"It was not fear. On that I vouch. Perchance he has a vow. Whatever it be--he shall tell me--face to face--and here!" "But if the holy man refuse to come?" Theodora's trained ear did not miss the note of irony in the Circassian's question. "He will come!" she replied laconically. "A task worthy the Lady Theodora's renown." "You deem it wonderful?" "If I have read the pilgrim's eyes aright--" "Perchance your own sweet eyes, my beautiful Persephoné, discoursed to him something on that night that caused misgivings in his holy heart, and made him doubt your errand?" Theodora purred, extending her white arms and regarding the Circassian intently. Persephoné flushed and paled in quick succession. "On that matter I left no doubt in his mind," she said enigmatically. There was a brief pause, during which an inscrutable gaze passed between Theodora and the Circassian. "Were you not as beautiful as you are evil, my Persephoné, I should strangle you," Theodora at last said very quietly. The Circassian's face turned very pale and there was a strange light in her eyes. Her memory went back to an hour when, during one of the periodical feuds between Marozia and her younger sister, the former had imprisoned Theodora in one of the chambers of Castel San Angelo, setting over her as companion and gaoler in one Persephoné, then in Marozia's service. The terrible encounter between Theodora and the Circassian in the locked chamber, when only the timely appearance of the guard saved each from destruction at the hands of the other, as Theodora tried to take the keys of her prison from Persephoné, had never left the latter's mind. Brave as she was, she had nevertheless, after Marozia's fall, entered Theodora's service, and the latter, admiring the spirit of fearlessness in the girl, had welcomed her in her household. "I am ever at the Lady Theodora's service," Persephoné replied, with drooping lids, but Theodora caught a gleam of tigerish ferocity beneath those silken lashes that fired her own blood. "Beware--lest in some evil hour I may be tempted to finish what I left undone in the Emperor's Tomb!" she flashed with a sudden access of passion. "The Lady Theodora is very brave," Persephoné replied, as, stirred by the memory, her eyes sank into those of her mistress. For a moment they held each other's gaze, then, with a generosity that was part of her complex nature, Theodora extended her hand to Persephoné. "Forgive the mood--I am strangely wrought up," she said. "Cannot you help me in this dilemma, where I can trust in none?" "There dwells in Rome one who can help my lady," Persephoné replied with hesitation; "one deeply versed in the lore and mysteries of the East." "Who is this man?" Theodora queried eagerly. "His name is Hormazd. By his spells he can change the natural event of things, and make Fate subservient to his decrees." "Why have you never told me of him before?"