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Updated: June 18, 2025
"But, notwithstanding thy fluency of speech and fashion of attire, methinks thou hast the lost and solitary air of one who is a stranger in the city of Al-Kyris?" Theos sighed. "A stranger I am indeed!" he said drearily "A stranger to my very self and all my former belongings! Ask me no questions, good father, for, as I live, I cannot answer them!
They were the chroniclers of many now forgotten events, they kept the history of the times, as far is it was possible, and in their ancient records your city of Al-Kyris is mentioned as a great and populous place, which was suddenly destroyed by the bursting out of a volcano beneath its foundations Yes!" this as Alwyn uttered an eager exclamation, "Your vision was a perfectly faithful reflection of the manner in which it perished.
Then straightway he became indignant on his friend's behalf, why should Sah-luma be blamed? ... Sah-luma was a glorious poet! a master-singer of singers! ... his fume must and should endure forever! ... Thus thinking, he regained his composure by degrees, and strove to assume the same air of easy indifference as that exhibited by his companion, when again Khosrul's declamatory tones thundered forth with an absoluteness of emphasis that was both startling and convincing: "Hear me, Sah-luma, Chief Minstrel of Al-Kyris! hear me, thou who hast willfully wasted the golden moments of never-returning time!
His first emotion was one of repugnance, of rejection, . . what did he need of this will-o'-the-wisp called Fame, dancing again across his path, this transitory torch of world-approval! Fame in London! ... What was it, what COULD it be, compared to the brilliancy of the fame he had once enjoyed as Laureate of Al-Kyris!
Below, and seen through a haze of rose and amber, lay the city of Al-Kyris, its white domes, towers and pinnacled palaces rising out of the mist like a glorious mirage afloat on the borders of a burning desert.
Al-Kyris the Magnificent! it deserves its name, Theos thought, as shading his eyes from the red glare he took a wondering and gradually comprehensive view of the enormous extent of the place.
When he approached, the old man looked up and smiled, giving him a silent, expressively courteous morning greeting, by his manner it was evident that he thought his guest had merely been out for an early stroll ere the heat of the day set in. And yet Al-Kyris! ... How real had seemed that dream- existence in that dream-city!
It appeared to him as familiar and UNfamiliar as Al-Kyris itself! ... till raising his eyes he saw the great Crucifix against the wall, the sacred Symbol whose meaning he had forgotten and hopelessly longed for in his Dream, and from which, before his visit to the field of Ardath, he had turned with a sense of bitter scorn and proud rejection. O blasphemy! ... SENTENCED joy?
"Not now then, but hereafter, thou'lt be my fellow-traveller, Sah- luma? ... 'twill be a joyous time when we, set free of present hindrance, may journey through a myriad glorious scenes together, sharing such new and mutual gladness that perchance we scarce shall miss the splendor of Al-Kyris left behind!
"Aye, verily? ... is it so?" ... and Zuriel's melancholy eyes dwelt upon him with a strange and sombre wistfulness, ... "Then, as thou art a man, persuade him out of evil into good! ... rouse him to noble shame and nobler penitence for all those faults which mar his poet-genus and deprive it of immortal worth! ... urge him to depart from Al-Kyris while there is yet time ere the bolt of destruction falls! ... and, ... mark you well this final warning! ... bid him to-day avoid the Temple, and beware the King!"
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