“Aren’t you here to alter the evil to the good, Maskull?  Then what does it matter who sent you?”

“What can you possibly know of good and evil?”

“Are you only instructing the initiated?”

“Who am I, to instruct anybody?  However, you’re quite right.  I wish to do what I can—­not because I am qualified, but because I am here.”

Oceaxe’s voice dropped to a whisper.  “You’re a giant, both in body and soul.  What you want to do, you can do.”

“Is that your honest opinion, or are you flattering me for your own ends?”

She sighed.  “Don’t you see how difficult you are making the conversation?  Let’s talk about your work, not about ourselves.”

Maskull suddenly noticed a strange blue light glowing in the northern sky.  It was from Alppain, but Alppain itself was behind the hills.  While he was observing it, a peculiar wave of self-denial, of a disquieting nature, passed through him.  He looked at Oceaxe, and it struck him for the first time that he was being unnecessarily brutal to her.  He had forgotten that she was a woman, and defenceless.

“Won’t you stay?” she asked all of a sudden, quite openly and frankly.

“Yes, I think I’ll stay,” he replied slowly.  “And another thing, Oceaxe—­if I’ve misjudged your character, pray forgive me.  I’m a hasty, passionate man.”

“There are enough easygoing men.  Hard knocks are a good medicine for vicious hearts.  And you didn’t misjudge my character, as far as you went—­only, every woman has more than one character.  Don’t you know that?”

During the pause that followed, a snapping of twigs was heard, and both looked around, startled.  They saw a woman stepping slowly across the neck that separated them from the mainland.

“Tydomin,” muttered Oceaxe, in a vexed, frightened voice.  She immediately moved away from Maskull and stood up.

The newcomer was of middle height, very slight and graceful.  She was no longer quite young.  Her face wore the composure of a woman who knows her way about the world.  It was intensely pale, and under its quiescence there just was a glimpse of something strange and dangerous.  It was curiously alluring, though not exactly beautiful.  Her hair was clustering and boyish, reaching only to the neck.  It was of a strange indigo colour.  She was quaintly attired in a tunic and breeches, pieced together from the square, blue-green plates of some reptile.  Her small, ivory-white breasts were exposed.  Her sorb was black and sad—­rather contemplative.

Without once glancing up at Oceaxe and Maskull, she quietly glided straight toward Crimtyphon’s corpse.  When she arrived within a few feet of it, she stopped and looked down, with arms folded.

Oceaxe drew Maskull a little away, and whispered, “It’s Crimtyphon’s other wife, who lives under Disscourn.  She’s a most dangerous woman.  Be careful what you say.  If she asks you to do anything, refuse it outright.”