"Come then." Koryphu turned and led the way across a court done in blue and crystal, surrounded by a balcony of blue and white to a room at the farther end--the same room in which Jason at the time of his astral visit to him had seen him bending over his tablets and scrolls--his study--the room in which more than any other Koryphu spent his life. * * * * * "Be seated, lord," he invited, indicating a redwood chair and taking his place in another drawn close to a table of copper, littered with numerous scrolls. "Loss is not unknown to Scythys' son, nor the feeling of it. Yet never, praise be to Zitu and Azil, has he lost either wife or child. Wherefore, only in the mind may he conceive faintly of thy sense of loss, and therein share thy grief with thee. Speak--Koryphu lends his ear to thy voice." Jason explained--going at some length into past events--advising the Cathurian of the meeting to be held in the mountains, declaring it of vital importance to establish negotiations with Zollaria as quickly and protract them in indefinite fashion, in his estimation, proffering Koryphu the leadership of the first embassy at last. "I--Koryphu!" The Cathurian noble stammered, his breathing a trifle quickened, his nostrils a trifle tightened. "Zitu's Mouthpiece chooses me for such an errand as this?" "Aye." Croft inclined his head, watching the man before him. "Koryphu the Tamarizian." "Tamarizian!" Koryphu repeated and paused and went on again in a somewhat bitter fashion. "But why Koryphu--why the son of a discredited house? Why not another, whose loyalty none could question?" His eyes narrowed slightly and he clenched a hand. Croft looked him full in the face. In it he saw how deeply his brother's action had affected this man--how the loss of confidence, the lack of support by the people of Cathur, as shown by his overwhelming defeat in the last elections, had rankled without expression in his mind. The thing looked back at him a smoldering fire from between Koryphu's lids. It had quivered in his voice. "Because," said he, "who heads this mission, will meet Kalamita of Zollaria in the north." "Kalamita!" Koryphu stiffened. Suddenly his body stirred, he half rose in his chair and sank back, well-nigh gasping. "That--foul sepulchre of dead loves and unholy emotions--that stench in the nostrils of true men, and blot on the name of women. Say you she comes herself to this meeting?" "Aye," said Jason Croft. "Wherefore, there appears no better agent in all Tamarizia to meet her when she comes to trap me also as she hopes, seeing she had bidden me to this conference in person, than one who loves her not nor is apt to fall captive to her shameless graces--than Koryphu Tamarizian first, and son of Cathur, and loyal in his heart to both, as I believe." "Thou believest?" Koryphu questioned with an eagerness almost pathetic. "Aye. Else were I not sitting in his house."