beauteous than
_I_ am, and he replied with courtesy--nothing else, I think--that it
would be hard to say, but that she had been different. Then I said that
though it behooved me not to speak of such a matter, there was no lady
in Kaloon whom men held to be so fair as I; moreover, that I was its
ruler, and that I and no other had saved him from the water. Aye, and I
added that my heart told me I was the woman whom he sought."

"Have done, niece," said Simbri impatiently, "I would not hear of the
arts you used--well enough, doubtless. What then?"

"Then he said that it might be so, since he thought that this woman
was born again, and studied me a while, asking me if I had ever 'passed
through fire.' To this I replied that the only fires I had passed were
those of the spirit, and that I dwelt in them now. He said, 'Show me
your hair,' and I placed a lock of it in his hand. Presently he let
it fall, and from that satchel which he wears about his neck drew out
another tress of hair--oh! Simbri, my uncle, the loveliest hair that
ever eyes beheld, for it was soft as silk, and reached from my coronet
to the ground. Moreover, no raven's wing in the sunshine ever shone as
did that fragrant tress.

"'Yours is beautiful,' he said, 'but see, they are not the same.'

"'Mayhap,' I answered, 'since no woman ever wore such locks.'

"'You are right,' he replied, 'for she whom I seek was more than a
woman.'

"And then--and then--though I tried him in many ways he would say no
more, so, feeling hate against this Unknown rising in my heart, and
fearing lest I should utter words that were best unsaid, I left him. Now
I bid you, search the books which are open to your wisdom and tell me of
this woman whom he seeks, who she is, and where she dwells. Oh! search
them swiftly, that I may find her and--kill her if I can."

"Aye, if you can," answered the Shaman, "and if she lives to kill. But
say, where shall we begin our quest? Now, this letter from the Mountain
that the head-priest Oros sent to your court a while ago?"--and he
selected a parchment from a pile which lay upon the table and looked at
her.

"Read," she said, "I would hear it again."

So he read: "From the Hesea of the House of Fire, to Atene, Khania of
Kaloon.

"My sister--Warning has reached me that two strangers of a western
race journey to your land, seeking my Oracle, of which they would ask a
question. On the first day of the next moon, I command that you and with