Ardath: The Story of a Dead Self Part 13

Gliding along with that graceful, almost phantom-like swiftness of movement that was so much a part of his manner, Sah-luma escorted his visitor to the further end of the great hall. There,--throwing aside a curtain of rich azure silk which partially draped two large folding-doors,--he ushered him into a magnificent apartment opening out upon the terrace and garden beyond,--a garden filled with such a marvellous profusion of foliage and flowers, that looking at it from between the glistening marble columns surrounding the palace, it seemed as though the very sky above rested edge-wise on towering pyramids of red and white bloom. Awnings of pale blue stretched from the windows across the entire width of the s.p.a.cious outer colonnade, and here two small boys, half nude, and black as polished ebony, were huddled together on the mosaic pavement, watching the arrogant deportment of a superb peac.o.c.k that strutted majestically to and fro with boastfully spreading tail and glittering crest as brilliant as the gleam of the hot sun on the silver fringe of the azure canopies.

"Up, lazy rascals!" cried Sah-luma imperiously, as with the extreme point of his sandaled foot he touched the dimpled, shiny back of the nearest boy--"Up, and away! ... Fetch rose-water and sweet perfumes. .h.i.ther! By the G.o.ds! ye have let the incense in yonder burner smoulder!"--and he pointed to a ma.s.sive brazen vessel, gorgeously ornamented, from whence rose but the very faintest blue whiff of fragrant smoke--"Off with ye both, ye basking blackamoors! bring fresh frankincense,--and palm-leaves wherewith to stir this heated air--hence and back again like a lightning-flash! ... or out of my sight forever!"

While he spoke, the little fellows stood trembling and ducking their woolly heads, as though they half expected to be seized by their irate master and flung, like black b.a.l.l.s, out into the wilderness of flowers, but glancing timidly up and perceiving that even in the midst of his petulance he smiled, they took courage, and as soon as he had ceased they darted off with the swiftness of flying arrows, each striving to outstrip the other in a race across the terrace and garden. Sah-luma laughed as he watched them disappear,--and then stepping back into the interior of the apartment he turned to Theos and bade him be seated.

Theos sank unresistingly into a low, velvet-cushioned chair richly carved and inlaid with ivory, and stretching his limbs indolently therein, surveyed with new and ever-growing admiration the supple, elegant figure of his host, who, throwing himself full length on a couch covered with leopard-skins, folded his arms behind his head, and eyed his guest with a complacent smile of vanity and self-approval.

"'Tis not an altogether unfitting retreat for a poet's musings"--he said, a.s.suming an air of indifference, as he glanced round his luxurious, almost royally appointed room--"I have heard of worse!--But truly it needs the highest art of all known nations to worthily deck a habitation wherein the divine Muse may daily dwell, ... nevertheless, air, light, and flowers are not lacking, and on these methinks I could subsist, were I deprived of all other things!"

Theos sat silent, looking about him wistfully. Was ever poet, king, or even emperor, housed more sumptuously than this, he thought? ... as his eyes wandered to the domed ceiling, wreathed with carved cl.u.s.ters of grapes and pomegranates,--the walls, frescoed with glowing scenes of love and song-tournament,--the groups of superb statuary that gleamed whitely out of dusky, velvet-draped corners,--the quaintly shaped book-cases, overflowing with books, and made so as to revolve round and round at a touch, or move to and fro on noiseless wheels,--the grand busts, both in bronze and marble, that stood on tall pedestals or projecting bracket; and,--while he dimly noted all these splendid evidences of unlimited wealth and luxury,--the perfume and l.u.s.tre of the place, the glitter of gold and azure, silver and scarlet, the oriental languor pervading the very air, and above all the rich amber and azure-tinted light that bathed every object in a dream-like and fairy radiance, plunged his senses into a delicious confusion,--a throbbing fever of delight to which he could give no name, but which permeated every fibre of his being.

He felt half blinded with the brilliancy of the scene,--the dazzling glow of color,--the sheen of deep and delicate hues cunningly intermixed and contrasted,--the gorgeous lavishness of waving blossoms that seemed to surge up like a sea to the very windows,--and though many thoughts flitted hazily through his brain, he could not shape them into utterance. He stared vaguely at the floor,--it was paved with variegated mosaic and strewn with the soft, dark, furry skins of wild animals,--at a little distance from where he sat there was a huge bronze lectern supported by a sculptured griffin with horns,--horns which curving over at the top, turned upward again in the form of candelabra,--the harp-bearer had brought in the harp, and it now stood in a conspicuous position decked with myrtle, some of the garlands woven by the maidens being no doubt used for this purpose.

