"Because she threatens to use her horns, Otter. She says that she will betray us all."
"Indeed, Baas! Well, it is in my mind that she has betrayed us already. Why do you not kill her and have done?"
"Because the Shepherdess here will have none of it," answered Leonard; "also I do not like the task."
"I will kill her if you wish, Baas," said Otter with another hiccough. "She is wicked, let her die."
"I have told you that the Shepherdess will have none of it. Listen: we must watch this woman; we will guard her to-day and you must take your turn to-night--it will keep you from your drink."
"Yes, Baas, I will watch, though it would be better to kill her at once, for thus we should be spared trouble."
Then they bound Soa securely and set her in a corner of the throne chamber, and all that day Leonard and Francisco mounted guard over her alternately. She made no resistance and said nothing; indeed it seemed as if a certain lassitude had followed her outbreak of rage, for she leaned her head back and slept, or made pretence to sleep.
The day passed uneventfully. Olfan visited them as usual, and told them that the excitement grew in the city. Indeed the unprecedented prolongation of the cold weather was driving the people into a state of superstitious fury that must soon express itself in violence of one form or another, and the priests were doing everything in their power to foment the trouble. No immediate danger was to be apprehended, however.
After sundown Leonard and Francisco went out into the courtyard to inspect the weather according to their custom. There was no sign of a change; the wind blew as bitterly as ever from the mountains, the sky was ashen, and the stars seemed far off and cold.
"Will it never break?" said Leonard with a sigh, and re-entered the palace, followed by Francisco.
Then, having solemnly cautioned Otter to keep a strict guard over Soa, they wrapped themselves up in their blankets in order to get some rest, which both of them needed sadly. Juanna had retired already, laying herself to sleep immediately on the other side of the curtain, for she feared to be alone; indeed they could see the tips of her fingers appearing beneath the bottom of the curtain.
Very soon they were asleep, for even terror must yield at last to the necessities of rest, and a dense silence reigned over the palace, broken only by the tramp of the sentries without.
Once Leonard opened his eyes, hearing something move, and instantly stretched out his hand to assure himself of Juanna's safety. She was there, for in her sleep her fingers closed instinctively upon his own. Then he turned round and saw what had disturbed him. In the doorway of the chamber stood the bride of the Snake, Saga, a lighted torch in one hand and a gourd in the other, and very picturesque that handsome young woman looked with her noble figure illumined by the glare of the torchlight.
"What is the matter?" said Leonard.
"It is all right, Baas," answered Otter; "the old woman here is as safe as a stone statue yonder and quite as quiet. Saga brings me some water, that is all. I bade her do so because of the fire that rages inside me and the pain in my head. Fear not, Baas, I do not drink beer when I am on guard."
"Beer or water, I wish you would keep your wife at a distance," answered Leonard; "come, tell her to be off."
Then he looked at his watch, the hands of which he could just distinguish by the distant glare of the torch, and went to sleep again. This took place at ten minutes past eleven. When he awoke again dawn was breaking and Otter was calling to him in a loud, hoarse voice.
"Baas," he said, "come here, Baas."
Leonard jumped up and ran to him, to find the dwarf on his feet and staring vacantly at the wall against which Soa had been sitting. She was gone, but there on the floor lay the ropes with which she had been tied.
Leonard sprang at Otter and seized him by the shoulders.
"Wretched man!" he cried, "you have been sleeping, and now she has escaped and we are lost."
"Yes, Baas, I have been sleeping. Kill me if you wish, for I deserve it. And yet, Baas, never was I more wide-awake in my life until I drank that water. I am not wont to sleep on guard, Baas."
"Otter," said Leonard, "that wife of yours has drugged you."
"It may be so, Baas. At least the woman has gone, and, say, whither has she gone?"
"To Nam, her father," answered Leonard.
CHAPTER XXVII
FATHER AND DAUGHTER
While Leonard and Otter spoke thus in their amazement, had they but known it, a still more interesting conversation was being carried on some three hundred yards away. Its scene was a secret chamber hollowed in the thickness of the temple wall, and the /dramatis personae/ consisted of Nam, the high priest, Soa, Juanna's servant, and Saga, wife of the Snake.
Nam was an early riser, perhaps because his conscience would not allow him to sleep, or because on this occasion he had business of importance to attend to. At any rate, on the morning in question, long before the break of dawn, he was seated in his little room alone, musing; and indeed his thoughts gave him much food for reflection. As has been said, he was a very aged man, and whatever may have been his faults, at least he was earnestly desirous of carrying on the worship of the gods according to the strict letter of the customs which had descended to him from his forefathers, and which he himself had followed all his life. In truth, from long consideration of them, their attributes, and the traditions concerning them, Nam had come to believe in the actual existence of these gods, although the belief was a qualified one and somewhat half-hearted. Or, to put it less strongly, he had never allowed his mind to entertain active doubt of the spiritual beings whose earthly worship was so powerful a factor in his own material rule and prosperity, and in that of his class. In its issues this half-faith of his had been sufficiently real to induce him to accept Otter and Juanna when they arrived mysteriously in the land.
