The Great White Queen: A Tale of Treasure and Treason

by William Le Queux

  CHAPTER XXIX.

  A MYSTERY.

  FROM the glittering Hall of Audience a forward movement was soon made tothe inner rooms that formed the private apartments of the Naya. Carriedonward by the press of people, I was amazed at the magnificence andluxury everywhere apparent. The walls were mostly of polished marbleinlaid with gold and adorned with frescoes, the ceilings ornamented withstrange allegorical paintings, and the floors of jasper and alabaster.But as the irate crowd dashed onward through the great tenantlesschambers they tore down the rich silk hangings and trod them underfoot,broke up the tiny gold-inlaid tables, and out of sheer wantonness hackedthe soft divans with their swords.

  The discovery that the Naya had fled increased the indignation of themob, and were it not for the urgent appeal of Kona, who had at onceassumed the commandership, the whole of the magnificent rooms would nodoubt have been wrecked. As it was, however, the good counsels of theDagomba head-man prevailed, and wanton hands were stayed from committingmore serious excesses.

  Whither the Great White Queen had fled no one knew. To every nook andcorner search parties penetrated; even the sleeping apartment, with itsmassive bed of ivory and hangings of purple, gold-embroidered satin, wasnot held sacred. Yet nowhere could the once-dreaded ruler be discovered.Some cried that she had escaped into the city in the guise of a slave,others that she had descended into the cavern where stood the giganticTemple of Zomara.

  Another fact puzzled us greatly. From our elevated position we could seeafar off a fierce conflict proceeding near the city gate on that sidewhere access could be gained only by the steep flight of steps. Once,when I had looked, I saw that the city was comparatively quiet; now,however, this conflict had broken out again suddenly, and judging fromthe smoke and tumult it must have been terrific. All were surprised, andstood watching the clouds of grey smoke roll up into the bright morningair. But soon it died away, and believing it to be an outbreak by theconquered troops subdued with a firm hand by the victorious people, wethought no more of it.

  The hours that succeeded were full of stirring incidents, and it was longbefore the least semblance of order could be restored in the city. WithKona I went forth into the crowded, turbulent streets, and the sight thatmet our gaze was awful. Bodies of soldiers and civilians were lyingeverywhere, the faces of some, to whom death had come swiftly, so calmand composed that they looked as if they slept, while upon theblood-smeared countenances of others, hideously mutilated perhaps, wereterrible expressions, showing in what frightful agony they had passedinto eternity. The road-ways were strewn with heaps of corpses; thegutters flowed with blood.

  At such terrible cost had the tyrannical reign of the Naya beenterminated; by such a frightful loss of human life had Omar been raisedto the Emerald Throne.

  Greater part of that eventful day was spent by Niaro, Kona, Goliba andmyself in restoring order, while the people themselves, assisted by thetroops, who had already sworn allegiance to their young Naba, clearedthe streets and removed, as far as possible, all traces of the deadlyfeud. But to us there came no tidings of the Naya, although the strictestwatch was kept everywhere to prevent her escaping.

  The people were determined that if she might not pay the penalty of herevil deeds by death, she should at least be held captive in one of thefoul dungeons beneath the palace, where so many of their relatives hadrotted and died in agony or starvation.

  A blazing noontide was succeeded by a calm and peaceful evening. Throughmany hours I had endeavoured, as far as lay in my power, to assume thecommand given me, and assisted by a number of quaintly-garbed officialsenthusiastic in Omar's cause, I found my office by no means difficult.Order again reigning in the streets and the bodies removed, the city hadquietly settled down, though of course not to its usual peacefulness.Crowds of the more excited ones still surged up and down the broadthoroughfares, calling down vengeance upon the once powerful queen, butall voices were united in cheers for the Naba Omar, their chosen ruler.

  Save for those required to preserve order, the survivors of the troopswere back in barracks long before sunset, and the palace-guard had beenreorganised under Kona's personal supervision. The Dagombas alonecomprised Omar's body-guard, and I found on my return to the palace thatthey had exchanged their scanty clothes of native bark-cloth for the richbright-coloured silk uniforms of those who had acted in a similarcapacity to the Naya. With their black happy shining faces they looked amagnificent set of men, though for the first few hours they appeared atrifle awkward in gay attire that was entirely strange to them. It wasamusing, too, to watch how each stalked by, erect and proud, like apeacock spreading its brilliant plumage to the sun.

  That night, when the bright moon rose, lighting up the great silentcourt, until yesterday occupied by the terrible queen and her corrupt_entourage_, Omar and I sat together discussing the events of thosefateful hours since midnight. We had eaten from the gold dishes in whichthe Naya's food had been served; we had quenched our thirst from thejewel-encrusted goblets that she was wont to raise to her thin blue lips.By Omar's side I thus tasted, for the first time, the pleasures ofroyalty.

