"Sit down and listen," suggested Self, and Amer, fascinated and enthralled, obeyed, oblivious of the fact that he had wandered out of the beaten track, which had he followed would have led him to the spot where the fallen man lay, and unconscious that the Radiant City was now out of sight. Resting there under the green trees, soothed and enervated by the entrancing music, Amer almost forgot the journey to the Radiant City, the fight, the dangers of the way, and could think of little save the flowers, the fruit, the music and the beautiful inhabitants of the Land of Enchantment. And all the time that Self clamoured to be heard, filling his outward senses with dreams of delight, grim Doubt stalked invisible by his side, flinging every now and then darts into his mind.
Amer had taken off his helmet and shield, so that the darts, which we small, found easy access, and pierced him though he was scarcely conscious of them; every now and then one sharper than the others would make him start and tremble, but so enamoured was he with his surroundings that instead of rousing himself to don his armour afresh, he would turn the more readily to Self to devise some means by which to make him forget the pain they caused. He was rudely awakened by a rasping voice that he recognised at once as that belonging to Chisleu.
"What now! What now!" he exclaimed, "resting among the roses? Why, friend, you scarcely look like a pilgrim to the Radiant City. Get up with you lad, this is not your home."
"It is no business of yours what I do," said Amer at the suggestion of Temper, who had been watching the lad from a distance, and had been biding his time, and now exulted in his opportunity of worrying his former companion; "if I care to rest on my journey in the land of Achshaph, what is that to you?"
"What is it to me, Sir?" repeated Chisleu, "why it is a great deal to me. We are brothers, and I can't see my brother a prey to the enemy without doing my best to help him. You are young, and do not know the dangers of the land through which we are passing."
"I am well pleased with it for a time," said Amer, "and I beg you will leave me alone."
"That I certainly will not do," said Chisleu with some heat, "leave a brother in the hands of the enemy! That is not my way."
"What's wrong with the land?"
"What's wrong? Why, it is a death trap. I was warned before I entered it of its dangers. Pray, my lad, have you eaten any of its fruits?"
"Yes," said Amer, "and though it was delicious at the time, it leaves an uncomfortable taste in the mouth."