Across the Zodiac Read online

  CHAPTER XXVI - TWILIGHT.

  I was, perhaps, the only member of the assembly to whom the doomed manwas not personally known, and to all of us the tie which had beensevered was one at least as close as that of natural brotherhood onEarth.

  How long the pause lasted--how, or why, or when we resumed our seats,even I knew not. The Shrine was unveiled, and Esmo's next colleaguespoke again--

  "A seat among the elders has been three days vacant by the departureof one well known and dear to all. His colleagues have considered howbest it may be filled. The member they have selected is of theyoungest in experience here; but from the first moment of hisinitiation it was evident to us that more than half the learning ofthe Starlight had been his before. Nothing could so deeply confirm ourjoy and confidence in that lore, as to find that in another world thetruths we hold dearest are held with equal faith, that many of ourdeepest secrets have there been sought and discovered by societies notunlike our own. For that reason, and because of that House, whereofnow but two members are left us, he is by wedlock and adoption thethird, the elder brethren have unanimously resolved to recommend toClavelta, and to the Children of the Star, that this seat," and hepointed to the vacant place, "shall be filled by him who has but nowexpressed, with a warmth seldom shown in this place, his love andtrust for the daughter of our Chief, the descendant of our Founder."

  Certainly not on my own account, but from the earnest attachment anddevotion they felt for Esmo, both personally as a long-tried anddeservedly revered Chief, and as almost the last representative of alineage so profoundly loved and honoured, the approval of all presentwas expressed with a sudden and eager warmth which deeply affected me;the more that it expressed an hereditary regard and esteem, not formyself but for Eveena, rarely or never, even among the Zveltau, paidto a woman. Esmo bent his head in assent, and then, addressing me byname, called me to the foot of the platform.

  He held in his hand the golden sash and rose-coloured wand whichmarked the rank about to be bestowed on me. I felt very deeply my ownincompetence and ignorance; and even had I valued more the profferedhonour, I should have been bound to decline it. But at the third wordI spoke, I was silenced with a stern though perfectly calm severity.Flinging back the fold of his robe that covered his left arm, with agesture that placed the Signet full before my eyes, he said--

  "You have sworn obedience."

  A soldier's instinct or habit, the mesmeric command of Esmo's glance,and the awe, due less to my own feeling than to the infectiousreverence of others, which the symbols and the oaths of the Orderextorted, left me no further will to resist. At the foot of the ThroneI received the investiture of my new rank; and as I rose and faced mybrethren, every hand was lifted to the lips, every head bent insalutation of their new leader. Then, as I passed to the extreme placeon the right, they came forward to grasp my hand and utter a few wordsof sympathy and kindness, in which a frank spirit of affectionatecomradeship, that reminded me forcibly of the mess-tent and thebivouac fire, was mingled with the sense of a deeper and more sacredtie.

  Scarcely had we resumed our places than a startling incident gave anew turn to the scene. Approaching the barrier, a woman, veiled, butwearing the sash and star, knelt for a moment to the presence of theArch-Teacher, and then, as the barrier was thrown open by thesentries, came up to the dais.

  "She," said the new-comer, "has a message for you, Clavelta, for yourCouncil, and particularly for the last of its members."

  "It is well," he answered.

  The messenger took her seat among the Initiates, and Esmo dismissedthe assembly in the solemn form employed on the former occasion. Then,followed by the twelve, and guided by the messenger (the glovedfingers of whose left hand, as I observed, he very slightly touchedwith his own right), he passed by another door out of the Hall, andalong one of the many passages of the subterrene Temple, into achamber resembling in every respect an apartment in an ordinaryresidence. Here, with her veil, as is permitted only to maidenhood,drawn back from her face, but covering almost entirely her neck andbosom, and clad in the vestal white, reclined with eyes nearly closeda young girl, in whose countenance a beauty almost spiritual wasenhanced rather than marred by signs of physical ill-health painfullyunmistakable. Warning us back with a slight movement of his hand, Esmoapproached her. Our presence had at first seemed to cast her intoalmost convulsive agitation; but under his steady gaze and themovement of his hands, she lapsed almost instantly into what appearedto be profound slumber.

