She said, steadily:
"I know where happiness lies for me. I hold to my promise…unless you do not want me…"
"I do want you—dark girl!"
She turned to Sri: "Carry my love to my people, Sri. I shall not see them again."
The little man clung to her, cast himself down before her, wailed and wept while she talked to him. At last he squatted on his haunches, and stared long at the shattered gate of the Kraken. I saw the secret knowledge touch him. He came to me, held up his arms for me to lift him. He raised my lids and looked deep into my eyes. He thrust his hand in my breast, and placed his head on my breast, and listened to the beating of my heart. He dropped, bent Evalie's head to his, whispering.
Dara said: "Dwayanu's will is our will. Yet it is hard to understand why he will not stay with us."
"Sri knows…more than I do. I cannot, Dara."
Evalie came to me. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
"Sri says we must go now, Leif…quickly. My people must—not see me. He will tell them a tale upon his drum…there will be no fighting…and henceforth there will be peace."
The golden pygmy began to beat the talking drum. At the first strokes the hosts of other drums were silent. When he had ended they began again…jubilant, triumphant…until in them crept a note of questioning. Once more he beat a message…the answer came—angry, peremptory—in some queer fashion, incredulous.
Sri said to me: "Haste! Haste!"
Dara said: "We stay with you, Dwayanu, until the last."
I nodded, and looked at Lur. Upon her hand the ring of Khalk'ru sent out a sudden gleam. I went to her, lifted the dead hand and took from it the ring. I smashed it on the anvil of Tubalka as I had the ring of Yodin.
Evalie said: "Sri knows a way that will lead us out into your world, Leif. It lies at the head of Nanbu. He will take us."
"Is the way past the Lake of Ghosts, Evalie?"
"I will ask him…yes, it passes there."
"That is good. We go into a country where the clothing I wear would be hardly fitting. And some provision must be made for you."
We rode from the temple with Sri on my saddle, and Evalie and Dara on either side. The drums were very close. They were muted when we emerged from the forest upon the road. We went swiftly. It was mid–afternoon when we reached the Lake of the Ghosts. The drawbridge was down. There was no one in the garrison. The Witch–woman's castle was empty. I searched, and found my roll of clothes; I stripped the finery of Dwayanu from me. I took a battle–ax, thrust a short sword in my belt, picked javelins for Evalie and myself. They would help us win through, would be all we had to depend upon to get us food later on. We took food with us from Lur's castle, and skins to clothe Evalie when she passed from the Mirage.
I did not go up into the chamber of the Witch–woman. I heard the whispering of the waterfall—and did not dare to look upon it.
All the rest of that afternoon we galloped along the white river's banks. The drums of the Little People followed us…searching… questioning…calling…"Ev–ah–lee…Ev–ah–lee… Ev–ah–lee…"
By nightfall we had come to the cliffs at the far end of the valley. Here Nanbu poured forth in a mighty torrent from some subterranean source. We picked our way across. Sri led us far into a ravine running steeply upward, and here we camped.
And that night I sat thinking long of what Evalie must meet in that new world awaiting her beyond the Mirage—the world of sun and stars and wind and cold. I thought long of what must be done to shield her until she could adjust herself to that world. And I listened to the drums of the Little People calling her, and I watched her while she slept, and wept and smiled in dream.
She must be taught to breathe. I knew that when she emerged from this atmosphere in which she had lived since babyhood, she would cease instantly to breathe—deprivation of the accustomed stimulus of the carbon–dioxide would bring that about at once. She must will herself to breathe until the reflexes again became automatic and she need give them no conscious thought. And at night, when she slept, this would be trebly difficult. I would have to remain awake, watch beside her.
And she must enter this new world with eyes bandaged, blind, until the nerves accustomed to the green luminosity of the Mirage could endure the stronger light. Warm clothing we could contrive from the skins and furs. But the food—what was it Jim had said in the long and long ago—that those who had eaten the food of the Little People would die if they ate other. Well, that was true in part. Yet, only in part—it could be managed.
With dawn came a sudden memory—the pack I had hidden on Nanbu's bank when we had plunged into the white river with the wolves at our heels. If that could be found, it would help solve the problem of Evalie's clothing at least. I told Dara about it. And she and Sri set out to find it. And while they were gone the soldier–women foraged for food and I instructed Evalie upon what she must do to cross in safety that bridge which lay, perilous, between her world and mine.
Two days they were gone—but they had found the pack. They brought word of peace between the Ayjir and the Little People. As for me—
Dwayanu the Deliverer had come even as the prophecy had promised… had come and freed them from the ancient doom…and had gone back as was his right to that place from which, answering the prophecy, he had come…and had taken with him Evalie as was also his right. Sri had spread the tale.
And next morning when the light showed that the sun had risen over the peaks that girdled the Valley of the Mirage, we set forth—Evalie like a slim boy beside me.
We climbed until we were within the green mists. And here we bade farewell, Sri clinging to Evalie, kissing her hands and feet, weeping. And Dara clasped my shoulders:
"You will come back to us, Dwayanu? We will be waiting!"
It was like the echo of the Uighur captain's voice—long and long ago…
I turned and began to climb, Evalie following. I thought that so might Euridice have followed her lover up from the Land of Shades in another long and long ago.
The figures of Sri and the watching women became dim. They were hidden under the green mists…
I felt the bitter cold touch my face. I caught Evalie up in my arms—and climbed up and on—and staggered at last out into the sun–lit warmth of the slopes beyond the pit of the precipices.
The day dawned when we had won the long, hard fight for Evalie's life. Not easily was the grip of the Mirage loosed. We turned our faces to the South and set our feet upon the Southward trail.
And yet…
Ai! Lur—Witch–woman! I see you lying there, smiling with lips grown tender—the—white wolf's head upon your breast! And Dwayanu still lives within me!