"Because her Majesty comes," he answered, "and this chamber is quiet and fitting. None enter it save myself."
As he spoke the words the door opened, and closed again, and before them stood Neter-Tua, Star of Amen.
In the dusk of that room the first thing that seemed to catch her eye was the bared blade in Abi"s hand. For a moment she looked at it and him, also at Kaku crouching in the corner, then asked in her quiet voice:
"Why is your sword drawn, O Husband?"
"To kill you, O Wife," he answered furiously, for his rage mastered him.
She continued to look at him a little while and said, smiling in her strange fashion:
"Indeed? But why more now than at any other time? Has Kaku"s counsel given you courage?"
"Need you ask, shameless woman? Does not this window-place open on to yonder garden?"
"Oh! I remember, that captain of yours--he who slew Mermes, your daughter"s husband who made love to me--so well that I rewarded him with a funeral flower, knowing that you watched us. Settle your account with him as you and his wife may wish; it is no matter of mine. But I warn you that if you would take men"s lives for such a fault as this, soon you will have no servants left, since they all are sinners who desire to usurp your place."
Then Abi"s fury broke out. He cursed and reviled her, he called her by ill names, swearing that she should die, who bewitched all men and was the love of none, and who made him a mock and a shame in the sight of Egypt. But Neter-Tua only listened until at length he raved himself to silence.
"You talk much and do little," she said at length. "The sword is in your hand, use it, I am here."
Maddened by her scorn he lifted the weapon and rushed at her, only to reel back again as though he had been smitten by some power unseen. He rested against the wall, then again rushed and again reeled back.
"You are a poor butcher," she said at length, "after so many years of practice. Let Kaku yonder try. I think he has more skill in murder."
"Oh! your Majesty," broke in the astrologer, "unsay those cruel words, you who know that rather than lift hands against you I would die a thousand times."
"Yes," she answered gravely, "the Prince Abi suggested it to you but now, did he not, after you had suggested it to him, and you refused--for your own reasons?"
Then the sword fell from Abi"s hand, and there was silence in that chamber.
"What were you talking of, Abi, before you peeped through the shutters and saw that captain of yours and me together in the garden, and why did you wish to kill this dog?" she went on presently. "Must I answer for you? You were talking of how you might be rid of me, and you wished to kill him because he did not dare to tell you why he could not do the deed, knowing that if he did so he must die. Well, since you desire to know, you shall learn, and now. Look on me, wretched Man, whom men name my husband. Look on me, accursed Slave, whom Amen has given into my hand to punish here upon the earth, until you pa.s.s to his yonder in the Under-world."
He looked up, and Kaku looked also, because he could not help it, but what they saw they never told. Only they fell down upon their faces, both of them, and groaned; beating the floor with their foreheads.
At length the icy terror seemed to be lifted from their hearts, and they dared to glance up again, and saw that she was as she had been, a most royal and lovely woman, but no more.
"What are you?" gasped Abi. "The G.o.ddess Sekhet in the flesh, or Isis, Queen of Death, or but dead Tua"s ghost sent here for vengeance?"
"All of them, or none of them, as you will, though, Man, it is true that I am sent here for vengeance. Ask the Wizard yonder. He knows, and I give him leave to say."
"_She is the Double of Amen"s daughter_," moaned Kaku. "She is her Ka set free to bring doom upon those who would have wronged her. She is a ghost armed with the might of the G.o.ds, and all we who have sinned against dead Pharaoh and her and her father Amen are given into her hand to be tormented and brought to doom."
"Where, then, is Neter-Tua, who was Queen of Egypt?" gasped Abi, rolling his great eyes. "Is she with Osiris?"
"I will tell you, Man," answered the royal Shape. "She is not dead--she lives, and is gone to seek one she loves. When she returns with him and a certain Beggar, then I shall depart and you will die, both of you, for such is the punishment decreed upon you. Until then, arise and do my bidding."
CHAPTER XIV
THE BOAT OF RA
Tua, Star of Amen, opened her eyes. For some time already she had lain as one lies between sleep and waking, and it seemed to her that she heard the sound of dipping oars, and of water that rippled gently against the sides of a ship. She thought to herself that she dreamed.
Doubtless she was in her bed in the palace at Thebes, and presently, when it was light, her ladies would come to waken her.
In the palace at Thebes! Why, now she remembered that it was months since she had seen that royal city, she who had travelled far since then, and come at last to white-walled Memphis, where many terrible things had befallen her. One by one they came into her mind; the snare, Pharaoh"s murder by magic, the battle, and the slaughter of her guards, the starvation in the tower, with death on one hand, and the hateful Abi on the other; the wondrous vision of that spirit who wore her face, and said she was the guardian Ka given to her at birth, the words it spoke, and her dread resolve; and last of all Asti and herself standing in the lofty window niche, then a flame of fire before her face, and that fearful downward rush.
