Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self Part 40

Shuddering, he wrenched himself away, and pa.s.sed on silently, heedless of the savage curses the despairing scribe yelled after him as he went, and he involuntarily pressed the dead corpse of his beloved friend closer to his heart, as though he thought he could re-animate it by this mute expression of tenderness! Meanwhile the fire raged continuously,--the Temple was fast becoming a pillared ma.s.s of flames, . . and presently,--choked and giddy with the sulphurous vapors--he stopped abruptly, struggling for breath. His time had come at last, he thought, . . he with Sah-luma must die!

Just then a loud muttering and rolling of thunder swept in eddying vibrations round him, followed by a sharp, splitting noise, . . raising his aching eyes, he saw straight before him, a yawning gloomy archway, like the solemn portal of a funeral vault.. dark, yet with a white glimmer of steps leading outward, and a dim sparkle as of stars in heaven. A rush of new vigor inspired him at this sight, and he resumed his way, stumbling over countless corpses strewn among fallen blocks of marble,--and every now and then looking back in awful fascination to the fiery furnace of the body of the Temple, where of all the vast numbers that had lately crowded it from end to end, there were only a hundred or so remaining alive,--and these were fast peris.h.i.+ng in frightful agony. The Shrine of Nagaya was enveloped in thick black smoke, crossed here and there by flashes of flame,--the bare outline of its t.i.tanic architecture was scarcely discernible! Yet the thought of the dreadful end of Lysia, the loveliest woman he had ever seen, moved him now to no emotion whatever--save..gladness! Some deadly evil seemed burnt out of his life, . . moreover her command had slain Sah-luma! ...

Enough! ... no fate however horrible, could be more so than she in her wanton wickedness deserved! ... But alas! her beauty! ... He dared not think of its subtle, slumberous charm! ... and stung to a new sense of desperation, he plunged recklessly toward the dusky aperture he had seen, which appeared to enlarge itself mysteriously as he approached, like the opening gateway of some magic cavern.

Suddenly a faint groan at his feet startled him,--and, looking down hastily, he perceived an unfortunate man lying half crushed under the ponderous fragment of a split column, which had fallen across his body in such manner that any attempt to extricate him would have been worse than useless. By the bright light of the leaping flames, Theos had no difficulty in recognizing the pallid countenance of his late acquaintance, the learned Professor of Positivism, Mira-Khabur, who was evidently very near his woeful and most positive end! Struck by an impulse of compa.s.sion he paused, . . yet what could he say? ..In such a case, where rescue was impossible, all comfort seemed mockery,--and while he stood silent and irresolute, he fancied the Professor smiled!

It was a very ghastly smile,--nevertheless it hid in it a curious touch of bland and scrupulous inquiry.

"Is not this...a very.. remarkable occurrence?" ... asked a voice so feeble and far away that it was difficult to believe it came from the lips of the suffering sage. "Of course...it arises from...a volcanic eruption! ... and the mystery of the red river.. is.. solved!" Here an irrepressible moan of anguish broke through his heroic effort at equanimity;--"It is NOT a phenomenon!".. and a gleam of obstinate self-a.s.sertion lit up his poor glazing eyes, "Nothing is phenonmenal!

... only I am not able...to explain.... I have no time...no time...to a.n.a.lyze.. my very ... singular...sensations!"

