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_ When I came to myself again, it was daylight. I saw the calm, gentle
face of Qros bending over me as he poured some strong fluid down my
throat that seemed to shoot through all my body, and melt a curtain in
my mind. I saw also that beside him stood Ayesha.
"Speak, man, speak," she said in a terrible voice. "What hast chanced
here? Thou livest, then where is my lord? Where hast thou hid my lord?
Tell me--or die."
It was the vision that I saw when my senses left me in the snow of the
avalanche, fulfilled to the last detail!
"Atene has taken him," I answered.
"Atene has taken him and thou art left alive?"
"Do not be wrath with me," I answered, "it is no fault of mine. Little
wonder we were deceived after thou hadst said that thou mightest
summon us ere dawn."
Then as briefly as I could I told the story.
She listened, went to where our murdered guards lay with unstained
spears, and looked at them.
"Well for these that they are dead," she exclaimed. "Now, Holly, thou
seest what is the fruit of mercy. The men whose lives I gave my lord
have failed him at his need."
Then she passed forward to the spot where Leo was captured. Here lay a
broken sword--Leo's--that had been the Khan Rassen's, and two dead
men. Both of these were clothed in some tight-fitting black garments,
having their heads and faces whitened with chalk and upon their vests
a rude imitation of a human skeleton, also daubed in chalk.
"A trick fit to frighten fools with," she said contemptuously. "But
oh! that Atene should have dared to play the part of Ayesha, that she
should have dared!" and she clenched her little hand. "See, surprised
and overwhelmed, yet he fought well. Say! was he hurt, Holly? It comes
upon me--no, tell me that I see amiss."
"Not much, I think," I answered doubtfully, "a little blood was
running from his mouth, no more. Look, there go the stains of it upon
that rock."
"For every drop I'll take a hundred lives. By myself I swear it,"
Ayesha muttered with a groan. Then she cried in a ringing voice,
"Back and to horse, for I have deeds to do this day. Nay, bide thou
here, Holly; we go a shorter path while the army skirts the gorge.
Oros, give him food and drink and bathe that hurt upon his head. It is
but a bruise, for his hood and hair are thick."
So while Oros rubbed some stinging lotion on my scalp, I ate and drank
as best I could till my brain ceased to swim, for the blow, though
heavy, had not fractured the bone. When I was ready they brought the
horses to us, and mounting them, slowly we scrambled up the steep bed
of the water-course.
"See," Ayesha said, pointing to tracks and hoof-prints on the plain at
its head, "there was a chariot awaiting him, and harnessed to it were
four swift horses. Atene's scheme was clever and well laid, and I,
grown oversure and careless, slept through it all!"
On this plain the army of the Tribes that had broken camp before the
dawn was already gathering fast; indeed, the cavalry, if I may call
them so, were assembled there to the number of about five thousand
men, each of whom had a led horse. Ayesha summoned the chiefs and
captains, and addressed them. "Servants of Hes," she said, "the
stranger lord, my betrothed and guest, has been tricked by a false
priest and, falling into a cunning snare, captured as a hostage. It is
necessary that I follow him fast, before harm comes--to him. We move
down to attack the army of the Khania beyond the river. When its
passage is forced I pass on with the horsemen, for I must sleep in the
city of Kaloon to-night. What sayest thou, Oros? That a second and
greater army defends its walls? Man, I know it, and if there is need,
that army I will destroy. Nay, stare not at me. Already they are as
dead. Horsemen, you accompany me.
"Captains of the Tribes, you follow, and woe be to that man who hangs
back in the hour of battle, for death and eternal shame shall be his
portion, but wealth and honour to those who bear them bravely. Yes, I
tell you, theirs shall be the fair land of Kaloon. You have your
orders for the passing of yonder river. I, with the horsemen, take the
central ford. Let the wings advance."
