Chapter XIIThe Dance of the Maidens
So I had come empty handed, after all, from out the Treasure House of Kings.
We groped our way down the spiral staircase, the Queen and I, and both were silent. Far be it from me to guess the thoughts of the woman at my side; as for my own, I fear that man is but an ungrateful animal at best. For I thought little of our wonderful escape, and much of the rubies, the ivory and pearls, and other goodly store of wealth that I had left behind.
Some day, I vowed to myself, I would wrest once more the secret of the entrance to that room of death and gold, and then it should go hard with me indeed, did I come forth as now, with not so much as a yellow ingot to show for the adventure.
I am a man of even temper, but I was coldand hungry and out of conceit with myself and the world about me. Had some priest of Edba or of Hed stayed our retreating steps, I could have stopped his protesting clamor with more good-will than brotherly love. But we reached without let or hindrance the last stair, and a door opening to my touch showed a long corridor but dimly lighted, and winding before us.
“Follow me,” whispered the Queen; “make no noise, but come quickly. From this spot I can reach my own Palace, and once there, woe to him who should so much as lay a finger on you, my lord.”
She led the way with swift and silent footsteps, and I came close behind. Then on a sudden she paused and signed to me to step within a recess formed by the angle of two walls.
I obeyed with rather an ill grace, I fear; for I had heard nothing, and indeed was willing to run some risk, that I might the more readily find dry raiment and victuals even of heathen cooking, but so that I might eat.
Yet Lah with finger on lip tarried, and Isaw her bosom rise and fall with her quick breathing. If such a woman could know fear, it was fear now that looked from her eyes, as I gazed into their depths. And before the end I knew that itwasterror that blanched her face, and that the danger she shunned was danger to me.
And then, just as I was about to protest against this useless dallying, I heard in the distance the patter of loosely tied sandals upon the stone floor, and soon a light showed forth like a glow-worm’s torch in the blackness of the further end.
There were voices too. A goodly company, I judged. Lah stood, a living statue, her dagger drawn, the folds of her dripping mantle spread to shield me as with unconscious force she thrust me back into the dark corner of the recess.
As for me, I pondered where and how it were best to strike, and if I should find in the leader my old acquaintance, Agno, the High Priest. The voices came nearer. The men were disputing, for now I caught stray fragments of their speech.
“Surely the god himself would strike down the thief,” said one, “did not the water do its work.”
“Since none of us knows the secret of the entrance,” said a second, “we can do naught but guard the corridor till Agno comes.”
“You are blind, both of you, as the bats that hang in the Temple’s inner court,” sneered a third. “The stranger has strong magic. He has killed the sacred ape; he has defied both Edba and Hed; he has escaped, though bound, from the very Mad Man of the Moon, whom first he slew. Why should we stand like fools watching for that which comes not? If the strangers seek the treasures of the gods, why, let the gods defend their own!”
“Blasphemer!” cried one in anger, and there was a hoarse clamor of assent, and I thought they would have fallen then and there, like wolves, upon the grumbler, but a new voice sternly bade the clamor cease.
“Get ye onward, and for him who lags or murmurs there shall be both stripes and fasting. For him who compasses the deathof the thief of the Treasure House, honor and riches here, and glory hereafter. Forward!”
The voices and the light were very near now, and two by two, I saw the armed company turn the angle of the wall and march steadily on.
We crouched closer in the inky shadow that befriended us, and I knew that if they did but reach the further turning without beholding us, we were safe.
There were eight in all, and so deep were they in their now whispered talk, or so much in awe of their leader, that they did not so much as turn their heads our way, but marched steadily by.
I began to breathe easily again. The whole array had passed the place, the foremost had even reached the next turning, when the last man, with a muttered oath, tripped on the loosened latchet of his sandal.
His companions hurried on, and he, kneeling, stooped to fasten the leathern thong. He had laid his torch beside him on the stone, and now he turned to raise it. As ill-luck would have it, the light flashed for amoment on our hiding-place. I saw his jaw drop and his look of wonder. His fellow-guardsmen had just now turned the corner.
I started forward, but I was too late. With the noiseless, supple spring of a tigress, Lah was upon him. There was a swift flash of steel, and the thing was over. The Queen even caught the reeling figure and laid it quietly upon the stone.
