The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (books to read in your 20s TXT) 📕

the present

state of our commissariat arrangements. Afte it, by Mr. Trelawny’s

advice, we separated; each to prepare in our own way for the strain of

the coming night. Margaret looked pale and somewhat overwrought, so I

advised her to lie down and try to sleep. She promised that she would.

The abstraction which had been upon her fitfully all day lifted for the

time; with all her old sweetness and loving delicacy she kissed me

good-bye for the present! With the sense of happiness which this gave

me I went out for a walk on the cliffs. I did not want to think; and I

had an instinctive feeling that fresh air and God’s sunlight, and the

myriad beauties of the works of His hand would be the best preparation

of fortitude for what was to come.

 

When I got back, all the party were assembling for a late tea. Coming

fresh from the exhilaration of nature, it struck me as almost comic that

we, who were nearing the end of so strange—almost monstrous—an

undertaking, should be yet bound by the needs and habits of our lives.

 

All the men of the party were grave; the time of seclusion, even if it

had given them rest, had also given opportunity for thought. Margaret

was bright, almost buoyant; but I missed about her something of her

usual spontaneity. Towards myself there was a shadowy air of reserve,

which brought back something of my suspicion. When tea was over, she

went out of the room; but returned in a minute with the roll of drawing

which she had taken with her earlier in the day. Coming close to Mr.

Trelawny, she said:

 

“Father, I have been carefully considering what you said today about

the hidden meaning of those suns and hearts and ‘Ka’s’, and I have been

examining the drawings again.”

 

“And with what result, my child?” asked Mr. Trelawny eagerly.

 

“There is another reading possible!”

 

“And that?” His voice was now tremulous with anxiety. Margaret spoke

with a strange ring in her voice; a ring that cannot be, unless there is

the consciousness of truth behind it:

 

“It means that at the sunset the ‘Ka’ is to enter the ‘Ab’; and it is

only at the sunrise that it will leave it!”

 

“Go on!” said her father hoarsely.

 

“It means that for this night the Queen’s Double, which is otherwise

free, will remain in her heart, which is mortal and cannot leave its

prison-place in the mummy-shrouding. It means that when the sun has

dropped into the sea, Queen Tera will cease to exist as a conscious

power, till sunrise; unless the Great Experiment can recall her to

waking life. It means that there will be nothing whatever for you or

others to fear from her in such way as we have all cause to remember.

Whatever change may come from the working of the Great Experiment, there

can come none from the poor, helpless, dead woman who has waited all

those centuries for this night; who has given up to the coming hour all

the freedom of eternity, won in the old way, in hope of a new life in a

new world such as she longed for … !” She stopped suddenly. As she

had gone on speaking there had come with her words a strange pathetic,

almost pleading, tone which touched me to the quick. As she stopped, I

could see, before she turned away her head, that her eyes were full of

tears.

 

For once the heart of her father did not respond to her feeling. He

looked exultant, but with a grim masterfulness which reminded me of the

set look of his stern face as he had lain in the trance. He did not

offer any consolation to his daughter in her sympathetic pain. He only

said:

 

“We may test the accuracy of your surmise, and of her feeling, when the

time comes!” Having said so, he went up the stone stairway and into his

own room. Margaret’s face had a troubled look as she gazed after him.

 

Strangely enough her trouble did not as usual touch me to the quick.

 

When Mr. Trelawny had gone, silence reigned. I do not think that any of

us wanted to talk. Presently Margaret went to her room, and I went out

on the terrace over the sea. The fresh air and the beauty of all before

helped to restore the good spirits which I had known earlier in the day.

Presently i felt myself actually rejoicing in the belief that the danger

which I had feared from the Queen’s violence on the coming night was

obviated. I believed in Margaret’s belief so thoroughly that it did not

occur to me to dispute her reasoning. In a lofty frame of mind, and

with less anxiety than I had felt for days, I went to my room and lay

down on the sofa.

 

I was awaked by Corbeck calling to me, hurriedly:

 

“Come down to the cave as quickly as you can. Mr. Trelawny wants to see

us all there at once. Hurry!”

 

I jumped up and ran down to the cave. All were there except Margaret,

who came immediately after me carrying Silvio in her arms. When the cat

saw his old enemy he struggled to get down; but Margaret held him fast

and soothed him. I looked at my watch. It was close to eight.

 

When Margaret was with us her father said directly, with a quiet

insistence which was new to me:

 

“You believe, Margaret, that Queen Tera has voluntarily undertaken to

give up her freedom for this night? To become a mummy and nothing more,

till the Experiment has been completed? To be content that she shall be

powerless under all and any circumstances until after all is over and

the act of resurrection has been accomplished, or the effort has

failed?” After a pause Margaret answered in a low voice:

 

“Yes!”

 

In the pause her whole being, appearance, expression, voice, manner had

changed. Even Silvio noticed it, and with a violent effort wriggled away

from her arms; she did not seem to notice the act. I expected that the

cat, when he had achieved his freedom, would have attacked the mummy;

but on this occasion he did not. He seemed too cowed to approach it.

He shrunk away, and with a piteous “miaou” came over and rubbed himself

against my ankles. I took him up in my arms, and he nestled there

content. Mr. Trelawny spoke again:

 

“You are sure of what you say! You believe it with all your soul?”

Margaret’s face had lost the abstracted look; it now seemed illuminated

with the devotion of one to whom is given to speak of great things. She

answered in a voice which, though quiet, vibrated with conviction:

 

“I know it! My knowledge is beyond belief!” Mr. Trelawny spoke again:

 

“Then you are so sure, that were you Queen Tera herself, you would be

willing to prove it in any way that I might suggest?”

 

“Yes, any way!” the answer rang out fearlessly. He spoke again, in a

voice in which was no note of doubt:

 

“Even in the abandonment of your Familiar to death—to annihilation.”

 

She paused, and I could see that she suffered—suffered horribly. There

was in her eyes a hunted look, which no man can, unmoved, see in the

eyes of his beloved. I was about to interrupt, when her father’s eyes,

glancing round with a fierce determination, met mine. I stood silent,

almost spellbound; so also the other men. Something was going on before

us which we did not understand!

 

With a few long strides Mr. Trelawny went to the west side of the cave

and tore back the shutter which obscured the window. The cool air blew

in, and the sunlight streamed over them both, for Margaret was now by

his side. He pointed to where the sun was sinking into the sea in a

halo of golden fire, and his face was as set as flint. In a voice whose

absolute uncompromising hardness I shall hear in my ears at times till

my dying day, he said:

 

“Choose! Speak! When the sun has dipped below the sea, it will be too

late!” The glory of the dying sun seemed to light up Margaret’s face,

till it shone as if lit from within by a noble light, as she answered:

 

“Even that!”

 

Then stepping over to where the mummy cat stood on the little table, she

placed her hand on it. She had now left the sunlight, and the shadows

looked dark and deep over her. In a clear voice she said:

 

“Were I Tera, I would say ‘Take all I have! This night is for the Gods

alone!’”

 

As she spoke the sun dipped, and the cold shadow suddenly fell on us.

We all stood still for a while. Silvio jumped from my arms and ran over

to his mistress, rearing himself up against her dress as if asking to be

lifted. He took no notice whatever of the mummy now.

 

Margaret was glorious with all her wonted sweetness as she said sadly:

 

“The sun is down, Father! Shall any of us see it again? The night of

nights is come!”