The Flute of the Gods Part 38

"You have studied much in books--you have learned much from men," said Don Ruy--"You could change the minds of these people in this matter."

Tahn-te looked kindly on him, but shook his head.

"Not in the ages of ten men can you change the mind of the men you called Indian," he said, "in my one life I could not make them see this as you see it--yet am I called strong among them. Also I could not tell them that the way of the white priest when he breaks the bones in torture until the breath goes, is a better way than to take the heart quickly for the G.o.d! That would be a lie if I said it, and true magic does not come to the man who knows that he is himself a teller of lies!"

The men of the council went their separate ways to sleep in the kivas, well content that the angry G.o.d was to be appeased at the rising of the sun,--and Don Ruy rolled himself in his blanket and lay near the door where Ysobel and her husband lived apart from the camp, with only the secretary inside their walls. But Don Ruy slept little--and cursed the heathenish logic of Tahn-te, and wished him to the devil.

And stealthily as a serpent in the gra.s.ses,--or a panther in the hills, Tahn-te sped from the council of sacrifice, to the hills where he knew a girl had waited long for his coming.

Little thought gave he to trailers. The night before had been the night of the scalp dance--and now the trembling earth, and the council, had left the men weary for the rest of sleep. He ran swiftly and steadily in the open as any courier to Shufinne might run.

But those of the Tain-tsain clan who followed, noted that he did not go to Shufinne,--he climbed instead the steeps where they were to climb, and for that reason their coming was stealthy, and the cleverest men were sent ahead, and all said prayers and cast prayer meal to the G.o.ds,--for this was a strange thing the white priest had seen in a vision--it was to be proven if he was of the prophets!

The two couriers of the clan knew it was proven when they saw the two dead people near the head of the stone stairway. And when they heard the sobs of a woman within the dwelling of the Reader of the Stars in the ancient days--also the soothing tones of a man,--they crept back into the shadows and told the leaders. And a circle of men was made about the place, and in silence they waited.

Ere their hearts had ceased to beat quickly from the run, that which they waited for stepped forth;--a man to whom a creature clung--her face was hidden against his breast, and he led her with care lest she see the dead people on the stairway--for the Navahu shrinks more than another from sight or touch of the dead!

"There are other places--and safe places," he said to her and held her close. "Does not the bluebird find nesting place in the forest? And does not her mate find her there in the summer nights?"

And then--with his arms around her, and his robe covering her, his path was closed by a warrior who stood before him! His eyes turned quickly on every side, but on every side was a circle of men,--and the men were all of the clan of Ka-yemo to whom Tahn-te had never been precious since the days of boyhood--and the camp of Coronado.

And the younger men were for claiming the maid when they saw her face, and the older men read triumph against Tahn-te for the work of this night.

"That which is meant for the G.o.ds is not to be given to men," they said in chiding to the young men, and Tahn-te knew what they meant when they said it.

"It is the Navahu witch maid of Te-gat-ha," cried another--"look--brothers! This is a Navahu arrow through the eye of Ka-yemo, and through the heart of Yahn Tsyn-deh. Alone here she has destroyed them!--and alone here would Tahn-te the Po-Ahtun-ho have cherished her! The priest of the men of iron is a man of strong magic.

His vision has sent us to find the one who has made angry the G.o.ds of our land!"

"Go you and gather pine for the altar," said the head of the clan, and two youths ran joyously down the slope;--for they were to aid in driving evil magic from the valley!

"This maid did not touch those dead people," said Tahn-te,--"for that she must not suffer."

"You Summer people are easily held by witches' craft," retorted one of the men insolently,--a day before he would only have addressed Tahn-te with reverence.

"Was she not marked for sacrifice at Te-gat-ha?"--"Has she not caused the killing of the corn?" "Did not the Navahu men come to destroy us because of her?" "Is the earth not angry that she has hidden in the sacred places?"

These questions came thick and fast for Tahn-te to answer, and Tahn-te held her hand and knew there was no answer to be made. And Phent-zha, who was the oldest man there, looked at him keenly.

"Are you also not more weak in magic for her coming," he asked,--"is your heart not grown sick? The magic of the white priest is against you;--and it is strong! When we have taken the heart from this witch, and you have again fasted in the hills, the sick land and the sick people will be made better."

The maid looked from face to face in the glare of freshly lit torches, and caught little of meaning from the rapid speech. But no one touched her, and she looked with confidence into the eyes of Tahn-te. He had not moved from his tracks, and he held himself proudly as he faced the man who had long wished his humiliation.

