"I make the laws which govern the temple," said Dian; "and I make the laws which govern the people of Lolo-lolo," and she looked at Gamba.
Hor looked very uncomfortable. Gamba was grinning.
Dian rose. "You are both excused," she said, and it sounded like a command—it was a command. Then Dian stepped down from the dais and walked toward the door of the temple.
"Where are you going?" demanded Hor.
"I am going to walk in the streets of Lolo-lolo and speak with my people."
"But you can't," cried Hor. "It is against the rules of the temple."
"Didn't you just hear your Noada say that she makes the temple laws?" asked Gamba, still grinning.
"Wait, then," cried Hor, "until I summon the priests and the drums."
"I wish no priests and no drums," said Dian. "I wish to walk alone."
"I will go with you." Gamba and Hor spoke in unison, as though the line had been rehearsed.
"I said that I wished to go alone," said Dian; and with that, she passed through the great doorway of the temple out into the eternal sunlight of the square.
"Well," said Gamba to Hor, "you got yourself a Noada, didn't you?" and he laughed ironically as he said it.
"I shall pray Pu to guide her," said Hor, but his expression was more that of an executioner than a suppliant.
"She'll probably guide Pu," said Gamba.
As the people saw their Noada walking alone in the square, they were filled with consternation; they fell upon their knees at her approach and covered their eyes with their hands until she bade them arise. She stopped before a man and asked him what he did.
"I work in bronze," said the man. "I made those bracelets that you are wearing, Noada."
"You make many pieces for your work?" Dian had never known a money system before she came to Lolo-lolo; but here she had learned that one could get food and other things in exchange for pieces of bronze, often called "pieces" for short. They were brought in quantities to the temple and given to her, but Hor took them.
"I get many pieces for my work," replied the man, "but—" He hung his head and was silent.
"But what?" asked Dian.
"I am afraid to say," said the man; "I should not have spoken."
"I command you to speak," said Dian.
"The priests demand most of what I make, and the go-sha wants the rest. I have barely enough left to buy food."
"How much were you paid for these bracelets that I am wearing?" demanded Dian.
"Nothing."
"Why nothing?"
"The priests said that I should make them and give them as an offering to the Noada, who would forgive my sins and see that I got into Karana when I died."
"How much are they worth?"
"They are worth at least two hundred pieces," said the man; "they are the most beautiful bracelets in Lolo-lolo."
"Come with me," said Dian, and she continued across the square.
On the opposite side of the square from the temple was the house of the go-sha. Before the entrance stood a number of warriors on guard duty. They knelt and covered their eyes as Noada approached, but when they arose and Dian saw their faces she saw no reverence there—only fear and hate.
"You are fighting men," said Dian. "Are you treated well?"
"We are treated as well as the slaves," said one, bitterly.
"We are given the leavings from the tables of the go-sha and the nobles, and we have no pieces with which to buy more," said another.
"Why have you no pieces? Do you fight for nothing?"
"We are supposed to get five pieces every time go-sha sleeps, but we have not been paid for many sleeps."
"Why?"
"The go-sha says that it is because the priests take all the pieces for you," said the first warrior, boldly.
"Come with me," said Dian.
"We are on guard here, and we cannot leave."
"I, your Noada, command it; come!" said Dian, imperiously.
"If we do as the Noada commands us," said one, "She will protect us."
"But Gamba will have us beaten," said another.
"Gamba will not have you beaten if you always obey me. It is Gamba who will be beaten if he harms you for obeying me."
The warriors followed her as she stopped and talked with men and women, each of which had a grievance against either the priests or the go-sha. Each one she commanded to follow her; and finally, with quite a goodly procession following her, she returned to the temple.
Gamba and Hor had been standing in the entrance watching her; now they followed her into the temple. She mounted the dais and faced them.
"Gamba and Hor," she said, "you did not kneel as your Noada passed you at the temple door. You may kneel now."
The men hesitated. They were being humiliated before common citizens and soldiers. Hor was the first to weaken; he dropped to his knees and covered his eyes. Gamba looked up defiantly at Dian. Just the shadow of a smile, tinged by irony, played upon her lips. She turned her eyes upon the soldiers standing beside Gamba.
"Warriors," she said, "take this—" She did not have to say more, for Gamba had dropped to his knees; he had guessed what was in her mind and trembling on her lips.
After she had allowed the two to rise, she spoke to Hor. "Have many pieces of bronze brought," she said.
"What for?" asked Hor.
"The Noada does not have to explain what she wishes to do with her own," said Dian.
"But Noada," sputtered Hor; "the pieces belong to the temple."
"The pieces and the temple, too, belong to me; the temple was built for me, the pieces were brought as gifts for me. Send for them."
"How many?" asked Hor.
"All that six priests can carry. If I need more, I can send them back."
With six priests trailing him, Hor left the apartment, trembling with rage; but he got many pieces of bronze, and he had them brought into the throne room of the temple.
"To that man," said Dian, pointing at the worker in bronze, "give two hundred pieces in payment for these bracelets for which he was never paid."
"But, Noada," expostulated Hor, "the bracelets were gift offerings."
"They were forced offerings—give the man the pieces." She turned to Gamba. "How many times have you slept since your warriors were last paid?"
Gamba flushed under his yellow skin. "I do not know," he said, surlily.
"How many?" she asked the warriors.
"Twenty-one times," said one of them.
"Give each of these men five pieces for each of the twenty-one sleeps," directed Dian, "and have all the warriors come immediately to get theirs"; then she directed the payment of various sums to each of the others who had accompanied her to the temple.
Hor was furious; but Gamba, as he came to realize what this meant, was enjoying it, especially Hor's discomfiture; and Dian became infinitely more desirable to him than she had been before. What a mate she would be for a go-sha!
"Now," said Dian, when all had received their pieces, "hereafter, all offerings to your Noada will be only what you can afford to give—perhaps one piece out of every ten or twenty; and to your go-sha, the same. Between sleeps I shall sit here, and Hor will pay to everyone who comes the number of pieces each has been forced to give. Those who think one piece in ten is fair, may return that amount to Hor. If you have any other grievances, bring them to your Noada; and they will be corrected. You may depart now."
They looked at her in wonder and adoration, the citizens and the warriors whose eyes had first been filled with fear and hatred of her; and after they had knelt, they paid to Hor one piece out of every ten they had received. Laughing and jubilant, they left the temple to spread the glad tidings through the city.
"Pu will be angry," said Hor; "the pieces were Pu's."
"You are a fool," said Dian, "and if you don't mend your ways I shall appoint a new high priest."