Yet there was something mirage-like and fantastic in the splendor that everywhere surrounded him,--he felt as though he were one of the spectators in a vast auditorium where the curtain had just risen on the first scene of the play He was dubiously considering in his own perplexed mind, whether such princely living were the privilege, or right, or custom of poets in general, when Sah-luma spoke again, waving his hand toward one of the busts near him--a ma.s.sive, frowning head, magnificently sculptured.

"There is the glorious Orazel!" he said--"The father, as we all must own, of the Art of Poesy, and indeed of all true literature! Yet there be some who swear he never lived at all--aye! though his poems have come down to us,--and many are the arguments I have had with so-called wise men like Zabastes, concerning his style and method of versification. Everything he has written bears the impress of the same master-touch,--nevertheless garrulous controversialists hold that his famous work the 'Ruva-Kalama' descended by oral tradition from mouth to mouth till it came to us in its 'improved' present condition.

'Improved!'" and Sah-luma laughed disdainfully,--"As if the mumbling of an epic poem from grandsire to grandson could possibly improve it! ...

it would rather be deteriorated, if not altogether changed into the merest doggerel! Nay, nay!--the 'Ruva-Kalama,' is the achievement of one great mind,--not twenty Oruzels were born in succession to write it,--there was, there could be only one, and he, by right supreme, is chief of the Bards Immortal! As well might fools hereafter wrangle together and say there were many Sah-lumas! ... only I have taken good heed posterity shall know there was only ONE,--unmatched for love-impa.s.sioned singing throughout the length and breadth of the world!"

He sprang up from his rec.u.mbent posture and attracted Theos's attention to another bust even finer than the last,--it was placed on a pedestal wreathed at the summit and at the base with laurel.

"The divine Hyspiros!" he exclaimed pointing to it in a sort of ecstasy--"The Master from whom it may be I have caught the perfect entrancement of my own verse-melody! His fame, as thou knowest, is unrivalled and universal--yet--canst thou believe it! ... there has been of late an a.s.s found in Al-Kyris who hath chosen him as a subject for his braying--and other a.s.ses join in the uneuphonius chorus. The marvellous Plays of Hyspiros! ... the grandest tragedies, the airiest comedies, the tenderest fantasies, ever created by human brain, have been called in question by these thistle-eating animals!--and one most untractable mule-head hath made pretence to discover therein a pa.s.sage of secret writing which shall, so the fool thinks, prove that Hyspiros was not the author of his own works, but only a literary cheat, and forger of another and lesser man's inspiration! By the G.o.ds!--one's sides would split with laughter at the silly brute, were he not altogether too contemptible to provoke even derision! Hyspiros a traitor to the art he served and glorified? ... Hyspiros a literary juggler and trickster? ... By the Serpent's Head! they may as well seek to prove the fiery Sun in Heaven a common oil-lamp, as strive to lessen by one iota the transcendent glory of the n.o.blest poet the centuries have ever seen!"

Warmed by enthusiasm, with his eyes flashing and the impetuous words coursing from his lips, his head thrown back, his hand uplifted, Sah-luma looked magnificent,--and Theos, to whose misty brain the names of Oruzel and Hyspiros carried no positively distinct meaning, was nevertheless struck by a certain suggestiveness in his remarks that seemed to bear on some discussion in the literary world that had taken place quite recently. He was puzzled and tried to fix the precise point round which his thoughts strayed so hesitatingly, but he could arrive at no definite conclusion. The brilliant, meteor-like Sah-luma meantime flashed hither and thither about the room, selecting certain volumes from his loaded book-stands, and bringing them in a pile, he set them on a small table by his visitor's side.

"These are some of the earliest editions of the plays of Hyspiros"--he went on, talking in that rapid, fluent way of his that was as musical as a bird's song--"They are rare and curious. See you!--the names of the scribes and the dates of issue are all distinct. Ah!--the treasures of poetry enshrined within these pages! ... was ever papyrus so gemmed with pearls of thought and wisdom?--If there were a next world, my friend,"--and here he placed his hand familiarly on his guest's shoulder, while the bright, steel-gray under-gleam sparkled in his splendid eyes--"'twould be worth dwelling in for the sake of Hyspiros,--as grand a G.o.d as any of the Thunderers in the empyrean!"

"Surely there is a next world"--murmured Theos, scarcely knowing what he said--"A world where thou and I, Sah-luma, and all the masters and servants of song shall meet and hold high festival!"

