"Perhaps you will come to the point," said Juanna, who was trembling with fear and anger.
"It is this, Shepherdess," Nam answered bowing; "although you are dethroned as a goddess, you may still shine as a queen and rule over us as the wife of our king."
"Indeed," replied Juanna, turning suddenly cold; "and how shall I, who am held to be dead, appear again as a woman wedded to your king? Surely the people would find that strange, Nam?"
"No, Shepherdess, for I have prepared a tale which shall explain the wonder, and already its rumour runs from mouth to mouth. It will be said that you were a goddess and therefore immortal, but that for the sake of love you have put off your godhead and put on the flesh, that you might dwell for some years with him whom you desire."
"Indeed," said Juanna again. "And what if I refuse to consent to this scheme, which, as I think, can have come only from a woman's brain?" and she pointed to Soa.
"You are right, Shepherdess," answered Soa, "the plan is mine; I made it to save you, and also," she added coolly, "to be revenged upon that white thief who loves you, for he shall live to see you the wife of another man, a wild man."
"And have you never thought, Soa, that I may have wishes of my own in this matter?"
"Doubtless, yet the fairest women cannot always have what they may chance to wish. Know, Shepherdess, that this must be both for your own sake and for the sake of Nam, my father. Olfan loves you, and in these troubled times it is necessary that Nam and the priests should gain his support, which has been bought but now by the promise that you will be given to him in marriage on this very day. For you, Shepherdess, although you might have wished to wed one of your own race, at the least you will rule a queen, and that is better than to perish miserably."
"I think otherwise, Soa," Juanna answered calmly, for she saw that neither passion nor pleading would help her, "and of the two I choose to die," and she put her hand to her hair, then started, for she found the poison gone.
"You will choose to die, Shepherdess," said Soa with a cold smile, "but this is not always so easy. I have taken your medicine from you while you slept, and here there are no other means to compass death."
"I can starve, Soa," replied Juanna with dignity.
"That takes some time, Shepherdess, and to–day you will become the wife of Olfan. Still it is needful that you should yourself consent to marry him, for this chief is so foolish that he declares that he will not wed you till you have accepted him with your own mouth and in the presence of witnesses."
"Then I fear that the wedding will not be celebrated," said Juanna with a bitter laugh, for she could not refrain from giving some outward expression to all the loathing which she felt for this wicked woman, who in her fierce love would save the life of her mistress by selling her to shame.
"I think that it will, Shepherdess," answered Soa, "for it seems that we have a way by which we can win you to speak those words which Olfan desires to hear."
"There is no way, Soa."
"What, none, Shepherdess? Think now: he whom you name Deliverer is a prisoner beyond that door. What if his life hangs upon your choice? What if he were shown to you about to die a fearful death from which you alone could save him by speaking a certain word?"
Now for the first time Juanna fully understood the hideous nature of the plot whereby Soa purposed either to force her to become the wife of a savage, or to thrust upon her the guilt of causing the death of the man whom she loved, and she sank back upon the couch, saying:
"You would have done better to leave me yonder in the slave camp, Soa."
Then, abandoning the tone of forced calm in which she had spoken hitherto, Soa broke out bitterly:
"When you were in the slave camp, Shepherdess, you loved me who have loved you from a child, for then no white dog had come to sow mischief between us and to make you hate and distrust me. Then I would have died for you, ay, and this I would do now. But also I would be revenged upon the white dog, for I, who am husbandless and childless, had but this one thing, and he has taken it from me. You were to me as mother, and lover, and babe are to other women—my all, and now I am left desolate, and I will be revenged upon him before I die. But I still love you, Shepherdess, and could any other plan have been found to help you, I could not have forced this marriage on you. No such plan can be found; thus alone can you live and become great and happy; and thus alone can I continue to feast my eyes upon you, though it be from far."
She ceased, trembling with the strength of the passions that shook her, to which indeed her words had given but feeble expression.
"Go," said Juanna, "I would have time to think."
Then Nam spoke again.
"We go, Shepherdess, in obedience to your wish, but before evening we shall return to hear your answer. Do not attempt to work mischief upon yourself, for know that you will be watched though you cannot see the eyes that watch you. If you do but so much as lift a hand against your life, or even strive to cut off the light that flows through yonder hole, then at once you will be seized and bound, and my daughter will be set to guard you. Shepherdess, farewell."
And they went, leaving Juanna alone and a prey to such thoughts as can scarcely be written.
For several hours she sat there upon the couch, allowing no hint of what she felt to appear upon her face, for she was too proud to suffer the eyes which she knew were spying on her, though whence she could not tell, to read her secret anguish.
As she sat thus in her desolation several things grew clear to Juanna, and the first of them was that Soa must be mad. The love and hate that seethed in her fierce heart had tainted her brain, making her more relentless than a leopard robbed of its young. From the beginning she had detested Leonard and been jealous of him, and incautiously enough he had always shown his dislike and distrust of her. By slow degrees these feelings had hardened into insanity, and to gratify the vile promptings of her disordered mind she would hesitate at nothing.
From Soa, therefore, she could hope for no relenting. Nor had she better prospect with Nam, for it was evident that in his case political considerations operated as strongly as did those of a personal character with his daughter. He was so much involved, he had committed himself so deeply in this matter of the false gods, that, rightly or wrongly, he conceived Soa's plan to offer the only feasible chance of escape from the religious complications by which he was surrounded, that threatened to bring his life and power to a simultaneous end.
It was out of the question, therefore, to expect help from the high–priest, who was in the position of a man on a runaway horse with precipices on either side of him, unless, indeed, she could show him some safer path. Failing this, it would avail her nothing that he hated and feared Olfan, and only promoted this marriage in order to bribe the king into standing his friend during the expected political convulsions. Indeed, as she guessed rightly, Nam would much better like to know her safely over the borders of the Mist–land than to be called upon to greet her as its queen. This was obvious, seeing that should she return to power, religious or temporal, it was scarcely to be hoped that she would forget the wrongs which she had suffered at his hands. The marriage was merely a temporary expedient designed to ward off immediate evil, but should it come about and the crisis be tided over, it was plain that the struggle between the false goddess and the perjured priest must be carried on until it ended in the death of one or both of them. However, all these things lay in the future as Nam foretold it, a future which Juanna never meant to live to see.