I should so mould and fashion him
that he should be another me. That, 0 my dear lord, is thy duty to
Marzak. Entrust not his training to another and to one whom despite thy
love for him I cannot trust. Go forth thyself upon this expedition with
Marzak here for thy kayia."
Asad frowned. "I grow too old," he said. "I have not been upon the
seas these two years past. Who can say that I may not have lost the art
of victory. No, no." He shook his head, and his face grew overcast and
softened by wistfulness. "Sakr-el-Bahr commands this time, and if
Marzak goes, he goes with him."
"My lord...." she began, then checked. A Nubian had entered to announce
that Sakr-el-Bahr was come and was awaiting the orders of his lord in
the courtyard. Asad rose instantly and for all that Fenzileh, greatly
daring as ever, would still have detained him, he shook her off
impatiently, and went out.
She watched his departure with anger in those dark lovely eyes of hers,
an anger that went near to filming them in tears, and after he had
passed out into the glaring sunshine beyond the door, a silence dwelt in
the cool darkened chamber--a silence disturbed only by distant trills of
silvery laughter from the lesser women of the Basha's house. The sound
jarred her taut nerves. She moved with an oath and beat her hands
together. To answer her came a negress, lithe and muscular as a
wrestler and naked to the waist; the slave ring in her ear was of
massive gold.
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