The White Shield Part 24

"Well, Untuswa?" she said, mockingly, one day, when we two talked alone.

"So, when the eagle's nest was empty and the she-eagle had gone, your first thought was that the lion you had then slain had robbed the nest?"

"Who says I slew a lion that day, Lalusini, for I searched the whole mountain, yet upon it was none, save only myself?"

"Ah, ah! son of Ntelani," she laughed. "Thou who, with one other, didst fight against the whole Bakoni nation, art a child before the Bakoni _muti_. Be patient. Great things will happen soon."

"Patient--_Hau_! It seems to me that we draw no nearer one to another, Lalusini. And I like it not."

"Yet I have managed to keep outside the _isiG.o.dhlo_, Untuswa," and again she laughed. "Did I speak truly in that matter?"

"Truly, indeed," I answered.

"That is well said, valiant fighter, whose greatness is gained by means of women."

"By means of women?" I repeated, thinking she was again mocking me.

"Now, how can that be, Lalusini, seeing that I lead the King's army, and am ever in the front of the battle?"

"And how earnest thou to win the King's a.s.segai, and with it the place of a commander in the King's armies? Was it not through a woman? Tell me that, Untuswa."

"It was, indeed," I answered, remembering Nangeza, and how my foolishness in stealing her from the _isiG.o.dhlo_ had won me life and great honour, instead of the death which I had expected and deserved.

"And how earnest thou to win the white s.h.i.+eld--the _muti_ s.h.i.+eld? See thou part not from it, Untuswa. Was it not through two women: she who would have dealt the death which it turned away, and she whose wisdom entered thy brain at the right moment? Tell me that, son of Ntelani."

"That, too, is the truth, daughter of Kings," I answered. "But I would ask this: If Umzilikazi sits in the seat of Dingane, in whose seat am I to sit?"

She laughed softly, musically.

"Ah! ah! Untuswa. Remember my offer to you in the cave of the eagle's nest. Was it not to rule over a great nation?"

"_Hau_!" I cried in amazement, seeing the whole truth. Yet could it be real? I, Untuswa, who, though now an _induna_ of weight, was but yesterday a boy. I, Untuswa, had been chosen by this daughter of a royal house--a powerful sorceress, and withal beautiful beyond any woman I had ever seen--to aid her in recovering the throne of Tshaka the Mighty, and to rule over the great Zulu nation as King. And this greatness I had thrust away from me!

"Thou art young yet, Untuswa, though thy deeds have been many and thy name is feared," she answered, smiling up at me in a kind of pity, and yet I thought with much love in her eyes. "Yet what thou hast done is only a beginning, and what the white s.h.i.+eld has done is only a beginning. See thou part not from it."

"Never will I part from it," I declared. "And so, Lalusini, this greatness which was held out to me in the cave like the eagle's nest is now held out to Umzilikazi?"

"Young still--impatient ever--yet an _induna_," she said, looking at me as she had done in the old days, when I kept her hidden away, and my visits were stealthy, and made at the risk of my life. "This greatness is for him who may seize it--thou who wouldst love the daughter of a race of kings."

"That will I do, and seize upon the greatness also," I said. "Give me but the chance, Lalusini."

"The chance shall come, but by a way of fear and blood, _induna_ of the King, who hast but begun to live. It may be that we shall be great together--or--shall sit down in darkness forever [Note]--yet not even that, for the vultures and jackals will grow fat."

Now, towards the full of the moon I was sent by the King upon military business--which was to levy drafts of young men upon certain outlying kraals to the southward. This occupied many days, for the distances to be traversed were great, yet so eager were all to bear arms in those days that even the very children would beg to be enrolled, and parties of them, flouris.h.i.+ng sticks and singing war-songs, would march for some distance beside the new warriors on their journey to the military kraals whither these were consigned. Upon this service I was accompanied by my brother, Mgwali, and four men of my own kraal. Our journeyings brought us to a high jagged mountain range, called Ink.u.me, beyond which lay a wild waste country, where none of us dwelt, for it was swampy at the time of the rains and not over-healthy, though some of us would now and again visit it to hunt, for game abounded there.

