“Thou art in the place of destruction, and Truth will hide her face there until thou art again incarnate. May thy birth into light be speedy and joyful.
“Accept the love of thy brother and servant,
“Kadmon the Patriarch.”
Akaza put the manuscript into a jar and sealed it, and with infinite pains closed the steplike opening through which he had entered Gautavita. Then, realizing that he had received his last summons, he laid him down peacefully to sleep.[[13]]
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE DORADO FACED UTTER NEGATION OF SELF
In returning to Iaqua from the temple, Yermah stopped to inspect the work being done by a company of warrior-priests on the cracked and broken wall surrounding the public gardens. These men had already restored the aqueducts, so that danger of a water famine no longer threatened Tlamco.
The still terrified populace were totally incapable of consecutive action. Not one of them doubted that the destructive agencies at work would blot them out. All of the secular temples were crowded constantly, and the voice of prayer and supplication rose above the low rumblings still going on in the earth.
Death played sad havoc with women burdened with motherhood, and the priestesses and vestals were overworked in their efforts to take care of the motherless, whose pinched and frightened faces peered from everywhere.
The people were too stupefied to formulate any definite plans for themselves, and lived in hourly expectation of a final summons.
Military discipline, instituted by Akaza, prevented frenzied acts of self-destruction, while the fleet of balsas found it necessary to protect the granaries and stores.