CHAPTER NINE.
"TO SLAY THEE, SON OF MATYOBANE."
The great kraal, Kwa'zingwenya, slept. All was dark and still as wedrew near it, Jambula and I. We could make out dimly in the starlightthe immense circle of domed huts within their ringed fences, but not somuch as the spark of a distant fire showed that any within were awake.Treading cautiously, we took our way round to the upper end of the greatcircle.
At every gate bodies of armed guards were posted, yet in the darknesstwo men, stealthy, silent as serpents, glided by unnoticed--no dog evenwas roused to give warning of their approach. Two men, alone. Success,and on the morrow the nation would hail a new king. Failure, and thelives of these two, and of all their kith and kindred, would be takenmercilessly.
Having reached our point we set to work. Twig by twig, thorn by thorn,we began to breach the thick prickly fence; long and silently we workeduntil the hole was large enough for the body of a man to creep through.But it was done at last, and I stood within the _isigodhlo_.
Jambula was to remain outside. If all went well, that is, if he saw orheard nothing the night through, he was to enter himself shortly beforedawn, and having stopped up the hole from the inside, was to await myorders. If I failed--and that he would not be long in learning--he wasto return at full speed to my kraal, and warn the people there to fleeat once for their very lives--to flee both fast and far--for it wouldnot be long before the slayers were on their track.
Were my movements actuated by ambition alone, _Nkose_, then indeed myheart might have begun to fail me. Here was I, in the dead of night,all unbidden, within the sacred precincts of the _isigodhlo_. To befound there was death--were I the highest in the nation--death byimpalement, or some other form of lingering torment. But now thethoughts engendered by such knowledge availed not to daunt me. Thespirit of Lalusini, agonised and bloody, rose ever before my eyes,beckoning me onward, and my one thought was how soon I might bury myspear in the heart of her slayer.
But for my spear, here before me, was work already. From round one ofthe huts a man appeared, so suddenly as to collide with me in thedarkness, had I not quickly stepped aside. Immediately I struck--andstruck home. The broad blade had cleft his heart, and breathing only asoft sigh he sank motionless--being stone dead. I bent over his face,and recognised one of the _izinceku_, or body-servants of the King. Ofthese I knew there were two on watch at night. I had yet to reckon withthe other.
Now I stood motionless, and held my breath, listening. I was among thehuts of the royal women, and there, but twenty paces distant, was thatof the King. For arms, I had but a single broad-bladed assegai, thegift of Umzilikazi himself, as I have told you, _Nkose_, in a formertale; not even a shield, for such would but encumber me if it came to aclose hand-to-hand struggle. My own craft and quickness were to be as ashield.
Two steps at a time, treading softer than any cat, I gained the outsideof the large hut. Peering round I saw what I expected. Right acrossthe door lay the body of a man. It was the other _inceku_.
He was sleeping. I could hear his soft regular breathing. But before Icould enter that door he must exchange his sleep for the sleep of death.
He was lying on his back, his face turned upward to the stars, his bodyfilling almost the whole width between the outside screen and the dooritself. To reach him I could hardly hope without some slight sound of ascuffle. I flattened myself on the ground, and so crept noiselesslyalong his side.
_Whau_! but again the blade went home. Right under the fifth rib itglided, and the red blood flowed forth warm upon my hand. This one,too, died without a struggle.
Pausing again, I listened. All was still inside the hut. I began tocut the thong fastenings of the wicker door. What if Umzilikazi,experienced warrior as he was, awakened by the small amount of noise Ihad caused, were standing ready for me, waiting in the darkness withassegai uplifted to plunge the broad blade in between my shoulders as Icrept in through the low doorway. Then the thought came to me that byreason of his very security, hemmed around with guards, the sleep of theKing would be sound and unsuspicious. The fastenings were now cut, andgrasping the wicker door firmly, I let it down noiselessly upon thefloor of the hut.
There was another screen inside which I had forgotten. Peering aroundthis I saw that the interior was not in darkness. The smoulderingembers of a fire glowed in the hollow in the centre of the floor, and byits indistinct light I could make out the King, asleep among a pile ofblankets against the thatch wall.
But in a moment he started from his sleep and sat upright.
"Ha! Who is that?" he said. Then, recognising me, he cried furiously,"Ha, Untuswa! Thou dog, daring to invade my privacy. Are we threatenedfrom without, or why art thou here?"
"_Thou_ art threatened from within," I answered jeeringly. "I have cometo slay thee, son of Matyobane." And I sprang upon him.