The chiefs answered with a cheer, for they were fierce men whose
ancestors had loved war for generations. Moreover, mad as seemed the
enterprise, they trusted in their Oracle, the Hesea, and, like all
hill peoples, were easily fired by the promise of rich plunder.
An hour's steady march down the slopes brought the army to the edge of
the marsh lands. These, as it chanced, proved no obstacle to our
progress, for in that season of great drought they were quite dry, and
for the same reason the shrunken river was not so impassable a defence
as I feared that it would be. Still, because of its rocky bottom and
steep, opposing banks, it looked formidable enough, while on the
crests of those banks, in squadrons and companies of horse and foot,
were gathered the regiments of Atene.
While the wings of footmen deployed to right and left, the cavalry
halted in the marshes and let their horses fill themselves with the
long grass, now a little browned by frost, that grew on this boggy
soil, and afterwards drink some water.
All this time Ayesha stood silent, for she also had dismounted, that
the mare she rode and her two led horses might graze with the others.
Indeed, she spoke but once, saying--
"Thou thinkest this adventure mad, my Holly? Say, art afraid?"
"Not with thee for captain," I answered. "Still, that second army----"
"Shall melt before me like mist before the gale," she replied in a low
and thrilling voice. "Holly, I tell thee thou shalt see things such as
no man upon the earth has ever seen. Remember my words when I /loose
the Powers/ and thou followest the rent veil of Ayesha through the
smitten squadrons of Kaloon. Only--what if Atene should dare to murder
him? Oh, if she should dare!"
"Be comforted," I replied, wondering what she might mean by this
loosing of the Powers. "I think that she loves him too well."
"I bless thee for the words, Holly, yet--I know he will refuse her,
and then her hate for me and her jealous rage may overcome her love
for him. Should this be so, what will avail my vengeance? Eat and
drink again, Holly--nay, I touch no food until I sit in the palace of
Kaloon--and look well to girth and bridle, for thou ridest far and on
a wild errand. Mount thee on Leo's horse, which is swift and sure; if
it dies the guards will bring thee others."
I obeyed her as best I could, and once more bathed my head in a pool,
and with the help of Oros tied a rag soaked in the liniment on the
bruise, after which I felt sound enough. Indeed, the mad excitement of
those minutes of waiting, and some foreshadowing of the terrible
wonders that were about to befall, made me forget my hurts.
Now, Ayesha was standing staring upwards, so that although I could not
see her veiled face, I guessed that her eyes must be fixed on the sky
above the mountain top. I was certain, also, that she was
concentrating her fearful will upon an unknown object, for her whole
frame quivered like a reed shaken in the wind.
It was a very strange morning--cold and clear, yet curiously still,
and with a heaviness in the air such as precedes a great fall of snow,
although for much snow the season was yet too early. Once or twice,
too, in that utter calm, I thought that I felt everything shudder; not
the ordinary trembling of earthquake, however, for the shuddering
seemed to be of the atmosphere quite as much as of the land. It was as
though all Nature around us were a living creature which is very much
afraid.
Following Ayesha's earnest gaze, I perceived that thick, smoky clouds
were gathering one by one in the clear sky above the peak, and that
they were edged, each of them, with a fiery rim. Watching these
fantastic and ominous clouds, I ventured to say to her that it looked
as though the weather would change--not a very original remark, but
one which the circumstances suggested.
"Aye," she answered, "ere night the weather will be wilder even than
my heart. No longer shall they cry for water in Kaloon! Mount, Holly,
mount! The advance begins!" and unaided she sprang to the saddle of
the mare that Oros brought her.
Then, in the midst of the five thousand horsemen, we moved down upon
the ford. As we reached its brink I noted that the two divisions of
tribesmen were already entering the stream half a mile to the right
and left of us. Of what befell them I can tell nothing from
observation, although I learned later that they forced it after great
slaughter on both sides.
In front of us was gathered the main body of the Khania's army, massed
by regiments upon the further bank, while hundreds of picked men stood
up to their middles in the water, waiting to spear or hamstring our
horses as we advanced.
