ady."

"Your vengeance would be easy. Do not tell me where she is gaoled, and I
shall not dare to ask. Even to give Nais a further span of life I cannot
risk making inquiries for her cell, when there is a chance that those
who tell me might carry news to the Empress, and so cause more trouble
for this poor Atlantis."

"And why should I not carry the news, and so bring myself into favour
again? I tell you that being fan-girl to Phorenice and second woman in
the kingdom is a thing that not many would cast lightly aside."

I looked her between eyes and smiled. "I have no fear there. You will
not betray me, Ylga. Neither will you sell Nais."

"I seem to remember very small love for this same Nais just now," she
said bitterly. "But you are right about that other matter. I shall not
buy myself back at your expense. Oh, I am a fool, I know, and you can
give me no thanks that I care about, but there is no other way I can
act."

"Then let us fritter no more time. Go you out now and find where Nais
is gaoled, and bring me news how I can say ten words to her, and press a
certain matter into her clasp."

She bowed her head and left the chamber, and for long enough I was
alone. I sat down on the couch, and rested wearily against the wall.
My bones ached, my eyes ached, and most of all, my inwards ached. I had
thought to myself that a man who makes his life sufficiently busy
will find no leisure for these pains which assault frailer folk; but a
philosophy like this, which carried one well in Yucatan, showed poorly
enough when one tried it here at home. But that there was duty ahead,
and the order of the High Council to be carried into effect, the
bleakness of the prospect would have daunted me, and I would have prayed
the Gods then to spare me further life, and take me unto Themselves.

Ylga came back at last, and I got up and went quickly after her as
she led down a maze of passages and alleyways. "There has been no care
spared over her guarding," she whispered, as we halted once to move a
stone. "The officer of the guard is an old lover of mine, and I raised
his hopes to the burning point again by a dozen words. But when I wanted
to see his prisoner, there he was as firm as brass. I told him she was
my sister, but that did not move him. I offered him--oh, Deucalion, it
makes me blush to think of the things I did offer to that man, but there
was no stirring him. He has watched the tormentors so many times, that
there is no t