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Updated: May 26, 2025
And as he spoke he raised his shrunken, skeleton-like hand and pointed steadfastly to the King! There was a momentary hush...a stillness as of stupefied amazement and horror, . . then, to the apparent relief of all present, Zephoranim burst out laughing. "By all the virtues of Nagaya!" he cried "This is most excellent fooling!
"O thou mad King!" he cried fiercely, "Thou hast slain the chief wonder of thy realm and reign! Die now when thou wilt, thou shalt only he remembered as the murderer of Sah-luma! ... Sah-luma, whose name shall live when thine is covered in shameful oblivion!" Zephoranim frowned, and threw the blood-stained dagger from him.
Shriek upon shriek broke from her lips and pierced the suffocating air, . . while with all his great muscular force Zephoranim the King strove in desperate agony to tear her from the awful clutch of the monster he had but lately knelt to as divine!
Didst ever hear such a hideous clamor of contradictory tongues! ... all striving to explain what defies explanation, namely, Khosrul's flight, for which, after all, no one is to blame so much as Zephoranim himself, but 'tis the privilege of monarchs to shift their own mistakes and follies on to the shoulders of their subjects! Come!
"Thou droll knave!" cried Zephoranim at last, dashing away the drops his merriment had brought into his eyes "Wilt kill me with thy bitter-mouthed jests? ... of a truth my sides ache at thee! What ails thee now? ... Come, we will have patience, if so be our mirth can be restrained, speak! what flaw canst thou find in our Sah-luma's pearl of poesy? what spots on the sun of his divine inspiration?
The King, speechless with amazement and fury, dragged at his huge sword till he wrenched it out of its sheath, . . raising it, he whirled it round his head so that it gave a murderous hiss in the air, ... and yet.. was his strong arm paralyzed that he forbore to strike! "Zephoranim!"
Zabastes bowed with a sort of mock humility. "It may be so, most mighty Zephoranim," he returned composedly "Nevertheless ashes are always ashes, and the scattering of them is but a question of time!
Every one laughed, . . and Ormaz playfully threw a cluster of half-crushed roses at the speaker. "Hold thy foolish tongue, Pharnim, " he said, "The King doth but show a fitting example to his people, . . there is a time to pray, and a time to feast, and our Zephoranim can do both as becomes a man.
"Hush, hush, my son!" said the aged Zuriel anxiously "These stone walls hear thee far too loudly, who knows but they may echo forth thy words to unsuspected listeners! Peace peace! ... Lysia is as much Queen, as Zephoranim is King of Al-Kyris; and surely thou knowest that the sins of tyrants are accounted virtues, so long as they retain their ruling powers?
The men hesitated, apparently doubting whether they had heard aright. Zephoranim stamped his foot impatiently. "Unloose him, I say! ... By the gods! must I repeat the same thing twice? Since when have soldiers grown deaf to the voice of their sovereign? ... And why have ye bound this aged fool with such many and tight bonds?
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