Allan and the Ice Gods (38 page)

cave.”

So, Wi leading them, they climbed out of the bay in the mountain side

up on to the steep cliff of tumbled ice that had flowed down the

valley, filling it from side to side, purposing to return to the

village. But when they reached its crest and looked toward where the

beach should be and the huts of the people, they sank down, amazed and

terrified. For, behold! no beach was left. Behold! the ice gathered

upon the smaller hills behind the village also had flowed down over it

into the sea, so that where the dwelling places of the people had been

now there was nothing but a rough slope of tumbled ice washed up by

the waves of the troubled sea. The tribe that had dwelt upon this

beach for ages was gone, and with it its habitations, that now lay

buried forever, swept from the face of the world.

Aaka, leaning upon Wi, studied all things in the cold moonlight. Then

she said:

“The curse brought by that fair witch of yours has worked well,

Husband; so well that I wonder what remains for her to do.”

“After all that has passed, Wife, such words seem to me to be evil,”

answered Wi. “The people who called upon the Ice-dwellers, where are

they? Surely they have become dwellers in the ice. Yet I who learned

another lesson from her whom you reproach, I who thought by this time

to be a sacrifice, remain alive, and with me all my House. Is this,

then, a time for bitter words, Wife?”

Then Pag spoke, saying:

“As you well know, Wi, never did I put faith in the Ice-gods because

our people have made sacrifice to them and have danced before them for

a thousand years, and now I believe in them less than ever, seeing

that those who worshipped them are swept away, and those who rejected

them live on. The People have gone; not one of them remains alive

except this little company, a handful out of hundreds. They have gone;

they lie buried in the ice, as thousands of years ago the great

Sleeper that fell on N’gae and crushed him, and he who hunted it or by

it was hunted, were buried. There they lie who perchance in their turn

will become gods in a day to come, and be worshipped by the fools that

follow after us. Yet we still breathe, and all the rest being dead,

how shall we save ourselves? The children who were born of the

marriage of those Ice-gods have eaten up our homes; the beach is no

more. Nothing remains. Whither then shall we go who, if we stay here

upon the ice, very soon must perish?”

Wi covered his eyes with his hands and made no answer, for he was

broken-hearted.

Then, for the first time, spoke Laleela, who hitherto had been silent,

saying nothing at all, even when Wi offered himself as the sacrifice:

“Be pleased to hear me,” she said. “As the moonlight shows you, the

ice has flowed down over the beach and the huts and the woods beyond.

Yet, on the farther side of the ridge that bounds the valley of the

gods and the little hills beyond, it has not flowed; for there the ice

sheet is flat beneath the snow and cannot stir of its own weight.

Yonder to the east there is a little cave, that in which the boat lies

that brought me to this land, and there I have hidden food. If it

pleases you, let us go to that cave and shelter there.”

“Aye, let us go to the cave, for if we stay here upon the ice we shall

perish,” said Pag.

So climbing round the foot of the mountain and the hills beyond they

came at length to the open beach where lay some snow but no ice, and

walked by the edge of the sea to the little cave.

Pag and Moananga, going first, reached it before the others. Pag,

peering in, started back, for he saw large eyes looking at him out of

its darkness.

“Have a care,” he called to Moananga. “Here are bears or wolves.”

The sound of his voice frightened the beasts in the cave, and moving

slowly, these came out on to the beach, whereon they saw that they

were not bears or wolves, but two seals, a large cow and her half-grown cub, that had refuged there perhaps because they were frightened

by the sound of the glaciers rushing into the sea. They leapt upon the

clumsy beasts and before these could escape, killed them with their

axes.

“Here at least is meat enough to last us for a long while,” said Pag,

when the seals were dead. “Now let us skin them before they freeze.”

So, helped by Foh, they set to the task and well-nigh finished it by

moonlight before Wi came up with the women. For Tana was so frightened

by the horrors she had seen that Aaka and Laleela must support her,

and thus they could only walk slowly through the snow.

Then, having searched the cave and made sure that now it was empty,

they entered it and lit a fire round which they crouched to warm

themselves, silent and full of terrors.

Before the coming of the dawn, Wi left the cave and climbed a little

hill behind it that was built up of ancient ice-borne rocks and drift

in which this hollowed cavern lay. This he did because he wished to

look at the land and the sea when the light came; also to be alone and

think. Yet he found that he was not alone, for kneeling behind one of

the rocks was Laleela, praying, with her face turned toward the

sinking moon. When she saw who it was that came, she did not stir but

went on praying, and kneeling at her side he prayed with her, for now

they had one worship, though neither of them altogether understood who

or what they worshipped.

Their prayers finished, they spoke together.

“Strange things have happened, Laleela,” said Wi, “and my heart is

pierced because of the people who are dead. I would have offered

myself as a sacrifice, if they sought it, knowing they believed that

thereby a curse would have been taken from them and that what is

believed often comes to pass. Yet I live on and they are slain—every

one of them—and I say that my heart is broken,” and for the first

time since Fo-a was murdered, Wi bowed his head and wept.

Laleela took his hand and comforted him, wiping away his tears with

her hair. Then she said in her gentle voice:

“Things have come about as they were decreed, and those who sought

blood have died in blood, crushed to powder by the gods they

worshipped, whether by chance or by the will of That which dwells

yonder, I do not know or seek to learn. Only, Wi, you do ill to wish

to slay yourself or suffer yourself to be slain, and,” she added with

a thrill of fear in her voice, “who can be sure that what has been

offered to Heaven, Heaven will not take at its own time?”

