The Flute of the Gods Part 36

Gonzalvo stared at her incredulous, she was crediting him with a power that would place him high in the Castilian camp--if he could win! And more--she was to give him her own intense, glowing, restless self!

"I also hate Tahn-te,--that is why!" she said frankly, "and I love only men who are brave above all other men. Your fire sticks of thunder must not be heard on the heights of Pu-ye, but when Tahn-te and the witch meet there in the night, your arrows must send them together to the Afterworld--not one alone--but _together_! When the men of Te-hua find the dead witch (for the men of Te-gat-ha and the Navahu can witness that it is the one!) and when they find the lion robe of Tahn-te on her body,--and other gifts of Tahn-te--and find them dead the one beside the other, then the man who has made this happen will be a great man! Even the men of Te-gat-ha will come with gifts, and the men of Te-hua will give you honor, and will open the trail for you to the sun symbol. There will be no Tahn-te to put evil magic on them for doing so! When he is found dead with the witch maid they will see clearly that his magic was evil magic, and they will have breath that is deep and free again. Also I--Yahn Tsyn-deh--will walk beside you where you choose."

Low and rapid was her speech there in the shadow of the adobe wall--and so fair was the dream she made clear for him, that he felt himself grow dazed with the glory of it--yet he was a strong man!

If it was true that Tahn-te and the witch nested together in the ruins of Pu-ye, he knew well that the day of the young Ruler was ended in Povi-whah, or in any Te-hua council where it was known. But the strange mental or spiritual power of Tahn-te made it a thing of danger to let him live after accusal had been made. The way of Yahn seemed the best of all ways. If he was found dead beside the maid accursed, the evidence would be clear against him--and the True Faith would have the credit for such extermination!

He knew this was not a thing to speak of to Don Ruy--and though the padre was enemy to every thought of Tahn-te--he feared even the padre--that strange man who knew so much that was hidden in Indian life, would so clearly see that Yahn Tsyn-deh was as much the motive as gain of the gold, or glory for Mother Church.

No,--it was a thing to think out alone.

Yahn pressed his hand furtively and smiled on him as he left her, and then entered her own dwelling and sprinkled prayer meal to the spirits who carry messages to the G.o.ds.

Then she sent a child for Ka-yemo and gave the child some dried peaches that he be content to stay with his fellows in the sunshine and eat them.

Ka-yemo entered her dwelling for the first time in many moons and clasped her close, and then seated himself in the farthest corner from the Apache G.o.d pictures while Yahn Tsyn-deh talked.

Her voice was low, and often she went to the opening to see that no one listened, and Ka-yemo was wonder-struck at the greatness of the thing she whispered.

"You have won scalps in this battle--you have led the men in the scalp dance, and the people know you are strong. If Tahn-te went out of the world now, at this time, you would be strongest. This is the time he must go!"

"But if the vengeance of the Castilians came heavy?"

"It will not come heavy. Don Ruy has forbidden Gonzalvo even to speak words against Tahn-te to the padre. So it is that he would be angry if Gonzalvo sent arrows into the Po-Ahtun-ho. _You_ must not do it, for his magic power might come heavy on your head. If you fear to destroy the Castilian capitan you are foolish in your thought--for it need never be known. Look!--here are arrows of the Navahu, from the place of battle I gathered many, these are the arrows for the work. Let Gonzalvo risk the magic of Tahn-te, and the magic of the witch maid, and destroy them, then you must alone, trail the Castilian, that he comes not back alive to tell how it was done! The Navahu arrows will take the blame from your head--it will be plain that some Navahu men stayed to take pay for their dead! So it will be, and you, Ka-yemo, will stand high, and your clan will be proud that no man stands more high. And I--Yahn--will be with you each step of the life trail--and each step we dare look down on all others and be proud. The songs you sing can be proud songs!"

The blood of Ka-yemo jumped in his veins at that picture of victory as drawn by Yahn Tsyn-deh. Now, since she had asked him to destroy Juan Gonzalvo was he at last content in the thought that her love had not wandered from him, Ka-yemo! Even in the days of silence and anger had he held her spirit;--and to do that with a woman is proof that a man is strong! It made him feel there in the dwelling of Yahn the Apache, that he could do battle in the open for her with the Castilian capitan if need be and have no fear;--how much more then would he dare do the work to be done in secret on the heights!

