Daughter of the Sun Read online

  CHAPTER VI

  CONCERNING THAT WHICH LAY IN THE EYES OF ZORAIDA

  Jim Kendric guessed, before the last door was thrown open for him, thathe was being led before Zoraida Castelmar. The serving maid flitted onahead, out through a deep, shadow-filled doorway into the dusk, down along corridor and into the house again at an end which Kendric judgedmust be close to the flank of the mountain. Down a second hallway, toa heavy, nail-studded door which opened only when the little maid hadknocked and called. This room was lighted by a swinging lamp and itsrays showed its scanty but rich furnishings, and the one who hadopened, a tall, evil-looking Yaqui who wore in his sash a long-barreledrevolver on one side and a longer, curved knife at the other. The girlsidled about the doorkeeper and, safe behind his back made a grimace ofdistaste at him, then hurried on. Again she knocked at a locked door;again it was swung open only when she had added her voice to herrapping. Who opened this door Kendric did not know; for it was pitchdark as soon as the door was shut after them and they stood in a roomeither windowless or darkened by thick curtains. But the girl hastenedon before him and he followed the patter of her soft moccasins, albeitwith a hand under his left arm pit; all of this locking and unlockingof doors and the attendant mystery struck him as clap-trap and he setit down as further play for effect by the mistress of the place, butnone the less he was ready to strike back if a wary arm struck at himthrough the dark.

  The girl had stopped before another door, Kendric close behind her.This time she neither knocked nor called. He heard her fingers gropingalong the wall; then the silvery tinkle of a bell faintly heard throughthe thick oak panels.

  "You will wait," she whispered. And he knew that she was gone.

  He was not forced to wait long. Suddenly the door was opened; he heardit move on its hinges and made out a pale rectangle of light. A softlymodulated voice said: "_Entra, senor_." He stepped across thethreshhold and into the presence of another serving girl, taller thanthe other two maidens, finer bred, a calm-eyed, serene girl of twentydressed in a plain white gown girdled with a smooth gold band.

  They were in a little anteroom; the curtains between them and the mainapartment had made the light dim, for just beyond he could make out theblurred glowing of many lamps.

  The girl's great calm eyes looked at him frankly an instant, vagueshadows drifting across them. Then, abruptly, she put her lips quiteclose to his ear, and whispered: "Do not anger her, senor!" Then,stepping quickly to the curtain, she threw it back and he entered.

  A vain, headstrong girl, deemed Kendric, given the opportunity and verygreat wealth, might be looked to for absurdities of this kind. But wasall of this nothing more, nothing worse, than absurdity? SupposeZoraida were sincere in all that she had said to him, in all the thingsshe did? He had heard a rumor concerning Ruiz Rios, long ago, halfforgotten. Certain wild deeds laid to the Mexican's door had broughtforth the insinuation that he was a little mad. Zoraida had claimedkinship with him.

  At any rate, to Kendric's matter-of-fact way of thinking, here wasfurther clap-trap that might well have been the result of a mad mindworking extravagantly. The room was empty. All four walls, fromceiling to floor, were draped in gorgeously rich hangings, orientalsilks, he imagined, deep purples and yellows and greens and redscunningly arranged so that their glowing colors and the ornamentaldesigns worked upon them made no discordant clash of color. Thechamber in which he had met Zoraida at the hotel was mild hued,colorless compared to this one. There were no chairs but a couchagainst each wall, each a bright spot with its high heaped cushions.In the middle of the room was a small square ebony stand; upon it,glowing like red fire upon its frail crystal stem, the familiar stone.

  He had stepped a couple of paces into the room, his boots sinkingwithout sound into the deep carpet. In no mood for a girl's whims, mador sane, he waited, impatient and irritated. He regretted having come;he should have sat tight in the _patio_ and let her come to him. Nodoubt she was spying on him now from behind the hangings somewhere.There was no comfort in the thought, no joy in imagining that while hestood forth in the clear light of the hanging lamps she and her maidensand attendants might all be watching him. He vastly preferred solidwalls and thick doors to silken drapes.

  While he waited, two distinct impressions slowly forced themselves uponhim. One was that of a faint perfume, coming from whence he had no wayof knowing, the unforgettable, almost sickeningly sweet fragrance heremembered. One instant he was hardly conscious of it, it was but asuspicion of a fragrance. And then it filled the room, strongly sweet,strangely pleasant, a near opiate in its soothing effect.

  The other impression was no true sensation in that it was registered bynone of the five senses; a true sensation only if in truth there is inman a subtle sixth sense, uncatalogued but vital. It was the olduncanny certainty that at last eyes, the eyes of none other thanZoraida Castelmar, were bent searchingly on him. So strong was thefeeling on him that he turned about and fixed his own eyes on aparticular corner where the silken folds hung graceful and loose. Hefelt that she was there, exactly at that spot.