“Not I,” answered Wi. “Yet, Laleela, what would you have had me do? If

I had refused any sacrifice to those mad folk, they would have done

what they swore and murdered Aaka and Foh and you, all three.

Therefore, a blood offering must be furnished out of my household and

would you have had me name one of you and myself remain alive?”

“I brought the trouble, Wi; surely I should have paid its price.

Indeed, I would have given myself up to them who hated me and sought

my blood, not yours, had not a voice speaking in my breast told me

that in some way you would be spared. Also, at the last, I felt that a

terror was at hand, though what it might be I did not know.”

“So, I think, did all of us, Laleela, for last night the air was big

with death. But you do not answer. What would you have thought of me

when the spear was at your throat, had I said, ‘Take yonder Laleela

whom you declare a witch. Offer her to your gods and be content!’”

“I should have thought you a wiser man than you are, Wi,” she said,

smiling sadly. “Yet, believe me, I thank you who are noble, nor,

should I live ten thousand years, shall I forget. No, never, never

shall I forget.”

“If you live ten thousand years, Laleela, perhaps I shall also—where

there is less trouble.”

“I am sure that it will be so,” she replied simply.

The dawn came, and, standing side by side in silence, they watched it

come. It was a strange and splendid dawn, full of red light which

shone upon the little clouds that floated in the quiet sky and turned

them to shapes of glory. Yes, it was as though Nature, having done her

worst, now lay resting in perfect peace. But, oh! what a sight was

revealed to them. Where the village had been was ice piled so high

that they could see its tumbled mass and pinnacles over the shoulder

of the hill between. The great woods also, where Wi had killed the

aurochs bull, that swelled upward from the beach westward, had

vanished beneath the flood of ice which flowed down upon them from the

mountains that lay behind, which now showed black, robbed of their

white cloak. In front, too, far as the eye could reach, the sea was

covered with a sheet of solid ice, so pressed together by the weight

of the glaciers that had plunged into it from the hills and the valley

of the gods, that it seemed quite smooth and immovable as rock, being

held in place by the headland round which the Red Wanderers had come

in their canoes. All the white world was a desolation and a waste.

“What has chanced?” said Wi, staring about him. “Is the world about to

end?”

“I think not,” answered Laleela. “I think that the ice is moving

south, that is all, and that where men lived, there they can live no

more—neither they nor the beasts.”

“Then we must perish, Laleela.”

“Why so? My boat remains and a store of food, and I think it will hold

us all.”

“Your boat cannot float upon ice, Laleela.”

“Nay, but being hollowed from one tree it is very thick and strong, so

that we can push it before us until at length we come to open water,

over which we can row away.”

“Where to, Laleela?”

“Down yonder to the south, across a stretch of sea that lies beyond

that headland, is the home of my people, Wi. It lies in a very

pleasant land, full of woods and rivers where I think the ice will not

reach, because that sea which borders it, even in winter, is always

warm. Indeed, sometimes ice mountains from the north float into it,

for I have seen them from far away, but there at once they melt. My

people are not as your people, Wi, for they have tamed creatures like

to the bull you slew, and others, from which they draw milk and on

whose flesh they feed. Also they are a peaceful folk who, for a long

while past, have waged no war and live quietly till death takes them.”

“Yet you fled away from these people, Laleela.”

“Yes, Wi, and now I understand why I fled, but let that be. Also,

although I fled, I think that, should I return, they would welcome me

who am a great woman among them, and any whom I brought with me.

Still, the way is far, and yonder ice is rough and cold, and who

knows? Perchance it would be better to bide here.”

“That we cannot do,” answered Wi. “Look, all the shore is ice, and all

the woods are ice, and all the sea whence we won the most of our food

is ice, while behind us is nothing but a wilderness of black rock upon

which nothing grows, as I am sure who in past days have hunted the

reindeer across it. Also to the east yonder is a wall of mountains

that we cannot climb, for they are steep and on them the snow lies

thick. Still, let us talk with the others.”

So they descended the hillock of piled-up stones, and at the mouth of

the little cave found Aaka standing there like one who waits.

“Are your prayers to the new god finished, Wi?” she asked. “If so, I

would learn whether its priestess gives us leave to eat of the food

which she has stored here, while so many who now are dead were

starving.”

Hearing these words, Wi bit upon his lip, but Laleela answered:

“Aaka, all in this place is yours, not mine. Yet of that food, know

that I saved it out of what was served out to me, for a certain

purpose; namely, to store in my boat when I fled away from where I was

not welcome.”

Now, Pag, who was standing by, grinned, but Wi said only:

“Have done and let us eat.”

So they ate who had tasted nothing since noon on the yesterday, and

when they had filled themselves after a fashion, Wi spoke to them,

saying:

“The home of our forefathers is destroyed, and with it all the people,

of whom we alone are left. Yes, the ice that has piled itself above us

for many years has broken its bounds and, rushing to the sea, has

buried them, as I for one who marked its course from winter to winter,

always thought that it would do one day. Now what is left to us? We

cannot stay here; there is no food. Moreover, doubtless, driven by the

ice, wolves and great bears will come down from the north and devour

us. Therefore, this is my word: That we fly south over the ice,

dragging the boat of Laleela with us till we reach open water, and

then travel across that water to find some warmer land where the ice

has not come.”

“You are our master,” said Aaka, “and when you command, we must obey.

Yet I hold that the journey we make in Laleela’s boat will end in

evil, for us if not for her.”

Then Pag spoke, saying: