The Romance of Golden Star ...

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Now, with Tupac's help I carried the effigy into a little chamber behind
the throne, and there quickly removed my upper clothing and dressed
myself as I had done before in the Hall of Gold, and took my place on
the throne. Then I bade Tupac lead Joyful Star, with her eyes still
bandaged, to me. When he had placed her before me, I made a sign to him,
and the bandage fell from her eyes. She turned white as death, and
staggered back a pace, with her hands clasped to her temples, and there
she stood, staring wide-eyed at me and all the splendours about her.

Wherever her gaze wandered it saw nothing but gold and silver and gems
and rich-dyed hangings of silk and wool, whose brilliant hues no time
could dim. The roof and the upper halves of the walls were covered with
plates of burnished silver. Around the walls, half-way between the floor
and the ceiling, ran a great cornice or ledge of gold, on which stood
the golden chairs in which were seated the mummies of the twenty Incas
which I had last seen in the Sanctuary of the Sun, looking down through
the eye-holes in their golden masks.

From the cornice to the floor hung the bright-hued hangings, and against
these were ranged along the floor on either side threescore seats of
silver, and the floor was paved with diamond-shaped blocks of gold and
silver set alternately. Behind the throne on which I sat rose from the
floor to roof a sloping wall of golden ingots, and on either hand stood
a great golden vase, heaped high with unset gems, emeralds and diamonds,
pearls and sapphires and rubies, precious almost beyond price; and on
the roof above my throne a great, golden image of the Sun, encircled by
spreading rays of gems, glowed and sparkled in the light of the candles
and torches.

At last Ruth's wandering gaze became steady and rested upon my face, and
I looked back into her eyes, making no sign until she should speak, and
sitting motionless as the effigy whose place I had taken.

'Where am I?' she said at last in a low, faint voice, like one awakening
from a dream. 'And who are you? Surely you cannot be--and yet, yes, you
are Vilcaroya! What has happened?'

'Nothing more than the granting of Joyful Star's request, save that
through the treasure-house which she asked to see I have brought her to
a better one. Does it please her?'

'Is it real, Vilcaroya?' she whispered. 'Is all this really gold and
silver, and are these real diamonds and rubies and emeralds, or am I
only dreaming? Does it please me? What a question! I have never even
dreamed of anything like it. Where are we, Vilcaroya?'

'In the throne-room of the Incas, beneath what was once their palace and
fortress on the hill of Sacsahuaman,' I answered, 'and this is the
throne of the great Yupanqui, the greatest earthly king and conqueror of
my race. I sat here and crowned myself Inca in the presence of
Anda-Huillac and the priests and nobles of the Land of the Four Regions
on the day before the night when I drank the death-draught with Golden
Star.'

'Ah, yes, where is she?' she cried, looking round only to see that all
the rest had vanished, and that she and I were alone in the great hall.
'What have they done with her, and where are Laurens and the others?'
she cried, looking fearfully and almost mistrustingly at me. 'What have
you done with them, Vilcaroya?'

'They are safe,' I said. 'Tupac and his men have care of them, and they
will come back when I bid him bring them. But I have need of your
presence here alone before I do that,' I went on, rising from my seat as
I spoke. 'Has Joyful Star ever sat on a throne?'

'No,' she stammered, staring at me with wonder in her eyes. 'You know I
haven't. Why should you ask?'

'Then sit on mine,' I said, 'for I have something to say to you which I
can best say and you can best hear if we change places. Nay, I will take
no denial,' I said, drawing her by the hand up the steps in front of the
throne, 'for it is not only your--your friend who is asking, but a
crowned king in his own palace, who is lord of life and death over all
who enter it.'

