THE PLOT
Springing forward, but too late to save him, the señor and I lifted
Zibalbay from the ground and laid him on a couch. Peeping over our
shoulders, Maya caught sight of his ghastly face and the foam upon his
lips.
“Oh, he is dead,” she moaned; “my father is dead, and he died cursing
me.”
“No,” said the señor, “he is not dead, for his heart stirs. Bring
water, Maya.”
She obeyed, and for hard upon two hours we struggled to restore his
sense, but in vain; life lingered indeed, but we could not stir him
from his stupor. At length, as we were resting, wearied with our
fruitless labour, the gates opened and Tikal came again.
“What now?” he asked, seeing the form of Zibalbay stretched upon the
couch. “Does the old man sleep?”
“Yes, he sleeps,” answered the señor, “and I think that he will wake
no more. The words he spoke to you to-day are coming true, and that
which you took from him by force will soon be yours by right.”
“No,” answered Tikal, “by right it will be the Lady Maya’s yonder,
though by force it may remain mine, unless, indeed, she gives it to me
of her own free will. But say, how did this come about?”
Now I broke in hastily, fearing lest the señor should tell too much,
and thus bring some swift and awful fate upon himself.
“He was worn out with the fatigue of our journey and the excitement of
yesterday. After you had left he began to talk of your proposals, and
suddenly was taken with this fit. These matters are not for me to
speak of, who am but a prisoner in a strange land; still, lord, it
will not look well if he who once was _cacique_ of this city dies here
and unattended, for then people may say that you have murdered him.
Have you no doctors who can be summoned to minister to him, for,
without drugs, or even a bleeding-knife, we have done all we can do.”
“Murdered him! That they will say in any case. Yes, there are doctors
here, and the best and greatest of them is Mattai, my father-in-law. I
will send him. But, Maya, before I go, have you no word for me?”
Maya, who was seated by the table, her face buried in her hands,
looked up and said:
“Is your heart stone that you can trouble me in such an hour? When my
father is recovered, or dead, I will answer you, and not before.”
“So be it, Lady,” he said, “till then I will wait. And now I must get
hence, for there may be trouble in the city when this news reaches
it.”
A while passed, and Mattai appeared before us, followed by one who
carried his scales and medicines. Without speaking, he came to where
Zibalbay lay, and examined him by the light of a lamp. Then he poured
medicine down his throat, and waited as though he expected to see him
rise, but he neither rose nor stirred.
“A bad case,” he said. “I fear that he will awake no more. How came he
thus?”
“Do you wish to know?” asked Maya, speaking for the first time. “Then
bid your attendant stand back, and I will tell you. My father yonder
was smitten down while he cursed me in his rage.”
“And why did he curse you, Lady?”
“For this reason: While we wandered in the wilderness, Tikal, my
cousin and my betrothed, took a wife, your daughter Nahua, who was
crowned with him as Lady of the Heart. But it seems, Mattai, that
though he gave your daughter place and power, he gave her no love, for
to-day this son-in-law of yours came to my father, and in the presence
of us all offered to set him in his lawful place again and to suffer
him to carry out his schemes, whatever they might be, if I would but
consent to become his wife.”
“To become his wife!” said Mattai, in amazement. “How could you become
his wife when he is married? Can there then be two Ladies of the
Heart?”
“No,” answered Maya quietly, “but the proposal of Tikal, my cousin,
is, that he should either put away or kill your daughter--and you with
her, Mattai--in order that he may set me in her place.”
Now when Mattai heard this his quick eyes flashed, and his very beard
seemed to bristle with rage.
“He proposed that! He dared to propose that!” he gasped. “Oh! let him
have a care. I set him up, and perchance I can pull him down again.
Continue, Lady.”
“He proposed it, and my father agreed to the offer, for, knowing that
you have plotted against him, he had little care for the honour and
safety of you or of your house, Mattai. But if my father accepted, I
refused, seeing that it is not my wish to have more to do with Tikal.