  He strode across the room and laid a sudden hand on the fabric. Itparted readily and just behind it, her eyes more brilliant, moretriumphant than he had ever seen them, stood Zoraida.

  "Can you say now, Senor Americano," she cried out, the music of hervoice rising and vibrating, "that I have not set the spell of my spiritupon your spirit, the influence of my mind upon your mind? You stoodhere and the chamber was empty about you. I came, but so that youmight not hear with your ears and might not see with your eyes. Andyet, looking at you through a pin hole in a drawn curtain, I made youconscious of me and called voicelessly to you to come and you came!"

  There was laughter in her oblique eyes and upon her scarlet lips, andKendric knew that it was not merely light mirth but the deeper laughterof a conqueror, a high rejoicing, the winged joy of victory.

  "I am no student of mental forces," said Kendric. "But to my knowledgethere is nothing unusual in one's feeling the presence of another. Asfor any power which your mind can exert over mine, I don't admit it.It's absurd."

  Contempt hardened the line of her mouth and the laughter died in hereyes.

  "Man is an animal of little wisdom," she murmured as she passed by himinto the room, "because he has not learned to believe the simple truth."

  "If there is anything either simple or true in your establishment," heblurted out, "I haven't found it."

  She went to the table before she turned. A flowing garment of deepblue fell about her; on her black hair like a coronet was a crest ofmany colored, tiny feathers, feathers of humming birds, he learnedlater; throat and arms were bare save for many blazing red and greenstones, feet bare save for exquisitely wrought sandals which were heldin place by little golden straps which ended in plain gold bands aboutthe round white ankles.

  Slowly she turned and faced him. But not yet did she speak. Sheclapped her hands together and the curtains at her right bellied out,parted and a man stepped before her, bending deeply in genuflection.No Yaqui, this time; no Mexican as Kendric knew Mexicans. The man wasshort, but a few inches over five feet, and remarkably heavy-muscled,the greater part of the body showing since his simple cotton tunic waswide open across the deep chest, and left arms and legs bare. Theforehead was atavistically low, the cheek bones very prominent, thenose wide and flat, the lips loose and thick. The man looked brutish,cruel and ugly as he stood face to face with the noble beauty ofZoraida. And yet Kendric, glancing swiftly from one to the other, sawa peculiar resemblance. It was the eyes. This squat animal's eyeswere like Zoraida's in shape though they lacked the fire of spirit andintellect; long eyes that sloped outward and upward toward the temples.

  Zoraida spoke briefly, imperiously. Kendric did not understand thewords though he readily recognized the tongue for one of the nativeNahua dialects. Old Aztec it might have been, or Toltec.

  The man saluted, bowed and was gone. But in a moment he returned,anothe
r man with him who might have been his twin brother, so stronglypronounced in each were the racial physiognomic characteristics.Between them they bore a heavy chair of black polished wood the feet ofwhich were eagles' talons gripping and resting on crystal balls. Theyplaced it and stood waiting for orders or dismissal. She gave both,the first in a few low words in the same ancient tongue, the latterwith a gesture. They bowed and disappeared. Zoraida, one hand restingupon the stand near the jewel glowing upon the transparent stem, sankgracefully into the seat.

  "All very imposing," muttered Kendric. "But if you have anything tosay to me I am waiting."

  From somewhere in the room a parrot which he had not seen until now andwhich had no doubt been released by one of her low-browed henchmenbehind the curtains, flew by Kendric's head and perched balancing uponan arm of her chair. Idly she put out her hand, stroking the brightfeathers. From somewhere else, startling the man when he saw itgliding by him on its soft pads, a big puma, ran forward, threw up itshead, snarling, its tail jerking back and forth restlessly. Zoraidaspoke quietly; the monster cat crept close to her chair and lay downbefore her, stretched out to five feet of graceful length. Zoraida setone foot lightly upon the tawny back. The big cat lay motionless, itseyes steady and unwinking upon Kendric.

  He felt himself strangely impressed though he sought to argue withhimself that here was but more absurdity from an empty-headed girl whohad the money and the power to unleash her extravagant desires. Butsince everything about him was stamped with the barbaric, even to theoblique-eyed woman staring boldly at him; since everything in theexotic atmosphere was in keeping, even to the parrot at her elbow andthe heavy, honey-sweet perfume filling the room, he was unable to shakeoff, as he wished to, the impression made upon him.

  "In your heart," said Zoraida gravely, "you censure me for emptyby-play, you accuse me of vain trifling. You are wrong, SenorAmericano! And soon you will know you are wrong. There is no womanthroughout the wide sweep of my country or yours who has the work to dothat I have to do; the destiny to fulfil; or the power to wrest fromthe gods that which she would have. And will have!"

