The Induna's Wife

by Bertram Mitford

  CHAPTER SEVEN.

  THE FAITH OF A KING.

  The news of what had been done had already spread fast and far, andbefore I reached Maqandi's kraal a great crowd of the iron-workers hadassembled. These increased more and more, and presently a vast numberof these people had joined in my train, dancing in their joy, andsinging songs of triumph and of praise of myself, who had rid them of atwofold terror--of destruction by this thing of _tagati_, and of perilof wholesale death by the assegai when the patience of the King shouldbecome exhausted. But little attention did I pay to all this, for myallotted time had nearly expired, and it would be all I could do toreach Kwa'zingwenya ere it had quite. So I levied upon Maqandi for alarge body of slaves, and pushed on, travelling night and day, andtaking little or no rest.

  No time even had I to visit my own kraal, which was somewhat off theline of my nearest road. However, I sent messengers there, and swiftrunners to Kwa'zingwenya, that news of my success might reach the Kingas early as possible.

  But as I travelled on swiftly through the night, whose dawn should seeme laying my trophies at the feet of the Great Great One, my mind wastorn by many misgivings, and many an anxious glance did I send upward tothe heavens. _The moon was at the full_.

  Fair and splendid rose the dawn of that day, and as I came in sight ofour Great Place, and of the people flocking thither--for here, too, thenews had spread, and all were eager to hear about what had been done,and, if possible, to behold the actual skin and horns of the great_tagati_ beast--I forgot my fears, and felt proud and light-hearted asever when I had accomplished something great. And thus I stalked intothe great circle, looking neither to right nor left, and seemingly nothearing the murmurs and exclamations of wonder which broke from all whobeheld the immense horned head borne behind me by the slaves.

  "The Great Great One is sleeping, Untuswa," said the commander of thearmed body-guard before the gate of the _isigodhlo_. "His orders arethat none should awaken him."

  "Yet what will he say if such news as I bring be allowed to grow old?How will that be, Ngoza?"

  "_Whau_! I know not, son of Ntelani," was the answer. "But I may notgo behind my orders. There is no safely that way."

  Now I liked not this reply. I noticed, moreover, that the guard beforethe _isigodhlo_ was much larger than usual, and in those days, _Nkose_,anything unusual was likely to foreshadow trouble for somebody.Further, there was a shortness in the tone of the captain of the guardwhich sounded strange as addressed to one of my rank and influence.There was nothing for it, however, but patience, so I sat down to awaitthe pleasure of the Great Great One.

  As I sat there, taking snuff, I ran my eyes over those present, bothnear and far, seemingly with unconcern, but in reality with something ofanxiety. Many of my own followers could I discern among the throng, andtheir women; but among these last was no sign of Lalusini. Yet this didnot disconcert me, for of late my _inkosikazi_ had rather avoided comingovermuch within the notice of the Great Great One.

  Presently an _inceku_ came out and spoke to the captain of the guard.Immediately it was proclaimed that the Great Great One was about toappear; and, preceded by the _izimbonga_, or praisers, bellowing theroyal titles, Umzilikazi came forth and took his seat at the head of thegreat circle, where he was wont to sit each morning and discuss mattersof state, or pronounce judgment on offenders.

  As soon as the prostrate multitude had made an end of shouting the royalpraises I advanced to the King and made my report, leaving out, however,my experience of the witchcraft of Gasitye.

  "Thou hast done well, Untuswa," he said when I had concluded. "Now bidthem bring hither that head."

  This was done--and as Umzilikazi stood up the better to examine it, evenhe murmured in surprise at its gigantic size. And I, gazing upon thething, black and huge, with its glazed eyes and swollen tongue andshaggy frontlet of hair, remembered the horrible and terrifying aspectof those vast, pointed horns, tossing and tearing in the glade of themoonlit forest.

  "_Whau_! It stinks. Let them take it away," said Umzilikazi at length,spitting in disgust, as a swarm of flies came buzzing about his face."And now, Untuswa, this thing will trouble the land no more?"

  "No more, Great Great One."

  "Ha! That is well. And now by virtue of what _muti_ didst thou triumphover this evil thing of witchcraft?"

  "By the virtue of no _muti_ save that of the spear of the King, OElephant," I answered, with a glance backward at where I had depositedthe great assegai, the erewhile royal gift.

  I thought the answer seemed to please him, then not; for his expressionchanged as though reading into my words a hidden meaning.

  "But it has taken long to rid the land of this thing, Untuswa," he said,looking at me with his head bent sideways, and speaking in a soft tone.

  "That is so, Great Great One. But the thing was both crafty andfierce."

  "Yet not alone didst thou slay it, as my conditions were," he went on,pointing at me with his short-handled spear.

  "Alone indeed did I slay it, Serpent of Wisdom," I answered.

  "Now thou liest, son of Ntelani. What of the slaves who were withthee?"

