_ As it chanced during the remaining days of that journey, Quilla and I
were not again alone together (that is to say, except once for a few
minutes), for we were never out of eyeshot of someone in our company.
Thus Kari clung to me very closely, indeed, and when I asked him why,
told me bluntly that it was for my safety's sake. A god to remain a
god, he said, should live alone in a temple. When he began to mix with
others of the earth and to do those things they did, to eat and to
drink, to laugh and to frown; even to slip in the mud or to stumble
over the stones in the common path, those others would come to think
that there was small difference between god and man. Especially would
they think so if he were observed to love the company of women or to
melt beneath their soft glances.
Now I grew sore at the sting of these arrows which of late he had
loved to shoot at me, and without pretending to misunderstand him,
said outright:
"The truth is, Kari, that you are jealous of the lady Quilla as once
you were jealous of another."
He considered the matter in his grave fashion, and answered:
"Yes, Master, that is the truth, or part of it. You saved my life, and
sheltered me when I was alone in a strange land, and for this and for
yourself I came to love you very greatly, and love, if it be true, is
always jealous and always hates a rival."
"There are different sorts of loves," I said; "that of a man for man
is one, that of man for woman is another."
"Yes, Master, and that of woman for man is a third; moreover, there is
this about it--it is the acid which turns all other loves sour. Where
are a man's friends when a woman has him by the heart?--although
perchance they love him better than ever will the woman who at bottom
loves herself best of all. Still, let that be, for so Nature works,
and who can fight against Nature? What Quilla takes, Kari loses, and
Kari must be content to lose."
"Have you done?" I asked angrily, who wearied of his homilies.
"No, Master. The matter of jealousy is small and private; so is the
matter of love. But, Master, you have not told me outright whether you
love the lady Quilla, and, what is more important, whether she loves
you."
"Then I will tell you now. I do and she does."
"You love the lady Quilla and she says that she loves you, which may
or may not be true, or if true to-day may be false to-morrow. For your
sake I hope that it is not true."
"Why?" I said in a rage.
"Because, Master, in this land there are many sorts of poison, as I
have learned to my cost. Also there are knives, if not of steel, and
many who might wish to discover whether a god who courts women like a
man can be harmed by poisons or pierced by knives. Oh!" he added, in
another tone, ceasing from his bitter jests, "believe me that I would
shield, not mock you. This Lady Quilla is a queen in a great game of
pieces such as you taught me to play far away in England, and without
her perchance that game cannot be won, or so those who play it think.
Now you would steal that queen and thereby, as they also think, bring
death and destruction on a country. It is not safe, Master. There are
plenty of fair women in this land; take your pick of them, but leave
that one queen alone."
"Kari," I answered, "if there be such a game, are you not perchance
one of the players on this side or on that?"
"It may be so, Master, and if you have not guessed it, perhaps one day
I will tell you upon which side I play. It may even be that for my own
sake I should be glad to see you lift this queen from off the board,
and that what I tell you is for love of you and not of myself, also of
the lady Quilla, who, if you fall, falls with you down through the
black night into the arms of the Moon, her mother. But I have said
enough, and indeed it is foolish to waste breath in such talk, since
Fate will have its way with both of you, and the end of the game in
which we play is already written in Pachacamac's book for every one of
us. Did not Rimac speak of it the other night? So play on, play on,
and let Destiny fulfil itself. If I dared to give counsel it was only
because he who watches the battle with a general's eye sees more of it
than he who fights."
Then he bowed in his stately fashion and left me, and it was long ere
he spoke to me again of this matter of Quilla and our love for one
another.
When he was gone my anger against him passed, since I saw that he was
warning me of more than he dared to say, not for himself, but because
he loved me. Moreover, I was afraid, for I felt that I was moving in
the web of a great plot that I did not understand, of which Quilla and
those cold-eyed lordlings of her company and the chief whose guest I
had been, and Kari himself, and many others as yet unknown to me, spun
the invisible threads. One day these might choke me. Well, if they
did, what then? Only I feared for Quilla--greatly I feared for Quilla.
On the day following my talk with Kari at length we reached the great
city of the Chancas, which, after them, was called Chanca--at least I
always knew it by that name. From the dawn we had been passing through
rich valleys where dwelt thousands of these Chancas who, I could see,
were a mighty people that bore themselves proudly and like soldiers.
