Part 25 (1/2)
So on they rode till at length, perched upon the sides of the cleft, they saw a castle, a great building, with high walls, to which they came at sunset. It seemed that they were expected in this place, for men hastened to meet them, who greeted Masouda and eyed the brethren curiously, especially after they had heard of the adventure with the lion. These took them, not into the castle, but to a kind of hostelry at its back, where they were furnished with food and slept the night.
Next morning they went on again to a hilly country with beautiful and fertile valleys. Through this they rode for two hours, pa.s.sing on their way several villages, where sombre-eyed people were labouring in the fields. From each village, as they drew near to it, hors.e.m.e.n would gallop out and challenge them, whereon Masouda rode forward and spoke with the leader alone. Then he would touch his forehead with his hand and bow his head and they rode on unmolested.
”See,” she said, when they had thus been stopped for the fourth time, ”what chance you had of winning through to Masyaf unguarded. Why, I tell you, brethren, that you would have been dead before ever you pa.s.sed the gates of the first castle.”
Now they rode up a long slope, and at its crest paused to look upon a marvellous scene. Below them stretched a vast plain, full of villages, cornfields, olive-groves, and vineyards. In the centre of this plain, some fifteen miles away, rose a great mountain, which seemed to be walled all about. Within the wall was a city of which the white, flat-roofed houses climbed the slopes of the mountain, and on its crest a level s.p.a.ce of land covered with trees and a great, many-towered castle surrounded by more houses.
”Behold the home of Al-je-bal, Lord of the Mountain,” said Masouda, ”where we must sleep to-night. Now, brethren, listen to me. Few strangers who enter that castle come thence living. There is still time; I can pa.s.s you back as I pa.s.sed you hither. Will you go on?”
”We will go on,” they answered with one breath.
”Why? What have you to gain? You seek a certain maiden. Why seek her here whom you say has been taken to Salah-ed-din? Because the Al-je-bal in bygone days swore to befriend one of your blood. But that Al-je-bal is dead, and another of his line rules who took no such oath. How do you know that he will befriend you--how that he will not enslave or kill you? I have power in this land, why or how does not matter, and I can protect you against all that dwell in it--as I swear I will, for did not one of you save my life?”
and she glanced at G.o.dwin, ”except my lord Sinan, against whom I have no power, for I am his slave.”
”He is the enemy of Saladin, and may help us for his hate's sake.”
”Yes, he is the enemy of Salah-ed-din now more than ever. He may help you or he may not. Also,” she added with meaning, ”you may not wish the help he offers. Oh!” and there was a note of entreaty in her voice, ”think, think! For the last time, I pray you think!”
”We have thought,” answered G.o.dwin solemnly; ”and, whatever chances, we will obey the command of the dead.”
She heard and bowed her head in a.s.sent, then said, looking up again:
”So be it. You are not easily turned from your purpose, and I like that spirit well. But hear my counsel. While you are in this city speak no Arabic and pretend to understand none. Also drink nothing but water, which is good here, for the lord Sinan sets strange wines before his guests, that, if they pa.s.s the lips, produce visions and a kind of waking madness in which you might do deeds whereof you were afterwards ashamed. Or you might swear oaths that would sit heavy on your souls, and yet could not be broken except at the cost of life.”
”Fear not,” answered Wulf. ”Water shall be our drink, who have had enough of drugged wines,” for he remembered the Christmas feast in the Hall at Steeple.
”You, Sir G.o.dwin,” went on Masouda, ”have about your neck a certain ring which you were mad enough to show to me, a stranger--a ring with writing on it which none can read save the great men that in this land are called the dais. Well, as it chances, the secret is safe with me; but be wise; say nothing of that ring and let no eye see it.”
”Why not?” asked G.o.dwin. ”It is the token of our dead uncle to the Al-je-bal.”
She looked round her cautiously and replied:
”Because it is, or was once, the great Signet, and a day may come when it will save your lives. Doubtless when the lord who is dead thought it gone forever he caused another to be fas.h.i.+oned, so like that I who have had both in my hand could not tell the two apart. To him who holds that ring all gates are open; but to let it be known that you have its double means death. Do you understand?”
They nodded, and Masouda continued:
”Lastly--though you may think that this seems much to ask--trust me always, even if I seem to play you false, who for your sakes,”
and she sighed, ”have broken oaths and spoken words for which the punishment is to die by torment. Nay, thank me not, for I do only what I must who am a slave--a slave.”
”A slave to whom?” asked G.o.dwin, staring at her.
”To the Lord of all the Mountains,” she answered, with a smile that was sweet yet very sad; and without another word spurred on her horse.
”What does she mean,” asked G.o.dwin of Wulf, when she was out of hearing, ”seeing that if she speaks truth, for our sakes, in warning us against him, Masouda is breaking her fealty to this lord?”
”I do not know, brother, and I do not seek to know. All her talk may be a part of a plot to blind us, or it may not. Let well alone and trust in fortune, say I.”
”A good counsel,” answered G.o.dwin, and they rode forward in silence.