The People of the Mist Part 29

While the adventurers watched and wondered, the king or chief issued an order to his attendants, who ran to the corners of the square and called it aloud. Then he raised his great spear, and every captain blew upon his horn, making a deafening sound.

Now the enemy stood still for a while, staring towards the stones, and the three medicine-men drew near to the chief in the centre of the square and talked with him, as though debating what should be done.

"This is our chance," said Juanna excitedly. "If once they attack us it will be all over; a single volley of arrows would kill every one of us.

Come, Otter."

"No, no!" said Leonard. "I am afraid of your venturing yourself among those savages. The danger is too great."

"Danger! Can the danger be more than it is here? In a minute we may all be dead. Nonsense! I _will_ go! I know what to do and have made up my mind to it. Do not fear for me. Remember that, if the worst comes to the worst, I have the means to protect myself. You are not afraid to come, are you, Otter?"

"No, Shepherdess," said the dwarf. "Here all roads are alike."

Leonard thought awhile. Bitterly did he reproach himself in that he had been the cause of leading his ward into such a position. But now there was no help for it--she must go. And after all it could make no difference if she were killed or captured five minutes hence or half an hour later. But Francisco, who could not take such a philosophical view of the situation, implored her not to venture herself alone among those horrible savages.

"Go if you like, Juanna," said Leonard, not heeding the priest's importunities. "If anything happens I will try to avenge you before I follow. Go, but forgive me."

"What have I to forgive?" she said, looking at him with shining eyes.

"Did you not once dare a greater danger for me?"

"Yes, go, Shepherdess," said Soa, who till now had been staring with all her eyes at the three aged men in the centre of the square; "there is little to fear, if this fool of a dwarf will but keep his tongue silent.

I know my people, and I tell you that if you sing that song, and say the words which I have taught you, you and the black one here shall be proclaimed G.o.ds of the land. But be swift, for the soldiers are about to shoot."

As Soa spoke, Leonard saw that the conference in the square had come to an end. The messengers were calling commands to the captains, which the captains repeated to the soldiers, and then followed a mighty rattling of quivers. Another instant and the light shone upon many hundreds of arrow-heads, every one of which was pointed towards them.

Juanna saw also, and springing forward on to a rock, stood there for a moment in the full glare of the sun. Instantly a murmur went up from the host; a great voice called a command; the barbs of steel flickered like innumerable stars, and sank downwards.

Now Otter, naked except for his _moocha_, sprang on to the rock by Juanna's side, and the murmur of the soldiers of the Great People grew into a hoa.r.s.e roar of astonishment and dismay. Wonder had turned to fear, though why this mult.i.tude of warriors should fear a lovely white girl and a black dwarf was not apparent.

For a moment the ill-a.s.sorted pair stood together on the rock; then Juanna leapt to the plain, Otter following her. For twenty yards or so she walked in silence, holding the dwarf by the hand; then suddenly she burst into singing wild and sweet. This was the refrain of the sacred song which she sang in the ancient language of the People of the Mist, the tongue that Soa had taught her as a child:

"I do but sleep.

Have ye wept for me awhile?

Hush! I did but sleep.

I shall awake, my people!

I am not dead, nor can I ever die.

See, I have but slept!

See, I come again, made beautiful!

Have ye not seen me in the faces of the children?

Have ye not heard me in the voices of the children?

Look on me now, the sleeper arisen; Look on me, who wandered, whose name is the Dawning!

Why have ye mourned me, the sleeper awakened?"

Thus she sang, ever more sweetly and louder, till her voice rang through the still air like the song of a bird in winter. Hushed were the companies of the Great Men as she drew towards them with slow gliding steps--hushed with fear and wonder, as though her presence awoke a memory or fulfilled a promise.

Now she was in front of their foremost rank, and, halting there, was silent for a moment. Then she changed her song.

"Will ye not greet me, children of my children?

Have ye forgotten the promise of the dead?

Shall I return to the dream-land whence I wander?

Will ye refuse me, the Mother of the Snake?"

The soldiers looked upon one another and murmured each to each. Now she saw that they understood her words and were terror-stricken by them.

For another moment there was silence, then suddenly the three priests or medicine-men, who had drawn near together, pa.s.sed through the ranks and stood before her, accompanied by the warrior-chief.

