Power of the Sword - Smith Wilbur (читать книги онлайн регистрации .TXT) 📗

Greet them Out of the seemingly barren earth against which they had hidden rose the little golden people of the San. With Kwi there were twelve of them; two men, Kwi and his brother Fat Kwi, their wives and the naked children. They had hidden with all the art of wild creatures, but now they crowded forward chirruping and clicking and laughing and Centaine swung down from the saddle to meet and embrace them, greeting each of them by name and finally picking up two of the toddlers and holding one on each hip.

How do you know them so well, Mater? Shasa wanted to know.

Kwi and his brother are related to O'wa, your adopted Bushman grandfather. I first met them when you were very small and we were developing the H'ani Mine. These are their hunting grounds. They passed the rest of that day with the clan, and when it was time to leave Centaine gave each of the women a handful of brass 7mm cartridges and they shrieked with joy and danced their thanks. The cartridges would be strung with ostrich shell beads into necklaces that would make them the envy of every other San woman they met in their wandering. Shasa gave Kwi his ivory-handled hunting knife and the little man tried the edge with his thumb and grunted with wonder as the skin parted, and he displayed the bloody thumb proudly to each of the women.

What a weapon I have now. Fat Kwi got Centaine's belt, and they left him studying the reflection of his own face in the polished brass buckle.

If you wish to visit us again, Kwi called after them, we will be at the mongongo tree grove near O'chee Pan until the rains break. 'They are so happy with so little, Shasa said, looking back at the tiny dancing figures.

They are the happiest people in this earth, Centaine agreed. 'But I wonder for how much longer. Did you truly live like that, Mater? Shasa asked. Like a Bushman? Did you really wear skins and eat roots? So did you, Shasa. Or rather you wore nothing at all just like one of those grubby little scamps. He frowned with the effort of memory. Sometimes I dream about a dark . place, like a cave with water that smoked. That was the thermal spring in which we bathed, and in which I found the first diamond of the H'ani Mine. I would like to visit it again, Mater. That isn't possible. He saw her mood change. The spring was in the centre of the H'ani pipe, in what is now the main excavation of the mine. We dug it out and destroyed the spring. They rode on in silence for a while. It was the holy place of the San, and yet, strangely, they did not seem to resent it when we, she hesitated over the word and then said it firmly, when we desecrated it. I wonder why. I mean if some strange race turned Westminster Abbey into a diamond mine. A long time ago I discussed it with Kwi. He said that the secret place belonged not to them but the spirits and if the spirits had not wanted it so they would not have let it happen. He said the spirits had lived there so long that perhaps they were bored and wished to move on to another home, just like the San do. I still cannot imagine you living like one of the San women, MatCT. Not you. I mean it just goes beyond imagination. it was hard, she said softly. It was hard beyond the telling of it, beyond imagination, and yet without that tempering and toughening I would not be what I am now. You see, Shasa, Out here in the desert when I had almost reached the breaking point I swore an oath. I swore that I, and my son, would never again be so deprived. I swore that we would never again have to stiffer those terrible extremes. But I was not with you then. Oh yes, she nodded. Oh yes, you were. I carrier] You within me on the Skeleton Coast and through the heat of the dune lands and you were part of that oath when I made it. We are creatures of the desert, my darling, and we will survive and prosper when others fail and fall. Remember that. Remember it well, Shasa, my darling. Early the next morning they left the servants to break camp, load the pack horses and follow them as they turned their horses regretfully in the direction of the H'ani Mine. At noon they rested under a camel-thorn tree, lying against their saddles and lazily watching the drab little weavers above their heads busily adding to their communal nest that was already the size of an untidy haystack. When the heat went out (if the sun they caught the hobbled horses, tip-saddled and rode along the base of the hills.

Shasa straightened in the saddle suddenly and shaded his eyes with one hand as he looked up at the hills.

What is it, cheri? He had recognized the rocky gorge to which Annalisa had led him.

Something is worrying you, Centaine insisted, and Shasa felt a sudden urge to lead his mother up the gorge to the shrine of the witch of the mountain. He was about to speak when he remembered his oath and he stopped, teetering uneasily on the brink of betrayal.

Don't you want to tell me," She was watching the struggle on his face.

Mater doesn't Count. She's like me. It's not as though I were telling a stronger, lie justified himself and burst out before his conscience could overtake him. There is the skeleton of a Bushman in the gorge tip there, Mater. Would you like me to show you," Centaine paled under her suntan and stared at him. A Bushman? she whispered. 'How do you know it's a Bushman? The hair is still on the skull, little Bushman peppercorn curls, just like Kwi and his clan. How did you find it? Anna, he broke off and flushed with guilt.

The girl showed you out Centaine helped him.

Yes. He nodded and hung his head.

Can you find it again? Centaine's colour had returned, and she seemed eager and excited as she leaned across and tugged his sleeve.

Yes, I think so, I marked the place. He pointed up the cliffs. 'That notch in the rocks and that cleft shaped like an eye. Show me, Shasa, she ordered.

We will have to leave the horses and go up on foot., The climb was onerous, the heat in the gorge fierce and the hooked thorns snatched at them as they toiled upwards.

It must he about here. Shasa climbed up on one of the tumbled boulders and orientated himself. Perhaps just a little more to the left. Look for, pile of rock with a mimosa growing below it. There is a branch covering a small niche.

Let's spread out and search. They picked their way slowly tip the gorge, moving a little apart to cover more ground and keeping in touch with whistles and calls when scrub and rocks separated them.

Centaine did not respond to Shasa's whistle, and he

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stopped and repeated it, cocking his head for her reply and feeling a prickle of concern in the silence.

Mater, where are you! Here! Her voice was faint, wracked with pain or some deep emotion and he scrambled over the rock to reach her.

She stood small and forlorn in the sunlight, holding her hat against the front of her hips. Moisture sparkled on her cheeks. He thought it was sweat, until he saw the soft slow slide of tears down her face.

Mater? He moved up behind her and realized that she had found the shrine.

She had drawn the screening branch aside. The small circle of glass jars was still in place, the floral offering brown and withered.

Annalisa said the skeleton was a witch, Shasa breathed with superstitious awe as he stared over Centaine's shoulder at the pathetic pile of bones and the small neat white skull that surmounted it.

Centaine shook her head, unable to speak.

She said the witch guarded the mountain and that she would grant a wish. H'ani. Centaine choked on the name. My beloved old mother. Mater! Shasa seized her shoulders and steadied her as she swayed on her feet. How do you know? Centaine leaned against his chest for support but did not reply.

There could be hundreds of Bushman skeletons in the caves and gorges, he went on lamely, and she shook her head vehemently.

How can you be certain? It's her. Centaine's voice was blurred with grief. It's H'ani, the chipped canine tooth, the design of ostrich shell beads on her loincloth. Shasa had not noticed the scrap of dry leather decorated with beads that lay beneath the pile of bones, half buried in dust. I don't even need that proof. I know it's her. I just know it. Sit down, Mater. He lowered her to sit on one of the lichen-covered boulders.