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"If it be your wish, O Queen, I, Cherkis, will step down from the throne for you and sit beneath your right hand, eager to do your bidding." A moment she studied him. "Norhala," I whispered, "do not do this thing. He thinks to gain your secrets." "Let my bridegroom stand forth that I may look upon him," called Norhala. Visibly Cherkis relaxed, as though a strain had been withdrawn.
We told her of the entombment of Norhala. When she heard that she wept. "She was sweet," she sobbed; "she was lovely. And she was beautiful. Dearly she loved me. I KNOW she loved me. Oh, I know that we and ours and that which was hers could not share the world together. But it comes to me that Earth would have been far less poisonous with those that were Norhala's than it is with us and ours!"
Halfway between them and us Norhala and Ruth drifted; I could catch no hint of voluntary motion on their part and knew that they were not walking, but were being borne onward by some manifestation of that same force which held us motionless. I forgot them in my contemplation of the Disk. It was oval, twenty feet in height, I judged, and twelve in its greatest width.
And close to it, in curiously incongruous domestic array stood a stiffly marshaled row of sandals. Upon one of the chests were heaped combs and fillets of shell and gold and ivory studded with jewels blue and yellow and crimson. To all of these we gave but a passing glance. We sought for Norhala. And of her we found no shadow.
They led me through the city and the people mocked me. They took me before that swine Norhala has punished and stripped me before him like a slave. Before my eyes they tortured my brother. Norhala they were evil, all evil! Norhala you did well to slay them!" She caught the woman's hands, pressed close to her.
So too had that wondrous Disk whose visible and concentrate power, whose manifest leadership, had made us name it emperor. And had not Norhala called the Disk Ruler? What were the responsibilities of these twain to the mass of the organism of which they were such important units? What were the laws they administered, the laws they must obey?
The girl's eyes dwelt upon hers trustingly. "I am afraid!" whispered Norhala again. "Afraid for you!" Tenderly she looked down upon her, the galaxies of stars in her eyes soft and tremulous. "I am afraid, little sister," she whispered for the third time. "Not yet can you go as I do among the fires." She hesitated. "Rest here until I return. I shall leave these to guard you and obey you."
Ruth and Drake drifted away together among the other chambers of the globe; they were absorbed in themselves, and we did not thrust ourselves upon them. All the day the torrents fell. We sat down that night to what was well-nigh the last of Ventnor's stores. Seemingly Ruth had forgotten Norhala; at least, she spoke no more of her. "Martin," she said, "can't we start back tomorrow?
Norhala laughed sweetly, ruthlessly. "He dies before the stroke falls," she said. "He dies doubly therefore and that is well." Drake slowly lowered the automatic; turned to me. "I can't," he said. "I can't do it " "Masters!" Upon his knees the eunuch writhed toward us. "Masters I meant no wrong. What I did was for love of the Goddess. Years upon years I have served her. And her mother before her.
Return, and throned above your people rule the world!" He ceased. Over the battlements, over the city, dropped a vast expectant silence as though the city knew its fate was hanging upon the balance. "No! No!" It was Ruth crying. "Do not trust him, Norhala! It's a trap! He shamed me he tortured " Cherkis half turned; before he swung about I saw a hell shadow darken his face.
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