The Flute of the Gods Part 40

"No hand but mine shall touch you:--O Bird of my Wilderness!" he said.

"In the Light beyond the light I wait for you at the trail's end,"

she said, and laughed that his hand rested on her breast.

And the sun, blood red, came over the edge of the world, and Don Ruy cried aloud at the lifted hand of Tahn-te, and the gleam of the white flint knife.

But the guard closed in, and one of his own men caught him, and asked for pardon afterwards, and when he could again see the altar, the knife was red, and a heart was held outward to the sun that looked like the flame of burning worlds.

And a long, shivering, high keyed chant of the Te-hua people went upwards to the sky, that the G.o.ds might know they were witness. But in the midst of it the rumbling as of thunder was under their feet and the earth rocked. Sulphurous fumes came upwards from the long closed crevices of the solitary mesa; and to the south there was the crash as of falling worlds, and the great mesa of The Face lifted before their eyes, and settled again as a wave of the river lifts and breaks on the sh.o.r.e.

The chant of the sacrifice was silenced on their lips, and they fled downward at that sight, for the face of the G.o.d-Maid of the mesa no longer looked upwards to the sun! The outline of the brow, and the cheek, and the dainty woman's chin they could still see;--but the face was turned from them--turned toward the south--where the G.o.ds have ever gone in an evil season!

And only Don Ruy Sandoval saw the heart put back in the breast of the witch maid, and saw her wrapped in the white robe of the Po-Ahtun-ho, and saw the crevice where the Powers of the Underworld had opened a grave for her there on the Mesa of the Hearts.

And even he watched afar off; for there was that in the face of the Indian priest not to be understood by the white man who felt both pity and horror.

But he waited at the foot of the mesa, and held the canoe while the Po-Ahtun-ho, who had the logic of a white man, but the heart of an Indian, came down and entered it in silence, and as they crossed the river, stared as though scarcely seeing it, at The Face now turned southwards on the mesa.

"You--loved her?" said Don Ruy at last and something of the tone of a lover in the voice made Tahn-te close his eyes for a moment, and then look at the Castilian. He did not need to speak.

"Yet--you could do--_that_?"

"When the G.o.ds are angered against earth people, it is always the most precious they demand in sacrifice," he said. "When we make vows, the G.o.ds watch that we keep the vows--else we pay, Senor,--we pay--we pay!"

CHAPTER XXIII

THE PROPHECY OF TAHN-Te

Vague tremblings were still felt underfoot; the river was red with the clay of fallen banks. Smoke came from an ancient crater to the south, and also the east, and above the Mesa of the Hearts hung a cloud of volcanic dust, or a puff of smoke escaped from the red ash-covered fissures of the Underworld.

The women were gathered in terror in the court, but fled at the sight of Tahn-te. The anger of the earth was a thing of fear; but he was made see that there were worse things, and they covered the faces of their children that his eyes might not rest on them.

At the door of the council house he paused and Don Ruy beside him.

There was much talk. All the leading men were there, also Padre Vicente and Don Diego. They entered and there was silence.

No one offered to Tahn-te the pipe, and no one spoke to him.

The priest of the New G.o.d had told them things--he knew men's hearts--he had confessed so many!--He told them it was love for the witch maid by which the hand of the sorcerer kept every other man from touching her.--Even to take the heart from her breast, was an easier thing than to give her to the men of Te-gat-ha or of Povi-whah, who had looked on her face and asked for her, also he had wrapped about her his priestly robe of office before he laid her in the earth where Satan had broken the rock to reach for her!

Their sorcerer had traded his robe of office for the evil love of an enchantress:--never again must a G.o.d be offended by sound of his prayers!

And no one offered him the pipe, and no one spoke to him. He sat alone and looked with unseeing eyes at the weeping G.o.d on the altar.

Padre Vicente was seated in a place of honor. He looked at Tahn-te across the circle, and it was plain that the ways had changed since that other day of council when they had looked into each other's eyes, and the pagan had been the Ruler!

The right hand man of the governor arose. He was the oldest man, and he spoke.

"While the earth has trembled we have talked--and the trembling has grown little while we talked," he said. "It is plain that the G.o.ds have sent these signs that we may know our white brothers are indeed of the sun, and the symbol of the sun should be given to their keeping."

Another man arose.

