CHAPTER XIII - THE ORDEAL OF THE ORACLE

The evening meal was over. Vedrona and Lais - the former with her doubts and suspicions quieted for the time - were keeping the Queen company; and Glarces, disinclined for society, had retired to his room. The day had not passed so evenly placid as usual, and his oversensitive mind was anxious to review and harmonise events. Further, he was expecting to hear from Meshrac, with a possibility of a visit to the oracle as a sequel in the background. In such a thought there was that thrill of nervous anticipation always associated with new, especially mysterious, subjects; and altogether it was not surprising that he should desire to be alone.

He touched the chime.

“Has Meshrac or any message from him arrived?” he enquired. “None, O Prince.”

“Send for him at once.”

The astrologer, evidently awaiting the summons, immediately repaired to the palace.

“It is right, my good Meshrac. What message have the gods for me?”

“In answer to your august command, most noble Glarces, I have called into consultation the whole fraternity of the astrologers and magicians, who have assisted in reading the will of the gods as revealed through our divine mysteries. More than this, I have ventured to submit your wish to the wisdom of the mighty Rab-nag Rhea, who, in her desire to serve you, has unexpectedly come from her sacred retirement to preside over our solemn conclave.”

“Has the holy recluse so honoured my enquiry?” he asked, as if doubtful of having heard aright.

The Prince might well question the accuracy of this astounding communication. His surprise could not have been greater had Meshrac assured him that Asthia, the goddess of love, had arrived in Velia, for this remarkable woman was as sacred to the superstitions of Sahama and almost as mythical as any deity in the pantheon. Tradition assigned her an existence of more than two millenniums, the first half of which had been spent as high priestess in the temple of Tefnut, in Egypt, where she had learned the secret of immortality, to which the gods had added the endowment of continually increasing beauty as a reward of fidelity and wisdom. It was equally owing to the fascination of her transcendent loveliness of form and feature as with the demands of her craft that she was compelled to hide herself, even in her earlier days.

By command of her patron deity she had retired from Egypt, and presented herself in Sahama, to preside over its destinies, soon after the occupation of the valley, where through all its history she had but twice secretly visited the capital, and only at great intervals, or in times of extreme necessity, did she allow even the master of the magicians to visit her mountain home. Under these circumstances we may understand with what positive consternation the Prince heard of her presence in answer to his enquiry.

“Not only is she with us,” returned Meshrac,”but when the stars again refused to speak more plainly than I have already reported, she erected the sacred tripod before the outer altar and commanded the oracle to speak.”

“May I know the answer?”

“I have the command of our sacred hierarch, O Prince, to give thee this scarab, bearing the name and securing the help of Apies, who guards all who by the wearing thereof are united to him, and with it I am to bestow the blessing and favour of Rhea, who heard the oracle reply:

‘When clouds arise within Sahama's cup,

The serpents' eyes shall see the shadows come;

The oracle is open, and the gods

Will guard the interests of Queen Sazone's throne.’”

With this he hung the sacred symbol and talisman around the neck of the Prince.

“For the undeserved honour of the blessing and the gift, I know not how to express my thanks, my good Meshrac. The knowledge that I am thus known and considered by the gods humbles and overpowers me, and for the future I will pay my gratitude in person at their altars. But for the present, in what I seek to know, not even the answer of the great Rhea is free from doubt. If she will pardon her most humble slave, I myself would dare to stand before the altar and make my own request.”

“She will be glad to have it so, but bids me caution thee, O Prince, of the terrors and risks attendant on such an ordeal. To stand within the presence of the gods, even when the brotherhood consult them, is not a choice for a novice to make lightly, but I myself should quake with fear in the presence of our Queen.”

“Why need I fear if I have done no wrong?”

“Only that the approach to the second altar is so closely guarded as to test the stoutest nerves, and she would have thee know it in advance, for there is no return when once the gods have been invoked.”

“In that case my nerves must learn to obey my will. I have no fear. When shall I present myself?”

“At midnight, O Prince.”

“I will await your summons; till then leave me.”

The magician withdrew, and Glarces in meditative solitude prepared himself for the mysterious ceremony. He was thus employed when a closely-veiled figure entered by other than the usual door, and in an unknown voice addressed him.

