Part 44 (2/2)

They sat in silence for a long while after that, she looking at the table, with its ink and pens and paper, and he thinking, with hands clasped round one knee; for it is wiser to think than to talk, even when a wouarded

”Most disillusion said at last ”D'you know, Princess, what has kept the sirkar fro in Khinjan Caves?”

She shook her head ”The Gods!” she said ”The Gods can blindfold governments and whole peoples as easily as they can make us see!”

”It was the fact that they knehat provisions and what oil and what necessities of life went up the Khyber and came down it They knew a place such as this was said to be could not be They knew it! They could prove it!”

Yasmini nodded

”Let it be a lesson to you, Princess!”

She stared, and her fiery-opal eyes began to change and glow She began to twist her golden hair round the dagger hilt again But always her feet were still on the footstool of the throne, as if she kne that she stood on firm foundations No sirkar ever doubted less than she, and the suggestions in King's little hoain-then again into his eyes

”Athelstan!” she said ”It sounds like a king's name! What was the Sleeper's name? I have often wondered! I found no name in all the books about Rome that seemed to fit hiht of hi's! It seems to fit him, too! Was there such a name, in Rome?”

”No,” he said

”What does it mean?” she asked him

”Slow of resolution!”

She clapped her hands

”Another sign!” she laughed ”The Gods love n when I need one! Slow of resolution, art thou? I will speed thy resolution, Well-beloved! You were quick to change froe now into ain!”

She rose, with arms outstretched to him All her dancer's art, her untamed poetry, her witchery, were expressed in a movement Her eyes melted as they met his And since he stood up, too, for ain-almost lip to lip Her sweet breath was in his nostrils

In anotherhim And if any la's sensations were Let Ceasar, as kissed by Cleopatra, co, and he did not stand like an idol His head ht swim, but she, too, tasted the deliriuiven for a , so must hers have done

”I have needed you!” she whispered ”I have been all alone! I have needed you!”

Then her lips sought his again, and neither spoke

Neither kne long it was before she began to understand that he, not she, inning The huave her all she asked of ad so tightly, although his strong right arm was like a stanchion Because he knew that he, not she, inning, he picked her up in his arms and kissed her as if she were a child And then, because he knew he had won, he set her on her feet on the footstool of the throne, and even pitied her

She felt the pity As she tossed the hair back over her shoulder her eyes gloith another lare

”You pity me? You think because I love you, you can feed overnainst me? Your love for ht you, Athelstan!”