King of The World's Edge Page 8

  Hayonwatha was of the second generation, bred to war, but by the odd mistake of his own mother having been accidentally chosen as his nurse, he had learned something of forbidden mother love and, deprived of it early, had nursed all his life since a bitter hate for Tlapallan and the sons of slaves which made up in great part the common soldiery and garrisons of the forts. It was this rankling bile that showed strongly in his voice when he named to me on the march the tribes of various individuals as they passed before us—tribes of which those various individuals themselves were ignorant, being placed to defend forts far from their homelands, that they might remain ignorant of their own people and feel themselves as strangers in a hostile land, with their only friends their fellow soldiers and every tribesman, in the forest round about, then-enemy.

  So the individual lost his identity and became a Tlapallico, a citizen of Tlapallan, except in a few cases such as that of Hayonwatha when he, in a moment of crazy pride before a stranger to whom he owed his life and who he knew could not understand, denied his birthright of citizenship and called himself “Onondaga” after his mother’s people, far north along the shores of the Inland Sea.

  All this Hayonwatha explained fully, in private talk with myself and Myrdhinn, and told us how the Mias had fought then: way up from the southwest where no forts were now needed, a desert country of poison wells and springs separating the borders of Tlapallan from the nearest large tribes of civilized people. He told us how the Tlapallicos raided across these Debatable Lands, having maps of the sweet waters on their lines of march, and brought back prisoners who were prized for their skill in featherwork and blanket weaving.

  Also he told us that some of the various barbarian tribes looked to the southwest as their final resting-place, it being said that from these regions all men had come, and they regarded this as the terrestrial Paradise. Therefore, to the southwest their heads were directed when they were buried, lying face up with their valuables and their weapons around them, so that they might prosper and defend themselves in the Land of the Dead.

  All this interested Myrdhinn greatly, for to him it seemed that this earthly Paradise might be the very Garden of Eden from whence all men sprang, and he could hardly contain himself with anxiety to be free and searching for this Land of the Blest, and also worrying for fear that we would never be permitted.

  I do not know how many times he told me of various faiths and religions known to him which held that Paradise was in some mystical Western Land, or how often he dinned into my ears the fact that we had sailed southwest to reach this peculiar country.

  He was genuinely interested and hag-ridden with this thought, and night after night when others were sleeping I watched him at our barred windows, scanning the stars for some phenomenon which would indicate a favorable end to our imprisonment.

  But the stars were uncommunicative and disappointed him, some even being strange to us and not the same as in Britain, which suggested to me that possibly Myrdhinn’s magic and divinations would not avail us in this land of Alata—its gods being against us.

  Myrdhinn smiled at this and said that though divinations were obscure, his magic was powerful anywhere, resting upon basic facts of truth, unchangeable anywhere on earth, most of his feats depending upon earthy materials common to anyone, supposing them to have the knowledge to perceive and extract the virtues within.

  “Give me,” he said, “my books, my materials, and I could get us all out of here with white magic; but what can I do as I am, being stripped of all but my robes?”

  “Black magic!” said I. “Use that. The worthy end justifies the dirty tools.”

  Myrdhinn shook his head.

  “Aye, black magic would avail. I could blast this fort with a spell, and imperil my mortal soul in doing it, but I have taken too many trips along the murky borders of Hell! Long ago, I saw too much and was warned by it. Never again will I use black magic except as a last resort which must be worth the peril involved. Yet, lest you doubt that I have powers at my beck which can protect us—watch well from the window and be not afraid, for this is neither white nor black magic, but a simple thing that once all Samo-thrace knew and elders there frightened unruly children by it.”

  He went to the window and chirped into his beard, and suddenly from the half-dark a flittermouse came flapping. It clung to the bars and eyed us all, and Myrdhinn with a forefinger stroked its silky back, chirping—and the little creature chirped in response!

  All in a twink it was gone, and Myrdhinn raised his arm.

  “Watch!” he said, “and be still!”

  Round the sleeping fort flew the flittermouse, round and round again, three times in all, flying widdershins, and vanished again.

  Then Myrdhinn dropped his arm and stood listening.

  “Do you hear it?” he asked.

  I shook my head. All was as it had been, save that a light breeze had begun to blow.

  I said as much, and Myrdhinn chuckled. “A breeze? Listen.” ,

  The breeze became a stiff wind, increasing to a gale which buffeted our stout prison and made the timbers creak.

  Cries rose from the soldiers’ quarters, as the light huts and tents blew over and exposed the sleepers to the stars.

  Still the gale increased. All of the prisoners were now awake. Our prison shook and trembled. In the forest we could hear the crash of falling trees. We were forced to shout to one another to be heard, then could no longer do that. And still the tremendous wind swept the fort like a besom, piling the loose flimsy wreckage of the weik-waums against the southern palisade.

  Suddenly we saw overhead the black sky and the aloof stars, and caught a glimpse of our roof flitting away before hearing the crash of it on the parade ground and smelled the smoke where embers of camp-fires had been whipped against our log walls.

  “Stop it!” I screamed to Myrdhinn. “You will kill us all!”

