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Updated: June 18, 2025
Then fear took hold of them and they fled, leaving the litter on the ground. Yes, all of them fled save one, Urco himself. He stood there rolling his eyes and gnashing his teeth, looking huge and awful in those shadows, looking like a devil from hell. Suddenly a thought seemed to take him, and leaping at the litter he tore aside its curtains and dragged out Quilla, who fell prone upon the ground.
"Poisoned her!" "Aye, Lord, but be comforted for this was added that she who gave the poison was taken in the act by her who is named the Mother of the Virgins, and handed over to the women who cast her into the den of serpents, where she perished, screaming that it was Urco who had forced her to the deed." "That does not comfort me, man. What of Quilla? Did she die?" "Lord, it is said not.
An embassy from Kari, the Inca." "Let it be admitted," said Quilla. Presently up the central passage marched the embassy with pomp, great lords and "earmen," every man of them, and bowed before us. "Your words?" said Quilla quietly. "They are these, Lady," answered the spokesman of the party.
When on the morrow Huaracha, King of the Chancas, heard all this story and that Urco had given poison to his daughter Quilla, who, if she still lived at all, did so, it was said, as a blind woman, a kind of madness took hold of him.
"Yes," I answered, "but what of Quilla and what of me?" "I know not your creed or what with you is honour, White Lord, but among us whom perhaps you think of small account, it is thought and held that there are times when a man or a woman, especially if they be highly placed, must do sacrifice for the good of the many who cling to them for guidance and for safety.
"I think not, Master," answered Kari, "since there the lady Quilla could not come to speak with you if she would. I think that they will take you to the house of the king of this country where, I understand, she is dwelling."
At that moment to my grief our talk came to an end, for out of the hut crept Kari. He rose to his feet and stood there as ever calm and dignified, looking first at Quilla and then at me. "What did I tell you, Master?" he said in English. "Did I not say that prayers such as yours are answered?
Now I am minded to say to you, 'Begone from my poor country, Lord Inca, in safety, but leave my daughter behind you." Now at these words, I, Hubert, saw the fires of hope burn up in the large eyes of Quilla, as they did in my own heart, for might they not mean that she would escape from Urco after all? But, alas, they were extinguished like a brand that is dipped in water.
For the Chancas I cared nothing and for the Quichuas I cared nothing, but Quilla was all that remained to me in the world and if she went, it was to another man. I would bid her bide. And yet and yet if her case were mine and the fate of England hung upon my breath, what then? "Be swift," she whispered again.
"It may be so, Master, and if you have not guessed it, perhaps one day I will tell you upon which side I play. It may even be that for my own sake I should be glad to see you lift this queen from off the board, and that what I tell you is for love of you and not of myself, also of the lady Quilla, who, if you fall, falls with you down through the black night into the arms of the Moon, her mother.
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