LAMARA’S countenance was youthful, but luminous with intelligence, and her stately grace gave an impression of dignity and superiority. She was exceedingly lovely. She gave him the Saturnian greeting, together with a look of such amity and understanding as made him feel as if she had known him all his life.
“I wish your Uncle Sam and Terence Mayne had come with you,” she unexpectedly said. “Mary Faust is always near us. Miriam is within.” She turned to a lofty man of middle age beside her: “This is our chief councilor, Aunion: and this is my beloved Zarga, who lives close to my heart: I have chosen her to be with Miriam.”
The girl thus designated was slight, and of striking beauty, with cobweb-fine hair of red gold hue, and dark eyes, which she had from the first fixed steadfastly on Jack. She was clothed in amethyst flames, like flickering violet petals. Jack, looking into those strange eyes, had a sensation of insecurity: mystery and fascination were in their unknown depths. But any misgivings as to Miriam’s picked companion must be baseless. As her hand touched his breast, the light contact gave him the feeling that it had left an imprint there. She said, in a voice surprisingly deep, “I hope to make you happy!” and stepped back: but he was still aware that she observed him.
“You know too much of me not to know my errand here,” he said to Lamara. “I hope your majesty will help me!”
“With all my heart!” said she, smiling. “We should be glad to have you and Miriam always with us: but your older friends need you. Argon will have told you of Miriam’s mishap, which we hope is slight: we do not yet know how it happened.”
She glanced at Zarga as she spoke. The girl addressed him.
“Miriam will tell you better than I: she had learned of your setting out hither, and when I was preparing the pavilion for her, she must have gone to the Planetary Mirror to get a glimpse of you. That exposed her, and Torpeon was on the watch.”
“This mark—is it painful?” Jack demanded.
“It inflicts no physical pain,” said Aunion, answering him in a kindly tone. “The chief effect, aside from the recurring periods of trance, lies in its rendering her less secure against further attacks. The results of a second act of indiscretion on her part might be serious. I found the mark resists ordinary means used to eradicate it: but if you and she are circumspect and patient, the spell will be overcome.”
“We will go in,” said Lamara, taking Jack’s hand with a sympathizing look. “Zarga, go before, and find whether Miriam is ready to receive us.”
Zarga slipped through the doorway and disappeared: the others followed. The room which they entered seemed large, but was so woven across with shafts of iridescent light as to disguise its dimensions: the semitransparent walls had the luster of mother-of-pearl. As they seated themselves on a divan, the light-shafts became denser until the party appeared to be enclosed in a pentagonal chamber of moderate size and great beauty. Lamara, observing Jack’s bewilderment, laughed as might a child who had pleasantly surprised a friend.
“It’s the same natural process that makes flowers grow,” she said. “Add to earth and light something human from yourself, and deserts may become fertile and lovely. Such things as these, formed for the need of an hour, return of themselves to what they came from when the need passes. Our homes grow with us, never quite the same from one day to another. Science married to love works wonders.”
She was interrupted by a cry from within, and in a moment Zarga appeared, her hair flying about her like a ruddy mist, and her eyes wide and ominous.
“The trance has come again!” was her announcement.
Jack sprang to his feet; but Lamara laid a reassuring hand on his arm.
“It is nothing,” she said quietly. “Torpeon cannot pass the bounds of his license, though he may use it maliciously. He has chosen an hour close upon the last, but it will be the longer before he can disturb us again. Come, let us visit her.”
She led the way to an interior apartment. In a room of oval shape, permeated with golden light, the form of a woman lay on a cushioned lounge, deep asleep. Her face was turned upward: her abundant black hair lay beneath her: the soft flames which draped her were of the hue of moss roses. In the center of her forehead was a small circular mark with a star in it center, red as blood. Her face was pale.
“Miriam!” Jack cried out, and was springing toward her: but Lamara restrained him.
“Do not touch her while she is in this state!” she said urgently. “For you to do so would be especially dangerous, because the results might be spiritual as well as physical. As you know, we have not yet solved the nature of the spell. This may be a trick of the magician to tempt you to involve her still deeper.”
“But I love her! We love each other!” cried Jack; “Isn’t love strong enough to overcome anything?”
“Love is unconquerable because it is an immortal spirit: but passion is mixed with earth, and seeks itself in the other. Power over evil is always from above.”
The look and voice of Lamara, more than the veiled purport of her words, prevailed over the young lover. They carried conviction of truth. He mastered himself, and stood gazing with longing eyes at the motionless figure. He hated the material bonds that withheld him from communion with her soul.
“It is only for an hour!” said Lamara encouragingly. “When she wakens, we will all take counsel together. You overcame Torpeon; it will be more fruitful victory to overcome yourself.”
“I must at least stay here beside her,” Jack returned. “He might attempt something else: and it’s my right to defend her.”
“I will trust you,” said Lamara, “because I perceive that there is more of spirit than of earth in your love: but there is earth, too, and remember that it is through earth that your enemy is strong! We will leave you here for a while: there are many things to be done to clear the way for your return to your world. Zarga will remain within call. Be faithful and patient!”