  My old chum had sent away his attendants, the host of slaves with thetwelve Dagombas who acted as the body-guard on duty, and we sat alonetogether in the moonlight, the quiet broken only by the distant roll of adrum somewhere down in the city, and the cool plashing of the beautifulfountain as it fell softly into its crystal basin. Kona, Goliba and Niarowere all away at their duties, and now for the first time for many hours,we had a few minutes to talk together.

  "Do you know, Scars," Omar said, moving uneasily upon the royal divanthat had been carried out into the court at his orders, while, tired out,I reclined upon another close to him--"do you know there is but one thingI regret, now that I have succeeded to the throne that was mybirthright?"

  "Regret!" I exclaimed. "What regret can you have? Surely you wereentirely right in acting as you did? The people were anxious for a justand upright ruler, and having regard to the fact that your mother plottedyour assassination in so cold-blooded a manner, her overthrow is justlydeserved."

  "Yes, yes, I know," he answered, rather impatiently. "But it is notthat--not that. One thing remains to complete my happiness, butalas!"----and he sighed heavily without finishing his sentence.

  "Why speak so despondently?" I inquired, surprised. "As Naba of Mo allthings are possible."

  "Alas! not everything," he said, with an air of melancholy.

  "Well, tell me," I urged. "Why are you so downcast?"

  "I--I have lost Liola," he answered hoarsely. "Truth to tell, Scarsmere,I loved Goliba's daughter."

  "She is absolutely beautiful," I admitted. "No man can deny that she ishandsome enough to share your royal throne."

  "Indeed she was," he said with emotion, his chin upon his breast.

  "Was!" I cried. "Why do you speak thus?"

  "Because she is dead!" he answered huskily. "Ah! Scars, you don't knowhow fondly I loved her ever since the first moment we met. I loved herbetter than life; better than all this honour and pomp to which I havesucceeded. Yet she has been taken from me, and my life in future will bedevoid of that happiness I had contemplated. True I am Naba of Mo,successor to the stool whereon a line of unconquered monarchs have satthroughout a thousand years, yet all is an empty pleasure now that mywell-beloved is lost to me."

  "Have you obtained definite news of her death?" I asked sympathetically.

  "Yes. When we were captured in Goliba's house, she, too, was seized bythe soldiers. While held powerless I saw her struggling with her captors,for they had somehow obtained knowledge of the part she had played inour conspiracy against their queen. The Naya had, it appears, ordered herguards to bring us all before her, dead or alive. With valiant courageshe resented the indignity of arrest, and as a consequence she wasbrutally killed by those who held her prisoner."

  "How have you ascertained this?" I asked, shocked at the news, for Imyself had admired Liola's extraordinary beauty.

  "To-day I have had
before me the three survivors of the guards whocaptured us, and all relate the same story. They say that a young girl,taken prisoner with us, while being dragged up the roadway towards thepalace was in danger of being released by the people, and one of theircomrades, remembering the Naya's orders that none of us were to escape,in the _melee_ raised his sword and plunged it into her heart."

  "The brute!" I cried. "Is the murderer among the survivors?"

  "No. All three agree that the mob, witnessing his action, set upon himand literally tore him limb from limb."

  "A fate he certainly deserved," I said. "But has her body beenrecovered?"

  "A body has been found and I have seen it. But the limbs are crushed, andher face is, alas! trampled out of all recognition, although the dressanswers exactly to one that Goliba says his daughter possessed, and inwhich I myself saw her. There is, alas! no doubt of her fate. She hasbeen brutally murdered, and at the instigation of the Naya, who sentforth her fiendish horde to kill us."

  "I knew from the manner you exchanged glances with Liola that you lovedher," I said, after a pause, brief and painful.

  "Yes," he answered sadly. "Surreptitiously I had breathed into her earwords of affection, and had been transported to a veritable paradise ofdelight by the discovery that she reciprocated my love. But," he added,harshly, "my brief happy love-dream is now ended. I must live and workonly for my people; they must be to me both sweetheart and wife. I mustact as my ancestors have done, indulging them and loving them."

  Never before, even in the moments when as fellow-adventurers thingslooked blackest, had I seen him in so utterly dejected an attitude. Thelight had died from his face, and he had suddenly become burdened by amonarch's responsibilities; prematurely aged by a bitter sorrow that hadsapped all youthful gaiety from his buoyant heart.

