Then some of the women screamed out:
"Yonder he is, Lion. There, among those."
I followed their glance. A group of men, terror-stricken, sat huddled together, their looks wildly imploring that mercy they knew it would be useless to ask. Already our warriors were bounding upon them with uplifted spears. But I ran forward and ordered them to forbear.
"Greeting, Chief of the Blue Cattle!" I cried aloud in a great mocking voice. "Greeting, young lion, lord of thousands and thousands of spears. What was my "word" but this day? That the next time the Chief of the Bakoni saw my face it would be in the forefront of the destroyers; and it is so. But how do I again behold the chief of so many spears and shields? Is it armed and fighting to the death? Not so. It is crouching low, and weeping even as these miserable women!"
"_Xi_!" cried the warriors in contemptuous disgust, the sharp click sounding in chorus like the cracking of sticks. "_Bayete, Nkulu "nkulu_!" they mocked. "We _konza_ to thee, young lion, who roars louder than the Lion of the Amandebeli."
Thus they jeered the fallen chief, and amid their shouts of laughter I gave orders that he should be tied with his right hand to his left ankle, so that he could walk only with great difficulty. This I did, _Nkose_, because he was contemptible as a pitiful coward. Had he been a brave man, although he was doomed, I would have spared him insult; but for a chief, the chief of a nation, to crouch among the women and whine for mercy--_au_! he deserved all that befell him.
"Now," I cried, when I had set aside those whom I judged should be taken alive to the King, "as for these, they shall have a choice of deaths.
Yonder the cliff is high, and the way thereto is smooth and level.
Hold! give them a fair chance. Go now, ye that remain of the nation of Bakoni! _Hambani gahle_!"
The warriors roared aloud at this jest. Those of the vanquished who were left alive started to run, doubtless hoping to find a way of escape. But there was none such, for the cliff went down in a smooth wall to a vast depth. Then I gave the word, and the young men leaped forward in pursuit, and in a moment that sunny cliff brow was red with death. Every one of the Bakoni had been forced to spring from the height or was speared.
CHAPTER TEN.
THE MYSTERY QUEEN.
While the young men were thus amusing themselves, _Nkose_, I ran my gaze over the faces of the prisoners whom we had spared, and as I did so it fell upon a countenance which made me start and grip my a.s.segai. The man who owned this face met my glance, and shook with fear. And well he might; for, in spite of a plentiful besmearing of red ochre, I knew that face and he saw that I did--knew it for the face of the deserter, the slave Maroane.
"Spare me, father," he murmured quickly in the Sechuana tongue. "Spare me, and I will tell you something that will be worth knowing--something which the King would give me my life ten times over to know."
"Speak, dog!" I said. "Speak or die!"
But he would not. He talked swiftly and low in the Sechuana tongue, which none of our people understood, urging me to go apart with him for a s.p.a.ce.
Just then the mountain-top was covered with our warriors, for Kalipe"s _impi_ had now joined mine. All were in a state of the highest excitement and delight. Some were resting, some were dancing, some singing, some jeering the prisoners, others caring for wounds they had received, but the hubbub of voices was enough to make a man deaf. In the commotion I managed to get Maroane apart un.o.bserved.
"Now, slave, thy last hour has come," I said. "What are thy tidings?"
"Spare my life, father, and they shall be yours," he said. "Only promise me my life."
"Hearken, dog," I growled, fingering the point of my spear. "If what thou showest me is worth thy miserable life, then I will not take it.
But speak, or I slay thee here. That is my "word.""
He knew it was. He knew that I was not one to speak twice.
"Come with me, father," he said. "But--come alone."
We threaded our way through many a noisy and boisterous group who jeered and threatened the man in front of me, reckoning him one of the Bakoni.
But I restrained them, giving an order here, and a word of advice there, in my capacity of second in command. All thought I was going on a round of inspection, and then thought no more about anything at all. The while Maroane had been craftily leading me the complete circle of the mountain-top, and now we had gained the rocky cone which arose from the further end. Then, as we pa.s.sed behind it, and the people were lost to view, Maroane bent down suddenly in the gra.s.s and dragged out by the heels the dead body of a man. Another, too, he dragged forth, then turned panting to me.
"In here, leader of the King"s might," he said.
I looked in amazement. Under the bodies which he had removed was a hole slanting downwards into the earth, partly hidden in the long gra.s.s. The slave explained that these two had been purposely killed by their own people, in order to conceal this opening with their bodies.
Now, I had already known what it is to walk in darkness through the heart of the earth, as you will remember, _Nkose_, when I followed Gungana into the cave of the _Izimu_, or Eaters-of-Men. But for such places I have no liking, wherefore I growled:
"And what will I find, dog, when I have left the light of day?"
The fellow"s eyes shone with excitement.
"The Queen of the _muti_ of the Bakoni, father. She is beautiful," he whispered. "And, indeed, my life is well worth this secret."
"Ha! lead on, dog," I said. "But beware that thou beholdest not the end of this spear-point through thy chest."