She withdrew, with Argon and Aunion. Zarga crouched beside the couch, her strange eyes dwelling upon the face of the unconscious figure. The beautiful features had the serenity and almost the pallor of death, but the slight rise and fall of the bosom was evidence that she lived. Jack cautiously bent over to scrutinize the mark on her brow.
“It seems a slight thing to have so deep an effect!” he muttered.
“All magic is pretense,” said Zarga looking up at him. “We may be deceived in the efficiency of this spell. Torpeon may count on that!”
“Can Lamara, you Highest, be deceived?” exclaimed Jack, surprised.
“You heard her say that the nature of the spell had not been solved. She is wise and prudent: but perhaps gives too much weight to Aunion’s opinions. He, too, is wise, but age has made him timid. In their presence it didn’t become me to speak.”
“Do you know something they do not?”
“The blood of the Torides is in my veins,” replied Zarga, “and it gives me an understanding of their nature which a pure Saturnian could not have. It led me, out of curiosity, to make a study of their magic, though secretly. We hold it to be unlawful, and instead of mastering its methods, we confine ourselves to seeking antidotes against it. I am foolish to have told you this—but I believe you are too noble to denounce me. My only wish is to serve you and Miriam, if I may. I think this mark could be easily annulled. Your own intuition about it was truer than our science.” She met his troubled gaze for a moment, and added, “You said that love is enough!”
“Tell me all in your mind—you need have no fears!”
“Give me your hand,” said Zarga. She took it between her own, pressing her left palm against his, and continuing to look into his eyes. He was conscious of a keen thrill or vibration that passed from her hand to his heart, and again from his eyes to hers, establishing a circuit between them. There was something sweet in it, but also perilous. He felt that there had been a disclosure, which might better have been avoided; and yet what could he apprehend from this girl? Lamara trusted her.
“You are what I thought,” she said after a while, relinquishing his hand, with an enigmatic smile. “I will tell you my belief, and you can weigh its value in your own mind. Every moment that this mark remains on Miriam’s forehead, its roots grow deeper, and the harder it will prove to take it off. Before Aunion’s science can reach it, it will have become part of her being, which it would be death to disturb. Each swoon into which she sinks makes her more Torpeon’s, and less yours. No one but the man who loves her can break the spell: and the time to break it is now! If the prince wins her from you, you can never win her back. Even her love for you will be destroyed!”
“That cannot be true!” answered he drawing back.
“Love is immortal: Lamara said it, and I know it!”
“I know nothing of immortality,” Zarga replied, with a touch of scorn. “But whatever it be, I would not, if I were a man, wish to give the woman I loved to another during this life of earth!”
Jack’s face flushed. “We can both die!” he said.
“Love wants life, not death!” the girl exclaimed. “Love has a body as well as a soul! Do you know that, while we sat here, Torpeon is with her? An hour of trance is his hour of possession! And how long will a woman love a man who stays inactive while she is in his rival’s arms? Women love the possessor!”
He stood up, tense and trembling. The thought of his promise to Lamara fought with the passions that Zarga had aroused. But if Zarga’s view were right, Lamara would withdraw her warning. What should he do?
Zarga seemed to read his mind. “It’s not for a girl such as I to tell a lover what to do to save the woman he loves,” she said. “But I warn you, if you touch her, Torpeon will exert his whole power to keep her. And don’t think you can baffle him again as you did once! He will come with his legions behind him!”
Love, jealousy, and the pride of a man’s valor against his foe, were temptations too strong: and at that moment Miriam stirred in her trance, her eyelids quivered and her lips moved. There came a muffled whisper.
“Jack—beloved—drive him away—save me—take me!”
She relapsed into immobility.
He was strung to the high pitch now. With love and wrath at once tingling through his nerves, he stooped to take Miriam in his arms: that mark—a kiss would obliterate it!
A shrill shout, which brought an incongruous image of Jim to mind, rang in his ears. A swirl of dark vapor filled the air. It seemed to him, however, that he held Miriam: he clasped her close. In the darkness, strange faces glared out at him and vanished. The woman responded to his embrace: she clung passionately to him. Yet there were both fire and ice in her contact, and Miriam seemed lost. Soft, fiery lips touched his, and fastened to them, they took his breath: he was buffeted, and staggered as if in a whirlwind. In the obscurity he had glimpses of other figures, and shafts of light, like swords, blindingly bright, struck through the dark. There were howlings and fierce outcries, receding and growing fainter, and a chilling gust dissipated the obscurity. The beautiful palace had disappeared: the scene was bleak and desolate; gravel and sand were underfoot and clumps of thorny bushes and stunted trees surrounded him. But he still held the form of the woman in his arms: they had failed to tear her from him; at least he so believed.
But she pressed her hands against his breast and writhed like a serpent to free herself. The cloud of hair that floated out from her in the wind was ruddy like fire. This slender, subtle face with its wild dark eyes—this was not Miriam! This was Zarga!
His arms relaxed and fell to his sides. She leaped away from him, and stood for a moment, throwing out her arms and screaming words which he could not distinguish: then she turned and fled away like a fantom, vanishing behind the thorny bushes.
He was alone in the wilderness. He took a step forward, and fell heavily on his face.