Then Leo, who all this while had stood silent, stepped forward.
Listen, Khan,
he said. Did the ice seem like melting a little while ago?
No—unless you lied. But that was only because the fire is not yet hot enough. Wait awhile until it burns up, and melt you must, for who can match his will against Atene?
And what if the ice desires to flee the fire? Khan, they said that I should kill you, but I do not seek your blood. You think that I would rob you of your wife, yet I have no such thought towards her. We desire to escape this town of yours, but cannot, because its gates are locked, and we are prisoners, guarded night and day. Hear me, then. You have the power to set us free and to be rid of us.
The Khan looked at him cunningly. And if I set you free, whither would you go? You could tumble down yonder gorge, but only the birds can climb its heights.
To the Fire-mountain, where we have business.
Rassen stared at him.
Is it I who am mad, or are you, who wish to visit the Fire-mountain? Yet that is nothing to me, save that I do not believe you. But if so you might return again and bring others with you. Perchance, having its lady, you wish this land also by right of conquest. It has foes up yonder.
It is not so,
answered Leo earnestly. As one man to another, I tell you it is not so. I ask no smile of your wife and no acre of your soil. Be wise and help us to be gone, and live on undisturbed in such fashion as may please you.
The Khan stood still awhile, swinging his long arms vacantly, till something seemed to come into his mind that moved him to merriment, for he burst into one of his hideous laughs.
I am thinking,
he said, what Atene would say if
