woman threw herselfupon the half-open door of the hut and crashed it to, swinging thegreat bar into place.
"You shall not go!" she said, in a gasping whisper. "You shall not goout there to be slain!"
"Out of my way!" cried Zuan, sword in hand. "Out of my way, or byHeaven I'll run you through! Would you have me skulk here while my menare fighting? Get out of my way!" He ran at her and caught her by thearm, swinging her aside from the door, but the woman was back again,on hands and knees, before he could recover his balance. She caughthim about the knees with her arms, and she was as strong as a younganimal and as lithe. He could not move.
He raised the Venetian dagger which he held in his left hand. His eyeswere on fire.
"Once more," said he, "will you stand out of my way and let me go?"Outside, in the night, the cries and clash of arms clamored on, andthat barbaric chant, broken sometimes, sometimes swelling loud andtriumphant, rang over all.
"You shall not go through this door!" gasped the woman, clinging fastto young Zuan's knees. "They are four to one out there. They wouldkill you the moment you stepped beyond the door."
Strategy came to her, and she shot out a bare arm towards the singlewindow.
"Go by the window!" she cried. "It opens upon a thicket. They will notsee you there." She loosed him and he sprang for the window, swingingaway the bar and pushing open the heavy wooden shutters.
The woman was upon his heels as he leaped into the night, but he didnot know or care. Through the tangle of shrubbery and vine in which hefound himself he could see the battle raging in the clear space of thebeach beyond, and towards it he fought his way. A heavy creeper laidhold upon his ankles, and, cursing savagely, he slashed at it withhis sword. A little rise of ground was before him. He mounted it in asingle leap, and from its crest leaped again.
Then he fell a long way, crashing first through the mask of thicketwhich covered a narrow ravine, striking thence upon the earth of thefarther side and rolling down that. Once or twice he threw out hishands to catch himself, but as he slipped and fell again his headstruck upon something hard--a stone, probably--and that was the last heknew.
II
The Woman of Abomination
When young Zuan Gradenigo came once more to his senses after the fallin the dark, it was like a peaceful awakening from sweet sleep. Indeed,literally it was just that, for from the unconsciousness following uponthe injury to his head he had drifted easily into slumber, so that whenhe waked he had, by way of souvenir of his mishap, scarcely even aheadache.
That his eyes opened upon blue sky instead of upon painted or carvedceiling roused in him no astonishment. In service against the Turksand against the Genoese he had often slept in the open, waking whenthe morning light became strong enough to force its way throughhis eyelids. He lay awhile, conscious of great comfort and bodilywell-being, coming slowly and lazily into full possession of hisfaculties. The air was fresh and warm, with a scent of thyme in it,and from somewhere in the near distance sea-birds mewed plaintively,after their kind. He dropped his eyes from the pale-blue sky and sawthat though he lay upon turf--a hill it would seem, or the crest ofa cliff--there was a stretch of tranquil sea before him, a narrowstretch, and beyond this a mountain range looming sheer and barrenfrom the water's edge. The sun must be rising behind it, he said tohimself, for the tips of the serrated peaks glowed golden, momentarilybrighter, so that it hurt his eyes to watch them. He wondered whatmountains these could be, and then, all in a flash, it came upon himwhere he was--that this was Arbe, and that ridge the Velebic mountainsof the main-land.
"HE LAY AWHILE CONSCIOUS OF GREAT COMFORT"]
His mind raced swiftly back to the preceding evening--to the scenein the fisherman's hut, to his dash through the window in an attemptto join his fighting-men, and--there he stopped. He had a confusedrecollection of falling in the dark, falling a long way, but he was notfully awake yet, and the effort to remember tired him. He turned uponhis side--he had been lying on his back, with his head pillowed uponsomething soft and comfortable--and, childlike, put up an open handunder his cheek. But when his hand touched that upon which his head hadbeen resting he cried out suddenly and struggled forthright to his feet.
