The Flute of the Gods Part 39

"Are we not equal in that?" she whispered, and he laughed and held her close as a bandaged throat would allow.

"Ruy Sandoval is a good enough name to go to the priest with," he said, "and if 'Dona Bradamante' has no other I'll give her one if she'll take it."

"Despite the Indian grandmother, and the madness of longing for life in the open--and--."

"And the Viceroy and court of Spain to boot!" he declared recklessly.

"Sweetheart, I must have the right to guard you in a new way if need be, for these are strange days."

Even while they spoke the stars were shot over by the green light of a promised dawn, and against the faint sky line of the mesa a strange procession came. Men carrying long fringes of the cedar such as grow in the moist places in the canons,--also festoons of the ground pine, and flowers of the sun with the brilliant petals like warm rays.

The bearers of these ran swiftly, but the others moved more steadily, and Don Ruy called to Jose to learn for him the meanings of things, and why Tahn-te, the Ruler, walked like that as if in prayer, and clasped hands with a girl who smiled up in his face as a child on a holiday, though all the older men looked as though walking to battle.

"It is the witch maid who has brought evil magic on the land," said Jose, who had heard the herald--"also she has enchanted the Po-Ahtun-ho with devil's arts, and has killed Yahn Tsyn-deh and Ka-ye-mo with Navahu arrows on Pu-ye. They say she laughs to show that no knife can harm her, and she goes to the altar instead of the Yutah;--for it is she the earth groaned for."

"Go--"--said Don Ruy to his lately claimed "Dona Bradamante"--"keep within the house with Ysobel until we come again. There may be much to do, Lady mine, but there are no records for you to keep this day."

And without protest or reply he was obeyed. There was something so awful in the sight of the smiling maid of the bluebird wing, and the wails of the women who mourned those she had destroyed, that one would willingly flee the sight of their meeting.

But the Te-hua guards closed around the enchantress and the fanatics of vengeance were barred out. Those meant for the Mesa of the Hearts were not to be given to people!

Publicly the governor made thanks to the priest of the men of iron;--he it was who had smelled out the witch--and sent the men where her dead was found! Plain it was that their white brothers helped in magic and in battle. Let the old men think wisely and well before they let such brothers go from the land. For the angry G.o.ds, and the quaking earth, the priest of the beard had found the cause;--also the cure had he found. Did not the sun symbol belong to this man for this work? Let the old men think well of this thing!

Don Ruy held Jose at his side, and listened, and hearing all, he faced the padre with the first anger they had seen in his reckless kindly eyes.

"For your own ends of the gold search you have done this thing?" he demanded. "To a death on the altar have you sent that child-woman?

Good priest of the church, you make a man wonder if the saints indeed listen, and G.o.d is above!"

"Oh--impious!" groaned Don Diego, and crossed himself in horror. "Oh Excellency--your words are apostate--unsay them and tempt not Almighty Power!"

The padre turned pale with anger and shut his teeth close under the dark beard. But he was not a coward, and the habit of domination through special privileges was a habit of many years, and it served him against the merely temporal power of even regal influences.

"Of the witch creature I gave them no word," he said--"it was their thrice accursed sorcerer they were sent in search of. But the two belong to each other, and the old men of the order know now that their high priest is in league with devils. Never again will he be the Ruler. His power is overthrown. He cannot save even his own witch-mate from the vengeance of the clans. The thing we have crossed these deserts for will be given to us since his voice against us is silenced. Is that a thing to regret, Excellency? I thought it was for this we made entrance to the land--and for this you joined hands for the expedition!"

He had recovered his ease of manner, and even a mocking tone crept into the final words. Don Ruy looked around the faces of the Castilians and Mexicans and saw no more of special emotion in the light of the gray dawn than they had shown at the dance of the scalps in the glow of torches so few hours ago.

To them all it was only a witch being led to death, and they had seen that same thing in Christian lands. It was not a thing for special wonder,--except that this sorceress was young, and that she looked at the young Indian Ruler, and smiled often, and little sounds like a mere murmur of a song came sometimes from her lips.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONLY A WITCH LED TO DEATH _Page 310_]

"_Just at daylight Doli calls The bluebird has a voice His voice melodious That flows in gladness Doli calls! Doli calls!_"

The guard shrank away from her as she began. The Navahu captive who had been long a slave, said it was the song of the Dawn, and that it was the last song of many songs which were part of the wonderful "Night Chant" ceremony of his people,--it was a ceremony to heal all things of the ills of life.

But despite his words the Te-hua men shrank away, and the Te-hua women had trembling hands as they stripped her, and crowned her with the sacred pine, and fastened around her a girdle of the feathery young cedar, and in the green of the crown they thrust the golden disks of the flowers of the sun. She lifted the lion skin from the ground and held it close as a garment, and stood alone against the terrace wall.

The people shrank and half feared to look at her lest the Dawn song be a witch charm to enchant them.

Po-tzah had brought to Tahn-te the white robe of the priest who makes sacrifice, and a long knife of white flint for which the sheath was softest of deerskin, and the symbols painted on it were those of the Father Sun and Mother Moon.

And while the maid held close the garment he had given her, and chanted her Dawn song dreamily, Tahn-te lifted from the ground the wing of the bluebird tossed aside by the medicine women who made her ready for the sacrifice, and he placed it in the white band about his own head so that he wore two instead of one, and then he lifted his voice and spoke, and no other sound was heard but his voice, and the low song of the witch maid.

