MELIFLOR: So that if there be anything wrong in the palace it will not find us.
[_Exeunt_ MOOMOOMON _and_ MELIFLOR.
HUZ: Let us hide.
[_Exeunt all but_ ZOON _and_ OOMUZ.
[ZOON _has sat always with bent head at table. He sits so, still._
ZOON (_bitterly_): They would follow the Queen.
OOMUZ: Mighty Highness----
ZOON (_still to himself_): They will come back boasting that they dared follow the Queen.
OOMUZ: Mighty Highness.
ZOON: Yes, good Oomuz.
OOMUZ: In other times once princes followed a queen and came back boasting. Master, the workers were angry. Be warned, Master, because you and I went together once to the h.o.a.rd beyond the marshes. Be warned.
They were angry, Master.
ZOON: I care not for the workers.
OOMUZ: Master, be warned. It was long ago and they say they were very angry.
ZOON: I care not, Oomuz. I come not boasting back from the hills under Aether Mountain. I shall not halt till I have told the Queen my love. I shall wed with her who is less only than Fate, if less she be. I am not as those, Oomuz. Who weds the Queen is more than the servant of Fate.
OOMUZ: Master----
[_He stretches out his hands towards_ ZOON _imploringly._
ZOON: Well, Oomuz?
OOMUZ: Master. There is a doom about the Queen.
ZOON: What doom, Oomuz?
OOMUZ: We know not, Master. We are simple people and we know not that.
But we know from of old there is a doom about her. We know it, Master; we have been told from of old.
ZOON: Yes, there could well be a doom about the Queen.
OOMUZ: Follow not after, Master, when she goes to Aether Mountain. There is surely a doom about her. A doom was with her mother upon that very peak.
ZOON: Yes, Oomuz, a doom well becomes her.
OOMUZ: Doubt it not, Master; there is a doom about her.
ZOON: Oomuz, I doubt not. For there is something wonderful about the Queen, beyond all earthly wonders. Something like thunder beyond far clouds or hail hurling from heaven; there should be indeed a terrible doom about her.
OOMUZ: Master, I have warned you for the sake of the days when we raided the golden h.o.a.rd beyond the marshes.
ZOON (_taking his hand_): Thank you, good Oomuz.
[_He goes towards door after the others._
OOMUZ: But where go you, Master?
ZOON: I wait to follow the Queen when she goes to Aether Mountain.
[_Exit._ OOMUZ _weeps silently on to the Queen"s Treasure._
CURTAIN.
SCENE II
_The Palace of Zoorm: the Hall of Queen Zoomzoomarma._
_Time: Same as Scene I._
THE QUEEN: Is none worthy to kiss my hand, Oozizi; none?
LADY OOZIZI: Lady, none.
[_The_ QUEEN _sighs._
You should not sigh, great lady.
QUEEN: Why should I not sigh, Oozizi?
OOZIZI: Great lady, because such things as sighs pertain only to love.
QUEEN: Love is a joy, Oozizi; love is a glow. Love makes them dance so lightly along rays of the sunlight. It is made of sunlight and gladness.
It is like flowers in twilight. How should they sigh?
OOZIZI: Lady! Great lady! Say not such things of love!
QUEEN: Say not such things, Oozizi? Are they not true?
OOZIZI: True? Yes, great lady, true. But love is a toy of the humble; love is a common thing that the lowly use; love is ... Great lady, had any overheard you speaking then they might have thought, they might have madly dreamed ...
QUEEN: Dreamed what, Oozizi?
OOZIZI: Incredible things.