  * * * * *

  The practical information that concerned the present peril menacingthe Order delivered, and when it was plain that no further revelationor counsel was to be expected on this all-important topic, Esmobeckoned to me, taking my hand in his own and placing it very gentlyand carefully in that of the unconscious sybil. The effect, however,was startling. Without unclosing her eyes, she sprang into a sittingposture and clasped my hand almost convulsively with her own long,thin all but transparent fingers. Turning her face to mine, andseeming, though her eyes were closed, as if she looked intently intoit, she murmured words at first unintelligible, but which seemed bydegrees to bear clearer and clearer reference to some of the stormyscenes of my youth in another world. Then--as one looking uponpictures but partially intelligible to her, and commenting on them asa girl who had never seen or known the passions and the mutual enmityof men--she startled me by breaking into the kind of chant in whichthe peculiar verse of her language is commonly delivered. My ownthought of the moment was not her guide. The Moslem battle-cry hadrung too often in my ears ever to be forgotten; but up to that momentI had never recalled to memory the words in which on my last field Iretorted upon my Arab comrades, when flinching from a third chargeagainst those terrible "sons of Eblis," whose stubborn courage hadalready twice hurled us back in confusion and disgrace with a hundredempty saddles. At first her tone was one of simple amaze and horror.It softened afterwards into wonder and perplexity, and theoft-repeated rebuke or curse was on its last recurrence spoken withmore of pitying tenderness and regret than of severity:--

  "What! those are human bosoms whereon the brute hath trod! What! through the storm of slaughter rings the appeal to God! Through the smoke and flash of battle a single form is shown; O'er clang and crash and rattle peals out one trumpet-tone-- 'Strike, for Allah and the Prophet! let Eblis take his own!'

  "Strange! the soul that, fresh from carnage, quailed not alone to face The unfathomed depths of Darkness, the solitudes of Space! Strange! the smile of scorn, while nerveless dropped the sword-arm from the sting, On the death that scowled at distance, on the closing murder-ring. Strange! no crimson stain on conscience from the hand in gore imbrued! But Death haunts the death-dealer; blood taints the life of blood!

  "Strange! the arm that smote and spared not in the tempest of the strife, Quivers with pitying terror--clings, for a maiden's life! Strange! the heart steel-hard to death-shrieks by girlish tears subdued; The falcon's sheathless talons among the esve's brood! But Death haunts the death-dealer; blood taints the life of blood.

  "The breast for woman's peril that dared the despot's ire, Shall dauntless front, and scathless, the closing curve of fire. The heart, by household treason stung home, that can forgive, Shall brave a woman's hatred, a woman's wiles, and live.

  "A woman's well-won fealty shall give the life he gave, Love shall redeem the loving, and Sacrifice shall save. But--God heal the tortured spirit, God calm the maddened mood; For Death haunts the death-dealer; blood taints the life of blood!"

  Relaxing but not releasing her grasp of my own hand, she felt aboutwith her left till Esmo gently placed his own therein. Then, in a toneat first of deep and passionate anxiety and eagerness, passing intoone of regretful admiration, and varying with the purport of eachutterance, she broke into another chant, in which were repeated overand again phrases familiar in the traditions and prophetic or symbolicformularies of the Zinta:--

 
"Ever on deadliest peril shines the Star with steadiest ray; Ever quail the fiercest hunters when Kargynda turns at bay. Close, Children of the Starlight! close, for the Emerald Throne! Close round the life that closeth your life within the zone! Rests the Golden Circle's glory, rests the silver gleam on her Who shall rein Kargynda's fury with a thread of gossamer. He metes not mortal measure, He pays not human price, Who crowns that life's devotion with the death of sacrifice! Woe worth the moment's panic; woe worth the victory won! But the Night is near the breaking when the Stranger claims his own.

