After the last encounter he himself lies panting; and Pilar Pineda is a wreck, but not, alas, a broken one.

"O greatest flower and jewel among mortals," he says to her then, "there is a secret passed down among some of us through ages, which is forbidden and death to both of us if any learned that it had been used by those not royalty."

After the last encounter he himself lies panting; and Pilar Pineda is a wreck, but not, alas, a broken one.

"O greatest flower and jewel among mortals," he says to her then, "there is a secret passed down through ages, which is forbidden and death to both of us if any learned that it had been used by those not royalty."