Eve of the Serpent

by Jon Jacks

  ‘Well, if that were true, I’d breathe life into this for you right now,’ he said, turning to look at the little clay fox. He turned back, smiling at Tamesis. ‘Though, I’m not sure your own little fox here would appreciate having a rival for your affections.’

  ‘It’s not possible, then?’ Prytani couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice. She had hoped that some elements of the tale were true. ‘To give life to something made of clay?’

  The boy shook his head sadly.

  ‘I doubt it; not here on Earth, anyway.’

  He stared intently into her eyes.

  ‘We can’t just hope to overrule or avoid all the problems the Earth sets us, can we?’

  It dawned on Prytani that she would be returning to the stockade after all.

  Instinctively, she knew that she’d been brought here by forces other that Nechtan’s.

  She had a role to play here.

  Whatever that role was, she wasn’t sure.

  But one thing she did know – it wasn’t complete just yet.

  *

  Chapter 31

  Re-entering the stockade, Prytani headed straight for Nechtan’s room.

  She wanted to have a look at these ancient texts herself, to see if there was anything Tamesis might have missed.

  Well, there were so many texts in there, anyone could overlook an important piece of information.

  ‘There are so many intrusions from your side already!’

  Prytani stopped at the door to the room: Nechtan was already in there, talking to someone. Cructan? Was he talking to his magpie, like she frequently talked to Tamesis?

  ‘How many times must I reassure you that the payment is already in hand?’

  The door was open. Prytani peered through the crack formed between the hinged edge of the door and its frame.

  She almost jumped back in surprise, almost made a noise alerting them to her presence.

  Nechtan was talking to Cuamena!

  He was conversing with the dead!

  Strangely, Cructan wasn’t squawking wildly, as she’d expect. That could only mean one thing: Nechtan wasn’t just visiting the tower, he was also making regular trips into the Dead Realms.

  Cuamena mumbled a gruff reply that Prytani couldn’t hear clearly enough to understand. It sounded like a promise that ‘we won’t let the girl escape, as agreed.’

  So, it was fortunate that she hadn’t tried to leave the stockade after all. Nechtan had made a bargain with the dead, entrapping her here.

  ‘Soon I’ll have the means to make this even greater crown mine!’ Nechtan exulted. ‘And once crowned, I’ll lay siege to that damn tower! And when I take it, what’s to stop me then from reaching the very top?’

  Once again, Cuamena’s voice wasn’t fully audible. From his tone alone, however, Prytani detected more than a hint of doubt.

  He rose to leave, made his way not towards the door but just off to one side of the window. Bending and taking hold of a metal handle sunk into the wooden floor, he pulled up a trapdoor.

  As he disappeared into the hole in the ground, Cuamena could have been descending into his own grave.

  He pulled the trapdoor shut after him. Quickly, Nechtan covered it by dragging a heavy chest back into its original place below the window.

  Just as animatedly, Nechtan lifted and threw open the chest’s lid. Reaching in, he withdrew a stoppered ceramic jar, a small ivory flask.

  He had his back to Prytani, and her view was limited by the narrowness of the crack she was peering through. Yet he seemed to open the jar, pour its contents into the flask.

  Putting the stopper in the jar once more, but not bothering to close the chest’s lid, Nechtan strode over to his bed.

  Sitting on the edge of his bed, he reverently raised the flask before him.

  ‘You shall not surely die!’ he breathed blissfully.

  He drank from the flask, licked his lips, placed the flask on a nearby table overflowing with ancient texts and scrolls.

  He lay back on his bed.

  Then he slipped into a trance, beginning his journey into the otherworld.

  *

  Once again, Prytani appeared on the stairs rather than in the lady’s room.

  Once again, she found herself standing by the narrow crack of an open door, eavesdropping on Nechtan.

  This time, however, it wasn’t Nechtan who was present. It was Cructan, his magpie.

  This time, too, it wasn’t Nechtan who was speaking. It was the lady.

  Cructan was listening patiently, enraptured. His head was cocked, a beady, probing eye focused hungrily on the lady.