I trod in Maroane"s footsteps in almost complete darkness for a little way, and while I did so I pondered. What was going to be revealed? I was ever eager to look into strange mysteries--a longing implanted in me, I think, by old Mazuka. And now I heard a wild, sweet voice singing, and it seemed to me the words were in the Zulu tongue.
Now it grew light, and in a moment we walked out from the darkness of the underground pa.s.sage, and stood in the light of day.
It was a marvellous place, like an enormous bowl hollowed out in the face of the cliff. The rock sloped gradually outward, and above it a narrow belt of blue sky, but overhead the vaulted roof of the cliff.
The floor of this place was of solid stone. It was a marvellous hiding-place, for from beneath the face of the cliff showed no sort or sign of a break. Why had not the craven Tayane sought refuge here? But perhaps even from him was the secret hidden.
This strange rock-nest was occupied by one human being--a woman. As I sprang into her view a low sharp scream of terror escaped her, and, covering her head, she sank down at the further end of the place; not, however, before I was able to see that she was of most beautiful and shapely build. She expected instant death. Yet she begged for mercy, and the voice that came from beneath the beaded robe which covered her was marvellously enthralling. She begged that her life might be spared, or taken as quickly and painlessly as possible. That she was terrified could hardly be wondered at, for my appearance must have been terrifying in the extreme. I had borne far from the smallest share in the slaughter of the Bakoni, and now, weapons, shield, and person were covered with blood. As I leaped into view she at once took me for the first of the slayers. But the words with which she appealed to me were spoken well and fluently in our own tongue.
"What is this?" I said. "The tongue of the Zulu in the mouth of a stranger?"
"I know you, son of Ntelani," she said, without looking up from her crouching att.i.tude. "I have seen you more than once, messenger of the King."
"But I have not seen you, stranger, who speakest with the voice of the west wind. Uncover now, that I may do so, before we return to the King."
"To the King? To Umzilikazi?" she uttered, in a tone as of fear. "That may not be. Look now, son of Ntelani, and say whether I am to fall a spoil to the King."
Throwing off the beaded robe, she stood upright, and now I saw that my first glimpse had told me no lie. She was tall--tall as Nangeza--but never did I see more perfect proportions and rounder, firmer limbs.
She, like Nangeza, was light of colour; but, unlike Nangeza, there was a softness, a sweetness in her face, and in her clear eyes, which was enough to befool any man, being young, who looked. She wore the short beaded petticoat and gold ornaments of the Bakoni, but her hair was gathered up in the _impiti_, or reddened cone, such as is worn by Zulu women.
Now, for all my bragging to the King that I cared not about women, I was, in those days, just as great a fool as others of my age, and although in a general way I did not care to add to the number of my wives, yet, when I came upon such a woman as this, I was apt to leave my reason and ordinary sense so far behind that a long journey would be required to pick it up again. So when this one--revealing herself thus suddenly--threw out those words about falling a spoil to the King, my reason started away--to hunt game perhaps; and the thought that ran through my mind was that I would, by some means, keep her for myself.
"Who art thou, sister?" I said; "and how art thou called?"
"I am called Lalusini, and my Zulu blood is as pure as thine own, son of Ntelani. Perhaps purer."
"_Hau_!" I cried, bringing my hand to my mouth in amazement. "Here is a marvel! Then how earnest thou here, Lalusini, whom this dog just now named Queen of the Bakoni _muti_?"
"In that he told no lie, Untuswa," she answered, with a glance at the slave. "But the tale is over-long to be told at such a time."
My attention being recalled to the slave, I turned to look at him. He was crouching on the ground behind me--eyes, ears, mouth, all wide-open, looking scared somewhat; and, indeed, he would have looked more so could he have read what was pa.s.sing in my mind. For I had resolved that this woman should belong to me alone; and that this should be so I must leave her here--and, indeed, her first words had seemed to point that way--for such an one as she, did Umzilikazi once set his eyes upon her, she would be taken into the _isiG.o.dhlo_ at that moment. But the secret of this hiding-place was known to three of us--Maroane being the third--and I felt that it was shared by just one too many.
"I saw thee, Untuswa," she went on, "thee and another. I saw thee, the chief of two men, laying down terms to an armed and angry nation. I saw thee again--thee and another--in the ruined walls; two men keeping back swarms of yonder dogs; and my heart went out to thee, and to the days when I dwelt among my own people. Yes, my heart went out to thee, thou great, brave fighter; but if it were better that it should go out to the King--"
This she spoke in a low voice, but with a look that shook my pulses, and made me mad. I sware then that she should not be delivered up to the King, but should remain hidden there, and belong to me, and to me alone; and my words seemed to please her. I promised to return shortly, but now I must depart, or the warriors would be wondering at my absence.
"Lead on now, dog!" I said to the slave. And it was the last word his ears ever heard, for when we had pa.s.sed through the dark pa.s.sage, and gained the outer air, I seized him by the ankle, and overthrew him; then bringing my k.n.o.bstick down upon the back of his neck, I laid him dead before he could utter a sound. No second blow was required. The secret of the hiding-place was now shared by two only.