ushta stared coldly at the fair woman, muffled in her cloak and veil.

"What is it to me whether you go to the ends of the earth, or whether
you remain here?" she asked.

"I wished to know whether you desired to accompany me, else I should not
have asked you the question. I feared that you might be lonely here in
Stakhar--will you not come?"

"Again I say, why do you ask me? What have I to do with you?" returned
Nehushta, drawing her mantle about her as though to leave Atossa.

"If the king were here, he would bid you go," said Atossa, looking
intently upon her enemy.

"It is for me to judge what the king would wish me to do--not for you.
Leave me in peace. Go your way if you will--it is nothing to me."

"You will not come?" Atossa's voice softened and she smiled serenely.
Nehushta turned fiercely upon her.

"No! If you are going--go! I want you not!"

"You are glad I am going, are you not?" asked Atossa, gently.

"I am glad--with a gladness only you can know. I would you were already
gone!"

"You rejoice that I leave you alone with your lover. It is very
natural----"

"My lover!" cried Nehushta, her wrath rising and blazing in her eyes.

"Ay, your lover! the thin, white-haired priest, that once was
Zoroaster--your old lover--your poor old lover!"

Nehushta steadied herself for a moment. She felt as though she must tear
this woman in pieces. But she controlled her anger by a great effort,
though she was nearly choking as she drew herself up and answered.

"I would that the powers of evil, of whom you are, might strangle the
thrice-accursed lie in your false throat!" she said, in low fierce
tones, and turned away.

Still Atossa stood there, smiling as ever. Nehushta looked back as she
reached the opposite end of the little plot.

"Are you not yet gone? Shall I bid my slaves take you by the throat and
force you from me?" But, as she spoke, she looked beyond Atossa, and saw
that a body of dark men and women stood in the path. Atossa had not come
unprotected.

"I see you are the same foolish woman you ever were," answered the older
queen. Just then, a strange sound echoed far off among the hills above,
strange and far as the scream of a distant vulture sailing its mate to
the carrion feast--an unearthly cry that rang high in the air from side
to side of the valley, and struck the dark crags and doubled in the
echo, and died away in short, faint pulsations of sound upon the
startled air.

Nehushta star