CHAPTER IV
Now a witch's prayer is pretty apt to find its way to the God to whichit is directed, especially when it is a white witch with black hairdoing the praying, and not a black witch with white hair, as is so oftenthe case.
Mother Mors, watching the small black-and-white-striped prayer wingingits way across the deeps of night, reached out her hand and gathered itin to her whirling bosom, full of the milk of eternal kindness and softwith the vibrant softness of darkness itself, and read it there with theinner eyes of her heart.
That prayer contained some startling and incomplete information, and themention of the passing of her enemy Diana whom she had tried to entrapherself for so long, brought Mors abruptly out of her sleep and sent herswiftly arrowing down upon the little valley where the golden pole nowlit the whole sky.
The mystery and awesome power and majestic primal vitality of hersilhouetted against and merged with the golden glory of the primal poleas the vast body of Mors merged and condensed and settled and came intohuman form there within the great banquet hall of Eos' palace on thedisk.
Now as the body of the great Goddess of the night came into soliditybefore Eos, her laughter rang out, rich and ringing and with low, darkunder-tones. Eos looked up from the great stack of ancient alchemicformulae where she sought the solution to the incredible quandary of toomany lovers. For too-much-of-a-good-thing she could not find anyreference in the books, for they were all designed to give onlyinformation on how to get rid of too-much-of-a-bad-thing.
Rosy to the tips of her fingers with embarrassment, Eos rose to herfeet, her glory dimmed by the majesty of Mors' dark beauty, her heightdwarfed by the tall, mysterious strength of Mors' indestructible figure,a figure such as must have caused the ancient artists deepest despair todepict in the least of its intense and vital and overwhelmingly sublimesymmetry.
Mors' laughter made Eos blush till rosy was not the word for her.
"My dear Eos, can this be you? I would hardly have expected it of you,who have always been to me the personification of so many virtues...."
"Oh, Mother Mors, I am glad to see you, in spite of this state ofaffairs--you can help me. You must know what has happened?"
"I can guess, but you had better explain from the beginning. Only awoman could know what to do here, it seems." Mors glanced around at thethousand and some virile males.
"You know the Pole is responsible for bringing them here, and one by oneDiana turned them into stone as soon as my lonely heart turned to themfor affection."
"It's a good story, but no one but me will ever believe it."
Eos only looked pitifully at Mors, and Mors took her to her dark, softheart, and the vast strength of her poured into the vibrant soul of Eos,mingled there with that golden energy that made her what she was.
"Whatever I do is going to break their hearts--you know what this placedoes to men. I cannot love them all, but I _do_, and I cannot send themaway empty-handed. You know what it _means_ to them! It is really allthat cruel Diana's fault!
"For ridding me of her I owe you a debt, and though you are but a childto my ages of life, I will help you avoid ruining the lives of all thesefine men whom you have loved. Suppose I take them away with me, all butone, and give them back their own time and place before they found theirway here--give them the will to want that life before they knew you,would that comfort you?"
"Only one?" murmured Eos, then blushed as she looked out over thethousand-and-odd faces that stared at her accusingly.
"Only one, and you must choose him carefully from among them all."
"That will take some thought," said Eos, her face full of indecision. "Iloved each of them dearly."
* * * * *
Mors' face grew a little stern at that, and quickly Eos went on:
"I'll attend to it directly, Mother Mors."
"I have a little errand to attend to over at Feronia's, I will be backin a few beats of Druga's stricken heart. You could at least have keptyour body hidden from him, out of respect for Feronia! I have not muchpatience with your dilemma. After all, there are other places to live,you know."
"But not for me, Mors. It follows me about!"
Mors' face grew even sterner, and Eos added:
"Of course I _know_ that is because of the peculiar nature of the metalof which the disk is constructed, but _after all_ you _know_ it has beenmy home for so _very_ long, I couldn't be expected to give up my home,could I?"
Mors only lifted one great dark eyebrow and lifted suddenly into darkwhirling force and disappeared.
Eos, her face tear-streaked, went slowly down the endless line of men,examining each one carefully and cudgeling her memory to decide whichone she had loved the _very_ most. It was _so_ difficult.
Mors, meanwhile, drifted into being over the sleeping Druga and thepraying Feronia, still on her knees, her face upraised and very sweetwith the dark-winged eyes closed, the long line of her throat sheerbeauty in the dim light.
She touched the closed eyes softly with her potent fingertips, andFeronia opened them with a new understanding gifted into theirstructure. Then she softly entered Feronia's body and together theypeered down into the body and the thought of the sleeping man, and withher dark fingertips vibrant with the energies of dark space, Mors wentover each little nerve and passage in the brain where the energies ofthe disk and the Pole and the sight of the intense glory of Eros' bodyhad burned out Feronia's years of love.
Everywhere she touched, a new awareness grew, centered and vitalized bythe presence of Mors within the body of Feronia, so that nowhere wasthere any evidence of the loss of love, but only the beautiful memoriesof Feronia alive again within his mind, and wherever desire lived in himMors touched her fingers, and planted a seed that would grow with goodtreatment into vital love. As she worked, Feronia wept shamelessly withthankfulness, and for every tiny node of love that Mors planted inDruga, one sprouted likewise in Feronia, and some of them were for Drugaand some were natural gratitude to Mors for this work of replacement.The sleeping Druga stirred and his arms came about Feronia's hips whereshe stood by the bed. Mors sent her strange energies through the twolovers, marrying them there with the potent blessing that is actualmagnetic mingling of being--and Feronia knew that only by abuse couldshe lose this man again!
"You are a good girl, Feronia, and you have a good man. I will visit youagain, if that _Dark Master_ wills it."
A chill went through the chamber at the mention of The Name, and Morswent out with the strange ecstatic sweep of entity, and Feronia knewwhat was meant by _God-head_.
* * * * *
Eos waited for a long time before Mors came again to her, for theGod-head required certain things of Mors for this night's work.
As she at last reappeared to Eos, Eos did not note the terrific emotionsof love-ecstasy upon her face, the record of her touching with _the One_upon the mention of him, and began to complain.
"How can I give them up, Mors?"
But Mors only looked at her with absent, flaming eyes, intent upon somefar thing, and for the first time Eos noted the vast and subtle changein her, as if she had touched some vast fountain of beneficencesomewhere in the while she had been gone. Her cheeks were flushed, herbreast rising and falling. Mors was like a woman in love, or a Goddesstouched by the love of Jove, and Eos' eyes fell before her sublimely,and only stood waiting for Mors to do what she must.
So Mors absently gathered up all the thousand-and-some men, tucking theminto her bosom one by one, and whirled into the night with all but one.
As the Goddess Mors disappeared, a sudden suspicion struck Eos, and shewhirled to look upon the man that was left behind.
She burst into tears.
The Red Dwarf reached out and patted her golden head. Then he stepped tothe controls and sent the disk winging swiftly away.
"Where are you going?" asked Eos, lifting her head in surprise, andlooking indignantly through her tears.
"To
the opposite Pole of Energy, my sweet one," said the Red Dwarf. "Bepatient a little while, and you will yet be supremely happy. Mother Morsis very wise...."
And Eos was very happy. You see, I _do_ know, for I was there. If itwere not so, how could you be sure what I tell you is true? For it _is_true....
The wise will understand what I have written.
Daughter of the Night Page 4
