CHAPTER X
IN THE SHAMAN'S CHAMBER
One night Simbri asked us to dine with him in his own apartments in thehighest tower of the palace--had we but known it, for us a fateful placeindeed, for here the last act of the mighty drama was destined to befulfilled. So we went, glad enough of any change. When we had eaten Leogrew very thoughtful, then said suddenly--"Friend Simbri, I wish to aska favour of you--that you will beg the Khania to let us go our ways."
Instantly the Shaman's cunning old face became like a mask of ivory.
"Surely you had better ask your favours of the lady herself, lord; I donot think that any in reason will be refused to you," he replied.
"Let us stop fencing," said Leo, "and consider the facts. It has seemedto me that the Khania Atene is not happy with her husband."
"Your eyes are very keen, lord, and who shall say that they havedeceived you?"
"It has seemed, further," went on Leo, reddening, "that she has been sogood as to look on me with--some undeserved regard."
"Ah! perhaps you guessed that in the Gate-house yonder, if you have notforgotten what most men would remember."
"I remember certain things, Simbri, that have to do with her and you."
The Shaman only stroked his beard and said: "Proceed!"
"There is little to add, Simbri, except that _I_ am not minded to bringscandal on the name of the first lady in your land."
"Nobly said, lord, nobly said, though here they do not trouble muchabout such things. But how if the matter could be managed withoutscandal? If, for instance, the Khania chose to take another husband thewhole land would rejoice, for she is the last of her royal race."
"How can she take another husband when she has one living?"
"True; indeed that is a question which I have considered, but the answerto it is that men die. It is the common lot, and the Khan has beendrinking very heavily of late."
"You mean that men can be murdered," said Leo angrily. "Well, I willhave nothing to do with such a crime. Do you understand me?"
As the words passed his lips I heard a rustle and turned my head. Behindus were curtains beyond which the Shaman slept, kept his instruments ofdivination and worked out his horoscopes. Now they had been drawn, andbetween them, in her royal array, stood the Khania still as a statue.
"Who was it that spoke of crime?" she asked in a cold voice. "Was ityou, my lord Leo?"
Rising from his chair, he faced her and said--"Lady, I am glad that youhave heard my words, even if they should vex you."
"Why should it vex me to learn that there is one honest man in thiscourt who will have naught to do with murder? Nay, I honour you forthose words. Know also that no such foul thoughts have come near to me.Yet, Leo Vincey, that which is written--is written."
"Doubtless, Khania; but what is written?"
"Tell him, Shaman."
Now Simbri passed behind the curtain and returned thence with a rollfrom which he read: "The heavens have declared by their signs infalliblethat before the next new moon, the Khan Rassen will lie dead at thehands of the stranger lord who came to this country from across themountains."
"Then the heavens have declared a lie," said Leo contemptuously.
"That is as you will," answered Atene; "but so it must befall, not by myhand or those of my servants, but by yours. And then?"
"Why by mine? Why not by Holly's? Yet, if so, then doubtless I shallsuffer the punishment of my crime at the hands of his mourning widow,"he replied exasperated.
"You are pleased to mock me, Leo Vincey, well knowing what a husbandthis man is to me."
Now I felt that the crisis had come, and so did Leo, for he looked herin the face and said--"Speak on, lady, say all you wish; perhaps it willbe better for us both."
"I obey you, lord. Of the beginning of this fate I know nothing, butI read from the first page that is open to me. It has to do with thispresent life of mine. Learn, Leo Vincey, that from my childhood onwardsyou have haunted me. Oh! when first I saw you yonder by the river, yourface was not strange to me, for I knew it--I knew it well in dreams.When I was a little maid and slept one day amidst the flowers by theriver's brim, it came first to me--ask my uncle here if this be not so,though it is true that your face was younger then. Afterwards again andagain I saw it in my sleep and learned to know that you were mine, forthe magic of my heart taught me this.
"Then passed the long years while I felt that you were drawing near tome, slowly, very slowly, but ever drawing nearer, wending onward andoutward through the peoples of the world; across the hills, across theplains, across the sands, across the snows, on to my side. At lengthcame the end, for one night not three moons ago, whilst this wise man,my uncle, and I sat together here studying the lore that he has taughtme and striving to wring its secrets from the past, a vision came to me.
