"
"And Ko-tan?" she asked, a shudder passing through her slender
frame.
"There are ceremonies," explained Ja-don, "that may occupy several
days before you become queen, and one of them may be difficult of
arrangement." He laughed, then.
"What?" she asked.
"Only the high priest may perform the marriage ceremony for a king,"
he explained.
"Delay!" she murmured; "blessed delay!" Tenacious indeed of life
is Hope even though it be reduced to cold and lifeless char--a
veritable phoenix.
15
"The King Is Dead!"
As they conversed Ja-don had led her down the stone stairway that
leads from the upper floors of the Temple of the Gryf to the chambers
and the corridors that honeycomb the rocky hills from which the
temple and the palace are hewn and now they passed from one to the
other through a doorway upon one side of which two priests stood
guard and upon the other two warriors. The former would have halted
Ja-don when they saw who it was that accompanied him for well known
throughout the temple was the quarrel between king and high priest
for possession of this beautiful stranger.
"Only by order of Lu-don may she pass," said one, placing himself
directly in front of Jane Clayton, barring her progress. Through
the hollow eyes of the hideous mask the woman could see those of
the priest beneath gleaming with the fires of fanaticism.
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