Scarcely, however, had he opened his mouth, when Istar, springing from her couch, stood glaring at him with threatening gesture. Her hands trembled as words escaped her, "Ah! I had forgotten! Forgotten!" she wailed. Unsteadily she swayed forward for a moment, then sank back again upon her couch with blanched countenance.
"Lo!" cried the aged prophet, in a croaking voice, "through three-score years have I uttered warning!--the same warning, that since the day of the founder of Ea, hath been spoken at the conclusion of each Festival of Tammuz, son of the Lady of the Earth."
"Yea, I know! I know!" gasped Istar. "Loose not thy tongue"s strings.
Each year thou hast repeated thy prophecy; spare me its recital to-night!"
"Semiramis, our great queen, commanded that it should be uttered, therefore seek not to stay my words," he answered reproachfully, in a grave voice. "Thus saith Anu, G.o.d of Destruction, `Semiramis, when she built Ea, made no sacrifice, because she feared me not. Behold, I will direct unto Ea a stranger, who shall enter within its gates, and the day of whose coming none shall know. He shall be as a sign unto you that I will bring upon Ea a king of kings from the north, with horses and with chariots, and with hors.e.m.e.n, and with companies, and with much people.
He--""
"No!" cried Istar, covering her haggard face with her hands, while the tame lioness stood watching, her tail sweeping the ground. "I know thou art the skeleton of the Feast of Tammuz, but spare me thy disconcerting words."
The prophet, however, continued, heedless of her earnest supplications.
"`He shall kill the daughters of Ea in the field; and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes shall he break down these towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee; the walls of Ea shall shake at the noise of the hors.e.m.e.n, and of the wheels and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall put thy people to the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall be against them as a weak reed. And they shall kill thee and send thee to the city of Ninkigat, ruler of the great land of evil, whose palace walls are clothed in dust, the inhabitants thereof wearing robes of feathers like birds. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches and a prey of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thine houses; and they shall root up thy foundation-stones, and lay thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.""
Istar set her teeth. For an instant she glanced at me, the stranger foretold by the prophet; then her eyes were turned upon the man who had prophesied her downfall. I saw in their violet depths a steely glitter, as with one hand she fondled her pet Ninep. Almost as the last word left the old man"s lips she rose to her feet, and, with a word to the lioness, she pointed to the aged man who had dared to incur her displeasure. Ninep crouched at the feet of her mistress for a single instant, then, flying through the air, fixed her deadly fangs in the sage"s throat.
One loud scream of agony sounded as man and beast rolled over in deadly embrace. Next second I saw the polished pavement was defiled by blood.
Obedient to the call of her mistress, Ninep trotted back and licked her hand, leaving the prophet mangled and dead. Slaves quickly removed all evidences of the tragedy, and while they did so Istar sank back, her fair face buried among the cushions, a single sob escaping her.
CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
THE TEMPLE OF LOVE.
That night, in gloomy mood, Istar reclined dreamily upon her soft papakha, dismissing all her priestesses and slaves, so that I remained alone with her. With my back to one of the golden pillars supporting the roof, I sat silent in thought, scarce daring to move, for fear of the dozing lioness. Istar had fallen into a troubled sleep, and lay tossing upon her couch with tumbled tresses.
A sudden murmur from her caused me to glance in her direction, when I saw her lying, still asleep, ghastly pale beneath the light of the moon.
Her robe was disarranged; her delicate chest, that slowly heaved and fell, had become revealed. As I looked, I discerned, to my amazement, that it bore the device of the entwined asps, identically the same as had been branded upon me; the same as appeared on the rock-tablet of Semiramis!
Azala had spoken the truth. So far had the Mystery of the Asps been revealed. The strange link that joined me with the daughter of the Sultan "Othman joined us both, in some unaccountable manner, to the G.o.ddess-queen of this ancient land of marvels. I rose, and, creeping nearer, minutely examined the mystic mark upon her chest. It was seared as deeply, and presented a blemish as hideous, as my own. Lying, as she was, in graceful abandon, with one arm flung over her head, her chest rose and fell each time she breathed, but suddenly she drew a long, deep-drawn sigh, and her eyes opened.
