Swords From the East (27 page)

What was Prester John doing? No one outside the castle knew.

"One other thing have I learned," said the Tiger. "This morning a woman captive was led through Tangut under escort of some officers of Jamuka's guard, passing through the sentries and into the castle. Those who saw her relate that she is dark of skin and beautiful as twilight itself or the stars at evening, but that she railed at her guards, and maneuvered her horse so that one, a fat Turk, fell into the lake from the plaza."

Mingan smiled, the description fitting Burta well. But for once the gay Chepe Noyon had no mind for mirth. On his knees near the wall of the serai he prayed, the palms of his hands pressed together, the ebony cross placed on a stone before his eyes-prayed to his God, Jehovah, to deliver the girl Burta safe from harm, and his people from the sword of the Mongols.

Aware of the Tiger's loyalty to Genghis Khan, Mingan wondered how Chepe Noyon could hope to see all of his wishes fulfilled. But then, reflected, they were in the domain of a magician.

VIII

The Magi

"Who are ye to attempt the forbidden? Nay, by Allah, stand back! It was said to us that this should not be, and on our heads is the care of the black stair! Dogs! Caph ars -unbelievers, children of evil impulses-stand back!"

The company of Jelairs had been forced to line up on the lowest steps of the granite stairway leading up to the castle, because as soon as dawn lightened the sky the women and children of Tangut thronged to the plaza at the head of the lake as if by a common impulse. They pressed against the archers, pleading with outstretched hands for word to be sent up to Prester John in the castle of the peril that was closing in on them.

"King John!" they cried. "Let the anointed of God comfort us! Let us see his face that has been hidden from us for years-let us see his armor and his sword that we may be comforted."

The archers drew their short falchions and thrust back the people vigorously, using the hilt at first, then the flat of the blades. A Kerait captain remonstrated with the Jelairs when more than one of their blows drew blood from the women, asking if word of the latest tidings had been sent up to the castle, and offering to go himself to see that this were done.

"Is not Jainuka Khan the leader of your army?" retorted the archers. "Does he not wear the bear's head? It was his command that no one be admitted to the stair until he came. Stand back!"

Mingan, standing near the edge of the lake within ear-shot of the plaza, caught Chepe Noyon by the arm.

"Did I not say there was treachery and trickery to be dealt with?" he whispered. "We must lose no time in gaining the castle. If you make known your name, would the Keraits support you in an attempt to overthrow these Jelairs?"

By way of answer Chepe Noyon shook his head and pointed to the throngs in the streets facing the plaza. Most of the armed men were Turkish tribesmen; the Christians of Tangut had been sent out to meet Jamuka. The older citizens were without arms; in fact they seemed to be a peaceable folk. When all efforts to penetrate the line of archers failed, they drew back and fell to gazing up at the castle and talking among themselves.

The Christians were taller than the average of the desert tribesmen, and lighter of skin.

Mingan looked up at the tiers of white houses set in green gardens-a fair city, mistress of sunshine and fertile fields. The water of the blue lake was fresh and clear. The sky overhead was smiling-white flecks of clouds passing over the forested summits of the hills. But on either hand the heights fell away when they reached the end of the valley, so that the hill of the castle was in reality a separate mountain and the only feasible ascent was by the stair.

"Then will we play a trick," observed the Cathayan. "Come!"

He turned back to the serai, the Tiger following, and led out the ponies without saddling them. Making sure that no one from the streets of the city was watching, he crossed the road and sought the stream by the bridge. There he urged his pony into the water until the animal was dripping from head to tail; Chepe Noyon did likewise. Once out of the water the ponies were permitted to roll in the dust by the road, whereupon Mingan sprang to the back of his animal and forced it into a gallop. The Tiger followed, and the dog Mukuli brought up the rear, barking.

They swept past the serai and up into the streets where Mingan continued to flog his horse with the whip.

"Way for the messengers from the north!" he cried as he encountered the throng by the lake.

People turned to look, and a lane was opened to the steps of the plaza. Here the two riders dismounted and hurried to the line of archers where the captain of the company barred their way insolently.