  No wonder: Lady Olwen was telling him how he could achieve the Halo Crown.

  She told him how to summon the guardian.

  And how to respond to his strange appearance.

  She told him the questions the guardian would ask.

  And how he, Nechtan, should answer.

  She told him that immortality would be his.

  And how it would be even more remarkable than he presumed.

  Prytani was shocked that the lady was telling Nechtan all this.

  Was this the greater crown Nechtan had spoken to Cuamena about? The one that would enable him to lay siege to and capture this very tower?

  The lady had finished speaking. She smiled warmly at Cructan, turned back to her work on the tapestries.

  With a dull flap of his wings, Cructan rose into the air. Whirling in the air with a dark flutter of wings, he turned towards the door, the steps where Tamesis was still in hiding. He swooped low over her, didn’t see her, was oblivious to her – and then, fading, he vanished.

  Tamesis slipped quietly into the room.

  ‘Ah, hello little fox.’

  The lady didn’t turn away from her work, her deft handling of the threads, the coming together of the most gorgeous scenes.

  ‘What did you think of our conversation, between your wizard and I?’

  ‘You told him how to achieve the Halo Crown? You must know he means to use it to lay siege to you?’

  ‘Of course.’

  The lady nodded, turned around to face Tamesis.

  ‘It needed to be done. Trust my judgement on this, little fox.’

  ‘How did he reach here so quickly? Your room, I mean. He was struggling to reach higher when we saw him far below. Was it the serpent potion?’

  The lady nodded again.

  ‘Though, you do realise, he wasn’t prepared to take it until he’d got you to try it?’

  ‘It was dangerous?’ Then, thinking of how the pills had only made her feel confused, she added, ‘It had a different effect on him.’

  ‘He gave you a dried version, rather than the potion. Plus, didn’t I already say you don’t need it?’

  ‘Will he come again, now he knows he can?’

  ‘He’s expecting to, but he won’t. He needed to feel that he’d achieved something by coming here, so I also told him of another tale: The White Tiger, Green Dragon, and Seven Star Powder.’

  ‘Do I need to know that tale?’

  ‘Of course not! What you need to know is more of what was happening on Moon Mountain.’

  ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom?’

  ‘Seven giants, each topped with globes representing the planets; but not the seven you might immediately think of.’

  Fortunately for Prytani, she didn’t have to try and imagine what these pillars might have looked like. With a wave of her hands, a drawing in of energy, of the fluctuations of life, the lady created them around the little vixen.

  ‘On the way to the higher shrine, an aspirant passes through these earth-bound representations, the first set out like the five dots on a die, with Ninurta, Enlil, Gugalanna, Enki – or Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury – at the corners, the Sun Utu at its heart. Next come the two positions of Inanna, the Evening and Morning Stars of Venus, or Solomon’s Jachin – unity, judgement – and Boaz – redemption, mercy.’

  ‘No Moon?’
/>
  ‘No Moon: not yet, anyway. These seven giants act as guides, leading us to the Moon in its own two phases. Remember how Solomon’s columns spiralled upwards, like rising serpents? Well, the higher shrine has an unusual socket at its centre, cut to a hand’s depth. What could it be for, do you think?’

  Prytani frowned in puzzlement.

  ‘Think of the Sabean stone,’ the lady offered helpfully. ‘Or of the discs, and their portrayal of a lady standing on a mountain top.’

  ‘An Asherah pole?’

  ‘The Tree of Life: topped with a crescent and full moon, two serpents coiled around it, crossing each other seven times along its spine. Place this in the shrine’s socket, look back towards the seven giants: and the serpents show us the routes to take.’

  As the lady spoke, the images of the pillars vanished to be replaced by glowing, planetary orbs. Overlaying these flaming spheres were two writhing serpents, one more prominent than the other.

  ‘First, with Earth as our foundation, we must desire change and follow the path of the Evening Star; dying to the world, lamenting our condition. Descending to the Netherworld of Mars, we realise the world’s limits and restrictions.’

