"Fools! What have I in my guardsmen? Dancing-girls from Nyema?" "Three of them danced into Hell but a little while ago," muttered the chained man. "What is your name, O Mighty One?" mocked Nione. "Men call me Duar." The Queen of Ygoth relaxed on her cushioned throne as a wave of surprize swept the clouds of anger from her face. She raised one hand unconsciously to suddenly pallid features. If the guardsmen had been startled before, now they were certainly in panic, much as if they had captured one of the terrible white apes from the hills of Barsoom and were unable to let it go. Backing to the extreme limits of the chains they held, they attempted to go still farther without endangering themselves or their Queen by entirely releasing the iron bonds. Duar was forced to extend his arms as the chains threatened to pull him asunder. "I see, Nione," he grimaced, "that even in this barbarous country men have heard of me." He shook his long mane of black hair impatiently. "Tell these jackals to ease my wrists before I tangle their bones in my fetters." * * * * * Nione motioned wordlessly. The guards stepped cautiously nearer to leave slack in the weights; but one careful fellow placed his unsheathed sword-tip to the back of Duar's neck and held it there. "I bring your person no harm, Nione," continued the prisoner, "nor harm to your subjects. The three I killed I was forced to when they attacked me in the mountain pass. Faith, it's a fine welcome you give to visitors to your kingdom!" "Duar, the Accursed!" breathed Nione. "What demon brings you here?" "No demon, O Queen. Merely my roving inclinations." "Demons have always prompted your inclinations, O Duar! Even in this secluded mountain kingdom have we heard of your familiars from Hell! Whence came the red rain of blood that covered the battlefield of Kor and blinded the eyes of the Sivian hosts while your followers cut them to ribbons? And where the giant black raven that flew above your pirate galley when you ravished the coasts of Krem? Why did the mountains of Fuvia shatter themselves over your castles while the mighty hurricane destroyed your villages and your fields as the raging seas finally obliterated the whole of the kingdom King Duar had raised with his pirate hordes? Why, O King who is now a slave?" "Faith, and I know not," he answered. "Mine has been a strange life, it's true. Perhaps there is a destiny for me. I sometimes think that when I have swerved from the chosen path the Gods ordained, it is the very elements who rise to set me back. But I know little more than you. I have gone with the wind and the tide. When the Gods said I should be a king, I was, and a pirate I became likewise." "It is easy to blame everything on the Gods!" "Why not?" inquired the prisoner, and his white teeth flashed again. "I came to this world without asking, but if I leave it 'twill be no fault of mine."