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Updated: May 9, 2025
Let us see more of the land He gives us." There was a road leading down from the ruins, a road still to be followed in spite of the lash of landslip and the crack of time. And it brought them into a cup of green fertility where the lavishness of Asti's sowing was unchecked by man.
Even in Memphir the lords of the last days forgot the wisdom of their earlier sages they fell before the barbarians easily enough." "If ever men had wisdom to produce this it was not of Asti's giving," she edged away from the glare. "Let us go."
Then she stepped towards the captive. Within her hood a beaded line of moisture outlined her lips, a pulse thundered on her temple. This was a fearsome thing to try. She held the sun on a line with one of the wrist bonds, She must avoid the flesh it imprisoned, for Asti's power could kill. From the sun there shot an orange-red beam to strike full upon the metal.
So He and those who served Him had withdrawn to this mountain outcrop. And she, Varta, was the last, the very last to bow knee at Asti's shrine and raise her voice in the dawn hymn for Lur, as were all his race, was mute. Even the loot of Memphir would not sate the shaggy headed warriors who had stormed her gates this day.
She had spoken so seldom during the last lonely months. "Evil has risen to overwhelm our world, even as it was prophesied in Your Revelations, O, Ruler of Worlds and Maker of Destiny. Therefore, obeying the order given of old, I would depart from this, Thy house. Suffer me now to fulfill the Law " Three times she prostrated her slim body on the stones at the foot of Asti's judgment chair.
Never again would Asti's servant wear the soft stuff of His Livery. But she was resolute enough when she picked up the food pouch and strode forward, passing out of the robing chamber into a narrow way which was a natural fault in the rock unsmoothed by the tools of man. But when this rocky road ended upon the lip of a gorge, Varta hesitated, plucking at the throat latch of her hood-like helmet.
But no ship was there; nothing was there except the river-horses which rose and sank, and the crocodiles on the mud-banks, and the wildfowl that flighted inward from the sea to feed. So they went back to the ashes of their fire and ate of the food in Asti's basket, and, when they had eaten, looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Then Tua said: "Come, Nurse, let us be going.
Overhead the worlds and sun of Asti still traveled their appointed paths. The worlds of Asti! If it was His Will which had brought them here, then Asti's power would wrap her round with safety. By His Will she had come out of Memphir over ways no human of Erb had ever trod before. Could she doubt that His Protection was with her now?
As each name fell from Asti's lips Tua waved her hand, saying scornful words, such as "I know him not," "Too old," "Fat and hideous," "A foreign dog who spits upon our gods," and so forth, adding at last: "Go on." "That is all, Lady, no other name was mentioned, and the Council adjourned to consider these." "No other name?" "Do you then miss one, perchance, Tua?"
She nodded in answer to that unvoiced question Lur had sent into her brain, and turned toward the dark cavern which was the mouth of Asti's last dwelling place. Once, more than a thousand years before when the walls of Memphir were young, Asti had lived among men below. But in the richness and softness which was trading Memphir, empire of empires, Asti found no place.
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