Now, uttering their wild, whistling cry, our leading companies dashed
into the river, leaving us upon the bank, and soon were engaged hotly
with the footmen in midstream. While this fray went on, Oros came to
Ayesha, told her a spy had reported that Leo, bound in a two-wheeled
carriage and accompanied by Atene, Simbri and a guard, had passed
through the enemy's camp at night, galloping furiously towards Kaloon.
"Spare thy words, I know it," she answered, and he fell back behind
her.
Our squadrons gained the bank, having destroyed most of the men in the
water, but as they set foot upon it the enemy charged them and drove
them back with loss. Thrice they returned to the attack, and thrice
were repulsed in this fashion. At length Ayesha grew impatient.
"They need a leader, and I will give them one," she said. "Come with
me, my Holly," and, followed by the main body of the horsemen, she
rode a little way into the river, and there waited until the shattered
troops had fallen back upon us. Oros whispered to me--
"It is madness, the Hesea will be slain."
"Thinkest thou so?" I answered. "More like that we shall be slain," a
saying at which he smiled a little more than usual and shrugged his
shoulders, since for all his soft ways, Oros was a brave man. Also I
believe that he spoke to try me, knowing that his mistress would take
no harm.
Ayesha held up her hand, in which there was no weapon, and waved it
forwards. A great cheer answered that signal to advance, and in the
midst of it this frail, white-robed woman spoke to her horse, so that
it plunged deep into the water.
Two minutes later, and spears and arrows were flying about us so
thickly that they seemed to darken the sky. I saw men and horses fall
to right and left, but nothing touched me or the white robes that
floated a yard or two ahead. Five minutes and we were gaining the
further bank, and there the worst fight began.
It was fierce indeed, yet never an inch did the white robes give back,
and where they went men would follow them or fall. We were up the bank
and the enemy was packed about us, but through them we passed slowly,
like a boat through an adverse sea that buffets but cannot stay it.
Yes, further and further, till at last the lines ahead grew thin as
the living wedge of horsemen forced its path between them--grew thin,
broke and vanished.
We had passed through the heart of the host, and leaving the tribesmen
who followed to deal with its flying fragments, rode on half a mile or
so and mustered. Many were dead and more were hurt, but the command
was issued that all sore-wounded men should fall out and give their
horses to replace those that had been killed.
This was done, and presently we moved on, three thousand of us now,
not more, heading for Kaloon. The trot grew to a canter, and the
canter to a gallop, as we rushed forward across that endless plain,
till at midday, or a little after--for this route was far shorter than
that taken by Leo and myself in our devious flight from Rassen and his
death-hounds--we dimly saw the city of Kaloon set upon its hill.
Now a halt was ordered, for here was a reservoir in which was still
some water, whereof the horses drank, while the men ate of the food
they carried with them; dried meat and barley meal. Here, too, more
spies met us, who said that the great army of Atene was posted
guarding the city bridges, and that to attack it with our little force
would mean destruction. But Ayesha took no heed of their words;
indeed, she scarcely seemed to hear them. Only she ordered that all
wearied horses should be abandoned and fresh ones mounted.
Forward again for hour after hour, in perfect silence save for the
thunder of our horses' hoofs. No word spoke Ayesha, nor did her wild
escort speak, only from time to time they looked over their shoulders
and pointed with their red spears at the red sky behind.
I looked also, nor shall I forget its aspect. The dreadful, fire-edged
clouds had grown and gathered so that beneath their shadows the plain
lay almost black. They marched above us like an army in the heavens,
while from time to time vaporous points shot forward, thin like
swords, or massed like charging horse.
Under them a vast stillness reigned. It was as though the earth lay
dead beneath their pall.
Kaloon, lit in a lurid light, grew nearer. The pickets of the foe flew
homeward before us, shaking their javelins, and their mocking laughter
reached us in hollow echoes. Now we saw the vast array, posted rank on
rank with silken banners drooping in that stirless air, flanked and
screened by glittering regiments of horse.