It had been prophesied that they should arrive thus--that was a fact; and their outward appearance exactly fitted every detail of the prophecy--that was another fact; and these two facts together seemed to point to a conclusion so irresistible that, shrewd and experienced as he was, Nam, was unable to set it down to mere coincidence. Therefore in the first rush of his religious enthusiasm he had accorded a hearty welcome to the incarnations of the divinities whom for some eighty years he had worshipped as powers spiritual.
But though pious zeal had much to do with this action, as Olfan informed Juanna, it was not devoid of worldly motives. He desired the glory of being the discoverer of the gods, he desired also the consolidation of the rule which his cruelties had shaken, that must result from their advent.
All this was well enough, but he had never even dreamed that the first step of these new-born divinities would be to discard the ancient ceremonial without which his office would become a sinecure and his power a myth, and even to declare an active hostility against himself.
Were they or were they not gods? This was the question that exercised his mind. If there was truth in prophesies they should be gods. On the other hand he could discover nothing particularly divine about their persons, characters, or attributes--that is to say, nothing sufficiently divine to deceive Nam himself, whatever impression they produced upon the vulgar. Thus Juanna might be no more than a very beautiful woman white in colour, and Otter only what he knew him to be through his spies, a somewhat dissolute dwarf.
That they had no great power was also evident, seeing that he, Nam, without incurring the heavenly vengeance, had been able to abstract, and afterwards to sacrifice comfortably, the greater number of their servants. Another thing which pleaded against their celestial origin was that so far, instead of peace and prosperity blessing the land as it should have done immediately on their arrival, the present season was proving itself the worst on record, and the country was face to face with a prospect of famine in the ensuing winter.
And yet, if they were not gods, who were they? Would any human beings in their senses venture among such people as the Children of the Mist, merely to play off a hu
ge practical joke of which the finale was likely to be so serious to themselves? The idea was preposterous, since they had nothing to gain by so doing, for Nam, it may be observed, was ignorant of the value of rubies, which to him were only emblems employed in their symbolical ceremonies. Think as he would, he could come to no definite conclusion. One thing was clear, however, that it was now very much to his interest to demonstrate their non- celestial origin, though to do so would be to stultify himself and to prove that his judgment was not infallible. Otherwise, did the "gods" succeed in establishing their power, he and his authority seemed likely to come to a sudden end in the jaws of that monster, which his order had fostered for so many generations.
Thus reflected Nam in perplexity of soul, wishing to himself the while that he had retired from his office before he was called upon to face questions so difficult and so dangerous.
"I must be patient," he muttered to himself at last; "time will show the truth, or, if the weather does not change, the people will settle the matter for me."
As it chanced he had not long to wait, for just then there was a knock upon his door.
"Enter," he said, arranging his goat-skin robe about his broad shoulders.
A priest came in bearing a torch, for there was no window to the chamber, and after him two women.
"Who is this?" said Nam, pointing to the second of the women.
"This is she who is servant to Aca, Father," answered the priest.
"How comes she here?" said Nam again. "I gave no orders that she should be taken."
"She comes of her own free will, Father, having somewhat to say to you."
"Fool, how can she speak to me when she does not know our tongue? But of her presently; take her aside and watch her. Now, Saga, your report. First, what of the weather?"
"It is grey and pitiless, father. The mist is dense and no sun can be seen."
"I thought it, because of the cold," and he drew his robe closer round him. "A few more days of this----" and he stopped, then went on. "Tell me of Jal, your lord."
"Jal is as Jal was, merry and somewhat drunken. He speaks our language very ill, yet when he was last in liquor he sang a song which told of deeds that he, and he whom they name the Deliverer, had wrought together down in the south, rescuing the goddess Aca from some who had taken her captive. At least, so I understood that song."
"Perhaps you understood it wrong," answered Nam. "Say, niece, do you still worship this god?"
"I worship the god Jal, but the man, Dweller in the Waters, I hate," she said fiercely.
"Why, how is this? But two days gone you told me that you loved him, and that there was no such god as this man, and no such man as this god."
"That was so, father, but since then he has thrust me aside, saying that I weary him, and courts a handmaid of mine own, and therefore I demand the life of that handmaiden."
Nam smiled grimly. "Perchance you demand the life of the god also?"
"Yes," she replied without hesitation, "I would see him dead if it can be brought about."
Again Nam smiled. "Truly, niece, your temper is that of my sister, your grandmother, who brought three men to sacrifice because she grew jealous of them. Well, well, these are strange times, and you may live to see your desire satisfied by the death of the god. Now, what of that woman? How comes she to be with you?"
