At the opposite end a small winding stair led upwards into darkness.

There were stains upon the lowest steps, just visible in the half light.

Atossa gathered up her mantle and her under tunic, and trod daintily, with a look of repugnance on her beautiful face.

The stains were made by the blood of the false Smerdis, her last husband, slain in that dark stairway by Darius, scarcely three months before.
Cautiously the queen felt her way upward till she reached a landing, where a narrow aperture admitted a little light.

Higher up there were windows, and she looked carefully to her dress, and brushed away a little dust that her mantle had swept from the wall in passing; and once or twice, she looked back at the dark staircase with an expression of something akin to disgust.