Say, do ye know us now?"
As these words rang on her lips a groan of terror burst from every man
who heard them. Then the aged priest cried aloud: "Down upon your faces,
ye Children of the Snake; Worship, all ye People of the Spear, Dwellers
in the Mist! Aca, the Queen immortal, has come home again: Jal, the god,
has put on the flesh of men. Olfan, lay down thy kingship, it is his: ye
priests, throw wide the temples, they are theirs. Worship the Mother, do
honour to the god!"
The multitude heard and prostrated themselves like a single man, every
one of them crying in a shout of thunder:
"Aca, the Queen of life, has come; Jal, the doom-god, has put on flesh.
Worship the Mother, do honour to the god!"
It was as though the army had suddenly been smitten with death, and of
the hundreds there, Juanna and Otter alone were left standing. There
was one exception, however, and that was Olfan, the warrior chief, who
remained upon his feet, not seeming to relish the command to abdicate
his authority thus brusquely in favour of a dwarf, were he god or man.
Otter, who was utterly bewildered, not comprehending a word of what
had been said, and being unable to fathom the meaning of these strange
antics, pointed at the chief with his spear by way of calling Juanna's
attention to the fact that he was still standing. But the great man
interpreted the action otherwise; evidently he thought that the newly
arrived god was invoking destruction on him.
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