  The fiercely blazing orb representing the Sun, originally lying at a crossing point of the two serpents, moved as if traversing the Great Ocean, first setting then dying as it slipped into the underworld.

  ‘Our awakening consciousness, like the Sun, becomes our judge, decreeing our fate yet also giving us the hope helping us move onto the honesty of the Sun of the Night, Saturn, and foresight of our destiny.’

  Saturn’s revolving rings shivered, flowed, and changed into the weathered yet wise face of an old man, perhaps a shaman or a hermit. This itself changed into the face of an eagle that, spreading, growing, became an eagle in flight: an eagle that, with a firm flap of its vast wings, flew towards and through the windows, heading for an earthshine moon suddenly illuminating the entire room in its bright gaze.

  ‘Beyond all these,’ the lady continued, ‘is the rising of the Crescent Moon and victory over the self.’

  The glow of the first serpent faded even as the second coiling serpent brightened and dazzled. The Moon outside darkened, vanished. As before (though this had only just dawned on Prytani), there was just the emptiness of a starless night sky.

  ‘We start again from Earth – where else? – but now from a position of strength in our desire for purification.’

  There had been a slight change to the positions where the coiling serpents crossed each other, for these points now glowed with colours similar to those of the planets, with Saturn at the base.

  ‘The glory of withstanding temptations, the Morning Star, leads us up to the intelligence of Mercury and a sensible response to life’s trials.

  On the move again, ascending from its night’s sojourn in the netherworld, the Sun rose, its brilliance like an actual dawn.

  ‘The Sun, again, this time bringing clarity and insight, instilling the compassion and magnanimity leading to Jupiter’s wise, merciful understanding of man's purpose.’

  This time the light beyond the window was an intense milky white, forcing Prytani to shield her eyes from the pain of looking directly at it.

  ‘Behold, little fox, the otherwise Invisible Queen of Heaven: the ultimate wisdom of accepting her will.’

  Thankfully, the brilliant light was instantly snuffed out.

  Outside, it was now just a typical night sky.

  *

  Chapter 32

  The hunters were returning with all manner of game: hare, deer, rabbit, boar, pike, trout, duck, pheasant. Local farmers too were bringing in their own livestock to be slaughtered: oxen, cows, geese, sheep. Blood ran everywhere into the stockade’s floor of dust and mud. A terrified bleating, lowing and cackling flowed everywhere about the village.

  Other men were dragging in the great logs that would be needed for the fires, the ones that would cook all the food required for the wedding, the ones that would blaze away in and heat the great hall. The women who weren’t sweating over the roasting cooking fires were dressing everything they could in boughs burgeoning with blossom or berries, adding bright flowers from the fields to their decorations.

  The yard was incredibly busy, the local lords and ladies arriving with their own retinues, all of whom had to be provided with lodgings befitting their station for the night. Some of the villagers had been moved out of the better homes, moving in for a while with their neighbours.

  Prytani wasn’t allowed to take any part in the preparations.

  She didn’t know anyone in the village. Wasn’t really regarded as being a part of it.

  Besides, Nechtan had other plans for her.

  ‘Tonight,’ he declared excitedly, ‘I need you to rise even higher than you have ever risen before!’

  Before her, on the table he’d seated her at, he placed the jar containing the potion, the ivory flask he’d used to drink it.

  ‘What is it?’ Prytani asked innocently, hoping to give the impression that this was the very first time she’d ever seen these objects. ‘It’s not like those pills you gave me, is it? They only confused me: they didn’t help.’

  With a dismissive wave of a hand, as if casting the pills aside, Nechtan grimaced scornfully.

  ‘Pah!’ he said. ‘Those were a trial: a dried version of this, the true potion, which I’d hoped I could carry around with me!’

  ‘They’d never been used before?’ Prytani pretended to be aghast.

  Nechtan waved his hand dismissively once more.

  ‘They were safe, based on the formulae of similar pills that have been used in the past! I don’t want to kill you girl! Not as long as you’re of use to me anyway!’