Oh! without a doubt it was over; she was dead, and these dreams and memories were such as come to the dwellers in the Under-world. Only then why did she hear the sound of lapping water, and of dipping oars?
Very slowly she opened her eyes, for Tua greatly feared what she might see. Light flowed upon her, the light of the moon which hung in a clear sky like some great lamp of gold. By it she saw that, robed all in white, she lay upon a couch in a pavilion, whereof the silken curtains were drawn back in front, and tied to gilded posts. At her side, wrapped in a grey robe, lay another figure, which she knew for Asti. It was still, so still that she was sure it must be dead, yet she knew that this was Asti. Perchance Asti dreamed also, and could hear in her dreams; at least, she would speak to her.
"Asti," she whispered, "Asti, can you hear me?"
The grey figure at her side stirred, and the head turned towards her.
Then the voice of Asti, none other, answered:
"Aye, Lady, I hear and see. But say, where are we now?"
"In the Under-world, I think, Asti. Oh! that fire was death, and now we journey to the Place of Souls."
"If so, Lady, it is strange that we should still have eyes and flesh and voices as mortal women have. Let us sit up and look."
So they sat up, their arms about each other, and peered through the open curtains. Behold! they were on a ship more beautiful than any they had ever seen, for it seemed to be covered with gold and silver, while sweet odours floated from its hold. Their pavilion was set in the centre of the ship and looking aft, they perceived lines of white-clad rowers seated at their oars in the shadow of the bulwarks, and on the high stern--also robed in white--a tall steersman whose face was veiled, behind whom in the dim glimpses of the moon, they caught sight of a wide and silvery river, and on its distant banks palms and temple towers.
"It is the Boat of Ra," murmured Tua, "which bears us down the River of Death to the Kingdom behind the Sun."
Then she sank back upon her cushions, and once more fell into swoon or sleep.
Tua woke again, and lo! the sun was shining brightly, and at her side sat Asti watching her. Moreover, in front of them was set a table spread with delicate food.
"Tell me what has chanced, Nurse," she said faintly, "for I am bewildered, and know not in what world we wander."
"Our own, Queen, I think," answered Asti, "but in charge of those who are not of it, for surely this is no mortal boat, nor do mortals guide her to her port. Come, we need food. Let us eat while we may."
So they ate and drank heartily enough, and when they had finished even dared to go out of the pavilion. Looking around them they saw that they stood upon a high deck in the midst of a great ship, but that this ship was enclosed with a net of silver cords in which they could find no opening. Looking through its meshes they noted that the oars were inboard, and the great purple sails set upon the mast, also that the rowers were gone, perchance to rest beneath the deck, while on the forecastle of the ship stood the captain, white-robed and masked, and aft the steersman, also still masked, so that they could see nothing of their faces. Now, too, they were no longer sailing on a river, but down a ca.n.a.l bordered by banks of sand on either side, beyond which stretched desert farther than the eye could reach.
Asti studied the desert, then turned and said:
"I think I know this ca.n.a.l, Lady, for once I sailed it as a child. I think it is that which was dug by the Pharaohs of old, and repaired after the fall of the Hyksos kings, and that it runs from Bubastis to that bay down which wanderers sail towards the rising sun."
"Mayhap," answered Tua. "At least, this is the world that bore us and no other, and by the mercy of Amen and the power of my Spirit we are still alive, and not dead, or so it seems. Call now to the captain on yonder deck; perhaps he will tell whither he bears us in his magic ship."
So Asti called, but the captain made no sign that he saw or heard her.
Next she called to the steersman, but although his veiled face was towards them, he also made no sign, so that at last they believed either that these were spirits or that they were men born deaf and dumb. In the end, growing weary of staring at this beautiful ship, at the ca.n.a.l and the desert beyond it, and of wondering where they were, and how they came thither, they returned to the pavilion to avoid the heat of the sun. Here they found that during their absence some hand unseen had arranged the silken bed-clothing on their couches and cleared away the fragments of their meal, resetting the beautiful table with other foods.
"Truly here is wizardry at work," said Tua, as she sank into a leather-seated ivory chair that was placed ready.
"Who doubts it?" answered Asti calmly. "By wizardry were you born; by wizardry was Pharaoh slain; by wizardry we are saved to an end that we cannot guess; by wizardry, or what men so name, does the whole world move; only being so near we see it not."