A Queen of Atlantis by Frank Aubrey

Author:Frank Aubrey [Aubrey, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, SciFi
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2017-08-31T22:00:00+00:00

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XVIII. — A GREAT NAVAL BATTLE.

BEFORE the terrified Idelia could make up her mind what action she should take to prevent the duel that seemed imminent, Monella had again come into the apartment, and the princess stretched out her hands to him appealingly. He quickly gauged the situation and strode between the disputants.

"How now?" he asked, looking with unusual sternness from the one to the other. "Prince! Wydale! Have we, then, no longer foemen to fight, that we must begin to quarrel amongst ourselves? I never thought, prince, to see you draw your sword on one who is your guest, and your people's; who, moreover, has done such service against your enemies. And you, my friend,"—addressing Wydale—"is it fitting that you should thus attack one of the leaders of a people that have received you kindly, and treated you with honour?"

Both the hot-headed young men looked somewhat ashamed at this rebuke. But, when Monella inquired what the quarrel was about, they remained obstinately silent. Neither cared to avow what each knew to be the actual cause; while the ostensible one was too trivial—as they both well knew—to lay before Monella.

Since both kept silence, Monella turned to Idelia and inquired the truth of her.

"Indeed," she said, "there was no cause that I know of."

"Well!" Monella said, addressing the two, and with a touch of irony in his tone, "since there is no matter in dispute of sufficient importance to be imparted to the friend of both, I trust I may express a hope that matters will proceed no further."

Both sulkily sheathed their swords, Rokta addressing Monella thus:

"I have no wish to quarrel; but he knows how he has offended me. Let him say the word and the matter is at an end."

"I have neither said nor done anything that needs apology," responded Wydale; "the matter rests with him."

"Well, we can talk it over another time, my Lord Monella," concluded Rokta; and with that he walked away.

Idelia also went away; and Monella, left alone with Wydale, looked inquiringly at him, and shook his head.

"It is all very well to reproach me, as your looks appear to do," Wydale burst out, "but that man's manner to me lately has been more than I can bear. You know," he went on, with emotion, "how he is behaving. And you know, or guess, my secret. Before we came here I had ground for hope that— well—what does it matter what I hoped? It is all done with; and, of course, I have no right to interfere, perhaps even not to open my mouth. But, when I see Prince Rokta flirting, as he notoriously does, with one for whom I have a high regard, and see further what is plain to all, that he is breaking the heart of one of the most tender-hearted, sweetest women—when I see all this, and I remember that I am all the time fighting for his country, it is more than I can bear to take his insults patiently.

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