And, as so often, Robur seemed in a measure to catch his thought. "Is she not beautiful as a shaft of Zitu's own light?" he inquired, and looked into Jason's eyes. "Gaya is beautiful, too, and I love her; yet I think thy belief that she is the other half of thy soul is true. For Mouthpiece of Zitu are ye, and wiser than all other men of Palos, and Naia of Aphur, my cousin, is divine."
"Thou hast said it. Her beauty drives me as the whip against the gnuppa's flank. It quickens my endeavor, forces me to fresh effort—" Croft began, and broke off as a captain, followed by a servant from the palace, appeared in the door of the room wherein they stood.
"Hai, Robur!" the captain exclaimed, advancing with uplifted hand. "Here is one who seeks thee, as he says it, by command."
"Speak," said Robur, turning to the other—one of a number of Mazzerian runners who as messengers were kept always at hand.
The blue man saluted in formal fashion. "One from Zitra awaits thee at the palace. Even now others seek you from place to place."
"Go. Say that I come." Robur dismissed him and turned to Croft. A pucker of thought lay between his eyes. "This may be from my father. I know not the nature of his message, but—my friend, accompany me in this."
Jason nodded. His heart warmed again, as so often, to this man. No matter what word Jadgor might have sent, Robur, the son of Jadgor, was his friend. David and Jonathan—the comparison flashed in his mind as they left the glass-blowers' shop and entered the motor to drive swiftly back to the palace at once. David and Jonathan! It had been something like that between them from the first. He sensed the subtle way in which, in the present instance, the Aphurian was giving demonstration, that whatever stand Jadgor might have taken toward Croft, his son would follow the dictates of love and honor in his stand.
In the huge, red-paved court they left the motor and, passing between the portal guards, made their way swiftly, side by side, to the audience-hall where once Croft had seen Kyphallos of Cathur received by Jadgor, Aphur's king. A man with the circle and cross on his breast—Jadgor's emissary—was waiting there for their coming now. As the two friends appeared, he rose.
"Greeting to Robur, governor of Aphur and son of Jadgor, who sends me to him," he began, producing a ring that Croft himself had often seen on Jadgor's finger and pressed it into Robur's hand.