A rush of blood choked his utterance--his throat rattled, ... he was dead! ... and the dreary speculative smile froze on his mouth in the likeness of a solemn sneer. At that moment, a terrific swirling, surging noise, like the furious boiling of an underground whirlpool, rumbled heavily through the air, . . and lo! with a sudden, swift shock that sent Theos reeling forward and almost falling, under the burdensome weight he carried, the earth opened, . . disclosing a huge pit of black nothingness,--an enormous chasm,--into which, with an appalling clamor as of a hundred incessant peals of thunder, the whole main area of the Temple, together with its ma.s.s of dead and dying human beings, sank in less than five seconds!--the ground closing instantaneously over its prey with a sullen roar, as though it were some gigantic beast devouring food too long denied. And instead of the vanished fane arose a mighty Pillar of Fire! ... a vast increasing volume of scarlet and gold flame that spread outward and upward,--higher and higher, in tapering lines and dome-like curves of living light, . . while Theos, being hurled along resistlessly by the force of the convulsion, had reached, though he knew not how, the dark and quiet cell-like portal with its out-leading steps, . . the only visible last hope and chance of safety, . . and he now leaned against its cold stone arch, trembling in every limb, clasping the dead Sah-luma close, and looking back in affrighted awe at the tossing vortex of fury from which he had miraculously escaped. And,--as he looked,--a host of spectral faces seemed to rise whitely out of the flames and wonder at him! ... faces that were solemn, wistful, warning, and beseeching by turns! ... they drifted through the fire and smiled, and wept, and vanished, to reappear again and yet again! ... and as, with painfully beating heart, he strove to combat the terror that seized him at this strange spectacular delusion, all suddenly the heavy wreaths of smoke that had till now hung over the Inner Shrine of Nagaya parted like drapery drawn aside from a picture.. and for a brief breathing s.p.a.ce of direst agony he saw Lysia once more,--Lysia, in a torture as horrible as any ever depicted in a bigot's idea of his enemy's h.e.l.l! Round and round her writhing form the sacred Serpent was twined in all his many coils,--with both hands she had grasped the creature's throat in her frenzy, striving to thrust back its quivering fangs from her breast, whereon the evil "Eye of Raphon" still gleamed distinctly with its adamantine chilly stare, . . at her feet lay the body of the King her lover, dead and wrapped in a ring of flames! ...

Alone--all, all alone, she confronted Death in its most appalling shape.. her countenance was distorted, yet beautiful still with the beauty of a maddened Medusa, . . white and glittering as a fair ghost invoked from some deadly gulf of pain, she stood, a phantom-figure of mingled loveliness and horror, circled on every side by fire!

With wild, straining eyes Theos gazed upon her thus, ... for the last time! ... For with a crash that seemed to rend the very heavens, the great bronze columns surrounding her, which had, up to the present, resisted the repeated onslaughts of the flames, bent together all at once and fell in a melting ruin.. and the victorious fire roared loudly above them, enveloping the whole Shrine anew in dense clouds of smoke and jets of flame,--Lysia had perished! All that proud loveliness, that dazzling supremacy, that superb voluptuousness, that triumphant dominion, . . swept away into a heap of undiscoverable ashes! And Zephoranim's haughty spirit too had fled,--fled, stained with guilt and most unroyal dishonor, all for the sake of one woman's fairness--the fairness of body only--the brilliant mask of flesh that too often hides the hideousness of a devil's nature!

For one moment Theos remained stupefied by the sheer horror of the catastrophe,--then, recalling his bewildered wits to his aid, he peered anxiously through the archway where he rested, . . there seemed to be a dim red glow at the end of the downward-leading steps, as well as a dusky azure tint, like a patch of midnight sky. The Temple was now nothing but a hissing shrieking pyramid of flames,--the hot and blinding glare was almost too intense for his eyes to endure,--yet so fascinated was he by the sublime terror and grandeur of the spectacle, that he could scarcely make up his mind to turn away from it! The thought of Sah-luma, however, gave the needful spur to his flagging energies, and without pausing to consider where he might be going, he slowly and hesitatingly descended the steps before him, and presently reached a sort of small open court paved with black marble. Here he tenderly laid his burden down,--a burden grown weightier with each moment of its bearing,--and letting his aching arms drop listlessly at his sides, he looked up dreamily,--not all at once comprehending the cause of the vast lurid light that crimsoned the air like a wide aurora borealis everywhere about him, . . then,--as the truth suddenly flashed on his mind, he uttered a loud, irrepressible cry of amazement and awe!

