CHAPTER XXIII
HOW JUANNA CONQUERED NAM
Still the silence endured, and still the moonlight grew, creeping lowerand lower till it shone upon the face of the seething waters, and,except in the immediate shadow of the walls, all the amphitheatre wasfull of it.
Then the voice of Nam spoke again from far away, and Leonard looked tosee whence he spoke. Now he saw. Nam, attended by three priests, wasperched like an eagle on the left palm of the colossus, and from thisdizzy platform he addressed the multitude. Looking across the breast ofthe statue, Leonard could just see the outstretched arm and the fierceface of the high priest as he glared down upon the people.
"Hearken, ye Dwellers in the Mist, Children of the Snake! Ye have seenyour ancient gods, your Father and your Mother, come back to rule youand to lead you on through war to peace, to wealth, to power, and toglory. Ye see them now by that light and in that place wherein only itis lawful that ye should look upon them. Say, do ye believe and do yeaccept them? Answer, every one of you, answer with your voice!"
Then a mighty roar of sound went up from the gathered thousands, a roarthat shaped itself into the words:
"We believe and we accept."
"It is well," said Nam when the tumult had died away. "Hearken, ye highgods! O Aca! and O Jal! Bend down your ears and deign to hearken to yourpriest and servant, speaking in the name of your children, the Peopleof the Mist. Be ye kings to reign over us! Accept the power and thesacrifice, and sit in the place of kings. We give you rule through allthe land; the life of every dweller in the land is yours; yours aretheir cattle and their goats, their city and their armies. For you thealtars shall run red, the cry of the victim shall be music in your ears.Ye shall look upon him whom long ago ye set to guard the secret awfulplace, and he shall crawl beneath your feet. As ye ruled our fathers soye shall rule us, according to the customs which ye laid down for ever.Glory be to you, O Aca, and to you, O Jal! immortal kings for evermore!"
And in a shout that rent the skies the great audience echoed: "Glory beto you, O Aca, and to you, O Jal, immortal kings for evermore!"
Then Nam spoke again, saying: "Bring forth the virgin, that fair maidwho is destined to the Snake, that he may look upon her and accept heras his wife. Bring her forth also who, twelve months gone, was vowed inmarriage to the Shape of stone, that she may bid her lord farewell."
As he spoke there was a stir behind the idol, and presently from eachside of it a woman was led forward by two priests on to the little spaceof rock between its feet and the edge of the gulf, and placed one to theright of the altar, and one to the left. Both these women were tall andlovely with the dark and somewhat terrifying beauty of the People of theMist, but there the resemblance between them ended. She to the right wasnaked except for a girdle of snake-skin and the covering of her abundanthair, which was crowned with a wreath of red lilies similar to theflower that the priests had given to Juanna. She to the left, on thecontrary, was clothed in a black robe round which was broidered theshape of a blood-red snake, whose head rested upon her breast. Leonardnoticed that the appearance of this woman was that of extreme terror,for she shrank and trembled, whereas that of the flower-crowned bridewas jubilant and even haughty.
For a moment the two women stood still while the people gazed upon them.Then, at a signal from Nam, she who was crowned with flowers was ledbefore the altar, and thrice she bowed the knee to the idol, or ratherto Otter who sat upon it. Now all eyes were fixed on the dwarf, whostared at the girl but made no sign, which was not wonderful, seeingthat he had no inkling of the meaning of the ceremony. As it chanced,he could not have acted more wisely, at least in the interests of thebride, for here, as elsewhere, silence was held to give consent.
"Behold, the god accepts," cried Nam, "the beauty of the maid ispleasing in his eyes. Stand aside, Saga, the blessed, that the peoplemay look upon you and know you. Hail to you, wife of the Snake!"
Smiling triumphantly the girl moved back to her place by the altar, andturned her proud face to the people. Then the multitude shouted:
"Hail to you, bride of the Snake! Hail to you, the blessed, chosen ofthe god!"
While the tumult still lasted, the woman who was clad in the black robewas led forward, and when it had died away she also made her obeisancebefore the idol.
