Chapter XIII: We Join with Kyrlos

When we reached the house again, we found Aryenis by the fire in the hall, having clearly removed the desert from her skin and hair, for she was looking even prettier than before. She and Kyrlos went off together, doubtless to talk over her adventures.

When our kit arrived, we followed her example, steaming ourselves in boiling water in the bathroom attached to the guest-chamber, a little room floored with red tiles around a sunken stone bath. The Blue Sakae are great believers in cleanliness of person and clothes, and this taste was by no means confined to the upper classes, despite the coldness of their winter climate.

It was good to soak the desert sand out of our systems, and feel our sun-dried, wind-hardened skins expanding once more under the soothing influence of clean hot water.

The evening meal was a rather more ornate edition of the midday one; but we did not sit long over it, for Aryenis pronounced for an early bed, and the other men drifted away quickly, so that Kyrlos and Stephnos alone were left. We sat over the fire drinking our wine for a space, and it was clear that Kyrlos had matters he was more anxious to talk of than mere commonplaces about our adventures and the customs of the Sakae, concerning which Forsyth had been asking him numerous questions.

Six days with Aryenis had accustomed us to the strange accent and unfamiliar idioms of their Greek, and we never had any more difficulty in talking with the educated people.

Finally Kyrlos plunged into the matter which was evidently nearest his heart.

“And now, my guests,” he began, “if it be not venturing discourtesy, I would know somewhat of the reasons which brought you into this land of ours where no stranger has come for centuries. Aryenis has told me something, but I would hear more from your own lips, more particularly since she spoke of wars in your land, and there will shortly be such war in this country as has never been. Wherefore came you hither?”

“We are three travellers, Kyrlos, who came seeking new scenes, for--as your daughter has, perhaps, told you--some hundred years ago a relative of Wrexham’s came to the gate of this land of which our people have no knowledge.”

“Yes, Aryenis told me of that, and of the finding of Carius--a most strange event, and one with a hidden meaning, I feel sure. But what of these wars you speak of? Aryenis says that you, Harilek, are a soldier by trade--one holding high command. But your friends also have been fighting, though it seems they are not soldiers at all times.”

“For six years our people have been at war, the greatest war of all history--so great that men speak of it as ‘the world war,’ since, save one or two of the smaller nations, not one people in the world but was engaged fighting upon one side or the other. And being so great, all men, whether soldiers or not, took part in it. At the end, when our people were victorious, we three, having no wives or children to call us home, set out on this journey, seeking change of scene and adventure.”

“Are you of those who fight for love of fighting, then? Would you stay here and fight for us with your wondrous weapons, which Aryenis tells me slay at arrow-shot distance with naught but a little noise, killing mailed men as though they were clothed but in silk?”

Forsyth turned to me.

“What about it, Harry? Are you going to chip in with this bally war? I like these people, but I thought we’d come out on a rest cure, as it were.”

“Depends very much on what it’s all about,” put in Wrexham. “If it’s a tribal blood feud, I’m not joining. But if it means a smack at the beasts in the gate for their mishandling of Aryenis, and of other people, too, by the look of the place, then I’m for it.”

“Yes, every time,” said I, thinking of the first time I saw Aryenis, and of the long hair that Wrexham had tangled his hand in the first night.

Kyrlos was watching us reflectively, the firelight playing on his grave features. He is a handsome man in a way, with rather a high-coloured countenance, pronounced eyebrows over dark blue eyes, and a somewhat aquiline nose. Not over-given to speech, but we found him well worth listening to when he opened his mouth. I turned to him again:

“We are not of those who fight for fighting’s sake, nor for profit after the manner of the mercenaries of old times. We have seen years of war wherein thousands of men died every day.” (Kyrlos opened his eyes at this.) “But under certain conditions we might join with you. Will you first tell us somewhat concerning this coming war of which you speak? Is it against the Shamans who took Aryenis captive? We gathered from her that they are an evil people and stirrers-up of strife.”

