Suddenly Theria clapped her hands with a cry of delight. “I have it! I have it!” she said. “I can help you myself.”
The man gazed at her as if his faith in her goddesshood had quite returned.
“I have jewels,” she went on, moving her hands in her excited telling. “They are ancestral jewels and were given me at my birth. I am supposed to give them to my first daughter at birth. Well, my first daughter can do without them. They are rich pearls. They are worth more than the price of a slave.”
“Lady, lady! Oh, they would free me at once!”
“Yes, free you at once. But the matter is dangerous. The priests may think you have stolen the jewels. If they do, call for Nikander’s daughter.”
“Yes, blessed one.”
“And when you go to the Precinct ask for Kobon as your priest. The Kobons are angry with us and have never been in our house. Kobon will not recognize the jewels.”
“Yes—yes,” he said as if in a dream.
“But how to get them to you. Mother will not allow me, Father will not—Baltè, no; no slave would dare to do it for me. Besides, I hate to let slaves know anything. They are so apt to tell.”
The man started out of his dream.