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The SUN KING

By GASTON DERREAUX


 The people of Par'si'ya forgot their God, and
 worshipped only murder, and sin. But then the
 virgin Too-che gave birth to a male child....


Before the flood, even before Egypt's greatness, the world was divided
into three main countries, named Jaffeth, Shem and Arabin'ya. There were
other less populated lands and places; Uropa in the west, Heleste in the
north, and the two great lands of the far west, called North and South
Guatama.

Now, at the juncture of the borders of the three greatest countries, lay
a mighty city, named Oas. It was the capital city of the Arabin'yan
nation called Par'si'ya.

Its Temple of Skulls was the greatest known to any traveler, but the
temples built to the god, Mazda, and his son, Ihua'Mazda, were empty and
unadorned--the people had forgotten God.

So-qi, King of Oas, sent out his armies throughout Jaffeth (China),
conquering and slaying, bringing back ever more skulls for the Golgotha
temples, more gold and more slaves for the enriching of King So-qi. His
harem was the greatest of buildings of the mighty city, and his wives
beyond man's ability to count.

       *       *       *       *       *

Too-che was one of the finest ornaments of the city of Oas. Too-che was
slim, her breasts were two mounds of magic, her eyes were pools of
mystic green depths, her legs were subtle, sinuous beauty.

But Too-che was a virgin, and in all that city of a million sinful
souls, she alone held aloof from the sins of the flesh.

[Illustration: When the soldiers of the city Oas saw that their King had
not the backbone to enforce his own decree when it hurt himself, they
one and all took up stones, and they stoned King So-qi to death.]

Which was very strange, for Too-che became big with child, though she
had not been with a man!

Which came to the ears of So-qi, upon his great black throne supported
on a tower of human skulls, in his palace of Gran, across from the great
Golgotha, which was built entirely of human skulls--the skulls of people
conquered by the armies of Par'si'ya, over which the city of Oas
reigned.

So-qi shook his big belly under the lion's skin, let slip his serpent
skin headdress, and let the battle axe that was his symbol of office
drop from his hand as he shook with mirth at the great and thumping lie
told by Too-che.

"I suppose her child was fathered by Mazda, peering into her womb with
his All-light," laughed So-qi, for in Oas it was not the fashion to
worship the God Mazda anymore. The great skull temples had their priests
and their sacrifices, but no more did people bow down in the temples of
Mazda, or have anything but ridicule for those few who did still worship
in the old way.

His serpent skin headdress and battle axe scepter, too, were relics from
the past. Just as the belief in Mazda. But more _potent_ relics, by far.
With them he was the Sun King, Lord of Battles, Master of Life and
Death, Creator of the Universe, Lord of Souls, Maker of the Law, etc.
Without them he was just old So-qi, getting fatter and more stupid every
day.

"Bring this harlot before me, to see if she can produce a miracle to
prove her child is not a common one. If she cannot, she will be stoned
to death at once, do you hear! I have no time to be bothered with the
lies of every sinning woman who seeks to hide her bastard's origin."

       *       *       *       *       *

Asha, the philosopher who had told his king of the birth of the child,
nodded his head sadly and left the presence. Why did kings have to get
so blown up as to be inhuman? He sympathized with the girl and her
predicament. If it had been his to say, he would have had the child
proclaimed divine a thousand times in preference to shedding one drop of
her blood. But then, he had seen Too-che sauntering home from the well,
with her water jar on her head, and her hips the focal point of all eyes
in the street. Asha smiled, and took his grey-headed, bent, unnoticed
figure down the back streets to the house of Too-che.

As he went, he pondered gloomily on the fate of this great city under
the heartless and ignorant So-qi. Surely something dreadful would happen
to Par'si'ya, lying as it did at the juncture of the lands of the three
mightiest kingdoms of the world. Jaffeth (China), Shem (Africa) and
Arabin'ya. Any one of them could crush them, did they get themselves
organized for it. And So-qi preyed upon them all ruthlessly, knowing
they could never stop warring interiorly long enough to attack him.

Old Asha thought of the future, which his star studies were supposed to
give him power to foretell, and of the great flood that was to come and
wipe out all the old boundaries and nations. He thought of the peculiar
grey-blue sky, which the Wise men had taught him bore up within its
whirling self vast oceans of water, waiting for the time to drop the
whirling water-shell upon them all. He thought of Uropa, the great land
in the west, and all her peoples. He thought of Heleste, that mighty and
gracious land in the North, and all her beautiful and strong and
courageous people. And he thought of the two great lands of the far
west, called North and South Guatama. And he was sad, for they were all
to die in the great deluge to come! But the time was not yet come.