Then one of them, the most aged, a man who must have numbered ninety years, spoke in the midst of an intense silence. To Juanna's joy, as they had understood her, so she understood him, for his language was the same that Soa taught her many years before, and in which, for the sake of practice, they had always conversed together for the last two months.

"Art thou woman, or spirit?" asked the ancient priest.

"I am both woman and spirit," she answered.

"And he with thee, he whom we know of"--went on the priest, pointing tremblingly to Otter--"is he G.o.d or man?"

"He is both G.o.d and man," she answered.

"And those yonder; who are they?"

"They are our ministers and servants, white for the white, and black for the black, the companions of our wanderings, men and not spirits."

The three priests consulted together, while the chief looked on Juanna's beauty with wondering eyes. Then the oldest of them spoke again:

"Thou tellest us in our own tongue of things that have long been hidden, though perchance they are remembered. Either, O Beautiful, thou hast learned these things and liest to us, and then food are ye all for the Snake against whom thou dost blaspheme, or ye are G.o.ds indeed, and as G.o.ds ye shall be worshipped. Tell us now thy name, and the name of yonder dwarf, of whom we know."

"I am named the Shepherdess of Heaven among men. He is named Otter, Dweller in the Waters, among men. Once we had other names."

"Tell us the other names, O Shepherdess."

"Once in the far past I was named Brightness, I was named Dawn, I was named Daylight. Once in the far past he was named Silence, he was named Terror, he was named Darkness. Yet at the beginning we had other names.

Perchance ye know them, Ministers of the Snake."

"Perchance we know them, O thou who art named Shepherdess of Heaven, O thou who wert named Brightness, and Dawn, and Daylight; O thou who art named Dweller in the Waters, and wert named Silence, and Terror, and Darkness! Perchance we know them, although they be known to few, and are never spoken, save in utter gloom and with hidden head. But do ye know them, those names of the beginning? For if ye know them not, O Beautiful, ye lie and ye blaspheme, and ye are food for the Snake."

"Seldom through all the years have those holy names been spoken save in utter darkness and with covered heads," Juanna answered boldly; "but now is the new hour, the hour of the coming, and now they shall be called aloud in the light of day from open lips and with uplifted eyes.

Hearken, Children of the Snake, these are the names by which we were known in the beginning: _Aca_ is my name, the Mother of the Snake. _Jal_ is he named, who is the Snake. Say, do ye know us now?"

As these words rang on her lips a groan of terror burst from every man who heard them. Then the aged priest cried aloud: "Down upon your faces, ye Children of the Snake; Worship, all ye People of the Spear, Dwellers in the Mist! Aca, the Queen immortal, has come home again: Jal, the G.o.d, has put on the flesh of men. Olfan, lay down thy kingship, it is his: ye priests, throw wide the temples, they are theirs. Worship the Mother, do honour to the G.o.d!"

The mult.i.tude heard and prostrated themselves like a single man, every one of them crying in a shout of thunder:

"Aca, the Queen of life, has come; Jal, the doom-G.o.d, has put on flesh.

Worship the Mother, do honour to the G.o.d!"

It was as though the army had suddenly been smitten with death, and of the hundreds there, Juanna and Otter alone were left standing. There was one exception, however, and that was Olfan, the warrior chief, who remained upon his feet, not seeming to relish the command to abdicate his authority thus brusquely in favour of a dwarf, were he G.o.d or man.

Otter, who was utterly bewildered, not comprehending a word of what had been said, and being unable to fathom the meaning of these strange antics, pointed at the chief with his spear by way of calling Juanna's attention to the fact that he was still standing. But the great man interpreted the action otherwise; evidently he thought that the newly arrived G.o.d was invoking destruction on him. His pride yielded to his superst.i.tion, and he sank to his knees also.

When the sound of the worshipping had pa.s.sed away Juanna spoke again, addressing the old priest.

"Rise, my child," she said--he might well have been her great-grandfather--"and rise all ye, soldiers of the Spear and servants of the Snake, and hear my words. Ye know me now, ye know me by the holy name, ye know me by the fashion of my face, and by the red stone that gleams upon my brow. In the beginning my blood fell yonder and was frozen into such gems as these, which to-day ye offer yearly to him who is my child, and slew me. Now the fate is accomplished and his reign is finished. I come with him indeed, and he is still a G.o.d, but he loves me as a son again, and bows the knee to me in service.