Chapter XXIII
In the Temple of Fate
Yva glanced at me, and in her eyes I read tenderness and
solicitude, also something of inquiry. It seemed to me as though
she were wondering what I should do under circumstances that
might, or would, arise, and in some secret fashion of which I was
but half conscious, drawing an answer from my soul. Then she
turned, and, smiling in her dazzling way, said:
"So, Bickley, as usual, you did not believe? Because you did
not see him, therefore the Lord Oro, my father, never spoke with
Humphrey. As though the Lord Oro could not pass you without your
knowledge, or, perchance, send thoughts clothed in his own shape
to work his errand."
"How do you know that I did not believe Arbuthnot's story?"
Bickley asked in a rather cross voice and avoiding the direct
issue. "Do you also send thoughts to work your errands clothed in
your own shape, Lady Yva?"
"Alas! not so, though perhaps I could if I might. It is very
simple, Bickley. Standing here, I heard you say that although the
sun was well down there was no one to meet you as Humphrey had
expected, and from those words and your voice I guessed the
rest."
"Your knowledge of the English language is improving fast, Lady
Yva. Also, when I spoke, you were not here."
"At least I was very near, Bickley, and these walls are thinner
than you think," she answered, contemplating what seemed to be
solid rock with eyes that were full of innocence. "Oh! friend,"
she went on suddenly, "I wonder what there is which will cause
you to believe that you do not know all; that there exist many
things beyond the reach of your learning and imagination? Well,
in a day or two, perhaps, even you will admit as much, and
confess it to me--elsewhere," and she sighed.
"I am ready to confess now that much happens which I do not
understand at present, because I have not the key to the trick,"
he replied.
Yva shook her head at him and smiled again. Then she motioned
to all of us to stand close to her, and, stooping, lifted Tommy
in her arms. Next moment that marvel happened which I have
described already, and we were whirling downwards through space,
to find ourselves in a very little time standing safe in the
caves of Nyo, breathless with the swiftness of our descent. How
and on what we descended neither I nor the others ever learned.
It was and must remain one of the unexplained mysteries of our
great experience.
"Whither now, Yva?" I asked, staring about me at the radiant
vastness.
"The Lord Oro would speak with you, Humphrey. Follow. And I
pray you all do not make him wrath, for his mood is not gentle."
So once more we proceeded down the empty streets of that
underground abode which, except that it was better illuminated,
reminded me of the Greek conception of Hades. We came to the
sacred fountain over which stood the guardian statue of Life,
pouring from the cups she held the waters of Good and Ill that
mingled into one health-giving wine.
"Drink, all of you," she said; "for I think before the sun sets
again upon the earth we shall need strength, every one of us."
So we drank, and she drank herself, and once more felt the
blood go dancing through our veins as though the draught had been
some nectar of the gods. Then, having extinguished the lanterns
which we still carried, for here they were needless, and we
wished to save our oil, we followed her through the great doors
into the vast hall of audience and advanced up it between the
endless, empty seats. At its head, on the dais beneath the
arching shell, sat Oro on his throne. As before, he wore the
jewelled cap and the gorgeous, flowing robes, while the table in
front of him was still strewn with sheets of metal on which he
wrote with a pen, or stylus, that glittered like a diamond or his
own fierce eyes. Then he lifted his head and beckoned to us to
ascend the dais.
"You are here. It is well," he said, which was all his
greeting. Only when Tommy ran up to him he bent down and patted
the dog's head with his long, thin hand, and, as he did so, his
face softened. It was evident to me that Tommy was more welcome
to him than were the rest of us.
There was a long silence while, one by one, he searched us with
his piercing glance. It rested on me, the last of the three of
us, and from me travelled to Yva.
"I wonder why I have sent for you?" he said at length, with a
mirthless laugh. "I think it must be that I may convince Bickley,
the sceptic, that there are powers which he does not understand,
but that I have the strength to move. Also, perhaps, that your
lives may be spared for my own purposes in that which is about to
happen. Hearken! My labours are finished; my calculations are
complete," and he pointed to the sheets of metal before him that
were covered with cabalistic signs. "Tomorrow I am about to do
what once before I did and to plunge half the world in the deeps
of ocean and lift again from the depths that which has been
buried for a quarter of a million years."
"Which half?" asked Bickley.
"That is my secret, Physician, and the answer to it lies
written here in signs you cannot read. Certain countries will
vanish, others will be spared. I say that it is my secret."
"Then, Oro, if you could do what you threaten, you would drown
hundreds of millions of people."
"If I could do! If I could do!" he exclaimed, glaring at
Bickley. "Well, tomorrow you shall see what I can do. Oh! why do
I grow angry with this fool? For the rest, yes, they must drown.