“The hour approaches, Glarces.Art thou ready to enter into the presence of the gods?”

“I am.”

“Then follow me; but speak not.”

The shrouded, unknown and silent conductor, the mysterious uncertainty of the experience before him, the darkness of the night, and his presence in a path always regarded with superstition, as the private road of the magicians, served to raise the temperature of his nervous expectation, The feeling increased as they passed into the grounds of the mystic college, where vague outlines of trees and shrubs assumed fantastic shapes, from which hungry eyes of green and red fire appeared to rush at him in anger; the gentle midnight breeze was like a wail of shivering agony from the far away; the hoarse croaking of frogs had an unnatural and irritating sound, from all of which he was glad to escape by reaching their destination.

He was challenged on the threshold of the college.

“Who comes to the house of the gods at the midnight hour?”

“The great Prince Glarces, to stand before the sacred altar,” responded his guide; and led him forward.

They turned at once away from the part of the building with which Glarces was familiar, and threaded a series of passages, where the light was gradually reduced, until at length his guide was compelled to take his hand, and brought him to a door, upon which he struck three loud and measured blows. The reverberations rolled in echoes, as if through some illimitable despairing cavern, and a cold moisture started to the face of our hero in anticipation of the mysterious possibilities before him.

The summons was repeated, and the massive doors flew open as if thrown wide by invisible hands.

At a distance impossible to estimate there shone a bright pencil-point of light, but except for this - unless intermittent flashes of blue, and hence almost invisible flame, which played above, beneath, around, can be so called there was no illumination. No possible idea could be formed of the nature or extent of the place before him, and Glarces stood irresolute, knowing nothing but that he was in the presence of a revolting, nauseating odour.

His guide held him while he had time to watch the darkness belch its blue flame, now far down beneath his feet, then high above his head, and again in the distant right and left.

Would he be required to advance into such a black uncertainty? As if in answer to his thought a thousand eyes of ruby fire glared angrily from the darkness, then died as suddenly away.

The situation was certainly not a pleasant one; but it was time for action rather than indecision. A hoarse, stern voice addressed him.

“If thy hands are clear of blood, thy lips cleansed from lying, and thy soul pure, thou mayst come forward.”

“I have no fear,” he answered courageously, receiving strength from the sound even of so sepulchral a voice.

His guide led him forward, carefully feeling his way into the darkness. The doors closed behind them with a sonorous bang, again waking the dismal echoes of the place, at which Glarces breathed a regretful sigh at the cutting off of all possible retreat.

The conductor paused, and the Prince - glad to be relieved from shuffling his way forward under such conditions - at once stood still. The mute now loosed his hand, and, taking him by the shoulders, with laborious exactitude placed him in some desired position, which being accomplished, Glarces was left alone.

“Stand still!” commanded some authoritative voice far above him.

“Neither move nor speak on pain of instant death,” spake another from the depths beneath.

“Let the trial of Suspense begin,” a musical voice from the distance directed.

Then commenced the first real terror of the night. Hitherto anticipation had only waited upon a natural nervous excitement. Now he was alone, in darkness almost tangible, in a silence discordant with the voices of fear, doubt, and a frightful temptation to appeal at once to the mercy of death in a fatal shout. His limbs pleaded for rest in movement; his hands and arms were bearing him down with their leaden weight, yet he dare not move them to grasp the relief he felt was almost touching him: his brain had lost its power of balance, and in his doubt he had a sense of falling into the depths beneath his feet. A thousand torturing voices, speaking with tongues of suggestion, argued with him of the futility of his desire; nerves could not endure, courage had not strength, reason could not maintain the tension. The sickening odours of the place arose from the putrid bodies of others who had gone before him, and failed, as he must fail - died, as he must die. In seeking to satisfy his sister's doubts he had fallen into the cleverly constructed trap his enemies had spread to catch him, and when he fell - as he must fall in the end - lights would dance around him, and he would see Lais and Casca - perhaps even Vedrona - laughing at his folly, gloating over their victory, and making his death an exquisite torture abounding in every fiendish device.

