The Romance of Golden Star ...Griffith, George Chetwynd
Science
The Romance of Golden Star ...
Griffith, George Chetwynd
Fantasy fiction
'Is not this a fitting resting-place even for the daughter of kings? Are
not the stars bright in the heavens and on the bosom of the lake? Are
not the mountains great, and strong, and silent? Do they not guard her
couch well, and does not the snowy peak of Umantai yonder point the
straight way to the Mansions of the Sun, where the soul of Golden Star
is even now waiting for the arts of your brother to call it back to
earth as he called mine?'
'Yes,' she said, looking about her, first at the stars and then at the
vast shapes of the mountains which loomed huge and dim on every side.
'Yes, Vilcaroya, it is a good place for sleep, but--is not the world
beyond a good place to wake in? Have _you_ not found it so?'
I caught the gleam of her eyes in the starlight as she looked towards me
saying this, and, by the glory of the Sun, had we stood alone where we
were, I might have forgotten all save the knowledge that I was the
lawful lord of all this land, and that she was there in the midst of it
with me. For the instant I had gone back to my old life, with all its
old-world thoughts and customs, and then, before I could answer her, my
dreaming soul was called back to the present by the cold, quiet voice of
her brother saying,--
'I don't think that very many would find the world an unpleasant place
to wake in, either for the first or second time, if they could also wake
up lord of illimitable treasures as Vilcaroya here has done. But come,
Your Highness, and you, professor, it is getting late. Don't you think
it is time to be thinking about camping?'
The matter-of-fact words scattered my dreams in an instant, and I woke
from them into the present. I bade Tupac have the animals tethered and
fed, and the tents we had brought with us pitched in the most sheltered
place he could find; and while they were doing this, and Djama and the
others were busy seeing that the work was done to their satisfaction, I
went to Ruth and said--my words, which I strove so hard to keep steady,
trembling with I know not how many mingled passions,--
'Will Joyful Star come with me and see the place where her sister and
mine is lying, waiting to come forth and greet her?'
'Your sister, Vilcaroya?' she said, turning her face up to me so that
the starlight shone upon its fairness and lost itself in the lustrous
depths of her eyes. 'Do you mean your sister only--not--your--'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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