maiden's
modesty. I will die as you choose, but I will not do
this indecency."
"Well, I am a
maiden too, and though because I am Empress
also, questions of State have to stand before questions of my
private
modesty, I can have a
sympathy for yours--although in truth
it did not obtrude unduly when you were my fan-girl, Nais. No,
come to think of it, you liked a tender glance and a pretty phrase
as well as any when you were fan-girl. You have grown wild and
shy,
amongst these
savage rebels, but I will not
punish you for
that.
"Let me call your favourites to memory now. There was Tarca,
of course, but Tarca had a difference with that ill-dressed father
of yours, and wears a leprosy on half his face instead of that
beard he used to trim so
finely. And then there is Tatho, but
Tatho is away
overseas. Eron, too, you liked once, but be lost an
arm in fighting t'other day, and I would not marry you to less than
a whole man. Ah, by my face! I have it, the
dainty exquisite,
Rota! He is the husband! How well I remember the way he used to
dress in a change of garb each day to catch your proud fancy, girl.
Well, you shall have Rota. He shall lead you to wife before this
hour to-morrow."
Again the prisoner moistened her lips. "I will not have Rota,
and spare me the others. I know why you mock me, Phorenice."
"Then there are three of us here who share one
knowledge."--She turned her eyes upon me. Gods! who ever saw the
like of Phorenice's eyes, and who ever saw them lit with such fire
as burned within them then?--"My lord, you are marrying me for
policy; I am marrying you for
policy, and for another reason which
has grown stronger of late, and which you may guess at. Do you
wish still to carry out the match?"
I looked once at Nais, and then I looked
steadily back to
Phorenice. The command given by the mouth of Zaemon from the High
Council of the Sacred Mountain had to outweigh all else, and I
answered that such was my desire.
"Then," said she, glowering at me with her eyes, "you shall
build me up the pretty body of Nais beneath a
throne of
granite as
a
wedding gift. And you shall do it too with your own proper
hands, my Deucalion,
whilst I watch your devotion."
And to Nais she turned with a cruel smile. "You lied to me,
my girl, and you spoke truth to the soldiers in the harbour forts.
There is a man here in the city you came after, and he is the one
man you may not have. Because you know me well, and my methods
very
thoroughly, your love for him must be very deep, or you would
not have come. And so, being here, you shall be put beyond
mischief's reach. I am not one of those who see
luxury in
fostering rivals.
"You came for attention at the hands of Deucalion. By my face!
you shall have it. I will watch myself
whilst he builds you up
living."
11. AN AFFAIR WITH THE
BARBAROUS FISHERS
So this
mighty Empress chose to be
jealous of a mere woman
prisoner!
Now my mind has been trained to work with a soldierly
quickness in these moments of
stress, and I
decided on my proper
course on the
instant the words had left her lips. I was
sacrificing myself for Atlantis by order of the High Council of the
Priests, and, if needful, Nais must be sacrificed also, although in
the same flash a
scheme came to me for saving her.
So I bowed
gravely before the Empress, and said I, "In this,
and in all other things where a mere human hand is
potent, I will
carry out your wishes, Phorenice." And she on her part patted my
arm, and fresh waves of feeling welled up from the depths of her
wondrous eyes. Surely the Gods won for her half her
schemes and
half her battles when they gave Phorenice her shape, and her voice,
and the matters which lay within the outlines of her face.
By this time the merchants, and the other dwellers
adjacent to
this part of the harbour, where the royal quay stands, had come
down,
offering changes of
raiment, and houses to
retire into.
Phorenice was all graciousness, and though it was little enough I
cared for mere wetness of my coat, still that part of the harbour
into which we had been thrown by the
mammoth was not over savoury,
and I was glad enough to follow her example. For myself, I said no
further word to Nais, and refrained even from giving her a glance
of
farewell. But a small sop like this was no meal for Phorenice,
and she gave the port-captain
strict orders for the guarding of his
prisoner before she left him.
At the house into which I was ushered they gave me a bath, and
I eased my host of the plainest
garment in his store, and he was
pleased enough at getting off so cheaply. But I had an hour to
spend outside on the
pavement listening to the distant din of
bombardment before Phorenice came out to me again, and I could not
help feeling some grim
amusement at the face of the merchant who
followed. The fellow was clearly ruined. He had a store of jewels
and gauds of the most
costly kind, which were only in
fraction his
own,
seeing that he had bought them (as the custom is) in
partnership with other merchants. These had pleased Phorenice's
eye, and so she had taken all and disposed them on her person.
"Are they not pretty?" said she, showing them to me. "See how
they flash under the sun. I am quite glad now, Deucalion, that the
mammoth gave us that
furious ride and that spill, since it has
brought me such a bonny present. You may tell the fellow here that
some day when he has earned some more, I will come and be his guest
again. Ah! They have brought us
litters, I see. Well, send one
away and do you share mine with me, sir. We must play at being
lovers to-day, even if love is a matter which will come to us both
with more
certainty to-morrow. No; do not order more bearers. My
own slaves will carry us handily enough. I am glad you are not one
of your gross, overfed men, Deucalion. I am small and slim myself,
and I do not want to be husbanded by a man who will
overshadow me."
"Back to the royal pyramid?" I asked.
"No, nor to the walls. I neither wish to fight nor to sit as
Empress to-day, sir. As I have told you before, it is my whim to
be Phorenice, the
maiden, for a few hours, and if some one I wot of
would woo me now, as other
maidens are wooed, I should
esteem it a
luxury. Bid the slaves carry us round the harbour's rim, and give
word to these starers that, if they follow, I will call down fire
upon them as I did upon the sacrifice."
Now, I had seen something of the unruliness of the streets
myself, and I had gathered a hint also from the officer at the gate
of the royal pyramid that night of Phorenice's welcoming banquet.
But as
whatever there was in the matter must be common knowledge to
the Empress, I did not bring it to her memory then. So I dismissed
the guard which had come up, and drove away with a few sharp words
the
throng of gaping sightseers who always, silly creatures, must
needs come to stare at their betters; and then I sat in the
litterin the place where I was invited, and the bearers put their heads
to the pole.
They swung away with us along the wide
pavement which runs
between the houses of the merchants and the
mariner folk and the
dimpling waters of the harbour, and I thought somewhat sadly of the
few ships that floated on that splendid basin now, and of the few
evidences of business that showed themselves on the quays. Time
was when the ships were berthed so close that many had to wait in
the estuary outside the walls, and memorials had been sent to the
King that the port should be doubled in size to hold the glut of
trade. And that, too, in the old days of oar and sail, when
machines
drawing power from our Lord the Sun were but
rarely used