Sah-luma laughed again, a little sadly this time, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Believe it not!" he said, and there was a touch of melancholy in his rich voice--"We are midges in a sunbeam,--emmets on a sand-hill...no more! Is there a next world, thinkest thou, for the bees who die of surfeit in the nilica-cups?--for the whirling drift of brilliant b.u.t.terflies that sleepily float with the wind unknowing whither, till met by the icy blast of the north, they fall like broken and colorless leaves in the dust of the high-road? Is there a next world for this?"--and he took from a tall vase near at hand a delicate flower, lily-shaped and deliciously odorous, . . "The expression of its soul or mind is in its fragrance,--even as the expression of ours finds vent in thought and aspiration,--have we more right to live again than this most innocently fair blossom, unsmirched by deeds of evil? Nay!--I would more easily believe in a heaven for birds and flowers, than for women and men!"

A shadow of pain darkened his handsome face as he spoke, . . and Theos, gazing full at him, became suddenly filled with pity and anxiety,--he pa.s.sionately longed to a.s.sure him that there was in very truth a future higher and happier existence,--he, Theos, would vouch for the fact! But how? ... and why? ... What could he say? ... what could he prove? ...

His throat ached,--his eyeb.a.l.l.s burned, he was, as it were, forbidden to speak, notwithstanding the yearning desire he felt to impart to the soul of his new-found friend something of that indescribable sense of EVERLASTINGNESS which he himself was now conscious of, even as one set free of prison is conscious of liberty. Mute, and with a feeling as of hot, unshed tears welling up from his very heart, he turned over the volumes of Hyspiros almost mechanically,--they were formed of sheets of papyrus artistically bound in loose leather coverings and tied together with gold-colored ribbon.

The Kyrisian language was, as has been before stated, perfectly familiar to him, though he could not tell how he had acquired the knowledge of it,--and he was able to see at a glance that Sah-luma had good cause to be enthusiastic in his praise of the author whose genius he so fervently admired. There was a ringing richness in the rush of the verse,--a wealth of simile combined with a simplicity and directness of utterance that charmed the ear while influencing the mind, and he was beginning to read in sotto-voce the opening lines of a spirited battle-challenge running thus:

"I tell thee, O thou pride enthroned King That from these peaceful fields, these harvest lands, Strange crops shall spring, not sown by thee or thine!

Arm'd millions, bristling weapons, helmed men Dreadfully plum'd and eager for the fray, Steel crested myrmidons, toss'd spears, wild steeds, Uplifted flags and pennons, horrid swords, Death gleaming eyes, stern hands to grasp and tear Life from beseeching life, till all the heavens Strike havoc to the terror-trembling stars"...

when the two small, black pages lately dispatched in such haste by Sah-luma returned, each one bearing a huge gilded bowl filled with rose water, together with fine cloths, lace-fringed, and soft as satin.

Kneeling humbly down, one before Theos, the other before Sah-luma, they lifted these great, shining bowls on their heads, and remained motionless. Sah-luma dipped his face and hands in the cool, fragrant fluid,--Theos followed his example,--and when these light ablutions were completed, the pages disappeared, coming back almost immediately with baskets of loose rose-leaves, white and red, which they scattered profusely about the room. A delightful odor subtly sweet, and yet not faint, began to freshen the already perfumed air,--and Sah-luma, flinging himself again on his couch, motioned Theos to take a similar resting-place opposite.

He at once obeyed, yielding anew to the sense of indolent luxury and voluptuous ease his surroundings engendered,--and presently the aroma of rising incense mingled itself with the scent of the strewn rose-petals,--the pages had replenished the incense-burner, and now, these duties done so far, they brought each a broad, long stalked palm-leaf, and placing themselves in proper position, began to fan the two young men slowly and with measured gentleness, standing as mute as little black statues, the only movement about them being the occasional rolling of their white eyeb.a.l.l.s and the swaying to and fro of their shiny arms as they wielded the graceful, bending leaves.

"This is the way a poet should ever live!" murmured Theos, glancing up from the soft cushions among which he reclined, to Sah-luma, who lay with his eyes half-closed and a musing smile on his beautiful mouth--"Self centered in a circle of beauty,--with naught but fair suggestions and sweet thoughts to break the charm of solitude. A kingdom of happy fancies should be his, with gates shut last against unwelcome intruders,--gates that should never open save to the conquering touch of woman's kiss! ... for the master-key of love must unlock all doors, even the doors of a minstrel's dreaming!"