“I knew his voice,” she said. “’Tis he who called upon the gods to defend their own. They will think that Edba and Hed have avenged the insult. It is well. Let us come.”
And so once more, half dazed, I followed. It was a very labyrinth we threaded, but at length we reached its last winding, and I found myself in the very chamber to which Lestrade and I had first been taken.
The sight of it brought back my old companion to my mind. False friend and comrade that I was! The events of the last hours had quite effaced his image from my mind.
He had fallen victim like me into the hands of these bloody and treacherous priests.
How long had I been prisoner unconscious in the lair of the red witch Hubla? what was Gaston’s fate? and what of her whom I had given my word to rescue?
Filled with shame, I caught the Queen’s mantle as, with the promise of the quick ministry of slaves, she turned to leave me.
“My friend!” I said, in an agony of fear. “Tell me of his fate.”
“He lives,” Lah answered.
“Unhurt?”
“Unhurt—as yet.”
“And she—Astolba?”
The Queen’s eyes narrowed, but she spoke calmly.
“She lives also, but the feast of Edba is at hand.”
“When?” I asked, shuddering; for I could not conceal the horror of my soul.
“To-night. At the sixth hour I will come for thee. Meanwhile rest quietly; be warmed, be fed. Thou hast my promise; thou shalt see all.”
Then I flung myself before the Queen in her pitiless beauty, and, as a man distraught,I raved and pleaded, that she would protect this poor girl, that she at least would give me the chance to die fighting by her side. That she would save Astolba, sweet, innocent, frightened child, alone in the hands of demons. That she would save Gaston, my friend—
And all the time the face of Lah was as marble, and I saw no mercy in those firm closed lips.
At length, wearying of my suit, without a word she tore the hem of her garment from my frantic grasp, and had gone.
I sat stupefied with grief, my head in my hands. And then I raged in helpless passion against fate, against a heaven that could let such things be done, and against myself, thus safe in hiding, while she whom I had sworn to protect, and he, my best, my faithful friend, went forth to meet the lingering agony of a cruel death.
Slaves came, and against my will I was clothed in warm and jewelled raiment. Meat and wine and fruit were brought in golden salvers and set before me. I turned fromit all in loathing, and then the thought came to me that the Queen had given her word that I should see the end. I would eat then and drink, and force myself to rest, and it would go hard if, at the appointed hour, I broke not my bonds, and took my rightful place beside my friends.
Without knowing it, a tender feeling stole into my heart for that poor child, about to be thrown a sacrifice to the hideous god. I could not bear that she should be hurt or frightened. And the tenderness grew until it was something very like to love that found its place within my breast, and I vowed that if the Queen should really let this monstrous thing be done, that did she care for me as she had said, I would wring her heart without pity and without remorse, in just revenge. But it should not be. Neither should my brave and gallant Lestrade perish, a victim to this horrid worship.
I paced up and down the marble floor like a caged beast, and then I remembered that I must husband my strength, and so,with all my power of will, lay motionless upon the couch and watched the weary hours go slowly by.
But at length the fateful moment came, and with it Lah, resplendent in her jewelled garments, the crown upon her head, the girdle of power about her waist. She had never been more beautiful, and her beauty had never touched me less. Indeed, it was almost hatred that I felt for her in that hour, and I said to her in her own language that which was in my heart.
“If these two die, then never between me and thee is there peace again. Thou shalt be my bitterest foe, and may this right hand of mine wither ere it clasp thine in friendship. May I taste death rather than the honeyed poison of thy lips. The choice is thine. I have spoken. Thou knowest if I keep my word.”
She turned proudly.
“He is a fool who breathes threats into the ear of the Queen, and the portion of fools is fire,” she said, and in the proverb I read my answer.
Then she signed to me to follow, and I obeyed. The way led through the same dark tangle of underground passages, as those we threaded in our escape from the Treasure House, but the journey was not so long, and at length it ended in a kind of antechamber richly hung with rugs and skins.
Two giant slaves advanced and fell prostrate on the ground before the face of Lah.
“Take this man,” she said, “and array him as a member of my household. See that he is veiled and that his cloak covers him from head to foot. When I am seated upon my throne let him take his stand by my right hand. As for you, choose well your station. Watch your prisoner closely. At his first movement, his first outcry, seize him and bear him from the court. Let there be no struggle and no noise. I have spoken. Look you to it.” And without so much as a backward glance at me, the Queen had gone.
