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Enkil as he had been for two thousand years, the black hair in long tiny plaits, hanging to his shoulders The broad gold collar lying against his smooth, hairless chest, the linen of his kilt is still on his ers

But the body itself was glass! And it was utterly hollow! Even the huge shining orbs of the eyes were transparent, only shadowy circles defining the irises No, wait Observe everything And there, you can see the bones, turned to the very same substance as the flesh, they are there, and also the fine crazing of veins and arteries, and sos inside, but it is all transparent now, it is all of the same texture But what had been done to him!

And the thing was changing still Before his very eyes, it was losing itsever more transparent

Tentatively, he touched it Not glass at all A husk

But his careless gesture had upset the thing The body teetered, then fell over onto the id in their forme

r position Itof an insect as it settled

Only the hair ed It was breaking into frag splinters A cool ventilating current was scattering it like straw And as the hair fell away from the throat, he sao dark puncture wounds in it Wounds that had not healed as theyblood had been drawn out of the thing

"Who has done this?" He whispered aloud, tightening the fingers of his right fist as if this would keep hi out Who could have taken every last drop of life from him?

And the thing was dead" There wasn't the slightest doubt of it And as revealed by this awful spectacle?

Our King is destroyed, our Father And I still live; I breathe And this can only mean that she contains the primal power She was the first, and it has always resided in her And someone has taken her!

Search the cellar Search the house But these were frantic, foolish thoughts No one had entered here, and he knew it Only one creature could have done this deed! Only one creature would have known that such a thing was finally possible

He didn'tit lose the very last trace of opacity And would that he could weep for the thing, for surely someone should Gone noith all that it had ever known, all that it had ever witnessed This too co to an end It seemed beyond his ability to accept it

But he wasn't alone So had just co him

For one moment-one clearly irrationalHe tried to co around hi towards hiraceful shadow in the corner of his eye, as it came around the throne and stood beside him

He kneho it ho it had to be, and that it had approached with the natural poise of a living being Yet, as he looked up, nothing could prepare him for the moment