  With heartfelt sympathy I endeavoured to console him, but all wasunavailing. That he had loved her madly was only too apparent, and itseemed equally certain that she was dead, for shortly afterwards Golibaentered, and in a voice full of emotion told us how he had been able toidentify the body, and that his tardy attendance upon his royal masterwas due to the fact that he had been superintending her burial.

  The old sage's words visibly increased Omar's burden of sorrow, for inthe moonlight I saw a tear trickle down his pale cheek, glistening for aninstant brighter than the jewels upon his robe. Liola had fallen victimto the inhuman brutality of the Naya's guards, and Mo had thus beendeprived of a bewitchingly handsome queen.

  The _denouement_ of this stirring story of a throne was indeed a tragicone; Goliba had lost his only daughter, the pride of his heart, and Omarthe woman he loved.

  The silence that followed was broken by a hasty footstep, and the talldark figure of Kona approached.

  "A strange fact hath transpired, O Master!" he cried breathlessly,addressing Omar.

  "Speak, tell me," the young Naba exclaimed, starting up. "Is it of Liolathat thou bearest news?"

  "Alas! no. That she was murdered in the first moments of the conflict isonly too certain," he answered. "The news I bring thee is amazing. Whilewe were engaged in the struggle for thy throne, thine enemies, the peopleof Samory, entered the city and fought side by side with the military!"

  "Samory's people here!" we all three cried, starting up.

  "They were, but they have departed no one knows whither. Their numberswere not great, but they sacked and burned several large buildings nearthe city-gate and fought desperately to join their allies the troops ofMo, but were at last prevented and driven back by the people in a fiercebloody conflict that actually occurred after thou wert enthroned."

  Then I remembered having noticed the smoke of the encounter, and how withothers, I had been puzzled.

  "But how could they enter our country, and unseen approach the city?"Omar exclaimed astounded.

  "I know not the intricacies of the approaches to Mo save the perilous Wayof the Thousand Steps," Kona replied. "The force may have been therear-guard of the army that attacked Mo, and were defeated in the greatchasm known as the Grave of Enemies. If they approached by that meansthey must have followed closely in our footsteps, and through thetreachery of spies, been admitted to the city at a time when thealertness of the guards was diverted by the popular rising."

  "Were their losses great in the fight?" Goliba asked.

  "Terrible. Whole streets and market-places in the vicinity of theentrance to the city were found strewn with their dead," the black giantanswered. "Apparently the people discovered the identity of their enemiesand took no prisoners. With the exception of about two hundred survivorsall were killed."

  "And the survivors have escaped!" Omar observed thoughtfully.

  "Yes. Owing to the lax watch kept at the gate during those momentoushours, they were enabled to descend the steps to the plain and get clearaway."

  "They must nevertheless be still in Mo. They must be found," Omar criedexcitedly. "While they are among us our country will be in jeopardy, forthey will act as spies. Samory hath set his mind upon conquering this ourland; his plot must be frustrated."

  "Already have I given orders for a search from the land's most northerlylimits even to the Grave of Enemies, O Master," Kona answered. "All themen who could be spared from guarding the city I have dispatched onexpeditions with orders to attack and destroy the fugitives."

  "They cannot have travelled far," the young ruler said. "They have onlyabout twelve hours' start of your men."

  "To a man our troops are now loyal to thee," the newly-created chief ofthe army answered. "They are alive to the fact that Samory's fighting-menare their bitterest foes, therefore if the survivors of that intrepidforce are within our boundaries, they will assuredly be overtaken andkilled."

  "I would rather that they were captured and held as hostages," Omar said."Enough blood hath been already shed to-day."

  "The order to capture them is not sufficient incentive to thine army torout them from their hiding-place," Kona replied. "They have had theaudacity to make a dash upon thy city and burn some of its most renownedand beautiful structures, therefore in their opinion if not in thine,death alone would expiate their offence."

  "I would wish their lives to be spared," Omar repeated. "But the army isunder thy control, and I leave the final annihilation of the band offreebooters unto thee. Hast thou obtained any tidings of the Naya'sflight?"

  "None. My Dagombas have searched every nook and corner of this thypalace, each prison dungeon hath been entered by detachments of soldiers,while enthusiastic parties have descended to the subterranean Temple ofZomara, but found only the dwarf priests there. The Naya hath disappearedas completely as if Zomara had crushed her between his jaws."

  "Her disappearance is amazing," Omar observed. "Even her personalattendants whom I have questioned are ignorant of the direction she hathtaken. They declare that she escaped within ten minutes of the blowing upof the palace-gate. The catastrophe alarmed her, and she saw in the fallof these defences the instability of her throne."

  "All is being done that can be done to secure her arrest," Kona said. "Itis absolutely necessary that we should hold her captive, or, like thedeposed queen of the Nupe, she may stir up strife and form a plot toreascend the stool."

