11. AN AFFAIR WITH THE BARBAROUS FISHERS
So this mighty Empress chose to be jealous of a mere woman prisoner!
Now my mind has been trained to work with a soldierly quickness in thesemoments of stress, and I decided on my proper course on the instant thewords had left her lips. I was sacrificing myself for Atlantis byorder of the High Council of the Priests, and, if needful, Nais mustbe sacrificed also, although in the same flash a scheme came to me forsaving her.
So I bowed gravely before the Empress, and said I, "In this, and in allother things where a mere human hand is potent, I will carry out yourwishes, Phorenice." And she on her part patted my arm, and fresh wavesof feeling welled up from the depths of her wondrous eyes. Surely theGods won for her half her schemes and half her battles when they gavePhorenice her shape, and her voice, and the matters which lay within theoutlines of her face.
By this time the merchants, and the other dwellers adjacent to this partof the harbour, where the royal quay stands, had come down, offeringchanges of raiment, and houses to retire into. Phorenice was allgraciousness, and though it was little enough I cared for mere wetnessof my coat, still that part of the harbour into which we had been thrownby the mammoth was not over savoury, and I was glad enough to follow herexample. For myself, I said no further word to Nais, and refrained evenfrom giving her a glance of farewell. But a small sop like this was nomeal for Phorenice, and she gave the port-captain strict orders for theguarding of his prisoner before she left him.
At the house into which I was ushered they gave me a bath, and I easedmy host of the plainest garment in his store, and he was pleased enoughat getting off so cheaply. But I had an hour to spend outside on thepavement listening to the distant din of bombardment before Phorenicecame out to me again, and I could not help feeling some grim amusementat the face of the merchant who followed. The fellow was clearly ruined.He had a store of jewels and gauds of the most costly kind, which wereonly in fraction his own, seeing that he had bought them (as the customis) in partnership with other merchants. These had pleased Phorenice'seye, and so she had taken all and disposed them on her person.
"Are they not pretty?" said she, showing them to me. "See how they flashunder the sun. I am quite glad now, Deucalion, that the mammoth gave usthat furious ride and that spill, since it has brought me such a bonnypresent. You may tell the fellow here that some day when he has earnedsome more, I will come and be his guest again. Ah! They have brought uslitters, I see. Well, send one away and do you share mine with me, sir.We must play at being lovers to-day, even if love is a matter which willcome to us both with more certainty to-morrow. No; do not order morebearers. My own slaves will carry us handily enough. I am glad youare not one of your gross, overfed men, Deucalion. I am small and slimmyself, and I do not want to be husbanded by a man who will overshadowme."
"Back to the royal pyramid?" I asked.
"No, nor to the walls. I neither wish to fight nor to sit as Empressto-day, sir. As I have told you before, it is my whim to be Phorenice,the maiden, for a few hours, and if some one I wot of would woo me now,as other maidens are wooed, I should esteem it a luxury. Bid the slavescarry us round the harbour's rim, and give word to these starers that,if they follow, I will call down fire upon them as I did upon thesacrifice."
Now, I had seen something of the unruliness of the streets myself, andI had gathered a hint also from the officer at the gate of the royalpyramid that night of Phorenice's welcoming banquet. But as whateverthere was in the matter must be common knowledge to the Empress, I didnot bring it to her memory then. So I dismissed the guard which hadcome up, and drove away with a few sharp words the throng of gapingsightseers who always, silly creatures, must needs come to stare attheir betters; and then I sat in the litter in the place where I wasinvited, and the bearers put their heads to the pole.
They swung away with us along the wide pavement which runs between thehouses of the merchants and the mariner folk and the dimpling waters ofthe harbour, and I thought somewhat sadly of the few ships that floatedon that splendid basin now, and of the few evidences of business thatshowed themselves on the quays. Time was when the ships were berthedso close that many had to wait in the estuary outside the walls, andmemorials had been sent to the King that the port should be doubled insize to hold the glut of trade. And that, too, in the old days of oarand sail, when machines drawing power from our Lord the Sun were butrarely used to help a vessel speedily along her course.
