Chapter 39: The Crisis in Atvatabar

The manifesto of Lyone had precipitated an historic crisis in Atvatabar. The king awaited my leaving the country with the utmost impatience. He made every effort to prevent the news from reaching the public, hoping that when I took my departure the goddess would be amenable to the laws of the realm, and the faith be thus preserved.

The more that Lyone and myself discussed the situation, the more apparent it appeared that we could not now draw back from the position we had taken. It was absolutely necessary to provide a following in case the government attempted arrest, or the execution of either or both of us. Trusty messengers were despatched to the high priest, Hushnoly, the grand sorcerer, Charka, the lord of art, Yermoul, and the other friends of Lyone, informing them of the step she had taken, and asking their support in case any violence were offered her.

I advised Lyone to have her agents collect and transmit to Kioram all munitions of war. Some of the royal wayleals were armed with spears, and others with swords and shields. All battles were fought in the air, by reason of the wayleals being able to fly, as their movement on wings was more rapid than movement on foot.

As already stated, the ordinary spear of the king’s wayleals was very effective, by reason of its discharging a magnetic current into the body, causing instant death. With a view of arming the army of the goddess with a more potent weapon than magnic spears, I quietly had agents purchase for immediate transmission to Kioram vast quantities of iron, and the material for making gunpowder, which happily existed in great abundance in Atvatabar. My idea was to start a manufactory for firearms, which were unknown to the interior world, and arm every man with a magazine rifle--a portable mitrailleuse, in fact.

While engaged in discussing the plan of defence with Lyone the crisis was precipitated by the press of the country finding out the coup d’état of the goddess. With a view of placing the government in the most favorable light before the people, the chief organ of the king, The Calnogor Jossidi, published a fierce editorial condemning the action of the goddess, and reviling what it was pleased to call “the contumacious invader and despoiler of Atvatabar.” The article ran thus:

“IMPIOUS SACRILEGE!

“ASTOUNDING APOSTASY!

“THE SUPREME GODDESS REFUSES FURTHER WORSHIP, AND HAS

DEGRADED HERSELF BY SEEKING MARRIAGE WITH AN

ALIEN LOVER!

“WHAT IS FAITH, IF DECEIT BE OUR DEITY?

“The sweet, the noble, the pure, the exalted worship of holy

love, and of its hitherto most perfect symbol, the Goddess

Lyone, is threatened with extinction, if it be not entirely

destroyed. That sweet and perishable affection that fills

the breasts of lovers, which has been for ages conserved,

expanded, and wrought into an enduring fabric of religion in

the sacred temple of Egyplosis, is about to utterly perish

by a mad act of apostasy on the part of the deity herself.

Whither now will tender and faithful hearts turn to find a

refuge for all that makes the life glorious? Our ideal soul

has sunk into degradation! She has flung herself from her

proud and happy throne, wounding our faith with impious

sacrilege!

“Never before in the history of the world has the treachery

of a goddess been manifest; we have had occasion hitherto

only to mourn the apostasy of the worshipper. Now what

avails our worship, if the object of our adoration fails us

in the hour of need? Who is to console the bereavement of

millions, when their consoler has hopelessly abandoned them?

We say to both his majesty the king and government, follow

the iconoclasts with the sword of justice; no punishment is

too severe for such perfidious workers of iniquity! Death on

the magnic scaffold is the penalty for the infatuation of

the goddess and her atheistic lover! Wanting both men and

money, the standard of revolt will be brought down by the

first blow, and his majesty’s troops can be relied upon to

bring the rebels to swift justice. Let them be covered with

eternal infamy who will support this fearful apostasy!”

It became necessary for Lyone to publish the following manifesto to the nation, stating briefly the reasons that led to her renunciation of Harikar, to become the apostle of a new creed of one body and one soul: