The Romance of Golden Star ...Griffith, George Chetwynd
Science
The Romance of Golden Star ...
Griffith, George Chetwynd
Fantasy fiction
Half frightened and half wondering, she submitted to my will and allowed
me to seat her in the chair which no woman had ever sat in before. Then
I took her hand, and, dropping on one knee on the upper step, I said,--
'Joyful Star has taken one queen from me, and she alone can give me
another to fill her place. She is sitting where the great Yupanqui sat
when he ruled all the land from north to south, and from the eastern
mountains to the sea, and ere long I too shall reign, sole and
undisputed lord, over a realm wider even than that. Many things have
been done that Joyful Star knows not of since I came back to my country
and my people. Through all the Land of the Four Regions the word has
gone forth, with the swiftness of thought, that the Son of the Sun has
returned, and that the heir of the divine Manco has come to deliver his
children from bondage.[B]
'Everywhere the tidings have been received with joy, and the people are
longing to return to the allegiance of their fathers, and tread their
oppressors under foot. Before many days civil war will be raging
throughout the lands of the south, and I have but to set flowing that
golden stream, one of whose many sources is here, and say, "Here is gold
and silver in plenty for all who will fight under the Rainbow Banner,"
and I shall have armies and fleets to do what I will with, and the sway
of my sceptre shall reach from north to south and sea to sea.
'This I shall do because of my oath; but I have brought Joyful Star here
to tell her, in the most sacred place that is left in the Land of the
Four Regions, that I shall also do it so that she, if she will, may be
queen where I am king, and sit beside me on my throne, and make my
empire a paradise by the brightness and the sweetness of her presence. I
cannot forget, as she bade me do--for the words that I said in the heat
of my passion are true--for I love you, Joyful Star, and all that I
have or shall ever have on earth will be worthless to me unless you take
it as a gift from my hands. Nay, do not speak, for now I seek no answer,
whether good or evil. I have brought you here that I, as a king, might
kneel at the feet of her whom I would win for my queen, and from now
until I sit in the sight of all the world on the throne of the Four
Regions no other words of love shall pass my lips. So you shall have
many days to ponder what I have said, and to ask your own heart whether
it will say "yes" or "no" to me when I stretch out my hand from my
throne and ask you to come and sit beside me and rule my people with
me.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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