Blackness, utter blackness; turmoil, doom, dismay! Beneath me the
labouring horse; at my side the steady crest of light which sat on
Ayesha's brow, and through the tumult a clear, exultant voice that
sang--"I promised thee wild weather! Now, Holly, dost thou believe that
I can loose the prisoned Powers of the world?"
Lo! all was past and gone, and above us shone the quiet evening sky,
and before us lay the empty bridge, and beyond it the flaming city of
Kaloon. But the armies of Atene, where were they? Go, ask of those great
cairns that hide their bones. Go, ask it of her widowed land.
Yet of our wild company of horsemen not one was lost. After us they
galloped trembling, white-lipped, like men who face to face had fought
and conquered Death, but triumphant--ah, triumphant!
On the high head of the bridge Ayesha wheeled her horse, and so for
one proud moment stood to welcome them. At the sight of her glorious,
star-crowned countenance, which now her Tribes beheld for the first time
and the last, there went up such a shout as men have seldom heard.
"_The Goddess!_" that shout thundered. "Worship the Goddess!"
Then she turned her horse's head again, and they followed on through the
long straight street of the burning city, up to the palace on its crest.
As the sun set we sped beneath its gateway. Silence in the courtyard,
silence everywhere, save for the distant roar of fire and the scared
howlings of the death-hounds in their kennel.
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