"Away with her that she may seek her Lord in his own place," cried Nam.
"Away with her, her day is done," echoed the multitude. Then, beforeJuanna could interfere, before she could even speak, for, be itremembered, she alone understood all that was said, the two priests whoguarded the doomed woman rent the robe from her and with one swing oftheir strong arms hurled her backwards far into the pool of seethingwaters.
She fell with a shriek and lay floating on their surface, flung this wayand that by the eddy of the whirlpool just where the moonlight beat mostbrightly. All who could of the multitude bent forward to see her end,and overcome by a fearful fascination, Leonard threw himself on hisface, and, craning his head over the stone of the idol's hand, watchedalso, for the girl's struggling shape was almost immediately beneathhim. Another minute and he would have foregone the hope of winning thetreasure which he had come so far to seek, not to have yielded to theimpulse.
For as he stared, the waters beneath the feet of the idol were agitatedas a pond is agitated by the rush of a pike when he dashes at his prey.Then for an instant the light gleamed upon a dull enormous shape, andsuddenly the head of a crocodile reared itself out of the pool. The headof a crocodile, but of such a crocodile as he had never heard or dreamedof, for this head alone was broader than the breast of the biggest man,its dull eyes were the size of a man's fist, its yellow fangs were likethe teeth of a lion, and from its lower jaw hung tentacles or lumpsof white flesh which at that distance gave it the appearance of beingbearded like a goat. Also, the skin of this huge reptile, which couldnot have measured less than fifty feet in length by four feet in depth,was here and there corroded into rusty excrescences, as though somefungus or lichen had grown upon it like grey moss on an ancient wall.Indeed, its appearance seemed to point to extreme antiquity.[*]
[*] Crocodiles are proverbially long-lived, but Leonard could neverdiscover the age of this particular reptile. On enquiry he was able totrace it back for three hundred yards, and tradition said that it hadalways dwelt among the People of the Mist from "the beginning of time."At least it was very old, and under the name of the Snake had been anobject of worship for many generations. How it came among the People ofthe Mist is difficult to say, for no other specimen appeared to exist inthe country. Perhaps it was captured in some distant age and placed inthe cave by the priests, to figure as an incarnation of the Snake thatwas the object of their worship.
Hearing the disturbance in the water, the reptile had emerged from thecave where it dwelt beneath the feet of the idol, to seek its accustomedfood, which consisted of the human victims that were cast to it atcertain intervals. It reared its hideous head and glared round, then ofa sudden the monster and the victim vanished together into the depths.
Sick with horror Leonard drew himself back into a sitting posture, andglanced up at Juanna. She was crouched in her ivory chair overcome, andher eyes were closed, either through faintness or to shut out the sightof dread. Then he looked down at Otter. The dwarf, staring fixedly atthe water, sat still as the stone effigy that supported him. Evidentlyin all his varied experience he had seen no such thing as this.
"The Snake has accepted the sacrifice," cried Nam again; "the Snake hastaken her who was his bride to dwell with him in his holy house. Let theofferings be completed, for this is but the first-fruit. Take Olfan whowas king, and offer him up. Cast down the white servants of the Mother,and offer them up. Seize the slaves who stood before her in the plain,and offer them up. Lead forth the captives, and offer them up. Let thesacrifice of the Crowning of Kings be accomplished according to custom,that the god whose name is Jal may be appeased; that he may listento the pleadings of the Mother, that the sun may shine upon us, thatfruit
fulness may fill the land and peace be within its gates."
Thus he cried while Leonard felt his blood turn cold and his hair riseupon his head, for though he could not understand the words, he guessedtheir purport and his instinct told him that a great danger threatenedthem. He looked at the two priests who stood by, and they glaredhungrily on him in answer. Then his courage came back to him; at leasthe had his rifle and would fight for his life. It must go hard if hecould not put a bullet through one or both of them before they got ahold of him.
Meanwhile the priests below had seized the king Olfan, whose giant formthey were dragging towards the stone of sacrifice. But of a sudden, forthe first time Juanna spoke, and a deep silence fell upon the temple andall within it.