An embassy approached us, and at the signal of Ayesha's uplifted arm
we halted. It was headed by a lord of the court whose face I knew. He
pulled rein and spoke boldly.
"Listen, Hes, to the words of Atene. Ere now the stranger lord, thy
darling, is prisoner in her palace. Advance, and we destroy thee and
thy little band; but if by any miracle thou shouldst conquer, then he
dies. Get thee gone to thy Mountain fastness and the Khania gives thee
peace, and thy people their lives. What answer to the words of the
Khania?"
Ayesha whispered to Oros, who called aloud--
"There is no answer. Go, if ye love life, for death draws near to
you."
So they went fast as their swift steeds would carry them, but for a
little while Ayesha still sat lost in thought.
Presently she turned and through her thin veil I saw that her face was
white and terrible and that the eyes in it glowed like those of a
lioness at night. She said to, me--hissing the words between her
clenched teeth--
"Holly, prepare thyself to look into the mouth of hell. I desired to
spare them if I could, I swear it, but my heart bids me be bold, to
put off human pity, and use all my secret might if I would see Leo
living. Holly, I tell thee they are about /to murder him!/"
Then she cried aloud, "Fear nothing, Captains. Ye are but few, yet
with you goes the strength of ten thousand thousand. Now follow the
Hesea, and whate'er ye meet, be not dismayed. Repeat it to the
soldiers, that fearing nothing they follow the Hesea through yonder
host and across the bridge and into the city of Kaloon."
So the chiefs rode hither and thither, crying out her words, and the
savage tribesmen answered--
"Aye, we who followed through the water, will follow across the plain.
Onward, Hes, for darkness swallows us."
Now some orders were given, and the companies fell into a formation
that resembled a great wedge, Ayesha herself being its very point and
apex, for though Oros and I rode on either side of her, spur as we
would, our horses' heads never passed her saddle bow. In front of that
dark mass she shone a single spot of white--one snowy feather on a
black torrent's breast.
A screaming bugle note--and, like giant arms, from the shelter of some
groves of poplar trees, curved horns of cavalry shot out to surround
us, while the broad bosom of the opposing army, shimmering with
spears, rolled forward as a wave rolls crowned with sunlit foam, and
behind it, line upon line, uncountable, lay a surging sea of men.
Our end was near. We were lost, or so it seemed.
Ayesha tore off her veil and held it on high, flowing from her like a
pennon, and lo! upon her brow blazed that wide and mystic diadem of
light which once only I had seen before.
Denser and denser grew the rushing clouds above; brighter and brighter
gleamed the unearthly star of light beneath. Louder and louder beat
the sound of the falling hoofs of ten thousand horses. From the
Mountain peak behind us went up sudden sheets of flame; it spouted
fire as a whale spouts foam.
The scene was dreadful. In front, the towers of Kaloon lurid in a
monstrous sunset. Above, a gloom as of an eclipse. Around the
darkling, sunburnt plain. On it Atene's advancing army, and our
rushing wedge of horsemen destined, it would appear, to inevitable
doom.
Ayesha let fall her rein. She tossed her arms, waving the torn, white
veil as though it were a signal cast to heaven.
Instantly from the churning jaws of the unholy night above belched a
blaze of answering flame, that also wavered like a rent and shaken
veil in the grasp of a black hand of cloud.
Then did Ayesha roll the thunder of her might upon the Children of
Kaloon. Then she called, and the Terror came, such as men had never
seen and perchance never more will see. Awful bursts of wind tore past
us, lifting the very stones and soil before them, and with the wind
went hail and level, hissing rain, made visible by the arrows of
perpetual lightnings that leapt downwards from the sky and upwards
from the earth.
