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"It was five nights later that I made such a discovery; and saw as a blood drinker truly sees for the first time

"By then we had fled the royal city, ht And in place after place, Khay that theyand Queen would have them believe they alone had the pohich was only the worst of their many lies

"Oh, the rage Khayhts To any anted the power he gave it, even when he was so weakened that he could scarce walk at our side That the King and the Queen should have worthy enemies, that was his vo many blood drinkers were created in those

thoughtless weeks, blood drinkers ould increase and multiply and create the battles of which Khayman dreamed?

"But ere dooe of the venture- doomed in the first rebellion, doomed in our escape We were soon to be separated forever-Khayman, Mekare, and I

"Because the King and Queen, horrified at Khayic, sent their soldiers after us, ht And as we hunted ravenously to feed our newborn craving, our trail was ever easy to follow along the ses of-the river-bank or even to the encampments of the hills

"And finally not a fortnight after we had fled the royal palace, ere caught by the hts' walk from the sea

"If only we had reached the sea If only we had reain to us in darkness; desperately we loved one another; desperately we had exchanged our secrets by the light of the moon

"But a trap lay waiting for us at Saqqara And though Khayht his way to freedom, he saw that he could not possibly save us, and went deep into the hills to wait his moment, but it never came

"Mekare and I were surrounded as you remember, as you have seen in your dreaain; and we feared the fire now, for surely that could destroy us; and we prayed to all things invisible for final release

"But the King and the Queen feared to destroy our bodies They had believed Mekare's account of the one great spirit, Amel, who infected all of us, and they feared that whatever pain we ht feel would then be felt by them Of course this was not so; but who could know it then?

"And so into the stone coffins ere put, as I've told you One to be taken to the east and one to the west The rafts had already been reat oceans I had seen the carried away upon them; and I knew from the minds of my captors what they meant to do I knew also that Khayo on by day as it had by night, and surely this was true

"When I awoke, I was drifting on the breast of the sea For ten nights the raft carried me as I've told you Starvation and terror I suffered, lest the coffin sink to the botto that cannot die But this did not happen And when I caanthe continent to the west

"For centuries I searched from one tip of the continent to the other I went north in Europe I traveled up and down along the rocky beaches, and even into the northern islands, until I reached the farthest wastes of ice and snow Over and over again, however, I journeyed back to e, and that part of the story I will tell you in a moment, for it is very important to me that you know it, as you will see

"But during those early centuries I turnedand Queen