Sadly he pushed among the stalwart copper-colored men of Oas, gazing a
little wistfully at the women's proud breasts and the strong young thews
of their lovers beside them. If only he were young again.... Asha
sighed, and knocked upon the low, rude door of the house of Too-che.

       *       *       *       *       *

The smile of the beautiful Too-che made him welcome, very proud to have
the wise man from the court inquire after her child.

"He worries me, wise Asha," said Too-che, moving slim and supple as a
panther to sit protectively beside the little cradle of bent ash bows
lashed together with strips of hide. "He talks like a man grown, and him
not yet weaned!"

"Hmmm." Old Asha looked down upon the over-large infant solemnly looking
back at him. He nearly fainted when the tiny red lips opened, and a
strange, small voice, cultured and adult, said:

"I am not the child you see, but your God, Mazda, speaking through the
child's lips!"

Asha pondered for only a moment, then turned in anger upon the woman,
Too-che.

"I pitied you, harlot, because the King has ordered your death if you
did not produce a miracle. But I did not think you would hide a man
behind the child's cradle to befool me, old Asha! What do you take me
for?"

Too-che broke into tears, bending her graceful neck and sobbing to hear
that the king had decreed death for her. But the peculiar voice came
again from the child's mouth.

"Take me in your arms, Asha."

Feeling very foolish, but unable to refuse for some mysterious reason,
Asha bent and picked up the child.

"O man, temper thy judgment with patience and wisdom."

Asha knew now that it was the child's voice truly, and at last asked:

"Why do you come in such a weak and helpless guise, O Lord Mazda? I had
hoped to see a God appear in stronger shape."

"Nevertheless, through this helpless child in your arms, this city shall
be overthrown, yourself made King of Kings, and I shall deliver all the
slaves and strike off all the bonds from the old time. Mazda will have
this city for his own, or it will be destroyed forever."

Now Asha was filled with wonder, and asked the babe of many abstruse
things, receiving answers beyond his understanding. So, at last
convinced, he put the babe down, turned to Too-che.

"Listen, maiden who in my eyes is without fault. I cannot go to my King
and tell him one word of what this child has revealed, for I would only
die with both of you as a liar and worse. You must take this child and
hide him away from the eyes and the ears of the men of this city. You in
your innocence do not understand the ways of kings and courts and
warriors and such things. Flee, for if you are here tomorrow, you will
die and your child will die with you."

Asha took himself out, then, and made his way sadly along the crowded
streets to his home. There he packed up a few belongings and left to go
into hiding himself; for he knew better than to try to tell So-qi any
such cock-and-bull story. Yet if he went at all to So-qi, he had to tell
something, and either way someone would be doomed, if not himself.

Too-che took up the babe and fled through the city by night to the home
of one Chojon, a maker of songs. This man had long made love to her with
his poetry and his voice from afar, and she knew he would hide her and
protect her. Her heart was in her throat, because she wondered if he
would believe in her virtue now that she had a child, or in her love for
him when he felt that another had given her child when he had been
denied the privilege.

       *       *       *       *       *

Slender and dark-eyed and handsome he stood in his doorway, looking upon
this girl who had come to him with her babe in her arms. A babe by
another! His heart was hurt, tears came unbidden to his eyes as he
turned and allowed her to enter. For a long time he could not speak, the
shame and the hurt and pride and the strange new sudden emotions in him
not suffering him to talk. At last he said:

"Too-che, I love you and I cannot deny you anything. If you put this
shame upon me, I will bear it as my own. Consider this your home, and me
as your slave. If I did not love you, I would not bear this, but I do."

Too-che saw the conflicting emotions upon his face, how his dark red
lips struggled to remain firm, how his thin, wide nostrils trembled, how
his eyes were wet with unshed tears, how his shoulders bowed as with a
sudden burden.

"Oh my dear Chojon, I have no other friend to whom I can turn--and that
I thought of you, who has only loved me from afar with your eyes and
your soft, sad songs, should tell you that I bring you no shame or
insult. This is not the child of another man, for I have been with no
man, ever. This is a child of the legends, a son of a God in the skies,
our God, Mazda. He is a miracle, as hard for me to believe as for you,
but it is true."

Too-che could not stand the unbelieving eyes of Chojon, who thought that
Too-che lied, and looked down at the sleeping babe in her arms, saying
with a pitiful voice ...

"Please, little stranger who talks like a wise man, wake and tell my
Chojon that you are not the son of a man, but the son of one whom no
maid could resist or run away from, ever. Tell him, little one!"

And Mazda heard Too-che imploring speech of her child and made it to
speak with his own voice.

"Chojon, what my mother says is true. I am the child of the All-light,
endowed with powers beyond ordinary men to accomplish my Lord's
mysterious purposes here on earth. Do not hold my mother the less for my
birth."

