章节正文
into gullies, and frozen into solid banks and bergs of ice, I had
hard work to make any progress amongst its perilous mazes, and was
moreover so numbed by the chill, that my natural strength was
vastly weakened. Overhead, too, following me up with forbidding
swoops, and occasionally coming so close that I had to threaten it
with my weapons, was one of those huge man-eating birds which live
by pulling down and carrying off any creature that their instincts
tell them is weakly, and likely soon to die.
But the lure ahead of me was strong enough to make these
difficulties seem small, and though the air of the mountain agreed
with me ill, causing sickness and panting, I pressed on with what
speed I could muster towards the elusive summit. Time after time
I thought the next spurt would surely bring me out to the view for
which my soul yearned, but always there seemed another bank of snow
and ice yet to be climbed. But at last I reached the crest, and
gave thanks to the most High Gods for Their protection and favour.
Far, far away I could see the Sacred Mountain with its ring of
fires burning pale under the day, and although the splendid city
which nestled at its foot could not be seen from where I stood, I
knew its position and I knew its plan, and my soul went out to that
throne of granite in the square before the royal pyramid, where
once, years before, I had buried my love. Had Phorenice left the
tomb unviolated?
I stood there leaning on my spear, filling my eye with the
prospect, warming even to the smoke of mountains that I recognised
as old acquaintances. Gods! how my love burned within me for this
woman. My whole being seemed gone out to meet her, and to leave
room for nothing beside. For long enough a voice seemed dimly to
be calling me, but I gave it no regard. I had come out to that
hoary mountain top for communion with Nais alone, and I wanted none
others to interrupt.
But at length the voice calling my name grew too loud to be
neglected, and I pulled myself out of my sweet musing with a start
to think that here, for the first time since parting with Tob and
his company, I should see another human fellow-being. I gripped my
weapon and asked who called. The reply came clearly from up the
slopes of mountain, and I saw a man coming towards me over the
snows. He was old and feeble. His body was bent, and his hair and
beard were white as the ground on which he trod, and presently I
recognised him as Zaemon. He was coming towards me with incredible
speed for a man of his years and feebleness, but he carried in his
hand the glowing Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and holy strength from
this would add largely to his powers.
He came close to me and made the sign of the Seven, which I
returned to him, with its completion, with due form and ceremony.
And then he saluted me in the manner prescribed as messenger
appointed by the High Council of the Priests seated before the Ark
of the Mysteries, and I made humble obeisance before him.
"In all things I will obey the orders that you put before me,"
I said.
"Such is your duty, my brother. The command is, that you
return immediately to the Sacred Mountain, so that if human means
may still prevail, you, as the most skilful general Atlantis owns
within her borders, may still save the country from final wreck and
punishment. The woman Phorenice persists in her infamies. The
poor land groans under her heel. And now she has laid siege to our
Sacred Mountain itself, and swears that not one soul shall be left
alive in all Atlantis who does not bend humbly to her will."
"It is a command and I obey it. But let me ask of another
matter that is intimate to both of us. What of Nais?"
"Nais rests where you left her, untouched. Phorenice knows by
her arts--she has stolen nearly all the ancient knowledge now--that
still you live, and she keeps Nais unharmed beneath the granite
throne in the hopes that some time she may use her as a weapon
against you. Little she knows the sternness of our Priests' creed,
my brother. Why, even I, that am the girl's father, would
sacrifice her blithely, if her death or ruin might do a tittle of
good to Atlantis."
"You go beyond me with your devotion."
The old man leaned forward at me, with glowering brow.
"What!"
"Or my old blind adherence to the ancient dogma has been
sapped and weakened by events. You must buy my full obedience,
Zaemon, if you want it. Promise me Nais--and your arts I know can
snatch her--and I will be true servant to the High Council of the
Priest, and will die in the last ditch if need be for the carrying
out of order. But let me see Nais given over to the fury of that
wanton woman, and I shall have no inwards left, except to take my
vengeance, and to see Atlantis piled up in ruins as her funeral-
stone."