What does it matter? Their end will be swift; some few minutes of
terror, that is all, and in one short century every one of them
would have been dead."
An expression of horror gathered on Bastin's face.
"Do you really mean to murder hundreds of millions of people?"
he asked, in a thick, slow voice.
"I have said that I intend to send them to that heaven or that
hell of which you are so fond of talking, Preacher, somewhat more
quickly than otherwise they would have found their way thither.
They have disappointed me, they have failed; therefore, let them
go and make room for others who will succeed."
"Then you are a greater assassin than any that the world has
bred, or than all of them put together. There is nobody as bad,
even in the Book of Revelation!" shouted Bastin, in a kind of
fury. "Moreover, I am not like Bickley. I know enough of you and
your hellish powers to believe that what you plan, that you can
do."
"I believe it also," sneered Oro. "But how comes it that the
Great One whom you worship does not prevent the deed, if He
exists, and it be evil?"
"He will prevent it!" raved Bastin. "Even now He commands me to
prevent it, and I obey!" Then, drawing the revolver from his
pocket, he pointed it at Oro's breast, adding: "Swear not to
commit this crime, or I will kill you!"
"So the man of peace would become a man of blood," mused Oro,
"and kill that I may not kill for the good of the world? Why,
what is the matter with that toy of yours, Preacher?" and he
pointed to the pistol.
Well might he ask, for as he spoke the revolver flew out of
Bastin's hand. High into the air it flew, and as it went
discharged itself, all the six chambers of it, in rapid
succession, while Bastin stood staring at his arm and hand which
he seemed unable to withdraw.
"Do you still threaten me with that outstretched hand,
Preacher?" mocked Oro.
"I can't move it," said Bastin; "it seems turned to stone."
"Be thankful that you also are not turned to stone. But,
because your courage pleases me, I will spare you, yes, and will
advance you in my New Kingdom. What shall you be? Controller of
Religions, I think, since all the qualities that a high priest
should have are yours--faith, fanaticism and folly."
"It is very strange," said Bastin, "but all of a sudden my arm
and hand are quite well again. I suppose it must have been 'pins
and needles' or something of that sort which made me throw away
the pistol and pull the trigger when I didn't mean to do so."
Then he went to fetch that article which had fallen beyond the
dais, and quite forgot his intention of executing Oro in the
interest of testing its mechanism, which proved to be destroyed.
To his proposed appointment he made no illusion. If he
comprehended what was meant, which I doubt, he took it as a joke.
"Hearken all of you," said Oro, lifting his head suddenly, for
while Bastin recovered the revolver he had been brooding. "The
great thing which I shall do tomorrow must be witnessed by you
because thereby only can you come to understand my powers. Also
yonder where I bring it about in the bowels of the earth, you
will be safer than elsewhere, since when and perhaps before it
happens, the whole world will heave and shake and tremble, and I
know not what may chance, even in these caves. For this reason
also, do not forget to bring the little hound with you, since him
least of all of you would I see come to harm, perhaps because
once, hundreds of generations ago as you reckon time, I had a dog
very like to him. Your mother loved him much, Yva, and when she
died, this dog died also. He lies embalmed with her on her coffin
yonder in the temple, and yesterday I went to look at both of
them. The beasts are wonderfully alike, which shows the
everlastingness of blood."
He paused a while, lost in thought, then continued: "After the
deed is done I'll speak with you and you shall choose, Strangers,
whether you will die your own masters, or live on to serve me.
Now there is one problem that is left to me to solve--whether I
can save a certain land--do not ask which it is, Humphrey, though
I see the question in your eyes--or must let it go with the rest.
I only answer you that I will do my best because you love it. So
farewell for a while, and, Preacher, be advised by me and do not
aim too high again."
"It doesn't matter where I aim," answered Bastin sturdily, "or
whether I hit or miss, since there is something much bigger than
me waiting to deal with you. The countries that you think you are
going to destroy will sleep quite as well tomorrow as they do
tonight, Oro."
"Much better, I think, Preacher, since by then they will have
left sorrow and pain and wickedness and war far behind them."
"Where are we to go?" I asked.
"The Lady Yva will show you," he answered, waving his hand, and
once more bent over his endless calculations.
Yva beckoned to us and we turned and followed her down the
hall. She led us to a street near the gateway of the temple and
thence into one of the houses. There was a portico to it leading
to a court out of which opened rooms somewhat in the Pompeian
fashion. We did not enter the rooms, for at the end of the court
were a metal table and three couches also of metal, on which were
spread rich-looking rugs. Whence these came I do not know and
never asked, but I remember that they were very beautiful and
soft as velvet.