"When the time comes to fast in the hills, I will know it," he said,--"and no hand touches the heart of this maid, but--my own!"

"It is at sunrise," said the governor, stilled by the look of the Po-Ahtun-ho--"a runner has been sent--the council will be waiting for the enchantress, and the women to prepare her will be waiting."

"I will lead her," said Tahn-te and took her hand, and from the medicine pouch he took one bead of the by-otle, and in Navahu he bade her eat of it in secret, which she did wonderingly, and the men of the Tain-tsain clan walked before and after them and held torches, and they went down the steep of Pu-ye before the moon had touched the pines of the western hills. And a runner was sent to Shufinne that the people there might come and put Yahn Tsyn-deh and her lover under the earth together.

CHAPTER XXII

"AT THE TRAIL'S END!"

The morning stars were shining through the gray threatening sky, when a slender blanket draped figure stepped from Ysobel's doorway into the dusk, and came near putting foot on Don Ruy Sandoval who lay there as if on guard.

There was a little gasp, and the blanket was clutched more closely.

"Your Excellency!" breathed Chico wonderingly--"awake so early--and--here?"

"Awake so late," amended his excellency,--"and is this not a good place to be?"

"In truth I am having doubts of my own," confessed the secretary with attempted lightness. "What with barbaric battles, and earth quakings,--and a night when the breath of volcanoes seemed abroad in the land and strange lightenings came up from the earth--it suggests no dreams of paradise! Don Diego thinks it is because the expedition has not been more eager for souls."

"Has he not converted Sah-pah and won a ladylove?" asked Don Ruy--"he is at least that much in advance of the rest of us. I've had no luck, and you are as much of a bachelor as ever you were."

Chico contemplated the morning star in silence, and Don Ruy smiled.

"If the enchanted ring of Senor Ariosta should fall at your feet from yon star;--or the lamp of Alladin would come out of the earth in one of these quakings, what would you ask it to do with us all, since this camp is not to your liking?" he asked.

"I would wish you safe in Mexico with no sorcerer to doctor your wounds if you were bent on acquiring such pleasures."

"No learned professor could have brought healing more quickly,"

contended Don Ruy,--"and the sorcerer, if so he be, has given me food for thought at least. Which reminds me that you are not to go to the river mesa this morning in case you see the barbarians trooping that way for ceremonies."

A runner came panting past them from towards the hills, and the gate was opened for him and closed again, and a herald from the terrace shouted aloud sentences arousing all who yet slept;--not only arousing them, but causing unexpected shrieks and cries of consternation from many dwellings. There were the lamentations of the old women of the Tain-tsain clan, and their wails sent the thrill of a mysterious dread through the night that was dying, for the day had not yet come.

"What is it--what?" asked the secretary in a whisper of dread. "You know what the thing is;--tell me!"

"Not so nice a thing that you should trade a convent garden for it,"

confessed Don Ruy--"if the wishing ring were mine you would be wafted there before that star goes pale."

"Oh!"--and the secretary strove to a.s.sume a lightness not to be honestly felt in that chorus of wails. "You would make me a messenger to your lady of the tryst--and I would tell her that since luck with the pagan maids has not been to your fancy, you may please to walk past her balcony and again cast an eye in that direction!"

"And at the same time you might whisper to her that I would not now need to glance at her the second time to know her," he added. "Even the armor of a Bradamante could not mask her eyes, or dull for me the music of her voice."

"Excellency!"

"It is a most strange place to make words for the wooing of a lady, is it not?"--asked Don Ruy looking up at the slender form wrapped in the blanket.--"But new worlds are in making when earth quakes come,--and our to-morrows may be strange ones, and--sweetheart comrade, I have lain at your door each night since your head rested on my shoulder there in the arroyo."

Someway Don Ruy made his arm long enough to reach the blanket and draw the hesitating figure to him, and rested his cheek against the russet sandals, and then a very limp Master Chico was on the ground beside him, and was hearing all the messages any lady of any balcony would like Love to send her.

"I cannot forgive you letting me carry all that water for a fainting fit--and there was no fainting fit!" she protested at last,--"all these days I've lived in terror;--not quite certain!"

"Think you nothing of the uncertain weeks you have given me?"--he retorted.--"I had my puzzled moments I do a.s.sure you! And now that I think of it--I'm in love with a lady whose actual name I have not been told!"