“Let us put a bold face on it,” said Maya. So we opened the door, walked out, and came into the presence of Tikal, Dimas, and the other lords.
“Whom do you seek, that you come with an armed force?” asked Maya.
“Whom should I seek but your fair self, cousin?” answered Tikal,—and I saw that his eye was wild, as though with drink. “If Nahua, my wife, had her way, she would have let you go, for she desires to see the last of you; but her will is not my will, nor her desire my desire, and as it chances we have come up with you in time.”
Maya turned from him with a scornful gesture, and addressed herself to Dimas, saying:
“Tell us of what we are charged that you follow us as though we were evil-doers.”
“Lady,” the old priest answered gravely, “it would seem that you have earned this name, you and your companions together. Listen: two days since you were missing, and the Lady Nahua was also missing. Search was made, and at last your private apartments were broken open, and there she was discovered bound and gagged. From her we learned the secret of your flight, and followed after you.”
“Did she, then, tell you why we fled?” asked Maya. “Did she tell you that she crept to my chamber like a thief in the night, and there was found in the act of doing murder on my child?”
“No, Lady, she told us nothing of all this. Indeed, her manner was strange; for, so soon as she was recovered somewhat, she took back her words, and said that she knew naught of you or of your plans, and that if you had fled we should do well to let you go before worse things happened. But, knowing that for all this she had reasons easy to be guessed, we followed and found you, and now we arrest you to answer before the Council for your great sins, in that you have broken your solemn oaths by attempting to leave the land without the consent of the Council, and have added to your crimes by taking with you this child, the Heaven-sent deliverer, on whom rest the hopes of our race.”
“If we have broken our oaths,” said Maya, “we broke them to save our lives. Were we, then, to stop in the city till the knife of the assassin found us out? On the very night of my marriage a murderer was set upon my husband, and perhaps one stands there”—and she pointed to Tikal—“who could tell us who he was and whence he came. Three days ago another murderer sought the life of our child, and that murderer the wife of the Lord Tikal. Is it, then, a sin that we should take from the land one whose life is not safe within it.”
“All these matters you can lay before the Council, lady,” answered Dimas, “and if Nahua is what you say, without a doubt she must suffer for her crime. Yet her evil-doing cannot pay for yours, for when you found yourself in danger, you should have claimed protection from those who could give it, and not have betaken yourselves to flight like thieves in terror of the watch. Come, enter the litter that is prepared for you, and let us be going.”