Now, you mark my words, Sorais will throw in her lot with Nasta, who is sulking up in the North there, and there will be such a war as has not been known in Zu-Vendis for centuries.

Look there!' and I pointed to two Court messengers, who were speeding away from the door of Sorais' private apartments.

'Now follow me,' and I ran up a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the roof of our quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out over the palace wall.

The first thing we saw was one of the messengers speeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, the Queen's word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searched in vain.

Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiously through the northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized the other messenger.
'Ah!' I said, 'Sorais is a woman of spirit.