CHAPTER XXXVIII - GLARCES AND LAIS

As Tasha left the Prince she found a messenger waiting to conduct her to the Queen. Lais could not afford to run the risk of accidents just now. The incidents of Zillah and Maphir were sufficiently disquieting, and if by any means Tasha slipped through her fingers, all would be lost. Nothing then would remain but to submit to the fates that had lured her on to betray and forsake her at the last. Lais was not the woman to accept such an alternative readily, especially so long as the trump card remained in hand.

Tasha had no wish to evade the interview, but if the opportunity occurred, she might have deferred it while she sought the advice of Teresh. She appreciated the difficult and delicate position in which she stood, and, knowing also the haughty spirit of the Queen, was afraid lest she might prejudice the cause of Glarces by some inadvertence in her honest endeavour to assist him.

She was ignorant of the fact that Lais had already foreseen this selfsame difficulty, and had most minutely studied it with a view of finding some means of turning it to personal advantage. Hence the messenger awaiting her, and the nervous anxiety with which she was received.

“How is he, Tasha - how is he? Tell me that, in this demon's power, he hates, curses, and wishes to destroy me! This is my only hope. For if he loathes me now in his madness, when he recovers he will love me, and I shall be his little sister once again.”

“Would you really have him hate you so?”

“In this condition of his mind I would. Whom now he hates most bitterly, he presently will love the best, and if he loves me not when he recovers I had better die!”

“If such is your wish I think the gods have granted it. He has not exactly cursed you, but when he hears your name it so enrages him as to make me fear.”

“I thank the gods for that. It is the first grain of comfort I have found in all my sad affliction.”

“Is it? And I was fearful to tell you because I thought of the pain it would cause.”

“You are always so thoughtful of that, my dear mother. If you make a mistake it is always against yourself. Now what can we do to comfort him? Did he hint at anything he desires?”

“Nothing - except to see Teresh.” “Did he ask to see him?”

“Yes, he scarcely spoke of anything besides.” “Did you promise to send him?”

“No, but I promised to tell you.”

“I will send him at once. Will you touch the chime - and yet, no! Perhaps it will be better to wait till morning.” “I think it would.”

Tasha thought of the vision, and though something prevented her speaking of it to Lais, she felt confident Glarces would prefer to be left alone with the consolation it afforded him.

“It shall be so, but let me again remind you how advisable it is to keep your own counsel. We know not yet who are our friends or foes. The wildest rumours are passing round, and it is best at present to see no one. By the morning I shall know something; then I will send for Teresh, let him see Glarces, and take what instructions he has to give. So will I end this suspicion, and restore quiet once more. Now you may leave me. I am tired, and will at once seek my rest.”

“May your sleep be deep and your dreams sweet Peace.” “Peace, Tasha. It has been a weary day. I am glad it is over.”

Once more alone the disguise of weariness was flung aside, and Lais was full of energy and resolution.

“He would destroy me and see Teresh. It is well for me to know this - instructive and full of suggestion. I thought I knew the way to reach his confidences. I will give him yet another - a final chance to save himself, and after that - well, perhaps the gods know, but I am not yet certain.”

Glarces was in a half-sitting posture on the edge of a table from which he had taken the large amethyst Vedrona had given him. He had worn it upon his breast in the morning, and in the memory of his vision had taken it into his open palm, turning it over and over, recalling its beautiful legend. He was thus occupied when the Queen entered, unattended.

“What brings you here?” he asked quietly, without changing his position. “Leave me; I prefer to be alone.” “It is for me to command,” she replied, “if any such course be necessary. But why should this be so when you and I are all that is left to each other?”

She had not yet distracted his attention from the stone, from which he cursorily glanced towards her as he enquired, “Is not my trouble heavy enough in the loss of the murdered without becoming sport for their murderess?”

“Their murderess?” she gasped.

“I said so. If your soul is so black that this fiendish fact has not yet revealed itself, it is another reason for your retirement to give it a chance; but if - as I know to be the truth - you seek still further to impose upon my confidence, I caution you to beware. The restraint I once had upon myself you have destroyed, and now I only live for her to be avenged. Mind how far you provoke me.”

“Glarces, my poor brother, what do you mean? Is it possible that Machaon is right in his suggestion, and that you are really possessed?”

“Yes, he is right - I am possessed with the determination to avenge so foul a crime. Therefore, I caution you. Leave me!”

“No, no! If there is any danger in being near you, I am willing to brave it. I have already left you too long alone, and love you too much to go away again.”

He replaced the stone and moved aside to avoid the embrace with which she attempted to throw herself upon him. “You love!” he reiterated with scornful incredulity.

