The Passionate Princess Read online

  She called to Mercury and he came bounding up to her at once, while Isten was led by a gypsy boy to his Master.

  Nikōs lifted Thea gently into the saddle.

  She was still stirred by the music and she wanted to put her head on his shoulder and close her eyes.

  She wished that he would take her back on the front of his saddle.

  Instead she just said “thank you” in her soft voice. She felt that he would know that she was thanking him for everything that had happened today.

  The gypsies started to cry out their farewells.

  As they did so, the Voivode, who had played the violin first, picked it up again.

  He started a gay romantic tune that seemed to have been composed especially to speed lovers on their journey.

  Long after they were out of sight of the gypsy camp Thea could still hear the music in the distance.

  She felt that it was carried to them by the movements of the leaves on the trees overhead.

  Soon they were on flat ground and then they were galloping as they had on the way out, but not so wildly nor so swiftly.

  Thea was sure that Nikōs was slowing his own pace so that she would not feel too tired.

  They left the plain as they had before and rode up the twisting road that led them to the fir trees.

  As they reached the top, Nikōs moved ahead of her.

  Then Thea was suddenly aware of a number of men who came from behind the trees and encircled them.

  Because her eyes were still dazzled by the light in the plain, she could hardly see them. They were little more than dark shadows.

  Then she heard Nikōs speaking in a voice that she knew was one of hostility and with a stab of fear she realised that the men were bandits.

  Everybody in Kostas knew of the dastardly gang of bandits that moved about the Balkan mountains. They were a serious menace to every country they visited.

  They stole sheep and goats and horses were spirited away.

  Often, it was whispered, young women vanished too and every Ruler, including her father, had tried to capture them.

  But it always took time before the people in the City were aware of what they were doing to the farmers and stock breeders near the mountains.

  By the time the soldiers came out to search for them, they had always vanished like the genie with the lamp.

  Thea had heard so often what they looked like with their sheepskin capes, their strange hard faces and the threatening weapons that they carried in their waistbands.

  She saw how their long, dark unruly hair was not covered with the exception of the man who, she thought, must be their leader.

  He was speaking to Nikōs who was arguing with him and they were talking a different language to the one that Nikōs had used to Valou.

  Thea did not at first understand them and then realised that the bandit spoke a mixture of Albanian, Greek and Turkish and she began to understand the sense of what was being said.

  The Chief of the bandits was clearly demanding a ransom.

  She knew then with a feeling of growing horror that they intended to take them prisoner.

  She edged Mercury nearer to Nikōs. And as she did so she was aware of just how angry he was.

  The bandit Chief then gave an order. Two men moved forward to hold onto the bridles of Isten and Mercury.

  Immediately the horses reared.

  “Don’t touch our horses!” Nikōs called out sharply. “We will follow you, as we have no other choice.”

  “They not your horses for long!” the bandit Chief replied derisively. “They very good horses.”

  Nikōs did not reply, but Thea gave a cry of horror. How could she possibly let Mercury be taken from her by men like these?

  She looked desperately at Nikōs and she could see how furious he was.

  But he said to her quietly,

  “We have to go with them, but it will be all right.”

  “How can it be?” Thea answered in terror.

  Then she realised that he was speaking to her in English so that the bandits would not understand what was being said.

  She had never imagined that he would be able to speak in English as she could.

  She answered in a frightened little voice,

  “What – can we do? How can – I lose – Mercury?”

  “Trust me,” Nikōs asserted firmly. “I should have anticipated that something like this might happen.”

  She knew that he felt helpless because he had no pistol with him.

  She was aware, without his telling her so, that there was nothing he could do against a dozen bandits. And all the more so since she was with him.

  If he had been alone, he might have somehow managed to gallop away from them and he could have taken the risk that they would not shoot at a horse as magnificent as Isten.

  But it was a risk that he dare not take with Thea with him.

  The bandit Chief was leading the way through the trees and with a sinking of her heart Thea recognised that it was in the opposite direction to Nikōs’s house.

  Now they were moving upwards into the mountains and they had to go slowly. It was a rocky surface and the horses might slip.

  After what seemed a long time they came to a plateau of rock. The mountains towered above them, but there were caves on each side of the plateau and Thea realised that this was a perfect hiding place for the bandits.

  As they appeared, other men, women and small children came running from the caves.

  The men were all dressed in much the same way as the Chief with guns and daggers at their waists.

  Some of the women wore bright vivid skirts like the peasants and they all wore brightly coloured headscarves and each woman was ornamented with a great deal of flashy jewellery.

  Their huge earrings, bracelets and a variety of necklaces seemed strange against their dirty ragged garments.

  They clustered around Thea, staring up at her on Mercury and she thought how different they were from the beauty and grace of the gypsies they had just left.

  The bandit Chief said something to Nikōs and he dismounted slowly.

  Then he lifted Thea down from the saddle and, as he did so, she clung to him whispering in English,

  “Y-you will not – leave me?”

