"I said, 'Kill on,' for I knew that wherever I went thou wouldst follow,
and I was sick with the loss of blood from some hurt I had in that
struggle, and weary of it all. So I shut my eyes waiting for the stroke,
but instead I felt her lips pressed upon my forehead, and heard her
say--"'Nay, I will not do it. Fare thee well; fulfil thou thine own
destiny, as I fulfil mine. For this cast the dice have fallen against
me; elsewhere it may be otherwise. I go to load them if I may.'
"I opened my eyes and looked. There Atene stood, a glass in her
hand--see, it lies beside her.
"'Defeated, yet I win,' she cried, 'for I do but pass before thee to
prepare the path that thou shalt tread, and to make ready thy place in
the Under-world. Till we meet again I pledge thee, for I am destroyed.
Ayesha's horsemen are in my streets, and, clothed in lightnings at their
head, rides Ayesha's avenging self.'
"So she drank, and fell dead--but now. Look, her breast still quivers.
Afterwards, that old man would have murdered me, for, being roped, I
could not resist him, but the door burst in and thou camest. Spare him,
he is of her blood, and he loved her."
Then Leo sank back into the chair where we had discovered him bound, and
seemed to fall into a kind of torpor, for of a sudden he grew to look
like an old man.
"Thou art sick," said Ayesha anxiously.
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