The woman who had saved his life half knelt, half sat behind him, andupon her knees his head had lain. At this moment she was leaning backa little, with her head and shoulders against a small tree which stoodthere, and her eyes were closed as if she were asleep.
Young Zuan saw that she was very white, and that her closed eyelidswere blue and had blue circles under them. The lids stirred after amoment and she opened her eyes--blank and wondering at first, a child'seyes, then swiftly intelligent.
"Lord!" she said, in a whisper, looking up to him--"lord, I musthave--slept! I did not know. I am sorry--lord." She sat forward againand made as though she would rise to her feet, but with the firsteffort a spasm of agony went over her white face, and she gave a littlescream and fell forward, prone, and so fainted quite away.
For a moment young Zuan did not understand. Then, as comprehension cameto him, he dropped upon his knees beside the woman with an exclamationof pity.
"The child has come near to killing herself that I might sleep!" hecried. Then, before she should wake to further pain, he set skilfullyto work. He straightened the bent and cramped knees and, with hisstrong hands, rubbed and chafed the stiffened muscles. They were coldas stone, he found, save where his head had lain; all feeling must longsince have gone out of them. Then at last, just as he had the bloodonce more flowing redly under the skin, the woman stirred, moving herhands on the turf beside her, and presently came to her senses.
Her eyes opened--they were not black, as he had thought the nightbefore, but curiously dark blue, almost purple--and she looked up intoyoung Zuan's face as he knelt above her.
"I would not--have you think me, lord--a weakling," she said,whispering. "It was a--moment's pain. My knees were a little cramped.Will you forgive me, lord?"
"Forgive you?" said he. "You have saved my life. Whether that was worththe saving or not I do not know, but you have saved it, and you haveborne great suffering that I might sleep in comfort. Forgive you?"
She lay quite still on the turf, looking up at him, and the old,paralyzing weakness began to creep upon Zuan's limbs, the old, strangeshaking came to his heart.
"I would do it, lord," said she, "many, many times over for yoursake." A warm flush spread up into her throat and over her cheeks.
"I do not understand," said Zuan, stammering, and dully he thought howbeautiful she was, lying there still before him, how young and slenderand exquisite, this woman of abomination. "We are enemies," said he,"the bitterest of enemies. I came here to cleanse Arbe of you, to setyour head on a spear before the count's castle for men to revile andspit upon."
"Yes, lord," said the woman of abomination, whispering, and that rosyflush died away from cheeks and neck, leaving her pale again.
"Last night," said he, "you had me in your power. Your men could havetaken me alive or slain me very easily. Yet you would not let me facethem. Even when I threatened to kill you you would not stand out of myway."
"You had had me in _your_ power first, lord," said she. "But you werekind to me. You saved me from great shame, and covered me with yourcloak."
"That was nothing," said young Zuan. "I did not know that you were theprincess Yaga. But you knew that I was leader of the force which hadcome to recover Arbe from you. Why did you save me, princess? Why areyou here with me now in hiding? Why are you not in the castle where youshould be?"
The flush came again, and for the first time her eyes fell away fromhis with a sort of timidity.
"I could not--leave you, lord," she said, whispering again. "I couldnot see you hurt or slain or a prisoner. And then when, throughaccident, you lay hurt, after all, I could not leave you so."
"But why? Why?" he persisted, staring down upon her with troubledeyes. "Arbe was in the hollow of your hand! You are the head of thosebarbarians who hold the city. Yet you desert
them to succor me. Why?"
"If you cannot see, lord," she said, hiding her face with her hands,"then I cannot tell you."
Young Zuan gave a sudden cry.
"O God of Miracles!" said he, under his breath. His heart was racingvery madly and the veins at his temples throbbed until he thought thatthey must burst.
He put out faltering hands and took the woman's hands from her face.
"What is it," he said, "that--has come to me to rob me of strength andthought when I am near you? What is it that came to me last night whenyou first crept into the fisherman's hut and I saw your eyes?"
