“Tell me,” he said to her: “do you yourself believe that this Serpent has the powers of a God?”
Naida looked at him quickly, a sudden fright in her eyes.
“I believe the Serpent exists to-day, somewhere in the distant reaches of the chasm, beyond the Rorroh forest.”
“Yes, but do you believe the Serpent is God?”
Actually frightened now, she looked swiftly about. But when she saw that they were alone, confidence returned.
“No!” she exclaimed. “I do not believe Quetzalcoatl is a god. I believe 400 he is the most terrible creature anywhere in our realm, and that men first worshipped him through fear. I believe our race would be better a hundred times if they had never made him their God.”
Kirby whistled.
“Then you do not believe that the Ducas of past ages talked with him. You do not believe it was Quetzalcoatl’s pleasure over the great diamond which made him cease preying on your people?”
“No! Long habit makes me show respect for these myths, and adhere to the customs of our cult, but I do not believe. I think our race gained immunity for the Serpent’s ravages, not through a compact with Quetzalcoatl, but because our builders were intelligent enough to erect the castle up here on the plateau, where Quetzalcoatl could not reach them. To tell the truth, I think the whole cult is false and wrong, and I wish Quetzalcoatl were dead and gone from the world!”