In multitudes they gathered themselves together upon either side of
the road, chiefly to catch a sight of me, the white god who had risen
from the ocean, but also to greet their princess, the lady Quilla.
Indeed, now I learned for the first time how high a princess she was,
since when her litter passed, these folk prostrated themselves,
kissing the air and the dust. Moreover, as soon as she came among them
Quilla's bearing changed, for her carriage grew more haughty and her
words fewer. Now she seldom spoke save to issue a command, not even to
myself, although I noted that she studied me with her eyes when she
thought that I was not observing her.
During our midday halt I looked up and saw that an army was
approaching us, five thousand men or more, and asked Kari its meaning.
"These," he answered, "are some of the troops of Huaracha, King of the
Chancas, whom he sends out to greet his daughter and only child, also
his guest, the White God."
"Some of the troops! Has he more, then?"
"Aye, Master, ten times as many, as I think. This is a great people;
almost as great as that of the Incas who live at Cuzco. Come now into
the tent and put on your armour, that you may be ready to meet them."
I did so, and, stepping forth clad in the shining steel, took my stand
where Kari showed me, upon a rise of ground. On my right at a little
distance stood Quilla, more splendidly arrayed than I had ever seen
her, and behind her her maidens and the captains and counsellors of
her following.
The army drew nearer, marshalled in regiments and halted on the plain
some two hundred yards away. Presently from it advanced generals and
old men, clad in white, whom I took to be priests and elders. They
approached to the number of twenty or more and bowed deeply, first to
Quilla, who bent her head in acknowledgment and then to myself. After
this they went to speak with Quilla and her following, but what they
said I did not know. All the while, however, their eyes were fixed on
me. Then Quilla brought them to me and one by one they bowed before
me, saying something in a language which I did not understand well,
for it was somewhat different from that which Kari had taught me.
After this we entered the litters, and, escorted by that great army,
were borne forward down valleys and over ridges till about sunset we
came to a large cup-like plain in the centre of which stood the city
called Chanca. Of this city I did not see much except that it was very
great as the darkness was falling when we entered, and afterwards I
could not go out because of the crowds that pressed about me. I was
borne down a wide street to a house that stood in a large garden which
was walled about. Here in this fine house I found food prepared for
me, and drink, all of it served in dishes and cups of gold and silver;
also there were women who waited upon me, as did Kari who now was
called Zapana and seemed to be my slave.
When I had eaten I went out alone into the garden, for on this plain
the air was very warm and pleasant. It was a beautiful garden, and I
wandered about among its avenues and flowering bushes, glad to be
solitary and to have time to think. Amongst other things I wondered
where Quilla might be, for of her I had seen nothing from the time
that we entered the town. I hated to be parted from her, because in
this vast strange land into which I had wandered she was the only one
for whom I had come to care and without whom I felt I should die of
loneliness.
There was Kari, it is true, who I knew loved me in his fashion, but
between him and me there was a great gulf fixed, not only of race and
faith, but of something now which I did not wholly understand. In
London he had been my servant and his ends were my ends; on our
wandering he had been my companion in great adventures. But now I knew
that other interests and desires had taken a hold of him, and that he
trod a road of which I could not see the goal; and no longer thought
much of me save when what I did or desired to do came between him and
that goal.
Therefore Quilla alone was left to me, and Quilla was about to be
taken away. Oh! I wearied of this strange land with its snowclad
mountains and rich valleys, its hordes of dark-skinned people with
large eyes, smiling faces, and secret hearts; its great cities,
temples, and palaces filled with useless gold and silver; its
brilliant sunshine and rushing rivers, its gods, kings, and policies.
They were alien to me, every one of them, and if Quilla were taken
away and I were left quite alone, then I thought that it would be well
to die.
Something moved behind a palm trunk of the avenue in which I walked,
and not knowing whether it were beast or man, I laid my hand upon my
sword which I still wore, although I had taken off the armour. Before
I could draw it my wrist was grasped and a soft voice whispered in my
ear:
"Fear nothing; it is I--Quilla."
Quilla it was, wrapped in a long hooded cloak such as the peasant
women wear in the cold country, for she threw back the hood and a beam
of starlight fell upon her face.
