"The Three took counsel after this and said--'We have strengthened life in these until it has become articulate; shall we not _create_ life?'" Again she hesitated, her eyes rapt, dreaming. "The Three are speaking," she murmured. "They have my tongue--"

And certainly, with an ease and rapidity as though she were but a voice through which minds far more facile, more powerful poured their thoughts, she spoke.

"Yea," the golden voice was vibrant. "We said that what we would create should be of the spirit of life itself, speaking to us with the tongues of the far-flung stars, of the winds, of the waters, and of all upon and within these. Upon that universal matrix of matter, that mother of all things that you name the ether, we laboured. Think not that her wondrous fertility is limited by what ye see on earth or what has been on earth from its beginning. Infinite, infinite are the forms the mother bears and countless are the energies that are part of her.

"By our wisdom we had fashioned many windows out of our abode and through them we stared into the faces of myriads of worlds, and upon them all were the children of ether even as the worlds themselves were her children.

"Watching we learned, and learning we formed that ye term the Dweller, which those without name--the Shining One. Within the Universal Mother we shaped it, to be a voice to tell us her secrets, a lamp to go before us lighting the mysteries. Out of the ether we fashioned it, giving it the soul of light that still ye know not nor perhaps ever may know, and with the essence of life that ye saw blossoming deep in the abyss and that is the pulse of earth heart we filled it. And we wrought with pain and with love, with yearning and with scorching pride and from our travail came the Shining One--our child!

"There is an energy beyond and above ether, a purposeful, sentient force that laps like an ocean the furthest-flung star, that transfuses all that ether bears, that sees and speaks and feels in us and in you, that is incorporate in beast and bird and reptile, in tree and gra.s.s and all living things, that sleeps in rock and stone, that finds sparkling tongue in jewel and star and in all dwellers within the firmament. And this ye call consciousness!

"We crowned the Shining One with the seven orbs of light which are the channels between it and the sentience we sought to make articulate, the portals through which flow its currents and so flowing, become choate, vocal, self-realizant within our child.

"But as we shaped, there pa.s.sed some of the essence of our pride; in giving will we had given power, perforce, to exercise that will for good or for evil, to speak or to be silent, to tell us what we wished of that which poured into it through the seven orbs or to withhold that knowledge itself; and in forging it from the immortal energies we had endowed it with their indifference; open to all consciousness it held within it the pole of utter joy and the pole of utter woe with all the arc that lies between; all the ecstasies of the countless worlds and suns and all their sorrows; all that ye symbolize as G.o.ds and all ye symbolize as devils--not negativing each other, for there is no such thing as negation, but holding them together, balancing them, encompa.s.sing them, pole upon pole!"

So _this_ was the explanation of the entwined emotions of joy and terror that had changed so appallingly Throckmartin's face and the faces of all the Dweller's slaves!

The handmaiden's eyes grew bright, alert, again; the brooding pa.s.sed from her face; the golden voice that had been so deep found its own familiar pitch.

"I listened while the Three spoke to you," she said. "Now the shaping of the Shining One had been a long, long travail and time had flown over the outer world _laya_ upon _laya_. For a s.p.a.ce the Shining One was content to dwell here; to be fed with the foods of light: to open the eyes of the Three to mystery upon mystery and to read for them facet after facet of the gem of truth. Yet as the tides of consciousness flowed through it they left behind shadowings and echoes of their burdens; and the Shining One grew stronger, always stronger of _itself within itself_. Its will strengthened and now not always was it the will of the Three; and the pride that was woven in the making of it waxed, while the love for them that its creators had set within it waned.

"Not ignorant were the _Taithu_ of the work of the Three. First there were a few, then more and more who coveted the Shining One and who would have had the Three share with them the knowledge it drew in for them. But the Silent Ones in their pride, would not.

"There came a time when its will was now _all_ its own, and it rebelled, turning its gaze to the wider s.p.a.ces beyond the Portal, offering itself to the many there who would serve it; tiring of the Three, their control and their abode.

"Now the Shining One has its limitations, even as we. Over water it can pa.s.s, through air and through fire; but pa.s.s it cannot, through rock or metal. So it sent a message--how I know not--to the _Taithu_ who desired it, whispering to them the secret of the Portal. And when the time was ripe they opened the Portal and the Shining One pa.s.sed through it to them; nor would it return to the Three though they commanded, and when they would have forced it they found that it had hived and hidden a knowledge that they could not overcome.

