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 CHAPTER VII

THE FIRST ORDEAL

Shaman advanced to my side and asked me courteously how I fared.

I answered, Better. Far better, oh, my host—but how are you named?

Simbri, he answered, and, as I told you by the water, my title is Hereditary Guardian of the Gate. By profession I am the royal Physician in this land.

Did you say physician or magician? I asked carelessly, as though I had not caught the word. He gave me a curious look.

I said physician, and it is well for you and your companion that I have some skill in my art. Otherwise I think, perhaps, you would not have been alive to-day, O my guest—but how are you named?

Holly, I said.

O my guest, Holly.

Had it not been for the foresight that brought you and the lady Khania to the edge of yonder darksome river, certainly we should not have been alive, venerable Simbri, a foresight that seems to me to savour of magic in such a lonely place. That is why I thought you might have described yourself as a magician, though it is true that you may have been but fishing in those waters.

Certainly I was fishing, stranger Holly—for men, and I caught two.

Fishing by chance, host Simbri?

Nay, by design, guest Holly. My trade of physician includes the study of future events, for I am the chief