Part 27 (1/2)
”How could you know before you saw me and I had once made plain my business?”
”Birds come and go; but eagles see their natal nest once more before they die.”
”I do not understand you, Mayaro.”
He made no answer.
”Merely to hear my name from this child's lips, you say you guessed my business with you?”
”Surely, Loskiel--surely. It was all done by magic. And, at once, I knew that I should also speak to her, there in the storm, and answer her her question.”
”And did you do so?”
”Yes, Loskiel. I said to her: 'Little sad rosy-throated pigeon of the woods, the vale Yndaia lies by a hidden river in the West. Some call it Catharines-town.'”
I shook my head, perplexed, and understanding nothing.
”Yndaia? Did you say Yndaia, Mayaro?”
Then, as he looked me steadily in the eye, my gaze became uneasy, s.h.i.+fted, fell by an accident upon the blood-red bear reared on his hind legs, pictured upon his breast. And through and through me pa.s.sed a shock, like the dull thrill of some forgotten thing clutched suddenly by memory--yet clutched in vain.
Vain was the struggle, too, for the faint gleam pa.s.sed from my mind as it had come; and if the name Yndaia had disturbed me, or seeing the scarlet ensign on his breast, or perhaps both coupled, had seemed to stir some distant memory, I did not know. Only it seemed as though, in mental darkness, I had felt the presence of some living and familiar thing--been conscious of its nearness for an instant ere it had vanished utterly.
The Sagamore's face had become a smooth, blank mask again.
”What has this maid, Lois, to do with Catharines-town?” I asked.
”Devils live there in darkness.”
”She did not say.”
”You do not know?”
”No, Loskiel.”
”But,” said I, troubled, ”why did she journey hither?”
”Because she now believes that only I in all the world could guide her to the vale Yndaia; and that one day I will pity her and take her there.”
”Doubtless,” I said anxiously, ”she has heard at the forts or hereabouts that we are to march on Catharines-town.”
”She knows it now, Loskiel”
”And means to follow?” I exclaimed in horror.
”My brother speaks the truth.”
”G.o.d! What urges the child thither?”
”I do not know, Loskiel. It seems as though a madness were upon her that she must go to Catharines-town. I tell you there is sorcery in all this. I say it--I, a Sagamore of the Enchanted Wolf. Who should know magic when it stirs but I, of the Siwanois--the Magic Clan? Say what you will, my comrade and blood-brother, there is sorcery abroad; and well I know who wrought it, spinning with spiders' webs there by the lost Lake of Kendaia----” He shuddered slightly. ”There by the black waters of the lake--that hag--and all her sp.a.w.n!”
”Catharine Montour!”