“Yes, it is against these same Shamans. But, as you know but little of this land, perhaps I had better first tell you somewhat of our people, so that you may the better understand the reasons for the war. Save the Shamans, who came here whence we know not, all the Sakae are of the same race, and entered this country many, many hundreds of years ago. We believe that then they were one people under one ruler. But for centuries now we have been--according to our books--divided into four clans known by colours. Of the origins of these names I cannot speak. Some hold that it is from the colour of the ornaments which are favoured by the different clans, others say it is some relic of old pagan worship which has lost its meaning, and now remains but a name. But these be matters of conjecture--of no great import. My clan--the Blue Sakae--is the biggest of all, though the Green Sakae, who live next to us, are not greatly fewer in numbers. Then there are the Red Sakae, who live beyond them. These three are much alike in manners and customs. The fourth clan, which is smaller than the other three, is known as the Brown Sakae, and differs greatly. These have retained all the old savagery of our people, are entirely pagan, and unaffected by the civilization which--together with Christianity--was brought by Greeks who came to this land in the beginning of the ages.

“In the centre of the Brown Sakae country, and above the gate which you found, dwell a small people, few in numbers, but exceedingly cunning, called the Black Shamans, keepers of the gate from the old days, great magicians, skilled in the working of metals from the mines which abound in the Brown Sakae country. Doctors also as you, Forsyth, but I think of evil kind.

“From time to time there have been wars between the clans--in the main, wars of rulers only; but never have any of the clans fought with the Shamans nor they with us, and their country has been held sacred, so that none of the Sakae enter it save for the yearly council of the chiefs of all the clans, which was held there in the spring. The chief Shaman himself attended the council meetings.

“But now for ten or twelve years a change has come over the land. The chief Shaman has waxed greatly powerful, and exercises influence among the other clans such as he has no right to do, save in giving advice at the general council of the chiefs.

“But by degrees he contrived to turn the people against all the chiefs who would not fall in with his wishes, uniting the less powerful leaders against the greater. When these were overthrown, he turned the common people against the lesser chiefs who had cast down those above them, until in the end there were no rulers save those who did his will in all matters.

“He began slowly with the sections nearest to his country, so that his influence spread as a spider’s web, ever growing and growing. And in the end, save for one or two sections of the Green Sakae who still held out, such as that of Carius whom you found in the desert, or the people of the old chief who was slain with Aryenis in the gate, all the Red, Green, and Brown Sakae were under his hand. And then, of course, we of the Blue Sakae no longer went to the councils, which had become only a play, there being but one voice at all times--that of the chief Shaman: those others spoke in seemingly independent guise, but in reality as they had been privily bidden. For though talking always of the freedom of men, the chief Shaman rules entirely by fear, and he that thwarts him dies, sometimes speedily by an arrow in the gate, more often slowly as he would have had Carius die, often still more lingeringly in their citadel, so that for many days such prisoners pray for the gate and the arrows as you and I might pray for heaven.

“Seeing the danger, my brother and I--he rules over the northern part of our clan as my representative--sought to combine the other clans ere they were overcome, while yet our own people still held stanch. But our efforts had no result, save that we incurred the greater hatred of the chief Shaman--if, indeed, his hatred could increase.

“But since we are a strong and warlike people, and since our folk, although in many ways independent and loving not at all any control, still hold to us, and are gifted with much sound sense in that they believe little of the talk of the Shaman spies, the Shamans have not so far dared to make open war upon us.

“But they only wait their time, which, I think, draws near, now that the last of the Green Sakae chiefs has gone down.

“Aryenis has told you somewhat of how she came to be taken prisoner, when she was staying with the old chief, and I had been called away. The party who sacked the palace were partly Brown Sakae raiders, partly Shamans, and these latter took her and the old man to their master.

