Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances

by James Branch Cabell

  XIV

  They Duel on Morven

  So by the light of the seven candles Dom Manuel first saw Queen Freydisin her own shape, and in the appearance which she wore in her owncountry. What Manuel thought there was never any telling: but everyother man who saw Queen Freydis in this appearance declared thatinstantly all his past life became a drugged prelude to the momentwherein he stood face to face with Freydis, the high Queen of Audela.

  Freydis showed now as the most lovely of womankind. She had blackplaited hair, and folds of crimson silk were over her white flesh, andover her shoulders was a black cloak embroidered with little gold starsand ink-horns, and she wore sandals of gilded bronze. But in her facewas such loveliness as may not be told.

  Now Freydis went from one side of the place to the other side, and sawthe magics that protected the enclosure. "Certainly, you have me fast,"the high Queen said. "What is it you want of me?"

  Manuel showed her the three images which he had made, set there arow. "Ineed your aid with these."

  Queen Freydis looked at them, and Freydis smiled. "These frozenabortions are painstakingly made. What more can anybody demand?"

  Dom Manuel told her that he desired to make an animated and livelyfigure.

  Whereupon she laughed, merrily and sweetly and scornfully, and repliedthat never would she give such aid.

  "Very well, then," said Manuel, "I have ready the means to compel you."He showed this lovely woman the instruments of her torture. His handsomeyoung face was very grave, as though already his heart were troubled. Hethrust her hand into the cruel vise which was prepared. "Now, sorceress,whom all men dread save me, you shall tell me the Tuyla incantation asthe reward of my endeavors, or else a little by a little I shall destroythe hand that has wrought so many mischiefs."

  Freydis in the light of the seven candles showed pale as milk. She said:"I am frail and human in this place, and have no power beyond the powerof every woman, and no strength at all. Nevertheless, I will tell younothing."

  Manuel set his hand to the lever, ready to loose destruction. "To tellme what I desire you to tell me will do you no hurt--"

  "No," replied Freydis: "but I am not going to take orders from you orany man breathing."

  "--And for defying me you will suffer very terribly--"

  "Yes," replied Freydis. "And much you will care!" she said,reproachfully.

  "--Therefore I think that you are acting foolishly."

  Freydis said: "You make a human woman of me, and then expect me to actupon reason. It is you who are behaving foolishly."

  Count Manuel meditated, for this beyond doubt sounded sensible. Fromthe look of his handsome young face, his heart was now exceedinglytroubled. Queen Freydis breathed more freely, and began to smile, withthe wisdom of women, which is not super-human, but is ruthless.

  "The hand would be quite ruined, too," said Manuel, looking at it morecarefully. Upon the middle finger was a copper ring, in which was set alargish black stone: this was Schamir. But Manuel looked only at thehand.

  He touched it. "Your hand, Queen Freydis, whatever mischief it may haveexecuted, is soft as velvet. It is colored like rose-petals, but itsmells more sweet than they. No, certainly, my images are not worth theruining of such a hand."

  Then Manuel released her, sighing. "My geas must stay upon me, and myimages must wait," says Manuel.

  "Why, do you really like my hands?" asked Freydis, regarding themcritically.

  Manuel said: "Ah, fair sweet enemy, do not mock at me! All is inreadiness to compel you to do my will. Had you preserved some ugly shapeI would have conquered you. But against the shape which you now wear Icannot contend. Dragons and warlocks and chimaeras and such namelessmonsters as I perceive to be crowding about this enclosure of butteredwillow wands I do not fear at all, but I cannot fight against theappearance which you now wear."

  "Why, do you really like my natural appearance?" Freydis said,incredibly surprised. "It is a comfort, of course, to slip into itoccasionally, but I had never really thought much about it one way orthe other--"

  She went to the great mirror which had been set ready as Helmasdirected, "I never liked my hair in these severe big plaits, either. Asfor those monsters yonder, they are my people, who are coming out of thefire to rescue me, in some of the forgotten shapes, as spoorns and trowsand calcars, and other terrors of antiquity. But they cannot get intothis enclosure of buttered willow wands, poor dears, on account of yourmagickings. How foolish they look--do they not?--leering and caperingand gnashing their teeth, with no superstitious persons anywhere to payattention to them."

  The Queen paused: she coughed delicately. "But you were talking somenonsense or other about my natural appearance not being bad looking. Nowmost men prefer blondes, and, besides, you are not really listening tome, and that is not polite."

  "It is so difficult to talk collectedly," said Manuel, "with yourappalling servitors leering and capering and gnashing double sets ofteeth all over Upper Morven--"

  She saw the justice of this. She went now to that doorway through which,unless a man lifted her over the threshold, she might not pass, onaccount of the tonthecs and the spaks and the horseshoes.

  She cried, in a high sweet voice: "A penny, a penny, twopence, a pennyand a half, and a half-penny! Now do you go away, all of you, for thewisdom of Helmas is too strong for us. There is no way for you to getinto, nor for me to get out of, this place of buttered willow wands,until I have deluded and circumvented this pestiferous, squinting youngmortal. Go down into Bellegarde and spill the blood of Northmen, orraise a hailstorm, or amuse yourselves in one way or another way.Anyhow, do you take no thought for me, who am for the while a humanwoman: for my adversary is a mortal man, and in that duel never yet hasthe man conquered."