"Lord," she said, very low, "I think it is love."
Her hands slipped from between his lax palms, and young Zuan got to hisfeet blindly and moved a few paces away. He put his arms up againstthe trunk of a tree and laid his face upon them. Through the whirl ofthings which beset him he had a dull consciousness that his cherishedworld--all his sane, ordered life, his duty, his ambitions, his prideof race--was slipping from him, receding into a misty background,leaving him face to face with something that was immeasurably,unthinkably great--something for which he had been begotten andborn--something which drew him towards itself with a might that no punystrength of his could combat.
He turned, still blindly, and the woman of abomination, slim, girlish,virginal, with burning eyes, stood before him, her hands at her breast.
"Lord, I think it is--love," she said again.
"And _you_," said Zuan--"_you_ what--_you are_!" But it was not reallyhe who said that. It was a last faint protest from the man he once hadbeen.
"Does that matter?" she pleaded, in an agony, her hands going out tohim.
Young Zuan took a great breath. "God knows it should matter!" hegroaned, "but I cannot make it weigh with me. Your spell is over myheart and soul, and I am sick for helpless love of you. When you touchme I tremble. When I see your eyes the world drops from me and I rideupon the stars breathless in some strange ecstasy. I have drunk madnessbefore you and I am mad. No! It does not matter to me that you are whatyou are--the woman of abomination. I love you. You and I are boundtogether with chains. We cannot live apart."
Then for a time an odd little awkward silence fell upon them. Once Zuanput out his arms towards the woman as if he would take her into them,but as if moved by a sudden panic at what she had roused she shrankback, crying something under her breath that sounded like, "No, no!"And presently he moved past her a few steps down the slope of turf onwhich they stood, and straightway found himself at the brink of thewestward cliff which rose from the water's edge. He knew where theywere--some three or four miles north of the city and on the oppositeside of the narrow island to where the fight of the night before hadtaken place.
"Will you tell me," he said at last, turning--it was a certain reliefto break the strain they had been under--"will you tell me how we camehere? We are a long way from the fisherman's hut and the cove where mygalley lay."
"A lad helped me with you, lord," she said--"a vine-grower's lad whom Ibefriended two days ago. When you had fallen into the little ravine Ifound you there at its bottom, and at first I--thought you were dead.You lay so still! Then I felt your heart beat and knew you were onlystunned. I tore a strip from my shift and bound your head with it, foryour head was bleeding." Young Zuan raised a hand and for the firsttime discovered that a bandage was wrapped about his brows. "Then Iwaited there with you. I waited for a long time, climbing the bankonce or twice to see how the fight above was waging. Not many of yourmen were killed, I think--ten or twelve perhaps--those who fought asrear-guard while the others were swimming and rowing in skiffs out tothe ship--"
"Then they got away?" cried young Zuan, eagerly. "The galley got safeaway?"
"Yes, lord," she said, "the galley sailed away, and after a time theHuns--_my_ Huns--went away too towards the city. When I came out of theravine at last there was only one man left there--the vine-grower'slad, who had crept from the wood to see the fighting. I called to him,and between us we raised you and brought you here. You fell asleepwithout waking from your swoon."
"They got away!" said young Zuan, staring with wide, bright eyes acrossthe strait to where the Velebic cliffs rose gray and fierce. "They gotaway! They'll meet Il Lupo and the other galleys! They--" A littlerestless movement from the woman made him turn his head quickly, andthe light faded from his eyes.
"That--doesn't matter," he said, in a different tone. "Nothingmatters--now." He watched her for a long time under his brows, bitterlyat first, but she was such as no man could look coldly upon, and shehad saved his life and gone from triumph into hiding with him. As helooked at her, Il Lupo and the galleys dimmed from his mind.
"What," said he at last, very gently, "is to become of you and me?"
"I do not know, lord," she said. "Oh, lord, a woman, when she loves,does not think of such things or care for them. She does not lookahead. A woman, lord, when she loves, has space in her mind and soulfor nothing but love. You--do not know women."