  "To thee, Kona, I look to guard me from mine enemies," my friendexclaimed. "We must elucidate the mystery of the sudden descent of thisweak force of Samory's, the rapidity with which they struck their blow,and the means by which they have, within twelve hours, so completelyeluded us."

  "News of them hath been flashed even unto the furthermost limits of thykingdom, O Great Chief," Kona assured him. "No effort shall be spared bythy servant in executing thy commands. I go forth again, and sleep shallnot close my eyes until the men of Samory have been overtaken."

  With these words he made deep obeisance to the newly-enthroned sovereign,and lifting his long native spear, which he still retained, he sworevengeance most terrible upon the enemies of Mo, who had, with suchconsummate strategic skill, entered and attacked the ci
ty at the momentwhen it remained undefended.

  "There is some deep mystery underlying this, Scars," Omar said, when Konahad stalked away into the darkness, and Goliba had risen and crossed themoon-lit court in response to a message delivered by a black slave. "I amscarcely surprised at Kona's failure to capture the Naya; indeed,personally, I should only be too happy to know that she had got safelybeyond the limits of Mo. But the sudden attack and rapid disappearance ofthis marauding band of Samory proves two things; first that our country,long thought impregnable, may be invaded, and secondly that throughKouaga Samory is in possession of certain of our secrets."

  "What secrets?" I asked.

  "Secrets upon the preservation of which the welfare and safety of mycountry depend," he answered mysteriously. Then, with a sudden air ofdejection, he added: "But there, what matters after all, now that Liolais dead and my life is desolate? At the very moment when the greatesthonour has been bestowed upon me and I am enthroned Naba, the saviour ofmy people, the greatest sorrow has also fallen upon me."

  After a moment's silence he started up in sudden desperation, crying:"Slave have I been to evil all the days of my life! I have toiled andearned nothing; I have sown in care and reaped not in merriment; I havepoisoned the comfort of others, but no blessing hath fallen into my ownlap. Blasted are the paths whereon I trod; my past actions are ravenousvultures gnawing on my vitals, and the sharpened claws of maliciousspirits await my arrival among the regions of the accursed."

  "Yes," I observed with a sigh, for the remembrance of that bright,beautiful face was to me likewise one of ineffable sadness. "Yes," Isaid, "Fate has indeed been unkind. What she has bestowed with one hand,she has taken away with the other."

  Then we were silent. Above the cool plashing music of the fountain couldbe heard the distant roar of voices in great rejoicing, while upon thestarlit sky was still reflected a red ominous glare from the fires ragingin the city that no effort of man could subdue. At the gate leadingoutward to the next court stood two sentries with drawn swords gleamingin the moonbeams, mute and motionless like statues, while echoing alongthe colonnade was the measured tramp of the soldier as he paced beforethe entrance of the gilded Hall of Audience, the scene of so manystirring dramas in the nation's history. From the divan whereon I sat Icould see the great Emerald Throne glittering green under a brilliantlight, with its golden image of the sacred crocodile and its bannerbearing the hideous vampire-bat, while around it were still grouped theofficials of the household, the body-guard of faithful Dagombas, theslaves ready with their great fans, and Gankoma, the executioner, withhis bright double-edged _doka_, all standing in patience, awaiting thecoming of their royal master.

  The Court of Mo was, I reflected, a strange admixture of Europeancivilization and culture with African superstition and barbarity. On theone hand the buildings were of marble or stone, magnificent in theirproportions, with decorations in the highest style of Moorish art, thearms were of the latest pattern surreptitiously imported from England andmany of them faithfully copied by skilful, enlightened workmen;electricity was known and used, and the tastes of the people showed arefinement almost equal to that of any European state. Yet in religionthere prevailed the crudest and most ignorant forms of superstition, oneof which was the horrible practice of burying alive all sick persons,while the custom of the executioner accompanying the reigning monarcheverywhere, ready to obey the royal command, was distinctly a relic ofsavage barbarism.

  "A few moments ago you spoke of secrets that must be preserved," I saidpresently, turning to Omar.

  "Yes," he answered slowly. "But my heart is too full of poignant grief tothink of them. To-night the secrets are mine alone; to-morrow you shallbe in possession of at least one of them. I have, however, much yet todo, I see, before I rest," he added, glancing over his shoulder into thebrilliant hall where stood the empty throne.

  Then rising wearily, he sighed for Goliba's dead daughter, and weightedby his rich robes, slowly strode across to the arched entrance from whichthe light streamed forth, and as he set foot upon its threshold everyproud head bowed to earth in deep, abject obeisance.