Far as his gaze could see,--east, west, north, south, the whole city of Al-Kyris was in flames!--and the burning Temple of Nagaya was but a mere spark in the enormous breadth of the general conflagration!

Palaces, domes, towers, and spires were tottering to red destruction, .

. fire...fire everywhere! ... nothing but fire,--save when a furious gust of scorching wind blew aside the ma.s.ses of cindery smoke, and showed glimpses of sky and the changeless s.h.i.+ning of a few cold quiet stars. He cast one desperate glance from earth to heaven, . . how was it possible to escape from this kindling furnace of utter annihilation!

... Where all were manifestly doomed, how could HE expect to be saved!

And moreover, if Sah-luma was indeed dead, what remained for him but to die also!

Calming the frenzy of his thoughts by a strong effort, he began to vaguely wonder why and how it happened that the place where he now was, . . this small and insignificant court,--had so far escaped the fire, and was as cool and sombre as a sacred tomb set apart for some hero, ... or Poet? Poet!--The word acted as a stimulant to his tired struggling brain, and he all at once remembered what Sah-luma had said to him at their first meeting: "There is but one Poet in Al-Kyris, and I am he!"

O true, true! Only one Poet! ... Only one glory of the great city, that now served him as funeral pyre!--only one name worth remembering in all its peris.h.i.+ng history.. the name of SAH-LUMA! Sah-luma, the beautiful, the gifted, the famous, the beloved, . . he was dead! This thought, in its absorbing painfulness, straightway drove out all others,--and Theos, who had carried his comrade's corpse bravely and unshrinkingly through a fiery vortex of imminent peril, now sank on his knees all desolate and unnerved, his hot tears dropping fast on that fair, still, white face that he knew would never flush to the warmth of life again!

"Sah-luma! Sah-luma!" he whispered, "My friend ... My more than brother! Would I could have died for thee! ... Would thou couldst have lived to fulfil the n.o.bler promise of thy genius! ... Better far thou hadst been spared to the world than I! ... for I am Nothing, . . but thou wert Everything!"

And taking the clay-cold hands in his own, he kissed them reverently, and, with an unconscious memory not born of his recent adventures, folded them on the dead Laureate's breast in the fas.h.i.+on of a Cross.

As he did this an icy spasm seemed to contract his heart, . . seized by a sudden insufferable anxiety, he stared like one spell-bound into Sah-luma's wide-open, fixed, and gla.s.sy eyes. Dead eyes! ... yet how full of mysterious significance! ... What--WHAT was their weird secret, their imminent meaning! ... Why did their dark and frozen depths appear to retain a strange, living undergleam of melting, sorrowful, beseeching sweetness? ... like the eyes of one who prays to be remembered, though changed after long absence! What hot and terrible delirium was this that s.n.a.t.c.hed at his whirling brain as he bent closer and closer over the marble quiet countenance, and studied with a sort of fierce intentness every line of those delicate, cla.s.sic features, on which high thought had left so marked an impress of dignity and power!

What a marvellous, half-reproachful, half-appealing smile lingered on the finely-curved set lips! ... How wonderful, how beautiful, how beloved beyond all words was this fair dead G.o.d of poesy on whom he gazed with such a pa.s.sion of yearning!

Stooping more and more, he threw his arms round the senseless form, and partly lifting it from the ground, brought the wax-pallid face nearer to his own.. so near that the cold mouth almost touched his, . . then filled with an awful, unnamable misgiving, he scanned his murdered comrade's perished beauty in puzzled, vague bewilderment, much as an ignorant dullard might perplexedly scan the incomprehensible characters of some hieroglyphic scroll. And, as he looked, a sharp pang shot through him like a whizzing ball of fire, . . a convulsion of mental agony shook his limbs,--he could have shrieked aloud in the extremity of his torture, but the struggling cry died gasping in his throat.

