‘It is not only the present life of the man who asks for help that you must consider, not only what he thinks he knows about himself. You must search the inner levels of his mind and reach the real Self he might not even recognize. The time scale you must use must be as long as Time itself. He does not come into existence with his birth, nor leave it at his death. Remember this at all times.’
After the class she asked Lea about the discussion that she had missed.
Lea told her that the prophet had probably scanned far and wide among the beams of thought that he was aware of in his dark and silent world and so came upon the young stranger who was thinking hard about their Temple as he approached it. The prophet visualized him from the man’s own image of himself and gave the time of arrival the young man himself estimated.
This explanation pleased Kyra.
She thought about the more difficult matter of Guiron and Isar. But the prophet again could have scanned their minds for memories of ancient experiences and guessed the natural outcome of those events.
She was content that they should all be part of a great moving, expanding harmony and play their destined part in it, but she did not want to believe that every detail of their play was pre-ordained. That she was destined by some past act of her own to be upon a ship storm-tossed at sea she could accept, but in that situation she wanted to believe and did believe that there were still many different choices she could make to affect the outcome. And if her choice should result in pain or death, it was still her choice whether she let herself suffer it in anger and despair, or whether she accepted it calmly as having some purpose in the universe.
‘We were warned about causing things to happen by predicting them,’ Lea said, interrupting her line of thought.
Kyra looked at her.
‘He gave us an example of a man being given the exact time of his death. It seems it is quite possible the man died at that moment not because he was destined to, but because he expected to. Either he gave up taking precautions because he had no hope, or he might have even done things that would lead to his death, without realizing it, convinced that it was inevitable and the sooner it was over the better.’
‘So the prophet was a kind of murderer?’
‘Yes. We have to be very careful what we say when people ask us to prophecy. Sometimes a whole community has been destroyed by a prophecy of doom. No doubt the prophet had good reasons for sensing its possibility, and he was right to warn them of it, but he should also have pointed out that it might very well be possible to avert by, say, a change of their way of life. Because they believed it was inevitable they gave up trying. Fear, despair and self-indulgence, the predators of the mind, moved in, and the community collapsed as the prophet foretold.’
‘It is a great responsibility,’ Kyra said.
‘Yes,’ Lea agreed.
7
The Arrival Of Khu-ren
On the third day from the day the Prophet had been brought before them Kyra took great trouble with her appearance and was late for class.
The morning seemed endless and she looked frequently at the position of the sun to establish when it would be noon.
‘Kyra, the sun will not move faster no matter how much you wish it to!’ Her teacher was regarding her with kindly amusement. She hung her head.
‘I know you are all anxious to see if the prophecy will come true. At noon I will remind you of it and we will discuss it then, but meanwhile there is other work to be done.’
Noon came and went.
The young stranger did not appear.
Kyra could feel tears burning behind her eyes.
The teacher himself was visibly disappointed; the prophet had never been known to be wrong before.
But as it turned out, although the timing was inaccurate, the young stranger did appear later in the afternoon, clad as the prophet had said, standing with Lord Guiron in the southern of the two inner circles.
The young man was the priest Kyra had been waiting for.
She learnt from her enquiries later that he had brought a party of his own countrymen as students for the Temple College. He was the Lord Khu-ren, one of the distinguished Lords of the Sun, who would be staying for some time to instruct those who were priests already in the highest grade known to their culture, the grade in ‘spirit-travelling.’
Kyra was full of joy and tried every trick she could think of to delay leaving the great circle after her class was over, but she was forced to move before the young lord finished speaking with the High Priest. Unless they were engaged in a specific training matter or part of a ritual ceremony, the students were not allowed within the Sacred Circle. By using the circle only for intense psychic instruction or for religious and mystical purposes over long periods of time an atmosphere had been built up which gave the Temple the concentration of psychic power that was necessary for the immense tasks it had to perform.
The students were only allowed in at all because their bodies had gradually to grow used to the feel of such power, for the time when it was their turn to use it. The more elementary the classes they attended the shorter the time they spent within the circle. Those who were nearly approaching the state of the adept and had passed initiation into the Higher Mysteries spent a great deal of time in the circle.
But none but the very high stood within the inner circles ‘in the flesh’.
Kyra remembered when she had stood in the most holy place of all, the northern inner circle, but at that time she was not ‘in’ her physical body, and neither was the young priest.
She had waited to meet him so long, and these few moments that were left seemed longer than all the time before!
She could not stay in the circle, but she waited just outside determined to see him as he left.
‘What is the matter?’ Vann asked her.
‘Nothing,’ she replied, rather sharply.
‘Are you not coming?’
‘No. Go on without me. I will join you later.’
She thought they would never leave, but at last she was alone.