"Yet by their arts the Three could have shattered the seven shining orbs; but they would not because--they loved, it!

"Those to whom it had gone built for it that place I have shown you, and they bowed to it and drew wisdom from it. And ever they turned more and more from the ways in which the _Taithu_ had walked--for it seemed that which came to the Shining One through the seven orbs had less and less of good and more and more of the power you call evil.

Knowledge it gave and understanding, yes; but not that which, clear and serene, lights the paths of right wisdom; rather were they flares pointing the dark roads that lead to--to the ultimate evil!

"Not all of the race of the Three followed the counsel of the Shining One. There were many, many, who would have none of it nor of its power. So were the _Taithu_ split; and to this place where there had been none, came hatred, fear and suspicion. Those who pursued the ancient ways went to the Three and pleaded with them to destroy their work--and they would not, for still they loved it.

"Stronger grew the Dweller and less and less did it lay before its worshippers--for now so they had become--the fruits of its knowledge; and it grew--restless--turning its gaze upon earth face even as it had turned it from the Three. It whispered to the _Taithu_ to take again the paths and look out upon the world. Lo! above them was a great fertile land on which dwelt an unfamiliar race, skilled in arts, seeking and finding wisdom--mankind! Mighty builders were they; vast were their cities and huge their temples of stone.

"They called their lands Muria and they worshipped a G.o.d Thanaroa whom they imagined to be the maker of all things, dwelling far away. They worshipped as closer G.o.ds, not indifferent but to be prayed to and to be propitiated, the moon and the sun. Two kings they had, each with his council and his court. One was high priest to the moon and the other high priest to the sun.

"The ma.s.s of this people were black-haired, but the sun king and his n.o.bles were ruddy with hair like mine; and the moon king and his followers were like Yolara--or Lugur. And this, the Three say, Goodwin, came about because for time upon time the law had been that whenever a ruddy-haired or ashen-tressed child was born of the black-haired it became dedicated at once to either sun G.o.d or moon G.o.d, later wedding and bearing children only to their own kind. Until at last from the black-haired came no more of the light-locked ones, but the ruddy ones, being stronger, still arose from them."

[1] Professor Svante August Arrhenius, in his _Worlds in the Making_--the conception that life is universally diffused, constantly emitted from all habitable worlds in the form of spores which traverse s.p.a.ce for years and ages, the majority being ultimately destroyed by the heat of some blazing star, but some few finding a resting-place on globes which have reached the habitable stage.--W. T. G.

CHAPTER x.x.x

The Building of the Moon Pool

She paused, running her long fingers through her own bronze-flecked ringlets. Selective breeding this, with a vengeance, I thought; an ancient experiment in heredity which of course would in time result in the stamping out of the tendency to depart from type that lies in all organisms; resulting, obviously, at last, in three fixed forms of black-haired, ruddy-haired, and silver-haired--but this, with a shock of realization it came to me, was also an accurate description of the dark-polled _ladala_, their fair-haired rulers and of the golden-brown tressed Lakla!

How--questions began to stream through my mind; silenced by the handmaiden's voice.

"Above, far, far above the abode of the Shining One," she said, "was their greatest temple, holding the shrines both of sun and moon. All about it were other temples hidden behind mighty walls, each enclosing its own s.p.a.ce and squared and ruled and standing within a shallow lake; the sacred city, the city of the G.o.ds of this land--"

"It is the Nan-Matal that she is describing," I thought.

"Out upon all this looked the _Taithu_ who were now but the servants of the Shining One as it had been the messenger of the Three," she went on. "When they returned the Shining One spoke to them, promising them dominion over all that they had seen, yea, _under it_ dominion of all earth itself and later perhaps of other earths!

"In the Shining One had grown craft, cunning; knowledge to gain that which it desired. Therefore it told its _Taithu_--and mayhap told them truth--that not yet was it time for _them_ to go forth; that slowly must they pa.s.s into that outer world, for they had sprung from heart of earth and even it lacked power to swirl unaided into and through the above. Then it counselled them, instructing them what to do. They hollowed the chamber wherein first I saw you, cutting their way to it that path down which from it you sped.

"It revealed to them that the force that is within moon flame is kin to the force that is within it, for the chamber of its birth was the chamber too of moon birth and into it went the subtle essence and powers that flow in that earth child: and it taught them how to make that which fills what you call the Moon Pool whose opening is close behind its Veil hanging upon the gleaming cliffs.