Then my father cursed me, and while he cursed was stricken down.”
“You say it is not your wish to marry Tikal, Lady. Is it, then, your
wish to marry any other man?”
“Yes,” she answered, letting her eyes fall, “I love this white lord
here, whom you name Son of the Sea, and I would become his wife. I
would become his wife,” she went on after a pause, “but, Mattai, Tikal
is very strong, and it may be, unless I can find help elsewhere, that
in order to save the life of the man I love, of his friend and mine,
Ignatio, and my own, I shall be forced into the arms of Tikal. But now
Tikal has asked me for my answer, and I have told him that I will give
it when my father is recovered or dead. Perhaps it will be for you to
say what that answer shall be, for alone and in prison I am not strong
enough to stand against Tikal. Say, now, do the people love me well
enough to depose Tikal and set me in my father’s place, should he
die?”
“I cannot say, Lady,” he answered shortly, “but at the least you will
scarcely ask me thus to bring about my own and my daughter’s ruin. I
will be open with you. I gained over the Council of the Heart to
Tikal’s cause, and my price was that he should marry my daughter,
thereby satisfying her love and my ambition. Yes, I have plotted to
set Nahua on high, both for her sake and for my own, seeing that after
the _cacique_ I sought to be the chief man in the city. Can I, then,
turn round and depose him, and my daughter and myself with him? And if
I did, what would be my fate at your hands in the days to come? No, I
seek to be revenged on Tikal, indeed, who has offered so deadly an
affront to me and mine, but it must be in some other way than this.
Tell me now, lady, what is it that you desire most,--to be the
_cacique_ of this city by your right of birth, or to marry the man you
love?”
“I desire to marry the man I love,” she answered, “and to escape from
this place with him back to those lands where white men live. I desire
also that my friend and my lord’s friend, Ignatio, should be given as
much gold as he needs to enable him to carry out his purposes in the
coast country yonder. If things can be brought about thus, Tikal and
Nahua and their descendants, for aught I care, may rule in the City of
the Heart till the world’s end.”
“You ask little enough, Lady,” said Mattai, “and it shall go hard if I
cannot get it for you. Now I will leave you, for I must have time to
think; but, if Tikal returns, say him neither yea nor nay till we have
spoken again. And as for you, strangers, remember that your lives
depend upon your caution. Farewell.”
Two more days passed, or so we reckoned by the number of meals that
were brought to us, but neither Tikal nor Mattai returned to visit us.
Other doctors came, indeed, and saw Zibalbay, who lay upon his bed
like one plunged in a deep sleep, but though they tried many remedies
they were of no avail. On the night of the second day we were gathered
round his couch, watching him and talking together sadly enough, for
the solitude, and the darkness, and the fear of impending death had
broken our spirits, so that even the señor ceased to be merry, and
the presence of her beloved to give comfort to Maya.
“Alas!” she said, “it was an evil day when we met yonder in the land
of Yucatan, and, friend, no gift could have been more unlucky than
that of my love to you, for which, being worth so little, you are
doomed to pay so dear. Fortune has gone hardly with you also, Ignatio,
who are fated thus for the second time to see a woman wreck your
hopes. Say, now, friend,”--and she caught the señor by the
arm,--“would it not be best that we should make an end of all this
folly, and that I should give myself to Tikal? Then I could bargain
for you both that before I pass to him I should, with my own eyes, see
you safe across the mountains, taking that with you which would make
you rich for life. Nor need you trouble for me, or think that you left
me to dishonour, for, so soon as you were gone, I should seek the arms
of another lord whose name is Death, and there take my rest, till in
some day unborn you came to join me.”
