Good fortune go with you and your company, no drop
of whoseblood shall be shed for me.
To save myself and to win another,
Pharaoh.
Therefore certainly it was laid uponhim to offer up
himself as a sacrifice.
Ask the Prophet Tau, replied Khian
wearily.
Offer to give me up, foryou know well who I am and
it is whom they seek.
Then he halted the bloodstained, weary beasts and
called aloud:I am the Prince Khian.
My honour has never yet been doubted, Khian called
back. Swiftly Anath whispered into Khiansear:The danger is great. Apepis captain had
grown angry and cried in a loud voice:Hear my last offer.
In the fighting they had seized prisoners, some of
themwounded.
Apepis captain appeared by the chariot of
Khian.
If you lift a hand against me, you and they will
die. Surrenderand in the name of Apepi I promise you your lives. Swiftly Anath
whispered into Khiansear:The danger is great. If you lift a hand against me, you and
they will die.
Apepi loosed his hold and with a cry fell backwards
into themoat beneath. Aroar of triumph went up from the Babylonians, but the doomed
Shepherdswere silent. Nor will you escape from the palace for the
secondtime.
One glance told Khian that this was themighty
Ethiopian, Ru himself! Then the Babylonian deliverers came up as a flood comes along
a dryriver bed and covered all. Who, then, is the man that sits in a chariot among
the horsemen? Rather would I die, Prince, with honour upon the field,than shamed
before all the host of Babylon.
There was a sound behind him, a very strange sound
of wrestling andblows.
With this oath I bought the lives of those
men.
With a shock and a sound like thunder the hordes of
horsemen met. Yonder the sands were black with all the orderedhosts of Babylon.
Being mounted, neitherside had bows and now javelins were few.
But Khian, looking back across the frontier
line,learned their reason.
Ask the Prophet Tau, replied Khian
wearily.
Then the spy appeared and Anath straightened
himself and was silent. He would wishthat I should defy Apepi, leaving his fate in
the hand of God. Still if he has lost his wits, he willkeep his word, and that may
save my head.
Then he made a sign whereon certain armed slaves
ran forward. Aroar of triumph went up from the Babylonians, but the doomed
Shepherdswere silent.
Ru saw him fall and leaped into the water, swimming
with greatstrokes. One glance told Khian that this was themighty Ethiopian, Ru
himself!
If so, tellme why you failed in your task?