Half frightened and half wondering, she submitted to my will and allowed
me to seat her in the chair which no woman had ever sat in before. Then
I took her hand, and, dropping on one knee on the upper step, I said,--

'Joyful Star has taken one queen from me, and she alone can give me
another to fill her place. She is sitting where the great Yupanqui sat
when he ruled all the land from north to south, and from the eastern
mountains to the sea, and ere long I too shall reign, sole and
undisputed lord, over a realm wider even than that. Many things have
been done that Joyful Star knows not of since I came back to my country
and my people. Through all the Land of the Four Regions the word has
gone forth, with the swiftness of thought, that the Son of the Sun has
returned, and that the heir of the divine Manco has come to deliver his
children from bondage.[B]

'Everywhere the tidings have been received with joy, and the people are
longing to return to the allegiance of their fathers, and tread their
oppressors under foot. Before many days civil war will be raging
throughout the lands of the south, and I have but to set flowing that
golden stream, one of whose many sources is here, and say, "Here is gold
and silver in plenty for all who will fight under the Rainbow Banner,"
and I shall have armies and fleets to do what I will with, and the sway
of my sceptre shall reach from north to south and sea to sea.

'This I shall do because of my oath; but I have brought Joyful Star here
to tell her, in the most sacred place that is left in the Land of the
Four Regions, that I shall also do it so that she, if she will, may be
queen where I am king, and sit beside me on my throne, and make my
empire a paradise by the brightness and the sweetness of her presence. I
cannot forget, as she bade me do--for the words that I said in the heat
of my passion are true--for I love you, Joyful Star, and all that I
have or shall ever have on earth will be worthless to me unless you take
it as a gift from my hands. Nay, do not speak, for now I seek no answer,
whether good or evil. I have brought you here that I, as a king, might
kneel at the feet of her whom I would win for my queen, and from now
until I sit in the sight of all the world on the throne of the Four
Regions no other words of love shall pass my lips. So you shall have
many days to ponder what I have said, and to ask your own heart whether
it will say "yes" or "no" to me when I stretch out my hand from my
throne and ask you to come and sit beside me and rule my people with
me.'

Before she could answer, I stood up and clapped my hands, and Tupac with
six others, dressed now in the forbidden costume of their ancestors,
entered the hall from the ante-chamber, into which they had taken the
others, and came towards me, bearing wands across their shoulders in
token of homage, and with heads downbent, not daring to look upon my
majesty till I bade them. I drew Joyful Star from the throne by the
hand, and seating myself in it, said in the ancient tongue,--

'Let the Children of the Blood enter into the presence of their father
and their lord, and let the strangers be brought in, and the other
maiden, all with eyes bandaged, and let seats of silver be placed to
the right and left of the throne, one for each of the virgins of the Sun
to sit upon. Are all things else ready, Tupac-Rayca?'

'Yes, lord,' he answered, stepping out in front of the others and
falling on his knees, 'and the Children of the Blood are waiting to see
the glory of thy presence and hear the words of wisdom and hope from thy
lips.'

FOOTNOTES:

[B] The Inca Indians of the Sierra region possess the same extraordinary
faculty of transmitting intelligence without apparent material means
that the Hindoos and the Arabs have. Thus, during the last revolution in
Peru, the fall of Lima was known to the Indians of Bolivia on the
southern shore of Lake Titicaca three days after it happened, though the
telegraph wires were cut and all ordinary communications suspended.
Without the telegraph this would be quite impossible by any means known
to Europeans.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW THE SOUL OF GOLDEN STAR CAME BACK

When the two chairs had been brought in and placed according to my
orders, I rose from my throne and led Joyful Star to the one on my left
hand and placed her in it, still silent with the wonder and perplexity
of what she had seen and heard since her eyes were opened. Then, seating
myself again, I bade Tupac summon the Children of the Blood to take
their places, and presently he ushered them in from the chambers that
opened out of the great hall on either hand at the other end.

There were threescore of them, the heads of the families of Ayllos,
whose blood was the purest and whose descent was most direct from the
old nobility of my own days. Each of them, too, under the outward husk
of his forlorn and degraded state, had preserved unsullied the ancient
faith and traditions of the sacred race, and, against all appearances,
had steadfastly hoped for the fulfilment of the promises that had been
given in the olden times. More than this, too--each had treasured, as a
miser hoards his gold, the ever-growing legacy of hate which the
oppression and contempt of the Spaniards and their meaner descendants
had heaped up from generation to generation against the long-awaited day
of vengeance which, as but two or three in that strange company alone
knew, was now so near at hand.

Ever since I had revealed myself to them in the Hall of Gold they had
been working for the end in view with the swift, subtle arts known only
to those of their race, and already, from Quito in the north to Santiago
in the south, tidings had gone forth that the day of deliverance was
approaching, and that ere long the Rainbow Banner would be raised by the
hands of him for whom the Children of the Sun had waited.

