 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org H. Rider Haggard Asha The Return of She Chapter 18 The Third Odeal An hour, two hours passed, while we strove to rest in our sleeping place, but could not, for some influence disturbed us. Why does not Asha come, asked Leo at length, pausing in his walk up and down the room? I want to see her again. I cannot bear to be apart from her. I feel as though she were drawing me to her. How can I tell you? Ask Oros. He is outside the door. So he went and asked him, but Oros only smiled and answered that Isiah had not entered her chamber, so doubtless she must still remain in the sanctuary. Then I am going to look for her. Come, Oros, and you too, Oros. Oros bowed, but declined, saying that he was bitten to bite at our door, adding that we, to whom all the paths were open, could return to the sanctuary if we thought well. I do think well, replied Leo sharply. Will you come, Oros, or shall I go without you? I hesitated. The sanctuary was a public place, it is true, but Asha had said that she decide to be alone there for a while. Without more words, however, Leo shrugged his shoulders and started. You will never find your way, I said, and followed him. We went down the long passages that were dimly lighted with lamps, and came to the gallery. Here we found no lamps. Still, we grouped our way to the great wooden doors. They were shut, but Leo pushed upon them impatiently, and one of them swung open a little, so that we could squeeze our souls between them. As we passed, it closed noiselessly behind us. Now, we should have been in the sanctuary, and in the full blaze of those awful columns of living fire, but they were out, or we had strayed elsewhere. At least, the darkness was intense. We tried to work our way back to the doors again, but could not. We were lost. More, something oppressed us. We did not dare to speak. We went on a few paces and stopped, for we became aware that we were not alone. Indeed, it seemed to me that we stood in the midst of a thronging multitude, but not of men and women. Beings pressed about us. We could feel their ropes, yet could not touch them. We could feel their breath, but it was cold. The air stirred all round us as they passed to and fro, passed in endless numbers. It was as though we had entered a cathedral, filled with the vast congregation of all the dead who had once worshipped there. We grew afraid. My face was damp with fear. The hair stood up upon my head. We seemed to have wandered into a hall of the shades. At length, light appeared far away, and we saw that it emanated from the two pillars of fire which had burned on either side of the shrine, that of a sudden became luminous. So we were in the sanctuary, and still near to the doors. Now those pillars were not bright. They were low and lurid. The rays from them scarcely reached us, standing in the dense shadow. But if we could not be seen in them, we still could see. Look! Jonder sat Asha on a throne, and oh! She was awful in her death-like majesty. The blue light of the sunken collions played upon her, and in it she sat erect, with such a face and mean of pride as no human creature ever wore. Power seemed to flow from her. Yes, it flowed from those wide-set-glittering eyes, like light from jewels. She seemed a queen of death receiving homage from the dead. More, she was receiving homage from the dead or living. I know not which. For as I thought it, a shadowy shape arose before the throne, and bent the knee to her. Then another, and another, and another. As each vague being appeared and bowed its starry head, she raised her scepter in answering salutation. We could hear the distant tinkle of the cistern bells. The only sound in all that place. Yes, and see her lips move, though no whisper reached us from them. Surely, spirits were worshipping her. We gripped each other. We shrank back and found the door. It gave to our push. Now we were in the passages again, and now we had reached our room. At its entrance, Oros was standing as we had left him. He greeted us with his fixed smile, taking no note of the terror written on our faces. We passed him, and entering the room stared at each other. What is she, Gospele, an angel? Yes, I answered. Something of that sort. But to myself I thought that there are doubtless many kinds of angels. And what were those shadows doing? He asked again. Welcoming her after her transformation, I suppose. But perhaps they were not shadows. Only priests disguised and conducting some secret ceremonial. Leo shrugged his shoulders, but made no other answer. At length the door opened, and Oros entering said that the Hesia commanded our presence in her chamber. So, still oppressed with fear and wonder, for what we had seen was perhaps more dreadful than anything that had gone before. We went to find Asha, seated and looking somewhat weary, but otherwise unchanged. With her was the priestess Papave, who had just unrobed her of the royal mantle which she wore in the sanctuary. Asha beckoned Leon to her, taking his hand and searching his face with her eyes, not without anxiety as I thought. Now I turned, purposing to leave them alone, but she saw and said to me smiling, Why wouldst thou forsake us, Holly, to go back to the sanctuary once more? And she looked at me with meaning in her glance. Has thou questions to ask of the stature of the Mother Donder that thou loves the place so much? They say it speaks, telling of the future to those who dare to kneel beside it, uncompunied from night till dawn. Yet I have often done so, but to me it has never spoken, though none long to learn the future more. I made no answer, nor did she seem to expect any, for she went on at once. Nay, bide here, and let us have done with all sad and solemn thoughts. We three will sub together as of old, and for a while forget our fears and cares, and be happy as children who know not sin and death, or that change which is death indeed. Or else await my Lord without. Papave, I will call thee later to disrobe me, till then let none disturb us. The room that Asha inhabited was not very large, as we saw by the hanging lamps with which it was lighted. It was plainly, though richly furnished, the rock walls being covered with tapestries, and the tables and chairs inlaid with silver. But the only token that here a woman had her home was that about it stood several bowls of flowers. One of these, I remember, was filled with the delicate hair-bells I had admired, dug up roots and all, and set in moss. A poor place, said Asha, yet better than that in which I dwelt those two thousand years, awaiting thy coming, Leo, for, see, beyond it is a garden wherein I sit. And she sank down upon a couch by the table, motioning to us to take our places opposite to her. The meal was simple. For us, eggs boiled hard and cold venison. For her, milk, some little cakes of floor, and the mountain berries. Presently, Leo rose, and threw off his gorgeous purple broided robe, which is still wool, and cast upon a chair the crook-headed scepter that Orus had again thrust into his hand. Asha smiled, as she did so, saying, It would seem that thou holds these sacred emblems in but small respect. Very small, he answered, Thou heardest my words in the sanctuary, Asha, so let us make a pact. Thy religion I do not understand, but I understand my own, and not even for thy sake will I take part in what I hold to be idolatry. Now I thought that she would be angered by this plain speaking, but she only bowed her head and answered meekly. Thy will is mine, Leo, though it will not be easy always to explain thy absence from the ceremonies in the temple. Yet thou hast to write with thine own faith, which doubtless is mine also. How can that be, he asked, looking up? Because all great faith are the same. Changed a little to suit the needs of passing times and peoples, what taught that of Egypt, which in a fashion we still follow here, that hidden in a multitude of manifestations, one power, great and good, rules all the universes, that the holy shall inherit a life eternal, and the vile eternal death, that men shall be shaped and judged by their own hearts and deeds, and here and hereafter drink of the cup which they have brewed, that their real home is not on earth, but beyond the earth, where all riddles shall be answered, and all sorrows cease. Say, does thou believe in these things as I do? I, Arsha, but Hes or Isis is thy goddess, for hast thou not told us tales of thy dealings with her in the past, and did we not hear thee make thy prayer to her? Who then is this goddess Hes? No, Leo, that she is what I named her, nature's soul, no divinity, but the secret spirit of the world, that universal motherhood whose symbol thou hast seen yonder, and in whose mysteries lie hid all earthly life and knowledge. Thus, then, this merciful motherhood follow her votaries with death and evil, as thou says she has followed thee for thy obedience, and me and another because of some unnatural wiles broken long ago? Leo asked quietly. Resting her arm upon the table, Arsha looked at him with somber eyes and answered, In that faith of thine of which thou speaks, are there, perhaps, two gods, each having many ministers, a god of good and a god of evil, an Osiris and a set. He nodded. I thought it. And the god of ill is strong, is he not, and can put on the shape of good? Tell me then, Leo, in the world that is today, where all I know so little, has thou ever heard of frail souls, who for some earthly bribe have sold themselves to that evil one, or to his minister, and been paid their prize in bitterness and anguish? All wicked folk do as much in this form or in that, he answered. And if once there lived a woman, who was mad with the thirst for beauty, for life, for wisdom, and for love, might she not? Oh, might she not, perhaps, sell herself to the god called set, or one of his angels? Asha, dost thou mean? And Leo rose, speaking in a voice that was full of fear, that thou art such a woman? And if so, she asked, also, rising, and drawing slowly near to him. If so, he answered hoarsely, if so, I think that perhaps we had best fulfil our fates apart. Ah, she said with a little scream of pain, as though a knife had stabbed her. Wouldst thou a way to attain it? I tell thee that thou canst not leave me. I have power above all men thou should know it, whom once I slew. Nay, thou hast no memory, poor creature of a breath, and I, I remember too well. I will not hold thee dead again. I'll hold thee living. Look now upon my beauty, Leo, and she bent a swaying form towards him, compelling him with her glorious alluring eyes, and be gone if thou canst. Why, thou