“Looking upon Aryenis with lustful eyes he desired her, but, further, he wished to use her for other ends by marrying her as a political move. He has already a wife and other women, but among the Shamans this would be no obstacle, and doubtless to placate the feelings of the pagan Sakae, who hold, like us, that a man should have but one wife, he would have divorced his other one.

“But Aryenis, as you may have noticed, has a swift tongue and a swift brain, and she spoke to him as he deserved. He is deformed and hideous of person, and, among other things, she told him she would rather wed with a real vulture than with a misshapen one that called itself a man.

“For all his cunning he has an ungovernable temper with regard to his personal appearance. Being more cruel than lustful when beside himself with rage, he sent her down to the gate then and there chained to the old chief, who was to be slain at once. He told Aryenis that when she had lived with vultures awhile she could tell him how she liked it, and then perhaps he would be pitiful and give what the vultures left of her to his archers to play with.”

I could hear Stephnos’s teeth grit as he fingered his dagger-hilt. I hoped keenly to be there when he met the chief Shaman. At least, I did and I didn’t. I was somehow beginning to feel that no one should meet that beauty until I had interviewed him.

“And then you came and saved her. It was two days before I got the news, and, hastily gathering such men as I had ready, I rode straight into the Brown Sakae country where the hills begin--a maze of mountains ere you reach the Shamans’ hold. Being but few in number, we were driven back with loss, so that I had to return. My brother was raising his folk and the balance of mine to come and aid me when you appeared. We had intended to try and reach the Shamans’ fortress, and, if we could not save my daughter, at least avenge her or die in the effort.

“Now, however, there is no such need for haste since she is safe. But instead I feel, and my brother writes to me the same, that we must strike the enemy soon, or else allow them to destroy the whole country. Therefore, have I sent out to all my headmen to meet me at our chief town to discuss the question of making immediate war upon the Shamans once for all.

“The carrying-off of Aryenis has stirred the countryside, and the folk realize that the danger threatens all, and I have great hope that they will agree. If so we will raise our whole armed strength. War will come whether we make it or whether we wait for attack, and it is better that we should make it now rather than wait till our enemies are still stronger.

“But in this strife the foe will be two to one, maybe three to one, against us. And it will be such war as we have never had, for once the Shamans cease their pretence of peace, they will give us war such as the fiend conceives it.

“Now, say, knowing all, will you stay and fight with us, or will you take such things as you require for your journey, together with tokens of our gratitude, and return to your own land? I hide not from you that we shall be in a hard case, and that in the end we may be overrun, when such of us as are left alive will go through the gate, after the Shamans have played with us awhile in their fashion, which is not pleasant.

“Do you go or stay?”

He looked at us, his chin on his hand. I could see the boy nursing his dagger-hilt, his eyes on my face. My mind required no making up. The idea of Aryenis once more in the Shamans’ hands admitted of no compromise. I turned to the old man and said, and in saying it altered the whole course of my life:

“Sir, since the matter touches the Lady Aryenis, who has honoured us by being our guest for some days, and since I like not the manners of those who dwell in the Shamans’ gates, I shall remain with you.”

Then, pulling out my pistol, I held out the butt to him, as he had done with his sword.

He touched the grip, and I could see a look of pleasure in his face.

“One is doubly strong when a brave man joins one. Sir Harilek, I thank you again.”

He looked at Wrexham and Forsyth, who said nothing, but held out their pistols.

As Kyrlos touched them, he rose to his feet.

“It draws late now, my guests. I will tell my daughter that she was right. She said of a surety you would join us, for you were clearly all clean brave men. _That_ she knew, since you showed her greater consideration even than if she had been your own sister, and your men treated her as if she were a princess, whereas she came to you a helpless captive. It seems that in your country you bring up men to treat women as they should do, which is sometimes rare.”

“It had somewhat to do with our late war, this matter of how women should be treated,” said Forsyth. “Many folk came to the war who might have stayed away because of the indignities which the enemy put upon the women of the countries he invaded.”

Kyrlos and his son led us to our room, and saw that we had all we wanted before they left us.