Zaemon looked at me bitterly. "And you are the man the High
Council thought to trust as they would trust one of themselves?
Truly we are in an age of weak men and faithless now. But, my
lord--nay, I must call you brother still: we cannot be too nice in
our choosing to-day--you are the best there is, and we must have
you. We little thought you would ask a price for your generalship,
having once taken oath on the walls of the Ark of the Mysteries
itself that always, come what might, you would be a servant of the
High Council of the Clan without fee and without hope of
advancement. But this is the age of broken vows, and you are going
no more than trim with the fashion. Indeed, brother, perhaps I
should thank you for being no more greedy in your demands."
"You may spare me your taunts. You, by self-denial and
profound search into the highest of the higher Mysteries, have made
yourself something wiser than human; I have preserved my humanity,
and with it its powers and frailties; and it seems that each of us
has his proper uses, or you would not be come now here to me.
Rather you would have done the generalling yourself."
"You make a warm defence, my brother. But I have no leisure
now to stand before you with argument. Come to the Sacred
Mountain, fight me this wanton, upstart Empress, and by my beard
you shall have your Nais as you left her as a reward."
"It is a command of the High Council which shall be obeyed.
I will come with my brother now, as soon as he is rested."
"Nay," said the old man, "I have no tiredness, and as for
coming with me, there you will not be able. But follow at what
pace you may."
He turned and set off down the snowy slopes of the mountain
and I followed; but gradually he distanced me; and so he kept on,
with speed always increasing, till presently he passed out of my
sight round the spur of an ice-cliff, and I found myself alone on
the mountain side. Yes, truly alone. For his footmarks in the
snow from being deep, grew shallower, and less noticeable, so that
I had to stoop to see them. And presently they vanished entirely,
and the great mountain's flank lay before me trackless, and
untrodden by the foot of man since time began.
I was not shaken by any great amazement. Though it was beyond
my poor art to compass this thing myself, having occupied my mind
in exile more with memories of Nais than in study of those
uppermost recesses of the Higher Mysteries in which Zaemon was so
prodigiously wise, still I had some inkling of his powers.
Zaemon I knew would be back again in his dwelling on the
Sacred Mountain, shaken and breathless, even before I had found an
end to his tracks in the snow, and it behoved me to join him there
in the quickest possible time. I had his promise now for my
reward, and I knew that he would carry it into effect. Beforetime
I had made an error. I had valued Atlantis most, and Nais, my
private love, as only second. But now it was in my mind to be
honest with others even as with myself. Though all the world were
hanging on my choice, I could but love my Nais most, and serve her
first and foremost of all.
16. SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
Now, my passage across the great continent of Atlantis, if
tedious and haunted by many dangers, need not be recounted in
detail here. Only one halt did I make of any duration, and that
was unavoidable. I had killed a stag one day, bringing it down
after a long chase in an open savannah. I scented the air
carefully, to see if there was any other beast which could do me
harm within reach, and thinking that the place was safe, set about
cutting my meat, and making a sufficiency into a bundle for
carriage.
But underfoot amongst the grasses there was a great legged
worm, a monstrous green thing, very venomous in its bite; and
presently as I moved I brushed it with my heel, and like the dart
of light it swooped with its tiny head and struck me with its fangs
in the lower thigh. With my knife I cut through its neck and it
fell to writhing and struggling and twining its hundred legs into
all manner of contortions; and then, cleaning my blade in the
ground, I stabbed with it deep all round the wound, so that the
blood might flow freely and wash the venom from its lodgement. And
then with the blood trickling healthily down from my heel, I
shouldered the meat and strode off, thankful for being so well quit
of what might have made itself a very ugly adventure.
As I walked, however, my leg began to be filled with a
tightness and throbbing which increased every hour, and presently
it began to swell also, till the skin was stretched like drawn
parchment. I was taken, too, with a sickness, that racked me
violently, and if one of the greater and more dangerous beasts had
come upon me then, he would have eaten me without a fight. With
the fall of darkness I managed to haul myself up into a tree, and
there abode in the crutch of a limb, in wakefulness and pain
throughout the night.
