“The tide is turned,” (and the thought was less a speech than a song of victory), “the tide is turned, and we have found the way that will triumph. Eight of them we have brought down in the place of fighting, on the Grey Beaches of the Amphibians,--eight we have brought down, and the rest are scattered.... Tell the women from me that every one who is above the Youth of Motherhood is to go upward. It is the last order I give them. There are better things than the delights of the Five Approaches. Tell them that I have found death, and I do not fear it.” Her eyes met those of the surgeon who was considering her injuries, and her thought was derisive. “Can you not see that I am spoiled beyond your mending? Am I one who would walk crutched who have been the Centre of Circles? You will pass me very quickly into the Place of Freezing. There are two women that follow whom you may repair from that which is uninjured, if you lose no time in the doing. You will not wait till I die...?” I was aware of a note of protest in the mind of the surgeon that met her own, and was swept aside, weak as a bird’s wing in the tempest. It was not his protest alone, but that of all, the injured and the attendants, who heard her. There was one thought that broke through like a cry of agony, and called my attention to a wounded form from which it came, which had been carried in behind her. With a surprise of recognition, I knew my captor of the first night,--he who had called in sleep for that which he would never gain. But their thoughts were beaten down by the indignation with which she perceived them. “Do you think to thwart my will because I am fallen?” It seemed that her thought swept the other protests aside to reach the form that was behind her. “_You_ who would have come a thousand miles had I called you? Who would have waited to know my pleasure like a crouching dog. You have followed well where the stings were striking. Will you follow now where I lead you?” “Yes,” he said, “I will follow.” There was no further protest. I heard the gates withdrawn, and the two litters, with their living burdens, passed into the Place of Freezing. I saw that eons pass, but Love and War will continue. CHAPTER XV RELEASE I remained for several hours gripped in that soft inflexible pressure, knowing not what of death or torture or mutilation I must undergo when they had leisure for my insignificance, and watching with an extraordinary mental clarity and aloofness the operations by which they built up the bodies of some of the less hopelessly injured with the limbs or organs of those who were themselves beyond saving.