  "They were but bait for the ghost-bull, Divider of the Sun; and bothwere duly slain by it," I replied. But now I knew my feet were standingon slippery ground indeed--for never for a long time past had Umzilikazispoken to me in that tone, and for a longer time still, in the sight andhearing of all men.

  "And what of thy slave, Jambula?" went on the King. "Was he not armed?"

  "No part did he take in slaying the thing, Father of the Wise. His partlay in running away."

  "Yet he was armed, and my condition laid down that no armed force shouldaccompany thee."

  "_Au_! Now I would ask the Great Great One, the leader of the nationsin war, whether one man, and he a slave, constitutes an armed force?" Ireplied, fully aware that whatever was in the King's mind towards me,lack of courage never yet found favour in that mind.

  "Let be, then," he said. "For that question we will let it rest. Butsay then, son of Ntelani--what of the moon? That this thing should beslain before the full of the moon--was not that one of my conditions?Yet the moon has been full these two nights."

  "But the thing was so slain, Black Elephant. Before the moon was full,was it slain."

  "But it should have been brought here by the full of the moon--the head,even as now. Well, well, Untuswa! It is not always possible to carryout conditions in their entirety, is it? Ah, ah! not always possible.Now go home, thou slayer of ghost-bulls, for it may be that I have evenharder conditions awaiting thee than slaying _tagati_ beasts. Go!"

  I saluted and withdrew, and as I did so, the chief of the _izanusi_ cameup and begged to be allowed to have the trophies of the ghost-bull for_muti_ purposes. But Umzilikazi refused shortly, and gave orders thatthey should be prepared and preserved until he had chosen how to disposethem. And I, leaving the presence as commanded, felt sore and heavy atheart, for the King's tone of mockery seemed cold and hostile, and tobear some hidden meaning--one that boded ill to me and mine.

  So concerned was I, trying to think out this matter, that I hardlynoticed how few of my own rank joined me to give me news or talk overwhat had been done, and of my own followers none at all. These lastwould give me greeting from afar, and hurry onward; yet, by what I haddone, I had saved them all from the death of the assegai. But itbehoved me not, as a chief of great rank and influence, to showcuriosity, and so, asking questions of no man, I eventually reached mykraal.

  Then as I entered the gate, looking up towards my principal hut, it cameback to me how I had last beheld Lalusini standing there in the settingsun to see the last of me, on that evening when I set forth on my errandof dread. Why was she not there now, waiting to welcome me? _Hau_! Itseemed to send a chill through my being--a foreboding of all that wasdireful and deathly. Man of mature age and ripe experience as I was,even I could hardly restrain a quickening of the step as I paced acrossthe open circle, return
ing the greetings of those who hailed my return.

  Stooping through the doorway, I entered the hut. It was empty.

  Everything was in its place as I had left it. But--no Lalusini.

  "She has gone about some ordinary business," I thought; "or has come towelcome me in the path, and we have missed." But my sinking heart criedaloud that such thoughts told idle tales.

  Stepping forth, I beckoned a young man standing near.

  "Where is Mgwali?" I inquired.

  He replied that he thought my brother must have tarried at the GreatPlace, for he had seen him there that morning.

  "Where is Ncala-cala?" I then asked.

  He replied that the old man, who was the responsible head of the kraalunder me, had been sent for by the King the day before, and had not yetreturned. I asked him no more questions, but entered the hut of one ofmy other wives.

  I found Nxope and Fumana squatted together on the ground. They greetedme in a manner that struck me as showing great if subdued fear.

  "Where is Lalusini?" I said.

  Then indeed was fear upon their countenances. They looked at each otheras though each expected the other to reply.

  "Where is Lalusini?" I repeated.

  "We know not," said Fumana sullenly.

  Then my patience gave way.

  "Ha! Ye know not! Hear me now, ye witches. I am tired of such as you.Look at this," holding forth the great assegai, from which I neverparted, save when forced to disarm in the presence of the King. "Lookwell at it and bear in mind I do not speak twice. This spear has drunkmuch blood, but never yet the blood of women. Fail to answer my nextquestion and it will begin. Now. Where is Lalusini?"

  "In truth we know not," screamed Nxope.

  I know not how it was, _Nkose_, that in my awful grief and rage thatblade did not shear swiftly through the speaker's heart, even as I hadpromised. I know not how it was, I say, unless it were that somethingabout the woman--some movement, perhaps--reminded me of Lalusini, but myhand seemed arrested in the very act of striking.

  "Ha! One more chance," I said. "Now, quick. Tell me."

  "We will tell you all, lord," yelled Fumana, more quick-witted than theother. "The third night after you left she disappeared. No one saw hergo; nor has she ever returned."

  "Seven nights ago that would be; and she has never returned?"

  "Never, lord."

  "And that is all we know about it," whimpered Nxope, still in fear forher life.