With the dawn, when the night beasts had gone to their lairs,
I clambered down again, and leaning heavily on my spear, limped
onwards through the sombre forests along my way. The moss which
grows on the northern side of each tree was my guide, but gradually
I began to note that I was seeing moss all round the trees, and, in
fact, was growing light-headed with the pain and the swelling of
the limb. But still I pressed onwards with my journey, my last
instinct being to obey the command of the High Council, and so
procure the enlargement of Nais as had been promised.
My last memory was of being met by someone in the black forest
who aided me, and there my waking senses took wings into
forgetfulness.
But after an interval, wit returned, and I found myself on a
bed of leaves in a cleft between two rocks, which was furnished
with some poor skill, and fortified with stakes and buildings
against the entrance of the larger marauding beasts. My wound was
dressed with a poultice of herbs, and at the other side of the
cavern there squatted a woman, cooking a mess of wood-grubs and
honey over a fire of sticks.
"How came I here?" I asked.
"I brought you," said she.
"And who are you?"
"A nymph, they call me, and I practise as such, collecting
herbs and curing the diseases of those that come to me, telling
fortunes, and making predictions. In return I receive what each
can afford, and if they do not pay according to their means, I clap
on a curse to make them wither. It's a lean enough living when
wars and the pestilence have left so few poor folk to live in the
land."
"Do you visit Atlantis?"
"Not I. Phorenice would have me boiled in brine, living, if
she could lay easy hands on me. Our dainty Empress tolerates no
magic but her own. They say she is for pulling down the Priests
off their Mountain now."
"So you do get news of the city?"
"Assuredly. It is my trade to get good news, or otherwise how
could I tell fortunes to the vulgar? You see, my lord, I detected
your quality by your speech, and knowing you are not one of those
that come to me for spells, and potions, I have no fear in speaking
hard work to make any progress amongst its perilous mazes, and was
moreover so numbed by the chill, that my natural strength was
vastly weakened. Overhead, too, following me up with forbidding
swoops, and occasionally coming so close that I had to threaten it
with my weapons, was one of those huge man-eating birds which live
by pulling down and carrying off any creature that their instincts
tell them is weakly, and likely soon to die.
But the lure ahead of me was strong enough to make these
difficulties seem small, and though the air of the mountain agreed
with me ill, causing sickness and panting, I pressed on with what
speed I could muster towards the elusive summit. Time after time
I thought the next spurt would surely bring me out to the view for
which my soul yearned, but always there seemed another bank of snow
and ice yet to be climbed. But at last I reached the crest, and
gave thanks to the most High Gods for Their protection and favour.
Far, far away I could see the Sacred Mountain with its ring of
fires burning pale under the day, and although the splendid city
which nestled at its foot could not be seen from where I stood, I
knew its position and I knew its plan, and my soul went out to that
throne of granite in the square before the royal pyramid, where
once, years before, I had buried my love. Had Phorenice left the
tomb unviolated?
I stood there leaning on my spear, filling my eye with the
prospect, warming even to the smoke of mountains that I recognised
as old acquaintances. Gods! how my love burned within me for this
woman. My whole being seemed gone out to meet her, and to leave
room for nothing beside. For long enough a voice seemed dimly to
be calling me, but I gave it no regard. I had come out to that
hoary mountain top for communion with Nais alone, and I wanted none
others to interrupt.
But at length the voice calling my name grew too loud to be
neglected, and I pulled myself out of my sweet musing with a start
to think that here, for the first time since parting with Tob and
his company, I should see another human fellow-being. I gripped my
weapon and asked who called. The reply came clearly from up the
slopes of mountain, and I saw a man coming towards me over the
snows. He was old and feeble. His body was bent, and his hair and
beard were white as the ground on which he trod, and presently I
recognised him as Zaemon. He was coming towards me with incredible
speed for a man of his years and feebleness, but he carried in his
hand the glowing Symbol of our Lord the Sun, and holy strength from
this would add largely to his powers.