Oh ! it was agony, the thought of it ! But he dare not speak - would not move, though he knew to do so would relieve him of the almost unendurable suffering. How long would it last? When would the end come? It must come soon, for the acuteness of the torment was beginning to give place to numbness, and in that at least he would find relief. But what relief? Would it not be the dreaded consummation? He started in an attempt to arouse himself, and had fallen, but at the instant the silence was broken, and a voice before him said:

“It is enough! Thy courage has stood the ordeal of Suspense; rest and prepare to pass through that of the Sacred Serpents.”

A seat was now offered him, of which he gladly availed himself, and several unseen attendants ministered to his necessities and restoration, but still no word was spoken.

After this he passed two other ordeals lying in his path to the altar of the sacred fire: first his innocence and purity were tested and satisfactorily established in a maddening experience among the sacred serpents, who in the darkness coiled hissing around him with the certainty of a horrible and torturing death overtaking him at any instant. Next, by wading through a stream haunted by crocodiles, to establish the proof of his friendship with the gods, to whom the voracious reptiles were taboo. But we need not enlarge upon these horrors, in the endurance of which he lived through apparently interminable years of suffering, and lei~ them, not with the youthful vigour and well-favoured appearance with which he had set out, but aged, haggard, and trembling, with nothing of his original self remaining but his love for Vedrona and an undaunted determination to know the truth concerning her.

In the mud of a shallow stream his feet soughed about heavily. In the darkness he knew not which way to turn or how to find his way; but every now and then the jaws of some hungry reptile snapped beside him, filling him with still increasing terror, which was rapidly giving place to the hopeless resignation of despair.

At length he heard the welcome declaration: "The gods are satisfied." And instantly the soi~ glow of a lamp shone to his lei~ hand, toward which he made his way, and the ordeal was over.

Two veiled members of the brotherhood now conducted him to an ante­room, where he bathed, was anointed, and robed in accordance with the formalities of presentation before the inner altar. Then, with a weary gait, consequent upon the physical tax he had already sustained, he followed his guides up a long flight of steps, and was brought to the door of the temple.

He had secured his right of entry, therefore with only technical formalities the doors were opened, and with - for the first time - unmasked attendants he entered the apartment, in which his coming was awaited by the whole fraternity of magicians.

The immense hall - only dimly lighted, but still very welcome, after the experiences through which he had recently come - was arranged and decorated with the cabalistic and mysterious paraphernalia of the craft. Down the lower centre stood two long lines of emblematical figures of the gods recognised and invoked by the brotherhood, and before each was a miniature altar, upon which the attendant priest continually sprinkled sweet-smelling incense, while crooning their invocations in concert.

Between these lines of gods and altars Glarces was conducted to the upper part of the hall, where the main company of magicians received and formed a half-circle behind him. Before him stood the slab of sacrifice, presided over by Meshrac, whose hands were clasped around the handle of the sacrificial knife, with its point resting upon the table. Four assistants were in readiness to execute his commands. Behind these stood the great altar, and above this a dais, upon which was seated the one who not only invited his own attention from the moment he beheld her, but was also the cynosure of all the eyes of the brotherhood - Rhea, the one mysterious being in whom the mortal and immortal states met and commingled, breaking down the boundary line between, creating her unique on earth and the great beyond.

In her, it was claimed, centred every existent force; to her was known every secret of the world and underworld, and by her alone these powers and mysteries of the gods were revealed to men.

No wonder, with such facilities and resources at her disposal, she had gathered together in her majestic form the peerless and superb embodiment of every perfect feature, trait, and attribute. Nearly two thousand years had passed since her wisdom had secured the gift of immortality, with all its concomitants. Through those vast ages she had, with the assistance of the gods, modelled, remodelled, experimented, revised and improved until she had outvied perfection in the indescribable beauty of her loveliness, wherein was blended, with faultless harmony, youth with wisdom, fragile delicacy with inflexible determination, and the seductive languishment of the maiden with the graceful bearing of a queen.