The Egypt voyage and a return was a matter of a year then, as against abrace of months now, and of three ships that set out, one at least couldbe reckoned upon succumbing to the dangers of the wide waters and theterrible beasts that haunt them. But in those old days trade roared withlusty life, and was ever growing wider and more heavy. Your merchantthen was a portly man and gave generously to the Gods. But now allthe world seemed to be in arms, and moreover trade was vulgar. Yourmerchant, if he was a man of substance, forgot his merchandise, sworethat chaffering was more indelicate than blasphemy and curled his beardafter the new fashion, and became a courtier. Where his father had spentanxious days with cargo tally and ship-master, the son wasted hours indirecting sewing men as they adorned a coat, and nights in vapouring ata banquet.
Of the smaller merchants who had no substance laid by, taxes and theconstant bickerings of war had wellnigh ground them into starvation.Besides, with the country in constant uproar, there were few marketsleft for most merchandise, nor was there aught made now which could becarried abroad. If your weaver is pressed as a fire-tube man he does notmake cloth, and if your farmer is playing at rebellion, he does not buyslaves to till his fields. Indeed, they told me that a month before myreturn, as fine a cargo of slaves had been brought into harbour as evercame out of Europe, and there was nothing for it but to set them ashoreacross the estuary, and leave them free to starve or live in the wildground there as they chose. There was no man in all Atlantis who wouldhold so much as one more slave as a gift.
But though I was grieved at this falling away, all schemes for remedywould be for afterwards. It would only make ill worse to speak of it aswe rode together in the litter. I was growing to know Phorenice's moodsenough for that. Still, I think that she too had studied mine, and didher best to interest me between her bursts of trifling. We went out towhere the westernmost harbour wall joins the land, and there the pantingbearers set us down. She led me into a little house of stone which stoodby itself, built out on a promontory where there is a constant run oftide, and when we had been given admittance, after much unbarring, sheshowed me her new gold collectors.
In the dry knowledge taught in the colleges and groves of the SacredMountain it had been a common fact to us that the metal gold was presentin a dissolved state in all sea water, but of plans for dragging itforth into yellow hardness, none had ever been discussed. But here thisfield-reared upstart of an Empress had stumbled upon the trick as thoughit had been written in a book.
She patted my arm laughingly as I stared curiously round the place. "Itell all others in Atlantis that only the Gods have this secret," saidshe, "and that They gave it to me as one of themselves. But I am noGoddess to you, am I, Deucalion? And, by my face! I have no otherexplanation of how this plan was invented. We'll suppose I must havedreamed it. Look! The sea-water sluices in through that culvert, andpasses over these rough metal plates set in the floor, and then flowsout again yonder in its natural course. You see the yellow metal caughtin the ridges of the plates? That is gold. And my fellows here melt itwith fire into bars, and take it to my smith's in the city. The tidesvary constantly, as you priests know well, as the quiet moon draws them,and it does not take much figuring to know how much of the sea passesthrough these culverts in a month and how much gold to a grain should becaught in the plates. My fellows here at first thought to cheat me, butI towed two of them in the water once behind a galley till the cannibalfish ate them, and since then the others have given me credit for--forwhat do you think?"
"More divinity."
"I suppose it is that. But I am letting you see how it is done. Justhave the head to work out a little sum, and see what an effect can begained. You will be a God yet yourself, Deucalion, with these sillyAtlanteans, if only you will use your wit and cleverness."
Was she laughing at me? Was she in earnest? I could not tell. Sometimesshe pointed out that her success and triumphs were merely the rewardof thought and brilliancy, and next moment she gave me some impossibleexplanation and left me to deduce that she must be more than mortal orthe thing could never have been found. In good truth, this little womanwith her supple mind and her supple body mystified me more and more thelonger I stayed by her side; and more and more despairing did I growthat Atlantis could ever be restored by my agency to peace and theancient Gods, even after I had carried out the commands of the HighCouncil, and taken her to wife.