"What tidings bring you?" he demanded.

"Our word is for the castle," said Mingan curtly. "Will you halt a courier from Jamuka Khan, and taste the bastinado?"

The leader of the archers scowled, glanced at the wet and dusty ponies, at the bedraggled attire of the two strangers, and fingering his beard, said: "Scant time have you had to ride to Tangut from battle. I am in command of the Jelairs in the city. Speak therefore to me, but softly, so that these dogs shall not hear."

Chepe Noyon thrust forward, having heard one or two of the watchers in the throng saying dubiously that the two riders had been seen about the serail the last evening. But the Turk had no ears for the townspeople after the Tiger spoke a few words.

"Fool and son of a fool! We come from Jamuka, not from the army." He took his cue from Mingan and lowered his voice. "We have orders for those who guard Jamuka's woman within the castle-she who was taken from the Gipsy camp and brought hither for the khan himself."

The captain's face changed. He had heard of Burta and knew that this was a matter where meddling might lose him his head.

"A token?" he grumbled. "Surely you were given a token, minstrel."

Chepe Noyon nodded and drew from his wallet the gold tablet given him by Genghis Khan. The Turk made a pretense of reading the Mongol script that was strange to his eyes, but the sheen and heft of the gold spoke volumes. He returned it with a bow and ordered his men to make passage for the messengers.

"But, good sir," he added thoughtfully, "take heed of the watchers at the gate of the castle, for they are not as polite as I."

He turned to beat back some young girls who would have run to the steps after Mingan and Chepe Noyon.

The dog Mukuli, however, writhed and scampered through the array of the archers' legs and made after his master. Thousands of eyes watched the two strangers ascend the stair to the first turn, where they were lost to sight behind the screen of the forest.

For a thousand feet the granite steps led up, zig-zagging across the face of the hill where the ascent was steep, so that the two orkhons were unable to glimpse the castle even when they had climbed to the level of the sides of the valley. But presently they came to a landing of black marble, guarded on either hand by a jade lion, one clutching a shepherd's crook, the other a cross.

From here the stair ran up almost sheer, and Mingan saw at its summit the dark line of the castle wall. Against the wall a figure moved and the sun glinted upon an object that darted down, whistling past his head. A javelin, hurled from above, splintered to fragments on the marble.

Chepe Noyon held up his hand with a warning cry.

"A truce. We are-"

He leaped aside just in time to escape being impaled by a second dart and threw himself over the railing of the stair into the brush. Mingan followed him. Another missile hurtled through the growth over their heads, and they crawled, perforce, into the shelter of the nearest fig trees that screened them effectively.

"Now, by the horses of ," swore the Tiger, "that was a wanton act! "

Manifestly, they could not ascend the last, almost vertical flight of the black stair in the face of such opposition. Nor would it be feasible to descend for help to the archers of the plaza. By now the men-at-arms would have had time to talk things over with the townspeople who had seen them the evening before, and would know that they had not arrived in Tangut that evening as they claimed.

"We will climb through the forest growth," decided Mingan, "and have a look at these custodians of the gate."

It was not easy. The hillside here was almost a precipice and often they were obliged to help each other up over rock ridges and to crawl upon masses of boulders beset by thorns. The earth mold under the stunted trees that clung to the slope was treacherous, and more than once they slid back, starting a miniature avalanche of stones down the heights. Thereafter they circled such danger spots and braced themselves against the boles of the trees.

By necessity, they gave the watchers at the gate a good inkling of what they were about, and when-Mukuli being ordered to sit passive behind them-they crawled into the network of juniper and flowering jasmine at the summit, they beheld two men armed each with a sheaf of javelins standing at the gate of the wall that opened out upon a small landing at the stairhead. And all thought of overtures vanished.

The two guards were negroes, massive of build, wearing the broad turbans of the southern Turks. Moreover, after watching for awhile, Mingan was satisfied that they were mutes. Although he and the Tiger lay passive until they ached, the guards did not cease to peer in their direction. Signing to his companion, he crawled back cautiously to where the dog awaited them, out of sight of the gate.