  She turned to Manuel. She said:

  "The land of Audela is my kingdom. But you embraced my penalties, youhave made a human woman of me. So do I tread with wraiths, for my lostrealm alone is real. Here all is but a restless contention of shadowswhich pass presently; here all that is visible and all the colors knownto men are shadows dimming the true colors; here time and death, thedarkest shadows known to men, delude you with false seemings: for allsuch things as men hold incontestable, because they are apparent tosight and sense, are a weariful drifting of fogs that veil the worldwhich is no longer mine. So in this twilit world of yours do we ofAudela appear to be but men and women."

  "I would that such women appeared more often," said Manuel.

  "The land of Audela is my kingdom, where I am Queen of all that liesbehind this veil of human sight and sense. This veil may not ever belifted; but very often the veil is pierced, and noting the broken place,men call it fire. Through these torn places men may glimpse the worldthat is real: and this glimpse dazzles their dimmed eyes and weaklingforces, and this glimpse mocks at their lean might Through these rentplaces, when the opening is made large enough, a few men here and there,not quite so witless as their fellows, know how to summon us of Audelawhen for an hour the moon is void and powerless: we come for an oldreason: and we come as men and women."

  "Ah, but you do not speak with the voices of men and women," Manuelreplied, "for your voice is music."

  "The land of Audela is my kingdom, and very often, just for the sport'ssake, do I and my servitors go secretly among you. As human beings weblunder about your darkened shadow world, bound by the laws of sight andsense, but keeping always in our hearts the secrets of Audela and thesecret of our manner of returning thither. Sometimes, too, for thesport's sake, we imprison in earthen figures a spark of the true life ofAudela: and then you little persons, that have no authentic life, butonly the flickering of a vexed shadow to sustain you in brieffretfulness, say it is very pretty; and you negligently applaud us asthe most trivial of men and women."

  "No; we applaud you as the most beautiful," says Manuel.

  "Come now, Count Manuel, and do you have done with your sillyflatterings, which will never wheedle anything out of me! So you havetrapped Queen Freydis in
mortal flesh. Therefore I must abide in thebody of a human woman, and be subject to your whims, and to yourbeautiful big muscles, you think, until I lend a spark of Audela's truelife to your ridiculous images. But I will show you better, for I willnever give in to you nor to any man breathing."

  In silence Count Manuel regarded the delightful shaping and the clearburning colors of this woman's face. He said, as if in sadness: "Theimages no longer matter. It is better to leave them as they are."

  "That is very foolish talk," Queen Freydis answered, promptly, "for theyneed my aid if ever any images did. Not that, however, I intend to touchthem."

  "Indeed, I forbid you to touch them, fair enemy. For were the imagesmade as animated and lively as I wish them to be, I would be looking atthem always, and not caring for any woman: and no woman anywhere wouldhave the power to move me as your beauty moves me now, and I would notbe valuing you the worth of an old onion."

  "That is not the truth," says Freydis, angrily, "for the man who issatisfied with the figure he has made is as great a fool about women asany other man. And who are you to be forbidding me anything?"

  "I would have you remember," said Manuel, very masterfully, "that theyare my images, to do with as I wish. Also I would have you rememberthat, whatever you may pretend to be in Audela, here I am stronger thanyou."

  Now the proud woman laughed. Defiantly she touched the nearest image,with formal ancient gestures, and you could see the black stone Schamirtaking on the colors of an opal. Under her touch the clay image whichhad the look of Alianora shivered, and drew sobbing breath. The imagerose, a living creature that was far more beautiful than human kind, andit regarded Manuel scornfully. Then it passed limping from theenclosure: and Manuel sighed.

  "That is a strong magic," said Manuel: "and this is almost exactly theadmirable and significant figure that I desired to make in the world.But, as I now perceive too late, I fashioned the legs of this figureunevenly, and the joy I have in its life is less than the shame that Itake from its limping."

  "Such magic is a trifle," Freydis replied, "although it is the onlymagic I can perform in an enclosure of buttered willow wands. Now, then,you see for yourself that I am not going to take orders from you. So thefigure you have made, will you or nil you, must limp about in all men'ssight, for not more than a few centuries, to be sure, but long enough toprove that I am not going to be dictated to."

  "I do not greatly care, O fairest and most shrewd of enemies. A half-hoursince, it seemed to me an important matter to wrest from you this secretof giving life to images. Now I have seen the miracle; I know that forthe man who has your favor it is possible to become as a god, creatinglife, and creating lovelier living beings than any god creates, andbeings which live longer, too: and even so, it is not of these thingsthat I am really thinking, but only of your eyes."

  "Why, do you like my eyes!" says Freydis,--"you, who if once you couldmake living images would never be caring about any woman any more?"

