Soon I"ll see, all the mists unsealing, The genii"s lord on his pearl-wrought car!"
Silence. They saw a light flash in the low doorway, saw it glisten on jewels, an empress"s pride. A woman entered, tall as a spear, stately as a palm, black tresses flowing as a fair vine, and eyes and face to shame the houris. Around her bare throat flashed a great chain of emeralds; there were diamonds and rubies on her coronet; gold and gems on her bare brown arms; gold and gems on her sandals, that hid not the shapely feet. Her robe was one l.u.s.trous sea of violet silk, rippling about her as she glided, not walked. And as she came, she spread abroad a new melody; no words now, but only a humming, a soft, witching note, as if bidding all the spirits of the air flit at her footsteps to do her behests. Her left hand upraised the lamp; her right was held high also, and on one finger flashed something that doubled the quivering flame--a ring set with a single emerald.
Onward she came; and right and left the company made way for her. And Harun dropped his cord, began to mutter: "_Allah akhbar!_ The maids of the Gardens of Fountains have come down to dwell amongst men!" But the stranger--spirit or woman, who might say?--came on till she stood before the three captives. At the mandate in her eyes all other eyes followed her. No more she sang, but spoke, proud as the queen of the genii legions.
"Hear! tremble! obey!" She held the emerald higher. At the sight thereof there was a new stir, new whispers; the Ismaelians were bowing to the pavement. "Behold it! The ring of Ha.s.san Sabah, your lord! I say to you, whoever shall disobey the command of the bearer of this ring, be his merits never so great, Allah shall cut him off from the joys of Paradise! Obey! and the honeyed kiss of the daughters of the land of the River of Life is on your lips!"
She swept the flashing ring to and fro before the eyes of the cowering twenty.
"Reverence therefore the will of the bearer of the ring," she ran on; "obey, were it on the camel-driver"s finger; obey the more, since it is on mine,--I, at whose word the hosts of the darkness fall trembling, at whose nod the troops of the upper winds fly obedient!"
Needless her exhortation. One cry from twenty: "We obey! We are your slaves, O lady of Allah"s own beauty! O empress of genii and men!" And the stranger, scarce pausing, rushed on:--
"See! your judgment is false! See, I am sent by Allah to bring to naught your desires! I command--I, the blue-eyed maid of Yemen, whose walk is with the stars! Release these captives. Their doom is unwritten."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "ALL BLINDLY, HE KNEW THEY WERE MOUNTING STAIRWAYS"]
Richard had beheld all as does the man treading in a dream; who knows he dreams, yet cannot waken. Dreaming, he had seen this strange spirit enter; dreaming, he heard; dreaming, he saw a quiver, as of resistance, pa.s.s round that ring of sculptured faces; the eyes bright as snakes, and more pitiless, questioned once,--once only. The deliverer shot across their company one lightning glance--majesty, supremacy, scorn. Still dreaming, Richard saw in her hand a dagger; and then--dreamt he still?--he felt the bands upon his arms sever. He stood free--and G.o.dfrey and Musa free! But his protectress was speaking again:--
"Behold--I say to you, Allah has cast his mantle over these three to deliver them. Forget this night. Follow me not; for, as the Most High rules, you shall curse disobedience in the quenchless Gehenna! Tremble again--you have seen great things--and now, farewell."
Richard felt her hand upon his arm.
"Come," she said softly, "and Allah will yet aid you!"
The chamber of the tribunal, the semicircle of white robes, Harun and the cord--all were gone. Richard was still in his dream. He trod onward, feeling no floor beneath his feet. The wavering light of his protectress went before him. In the narrow galleries they traversed, the darkness closed after him. All blindly, he knew they were mounting stairways, were gliding through murky pa.s.sages. Suddenly the air was again sweet; Richard saw around him the dim vista of a line of white columns, and above, the hazy canopy of a great dome.
The woman halted, again upraised her lamp.
"I see Cid Richard Longsword," said she, "and his good comrades, Cid Musa and Cid G.o.dfrey. If Allah favor us, I will now lead you to Mary the Greek!"
At these words Richard knew he dreamed no longer; his belief was--G.o.d had already raised him to heaven.
