CHAPTER XII

ENANA CALLS TO HIS AID THE GODS JUSTICE AND VENGEANCE

The nameless horror that had driven the youthful Unis from his side had no terrors for Enana the Magician.

Enana stood bathed in the palpitating glow of the self-illuminated Book. Slowly he approached his hands to its cover, a cover as white as the sandals of the gods themselves.

The instant Enana’s shriveled fingers came in contact with its radiance, a sudden change came over him. Enana’s face glowed; a circle of light played about his head. His eyes blazed with a light of triumph.

Holding the Magic Book before him, he commenced to sway back and forth, back and forth, like some mystic of the temple about to prophesy.

The aged Magician began to speak, softly at first, but with a flow of words that scarcely waited for breath.

“What saith the son of Hap? Seek the Book of Thoth. Eat not, drink not, sleep not, until the Book is found! Two magic formulæ hath the Book! Recite the first and thou shalt charm the sky, the earth, the moon, the heights, the depths! Thou shalt converse with the birds. Thou shalt understand the sayings of the fish and reptiles!

“Recite the second and, even though thy desire be among the Silent Ones, the Dead, yet shall thou have power to raise them upon their feet in the forms and with the hearts their mothers gave them.

“By the Double Spell thou shalt produce a Rising of the Moon at will. Thou shalt be enabled to stop the Sun’s Ascension. Yea, thou shalt darken the faces of both Sun and Moon. By the Double Spell thou shalt see the Ascension of Ra and the Cycle of the Gods.

“Recited at the full of the Moon, thou shalt master the Hidden Names of the Gods, whereby thou shalt become possessed of their amulets and talismans. Yea, thou shalt become greater than Ra himself!”

Slowly Enana the Magician opened the Book. In characters of gold the secret incantations of the gods were spread before him. Here appeared the Secret Names of the Six White Gods of Day and the Six Black Gods of Night. Here were the irresistible words of power that could stop the planets in their courses and Ra in his passage of the sky. Here again were the Mystic Names of Thoth and Set. Here were the dread _hekau_-spells that could revivify the dead or consign the living to annihilation and their “doubles” to extinction.

Enana closed the magic book. Carefully he placed it in his bosom. The soft effulgence at once disappeared.

Leaving the little chamber, Enana stood upon the terrace. Below and about him stretched the city, the city of the dead. A rift of dully gleaming waters and, beyond it, lay another city, the city of the living.

A dull roar, a deep murmur, as of many voices, came up to him where he stood. In honor of the annual Feast of the Apts, lights were breaking out alike in temple, palace and peasant hut.

To-night the doors would be left open. Thus would the living welcome the “souls” of their dead.

Already lines of flickering torches showed where many a devout _ka_-servant, together with priests to assist him, could be seen winding along the well-beaten paths or marching up the inclined planes of the sphinx or tree-bordered avenues by which the royal mortuary-temples were approached.

The Feast of the Apts was indeed, as it was often styled, a veritable “Feast of Lights.”

Enana gazed northward. Across the river, a bright circle of lights showed where his brother-priests of Amen had commenced the encircling of the walls of Amen’s temple. Huy and his brother-priests still put on a bold front.

Fires were lit at intervals along the Nile embankments. The river itself now reflected many a fire that leaped, died, and leaped into life again, along the great quay fronting the temple of the Southern Apt.

Nearer, scarcely a stone’s throw away, it seemed, appeared the lights of the innumerable lamps which served to illuminate the pleasure-barge of Thi, the Queen-Mother. As Enana well knew, Pharaoh and his immediate family were accustomed to join the nightly fête from this point of vantage.

Enana raised his hands in the direction of the broad patch of buildings and trees which marked at once the royal palace and the nearby villa of Menna, the Overseer.

Suddenly a brilliant meteor shot from the highest zenith and seemed to bury itself in the waters of the palace lake. Enana’s voice rose upon the night air:

An omen, Pharaoh! an omen Thi! an omen Menna! By the Power of the Book, closed to ye are The gates of the Sky. Closed to ye are The Double Doors of Heaven! Ye shall not cross the Lily Lake of the Sky, Ye shall not sail upon the Boat with Ra! The Magic Vestments shall not be spread for ye! The White Sandals shall be hidden from ye! Yea, by the Secret Names I know, by the Hidden Talismans I possess, your bodies Shall be destroyed; your tombs shall know Them not! Your _kas_ shall not stand behind ye! Your _bas_ shall not sit upon your tombs! Annihilation is your portion; obliteration Your destiny!

Enana’s voice rose to a shrill falsetto; his whole form seemed to tremble as he cried aloud the first dread incantation:

Thoth! Thoth! Thoth! Come to my aid in thy name of Wisdom! Set! Set! Set! Descend to me in thy name of Evil! Turn thy face earthward, O Thoth! Turn thy face earthward, O Set! Enter my heart, Ye Gods; let thy Hearts become my heart; thy wisdom My Wisdom. I know thy Hidden Names, O Thoth! Thy Talismans are before me, O Set! Thoth thou art compelled, Set thou art Compelled. Hither to me, O Wisdom! Hither To me, O Evil! Send inspiration, O Thoth! Grant opportunity, O Set!

As the aged Magician’s voice shrilled out upon the night air Bata, the unhappy Unis’ aged nurse, suddenly awoke.

Softly she stole down the corridor from a chamber at the rear of the tomb, where she usually slept. Bata reached the open door just in time to hear Enana command the very gods to descend to earth. The horrified Bata fell in a faint across the threshold.

When at length Bata returned to consciousness, she somehow managed to crawl back to her room, dumb with terror. Bata had seen the old Magician’s trembling form aglow with a mystic light, his upturned face shining with some inward flame. Before him, out of the gloom there had suddenly appeared two heavily cloaked figures. Bata never doubted but that the tall forms were those of the great gods Thoth and Set.