But not so easily was my purpose of vengeance to be fulfilled.Umzilikazi, the warrior and leader of warriors while I was yet a boy,the founder and strong ruler of a new nation, was not so easily to beovercome, although surprised in the midst of sleep. Avoiding the strokeI aimed at him with my assegai, he seized my right wrist and held it ina grasp of iron, and for a moment thus in the half darkness we grappled.Indeed, I know not why he refrained from shouting aloud for assistance,knowing my bodily strength and prowess as a fighter, unless it were thathis old warrior instincts moved him to add to the terror of his name byoverthrowing so formidable a foe in single strife. And then it was toolate, for with my left hand I seized his throat and gripped it until hisvery eyes protruded, choking back any sound he might then fain haveuttered.
"Thy life shall pay for thy breach of faith with me," I snarled. "Ha,ha! Where is Lalusini?" And my grasp on his throat tightened.
But then I saw another form rise from the heap of blankets and disappearswiftly through the door of the hut. I had not reckoned on the presenceof any of the King's wives; and I knew that I was lost, even before Iheard the loud, shrill cry for help that rang out upon the night.
At that moment the sides of the doorway were nearly rent asunder, as thearmed guard swarmed in. But, as this happened, Umzilikazi's grasp uponmy wrists relaxed, and he fell heavily to the ground. At the same timea strange, sweet odour filled the air, half stupefying me.
"Slay him, the traitorous dog!" I cried, imitating, as well as I knewhow, the voice of the King. "Slay him where he lies."
In another moment half a dozen spears would have transfixed theprostrate form, but just then, either by chance or design, one of thearmed guard kicked the red embers into a momentary glow. The light fellfull upon the face of Umzilikazi.
"_Whau_!" cried the guards, leaping in alarm, their assegais arrested inmid air. "It is the King!"
Then I saw that my plot had failed. Swift--swift as the lightningflash--I stabbed the warrior nearest the door, and, gliding through thelatter, but a very few steps brought me to the thorn fence. No time hadI to seek the hole by which I had entered. Gathering my legs under me Ileaped. Right over the high stockade I flew like a buck, and once onthe further side, I ran--ran as I had never ran in my younger days whenI was the King's messenger.
And as I ran, keeping on fast and far throughout the night, I noticedthat there was no hubbub in the great kraal behind. This meant that Ihad certainly failed to kill the King. But what had made him drop thussuddenly? Whatever it was it had been the saving of my own life, foronly to the momentary diversion caused by my imitating Umzilikazi's tonedid I owe it that half a dozen blades had not transfixed me then andthere. And now I noticed that the same strange, sweet, stupefyingodour, though much fainter, was with me as I ran. Instinctively Iclutched the _muti_ bag hanging to my neck. _Whau_! It was open. Halfof it had been torn away, but from what was left proceeded the odour.Now I saw. Now all stood clear. The bag had contained some stupefyingscent. In our struggle it had been torn open, and Umzilikazi's facecoming against it he had fallen senseless. He was in my hands.La
lusini's death would have been avenged, and I on the morrow would haveproclaimed myself King, and supported my position by force of arms ifneed be; whereas now I was a fugitive, without home or nation.Umzilikazi still lived, and would pursue me with untiring and relentlesspurpose; and, worse than all, Lalusini was unavenged.
_Still_ unavenged, should I not have said? for as I fled a new thoughtcame into my mind. One plan of vengeance had failed, another might not;and, _Nkose_, if you are thinking, as I see you are, what kind ofvengeance a nationless fugitive, fleeing for his very life, could hopeto compass against a mighty king sitting at the head of a warriornation, I can only answer that it was as a nationless fugitive I couldbest hope to compass that vengeance, as you will see. Anyhow, though myscheme had failed, Lalusini's _muti_ had availed to save my life--that,too in the direst extremity. For what purpose, then, had my life beensaved, but to carry out that scheme of vengeance by some other means?
When the dawn broke, I had already placed a great distance betweenmyself and Kwa'zingwenya, and now the most perilous part of my flightbegan. The kraals of our own people were scattered about the land, anddid any inhabiting these catch so much as a glimpse of me, the pursuersalready on my track would not be long in finding me. I dared not liehidden during the day, for, long as it really was, the distance betweenmyself and Kwa'zingwenya was far too short. Well I knew Umzilikaziwould cover the land with searching parties, and that many leaders ofthese would pay with their lives for failure to discover me. No moredeadly crime had been committed since our nation was a nation. I hadoffered violence to the King's person; had attempted the life of theGreat Great One, and only by the merest accident had foiled to take it.The offence of the conspiration of Ncwelo's Pool was an easilypardonable one compared with mine.
Carefully I travelled throughout the day. I could see the kraals of ourpeople both near and far, and now and then parties of people themselves,but of the pursuers nothing as yet. Fortunately the ground was brokenand bushy, and I was able to avoid observation. For arms I had but oneassegai, no blanket to cover me from the night chills, and no food.
