Croft smiled and held forth the tablets he had brought.
The priest took them, unbound them, and looked at the salutation. His interest quickened. "Ye come from Scira?" he said.
"Aye. Carrying these tablets from the good Abbu, as you see."
The priest considered. "Come," he said again at last, and led the way back of the statue to the head of a descending stair.
Together they went down, along the worn tread of stone steps, turning here and there, until at length they came into a lofty apartment where sat a man in robes of an azure blue.
Before him Croft's guide bowed. "Thy pardon, Magur, Priest of Zitu," he spoke, still in his stilted formal way. "But one comes carrying tablets inscribed with thy name. Even now he knelt in the Holy Place, so that I questioned—asking what he sought."
Magur, high priest in Himyra, at least as Croft judged, took the tablets and scanned each leaf. As he read, his expression altered, grew at first well-nigh startled, and after that nothing short of amazed.
In the end he waved the lay brother from the room and faced Croft alone. "Thou art called how?" he began.
"Jasor of Nodhur—son of Sinon and Mellia of Nodhur," Croft replied.
"Whom, Abbu writes, Zitu hath changed?"