My comrade bore with him such weapons as he had time to choose in our hasty flight, and Astolba, with a woman’s foresight, had carried from the cell provisions and a flask of water.
The secret door of the outer wall was near, and freedom within our grasp, but I took no joy of it. Lah’s face, beautiful and reproachful, rose before me and filled me with a mighty longing that would not be stilled. I even half hoped that we, or at least that I, would be challenged, captured, and so stand once more a prisoner in that queenly presence; but no man stayed us, and without let or hindrance we passed through the door in the wall, and stood once again beyond the boundaries of the City of the worshippers of Edba and of Hed.
But even in that moment the shrill voice of Hubla reached my ears, strangely broken with wild, strangling sobs, and though I knew it not, the voice of Hubla was the voice of fate. How or by what means she had tracked us, I cannot tell.
Lestrade, mindful of her past malice, strode forth quickly with upraised spear, but I withheld his hand.
There was no power for evil in the shrunken, huddled figure at my feet. Even her witch’s deviltry had fallen from her as a garment.
It was not the sorceress who clasped my knees, but an old old woman, half-mad with frantic grief and terror; and at her first words my blood leaped in my veins, for she bade me save the Queen.
I saw Astolba come forward from the shelter of Lestrade’s protecting arm, and as in a dream, I heard her, with a strange hardness in her voice, bid the red witch cease her lamentations, for she said coldly, “What is Lah’s fate to you?”
Then with something of her old fire, Hubla stood upright.
“What is the Queen to me?” she repeated, with scorn in look and tone. “For whom have I toiled? For whom have I betrayed the secrets of the gods? Who sits, by my contriving, upon the throne of Kings? For whom have I shed without mercy the blood of friend and foe? And she is all in all to me. The wrath of Edba and Hed strike me alone. I am their rightful victim; let them spare my child.”
“Your child!” I cried in amazement, but she turned upon me with her old savagery.