She had a long wait and had almost despaired when she heard voices and the small group from the inner circle appeared. The Lord Khu-ren was speaking, and his voice, which she suddenly realised she had never heard before as all their communication had been through the medium of thought, was deep and melodious. He spoke their language, but a little haltingly, with strange intonations, and every now and again he hesitated for a word which the Lord Guiron supplied.
She was startled at the strength of feeling that surged through her as he approached, and a little ashamed. She was even trembling.
As they came nearer and nearer she found herself stepping backwards, afraid now of the meeting, her feelings were so out of control.
It seemed to her he deliberately kept his head turned away from her and kept talking and looking at the High Priest.
Within moments they were past and it was all over.
He had not seen her.
Tears came to her eyes. She had wanted him to see her so desperately, and yet had feared it. The anti-climax of it not happening at all was too much. She turned and ran and did not stop until she reached the home of Karne and Fern.
That night she spent with them.
They could feel she was troubled and unhappy but she refused to tell them why.
She rocked Isar to sleep in her arms and there were wet patches on his soft head when she laid him down at last.
Karne and Fern were very happy to have her with them, but did not question her further when they could see she did not want to tell them what was troubling her.
She preferred to talk about their affairs, to hear all their stories of village life, of the friends they had made, and of the admiration they had for their Spear-lord, Olan.
‘We have been very fortunate. I believe not all the tall strangers are as noble as Olan,’ Fern said.
‘He is teaching me to fight with the long dagger of his people,’ Karne said excitedly.
&
nbsp; ‘Whom do you want to kill?’ Kyra asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘No, not to kill. It is a sport and requires great skill. And there are horses here...’
‘We have them at home too,’ Kyra said quickly.
‘Yes, but here Olan has tamed them and some of the tall strangers have learned to ride upon their backs. He teaches me to look after them and soon he will teach me to ride as well.’
‘This is a great honour,’ Fern said, ‘because normally it is only the Spear-lord who may ride. Olan thinks very highly of Karne and treats him with respect.’
Karne laughed.
‘Other Spear-lords are not so pleased! Old Hawk-Eagle who lives over the hill to the south hates Olan and resents the fact that he treats a local peasant almost as an equal. He says it will make the other peasants restless and they will all be demanding equality soon!’
Kyra smiled.
Equality to her was something impossible on earth.
Every single person was at a different stage of spiritual evolution. There must be inequalities in this sense. There must be a kind of hierarchy of wisdom and responsibility. But from what she could gather Hawk-Eagle himself would be very low down in the hierarchy she had in mind, and this would not please him.
The trouble with people like him was that they thought they could impose an unnatural hierarchy on the world, making sure that they (however unworthy they might be) were at the top and everyone else (however worthy) would be below.
* * * *
In the morning she was up at first light and out in the cool and fragrant garden. Spider webs caught the dew and new flowers that had pushed out of their enclosing sheaths at night were turning their faces to the sun. She longed to stay in this peaceful and pleasant place with the ones she loved. For the first time she felt that she did not feel totally happy at the college. But she knew she would already be in some disgrace for not having told anyone where she had gone and for being away all night.
She ate a quick breakfast of fruit and milk and then ran as swiftly as she could back to the Temple.
She was late for class and in trouble as she expected. The teacher gave her a hard and searching look when she arrived flushed and out of breath, but said nothing. Her friends looked at her too, but there was no opportunity to question her then.
It was not until the rigours of their studies were over that they had a chance to speak to her.
‘Will I be punished?’ she asked anxiously.
‘No, of course not. But you do owe him an apology and an explanation.’
She set off at once to find her teacher and stood before him, with contrition on her face.
‘I am sorry, my lord, that I was not present last night and was late for class this morning. I went to see my brother and his family and slept the night with them.’
‘You did not ask permission?’
‘No, my lord.’
‘Did you think it would be refused?’
‘I did not think, my lord. I just ran off.’
He stared at her steadily. She dropped her eyes.
‘You must learn more self-control if you are to be a priest,’ he said at last, quietly.
‘I know my lord,’ she said in a very low voice.
‘Next time,’ he said, ‘think.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘You may go now,’ he said gently.
How much of what was really in her mind he had seen she did not know, but she was grateful to him for not mentioning it.
On returning to her fellow students she was given a small parcel wrapped carefully in a very fine piece of white cloth. She fingered it enquiringly and realised that it was not wool. It was a fabric she later learned was linen, unknown to her at that time.
‘Where did it come from?’ she asked, bewildered.
‘One of the students who arrived yesterday brought it.’
Kyra looked up immediately.
‘A student?’ her voice shook a little.
‘He asked if there was a girl called Kyra from the north with us. We said you were in our class, but were not here at the moment. We did not know where you had disappeared to!’ complained her friend Lea.