"Thinkest thou so?" said Sah-luma lazily, turning his dark, delicate head slightly round on his glistening, pale-rose satin pillow--"Nay, of a truth there are times when I could bar out women from my thoughts as mere disturbers of the translucent element of poesy in which my spirit bathes. There is fatigue in love, . . whose pretty human b.u.t.terflies too oft weary the flower whose honey they seek to drain. Nevertheless the pa.s.sion of love hath a certain tingling pleasure in it, . . I yield to it when it touches me, even as I yield to all other pleasant things,--but there are some who unwisely carry desire too far, and make of love a misery instead of a pastime. Many will die for love,--fools are they all! To die for fame, . . for glory, . . that I can understand, . . but for love! ..." he laughed, and taking up a crushed rose-petal he flipped it into the air with his finger and thumb--"I would as soon die for sake of that perished leaf as for sake of a woman's transient beauty!"

As he uttered these words Niphrata entered, carrying a golden salver on which were placed a tall flagon, two goblets, and a basket of fruit.

She approached Theos first, and he, raising himself on his elbow, surveyed her with fresh admiration and interest while he poured out the wine from the flagon into one of those glistening cups, which he noticed were rough with the quant.i.ty of small gems used in their outer ornamentation.

He was struck by her fair and melancholy style of loveliness, and as she stood before him with lowered eyes, the color alternately flushing and paling on her cheeks, and her bosom heaving restlessly beneath the loosely drawn folds of her prim rose-hued gown, an inexplicable emotion of pity smote him, as if he had suddenly been made aware of some inward sorrow of hers which he was utterly powerless to console. He would have spoken, but just then could find nothing appropriate to say, . . and when he had selected a fine peach from the heaped-up dainties offered for his choice, he still watched her as she turned to Sah-luma, who smiled, and bade her set down her salver on a low, bronze stand at his side. She did so, and then with the warm blood burning in her cheeks, stood waiting and silent. Sah-luma, with a lithe movement of his supple form, lifted himself into a half-sitting posture, and throwing one arm round her waist, drew her close to his breast and kissed her.

"My fairest moonbeam!" he said gayly--"Thou art as noiseless and placid as thy yet unembodied sisters that stream through heaven and dance on the river when the world is sleeping! Myrtle! ..." and he detached a spray from the bosom of her dress--"What hast thou to do with the poet's garland? By my faith, thou art like Theos yonder, and hast chosen to wear a sprig of my faded crown for thine adornment--is't not so?" A hot and painful blush crimsoned Niphrata's face,--a softness as of suppressed tears glistened in her eyes,--she made no answer, but looked beseechingly at the little twig Sah-luma held. "Silly child!" he went on laughingly, replacing it himself against her bosom, where the breath seemed to struggle with such panting haste and fear--"Thou art welcome to the dead leaves sanctified by song, if thou thinkest them of value, but I would rather see the rosebud of love nestled in that pretty white breast of thine, than the cast-off ornaments of fame!"

And filling himself a cup of wine he raised it aloft, looking at Theos smilingly as he did so.

"To your health, my n.o.ble friend!" he cried, "and to the joys of the pa.s.sing hour!"

"A wise toast!" answered Theos, placing his lips to his own goblet's rim,--"For the past is past,--'twill never return,--the future we know not,--and only the present can be called our own! To the health of the divine Sah-luma, whose fame is my glory!--whose friendship is dear to me as life!"

And with this, he drained off the wine to the last drop. Scarcely had he done so, when the most curious sensation overcame him--a sensation of bewildering ecstasy as though he had drunk of some ambrosian nectar or magic drug which had suddenly wound up his nerves to an acute tension of indescribable delight. The blood coursed more swiftly through his veins,--he felt his face flush with the impulsive heat and ardor of the moment,--he laughed as he set the cup down empty, and throwing himself back on his luxurious couch, his eyes flashed on Sah-luma's with a bright, comprehensive glance of complete confidence and affection. It was strange to note how quickly Sah-luma returned that glance,--how thoroughly, in so short a s.p.a.ce of time, their friendship had cemented itself into a more than fraternal bond of union! Niphrata, meanwhile, stood a little aside, her wistful looks wandering from one to the other as though in something of doubt or wonder. Presently she spoke, inclining her fair head toward Sah-luma.

"My lord goes to the Palace to-night to make his valued voice heard in the presence of the King?" she inquired timidly.

"Even so, Niphrata!" responded the Laureate, pa.s.sing his hand carelessly through his cl.u.s.tering curls--"I have been summoned thither by the Royal command. But what of that, little one? Thou knowest 'tis a common occurrence,--and that the Court is bereft of all pleasure and sweetness when Sah-luma is silent."

"My lord's guest goes with him?" pursued Niphrata gently.

"Aye, most a.s.suredly?" and Sah-luma smiled at Theos as he spoke--"Thou wilt accompany me to the King, my friend?" he went on--"He will give thee a welcome for my sake, and though of a truth His Majesty is most potently ignorant of all things save the arts of love and warfare, nevertheless he is man as well as monarch, and thou wilt find him n.o.ble in his greeting and generous of hospitality."