"Here you may sleep," she said, "if sleep you can, and eat of
the food that you have brought with you. Tomorrow early I will
call you when it is time for us to start upon our journey into
the bowels of the earth."
"I don't want to go any deeper than we are," said Bastin
doubtfully.
"I think that none of us want to go, Bastin," she answered with
a sigh. "Yet go we must. I pray of you, anger the Lord Oro no
more on this or any other matter. In your folly you tried to kill
him, and as it chanced he bore it well because he loves courage.
But another time he may strike back, and then, Bastin--"
"I am not afraid of him," he answered, "but I do not like
tunnels. Still, perhaps it would be better to accompany you than
to be left in this place alone. Now I will unpack the food."
Yva turned to go.
"I must leave you," she said, "since my father needs my help.
The matter has to do with the Force that he would let loose
tomorrow, and its measurements; also with the preparation of the
robes that we must wear lest it should harm us in its leap."
Something in her eyes told me that she wished me to follow her,
and I did so. Outside the portico where we stood in the desolate,
lighted street, she halted.
"If you are not afraid," she said, "meet me at midnight by the
statue of Fate in the great temple, for I would speak with you,
Humphrey, where, if anywhere, we may be alone."
"I will come, Yva."
"You know the road, and the gates are open, Humphrey."
Then she gave me her hand to kiss and glided away. I returned
to the others and we ate, somewhat sparingly, for we wished to
save our food in case of need, and having drunk of the Life-
water, were not hungry. Also we talked a little, but by common
consent avoided the subject of the morrow and what it might bring
forth.
We knew that terrible things were afoot, but lacking any
knowledge of what these might be, thought it useless to discuss
them. Indeed we were too depressed, so much so that even Bastin
and Bickley ceased from arguing. The latter was so overcome by
the exhibition of Oro's powers when he caused the pistol to leap
into the air and discharge itself, that he could not even pluck
up courage to laugh at the failure of Bastin's efforts to do
justice on the old Super-man, or rather to prevent him from
attempting a colossal crime.
At length we lay down on the couches to rest, Bastin remarking
that he wished he could turn off the light, also that he did not
in the least regret having tried to kill Oro. Sleep seemed to
come to the others quickly, but I could only doze, to wake up
from time to time. Of this I was not sorry, since whenever I
dropped off dreams seemed to pursue me. For the most part they
were of my dead wife. She appeared to be trying to console me for
some loss, but the strange thing was that sometimes she spoke
with her own voice and sometimes with Yva's, and sometimes looked
at me with her own eyes and sometimes with those of Yva. I
remember nothing else about these dreams, which were very
confused.
After one of them, the most vivid of all, I awoke and looked at
my watch. It was half-past eleven, almost time for me to be
starting. The other two seemed to be fast asleep. Presently I
rose and crept down the court without waking them. Outside the
portico, which by the way was a curious example of the survival
of custom in architecture, since none was needed in that
weatherless place, I turned to the right and followed the wide
street to the temple enclosure. Through the pillared courts I
went, my footsteps, although I walked as softly as I could,
echoing loudly in that intense silence, through the great doors
into the utter solitude of the vast and perfect fane.
Words can not tell the loneliness of that place. It flowed over
me like a sea and seemed to swallow up my being, so that even the
wildest and most dangerous beast would have been welcome as a
companion. I was as terrified as a child that wakes to find
itself deserted in the dark. Also an uncanny sense of terrors to
come oppressed me, till I could have cried aloud if only to hear
the sound of a mortal voice. Yonder was the grim statue of Fate,
the Oracle of the Kings of the Sons of Wisdom, which was believed
to bow its stony head in answer to their prayers. I ran to it,
eager for its terrible shelter, for on either side of it were
figures of human beings. Even their cold marble was company of a
sort, though alas! over all frowned Fate.
Let anyone imagine himself standing alone beneath the dome of
St. Paul's; in the centre of that cathedral brilliant with
mysterious light, and stretched all about it a London that had
been dead and absolutely unpeopled for tens of thousands of
years. If he can do this he will gather some idea of my physical
state. Let him add to his mind-picture a knowledge that on the
following day something was to happen not unlike the end of the
world, as prognosticated by the Book of Revelation and by most
astronomers, and he will have some idea of my mental
perturbations. Add to the mixture a most mystic yet very real
love affair and an assignation before that symbol of the cold
fate which seems to sway the universes down to the tiniest detail
of individual lives, and he may begin to understand what I,
Humphrey Arbuthnot, experienced during my vigil in this sanctuary
of a vanished race.