"She was bound by the order of Aca, father, and Jal was set to watch her; but I drugged Jal, and loosing her bonds I led her down the secret way, for she desires to speak to you."
"How can that be, niece? Can I then understand her language?"
"Nay, father, but she understands ours. Had she been bred in the land she could not speak it better."
Nam looked astonished, and going to the door he called to the priest without to lead in the stranger.
"You have words to say to me," he said.
"Yes, lord, but not before these. That which I have to say is secret."
Nam hesitated.
"Have no fear, lord," said Soa, reading his thoughts. "See, I am unarmed."
Then he commanded the others to go, and when the door had closed behind them, he looked at her inquiringly.
"Tell me, lord, who am I?" asked Soa, throwing the wrapping from her head and turning her face to the glare of the torchlight.
"How can I know who you are, wanderer? Yet, had I met you by chance, I should have said that you were of our blood."
"That is so, lord, I am of your blood. Cast your mind back and think if you can remember a certain daughter whom you loved many years ago, but who through the workings of your foes was chosen to be a bride to the Snake," and she paused.
"Speak on," said Nam in a low voice.
"Perchance you can recall, lord, that, moved to it by love and pity, on the night of the sacrifice you helped that daughter to escape the fangs of the Snake."
"I remember something of it," he replied cautiously; "but tidings were brought to me that this woman of whom you speak was overtaken by the vengeance of the god, and died on her journey."
"That is not so, lord. I am your daughter, and you are none other than my father. I knew you when I first saw your face, though you did not know me."
"Prove it, and beware how you lie," he said. "Show me the secret sign, and whisper the hidden word into my ear."
Then, glancing suspiciously behind her, Soa came to him, and made some movements with her hands in the shadow of the table. Next bending forward, she whispered awhile into his ear. When she had finished, her father looked up, and there were tears in his aged eyes.
"Welcome, daughter," he said. "I thought that I was alone, and that none of my issue lived anywhere upon the earth. Welcome! Your life is forfeit to the Snake, but, forgetting my vows, I will protect you, ay, even at the cost of my own."
Then the two embraced each other with every sign of tenderness, a spectacle that would have struck anyone acquainted with their characters as both curious and interesting.
Presently Nam left the chamber, and having dismissed the attendant priest and his great-niece, Saga, who were waiting outside, he returned and prayed his daughter to explain the reason of her presence in the train of Aca.
"First, you shall swear an oath to me, my father," said Soa, "and if you swear it not, I will tell you no word of my story. You shall swear by the blood of Aca that you will do nothing against the life of that Queen with whom I journeyed hither. For the others, you may work your will upon them, but her you shall not harm."
"Why should I swear this, daughter?" he asked.
"You shall swear it because I, whom you love, love her, and also because so you shall gain the greater honour."
"Who am I that I should lift my hand against the gods, daughter? I swear it by the blood of Aca, and if I break my oath, then may Jal deal with me as once he dealt with Aca."
Then Soa went on freely, for she knew that this was a vow that could not be broken. Beginning at its commencement, she told him all the story of her life since, forty years ago, she had fled from among the People of the Mist, passing on rapidly, however, to that part of it which had to do with the capture and rescue of Juanna from the slave- traders, and with the promise that she had made to Leonard as the price of his assistance. This promise, she was careful to explain, she had not intended to fulfil until she was forced to do so by Juanna herself. Then she gave him a minute history of the object and details of their expedition, down to her final quarrel with Leonard and her mistress on the previous day.
To say that the old priest was thunderstruck at these extraordinary revelations would be too little; he was overwhelmed--so overwhelmed that for a while he could scarcely speak.
"It is fortunate for this jade of a mistress of yours, who dares to make a mockery of our goddess that she may steal her wealth, that I have sworn to save her from harm, daughter," he gasped at length, "else she had died, and swiftly. At least, the others remain to me," and he sprang to his feet.
"Stay awhile, father," said Soa, catching his cloak, "what is your
plan?"
"My plan? To drag them to the temple and denounce them. What else is there to do?"
"And thereby denounce yourself also, who proclaimed them gods. I think I have a better."
"Tell it then, daughter."
"It is this. Do you pass in before the gods this day, speak humbly to the gods, praying them to change the face of the heavens that the sun may shine; telling them also that strange talk has come to your ears by the mouth of Saga and the other women, of words that have been spoken by the god Jal, which would seem to show that he is no god, but that of this you believe nothing as yet. Then say to them that if the face of the heavens remains grey on the morrow, you will know that this talk is true, and that they will be brought to the temple, there to be judged and dealt with according to the finding of the people, who have heard these things also."
H Rider Haggard - People Of The Mist Page 28