Part 34 (2/2)
”Dost thou not remember?”
”Nay, I remember naught, Noie, save that I have sought thee long. My Spirit wanders, Noie.”
”Lady,” she said, ”my people told me that it was so. They told me many terrible things, they who can see afar, they for whom distance has no gates, but I did not believe them. Now I see with my own eyes. Be at peace, Lady, my people will give thee back thy Spirit, though perchance thou must travel to find it, for in their land all spirits dwell. Be at peace and listen.”
”With thee, Noie, I am at peace,” replied Rachel, and still holding her hand, she reseated herself upon the stool.
”Where are the messengers?” asked Dingaan. ”I see none.”
”King,” answered Noie, ”they shall appear.”
Then she made signs to the escort of giants, some of whom came forward and drew the curtains of the litters, whilst others opened huge umbrellas of split cane which they carried in their hands.
”Now what weapons are these?” asked Dingaan. ”Daughter of Seyapi, you know that none may appear before the King armed.”
”Weapons against the sun, O King, which my people hate.”
”And who are the wizards that hate the sun?” queried Dingaan again in an astonished voice. Then he was silent, for out of the first litter came a little man, pale as the shoot from a bulb that has grown in darkness, with large, soft eyes like the eyes of an owl, that blinked in the light, and long hair out of which all the colour seemed to have faded.
As the man, who, like Noie, was dressed in a white robe, and in size measured no more than a twelve-year-old child, set his sandalled feet upon the ground, one of the huge guards sprang forward to s.h.i.+eld him with the umbrella, but being awkward, struck his leg against the pole of the litter and stumbled against him, nearly knocking him to the ground, and in his efforts to save himself, letting fall the umbrella. The little man turned on him furiously, and holding one hand above his head as though to s.h.i.+eld himself from the sun, with the other pointed at him, speaking in a low sibilant voice that sounded like the hiss of a snake. Thereon the guard fell to his knees, and bending down with outstretched arms, beat his forehead on the earth as though in prayer for mercy. The sight of this giant making supplication to one whom he could have killed with a blow, was so strange that Dingaan, unable to restrain his curiosity, asked Noie if the dwarf was ordering the other to be killed.
”Nay, King,” answered Noie, ”for blood is hateful to these people. He is saying that the soldier has offended many times. Therefore he curses him and tells him that he shall wither like a plucked leaf and die without seeing his home again.”
”And will he die?” asked Dingaan.
”Certainly, King; those upon whom the Ghost-people lay their curse must obey the curse. Moreover, this man deserves his doom, for on the journey he killed another to take his food.”
”Of a truth a terrible people!” said Dingaan uneasily. ”Bid them lay no curse on me lest they should see more blood than they wish for.”
”It is foolish to threaten the Great Ones of the Ghost-folk, King, for they hear even what they seem not to understand,” answered Noie quietly.
”Wow!” exclaimed the King; ”let my words be forgotten. I am sorry that I troubled them to come so far to visit me.”
Meanwhile the offender had crept back upon his hands and knees, looking like a great beaten dog, whilst another soldier, taking his umbrella, held it over the angry dwarf. Also from the other litters two more dwarfs had descended, so like to the first that it was difficult to tell them apart, and were in the same fas.h.i.+on sheltered by guards with umbrellas. Mats were brought for them also, and on these they sat themselves down at right angles to Dingaan, and to Rachel, whose stool was set in front of the King, whilst behind them stood three of their escort, each holding an umbrella over the head of one of them with the left hand, while with the right they fanned them with small branches upon which the leaves, although they were dead, remained green and s.h.i.+ning.
With Dingaan and his Council the three dwarfs did not seem to trouble themselves, but at Rachel they peered earnestly. Then one of them made a sign and muttered something, whereon a soldier of the escort stepped forward with a fourth umbrella, which he opened over the heads of Rachel, and of Noie who stood at her side.
”Why does he do that?” asked Dingaan. ”The Inkosazana is not a bat that she fears the sun.”
”He does it,” answered Noie, ”that the Inkosazana may sit in the shade of the wisdom of the Ghost-people, and that her heart which is hot with many wrongs, may grow cool in the shade.”
”What does he know about the Inkosazana and her wrongs?” asked Dingaan again, but Noie only shrugged her shoulders and made no answer.
Now one of the dwarfs made another sign, whereon more guards advanced, carrying small bowls of polished wood. These bowls they set upon the ground before the three dwarfs, one before each of them, filling them to the brim with water from a gourd.
”If your people are thirsty, Noie,” exclaimed the King, ”I have beer for them to drink, for at least the locusts have left me that. Bid them throw away the water, and I will give them beer.”
”It is not water, King,” she answered, ”but dew gathered from certain trees before sunrise, and it is their spirits that are thirsty for knowledge, not their bodies, for in this dew they read the truth.”
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