t her, trusting to find that we are welcome."

"That you shall not do," she said, "for it is unlawful, and I will not
have your blood upon my hands."

"Which is the stronger," I asked of her, "you, Khania, or this priestess
of the Mountain?"

"I am the stronger, Holly, for so you are named, are you not? Look you,
at my need I can summon sixty thousand men in war, while she has naught
but her priests and the fierce, untrained tribes."

"The sword is not the only power in the world," I answered. "Tell me,
now, does this priestess ever visit the country of Kaloon?"

"Never, never, for by the ancient pact, made after the last great
struggle long centuries ago between the College and the people of the
Plain, it was decreed and sworn to that should she set her foot across
the river, this means war to the end between us, and rule for the victor
over both. Likewise, save when unguarded they bear their dead to burial,
or for some such high purpose, no Khan or Khania of Kaloon ascends the
Mountain."

"Which then is the true master--the Khan of Kaloon or the head of the
College of Hes?" I asked again.

"In matters spiritual, the priestess of Hes, who is our Oracle and the
voice of Heaven. In matters temporal, the Khan of Kaloon."

"The Khan. Ah! you are married, lady, are you not?"

"Aye," she answered, her face flushing. "And I will tell you what you
soon must learn, if you have not learned it already, I am the wife of a
madman, and he is--hateful to me."

"I _have_ earned the last already, Khania."

She looked at me with her piercing eyes.

"What! Did my uncle, the Shaman, he who is called Guardian, tell you?
Nay, you saw, as I knew you saw, and it would have been best to slay you
for, oh! what must you think of me?"

I made no answer, for in truth I did not know what to think, also
I feared lest further rash admissions should be followed by swift
vengeance.

"You must believe," she went on, "that I, who have ever hated men, that
I--I swear that it is true--whose lips are purer than those mountain
snows, I, the Khania of Kaloon, whom they name Heart-of-Ice, am but a
shameless thing." And, covering her face with her hand, she moaned in
the bitterness of her distress.

"Nay," I said, "there may be reasons, explanations, if it pleases you to
give them."

"Wanderer, there are such reasons; and since you know so much, you shall
learn them also. Like that husband of mine, I have become mad. When
first I saw the fa