She coloured a little and then laughed bitterly. ‘Thou dost forget, Macumazahn,’ she said, ‘I am no more a Queen, save in blood; I am an outcast and a prisoner, one whom all men should scorn, and none show deference to.’
‘At least,’ I replied, ‘thou art still a lady, and therefore one to whom deference is due. Also, thou art in an evil case, and therefore it is doubly due.’
‘Ah!’ she answered, with a little laugh, ‘thou dost forget that I would have wrapped thee in a sheet of gold and hung thee to the angel’s trumpet at the topmost pinnacle of the Temple.’
‘No,’ I answered, ‘I assure thee that I forgot it not; indeed, I often thought of it when it seemed to me that the battle of the Pass was turning against us; but the trumpet is there, and I am still here, though perchance not for long, so why talk of it now?’
‘Ah!’ she went on, ‘the battle! the battle! Oh, would that I were once more a Queen, if only for one little hour, and I would take such a vengeance on those accursed jackals who deserted me in my need; that it should only be spoken of in whispers; those woman, those pigeon-hearted half-breeds who suffered temselves to be overcome!’ and she choked in her wrath.
‘Ay, and that little coward beside thee,’ she went on, pointing at Alphonse with the silver spear, whereat he looked very uncomfortable; ‘he escaped and betrayed my plans. I tried to make a general of him, telling the soldiers it was Bougwan, and to scourge valour into him’ (here Alphonse shivered at some unhappy recollection), ‘but it was of no avail. He hid beneath a banner in my tent and thus overheard my plans. I would that I had slain him, but, alas! I held my hand.
‘And thou, Macumazahn, I have hard of what thou didst; thou art brave, and hast a loyal heart. And the black one too, ah, he was a man. I would fain have seen him hurl Nasta from the stairway.’
‘Thou art a strange woman, Sorais,’ I said; ‘I pray thee now plead with the Queen Nyleptha, that perchance she may show mercy unto thee.’
She laughed out loud. ‘I plead for mercy!’ she said and at that moment the Queen entered, accompanied by Sir Henry and Good, and took her seat with an impassive face. As for poor Good, he looked intensely ill at ease.
‘Greeting, Sorais!’ said Nyleptha, after a short pause. ‘Thou hast rent the kingdom like a rag, thou hast put thousands of my people to the sword, thou hast twice basely plotted to destroy my life by murder, thou hast sworn to slay my lord and his companions and to hurl me from the Stairway. What hast thou to say why thou shouldst not die? Speak, O Sorais!’
‘Methinks my sister the Queen hath forgotten the chief count of the indictment,’ answered Sorais in her slow musical tones. ‘It runs thus: “Thou didst strive to win the love of my lord Incubu.” It is for this crime that my sister will slay me, not because I levied war. It is perchance happy for thee, Nyleptha, that I fixed my mind upon his love too late.
‘Listen,’ she went on, raising her voice. ‘I have nought to say save that I would I had won instead of lost. Do thou with me even as thou wilt, O Queen, and let my lord the King there’ (pointing to Sir Henry) — ‘for now will he be King — carry out the sentence, as it is meet he should, for as he is the beginning of the evil, let him also be the end.’ And she drew herself up and shot one angry glance at him from her deep fringed eyes, and then began to toy with her spear.
Sir Henry bent towards Nyleptha and whispered something that I could not catch, and then the Queen spoke.
‘Sorais, ever have I been a good sister to thee. When our father died, and there was much talk in the land as to whether thou shouldst sit upon the throne with me, I being the elder, I gave my voice for thee and said, “Nay, let her sit. She is twin with me; we were born at a birth; wherefore should the one be preferred before the other?” And so has it ever been ‘twixt thee and me, my sister. But now thou knowest in what sort thou hast repaid me, but I have prevailed, and thy life is forfeit, Sorais. And yet art thou my sister, born at a birth with me, and we played together when we were little and loved each other much, and at night we slept in the same cot with our arms each around the other’s neck, and therefore even now does my heart go out to thee, Sorais.