"Oh, I am not inveigling you into a lover's walk with myself,
sir. You
tickle yourself when you think your society is so
pleasant as that."
"Come, girl, tell me then what it is. If my
temper is short,
credit it against my weariness."
"I have carried out my lord's commands in part. I know the
cell where Nais lives, and I have had speech with her, though not
through the door. And
moreover, I have not seen her or touched her
hand."
"Your riddles are beyond me, Ylga, but if there is a chance,
let us get on and have this business done."
"We are at the place now," said she, with a hard little laugh,
"and if you kneel on the floor, you will find an airshaft, and Nais
will answer you from the lower end. For myself, I will leave you.
I have a
delicacy in
hearing what you want to say to my sister,
Deucalion."
"I thank you," I said. "I will not forget what you have done
for me this night."
"You may keep your thanks," she said
bitterly, and walked away
into the shadows.
I knelt on the floor of the
gallery, and found the air passage
with my hand, and then, putting my lips to it, whispered for Nais.
The answer came on the
instant, muffled and quiet. "I knew my
lord would come for a farewell."
"What the Empress said, has to be. You understand, my dear?
It is for Atlantis."
"Have I reproached my lord, by word or glance?"
"I myself am bidden to place you in the hollow between the
stones, and I must do it."
"Then my last sleep will be a sweet one. I could not ask to
be touched by pleasanter hands."
"But it mayhap that a day will come when she whom you know of
will be suffered by the High Gods to live on this land of Atlantis
no longer."
"If my lord will
cherish my poor memory when he is free again,
I shall be
grateful. He might, if he chose, write them on the
stones: Here was buried a maid who died
gladly for the good of
Atlantis, even though she knew that the man she so
dearly loved was
husband to her murderess."
"You must not die," I whispered. "My breast is near broken at
the very thought of it. And for
respite, we must trust to the
ancient knowledge, which in its day has been sent out from the Ark
of the Mysteries."--I took the green waxy ball in my fingers, and
stretched them down the
crooked air-shaft to the full of my
span.--"I have somewhat for you here. Reach up and try to catch it
from me."
I heard the faint
rustle of her arm as it swept against the
masonry, and then the ball was taken over into her grasp. Gods!
what a
thrill went through me when the fingers of Nais touched
mine! I could not see her, because of the
crookedness of the
shaft, but that faint touch of her was exquisite.
"I have it," she whispered. "And what now, dear?"
"You will hide the thing in your
garment, and when to-morrow
the upper stone closes down upon you and the light is gone, then
you will take it between your lips and let it
dissolve as it will.
Sleep will take you, my
darling, then, and the High Gods will watch
over you, even though centuries pass before you are roused."
"If Deucalion does not wake me, I shall pray never again to
open an eye. And now go, my lord and my dear. They watch me
here
constantly, and I would not have you harmed by being
brought to notice."
"Yes, I must go, my
sweetheart. It will not do to have our
scheme spoiled by a foolish loitering. May the most High Gods
attend your rest, and if the sacrifice we make finds favour, may
They grant us meeting here again on earth before we meet--as we
must--when our time is done, and They take us up to Their own
place."
"Amen," she whispered back, and then: "Kiss your fingers,
dear, and
thrust them down to me."
I did that, and for an
instant felt her fondle them down the
crook of the airshaft out of sight, and then heard her
withdraw her
little hand and kiss it
fondly. Then again she kissed her own
fingers and stretched them up, and I took up the
virtue of that
parting kiss on my finger-tips and pressed it
sacredly to my lips.
"Living,
sleeping, or dead, always my
darling," she whispered.
And then, before I could answer, she whispered again: "Go, they are
coming for me." And so I went,
knowing that I could do no more to
help her then, and
knowing that all our
schemes would be spilt if
any eye spied upon me as I lay there beside the air shaft. But my
chest was like to have split with the dull,
helplessanguish that
was in it, as I made my way back to my
chamber through the mazy
alleys of the pyramid.
"Do not look upon mine eyes, dear, when the time comes," had
been her last command, "or they will tell a tale which Phorenice,
being a woman, would read. Remember, we make these small denials,
not for our own likings, but for Atlantis, which is mother to us
all."
13. THE BURYING ALIVE OF NAIS
There is no denying that the wishes of Phorenice were carried
into quick effect in the city of Atlantis. Her modern theory was
that the country and all
therein existed only for the good of the
Empress, and when she had a desire, no cost could possibly be too
great in its carrying out.
She had given forth her edict
concerning the burying alive of
Nais, and though the words were that I was to build the
throne of
stone, it was an understood thing that the
manual labour was to be
done for me by others. Heralds made the
proclamation in every ward
of the city, and masons, labourers, stonecutters, sculptors,
engineers, and architects took hands from
whatever was occupying
them for the moment, and hastened to the rendezvous. The
architects chose a chief who gave directions, and the lesser
architects and the engineers saw these carried into effect. Any
material within the walls of the city on which they set their seal,
was taken at once without
payment or
compensation; and as the
blocks of stone they chose were the most
monstrous that could be
got, they were forced to
demolish no few buildings to give them
passage.
I have before
spoken of the modern rage for erecting new
palaces and pyramids, and even though at the moment an army of
rebels was battering with war engines at the city walls, the
building guilds were
steadily at work, and their skill (with
Phorenice's marvellous
invention to aid them) was
constantly on the
increase. True, they could not move such
massive blocks of stone
as those which the early Gods planted for the
sacredcircle of our
Lord the Sun, but they had got rams and trucks and cranes which
could handle
amazing bulks.
The
throne was to be erected in the open square before the
royal pyramid. Seven tiers of stone were there for a groundwork,
each a knee-height deep, and each cut in the front with three
steps. In the uppermost layer was a
cavity made to hold the body
of Nais, and above this was poised the vast block which formed the
seat of the
throne itself.
Throughout the night, to the light of torches, relay after
relay of the stonecutters, and the masons, and the sweating
labourers had toiled over bringing up the stone and dressing it
into fit shape, and laying it in due position; and the engineers
had built machines for lifting, and the architects had proved that
each stone lay in its just and perfect place. Whips
cracked, and
men fainted with the labour, but so soon as one was incapable
another pressed forward into his place. No delay was brooked when