the morrow night. Meriamun the Queen said never aword, but when all was done and the Wanderer had left the shrine again,she whispered in the ear of Rei the Priest, and drew back his Spirit tohim so that he awoke as a man awakes from sleep.

  He awoke and saw the Queen sitting over against him with a face white asthe face of the dead, and about her deep eyes were lines of black.

  "Hast thou heard, Meriamun?" he asked.

  "I have heard," she answered.

  "What dreadful thing hast thou heard?" he asked again, for he knewnaught of that which his Spirit had seen.

  "I have heard things that may not be told," she said, "but this I willtell thee. He of whom we spoke hath passed the ghosts, he hath met withthe False Hathor--that accursed woman--and he returns here all unharmed.Now go, Rei!"