Only one plan seemed humanly possible, and that was to curb her furthermischievousness by death and then leave the wretched country naturallyto recover. It was just a dagger-stroke, and the thing was done. Yet thevery idea of this revolted me, and when the desperate thought came to mymind (which it did ever and anon), I hugged to myself the answer that ifit were fitting to do this thing, the High Gods in Their infinite wisdomwould surely have put definite commands upon me for its carrying out.
Yet, such was the fascination of Phorenice, that when presently weleft her gold collectors, and stumbled into such peril, that a littlewithholding of my hand would have gained her a passage to the netherGods, I found myself fighting when she called upon me, as seldom I havefought before. And though, of course, some blame for this must be laidupon that lust of battle which thrills even the coldest of us when blowsbegin to whistle and war-cries start to ring, there is no doubt alsothat the pleasure of protecting Phorenice, and the distaste for seeingher pulled down by those rude, uncouth fishers put special nerve andvehemence into my blows.
The cause of the matter was the unrest and the prevalency to streetviolence which I have spoken of above, and the desperate poverty ofthe common people, which led them to take any risk if it showed them achance of winning the wherewithal to purchase a meal. We had once moremounted the litter, and once more the bearers, with their heads beneaththe pole, bore us on at their accustomed swinging trot. Phorenice wastelling me about her new supplies of gold. She had made fresh sumptuarylaws, it appeared.
"In the old days," said she, "when yellow gold was tediously dredged upgrain by grain from river gravels in the dangerous lands, a quillfull would cost a rich man's savings, and so none but those whose highstation fitted them to be so adorned could wear golden ornaments. Butwhen the sea-water gave me gold here by the double handful a day, Ifound that the price of these river hoards decreased, and one day--couldyou credit it?--a common fellow, who was one of my smiths, came to mewearing a collar of yellow gold on his own common neck. Well, I hadthat neck divided, as payment for his presumption; and as I promisedto repeat the division promptly on all other offenders, that specialspecies of forwardness seems to be checked for the time. There are manyexasperations, Deucalion, in governing these common people."
She had other things to say upon the matter, but at this point I saw twoclumsy boats of fishers paddling to us from over the ripples, and at thesame time amongst the narrow lanes which led between the houses onthe other side of us, savage-faced men were beginning to run after thelitter in threatening clusters.
"With permission," I said, "I will step out of the conveyance andscatter this rabble."
"Oh, the people always cluster round me. Poor ugly souls, they seemto take a strange delight in coming to stare at my pretty looks. Butscatter them. I have said I did not wish to be followed. I am takingholiday now, Deucalion, am I not, whilst you learn to woo me?"
I stepped to the ground. The rough fishers in the boats were beginningto shout to those who dodged amongst the houses to see to it that wedid not escape, and the numbers who hemmed us in on the shore side wereincreasing every moment. The prospect was unpleasant enough. We had comeout beyond the merchants' quarters, and were level with those smallhuts of mud and grass which the fishing population deem sufficient forshelter, and which has always been a spot where turbulence might beexpected. Indeed, even in those days of peace and good government inthe old King's time, this part of the city had rarely been without itsweekly riot.
The life of the fisherman is the most hard that any human toilers haveto endure. Violence from the wind and waves, and pelting from firestonesout of the sky are their daily portion; the great beasts that dwell inthe seas hunt them with savage persistence, and it is a rare day whenat least some one of the fishers' guild fails to come home to answer thetally.
Moreover, the manner which prevails of catching fish is not without itsrisks.
To each man there is a large sea-fowl taken as a nestling, andtrained to the work. A ring of bronze is round its neck to prevent itsswallowing the spoil for which it dives, and for each fish it takes andflies back with to the boat, the head and tail and inwards are given toit for a reward, the ring being removed whilst it makes the meal.
The birds are faithful, once they have got a training, and are seldomknown to desert their owners; but, although the fishers treat them morekindly than they do their wives, or children of their own begetting, thelife of the birds is precarious like that of their masters. The largerbeasts and fish of the sea prey on them as they prey on the smallerfish, and so whatever care may be lavished upon them, they are mostliable to sudden cutting off.