Now, _Nkose_, I know not how it was unless that, having so much to do with magic and sorcery, I was becoming half _isa.n.u.si_ myself, but something moved me to penetrate beyond this range. I told myself it was to hunt; yet it was not to hunt. I told myself the lions on that side must be strong and large, and I would kill one or two and make for myself some famous war adornments with the mane and tail; yet I knew that I cared little if I found lions or not. Something within myself seemed to urge me onward. Each jagged and fantastic point of overhanging rock seemed to beckon me forward. In the voices of the male baboons crying hoa.r.s.ely from the crags, in the scream of the black tufted eagle wheeling lazily in the blue heights, I seemed to hear words--tones--calling me ever onward. It was fearsome, it was as a thing of _tagati_ as I plunged deeper and deeper into the great pa.s.s which wound through the heart of the mountain range. The lofty cliff walls overhanging my way seemed to stoop, as though to overwhelm me in the mournful blackness which now brooded from the gloomy mountain-shadows; for the sun was already beginning to sink.

I had sent back Mgwali and the others, for something moved me to undertake this expedition alone. I was armed with the great and splendid spear--the King's a.s.segai--two or three light casting ones, and a heavy short-handled k.n.o.bstick; also I carried the great white s.h.i.+eld which had saved the King's life, for, although, when not on a war expedition, it is our custom only to carry small ornamental s.h.i.+elds, yet, remembering Lalusini's oft-repeated warning, I never parted with this one, even when I slept.

The land here was rolling and gra.s.sy, dotted with little cl.u.s.ters of trees and bush, and over the plain herds of game were frisking. Far off, waving above the tree-tops, I could make out the snake-like necks of tall giraffes, browsing on the tender shoots; and yet the desire to kill game seemed to have left me, as I walked on and on, thinking of Lalusini and the strange things she had presaged as about to befall our nation--also the great destiny which she had darkly hinted might await myself.

When I turned to retrace my steps, lo! the sun had set below the rim of the world. But upon the tall, smooth-faced cliffs, which sheered upward to the sharp ridge of Ink.u.me, lay an afterglow of surpa.s.sing brilliancy--a strange, weird, boding light, as though they had been plunged in a sea of blood. Blood-red, too, were the spurs of the great range. _Hau_! It was wonderful, it was terrifying, it was _tagati_!

Never did I behold anything like it before.

And now, as I gazed in marvel and awe, the redness grew deeper, then faded; and the great rocks took on a colour as of the livid blue-blackness of a mighty thunder-cloud. And as the shadows were thrown out thus clearly, and every line stood forth, while every hollow receded into gloom, I noticed that the mountains here swept round into almost a half-circle. In front opened the mouth of the pa.s.s through which I had come, while on the one hand and on the other a deep, gloomy rift--bush-grown, overhung--ran up far into the heart of the range.

_Hau_! It was as if a cold thing were creeping up my back; for now, as plainly as though they were shouted in my ears, came old Masuka's words, "The Place of the Three Rifts!"

So I stood and gazed, my hand to my mouth, in amazement, in awe. This, then, was "The Place of the Three Rifts," Here it was that strange things were to come upon me--so had predicted the old Mosutu.

Now day had faded into night, and already the shadows of forest and plain were blended together. Already the voices of the darkness were raised--the howl of ravening hyenas; the shrill cry of jackals; the wild, yelling bay of wild dogs, ordering the plan of their hunt! and, withal, the croaking of innumerable frogs in the adjoining reed-bed, the screech of the tree-crickets, and the whirr of the night-hawk. And beneath the misty loom of the tall cliffs it seemed to me that the voices of dark ghosts were calling one to another. "The Place of the Three Rifts!" _Whau_! I would rather engage the wagon-fort of the Amabuna again single-handed than face what might be before me ere morning should break upon that fearsome wizard glen.

While I stood thus, with a strange _tagati_ spell upon me, as firmly rooted as one of the trees growing around, a glow burned in the sky afar, and the land grew light again, as a broad, full moon rose beyond the rim of the world, soaring slowly aloft, a great golden ball. And now the fear began to leave me, for I could see again. Moreover, it is only in the darkness that evil ghosts love to move; or, at any rate, are at their worst. Yet ever, in the tones of the wild creatures of the plain--in the cavernous echo of the sentinel baboon's resounding bark, high up among the crags--it seemed that wizard voices were calling-- grim, threatening, unceasing.