"Hearken, People of the Mist," she said; and her voice falling from thatgreat height seemed small and far away, although so clear that everyword was audible in the stillness of the night.
"Hear me, People of the Mist, and ye, priests of the Snake. Aca is comeagain and Jal is come again, and ye have given them back their ruleafter many generations, and in their hands lies the life of every one ofyou. As the old tradition told of them so they are, the Mother and theChild, and the one is clothed with beauty, the symbol of life and of thefruitful earth; and the other is black and hideous, the symbol of deathand the evil that walks upon the earth. And ye would do sacrifice to Jalthat he may be appeased according to the ancient law, and listen to thepleading of the Mother that fruitfulness may fill the land. Not so shallJal be appeased, and not because of the sacrifice of men shall Aca pleadwith him that prosperity may reign in the land.
"Behold, the old law is done away, and we give you a new law. Now is thehour of reconciliation, now Life and Death walk hand in hand, and thehearts of Aca and Jal have grown gentle through the ages, and theyno longer crave the blood of men as an offering to their majesty.Henceforth ye shall bring them fruits and flowers, and not the lives ofmen. See, in my hand I hold winter lilies, red and white, blood-redthey are and white as snow. Now the red flower, token of sacrifice andslaughter, I crush and cast away, but the white bloom of love and peaceI set upon my breast. It is done, gone is the old law; see, it fallsinto the place of the Snake, its home; but the new law blossoms abovemy heart and in it. Shall it not be so, my children, People of the Mist?Will ye not accept my mercy and my love?"
The multitude watched the red bloom as, bruised and broken, through thelight and through the shadow, they fell slowly to the seething surfaceof the pool; then it looked up like one man and saw the white lily setupon Juanna's whiter breast. They saw, and, moved by a common impulse,they rose with a sound like the rush of the wind and shouted:
"Gone is the day of blood and sacrifice, come is the day of peace! Wethank you, Mother, and we take your mercy and your love."
Then they were silent, and again there was a sound like that of thewind, as all their thousands sank back to the seats of stone.
Now Nam spoke again in a voice of fury that rang through the still airlike a clarion.
"What is this that my ears hear?" he cried. "Are ye mad, O ye Dwellersin the Mist? Or does the Mother speak with a charmed voice? Shall theancient worship be changed in an hour? Nay, not the gods themselves canalter their own worship. Slay on, ye priests, slay on, or ye yourselvesshall die the dreadful death."
The priests below heard, and seizing the struggling king they cast himwith difficulty down upon the stone.
"Leonard, Leonard," cried Juanna in English, addressing him for thefirst time by his Christian name, as even then he noticed, but lookingstraight before her that none might guess to whom she spoke. "Thesepriests are going to kill you and all of us, except Otter and myself. Ifyou can, when you see me point with my hand, shoot that man who is aboutto sacrifice the king. Make no answer."
Leonard heard and understood all. Resting his back firmly against thethumb of the statue, he shifted his position a little so that the groupbelow him came within his line of sight, and waited, watching Juanna,who now was speaking again in the language of the People of the Mist.
"This I promise you, ministers of blood," she said, "if ye obey me notye shall indeed die the dreadful death, the death unknown. Hearken, myservant, who are named Deliverer," and she looked down upon Leonard,"and do my bidding. If one of these shall dare to lift his hand againstyonder man, slay him swiftly as you know how."
"Smite on," screamed Nam, "smite on and fear not."
Most of the priests drew back affrighted; but one ruffian lifted hisknife, and at that moment Juanna pointed with her hand. Then Leonard,stepping forward, covered the priest's great breast with his rifle assurely as the uncertain light would allow. Unconscious of his danger,the executioner muttered an invocation. Now the knife was about to fallupon the throat of Olfan, when fire and smoke sprang out far above him,the rifle rang, and, shot through the heart, the priest leaped high intothe air and fell dead. Terror seized the witnesses of this unaccustomedand, to them, most awful sight.