"Look you, I was lost in a charmed sleep which looses the spirit fromthe body and gives it strength to stray afar and to see those thingsthat have been and that are yet to be. Then I saw you and your companionclinging to a point of broken ice, over the river of the gulf. I do notlie; it is written here upon the scroll. Yes, it was you, the man ofmy dreams, and no other, and we knew the place and hurried thither andwaited by the water, thinking that perhaps beneath it you lay dead.
"Then, while we waited, lo! two tiny figures appeared far above upon theicy tongue that no man may climb, and oh! you know the rest. Spellboundwe stood and saw you slip and hang, saw you sever the thin cord and rushdownwards, yes, and saw that brave man, Holly, leap headlong after you.
"But mine was the hand that drew you from the torrent, where otherwiseyou must have drowned, you the love of the long past and of to-day, aye,and of all time. Yes, you and no other, Leo Vincey. It was this spiritthat foresaw your danger and this hand which delivered you from death,and--and would you refuse them now--when I, the Khania of Kaloon,proffer them to you?"
So she spoke, and leaned upon the table, looking up into his face withlips that trembled and with appealing eyes.
"Lady," said Leo, "you saved me, and again I thank you, though perhapsit would have been better if you had let me drown. But, forgive me thequestion, if all this tale be true, why did you marry another man?"
Now she shrank back as though a knife had pricked her.
"Oh! blame me not," she moaned, "it was but policy which bound me tothis madman, whom I ever loathed. They urged me to it; yes, even you,Simbri, my uncle, and for that deed accursed be your head--urged me,saying that it was necessary to end the war between Rassen's faction andmy own. That I was the last of the true race, moreover, which must becarried on; saying also that my dreams and my rememberings were butsick phantasies. So, alas! alas! I yielded, thinking to make my peoplegreat."
"And yourself, the greatest of them, if all I hear is true," commentedLeo bluntly, for he was determined to end this thing. "Well, I do notblame you, Khania, although now you tell me that I must cut a knotyou tied by taking the life of this husband of your own choice, for soforsooth it is decreed by fate, that fate which _you_ have shaped. Yes,I must do what you will not do, and kill him. Also your tale of thedecree of the heavens and of that vision which led you to the precipiceto save us is false. Lady, you met me by the river because the 'mighty'Hesea, the Spirit of the Mountain, so commanded you."
"How know you that?" Atene said, springing up and facing him, while thejaw of old Simbri dropped and the eyelids blinked over his glazed eyes.
"In the same way that I know much else. Lady, it would have been betterif you had spoken all the truth."
Now Atene's face went ashen and her cheeks sank in.
"Who told you?" she whispered. "Was it you, Magician?" and she turnedupon her uncle like a snake about to strike. "Oh! if so, be sure thatI shall learn it, and though we are of one blood and have loved eachother, I will pay you back in agony."
"Atene, Atene," Simbri broke in, holding up his claw-like hands, "youknow well it was not I."
"Then it was you, you ape-faced wanderer, you messenger of
the evilgods? Oh! why did I not kill you at the first? Well, that fault can beremedied."
"Lady," I said blandly, "am I also a magician?"
"Aye," she answered, "I think that you are, and that you have a mistresswho dwells in fire."
"Then, Khania," I said, "such servants and such mistresses are ill tomeddle with. Say, what answer has the Hesea sent to your report of ourcoming to this land?"
"Listen," broke in Leo before she could reply. "I go to ask a certainquestion of the Oracle on yonder mountain peak. With your will orwithout it I tell you that I go, and afterwards you can settle which isthe stronger--the Khania of Kaloon or the Hesea of the House of Fire."
Atene listened and for a while stood silent, perhaps because she had noanswer. Then she said with a little laugh--"Is that your will? Well, Ithink that yonder are none whom you would wish to wed. There is fireand to spare, but no lovely, shameless spirit haunts it to drive men madwith evil longings;" and as though at some secret thought, a spasm ofpain crossed her face and caught her breath. Then she went on in thesame cold voice--"Wanderers, this land has its secrets, into which noforeigner must pry. I say to you yet again that while I live you set nofoot upon that Mountain. Know also, Leo Vincey, I have bared my heart toyou, and I have been told in answer that this long quest of yours isnot for me, as I was sure in my folly, but, as I think, for some demonwearing the shape of woman, whom you will never find. Now I make noprayer to you; it is not fitting, but you have learned too much.
"Therefore, consider well to-night and before next sundown answer.Having offered, I do not go back, and tomorrow you shall tell me whetheryou will take me when the time comes, as come it must, and rule thisland and be great and happy in my love, or whether, you and yourfamiliar together, you will--die. Choose then between the vengeance ofAtene and her love, since I am not minded to be mocked in my own land asa wanton who sought a stranger and was--refused."
