Should this be so, what will avail my vengeance? Eat and drink again,
Holly--nay, I touch no food until I sit in the palace of Kaloon--and
look well to girth and bridle, for thou ridest far and on a wild errand.
Mount thee on Leo's horse, which is swift and sure; if it dies the
guards will bring thee others."
I obeyed her as best I could, and once more bathed my head in a pool,
and with the help of Oros tied a rag soaked in the liniment on the
bruise, after which I felt sound enough. Indeed, the mad excitement of
those minutes of waiting, and some foreshadowing of the terrible wonders
that were about to befall, made me forget my hurts.
Now, Ayesha was standing staring upwards, so that although I could not
see her veiled face, I guessed that her eyes must be fixed on the sky
above the mountain top. I was certain, also, that she was concentrating
her fearful will upon an unknown object, for her whole frame quivered
like a reed shaken in the wind.
It was a very strange morning--cold and clear, yet curiously still,
and with a heaviness in the air such as precedes a great fall of snow,
although for much snow the season was yet too early. Once or twice, too,
in that utter calm, I thought that I felt everything shudder; not the
ordinary trembling of earthquake, however, for the shuddering seemed to
be of the atmosphere quite as much as of the land.
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