He came close to me and made the sign of the Seven, which I
returned to him, with its completion, with due form and ceremony.
And then he saluted me in the manner prescribed as messenger
appointed by the High Council of the Priests seated before the Ark
of the Mysteries, and I made humble obeisance before him.
"In all things I will obey the orders that you put before me,"
I said.
"Such is your duty, my brother. The command is, that you
return immediately to the Sacred Mountain, so that if human means
may still prevail, you, as the most skilful general Atlantis owns
within her borders, may still save the country from final wreck and
punishment. The woman Phorenice persists in her infamies. The
poor land groans under her heel. And now she has laid siege to our
Sacred Mountain itself, and swears that not one soul shall be left
alive in all Atlantis who does not bend humbly to her will."
"It is a command and I obey it. But let me ask of another
matter that is intimate to both of us. What of Nais?"
"Nais rests where you left her, untouched. Phorenice knows by
her arts--she has stolen nearly all the ancient knowledge now--that
still you live, and she keeps Nais unharmed beneath the granite
throne in the hopes that some time she may use her as a weapon
against you. Little she knows the sternness of our Priests' creed,
my brother. Why, even I, that am the girl's father, would
sacrifice her blithely, if her death or ruin might do a tittle of
good to Atlantis."
"You go beyond me with your devotion."
The old man leaned forward at me, with glowering brow.
"What!"
"Or my old blind adherence to the ancient dogma has been
sapped and weakened by events. You must buy my full obedience,
Zaemon, if you want it. Promise me Nais--and your arts I know can
snatch her--and I will be true servant to the High Council of the
Priest, and will die in the last ditch if need be for the carrying
out of order. But let me see Nais given over to the fury of that
wanton woman, and I shall have no inwards left, except to take my
vengeance, and to see Atlantis piled up in ruins as her funeral-
stone."
Zaemon looked at me bitterly. "And you are the man the High
Council thought to trust as they would trust one of themselves?
Truly we are in an age of weak men and faithless now. But, my
lord--nay, I must call you brother still: we cannot be too nice in
our choosing to-day--you are the best there is, and we must have
you. We little thought you would ask a price for your generalship,
having once taken oath on the walls of the Ark of the Mysteries
itself that always, come what might, you would be a servant of the
High Council of the Clan without fee and without hope of
advancement. But this is the age of broken vows, and you are going
no more than trim with the fashion. Indeed, brother, perhaps I
should thank you for being no more greedy in your demands."
"You may spare me your taunts. You, by self-denial and
profound search into the highest of the higher Mysteries, have made
yourself something wiser than human; I have preserved my humanity,
and with it its powers and frailties; and it seems that each of us
has his proper uses, or you would not be come now here to me.
Rather you would have done the generalling yourself."
"You make a warm defence, my brother. But I have no leisure
now to stand before you with argument. Come to the Sacred
Mountain, fight me this wanton, upstart Empress, and by my beard
you shall have your Nais as you left her as a reward."
"It is a command of the High Council which shall be obeyed.
I will come with my brother now, as soon as he is rested."
"Nay," said the old man, "I have no tiredness, and as for
coming with me, there you will not be able. But follow at what
pace you may."
He turned and set off down the snowy slopes of the mountain
and I followed; but gradually he distanced me; and so he kept on,
with speed always increasing, till presently he passed out of my
sight round the spur of an ice-cliff, and I found myself alone on
the mountain side. Yes, truly alone. For his footmarks in the
snow from being deep, grew shallower, and less noticeable, so that
I had to stoop to see them. And presently they vanished entirely,
and the great mountain's flank lay before me trackless, and
untrodden by the foot of man since time began.
I was not shaken by any great amazement. Though it was beyond
my poor art to compass this thing myself, having occupied my mind
in exile more with memories of Nais than in study of those
uppermost recesses of the Higher Mysteries in which Zaemon was so
prodigiously wise, still I had some inkling of his powers.