‘But was it one of the students from over the sea, from the desert land?’ Kyra demanded.
‘Yes. He said...’
She was pulling it open now with trembling hands and heard no more. The others crowded round to see what it was. As the thin wrappings of linen were removed, Kyra found lying curled up inside a necklace of blue faience beads of great delicacy and beauty.
She gasped, and her friends were amazed as she held it up to the light to see how exquisite it was and how subtly the colour and the light interplayed.
‘What did he say?’ she asked now, her voice strange and tense.
‘I cannot remember exactly ... just that it was for Kyra of the north ... and I was to be sure you were given it.’
‘What name did he give?’
‘No name. Only yours.’
‘I did not know you knew any of the new students?’ someone said.
‘How did you meet him? He has only been here a day!’
‘Is that where you disappeared to last night?’
They were teasing her now, but she was scarcely aware of it.
It would not have been from the student. She knew no students from that country. But she did know their Lord Priest.
She buried her face in her hands and started to sob.
This gave her friends pause and most of them left her alone after this, but her best friends Vann and Lea stayed behind.
‘Tell us,’ they said gently, but she shook her head.
At last they too left her alone and when they were gone she took the necklace out of its wrappings and gazed at it reverently. She held it against her cheek and her eyes shone. She kissed it and put it carefully over her head and stared at it lying against her breast.
She moved the pendant which she had worn for so long into her carrying pouch, so that the new necklace could lie in its place.
When she joined her friends again they could see that she was blissfully happy, but they could see also she was not prepared to speak about it.
The evening prayers came and went, and at last it was time for sleep.
She slept quietly and easily and her dream was as beautiful as the necklace.
* * * *
Over the next few days she tried to see the Lord Khu-ren to thank him for his gift, but there seemed no way of approaching him.
At first there was no sign of him and she was deadly afraid he had left the Temple area altogether, but then she heard he had been taken to see the college of Star Studies, the other great circle which was part of the complex Temple of the Sun, but built further south, away from the populous villagers and the bustle of the main Temple business.
The priests who manned the college were particularly skilled in astronomical calculations, and she knew there would be a time when she would study briefly with them. But now she was anxious in case the Lord Khu-ren would settle there and it would make it almost impossible for her to see him, but she was assured by Panora, who knew everything about everybody’s business, that his visit was only temporary and his main work would be done at their own college and Temple circle.
Relieved, Kyra waited impatiently for the days to pass, and at last was rewarded by the sight of him walking in procession with the Lord Guiron for the Harvest ceremony. She could not approach him, of course, but she hoped at least to catch his eye.
As he came level with her on the processional route, she would not have been surprised if the whole concourse of people had not heard the loudness of her thoughts willing him to look at her.
Whether the others noticed anything or not she did not know, but he did.
His eyes met hers very briefly and then dropped to the chain of beads around her neck. If she had had any doubts before that he had sent them to her, they were dispelled now. There was a warm shine of recognition in his dark eyes and pleasure at se
eing his gift upon her breast.
But the look, though intense, was very fleeting.
The priest that walked beside him came between them and he was carried past. He did not turn his head to look at her again, but then she knew that no priest upon the processional Way was supposed to look anywhere but strictly ahead at the approaching Sacred Circle.
The Lord Guiron had broken that ancient law by looking into the eyes of Isar.
And now the Lord Khu-ren had looked at her.
She was flushed with pleasure and confusion.
* * * *
After this she accepted the fact that she would see very little of her lord and that it was probable that they would have no means of meeting for a long time. He was very much among the more important of the priests and none of his duties took him anywhere where she was likely to be.
She managed to convince herself, because of the look she had received from him during the procession, that some day, some time, the moment would be right and they would be together.
Meanwhile she kept her feelings secret from her friends and apart from occasionally teasing her about the mysterious student who brought the necklace and then never called again, they allowed the subject to fade away.
The necklace became so much a part of her that they almost forgot there was a time when she did not have it.
The first time the Lord Guiron noticed that his sign had gone from her neck and she had faience beads in its place, he gave her a strange and penetrating look that made her heart beat anxiously. But he said nothing. And his thoughts she could not fathom.
Because she was anxious to make as much progress as possible, as fast as possible, towards the time when she would be ready for ‘spirit-travelling,’ she worked harder than any of the other students.
It seemed to her at times her teacher knew what she was trying to do and deliberately held her back.
‘These things cannot be hurried, Kyra.’ he said to her one day, noticing the look of impatience on her face when she thought she was ready for a particular graduating test and was refused permission to take it. ‘Each stage of learning must be fully absorbed into the system of the student before he moves on to the next one.
The Temple of the Sun Page 12