And here is another thing that makes the life of the fisher mostprecarious: if his fishing bird be slain, and the second which he hasin training also come by ill fortune, he is left suddenly bereft of allutensils of livelihood, and (for aught his guild-fellows care) he may gostarve. For these fishers hold that the Gods of the sea regulate theircraft, and that if one is not pleasing to Them They rob him of hisbirds; after which it would be impious to have any truck or dealingwith such a fellow; and accordingly he is left to starve or rob as hechooses.
All of which circumstances tend to make the fishers rude, desperatemen, who have been forced into the trade because all other callings haverejected them. They are fellows, moreover, who will spend the gains ofa month on a night's debauch, for fear that the morrow will rob them oflife and the chance of spending; and, moreover, it is their one point ofhonour to be curbed in no desire by an ordinary fear of consequences. Aswill appear.
I went quickly towards the largest knot of these people, who wereskulking behind the houses, leaving the litter halted in the path behindme, and I bade them sharply enough to disperse. "For an employment,"I added, "put your houses in order, and clean the fish offal from thelanes between them. To-morrow I will come round here to inspect, and putthis quarter into a better order. But for to-day the Empress (whose namebe adored) wishes for a privacy, so cease your staring."
"Then give us money," said a shrill voice from amongst the huts.
"I will send you a torch in an hour's time," I said grimly, "and rig youa gallows, if you give me more annoyance. To your kennels, you!"
I think they would have obeyed the voice of authority if they had beenleft to themselves. There was a quick stir amongst them. Those thatstood in the sunlight instinctively slipped into the shadow, and manydodged into the houses and cowered in dark corners out of sight. But themen in the two hide-covered fisher-boats that were paddling up, calledthem back with boisterous cries.
I signed to the litter-bearers to move on quickly along their road.There was need of discipline here, and I was minded to deal it outmyself with a firm hand. I judged that I could prevent them followingthe Empress, but if she still remained as a glittering bait for them torob, and I had to protect her also, it might be that my work would notbe done so effectively.
But it seems I was presumptuous in giving an order which dealt with theperson of Phorenice. She bade the bearers stand where they were, andstepped out, and drew her weapons from beneath the cushions. She cametowards me strapping a sword on to her hip, and carrying a well
-dintedtarget of gold on her left forearm. "An unfair trick," cries she,laughing. "If you will keep a fight to yourself now, Deucalion, wherewill your greediness carry you when I am your shrinking, wistful littlewife? Are these fools truly going to stand up against us?"
I was not coveting a fight, but it seemed as if there would be noavoidance of it now. The robe and the glittering gauds of whichPhorenice had recently despoiled the merchant, drew the eyes of thesepeople with keen attraction. The fishers in the boats paddled intothe surf which edged the beach, and leaped overside and left the frailbasket-work structures to be spewed up sound or smashed, as chanceordered. And from the houses, and from the filthy lanes between them,poured out hordes of others, women mixed with the men, gathering roundus threateningly.
"Have a care," shouted one on the outskirts of the crowd. "She calleddown fire for the sacrifice once to-day, and she can burn up others hereif she chooses."
"So much the more for those that are left," retorted another. "Shecannot burn all."
"Nay, I will not burn any," said Phorenice, "but you shall look upon mysword-play till you are tired."
I heard her say that with some malicious amusement, knowing (as one ofthe Seven) how she had called down the fires of the sky to burn thatcloven-hoofed horse offered in sacrifice, and knowing too, full well,that she could bring down no fire here. But they gave us little enoughtime for wordy courtesies. Their Empress never went far unattended, and,for aught the wretches knew, an escort might be close behind. So whatpilfering they did, it behoved them to get done quickly.
They closed in, jostling one another to be first, and the reek of theirfilthy bodies made us cough. A grimy hand launched out to seize some ofthe jewels which flashed on Phorenice's breast, and I lopped it offat the elbow, so that it fell at her feet, and a second later we wereengaged.
"Your back to mine, comrade," cried she, with a laugh, and then drew andlaid about her with fine dexterity. Bah! but it was mere slaughter, thatfirst bout.
