Allan and the Ice Gods (27 page)

“Are you sure of that, Aaka? Are you sure that, if you leave her

alone, she will not bring a blessing on the people in the end, seeing

that wisdom is always strong, and that she has more of it than the

rest of us put together?”

“I am sure that she would be best out of our path,” answered Aaka,

scowling, “and so would you be if you had a husband whom you loved and

who was being led aside.”

“How should a wife show love to her husband, Aaka? I ask you because I

do not know. Is it by being always rough to him and finding fault with

all he does, and turning her back on him and hating all his friends?

Or is it by being kindly and loving and trying to help him in his

troubles, as such a one as Laleela would do? Well, who am I to talk of

such matters, of which as a wolf-man I can know nothing? Friendship

and its duties I understand, since even a dog may care for its master,

but love and its ways have never been mine to know. Still it is true

that, like you, I am jealous of this Laleela and should not be sorry

to see her back on the sea. Therefore I will think over all that you

have said, and afterward we will talk again. And now I will be going—

that is, if you have no more mussels, Aaka.”

So, as there were no more mussels, Pag went, leaving Aaka wondering,

for she was not sure what he would do. She knew that he was jealous of

Laleela, who had taken his place in Wi’s counsel, and therefore surely

he must wish to be rid of her, as she did. And yet Pag was very

strange and who could be certain? He was only a twisted dwarf, wolf-suckled, they said, and yet he seemed to have the mind of a man, and

how could men be counted on, especially where a woman was concerned?

She might have bewitched him also. Notwithstanding his wrongs, he

might turn round and take her side. Now she almost wished she had not

paid so much heed to Pag’s grumblings and opened her secret heart to

him; for, after all, Pag was a man, and how was it possible to trust

men, mad people, most of them, who thought quite differently from

women, and could be turned from their ends and advantage by all sorts

of silly reasons?

Pag went away, far away into the woods, for he knew that Wi was taking

counsel with Laleela and would not want him. At a certain place in the

woods, a secret place where the trees were very thick and, save

himself, no man had ever come, he cast himself down upon his face and

lay thinking. It had come to this that he hated Laleela, of whom he

used to be so fond, almost as much as Aaka did, and for the same

reason—because she had robbed him of the heart of Wi. If he caused

her to be killed, as Aaka had suggested, which he could do well enough

by stirring up the people against her, who thought that she had

brought a curse upon them, then he would be rid of her and Wi’s heart

would come back to him, because his nature was such that he must have

someone to trust and to care for him, and the boy Foh was not yet old

enough for him to lean upon. Only, if ever he learned that he, Pag,

had loosed the stone that crushed Laleela, what then? He would kill

him. Nay, that was not Wi’s way. He would look over his head and would

never see him more, even when he sat on the other side of the fire or

stared him in the face. Yes, Wi would despise him and in his heart

call him—dog.

Pag thought till he could think no more, for his mind went up and

down, first this way and then that, like a stick balanced on a stone

and shaken by the wind. At last a kind of savagery entered into him,

who grew weary of these reasonings, and wished that he were as the

beasts are who obey their desires and question not. He set his hand to

his big mouth and uttered a low howling cry. Thrice he uttered it, and

presently, far, far away in the distance, it was answered. Then Pag

sat silent and waited, and while he waited the sun went down and

twilight came.

There was a patter of feet stirring the dried pine needles. Then

between the trunks of two trees appeared the head of a gray wolf

glaring about it suspiciously. Pag howled again in a lower note, but

still the wolf seemed doubtful. It moved away till such wind as there

was blew from Pag to it, then sniffed thrice and leaped forward, and

after it ran a cub. It came to Pag, a great, gaunt creature, and,

rearing itself up, set its forepaws upon his shoulders and licked his

face, for it knew him again. Pag patted it upon the head, whereon the

old she-wolf sat herself down beside him as a dog might do; then with

low growls called to the young one to come near as though to make it

known to Pag, which it would not do, for man was strange to it. So Pag

and the wolf sat there together, and Pag talked to the wolf that many

years ago once had suckled him, while she sat still as though she

understood him, which she did not. All she understood was that by her

was one whom she had suckled.

“I have killed your kin, Gray Mother,” said Pag to the she-wolf or

rather to himself, “if not all of them, for it seems that somewhere

you have found one to mate with you,” and he looked toward the cub

lurking at a distance. “Yet you can forgive me and come at my call, as

of old, you that are a brute beast while I am a man. Then, if you, the

beast, can forgive, why should not I, the man, also forgive one who

has done me far smaller wrong? Why should I kill this Witch-from-the-Sea, this Laleela, because for a while she has stolen the mind of one

whom I loved, being wiser than I am, and knowing more; being a very

fair woman also, and therefore armed with a net which I cannot cast.

Oh! old mother wolf, if you, the savage beast, can forgive and come at

my call because once you gave me of your milk, why cannot I forgive

who am a man?”

Then the great, gaunt she-wolf that understood nothing, save that he,

her fosterling, was troubled, licked his face again and leaned against

him who had planned the murder of all her kin and used her love to

decoy them to their doom.

“I will not kill Laleela or cause her to be killed,” said Pag at

length, aloud. “I will forgive as this gray wolf mother of mine

forgives. If it is in Aaka’s mind to kill her, let her work her own

evil, against which I will warn Laleela; yes, and Wi also. I thank you

for your lesson, Gray Mother, and now get you back to your cub and

your hunting.”

So the old she-wolf went away, and presently Pag went also.

Next morning Pag sat at the mouth of the cave, watching Laleela at her

work among the cast-out female babes, going from one to another,

tending them, soothing them, talking to those who nursed them;

bravely, sweetly, gently; lovely to look on and in all her ways.

