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Updated: April 30, 2025
Just then the sun went behind a cloud, and only a side-beam of radiance shot forth, pouring itself straight down on the royally attired figure of the monarch and the headless body of Khosrul, and at the same time bringing into sudden and prominent relief the silver Cross that glittered on the breast of the bleeding corpse, and that seemed to mysteriously offer itself as the Key to some unsolved Enigma.
Khosrul, in terms that were piercing and dolorous as the whistling of the wind among hollow reeds, "Zephoranim, THOU SHALT DIE TO-NIGHT! ART THOU READY? Art thou ready, proud King? ... ready to be made less than the lowest of the low? Hush! ... Hush!" and his aged face took upon itself a ghastly greenish pallor "Hear you not the muttering of the thunder underground?
It was a very singular thing too, that he should find himself strongly and personally affected by Khosrul's address to Sah-luma, yet such was the case, ... so much so, indeed, that he accepted all the Prophet's reproaches as though they applied solely TO HIS OWN PAST LIFE! He could not understand his emotion, ... nevertheless he kept on dreamily regretting that things WERE as Khosrul had said, ... that he had NOT fulfilled his vocation, and that he had neither been humble enough nor devout enough nor unselfish enough to deserve the high and imperial name of POET.
"And this Prophecy?" he asked listlessly.. "What is its nature and whom doth it concern?" "Nay, in very truth it is a strange and marvellous thing!" replied Zuriel, his calm voice thrilling with a mellow touch of fervor.. "Khosrul, 'tis said, has heard the angels whispering in Heaven, and his attentive ears have caught the echo of their distant speech.
And then like the sound of a tocsin ringing in his ears, the words of the Prophet Khosrul, as pronounced in the presence of the King, recurred to his memory with new and suggestive force. Still painfully oppressed by an increasing sense of some swift- approaching disaster, his thoughts once more reverted anxiously to Sah-luma. He must be warned, yes! even if he disdained all warning!
"We give thee greeting, Khosrul!" he said slowly and with a sinister smile "The Lion's paw has struck thee down at last! Too long hast thou trifled with our patience, thou must abjure thy heresies, or die! What sayest thou now of doom, of judgment, of the waning of glory?
"Thou art a wolfish, youth, and wouldst tear thine own brother to shreds if he thwarted thy pleasure! For myself I see little cause for astonishment, that a soldier-hero like Zephoranim should take some pity on so frail and aged a wreck of human wit as Khosrul. Khosrul blasphemes the Faith, . . what then? ... do ye not all blaspheme?" "Not in the open streets!" said Ormaz hastily.
Khosrul was mad!" retorted Sah-luma. "Are not all men thought mad who speak the truth?" queried Theos gently. The priest Zel looked at him with proud and supercilious eyes. "Thou hast strange notions for one still young," he said ... "What art thou? ... a new disciple of the Mystics? ... or a student of the Positive Doctrines?" Theos met his gaze unflinchingly.
Thou shalt croak of death, and I will chant of love, and the King shall pronounce judgment as to which melody hath the most potent and lasting sweetness!" Khosrul lifted his head and met the Laureate's half-mirthful, half-mocking smile with a look of infinite compassion in his own deep, solemnly penetrating eyes.
"Thou timid dove!" and Sah-luma, rising from his couch, kissed her neck lightly, thus causing a delicate flush of crimson to ripple through the whiteness of her skin "Think no more of such folly thou wilt anger me. That a doting graybeard like Khosrul should trouble the peace of Al-Kyris the Magnificent, ... by the gods the whole thing is absurd!
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