“Your riddles are beyond me, Ylga, but if there is a chance, let us get on and have this business done.”
“We are at the place now,” said she, with a hard little laugh, “and if you kneel on the floor, you will find an airshaft, and Nais will answer you from the lower end. For myself, I will leave you. I have a delicacy in hearing what you want to say to my sister, Deucalion.”
“I thank you,” I said. “I will not forget what you have done for me this night.”
“You may keep your thanks,” she said bitterly, and walked away into the shadows.
I knelt on the floor of the gallery, and found the air passage with my hand, and then, putting my lips to it, whispered for Nais.
The answer came on the instant, muffled and quiet. “I knew my lord would come for a farewell.”
“What the Empress said, has to be. You understand, my dear? It is for Atlantis.”
“Have I reproached my lord, by word or glance?”
“I myself am bidden to place you in the hollow between the stones, and I must do it.”
“Then my last sleep will be a sweet one. I could not ask to be touched by pleasanter hands.”