  “Of course not.”

  She felt that, while he was reassuring her, he was at the same time becoming increasingly anxious.

  The men would then have led Mercury away.

  Nikōs stopped them sharply with a word of command and he took Thea’s shawl from where it had been tied to the saddle and wrapped it round her shoulders.

  She was glad of the warmth as they were now very high up in the mountains.

  It was much cooler and she knew that it would be very cold later when darkness fell.

  ‘How – can we – stay here? What – will they – do to us?’ she asked herself frantically.

  Because she was so afraid she slipped her hand into Nikōs’s.

  She felt his fingers, warm and strong, giving her a sense of protection.

  Now they were standing in the centre of the plateau and the bandits were all clustered round them, staring at them as if they were wild animals rather than human beings.

  Then the bandit Chief began to speak,

  “You rich man,” he said to Nikōs. “We want ten thousand ducats for you and five thousand ducats for your woman!”

  He paused before he went on,

  “You try escape or soldiers come, we kill. Each day we not receive money, we cut off one finger or one toe!”

  Thea would have given a cry of horror, but the presence of Nikōs’s fingers prevented her from doing so.

  She knew again instinctively that he wanted her to be dignified and not let the bandits know that she was afraid.

  She thought as well that it was how her father would expect her to appear in the face of adversity.

  She could remember her mother saying to her,

  “Royalty never show their emotions in pu
blic like ordinary people.”

  ‘I must – be Royal! I must be – Royal!’ she said to herself.

  Yet she was trembling.

  “What I will do,” Nikōs was saying to the bandit Chief, “is to send a note to a friend who will give your messenger the money.”

  The bandit was listening.

  “I will write the note in your language,” Nikōs went on, “so that you can see that there are no tricks about it.”

  “If there tricks, you die!” the bandit Chief said fiercely.

  Nikōs ignored him and searched in his pockets as if for something to write on.

  The bandit Chief then gave an order and a man ran to bring him a piece of paper that was more like parchment that was none too clean and somewhat creased.

  Thea suspected quietly that this was not the first time that the bandits had demanded a ransom.

  When another man had provided an inkwell and a scruffy quill pen, she was absolutely sure of it.

  There was a large rock at the side of the plateau and Nikōs stood at it to write. The ink was thin and the quill pen badly sharpened.

  However he wrote slowly and distinctly.

  Standing by him, Thea saw that he had put what was wanted into three lines.

  Then he signed his name.

  She thought as he wrote that at last she would learn his other name but he just signed the paper ‘Nikōs’.

  He waited for the ink to dry and he then turned the paper over on the other side and wrote the address that it was to be taken to.

  Not knowing the country they were in, Thea had no idea whether it was far away or near.

  She next thought with horror that they might be imprisoned for days or even weeks.

  Then she remembered the threat that the bandit Chief had made and it made her want to cry out in sheer terror.

  She managed, however, to stand stoically at Nikōs’s side with her chin up.

  Before he handed the bandit Chief the piece of paper, he read it aloud so that everybody could hear him.

  He then read out the address and a young bandit came forward to take the paper from him.

  “I hope you will hurry,” Nikōs urged him.

  “He hurry as I want money!” the bandit Chief interrupted before the messenger could reply.

  “And now,” Nikōs said, “as it will soon be getting cold, I would be grateful if we, as your prisoners, could be treated generously and be given a cave where we can be alone.”

  “You have cave,” the bandit Chief replied. “Woman stay with us!”

  Thea felt as if her heart had stopped beating.

  While Nikōs was writing the note, she had been aware that some of the younger bandits had been pointing at her, laughing and whispering amongst themselves.

  She thought they were just being rude or perhaps they were comparing her to their own women.

  But now she was feeling afraid, desperately afraid!

  Her hand went to Nikōs’s and she knew as she touched him that he was as apprehensive as she was.

  She was so panic-stricken that she contemplated running away and she would run into the wood, hoping that she would be able to hide in the undergrowth.

  Then she knew that it was a hopeless idea and the bandits would be able to catch her easily and bring her back humiliated

  They would be touching her and her whole body screamed out at the horror of it.

  ‘Oh – God help – me!’ she prayed.

  Even as she did so, Nikōs had had an idea and perceptively she could see it come into his mind.

  She was aware that he drew in his breath and was calling on some Power stronger than himself.

  He seemed suddenly to grow in stature. He was taller, more authoritative and almost omnipotent.

  She could not understand it.

  Yet, because they were so closely attuned to each other, she knew that it had happened and Nikōs would save her.

  He looked around at the bandits.

  And then he said to their Chief,

  “I have a story to tell you and I want you all to listen before it grows dark. Call all your people to come here and instruct them to sit down on the ground.”

  Thea thought that the bandit Chief was about to refuse him.

  She could then feel Nikōs concentrating on him and he was willing him to be obedient to his will.