Still as stone he kept his strained, steadfast gaze fixed on Sah-luma's corpse, slowly absorbing the full horror of a tremendous Suggestion, that like a scorching lava-flood swept into every subtle channel of his brain. For the dead Sah-luma's eyes grew into the semblance of his own eyes! ... the dead Sah-luma's face smiled spectrally back at him in the image of his own face! ... it was as though he beheld the Picture of himself, slain and reflected in a magician's mirror! Round him the very heavens seemed given up to fire,--but he heeded it not,--the world might be at an end and the day of Judgment, proclaimed,--nothing would have stirred him from where he knelt, in that dreadful stillness of mystic martyrdom, drinking in the gradual, glimmering consciousness of a terrific Truth, . . the amazing, yet scarcely graspable solution of a supernatural Enigma, ... an enigma through which, like a man lost in the depths of a dark forest, he had wandered up and down, seeking light, yet finding none!

"O G.o.d!" he dumbly prayed. "Thou, with whom all things are possible, give eyes to this blind trouble of my heart! I am but as a grain of dust before thee, . . a poor perishable atom, devoid of simplest comprehension! ... Do Thou of Thy supernal pity teach me what I must know!"

As he thought out this unuttered pet.i.tion, a tense cord seemed to snap suddenly in his brain, . . a rush of tears came to his relief, and through their salt and bitter haze the face of Sah-luma appeared to melt into a thin and spiritual brightness,--a mere aerial outline of what it had once been, . . the glazed dark eyes seemed to flash living lightning into his, . . the whole lost Personality of the dead Poet seemed to environ him with a mysterious, potent, incorporeal influence.. an influence that he felt he must now or never repel, reject, and utterly RESIST! ... With a shuddering cry, he tore his reluctant arms away from the beloved corpse, . . with trembling, tender fingers he closed and pressed down the white eyelids of those love-expressive eyes, and kissed the broad poetic brow!

"Whatever thou WERT or ART to me, Sah-luma," he murmured in sobbing haste,--"thou knowest that I loved thee, though now I leave thee!

Farewell!"--and his voice broke in its strong agony--"O how much easier to divide body from soul than part myself from thee! Sah-luma, beloved Sah-luma! G.o.d give thee rest! ... G.o.d pardon thy sins,--and mine!"

And he pressed his lips once more on the folded rigid hands; . . as he did so, he inadvertently touched the writing-tablet that hung from the dead Laureate's girdle. The red glow of the fire around him enabled him to see distinctly what was written on it, . . there were about twenty lines of verse, in exquisitely clear and fine caligraphy, ... and, as he read, he knew them well, . . they were the last lines of the poem "Nourhalma"!

He dared trust his own strength no longer, . . one wild, adoring, lingering, parting look at his dead rival in song, whom he had loved better than himself,--and then,--full of a nameless fear, he fled! ...

fled recklessly, and with swift, mad fury as though demons followed in pursuit, . . fled through the burning city, as a lost and frenzied spirit might speed through the deserts of h.e.l.l! Everywhere about him resounded the crackling hiss of the flames, and the crash of falling buildings, . . mighty pinnacles and lofty domes melted and vanished before is eyes in a blaze of brilliant destruction! ... on--on he went, meeting confused, scattered crowds of people, whose rus.h.i.+ng, white-garmented figures looked like ghosts flying before a storm, . .

the cries and shrieks of women and children, and the groans of men were mingled with the restless roaring of lions and other wild beasts burnt out of their dens in the Royal Arena, the distant circle of which could be dimly seen, surrounded by fountain-like jets of fire. Some of these maddened animals ran against him, as he sped along the blazing thoroughfares,--but he made no attempt to avoid them, nor was he sensible of any other terror than that which was WITHIN HIMSELF and was purely mental. On! ... On!--Still on he went,--a desperate, lonely man, lost in a hideous nightmare of flame and fury, . . seeing nothing but one vast flying rout of molten red and gold, . . speaking to none, . .

utterly reckless as to his own fate, . . only impelled on and on, but whither he knew not, nor cared to know!

All at once his, strength gave way...his nerves seemed to break asunder like so many over-wound harp-strings, . . a sudden silvery clanging of bells rang in his ears, and with them came a sound of mult.i.tudinous soft, small voices: "Kyrie Eleison! Kyrie Eleison!"

Hus.h.!.+ ... What was that? ... What did it mean? ... Halting abruptly, he gave a wild glance round him,--up to the sky, where the flaring flames spread in tangled lengths and webs of light, . . then, straight before him to the City of Al-Kyris, now a wondrous vision of redly luminous columns and cupolas, with the wet gleam of the river enfolding its blazing streets and towers: . . and while he yet beheld it, lo! IT RECEDED FROM HIS VIEW! Further, . . further!--further away, till it seemed nothing but the toppling and smoldering of heavy clouds after the conflagration of the sunset!

Hark, hark again! ... "Kyrie, Eleison! ... Kyrie, Eleison!" With a sense of reeling rapture and awe he listened, . . he understood! ... he found the NAME he had so long forgotten! "CHRIST, have mercy upon me!"...he cried, and in that one urgent supplication he uttered all the pent-up anguish of his soul! Blind and dizzy with the fevered whirl of his own emotions, he stumbled forward and fell! ... fell heavily over a block of stone, . . stunned by the shock, he lost consciousness, but only for a moment; . . a dull aching in his temples roused him,--and making a faint effort to rise, he turned slowly and languidly on his arm, . . and with a long, deep, shuddering sigh...AWOKE!

He was on the Field of Ardath. Dawn had just broken. The east was one wide, s.h.i.+mmering stretch of warm gold, and over it lay strips of blue and gray, like fragments of torn battle-banners. Above him sparkled the morning star, white and glittering as a silver lamp, among the delicate spreading tints of saffron and green, . . and beside him,--her clear, pure features flushed by the roseate splendor of the sky, her hands clasped on her breast, and her sweet eyes full of an infinite tenderness and yearning, knelt EDRIS!--Edris, his flower-crowned Angel, whom last he had seen drifting upward and away like a dove through the glory of the Cross in Heaven!

CHAPTER x.x.x.

SUNRISE.

Entranced in amazed ecstasy he lay quite quiet, . . afraid to speak or stir! This gentle Presence,--this fair, beseeching face, might vanish if he moved! So he dimly fancied, as he gazed up at her in mute wonder and wors.h.i.+p, his devout eyes drinking in her saintly loveliness, from the deep burnished gold of her hair to the soft, white slimness of her prayerfully folded hands. And while he looked, old thoughts like home-returning birds began to hover round his soul,--sweet and dear remembrances, like the sunset lighting up the windows of an empty house, began to s.h.i.+ne on the before semi-darkened nooks and crannies of his brain. Clearer and clearer grew the reflecting mirror of his consciousness,--trouble and perplexity seemed pa.s.sing away forever from his mind, . . a great and solemn peace environed him, . . and he began to believe he had crossed the boundary of death and had entered at last into the Kingdom of Heaven! O let him not break this holy silence! ...

Let him rest so, with all the glory of that Angel-visage shed like summer sunbeams over him! ... Let him absorb into his innermost being the exquisite tenderness of those innocent, hopeful, watchful, starry eyes whose radiance seemed to steal into the golden morning and give it a sacred poetry and infinite marvel of meaning! So he mused, gravely contented, ... while all through the brightening skies overhead, came the pale, pink flus.h.i.+ng of the dawn, like a far fluttering and scattering of rose-leaves. Everything was so still that he could hear his own heart beating forth healthful and regular pulsations, . . but he was scarcely conscious of his own existence,--he was only aware of the vast, beautiful, halcyon calm that encircled him shelteringly and soothed all care away.