draw sneerer to me, man, that is not the path of flight. Nay, I will not tempt thee with these common lures. Go, Leo, if thou wilt. Go, my love, and leave me to my loneliness and my sin. Now, at once, a tene will shelter thee till spring, when thou canst cross the mountains and return to thine own world again, and to those things of common life which are thy joy. See, Leo, I veil myself that thou mayst not be tempted, and she, flying the corner of a cloak about her head, then asked a sudden question through it. Didst thou not but now return to the sanctuary with Holly, after I bade thee leave me there alone? Me thought I saw the two of you standing by its doors. Yes, we came to seek thee, her answered, and found more than ye sought, as often chances to the bold. Is it not so? Well, I will that ye should come and see, and protected you where others might have died. What didst thou thereupon the throne, and whose were those forms which we saw bending before thee? He asked Colt, I have ruled in many shapes and lands, Leo. Perhaps they were ancient companions and servitors of mine, come to greet me once again, and to hear my tidings. Or perhaps they were but shadows of thy brain, pictures like those upon the fire, that it pleased me to summon to thy sight, to try thy strength and constancy. Leo, Vinci, know now the truth, that all things are illusions, even that there exist no future and no past, that what has been and what shall be already is eternally. Know that I, Asha, am but a magic wreath, foul when thou ceased me foul, fair when thou ceased me fair, a spirit bubble reflecting a thousand lights in the sunshine of thy smile, grey as dust and gone in the shadow of thy throne. Think of the throne queen before whom the shadowy powers bowed, and worship, for that is I. Think of the hideous wither thing thou source naked on the rock, and flee away, for that is I. Or keep me lovely and adore, knowing all evil scented in my spirit, for that is I. Now, Leo, thou hast the truth, put me from thee forever and forever if thou wilt, and be safe. Or clasp me, clasp me to thy heart, and in payment for my lips and love take my sin upon thy head. Nay, Holly, be thou silent, for now he must judge alone. Leo turned, as I thought, at first to find the door, but it was not so, for it did but walk up and down the room awhile. Then he came back to where Asha stood, and spoke quite simply and in a very quiet voice such as men of his nature often assume in moments of great emotion. Asha, he said, when I saw thee as thou wast, aged and announced how, I clung to thee. Now, when thou hast told me the secret of this unholy pact of thine, when with my eyes, at least, I have seen the reigning amistress of spirits, good or ill. Yet I cling to thee, let thy sin, great or little, whatever it is, be my sin also. In truth, I feel its weight sink to my soul, and become a part of me. And although I have no vision of power or prophecy, I am sure that I shall not escape its punishment. Well, though I be innocent, let me bear it for thy sake, I am content. Asha heard. The cloak slipped from her head, and for a moment she stood silent like one amased, then burst into a passion of sudden tears. Down she went before him, and clinging to his garments, she bowed her stately shape until her forehead touched the ground. Yes, that proud being who was more than mortal, whose nostrils but now had drunk the incense of the homage of ghosts and spirits, humbled herself at this man's feet. With an exclamation of horror, half maddened at the pitch of sight, Leo sprang to one side, then stooping, lifted and led her still weeping to the couch. Thou knows not what thou hast done, Asha said at last. Let all thou sourced on the mountain's crest or in the sanctuary be but visions of the night. Let that tale of an offended goddess be a parable, a fable, if thou wilt. This at least is true, that ages since I sinned for thee and against thee and another, that ages since I bought beauty and life indefinite, wherewith I might win thee and endow thee at a cost which few would dare. That I have paid interest on the depth in mockery, utter loneliness and daily pain which scares could be endured until the bond fell due at last and must be satisfied. Yes, how may I not tell thee, thou and thou alone stoodst between me and the full discharge of this most dreadful depth, for know that in mercy it is given to us to redeem one another. Now he would have spoken, but with the motion of her hands she bade him be silent and continued. See now, Leo, three great dangers as thy body passed of late upon its journey to my side, the deathhounds, the mountains and the precipice. Know that these were but types and ordained foreshadowings of the last threefold trial of thy soul. From the pursuing passions of a tine which must have undone us both, thou hast escaped victorious. Thou hast endured the desert loneliness of the sands and snows, starving for a comfort that never came. Even when the avalanche thundered round thee, thy faith stood fast as it stood above the pit of flame. While after bitter years of doubt a rushing flood of horror swallowed up thy hopes, as thou didst descend the glacier steep, not knowing what lay beneath that fearful path, so but now and of thine own choice, for very love of me, thou hast plunged hedge-long into an abyss that is deeper far to share its terrors with my spirit. Does thou understand at last? Something, not all, I think, he answered slowly. Surely thou art wrapped in a double veil of blindness, she cried impatiently. Listen again, hadst thou gilded to nature's crying, and rejected me but yesterday, in that foul shape, I must perhaps have lingered for uncounted time, playing the poor part of priestess of a forgotten faith. This was the first temptation, the ordeal of thy flesh. Nay, not the first, the second, for a tine and her luring were the first, but thou wast loyal, and in the magic of thy conquering love, my beauty and my womanhood were reborn. Hadst thou rejected me tonight, when, as I was bidden to do, I showed thee that vision of the sanctuary and confessed to thee my soul's black crime, then hopeless and helpless, unshielded by my earthly power, I must have wandered on into the deep and endless night of solitude. This was the third appointed test, the trial of thy spirit, and by thy steadfastness, Leo, thou hast loosed the hands of destiny from about my throat. Now I am re-enerate in thee, through thee may hope again for some true life beyond, which thou shall share, and yet, and yet, if thou should suffer as well my chance. Then I suffer, and there is an end, broken Leo serenely. Say, for a few things my mind is clear, and there must be justice for us all at last. If I have broken the bond that bound thee, if I have freed thee from some threatening spiritual ill by taking a risk upon my head, well, I have not lived, and if I need be shall not die in vain. So let us have done with all these problems, or rather first answer thou me one. Asha, how was thou changed upon that peak? In flame I left thee, Leo, and in flame I did return, as in flame may help we shall both depart, for perhaps the change was in the eyes of all of you who watched and not in this shape of mine. I have answered, seek to learn no more. One thing I do still seek to learn, Asha, we were betrothed to-night. When wilt thou marry me? Not yet, not yet, she answered hurriedly, her voice quivering as she spoke. Leo, thou must put that hope from thy thoughts a while, and for some few months, a year perhaps, be content to play the part of friend and lover. Why so, he asked with bitter disappointment. Asha, those parts have been mine for many a day, more I grow no younger, and unlike thee shall soon be old. Also life is fleeting, and sometimes I think that I near its end. Speak no such evil omen words, she said, springing from the couch and stamping her sandal foot upon the ground in anger born of fear. Yet thou say'st truth, thou art unfortified against the accidents of time and changed. O horrible, horrible, thou mightst die again and leave me living. Then give me of thy life, Asha. That would I gladly, all of it, couldst thou but repay me with a boon or death to come. O ye poor mortals, she went on, with a sudden burst of passion, ye beseech your gods for the gift of many years, ignorant that ye would sow a seed within your breasts, whence ye must garner ten thousand miseries. Know ye not that this world is indeed the wide house of hell, in whose chambers from time to time the spirit tears in a little while, then weary and aghast speeds wailing to the peace that it is swan. Think then what it is to live on here eternally, and yet be human, to age in soul and see our beloved die and pass to lands, with a we may not hope to follow, to wait while drop by drop the curse of the long centuries falls upon our imperishable being, like water slow dripping on a diamond that it cannot wear, till they be born anew forgetful of us, and again sink from our helpless arms into the void unknowable. Think what it is to see the sins we sin, the tempting look, the word idle or unkind, I, even the selfish thought or struggle, multiple ten thousand fold and more eternal than ourselves, spring up upon the universal bosom of the earth, to be the bane of a million destinies, whilst the everlasting finger writes its endless count, and a cold voice of justice cries in our conscience haunted solitude. Oh, soul unshriven, behold the ripening harvest thy want on hand did scatter, and long in vain for the waters of forgetfulness. Think what it is to have every earthly wisdom yet to burn unsatisfied for the deeper and forbidden draft, to gather up all wealth and power and let them slip again, like children weary of a painted toy, to sweep the harp of fame and madden by its dangling music, to stamp its small beneath our feet, to snatch at pleasure's goblet and find its wine is sand, and at length outworn to cast us down and pray the pitiless gods with whose stolen garment we have wrapped ourselves, to take it back again and suffer us to slink naked to the grave. Such is the life thou askest, Leo, say, wilt thou have it now? If it may be shared with thee, he answered, these woes are born of loneliness, but then our perfect fellowship would turn them into joy. I, she said, while it was permitted to endure, so be it, Leo. In the spring, when the snow smelt, we will journey together to Libya, and there thou shalt be bathed in the fount of life, that forbidden essence of which once thou didst fear to drink. Afterwards I will wed thee. That place is closed for ever, Asha, not to my feet and thine, she answered. Fear not, my