CHAPTER x.x.xVI
HOW THE ISMAELIANS SAW TRENCHEFER
The voice of Musa recalled the Norman to the things of earth. "_Citt_, protectress sent from Allah!" the Andalusian was crying, "do my ears fail? Is your voice strange? When have I heard it before? In Palermo?"
"In Palermo," reechoed the stranger, "in Palermo, when by the Most High"s favor I warned you against Iftikhar Eddauleh." The name of his enemy roused all the fires in Richard"s breast.
"Lead on!" boasted he, nigh fiercely. "Lead on! and in the name of every saint, Trenchefer shall weigh out his price to the Ismaelian to-night!"
His voice was rising to a war-cry, when Musa clapped his hand on his friend"s mouth. The lady had upraised a warning finger; a tremor of mingled fear and wrath seemed shaking her.
"Hist, Cid Richard! Are you mad? The palace is full of armed men.
Safety is leagues away. And I declare to you, that unless you swear by the great name of Issa you worship, to do Iftikhar to-night no hurt, I will cry aloud, and you perish as surely as by Harun"s bowstring."
"Iftikhar?" questioned Richard, in amaze. "Iftikhar? You have given freedom to his arch foe, and yet you say to me, "Spare"?"
"My lord," said the lady, gently, "Mary the Greek shall tell you why I do this. Swear, if you would see her face--not die." And, conjured by that all-potent name, Richard took a willing oath; G.o.dfrey likewise, and Musa after his manner. The lady raised her lamp once more.
"Follow softly," she warned; "many sleep all about us. I must lead you the length of the palace."
Then came another journey through the enchanted darkness, lit only by the lamp and the gleam of the gems at the strange deliverer"s throat.
They crossed the great hall, treading gently, Richard"s hand on the hilt of Trenchefer, for nigh he expected to see goblins springing from the dark. Once across, the lady halted; opened a door. In the glow of the lamps Longsword saw a giant negro p.r.o.ne upon the rug, at his side a naked sabre. Trenchefer crept halfway from the sheath, as he turned, unfolding his mighty hands. But their guide gave him no heed. The black slumbered on.
The door closed. They sped down a long gallery, swift and silent as flight in a dream; another door, another guardsman. This time the negro was awake, standing at his post.
"Now!" came between G.o.dfrey"s teeth; and three swords were ready to flash. The lady smiled, sprang before them. At sight of her the sentry bowed low.
"Habib," said she, gently, "these are they I said I would bring you.
Remember--you have for them neither ears nor eyes."
"I am blind and dumb, my _Citt_," was the answer.
She beckoned, the three followed; the guardsman was lost in the gloom.
"I begged his life of Iftikhar a year since," explained the lady, "therefore Habib is grateful."
A second gallery, an open arcade, a sight of the stars twinkling between the plumes of the palm trees, and the puff of the sluggish southern wind. They came to a new door, where a lamp burned low. The door was open. A stairway wound upward lit at intervals by flickering sconces. The lady halted.
"Cid Richard," said she, "you shall go up with me, and take your wife; let these two remain below in the shadow."
Musa smiled and salaamed; G.o.dfrey laughed in his beard. "You need no comrade now, fair knight," said he to Richard.
The Norman"s step was on the stairway, as he leaped ahead of the lady.
At last! At last! That was all he knew. G.o.d had indeed "stopped the mouths of the lions, had quenched the violence of fire!" Three steps Richard had covered with his bound; but at the fourth he was frozen fast. A cry, a cry of terror, of despairing pain, sped down the stairway:--
"Morgiana! Help me, for the love of G.o.d!"
Whose voice? Longsword knew it above ten thousand; and with it flew others--curses, howls, cries for help.
"Hakem dead! Zeyneb bound! Rouse Cid Iftikhar! Morgiana,--death to Morgiana!"
Louder the din; Richard turned to his protectress half fiercely: "What is this? Shall I go up?"
She had covered her face with her hands.
"Allah pity! Allah have mercy!" moaned she, quaking with sobs. "He fights against us. Go or stay, we shall soon die."
Now at last leaped forth Trenchefer.
"Follow who will," thundered Richard to G.o.dfrey and Musa, who needed no bidding.
Fast sped they; faster, Richard. Had he wings when he mounted the stairway? A second cry of utter despair, the rush of more feet.