Now I moved forward, as though to root up the dread that was upon me.

Moreover, I feared to face that dreadful pa.s.s--full of _tagati_ and all evil things--in the darkness. And even then there broke from its portals such a wild, wailing, ghost-like howl, which rose in innumerable clamours, surging in a hundred voices around the caves and corners of the rocks--now roaring, now in strange and whistling scream. _Hau_!

All the terrors of this spell of wizardry returned. Right in the moon-path, between each jutting elbow of the cliff portals, was a huge beast--ghost-like unto a hyena, yet four times larger, and more evil-looking than the largest of those foul and loathsome creatures in mortal life. Squatted on its haunches, its horrible head thrown back, and fangs, now glistening white, now concealed, it bayed hideously to the moon; and I, who feared not death in blood, in any shape or form, felt this ghost-voice go through me, turning my blood to water. This was no real animal, but a terrible ghost. Not to sit in the seat of Dingane would I again thread that pa.s.s until the fair and beauteous sun-rays should once more make glad the face of the world, dispersing such to their own abodes of horror and of gloom.

Silently I drew back among the shadows, for I feared to be seen by this ghost-like animal. Then spying a place where the rocks above me seemed to offer a secure hiding-place, which could only be approached from one side, I seized a branch of a tree which was rooted in a cleft, and swung myself up as noiselessly as possible.

I was right in the selection of my hiding-place so far. There was but one way up to it--that by which I had come. Yet behind anything, anybody, might drop down upon me from above. And now that I was here the spell of dread which had been upon me seemed to fade. I thought I could hear the wild, sweet singing of Lalusini, soothing me to sleep.

The next thing--_au_! I was asleep. At first, strange visions chased each other across my dreams. Then I dreamed no more, but slept heavily, for I was weary.

_Au, Nkose_! How shall I say what next befell? For I saw before me Kwelanga, the little white child whom I had saved from the red spear-blades of our warriors in the wagon-fort of the Amabuna. There she stood, the golden sunlight of her hair dispelling the night; her great blue eyes wide open, and fixed upon mine in terrible fear and anxiety. Then my sleep became dreamless once more.

"Untuswa, my father! Wake, Untuswa, for thy life's sake!"

Clear--clear through the night--sounded her voice, the voice of the little one whom we had lost. It sounded in warning.

"Waken, waken, Untuswa, my father! Waken for thy life's sake; lest a nation be a nation no more!"

Now I leaped up; noiselessly, cautiously, as is our habit when alarmed.

So strangely clear, so distinct the voice, that I gazed eagerly around, expecting to behold the little one standing before me in the moonlight.

And her last words! "Lest a nation be a nation no more." _Whau_! Even such had been the words of Lalusini, in her divining vision, when she declared that again should that voice be heard in warning, and charging that its utterances should not be neglected. But the apparition of my dream had faded. I was alone in the silence of the night.

Then, _Nkose_, I could have wept, for I had loved the little one; and now, deceived by my dream, had hoped to have, by some wonderful means, discovered her, alive and well. For the moment, I forgot all wizardry and presages, as I peered around, calling her softly by name. And then came a sound which put all other thoughts to flight, and stirred my blood until it tingled again--the sound which is as no other--the quivering rattle of a.s.segai-hafts held bunched together in the hands of warriors.

Who were these, moving thus abroad at midnight? Surely, none of our people would find themselves away here in this wizard spot at such an hour. Ha! Could it be some of our own people who had come in search of me, seeing I did not return? Yet, somehow, this did not seem the explanation of it.

While I listened, the sounds were drawing nearer, and they were above me; and now, with the rattle of the supple wood, came the deep smothered tone of a voice or two. Then, before I could move to carry out the plan of concealment which my instinct prompted, there dropped down into the little hollow wherein I stood ten or a dozen men.

Note: This is an allusion--first, to the Zulu method of burying the dead in a sitting posture; second, to the custom of leaving the bodies of those executed for a criminal offence exposed to the carrion beasts and birds, a practice somewhat a.n.a.logous to the not so very old English one of gibbeting highwaymen and other malefactors in chains.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

OF THE BLACKENING OF THE MOON.