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"Then in the shadows, he saw the King and the Queen looking down at hi and not his Queen It seeive voice to screams as terrible as those he had heard from others; but the Queen quieted him
" 'Khayold-handled dagger, 'You have served us well '
"There Khayht,' he said, 'when the sun sets, you will see for yourselves what has happened For then and only then, when all the light is gone froether in the rooms of the palace, and you will see what I have seen
' 'But why only in the night?' I asked hinificance of this?'
"And then he told us, that not one hour after he'd waked, even before the sun had risen, they had begun to shrink froht hurt their eyes Already they had fled fro after them; and there was no place in the palace that they could hide
"In stealth they left the palace, covered in gar could match They ran towards the mastabas or tombs of the old families, those who had been forced with pomp and ceremony to make mummies of their dead In sum, to the sacred places which no one would desecrate, they ran so fast that Khay stopped To the sun god, Ra, he called out foras if the sun burnt the and the Que
en disappeared froht
" 'Not a day since have they appeared before sunset; they coh no one knows froreat oddess, the very i flowers before the down to them
" 'For the tale spread far and wide that the King and Queen had vanquished death at the hands of their eneods, immortal and invincible; and that by that same power they can see into men's hearts No secret can be kept from them; their enemies are immediately punished; they can hear the words one speaks only in one's head All fear them
" 'Yet I know as all their faithful servants know that they cannot bear a candle or a laht of a torch; and that when they execute their enemies in secret, they drink their blood! They drink it, I tell you Like jungle cats, they feed upon these victims; and the room after is as a lion's den And it is I, Khayather these bodies and heave theave way to weeping
"But the tale was finished; and it was al over the eastern hty Nile The desert are of the river as the first barge of soldiers went across He eeping still as he saw the sun come down upon the river; saw the water catch fire
" The sun god, Ra, is the oldest and greatest god of all Keainst them Why? In secret they weep over their fate; the thirst htened it will become more than they can bear You must save them You must do it for our people They have not sent for you to blame you or harm you They need you You are powerful witches Make this spirit undo his work ' And then looking at us, reave way to despair
"Mekare and I e was now ready to carry us to the palace And we stared across the glare of the water at the great collection of painted buildings that was the royal city, and ondered what the consequences of this horror would finally be
"As I stepped down upon the barge, I thought of my child, and I knew suddenly I should die in Kemet I wanted to close my eyes, and ask the spirits in a small secret voice if this was truly meant to happen, yet I did not dare I couid not have my last hope taken from me "
Maharet tensed