"You are not talking to an enemy of Tavantinsuyu, Palla Maytalca," said Cristoval, quietly.
"I believe it," she returned, with a quick glance. "I think it hath been proven. But," she resumed, after a pause, "I dread the thought of the Cañares following."
Cristoval was silent for a moment. "I should think it impossible that we could be traced by any living creature," he said, at length.
"They will search every crevice of these mountains; and the distance from here to Caxamalca is not great, Viracocha."
CHAPTER XIX
Hearts Perplexed
The ensuing days were such as had rarely entered into Peralta's adventurous and somewhat reckless life. The enclosing mountains seemed jealous of the intrusion even of thoughts of the outside world, and the soft air and prevailing sense of peace cast a spell to which he fell a willing subject. Save for a rumor that Pizarro had placed the imperial llautu upon the head of Toparca and had begun his advance upon Cuzco, attended by his allies the Cañares, ravaging as they moved, the vale was without tidings. The last of these told of the arrival of the Spaniards at Xauxa, some fifty leagues to the south, and of increasing resistance from native warriors, led, it was said, by Prince Manco, Rava's full brother and rightful heir to the throne. The devastating march of the conquistadors had passed far to the eastward, leaving a demoralization which interrupted all regular communication, and the secluded valley seemed forgotten of the world.
At first Cristoval bore the inaction with uneasiness. Until he should have placed the Ñusta Rava in the protection of her brother Manco, his duty would be unfulfilled; and although he looked forward to the ultimate surrender of his guardianship with a reluctance only half confessed to himself, yet his vow to Atahualpa was paramount. Very soon, however, the impossibility of reaching Cuzco with Pizarro in the way became apparent. For the present they must remain at Xilcala, and the cavalier was forced to admit a feeling of relief.
So he surrendered to the dreamy quiet of Xilcala, growing daily more compliant. Nevertheless, the unwelcome prospective forced itself upon him with an insistence he could not always put aside. One morning he was sitting with Rava and their hostess in the hemicycle where they usually passed the warmer hours of the day, and the conversation turned, as often, upon far-away Cuzco, and their prospects of reaching it. Something called Maytalca away, and the two were left to themselves, lapsing at once into the silence without constraint privileged to close friendship and sympathy. Rava, engaged upon an embroidered trifle, glanced from time to time toward the vacant lake, or at her ruminating companion as he sat watching the intricacies of her work. At length she spoke, using the more familiar form, and having dropped, at his request, the appellation of Viracocha.
"Thou art thoughtful, Cristoval," she said, looking up from her work. "I fear idleness beginneth to burden thee."