The Fallen Star | Page 8

wish?"
"They can; let us meet to-morrow." Thus saying, Morven passed into the forest.
The next day, at noon, they met again.
"I have consulted the gods of night, and they have given me the power that I prayed for, but on one condition."
"Name it."
"That thou sacrifice thy sister on their altars thou must build up a heap of stones, and take thy sister into the wood, and lay her on the pile, and plunge thy sword into her heart; so only shalt then reign."
The prince shuddered, and started to his feet, and shook his spear at the pale front of Morven.
"Tremble," said the son of Osslah, with a loud voice. "Hark to the gods, who threaten thee with death, that thou hast dared to lift thine arm against their servant!"
As he spoke, the thunder rolled above; for one of the frequent storms of the early summer was about to break.
The spear dropped from the prince's hand; he sat down and cast his eyes on the ground.
"Wilt thou do the bidding of the stars, and reign?" said Morven.
"I will!" cried Siror, with a desperate voice.
"This evening, then, when the sun sets, thou wilt lead her hither, alone; I may not attend thee. Now, let us pile the stones."
Silently the huntsman bent his vast strength to the fragments of rock that Morven pointed to him, and they built the altar, and went their way.
And beautiful is the dying of the great sum when the last song of the birds fades into the lap of silence; when the islands of the cloud are bathed in light, and the first star springs up over the grave of day.
"Whither leadest thou my steps, my brother?" said Gina; "and why doth thy lip quiver? and why dost thou tarn away thy face?"
"Is not the forest beautiful; doth it not tempt us forth, my sister?"
"And wherefore are those heaps of stone piled together?"
"Let others answer; I piled them not."
"Thou tremblest brother: we will return."
"Not so; by those stones is a bird that my shaft pierced to-day; a bird of beautiful plumage that I slew for thee."
"We are by the pile: where hast thou laid the bird?"
"Here!" cried Siror; and he seized the maiden in his arms, and, casting her on the rude altar, he drew forth his sword to smite her to the heart.
Right over the stones rose a giant oak, the growth of immemorial ages; and from the oak, or from the heavens; broke forth a loud and solemn voice:
"Strike not, son of kings! the stars forbear their own: the maiden thou shalt not slay; yet shalt thou reign over the race of Oestrich; and thou shall give Orna as a bride to the favorite of the stars. Arise, and go thy way!"
The voice ceased: the terror of Orna had overpowered for a time the springs of life; and Siror bore her home through the wood in his strong arms.
"Alas!" said Morven, when, at the next day, he again met the aspiring prince; "alas! the stars have ordained me a lot which my heart desires not; for I, lonely of life, and crippled of shape, am insensible to the fires of love; and ever, as thou and thy tribe know, I have shunned the eyes of women, for the maidens laughed at my halting step and my sullen features; and so in my youth I learned betimes to banish all thoughts of love. But since they told me (as they declared to _thee_), that only through that marriage, thou, O beloved prince! canst obtain thy fatter's plumed crown, I yield me to their will."
"But," said the prince, "not until I am king can I give thee my sister in marriage; for thou knowest that my sire would smite me to the dust, if I asked him to give the flower of our race to the son of the herdsman Osslah."
"Thou speakest the words of truth. Go home and fear not: but, when thou art king, the sacrifice must be made, and Orna mine. Alas! how can I dare to lift my eyes to her! But so ordain the dread kings of the night!--Who shall gainsay their word?"
"The day that sees me king, sees Orna thine," answered the prince.
Morven walked forth, as was his wont, alone; and he said to himself, "the king is old, yet may he live long between me and mine hope!" and he began to cast in his mind how he might shorten the time.
Thus absorbed, he wandered on so unheedingly, that night advanced, and he had lost his path among the thick woods, and knew not how to regain his home; so he lay down quietly beneath a tree, and rested till day dawned.
Then hunger came upon him and he searched among the bushes for such simple roots as those with which, for he