Thus did Yahn Tsyn-deh spin her web that Tahn-te and the maid of the forest be caught in its meshes, and it seemed good to her that the men of iron be killed when chance offered;--especially must the Castilian capitan not be let live to tell the clan of Tahn-te aught of how the plan was made;--and above all had she spoken truth to the Woman of the Twilight by the path to the well:--her life was as the life of Ka-yemo;--if the Castilian escaped and dared claim the price she offered--!

At that thought Yahn felt for the knife in her girdle, and had joy that the edge of it was keen as the steel of the Castilians, and her smile was a threat as she almost felt her hand thrust and twist it in the flesh of the man of iron who had dared think himself the equal of Ka-yemo!

Some savage creatures of the wilderness there are who choose their mates, and stand, to live or to die, against all foes who would break the bond. The tigress will watch her mate do battle for her and then follow his conqueror,--but Yahn Tsyn-deh had not even so much as that meekness of the tiger in her;--her own share of the battle would she fight that the mate she chose should remain unconquered. Proud she was of his beauty and of his grace in the scalp dance,--but more proud would she be when no serene young Po-Athun-ho looked at her lover as if from a high place of thought. It was, strangely enough, the _unspoken_ in Tahn-te against which she rebelled in bitterness. No word that was not gentle had he ever spoken to her--and to Ka-yemo no word that lacked dignity. It was as if the man in his thoughts was enthroned on the clouds:--and at last she had found the way for that cloud to be dragged low in the dust!

CHAPTER XX

THE CHOICE OF YAHN TSYN-DEH

And while Yahn Tsyn-deh laid the trap, and the medicine drums sounded, and the women gathered the children close because of the trembling earth, one girl robed in the skin of a mountain lion waited alone at the portal of the star, and knelt in the shadow, and looked with eyes of fear at the great pieces of severed cliff, or ancient wall sent crashing downwards by the force of the earth shock.

Past her portal they had crashed until it seemed the roof must fall also, and she gathered the robe of Tahn-te about her, and came as far as might be into the open--and watched with longing eyes the trail across the mesa to the great river!--for that trail was as the path of the sun to her,--or the rainbow in the sky!

The feet of Tahn-te had touched that trail, and when the night came, and the moon rose in the great circle over the eastern hills--over that trail would he come, and though the mountains themselves crashed downwards to the mesa, he would hold her close, and the very spirits of darkness could send no more fear!

She kept very still there waiting at the portal, for strange noises were heard on the mesa, a dislodged stone rumbling down the long slope--or a bit of loose clay falling from the ancient walls. At times the smaller sounds suggested pa.s.sing feet--and above all things must she remain hidden from people until he came for her--he--the G.o.d-like one who had brought her to this dwelling so akin to the dwellings of the Divine Ones of the Navahu land in the place called Tse-ye. The difference was that the Tse-ye dwellings were deep in the heart of the world--while these dwellings were lifted high above the world.

But she knew without words that he indeed belonged to the Divine Ones ere he brought her to the ancient dwellings. That her name had been in his heart, and on his lips before she herself had told him, was but a part of the strange sweet magic of the new life into which he had led her.

Through the storms--and the dark nights--and the long days of loneliness had she lived since he had hidden her first from the scouts of Te-gat-ha--but they had pa.s.sed over her as dreams of sweetness pa.s.s.--That the groves of pine, or the mesa of the river, hid him from her sight, did not mean to her that he had quite gone away, the wonderful magic wrought by him made it possible for her to feel his arms about her even when she lay alone in the darkness of the dwelling of the star. To be hidden like that, and to watch for his coming, was to be granted much joy by the G.o.ds. That the G.o.ds exact payment for all joys more than mortal, was one secret Tahn-te did not whisper to her, though the thought had clouded his own eyes more than once as he clasped her close to him.

What the G.o.ds would exact he did not know, but daily and nightly he made prayers to the mediators of the spirit land, and hoped in his heart that the G.o.d of his people prove not akin to the jealous G.o.d of the men of iron;--for a jealous G.o.d would, without doubt, take her from him! Against men he could protect her--but if the G.o.ds awoke--and were jealous--

And he remembered the fastings, and the penance, and the prayers by which he had, unknown to all others, dedicated his life to the G.o.ds alone!

