niece, entered and stood before me.

CHAPTER VII

THE FIRST ORDEAL

The shaman advanced to my side and asked me courteously how I fared.

I answered, "Better. Far better, oh, my host--but how are you named?"

"Simbri," he answered, "and, as I told you by the water, my title is
Hereditary Guardian of the Gate. By profession I am the royal Physician
in this land."

"Did you say physician or magician?" I asked carelessly, as though I had
not caught the word. He gave me a curious look.

"I _said_ physician, and it is well for you and your companion that I
have some skill in my art. Otherwise I think, perhaps, you would not
have been alive to-day, O my guest--but how are _you_ named?"

"Holly," I said.

"O my guest, Holly."

"Had it not been for the foresight that brought you and the lady Khania
to the edge of yonder darksome river, certainly we should _not_ have
been alive, venerable Simbri, a foresight that seems to me to savour
of magic in such a lonely place. That is why I thought you might have
described yourself as a magician, though it is true that you may have
been but fishing in those waters."

"Certainly I was fishing, stranger Holly--for men, and I caught two."

"Fishing by chance, host Simbri?"

"Nay, by design, guest Holly. My trade of physician includes the study
of future events, for I am the chief of the Shamans or Seers of this
land, and, having been warned of your coming quite recently, I awaited
your arrival."

"Indeed, that is strange, most courteous also. So here physician and
magician mean the same."

"You say it," he answered with a grave bow; "but tell me, if you will,
how did you find your way to a land whither visitors do not wander?"

"Oh!" I answered, "perhaps we are but travellers, or perhaps we also
have studied--medicine."

"I think that you must have studied it deeply, since otherwise you would
not have lived to cross those mountains in search of--now, what did you
seek? Your companion, I think, spoke of a queen--yonder, on the banks of
the torrent."

"Did he? Did he, indeed? Well, that is strange since he seems to have
found one, for surely that royal-looking lady, named Khania, who sprang
into the stream and saved us, must be a queen."

"A queen she is, and a great one, for in our land Khania means queen,
though how, friend Holly, a man who has lain senseless can have learned
this, I do not know. Nor do I know how you come to speak our language."

"That is simp