  Steadfast conviction, fearlessly voiced, rang through her speech. Whatshe said she meant with all of the fiery ardor of her being. Herwords spoke her thought. Whatever the fate which she judged was hersto fulfil, she accepted it with a fervor not unlike some ecstaticreligious devotion. Of all this he was confident on the instant; shemight surround herself with colorful accessories but her purpose wasnone the less serious.

  "Symbols, if you like," she said carelessly--she had been staring athim profoundly and well might have glimpsed something of his train ofthought--"as are statues and pictures symbols in the Roman church. Mybright colored bird is older now than you will be, or I, when we die.Age, bright feathers and chatter! My puma means much to me that youwould not understand, being of another race. Further, did you oranother lift a hand against his mistress he would tear out your throat."

  "You have had me brought here for some purpose?" said Kendric.

  She sat forward, straight in her chair, her two hands gripping thecarved arms.

  "Did I not tell you when first we spoke together that I had use foryou? Since then have I not sent myself into your thoughts many times?Did I not come to you, that you should remember, on the boat thatbrought you here?"

  "I am no man for mysteries," he said. "Tell me: Did you somehow getaboard the _New Moon_ at San Diego? Or did my fancy play me a trick?"

  "You ask me questions!" she mocked. "When you would believe whatpleased you, no matter what word I spoke! If I said that across themiles, over mountain and desert and water I sent my spirit toyou--would you believe?"

  "No. Not when there are other readier explanations."

  She raised a quick hand and pointed to the parrot.

  "Chatter! Questions put when you do not expect an answer. A hundredyears of words and only a red and yellow bundle of feathers at the end.It is deeds we want, Senor Americano, you and I!"

  He returned her look steadily.

  "Then tell me what you want of me," he said. "And in one word I'llgive you yes or no."

  "That is man talk!" she cried. "And yet, Senor Jim Kendric, there cometimes even in a man's life when the yes or no is spoken for him." Shepaused for him to drink in all that her statement meant. Then, when heremained silent, his eyes hostile upon hers, she went on, her speechquick and passionate. "There are great happenings on foot, American.There will be war and death; there will be tearing down and buildingup. And it is I who will direct and it is you who will take my ordersand make them law. And in the end I shall be a Zoraida whom the worldshall know and you shall be a mighty man, _the_ man of Mexico."

  "Fine words!" It was his time to mock, his time to glance at theancient bird.

  "Yes, Jim Kendric. Fine words and more since they are great truths.Lest you think Zoraida Castelmar a girl of mad fancies, I will speakfreely with you. Since all depends on me and it is in my mind thatmuch will depend on you. And why on you? Why have I put my hand outupon you, a foreigner? Because you are such a man as I would make wereI God; a man strong and fearless and masterful; a man trustworthy tothe death when his word is given and his honor is at stake. No, I donot judge you alone by what happened at Ortega's gambling house. Butthat fitted in with all I knew of you. Where else can I find a man tolose ten thousand, twenty thousand dollars, all that he has and thinkno more of the matter than of a cigaret paper that the wind has blownfrom his hands? I have heard of you, Jim Kendric, and I have said tomyself: 'Is there such a man? I know none like him!' Then I went formyself, saw for myself, judged for myself. And now I offer you what Ioffer no other man and what no other mortal can offer you."

  "You give me a pretty clean bill of health," he said quietly. "Nowwhat follows?"

  "This: There will be war in Mexico----"

  "No new thing," he cut in. "There is always war in Mexico."

  "And I will direct that war," she went on serenely, "from this chair inthis room and from elsewhere. Lower California will raise its ownstandard and it will be my standard. Already has word stirred Sonorainto restlessness and a beginning of activity; already is Chihuahuaarmed and eager. Already have the thousands of Yaquis listened andagreed; already have I made them large promises of ancient tribal landsrestored and money. A Yaqui guards my door yonder. But you did notknow that he was the son of Chief Pima, nor that in ten days the sonwill be Chief after having served in the household of Zoraida! AndSonora and Chihuahua and the Yaqui tribes are pledged to one thing: Toan independent Lower California over which I shall rule."

  "Wild schemes," muttered Kendric. "Foredoomed, like other mad schemesin Mexico. And if your great plannings are feasible, which I very muchdoubt, has your feathered companion failed to remind you that talk witha stranger is rash?"

  "You are no stranger," she said coolly. "Nor have I spoken a word toyou that is not known already to all about me. My cousin, Ruiz Rios,whom I distrust and detest; the Captain Escobar who is a small man anda murderer, the other men whom I have gathered about me, they all know,for in this, if in nothing else, I can trust them all."

  "But if I went away," he asked, "and talked?"

  "You are not going away."

  He lifted his brows quickly at that.

  "I go where I please," he reminded her. "When I please. I am my ownman, Senorita Castelmar."

  "Large words." She smiled at him curiously.