  Myrdhinn raised his arm and all at once there was no more wind.

  Now we could hear a multitudinous groaning and lament from the injured, followed by a mighty flare of light. The wreckage against the palisade was flaming, driving back the night, and our hut wall burst into furious tongues of fire, licking up our door and surging past the window near it.

  On one another’s shoulders we got over the wall and looked around at the damage. Myrdhinn’s “little spell to frighten naughty children” had done its work well.

  The whole enclosure was bare of huts. Here and there staggered injured men, carrying or aiding others. Fully a third were dead and none save ourselves, incarcerated in the strongest building in the fort, were entirely without scathe.

  The watch tower was down and crashed through the commander’s quarters, though I saw him limping about, trying to restore order.

  The palisade, was burning furiously, and so stupefied with calamity was the camp that it burned on unheeded. Had the Chichamecs struck then we would all have been killed.

  Weapons, provisions and trade goods were inextricably mixed into the mass of burning wreckage, and only a few things, among them our gear, had escaped (having been placed in a root-cellar beneath the commander’s dwelling), though the building above was ruined.

  Myrdhinn turned to me.

  “Will Druid lore work in Alata, Ventidius?”

  I had no words to deny it.

  9 Kukulcan

  The remarkable discipline of this people was quickly manifested after the first shock had worn away. Crackling orders from the commander started the work of salvage, and before sunrise the fires had been extinguished, the wreckage searched for weapons, valuables, and everything else which could be saved.

  For my share, as commander of my party I had given orders that we help wherever possible, thinking that a show of good will might help us all, even as my help to Hayonwatha had resulted in friendship and personal favors.

  This, although a further usurpation of Myrdhinn’s authority, aroused no antagoni
sm in him, he heartily agreeing; and I thought he seemed secretly relieved that I had taken command, for he had no liking for the duties of war, though he had fought in Britain.

  We offered our help in caring for the wounded and soon had them segregated in our former prison with Nicanor, a legionary with some knowledge of medicine, and Myrdhinn in charge, until the physician of the fort relieved them.

  During this work we had come across the pit in which lay our gear, and in the confusion we managed to arm ourselves with bow and buckler, sword and dagger. Thus arrayed we marched to the commander.

  “Sir,” I announced, “receive us as friends and allies in this emergency, I pray. You are in dire peril from the forest men. We will hold the breach until the palisade be rebuilt.”

  Hayonwatha looked at us strangely.

  “Do you understand what you are doing, Atoharo?

  You could easily escape. We could not prevent you now.“

  I laughed.

  “Whither should we go? Flee to the Chichamecs? Nay, let us earn our freedom by proving ourselves Mends. Give us the post of danger and if the barbarians attack you shall see how white men fight.”

  Again that odd look.

  “Let it be so. I have warned you. K you choose to stay, we value the aid you bring. Whatever may arise, this day makes us truly brothers. Count upon my future help in anything I can do. But remember, your freedom depends not upon me, but upon Kukulcan!”

  So I told off twenty, who marched to the smoking ruins and stood guard, scanning the forest while the rest of us donned full armor. Then we relieved the guards, who likewise armored themselves, and afterward we all scattered along the walls, each with bow and quiver ready.

  For the time being, the fort was ours—as peculiar a twist of fortune as might be conceivable to anyone. Would we had profited by it!

  Just after sunrise, runners went out, scattering in the forest, and by midday a detachment from Fort Wiatosa, our nearest neighbor, came in on the double, heavily armed guards and baggage-laden slaves who struggled along panting and spent.

  Then you might have seen those copper-colored warriors scramble for atlatl and darts, lances and javelins, bone and flint and shell knives, and, again properly armed, go strutting, feeling themselves men of valor. As their elation increased, our spirits went down.

  Sentinels came up and replaced us on mound and parapet, and we formed ranks on the parade ground and waited.

  Soon Hayonwatha approached, in a group of his chief officers. We watched them tensely. What would be the orders? Behind me, the men murmured. Would it be prison again? Sooner than that, they would fight, as J well knew.

  Myrdhinn and Nicanor came running from the prison to listen. I stepped forward five paces, unbuckled sword and scabbard and held them out Hayonwatha raised his hand in dignified refusal.

  “Replace your weapon, Atoharo. This day has earned you a place among us. Let us be as one people, with no talk of prisoner and captor, until I receive the orders for which I sent upon your arrival. Receive also this token of our friendship.”

  An officer handed him a necklace similar to that which he wore: many-stranded, glittering with pearls, elk and bear teeth, gold and mica beads. I removed my helmet and the commander placed the costly thing around my neck.

  I saluted. Myrdhinn went back to the hospital, smiling in his beard, and our company disbanded.

  That evening was one of merriment, for not a man, whether of Tlapallan or Britain, but felt better with the feel of weapons at his side, and if our former captors swaggered, think then of us, far longer deprived of the touch of good steel and trusty bow!

  And imagine us striding like gods on earth, glittering and jingling among the many campfires, welcome at any, the heroes of the day—and Myrdhinn, the man to whom we owed it all, discreetly in the background, handsomely robed, quietly observing, scheming, considering the future and the stars.