love, where this mountain heaped thereon, I would blast a path through it with my eyes and lay its secret bare. Oh, would that thou wasst as I am, for then before tomorrow's sun, we'd watch the rolling pillar thunder by, and thou shouldst taste its glory. But it may not be, hunger or cold can star thee, and water's drown, soars can slay thee, or sickness sap away thy strength. Had it not been for the false attene, who disobeyed my words, as it was fordoomed that she should do, by this day we were across the mountains, or had travelled northward through the frozen desert and the rivers. Now we must await the melting of the snows, for winter is at hand, and in it, as thou knows, no man can live upon their heights. Eight months till April before we can start, and how long to cross the mountains and all the vast distances beyond, and the seas and the swamps of core. Why, all the best, Asha, two years must go before we can even find the place, and he fell to entreating her to let them be wed at once, and journey afterwards. But she said, nay, and nay, and nay, it should not be, till at length, as though fearing his pleading, or that of her own heart, she rose and dismissed us. Ah, my holly, she said to me as we three parted, I promised thee and myself some few hours of rest, and of the happiness of quiet, and thou ceased how my desire has been fulfilled. Those old Egyptians were wont to share their feasts with one grisly skeleton, but here I counted four tonight, that you both could see, and they are named fear, suspense, foreboding, and love denied. Doubtless also, when these are buried, others will come to haunt us, and snutch the poor morsel from our lips. So hath it ever been with me, whose feet misfortune docks, yet I hope on, and now many a barrier lies behind us, and Leo, thou has been tried in the appointed triple fires, and yet proved true. Sweet be thy slumbers, O my love, and sweetest still thy dreams, for, no, my soul shall share them, I bow to thee that tomorrow will be happy, eh, tomorrow, without fail. Why will she not marry me at once, asked Leo, when we were alone in our chamber? Because she is afraid, I answered. End of chapter 18 of Asha the Return of She by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 19 of Asha the Return of She This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Asha the Return of She by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 19 Leo and the Lapid During the weeks that followed these momentous days, often and often I wondered to myself whether a more truly wretched being had ever lived than the woman of the spirit whom we knew as she, has, and Asha. Whether in fact also or in our imagination only, she had arisen from the ashes of her hideous age into the full bloom of perpetual life and beauty inconceivable. These things at least were certain. Asha had achieved the secret of an existence so enduring that for all human purposes it might be called unending. Within certain limitations, such as her utter inability to foresee the future, undoubtedly also she was hindued with powers that can only be described as supernatural. Her rule over the strange community amongst whom she lived was absolute. Indeed its members regarded her as a goddess, and as such she was worshipped. After marvellous adventures, the man who was her very life, I might almost say her soul, whose being was so mysteriously intertwined with hers, whom she loved also with the intensest human passion of which woman can be capable, had sought her out in this hidden corner of the world. More thrice he had proved is an alterable fidelity to her. First by his rejection of the royal and beautiful if undisciplined aton. Secondly by clinging to Asha when she seemed to be repulsive to every natural sense. Thirdly after that homage seen in the sanctuary, though with her unutterable perfections before his eyes this did not appear to be so wonderful. By steadfastness in the face of her terrible avowal, true or false, that she had won her gifts and him through some dim unholy pact with the powers of evil, in the unknown fruits and consequences of which he must be involved as the price of her possession, yet Asha was miserable. Even in her lightest moods it was clear to me that those skeletons at the feast of which she had spoken were her continual companions. Indeed when we were alone she would acknowledge it in dark hints and veiled allegories or illusions. Crushed though her rival the Kanya Aton might be, also she was still jealous of her. Perhaps afraid would be a better word. For some instinct seemed to warn Asha that soon or late her hour would come to Aton again, and that then it would be her own turn to drink of the bitter waters of despair. What troubled her more a thousand fold, however, were her fears for Leo. As may well be understood, to stand in his intimate relationship to this half-divine and marvellous being, and yet not to be allowed so much as to touch her lips, did not conduce to his physical or mental well-being, especially as he knew that the wall of separation must not be climbed for at least two years. Little wonder that Leo lost appetite, grew thin and pale, and could not sleep, or that he implored her continually to rescind her decree and marry him, but on this point Asha was immovable. Instigated there too by Leo, and I may add my own curiosity, when we were alone I questioned her again as to the reasons of this self-denying ordinance. All she would tell me, however, was that between them rose the barrier of Leo's mortality, and that until his physical being had been impregnated with the mysterious virtue of the vapor of life, it was not wise that she should take him as a husband. I asked her why. Seeing that though a long lived one she was still a woman, whereon her face assumed a calm but terrifying smile, and she answered, I'm so sure, my Holly. Tell me, do you women wear such jewels as that set upon my brow? And she pointed to the faint but lambant light which glowed about her forehead. More she began slowly to stroke her abundant hair than her breast and body. Wherever her fingers passed the mystic light was born, until in that darkened room for the dusk was gathering she shimmered from head to foot like the water of a phosphorescent sea, a being glorious yet fearful to behold. Then she waved her hand, and save for the gentle radiance on her brow became as she had been. I'm so sure, my Holly, Asher repeated. Nay, shrink not, that flame will not burn thee. May have thou didst but imagine it, as I have noted thou dost imagine many things. For surely no woman could clothe herself in light and live, nor has so much as the smell of fire passed upon my garments. Then at length my patience was outworn and I grew angry. I am sure of nothing, Asher, I answered, except that thou wilt make us mad with all these tricks and changes. Say, art thou a spirit, then? We are all spirits, she said reflectively, and I perhaps more than some. Who can be certain? Not I, I answered, yet I implore woman or spirit tell me one thing, tell me the truth. In the beginning what was thou to Leo and what was he to thee? She looked at me very solemnly and answered, does my memory deceive me, Holly, or is it written in the first book of the Law of the Hebrews, which once I used to study, that the sons of heaven came down to the daughters of men and found that they were fair? It is so written, I answered. Then, Holly, might it not have chance that once the daughter of heaven came down to a man of earth and loved him well? Might it not chance that for her great sin, she, this high fallen star who had befouled her immortal state for him, was doomed to suffer till at length his love made divine by pain and faithful even to a memory, was permitted to redeem her? Now at length I saw light and sprang up eagerly, but in a cold voice she added, Nay, Holly, cease to question me, for there are things of which I can but speak to thee in figures and imperibles, not to mock and bewilder thee, but because I must. Interpret them as thou wilt. Still Atten thought me no mortal, since she told us that man and spirit may not mate, and there are matters in which I let her judgment weigh with me, as without doubt now as in other lives she and that old shaman her uncle have wisdom, I in foresight, so bid my lord press me no more to wed him, for it gives me pain to say him nay, ah thou knowest not how much, moreover I will declare myself to thee, old friend. Whatever else I be, at least I am too womanly to listen to the pleadings of my best beloved and not myself bemoved. See, I have set a curb upon desire and drawn it till my heart bleeds, but if he pursues me with continual words and looks of burning love, who knoweth but that I shall kindle in his flame and throw the reins of reason to the winds? Oh, then together we might race her down our passions steep, together dare the torrent that rages at its foot, and there perchance bewelmed or torn asunder. Nay, nay, another space of journeying but a little space, and we reach the bridge my wisdom found and cross it safely, and beyond forever ride on at ease through the happy meadows of our love. Then she was silent, nor would she speak more upon the matter. Also, and this was the worst of it, even now I was not sure that she told me the truth, or at any rate all of it, for to Arge's mind truths seem many coloured as the rays of light thrown from the different faces of a cut jewel. We never could be certain which shade of it she was pleased to present, who whether by preference or out of necessity as she herself had said, spoke of such secrets in figures of speech and parables. It is a fact that in this hour I do not know whether Arge's spirit or woman, or as I suspect a blend of both. I do not know the limits of her powers, or if that elaborate story of the beginning of her love for Leo was true, which personally I doubt, or but a fable invented by her mind, and through it as she had hinted, pictured on the flame for her own hidden purposes. I do not know whether when we first saw her on the mountain she was really old and hideous, or did but put on that shape in our eyes in order to test her lover. I do not know whether, as the priest Oros bore witness, which he may well have been bitten to do, her spirit pass into the body of the dead priestess of Hez, or whether when she seemed to perish there so miserably, her body and soul were wafted straight away from the caves of core to this central Asian peak. I do not know why, as she was so powerful, she did not come to seek us instead of leaving us to seek her through so many weary years, though I suggested some superior force forbade