for it directly, all those in his path shrinking away from him with
open shudders. And through the valves of the door he passed out of
our sight, still wordless, still unchecked.

I glanced up at Phorenice. The loveliness of her face was
drawn and haggard. It was the first great reverse, this, she had
met with in all her life, and the shock of it, and the vision of
what might follow after, dazed her. Alas, if she could only have
guessed at a tenth of the terrors which the future had in its womb,
Atlantis might have been saved even then.



6. THE BITERS OF THE CITY WALLS


Here then was the manner of my reception back in the capital
of Atlantis, and some first glimpse at her new policies. I freely
confess to my own inaction and limpness; but it was all deliberate.
The old ties of duty seemed lost, or at least merged in one
another. Beforetime, to serve the king was to serve the Clan of
the Priests, from which he had been chosen, and whose head he
constituted. But Phorenice was self-made, and appeared to be a
rule unto herself; if Zaemon was to be trusted, he was the
mouthpiece of the Priests, and their Clan had set her at defiance;
and how was a mere honest man to choose on the instant between the
two?

But cold argument told me that governments were set up for the
good of the country at large, and I said to myself that there would