open space behind the gate, sweeping aside the soldiers by whom it was guarded, and shouting such words as:
"Pharaoh! Spare the Prince Khian! Must we all die because you would torment and murder him who was born of you?"
Then above the tumult Anath spoke again, saying in a high cold voice, like one who threatens rather than prays:
"Pharaoh, this is a very evil business. The Prince is beloved in Tanis and it is not well for kings to kill those whom the people love when the enemy is at their gates."
Now Apepi answered, hissing like one mad with rage:
"Be silent, Anath and the rest of you, or as I serve this traitor, so shall you be served. Slaves, to your task!"
Behind Khian arose guttural murmurings. It seemed to him that the black tormentors shrank from their office. Again the furious Pharaoh commanded, but still they hung back. Then came the sound of a blow and groans and Khian knew that he had cut one of them down and guessed that the others would no longer dare to resist his will. On the farther side of the moat he saw Ru the giant marching to and fro like a caged lion and shaking his great axe. Beyond him now were ranged a company of archers, their arrows set upon the strings, waiting the word to loose, while behind the archers he perceived Tau, and leaning on him Nefra clad in her glittering mail. Then he lifted up his voice and cried:
"Ru! Hear me--Khian. Bid the archers shoot, for thus would I die, rather than in torment."
He could say no more for Apepi, stepping forward, struck him heavily upon the face and bade the torturers gag him, a sight at which the army of Babylon groaned, as did the inhabitants of Tanis who now packed the Place of the Gateway in thousands. Ru roared out a curse that sounded like the bellow of a wounded bull, then turning, repeated Khian's words to the archers who lifted their bows and looked to Tau for the order to shoot. But Tau gave no order, only motioned to them to hold their hands, while Nefra sank to her knees as though she swooned.
Khian became aware of black hands tearing at his garments, then there was a smell of fire and an agony darted through him. The slow sacrifice was begun! He shut his eyes, making his soul ready to depart.
There was a sound behind him, a very strange sound of wrestling and blows. He opened his eyes and looked. Past him, staggering backwards, went the form of Pharaoh, and in his breast was fixed a knife. At the edge of the gateway platform he stopped, clinging to the seat in which Khian was bound.
"Dog!" he gasped, "Dog of a Vizier! I have spared you too long; it should have been done last night. But I waited----"
"Aye," answered the voice of Anath, "you over-shot yourself, Pharaoh, and gave the dog time to bite. Away with you to Set, son-murderer."
A withered form, that of Anath, leapt forward, its black eyes gleaming in the yellow wrinkled face, a thin arm smote with the tormentor's hearted iron at the hands that gripped the seat, crushing and burning them. Apepi loosed his hold and with a cry fell backwards into the moat beneath.
Ru saw him fall and leaped into the water, swimming with great strokes. As the Pharaoh rose he seized him with his mighty hands and dragged him to the bank where he broke him like a stick, then cast him to the shore.
"Pharaoh Apepi is dead!" piped the thin voice of Anath, "but Pharaoh Khian lives! Life! Blood! Strength! Pharaoh! Pharaoh! Pharaoh!"
So he cried as he hacked at Khian's bonds and dragged away the gag, and all the multitude beneath took up the ancient greeting, shouting:
"Life! Blood! Strength! Pharaoh! Pharaoh! Pharaoh!"
It was evening. Khian lay upon a couch in the royal pavilion of the Babylonians, whither by his own command he had been brought, since as yet Nefra could not enter the city. The Lady Kemmah and a leech bathed his bruised face and bandaged his swollen knee, while Nefra, who stood near, shivered at the sight of a long red burn upon his flesh made by the touch of hot iron.
Then suddenly a question burst from her:
"Tell me, Khian, why did you fly away from me in the battle, when you might have escaped and spared us all this agony?"
"Did not some two thousand sound men and with them very many wounded rejoin this army upon that day, Lady," asked Khian, "being the survivors of the force which was sent to rescue me and the garrison of the mountain stronghold?"
"They did, and were questioned, but knew nothing except that you drove out your chariot and surrendered yourself to the Shepherds, after which the attack upon them ceased."
"Then do you not understand that sometimes it is right that one man should offer himself up for many?"
"Yes," answered Nefra, colouring, "I understand now--that you are even nobler than I thought. Yet, when you could have escaped, why did you fly away, as I saw you do?"
"Ask the Prophet Tau," replied Khian wearily.
"Why did Khian fly away, my Uncle? Tell me if you know, since he will not."
"Does not the oath sworn of those who enter into the fellowship of the Dawn demand that they shall never break a promise, Niece? Perchance our brother here had vowed to deliver himself up in Egypt, and did so, even when he might have stayed at your side. So at least I have believed from the first."
"Is that so, Khian?"
"It is so, Nefra. With this oath I bought the lives of those men. Would you have had me break it even to win my own--and you?"
"I cannot say, but oh! Khian, you are noble, who did this knowing that if you died, all my life I should have been ignorant /why/ you died, seeming to desert me."
"Not so, Nefra, since Tau knew and would have told you at his own time."
"How did you know that which was hid from me, my Uncle?"
"My office has its secrets, Niece. Enough that I knew, as I knew also that it would never be necessary for me to set out the truth to you."
"So you let me suffer all these things when there was no need, my Uncle!" exclaimed Nefra angrily.
"Perhaps, Niece, and to your own good. Why should you alone escape from suffering which is the medicine of the soul, you, who if you be the Queen of Egypt, are, as I would pray you to remember, first and foremost a sister of the Dawn and the servant of its laws? Be humble, Sister. Sacrifice your self-will. Learn to obey if you would command, and seek, not self-will or glory but the light. For so, when these little storms have rolled away, you shall find the eternal calm."
"Faith! Have faith!" muttered Temu who stood behind.
"Aye," went on Tau, "have faith and humility, for by faith we climb and in humility we serve--not ourselves but others, which is the only true service. I say these things to you now even in the hour of your joy, for soon we must part, I to my hermitage and you to your throne, and then who can reprove the Pharaoh on the throne?"
"You could and will, I am sure, my Uncle," Nefra answered, tossing her head.
Then suddenly her mood changed and, turning, she threw her arms about him and kissed him on the brow, saying:
"Oh! my most beloved Uncle, what is there that I do not owe to you? When I was a babe you saved me and my mother from the hands of those traitorous Theban nobles, with whom soon I hope to talk if they be still
