Part 33 (2/2)
The stars had marked the middle of the night, and the Castilian camp slept, save for the guards who paced quietly through the pine groves, and the Te-hua sentinels on the summit above, who rested in silence at the places where footholds carved by pre-historic Lost Others in the face of the rock wall, afforded a trail for the enemy if the enemy could find it.
Between the Castilians in the pine below, and the Te-hua sentinels on the rock mesa of the ruins above, there stretched the line of cave dwellings high in the rock wall. These needed no guard--for there the Te-hua warriors slept, and Tahn-te read the fate of things in the crystal, and made prayers.
But to the east where he had forbidden wandering feet, a man and woman did crouch in a crevice, and watch while the s.h.i.+ning ones overhead travelled to the center of the sky and then towards the mountains in the trail of the sun.
For Tahn-te they watched--and the watching was so long that the man slept at intervals in the arms of the woman--but the woman did not sleep! Victory was too near--and triumph beat in her blood, and like a panther of the hills waiting for prey did she listen for the steps of the man who had known her humiliation.
But when the steps did come, they came not from the Po-Ahtun-ho, nor were they the steps of a man.
A woman crept lightly as a mountain squirrel from one to another of the boulders on the eastern hill, and at last climbed to the dwellings of the Ancient Ones, and reached the portal of the sacred place of the star.
This was the place where the wise men of old watched the coming of the G.o.ds as they gazed upon earth through the mask of the glimmering stars. It was not a place for women, for no woman had been Reader of the Stars within known records of the Te-hua people. Yet it surely was a woman who crept upwards in the night to the place where women feared to go.
Yahn Tsyn-deh slipped like a snake from the crevice and watched from the shadow of a rock, and was richly repaid. It was the Woman of the Twilight who came to the place where Tahn-te had forbidden the Castilians and warriors to walk, and against the sky Yahn could see the outline of a water jar borne on her back by the head-band of woven hemp. She halted for breath, and leaned, a frail, breathless ghost of a woman, against the wall.
Then with a pebble she tapped on the portal of the star, four times she made the signal ere another met her in the dusk, and took from her the burden, and clung to her hand in dread.
In the dusk of the starlight they sat and whispered, for no fire dare be lit within, and the girl of the bluebird wing ate the bread and drank water, and breathed her grat.i.tude while she strove to understand the words of the mother of Tahn-te.
That there was danger she knew for she had seen the many men. Like things enchanted had she seen them--the men who looked like part of the animals they rode! In dread and fear had she waited for Tahn-te while she watched the Ancient Star glowing like an eye of wrath in the western heavens. It was looking back with an evil look because no gift had been made to it on the altars of the valley people. Tahn-te had told her that so long as it shone must she remain hidden. She did not need to ask why. When with the Navahu savages she had been taunted at times because the altars of her people knew well the blood of human sacrifice which they offered with elaborate ceremony to propitiate the G.o.ds of the stars in the sky.
”Tahn-te?” she whispered to the mother, but the mother shook her head.
Apart from all woman-kind must a priest live when times of stress come. Tahn-te was fasting and making prayers. A girl hidden in the caves must not go hungry, but the thought of her must not mingle with thoughts of penance for the tribe. All heads of the spiritual orders do penance and make prayers for clear vision when the evil days come.
”And they are here?” questioned the girl.
”They are here. The land was smiling, the corn was good, all was good.
Then the Great Star came--and the men of iron came--the corn was laid low by the G.o.d of the Winds. The Most Mysterious has sent signs to his people, and the signs are evil and come quickly. My son, the Po-Ahtun-ho, has seen these signs, and the G.o.ds have talked with him.”
The maid knew that a mere stray creature could not find room in the thoughts of so great a man--at so great a time; and she sat silent, but she reached out and held the hand of his mother. Since he could not speak with her he had sent to her the woman most high and most dear. He could not come, but he had not forgotten!
”He will come again?” she murmured, and some memory in the heart of the Twilight Woman made her speech very gentle.
”He will come again when the battle is over, and the days of the purification are over. It is the work of the Po-Ahtun-ho to see that the stranger is ever fed and covered with a shelter. So has he brought you here, and so has he brought the lion skin robe to you here. When the young moon has grown to the great circle, and the strangers have gone again to the camp by the river, then will the Po-Ahtun-ho come to you here in this place. He will come as the circle moon rises over Na-im-be hills. Many prayers will be made ere that night time, and he will come with wisdom to say the thing to be done. Until then the strangers must not see you, and the young foolish men of our tribe must not see you.”
Not much of this was understood by the bewildered maid who must be kept hidden in secret even in the land of her own people.
But Yahn Tsyn-deh, crouching in the sand outside the portal, heard and understood, and her heart was glad with happiness, for a vengeance would fall double strong on Tahn-te if it touched also the medicine G.o.d woman, his mother!
From the broken, whispered sentences--half Navahu--half Te-hua--did Yahn know that the hidden woman was indeed the Navahu witch maid by whom evil spirits had been led from the west into the great valley.
It had been a wonder night in the life of Yahn Tsyn-deh. The love of her wild heart had been given back to her--and vengeance against his rival had been put within reach of her hands! The heights of Pu-ye were enchanted--and the Ancient Star had shone on her with kindness.
It was a good time in her life and she must work in quickness ere the change came, for the watchful G.o.ds of the sky do not stand still when the signs are good signs.
And she crept back to the arms of her lover, and they watched together the medicine shadow woman creep downward until the dark hid her.
Yahn counseled that at once they go to the governor and tell that which they heard, but Ka-yema said ”no,” for if the Navahu enemy did come, the power of Tahn-te was needed by the Te-hua warriors--it was not the time to kill the witch woman or kill the prayer thoughts.
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