Now Khian remembered the packets which contained the presents and the gold and began to search for them eagerly.
“By the gods, they are gone!” he said aloud in a voice that, although anxious, still was soft and pleasant. “How can this have happened and I not know it, seeing that they lay under my hand? Truly they are right who say that this place is the home of ghosts.”
Nefra stepped forward, closely muffled in her long cloak, and asked:
“Is aught amiss, Sir? And if so, can I aid you?”
“Yes,” said Khian, “by restoring to me certain articles which I suppose you have stolen, young man. That is, if you are a man,” he added doubtfully, “for your voice——”
“—Is breaking, Sir,” replied Nefra, trying to make it as hoarse as possible.
“Then it has broken the wrong way. Breaking voices should grow gruff, not soft as a girl’s. But let that be. Restore to me my goods lest I should—well, kill you——”
“And perchance thereby lose them and much else for ever, Sir.”
“You do not seem very frightened. Tell me, who are you?”
“Sir, I am the guide appointed to lead you—if you be Apepi’s officer—to where you must lodge before you are brought into the presence of the Council of the Order of the Dawn. Knowing that you were alone and thinking that you might be alarmed if armed men came, I, as a young person who can frighten no one, was chosen to fill this office by the Council.”