At length her tasks were finished and she came to Pag, sat herself

down beside him, glanced at the gray, cold sky, drew her robe closer

about her shoulders, and shivered.

“Why do you stop in this cold place, Laleela?” asked Pag, “you who, I

understand, come from a country where the sun shines and it is warm.”

“Because I must, or so it would seem, Pag.”

“Then would you go away if you could, Laleela?”

“I do not know, I am not sure, Pag. The great sea is a lonely place.”

“Then why did you cross it to come hither, Laleela, you who tell us

that you are a chieftainess in your own land?”

“Because no woman can rule alone; always there must be one who rules

her, Pag, and I hate him who would have ruled me. Therefore I became a

death-seeker, but instead of finding death I found this place of ice

and cold and you who dwell here.”

“And here once more you have become a chieftainess, Laleela, seeing

that you rule him who rules us. Where is Wi?”

“I think he has gone out to quell some trouble among the people, Pag.

There is always trouble among your people.”

“Yes, Laleela; empty bellies and cold feet make bad tempers,

especially when men and women are afraid.”

“Afraid of what, Pag?”

“Of the sunless skies, of lack of food, and of the cold, black winter

that draws on; also of the curse that has fallen upon the tribe.”

“What curse, Pag?”

“The curse of the Witch-from-the-Sea, the curse of a fair woman called

Laleela.”

“Why am I a curse-bearer, Pag?” she asked, staring at him open-eyed

and turning pale.

“I don’t know, Laleela, seeing that, from the look of you, blessings

should come in your basket, not curses, you whose eyes are kind and

who do kind deeds with your hands. Yet the people hold differently,

because they believe that they are the only men and women on the earth

and think that therefore you must be a witch born of the sea. Also,

since you came, there has been nothing but misfortune: the sun has

hidden itself, those beasts and birds and fishes on which we feed have

kept away, and even the berries do not grow upon the bushes in the

wood, while now, in the early autumn, we hear winter marching toward

us, for on the mountain-tops already rain turns to ice, as it does in

the dark of the year. Yes, winter is always with us. Listen! There is

one of his footsteps,” and he held up his hand while from the hills

behind them came the terrible rending sound of mighty masses of ice

being thrust forward by other new-formed masses that had gathered

above them.

“Can I command the sun?” asked Laleela sadly. “Is it my fault if the

season is cold and the seals and the fowls do not come, and it snows

on the mountain-tops when it ought to rain, and the rest?”

“The people think so,” answered Pag, nodding his great head,

“especially since you have become Wi’s chosen counsellor, which was

once my office.”

“Pag, you are jealous of me,” said Laleela.

“Yes, that is true: I am jealous of you, and yet I would have you

believe that I try to judge justly. I have been urged to kill you or

to bring about your death, which would be easy. But this I do not wish

to do because I like you too well, who are fairer and wiser than any

of us, and have shown us how to sew skins together, with other arts,

also because it would be wicked to put a stranger to death who has

come among us by chance, for well I know that you are no witch, but

just a stranger.”

“To kill me! You have been urged to kill me?” she exclaimed, staring

at him with big, fearful eyes, as a seal does when it sees the club

above its head.

“I have said it, also that I will have no hand in this business, but

others may be found who think differently. Therefore, if you will

listen I will give you counsel to take or to leave.”

“When the fox told the raven how to draw the bolt of its cage, the

raven listened, so says the tale of my country, but it forgot that the

hungry fox was waiting outside,” answered Laleela, casting a doubtful

look at Pag. “Still, speak on.”

“Have no fear,” said Pag grimly, “since perhaps the counsel that I

shall give you, if taken, would leave this fox hungrier than he is

to-day. Hearken! You are in danger. Yet there is one way in which you

can save yourself. Become the wife of Wi which, although he hangs

round you with his eyes fixed upon your face, it is well known you are

not. None dare to touch Wi, who, if he is grumbled against, is still

beloved because it is known that all day and all night he thinks of

others, not of himself, and because he killed Henga and the great

toothed tiger and is mighty. Nor would any dare to touch one who was

folded in his cloak, though, while she is outside his cloak, it is

otherwise. Therefore, become his wife and be safe. Yes, I say this,

although I know that, when it happens, I, Pag, who love Wi better than

you do, if indeed you love him at all, shall be driven far from the

cave and mayhap shall go to live in the woods, where I can still find

friends of a sort, who will not turn on me even when they are mating,

or, at any rate, one friend.”

“Marry Wi!” exclaimed Laleela. “I do not know that I wish to marry Wi;

I have never thought of it. Also, Wi is married already to Aaka. Also,

never has he sought to marry me. Had such been his desire, surely he

would have told me, who speaks to me of no such matters.”

“Men do not always talk of what they desire, or women either, Laleela.

Has not Wi told you about his new laws?”

“Yes, often.”

“And do you not remember that, because women are so few among us, the

first of these was that no man should have more than one wife?”

“Yes,” said Laleela, dropping her eyes and colouring.

“Also, perhaps, he has told you that he called down a curse upon his

head and on all the tribe, if he broke that law.”

“Yes,” she said again in a low voice.

“Then perhaps it is because of this oath that Wi, although he is

always so close to you and sees no one else when you are near, has

never spoken to you of coming closer, Laleela.”

“Nor would he, having sworn that oath, Pag.”

Now Pag laughed hoarsely, saying:

“There are oaths and oaths. Some are made to be kept and some made to

be broken.”

“Yes, but this one is coupled with a curse.”

“Aye,” said Pag, “and there comes the trouble. Choose now. Will you