  The two men gazed at each other, the bandit defiantly.

  Without speaking but with a force that Thea could feel emanating out of him, Nikōs won the silent battle.

  The bandit’s eyes fell before his and he turned round and shouted at his followers.

  They were gesticulating, pointing and talking amongst themselves, but obediently they came towards their leader and sat down as he commanded.

  Nikōs did not move. He just stood with his arm round Thea’s shoulders.

  The men, women and children squatted until only their Chief was standing.

  Thea was thinking that this could not truly be happening.

  The rays of the dying sun were touching the peaks of the mountains and turning the snow to gold and even the rocks held a strange glow that was in itself very beautiful.

  There was something unreal about the whole scene. The caves, the rocks, the frightening bandits and then themselves.

  The situation was one of sheer terror.

  Then Thea looked up at the sky and saw the first evening star. It was very faint, but it was there.

  Thea knew, incredible though it might seem, that they were now protected.

  It was by the power that Nikōs had just drawn into himself.

  Nikōs was waiting.

  As if he still had control over the Chief of the bandits, the man slowly and reluctantly sat down.

  Then there was silence.

  Chapter Five

  Thea could feel the tension in the air.

  The Chief of the bandits glared at Nikōs with what she thought was hatred and envy.

  Certainly Nikōs looked very different from them and she was becoming increasingly aware that the younger bandits were watching her closely.

  She found it difficult to force herself to ignore them, but she managed, however, to hold herself proudly.

  Only Nikōs’s arm around her gave a little comfort and she was praying fervently in her heart,

  ‘Please – God – save me and Nikōs – please – please!’

  She felt that her prayer was now winging its way up into Heaven.

  Then Nikōs began to speak.

  “I want to tell you a story,” he started in his deep educated voice.

  He was speaking the bandit’s language, but Thea could quite easily understand all that he was saying.

  “I married my wife, who is here with me, when she was fifteen. Because we were very much in love, we hoped that we would blessed with a child.”

  He glanced for a moment at the bandits’ children. They might not be very prepossessing, but they were fat and well fed.

  “Like all of you,” Nikōs continued, “I wanted a son, but alas! We were not lucky.”

  He sighed and then went on,

  “As the years passed, I began to be afraid that my name would die with me.”

  Thea now realised that the bandits were listening to him intently.

  She felt that some of them looked rather more sympathetic than they had when Nikōs had started to speak.

  “A few years ago in desperation,” he was saying, “I prayed ardently to Héja, who, as you all know, lives on the highest mountain of this land and reigns over us all.”

  Thea had heard of Héja. He was the King of all the Gods in the mountains.

  She realised by the expression on their faces that the bandits knew of him and doubtless worshipped him as well.

  “I went to the Great Cascade,” Nikōs went on, “which falls directly from Héja down into the plains to bring life and fertility to our crops.”

  One or two of the bandits murmured to themselves as if they were obviously familiar with th
e Cascade.

  Thea thought vaguely that she had heard about it when she was a little girl.

  She was, however, not at all certain which Kingdom it poured from the mountain tops into.

  Nearly all of the Balkan countries boasted similar Cascades and she had the idea that the Cascade of Héja was thought more significant than the others.

  “Then I had a dream,” Nikōs carried on, “and I knew that Héja was speaking to me.”

  His voice rose,

  “Héja told me that if, when the moon was full, my wife, Thea, bathed naked in the Cascade, she would conceive a child.”

  A sound of surprise came from the bandits and Thea herself was astonished.

  “My wife is now with child,” Nikōs declared dramatically “In five months I believe I shall have the son I require so urgently.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  Then in a voice that sounded almost, Thea thought, like the roar of thunder he declaimed,

  “It is Héja’s child she carries! Héja, King of the Gods! If anyone should touch her, insult or defile her, they will be cursed for ever!”

  There was a tense silence from the bandits and several of the women crossed themselves as if to protect themselves.

  “You all know,” Nikōs said, “the vengeance of the Gods, but you also know that they can bless and succour you.”

  His arm tightened round Thea as he added,

  “You have been blessed because my beautiful wife, Thea, is here amongst you. Let her stay unmolested and in peace otherwise Héja will take a terrible revenge!”

  Nikōs’s voice rang out.

  When he finally finished speaking, the sun had vanished below the horizon and the light faded rapidly from the snow on the mountain tops.

  To Thea it seemed that they were now in almost total darkness.

  Then, as if he must break the tension, the Chief bandit rose to his feet.

  He gave an order and the bandits thrust thick tar-tipped sticks into the fire. And then there was light.

  Nikōs and Thea did not move.

  The bandit Chief addressed them in a surly tone,

  “I show you cave where you wait till my messenger returns.”

  “Thank you,” Nikōs said quietly.

  He and Thea followed him across the plateau.

  They had taken only a few steps when the women rushed forward carrying or dragging their small children with them.