Chojon sank slowly to his knees, realization stealing over him as he
heard the adult words issue from the suckling babe's mouth. The unshed
tears began to pour from his eyes in relief, for he knew now that
Too-che might not love him yet as she would when she learned love, but
at least she had given herself to no other mortal man. And the miracle
of the Child of a God there before him lighted up his face as his inward
soul, so that he took up his lute and lifted his rich, deep voice in a
joyous song--the Song of Zarathustra. For the legend of their people had
the name of the babe-to-come as Zarathustra, and Chojon knew that its
name was thus, now.

       *       *       *       *       *

Too-che dwelt for some time in the house of Chojon, and the songs of
Chojon were circulated among all the singers of the city, so that
everyone knew he sheltered the Child of the God, Mazda, in his home.

The songs of Chojon came at last to the King's ears, and as one of the
songs proclaimed Zarathustra as stronger in one finger than all the
power of So-qi, he let out a great oath and set his soldiers to find
Too-che and the babe. But Chojon heard of the search. He took Too-che
and her babe out of the gates in the night and went off into the forest
and joined a band of Listians, who are raisers of goats, and a fine,
strong people.

Now when the search failed to find the babe, So-qi proclaimed that every
male child of the City Oas would be slain if the child was not found.
And within a week So-qi was sorry, because his own wife gave birth to a
little son whose life was already forfeited by royal decree unless
Too-che and her child were found. And they were not to be found in all
Par'si'ya.

Asha, the old philosopher, who had been in hiding all this time, now
came out of his hole and went to the King to give him counsel.

As Asha progressed through the city, mothers with male children in their
arms on all sides were making their way through the streets to the gates
to flee the city. For no decree of a King of Oas may be repealed, but is
law forevermore.

The King sat upon his throne of skulls, gnawing his nails off his
fingers, for he had either to slay his own son or say that a law once
made by a king could be un-made.

If he allowed the law to be thus abused even by himself, such was the
nature of his people they would have no respect for him, and might even
kill him for a fool who could not enforce his own decrees when they hurt
him a little.

So it was that when Asha presented himself before the King, So-qi asked:

"What shall I do, O Asha? My son has smiled in my face!"

Asha was prepared for this, and answered:

"Thou shalt send me and thy son and thy daughter's son and every male
infant to the slaughter pens, and have us all beheaded and cast into
the fire! Otherwise it will come true as the infant Zarathustra
prophesied: his hand will smite Oas city, and it will fall as a heap of
straw."

So the king appointed a day for the slaughter, and ninety thousand male
infants were adjudged to death.

Chojon, from the safety of the forest, made a scornful song about the
tyrant of Oas who went to war against babes, and it was sung everywhere
in the city, and the king could do nothing about it, for it was cleverly
worded, seeming to approve, though in satire only.

       *       *       *       *       *

When the day for the slaughter arrived, there were but a thousand
appeared with their babes out of the ninety thousand adjudged to
death--all the rest having fled to the forest as had Chojon.

The King saw an excuse in this to get out of killing his own son, and
stood pondering how to escape his own decree. His wife, Betraj, came
before him, holding out her son, saying:

"Here, oh King, take thou thy flesh and blood and prove the inexorable
justice of the King's decrees."

But the King said:

"Let the officers go and collect all the others who have fled beyond the
walls, and until all are gathered here before me, no matter how long it
takes, let the decree be suspended."

Now the God, Mazda, moved the soldiers' minds to see that their King had
not the backbone to enforce his own decree when it hurt himself and
they, one and all, took up stones and stoned the King to death.

Asha, standing stripped for the slaughter, was made King by the clamor
of the men who stoned So-qi to death.

A great voice came out of the sky and announced to the people that God
had given them a new and righteous ruler. Asha bowed his head and
accepted the task put upon him. The people gave thanks to Mazda, the
God, and Asha proclaimed him to all the city.

Off in the forest, Too-che lifted her eyes to those of Chojon and
thanked him for saving her son. And Chojon touched her with his
fingertips, and kissed her on her lips, and the child crowed lustily to
see their love.

These two walked through the Forest of the Goats, Too-che bringing
beauty like a spring breeze with her, and Chojon singing and touching
his harp with magic fingers, so that joy and love walked before them,
announcing them to the Listians--the people of the forest.

When Zarathustra, the infant child the woman bore in her arms, lifted up
his piping voice and spoke to these rude wild people, their worship
sprang into life--for surely these were Gods come to them. And thus, all
the people gave up the worship of murder and became Zarathustrians.


THE END




Transcriber's Note:

    This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ April 1949. Extensive
    research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
    this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical
    errors have been corrected without note.