It was as she had warned me. It was as though hell had broken loose
upon the world, yet through that hell we rushed on unharmed. For
always these furies passed before us. No arrow flew, no javelin was
stained. The jagged hail was a herald of our coming; the levens that
smote and stabbed were our sword and spear, while ever the hurricane
roared and screamed with a million separate voices which blended to
one yell of sound, hideous and indescribable.
As for the hosts about us they melted and were gone.
Now the darkness was dense, like to that of thickest night; yet in the
fierce flares of the lightnings I saw them run this way and that, and
amidst the volleying, elemental voices I heard their shouts of horror
and of agony. I saw horses and riders roll confused upon the ground;
like storm-drifted leaves I saw their footmen piled in high and
whirling heaps, while the brands of heaven struck and struck them till
they sank together and grew still.
I saw the groves of trees bend, shrivel up and vanish. I saw the high
walls of Kaloon blown in and flee away, while the houses within the
walls took fire, to go out beneath the torrents of the driving rain,
and again take fire. I saw blackness sweep over us with great wings,
and when I looked, lo! those wide wings were flame, floods of pulsing
flame that flew upon the tormented air.
Blackness, utter blackness; turmoil, doom, dismay! Beneath me the
labouring horse; at my side the steady crest of light which sat on
Ayesha's brow, and through the tumult a clear, exultant voice that
sang--
"I promised thee wild weather! Now, Holly, dost thou believe that I
can loose the prisoned Powers of the world?"
Lo! all was past and gone, and above us shone the quiet evening sky,
and before us lay the empty bridge, and beyond it the flaming city of
Kaloon. But the armies of Atene, where were they? Go, ask of those
great cairns that hide their bones. Go, ask it of her widowed land.
Yet of our wild company of horsemen not one was lost. After us they
galloped trembling, white-lipped, like men who face to face had fought
and conquered Death, but triumphant--ah, triumphant!
On the high head of the bridge Ayesha wheeled her horse, and so for
one proud moment stood to welcome them. At the sight of her glorious,
star-crowned countenance, which now her Tribes beheld for the first
time and the last, there went up such a shout as men have seldom
heard.
"/The Goddess!/" that shout thundered. "Worship the Goddess!"
Then she turned her horse's head again, and they followed on through
the long straight street of the burning city, up to the palace on its
crest.
As the sun set we sped beneath its gateway. Silence in the courtyard,
silence everywhere, save for the distant roar of fire and the scared
howlings of the death-hounds in their kennel.
Ayesha sprang from her horse, and waving back all save Oros and
myself, swept through the open doors into the halls beyond.
They were empty, every one--all were fled or dead. Yet she never
paused or doubted, but so swiftly that we scarce could follow her,
flitted up the wide stone stair that led to the topmost tower. Up,
still up, until we reached the chamber where had dwelt Simbri the
Shaman, that same chamber whence he was wont to watch his stars, in
which Atene had threatened us with death.
Its door was shut and barred; still, at Ayesha's coming, yes, before
the mere breath of her presence, the iron bolts snapped like twigs,
the locks flew back, and inward burst that massive portal.
Now we were within the lamp-lit chamber, and this is what we saw.
Seated in a chair, pale-faced, bound, yet proud and defiant-looking,
was Leo. Over him, a dagger in his withered hand--yes, about to
strike, in the very act--stood the old Shaman, and on the floor hard
by, gazing upward with wide-set eyes, dead and still majestic in her
death, lay Atene, Khania of Kaloon.
Ayesha waved her arm and the knife fell from Simbri's hand, clattering
on the marble, while in an instant he who had held it was smitten to
stillness and became like a man turned to stone.
She stooped, lifted the dagger, and with a swift stroke severed Leo's
bonds; then, as though overcome at last, sank on to a bench in
silence. Leo rose, looking about him bewildered, and said in the
strained voice of one who is weak with much suffering--
"But just in time, Ayesha. Another second, and that murderous dog"--
and he pointed to the Shaman--"well, it was in time. But how went the
battle, and how earnest thou here through that awful hurricane? And,
oh, Horace, thank heaven they did not kill you after all!"