  But Manuel told her wherein her eyes were different from the eyes of anyother person, and more dangerous, and she listened, willingly enough,for Freydis was not a human woman. Thereafter it appeared that agrieving and a great trouble of mind had come upon Manuel because of theloveliness of Freydis, for he made this complaint:

  "There is much loss in the world, where men war ceaselessly with sorrow,and time like a strong thief strips all men of all they prize. Yet whenthe emperor is beaten in battle and his broad lands are lost, he,shrugging, says, 'In the next battle I may conquer.' And when thebearded merchant's ship is lost at sea, he says, 'The next voyage,belike, will be prosperous.' Even when the life of an old beggar departsfrom him in a ditch, he says, 'I trust to be to-morrow a glad youngseraph in paradise.' Thus hope serves as a cordial for every hurt: butfor him who had beheld the loveliness of Freydis there is no hope atall.

  "For, in comparison with that alien clear beauty, there is no beauty inthis world. He that has beheld the loveliness of Freydis must gohenceforward as a hungry person, because of troubling memories: and hisfellows deride him enviously. All the world is fretted by his folly,knowing that his faith in the world's might is no longer firm-set, andthat he aspires to what is beyond the world's giving. In his heart hebelittles the strong stupid lords of earth; and they, being strong, planvengeance, the while that in a corner he makes images to commemoratewhat is lost: and so for him who has beheld the loveliness of Freydisthere is no hope at all.

  "He that has willed to look upon Queen Freydis does not dread to consortwith serpents nor with swine; he faces the mirror wherein a man beholdshimself without self-deceiving; he views the blood that drips from hissoiled hands, and knows that this, too, was needed: yet these enduringspurchase but one hour. The hour passes, and therewith passes alsoFreydis, the high Queen. Only the memory of her hour remains, like acruel gadfly, for which the crazed beholder of Queen Freydis must builda lodging in his images, madly endeavoring to commingle memories withwet mud: and so for him who has beheld the loveliness of Freydis thereis no hope at all."

  Freydis heard him through, considerately. "But I wonder to how manyother women you have talked such nonsense about beauty and despair andeternity," said Freydis, "and they very probably liking to hear it, thepoor fools! And I wonder how you can expect me to believe you, when youpretend to think me all these fine things, and still keep me penned inthis enclosure like an old vicious cow."

  "No, that is not the way it is any longer. For now the figure that Ihave made in the world, and all else that is in the world, and all thatis anywhere without this enclosure of buttered willow wands, meannothing to me, and there is no meaning in anything save in theloveliness of Freydis."

  Dom Manuel went to the door of the enclosure then to the windows,sweeping away the gilded tonthecs and the shining spaks, and removingfrom the copper nails the horseshoes that had been cast by Mohammed'smare and Hrimfaxi and Balaam's ass and Pegasus. "You were within mypower. Now I destroy that power, and therewith myself. Now is the placeunguarded, and all your servitors are free to enter, and all yourterrors are untrammeled, to be loosed against me, who have no longeranything to dread. For I love you with such mortal love as valuesnothing else beside its desire, and you care nothing for me."

  After a little while of looking she sighed, and said uneasily: "It isthe foolish deed of a true lover. And, really, I do like you, rather.But, Manuel, I do not know what to do next! Never at any time has thisthing happened before, so that all my garnered wisdom is of no usewhatever. Nobody anywhere has ever dared to snap his fingers at the fellpower of Freydis as you are doing, far less has anybody ever dared to bemaking eyes at her. Besides, I do not wish to consume you withlightnings, and to smite you with insanity appears so unnecessary."

  "I love you," Manuel said, "and your heart is hard, and your beauty isbeyond the thinking of man, and your will is neither to loose nor tobind. In a predicament so unexampled, how can it at all matter to mewhatever you may elect to do?"

  "Then certainly I shall not waste any of my fine terrors on you!" saidFreydis, with a vexed tossing of her head. "Nor have I any more time towaste upon you either, for presently the Moon-Children will be comingback to their places: and before the hour is out wherein the moon staysvoid and powerless I must return to my own kingdom, whither you may notfollow, to provoke me with any more of your nonsense. And then you willbe properly sorry, I dare say, for you will De remembering me always,and there will be only human women to divert you, and they are poorcreatures."

  Freydis went again to the mirror, and she meditated there. "Yes, youwill be remembering me with my hair in these awful plaits, and that is apity, but still you will remember me always. And when you make imagesthey will be images of me. No, but I cannot have you making any moreoutrageous parodies like astonished corpses, and people everywherelaughing at Queen Freydis!"

  She took up the magical pen, laid ready as Helmas had directed, and shewrote with this gryphon's feather. "So here is the recipe for the Tuylaincantation with which to give life to your images
. It may comfort you alittle to perform that silly magic. It, anyhow, will prevent suchgood-for-nothing minxes as may have no more intelligence than to takeyou seriously, from putting on too many airs and graces around theimages which you will make of me with my hair done so veryunbecomingly."

  "Nothing can ever comfort me, fair enemy, when you have gone away," saidManuel.

  But he took the parchment.