SUNRISE FOR TWO
I
Amber found his way out of the garden without difficulty; at the
doorway an eunuch waited. The Maharana himself, perhaps in deference to
the dictates of discretion, did not reappear, and Amber had no desire
to see him again. He was eager only to get away, to find a place and
time to think, and to get into communication with Labertouche.
The eunuch bowed submissively to his demand to be shown out, and
silently led him down through the echoing marble corridors and
galleries of the many-tiered palace. They took a different way from
that by which Amber had ascended; had his life depended on it, he could
not have found his way back to the garden of Naraini, but by accident.
As they passed through the lower court of stables he remarked the fact
that the stallions were being led away to their stalls. The
circumstances confirmed Naraini's statement; the hour of their
usefulness was ended for the day--or, rather, for the night.
The Virginian wondered dully if ever he would find himself astride one
of the superb animals. After what he had witnessed and been a part of
there was for him no longer any circumscribing horizon to the world of
possibility. For him the improbable no longer existed. He had met the
incredible face to face and found it real.
In the cavern-like chamber at the water-level Dulla Dad had the boat in
readiness. Amber embarked, not without a sigh of relief, and the
Mohammedan with his double-bladed paddle drove the boat out of the
secret entrance, in an impassive silence. In the stern Amber watched
the indefinite grey light of dawn wavering over the face of the waters
and wondered ...
The boat swung in gently to the marble steps of the bund. Amber rose
and stepped ashore, very tired and very much inclined to believe he
would presently wake up to a sane and normal world.
"Hazoor," the voice of Dulla Dad hailed him. He turned. "Hazoor, I was
to say that at the third hour after sunset to-night this boat will be
in waiting here. You are to call me by name, and I will put in for you,
hazoor."
"What's that? I don't understand.... Oh, very well."
"And I was to say further, my lord, these words: 'You shall find but
one way to Kathiapur.'"
Amber shook his head, smiling. "If you don't mind getting yourself
disliked on my account, Dulla Dad, you may take back to the author of
that epigram this answer: 'You shall find but one way to Jehannum, and
that right speedily.' Good-morning, Dulla Dad."
"The peace of God abide always with the Heaven-born!"
With a single, strong stroke the creature of the palace sent the boat
skimming far out from the bund, and, turning, headed for the palace.
Amber entered the bungalow, to find the khansamah already awake and
moving about. At the Virginian's request he shuffled off to prepare
coffee--much coffee, very strong and black and hot, Amber stipulated.
He needed the stimulant badly. He was sleepy and his head was in a
whirl.
He sat lost in thought until the khansamah brought the decoction, then
roused and drank it as it came from the pot, without sugar, gulping
down huge bitter mouthfuls of the scalding black fluid. But the effect
that he expected and desired was strangely long in making itself felt.
He marvelled at his drowsiness, nodding and blinking over his empty
cup. Out of doors the skies were hot and blue--white with forerunners
of the sun, and the world of men was stirring and making preparation
against the business of the day; but Amber, who had a work so serious
and so instant to his hand, sat on in dreamy lethargy, musing....
The faces of two women stood out vividly against the misty formless
void before his eyes: the face of Naraini and that of Sophia Farrell.
He looked from one to the other, stupidly contrasting them, trying to
determine which was the lovelier, until their features blurred and ran
together and the two became as one and ...
The khansamah tiptoed cautiously into the room and found the Virginian
sleeping like a log, his head upon the table. His face was deeply
coloured with crimson, as if a fever burned him, and his breathing was
loud and stertorous.
Pausing, the native beckoned to one who skulked without, and the latter
entering, the two laid hold of the unconscious man and bore him to the
charpoy. The second native slipped silver money into the khansamah's
palm.
"He will sleep till evening," he said. "If any come asking for him, say
that he has gone abroad, leaving no word. More than this you do not
know. The sepoys have an order to prevent all from entrance."
The khansamah touched his forehead respectfully. "It is an order.
Shabash!" he muttered.
A shaft of sunlight struck in through the window and lay stark upon the
sleeper's face. He did not move. The khansamah drew close the shades,
and with the other left the room in semi-dusk.
II
Beneath the spreading banian, by the cistern of the goldfish, Naraini
with smouldering eyes watched Amber disappear in the wilderness of
shrubbery. He walked as a man with a set purpose, never glancing back.
She laughed uneasily but waited motionless where he had left her, until
the echo of his boot-heels on the marble slabs had ceased to ring in
the neighbouring corridor. Then, lifting a flower-like hand to her
mouth, she touched her lips gently and with an air of curiosity. The
resentment in her eyes gave place to an emotion less superficial. "By
Indur and by Har!" she swore softly. "In one thing at least he is like
a Rajput: he kisses as a man kisses."
She moved indolently along the walk to the rug beneath the canopy where
he had found her, her lithe, languid, round body in its gorgeous
draperies no whit less insolent than the flaming bougainvillea whose
glowing magenta blossoms she touched with idle fingers as she passed.