"Men of Te-hua," he said. "If I speak not you will not know the truth;--and it may be that you will live many days ere you believe this truth! The maid who has come down from the hills is not a stranger to Povi-whah--and has done no evil. The daughter of K[=a]-ye-fah is this maid. She is K[=a]-ye-povi, the child who was lost. All you people know of the years of the grieving of her father who was strong for that which was good. His child has come back to find her own people. On the trail she was lost, and evil magic of the men of iron have made hard your hearts when she came to you. I have waited until all the people were here to listen. Now I speak. To speak at Pu-ye to the clan of Tain-tsain would not have been wise. They were sent by the vision of the white priest to find a witch woman. It is the child of K[=a]-ye-fah they find, and instead of glad hearts, and glad speech, she is given by the Te-hua people only the crown of the sacred pine. Let her own clan of the Towa Toan speak!"

A thrill of wonder ran through the crowd, but no kind faces were there, and Tahn-te took from his medicine pouch the last seed of the sacred medicine given to man by the G.o.ds. There had been many seeds when they left Pu-ye. He knew he was daring the G.o.ds, and that the penalty would be heavy. But her fearless face, and the music of her Dawn song was payment for much.

And to the G.o.ds he would answer!

The gray dawn was gone, and the green dawn was merging into the yellow where the stars are lost.

The head of the Towa Toan clan spoke from a terrace.

"We have heard the words of Tahn-te. The witch maid is not known by our people, and our clan does not claim her! By evil magic has the song of this maid blinded the eyes of Tahn-te,--and by evil magic will she make desolate the land if she is let live. The white priest has strong medicine--and good medicine of the G.o.ds. The men of Te-gat-ha and the men of Navahu knew her as a witch, and sought her.

They did not find her because the men of iron were not their brothers.

To us they are brothers. I give thanks, and we think they should have that which they seek with us. Their priest works also for our G.o.d, and the symbol of the G.o.d is not to be hidden from him. Also the altar waits;--and the stars are going away!"

Tahn-te touched the hand of the maid.

"Come!" he said gently, and as he touched her hand, he gave to her the last seed from the fruit of the sacred plant,--"eat for the trail you must walk over, and sing for me alone the song holy of the Navahu Sun G.o.d; I take you to meet him on the Mesa of the Hearts."

Don Ruy tried to press through the guard, but the orders of the heads of the clans had been strong orders. The Castilian brothers might follow; but the stars were going away, and there was no time for words after the crown was made. The flowers must not wither above a living face.

And the maid entered the canoe with the Po-Ahtun-ho and the Te-hua boatmen plied the paddles so that the crossing was quick, and all the others followed, and some men swam, and the Castilian horses and riders went also. And a second priest of the Po-Ahtun went with a white robe, and a good knife in his girdle. Tahn-te was called "sorcerer" by the wise men of iron, and it was best to trust not entirely to the heart of a sorcerer. He was plainly bewitched, and his heart might grow weak when he looked on the altar, and looked on the maid!

Tahn-te pointed to the upturned face of the G.o.d-Maid on the bosom of the south mesa.

"That was my altar to you all the days of my boyhood," he said softly, "there I met the G.o.d thoughts; there were the serpents tamed. It is the G.o.d-Maid of this valley and her face is ever to the sun. To her was my love given while I waited for your face! Listen!--and know this is so--and sing now the song of the Sun G.o.d and the earth's end."

With her eyes on his she chanted the words, and the Te-hua oarsmen dared not look on her face for very terror. The words they did not know--but no victim had ever yet gone singing to that altar.

"_In my thoughts I approach--I approach!

The Sun G.o.d approaches, Earth's end he approaches.

Estsan-atlehi approaches In old age walking The beautiful trail.

In my thoughts I approach--I approach!

The Moon G.o.d approaches Earth's end he approaches--_"

The canoe touched the sh.o.r.e, and the maid clasped the hand of Tahn-te and went over the sand lightly as a child who wanders through flower fields to a festival. He looked in her eyes and knew that the magic of the sacred seed was strong, and that the hand of no man could hurt her.

"Your trail is to the hills," he said.--"To the heart of the forest you go. Where the bluebird builds her nest--there you build the nest where we meet again. You see your wings in my hair? I wear both of them that they lead me again to your trail when the time comes. When the bluebird calls to her mate, I will hear your voice in that call.

When the anger of the G.o.ds has pa.s.sed, I will find you again in the Light beyond the light at the trail's end."

"At the trail's end," she said as a child repeats a lesson--"I build the nest for you, and sing the bluebird song for you at the trail's end."

"Thanks to the G.o.ds that it will be so," he said, and sprinkled prayer meal to the four ways.--"The Spirit People stand witness! The G.o.ds will be good in that Afterworld;--I will find you again."

They had reached the edge of the mesa--and the pale yellow of the sky had been covered with a weird murky red. For all the many followers, a strange hush was on the height, and far in the south low thunder was heard. The same still, heavy air of the night was brooding over the world, and long rays of copper and dull red were flung like banners to the zenith. Each man's eyes looked strange questions into the eyes of his neighbor, and the Te-hua men came not close to the witch maid, and the man at the altar.

"_The Sun G.o.d approaches--approaches!

Earth's end he approaches!_"

They could hear the low chant of her witch song, and they could see Tahn-te offer prayer meal to the Spirit People of the four ways, and to the upper and the nether world. At his word she laid herself on the rock, and no other priest was asked to help, or to hold her, and that was a sacrifice such as had never been seen in that place.