As I pulled off my boots I said to Wrexham: “Well, we seem to have stepped into a pretty little kind of war all ready-made. I wonder if a Shaman is anything like a Hun. Their ways are not very dissimilar.”

“As you say. It would take a particularly unpleasant type to think of chaining a live girl to a dead man for the vultures to play with while he sat and looked on from the upper storey.” He spat into the fireplace. “Gives one a bad taste in one’s mouth, doesn’t it? I shall look forward to meeting the chief Shaman.”

Forsyth was silent, and I could see that he was pondering over something. At last he spoke.

“Whatever these people are, they aren’t Greeks for all that Aryenis and her father and some of their friends speak Greek. But the other men’s speech is a totally different language, although there were some Greek words in it, or what sounded like them. They look more like Scandinavians, somewhat sunburnt.”

“Yes, that’s the way they struck me,” I replied, “You remember Kyrlos talked of Greeks coming into the country as though they were quite a different race.”

“Well, we shall have every opportunity of studying them now. I must get hold of their real speech and see if I can place it.” Forsyth turned into his blankets. “I wonder what kind of a show the war will be.”

“Middle Ages for a cert,” said Wrexham. “I wonder if the Shamans’ front door is anything like their back one? If so, I wish I had a few bags of blasting-powder or a box or two of guncotton or ammonal. Otherwise, I rather visualize Kyrlos’s troops sitting down in front of it with wooden towers, and wet hides, and all the usual accessories one reads of in Virgil, and not getting very much farther.”

“That means to say that it’s merely a question of starving them out, then.”

“Yes, or else some kind of treachery, or a Trojan wooden horse stunt. I wonder if there’s any nitre in the country?” He was turning over the pages of a sort of compendium book he had made up while we were fitting out in Calcutta, and which never left his valise. It contained, I think, every known recipe for the manufacture of what Wrexham comprehensively but vaguely referred to as “engineer stores.” “Also phosphorus?”

“What’s the phosphorus wanted for?” I asked.

“Matches, dear man, matches. We’ve not many left, and the Sakae flint and steel doesn’t attract my cultured taste.”

“Do you propose to start a match-factory for the benefit of the inhabitants?”

“Perhaps. That and other things even more useful. I don’t think I shall want to hurry home. This is going to be an amusing experience, I fancy.”

“No. I can’t say I want to hurry home either. The war will probably take two or three months, and after that I should like to explore the country and study the people and the language. Also, I want to see if the beautiful Euphrosine is anything like her picture. Did Aryenis tell you where she was?”

Forsyth was rather keen on what I annoyed him by referring to as the Euphrosine myth. Since my conversation with Aryenis below the cliffs, however, and Euphrosine’s materialization into a real living person and a friend of Aryenis, I had had to admit that my classing her as a myth was unjustifiable.

“No. But I expect we’ll meet her in a day or two.”

“Well, we shall be here most of the winter, and it’s not much good going back till well on next year, so there’s lots of time to look round,” said the doctor as he turned in. “I’m for sleep now, however.”

“If the place is what it seems to be, a year is mighty little to explore it,” said Wrexham. “I’m inclined to think that several years would not be too much. It’s a sort of Middle Ages Europe tucked away into the heart of Asia, by the little we’ve seen.”

As he put out the light and we settled down to sleep, I also felt that it would want more than a year or so to explore. Indeed, I was beginning to think that even the matter of Aryenis would require a lifetime. She is so intensely vivid, and has a knack of hanging about your mind and popping up at odd moments just when you’re trying to go to sleep, or lazily contemplating the smoke of your pipe. And once Aryenis did slide into your mental vision--well, everything else seemed to slide out. The desert and the camels and the long road back through Kashgaria, the hills and the high passes, got dimmer and dimmer in perspective, and the Bombay or Karachi docks refused to be visualized at all when Aryenis’s eyes and her mouth and her red-gold hair entered--as of right--into what up till then I had always considered as _my_ mind.