The east was grey with dusk of dawn--a light that grew apace, making
garish the illumination of the flickering, smoking, many-coloured lamps
in the garden. Naraini clapped her hands. Soft footsteps sounded in the
gallery and one of her handmaidens threaded the shrubbery to her side.
"The lamps, Unda," said the queen; "their light, I think, little
becomes me. Put them out." And when this was done, she composedly
ordered her pipe and threw herself lazily at length upon a pile of
kincob cushions, her posture the more careless since she knew herself
secure from observation; the garden being private to her use.
When the tire-woman had departed, leaving at Naraini's side a small
silver _huqa_ loaded with fine-cut Lucknow weed, a live ember of
charcoal in the middle of the bowl, she sat up and began to smoke, her
face of surpassing loveliness quaintly thoughtful as she sucked at the
little mouthpiece of chased silver and exhaled faint clouds of aromatic
vapour. From time to time she smiled pensively and put aside the tube
while she played with the rings upon her slender, petal-like fingers;
five rings there were to each hand, from the heavy thumb circlet that
might possibly fit a man's little finger to the tiny band that was on
her own, all linked together by light strands of gold radiating from
the big, gem-encrusted boss of ruddy gold midway between her slim round
waist and dimpled knuckles....
The tread of boots with jingling spurs sounded in the gallery, warning
her. She sighed, smiled dangerously to herself, and carelessly adjusted
her veil, leaving rather more than half her face bare. Salig Singh
entered the garden and found his way to her, towering over her beneath
the canopy, brave in his green and tinsel uniform. She looked up with a
listless hauteur that expressed her attitude toward the man.
"_Achcha_!" she said sharply. "Thou art tardy, Heaven-born. Yet have I
waited for thee this half-hour gone, heavy with sleep though I
be--waited to know the pleasure of my lord."
There was a mockery but faintly disguised in her tone. The Maharana
seemed to find it not unpleasant, for he smiled grimly beneath his
moustache.
"There was work to be done," he said briefly--"for the Cause. And
thou--how hast thou wrought, O Breaker of Hearts?"
The woman cast the silver mouthpiece from her and clasped her hands
behind her head. "Am I not Naraini?"
"The man is ours?"
"Mine," she corrected amiably. His face darkened with a scowl of
jealousy and she laughed in open derision. "Were I Naraini could I not
divine the heart of a man?"
"By what means?"
"What is that to thee, O Heaven-born?" She snuggled her body
complacently into the luxurious pile of cushions. "If I have
accomplished the task thou didst set for me, what concern hast thou
with the means I did employ? Thou art only Salig Singh, Maharana of
Khandawar, but I am Naraini, a free woman."
"Thou--!" Rage choked the Rajput. "Thou," he sputtered--"thou art--"
"Softly, Heaven-born, softly--lest I loose a thunderbolt for thy
destruction. Is it wise to forget that Naraini holds thy fate in the
hollow of her hands?" She sat forward, speaking swiftly and with
malice. "Thou art pledged to produce Har Dyal Rutton in the Hall of the
Bell before another sunrise, and none but Naraini knows to what a
perilous resort thou art driven to redeem thy word."
"I was lied to," he argued sullenly. "A false tale was brought me--by
one who hath repented of his error! If I was told that Har Dyal Rutton
would be in India upon such-and-such a day, am I to blame that I did
promise to bring him to the Gateway?"
"And seeing that the man is dead, art thou to blame for bringing in his
place a substitute, even so poor a changeling as this man Amber? Nay,
be not angry; do I blame thee? Have I done aught but serve thee to the
end thou dost desire?... Thou shouldst be grateful to me, rather than
menace me with thine anger.... And," she added sweetly, "it were well
for thee that thou shouldst bear always in mind my intimacy with thy
secret. If thou art king, then am I more than queen, in Khandawar."
"I am not angry, Naraini," he told her humbly, "but mad with love for
thee--"
"And lust, my lord, for--power," she interpolated.
"But if what thou hast said be true--"
"'Who lies to the King, is already a dead man.' Why should I trouble to
deceive thee, Heaven-born? I tell thee, the man is won. The day shall
declare it: this night will he ride with me to Kathiapur. Why didst
thou not tarry to eavesdrop? Indeed thou hast lost an opportunity that
may never a second time be thine--to learn of the wiles of woman."
"There was work to be done," he repeated. "I went to take measures
against thy failure."
"O thou of little faith!"
"Nay, why should I neglect proper precautions? Whether thy confidence
be justified or no, this night will Har Dyal Rutton--or one like
him--endure the Ordeal of the Gateway."
"So I have told thee," she assented equably. "He will come, because
Naraini bids him."
"It may be so. If not, another lure shall draw him."
She started with annoyance. "The Englishwoman of the picture?"