“Cease to talk thus, Maya,” said the señor, drawing her to his
breast; “whatever there is to bear we will undergo together, since,
even if I could be so base as to buy safety at such a price, without
you my life would be worth nothing to me, and, indeed, I had rather
die at your side than live on alone. It is my fault that ever we came
to this pass, seeing that, if I had taken your counsel, we should not
have set foot within the City of the Heart. But curiosity conquered
me, for I longed to see the place, as now I long to see the last of
it; also, had we turned back, I must have left Ignatio to go on alone.
Keep your courage, sweetheart, for though your father is dying and our
danger is great, I am sure that we shall escape from these dungeons
and be happy with each other beneath the sunlight.”
Then he kissed her upon the lips and comforted her, wiping away the
tears that ran from her blue eyes.
It was at this moment that I looked up and saw Mattai standing in the
doorway,--for we were gathered, not in the hall, but in Zibalbay’s
chamber,--watching the scene curiously and with a softened face.
“Greeting,” he said, “and forgive me that I come so late, but my
business is secret and such as is best done at night. How goes it with
Zibalbay?”
“He lives,” I answered; “I can say no more, for he is senseless, and,
without doubt, soon must die. But come, see for yourself.”
Mattai walked to the bed and examined the old man, lifting the eyelids
and feeling his heart.
“He cannot live long,” he said. “Well, death is his best friend. Now
to my business. There is trouble in the city, and strange rumours pass
from mouth to mouth among the people, many of whom declare that Tikal
has murdered Zibalbay, and demand that you, Lady, should be brought
before them, that you may be named _cacique_ in his place. Things
being so, it has been urged upon Tikal by the chiefs of his party that
as, do what he will, he can never clear himself of the death of
Zibalbay, it would be well that he should make away with you also,
Lady, and, of course, with these two strangers, your friends, seeing
that then there will be none to dispute his rights. The matter was
laid before him strongly at a secret council held this afternoon, and
once he issued the order for your deaths, only to recall it before the
messenger left the palace; for at the last I saw that his heart
overcame his reason, and he could not bear thus to divorce himself
from you, Lady, though what he said was that he would not stain his
hands with the blood of one so innocent and fair. Still, I will not
hide from you, Lady, or from you, strangers, that your danger is very
great that you go, indeed, in jeopardy of your life from one hour to
the next.”
Now he paused, and Maya asked in a low voice:
“Have you no plan to save us, Mattai?”
“Why should I have a plan, Lady, who with my house would benefit so
greatly by your death?”
“I do not know why you should have a plan, old man,” broke in the
señor; “but I tell you that you will do well to make one, else you do
not leave this place alive,”--and as he spoke, with a sudden movement,
he sprang between Mattai and the door.
“If we are to be murdered like birds in a cage,” he went on, “at least
your neck shall be twisted first. Do you understand?”
“I understand, Son of the Sea,” answered Mattai, flinching a little
before the señor’s fierce face and hand outstretched as though to
grip him. “But I would have you understand something also; namely,
that if I do not return presently, there are some without who will
come to seek me, and then----”
“And then they will find your carcase,” broke in the señor, “and what
will all your plots and schemes advantage you when you are a lump of
senseless clay?”
“Little indeed, I confess,” he answered. “Still, my daughter, whom I
love better than myself, will reap some profit, and with that, in this
sad case, I must be content. But, do not be so hasty, white man. I
asked why I should have a plan? I did not say that I had none.”
“Then if you have one, let us hear it without more ado,” said the
señor.
Mattai bowed, as he answered:
“Your will is mine: but I know not how my plan will please the Lady
Maya yonder, and therefore, before I unfold it, I will make it clear
to you that there is but one alternative,--the death of all of you by
to-morrow’s light. Your lives lie in my hand, and if I must do so to
save my daughter and myself, I shall not hesitate to take them.”
“Any more than I shall hesitate to take yours, old man,” said the
señor, grimly; “for remember always that if you do not make your plan
such as we can accept, you will leave this chamber feet first with a
broken neck.”