Zaemon I knew would be back again in his dwelling on the
Sacred Mountain, shaken and breathless, even before I had found an
end to his tracks in the snow, and it behoved me to join him there
in the quickest possible time. I had his promise now for my
reward, and I knew that he would carry it into effect. Beforetime
I had made an error. I had valued Atlantis most, and Nais, my
private love, as only second. But now it was in my mind to be
honest with others even as with myself. Though all the world were
hanging on my choice, I could but love my Nais most, and serve her
first and foremost of all.
16. SIEGE OF THE SACRED MOUNTAIN
Now, my passage across the great continent of Atlantis, if
tedious and haunted by many dangers, need not be recounted in
detail here. Only one halt did I make of any duration, and that
was unavoidable. I had killed a stag one day, bringing it down
after a long chase in an open savannah. I scented the air
carefully, to see if there was any other beast which could do me
harm within reach, and thinking that the place was safe, set about
cutting my meat, and making a sufficiency into a bundle for
carriage.
But underfoot amongst the grasses there was a great legged
worm, a monstrous green thing, very venomous in its bite; and
presently as I moved I brushed it with my heel, and like the dart
of light it swooped with its tiny head and struck me with its fangs
in the lower thigh. With my knife I cut through its neck and it
fell to writhing and struggling and twining its hundred legs into
all manner of contortions; and then, cleaning my blade in the
ground, I stabbed with it deep all round the wound, so that the
blood might flow freely and wash the venom from its lodgement. And
then with the blood trickling healthily down from my heel, I
shouldered the meat and strode off, thankful for being so well quit
of what might have made itself a very ugly adventure.
As I walked, however, my leg began to be filled with a
tightness and throbbing which increased every hour, and presently
it began to swell also, till the skin was stretched like drawn
parchment. I was taken, too, with a sickness, that racked me
violently, and if one of the greater and more dangerous beasts had
come upon me then, he would have eaten me without a fight. With
the fall of darkness I managed to haul myself up into a tree, and
there abode in the crutch of a limb, in wakefulness and pain
throughout the night.
With the dawn, when the night beasts had gone to their lairs,
I clambered down again, and leaning heavily on my spear, limped
onwards through the sombre forests along my way. The moss which
grows on the northern side of each tree was my guide, but gradually
I began to note that I was seeing moss all round the trees, and, in
fact, was growing light-headed with the pain and the swelling of
the limb. But still I pressed onwards with my journey, my last
instinct being to obey the command of the High Council, and so
procure the enlargement of Nais as had been promised.
My last memory was of being met by someone in the black forest
who aided me, and there my waking senses took wings into
forgetfulness.
But after an interval, wit returned, and I found myself on a
bed of leaves in a cleft between two rocks, which was furnished
with some poor skill, and fortified with stakes and buildings
against the entrance of the larger marauding beasts. My wound was
dressed with a poultice of herbs, and at the other side of the
cavern there squatted a woman, cooking a mess of wood-grubs and
honey over a fire of sticks.
"How came I here?" I asked.
"I brought you," said she.
"And who are you?"
"A nymph, they call me, and I practise as such, collecting
herbs and curing the diseases of those that come to me, telling
fortunes, and making predictions. In return I receive what each
can afford, and if they do not pay according to their means, I clap
on a curse to make them wither. It's a lean enough living when
wars and the pestilence have left so few poor folk to live in the
land."
"Do you visit Atlantis?"
"Not I. Phorenice would have me boiled in brine, living, if
she could lay easy hands on me. Our dainty Empress tolerates no
magic but her own. They say she is for pulling down the Priests
off their Mountain now."
"So you do get news of the city?"
