yself in these reflections and hoping
that Ayesha would not take the trouble to read them in my mind, I became
aware that Oros was bowing to the earth before her.

"Thy business, priest?" she asked sharply; for when she was with Leo
Ayesha did not like to be disturbed.

"Hes, the spies are returned."

"Why didst thou send them out?" she asked indifferently. "What need have
I of thy spies?"

"Hes, thou didst command me."

"Well, their report?"

"Hes, it is most grave. The people of Kaloon are desperate because of
the drought which has caused their crops to fail, so that starvation
stares them in the eyes, and this they lay to the charge of the
strangers who came into their land and fled to thee. The Khania Atene
also is mad with rage against thee and our holy College. Labouring night
and day, she has gathered two great armies, one of forty, and one of
twenty thousand men, and the latter of these she sends against the
Mountain under the command of her uncle, Simbri the Shaman. In case it
should be defeated she purposes to remain with the second and greater
army on the plains about Kaloon."

"Tidings indeed," said Ayesha with a scornful laugh. "Has her hate
made this woman mad that she dares thus to match herself against me? My
Holly, it crossed thy mind but now that it was I who am mad, boasting
of what I have no power to perform. Well, within six days thou shalt
learn--oh! verily thou shalt learn, and, though the issue be so very
small, in such a fashion that thou wilt doubt no more for ever. Stay,
I will look, though the effort of it wearies me, for those spies may be
but victims to their own fears, or to the falsehoods of Atene."

Then suddenly, as was common with her when thus Ayesha threw her sight
afar, which either from indolence, or because, as she said, it exhausted
her, she did but rarely, her lovely face grew rigid like that of a
person in a trance; the light faded from her brow, and the great pupils
of her eyes contracted themselves and lost their colour.

In a little while, five minutes perhaps, she sighed like one awakening
from a deep sleep, passed her hand across her forehead and was as she
had been, though somewhat languid, as though strength had left her.

"It is true enough," she said, "and soon I must be stirring lest many
of my people should be killed. My lord, wouldst thou see war? Nay,
thou shalt bide here in safety whilst I go forward--to visit Atene as I
promised."

"Where thou goest