“Ye gods, are you deaf or impotent to prevent the blasphemy of such a word being taken on the lips of hell? Lais loves! Surely the astounding lie has struck the furies dumb, or they would laugh at the audacity. Lais loves! Hear it, ye immortal scribes, and write the miracle on the Car of Pheobus - in the blackest vale of hell is found the capstone of Elysian purity! Lais loves! Beside this the poet's dream and the philosopher's ideal sink into insignificance. Now shall the ice give birth to heat, from the womb of darkness brighter prisms than the sun shall spring, winter and summer shall nestle in each other's bosom, and wreaths of perfumed flowers shall deck the brow of frost; henceforth shall calm and storm be one, peace and strife go hand in hand, Pluto and Jove are bosom friends, and all the dammed are gods, since Lais loves! “Then, as if some bewildering thought had suddenly risen to his mind, he drew his hand across his eyes, and continued - “But what shall take the place of the gods' omnipotence in this great transformation, for though it were yoked with all the lust and sensuality of hell, that power would be unequal to the task of producing such a passion as would gratify her bestial mind. Ye gods, what have ye done that Lais is able to love and oblivion not be borne?”

The declamation derived its greatest force from the calmness of its pronouncement. Her guilty soul was laid bare to the weighty lash of injured innocence, and she was powerless to escape the torture he measured with such patient deliberation. Only when he ceased did she in any way recover herself.

“My brother's malady appears to have developed the sense of flattery.”

“I would I had but power to do you justice.If truth could only find a full expression there would be no room for flattery.”

“It is not like Glarces to be at a loss for words; but there, my brother, is the proof of your affliction, and understanding this I will bear with you, and be generous.”

“Generosity is only justice to one who is possessed. What is it you desire to say?”

“What can I wish to say but that these thoughts which trouble you are nothing but the creation of your own malady. I understand them, Glarces, and know that presently you will recover, and wish me to take the place of her-”

“Stand back, and keep her name or reference to her from your vile lips. To you, at least, she is dead! If you love yourself, let her name also be forgotten.”

“I will do so until you bid me speak of her. But I cannot forget that I have always been your little sister-” “She is dead, too.”

“No, Glarces, that I will not allow. Rather can I now see why the gods brought me here-”

“To murder Vedrona, and take her throne?”

“Yes, if you think so in your delirium. I will not anger you with contradictions, but rather bear with your suspicion until you recover; till then I will not leave you, but I claim my right to fill the vacant place, and nurse you back to health again.”

“To fill what?”

“Nothing, dear. You are not well enough to argue now.”

“Argument is alike useless and undesirable. Remember that I know you now - I see you without your mask, and caution you to be careful.”

“Of what, my brother?”

“How you attempt to delude yourself by trifling more with me and my affairs. Again I tell you that my eyes are opened, and the mask of your treacherous hypocrisy is torn away. Now that I have felt your sting I recognise that I have cherished and protected a viper in a woman's shape, a lustful fury under the guise of a sister, an insatiate wanton, who would not hesitate to ravish heaven in an attempt to glut her fiendish passion. I know you, I say, and so I caution you. Have gods or demons ever yet beheld your equal? Was ever aught in human form so dead to shame as you are now? My mother's corpse is not yet ready for its burial, my sister's pyre has not yet ceased to smoke, but you are here impatient to desecrate their love - proposing to take her place who yet is bride and queen of my heart, and love, and life! You have slain her body, and yet are not content, but would cross the rubicon of death, and rob her fair spirit of the only treasure Charon has no power to take away - you would send her into the bowers of the immortals stripped of the love the gods have given her. Do I make it clear how well I understand your base insinuation - how fruitless it is for you to hope for more success? I am not the Glarces of the days gone by; then I was mad - the victim of an all-too-confiding dream; but now I am awake! I thank the gods that the love which binds Vedrona and myself together bears the impress and seal of the immortals. It was not our own, nor the product of the earth. It may have been disturbed and shaken for the moment by the temptation I have suffered, but it is not broken. It binds us yet, and when the penalty of my sin is paid, it will bring us together again. Death has no power to touch it; my dagger could never sever it; yon pyre will not destroy it; nothing exists by which we can be separated. All that your scheme has accomplished is to remove her beyond the reach of your further molestation - she is safe! - and place an impassable gulf between your sensuous hopes and myself. Nothing more. You have taken the throne, but the one object of your ambition has vanished - even what you had of me is lost, and henceforth we can only be associated in the retribution we must bear. Even in this we shall be divided, for you will be a Queen, finding your punishment upon a conscience-haunted, disappointed throne; I shall be your prisoner - you see I can now anticipate your designs - but mine will be the happier fate, for wherever you may send me - whatever you may devise - she will be with me. Neither your jealousy, nor hatred, nor possession of the throne has power to keep us apart. We are linked together, come what may; but you are left alone.”