"They are Jamuka's men," snarled Chepe Noyon, little pleased with the part he was compelled to play. "Has Jamuka made a captive of the king of the Keraits? If we had between us a weapon-"

"We have not," Mingan pointed out.

"If we may not enter the gate, we must climb the wall if we are to have an audience with this king."

With a nod of assent the Tiger led the way to the base of the wall and began to circle it, heading away from the entrance. Here there were no tall trees, and passage through the brush was difficult. The wall was some fifteen feet, and at no place did they come upon an opening or postern door. So at length the Tiger halted, to rub at the scars left on his face and hands by the brambles, and to stare up hopelessly at a clump of slender birches. Spanning the space to the wall, although growing within a dozen feet of it, they offered no convenient limb to the pair.

"This is a river I cannot cross," he muttered. "See, the sun is near its zenith and we are no closer to the castle. Nay, stare not at that wand of a tree. We have no ax to fell it, to make it serve as a ladder."

"Nevertheless, it will serve us."

Mingan surveyed the clump of birches and selected one of the largest-one that tapered up some thirty feet and leaned a little toward the wall.

"But it will not help us back, once we are over. If you are not afraid-"

"Act," grunted Chepe Noyon.

So Mingan began to climb, pulling himself up the bole, rather than trusting to the slender branches of the white birch. For some distance the tree was large enough to support his weight without bending. As he worked higher it commenced to teeter. Mingan paused, gathered himself together, and went swiftly up the tapering stem-clutched it as high as he could reach, and, as it bent, swung his feet clear.

The tip of the birch swung down with a rush, bearing Mingan with it, and as it leaned toward the wall, descended in that direction. There was a rustle of leaves, a crackling of wood, and Chepe Noyon watched him disappear over the wall, releasing his hold as he did so.

The birch whipped back, although now it leaned more toward the wall. Chepe Noyon lost no time in following his companion's example; but he took Mukuli under one arm, and, encumbered by the dog, descended heavily on the wall, let go the birch-tip, and rolled off. Mingan, standing in the soft earth underneath, held out his arms instinctively, and the two men, the dog, and the lute thumped on the ground in a heap.

Mukuli began to growl at once, and Chepe Noyon rolled off Mingan, propped himself up on an elbow, gulped air back into his lungs, and froze into immobility. Mingan started to rise, and thought better of it.

A spear's length away crouched a full-grown leopard, its tawny eyes malevolent, its tail twitching.

Mukuli, between the two men, bristled defiance, and the more the dog growled the louder the leopard snarled.

Slowly Chepe Noyon reached out and took up the lute, the only available weapon, and more slowly he rose to his feet. The leopard ceased to breathe defiance at the dog and centered its attention on the man.

"A wise man," observed Mingan, "will strike the strings of a lute before he hits out with the butt."

Chepe Noyon considered the crouching animal and decided that it was more startled than angry. They could not, however, go forward without arriving at a better understanding with this four-footed guardian of the wall. Smiling skeptically, he placed the cord of the hand-violin over his neck and ran his fingers over the strings. Whereat the leopard gave a hideous snarl.

"He likes not the instrument, perhaps the voice is more pleasing," commented Mingan judiciously.

And the Tiger began to sing in his pleasant, guttural voice, an ode of the land of the Tang. They saw that now the great cat had relaxed its muscles. It stood up, drawing its claws back into sheaths. And then out from the cypresses that hemmed them in walked a small bear, limping with one leg.

The bear considered them awhile, sniffed at Mukuli, and began to nose about indifferently in the lush grass. Chepe Noyon went on singing and along a path through the brush trotted a powerful mastiff with a scar running from jowls to belly.

"A potent minstrel, you," remarked Mingan, picking up Mukuli, who was trembling with excitement, "for here are three surly beasts who yet offer us no harm. Sing on, but let us go forward to the castle."

The path led to their right to a pond where among water lilies swans floated about a stone island and a wooden kiosk. A bridge ran to the islet, but they could see no one moving in the garden house, so turned to the left. Mingan noticed that the mastiff and the bear fell in behind them, while the leopard was to be seen flitting among the cypresses, first on one side, then on the other.