Plays of Near & Far Part 12

QUEEN (_calmly_): It is calling for me, Oozizi.

OOZIZI: What is calling, lady? Nothing calls.

QUEEN: It is calling, Oozizi.

OOZIZI: Oh, lady, all is silent. No one calls.

QUEEN: It is calling for me now, Oozizi.

OOZIZI: No, no, lady. What calls?

QUEEN: Aether Mountain is calling. I know now who called my mother. It was Aether Mountain, Oozizi; he is calling.

OOZIZI: I--I scarce dare look out of the golden palace, lady, to where we must not go. Yet, yet I will look. (_She peers._) Yes, yes, indeed; there stands old Aether Mountain. But he does not call. Indeed he does not call. He is all silent in Heaven.

QUEEN: It is his voice, Oozizi.

OOZIZI: What, lady? I hear no voice.

QUEEN: That great, great silence is his voice, Oozizi. He is calling me out of that blue waste of Heaven.

OOZIZI: Lady, I cannot understand.

QUEEN: He calls, Oozizi.

OOZIZI: Come away, lady. It is bad to look so long. Oh, if the Princes had not made their clamour heard! Oh, if they had not you had not gone to the door and seen Aether Mountain, and this trouble had not come.

Oh! Oh! Oh!

QUEEN: There is no trouble upon Aether Mountain.

OOZIZI: Oh, lady, it is terrible that you should leave the palace.

QUEEN: There is no trouble there. Aether Mountain goes all calm into Heaven. His grey-blue slopes are calm as the sky about him. There he stands calling. He is calling to me, Oozizi.

OOZIZI (_reflecting_): Can it be?

QUEEN: What would you ask, Oozizi?

Oozizi: Can it be that it is with you, great lady, as it was with the Queen, your mother, when Destiny sent her hence to Aether Mountain?

QUEEN: Aether Mountain calls.

OOZIZI: Lady, for a moment hear me. Come with me but a little while.

[_She leads the_ QUEEN _slowly by the arm back to the throne._

Lady, be seated here once more and take up the orb and sceptre in your small hands as of old.

[_The_ QUEEN _patiently does as she is told._

Now, if Destiny calls you, let him call to you as to a Queen. Now, if it be for no whim of those that pa.s.s, that you would go so far from here to that great mountain, say, seated upon your throne in the golden palace with sceptre and orb in hand, say would you go forth, lady?

QUEEN (_almost dreaming_): Aether Mountain calls.

[OOZIZI _bursts into tears. She helps the_ QUEEN _by the arm from her throne and leads her part of the way to the door. There she stops. The_ QUEEN _goes on to the door alone._

OOZIZI: Farewell, lady.

[_The_ QUEEN _gazes out rapturously towards Aether Mountain. Then she walks back and embraces Oozizi._

QUEEN: Farewell, Oozizi.

OOZIZI: Farewell, great lady.

[_The_ QUEEN _turns, then suddenly she runs swiftly and nimbly through the door and disappears._

[_At once there is a murmur of voices from the Hall of the Hundred Princes._

VOICES (_off_): Ah, ah, ah.

[OOZIZI _stands still weeping._

[_Enter the Princes, exquisite and frivolous. They crowd past each other._

MELIFLOR: And where is our little Queen?

[OOZIZI _answers with a defiant look through her tears, which has its effect on them._

MOOMOOMON (_foppishly_): There, there.

XIMENUNG: Gone!

MELIFLOR: Come! Let us follow.

MOOMOOMON: Shall we?

SEVERAL: Yes.

MOOMOOMON: Come.

[_They stream across from the side door R to the door in back_, OOZIZI _regarding them haughtily._

OOZIZI (_menacingly_): It is Aether Mountain.

[_Entranced, silent, last of all_ ZOON _follows. Exeunt all the Princes.

Sounds as of rough protest heard from the workers off. The grim brown heads of two or three peer round the door by which the Princes entered.

Many come on, dumb, puzzled, turning their brown heads, searching. At last they cl.u.s.ter round_ OOZIZI. "Er"? _they say._

OOZIZI: Aether Mountain has called her.