Again Mattai bowed, and continued:
“In one way only has Tikal been able to pacify the tumult among the
people, by declaring that the Lady Maya shall be produced before the
Council of the Heart, in the Sanctuary of the Nameless god, upon the
night of the Rising of Waters, being the first day when it is lawful
for the Council to sit in the Sanctuary, and afterwards at dawn in the
eyes of the whole city. The words of Zibalbay have taken a strange
hold of the people, although they cried him down as he spoke them; and
they desire to know what will happen when the prophecy is fulfilled,
and once more the severed halves of the symbol of the Heart are laid
side by side in their place upon the altar. Zibalbay told them that he
believed that then the god would reveal his purpose, and show what
part each of you should play in the fate that is to be, and therefore
the people--aye! and many among the nobles, and even the Council of
the Heart--look to see some sign or wonder when Day and Night are come
together, and that which was parted is made one, for they begin to
hold that the madness of Zibalbay is from heaven, and that the voice
of heaven sent him on his journey.”
Now Mattai thought for a while and went on:
“Lady, I am old, and for many years I have followed the worship of the
gods, doing sacrifice to them, and importuning them with prayers, yet
never have I known the gods to make answer to their votaries, or heard
the voices of the immortals speaking into human ears. It seems that
gods are many: thus, perchance these strangers have their own; and,
Lady, thus it comes that in my age I ask myself if there are any gods
other than those that the mind of man has shaped from nothingness, or
fashioned in the likeness of its own passions. I cannot tell, but I
think that were I in so sore a strait as you find yourselves to-night,
I should not hesitate to give a voice to these dumb gods.”
“What is your meaning?” asked Maya.
“This: When the severed halves of the Heart are set in their place
upon the altar, if there be any gods they should give a sign. Thus, as
I who am the keeper of the Sanctuary know, the ancient symbol on the
altar is hollow, and if it were to chance to open, it might be that a
writing would be found within it,--an ancient writing of the gods,
prepared against the present time,--that shall be to us as a lantern
to one wandering in the dark; or it might be that nothing would be
found. Now, as it happens, in searching through the earliest records
of the temple, I have discovered a certain writing, and it seems to me
that your fortune would be great if this writing should lie within the
symbol on the night of the Rising of Waters. Here it is----”
And from his robe he produced a small plate of dull gold, covered over
with hieroglyphics.
“Read it,” said Maya.
Then Mattai read:
“This is the voice of the Nameless god that his prophet heard in the
year of the building of the Sanctuary, and graved upon a tablet of
gold which he set in a secret place in the symbol of the Sanctuary, to
be declared in that far-off hour when the lost is found and the signs
of the Day and the Night are come together. To thee it speaks, unborn
daughter of a chief to be, whose name is the name of a nation. When my
people have grown old and their numbers are lessened, and their heart
is faint, then, maiden, take to thyself as a husband a man of the race
of the white god, a son of the sea-foam, whom thou shalt lead hither
across the desert, for so my people shall once more prosper and grow
strong, and the land shall be to thy child and the child of the god,
east and west, and north and south, further than my eagles wing
between sunrise and set.”
He finished reading, and there was silence as we looked on each other,
amazed at the boldness and the cunning of this old priest and plotter.
It was Maya who spoke first.
“You have forged this writing, Mattai,” she said coldly, “and now you
desire that I should set it in the symbol, for you are mindful of that
curse which is written in the ritual Opening of the Heart against him
who shall profane its mysteries and token, or who should dare to tell
a lie within the Sanctuary, or to swear falsely by the symbol. In
short, if you do not fear the vengeance of the god, you fear the
vengeance of the Order.”
“To speak truth, lady, I fear both, for, in offering insult to the
Nameless god, who knows what he offends? Still, you must make your
choice--and swiftly, seeing that if you refuse the deed, by to-morrow
you will have learned, or, perhaps--remembering the words of the white
lord--I should say _we_ shall have learned what virtue there is in the
religions.”