her to do more than companion us unseen, watching our every act, reading our every thought, until at length we reached the predestined place and hour. Also as will appear there were other things of which this is not the time to speak whereby I am still more tortured and beplexed. In short I know nothing, except that my existence has been intertangled with one of the great mysteries of the world. To the glorious being called Asha won the secret of life from whatever power holds it in its keeping. That she alleged, although of this remember we have no actual proof, such life was to be attained by bathing in a certain emanation, vapour or essence. That she was possessed by a passion not easy to understand, but terrific in its force and immortal in its nature, concentrated upon one other being and one alone. That through this passion also some angry fate smote her again, again and yet again, making of her countless days a burden, and leading the power and the wisdom which knew all but could foreknow nothing into abysses of anguish, suspense and disappointment, such as heaven be thanked we common men and women are not called upon to plumb. For the rest, should human eyes ever fall upon it, each reader must form his own opinion of this history, its true interpretation and significance. These and the exact parts played by Aton and myself in its development I hope to solve shortly, though not here. Well as I have said, the upshot of it all was that Asha was devoured with anxiety about Leo. Except in this matter of marriage his every wish was satisfied and indeed forestalled. Thus he was never again asked to share in any of the ceremonies of the sanctuary, though indeed, stripped of its rights and spiritual symbols, the religion of the College of Hez proved pure and harmless enough. It was but a diluted version of the Osiris and Isis worship of Old Egypt, from which it had been inherited, mixed with the Central Asian belief in the transmigration or reincarnation of souls, and the possibility of drawing near to the ultimate Godhead by wholeness of thought and life. In fact the head priestess and oracle was only worshiped as a representative of the Divinity, while the temporal aims of the College in practice were confined to good works, although it is true that they still sighed for their lost authority over the country of Kallun. Thus they had hospitals, and during the long and severe winters, when the tribes of the mountain slopes were often driven to the verge of starvation, gave liberally to the destitute from their stores of food. Leo liked to be with Asha continually, so he spent each evening in her company, and much of the day also, until she found that this inactivity told upon him who for years had been accustomed to endure every rigor of climate in the open air. After this came home to her, although she was always haunted by terror lest any accident should befall him, Asha insisted upon his going out to kill the wild sheep and the Ibex, which lived in numbers on the mountain ridges, placing him in the charge of the chief's enhancement of the tribes, with whom thus he became well acquainted. In this exercise, however, I accompanied him but rarely, as if used too much my arm still gave me pain. Once indeed such an accident did happen, I was seated in the garden with Asha and watching her. Her head rested on her hand, and she was looking with her wide eyes across which the swift thoughts passed like clouds over a windy sky, or dreams through the mind of a sleeper, looking out vacantly towards the mountain's snows. Seen thus her loveliness was inexpressible, amazing, merely to gaze upon it was an intoxication. Contemplating it, I understood that, like to that of the fabled Helen, this gift of hers alone, and it was but one of many, must have caused infinite sorrows had she ever been permitted to display it to the world. It would have driven humanity to madness, the men with longings and the women with jealousy and hate, and yet in what did her surpassing beauty lie? Asha's face and form were perfected as true, but so were those of some other women. Not in these then did it live alone, but rather I think especially while what I may call her human moods were on her, in the soft mystery that dwells upon her features and gathered and changed in her splendid eyes. Some such mystery may be seen, however faintly, on the faces of certain of the masterpieces of Greek sculptors, but Asha had clothed like an ever-present atmosphere, suggesting a glory that was not of earth, making her divine. As I gazed at her and wondered thus, at a sudden she became terribly agitated, and pointing to a shoulder of the mountain miles and miles away, said, Look! I looked but saw nothing except a sheet of distant snow. Blind fool, can't thou not see that my Lord is in danger of his life? she cried. I forgot, thou hast no vision. Take it now from me and look again, and laying her hand. From which a strange, numbing current seemed to flow. Upon my head she muttered some swift words. Instantly my eyes were opened, and not upon the distant mountain, but in the air before me as it were. I saw Leo rolling over and over at grips with a great snow leopard, while the chief enhancement with him ran round and round, seeking an opportunity to pierce the savage brute with their spears, and yet leave him unharmed. Asher, rigid with terror, swayed to and fro at my side, till presently the end came, for I could see Leo drive his long knife into the bowels of the leopard, which at once grew limp, separated from him and after a struggle or two in the bloodstained snow lay still. Laughing and pointing to his rent garments, whilst one of the huntsmen came forward and began to bandage some wounds in his hands and thigh with strips of linen torn from his under-robe. The vision vanished suddenly as it had come, and I felt Asher leaning heavily upon my shoulder like any other frightened woman, and heard her gasp. That danger also has passed by, but how many other to follow? Oh, torment at heart, how long can stand you? Then her wrath flamed up against the chief and his huntsmen, and she summoned messengers and sent them out at speed with a letter of anointments, bidding them to bear back the Lord Leo and to bring his companions to her very presence. They seized what days are mine, my holly, I and have been these many years," she said, but those hounds shall pay me for this agony. Nor would she suffer me to reason with her. Four hours later Leo returned, limping after the litter in which, instead of himself for whom it was sent, Leo mountened sheep and the skin of the snow-leopard that he had placed there to save the huntsmen the labour of carrying them. Asher was waiting for him in the hall of her dwelling, and gliding to him, I cannot say she walked, overwhelmed him with mingled solicitude and reproaches. He listened a while, then asked, How does that know anything of this matter? The leopard-skin has not yet been brought to thee. I know because I saw, she answered. The worst hurt is above thy knee, has thou dressed it with the salve I sent? Not I, he said, but thou hast not left this sanctuary, how didst thou see? By thy magic? If thou wilt, at least I saw, and holly also saw thee rolling in the snow with that fierce brute, while those curds ran round like scared children. I am weary of this magic! Interrupted Leo crossly, cannot a man be left alone for an hour even with a snow-leopard of the mountain? As for those brave men, at this moment aura scented and whispered something, bowing low. As for those brave men, I will deal with them! Said Asher with bitter emphasis, uncovering herself, for she never appeared unveiled to the people of the mountain. She swept from the place. Where has she gone, Horace? asked Leo, to one of her services in the sanctuary. I don't know, answered, but if so I think it will be that chief's burial service. Will it? he exclaimed, and instantly limped after her. A minute or two later I thought it wise to follow. In the sanctuary a curious scene was in progress. Asher was seated in front of the statue. Before her, very much frightened, and out of brawny red-haired chieftain and five of his followers, who still carried their hunting-spears, while with folded arms and an exceedingly grim look upon his face, Leo, who as I learned afterwards had already interfered and been silenced, stood upon one side listening to what passed. At a little distance behind were a dozen or more of the temple-guards. Men armed with swords and picked for their strength and stature. Asher, in her sweetest voice, was questioning the men as to how the leopard, of which the skin lay before her, had come to attack Leo. The chief answered that they had tracked the brute to its lair between two rocks, that one of them had gone in and wounded it, whereupon it sprang upon him and struck him down, that then the Lord Leo had engaged it while the man escaped, and was also struck down, after which rolling with it on the ground he stabbed and slew the animal. That was all. No, not all, said Asher. For you forget, cowards, that you are, that keeping yourselves in safety you left my Lord to the fury of this beast. Good! Try them out onto the mountain, there to perish also at the fangs of beasts, and make it known that he who gives them food or shelter dies. Offering no prayer for pity or excuse, the chief and his followers rose, bowed and turned to go. Stay a moment comrades, said Leo, and chief give me your arm, my scratch grows stiff, I cannot walk fast. We will finish this hunt together. What do us thou, art mad? asked Asher. I know not whether I am mad, he answered, but I know that thou art wicked and unjust. Look now, then these hunters no braver ever breathed. That man, and he pointed to the one whom the leopard had struck down, took my place and went in before me, because I ordered that we should attack the creature, and thus was felled. As thou seest all, thou mightst have seen this also. Then it sprang on me, and the rest of these, my friends, ran round waiting a chance to strike, which at first they could not do unless they would have killed me with it, since I and the brute rolled over and over in the snow. As it was, one of them seized it with his bare hands. Look at the teeth marks in his arm. So if they are to perish on the mountain, I whom the man to blame perish with them. Now while the hunters looked at him with fervent gratitude in their eyes, Asher thought a little, then said cleverly enough, In truth, my Lord Leo, had I known all the tale well might as thou have named me wicked and unjust, but I knew only what I saw, and out of their own mouths did I condemn