It seemed long before Yva came, but at last she did come. I
caught sight of her far away beyond the temple gate, flitting
through the unholy brightness of the pillared courts like a white
moth at night and seeming quite as small. She approached; now she
was as a ghost, and then drawing near, changed into a living,
breathing, lovely woman. I opened my arms, and with something
like a sob she sank into them and we kissed as mortals do.
"I could not come more quickly," she said. "The Lord Oro needed
me, and those calculations were long and difficult. Also twice he
must visit the place whither we shall go tomorrow, and that took
time."
"Then it is close at hand?" I said.
"Humphrey, be not foolish. Do you not remember, who have
travelled with him, that Oro can throw his soul afar and bring it
back again laden with knowledge, as the feet of a bee are laden
with golden dust? Well, he went and went again, and I must wait.
And then the robes and shields; they must be prepared by his arts
and mine. Oh! ask not what they are, there is no time to tell,
and it matters nothing. Some folk are wise and some are foolish,
but all which matters is that within them flows the blood of life
and that life breeds love, and that love, as I believe, although
Oro does not, breeds immortality. And if so, what is Time but as
a grain of sand upon the shore?"
"This, Yva; it is ours, who can count on nothing else."
"Oh! Humphrey, if I thought that, no more wretched creature
would breathe tonight upon this great world."
"What do you mean?" I asked, growing fearful, more at her
manner and her look than at her words.
"Nothing, nothing, except that Time is so very short. A kiss, a
touch, a little light and a little darkness, and it is gone. Ask
my father Oro who has lived a thousand years and slept for tens
of thousands, as I have, and he will say the same. It is against
Time that he fights; he who, believing in nothing beyond, will
inherit nothing, as Bastin says; he to whom Time has brought
nothing save a passing, blood-stained greatness, and triumph
ending in darkness and disaster, and hope that will surely suffer
hope's eclipse, and power that must lay down its coronet in
dust."
"And what has it brought to you, Yva, beyond a fair body and a
soul of strength?"
"It has brought a spirit, Humphrey. Between them the body and
the soul have bred a spirit, and in the fires of tribulation from
that spirit has been distilled the essence of eternal love. That
is Time's gift to me, and therefore, although still he rules me
here, I mock at Fate," and she waved her hand with a gesture of
defiance at the stern-faced, sexless effigy which sat above us,
the sword across its knees.
"Look! Look!" she went on in a swelling voice of music,
pointing to the statues of the dotard and the beauteous woman.
"They implore Fate, they worship Fate. I do not implore, I do not
worship or ask a sign as even Oro does and as did his
forefathers. I rise above and triumph. As Fate, the god of my
people, sets his foot upon the sun, so I set my foot upon Fate,
and thence, like a swimmer from a rock, leap into the waters of
Immortality."
I looked at her whose presence, as happened from time to time,
had grown majestic beyond that of woman; I studied her deep eyes
which were full of lights, not of this world, and I grew afraid.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "Yva, you talk like one who has
finished with life."
"It passes," she answered quickly. "Life passes like breath
fading from a mirror. So should all talk who breathe beneath the
sun."
"Yes, Yva, but if you went and left me still breathing on that
mocking glass--"
"If so, what of it? Will not your breath fade also and join
mine where all vapours go? Or if it were yours that faded and
mine that remained for some few hours, is it not the same? I
think, Humphrey, that already you have seen a beloved breath melt
from the glass of life," she added, looking at me earnestly.
I bowed my head and answered:
"Yes, and therefore I am ashamed."
"Oh! why should you be ashamed, Humphrey, who are not sure but
that two breaths may yet be one breath? How do you know that
there is a difference between them?"
"You drive me mad, Yva. I cannot understand."
"Nor can I altogether, Humphrey. Why should I, seeing that I am
no more than woman, as you are no more than man? I would always
have you remember, Humphrey, that I am no spirit or sorceress,
but just a woman--like her you lost."
I looked at her doubtfully and answered:
"Women do not sleep for two hundred thousand years. Women do
not take dream journeys to the stars. Women do not make the dead
past live again before the watcher's eyes. Their hair does not
glimmer in the dusk nor do their bodies gleam, nor have they such
strength of soul or eyes so wonderful, or loveliness so great."
These words appeared to distress her who, as it seemed to me,
was above all things anxious to prove herself woman and no more.
"All these qualities are nothing, Humphrey," she cried. "As for
the beauty, such as it is, it comes to me with my blood, and with
it the glitter of my hair which is the heritage of those who for
generations have drunk of the Life-water. My mother was lovelier
than I, as was her mother, or so I have heard, since only the
fairest were the wives of the Kings of the Children of Wisdom.