Now she turned to us, saying:
“Advise me, friends, for I know not what to answer. In the faith of my
people I have lost faith, and it is to yours that I look for comfort;
and yet the deed seems awful, for if we are not worshippers of the
Nameless god, still we are all of us brethren of the ancient mysteries
of the Heart, and to do this thing would be to break our solemn oaths.
Come, let us put it to the vote, and do you who are the oldest and the
wisest among us, vote first, Ignatio.”
“So be it,” I answered. “For my part I give my voice against the
trick. Of the gods of your people I know nothing and think less, but I
am the Master of our Order in my own land, and I will not offend
against it. To do this thing would be to act the greatest of lies, and
a lie is a sin in the face of heaven. All men must die, but I wish to
pass to doom with my hands unstained by fraud. Still, in this matter
your lives are at stake as well as mine; therefore, if, of the three
of us, two are in favour of the act, I will be bound by their
decision. But if only one is in favour, then he must be bound by
ours.”
“Good, let it be so,” said Maya. “And now, beloved, speak and tell us
whether you choose death and a clean conscience, or life and my love
to gladden it,”--and she looked into his face with her beautiful eyes,
and half stretched out her arms as though she would clasp him to her
breast.
Now, although the señor did not answer at once, when I saw this and
heard her words, I, Ignatio, knew that it was finished, since it could
not be in the heart of a man in love to resist her pleadings and her
witcheries. Presently he spoke, and as he did so his face grew red
with a half shame.
“I have no choice,” he said. “I do not fear to die if need be, but I
should be no man were I to choose death while it is your wish that I
should live. Like Ignatio, I say that the gods of this city are to me
nothing more than idols, and to deceive that which does not exist is
impossible. For the rest, I became a Brother of the Heart not by my
own wish, but by accident, therefore on this point my conscience
pricks me little. Only, to be a partner in this plot, I must speak or
act a lie, and this I have never done before. Still it seems to me
that a man may choose life and his love in place of a cruel and secret
death, and keep his hands clean, even though he must play a harmless
trick as the price of them. Yet, Maya, in this as in every other
matter, I will do your wish, and if you think it better that we should
die, why let us die and make an end.”
“Nay,” she answered, with a flash of reckless passion, “I think it
better that we should live, far from this unlucky city, and there be
happy in each other’s love. For your sake my father’s curse has fallen
on me, and after it all other maledictions of gods or men will be
light as feathers. If this be a sin that we are about to work, I do it
for the sake of you and of our love; also because I would live awhile
in happiness before I go down to the grave. See my father lying there;
throughout a long life he has served his god, and behold how his god
has served him in the hour of his trouble. Let his prayers answer for
us both, for I will have none of such false gods, unless it be to use
them for my ends. If this be a sin that we are about to do, and
vengeance should tread upon the heels of sin, let it fall upon the
heads of my people, who would murder me for no crime; upon the head of
Mattai, who tempted me for his own advantage; and, if that be not
enough, upon my head also. Little do I care for vengeance to come, if
for only one short year I may call you husband.”
“Ill-omened words,” muttered Mattai, shivering a little, “words that
only a woman would utter; but so be it.”
As he spoke I thought that I heard a faint groan break from the man
upon the couch. I glanced anxiously at Zibalbay, to find that I must
have been mistaken, or, at least, that it had not proceeded from his
lips, for he lay there rigid and senseless as a corpse.
“The vote is taken,” I said sadly. “What next, Mattai?”
“Follow me,” he answered, “and I will show you a secret path from this
chamber to the Sanctuary beneath. Nay, you need not fear to leave him,
for if his life still burns within him, it is fast asleep. But stay,
where is the talisman? That will be necessary to us.”
“I have one half,” I answered, “the other is about Zibalbay’s neck.”
“Find it,” he said, sternly, to the Lady Maya. “Nay, you must!”