"Where am I?" shrieked the Grand Chamberlain, overpowered by the fumes and the fear that was upon him.
"Unless you reach the pit," came the dark reply, "farewell forever to your schemes. You will never see a crown upon your head."
"What of Theodora?" Basil turned to his companion, choking and blinded.
"If the bat-winged fiends will carry you safely across the abyss you shall see," came the reply.
A rush as of wings resounded through the room, as of monstrous bats.
"Gehenna's flame shall smoothe her brow," the wizard spoke again. "When Death brings her here, she shall stand upon the highest steps, in her dark magnificence she shall command—a shadow among shadows. Are you content?"
There was a pause.
The storm howled with redoubled fury, flinging great hailstones against the time-worn masonry of the wizard's tower.
"Then," Basil spoke at last, his hands gripping his throat with a choking sensation, "give me back the love for which my soul thirsts and wither the bones of him who dares to aspire to Theodora's hand."
The wizard regarded him with an inscrutable glance.