The Flute of the Gods Part 24

"You do not fear then to be marked as the comrade of a sorcerer?"

asked Tahn-te. "You must be a man of strength in your own land, Excellency, to dare offend your priest by such offer. Is the Holy Office no longer supreme in Spain?"

"How do you--an Indian--know of the office, of the duties of the workers there?"

"Two years of my life I lived in the camp of Coronado. To listen was part of my work. Strange and true tales were told in the long nights.

They are still with me."

"But--you will come?"

Tahn-te looked at him and smiled--but the smile held no gladness.

"My thanks to you, Senor. To you I give the prayer beads--it is good to give them to you. More than that is not for me to do. My work takes me from where the feast songs are sung."

Then he wrapped about him the white robe made of deer skins, and it was as if he had enshrouded himself in silence not to be broken.

With reluctance Don Ruy went up the ladder and left him there. The sweetness of the outer air was good after the reek of many smokes in the kiva--and the adventurer stood on the terrace and drew great breaths and gazed across the tree fringed water, and thought it all a goodly sight well worth the jealousy of the pagan guardian.

Don Diego had accompanied the padre to their own quarters, but Juan Gonzalvo was across the court speaking quietly to Yahn Tsyn-deh whose vanity required some soothing that she had been shut out by Tahn-te from council and her coveted official tasks.

At the wall of the terrace waited the secretary in some hesitation, yet striving for boyish courage to speak the things outside the duty of his office.

"Your pardon, Excellency," he said lowly. "It is not for me to advise, but I heard some words of the two over there--may I speak?"

"Yes, my lad, and quickly as may be. Their two heads are over close together for discretion. I fear I shall have the task and expense of providing a duenna for my beauteous interpreter."

"Little enough of love there is with that dame!" commented the other,--"it is hate--your Excellency--and for you to say whether their private hates may not be a breeder of woe for all of us."

"You mean--?"--and Don Ruy motioned with his head towards the kiva.

"Yes:--it is the Cacique. The woman for some cause is bitter with hate against him.--Juan Gonzalvo is eager to listen--he is restless as quicksilver already with suspicion of strange things. In the far south he and his comrades made little odds of riding rough shod over the natives--here he would do the same at a word from the padre."

"And that word we can ill afford when we are but a handful!" decided Don Ruy,--"Hum!--for instant annihilation of the proud pagan we can depend on Gonzalvo, the padre, and Maestro Diego, if it came to a showing of hands. There must be no showing:--Capitan Gonzalvo!"

"Yes, Excellency."

Gonzalvo crossed quickly to him, while Yahn stood sulkily watching the three with lazy, half closed eyes.

"You forget none of the pagan Cacique's words--or his defiance of Holy Church?"

"His defiance of Holy G.o.d!--Excellency," answered Gonzalvo hotly,--"and that is not all--I have heard things--I am putting them together--You saw his eyes--scarcely Indian eyes! You heard his accursed logic of heresy--not all Indian--that! Indians may think like that in their accursed hearts, but they do not find the quick words to argue with their superiors as does this insolent dog! Listen, Don Ruy, for I have found the clue--and he belongs to me--that man!"

"To you--Capitan?"

"To me! You have listened to mad things of his birth and of his clan--the girl of the twilight and the seed bearer--well, what I tell you seems even more mad, but it will be true if ever we get to the end of it--that story of the thrice accursed Teo the Greek--you recall it?--he did without doubt cross this river and saw the Pueblos,--this sorcerer is of his sp.a.w.n--he and his medicine mother come back in good time with their Star G.o.d story, and the seeds--the identical seeds of the padre's story! See you not what it all leads to? He has the blood of the Greek in him:--in any Christian land he has enough of it to be broken on the wheel for his d.a.m.nable heresies!"

"But--since we are not in a Christian land, and doubtless shall never see him in a Christian land?"

"That narrows it down to man and man, Excellency! His father made a slave of mine--my earliest oath on the Cross and on the Faith, was vengeance against the Greek and all his blood! G.o.d of Heaven!--to think that of all the priests of Mexico you chose the one who knew that story!--and that of all the Indian tribes, we have come to the one where the half Greek sorcerer rules like a Turk! Don Ruy--you have led me north to vengeance--my sword and my arm are forever to your cause."

