by Wilbur Smith
‘Loneliness erodes the soul as water wears away rocks.’ Lusima nodded.
‘Will I ever be alone again, Mama?’
‘You wish to know what the future holds, Maua?’ she asked.
Eva nodded. ‘Your son M’bogo says that you can see what lies ahead for all of us.’
‘He is a man, and men try to make all things simple. The future is not simple. Look up!’ Eva raised her head obediently and gazed at the sky. ‘What do you see, my flower?’
‘I see clouds.’
‘What shape and colour are they?’
‘They are many shapes and shades, changing even as I watch them.’
‘Thus it is with the future. It takes many shapes and it changes as the winds of our lives blow.’
‘So you cannot foretell what will become of M’bogo and me?’ Eva’s disappointment was so childlike that Lusima laughed.
‘That is not what I said. Sometimes the dark curtains open and I am given a glimpse of what lies ahead, but I cannot see all of it.’
‘Look into my future, please, Mama. Tell me if you find a glimpse of happiness there,’ Eva asked eagerly.
‘We have been together only a short time. As yet, I know little about you. When I have looked deeper into your soul, perhaps I will be able to scry your future better.’
‘Oh, Mama! That would make me so happy.’
‘Do you think so? Perhaps I will come to love you so well that I will not want to tell you what I see.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘The future is not always kind. If I see things that would make you sad and unhappy would you want to hear them?’
‘All I want is that you tell me M’bogo and I will be together for ever.’
‘If I said that will not be, what would you do?’
‘I would die,’ Eva said.
‘I do not want you to die. You are too lovely and good. So if I see in the future that the two of you will be parted, shall I lie to you to keep you from dying?’
‘You make it very difficult, Mama.’
‘Life is difficult. Nothing is certain. We must take the days allotted to us and make of them what we can.’ She studied Eva’s face, saw the pain and took pity on her. ‘This much I can tell you. As long as you are together, you and M’bogo will know true happiness, for your hearts are linked like these two plants.’ She laid her hand on an ancient vine that twisted around the trunk of the council tree like a python. ‘See how the vine has become part of the tree. See how the one supports the other. You cannot separate them. That is the way it is with the two of you.’
‘If you see dangers that lie ahead for us, will you not warn us? I beg you, Mama.’
Lusima shrugged. ‘Perhaps, if I think it will be to your advantage to know. But now the sun has reached its noon. We have talked the morning away. Go now, my children. Take what remains of the day and be happy together. We will talk again tomorrow.’
So the days passed, and under Lusima’s gentle counsel and guidance, Eva’s fears and uncertainties gradually faded and she entered a realm of happiness and contentment so complete that she had never suspected its existence.
‘I knew we had to come here, but I never knew why until now. These days spent on Lonsonyo Mountain are more precious than diamonds. No matter what happens they will be with us for ever,’ she told Leon.
Five days after their arrival at the village Ishmael brought the horses up the southern pathway from the plain below. It had taken him that long to circle the base of the mountain. He was appalled to find Eva barefoot and wearing a shuka. ‘A great and beautiful lady like you should not be dressed like one of these infidel savages,’ he reprimanded her sternly in French.
‘This shuka is so comfortable and, besides, my old clothes have fallen into rags,’ she told him.
He looked distraught. ‘At least, I will be able to feed you civilized food, not this swill that the Masai eat.’
The days flew by in such a dreamlike blur that they lost track of time. Like two children, they wandered hand in hand through the enchanted forests of Lonsonyo Mountain. With each small delight they came across - a tiny sunbird of brilliant plumage or a monstrous horned beetle whose armoured carapace clicked as it marched - the worries of the outside world receded further from their minds. When first Leon had met her she had hidden her true nature behind a mask of solemnity. She had seldom smiled and almost never laughed. But now that they were alone and safe on the mountain she doffed the mask and allowed her real self to shine through. For Leon the laughter and smiles enhanced her beauty a hundredfold. They spent every moment they could together. Even the briefest separation was painful to them both. Eva’s first waking thought each morning was, Otto is dead and nobody knows where we are hiding. We are safe and nobody can come between us.