  He pushed the jar and flask closer towards her.

  ‘This works! I’ve tried it myself!’

  He made no attempt to hide his excitement, his satisfaction – his ecstasy.

  ‘I rose higher than ever before! I met the lady myself last night.’

  He leant across the table, intently staring into her eyes, challenging her to doubt him.

  ‘I don’t need you for that anymore!’

  His glower became a triumphant gaze, his eyes sparkling with exultation.

  ‘Then I can leave?’ Prytani kept her own expression firmly under control.

  Tamesis, however, recognising Prytani’s relieved, happy tone, glanced up. What passes for a smile on a fox lighted up her face.

  Nechtan furiously glared at Prytani once more. He pushed the jar and flask even closer towards her, pushing them hard into her chest.

  ‘I’ve made the first accession!’ His lips formed into a snarl. ‘I’ve talked, at last, with the lady, with Olwen of the Six Hands. But I’m not one of those stupid fools who thinks that’s it: that they can’t rise any higher! I know there’s a second, more important ascension. One in which we rise to have conversations with the gods themselves! And how long will it be before I’m ready for that? Years maybe, if I’m lucky. But you, you girl: you could achieve this. You can light the way for me, tell me what to expect, any tricks I might fall for!’

  Prytani pushed the potion jar and flask farther away from her with a disgusted grimace.

  ‘It’s a potion made of serpent venom: that’s poison, not potion.’

  Tamesis backed away a little, a sure sign to Prytani that she’d sensed her own anxiety.

  Nechtan pushed the potion hard into her chest, held it there forcibly.

  ‘You flatter yourself you’ve reached the pinnacle of any rising, girl!’ Nechtan growled furiously. ‘You neither seem to realise your full capability, nor your own limits! The power of this serpent potion will make up for your failings. Let me tell you a tale the lady herself told me.’

  *

  Chapter 33

  The White Tiger, Green Dragon, and Seven Star Powder

  A certain Chen Yongbo obtained a method for making Seven Star Powder and, taking it, he vanished within the cycle of one moo
n.

  Discovering this Seven Star Powder, Chen’s eleven-year-old-son also took it; and he also vanished within the cycle of one moon.

  It was said of this method of producing Seven Star Powder that anyone taking it would attain transcendence – and then depart.

  So, what do we now know of this method?

  Mostly, the method seems lost to us.

  However, the Zhuangzi, Huainunzi, and Liezi texts all tell us that the process includes seven steps of cosmic significance. More importantly still, we know that Zhang Daoling had the face of a youth at sixty!

  How did he achieve this?

  First, he captured and placed in a box venomous creatures such as the snake, scorpion centipede, spider, and toad, compelling them to yield their venom to aid in the formation of the elixir of life.

  When a white tiger appeared before him, carrying a scroll of sacred scripture in its mouth, he left his high post at the Emperor’s court to live in a cave. It was here, much later, that he heard the cry of the white crane; and he knew he would soon attain enlightenment.

  A year later, when stoking the fires of the furnace incubating the elixir, the cavern was illuminated with a shaft of red light.

  A year later still, a white tiger and a green dragon came to sit by the cauldron and guard the elixir.

  A year after that, the elixir was completed.

  Zhang Daoling, however, didn’t take the elixir. He didn’t think he was worthy

  Now the Twelve Jade Maidens – the six Jia and the six Ding spirits – are the divine women who will come to serve you and inform you of all matters under Heaven. And it was the Jade Maidens of Purity and Harmony who taught Zhang Daoling how to exhale and inhale the pure and harmonious Vital Breath, so that after practising for one thousand days, he saw the bodily elements allowing him to invoke the deities.

  In this way, Zhang Daoling defeated all the demons of the heavens.

  And at the age of one hundred and twenty three, on swallowing the pill of immortality, he ascended to the heavens.

  *

  Chapter 34

  By the time all the lords and ladies had moved into the great hall to take part in the wedding celebrations and feast, most people were already drunk, singing songs of heroism, of great battles, of love and loss.