“No,” he answered with a lameness which was not to be denied. “But you, a criminal interloper in our realm, have been marked as a victim for sacrifice, and from this there is no power in the universe which can save you.”
Kirby, after a reassuring glance at Naida, looked at the floored priest who was sitting up now, looking stupidly about, and feeling himself all over, and Kirby suppressed a grin.
“Ah, I am to be sacrificed, eh? But what happens until that time comes? Listen my Wise Ones—”
He stabbed a finger at them, and his eyes flashed.
“Listen! What you mean to say is that I have defeated you, and you must lay off me until you can launch another attack. But I have a few things to say to that. One is that I am not going to permit myself to be sacrificed. Another is that I demand, right here and now, that you begin to discuss with me certain agreements which are going to regulate the future conduct of affairs in this world to which I have come.”
A low exclamation answered that, but it came from no priest. They remained sullen and staggered. It was Naida who murmured, and there was excitement and pleasure in her voice. Suddenly she placed her lips against Kirby’s ear.
“You must not treat with them,” she said. “Tell them you want to see the Duca, and will destroy them all unless he comes!”
Understanding burst over Kirby. The Duca! Then these men were only the representatives of a High Priest, the Duca!
“Yes,” he repeated resolutely to the assembled greybeards, “a meeting is going to be held in this chamber of 388 council at once. But I will not deal with you! Do you understand me? I must see the Duca. I leave it to you to decide whether you will summon him, or force me to fight my way through to wherever he is staying.”
“The Duca!”