"When this was done it taught them how to make and how to place the seven lights through which moon flame streams into Moon Pool--the seven lights that are kin to its own seven orbs even as its fires are kin to moon fires--and which would open for it a path that it could tread. And all this the _Taithu_ did, working so secretly that neither those of their race whose faces were set against the Shining One nor the busy men above know aught of it.

"When it was done they moved up the path, cl.u.s.tering within the Moon Pool Chamber. Moon flame streamed through the seven globes, poured down upon the pool; they saw mists arise, embrace, and become one with the moon flame--and then up through Moon Pool, shaping itself within the mists of light, whirling, radiant--the Shining One!

"Almost free, almost loosed upon the world it coveted!

"Again it counselled them, and they pierced the pa.s.sage whose portal you found first; set the fires within its stones, and revealing themselves to the moon king and his priests spake to them even as the Shining One had instructed.

"Now was the moon king filled with fear when he looked upon the _Taithu_, shrouded with protecting mists of light in Moon Pool Chamber, and heard their words. Yet, being crafty, he thought of the power that would be his if he heeded and how quickly the strength of the sun king would dwindle. So he and his made a pact with the Shining One's messengers.

"When next the moon was round and poured its flames down upon Moon Pool, the _Taithu_ gathered there again, watched the child of the Three take shape within the pillars, speed away--and out! They heard a mighty shouting, a tumult of terror, of awe and of worship; a silence; a vast sighing--and they waited, wrapped in their mists of light, for they feared to follow nor were they near the paths that would have enabled them to look without.

"Another tumult--and back came the Shining One, murmuring with joy, pulsing, triumphant, and clasped within its vapours a man and woman, ruddy-haired, golden-eyed, in whose faces rapture and horror lay side by side--gloriously, hideously. And still holding them it danced above the Moon Pool and--sank!

"Now must I be brief. _Lat_ after _lat_ the Shining One went forth, returning with its sacrifices. And stronger after each it grew--and gayer and more cruel. Ever when it pa.s.sed with its prey toward the pool, the _Taithu_ who watched felt a swift, strong intoxication, a drunkenness of spirit, streaming from it to them. And the Shining One forgot what it had promised them of dominion--and in this new evil delight they too forgot.

"The outer land was torn with hatred and open strife. The moon king and his kind, through the guidance of the evil _Taithu_ and the favour of the Shining One, had become powerful and the sun king and his were darkened. And the moon priests preached that the child of the Three was the moon G.o.d itself come to dwell with them.

"Now vast tides arose and when they withdrew they took with them great portions of this country. And the land itself began to sink. Then said the moon king that the moon had called to ocean to destroy because wroth that another than he was worshipped. The people believed and there was slaughter. When it was over there was no more a sun king nor any of the ruddy-haired folk; slain were they, slain down to the babe at breast.

"But still the tides swept higher; still dwindled the land!

"As it shrank mult.i.tudes of the fleeing people were led through Moon Pool Chamber and carried here. They were what now are called the _ladala_, and they were given place and set to work; and they thrived.

Came many of the fair-haired; and they were given dwellings. They sat beside the evil _Taithu_; they became drunk even as they with the dancing of the Shining One; they learned--not all; only a little part but little enough--of their arts. And ever the Shining One danced more gaily out there within the black amphitheatre; grew ever stronger--and ever the hordes of its slaves behind the Veil increased.

"Nor did the _Taithu_ who clung to the old ways check this--they could not. By the sinking of the land above, their own s.p.a.ces were imperilled. All of their strength and all of their wisdom it took to keep this land from perishing; nor had they help from those others mad for the poison of the Shining One; and they had no time to deal with them nor the earth race with whom they had foregathered.

"At last came a slow, vast flood. It rolled even to the bases of the walled islets of the city of the G.o.ds--and within these now were all that were left of my people on earth face.

"I am of those people," she paused, looking at me proudly, "one of the daughters of the sun king whose seed is still alive in the _ladala_!"

As Larry opened his mouth to speak she waved a silencing hand.

"This tide did not recede," she went on. "And after a time the remnant, the moon king leading them, joined those who had already fled below. The rocks became still, the quakings ceased, and now those Ancient Ones who had been labouring could take breath. And anger grew within them as they looked upon the work of their evil kin. Again they sought the Three--and the Three now knew what they had done and their pride was humbled. They would not slay the Shining One themselves, for still they loved it; but they instructed these others how to undo their work; how also they might destroy the evil _Taithu_ were it necessary.