them. My servants, my Lord here has pleaded for you, and you are forgiven. More he who rushed in upon the lapid and he who seized it with his hand shall be rewarded in advance. Go, but I warn you, if you suffer my Lord to come into more danger, you shall not escape so easily again. So they bowed and went, still blessing Leo with their eyes, since death by exposure on the mountain snows was the most terrible form of punishment known to these people, and one only inflicted by the direct order of hares upon murderers or other great criminals. When we had left the sanctuary and were alone again in the hall, the storm that I had seen gathering upon Leo's face broke in earnest. Asher renewed her inquiries about his wounds, and wished to call Orrus the physician to dress them, and as he refused this offered to do so herself. He begged that she would leave his wounds alone, and then his great beard bristling with wroth asked her solemnly if he was a child in arms, a query so absurd that I could not help laughing. Then he scolded her. Yes, he scolded Asher. Wishing to know what she meant won by spying upon him with her magic, an evil gift that he had always disliked and mistrusted, too by condemning brave and excellent men, his good friends, to a death of fiendish cruelty upon such evidence, or rather out of temper or no evidence at all, and three by giving him into the charge of them, as though he were a little boy, and telling them that they would have to answer for it if he were hurt. He who in his time had killed every sort of big game known and passed through some perils and encounters. Thus he beat her with his words, and wonderful to say Asher, this being more than woman, submitted to the chastisement meekly. Yet had any other man dared to address her with roughness even, I doubt not that his speech and his life would have come to a swift and simultaneous end, for I knew that now as of old she could slay by the mere effort of her will. But she did not slay. She did not even threaten. Only as any other loving woman might have done, she began to cry. He asked great tears gathered in those lovely eyes of hers, and rolling one by one down her face fell, for her head was bent humbly forward, like heavy raindrops on the marble floor. At the sight of this touching evidence of her human loving heart, all the ozang had melted. Now it was he who grew penitent and prayed her pardon humbly. She gave him her hand in token of forgiveness, saying, Let others speak to me as they will. Sorry, should I have been to try it? But from the earlier I cannot bear harsh words. Oh, they are cruel, cruel, and what have I offended? Can I help it if my spirit keeps its watch upon thee? As indeed, though their newest did not, it has done ever since we parted yonder in the place of life. Can I help it if, like some mother who sees her little child that play upon a mountain's edge, my soul is torn with agony when I know the endangers that I am powerless to prevent or share? What are the lives of a few half-wile huntsmen that I should let them weigh for a single breath against thy safety? Seeing that if I slew these others would be more careful of thee, whereas if I slay them not, they or their fellows may even lead thee into perils that would bring about thy death. And she gassed with horror at the word. Listen, beloved, zealier. The life of the humblest of those men is of as much value to him as mine is to me, and thou hast no more right to kill him than thou hast to kill me. It is evil that because thou carest for me, thou should suffer thy love to draw thee into cruelty and crime. If thou art afraid for me, then clothe me with that immortality of thine, which, although I dread it somewhat, holding it a thing unholy and on this earth not permitted by my faith, I should still be choice to inherit for thy death's sake, knowing that them we could never more be parted. Or if, as thou sayest, this is yet thou canst not do, then let us be wed and take what fortune gives us. All men must die, but at least before I die I shall have been happy with thee for a while. Yes, if only for a single hour. What did I dare? Asher Hanson, with a little piteous motion of her hand. O urge me no more, Leo, lest that at last I should take the risk and lead thee down a dreadful road. Leo hast then ever heard of the love which slays, or of the poison that may lurk in a cup of joy too perfect? Then as though she feared herself, Asher turned from him and fled. Thus this matter ended. In itself it was not a great one, for Leo's hurts were mere scratches and the hunters, instead of being killed, were promoted to be members of his bodyguard. Yet it told as many things. For instance, that whenever she chose to do so, Asher had the power of perceiving all Leo's movements from afar, and even of communicating her strength of mental vision to others, although to help him in any predicament she appeared to have no power, which of course accounted for the hideous and ever-present might of her anxiety. Think what it would be to any one of us, where we mysteriously acquainted with every open danger, every risk of sickness, every secret peril through which our best beloved must pass, to see the rock trembling to its fall and they loitering beneath it, to see them drink of water and know it full of foulest poison, to see them embark upon a ship and be aware that it was doomed to sink, but not to be able to warn them or to prevent them. Surely no mortal brain could endure such constant terrors, since hour by hour the arrows of death flit unseen and unheard passed the breasts of each of us. The blood-length one finds its home there. What then must Asher have suffered, watching with her spirit's eyes all the hair-bread escapes of our journeyings? When, for instance, in the beginning she saw Leo at my house in Cumberland about to kill himself in his madness and despair, and by some mighty effort of her super-human will, rung from whatever power it was that held her in its fearful thro'ldom the strength to hurl her soul across the world, and thereby in his sleep revealed to him the secret of the hiding-place where he would find her. Or to take one more example out of many, when she saw him hanging by that slender thread of yaks hide from the face of the waterfall of ice, and herself remained unable to save him, or even to look forward for a single moment and learn whether or no he was about to meet a hideous death, in which event she must live on alone until in some dim age he was born again, nor can her sorrows have ended with these more material fears, since others' piercing must have haunted her. Imagine, for instance, the agonies of her jealous heart when she knew her lover to be exposed to the temptation's incident to his solitary existence, and more especially to those of her ancient rival Atten, who by Asher's own account would have once been his wife. Imagine also her fears less time and human change should do their natural work on him, so that by degrees the memory of her wisdom and her strength and the image of her loveliness faded from his thought, and with them his desire for her company, thus leaving her who had endured so long forgotten and alone at last. Truly the power that limited our perceptions did so in purest mercy, for were it otherwise with us, our race would go mad and perish raving in its terrors. Thus it would seem that Asher, great tormented soul, thinking to win life and love eternal and most glorious, was in truth but another blind Pandora. From her stolen casket of beauty and superhuman power had leapt into her bosom, there to dwell unceasingly a hundred torturing demons, of whose wings may mortal kind do but feel the far-off icy shadowing. Yes, and that the parallel might be complete, hope alone still lingered in that rifled chest. End of Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Asher's Alchemy It was shortly after this incident of the snow leopard that one of these demon-familiars of Asher's, her infinite ambition, made its formidable appearance. When we had dined with her in the evening, Asher's habit was to discuss plans for our mighty and unending future, that awful inheritance which she had promised to us. Here I must explain, if I have not done so already, that she had graciously informed me that notwithstanding my refusal in past years of such a priceless opportunity, I also was to be allowed to bathe my superannuated self in the vital fires, though in what guise I should emerge from them, like Herodotus when he treats of the mysteries of Old Egypt, if she knew she did not think it lawful to reveal. Secretly I hoped that my outward man might change for the better, as the prospect of being fixed forever in the shape of my present and somewhat unpleasing personality did not appeal to me as attractive. In truth, so far as I was concerned, the matter had an academic rather than an actual interest, such as we take in a fairy tale, since I did not believe that I should ever put on this kind of immortality. Nor may I add now as before, was I at all certain that I wished to do so. These plans of ashes were far-reaching and indeed terrific. Her acquaintance with the modern world, its political and social developments, was still strictly limited, for if she had the power to follow its growth and activities, certainly it was one of which she made no use. In practice her knowledge seemed to be confined to what she had gathered during the few brief talks which took place between us upon this subject in pastime at core. Now her thirst for information proved insatiable, although it is true that ours was scarcely up to date, seeing that ever since we lost touch with the civilised peoples, namely for the last fifteen years or so, we had been as much buried as she was herself. Still we were able to describe to her the condition of the nations and their affairs as they were at the period when we bad them farewell, and more or less incorrectly to draw maps of the various countries and their boundaries over which she pondered long. The Chinese were the people in whom she proved to be most interested, perhaps because she was acquainted with the Mongolian type, and like ourselves understood a good many of their dialects. Also she had a motive for her studies, which one night she revealed to us in the most matter of fact fashion. Those who have read the first part of her history, which I left in England to be published, may remember that when we found her at core, she horrified us by expressing a determination to possess herself of Great Britain, for the simple reason that we belonged to that country. Now however, like her powers, her ideas had grown, for she purposed