She was a vision of exquisite, yet awful, beauty, clothed in a full-flowing robe of some spotless white diaphanous material, through which the imaginary outlines of her form could be suggestively traced. The arms were bare, save for the coiling ruby serpents with golden heads at wrist and elbow; the wealth of rich chestnut hair was dressed with all a woman's pardonable pride, and held secure by pins and bands mounted with symbolic devices. Above her head was a canopy from which a coronet of brightly gleaming stars descended, a futile and partly adjunct to denote the sovereignty of such a woman.

As Glarces bent his knee in homage to this smiling but awe-inspiring miracle of humanity, he forgot for the moment the dangers and ordeals through which he had passed, also the purpose for which he was present. It was enough for him that he was in the presence of the bride and companion of the gods, and the price he had paid therefor was not to be considered in comparison with the reward.

When the invocation of the priests came to an end Rhea at once solved the problem of the musical voice he had already heard.

“I bid thee welcome, most excellent Prince, to the altar of sacred fire.”

She paused deliberately. A peal of thunder shook the place, and a flash of lightning caused a flame to leap from the altar, attesting the presence and also the favour of the gods.

“Thou hast well passed the trying ordeals by which thy courage, innocence, and friendship to the immortal powers has been established. Speak now and mention the request thou bringest into the presence of the gods.”

Again Glarces fell upon his knees in the same reverent attitude a slave would assume towards himself.

“I would ask thy forbearance, most awful Queen, companion of the gods and revealer of their wills, for daring to enter thy most sacred presence to enquire if there exists treason or conspiracy against my mother's throne or family?”

“All the forces of nature and the immortals are at the disposal of our faithful friends,” she replied; “that which is known to the council of the gods of the future of your house shall therefore be made known to you.”

Then to the brotherhood she commanded “Bring hither the bird!”

Two attendants carried forward a struggling, screaming peacock, which they laid upon the slab before Meshrac, who, seizing the neck of the bird in his right hand, with his left made passes over the body, mysteriously binding it to the table, where it lay trembling and giving utterance to stifled sobs of terror.

The brotherhood were now droning another invocation and as Meshrac stepped back from the table tiny but bright tongues of flame darted from the air towards the helpless fowl in every direction during the singing of the chant. As it ceased a long, clear shaft of fire descended, struck the bird, and laid it dead.

In an instant Meshrac's knife was buried in and tore open the body, which was thrown upon the fire of the altar, but the quivering intestines were spread upon the table, that Rhea might read the voice of the oracle thereon.

When she had made a careful study of the signs she spoke:

“Hear the declaration of the gods concerning thee, O Glarces, written in unmistakable language upon the intestines of the bird of their choice where none have power to change or alter the decree.                                   

The message says:

“ ‘So long as the royal house can furnish a queen to sit upon the throne its dynasty is safe; and, as for Glarces, he shall live to triumph over every foe that shall arise.’”

The Prince listened carefully to all she said.

“The voice of the oracle grows more definite as I proceed,” he ventured to plead; “is there not yet another shrine before which I may be permitted to stand?”

The great Rab-nag smiled. She was gratified to find such determined and daring courage in the devotee but there was also a touch of pitiful commiseration in the look with which she regarded him.

“There is another altar standing on the threshold of the world of souls; but there are few who have the courage to break its awful silence.”

“May I attempt it?”

“I warn thee of its terrors! It is to brave and challenge death in its most painful and hideous form.”

“I had better die in struggling towards the truth than live in the vague uncertainty of doubt,” he answered, courageously.

“Is the possession of truth more to thee than the desire of life?”

“Is not knowledge of the truth the one supreme aim of life, and if I reach it, shall I not attain the goal?”

“Thou hast well spoken, Glarces; we will go forward.” With this she dismissed the brotherhood, the Prince being conducted by Meshrac and Chryses into a small apartment, where they robed in the yellow garments of mourning, and awaited the summons of Rhea to proceed. Even the magician and priest were unable to suppress their nervous excitement at the thought of the ceremony before them. Twice only during his long experience had Meshrac participated in such a consultation, and Chryses had never desired to renew the terrors of his initiation. Glarces was ignorant and though not unmindful of the warnings of Rhea or his recent ordeal, called all his courage into service and was calm.

Then the summons came.