It was therefore after the manner now set forth that I entered into the inner Temple of Edba, and waited that which was to come.
Already like thousands of ants, black and brown, the people swarmed within the enclosure, filled the wooden balconies to overflowing, and massed themselves in crowds upon the raised platform that lined the walls.
A band of musicians, stationed near the centre, beat monotonously on their hidebound drums and chanted a doleful hymn of praise.
With a refinement of cruelty, Lah had placed me where I could at once see best the torment of my friends, and do least to relieve it. I watched with cold fury the holiday look on the face and garb of the people. They came to this hideous spectacle with the light laughter and noisy bustle of a merrymaking.
Yet the slow-moving, solemn files of priests pleased me no better, and the calm of the close ranks of soldiery alike called forth my wrath. There was not one in all that vast multitude that thought with pity on the fate of her destined to be the Snake’s unhappy bride. Not one but longed for the fall of the knife that was to sever for all time the thread of life of him I called my friend.
I thought how but the veil of silken tissue that I wore stood between me and death; yet, I say it not with boasting, my pulse beat not faster for the fact. I was as a man carried out of himself. I waited, immovable as the very image of Hed himself whose squat figure presided side by side with Edba, over this heathen revel.
There was a stir among the people, as when the wind blows through the trees of the forest. I heard the royal salute, the clash of arms, and Lah had taken her place on the throne beside me. Then Agno raised his staff, and the band of players in the centre of the court struck from their rude instruments the first measures of a dance. At the wild fantastic prelude, two doors at the Temple’s end swung back on their central pivot, and from each appeared six maidens clad in white. They wore silver girdles, and the veils on their heads were caught each with a crescent of silver.
These were the twelve, the fairest in the land, chosen by the priests from out the people. They were to dance before thestatue of the god, and the god himself would show by his nod, which of the number was to be his bride.
I knew but all too well that on Astolba the lot would fall; but these poor girls, her companions, were ignorant of their fate, and bound by their awful rites, as I knew them to be, not one among them but looked her anguish and her fear. With a slow gliding movement in time to the music they took their stand before the veiled figure of Edba and the leering image of Hed. I saw Astolba take her place with the rest, and I glanced at the watchful eyes of my two guards who hung, ready to spring, like eager mastiffs at either hand.
Then the music changed. Again Agno raised his staff, and, with a wild barbaric gush of melody, the centre door swung open. Four priests in costly scarlet raiment advanced, bearing on their shoulders a litter garlanded with flowers, and on this litter, attired as a king, but bound a prisoner, I saw my friend Lestrade.
The royal salute was given, and the peoplefell on their faces. Then the bearers put the litter down and knelt with bowed heads before their captive. Again Agno waved his wand of office.
A deep shuddering sigh ran through the waiting throng as they stood erect. The bearers, too, had risen. I saw them strike the fetters from the victim’s feet and hands. Then, closely guarded, he was bound to the horns of the altar, the sacrificial stone standing in the centre of the inner circle, before the statues of the gods. I noted that between that stone and me lay a pit sunk in the floor of the court, and in the pit a giant python coiled asleep.
But once more the musicians struck their instruments and began the fantastic strains that heralded the dance. I saw the reptile move uneasily. Then its great head was raised. It swayed from side to side, as the music rose and fell.
Agno gave the signal, and the maidens began their dance. It was a kind of raised platform of marble on which they moved, and it was strangely inlaid with tiles bothgreen and white. Only in the centre, just before the image of Hed, was set a single blood-red stone, and over this each maiden was forced in the mazes of the dance to go.
I saw them tremble and falter with terror as they stepped upon this tile, and how their courage rose when once it was safely passed.
The people watched with horrible eagerness all the scene. I glanced covertly at my guard, and I perceived with joy that I was forgotten for the moment.
As for the Queen, she sat immovable, her level brows knit, one bare sandalled foot resting on her tiger’s head. Something told me that the moment had come. I saw Lah raise her hand. On the instant the head of the serpent god fell forward, his chin resting on his breast.
Astolba was standing, helpless as a bird in the snare of the fowler, her feet resting on the centre crimson stone.
