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I took my stylus and my waxen tablets and wrote on one of them: "Had you been a man, Amada, and not a woman, I think you would have judged me differently but, learned priestess and prophetess as you are, a woman you remain. Perchance a time may come when once more you will turn to me in the hour of your need; if so and I am living, I will come.
She was studying to be a priestess and my great uncle, the holy Tanofir, told me that I had better go away. So I went down south hunting and fighting in command of the troops, and met you, Bes." "Which perhaps was better for you, Master, than to stop to watch the lady Amada acquire learning. Still, I wonder whether the holy Tanofir is /always/ right.
Mayhap you might discover. Well, you are hungry and worn with long travelling. Come, let us eat, and afterwards you can tell your story. Amada and the others will be glad to hear it, as I shall. Follow me, Count Shabaka." So we went to the lesser banqueting-hall, I filled with joy because I should see Amada, and yet, much afraid because of that story which I must tell.
So you will get your rose till it withers, and if the thorns prick, do not blame me, and one day you may become a king or a slave, Amen knows which." Now I laughed and said that I would take her counsel who desired Amada and nothing else.
Why, what name could I give but your own, for is there any other in the world of whom a man whose heart is filled with truth could speak such things?" Now hearing this I gasped, but before I could speak Amada leapt up, crying, "Wretch! You dared to speak my name to this king! Surely you should be scourged till your bones are bare." "And why not, Lady?
He showed them that the King of the East sought a new quarrel against Egypt that he might grind her to powder beneath his heel, and that he did this by demanding the person of Amada, his own niece and the Royal Lady of Egypt, to be included in his household like any common woman.
Also there was a letter for me from Amada in which she said, "Oh! come quickly. Come quickly, beloved Shabaka, lest of me you should find but bones for never will I fall living into the hands of the Great King. We are sore pressed and although Amada has been made very strong, it can stand but a little while against such a countless multitude armed with all the engines of war."
Then, if nothing comes between us during those twenty-seven days, it shall be announced that the Royal Lady of Egypt is to wed the noble Shabaka." "Twenty-seven days! In such times much may happen in them, Amada. Still, except death, what can come between us?" "I know of nothing, Shabaka, whose past is shadowless as the noon." "Or I either," I replied.
"Many will pay with their lives for this night's work, O thief of pearls and seals," answered the Satrap, and turning, left the hall with his company. Now I searched for Amada, but she also had gone with the ladies of Peroa's household who feared lest the feast should end in blows and bloodshed, also lest she should be snatched away. Indeed of all the women in the hall, only my mother remained.
His eyes gleamed for he needed wealth to pay soldiers. "And all this you are ready to hand over to me, Shabaka?" Now I bethought me of my mother's words, and answered, "Yes, Prince, at a price." "What price, Shabaka?" "The price of the hand of the Royal Lady, Amada, freed from her vows.
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