The Story of the Amulet E. Nesbit (the best books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: E. Nesbit
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âAnd thatâs all right,â said the Psammead, breaking a breathless silence.
âYes,â said Anthea, âand weâve got our heartsâ desire. Father and Mother and The Lamb are coming home today.â
âBut what about me?â said Rekh-marÄ.
âWhat is your heartâs desire?â Anthea asked.
âGreat and deep learning,â said the Priest, without a momentâs hesitation. âA learning greater and deeper than that of any man of my land and my time. But learning too great is useless. If I go back to my own land and my own age, who will believe my tales of what I have seen in the future? Let me stay here, be the great knower of all that has been, in that our time, so living to me, so old to you, about which your learned men speculate unceasingly, and often, he tells me, vainly.â
âIf I were you,â said the Psammead, âI should ask the Amulet about that. Itâs a dangerous thing, trying to live in a time thatâs not your own. You canât breathe an air thatâs thousands of centuries ahead of your lungs without feeling the effects of it, sooner or later. Prepare the mystic circle and consult the Amulet.â
âOh, what a dream!â cried the learned gentleman. âDear children, if you love meâ âand I think you do, in dreams and out of themâ âprepare the mystic circle and consult the Amulet!â
They did. As once before, when the sun had shone in August splendour, they crouched in a circle on the floor. Now the air outside was thick and yellow with the fog that by some strange decree always attends the Cattle Show week. And in the street costers were shouting. âUr Hekau Setcheh,â Jane said the Name of Power. And instantly the light went out, and all the sounds went out too, so that there was a silence and a darkness, both deeper than any darkness or silence that you have ever even dreamed of imagining. It was like being deaf or blind, only darker and quieter even than that.
Then out of that vast darkness and silence came a light and a voice. The light was too faint to see anything by, and the voice was too small for you to hear what it said. But the light and the voice grew. And the light was the light that no man may look on and live, and the voice was the sweetest and most terrible voice in the world. The children cast down their eyes. And so did everyone.
âI speak,â said the voice. âWhat is it that you would hear?â
There was a pause. Everyone was afraid to speak.
âWhat are we to do about Rekh-marÄ?â said Robert suddenly and abruptly. âShall he go back through the Amulet to his own time, orâ ââ
âNo one can pass through the Amulet now,â said the beautiful, terrible voice, âto any land or any time. Only when it was imperfect could such things be. But men may pass through the perfect charm to the perfect union, which is not of time or space.â
âWould you be so very kind,â said Anthea tremulously, âas to speak so that we can understand you? The Psammead said something about Rekh-marÄ not being able to live here, and if he canât get backâ ââ She stopped, her heart was beating desperately in her throat, as it seemed.
âNobody can continue to live in a land and in a time not appointed,â said the voice of glorious sweetness. âBut a soul may live, if in that other time and land there be found a soul so akin to it as to offer it refuge, in the body of that land and time, that thus they two may be one soul in one body.â
The children exchanged discouraged glances. But the eyes of Rekh-marÄ and the learned gentleman met, and were kind to each other, and promised each other many things, secret and sacred and very beautiful.
Anthea saw the look.
âOh, but,â she said, without at all meaning to say it, âdear Jimmyâs soul isnât at all like Rekh-marÄâs. Iâm certain it isnât. I donât want to be rude, but it isnât, you know. Dear Jimmyâs soul is as good as gold, andâ ââ
âNothing that is not good can pass beneath the double arch of my perfect Amulet,â said the voice. âIf both are willing, say the word of Power, and let the two souls become one forever and ever more.â
âShall I?â asked Jane.
âYes.â
âYes.â
The voices were those of the Egyptian Priest and the learned gentleman, and the voices were eager, alive, thrilled with hope and the desire of great things.
So Jane took the Amulet from Robert and held it up between the two men, and said, for the last time, the word of Power.
âUr Hekau Setcheh.â
The perfect Amulet grew into a double arch; the two arches leaned to each other making a great A.
âA stands for Amen,â whispered Jane; âwhat he was a priest of.â
âHush!â breathed Anthea.
The great double arch glowed in and through the green light that had been there since the Name of Power had first been spokenâ âit glowed with a light more bright yet more soft than the other lightâ âa glory and splendour and sweetness unspeakable.
âCome!â cried Rekh-marÄ, holding out his hands.
âCome!â cried the learned gentleman, and he also held out his hands.
Each moved forward under the glowing, glorious arch of the perfect Amulet.
Then Rekh-marÄ quavered and shook, and as steel is drawn to a magnet he was drawn, under the arch of magic, nearer and nearer to the learned gentleman. And, as one drop of water mingles with another, when the window-glass is rain-wrinkled, as one quicksilver bead is drawn to another quicksilver bead, Rekh-marÄ, Divine Father
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