A hush fell on the multitude. I saw a wreath of roses flung upon the victim’s head, while at the same time a slendercord, sent swift through the air by an unseen hand, coiled itself about the body of the shuddering girl.
“The great god Hed has chosen!” shrieked the people. “To the pit with the bride! To the pit!”
Then I knew my time had come. No human power could have held me back. I tore the clinging veil and mantle from my limbs. I gave one burly slave a backward blow that sent him reeling upon his fellows; the other I tripped easily with my foot as he started to lay hold upon me. With a quick leap I cleared the amazed circle of the guard. Zobo, back again in life, and warned by the Queen’s cry, sprang to seize me as I fled, but I slipped beneath his outstretched arm.
The multitude seeing my face, which I grant was hardly human in that hour, screamed aloud for very fear. I saw them huddled like sheep together.
A voice cried: “The Magician is upon us!”
I had passed the serpent pit and reached the altar stone. The sacrificial knife, broad-bladed,sharp of edge, lay close to my hand. Another moment and Lestrade was free.
Then together we had reached Astolba. Gaston seized the brazier of live coals that stood before Hed’s image, and flung it full in the face of the first pursuing priest. His cheerful voice rang out. Even in that dread moment I could have sworn that his gaze had rested with instant approval on the shapely ankle of a flying white-robed maiden. He swung the empty brazier with right good-will, and I kept about me a clean circle with my glittering knife.
But already the end was near. Like a cloud of enraged insects the priests swept down upon us, and the reluctant soldiery, fearing they knew not what, came too at Agno’s shrill command. I gave myself three minutes yet of life. My shoulder was bleeding from the stab of a spear, but I felt no pain. With my back to the statue of Hed I fought on blindly.
The circle, bristling with swords and spears, narrowed. Some one had thrown his dagger at me from afar, and the hilt had cut open my forehead just above the eye. It was an irksome wound because I needed then, if ever, clear sight, and the blood that trickled down did the more sadly vex me in that I found no instant when I could pause and brush away the teasing drops.
As I have said, the end was near. Gaston, fighting still beside me, cried out that it was so, and bade me “farewell and God speed.” I saw the sword of a burly soldier within an inch of my breast. There was no time for thrust or parry. I gave but one brief thought to the sweet earth, and not, it shames me, to near heaven. Then on the second I saw the sword struck upward. There was the blue flash of a weapon wielded strong and well, and there by my side, with one foot on the body of a fallen foe, stood Lah, a lioness at bay!
There followed a moment’s pause. Then Zobo, with his tunic torn and bloody from the struggle, leaped into the ring and took his place by the woman he loved and served.
“Back!” cried the Queen, “back! Thepriests outnumber us and the people thirst for blood. On to the Palace; the guards will fight their way to me and follow.”
I saw the wisdom of her words, and it was plain to me that we must do her bidding, and urgently, for our lives’ sake. I thought with longing of the door just at my back. It is a comfortable thing, a strong-barred door, when one has reached the side of safety and left the howling mob without.
So with all caution, step by step, we slowly gave way. There were still shrewd blows struck, for the Queen’s presence had but made the fight with the priests yet hotter, though now the warriors hung back, and would not be spurred forward to battle by the curses freely poured forth on them by Agno. A yard of ground thus counted by inches is longer than many a mile. But the mighty Zobo fought as never man fought before. The Queen, unwearied, guarded now my left, Lestrade, my right.
All honor to such goodly company—they saved the day. Astolba, half led, half carried by me, reached first the sheltering door.When all had entered, it was made fast, and without a word Lah led onward.
Back through the honeycombed passages, till the door of the harem swung open at the royal order, a shattered remnant of the bodyguard greeting us, and we were in the citadel at last.
Then I saw the true spirit that reigned in the soul of her who ruled that place: how, at her command, the gates were made fast, the slaves armed, the secret entrance blocked,—one sent to this post, one to that. This woman with a man’s brain thought of all these things and more; and I, beholding, marvelled. And though I fain would have had it otherwise, the marvel grew.
For all being done, she turned to me at last, and proudly, though her eyes were filled with tears.
“I, who have flung away a kingdom for thy sake, ask now this question: between me and thee, is it war or peace?”
And I, clasping her hand in mine, the memory of her service wiping out the past, answered right readily, and from my heart, that it was peace.