The Flute of the Gods Part 18

"Yahn Tsyn-deh I am,"--she said--"and not wife."

"Humph!" the grunt of Maestro Diego was not polite. Even the desert might not be a safe place to bring youth if damsels of this like grew in the sage clumps. "It is said to be a good luck sign when a man comes first over the threshold on a New Year's day and on a Monday,--it starts the year and the week aright--and how read you this of a female crossing first for us the line of welcome in the new land of treasure?--read you good fortune here in all that would be ill fortune at home?"

"Save your croaking since she is beautiful to a marvel!" said Don Ruy lightly. "If they tell us truly that the world is round, who knows that we may not be nicely balanced on an opposite to Seville, and all things of life and portent to be reversed? There's a thought for your 'Relaciones!'--treasure it, senor!--treasure it!

"I am not yet of a mind that the unsanctified globe theory is to be accepted by true believers!" announced Don Diego with decision--"that you well know!--and also you know that my scriptural evidence--"

"Is as good as that of any man!" agreed his charge who was more his master and tormentor. "But if we halt here while you make the maps of Cosmo in the sand, we will miss the rest of the maids, for all my looking shows me no others on the run to us."

Yahn was, meanwhile, with great unconcern, making braids of her hair, and breathing with more ease, and using her eyes well the while. The piercing look of the padre was the only one she faltered under, and that of Gonzalvo she met in elusive coquetry.

"I am alone," she said to Don Ruy. "The others feast this day. I know your words. I come alone; maybe you want that I talk for you."

"It is true that we all want much talk from you--and perhaps some smiles--eh? But give not another to Juan Gonzalvo--he looks like a mooing calf from the last one he got,--and I warn you that such special happiness--"

[Ill.u.s.tration: A LONELY FIGURE DESPITE HER TROPHIES _Page 135_]

"Peace!" said the padre with impatient authority. "The girl has understanding, and it is best to move warily when the ground is new.

Are you the only one who speaks Castilian?"

"No--two more. Ka-yemo the chief of war--He is of my clan. He learn it with Capitan Coronado."

The men closed around listening--this was the man they had heard of at Ah-ko and at Kat-yi-ti.

"He is the shaman who learned with Fray Luis," said the padre. "We have heard of him, and of his unsanctified devotion to the false G.o.ds.

We have come to save such souls for the true faith. And he is now Capitan--eh?"

"Ka-yemo is Capitan--not shaman. He speaks your words--"

"And the other one?"

"Other one!"--The face of Yahn darkened, her lips grew straight in a hard line--her bosom heaved. Tahn-te had seen and known her abas.e.m.e.nt--also her name had been among those put aside--always she would hate Tahn-te,--"The other one is the man of the feast. He has danced where other men fall dead in the dance. He does not fall dead--not anything makes him dead! He holds snakes like other men hold rabbits." (She was watching warily the faces of her listeners and saw them shrink in distaste)--her own face grew keen and bright with cunning. "It is true--like this he takes the snake"--she held a wand of willow about her neck, and then held it in both hands above her head--"like this--and calls it 'brother of the sands.' He calls eagles down from the clouds to him--other birds, too"--and her eyes took on a look of fear--"and in dark nights--no--I can not say more words! It is bad medicine to say words of witches while witches are yet alive."

"He was taught by the padres to be Christian:--yet turns back to the false G.o.ds, and--is a sorcerer?" demanded Maestro Diego. "You have your work plainly cut out for you, Eminence!" and he turned to Padre Vicente--"A leader who has been granted the light, yet seeks darkness, is but a burning brand for the pit!"

"But"--suggested the lad Chico--who spoke but rarely in the face of the company, "is there not white magic as well as the magic of the darkness? Did not the saints of the church deal openly in the white magic of their G.o.d? This pretty woman plainly has only hate--or fear--of the sorcerer. Does the dame strike any of you as being so saintly as to be above guile?"

The men laughed at that, and Don Ruy clapped him on the shoulder.

"Well reasoned, Chico--and frankly said! We will see the sorcerer at his work before we pa.s.s judgement. But the lady will love you little!"

"The less ill luck to me for that!"--retorted the lad. "Her eyes are all for Juan Gonzalvo--and for your Excellency!"

"I am sworn for my soul's sake to the troth of a silken scarf and a mad woman somewhere in Mexico," decided Don Ruy whimsically. "If I am to live a celibate,--as our good padre imposes, it is well to cheat myself with a lady love across the border,--even though she gave me no favors beyond a poet's verse and a battered head."

"A lady--beat you?" queried Chico in amazement looking at the strong figure of Don Ruy--"and though mad, you give to her--faithfulness?"

"A faithfulness enforced, lad!" and his patron chuckled at the amaze in the eyes of the youth. "Since this crusade allows us no dames for company it is an ill one among us cannot cheat himself into the thought that a gracious dona awaits his return! It is the only protection against such sirens as this one of the loosened braids.

