Transcriber's notes.
This etext was produced from Fantasy Book Vol. 1, No. 3 1948.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyrighton this publication was renewed.
A number of typographical errors found in the original text have beencorrected in this version. A list of these errors is found at the endof this book.
THE GIFTS OF ASTI
by
ANDREW NORTH
She was the guardian of the worlds, but HER world was dead.
Even here, on the black terrace before the forgotten mountain retreat ofAsti, it was possible to smell the dank stench of burning Memphir, toimagine that the dawn wind bore upward from the pillaged city the fainttortured cries of those whom the barbarians of Klem hunted to theirprolonged death. Indeed it was time to leave—
Varta, last of the virgin Maidens of Asti, shivered. The scaled andwattled creature who crouched beside her thigh turned his reptilian headso that golden eyes met the aquamarine ones set slantingly at a faintlyprovocative angle in her smooth ivory face.
"We go—?"
She nodded in answer to that unvoiced question Lur had sent into herbrain, and turned toward the dark cavern which was the mouth of Asti'slast dwelling place. Once, more than a thousand years before when thewalls of Memphir were young, Asti had lived among men below. But in therichness and softness which was trading Memphir, empire of empires, Astifound no place. So He and those who served Him had withdrawn to thismountain outcrop. And she, Varta, was the last, the very last to bowknee at Asti's shrine and raise her voice in the dawn hymn—for Lur, aswere all his race, was mute.
Even the loot of Memphir would not sate the shaggy headed warriors whohad stormed her gates this day. The stairway to Asti's Temple was plainenough to see and there would be those to essay the steep climb hopingto find a treasure which did not exist. For Asti was an austere God,delighting in plain walls and bare altars. His last priest had lain inthe grave niches these three years, there would be none to hold thatgate against intruders.
Varta passed between tall, uncarved pillars, Lur padding beside her, hisspine mane erect, the talons on his forefeet clicking on the stone insteady rhythm. So they came into the innermost shrine of Asti and thereVarta made graceful obeisance to the great cowled and robed figure whichsat enthroned, its hidden eyes focused upon its own outstretched hand.
And above the flattened palm of that wide hand hung suspended in spacethe round orange-red sun ball which was twin to the sun that lightedErb. Around the miniature sun swung in their orbits the four worlds ofthe system, each obeying the laws of space, even as did the planets theyrepresented.
"Memphir has fallen," Varta's voice sounded rusty in her own ears. Shehad spoken so seldom during the last lonely months. "Evil has risen tooverwhelm our world, even as it was prophesied in Your Revelations, O,Ruler of Worlds and Maker of Destiny. Therefore, obeying the order givenof old, I would depart from this, Thy house. Suffer me now to fulfillthe Law—"
Three times she prostrated her slim body on the stones at the foot ofAsti's judgment chair. Then she arose and, with the confidence of achild in its father, she laid her hand palm upward upon the outstretchedhand of Asti. Beneath her flesh the stone was not cold and hard, butseemed to have an inner heat, even as might a human hand. For a longmoment she stood so and then she raised her hand slowly, carefully, asif within its slight hollow she cupped something precious.
...