Plays of Near & Far Part 9

MELIFLOR: So that if there be anything wrong in the palace it will not find us.

[_Exeunt_ MOOMOOMON _and_ MELIFLOR.

HUZ: Let us hide.

[_Exeunt all but_ ZOON _and_ OOMUZ.

[ZOON _has sat always with bent head at table. He sits so, still._

ZOON (_bitterly_): They would follow the Queen.

OOMUZ: Mighty Highness----

ZOON (_still to himself_): They will come back boasting that they dared follow the Queen.

OOMUZ: Mighty Highness.

ZOON: Yes, good Oomuz.

OOMUZ: In other times once princes followed a queen and came back boasting. Master, the workers were angry. Be warned, Master, because you and I went together once to the h.o.a.rd beyond the marshes. Be warned.

They were angry, Master.

ZOON: I care not for the workers.

OOMUZ: Master, be warned. It was long ago and they say they were very angry.

ZOON: I care not, Oomuz. I come not boasting back from the hills under Aether Mountain. I shall not halt till I have told the Queen my love. I shall wed with her who is less only than Fate, if less she be. I am not as those, Oomuz. Who weds the Queen is more than the servant of Fate.

OOMUZ: Master----

[_He stretches out his hands towards_ ZOON _imploringly._

ZOON: Well, Oomuz?

OOMUZ: Master. There is a doom about the Queen.

ZOON: What doom, Oomuz?

OOMUZ: We know not, Master. We are simple people and we know not that.

But we know from of old there is a doom about her. We know it, Master; we have been told from of old.

ZOON: Yes, there could well be a doom about the Queen.

OOMUZ: Follow not after, Master, when she goes to Aether Mountain. There is surely a doom about her. A doom was with her mother upon that very peak.

ZOON: Yes, Oomuz, a doom well becomes her.

OOMUZ: Doubt it not, Master; there is a doom about her.

ZOON: Oomuz, I doubt not. For there is something wonderful about the Queen, beyond all earthly wonders. Something like thunder beyond far clouds or hail hurling from heaven; there should be indeed a terrible doom about her.

OOMUZ: Master, I have warned you for the sake of the days when we raided the golden h.o.a.rd beyond the marshes.

ZOON (_taking his hand_): Thank you, good Oomuz.

[_He goes towards door after the others._

OOMUZ: But where go you, Master?

ZOON: I wait to follow the Queen when she goes to Aether Mountain.

[_Exit._ OOMUZ _weeps silently on to the Queen's Treasure._

CURTAIN.

SCENE II

_The Palace of Zoorm: the Hall of Queen Zoomzoomarma._

_Time: Same as Scene I._

THE QUEEN: Is none worthy to kiss my hand, Oozizi; none?

LADY OOZIZI: Lady, none.

[_The_ QUEEN _sighs._

You should not sigh, great lady.

QUEEN: Why should I not sigh, Oozizi?

OOZIZI: Great lady, because such things as sighs pertain only to love.

QUEEN: Love is a joy, Oozizi; love is a glow. Love makes them dance so lightly along rays of the sunlight. It is made of sunlight and gladness.

It is like flowers in twilight. How should they sigh?

OOZIZI: Lady! Great lady! Say not such things of love!

QUEEN: Say not such things, Oozizi? Are they not true?

OOZIZI: True? Yes, great lady, true. But love is a toy of the humble; love is a common thing that the lowly use; love is ... Great lady, had any overheard you speaking then they might have thought, they might have madly dreamed ...

QUEEN: Dreamed what, Oozizi?

OOZIZI: Incredible things.