  It is no part of this story to detail how, in the following days, we amazed these fighting-men with our bows, whose deadly precision they beheld for the first time in their lives. I warned my men to be careful to keep a loose string, in order that the full power of the bow might not be manifested, and by no means to shoot beyond the farthest range of the adatl—thus not displaying our greatest strength and keeping secret our reserves.

  Also, when they wished to make bows and emulate our weapons, we carefully selected only moderately desirable woods, and were none too particular in showing them the correct grip and finger release.

  After a while they went back to their atlatls, satisfied that they were our equals in distance, if not quite so in precision, which was what we had intended.

  Together, bands of my men and bands of the Tlapal-licos mingled in the forest, where their slingers competed with ours in the hunting of small game, and beat us roundly too.

  We visited Fort Wiatosa, and found it identical with Fort Chipam; went a-fishing and saw again the wrecked Prydwen, the stern lying ten feet under, glittering and beautiful, though a ruin that made us grieve for her past splendor.

  Belatedly the Chichamecs learned of the damage done to the fort, long after its repairing, and they hurled themselves upon us in utter disregard for singing arrows and darts and forced an entry, only to die on steel and stone, the survivors seeking the forest again like wounded bears who slowly back away, growling horridly and licking their wounds, but not beaten or daunted.

  One morning, nearly two months after our arrival, the vigilant watcher in the tower signaled that there was movement in the forest. Soon a troop of a hundred armed men marched into the clearing, formed in columns of fours and hailed the fort.

  The gates opened at once and they marched in, their officer presenting a belt of beadwork, as credentials, to Hayonwatha. This announced the bearer as the new commander, and his orders were that two thirds of the former garrison, under Hayonwatha, be detailed to guard us on our way to the capital of Tlapallan.

  I did not know this and was surprised to find Hayonwatha surly and curt, for to me he had not been the stern hard-bitten commander with which his men were familiar. Nor could I learn much from him, his attitude showing that secret orders had changed our relationship.

  “At last,” I said, somewhat nettled, “you may tell us whither we are to go, if you cannot tell me what is to be our fate.”

  “You march at daybreak. We go to Kukulcan. You are to be judged.”

  “Who or what is Kukulcan?”

  He did not seem to hear me, but sat on his bench with his head in his hands, and in a tone of uttermost despair, repeated:

  “Kukulcan! Kukulcan!”

  So I left, wondering greatly, for whether Kukulcan might be a city, a country, or a ruler’s name, I had not the least idea.

  10 ‘The City of the Snake

  There was the tingle of frost in the air as we set out the following morning. Autumnal days were rapidly approaching and as we marched on northwesterly, following well-marked and hard-beaten paths worn a foot or more below the surface of the forest mold, we began to feel the chill and were glad of night shelter.

  This comfort we found at forts. Night followed night, but always during the waning daylight we arrived at yet another in this gigantic scheme of mounded fortifica-tions which protects the long frontiers of Tlapallan from invasion. Though connected by no Wall of Hadrian, this system was fully as efficient as Britain’s, at this time, for the Mias had no organized attack to fear. The Chichamecs were always at war among themselves, being split up into many tribes with various languages and dialects, though strangers managed to talk with some ease by movements of the hands.

  From one fort to another we were passed along, supplied with food, laden with goods to carry on: pipe bowls from the stone-carvers, hides from the trappers and hunters, jewelry and loose pearls from the creek fishers. And as we were routed by the great mica mines in a nearby range of mountains, men were attached to our procession who carried,
on litters soft with grass, closely wrapped disks and slabs of mica, beautifully polished and worked.

  Some of these were three feet across, intended for mirrors to embellish some noble’s home, for riding on the backs of the lesser peoples were three distinct classes of noble folk, descendants of the old Mias and fit for nothing but to oppress and persecute.

  With the addition, as we pushed northward, of slaves and their attendant guards, our array reached the final total of near three hundred, a monstrous tax upon the provisions of the forts at which we rested. Finally Our original party split away from the latter accretions, who were to follow as a separate band, and we went on rapidly, having nothing to carry but our own armor and gear though the slaves with us labored under heavy loads of metal from the Prydwen. In all this time, we had been permitted to keep our weapons and this gave us cheer and set our fears at ease.

  Colder, shorter and more dreary grew the days. Occasionally a light sifting of snow whitened the ground during the night, and at last we were given stout bracae of deerhide to wear and slept in bearskins quite comfortably.

  Over mountains, into and out of valleys, fording streams or ferrying them, we marched through the forest country, passing across such broad expanses of tree-covered lands that Anderida, Britain’s mightiest wood, with all its goblin-haunted rums, could have been dropped into one of these immense valley plains and totally lost. At one time we traveled up a wide stream more than a hundred miles in coracles made of bark, and in all that distance saw from the water no natural openings in the crowding trees, and no smoke or other signs of humanity, except as we neared the forts which kept this watery highway safe for Tlapal-lan’s citizens.