“Read—read!” said Sadyattes.
“The one that I left in a high place shall curse the day of his birth!”
“That is I, Sadyattes, the diver.”
“Aaah!”
“Egypt told him this: ‘Sadyattes the diver has touched the pearl that the satrap thinks gleams only for him!’ Egypt gave him names of these and these in the Palace of the Fountain who would swear to that diver’s coming near.... Many are against Aryenis and with Nitetis, meaning to climb by her. There are magi, there are captains who would see Sadyattes hurled from the tower, and Artaxias governor in his place.... Powers in the palace and the city are moving against you.”
“Give me that paper to tear and to burn!”
“No—no!—Pearl of the Deep, Meranes returns presently to the city and the Palace of the Fountain. Says Nitetis, ‘Lord, no word at the last had I from you!’ Then says the satrap, ‘This same Sadyattes, this diver, has had to do with that! There is a plot beneath my plotting. I will not wait even the day I meant to wait, but have him thrust into the dungeon below the dungeon—’”
“I will send this day a letter, indeed, to Meranes—”
“To let pass your messenger would slay me and you and Alyattes.—Mark how deeply the fountain is poisoned!”
“The horns are blowing, the drums are beating Meranes’s return.... When he comes, when he sees me, when I speak with him—”