Each of the fathers of the people was dressed, as Tupac was, in the
long-forbidden garb of the ancient nobility, and each as he entered
stopped in the centre of the hall and paid his homage before he went to
his seat. Then, when all were seated, I ordered that the strangers
should be brought in, and they were led into the midst of the silent
assembly, with their eyes still bandaged. Over Golden Star's head a veil
had been thrown, hiding her face, for it was my purpose that it should
not be seen for the present, and how strangely this purpose worked you
shall soon see.

As she came up the middle of the hall, following Tupac, who was leading
her as obedient as a little child, I descended from the throne and went
to meet her, and led her to the seat on my right hand and placed her in
it. Francis Hartness, the professor and Djama I left standing in the
middle of the hall, each with one of Tupac's chosen guards beside him.
When Golden Star was seated, I stood up in front of the throne and said
to those assembled, speaking in the ancient tongue,--

'Sons of the Blood and fathers of the Oppressed, you know already how
the promise that was made by our Father the Sun, through the lips of his
high priest, in the days when first the oppressors came, has been in
part most faithfully and marvellously fulfilled. I, Vilcaroya--son of
Huayna-Capac, son of the great Yupanqui Inca, before whose throne-seat I
am now standing alive in your presence--am he of whom it was said that
one who should pass from life to life through the shadows of death
should grasp the sceptre of the divine Manco, and restore the ancient
glory of the Children of the Sun. And with me, as you know, there was
another, at whose call and for love of whom I dared the ordeal of the
death-sleep and swore the oath which I have returned to the world of
living men to fulfil. I have already given you some proof that I am what
I say I am, for I have revealed to you secrets which were buried in the
grave with me and in those faithful hearts which have been pulseless now
for many generations.

'But now, that all things may be made plain to you, and that no doubts
may remain in your hearts to hinder the working of our sacred purpose, I
have brought here before you witnesses of the wonders that have been
worked--even those who wrought them themselves, that their own lips may
tell you the story; and with them I have brought yet another witness
who, though she cannot speak to you in our ancient tongue, of which our
Father, for his own wise purposes, has deprived her during her long
sleep, will yet in her own person and even with silent lips be witness
enough that I have not lied to you. Now let the eyes of the strangers be
uncovered and their mouths opened that they may see and speak.'

Even as the words left my lips they were obeyed, and at the same time I
stretched out my right hand and raised the veil from the head of Golden
Star, and unloosed the bandage from her eyes.

A deep murmur of wonder ran round the hall; a sharp cry of amazement
broke from Djama's lips, and the two others stared blankly about them.
Then I raised my left hand to command silence, and, still speaking the
ancient speech and pointing with my right hand to Golden Star, said,--

'This, O Fathers of the People, is she who drank the death-draught with
me. This is Cory-Coyllur, daughter of Huayna-Capac, and sister of the
long-ago murdered Huascar, and my sister, too, since her great father
was mine also. With her, as the tradition was told to you, I plighted
the marriage-troth before the altar in the Sanctuary of the Sun, and of
that troth I would speak to you now. Such marriage is no longer lawful
in the world to which we have returned, and in token of this our Father
the Sun has sent this other likeness of Golden Star, who sits upon my
left hand, to tell me that it may not be; and to make the message surer,
it has pleased him also to put into my heart a love for her differing
from, though not greater than that which I have borne for Golden Star,
and if my Father who has given me this love shall also look with
kindness upon my longing, then Joyful Star, as I have named her, shall
be my Coya[C] and my queen, and Golden Star shall be her sister and
mine, and I doubt not that in his own good time our Father will send her
a fitting mate, that her heart may not be empty nor her life lonely.'

As I said these last words I saw the eyes of all who were sitting in the
chairs turn, as if moved by one impulse, and rest on Francis Hartness,
standing strong and stately in the midst of the little group in the
middle of the hall, overtopping the others by nearly a span, and crowned
with his curling golden hair; and as I, too, looked at him, a new
thought came into my mind, and I spoke aloud again and said,--

'Yes, Brothers of the Blood, I read your thought. The stranger from the
land which is the greatest of all lands in the world of to-day, is a
true Son of the Sun, though not of our blood, for his heart is clean and
his tongue is straight and his arm strong, and perchance it may please
our Father to bring about that which he has put into our hearts.'

