Now for the first time I saw that priest change countenance a little,
for the eternal smile, of which even this scene had not quite rid it,
left his face and he grew pale and trembled.
"Thou art afraid," she said contemptuously. "Be at rest, Oros, I will
not send one who is afraid. Holly, wilt thou go for me--and him?"
"Aye," I answered. "I am weary of life and desire no other end. Only let
it be swift and painless."
She mused a while, then said--"Nay, thy time is not yet, thou still hast
work to do. Endure, my Holly, 'tis only for a breath."
Then she looked at the Shaman, the man turned to stone who all this
while had stood there as a statue stands, and cried--"Awake!"
Instantly he seemed to thaw into life, his limbs relaxed, his breast
heaved, he was as he had always been: ancient, gnarled, malevolent.
"I hear thee, mistress," he said, bowing as a man bows to the power that
he hates.
"Thou seest, Simbri," and she waved her hand.
"I see. Things have befallen as Atene and I foretold, have they not?
'Ere long the corpse of a new-crowned Khan of Kaloon,'" and he pointed
to the gold circlet that Ayesha had set on Leo's brow, "'will lie upon
the brink of the Pit of Flame'--as I foretold." An evil smile crept into
his eyes and he went on--"Hadst thou not smote me dumb, I who watched
could have warned thee that they would so befall; but, great mistress,
it pleased thee to smite me dumb.
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