"Hearken!" she said. "It is dangerous to both of us, but I have come
to bid you farewell."
"Farewell! I feared it would be thus, but why so soon, Quilla?"
"For this reason, Love and Lord. I have seen my father the King, and
made my report to him of the matter with which I was sent to deal
among the Yuncas. It pleased him, and since his mood was gracious, I
opened my heart to him and told him that no longer did I wish to be
given in marriage to Urco, who will soon put on the Inca fringe, for,
as you know, it is to him that I am promised!"
"What did he answer, Quilla?"
"He answered: 'This means, Daughter, that you have met some other man
to whom you do wish to be given in marriage. I will not ask his name,
since if I knew it it would be my duty to kill him, however high and
noble he might be.'"
"Then he guesses, Quilla?"
"I think he guesses; I think that already some have whispered in his
ear, but he does not wish to listen who desires to remain deaf and
blind."
"Did he say no more, Quilla?"
"He said much more; he said this--now I tell you secrets, Lord, and
place my honour in your keeping, for having given you all the rest,
why should I not give you that also? He said: 'Daughter, you who have
been my ambassador, you, my only child, who know all my counsel, know
also that there is about to be the greatest war that the land of
Tavantinsuyu has ever known, war between the two mighty nations of the
Quichuas of Cuzco whereof the old Upanqui is king and god, and the
Chancas whereof I am king and you, if you live, in a day to come will
be the queen. No longer can these two lions dwell in the same forest;
one of them must devour the other; nor shall I fight alone, since on
our side are all the Yuncas of the coast who, as you report to me, are
ripe for rebellion. But, as you also report, and as I have learned
from others, they are not yet ready. Moons must go by before their
armies are joined to mine and I throw off the mask. Is it not so?'
"I answered that it was so, and my father went on:
"'Then during that time, Daughter, a dust must be raised that will
hide the shining of my spears, and, Daughter, you are that dust.
To-morrow the old Inca Upanqui visits me here with a small army. I
read your thought. It is--Why do you not kill him and his army?
Daughter, for this reason. He is very aged and about to lay down his
sceptre, who grows feeble of mind and body. If I killed him what would
it serve me, seeing that he has left his son, Urco, who will be Inca,
ruling at Cuzco, and that of his soldiers not one in fifty will be
with him here? Moreover, he is my guest, and the gods frown on those
who slay their guests, nor will men ever trust them more.'
"Now I answered: 'You spoke of me as a cloud of dust, Father; how,
then, can this poor dust serve your ends and those of the Chanca
people?'
"'Thus Daughter,' he answered. 'With your own consent you are promised
in marriage to Urco. Upanqui the Inca has heard rumours that the
Chancas prepare for war. Therefore, he who travels on his last journey
through certain of his dominions comes to lead you away, to be Urco's
bride, saying to himself, "If those rumours are true, King Huaracha
will withhold his only child and heiress, since never will he make war
upon Cuzco if she rules there as its queen." Therefore, if I refuse
you to him, he will withdraw and begin the war, rolling down his
thousands upon us before we are ready, and bringing the Chancas to
destruction and enslavement. Therefore also not only my fate, but the
fate of all your country lies in your hand.'
"'Father,' I said, 'tell me, who was ever dear to you that lack sons,
is there no escape? Must I eat this bitter bread? Before you answer,
learn that you have guessed aright, and that I who, when I made that
promise, cared for no man, have come to feel the burning of love's
fire!'
"Now he looked at me awhile, then said: 'Child of the Moon, there is
but one escape, and it must be sought--in the moon. The dead cannot be
given in marriage. If your strait is so sore, though it would cut me
to the heart, perchance it is better that you should die and go
whither doubtless he whom you love will soon follow you. Depart now
and counsel with Heaven in your sleep. To-morrow, before Upanqui
comes, we will talk again.'
"So I knelt and kissed the hand of the King, my father, and left him,
wondering at his nobleness who could show such a road to his only
child, though its treading would mean woe to him and mayhap the ruin
of his hopes. Still that road is an old one among the women of my
people, and why should I not walk it, as thousands have done before
me?"
"How came you here?" I asked hoarsely.