Even when Ishmael’s carefully hoarded store of coffee was exhausted, they laughed when he told them the tragic news. ‘It is no fault of yours, O Beloved of the Prophet. It is a sin that shall not be written against your name in the golden book,’ Leon comforted him, but Ishmael went away muttering dolefully.
The people of the village watched them fondly, smiling when they passed, bringing Eva small presents, sticks of sugarcane, bouquets of wild orchid blooms, fans of pretty feathers or bead bracelets they had woven. Lusima revelled in their love almost as much as they did. She spent hours with them each day, sharing her wisdom and understanding of life.
The ‘little rains’ began and they lay in each other’s arms at night, listening to the drumming on the roof of their hut, whispering and laughing, warm and safe in their love. Then the rains ceased and Leon realized that almost two months had passed since they had climbed the pathway beside the waterfall to the summit. When he pointed this out to her she smiled comfortably. ‘Why do you bother to tell me, Badger? Time means nothing, just as long as we are together. What are we going to do today?’
‘Loikot knows where there is an eagles’ breeding site in the cliffs on the far side of the mountain not far from Sheba’s Falls. Generation after generation of the great birds have nested there since as far back as men can remember. At this season there will be chicks in the nest. Would you like to visit it and see the young ones?’
‘Oh, yes, please, Badger!’ She clapped her hands, as excited as a child at the promise of a birthday party. ‘Then on our way back we can go to the falls and swim once again in those enchanted waters.’
‘That will make it a long trek. We’ll be away for several days.’
‘We have all the time in the world.’
It took them three days of easy travel to cross the mountain at its widest point, for the gorges were deep and rugged, the forest was dense and there were delightful distractions at every turn of the path. But at last they sat on the brink of the precipice and watched a pair of eagles sailing in elegant flight far below them, circling their eyrie calling to each other and their young ones in the nest, bringing in the carcasses of their prey to feed them, hyrax and hares, monkeys and game birds dangling from their talons.
However, the eyrie was hidden by the overhang of the rocky buttress on which they sat. Eva was disappointed. ‘I wanted to see the chicks. Surely Loikot knows of a vantage-point from which we can see down into the nest. Won’t you ask him, Badger?’ She sat impatiently listening to the long discussion in Maa of which she understood not a single word.
At last Leon turned back to her with a shake of the head. ‘He says there is a way down the cliff, but it is hard and dangerous.’
‘Ask him to show it to us. He brought us all this way with a promise that we would see the chicks, and I’m going to hold him to his word.’ Loikot led them along the edge of the cliff to a crack in the rock. He laid aside his assegai and crept into it. The opening was just wide enough to admit Leon’s larger frame. He propped the Holland rifle against a tree-trunk and wriggled down into the opening. Eva tucked up the skirts of her shuka between her long legs and followed him.
In semi-darkness they descended an almos
t vertical natural shaft lit by only a feeble reflection of light from the surface, just enough for them to make out the hand and footholds. Then, gradually, light began to filter up from below, and at last they crawled through a narrow gap on to an open ledge. The shaft had brought them out below the overhang of the buttress. However, there was still no sight of the eyrie, but the eagles had seen them appear on the ledge above their nest and screeched with anger and alarm, flying in closer to glare at them with fierce yellow eyes.
The ledge was narrow and precarious, so they edged along it with their backs to the cliff wall until, suddenly, it widened. Loikot stretched out flat on the rock and peered over the edge, then grinned at Eva, beckoning her to join him. She crawled cautiously to his side and looked down. ‘There they are!’ she exclaimed with delight. ‘Oh, Badger, come and see them.’
He lay beside her and placed one arm around her shoulders. The nest was no more than thirty feet directly below, a massive platform of dried sticks wedged into a cleft in the rock. The top was dish-shaped and lined with green leaves and reeds. In the centre of the indentation two eaglets crouched on wobbly legs, so young they could barely hold their heads upright. Their huge beaks were out of proportion to their fluffy grey bodies, and they had not yet shed the hooks on the tips with which they had battered their way through the tough shell of the egg as they hatched.