To be sure, my G.o.ddess of Mexico--(so says the padre)--was only a mad woman--and her servants gave me a scratched skull. Yet, as I am weak and need protection, I carry the scarf of the wench, and call her a G.o.ddess and my 'Dona Bradamante'--in my dreams--that does no harm to any one, and enables me to leave the ladies of the road to Gonzalvo--and the others! Oh--a dream woman is a great rest to the mind, lad,--especially is she so when she affects a wondrous perfume for her silks!"

He drew the scarf from his pocket and sniffed at it, content to make the lad laugh at the idle fancy, and while he jested thus, Padre Vicente and Gonzalvo gathered much information from Yahn Tsyn-deh.

There was a feast, she told them, and all the village was merry, and the time of the visit was a good time.

From the terraces of Kah-po and Povi-whah many eyes watched the coming of the men of iron. But the women who watched were few,--all the maids and even the young wives, had started at once for the sanctuary of the ancient dwellings of the place of Old Fields. There the Woman of the Twilight was awaiting them--much corn and dried meat and beans had been stored there in the hills in waiting for this time. If fighting was to be done, it should not be a quarrel for wives--as had happened with Coronado's soldiers in Tiguex.

But the white adventurers gave every evidence of the desire to be modest in their demands. They did not even enter the village--nor seek to do so until the place of the camp had been decided upon. Even Jose was not allowed to precede the others in search of kindred. He and his wife Ysobel watched the terraces, and the courage of the latter grew weak unto tears at the trials possibly behind the silent walls.

The boy Chico rea.s.sured her with jestings and occasional whisperings until the woman smiled, though her eyes were wet.

"I shall risk my own precious soul and body beside you," he stated,--"since my master Don Diego makes me a proxy while we learn if it is safe enough inside those walls for his own sacred bones. He will say the prayers for us until our faces are shown to him again!"

Then he threw himself on the green sward and laughed, and told Ysobel what a fine thing it was to be carefree of a spouse and able to kick up one's heels:--"If it had not been for love and a wedding day you would be happily planting beans in the garden of the nuns instead of following a foreign husband to his own people!"

Don Ruy sauntered near enough to hear the fillip and see the woman dry her eyes.

"Why is it, Dame Ysobel, that you allow this lad to make sport of serious things?" he asked austerely. "He is woefully light minded for so portentous an expedition."

Ysobel stammered, and glanced at the lad, and dug her toe in the soil, and was dumb.

"You overwhelm her with your high and mighty notice, Excellency," said the lad coming to her aid. "I will tell you truly--Ysobel has had patience with me since I had the height of your knee--and it is now a custom with her. She lived once in the house of my--relatives. We were both younger--and she had no dreams of wedding a wild Indian--nor I of seeking adventure among savages. She is afraid now that her husband may be blamed--or sacrificed for bringing strangers here--the story of the padre at the well of Ah-ko is not forgotten by her."

Whereupon Don Ruy told her there should be no harm to Jose--if he was treated without welcome by the Te-huas he should go back in safety to Mexico to follow his own will in freedom.

The woman murmured thanks and was content, and his excellency surveyed the secretary in silence a bit, until warm color crept into the face of the boy to his own confusion.

"So!--Your independence was because you had a friend at court?"--he observed. "It is fool luck that you, with your girl's mouth, and velvet cheeks, should get nearest the only woman in camp--and have a secret with her! It is high time you went to confession!"

Upon which he walked away, and left the two together, and Chico lay on the gra.s.s and laughed until called to make records of all that might occur between visiting Castilian and the Children of the Sun in their terraced village.

Then, while the men set about the preparations for a resting place, and supper Padre Vicente, with Don Ruy, Chico, Gonzalvo and the two Indians walked quietly to the gate in the great wall.

Many eyes were watching them as they were well aware, and ere they reached the gate, it opened, and the old governor Phen-tza, the war capitan and several of the older men stood there with courteous greeting of hand clasps and invitation.

For the first time since his marriage, Ka-yemo came face to face with Yahn Tsyn-deh, and quick anger flamed in his eyes as he saw her walk close to the side of Juan Gonzalvo who whispered to her--and her answer was a smile from provocative, half closed eyes.

"Yahn!"--the voice of Ka-yemo was not loud, but hard and full of angry meaning. "The other women of your clan have gone to the hills!"

"Let them go," said the girl insolently--"I do not go! For these strangers I make the talks to the old men, I am the one woman needful in the valley of P[=o]-s[=o]n-ge!"

It was the hour of her triumph, and Padre Vicente looked at the two keenly. Here was a clash of two savage minds--potent for good or ill.

"To the council I will talk--I am of the people of your father--I am the nearest man--I tell you I forbid you!"

His words fell over each other in anger, and his uncle, the governor, looked at him in reproach--this was not a moment for private quarrel.

"Are you so!--the nearest?" and Yahn showed her teeth. "I do not see it so. I stand near two other men, and am well content!"

She stood between Gonzalvo and Chico, and smiled on the latter, who frankly smiled a response--at that moment Yahn was happy in her defiance. Ka-yemo need not think her forsaken! She had caught fish without a net! To the governor Jose was speaking; at once there were signs of delight among the listeners. One of the old men was of his clan--other of his people were alive--and all had thought never to look on him again, it was a good day at Povi-whah!