Chryses, having assumed his sacred vestment bearing the scarab, heart, and emblem of life, passed on before; after him came Glarces, with hands crossed penitentially upon his breast, then Meshrac with his magician's staff, around which was coiled the golden serpent.

The door of the Chamber of Death was already open to receive them, and a short distance ahead a soft phosphorescent light, without any visible support or connection, quivered to guide them on. The door with a sepulchural sound closed mechanically as they passed through.

The priest and magician now began to recite, in low and solemn antiphone, the ritual for the dead, and presently the wailing dirge for the departed was chanted by invisible mourners on either side, to the shrieking, discordant accompaniment of instruments. Icy, fleshless hands reached out of the darkness and passed over the face and through the hair of the Prince; ghoulish eyes looked greedily upon him, shiny reptiles crossed his bare feet or coiled around his legs. The passage descended, growing more cold and noisome until he shivered at the fetid moisture but still the light went forward, though the sound of the piercing wail followed from afar like the haunting shriek of a band of despairing souls. Now they were compelled to stoop, then creep forward, through the sickening stench of decaying bones, upon the soft, putrid mass of which hands and knees were continually sinking, where worms appeared to be more plentiful than earth.

Still the light went forward, verily through the domain of the dead, until they emerged in the Hall of Souls, from which the departed take their flight, on liberation from the body, into the impenetrable gloom of Hades.

The hall was dimly lighted with a green mysterious glow, sufficient to create innumerable moving shadows, as of rebellious, restless spirits, malicious from their long detention, Skeletons more or less complete, and separate bones and skulls, lay everywhere. The roof was built, the walls decorated, the floor was strewn with bones. Here and there they were piled together, as if disconsolate and despairing ghosts had made seats or couches in an attempt to secure some impossible degree of comfort or repose. In fact, the great cavern was a huge, revolting charnel house.

Glarces surveyed the place with doubtful feelings of relief. Then the lights went out and he was alone. Even the bones shuddered together at the horror of such a loneliness tremblingly shuddered, with an involuntary movement, then set up a rattling protest, rising into mutinous riot and warfare against the fiendish terror of such diabolical association. The terrified bones crept close to him - caressed him in their hunger for sympathy, in their trembling appeal for protection. And he had no escape from this torturing affection of death. He could only tremble in sympathy and pray for the flickering flame of life to take its flight, and find what refuge was possible in kinship of conditions.

He did not cry - not that he would not, but the power to do so had left him; and yet in that his agony was shortened for by his silence the measure of the ordeal was curtailed. The lights reappeared, and with them the half­unconcious Prince recovered somewhat of his courage, but the awful strain had left its marks upon his face and figure.

His guides returned, and without a word led him forward to where a yellow screen divided the cavern. Beyond this curtain they demanded admission, and having answered the requirements of the ritual, it parted in the middle, allowing them to pass forward to the altar - built entirely of human bones - which stood at the mouth of the Great Abyss.

Before and around the altar more - but still green - lights were burning, enabling him to recognise Rhea, who presided, with Zaclas as assistant.

“Thou hast done well,” was the commendation of the great magician, as he bowed before her. “Wouldst thou still have the fire upon this altar lighted?”

“I would know that for which I came, O Queen.”

His will was still as determined as ever. For the quaver of his voice, his flesh, rather than his soul, was answerable. “Then may the great gods nerve us all for what may happen.”

She took her place behind the altar, and with the sceptre of her office began to wave, at first a silent incantation, then an unintelligible invocation, commencing with a musical croon, but rising into an impassioned wail and a frenzy of excitement, in which Glarces saw her youth and beauty begin to fade, till presently all her comeliness was lost, and in its place a hideous repulsive hag remained, her tall and stately figure transformed into a decrepit monstrosity, and the once musical voice harsh and malignant in its blasphemous defiance. It was a revelation both horrible and repulsive - more terrifying than even the companionship of the dead, and for the first time in all that fearful night Glarces repented of that he had done. He looked to Zaclas, Meshrac, and Chryses, who, to his horror, appeared to be changed as Rhea, only in a less degree, and doubted not that upon himself the same blighting curse had fallen.

Retreat was now too late. Upon that hideous altar the answering fire now flamed. The gods had heard the invocation.