The woman spoke again to the globe. "Bring them here!" And again it ran swiftly with its film of colours, darkened, and shone rosy once more. From without there came a rustle of many feet upon the rugs. Yolara pressed a slender hand upon the base of the pedestal of the globe beside her. Abruptly the light faded from all, and on the same instant the four walls of blackness vanished, revealing on two sides the lovely, unfamiliar garden through the guarding rows of pillars; at our backs soft draperies hid what lay beyond; before us, flanked by flowered screens, was the corridor through which we had entered, crowded now by the green dwarfs of the great hall. The dwarfs advanced. Each, I now noted, had the same clustering black hair of Rador. They separated, and from them stepped three figures--a youth of not more than twenty, short, but with the great shoulders of all the males we had seen of this race; a girl of seventeen, I judged, white-faced, a head taller than the boy, her long, black hair dishevelled; and behind these two a stunted, gnarled shape whose head was sunk deep between the enormous shoulders, whose white beard fell like that of some ancient gnome down to his waist, and whose eyes were a white flame of hate. The girl cast herself weeping at the feet of the priestess; the youth regarded her curiously. "You are Songar of the Lower Waters?" murmured Yolara almost caressingly. "And this is your daughter and her lover?" The gnome nodded, the flame in his eyes leaping higher. "It has come to me that you three have dared blaspheme the Shining One, its priestess, and its Voice," went on Yolara smoothly. "Also that you have called out to the three Silent Ones. Is it true?" "Your spies have spoken--and have you not already judged us?" The voice of the old dwarf was bitter. A flicker shot through the eyes of Yolara, again cold grey. The girl reached a trembling hand out to the hem of the priestess's veils. "Tell us why you did these things, Songar," she said. "Why you did them, knowing full well what your--reward--would be." The dwarf stiffened; he raised his withered arms, and his eyes blazed. "Because evil are your thoughts and evil are your deeds," he cried. "Yours and your lover's, there"--he levelled a finger at Lugur. "Because of the Shining One you have made evil, too, and the greater wickedness you contemplate--you and he with the Shining One. But I tell you that your measure of iniquity is full; the tale of your sin near ended! Yea--the Silent Ones have been patient, but soon they will speak." He pointed at us. "A sign are _they_--a warning--harlot!" He spat the word. In Yolara's eyes, grown black, the devils leaped unrestrained.