"Also these new brothers will guard our fields from the Navahu and the Apache," he said. "We will have the tamed animals to ride, and our enemies will run before the fire sticks our brothers will give us."

The governor arose.

"Their G.o.d we are asked to take, and the G.o.d will do much for us if the sun symbol is given to their keeping. To us that seems good. The keepers of the sun symbol are two, and must be only two. Let it be for the ancients of the Po-Ahtun to say which man of their order gives up the secret, and makes medicine to forget it was ever in his keeping."

A man of the Po-Ahtun stood up and looked at Tahn-te.

"A man and a woman hold that secret of the symbol of the G.o.d," he said. "In our own kiva must that be spoken of, and not in another place. But the hearts of our people are gentle towards our new brothers who smell out witches, and do not mate with them! Our order will surely make medicine that the priest of the great king be given that secret to keep for us, and the Sun G.o.d will smile again on our land."

"It is well--it is very well," said all the council. And then there was a long silence, and they looked at Tahn-te until he arose.

"Not except I die for you, will you believe;--and even then you will not believe," he said in sadness. "You, my people, will accept the G.o.d of the gold hunters, and you will not see that it is only riches they want at your hands! In other years you will see. When the men of Te-hua work in chains for the men of Spain--and for the masters of the men of Spain!--Then in that day will the men of Te-hua tell to their sons these words--the words of the prophecy of Tahn-te!"

"We are much troubled, and our hearts are sad," said Po-tzah. "The magic of the white G.o.d is strong--and their priest has let our people see that it is strong. We do not want that magic against our children."

"Against your children will the magic come in the unborn years!" said Tahn-te with decision. "You will take the G.o.d of the white man because one more G.o.d, or one more baptism hurts no man. You will be trapped by fair words until I see the time when you can circle in the half of a day all the fields you dare plant for your own! The Flute of the G.o.ds will be silenced in the land. Your Te-hua daughters will be slaves for the men of the iron! The sacred places will be feeding lands for their animals. The Te-hua priests will wait the word of the white man ere they dare go to the groves of the sacred trees for the prayer wreaths to the G.o.ds!"

"The sacred pine must be sacred to all--always!" said Po-tzah.

"Not anything is sacred to the white men--I have looked in their books;--I, of all Te-hua men!"

Padre Vicente saw that the old magic of the talking leaves was potent;--and he arose without waiting for formal interpretation.

"He has looked in the books with the eyes of a sorcerer!" he declared, thus openly accusing Tahn-te before the council.--"He has read crooked things--and his words are the words of the man who mated with the witch in the hills!"

The council stared at this new sign that strong magic was with the priest of the robe--he was suddenly given knowledge of the tongue of Te-hua! Don Diego stared in wonder and crossed himself many times.

"It is a language infernal even to the people born to it," he gasped--"but that it should be given to one of us on the day when we are openly claimed as brothers is a special sign of grace. Thanks to the saints who sent it your way instead of mine!"

"This man has brought evil on you until the earth groans and turns,"

continued the Padre. "His mother of the caves is called 'holy' and he is called strong in the light of the sky:--But the sky is angry, and the Great G.o.d and his saints are angry that this sorcerer has cheated you so long with enchantments of the devil! Be strong for the saving of your own souls, and leave him to his witch mates and to his h.e.l.l!"

Even Don Ruy was astounded that the padre addressed the council in their own words--truly of all priests ever frocked he had found the one most subtle for the work in hand, for having gained the council--as it was easy to see he had gained them--Padre Vicente spoke in Castilian to Tahn-te.

"Yet does my office exact absolution for you, if you but crave it with a contrite heart," he said for the benefit of Don Ruy and Don Diego who listened. "You have worked for your devils, and they have deserted you, and stripped you of power. Acknowledge the true G.o.d and the saints will intercede for your favor."

Tahn-te looked at him, and his smile was strange.

"There was a man named Judas in your holy book," he said, "only silver did he crave for his work. You are greater than Judas; you work for the metal more precious. Is it thirty pieces you want ere you crucify me utterly?"

The figure of a woman darkened the entrance--a slender fragile figure who moved to him swiftly, and noted no others in the dusk of the council house. In Shufinne the word had reached her of the horror of Pu-ye--and she had come quickly as might be, and the sound of his living voice drew her breathless, but thankful to his side, and his arm circled her in support and in tenderness as he looked over her head to the Te-hua men of the council.