At this another murmur ran round the hall, and every head was bowed in
assent.

Now all this time the three Englishmen had been standing patiently in
the midst of the hall, looking about them at its splendours, and waiting
till I should speak to them, for the professor knew enough of the
Quichua tongue to follow what I had been saying, and had told the others
that I was speaking of them. Now I spoke to them in English, and told
them what I had brought them to the throne-room for, and then I had
chairs placed for them at top of the hall, to my left hand.

When they had taken their places, I asked the professor to speak in
Spanish to those assembled, and tell them whether or not the story of my
return to life was true, and whether or not Golden Star had been found
where Anda-Huillac and the priests had placed her, and had been, like
me, restored to life by the arts of Djama his friend. This he did in
few, straight words, and after him Djama rose at my bidding and told
them also what he had done. When he had finished I took the Llautu from
my head and raised it above me with outstretched arms and said in a loud
voice,--

'If you, O Children of the Blood and Sons of the Ancient Race, believe
now that I am in truth Vilcaroya, son of Huayna-Capac, and lawful heir
of the divine Manco, from whom all the Incas of our race draw their
royal blood, then take me for your lord as my father was the lord of
your fathers; or if any shall have yet doubt in his heart, let him
speak now or for ever be silent.'

Then with one accord they rose from their seats and came before me and
prostrated themselves on the shining pavement of the throne-room, and
began to chant, in a low, soft tone, the Song of Homage with which of
old the new-crowned Incas had been hailed, generation after generation,
Sons of the Sun and lords of life and death throughout the Land of the
Four Regions.

And now a wondrous thing happened. As I stood there facing the prostrate
throng, lowering the Llautu on to my head, I heard a low, sharp cry
beside me on my right hand. I turned half round, and there I saw Golden
Star staring at me with eyes burning with the light that shone through
them from her new-awakened soul.

Her hands were clasped to her temples, pushing back her thick, bright
hair from her forehead. Her face was flushed, and her half-open lips
were working as though they were striving to shape some long-forgotten
words. At the instant that the Llautu touched my brows, she rose to her
feet. Then a cry burst from her lips and went ringing down the hall, and
the next moment she had thrown herself forward and I had caught her in
my arms.

As I did so our eyes met, and our hearts looked at each other through
them. In that one burning glance the mists of the long years were
melted, all things else were forgotten, and for the moment we stood
alone--the children of a long-dead generation--in the solitude that our
strange fate had made about us. Then her lips moved, not dumbly this
time, and in a voice that woke, who shall say how many memories in my
heart, she said,--

'Have they awakened us, my lord? Tell me how long we have slept, my
Vilcaroya. It seems long to me, and I have had strange, dim dreams, and
thought I was not one, but two, and that one of myselves was your sister
and the other was your Coya and queen. It was strange, was it not, to
dream like that?'

'Not so strange but that it may be true, O my sister, Golden Star,' I
said, my wonder for the moment overcome by a new hope that uprose within
me at her words. 'Stranger things than that have happened since we fell
asleep together in the distant days that are no more. See, Nusta mi,
here is your other self, the living shape of that sister-soul of yours,
who has watched over you and cared for you and loved you since you drew
the first breath of your new life. She cannot speak our tongue, for she
is the daughter of another age than ours, but she has taught me hers and
I will speak for you.'

As I said this I took her hands from where they rested on my shoulders,
and led her to the seat of Joyful Star, who was standing in front of it,
with one hand on the arm of her chair and the other one clasped to her
heart, her face white with fear and her eyes wide with wonder.

'What has happened, Vilcaroya?' she said, in a voice so low that it was
almost a whisper. 'Has her memory come back, and does she believe
herself to be your--your wife?'

As she forced the last word from her hesitating lips I saw the hot blood
flow into her cheeks, and a new light that shot like a dart of fire into
my heart leapt into her eyes.

'No,' I said, with a smile that was quickly answered by one that came
unawares to her lips. 'She calls herself my sister and me her lord, and
says that she has dreamed that she is not one but two, and that her
other sister-self is Vilcaroya's wife and queen. Now, if that dream may
be the truth, tell her so!'

