"
"These Bars; who are they?"
"The military priesthood, my lord. As priests they teach a literal
interpretation of the prophecy; as soldiers they maintain their
own aggrandisement. To be more specific, my lord, it is they who
accuse you of being one of the false ones."
"Why?"
"Because it is written in the prophecy, my lord, that we may
expect impostors, and that we are to slay them."
"Then this coming contest with the Senestro--" beginning to sense
the drift of things.
"Yes, my lord; it will be a physical contest, in which the best
man destroys the other!"
The guard was a tall, finely made and truly handsome chap of
perhaps thirty-five. Watson liked the clear blue of his eyes and
the openness of his manner. At the same time he felt that he was
being weighed and balanced.
"My lord is not afraid?"
"Not at all! I was just thinking--when does this kill take place?"
"Two days hence, my lord; on the first of the Sixteen Sacred
Days."
And thus Chick found a staunch friend. The soldier's name, he
learned, was "the Jan Lucar." He was supreme in command of the
royal guards; and Chick soon came to feel that the man would as
cheerfully lay down his life for him, Watson, as for the queen
herself. All told, Chick was able to store away in his memory a
few very important facts:
First, that the Aradna did not like the Senestro.
Second, that the Jan Lucar hated the great Bar because of the
prince's ambition to wed the queen and her cousin, the Nervina;
also because of his selfish, autocratic ways.
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