"The battle went ill for some," Ayesha answered, "and I came not
through the hurricane, but on its wings. Tell me now, what has
befallen thee since we parted?"
"Trapped, overpowered, bound, brought here, told that I must write to
thee and stop thy advance, or die--refused, of course, and then----"
and he glanced at the dead body on the floor.
"And then?" repeated Ayesha.
"Then that fearful tempest, which seemed to drive me mad. Oh! if thou
couldst have heard the wind howling round these battlements, tearing
off their stones as though they were dry leaves; if thou hadst seen
the lightnings falling thick and fast as rain----"
"They were my messengers. I sent them to save thee," said Ayesha
simply.
Leo stared at her, making no comment, but after a pause, as though he
were thinking the matter over, he went on--
"Atene said as much, but I did not believe her. I thought the end of
the world had come, that was all. Well, she returned just now more mad
even than I was, and told me that her people were destroyed and that
she could not fight against the strength of hell, but that she could
send me thither, and took a knife to kill me.
"I said, 'Kill on,' for I knew that wherever I went thou wouldst
follow, and I was sick with the loss of blood from some hurt I had in
that struggle, and weary of it all. So I shut my eyes waiting for the
stroke, but instead I felt her lips pressed upon my forehead, and
heard her say--
"'Nay, I will not do it. Fare thee well; fulfil thou thine own
destiny, as I fulfil mine. For this cast the dice have fallen against
me; elsewhere it may be otherwise. I go to load them if I may.'
"I opened my eyes and looked. There Atene stood, a glass in her hand--
see, it lies beside her.
"'Defeated, yet I win,' she cried, 'for I do but pass before thee to
prepare the path that thou shalt tread, and to make ready thy place in
the Under-world. Till we meet again I pledge thee, for I am destroyed.
Ayesha's horsemen are in my streets, and, clothed in lightnings at
their head, rides Ayesha's avenging self.'
"So she drank, and fell dead--but now. Look, her breast still quivers.
Afterwards, that old man would have murdered me, for, being roped, I
could not resist him, but the door burst in and thou camest. Spare
him, he is of her blood, and he loved her."
Then Leo sank back into the chair where we had discovered him bound,
and seemed to fall into a kind of torpor, for of a sudden he grew to
look like an old man.
"Thou art sick," said Ayesha anxiously. "Oros, thy medicine, the
draught I bade thee bring! Be swift, I say."
The priest bowed, and from some pocket in his ample robe produced a
phial which he opened and gave to Leo, saying--
"Drink, my lord; this stuff will give thee back thy health, for it is
strong."
"The stronger the better," answered Leo, rousing himself, and with
something like his old, cheerful laugh. "I am thirsty who have touched
nothing since last night, and have fought hard and been carried far,
yes--and lived through that hellish storm."
Then he took the draught and emptied it. There must have been virtue
in that potion; at least, the change which it produced in him was
wonderful. Within a minute his eyes grew bright again, and the colour
returned into his cheeks.
"Thy medicines are very good, as I have learned of old," he said to
Ayesha; "but the best of all of them is to see thee safe and
victorious before me, and to know that I, who looked for death, yet
live to greet thee, my beloved. There is food," and he pointed to a
board upon which were meats, "say, may I eat of them, for I starve?"
"Aye," she answered softly, "eat, and, my Holly, eat thou also."
So we fell to, yes, we fell to and ate even in the presence of that
dead woman who looked so royal in her death; of the old magician who
stood there powerless, like a man petrified, and of Ayesha, the
wondrous being that could destroy an army with the fearful weapons
which were servant to her will.
Only Oros ate nothing, but remained where he was, smiling at us
benignantly, nor did Ayesha touch any food. _
Read next: CHAPTER XXIII - THE YIELDING OF AYESHA
Read previous: CHAPTER XXI - THE PROPHECY OF ATENE
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