  "You mean that my going would be interfered with?"

  "I mean that you may make yourself free of the house; that you may walkin the gardens; that, if you sought to pass the outer wall, you wouldbe detained. You remain my prisoner, Senor Kendric, until you becomemy trusted captain!"

  "You're a devilish hospitable hostess," he remarked. She was watchinghim shrewdly, interested to see just how he would accept her ultimatum.He returned her look with clear, untroubled eyes.

  "You will think of what I have told you," she said slowly. "
My wealthis very great; the fertile lands which I have inherited and those whichI have purchased, embrace hundreds of thousands of acres; the barrenlands which are mine, desert and mountain, stretch mile after mile.There is no power like mine in all Mexico, though until now it has lainhidden, giving no sign. It is in my heart to make you a rich man and,what you like more, Jim Kendric, a man to play the biggest of all gamesand for the biggest of all stakes. And further--further----"

  "Further?" He laughed. "What comes after all that, Queen Zoraida?"

  "Look into my eyes," she said softly. "Look deep."

  He looked and though to him were women unread books, at last a slowflush crept up into his cheeks. For now neither he nor any other mancould have failed to understand the silent speech of Zoraida's eyes.It was as though she invited him not so much to look into her eyes asthrough them and on, deep into her heart; as though these were gates,open to him, through which he might glimpse paradise. Zoraida, herlook clinging to his passionately, was seeking to offer the finalargument. The case would have not been plainer had she whispered withher lips: "I, even I, Zoraida, love you! You shall be my master; Iyour willing slave. What you will, I will also. My beauty shall beyours; my wealth, my estate, my ambitions, my power, all those shall bemy lord's. Of a kingdom which shall be built you shall be king. Youshall go far, you shall climb high. All because I, Zoraida, love you!"

  She stood there watching him, her eyes burning into his. In her ownmind were pictures made, pictures of pride and power and, as a mirrorreflects the scene before it, so for a little did Jim Kendric's mindhold an image of the thing in Zoraida's. He felt her influence uponhim; he felt that odd stirring of the blood; he stared back into hereyes like a man bewildered as pictures rose and swept magnificently by.He saw the red of her parted lips and heard her soft breathing; for acertain length of time--long or short he had little conception--he wasmotionless and speechless under her spell.

  He stirred restlessly. Those visions conjured up within him, either byZoraida's previous words and what had gone before or by the subtleworkings of her mind now, were not unbroken. He thought of TwistyBarlow. Barlow had gone to her at the border town hotel; from his ownexperiences with her Kendric thought that he could imagine how shestood before the sailor, how she talked with him and looked at him, howin the first small point she won over him. He thought of an ancienttale of Circe and the swine. Was he a free man, a man's man or was hea woman's plaything? . . . It flashed over him again that it might bethat Zoraida was mad. Even now, that he seemed to be reading herinmost soul, was she but playing the siren to his imaginings? Was thissome barbaric whim of hers or was she, for the once, sincere? Whileappearing to be all yielding softness, was she but playing a game?Would she, at one instant swaying toward a man's arms, the next whipback from him, laughing at him?

  Confused thoughts winging through his chaos of uncertainty held himwhere he was, his eyes staring at hers. Zoraida might read some of hismind but surely not all. What she realized was that she had offeredmuch, everything, and that he stood, seemingly unmoved and frowned ather. Quick in all her emotions, now suddenly her cheeks flamed and thelight in her eyes altered swiftly to blazing anger.

  "Go!" she cried, pointing. She leaped to her feet, her eyes flaming."By the long vanished Huitzil, I swear that I am of a mind to let thosedogs, Rios and Escobar, have their way with you! What! am I ZoraidaCastelmar, of a race of kings, daughter of the Montezumas, to have aman stand up before me weighing me in the balance of his two eyes? Go!"

  He turned to go, eager to be out in the open air. But as he moved shecalled out to him:

  "Wait! At least I will say my say. You and that fool Barlow camehere, into my land, seeking gold. Escobar comes slinking in like adesert wolf on the same errand. Oh, I know something of it as I knowsomething of all that goes forward from end to end of a land that willone day all be mine. Juarez died from Escobar's knife but his lastgasp was for one of my agent's ears. When you or Barlow or Escobar layhand on the treasure of the Montezumas, it will be to step aside forthe last Montezuma. It will be mine!"

  Fury filled her eyes. The hands at her sides clenched until theknuckles shone white through the blaze of her rings. The great catrose and yawned, showing its glistening teeth and red throat. Its eyeswere no more merciless and cruel than its mistress's. Kendric feltqueerly as though he were looking back across dead centuries intoancient Mexico and upon the angry princess of the most cruel of allpeoples, the blood-lusting Aztecs.

  "Go!" she panted.

  With one after another of the doors thrown open before him Kendrichurried away.