eavier features
proclaimed her of another race--a native of the Fire Country, Miela told
me. She was dressed in a brown tunic of heavy silk, reaching from waist to
knee. Her thick black hair was cut to her shoulders.

On her left arm above the elbow was welded a broad band of copper
inscribed with a mark to identify Lua as her owner, for she was a slave.
Her torso was bare, except for a cloak like Lua's which hung from her
shoulders in the back to cover her wings. By this I knew she could not
fly.

It was not until some time afterward that I learned the reason for this
covering of the clipped wings. The wing joints were severed just above the
waist line. The feathers on the remaining upper portions were clipped, but
through disuse these feathers gradually dropped out entirely.

The flesh and muscle underneath was repulsive in appearance--for which
reason it was always kept covered. Lua showed me her wings once--mere
shrunken stumps of what had once been her most glorious possession. I did
not wonder then that the women were ready to fight, almost, rather than
part with them.

Difficulties of language made our conversation during the meal somewhat
halting, although Miela acted as interpreter. Lua and Anina both expressed
their immediate determination to learn English, and, with the same
persistence that Miela had shown, they set aside nearly everything else to
accomplish it.

We decided that we should see the king and arrange our future course of
action. Whatever was to be done should be done at once--that we all
agreed--for Tao's men were steadily gaining favor with a portion of the
people, and we had no means of knowing what they would attempt to do.

"What will your people think of me?" I suddenly asked Miela.

"We have sent our king word that you are here," she answered, "and we have
asked that he send a guard to take you to the castle this morning."

"A guard?"

She smiled. "It is better that the people see you first as a man of
importance. You will go to the king under guard. Few will notice you. Then
will he, our ruler, arrange that you are shown to the people as a great
man--one who has come here to help us--one who is trusted and respected by
our king. You see, my husband, the difference?"

I did, indeed, though I wondered a little how I should justify this
exalted position which was being thrust upon me. After breakfast Lua and
Anina busied themselves about the house, while Miela and I went to the
r