  "Ever on deadliest peril shines the Star with steadiest ray; Ever quail the fiercest hunters when Kargynda turns at bay. No life is worth the living that counts each fleeting breath; No eyes from God averted can meet the eyes of Death. Vague fear and spectral terrors haunt the soul that dwells in shade, Nor e'er can crimson conscience confront the crimson blade. From a cloud of shame and sorrow breaks the Light that shines afar, And cold and dark the household spark that lit the Silver Star. The triumph is a death-march; the victor's voice a moan:--But the Powers of Night are broken when the Stranger wins his own!

  "Ever in blackest midnight shines the Star with brightest ray; Woe to them that hunt the theme if Kargynda cross the way! In the Home of Peace, Clavelta, can our fears thy spirit move? Look down! whence comes the rescue to the household of thy love? As the All-Commander's lightning falls the Vengeance from above! A shriek from thousand voices; a thunder crash; a groan; A thousand homes in mourning--a thousand deaths in one! Woe to the Sons of Darkness, for the Stranger wields his own! Oh, hide that scene of horror in the deepest shades of night! Look upward to the welkin, where the Vessel fades from sight ... But the Veil is rent for ever by the Hand that veiled the Shrine; And, on a peace of ages, the Star of Peace shall shine!"

  Esmo listened with the anxious attention of one who believed that herevery word had a real and literal meaning; and his face wasoverclouded with a calm but deep sadness, which testified to thenature of the impression made on his mind by language that hardlyconveyed to my own more than a dim and general prediction of victory,won through scenes of trial and trouble. But when she had closed, aquiet satisfaction in what seemed to be the final promise of triumphto the Star, at whatever cost to the noblest of its adherents, was allthat I could trace in his countenance.

  The sibyl fell back as the last word passed her lips, with a sigh ofrelief, into what was evidently a profound and insensible sleep. Thosearound me must have witnessed such scenes at least as often as I; butit was plain that the impression made, even on the experienced Chiefsof the Order, was far deeper than had affected myself. I should hardlyhave been able to remember the words of the prophecy, but forsubsequent conversation thereon with Eveena, when one part had beenfulfilled and the rest was on the eve of a too terribly truthfulfulfilment; but for the events that fixed their prediction in mymind--it may be in terms a little more precise than those actuallyemployed, though I have endeavoured to record these with conscientiousaccuracy.

  Led by Esmo, we passed along another gallery into the small chamberwhere met the secret Council of the Order, and long and anxious werethe debates wherein the revelations of the dreamer were treated asconveying the most certain and unquestionable warning. The first raysof morning were stealing through the mists into the peristyle of ourhost's dwelling before I re-entered Eveena's chamber. She wasslumbering, but restlessly, and so lightly that she sprang up at onceon my entrance. For a few moments all other thought was lost in thedelight of my return after an absence whose very length had alarmedher, despite her father's previous assurance. But as at last she drewback sufficiently to look into my face, its expression seemed tostartle and sadden her. The questions that sprang to her lips diedthere, as she probably saw in my eyes a look not only of weariness andperplexity, but of profound reluctance to speak of what had passed.Expressing her sympathy only by look and touch, she began to unclaspmy robe at the throat, aware that my only wish was for rest, andcontent to postpone her own anxiety and natural curiosity. Then, asthe golden sash which I had not removed met her sight, she looked upfor a moment with a glance of natural pride and fondness, intenselygratified by the highly-prized honour paid to her husband; then bentlow and kissed my hand with the gesture wherewith the presence of asuperior is acknowledged by the members of the Order. "Used as myearlier life was, Eveena, to the Eastern prostrations of my own world,I hate all that recals them; and if I must accept, as I fulfil, theseforms in the Halls of the Zinta, let me never be reminded of them byyou."