Slowly, slowly, in an intense whisper she spoke the words, that fell oneby one from her lips like drops of blood from a death wound, and therefollowed silence. Never shall I forget the scene. There the old wizardwatched us through his horny eyes, that blinked like those of some nightbird. There stood the imperial woman in her royal robes, with icy ragewritten on her face and vengeance in her glance. There, facing her, wasthe great form of Leo, quiet, alert, determined, holding back his doubtsand fears with the iron hand of will. And there to the right was _I_,noting all things and wondering how long I, "the familiar," who hadearned Atene's hate, would be left alive upon the earth.
Thus we stood, watching each other, till suddenly I noted that the flameof the lamp above us flickered and felt a draught strike upon my face.Then I looked round, and became aware of another presence. For yonderin the shadow showed the tall form of a man. See! it shambled forwardsilently, and I saw that its feet were naked. Now it reached the ring ofthe lamplight and burst into a savage laugh.
It was the Khan.
Atene, his wife, looked up and saw him, and never did I admire thatpassionate woman's boldness more, who admired little else about her saveher beauty, for her face showed neither anger nor fear, but contemptonly. And yet she had some cause to be afraid, as she well knew.
"What do you here, Rassen?" she asked, "creeping on me with your nakedfeet? Get you back to your drink and the ladies of your court."
But he still laughed on, an hyena laugh.
"What have you heard?" she said, "that makes you so merry?"
"What have I heard?" Rassen gurgled out between his screams of hideousglee. "Oho! I have heard the Khania, the last of the true blood, thefirst in the land, the proud princess who will not let her robes besoiled by those of the 'ladies of the court' and my wife, my wife,who asked me to marry her--mark that, you strangers--because I was hercousin and a rival ruler, and the richest lord in all the land, andthereby she thought she would increase her power--I have heard her offerherself to a nameless wanderer with a great yellow beard, and I haveheard him, who hates and would escape from her"--here he screamed withlaughter--"refuse her in such a fashion as I would not refuse the lowestwoman in the palace.
"I have heard also--but that I always knew--that I am mad; for,strangers, I was made mad by a hate-philtre which that old Rat," and hepointed to Simbri, "gave me in my drink--yes, at my marriage feast. Itworked well, for truly there is no one whom I hate more than the KhaniaAtene. Why, I cannot bear her touch, it makes me sick. I loathe to bein the same room with her; she taints the air; there is a smell ofsorceries about her.
"It seems that it takes you thus also, Yellow-beard? Well, if so, askthe old Rat for a love drink; he can mix it, and then you will think hersweet and sound and fair, and spend some few months jollily enough. Man,don't be a fool, the cup that is thrust into your hands looksgoodly. Drink, drink deep. You'll never guess the liquor's bad--tillto-morrow--though it be mixed with a husband's poisoned blood," andagain Rassen screamed in his unholy mirth.
To all these bitter insults, venomed with the sting of truth, Atenelistened without a word. Then, she turned to us and bowed.
"My guests," she said, "I pray you pardon me for all I cannot help. Youhave strayed to a corrupt and evil land, and there stands its crownand flower. Khan Rassen, your doom is written, and I do not hasten it,because once for a little while we were near to each other, though youhave been naught to me for this many a year save a snake that hauntsmy house. Were it otherwise, the next cup you drank should still yourmadness, and that vile tongue of yours which gives its venom voice. Myuncle, come with me. Your hand, for I grow weak with shame and woe."
The old Shaman hobbled forward, but when he came face to face with theKhan he stopped and looked him up and down with his dim eyes. Then hesaid--"Rassen, I saw you born, the son of an evil woman, and your fathernone knew but I. The flame flared that night upon the Fire-mountain, andthe stars hid their faces, for none of them would own you, no, not eventhose of the most evil influence. I saw you wed and rise drunken fromyour marriage feast, your arm about a wanton's neck. I have seen yourule, wasting the land for your cruel pleasure, turning the fertilefields into great parks for your game, leaving those who tilled them tostarve upon the road or drown themselves in ditches for very misery.And soon, soon I shall see you die in pain and blood, and then the chainwill fall from the neck of this noble lady whom you revile, and anothermore worthy shall take your place and rear up children to fill yourthrone, and the land shall have rest again."