  But she need not have been. My anger against them was past now, for Icould see they had told me all they knew, and that was--nothing.Besides, of them I had no further thought. I sat down on the floor ofthe hut and thought. The third night after I left. Ha! The vision inGasitye's cavern! Had I not seen Lalusini's face among the others--among the faces of the dead--for such were all the others? She, too,had passed into the Great Unknown.

  Now my thoughts at once flew off to the King. I saw his hand in thismatter. Umzilikazi had broken faith with me. He had seized theopportunity of my absence to put my sorceress-wife to death, and thatsecretly and in the dead of night. Ha! I saw it all now. All that hadbeen said that morning connected him with this. Had he not repeatedlytaxed me with not carrying out the conditions of my challenge, so as tojustify his own act of treachery? And then his words, uttered in soft,mocking tones: "Well, well, Untuswa. It is not always possible to carryout conditions in their entirety, is it? Ah, ah! not always possible,"That pointed to some breach on his part of his own conditions. Andagain: "I have even harder conditions awaiting thee than the slaying of_tagati_ beasts." It was all as clear now as the noonday sun. Yet whyshould he thus have tried to excuse what he had done? At a nod fromhim--one word--I had gone to join the others whose faces I had seen, dimand horrible, in the wizard cave. And then I knew that if the son ofMatyobane, founder and first King of the Amandebeli nation, had nevermade a mistake in his life, he had made one when he failed to give thatnod, to utter that word; for, so sure as he had ordered the death ofLalusini, so sure would a new king reign over the Amandebeli, and thatspeedily.

  I have already told you, _Nkose_, that the love which I felt forLalusini was after the manner of the love which white people bear fortheir women; and, indeed, I think but few, even, of them. Now, as I satthere, realising that never again should I behold my stately andbeautiful wife, never again hear the tones of her voice--always softwith love for me--the thoughts that hunted each other through my mindwere many and passing strange. In truth, I was bewitched. All that hadconstituted the joy of living was as nothing now--my rank and influence,my ambitions, the fierce joy of battle, the thunder of the war-march, ofrank upon rank of the splendid warriors I commanded--all this was asnothing. And at this moment there crossed my mind the thought of thatpriest-magician, the white man whom we found offering sacrifice in theforest--of whom I told you in a former story--and who dwelt with uslong. I thought of his teaching and his mysteries, and of the God ofPeace of whom he taught, and how that, if he were here now, I wouldgladly put myself through his strange water-rite, and participate in hismysterious sacrifices, so that I might once more be reunited to Lalusiniin another world; for such seemed to me to have been his teaching--atleast, so as I remembered it. But he, too, was dead; and, though Imight sacrifice oxen at his grave, I doubted whether his voice even thenwould tell me what to do, for I remembered he liked not such sacrifices.Besides, he had always taught that it was not lawful to kill any man,save in defence of our lives or nation; and if there was one thing asfirmly rooted in my mind then, _Nkose_, as the Intaba Zungweni yonder isrooted to the plain, it was that the son of Matyobane should himselftravel the road of death. I cared not what fate should be minetherefor; nor, indeed, that my whole kraal--wives, children, relatives,followers--should die the death of the spear or the stake; I myselfwould slay the King with my own hand. And then it seemed that waves ofblood were rolling red around my brain. I saw myself King--I saw allthose of Umzilikazi's House led forth to die--I saw the surface of thePool of Death scarlet with the blood of all who, in the farthest degree,boasted a single drop of the blood of Matyobane, till even thealligators, surfeited, refused to devour any more. _Haul_ I would slay._Haul_ I would invent new tortures for every man, woman, and child ofthe now reigning House; I would execute such a vengeance that the taleof it should be handed down as long as the tongue of the Zulu was spokenin the world.

  I know not, _Nkose_, what change this cloud of blood and flame rollingaround my brain must have produced in my countenance, but I awoke frommy thoughts to find Nxope and Fumana staring at me as though at a thingof horror. Their eyes were starting from their heads, their mouths wereopen, they seemed turned to stone, as though they were staring into thevery jaws of the most terrible form of death. Then I remembered. If Iwould render my vengeance complete, I must be wary; silent and crafty asthe leopard when marking down his prey. The strength of the warrior,the craft of the councillor, the coolness and self-control of both--suchmust be the role of every moment, waking or sleeping, of life.

  "I think I have travelled too fast and too far, and am tired," I said inan ordinary and even tone; yet, even as it was, so frightened were thosetwo women that they half leapt at the sound of it. "You two," pointingat them with my spear, "attend now. It is not good to talk too much.The tongue that wags too much must be cut out with this"--fingering theedge of the blade--"or the throat is less trouble to cut. Bear that inmind, for I know not how ye escaped with your lives but a short whileago."

  They were quick in their declarations of silence and careful utterance,and I knew I had sufficiently frightened them. And thus I left them.