"The gods speak with flame and thunder," one cried, "and death is in theflame."
"Silence, dogs!" screamed Nam, "ye are bewitched. Ho! you that stand onhigh, cast down the wizard who is named Deliverer, and let us see whowill deliver him from death upon the stone."
Then one of the guards who stood by him made a movement to grasp Leonardand throw him down, but the other was terrified and could not stir. Thefirst man stretched out his arm, but before it so much as touched itsaim he himself was dead, for, seeing his purpose, Leonard had lifted therifle, and once more its report rang through the temple. Suddenly thepriest threw his arms wide, then fell backwards, and with a mighty rushdived into sheer space to crash lifeless on the stone floor below, wherehe lay, his head and hands hanging over the edge of the pool.
Now for the first time Otter's emotions overcame him. He stood up on theknees of the dwarf, and shaking the sceptre in his hand, he pointedwith it to the dead men on the paving below, at the same time crying instentorian tones:
"Well done, Baas, well done! Now tumble the old one yonder off hisperch, for I weary of his howlings."
This speech of Otter's produced even a greater effect on the spectators,if that were possible, than the mysterious death of the priests. Thathe whose name was Silence should cry aloud in a strange tongue, ofwhich they understood no single word, was a dread and ominous thingthat showed his anger to be deep. But Leonard took no heed, he was tooengaged in covering the second guard with the barrel of his repeater.This man, however, had no liking for such a dreadful death. Swiftly heflung himself on to his knees, imploring Leonard to spare him in humbleaccents, and with gestures that spoke more plainly than his words.
Taking advantage of the pause, again Juanna cried aloud: "Ye see, Peopleof the Mist, I make no idle threats. Where are they now, the disobedientones? The tongue of flame has licked them and they are dead, and as theyhave perished, so shall all perish who dare to gainsay my word, or theword of Jal. Ye know us for gods and ye have crowned us kings, and godsand kings we are indeed. Yet fear not, for on the rebellious only shallour anger fall. Answer you, Nam. Will you do our bidding? Or will youdie also as your servants died?"
Nam glanced round desperately. He looked down on the multitude and foundno help there. Long had they cowered beneath him; now hope was born intheir breasts, and in the presence of a power greater than his, ifonly for a little while, they broke his yoke and the yoke of their redsuperstitions. He looked at the company of priests; their heart wasout of them, they were huddled together like knots of frightened sheep,staring at the corpses of their two companions. Then he bethought himof Otter. Surely there was refuge in the god of blood and evil; and hecried to him:
"The Mother has spoken, but the Mother is not the child. Say, O Jal,what is your command?"
Otter made no answer, because he did not understand; but Juanna repliedswiftly:
"I am the mouth of Jal, as Jal is my hand. When I speak I speak thewords of Jal. Do his bidding and mine, or die, you disobedient servant."
This was the e
nd of it. Nam was beaten; for the first time in his lifehe must own a master, and that master the gods whom he had himselfdiscovered and proclaimed.
"So be it," he said suddenly. "The old order passes, and the new ordercomes. So be it! Let your will be done, O Aca and O Jal. I have strivenfor your glory, I have fed your altars, and ye threaten me with deathand put away my gift. Priests, set free that man who was king. People,have your way, forget your ancient paths, pluck the white flower ofpeace--and perish! I have said."
So he spoke from on high, shaking his clenched fists above his hoaryhead, and was gone. Then the executioners unbound the limbs of theex-king, and he rose from the stone of death.
"Olfan," cried Juanna from on high, "you that were the king, we, whohave taken your kingship, give you life, and liberty, and honour; seethat in reward you serve us well, lest again you should lie upon thatbed of stone. Do you swear fealty to us?"
"For ever and for ever. I swear it by your holy heads," answered Olfan.
"It is well. Now under us once more we give you command of the armies ofthis people, our children. Summon your captains and your soldiers. Bidthose that brought us hither lead us back whence we came, and there setguards about us, so that none trouble us. For you, our people, for thistime fare you well. Go in peace to dwell in peace beneath the shadow ofour strength."
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