Now you have come to lead me away to be your
wife, have you not? Well, I await you, I am ready. Do it if you dare!"
"If I dare? Why should I not dare, O Queen?" asked Abi in a doubtful
voice.
"Surely that question is one for you to answer, Count of Memphis and its
subject nomes. Yet tell me this--why did the magic crystal burst asunder
without cause in the chamber of Kaku last night, and why do you suppose
that Kaku interpreted to you all the meaning of your dream--he who will
never tell the truth unless it be beneath the rods?"
"I do not know, Queen," answered Abi, "but with Kaku I can speak
later, if need be after the fashion you suggest," and he glanced at the
magician wrathfully.
"No, Prince Abi, you know nothing, and Kaku knows nothing, save that
rods break the backs of snakes, unless they can find a wall to hide in,"
and she pointed to the astrologer slinking back into the shadow. "No
one knows anything save me, to whom Amen gives wisdom with sight of the
future, and what I know I keep.
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