He bowed solemnly, keeping his face impassive, and said, «I am glad to see that you had second thoughts, Juna. Or did you perhaps glance in a mirror after all?»

She flushed and her sensuous mouth tightened, but the gray violet eyes met his steadily. The lad Edym, making nothing of the words, glanced from one to the other in bewilderment. Blade jerked a thumb at him. «Get you back to the camp, boy, and put the eunuchs to work gathering rushes and withies in the marsh. Set the women, all of them, to making a great net. Do you supervise, lad, and see that it is a net and not a sieve. I will expect to find the work well along when I return. It may be that we will have something to put in our bellies soon. Off with you.»

The girl, her pale and lovely face expressionless, said: «I would have him stay. It is not proper that a goddess should be alone with a strange man.»

Blade looked at Edym and when he spoke his voice was soft. «Go, boy.»

Edym left hurriedly. Blade and the girl watched each other in silence broken only by the weird music of the lyre stones. She was the first to speak.

«You sent for me, Richard Blade. I have come, though against my better judgment. What do you want of me?»

«I want to talk,» he said bluntly. «Of many things. Among them your shortness of memory-I do not understand it or your attitude. But for me you would be dead now, or you would be a faceless thing wishing for death. I have risked much for your pack of idlers and ball-less men. You owe me your life, Juna. I ask no payment, but I will have courtesy and cooperation. You have avoided me and offered neither. Why is this?»

The wind tugged her cloak open. Her shift was low cut and he could see her breasts nearly exposed. She saw his glance and hastily gathered the cloak around her throat.

«In serving me you only serve yourself,» she said. «You ask too much credit. Your life was in danger as well as mine. Ptol is your enemy as well as mine. As is Hectoris. You are no Thymian, you are no Samostan, and certainly you are not of Patmos. You are like no man I have ever seen before and after much thought on the matter, I can find no reason why I should like or trust you. If I seek to use you for my purposes it is equally true that you seek to use me for yours. With this difference-you know my motives. To escape and seek sanctuary in Patmos. I do not know your motives in helping me.»

This was a different girl. This was not the terrorstricken girl of the torture chamber. This was a shrewd and articulate wench who had her wits about her. Blade nodded and gave her a little smile. There was sense in what she said, but no time to go into it now.

He woud have changed his tone, and perhaps his tune, had she not ruffled him again by adding, «Another thing is your attitude toward me. You forget that I am Juna. I am a goddess, the physical incarnation of the everlasting spirit of Juna of Thyme. You struck me as though I were a common kitchen maid. You do not address me properly, you do not make yourself humble before me, you do none of the things you should when in the presence. of a goddess. Already my people have noticed. It sets a bad example, Blade, and I would have you remedy this if we are to be better friends.»

She extended her hand. «They are watching now. If you were to fall on your knees and kiss my fingers it would do much to atone for your past manner.»

Blade barely kept his temper. He did not even curse her, much less strike her, though the temptation boiled in him. He glared and his teeth flashed white in his dark beard as he bit off each word. «Very well, goddess! Persist in this flummery if you will, but expect nothing from me but laughter-when I feel like laughing, which is not at the moment. Come. We will stroll down the beach together. We do have matters to discuss and I do not mean such cursed nonsense. Do you come willingly or do I drag you? In full view of those idiots of yours?»

She put her hands deep into the sleeves of her cloak and crossed her arms on her full breasts. Her eyes were angry, but there was a glint of mischief also, a taunt. She nodded. «I must obey you, Blade. I have no armed men to my back. You are the only warrior among us, and my only protection. In such a situation even a goddess must make concessions.»

Blade snorted. He took her arm, a bit roughly, and they began to walk toward the promontory he had seen. She flinched at his touch and he thought she gasped deep in her throat.

Because he was still angry, and because of another emotion which he did not want to acknowledge, he said, «Goddess again? Immortal Juna? Temple whore is more like, is it not? Come to that, I am something of a hero myself. Am I not then entitled to your bed? Can you lie and say that I would not be a better mate than Ptol?»

His hand was still on her arm and he felt her shudder. She went pale and would not look at him, yet her voice was firm. «I have done what a goddess must. It is no sin to give- oneself to heroes of Thyme. The mother spirit Juna knows and approves.»

Blade closed his big fist about her slim arm. He hurt her and for the moment did not care. «And the fat priest? Ptol?» He was a good mimic and he spoke now as he had overheard Ptol speak in the tunnel.

«… you have enjoyed her favors? You know her beauty and her skill in giving pleasure. .»

She stumbled and would have fallen but for his sup-

port. She tried to pull away from him and there was no mockery in her eyes now. She stared at him in terror and clutched at her breasts. «Who are you? What are you? How came you to know such things? Are you in truth a demon come to destroy me!»

He let go of her and stepped away. He felt no remorse, but she was after all only a woman and helpless. He strode on down the beach, saying roughly, «Enough foi now. I have a riddle for you.»

He repeated the words of Kron, not entirely without sarcasm. «Can you make sense of it, Juna, in your infinite wisdom?»

She shook her head. A tear fell and Blade pretended not to notice. She wiped it away with the sleeve of her cloak and said, «But Kron is wise. If she spoke thus it must have meaning. The wind stones, the singing-«

«Forget that,» Blade said harshly. «She did not bear it from the wind. But she had been up and down the shore and it may be that she found something and chose wind song as a means of telling me. It does not matter now. We are going to have a look.»

He pointed to the headland, now about a half a mile distant. It was barren and rocky, towered by castellated by great boulders whose pinnacles were concealed by swirling mist.

Juna had caught up with him and now matched his stride. Her eyes were dry and so was her tone. «For what do we search, Blade?»

«I am not sure,» he admitted. «But you sent a messenger to Patmos? Did you not tell me that?»

She nodded. «I did. His name was Tudd-a faithful servant of mine. When I knew that Thyme was lost, and heard that Ptol intended to arrest me, I sent Tudd at once to this place. I mean, of course, the Singing Stones. He was to cross to Patmos and bring aid, ships from the island to ferry me across the sea.»

Blade regarded her, fingers in his beard, eyes narrowed. She misunderstood and, flushing, said tartly, «Tudd was an emasculate. I did not bed him, if that is-«

Blade shook his head. «Enough of that, I said. But this Tudd, this eunuch, he had made the same trip before? For you? With messages to Patmos? And, I have no — doubt; bringing messages back from Patmos?»

She refused to meet his eyes. Finally she nodded. «Yes. I–I did use him as a messenger.»

«. . seek you on the sands for him who was sent but did not go.

He repeated the words aloud. Then he looked at her and laughed. «There, unless I am much mistaken, is part of your riddle. A messenger is sent, is he not? But, if that old hag, and the wind of course, is right, this one did not go.