"Assuredly. It is my trade to get good news, or otherwise how
could I tell fortunes to the vulgar? You see, my lord, I detected
your quality by your speech, and knowing you are not one of those
that come to me for spells, and potions, I have no fear in speaking
- frozen [´frəuzn]
freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词) - overhead [´əuvə,hed] ad.当头 a.在头上的 (初中英语单词)
- occasionally [ə´keiʒənəli] ad.偶然地；非经常地 (初中英语单词)
- threaten [´θretn] v.恐吓；有....的危险 (初中英语单词)
- sickness [´siknis] n.生病；呕吐，恶心 (初中英语单词)
- protection [prə´tekʃən] n.警戒；护照；通行证 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- feeble [´fi:bəl] a.虚弱的，无力的 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- humble [´hʌmbəl] a.谦卑的 vt.贬抑 (初中英语单词)
- prevail [pri´veil] vi.胜(过)；流行；普遍 (初中英语单词)
- intimate [´intimit] a.亲密的 n.知己 (初中英语单词)
- stolen [´stəulən] steal 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- bitterly [´bitəli] ad.悲痛地；憎恨地 (初中英语单词)
- greedy [´gri:di] a.贪婪的；馋的 (初中英语单词)
- argument [´ɑ:gjumənt] n.辩论；争论；论证 (初中英语单词)
- shaken [´ʃeikən] shake的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- amazement [ə´meizmənt] n.惊愕；惊奇 (初中英语单词)
- compass [´kʌmpəs] n.指南针；圆规 (初中英语单词)
- dwelling [´dweliŋ] n.住所；寓所 (初中英语单词)
- continent [´kɔntinənt] n.大陆，陆地 (初中英语单词)
- haunted [´hɔ:tid] a.常出现鬼的，闹鬼的 (初中英语单词)
- bundle [´bʌndl] n.包，捆；包袱(裹) (初中英语单词)
- freely [´fri:li] ad.自由地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- interval [´intəvəl] n.间隙；(工间)休息 (初中英语单词)
- practise [´præktis] v.实践(行，施)；提倡 (初中英语单词)
- otherwise [´ʌðəwaiz] ad.另外 conj.否则 (初中英语单词)
- knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
- amongst [ə´mʌŋst] prep.其中之一 =among (高中英语单词)
- perilous [´periləs] a.危险的；冒险的 (高中英语单词)
- summit [´sʌmit] n.顶(点)；绝顶 (高中英语单词)
- granite [´grænit] n.花岗岩 (高中英语单词)
- symbol [´simbəl] n.符号；象征 (高中英语单词)
- breathless [´breθlis] a.屏息的 (高中英语单词)
- foremost [´fɔ:məust] a.最重要的；最先的 (高中英语单词)
- monstrous [´mɔnstrəs] a.怪异的；庞大的 (高中英语单词)
- strode [strəud] stride的过去式 (高中英语单词)
- thankful [´θæŋkfəl] a.感激的；欣慰的 (高中英语单词)
- crutch [krʌtʃ] n.拐(杖) (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- wither [´wiðə] v.(使)枯萎(衰弱) (高中英语单词)
- dainty [´deinti] a.秀丽的 n.美味 (高中英语单词)
- muster [´mʌstə] n.集合 v.集合；征召 (英语四级单词)
- warming [´wɔ:miŋ] n.暖和；加温 (英语四级单词)
- communion [kə´mju:niən] n.共享；交流；圣餐 (英语四级单词)
- parting [´pɑ:tiŋ] a.&n.分离(的) (英语四级单词)
- completion [kəm´pli:ʃən] n.完成；完整 (英语四级单词)
- humbly [´hʌmbli] ad.恭顺地，谦卑地 (英语四级单词)
- wanton [´wɔntən, ´wɑ:n-] a.顽皮的 n.&vi.荡妇 (英语四级单词)
- empress [´empris] n.女皇；皇后 (英语四级单词)
- noticeable [´nəutisəbəl] a.显著的；值得注意的 (英语四级单词)
- vulgar [´vʌlgə] a.粗俗的；大众的 (英语四级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
- untouched [ʌn´tʌtʃt] a.原样的；未触动过的 (英语六级单词)
- faithless [´feiθləs] a.不忠的；虚假的 (英语六级单词)
- duration [djuə´reiʃən] n.持久；持续期间 (英语六级单词)
- venomous [´venəməs] a.有毒的；恶意的 (英语六级单词)
- pestilence [´pestiləns] n.瘟(鼠)疫；毒害(物) (英语六级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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