"Aye, lord. Jadgor and Lakkon also ask themselves—"
"Why the Mouthpiece of Zitu should seek a union in the flesh?"
Zud clasped his hands before him. He sat with eyes downcast. By an effort, at length he once more lifted his face. "Thou hast spoken, lord," he said.
Croft held him with a level regard. "And what says Zud, the high priest?"
"That the ways of Zitu are beyond mortal understanding," Zud responded slowly.
"Yes," Croft took him up sharply. "Zud, the high priest, endeavored to understand—toward which end, though Abbu of Scira had sworn by Zitu to keep silent, he induced him to talk."
"I—I—lord, I absolved him of the oath of silence," Zud faltered, and began a nervous twisting of his interlacing fingers.
"And since when may even the high priest rescind that which Zitu has recorded?"
A tremor shook the priest. A twitching seized his face. He shrank back and sat staring, staring at the strange individual before him, with whose affairs he had dared to interfere, who now arraigned him with a face and manner gone well-nigh impersonally cold. One could no longer doubt that he had been sincere in what he had done, at least—what he had proclaimed of Croft, he himself believed. Of so much Croft felt convinced as he once more spoke:
"High priest of Zitu, in what words was your proclamation to Tamarizia concerning him until now known as the Hupor Jasor made?"