‘They’re so adorably ugly. Look at those big milky eyes.’ Eva laughed, then ducked with alarm as the air around their heads was disrupted and filled with the sound of great wings. Shrieking with outrage, first the female and then the male eagle dived in at them, talons extended, ready to defend their nest and the young birds in it.
‘Keep your head down,’ Leon warned, ‘or those talons will take it off for you. Keep still. Don’t move.’ They pressed themselves to the rocky floor of the ledge. Gradually the fury and deadly intent of the eagles abated, as they realized there was no direct threat to their brood. At last the female returned to the nest and settled upon it, furling her wings and standing over her chicks protectively before tucking them away beneath her breast. On the ledge above them Leon and Eva lay patiently making no movement, and the birds relaxed further, until at last they ignored the human presence and resumed their natural behaviour.
It was a fascinating experience to be allowed so close to such magnificent wild creatures and observe them caring for and feeding their young. Leon and Eva spent the rest of the day on the ledge. When at last daylight was fading and it was time to go, they left reluctantly. In the rudimentary overnight shelter that Loikot and Manyoro had built for them they lay under a single blanket.
‘I will never forget this day,’ Eva whispered.
‘Every day we spend together is unforgettable.’
‘You will never take me away from Africa, will you?’
‘This is our home,’ he agreed.
‘When I watched those funny little eaglets I had the strangest sensation.’
‘It’s a common female affliction, known as becoming broody,’ he teased her.
‘We will have babies of our own, won’t we, Badger?’
‘Do you mean right this moment?’
‘Well, I don’t know about that,’ she conceded, ‘but perhaps we could start practising. What do you think?’
‘I think you’re a ruddy genius, woman. Let’s waste no more time in idle chatter.’
Their return to Lusima’s village was a happy homecoming. The herd-boys spied them from afar and shouted the news to the villagers, who trooped out to welcome them with singing and laughter. Lusima was waiting for them under the council tree. She embraced Eva and made her sit on her right-hand side. Leon took the stool on her other side and helped with translation when their intuitive understanding faltered. Suddenly he broke off in the middle of a sentence and raised his head to sniff the air. ‘What on earth is that wonderful aroma?’ he demanded, of no one in particular.
‘Coffee!’ cried Eva. ‘Wonderful, glorious coffee!’ Ishmael came towards them with a pair of mugs in one hand and a steaming coffee pot in the other. His grin was triumphant. ‘You are a worker of miracles!’ Eva greeted him in French. ‘That is the only thing I needed to make my life perfect.’
‘I have also brought you many of your beautiful clothes and shoes so that you no longer have to wear the garments of the infidel.’ He indicated her shuka with a grimace of the deepest disapproval and disgust.
‘Ishmael!’ Leon’s voice was sharp with alarm. ‘While we were away, did you go down to Percy’s Camp to fetch the coffee and the memsahib’s clothes?’
‘Ndio, Bwana.’ Ishmael grinned with pride. ‘I rode hard on my mule and I was there and back in only four days.’
‘Did anybody see you? Who else was at the camp?’
‘Only Bwana Hennie.’
‘Did you tell him where we are?’ Leon demanded.
‘Yes, he asked me,’ Ishmael answered. Then his face fell as he saw Leon’s expression. ‘Did I do wrong, Effendi?’
Leon turned away as he struggled to suppress his anger and the dread that had engulfed him. When he turned back his face was blank. ‘You did what you thought was right, Ishmael. The coffee is excellent, as good as any you’ve ever brewed.’ But Ishmael knew him too well to be taken in by his words. It was not clear to him how he had erred, but he was stricken with guilt as he backed away to his kitchen hut.
Eva was watching Leon. Her face was pale and her hands were clenched in her lap. ‘Something dreadful has happened, hasn’t it?’ Her voice was soft and calm but her eyes were dark with worry.