And with that I took her hand gently from where it rested on the chair
and laid Golden Star's in it.

'But--I cannot speak your language, and she wouldn't understand me,' she
said softly, with one swift glance at me and another longer look at
Golden Star's smiling face, so wondrous like her own.

'There is another speech than that of the tongue,' I answered, 'which
all men understand.'

'Yes!' she said, and then she drew Golden Star gently to her and kissed
her.

All this while the Ayllos had remained silent and prostrate before the
throne, none daring to raise their heads till I bade them, and the three
Englishmen sat still, hearing what I had said to Joyful Star and her
answer to it, and yet neither speaking nor rising from their seats, each
full of his own thoughts and not willing to betray his feelings by any
rash word that he might speak in the wonder of the moment. But now I
turned with my heart full of joy and new hope, and said in a voice in
which my gladness seemed to sing like a bird in the morning sky,--

'Rise up, Brothers of the Blood, and look upon your lord and rejoice
with him, for our Father the Sun has looked kindly upon him and filled
all his life with light. He has given back memory and speech to Golden
Star, his daughter, and put it into the heart of Joyful Star, her other
sister-self, to love her and to make plain that which might else have
been dark.'

Then they all rose to their feet and saluted me and paid their homage to
Golden Star and Joyful Star as well, and then I waved them to their
seats, and when they had gone I led Golden Star back to her chair, and
then I called Djama to me, and when he came and stood before me I
said,--

'You have seen what has happened, and you have heard the words that have
been said. You see now that there is no need for Golden Star to go to
England. Therefore it remains but for you and for your friend to take
the treasure that is yours, and for us to say farewell.'

'And Ruth?' he asked. 'You know, of course, that that will mean farewell
to her also.'

I could see that he was ill at ease, and that his words were not the
words that his true thoughts would have spoken. As I looked at him I saw
that his eyes shifted and wandered from my gaze, and I said coldly,--

'Much has happened since we last spoke of this. It will be for Joyful
Star herself to say whether she will bid me farewell or not. Is she not
free to go or stay where she pleases? Say, now, when I shall command the
treasure to be taken out of the Hall of Gold for you, and where you wish
it to be placed.'

'I must ask you to give me time to think about that and talk it over
with the professor,' he said, 'for we have no means of taking such an
immense amount of gold to the coast and getting it on board ship without
suspicion.'

'Go, then,' I said, 'and speak with him, but remember that it must be
done quickly, for ere many days are past there will be war in the land,
and neither your lives nor your gold will be safe.'

'I will take good care of that,' he said in a tone whose strangeness
told me more than his words, and with that he turned away and sat down
beside the professor, with the thoughts that were within his heart still
unspoken. As soon as he had gone back to his seat I called Francis
Hartness to me and set him beside me on the right hand of the throne,
and then I told who he was and showed that he was well skilled in those
new arts of warfare which had taken the place of our ancient methods,
and how he had promised to use his knowledge for me and lead my armies
into battle, hazarding his own life on the chance of our success; and
when I had said this I named him leader of all those who should range
themselves under the Rainbow Banner when the day of battle came, and
bade all present obey his orders and enforce obedience to them, even as
though his commands were my own.

Then I bade Francis Hartness himself speak all that was in his mind
freely and without fear of betrayal concerning the war that was soon to
be waged between the rival factions of our oppressors and the means that
were to be used to turn their strife to our own account, and this he
did, speaking in fluent Spanish and in short, clear sentences, as a man
of action and a soldier should speak.

He told how he had made himself acquainted with the forces on both
sides, and how, with the help of Tupac, he had sounded the feelings of
those by whom the fighting would have to be done, and had found them
willing to leave the service of the schemers who sought to make
themselves tyrants over the land, and fight for those whose purpose it
was to restore the ancient rule and give liberty to all to use their
lives as they thought best and to win for themselves as many of the
gifts of the All-Father as they were able to do. He told, too, how he
had sent many messages over the lightning-wires to his own country,
bidding friends like himself in war to come out as quickly as might be
to find the fortune that awaited them, yet saying nothing of war but
only of gold that was to be had for the taking.

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