The crowd hustled inwards with such greediness to seize what they could,that none had space to draw back elbow for a thrust, and we two kept acircle round us by sheer whirling of steel. It is necessary to do one'swork cleanly in these bouts, as wounded left on the ground unnoticedbefore one are as dangerous as so many snakes. But as we circled roundin our battling I noted that all of Phorenice's quarry lay peacefuland still. By the Gods! but she could play a fine sword, this daintyEmpress. She touched life with every thrust.
Yes, it was plain to see, now an example was given, that the throne ofAtlantis had been won, not by a lovely face and a subtle tongue alone;and (as a fighter myself) I did not like Phorenice the less for theknowledge. I could but see her out of the corner of my eye, and thatonly now and again, for the fishers, despite their ill-knowledge offence, and the clumsiness of their weapons, had heavy numbers, and mostsavage ferocity; and as they made so confident of being able to pullus down, it required more than a little hard battling to keep them fromdoing it. Ay, by the Gods! it was at times a fight my heart warmed to,and if I had not contrived to pluck a shield from one fool who came toovain-gloriously near me with one, I could not swear they would not havedragged me down by sheer ravening savageness.
And always above the burly uproar of the fight came very pleasantly tomy ears Phorenice's cry of "Deucalion!" which she chose as her battleshout. I knew her, of course, to be a past-mistress of the art ofcompliment, and it was no new thing for me to hear the name roared outabove a battle din, but it was given there under circumstances whichwere peculiar, and for the life of me I could not help being tickled bythe flattery.
Condemn my weakness how you will, but I came very near then to likingthe Empress of Atlantis in the way she wished. And as for that otherwoman who should have filled my mind, I will confess that the stress ofthe moment, and the fury of the engagement, had driven both her and herstrait completely out beyond the marches of my memory. Of such frailstuff are we made, even those of us who esteem ourselves the strongest.
Now it is a temptation few men born to the sword can resist, to throwthemselves heart and soul into a fight for a fight's sake, and it seemsthat women can be bitten with the same fierce infection. The attackslackened and halted. We stood in the middle of a ring of twisted dead,and the rest of the fishers and their women who hemmed us in shrank backout of reach of our weapons.
It was the moment for a truce, and the moment when a few strong wordswould have sent them back cowering to their huts, and given us freepassage to go where we chose. But no, this Phorenice must needs sing ahymn to her sword and mine, gloating over our feats and invulnerability;and then she must needs ask payment for the bearers of her litter whomthey had killed, and then speak balefully of the burnings, and theskinnings, and the sawings asunder with which this fishers' quarterwould be treated in the near future, till they learned the virtues ofdeportment and genteel manners.
"It makes your backs creep, does it?" said Phorenice. "I do not wonder.This severity must have its unpleasant side. But why do you not put itbeyond my power to give the order? Either you must think yourselves Godsor me no Goddess, or you would not have gone on so far. Come now, younasty-smelling people, follow out your theory, and if you make a goodfight of it, I swear by my face I will be lenient with those who do notfall."
But there was no pressing up to meet our swords. They still ringed usin, savage and sullen, beyond the ring of their own dead, and wouldneither run back to the houses, nor give us the game of further fight.There was a certain stubborn bravery about them that one could not butadmire, and for myself I determined that next time it became my dutyto raise troops, I would catch a handful of these men, and teach themhandiness with the utensils of war, and train them to loyalty andfaithfulness. But presently from behind their ranks a stone flew, andthough it whizzed between the Empress and myself, and struck down afisher, it showed that they had brought a new method into their attack,and it behoved us to take thought and meet it.
I looked round me up and down the beach. There was no sign of a rescue."Phorenice," I said in the court tongue, which these barbarous fisherswould know little enough of, "I take it that a whiff of the sea-breezewould come very pleasant after all this warm play. As you can show suchpretty sword work, will you cut me a way down to the beach, and I willdo my poor best to keep these creatures from snapping at our heels?"
"Oh!" cried she. "Then I am to have a courtier for a husband after all.Why have you kept back your flattering speeches till now? Is that yourtrick to make me love you?"
"I will think out the reason for it another time."
