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It rose sheer up from the ground to an altitude of about a hundred feet, and apparently closed in and completed the vestibule. Surely there was no passing through such a barrier as this? ... he thought wonderingly; nevertheless Lysia and Sah-luma still went on, and he as perforce he was compelled still followed.
"If that," I answered, "were heard in my country, well, Madam, they would be astonished both at your Excellency praising me and in that manner, and by your making that difference between Italians and other men whom you call ’transalpine,’ or from beyond the mountains: ’Non adeo obtusa gestamos pectora Poeni, Nec tam auersus equos, Lysia, sol iungit ab urbe.’
Well, thou wilt need to kiss the dust in very truth, if thou servest Lysia, . . no half-measures will suit where she, the Untouched and Immaculate, is concerned," and here there was a faint inflection of mingled mockery and sadness in his tone "To love her is, for many men, an absolute necessity, but the Virgin Priestess of the Sun and the Serpent receives love, as statues may receive it, moving all others to frenzy, she is herself unmoved!"
Lysia, approaching the Disc, turned it slightly; at her touch it revolved like a flying wheel, and for a brief space was literally covered with mysterious characters, which the beautiful Priestess perused with an apparent air of satisfaction.
Was she not here a moment since? ..." and he staggered toward the neighboring pavilion, and dashed the dividing curtain aside ... "Lysia! ... Lysia! ..." he shouted noisily, then, receiving no answer, he flung himself down on the vacant couch of roses, and gathering up a handful of the crumpled flowers, kissed them passionately, "The witch has flown!" he said, laughing again that mirthless, stupid laugh as he spoke "She doth love to tantalize me thus! ... Tell me! what dost thou think of her?
And ever and anon the name of "Lysia," coupled with heavy execrations, was hissed from mouth to mouth, which Theos, overhearing, began to foresee might serve as a likely cause for Sah-luma's taking offence and possibly resenting in his own person this public disparagement of the woman he loved, therefore, without more ado he roused himself from his momentarily dazed condition, and urged his comrade on at a quick pace toward the safe shelter of his own palace, where at any rate he could be kept out of the reach of immediate harm.
His great chest heaved pantingly his teeth glittered wolfishly through his jetty beard, . . and in the terrible nerve- tension of the moment, the fury of the spreading conflagration was forgotten, at any rate, by Theos, who, stricken numb and rigid by a shock of alarm too poignant for expression, stared aghast at the three figures before him...Sah-luma, Lysia, Zephoranim, . . especially Zephoranim, whose bursting wrath threatened to choke his utterance.
"Lysia!" and his voice, even to his own ears, had a solemn as well as passionate thrill, "Lysia, what wouldst thou have with me? Speak! ... for my heart aches with a burden of dark memories, memories conjured up by the wizard spell of thine eyes, those eyes so cruel-sweet that seem to lure me to my soul's ruin!
There, its whole frame trembled and glowed with extraordinary radiance, . . the prevailing color of its skin was creamy white, marked with countless rings and scaly bright spots of silver, purple, and a peculiar livid blue, and all these tints came into brilliant prominence, as it crouched before Lysia and twisted its sinuous neck to and fro with an evidently fawning and supplicatory gesture; while she, keeping her sombre dark eyes fixed full upon it, moved not an inch from her position, but, majestically serene, continued to hold the tall staff of ebony straight and erect as a growing palm.
What of the High Priestess then? ... If these poor lover-victims merited their doom, why is not Lysia slain? ... Is not SHE a willingly violated vestal? ... doth SHE not count her lovers by the score? ... are not her vows long since broken? ... is not her life a life of wanton luxury and open shame? ... Why doth the Law, beholding these things, remain in her case dumb and ineffectual?"
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