to make Leo the absolute monarch of the world. In vain did he assure her most earnestly that he desired no such empire. She merely laughed at him and said, If I arise amidst the peoples I must rule the peoples, for how can Asher take a second place among mortal men? And thou, my Leo, rulest me? Yes, mark the truth, thou art my master. Therefore it is plain that thou wilt be the master of this earth. I am perchance of others which do not yet appear, for of these also I know something, and I think can reach them if I will, though hitherto I have had no mind that way. My true life has not yet begun. Its little space within this world has been filled with thought and care for thee, in waiting till thou hast born again, and during these last years of separation until thy deadest return. But now a few more months than the days of preparation passed, endowed with energy eternal, with all the wisdom of the ages, and with the strength that can bend the mountains or turn the ocean from its bed, and we begin to be. Oh, how I sicken for that hour when first like twin stars new to the firmament of heaven, we break in our immortal splendour upon the astonished sight of men. It will please me, I tell thee, Leo, it will please me to see powers, principalities and dominions, marshaled by their kings and governors, bow themselves before our thrones, and humbly crave the liberty to do our will. At least, she added, it will please me for a little time until we seek higher things. So she spoke, while the radiance upon her brow increased and spread itself, gleaming above her like a golden fan, and her slumberous eyes took fire from it till to my thought there became glowing mirrors, in which I saw pomp enthroned and suppliant people's past. And how, as Leo was something like a groan, for this vision of universal rule viewed from afar did not seem to charm him. How, Asher, will that bring these things about? How, my Leo? We're easily enough. For many knights I have listened to the wise discourses of our holly here. At least he thinks them wise, who still has so much to learn, and poured over his crooked maps, comparing them with those that are written in my memory. Who of late have had no time for the study of such little matters? Also I have weighed and pondered your reports of the races of this world, the various follies, the futile struggling for wealth and small supremacies, and I have determined that it would be wise and kind to weld them to one whole, setting ourselves at the head of them to direct their destinies, and cause wars, sickness, and poverty to cease, so that these creatures of a little day, Ephemeridae was the word she used, mail of happy from the cradle to the grave. Now were it not because of thy strange shrinking from bloodshed, however politic and needful, for my Leo has yet thou art no true philosopher. This were quickly done, since I can command a weapon which would crush their armouries and weld their navies in the deep. Yes, I, or even the lightnings and nature's elemental powers, Mr. Bay, but thou shrinkest from the sight of death, and thou believest that heaven would be displeased because I make myself, or unchosen, the instrument of heaven. Well, so let it be, for thy will is mine, and therefore we will tread a gentler path, and how will thou persuade the kings of the earth to place their crowns upon thy head? I asked, astonished, by causing their peoples to offer them to us, she answered, swavly. Oh, holly, holly, how narrow is thy mind, how strained the quality of thine imagination! Set its poor gates ajar, I pray, and bethink thee. When we appear among men, scattering gold to satisfy their want, clad in terrifying power and dazzling beauty, and in a mortality of days, will they not cry, be your monarchs and rule over us? Perhaps, I answered dubiously, but where wilt thou appear? She took a map of the eastern hemisphere which I had drawn, and placing her finger upon Peking, said, there is the place that shall be our home for some few centuries, say three or five or seven, should it take so long to shape this people to my liking and our purposes? I have chosen these Chinese because they're terse me that their numbers are uncountable, that they are brave, subtle, and patient. I have chosen these Chinese because they are brave, subtle, and patient, and though now powerless because ill-ruled and untaught, able with their multitudes to flood the little western nations. Therefore among them we will begin our reign, and for some few ages be at rest while they learn wisdom from us, and thou my holy makers their armies unconquerable, and give us their land good government, wealth, peace, and a new religion. What the new religion was to be, I did not ask. It seemed unnecessary, since I was convinced that in practice it would prove a form of Asher worship. Indeed my mind was so occupied with conjectures, some of them quaint and absurd enough, as to what would happen at the first appearance of Asher in China, that I forgot this subsidiary development of our future rule. And if the little western nations will not wait to be flooded, suggested Leo with irritation, for her contemptuous tone angered him, one of a prominent western nation. If they combine, for instance, and attack thee first. Ah! she said with a flash of her eyes. I have thought of it, and for my part hope that it will chance. Since then thou canst not blame me if I put out my strength. O then the east that has slept so long shall awake. Shall awake and upon battlefield after battlefield such as history cannot tell of, thou shalt see my flaming standard sweep on to victory. One by one thou shalt watch the nations fall and perish, until at length I build thy throne upon the hecatombs of their countless dead and crown the emperor of a world regenerate and blood and fire. Leo whom this new gospel of regeneration seemed to appall, who was in fact a hater of absolute monarchies and somewhat republican in his views and sympathies, continued the argument, but I took no further heed. The thing was grotesque in its tremendous and fantastic absurdity. Asher's ambitions were such as no imperial minded madmen could conceive. Yet, here came the rub, and had not the slightest doubt but that she was well able to put them into practice and carry them to some marvellous and awful conclusion. Why not? Death could not touch her, she had triumphed over death. Her beauty, that cup of madness in her eyes as she named it once to me, and her reckless will would compel the hosts of men to follow her. Her piercing intelligence would enable her to invent new weapons with which the most highly trained army could not possibly compete. Indeed it might be as she said, and as I for one believed, with good reason it proved, that she held at her command the elemental forces of nature such as those that lie hidden in electricity, which would give all living beings to her for a prayer. Asher was still woman enough to have worldly ambitions, and the most dread circumstance about her superhuman powers was that they appeared to be unrestrained by any responsibility to God or man. She was as we might well imagine a fallen angel to be. If indeed as she herself once hinted, and as Atom and the Old Shaman believed, this were not her true place in creation. By only two things that I was able to discover could she be moved. Her love for Leo, and in a very small degree, her friendship for myself. Yet her devouring passion for this one man, inexplicable in its endurance and intensity, would, I felt sure even then in the future as in the past, prove to be her heel of Achilles. When Asher was dipped in the waters of dominion and deathlessness, this human love left her heart mortal, that through it she might be rendered harmless as a child, who otherwise would have devastated the universe. I was right. Whilst I was still indulging myself in these reflections and hoping that Asher would not take the trouble to read them in my mind, I became aware that Auraus was bowing to the earth before her. Thy business, priest, she asked sharply, for when she was with Leo, Asher did not like to be disturbed. Here's the spiser atoned. Why didst thou send them out? she asked indifferently. What need have I of thy spies? Has that it command me? Well, thou report? Has it is most grave? The people of Cologne are desperate because of the drought which has caused their crops to fail, so that starvation stares them in the eyes, and this they lay to the charge of the strangers who came into their land and fled to thee. The Kanya Atten also is mad with rage against thee and our holy college. Labouring night and day she has gathered two great armies, one of forty and one of twenty thousand men, and the latter of these she sends against the mountain under the command of her uncle, Symbry the Shaman. In case it should be defeated she purposes to remain with the second and greater army on the plains about Cologne. Tidings, indeed, said Asher with a scornful laugh. Has her hate made this woman mad that she dares thus to match herself against me? My holy it crossed thy mind, but now that it was I who are mad, boasting of what I have no power to perform? Well, within six days thou shalt learn. Oh, verily thou shalt learn, and though the issue be so very small in such a fashion that thou wilt doubt no more for ever, stay I will look, though the effort of it wearies me, for those spies may be but victims to their own fears or to the falsehoods of Aten. Then suddenly, as was common with her and thus Asher through her sight afar, which either from indolence or because as she said it exhausted her, she did but rarely. Her lovely face grew rigid like that of a person in a trance, the light faded from her brow, and the great pupils of her eyes contracted themselves and lost their colour. In a little while five minutes perhaps she sighed like one awakening from a deep sleep, passed her hand across her forehead and was as she had been, though somewhat languid as though strength had laughed her. It is true enough, she said, and sooner must be stirring lest many of my people should be killed. My lord, wouldst thou see war? Nay, thou shalt bide here in safety while I go forward to visit Aten as I promised. Where thou goest I go? said Leo angrily, his face flushing to the roots of his hair with shame. I pray thee not. I pray thee not, she answered, yet without venturing to forbid him. We will talk of it hereafter. Or us away. Send round the fire of Hez to every chief. Three nights hence at the moon-rise bid the tribes gather. Nay, not all. Twenty thousand of their best will be done. The rest shall stay to guard the mountain in this sanctuary. Let