Waiko remained silent, watching his vanishing friend. His mind was
working strangely. The madness had left a deep sense of fear in the
heart of Waiko. The inanimate body of Alan seemed to point to his
undoing. The blood trickled slowly down the unconscious man’s face till
there was a little red pool shining wickedly on the green grass. With a
cry, Waiko picked up the club and swung it once, twice round his head.
But as he would have swung it a third time, it slipped out of his
nerveless fingers, and went spinning a hundred feet away. With a cry at
his loneliness, Waiko turned and fled after Kulmervan. In a short space
of time he had caught them up, and noticed with surprise that Chlorie
was walking almost willingly with her captor. There was a rope passed
round her body, it was true, but it was slack in the centre, and
although she lagged somewhat behind, there was no need to drag her
along.
“Alan?” questioned Kulmervan, as Waiko reached him.
“Is serquor.”
“Good.”
“I struck him, as he rose to hurt me. With one mighty blow I felled him
to the ground. The heavy weapon you left with me I dashed on his head.—
Now he lies quiet, and cold and bloody.” Waiko almost believed his
story, and as he recounted it, he looked upon himself as a hero.
“’Tis well, my Waiko,” said Kulmervan. “What say you to that, my
Chlorie? Alan is serquor—never more will Kymo rise upon his smiling
face. Never more will he force his presence upon the people of Keemar.
He is gone for ever from our sight.”
But Chlorie made no reply—only from beneath her mantle could be seen a
slight convulsive movement, and from underneath came a tiny tatter of
blue, that caught on a rose bush and fluttered in the breeze.
Birds singing—sweetly smelling flowers—a sense of hunger and thirst.
These were the first conscious thoughts Alan had, as he opened his eyes
on the world once more. He rose from the ground. His head was sore, but
the bleeding had ceased. He plucked some luscious fruit that grew low to
the ground. It revived him. Then he tried to think. Chlorie had been
taken from him once more—but he would find her yet. He tenderly touched
the tree to which she had been bound—and stooped and picked up the
silken garment she had left behind. It was just a piece of soft, blue
drapery that crumpled into nothingness in his hand. He kissed it
reverently—it was part of his love.
He looked round wearily—there, attached to a bush was a piece of
something blue—he bent over it—it was part of her gown. Further down, in
the very centre of the path was another piece, while in the distance he
could see yet a third. It was a sign. Chlorie was directing him the way
she had gone. The trail was difficult to follow. The breeze had blown
many pieces away altogether—others it had carried away playfully into a
wrong direction, but by careful watchfulness, he discovered the right
way, and there were always the little pieces of blue to guide him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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