“The Guardian of the heavenly Child, the Nurse decreed, the appointed Nurturer, She who is the shadow of her that bore the Child, She who in her day bears the symbol of the Child and is consecrated to its service from of old, She whose heart is filled with the wisdom of the Child and who utters the decrees of Heaven, has spoken.  Hearken now to the voice of the Oracle uttered in answer to the questions of me, Harut, the head priest of the Eternal Child during my life-days.  Thus says the Oracle, the Guardian, the Nurturer, marked like all who went before her with the holy mark of the new moon.  She on whom the spirit, flitting from generation to generation, has alighted for a while.  ’O people of the White Kendah, worshippers of the Child in this land and descendants of those who for thousands of years worshipped the Child in a more ancient land until the barbarians drove it thence with the remnant that remained.  War is upon you, O people of the White Kendah.  Jana the evil one; he whose other name is Set, he whose other name is Satan, he who for this while lives in the shape of an elephant, he who is worshipped by the thousands whom once you conquered, and whom still you bridle by my might, comes up against you.  The Darkness wars against the Daylight, the Evil wars against the Good.  My curse has fallen upon the people of Jana, my hail has smitten them, their corn and their cattle; they have no food to eat.  But they are still strong for war and there is food in your land.  They come to take your corn; Jana comes to trample your god.  The Evil comes to destroy the Good, the Night to Devour the Day.  It is the last of many battles.  How shall you conquer, O People of the Child?  Not by your own strength, for you are few in number and Jana is very strong.  Not by the strength of the Child, for the Child grows weak and old, the days of its dominion are almost done, and its worship is almost outworn.  Here alone that worship lingers, but new gods, who are still the old gods, press on to take its place and to lead it to its rest.’

“How then shall you conquer that, when the Child has departed to its own place, a remnant of you may still remain?  In one way only—­so says the Guardian, the Nurturer of the Child speaking with the voice of the Child; by the help of those whom you have summoned to your aid from far.  There were four of them, but one you have suffered to be slain in the maw of the Watcher in the cave.  It was an evil deed, O sons and daughters of the Child, for as the Watcher is now dead, so ere long many of you who planned this deed must die who, had it not been for that man’s blood, would have lived on a while.  Why did you do this thing?  That you might keep a secret, the secret of the theft of a woman, that you might continue to act a lie which falls upon your head like a stone from heaven.

“Thus saith the Child:  ’Lift no hand against the three who remain, and what they shall ask, that give, for thus alone shall some of you be saved from Jana and those who serve him, even though the Guardian and the Child be taken away and the Child itself returned to its own place.’  These are the words of the Oracle uttered at the Feast of the First-fruits, the words that cannot be changed and mayhap its last.”