"No," said young Zuan, shaking his head, "I do not know them. That istrue. They--have never come into my way."
"I am glad," she said.
"Princess," said he, after a little silence, "it is true, what men sayof you?"
"Does it matter?" she asked again. "No, lord, it is not true--at leastmuch of it is not. But you have said it did not matter--you have saidso!"
He turned his eyes from the pitifulness of her face.
"It matters," he said, "only in what is to become of us. If it is true,we can never go back to Venice. I must be an outcast from my city andfrom my people."
She crept nearer to him, where they sat on the cliff's edge, nearer, onher knees, looking eagerly into his face.
"And, lord," she said, watching him, "if it is true--sufficientlytrue--would you suffer that for my sake? Would you give up all that togo with me?"
"How could I do otherwise?" said young Zuan, simply, and at thatthe woman broke into a little sobbing laugh of joy and triumph andtenderness.
"Oh, lord!" she cried, "that were love indeed! Oh, lord, I did not knowthat there were men so faithful and so good.
"And yet," she said, presently, as if in argument with herself--"yetnoble lords of Venice and of Genoa and of Naples and of many Italiancities have married queens and princesses no better than the PrincessYaga."
"It is not that only," said young Zuan. "There are many evil women inhigh places--fawned before, bowed down to--in Italy; but you have doneone very terrible and shameful thing, princess, which alone must makeyou hated in Venice forever, and must make marriage between you and meimpossible there."
"I--do not understand," she said, wondering.
"You or your brigands," he said, "carried off from Ragusa NataliaVolutich. I was to have married her."
The woman screamed, dragging herself backward over the turf away fromhim.
"_You--you_," she cried, in a breathless whisper, her hands at hermouth,--"_you_ are--Zuan--Gradenigo?"
"Why--yes!" said he. "I thought you knew."
She stumbled to her feet, staring and sobbing.
"Oh, what have I done? What have I done?" she cried, over and overagain, and she moved still farther away, staring at him as if he were aghost risen against her.
"What have I done?" she whispered. Then all at once she began asobbing, hysterical laugh--a laugh that shook all her slim body, likeweeping, and it seemed that she would never have done with it. Shecovered her face with her hands, leaning against a tree which grew nearby, and the fit of endless laughter swept her like a storm. Young Zuanwatched her under his brows with a sort of gloomy resentment. Women,he had been told by those of experience, were creatures of strange andincomprehensible moods, ruled, like a horse, by divers vagaries and notat all by reason. This mad fit of hysteria was, he took it, thereforeto be endured as patiently as might be, but he had small store ofpatience.
"Oh, lord," said the woman, presently, gasping between her fits oflaughter, tears in her eyes--"lord, there is a thing which I m
ust tellyou--an amazing thing. I do not know whether you will be glad or angryof it. In any case I must tell you at once--"
"Wait!" said Zuan, and held up a hand. "I must know first about thismaid, Natalia Volutich, whom you stole away. What have you done withher, princess?" His tone was very grave and stern.
"The maid Natalia," said she, "has been well treated, lord. She hascome to no harm. If this war had not arisen she would have been sentback safely to her father before now."
"Unharmed?" said Zuan Gradenigo, watching the woman's eyes.
"Unharmed, lord," she said. "A maid, as she came. Indeed"--there seemedto be a glimmer of a smile at the woman's lips--"indeed, I think shehas not been unhappy, this Natalia of Ragusa. I think she has learnedto feel a certain fondness for her mistress. I think she would serveher in any way she could." The smile was a wry smile now. "Even sovile a thing as I, lord," said the woman of abomination, "can be tenderand--faithful. Even so vile a thing as I is sometimes loved. An evilwoman, Messer Zuan, is not all evil. There is something of good in thevery lowest."
"Princess! Princess!" cried the man.
"And now," she said, "I must tell you what
The Island of Enchantment Page 4