them bring food with them for fifteen days. I join them at the following dawn. Go. He bowed and went. Whereon, dismissing the matter from her mind, Asher began to question me again about the Chinese and their customs. It was in course of a somewhat similar conversation on the following night of a very, very, very long-term conversation. It was in course of a somewhat similar conversation on the following night, of which, however, I forget the exact details, that a remark of Leo's led to another exhibition of Asher's marvellous powers. Leo, who had been considering her plans for conquest and again combating them as best he could, for they were entirely repugnant to his religious, social and political views, said suddenly that after all they must break down, since they would involve the expenditure of sums of money so vast that even Asher herself would be unable to provide them by any known methods of taxation. She looked at him and laughed a little. Verily, Leo, she said, To thee, yes, and to holly here I must seem as some madcap girl blown to and fro by every wind of fancy, and building me a palace wherein to dwell out of dew and vapours, or from the substance of the sunset fires. Thinkest thou then that I would enter on this war, one woman against all the world? And as she spoke her shape grew royal and in her awful eyes there came a look that chilled my blood, and make no preparation for its necessities? Why, since last we spoke upon this matter, for seeing all, I have considered in my mind, and now thou shalt learn how, without cost to those we rule, and for that reason alone shall I love as daily, I will glut the treasuries of the empress of the earth. Just remember, Leo, how in core I found but a single pleasure during all those weary ages, that of forcing my mother nature one by one to yield me up her choice as secrets, I whom a student of all things which are and of the forces that cause them to be born. Now follow me both of you, and you shall look on what mortal eyes have not yet beheld. What are we to see? I asked doubtfully, having a lively recollection of Asher's powers as a chemist. That thou shalt learn, or shalt not learn if it pleases thee to stay behind. Come, Leo, my love, my love, and leave this wise philosopher first to find his riddle and next to guess it. Then turning her back to me she smiled on him so sweetly that although really he was more loath to go than I, Leo would have followed her through a furnace door, as indeed had he but known it he was about to do. So they started and I accompanied them, since with Asher it was useless to indulge in any foolish pride, or to make oneself a victim to consistency. Also I was anxious to see her new marvel and to not care to rely for an account of it upon Leo's descriptive skill, which at its best was never more than moderate. She took us down passages that we had not passed before to a door which she signed to Leo to open. He obeyed and from the cave within issued a flood of light. As we guessed at once the place was her laboratory, for about it stood metal flasks in various strange-shaped instruments. Moreover there was a furnace in it, one of the best conceivable, for it needed neither fuel nor stoking, whose gaseous fires like those of the twisted columns in the sanctuary sprang from the womb of a volcano beneath our feet. When we entered two priests were at work there, one of them stirring a cauldron with an iron rod and the other receiving its molten contents into a mould of clay. They stopped to salute Asher, but she bared them to continue their task, asking them if all went well. Very well, O'Hez, they answered, and we passed through that cave and sundry doors and passages to a little chamber cut in the rock. There was no lamp or flame of fire in it and yet the place was filled with a gentle light which seemed to flow from the opposing wall. What were those priests doing? I said, more to break the silence than for any other reason. Why waste breath upon foolish questions, she replied. Are no metals smelted in their country, O'Holly? Now how did they sort to know what I am doing? But that without seeing they would not believe, so doubteth I shall see. Then she pointed to and bared as dawn two strange garments that hung upon the wall, made of a material which seemed to be half cloth and half wood and having head pieces not unlike a diver's helmet. So under her directions Leo helped me into mine, lacing it up behind, after which or so I gathered for me in the sounds, for no light came through the helmet. She did the same service for him. I seemed very much in the dark, I said presently. For now there was silence again and beneath his extinguisher I felt alarmed and wished to be sure that I was not left alone. I, O'Holly, I heard Ash's mocking voice make answer in the dark as thou wast ever, the thick dark of ignorance and unbelief. Well, now as ever also I will give thee light. As she spoke I heard something roll back. I suppose that it must have been a stone door. Then indeed there was light. Yes, even through the thickness of that prepared garment such light seemed to blind me. By it I saw that the wall opposite to us had opened and that we were all three of us on the threshold of another chamber. At the end of it stood something like a little altar of hard black stone and on this altar lay a mass of substance of the size of a child's head, but fashioned I suppose from fantasy to the oblong shape of a human eye. Out of this eye there poured that blistering and intolerable light. It was shut round by thick, funnel-shaped screens of a material that looked like fire-brick, yet it pierced them as though they were but muslin. More the rays thus directed upwards struck full upon a lump of metal held in place above them by a massive framework. And what rays they were. If all the cut diamonds of the world were brought together and set beneath a mighty burning glass the light flashed from them would not have been a thousand parts so brilliant. They scorched my eyes and caused the skin of my face and limbs to smart, yet Archer stood there and shielded from them. Eyes even went down the length of the room and throwing back her veil bent over them as it seemed a woman of molten steel in whose body the bones were visible and examined the mass that was supported by the hanging cradle. It is ready and somewhat sooner than I thought, she said. Then as though it were but a feather-weight she lifted the lump in her bare hands and glided back with it to where we stood, laughing and saying, Tell me now thou well-read holly if thou hast ever heard of a better alchemist than this poor priestess of a forgotten faith. And she thrust the glowing substance up almost to the mask that hid my face. Then I turned and ran, or rather waddled, for in that gear I could not run, out of the chamber until the rock wall beyond stayed me, and there was my back towards her thrust my helmeted head against it, for I felt as though red-hopper dolls had been plunged into my eyes. So I stood while she laughed and mocked behind me, until at length I heard the door close and the blessed darkness came from heaven. Then Asher began to loose Leo from his raid-proof armor, if so it can be called, and he in turn loosed me, and there in that gentle radiance we stood blinking at each other like owls in the sunlight, while the tears streamed down our faces. Well, I'd satisfied my holly, she asked. Satisfied with what, answered angrily, for the smarting of my eyes was unbearable. Yes, with burnings and bedevilments and I also grumbled Leo, who was swearing softly but continuously to himself in the other corner of the place. But Asher only laughed. Oh, she laughed until she seemed the goddess of all merriment come to earth, laughed until she also wept. Then said, Oh, what ingratitude is this? Thou, my Leo, didst wish to see the wonders that I work, and thou, O holly, didst come unbidden after I badly stay behind, and now both of you are rude and angry. Keeping like a child of the burnt finger. Here, take this. And she gave us some self that stood upon a shelf, and rub it on your eyes and the smart will pass away. So we did, and the pain went from them, though for hours afterwards mine remained as red as blood. And what are these wonders, I asked her presently. If thou meanest that unbearable flame. Nay, I mean what is born of the flame is in thine ignorance of the agent. Look now! And she pointed to the metallic lump she had brought with her, which still gleaming faintly lay upon the floor. Nay, it has no heat. Thinkest thou that I would wish to burn my tender hands, and so make them unsightly? Touch it, holly! But I would not who thought to myself that I might be well accustomed to the hottest fires and feared her impish mischief. Well, what is it, holly? Gold, I said, then corrected myself and added copper. For the dull red glow might have been that of either metal. Nay, nay, she answered, it is gold. Pure gold. The ore in this place must be rich, said Leo incredulously, for I would not speak any more. Yes, my Leo, the iron ore is rich. Iron ore? She answered. For from what mind amending out gold in such great masses? Iron ore, beloved, that by my alchemy I changed to gold, which soon shall serve us in our need. Now Leo stared and I groaned, for I did not believe that it was gold and still lest that she could make that metal. Then, reading my thought, with one of those sudden changes of mood that were common to her, Asher grew very angry. By nature's self, with thou not my friend Holly, the fool whom it pleases me to cherish, I would bind that right hand of thine in those secret rays till the very bones within it would turn to gold. Nay, why should I be vexed with thee who art both blind and deaf? Yet thou shalt be persuaded, and leaving as she passed down the passages, called something to the priests who were laboring in the workshop, then returned to us. Presently they followed her, harrying on a kind of stretcher of iron or that seemed to be as much as they could lift. Now, she said, how wilt thou that I mark this mass which as thou must admit is only iron? With the sign of life? Good. And at her bidding the priests took cold chisels and hammers and roughly cut upon its surface the symbol of the looped cross, the croc sansata. It is not enough, she said when they had finished. Holly lend me that knife of thine. And of more value. So I drew my hunting-knife, an Indian maid thing that had a handle of play to dine and gave it her. There noticed the marks on it, and she pointed to various dents and to the maker's name upon the blade, for though the hilt was Indian work the steel was of