"Lord, I guessed that you would be walking in this garden which joins
on to that of the palace, and--none were about, and--the door in the
wall was open. Indeed, it was almost as though I were left alone and
unwatched of set purpose. So I came and sought--and found, having a
question to put to you."
"What question, Quilla?"
"This: Shall I live or shall I die? Speak the word and I obey. Yet ere
you speak, remember that if I live we meet for the last time, since
very soon I go hence to become the wife of Urco and play the part that
is prepared for me?"
Now when I, Hubert, heard these words, I felt as though my heart would
burst within my breast and knew not what to say. So to gain time I
asked her:
"Which do you desire--to live or to die?"
She laughed a little as she answered:
"That is a strange question, Lord. Have I not told you that if I live
I must do so befouled as one of Urco's women, whereas, if I die, I die
clean and take my love with me to where Urco cannot come, but where,
mayhap, another may follow at the appointed time."
"Which time would be very soon, I think, Quilla, seeing that he who
had spoiled all this pretty plot would scarcely be left long upon the
earth, even if he wished to stay there. Yet I say: Do not die--live
on."
"To become Urco's woman! That is strange counsel from a lover's lips,
Lord; such as would scarcely have been given by any of our nobles."
"Aye, Quilla, and it is given because I am not of your people and do
not think as they think, who reject their customs. You are not yet
Urco's wife, and may be rid of him by other paths than that of death,
but from the grave there is no escape."
"And in the grave there is no more fear, Lord. Thither Urco cannot
come; there are neither wars nor plottings; there honour does not
beckon and love hold back. I say that I will die and make an end, as
for like causes many of my blood have done, though not here and now.
When I am about to be delivered to Urco then I will die, and perchance
not alone. Perchance he will accompany me," she added slowly.
"And if this happens, what shall I do?"
"Live on, Lord, and find other women to love you, as a god should.
There are many in this land fairer and wiser than I, and, save myself,
you may take whom you will."
"Listen, Quilla. I have a story to tell you."
Then, as briefly as I could, I set out the tale of Blanche and of her
end, while she hung upon my every word.
"Oh! I grieve for you," she said, when I had finished.
"You grieve for me, and yet, what she did for my sake you would do
also, so that, as it were, both my hands must be dyed with blood. This
first terror I have borne, but if a second falls upon me then I know
that I shall go mad and perish in this way or in that, and you,
Quilla, will be my murderess."
"No, no, not that!" she murmured.
"Then swear to me by your god and by your spirit, that you will do
yourself no harm, whatever chances, and that if die you must, it shall
be with me for company."
"Is your love so great that you would dare this for my sake, Lord?"
"I think so, though not till all else had failed. I think that if you
were taken from me, Quilla, I could not live on here in loneliness and
exile--however great the sin. But do you swear?"
"Aye, Love and Lord, I swear, for your sake. Moreover, I add to the
oath. If perhaps we should escape these perils and come together, I
will be such a wife to you as never man has had. I will wrap you round
with love and lift you up to be a king, that you may live in glory
forgetting your home across the sea, and all the sorrows that befell
you there. Children you shall have also of whom you need not be
ashamed, though my dark blood runs in them, and armies at command and
palaces filled with gold, and all royal joys. And if perchance the
gods declare against us, and we pass from the world together, then I
think, oh! then I think that I shall give you finer gifts than these,
though what they are I know not yet, since to the power of love there
is no end--here on earth or yonder in the skies."
I stared at her face in the starlight, and oh! it had grown splendid.
No longer was it that of a woman, since through it, like light through
pearl, shone a soul divine. It might have been a goddess who stood
beside me, for those eyes were holy and her embrace that wrapped me
close was not that of the flesh alone.
"I must be gone," she whispered, "but now I go without fear. Perchance
we may not speak again for long, but trust me always. Play your part
and I will play mine. Follow me wherever I am taken and keep near to
me, if you may, as ever my spirit shall be near to you. Then what
matters anything, even if we are slain? Farewell, beloved, kiss me and
farewell."
Another moment and she had glided away and was lost in the shadows.
She was gone, and I stood amazed and overcome. Oh! what a love it was
that this alien woman had given to me and how could I be worthy of it?