‘We cannot stay here any longer,’ Leon told her grimly, and turned to look into the west where the sun was already on the horizon. ‘We should leave at once, but it’s already too late. I don’t want to chance the track down the mountain in the dark. We’ll go at first light tomorrow.’
‘What is it, Badger?’ Eva reached across to take his hand.
‘While we were at the eagle’s nest, Ishmael went down to Percy’s Camp to fetch supplies. Hennie du Rand was there. Ishmael told him where we are. Hennie has no idea of the delicate circumstances that have overtaken you and me. We cannot chance it, Eva. If Graf Otto is alive he will come after you.’
‘He is dead, my darling.’
‘So you dreamed, but we cannot be sure. Then there are your masters in Whitehall. If they find out where you are, they will not let you go. We must run.’
‘Where to?’
‘If we can get to one of the aircraft, we can fly across the German border to Dar es Salaam, and from there take a ship to South Africa or Australia. Once we get there we can change our names and disappear.’
‘We don’t have any money,’ she pointed out.
‘Percy left me enough. Will you come with me?’
‘Of course,’ she replied, without hesitation. ‘From now on, wherever you go, I go also.’
Leon smiled at her and said simply, ‘My heart, my dear heart.’ Then he turned back to Lusima. ‘Mama, we have to leave.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed at once. ‘This I have foreseen, but I could not tell it to you.’
Somehow Eva understood what Lusima had said. ‘Have you been given a glimpse beyond the curtain, Mama?’ she demanded eagerly.
Lusima nodded, so she went on, ‘Will you tell us what you have seen?’
‘It is not much, and little of it is what you want to hear, my flower.’
‘I will hear it nonetheless. You may have something to tell us that will be our salvation.’
Lusima sighed. ‘As you wish, but I have warned you.’ She clapped her hands and her girls came running to kneel before her. Lusima gave them their orders and they scampered away to her hut. By the time they returned, carrying the paraphernalia Lusima used for divination, the sun had set and the brief twilight was fading into night. The girls laid her tools close to Lusima’s hand, then built up the small fire. She opened one of the small leather bags and scooped from it a handful of dried herbs. Muttering an incantation, she threw
it into the fire, and it burned up in a puff of acrid smoke. One of the girls brought a clay pot and placed it on the fire in front of her. It was filled to the brim with a liquid that reflected the flames like a mirror.
‘Come and sit beside me.’ She motioned to Eva and Leon. They formed a circle with her around the pot. Lusima dipped a horn cup into the liquid and offered it to each in turn. They swallowed a mouthful of the bitter brew, and Lusima drank what was left.
‘Look into the mirror,’ she ordered, and they stared into the pot. Their own images wavered on the surface, but neither saw anything beyond that. The liquid began to bubble and boil as Lusima chanted softly, and her eyes glazed as she stared into the rising clouds of steam. When at last she spoke her voice was harsh and strained: ‘There are two enemies, a man and a woman. They seek to sever the chain of love that binds you to each other.’
Eva gave a small cry of pain, but then was silent.
‘I see that the woman has a silver flag on her head.’
‘Mrs Ryan in London,’ Eva whispered, when Leon translated this to her. ‘She has a streak of silver in the front of her hair.’
‘The man has only one hand.’
They looked across the pot at each other, but Leon shook his head. ‘I don’t know who that might be. Tell us, Mama, will these two enemies succeed in their designs?’
Lusima moaned as though in pain. ‘I can see no further. The sky is filled with smoke and flame. The whole world is burning. It is obscure, but I see a great silver fish above the flames that brings hope of love and fortune.’
‘What fish is this, Mama?’ Leon asked.
‘Please explain your vision to us,’ Eva pleaded, but Lusima’s eyes had cleared and focused again.
‘There is no more,’ she said regretfully. ‘I warned you that little of it is what you wanted to hear, my flower.’ She reached forward and overturned the clay pot, spilling its contents on to the fire, extinguishing it in a cloud of hissing steam. ‘Go to your rest now. This may be your last night on Lonsonyo Mountain for a long, long while.’