Sheffield manufacturer. I nodded. Then she bared the priests, but on the rape of armor that we had discarded and told us to go without the chamber This we did and remained so, until a few minutes later she called us again. We rose and returned into the chamber to find the priests who had removed the protecting garments gasping and rubbing the salve upon their eyes to find also that the lump of iron ore and my knife were gone. Next she commanded them to place the block of gold-coloured metal upon their stretcher and to bring it with them. They obeyed, but although those priests were both of them strong men they groomed beneath its weight. How came it, said Leah, that thou, a woman, couldst carry what these men find so heavy? It is one of the properties of that force which thou callest fire. She answered sweetly to make what has been exposed to it if for a little while only as light as this'll down. Else how could I, who am so frail, have gold? Quite so, I understand now, and said Leah. Well, that was the end of it. The lump of metal was hit away in a kind of rock pit with an iron cover and we returned to Asher's apartment. So all wealth is dine as well as all power, said Leah presently, for remembering Asher's awful threat I scarcely dared to open my mouth. It seems so, she answered wearily. When Leah came I had put it to no use. Holly here after his common fashion believes that this is magic, but I tell thee again that there is no magic, only knowledge which I have chance to win. Of course, said Leah, looked at in the right way, that is in thy way, the thing is simple. I think he would have liked to add as a lying, but as the phrase would have involved explanations did not. Yet Asher, did I not thought that this discovery of thine will wreck the world? Leah, she answered, is there then nothing that I can do which will not wreck this world, for which there has such tender care who should keep all thy care for me? I smiled, but remembering in time turned the smile into a frown at Leah, then fearing less that also might anger her, made my countenance as blank as possible. If so, she continued, will let the world be wrecked, but what meanest thou? O my Lord, Leah, forgive me if I am so dull that I cannot always follow thy quick thought. I who have lived these many years alone without converse with noble minds or even those to which my known is equal. It pleases thee to mock me, said Leah in a vexed voice, and that is not too brave. Now Asher turned on him fiercely, and I looked towards the door, but he did not shrink and only folded his arms and stared her straight in the face. She contemplated him a little, then said, after that great, ordained reason which thou dost not know, I think, Leah, that why I love thee so madly is that thou alone art not afraid of me. Not like Holly there, whoever since I threatened to turn his bones to gold, which indeed I was minded to do, and she laughed, trembles at my footsteps beneath my softest glance. Oh, my Lord, how good thou art to me, how patient with my moods and woman's weaknesses, and she made as though she were about to embrace him, then suddenly remembering herself with a little start that somehow conveyed more than the most tragic gesture. She pointed to the couch in token that he should seat himself. When he had done so, she drew a footstool to his feet and sank upon it, worrying. Thy reasons, Leah, give me thy reasons. Doubtless they are good and though be sure I'll weigh them well. Here they are in brief, he answered. The world is thou newest in thy and he stopped. Thy earlier wanderings there, she suggested. Yes, thy earlier wanderings there has set up gold as the standard of its wealth. On it all civilisations are founded. Make it as calm as it seems thou canst and these must fall to pieces. Credit will fail and like their savage forefathers men must once more take to barter to supply their needs as they do in Cologne today. Why not? she asked. It would be more simple and bring them closer to the time when they were good and knew not luxury and greed and smashed in each other's heads with stone axes, added Leah, who now pierced each other's hearts with a sword. Oh, Leah, when the nations are beggared and their golden god is down, when the user and the fat merchant tremble in town white as chalk because their hordes are but useless dross, when I have made the bankrupt exchanges of the world my mark and laugh across the ruin of its richest markets, why then will not true worth come into its heritage again? What out of I do discomfort those who think more of pelf than of courage and of virtue? What field to field in house to house until the wretched whom they have robbed find no place left whereon to dwell? What if I proved your sageless Chapman fools and gorge your greedy money changers with the gold that they desire until they loathe its very sight and touch? What if I uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed against the ravening lusts of mammon? Why will not this world of yours be happier then? I do not know. All that I know is that it would be a different world, one shaped upon a new plan governed by untried laws and seeking other ends and so strange a place who can say what might or might not chance. That we shall learn in its season here or rather if it be against thy wish we will not turn this hidden page since thou dost desire it that old evil the love of Lucra shall still hold its mastery upon the earth. Let the peoples keep they yellow king and crown another in his place as I was minded such as that living strength thou sourced burning eternally but now that power whereof I am the mistress which can give health to men or even change the character of metals and in truth if I so desire obedient to my word destroy a city or rend this mountain from its roots. But see, Holly is weary with much wondering and needs his rest. Oh Holly, thou wast born a critic of things done not a doer of them I know they tribe for even in my day the colleges of Alexandria echoed with their wranglings and already the winds blew sick with the dust of their forgotten bones Holly, I tell thee that at times those who create and act are impatient of such petty doubts and cavalings yet fear not old friend nor take my anger ill already thy heart is gold without alloy so what need have I to guild thy bones? I thank Dasha for her compliment and went to my bed wondering which was real her kindness or her wrath or if both were but assumed also I wondered in what way she had fallen foul of the critics of Alexandria perhaps once she had published a poem or a system of philosophy and been roughly handled by them it is quite possible only if I had ever written poetry I think that it would have endured like saffos in the morning I discovered that it might be false Asha was a true chemist the very greatest I suppose who ever lived for as I dressed myself those priests whom we had seen in the laboratory staggered into the room carrying between them a heavy burden that was covered with a cloth and directed by Orus placed it upon the floor what is that? asked of Orus a peace offering sent by the Husser he said then he withdrew the cloth and there beneath it shone that great lump of metal which in the presence of myself and Leo had been marked with the symbol of life that still appeared upon its surface only now it was gold not iron gold so good and soft that I could write my name upon it with a nail my knife lay with it also and of that too the handle though not the blade had been changed from iron into gold Asha asked to see this afterwards and was but ill pleased with the result of her experiment she pointed out to me that lines and blotches of gold ran for an inch or more down the substance of the steel which she feared that they might weaken or distemper whereas it had been her purpose that the hilt only should be altered footnut I proved in after days how real were Asha's alchemy and the knowledge which enabled her to solve a secret chemists of hunted foreign vein and like nature's self to transmute the commonest into the most precious of the metals at the first time that I reached on the frontiers of India I took this knife to a jeweler a native who was as clever as he proved dishonest and asked him to test the handle he did so with acids and by other means and told me that it was a very pure gold 24 carats I think he said also he pointed out that this gold became gradually merged into the steel of the blade in a way which was quite inexplicable to him and asked me to clear up the matter of course I could not but at his request I left the knife in his shop to give him an opportunity of examining it further the next day I was taken ill with one of the heart attacks to which I have been liable of late and when I became able to move about again a while afterwards I found that the jeweler had gone none knew whither so had my knife and a footnote often since that time I have marvelled how I should perform this miracle and from what substances she gathered or compounded the lightning like material which was her servant in the work also whether or no it had been impregnated with the immortalizing fire of life but burned in the caves of core yet to this hour I have found no answer to the problem for it is beyond my guessing I suppose that in preparation for her conquest of the inhabitants of this globe which indeed it would have sufficed unaided by any other power the manufacture of gold from iron went on in the cave unceasingly however this may be during the few days that we remain together I shall never so much as spoke of it again it seemed to have served her purpose for the while or in the press of other and more urgent matters to have been forgotten or thrust from her mind still amongst others of which I have said nothing since it is necessary to select I record this strange incident and our conversations concerning it at length for the reason that it made a great impression upon me and furnishes a striking example of Asher's dominion over the hidden forces of nature where often we were soon to experience a more fearful instance footnote recent discoveries would appear to suggest that this mysterious fire of life which would ever else it may have been was evidently a force in no true fire since it did not burn owed its origin to the emanations from radium or some kindred substance although in the year 1885 Mr. Holly would have known nothing of the properties of these marvellous rays or emanations doubtless Asher was familiar with them and their enormous possibilities of which our chemists and scientific men have at present but explored the fringe editor end of footnote end of chapter 20