"Ah, these stern, commanding husbands," said she, "how they do pressupon their little wives!" and with that leaped over the ring of deadbefore her, and cut and stabbed a way through those that stood betweenher and the waters which creamed and crashed upon the beach. Gods!what a charge she made. It made me tingle with admiration as I followedsideways behind her, guarding the rear. And I am a man that has spent somany years in battling, that it takes something far out of the common tomove me to any enthusiasm in this matter.
There were two boats creaking and washing about in the edge of the surf,but in one, happily, the wicker-work which made its frame was crushedby the weight of the waves into a shapeless bundle of sticks, and wouldtake half a day to replace. So that, let us but get the other craftafloat, and we should be free from further embroiling. But the fisherswere quick to see the object of this new manoeuvre. "Guard the boat,"they shouted. "Smash her; slit her skin with your knives! Tear her withyour fingers! Swim her out to sea! Oh, at least take the paddles!"
But, if these clumsy fishers could run, Phorenice was like a leggedsnake for speed. She was down beside the boat before any could reachit, laughing and shouting out that she could beat them at every point.Myself, I was slower of foot; and, besides, there was some that offeredme a fight on the road, and I was not wishful to baulk them; andmoreover, the fewer we left clamouring behind, the fewer there would beto speed our going with their stones. Still I came to the beach i
n goodorder, and laid hands on the flimsy boat and tipped her dry.
"Fighting is no trade for, me," I cried, "whilst you are here,Phorenice. Guard me my back and walk out into the water."
I took the boat, thrusting it afloat, and wading with it till two linesof the surf were past. The fishers swarmed round us, active as fish intheir native element, and strove mightily to get hands on the boat andslit the hides which covered it with their eager fingers. But I had aspare hand, and a short stabbing-knife for such close-quarter work, andhere, there, and everywhere was Phorenice the Empress, with her thirstydripping sword. By the Gods! I laughed with sheer delight at seeing herart of fence.
But the swirl of a great fish into the shallows, and the squeal ofa fisher as he was dragged down and home away into the deep, made memindful of foes that no skill can conquer, and no bravery avoid. Withouttaking time to give the Empress a word of warning, I stooped, and flungan arm round her, and threw her up out of the water into the boat, andthen thrust on with all my might, driving the flimsy craft out tosea, whilst my legs crept under me for fear of the beasts which swaminvisible beneath the muddied waters.
To the fishers, inured to these horrid perils by daily association,the seizing of one of their number meant little, and they pressed on,careless of their dull lives, eager only to snatch the jewels whichstill flaunted on Phorenice's breast. Of the vengeance that might comeafter they recked nothing; let them but get the wherewithal for onenight's good debauch, and they would forget that such a thing as themorning of a morrow could have existence.
Two fellows I caught and killed that, diving down beneath, tried to slitthe skin of the boat out of sight under the water; and Phorenice caredfor all those that tried to put a hand on the gunwales. Yes, and she didmore than that. A huge long-necked turtle that was stirred out of themud by the turmoil, came up to daylight, and swung its great horn-lippedmouth to this side and that, seeking for a prey. The fishers near itdodged and dived. I, thrusting at the stern of the boat, could only hopeit would pass me by and so offered an easy mark. It scurried towardsme, champing its noisy lips, and beating the water into spray with itsflippers.
But Phorenice was quick with a remedy and a rescue. She passed her swordthrough one of the fishers that pressed her, and then thrust the bodytowards the turtle. The great neck swooped towards it; the long slimyfeelers which protruded from its head quivered and snuffled; and thenthe horny green jaws crunched on it, and drew it down out of sight.
The boat was in deep water now, and Phorenice called upon me to come inover the side, she the while balancing nicely so that the flimsy thingshould not be overset. The fishers had given up their pursuit, findingthat they earned nothing but lopped-off arms and split faces by comingwithin swing of this terrible sword of their Empress, and so contentedthemselves with volleying jagged stones in the hopes of stunning us orsplitting the boat. However, Phorenice crouched in the stern, holdingthe two shields--her own golden target, and the rough hide buckler Ihad won--and so protected both of us whilst I paddled, and though manystones clattered against the shields, and hit the hide covering of theboat, so that it resounded like a drum, none of them did damage, and wedrew quickly out of their range.