Now I forgot my griefs; now I no longer mourned because I was an
outcast who nevermore might look upon the land where I was born, nor
see the face of one my own race or blood. All my loss was paid back to
me again and yet again, in the coin of the glory of this woman whom I
had won. Dangers rose about us, but I feared them no more, because I
knew that her love's conquering feet would stamp them flat and lead me
safe to a joyful treasure-house of splendour of spirit and of body
where we should dwell side by side, triumphant and unafraid.
Whilst I thought thus, lost in a rapture such as I had not felt since
Blanche kissed me at the mouth of the Hastings cave after I had killed
the three Frenchmen with as many arrows from my black bow, I heard a
sound and looked up to see a man standing before me.
"Who is it?" I asked, grasping my sword, for his face was hidden in
the shadows.
"I," answered a voice which I knew to be that of Kari.
"Then how did you come here? I saw no one pass the open ground."
"Master, you are not the only one who loves to walk in gardens in the
quiet of the night. I was here before yourself, behind yonder tree,"
and he pointed to a palm not three paces distant.
"Then, Kari, you must have seen----"
"Yes, Master, I saw and heard, not everything, because there came a
point at which I shut my eyes and stopped my ears, but still much."
"I am minded to kill you, Kari," I said between my teeth, "who play
the spy upon me."
"I guessed it would be so, Master," he replied in his gentlest voice,
"and for that reason, as you will notice, I am standing out of reach
of your sword. You wonder why I am here. I will tell you. It is not
from any desire to watch your love-makings which weary me, who have
seen such before, but rather that I might find secrets, of which love
is always the loser, and those secrets I have learned. How could I
have come by them otherwise, Master?"
"Surely you deserve to die," I exclaimed furiously.
"I think not, Master. But listen and judge for yourself. I have told
you something of my story, now you shall hear more, after which we
will talk of what I do or do not deserve. I am the eldest son of the
Inca Upanqui, and Urco, of whom you have been talking is my younger
brother. But Upanqui, our father, loved Urco's mother while mine he
did not love, and swore to her before she died that against right and
law, Urco, her son, should be Inca after him. Therefore he hated me
because I stood in Urco's path; therefore too many troubles befell me,
and I was given over into Urco's hand, so that he took my wife and
tried to poison me, and the rest you know. Now it was needful to me to
learn how things went, and for this reason I listened to the talk
between you and a certain lady. It told me that Upanqui, my father,
comes here to-morrow, which indeed I knew already, and much else that
I had not heard. This being so I must vanish away, since doubtless
Upanqui or his councillors would know me again, and as they are all of
them friends of Urco, perhaps I should taste more poison and of a
stronger sort."
"Whither will you vanish, Kari?"
"I know not, Master, or if I know, I will not say, who have but just
been taught afresh how secrets can pass from ear to ear. I must lie
hid, that is enough. Yet do not think that therefore I shall desert
you--I, while I live, will watch over you, a stranger in my country,
as you watched over me when I was a stranger in your England."
"I thank you," I answered, "and certainly you watch well--too well,
sometimes, as I have found to-night."
"You think it pleases me to spy upon you and a certain lady," went on
Kari with an unruffled voice, "but it is not so. What I do is for good
reasons, amongst others that I may protect you both, and if I can,
bring about what you desire. That lady has a great heart, as I learned
but now, and after all you did well to love her, as she does well to
love you. Therefore, although the dangers are so many, if I am able, I
will help you in your love and bring you together, yes, and save her
from the arms of Urco. Nay, ask me not how, for I do not know, and the
case seems desperate."
"But if you go, what shall I do alone?" I asked, alarmed.
"Bide here, I think, Lord, giving it out that your servant Zapana has
deserted you. Indeed it seems that this you must do, since the king of
this country will scarcely suffer you to be the companion of his
daughter upon her marriage journey to Cuzco, even if Upanqui so
desires. Nor would it be wise, for if he did, misfortune might befall
you on the road. There are some women, Lord, who cannot keep their
love out of their eyes, and henceforward there will be plenty to watch
the eyes and hearken to the most secret sighings of one of the
greatest of them. Now farewell until I come to you again or send
others on my behalf. Trust me, I pray you, since to whomever else I
may seem false, to you I am true; yes, to you and to another because
she has become a part of you."
Then before I could answer, Kari took my hand and touched it with his
lips. Another moment and I had lost sight of him in the shadows. _