Now I listened to these words--and none who did not hear them can guessthe fearful bitterness with which they were spoken--expecting everymoment that the Khan would draw the short sword at his side and cut theold man down. But he did not; he cowered before him like a dog beforesome savage master, the weight of whose whip he knows. Yes, answeringnothing, he shrank into the corner and cowered there, while Simbri,taking Atene by the hand, went from the room. At its massive, iron-bounddoor he turned and pointing to the crouching figure with his staff,said--"Khan Rassen, I raised you up, and now I cast you down. Rememberme when you lie dying--in blood and pain."
Their footsteps died away, and the Khan crept from his corner, lookingabout him furtively.
"Have that Rat and the other gone?" he asked of us, wiping his damp browwith his sleeve; and I saw that fear had sobered him and that for awhilethe madness had left his eyes.
I answered that they had gone.
"You think me a coward," he went on passionately, "and it is true, I amafraid of him and her--as you, Yellow-beard, will be afraid when yourturn comes. I tell you that they sapped my strength and crazed me withtheir drugged drink, making me the thing I am, for who can war againsttheir wizardries? Look you now. Once I was a prince, the lord of halfthis land, noble of form and upright of heart, and I loved her accursedbeauty as all must love it on whom she turns her eyes. And she turnedthem on me, she sought _me_ in marriage; it was that old Rat who boreher message.
"So I stayed the great war and married the Khania and became the Khan;but better had it been for me if I had crept into her k
itchen as ascullion, than into her chamber as a husband. For from the first shehated me, and the more I loved, the more she hated, till at our weddingfeast she doctored me with that poison which made me loathe her, andthus divorced us; which made me mad also, eating into my brain likefire."
"If she hated you so sorely, Khan," I asked, "why did she not mix astronger draught and have done with you?"
"Why? Because of policy, for I ruled half the land. Because it suitedher also that I should live on, a thing to mock at, since while I wasalive no other husband could be forced upon her by the people. Forshe is not a woman, she is a witch, who desires to live alone, or so Ithought until to-night"--and he glowered at Leo.
"She knew also that although I must shrink from her, I still love her inmy heart, and can still be jealous, and therefore that I should protecther from all men. It was she who set me on that lord whom my dogs toreawhile ago, because he was powerful and sought her favour and would notbe denied. But now," and again he glowered at Leo, "now I know why shehas always seemed so cold. It is because there lived a man to melt whoseice she husbanded her fire."
Then Leo, who all this while had stood silent, stepped forward.
"Listen, Khan," he said. "Did the ice seem like melting a little whileago?"
"No--unless you lied. But that was only because the fire is not yet hotenough. Wait awhile until it burns up, and melt you must, for who canmatch his will against Atene?"
"And what if the ice desires to flee the fire? Khan, they said that Ishould kill you, but I do not seek your blood. You think that I wouldrob you of your wife, yet I have no such thought towards her. We desireto escape this town of yours, but cannot, because its gates are locked,and we are prisoners, guarded night and day. Hear me, then. You have thepower to set us free and to be rid of us."
The Khan looked at him cunningly. "And if I set you free, whither wouldyou go? You could tumble down yonder gorge, but only the birds can climbits heights."
"To the Fire-mountain, where we have business."
Rassen stared at him.
"Is it I who am mad, or are you, who wish to visit the Fire-mountain?Yet that is nothing to me, save that I do not believe you. But if soyou might return again and bring others with you. Perchance, havingits lady, you wish this land also by right of conquest. It has foes upyonder."
"It is not so," answered Leo earnestly. "As one man to another, I tellyou it is not so. _I_ ask no smile of your wife and no acre of yoursoil. Be wise and help us to be gone, and live on undisturbed in suchfashion as may please you."
The Khan stood still awhile, swinging his long arms vacantly, tillsomething seemed to come into his mind that moved him to merriment, forhe burst into one of his hideous laughs.
"I am thinking," he said, "what Atene would say if she woke up to findher sweet bird flown. She would search for you and be angry with me."
"It seems that she cannot be angrier than she is," I answered. "Give usa night's start and let her search never so closely, she shall not findus."
"You forget, Wanderer, that she and her old Rat have arts. Those whoknew where to meet you might know where to seek you. And yet, and yet,it would be rare to see her rage. 'Oh, Yellow-beard, where are you,Yellow-beard?' he went on, mimicking his wife's voice. 'Come back andlet me melt your ice, Yellow-beard.'"
Again he laughed; then said suddenly--"When can you be ready?"
"In half an hour," I answered.
"Good. Go to your chambers and prepare. I will join you therepresently."
So we went.