"Nay, nay, O king, I came by this while a-hunting," laughed the lad.
"Hunting?" queried Minos.
"Aye, the game we play now in Sardanes hath fulfilled a part of its contract to my great satisfaction. Not an hour agone I did stick me the good, fat priest whereof we talked awhile back. Right pleasantly did he kick and squeal—"
"Hast slain a priest of the Gateway?" Minos asked him. "I fear that is ill done."
"Nay, king, 'twas well done. 'Twere well, indeed, with us, were every one of the black crew hot alight in their own fires, with Analos, the high priest, frying merrily atop the heap. Then, perhaps, would the people listen to reason. This fellow did come from the Gateway to my palace on Epamon's sides, whither I had gone from the Judgment House to arm myself. He would have haled me thence to the Gateway like an unwilling maid. When he found me coy, he did raise mine own household men against me. Well, he got a dagger in his midriff for his trouble. And I got this scratch on the arm, with perchance a slit throat to follow, were it not that I am somewhat swift of foot. My men did rage upon me like fiends when they saw the priest down. I thought it better to die here in good company than where I was, so I came away."
"Hast seen Garlanes?" asked Minos.
"Nay, nor will I," said the lad shortly. "The men of Analos slew him on the portico of his own hall. That I had from the priest who came to summon me. Had he not given me that word, I might have spared him."
The king bowed his head. Garlanes had been his dear friend.
Within the cave the warmth from the bowels of the hill was almost oppressive. The men had lighted torches and oil lamps, and were dressing their hurts, of which there were not a few, and discussing in low tones the details of the fighting.
In a carved chair of wood, just beyond the rim of light, the Lady Memene sat. Her face, as she rested it on her hand, was almost devoid of expression, but her black eyes, alert and lustrous, missed no detail of the scene before her. Minos removed a part of his armor, and laved his head and hands in the little streamlet. Although the girl appeared to take no note of him, not a move that he made escaped her. Each time that the king's glance strayed to her, and that was often, she appeared to be watching the hunters or the dogs, or anything but himself.