They both
looked long, while the torchlight flared on them, on the walls of the
cave, and the broad blade of Groan-Maker, and from around rose the
sounds of the fray.
"How are you named, who are so fair to see?" he asked at length.
"I am named the Lily now: once I had another name. Nada, daughter of
Mopo, I was once; but name and all else are dead, and I go to join
them. Kill me and make an end. I will shut my eyes, that I may not see
the great axe flash."
Now Umslopogaas gazed upon her again, and Groan-Maker fell from his
hand.
"Look on me, Nada, daughter of Mopo," he said in a low voice; "look at
me and say who am I."
She looked once more and yet again. Now her face was thrust forward as
one who gazes over the edge of the world; it grew fixed and strange.
"By my heart," she said, "by my heart, you are Umslopogaas, my brother
who is dead, and whom dead as living I have loved ever and alone."
Then the torch flared out, but Umslopogaas took hold of her in the
darkness and pressed her to him and kissed her, the sister whom he
found after many years, and she kissed him.
"You kiss me now," she said, "yet not long ago that great axe shore my
locks, missing me but by a finger's-breadth--and still the sound of
fighting rings in my ears! Ah! a boon of you, my brother--a boon: let
there be no more death since we are met once more.
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