a fight. With the fall of darkness I managed to haul
myself up into a tree, and there abode in the crutch of a limb, in
wakefulness and pain throughout the night.

With the dawn, when the night beasts had gone to their lairs, I
clambered down again, and leaning heavily on my spear, limped onwards
through the sombre forests along my way. The moss which grows on the
northern side of each tree was my guide, but gradually I began to note
that I was seeing moss all round the trees, and, in fact, was growing
light-headed with the pain and the swelling of the limb. But still I
pressed onwards with my journey, my last instinct being to obey the
command of the High Council, and so procure the enlargement of Nais as
had been promised.

My last memory was of being met by someone in the black forest who aided
me, and there my waking senses took wings into forgetfulness.

But after an interval, wit returned, and I found myself on a bed of
leaves in a cleft between two rocks, which was furnished with some poor
skill, and fortified with stakes and buildings against the entrance of
the larger marauding beasts. My wound was dressed with a poultice of
herbs, and at the other side of the cavern there squatted a woman,
cooking a mess of wood-grubs and honey over a fire of sticks.

"How came I here?" I asked.

"I brought you," said she.

"And who are you?"

"A nymph, they call me, and I practise as such, collecting herbs and
curing the diseases of those that come to me, telling fortunes, and
making predictions. In return I receive what each can afford, and if
they do not pay according to their means, I clap on a curse to make them
wither. It's a lean enough living when wars and the pestilence have left
so few poor folk to live in the land."

"Do you visit Atlantis?"

"Not I. Phorenice would have me boiled in brine, living, if she could
lay easy hands on me. Our dainty Empress tolerates no magic but her own.
They say she is for pulling down the Priests off their Mountain now."

"So you do get news of the city?"

"Assuredly. It is my trade to get good news, or otherwise how could I
tell fortunes to the vulgar? You see, my lord, I detected your quality
by your speech, and knowing you are not one of those that come to me for
spells, and potions, I have no fear in speaking to you plainly."

"Tell me then: Phorenice still reigns?"

"Most vilely."

"As a maiden?"

"As the mother of twin sons. Tatho's her husband now, and has bee