I started back, but already she had detected me. "Well?" she exclaimed, regarding me with dreamy glance through her half-opened lashes, slowly readjusting the white silken robe that had come apart at the neck. "Why hast thou approached me?"
"Thou hast slept uneasily," I answered, "and a hideous mark upon thy breast became revealed."
Languidly she raised her head upon her arm, and with eyes still half closed, like Ninep, her dozing lioness, she said,--
"Come hither, Zafar. Come to my side."
Obediently I approached her couch. Her breast rose, causing her diamonds to sparkle. During the past few days I had not failed to notice in her manner an entire change. She accorded me more liberty; she no longer placed her spiteful heel upon my neck as sign of triumph, and seldom she spoke to me with wilful gesture. Once, the amazing thought had flashed across my mind that she actually loved me, but at such absurd notion I had laughed and placed it aside.
"What seest thou in the Mark of the Asps to amaze thee?" she asked, when I had drawn nigh to her, and Ninep sniffed my legs inquisitively.
"It is as a strange mark," I answered. "I was wondering what its meaning might be."
"Ah!" she sighed. "Its meaning none can tell, save that those who bear it are the doomed."
"The doomed!" I gasped. "Why?"
"Upon his accursed Anu setteth his mark. Hence it is that I bear it,"
she answered, gravely. "Thou art mine enemy, Zafar," she added, after a slight, painful pause. "To-night have I sent away my women, so that I may speak with thee, the stranger whose coming hath been prophesied for ages. By all men in Ea I am supposed to hate thee, yet--yet--"
Again she paused, looking at me intently with eyes in which burned the unmistakable light of love.
"Yet thou canst not bring thyself to cast me into the lions" pit," I observed, smiling bitterly. "Better that thou shouldst give me my liberty, and allow me to depart."
"Never," she cried, starting up. "Thou shalt never leave me. If I am doomed to die, thou shalt die also."
"Why?" I asked. "I have wrought thee no ill."
"Thou hast struck the chord of affection within my heart, Zafar," she said, pa.s.sionately.
"Already have I told thee that Azala, daughter of the Sultan "Othman, is betrothed to me," I answered, not in the least surprised at this pa.s.sionate declaration.
"Heed her not," she cried. "Already I know that Anu, though he sendeth thee hither as sign of the overthrow of Ea, hath, nevertheless, placed upon thee also the Mark of the Asps."
I started. I had no idea that she had ascertained the secret hidden beneath my robe of crimson silk. Some slave must, at her bidding, have examined my chest as I slept.
"And if so?"
"Then thou wilt a.s.suredly meet with a violent end." I smiled, and she regarded me with knit brows.
"If thou art my friend," I said, "then thou wilt release me."
"No. None departs from or enters the Land of the No Return," she answered. "Since the foundation of Ea one man only escaped into the outer world. It happened ages ago. He never returned hither, for on the day the calamity befel us Anu was wroth, a great earthquake occurred, and the gate by which he made his exit became closed for ever."
Already had I heard a similar legend during my long and eager search for the Rock of Sin, the Moon-G.o.d, the "illuminator of the earth and lord of laws."
"Who was the man who escaped?" I inquired.
"Legend saith his name was Nebo," she answered. "Knowest thou any of that name?"
In the negative I replied, reflecting upon the strange story of the escape of this man beyond the confines of Ea, and wondering what adventures befel him.
Then she went on to relate how, on many occasions, there had appeared in cloud pictures, or mirages, inverted pictures of the unapproachable world beyond; and I, in turn, explained how the Rock of the Moon-G.o.d and the Mountains of the Mist appeared frequently in the desert mirage in far-off Kano.
"Hast thou ever seen Ea mirrored on the clouds?" she inquired.
"Never," I answered. "Thy city is unknown, hence my speechless amazement at its discovery."
"Why desirest thou to return to thy land of evil?" she asked, stretching forth her hand and softly stroking Ninep"s sleek back.
"Because of the woman I love."
She bit her lip to the blood, and glanced at me with an evil glint in her bright eyes.
"Thou carest naught for me," she observed, reproachfully, regarding me sharply with narrowing brows.