how he got
there I cannot tell, seeing that Phorenice's army blocks all possible
passage to and from the Mountain. I told him I wished to be mixed with
none of his schemings. I am a peaceful man, Deucalion, and have taken a
wife who requires nourishment. I still serve in the same temple, though
we have swept out the old Gods by order of the Empress, and put her
image in their place. The people are tidily pious nowadays, those that
are left of them, and the living is consequently easy. Yes, I tell you
there are far more offerings now than there were in the old days. And
so I had no wish to be mixed with matters which might well make me be
deprived of a snug post, and my head to boot."

"I can believe it all of you, Ro."

"But there was no denying Zaemon. He burst into one of his black furies,
and while he spoke at me, I tell you I felt as good as dead. You know
his powers?"

"I have seen some of them."

"Well, the Gods alone know which are the true Gods, and which are the
others. I serve the one that gives me employment. But those that Zaemon
serves give him power, and that's beyond denying. You see that right
hand of mine? It is dead and paralysed from the wrist, and that is
a gift of Zaemon. He bestowed it, he said, to make me collect my
attention. Then he said more hard things concerning what he was pleased
to term my apostasy, not letting me put up a word in my own defence of
how the change was forced upon me. And finally, said he, I might
either do his bidding on a certain matter to the letter, or take that
punishment which my falling away from the old Gods had earned. 'I
shall not kill you,' said he, 'but I will cover all your limbs with a
paralysis, such as you have tasted already, and when at length death
reaches you in some gutter, you will welcome it.'"

"If Zaemon said those words, he meant them. So you accepted the
alternative?"

"Had I, with a wife depending on me, any other choice? I asked his
pleasure. It was to find you when you came in here from some distant
part of the land, and deliver to you his message.

"'Then tell me where is the meeting place,' said I, 'and when.'

"'There is none appointed, nor is the day fixed,' said he. 'You must
watch and search always for him. But when he comes, you will be guided
to his place.' Well, Deucalion, I think I was guided, but how, I do
not know. But now I have found you, and if there's such a thing as
gratitude, I ask you to put in your word with Zaemon