For the rest, such arts as I have spring not from magic, but from
knowledge which your people will acquire in days to come, that
is, if Oro spares them. Surely you above all should know that I
am only woman," she added very slowly and searching my face with
her eyes.
"Why, Yva? During the little while that we have been together I
have seen much which makes me doubt. Even Bickley the sceptic
doubts also."
"I will tell you, though I am not sure that you will believe
me." She glanced about her as though she were frightened lest
someone should overhear her words or read her thoughts. Then she
stretched out her hands and drawing my head towards her, put her
lips to my ear and whispered:
"Because once you saw me die, as women often die--giving life
for life."
"I saw you die?" I gasped.
She nodded, then continued to whisper in my ear, not in her own
voice, but another's:
"Go where you seem called to go, far away. Oh! the wonderful
place in which you will find me, not knowing that you have found
me. Good-bye for a little while; only for a little while, my own,
my own!"
I knew the voice as I knew the words, and knowing, I think that
I should have fallen to the ground, had she not supported me with
her strong arms.
"Who told you?" I stammered. "Was it Bickley or Bastin? They
knew, though neither of them heard those holy words."
"Not Bickley nor Bastin," she answered, shaking her head, "no,
nor you yourself, awake or sleeping, though once, by the lake
yonder, you said to me that when a certain one lay dying, she
bade you seek her elsewhere, for certainly you would find her.
Humphrey, I cannot say who told me those words because I do not
know. I think they are a memory, Humphrey!"
"That would mean that you, Yva, are the same as one who was--
not called Yva."
"The same as one who was called Natalie, Humphrey," she replied
in solemn accents. "One whom you loved and whom you lost."
"Then you think that we live again upon this earth?"
"Again and yet again, until the time comes for us to leave the
earth for ever. Of this, indeed, I am sure, for that knowledge
was part of the secret wisdom of my people."
"But you were not dead. You only slept."
"The sleep was a death-sleep which went by like a flash, yes,
in an instant, or so it seemed. Only the shell of the body
remained preserved by mortal arts, and when the returning spirit
and the light of life were poured into it again, it awoke. But
during this long death-sleep, that spirit may have spoken through
other lips and that light may have shone through other eyes,
though of these I remember nothing."
"Then that dream of our visit to a certain star may be no
dream?"
"I think no dream, and you, too, have thought as much."
"In a way, yes, Yva. But I could not believe and turned from
what I held to be a phantasy."
"It was natural, Humphrey, that you should not believe.
Hearken! In this temple a while ago I showed you a picture of
myself and of a man who loved me and whom I loved, and of his
death at Oro's hands. Did you note anything about that man?"
"Bickley did," I answered. "Was he right?"
"I think that he was right, since otherwise I should not have
loved you, Humphrey."
"I remember nothing of that man, Yva."
"It is probable that you would not, since you and he are very
far apart, while between you and him flow wide seas of death,
wherein are set islands of life; perhaps many of them. But I
remember much who seem to have left him but a very little while
ago."
"When you awoke in your coffin and threw your arms about me,
what did you think, Yva?"
"I thought you were that man, Humphrey."
There was silence between us and in that silence the truth came
home to me. Then there before the effigy of Fate and in the
desolate, glowing temple we plighted anew our troth made holy by
a past. that thus so wonderfully lived again.
Of this consecrated hour I say no more. Let each picture it as
he will. A glory as of heaven fell upon us and in it we dwelt a
space.
"Beloved," she whispered at length in a voice that was choked
as though with tears, "if it chances that we should be separated
again for a little while, you will not grieve over much?"
"Knowing all I should try not to grieve, Yva, seeing that in
truth we never can be parted. But do you mean that I shall die?"
"Being mortal either of us might seem to die, Humphrey," and
she bent her head as though to hide her face. "You know we go
into dangers this day."
"Does Oro really purpose to destroy much of the world and has
he in truth the power, Yva?"
"He does so purpose and most certainly he has the power,
unless--unless some other Power should stay his hand."
"What other power, Yva?"
"Oh! perhaps that which you worship, that which is called Love.
The love of man may avert the massacre of men. I hope so with all
my heart. Hist! Oro comes. I feel, I know that he comes, though
not in search of us who are very far from his thought tonight.
Follow me. Swiftly."
She sped across the temple to where a chapel opened out of it,
which was full of the statues of dead kings, for here was the
entrance to their burial vault. We reached it and hid behind the
base of one of these statues. By standing to our full height,
without being seen we still could see between the feet of the
statue that stood upon a pedestal.
Then Oro came.