Gradually, however, this deep and delicious tranquillity began to yield to a sweeping rush of memory and comprehension, ... he knew WHO he was and WHERE he was,--though he did not as yet feel absolutely certain of life and life's so-called realities. For if the City of Al-Kyris, with all its vivid wonders, its distinct experiences, its brilliant pageantry, had been indeed a DREAM, then sorely it was possible he might be dreaming still! ... Nevertheless he was able to gather up the fragments of lost recollection consecutively enough to realize, by gentle degrees, his actual ident.i.ty and position in the world, . . he was Theos Alwyn, . . a man of the nineteenth century after Christ. Ah!

thank G.o.d for that! ... AFTER Christ! ... not one who had lived five thousand years BEFORE Christ's birth! ... And this quiet, patient Maiden at his side, . . who was she? A vision? ... or an actually existent Being? Unable to resist the craving desire of his heart, he spoke her name as he now remembered it, . . spoke it in a faint, awed whisper.

"Edris!"

"Theos, my Beloved!"

O sweet and thrilling voice! more musical than the singing of birds in a sun-filled Spring!

He raised himself a little, and looked at her more intently:--she smiled,--and that smile, so marvellous in its pensive peace and lofty devotion, was as though all the light of an unguessed paradise had suddenly flashed upon his soul!

"Edris!" he said again, trembling in the excess of mingled hope and fear ... "Hast thou then returned again from heaven, to lift me out of darkness? ... Tell me, fair Angel, do I wake or sleep? ... Are my senses deceived? Is this land a dream? ... Am I myself a dream, and thou the only manifest sweet Truth in a world of drifting shadows! ...

Speak to me, gentle Saint! ... In what vast mystery have I been engulfed? ... in what timeless trance of soul-bewilderment? ... in what blind uncertainty and pain? ... O Sweet! ... resolve my wordless wonder! Where have I strayed? ... what have I seen? ... Ah, let not my rough speech fright thee back to Paradise! ... Stay with me! ...

comfort me! ... I have lost thee so long! let me not lose thee now!"

Smiling still, she bent over him, and pressed her warm, delicate ringers lightly on his brow and lips. Then softly she rose and stood erect.

"Fear nothing, my beloved!" she answered, her silvery accents sending a throb of holy triumph through the air.. "Let no trouble disquiet thee, and no shadow of misgiving dim the brightness of thy waking moments!

Thou hast slept ONE night on the Field of Ardath, in the Valley of Vision!--but lo! the Night is past!".. and she pointed toward the eastern horizon now breaking into waves of rosy gold, "Rise! and behold the dawning of thy new Day!"

Roused by her touch, and fired by her tone and the grand, unworldly dignity of her look and bearing, he sprang up, . . but as he met the full, pure splendor of her divine eyes, and saw, wavering round her hair, a s.h.i.+ning aureole of amber radiance like a wreath of woven sunbeams, his spirit quailed within him, . . he remembered all his doubts of her,--his disbelief, . . and falling at her feet, he hid his face in a shame that was better than all glory,--a humiliation that was sweeter than all pride.

"Edris! Immortal Edris!".. he pa.s.sionately prayed, "As thou art a crowned saint in Heaven, shed light on the chaos of my soul! From the depths of a penitence past thought and speech I plead with thee! Hear me, my Edris, thou who art so maiden-meek, so tender-patient! ... hear me, help me, guide me...I am all thine! Say, didst thou not summon me to meet thee here upon this wondrous Field of Ardath?--did I not come hither according to thy words?--and have I not seen things that I am not able to express or understand? Teach me, wise and beloved one! ...

I doubt no more! I know Myself and Thee:--thou art an angel,--but I!

... alas, what am I? A grain of sand in thy sight and in G.o.d's, . . a mere Nothing, comprehending nothing,--unable even to realize the extent of my own nothingness! Edris, O Edris! ... THOU canst not love me! ...

thou mayst pity me perchance, and pardon, and bless me gently in Christ's dear Name! ... but love! ... THY love! ... Oh let me not aspire to such heights of joy, where I have no place, no right, no worthiness!"