"I will go with thee, Sah-luma, anywhere!" replied Theos quickly--"For in following such a guide, I follow my own most perfect pleasure."

Niphrata looked at him meditatively, with a melancholy expression in her lovely eyes.

"My lord Sah-luma's presence indeed brings joy!" she said softly and tremulously--"But the joy is too sweet and brief--for when he departs, none can fill the place he leaves vacant!"

She paused,--Sah-luma's gaze rested on her intently, a half-amused, half-tender light leaping from under the drooping shade of his long, silky black lashes,--she caught the look, and a little shiver ran through her delicate frame,--she pressed one hand on her heart, and resumed in steadier and more even tones,--"My lord has perhaps not heard of the disturbances of the early morning in the city?"--she asked--"The riotous crowd in the marketplace--the ravings of the Prophet Khosrul? ... the sudden arrest and imprisonment of many,--and the consequent wrath of the King?"

"No, by my faith!" returned Sah-luma, yawning slightly and settling his head more comfortably on his pillows--"Nor do I care to heed the turbulence of a mob that cannot guide itself and yet resists all guidance. Arrests? ... imprisonments? ... they are common,--but why in the name of the Sacred Veil do they not arrest and imprison the actual disturbers of the peace,--the Mystics and Philosophers whose street orations filter through the mind of the disaffected, rousing them to foolish frenzy and disordered action?--Why, above all men, do they not seize Khosrul?--a veritable madman, for all his many years and seeming wisdom! Hath he not denounced the faith of Nagaya and foretold the destruction of the city times out of number? ... and are we not all weary to death of his bombastic mouthing? If the King deemed a poet's counsel worth the taking, he would long ago have shut this bearded ranter within the four walls of a dungeon, where only rats and spiders would attend his lectures on approaching Doom!"

"Nay, but my lord--" Niphrata ventured to say timidly--"The King dare not lay hands on Khosrul ..."

"Dare not!" laughed Sah-luma lazily stretching out his hand and helping himself to a luscious nectarine from the basket at his side--"Sweet Niphrata! ... settest thou a limit to the power of the King? As well draw a boundary-line for the imagination of the poet! Khosrul may be loved and feared by a certain number of superst.i.tious malcontents who look upon a madman as a sort of sacred wild animal,--but the actual population of Al-Kyris,--the people who are the blood, bone, and sinew of the city,--these are not in favor of change either in religion, laws, manners, or customs. But Khosrul is old,--and that the King humors his vagaries is simply out of pity for his age and infirmity, Niphrata,--not because of fear! Our Monarch knows no fear."

"Khosrul prophesies terrible things!" ... murmured the girl hesitatingly--"I have often thought ... if they should come true...."

"Thou timid dove!" and Sah-luma, rising from his couch, kissed her neck lightly, thus causing a delicate flush of crimson to ripple through the whiteness of her skin--"Think no more of such folly--thou wilt anger me. That a doting graybeard like Khosrul should trouble the peace of Al-Kyris the Magnificent, ... by the G.o.ds--the whole thing is absurd!

Let me hear no more of mobs or riots, or road-rhetoric,--my soul abhors even the suggestion of discord. Tranquillity! ... Divinest calm, disturbed only by the flutterings of winged thoughts hovering over the cloudless heaven of fancy! ... this, this alone is the sum and centre of my desires.--and to-day I find that even thou, Niphrata--" here his voice took upon itself an injured tone,--"thou, who art usually so gentle, hast somewhat troubled the placidity of my mind by thy foolish talk concerning common and unpleasant circ.u.mstances, ... "He stopped short and a line of vexation and annoyance made its appearance between his broad, beautiful brows, while Niphrata seeing this expression of almost baby-petulance in the face she adored threw herself suddenly at his feet, and raising her lovely eyes swimming in tears, she exclaimed:

"My lord! Sah-luma! Singing-angel of Niphrata's soul!--Forgive me! It is true, ... thou shouldst never hear of strife or contention among the coa.r.s.er tribe of men,--and I, ... I, poor Niphrata, would give my life to shield thee from the faintest shadow of annoy! I would have thy path all woven sunbeams,--thou shouldst live like a fairy monarch embowered 'mid roses, sheltered from rough winds, and folded in loving arms, fairer maybe, but not more fond than mine!" ... Her voice broke,--stooping, she kissed the silver fastening of his sandal, and springing up, rushed from the room before a word could be uttered to bid her stay.

Sah-luma looked after her with a pretty, half-pleased perplexity.