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Oros, my priest, summon thou the Accuser and him who makes defence, and let the books be opened that I may pass my judgment on the dead, and call his soul to live again, or pray that from it the breath of life may be withheld. "Priest, I say the Court of Death is open." Oros bowed and left the place, whereon the Hesea signed to us to stand upon her right and to Atene to stand upon her left.
Then we passed the altar, and behind the statue found a door in the rock wall of the apse, and beyond the door a passage, and a hall as of a house, for out of it opened other doors leading to chambers. These, our guide told us, were the dwelling-places of the Hesea and her maidens.
Also your tale of the decree of the heavens and of that vision which led you to the precipice to save us is false. Lady, you met me by the river because the 'mighty' Hesea, the Spirit of the Mountain, so commanded you." "How know you that?" Atene said, springing up and facing him, while the jaw of old Simbri dropped and the eyelids blinked over his glazed eyes.
"I go to ask a certain question of the Oracle on yonder mountain peak. With your will or without it I tell you that I go, and afterwards you can settle which is the stronger the Khania of Kaloon or the Hesea of the House of Fire." Atene listened and for a while stood silent, perhaps because she had no answer. Then she said with a little laugh "Is that your will?
"The Voice ceased, the fiery torches burnt again, and we bowed the knee to the new Hesea, and named her Mother in the ears of all. That is the tale to which hundreds can bear witness." "Thou hearest, Atene," said the Hesea. "Dost thou still doubt?" "Aye," answered the Khania, "for I hold that Oros also lies, or if he lies not, then he dreams, or perchance that voice he heard was thine own.
Repeat it to the soldiers, that fearing nothing they follow the Hesea through yonder host and across the bridge and into the city of Kaloon." So the chiefs rode hither and thither, crying out her words, and the savage tribesmen answered "Aye, we who followed through the water, will follow across the plain. Onward, Hes, for darkness swallows us."
Again it was night, and where once lay that of the Khan, the man whom he had killed, flanked by the burning pillars, the bier of Leo stood in the inmost Sanctuary before the statue of the Mother whose gentle, unchanging eyes seemed to search his quiet face. On her throne sat the veiled Hesea, giving commands to her priests and priestesses.
Then, rising slowly, the Hesea walked, or rather tottered to the unroofed open space in front of the rock chamber, and stood there quite near to the brink of the flaming gulf beneath. "Come hither, Papave, and loose these veils," she cried in a shrill, thin voice. Papave advanced, and with a look of awe upon her handsome face began the task.
"How do you know that?" I asked. "I do not know it," he replied. "Oros told me so, that is all, and therefore the Hesea bade my lords bring their guard, for she is alone." "Is she mad," ejaculated Leo, "to wander about in such a place at midnight? Well, it is like her." I too thought it was like her, who did nothing that others would have done, and yet I hesitated.
Presently from either side the hooded priests and priestesses stole into the chamber, and to the number of fifty or more ranged themselves along its walls. Then came two figures draped in black and masked, who bore parchment books in their hands, and placed themselves on either side of the corpse, while Oros stood at its feet, facing the Hesea.
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