You will be wondering, _Nkose_, how it was that so experienced acampaigner as myself should have made no sort of preparation for thisflight by storing provisions and necessaries in some place ofconcealment where I could readily take them up. But the reason lies inthe fact that flight had not come into my plan at all. When I hadstarted in upon it my desperate enterprise offered two alternatives--success or death--in the attempt. That a third alternative--flight--might be open to me I had never for a moment contemplated; wherefore,here I was in very evil case.
I managed to pluck some ears of green corn from a garden unperceived,and this sustained me as I devoured it; for in those days we could livefor a long time on very little food, and but little rest. By thefollowing evening I had gained the foot of the mountain range called_Inkume_, somewhat to the eastward of the Place of the Three Rifts,where our great battle was fought and won--won for us chiefly by themagic of Lalusini.
"Ah, ah!" I growled to myself, shaking my assegai in the directionwhence I had come. "This nation has doomed itself in taking the life ofher through whom its own life has been preserved."
Now just as the sun touched the rim of the western world, his last gleamcaused something to flash and shine. Ha! The glint of spears! _I_ought to know it. And in the clear light that succeeded I could makeout a considerable body of armed men.
They were yet a great way off, but were coming towards me, not as thoughstraight from Kwa'zingwenya, but by a roundabout way. A search party,of course. And now I thought gladly how I had been seen by none--thoughof this I could not make altogether certain. But I would not lingerhere. Darkness fell and the night was starry and still. Up and up,higher and higher I climbed, intending to place the whole mountain rangebetween me and the Amandebeli nation by sunrise; but I was somewhatweary, and the ascent was rough and very steep. As I drew near thesummit the night wind blew chill, singing through the long grass likethe wailings of countless ghosts, and strange cries and howlings wouldfloat up from the mountain sides. But nothing cared I for ghosts now;my chief thought was to avoid falling over cliffs and into chasms.
But when I had reached the summit of the range, as I thought, the starsgrew dim, and, in a moment more, were hidden altogether. A white mistwas creeping up from the further side, veiling everything. This wasbad, for the most experienced traveller is as a little child in a thickmountain mist; and it was quite as likely as not that by continuing totravel I might turn round unknowingly and thus walk straight back uponthe spears of those who came after. No! I must halt until it becameclear again; and, at any rate, if I were delayed, the same would holdgood of my pursuers, unless, indeed, the northern side of the mountainsremained clear. This would give them such a long start that they wouldsoon come up with me, in which case--goodnight!
It was time I decided to halt, _Nkose_. A puff of cold air coming_upward_ warned me to pause in the act of making a step. The swirl andmovement of the air lightened the thickness a little. And lo! I wasstanding on the very brink of a black chasm.
Its depth I could not estimate, but it looked bad. I was notunacquainted with these mountains, and I knew there were clefts whichseemed to go down into the very heart of the world. But I saw somethingelse. Away on the one hand rose a great rock, and around it, along thelip of the chasm, a narrow path seemed to run.
Now a new thought struck me. This might lead to one of the cavedwellings of those old tribes who long ages ago had inhabited thosemountains. If so, no better hiding-place could I find, and immediatelyI started to make my way along the ledge path.
_Whau, Nkose_, I like not to recall that dread journey. That way, atfirst only broad enough for one man to travel, soon narrowed until amonkey could hardly have found foothold on it. Before me a great tongueof slippery rock face against which, and with arms extended, I had toflatten myself; behind, the unknown depths of that awful chasm. Itseemed as though ghosts and witches sung in my ears in the dank breathsof the white mist, as though in the fitful puffs of the night wind handswere stretched forth to claw me down. Then, fortunately, the projectingrock tongue ended, and lo! I had gained a flat surface about twice thelength of a man. This sloped inward, a narrowing tunnel, with a strangesudden twist just before it ended; and now my heart leaped within me,for no better hiding-place could I have lighted upon. Chilled, and wet,and weary, I crept into the narrowest end of the hole, and hardly had Ilain me down than I fell into a deep, sound slumber.
When I awoke, it seemed that dawn had already begun to lighten theworld, for I could make out the rock-walls of my sleeping place. Well,I would see, at any rate, what sort of hiding this place promised toafford. I crept to where the cave widened sufficiently to allow me tostand upright, and then, as I turned the corner, amazement was myportion, and a growl escaped me, which boded ill for him who had causedit, for I had run right against the body of a man.
He grappled with me in a moment, seizing my wrist before I could bury myassegai in his body, and speaking quickly and eagerly. We wereperilously near the edge of the chasm, for in my advance I had borne himbackward. Then, as suddenly, my grasp of him relaxed, and his of me;for, in the fast lightening dimness of dawn, I recognised the face of myfaithful slave, Jambula, the Xosa.