But of this he said no word--only held her more close in his thoughts--but ever a gray shadow moved beside him--the shadow of an unknown fear--and it was the same shadow by which he had been led to count over the seeds of the sacred growth--that he be sure it was in his power to make the death sleep beautiful to her, if the death sleep should shorten their trail together in the Earth Life.

She knew nothing of his fear, and watched each lengthening shadow with delight--since the growing shadows were heralds of his coming! Even the trembling of the earth was forgotten in that joy--and she scarcely noted that the air had grown strangely sultry--almost a thing of weight it seemed;--a brooding, waiting spirit, silencing even the whisper of the pines--and the whisper of the pine was sacred music to the Te-hua people;--through all the ages it had whispered, until in a good hour it had given voice to their earth-born G.o.d!

She knew not anything of the G.o.ds of her own people, and the ominous silence of the pines meant not to her what they would mean to a girl of the river villages. But the magic of the place did make itself felt to her when her robe, as she touched it, sent out little snappings as of fireflies' wings, and far across the land tiny flashes flamed from earth to sky as the dusk grew. When she shook loose her hair that she might arrange it more pleasing for his sight, she was startled by the tiny crackling, like finest of twigs in a blaze--and to smooth it into braids silenced none of the strange magic;--each time her hand touched it, the little sparks flashed--under the heavy brooding atmosphere, electric forces were at work in strange ways--and on the heights of Pu-ye they have for ages been proof of the magic in those mountains.

Therefore is it a place for prayer.

Startled by the strange earth breathings, the girl crept within the portal for her waiting--and the dusk was too deep for sight across the rolling land of ancient field, and pinon wood far below.

Had she kept the watch she might have seen more than one figure approach the heights from different ways--only a glimpse could be had, but through the dusk of pinon groves certainly two figures moved together, a man and a woman, and even before them one man stole alone from the south, and halted often as if to plan the better way of approach.

The man and woman skirted the foot of the mesa, and crept upward on the side to the north.

"It is the hard way to climb you have come," said the man, and the strange heavy air caused them to stop for breath, and as she reached to cling to the hand of the man, he drew back with a gasp of terror.

As their hands touched, a little electric shock ran through each,--it was plain they had reached the domain where the witch of evil powers held sway.

"It is not I whom you need fear," said Yahn Tsyn-deh,--"it is the witch maid of Tahn-te, and we have come to see the killing."

"And if--if Gonzalvo grows weak on the trail--or if his men take fear from this evil magic of the mesa of Pu-ye?"

"No other men come with him--we talked--we two! Alone he will do it:--for me!" she said proudly. "He knows the strong bow, with it he will send the arrow first to the man,--that will be when they stand clear in the moonlight. Then to the witch:--that all people may see they were near to each other. The arrows are good and the bow is good.

I saw that it was so;--also I saw that no man of our people can use it better than can Gonzalvo. By the river I watched him. He needs no fire sticks to find the heart of an enemy--alone he can do it with an arrow."

Ka-yemo looked at her sullenly,--she was giving much of praise to the man she would have him destroy!

"How are you sure that he does not bring the thunder and lightning stick also?" he demanded,--"and how are you sure that it is not used for me?"

"Oh--fool you!--who make fears out of shadows--yet are so big to fight!" she breathed softly. "Why is it that the Navahu or the other wild people do not make you fear--yet the Castilians--"

"They are truly men of iron. As a boy I saw the things they could do,"

he answered.--"Not as men do I fear them, but it is their strong G.o.d who tames their beasts."

"Your arrows are good," said Yahn Tsyn-deh with conviction,--"when you see him dead as other men die, you will know that our own G.o.ds are also strong."

The dark had fallen heavily, and only the Ancient Star gleamed threatening as it waited for the moon. The smaller stars were not seen and the shadows were very dense.

Because of this a strange thing came to them as they reached the summit. Strong as was the heart of Yahn the Apache, she was struck by terror, and Ka-yemo knew that the great G.o.d of the men of iron had sent a threat for his eyes to see.

For, still and erect against a dark wall of the Lost Others, stood a man outlined in fire. In Castilian war dress he stood, and little flickering lines of fire ran along helmet and breastplate and lance.

No face could they see of the horror, which added to, rather than lessened the terror of Ka-yemo. A living face he could meet and fight--but this burning ghost of a man not yet dead--!