"Have I named her?" He lifted his heavy brows in affected surprise.
"Nay, but--"
"Secret for secret," he offered: "mine for thine. Is it a bargain, O
Pearl of Khandawar?"
"Keep thy silly secret, then, as I will keep mine own counsel," she
said, with assumed disdain. It was no part of wisdom, in her
understanding, to tell him of her interview with Amber. A man's
jealousy is a potent weapon in a woman's hands, but must be wielded
with discretion.
He was persistent: "I will back my plan against thine, Ranee."
"So be it," she said shortly. "Whichever wins, the stake is won for
both. What doth it matter?"
She rose and moved impatiently down the walk and back again, bangles
tinkling, jewels radiant on wrist and brow, ankle and bosom. The man
watched her with sulky eyes until she turned, then bent his head and
stood glowering at the earth and twisting his moustache. She paused
before him, hands on hips, and raised her eyes in silent inquiry. He
pretended not to notice her. She sighed with a pretence of humility
thinly disguised. "Thy trouble, my lord?" she rallied him.
"I have wondered," he said heavily: "will he pass?"
"If not, it were well for thee to die this night, O Heaven-born."
"That was my thought."
"Thou hast little need to worry, lord." Woman-like she shifted to suit
his humour. "He is a man: I answer for that, though ... he is no fool.
Still, when the hour strikes, what he must, that will he endure for the
sake of that which Naraini hath promised him."
"Or for another," Salig Singh growled into his beard.
"I did not hear."
"I said naught. I am distraught."
"Be of good heart," she comforted him still further. "If he doth fail
to survive the Ordeal--Har Dyal Rutton hath died. If he doth survive--"
"Har Dyal Rutton shall die within the hour," Salig Singh concluded
grimly. "But ... I am troubled. I cannot but ask myself continually:
Were it not wiser to confess failure and abide the outcome?"
"How long wouldst thou abide the outcome, my king, after thou hadst
informed the Council of this deception to which thou hast been too
willing and ready a party?... He who misled you died a dog's death. But
thou--art thou in love with death?"
"Unless thy other name be Death, Naraini ..."
"Or if the Council should spare thee--as is unlikely? The patience of
the Body is as the patience of Kings--scant; and its mercy is like unto
its patience.... But say thou art spared: what then? How long art thou
prepared to wait until the Members of the Body shall again be in such
complete accord as now? When again shall all Hindustan be ripe for
revolt?... _Aho!_ Thou wouldst have sweet patience in the waiting,
Salig Singh!... Let matters rest as they be, my lord"--this a trace
imperiously. "Leave the man to me: I stand sponsor for him until the
Gateway shall have received him and--and perhaps for a little
afterwards."
"Thou art right as ever." He lifted his gaze to meet hers and his eyes
flamed. "I leave my life on your knees, Naraini. I love thee and ... by
all the gods, thou art altogether a woman!"
"And thou ... a man, your Highness?" she countered provokingly. "Nay!"
she continued, evading him with a supple squirm, "be content until this
affair be consummated. Wait until the time when an empress shall reign
over all Bharuta and thou, my lord, shall be her Minister of State."
The man's voice shook. "That hour is not far off, my queen. Thou wilt
not keep me waiting longer?"
She gave him the quick promise of her eyes. "Thou shouldst know--thou
of all men, my lord.... But see!" It was necessary to distract him and
she seized hastily upon the first pretext. "The last day of the old
order dawns ... and the dawn is crimson, my lord, as with blood!" Her
soft scarlet lips curled thirstily and showed her teeth, small, sharp
and white as pearls. "I think," she added with somber conviction, "this
omen is propitious!"
She swept away from him, toward the parapet. He took a single step in
pursuit and halted, following her with a glance that was at once a
caress and a threat.
She paused only when she could go no further, and stood in silent
waiting.
Deep down in the valley the city was stirring from its sleep; the dull
and peaceful humming of its hived hordes rose to her, pulsating in the
still air. Above the eastern ridge the sky was hot and angry, banded
with magenta, scarlet, and cadmium, and shot with expanding shafts of
fierce radiance, like ribs of a fan of fire. In a long and breathless
instant of suspense the hilltops blushed with the glare and threw down
the light to the night mists swimming in the valley, rendering them
opalescent, as with a heart of flame.
With eyes half-veiled by long languorous lashes the woman threw back
her head until her swelling throat was tense. She raised her arms and
stretched them wide. The sun, soaring suddenly, a crimson disk above
the ridge, seemed to strike fire from her strange, savage beauty as
from a jewel. Bathed in its ruddy glare she seemed to embody in her
frail, slight form all that was singular to that cruel, passionate land
of fire and steel. Her face became suffused, her blood leaping in
response to the ardour of the sun.
Her parted lips moved, but the man, who had drawn near enough to hear,
caught two words only.
"_Naraini!... Empress!_"