"Many thanks to you, Capitan, but in this case it is not your sword I shall command--except to remain in its scabbard!--but your speech I must silence while we give this matter of the Cacique a season of prayer and due consideration."

"Excellency--I do not understand--"

"You understand at least all that a soldier need, Capitan," said Don Ruy with smiling ease. "Your commission comes from me,--and I did not bestow it for the furtherance of private quarrels. Until I give the word, your speech must not again mention the thing you suspect--"

"But--the padre--"

"Least of all must the padre or Senor Brancedori hear even a whisper of it! Neither private vengeance, nor religious war must be pursued while the company is on our present quest."

"You would have me break my oath on the cross--save a heretic alive who belongs in the deepest pit?--Excellency!"

Gonzalvo's voice had much of pleading. He felt himself a man cheated of his righteous dues.

"Your holy vengeance will keep until our quest is over--and the more time to prepare your soul," suggested Don Ruy. "Then--if the gold is found, and all goes well, you two can have open fight before we take the road to the south. But until that lucky hour, the first and the last word for you is--silence!"

Gonzalvo stood, staring in baffled rage. It was to the padre he should have gone first. He had played the wrong card in the game. Was Don Ruy bewitched as well as his horse?

"At least I shall have a double debt to pay when my time does come, Excellency"--he said at last. "His pagan discourse warrants him a Christian knife, and will insure him a corner of h.e.l.l when I send him there!"

At a respectful distance the secretary had seated himself, and rested with brow on fists.

"How now?"--asked Don Ruy. "You seem little heartened by all this brave talk of righteousness. Think you the monk's life of cloister and garden looks fair after all?"

"In truth, Senor, if you have the desire to despatch a lackey to your lady love across the sands, you may choose me if you like!" agreed the lad. "I have neither heart nor stomach for this contest of souls or no souls--the pagan blood for my far away grandmother unfits me for judgement--this heretic of the white robe is fighting the same fight of my own people--but he fights it like one inspired by the nahual of a G.o.d. Yet--there is only one finish to it! Bulls-hide s.h.i.+elds and arrows stand not long before steel coats and leaden bullets--I would be elsewhere when the finish comes, Senor."

"The nahual of a G.o.d!" repeated Don Ruy, "now what may that mean in Christian speech?"

"In Christian speech it does not exist--the church has spilled much blood that it be washed from the pagan mind," said the lad. "But the nahual is the guardian angel or guardian devil born to earth with each man--it is like his shadow, yet unseen, it is part of the Great Mystery from the other side of the dawn and the other side of the dark. Once open wors.h.i.+p was given to the Nahual, and their priests were strong. Now if the wors.h.i.+ppers do meet, it is in secret. This man has truly drawn to himself a strong nahual and it should give him much of the magic which the good padre tells us is accursed."

"For a boy you have a fund of strange lore!" commented Don Ruy,--"too much for good company in the night time,--small wonder that you range abroad and dream under the stars! The monks never taught you all of it. Come:--tell me truly of your escapade--what sent you to our ranks?"

The lad flushed, then shrugged his shoulders and regarded the toes of his sandals.

"Excellency--if you require that I tell you--I am most certain never to get the commission to carry message to lady of yours!" he said so whimsically that the excellency laughed and promised him constant employment on such emba.s.sies if fortune found him ladies.

"Then:--I must speak myself a failure! A damsel did trust me with some such message to her cavalier and seeing that the love was all on one side--and that side her own--I dared not go back and face her--not even her guerdon could I by any means steal from him; brief:--I saved my neck by following you and leaving the land!"

"Was she so high in power?"

"Yes:--and--no, Excellency. She was, with all her estates, so close under the guard of the Viceroy that she could win all favors but--freedom!"

"How?" queried Don Ruy with wrinkled brow--his thoughts travelling fast to the converse of the gentle maniac as told him by the padre.

"Has the Viceroy then a collection of pretty birds in cages--and must they sing only for the viceregal ear?"

"I cannot tell as to other cages, Senor, but this one was meant to sing only for a viceregal relative:--if she proved heretic, then the convent waited and her lands were otherwise disposed of."

"Hum! Then even in the provinces such rulings work as swiftly as at court! Well, what outer charge was there?"