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And the murmur of the mighty crowd surged back in answer: "We give him glory!" Here came a brief clash of brazen bells, and when the clamor ceased, Lysia continued: "Give glory to the Moon, O ye people! ... for she is the servant of the Sun and the Ruler of the House of Sleep!" Again the people responded; "We give her glory!.. and again the bells jangled tempestuously.
Lysia awaits us, and will not easily pardon our tardy obedience to her summons, let us hence ere the gates of the palace close." Lysia! ... The "unvirgined Virgin" the "Queen Courtesan"! So had said Khosrul.
I am dead to those that loved me, ... forgotten by those that honored me, . . a wanderer in strange lands, a solitary wayfarer perplexed with many griefs to which I cannot give a name! Nevertheless," and he drew a quick, hard breath, "if I may serve thee, fairest Lysia, as Sah-luma serves thee, subject to thy sovereign favor, thou shalt not find me lacking in obedience!
A shudder ran through his frame, and clasping her almost roughly, he stooped toward her till his lips nearly touched hers, . . "Thou art accursed, Lysia, and I share thy curse! Speak how shall we cheer each other in the shadow-realm of fiends?
Slowly she withdrew her fingers from his clasp. "Thou art bold!" she said, with a touch of indolent amusement in her accents. "But in thy boldness there is something of the hero. Knowest thou not that I, Lysia, High Priestess of Nagaya, could have thee straightway slain for that unwise speech of thine? unwise because over-hasty and somewhat over-familiar.
"The mission with which I am charged," he resumed presently, "is to thee, Chief Laureate of the realm, and runs as followeth: Whereas thou hast of late avoided many days of public service in the Temple, so that those among the people who admire thee follow thine ill example, and absent themselves also with equal readiness, the Priestess Undefiled, the noble Lysia, doth to- night command thy presence as a duty not to be foregone.
Here, on a couch of heaped-up, stemless roses, such as might have been prepared for the repose of Titania, Lysia seated herself, while Theos stood gazing at her in fascinated wonderment and gradually increasing masterfulness of passion.
"All this is the mere common rhetoric of the Temple Craft" he said indolently.. "Why not, good Zel, give plainer utterance to thine errand? we know each other's follies well enough to spare formalities! Lysia has sent thee hither, . . what then? ... what says the beauteous Virgin to her willing slave?"
What hast thou to do with Zephoranim, that thou dost wind thy many coils about his heart? ... Lysia ... Lysia! ..." here the King started violently, his face flushing darkly red, "Thou delicate abomination! ... Thou tyrannous treachery.. what shall be done unto thee in the hour of darkness!
It was cushioned in black velvet, and above it was a bent arch of ivory on which glittered a twisted snake of clustered emeralds. With that slow, superb ease that distinguished all her actions, Lysia, attended closely by her tigress, mounted the dais, and as she did so a loud clash of brazen bells rang out from some invisible turret beyond the summit of the great dome.
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