The Angels Weep - Smith Wilbur - Страница 102

Before she rose, she had noted how the indunas had drawn into two separate groups. On one side the elders, and facing them the young and headstrong were ranged about Bazo. She crossed the space between them and knelt before Gandang and his white-headed brothers, Somabula and Babiaan.

"I see you, my child." Gravely Gandang acknowledged her greeting, and then the abruptness with which he broached the real reason for her summons warned Tanase of its dire import.

"We wish you to speak to us on the meaning of the Umlimo's latest prophecy." "My lord and father, I am no longer an intimate of the mysteries.-" Impatiently Gandang brushed aside her disclaimer. "You understand more than anyone outside that dreadful cave. Listen to the words of the Umlimo, and discourse faithfully upon them." She bowed her head in acquiescence, but at the same time turned slightly so that she had Bazo at the very edge of her vision.

"The Umlimo spake thus. "Only a foolish hunter blocks the opening of the cave from which the wounded leopard seeks to escape."" Gandang repeated the prophecy, and his brothers nodded at the accuracy of his rendition. "Veiling her eyes behind thick black lashes, Tanase turned her head the breadth of a finger. Now she could see Bazo's right hand as it rested on his bare thigh. She had taught him the rudiments of. the secret sign language of the initiates. His forefinger curled and touched the first joint of his thumb. It was a command.

"Remain silent!"" said that gesture. "Speak not!" She made the signal of comprehension and acknowledgement, with the hand that hung at her side. Then she raised her head.

"Was that all, Lord?"she asked of Gandang. ""There is more," he answered. "The Umlimo spake a second time.

"The hot wind from the north will scorch the weeds in the fields, before the new corn can be planted. Wait for the north wind."" All the indunas leaned forward eagerly, and Gandang told her, "Speak to us of the meaning." "The meaning of the Umlimo's words is never clear at once. I must ponder on it." "When will you tell us?" "When I have an answer." "Tomorrow morning?"Gandang insisted. "Perhaps." Then you will spend the night alone, that your meditation be not disturbed," Gandang ordered.

"My husband,"Tanase demurred.

"Alone," Gandang repeated sharply. "With a guard on the door of your hut." The guard that was set upon her hut was a young warrior, not yet married, and because of it he was that much more susceptible to the wiles of a beautiful woman. When he brought the bowl of food to Tanase, she smiled in such a way that he lingered at the door of the hut. When she offered him a choice morsel, he glanced outside guiltily and then came to take it from her hand.

The food had a strange bitter taste, but he did not want to give offence, so he swallowed it manfully. The woman's smile promised things that the young warrior could barely believe possible, but when he tried to answer her provocative sallies, his voice slurred strangely in his own ears, and he was overcome with a lassitude such that he had to close his eyes for a moment.

Tanase replaced the stopper on the buck horn bottle she had concealed in her palm, and stepped quietly over the guard's sleeping form. When she whistled, Bazo came swiftly and silently to where she waited by the stream.

"Tell me, Lord," she whispered, "that which you require of me."

When she returned to the hut, the guard still slept deeply. She propped him in the doorway with his weapon across his lap. In the morning his head would ache, but he would not be eager to tell the indunas how he had spent the night.

"I have thought deeply on the words of the Umlimo," Tanase knelt before the indunas, "and I read meaning into the parable of the foolish hunter who hesitates in the entrance of the cave." Gandang frowned as he guessed the slant of her reply, but she went on calmly.

"Would not the brave and skilled hunter go boldly into the cave where the animal lurks, and slay it?" One of the elder indunas hissed with disagreement, and sprang to his feet.

"I say that the Umlimo has warned us to leave the road to the south open, so that the white men with all their women and chattels may leave this land for ever," he shouted, and immediately Bazo was on his feet facing him.

"The white men will never leave. The only way to rid ourselves of them is to bury them." There was a roar of approval from the younger indunas grouped around Bazo, but he lifted his hand to silence them.

"If you leave the south road open, it will certainly be used by the soldiers who march up it with their little three legged guns." There were angry cries of denial and encouragement.

"I say to you that we are the hot wind from the north, that the Umlimo prophesied, we are the ones who will scorch the weeds-" The shouts that drowned him out showed just how deeply the nation's leaders were divided, and Tanase felt the blackness of despair come down upon her. Gandang rose to his feet, and such was the weight of tradition and custom that even the wildest and fiercest of the young indunas fell silent.

"We must give the white men a chance to leave with their women.

We will leave the road open for them to go, and we will wait in patience for the hot wind, the miraculous wind from the north that the Umlimo promises to blow our enemies away.-" Bazo alone had not squatted respectfully to the senior and una and now he did something that was without precedent. He interrupted his father, and his voice was full of scorn.

"You have given them chance enough," said Bazo. "You have let the woman from Khami and all her brats go free. I ask you one question, my father, is what you propose kindness or is it cowardice?" They gasped, for when a son could speak thus to his father, then the world that once they all had known and understood was now changed. Gandang looked at Bazo across the small space that separated them, which was a gulf neither of them would ever be able once again to bridge. Though he was still tall and erect, there was such sorrow in Gandang's eyes that made him seem as old as the granite hills that surrounded them.