‘This is a new song,’ said Khaled, when she had finished.
‘Is it? I made it many months ago,’ Zehowah answered. ‘Does it please you?’
‘It is not very melodious, nor do I think there is much truth in the matter of it. But I thank you, for it has served to pass the time.’
Zehowah laughed a little scornfully.
‘I daresay you would prefer the song of a Persian nightingale,’ she said. ‘Nevertheless my song is full of truth, though you cannot see it. There are many who seek for things of great value and do not know when they have found them because a crab has bitten their hands.’
‘Verily,’ thought Khaled, ‘this is indeed the spirit of contradiction.’
But he was silent for a time, not wishing that she should think him easily moved. In the meantime Zehowah played softly upon the little instrument and Khaled watched her, wondering whether she were not playing upon the strings of his heart, for her own pleasure, as skilfully as her fingers ran upon the chords of the barbat. Many words rose to his lips then, and he wished that he also had the science of music that he might sing sweetly to her. Then he laughed aloud at his own imagination, which was indeed that of a foolish youth.
‘The lion roaring for a sweetmeat,’ he thought, ‘and the sword-hand aching to scratch little tunes upon a lute!’
Zehowah turned suddenly when he laughed, and ceased from playing.
‘I am glad that you are merry,’ she said. ‘I like laughter better than reproaches and prefer it to gloomy forebodings of evil when none is at hand.’
Khaled’s face grew dark, and he looked again towards the door.
‘If you will stay with me, you shall see that evil is not far off,’ he answered, for she had reminded him of what he was expecting, and he knew that it was no jesting matter. ‘But you shall please yourself in this as in all other matters, though it were better for you to go now and shut yourself up in an inner room and wait for the end. The night is advancing, and all will soon be over.’
‘Hear me, Khaled,’ said Zehowah, speaking earnestly. ‘If you bid me go, I will go, or if you desire me to stay, I will remain with you. But if you are indeed in danger, as you say, let us call up the guards and the watchmen who sleep in the palace, that they may stand by you with their swords and help you to fight if there is to be strife.’
‘I will have no treacherous fellows about me,’ Khaled answered, ‘and there are none here whom I can trust. My hour is coming and I will fight this fight alone. But if you were such as I once hoped, I would say: “Remain with me, so long as you are safe.” Now, since Allah has willed it thus, I say to you: “Go and seek safety where you can find it.” Go, therefore, Zehowah, and leave me alone, for I need no one beside me, and you least of all.’
He turned away his head, lest she should see his face, and with his hand made a gesture bidding her to leave him. She rose from her seat softly and hung the barbat upon the wall with the other musical instruments, looking over her shoulder to see whether he would call her back. But he neither moved nor spoke, being resolved to venture all upon this trial, for he knew that if she loved him even but a little, she would not leave him alone in the extremity of danger.
Then she went towards the door of the room, turning her head to look at him as she passed near him.
‘Farewell,’ she said. But he did not answer nor show that he heard her voice.
As she lifted the curtain to go out, she lingered and gazed at him. He sat motionless upon the carpet, upright against the wall, his sword lying across his feet, his hands hidden under his sleeves, looking towards her indeed but not seeming to see her.
‘There can be no real danger,’ she thought. ‘Could any man sit thus, expecting death, and refusing to let any one stand by him to fight with him? Surely, he is playing with me, and setting a trap for me. But he shall not catch me.’
She turned to go and the curtain was falling behind her when the night wind from the open passage brought a sound to her ears from a far distance. She started and listened, as camels do when they hear the first moving of the hot wind. There were no voices in the noise, which was low and dull, like the breathing of a great multitude and the soft moving of feet, and altogether it was as the slow rising and falling back of the sea upon the shores of Oman, when the great summer storm is coming from the south-west.
Zehowah stood still a moment and drank in every murmur that reached her from without. Then her face grew white and her lips trembled when she thought of Khaled sitting alone on the other side of the curtain, with his sword upon his feet, waiting for the end. She lifted the hanging a little and looked at him again. He saw her, but made no sign. Even as she looked, the distant murmur grew louder and she fancied that he moved his head as though he heard it. Then she entered the room and came and stood before him.
‘There is a great multitude in the square before the palace,’ she said.
‘I know it,’ he answered, calmly looking up to her face. ‘It needed not that you should tell me.’
‘Will you not let me stay with you now?’ asked Zehowah.
‘Why should you stay here?’ he asked with a pretence of indifference. ‘Of what use are you to me? Take this sword. Can you strike with it? Your wrist is feeble. Or take a bow from the weapons on the wall. Can you draw the string? Your strength is sufficient for the lute, and your skill for scratching the strings of the barbat. Go and save yourself. I am alone and every man’s hand is against me.’
Zehowah stood still in the room and hesitated, looking into his eyes for something which she all at once desired with a hot thirst. At last she spoke in an uncertain voice.
‘Yet you said not long since that if I were such as you once hoped, you would bid me remain.’
‘I do not care,’ he answered. ‘Yet for your own sake, I advise you to go away.’
‘For my own sake!’ she repeated, trying to speak scornfully, and turning to go a second time.
But she did not reach the door. She stood still before the weapons which hung upon the wall, and paused a moment and then took a sword from its place. Khaled watched her. She grasped the hilt as well as she could and swung the weapon in the air once with all her might. Then she uttered a little cry of pain, for she had twisted her wrist. The sword fell to the floor.
‘He is right,’ she said in a low tone, speaking aloud to herself. ‘I am weak and can be of no use to him.’
She went on once more towards the door, slowly, her head bent down, then stopped and then looked back again. She feared that she might see a smile on his face, but his eyes were grave and calm. Then he saw her turn and lean against the wall as though she were suddenly weak. She hid her face, and there was silence for a moment, and after that a low sound of weeping filled the still room.
‘Why do you shed tears?’ Khaled asked presently. ‘There is no danger for you, I think. If you will go and shut yourself in the inner rooms you will be safe.’
She turned fiercely and their eyes met.
‘What do I care for myself?’ she cried. ‘Among so many deaths there is surely one for me!’
Even as she spoke Khaled felt a cool breath upon his forehead, stirring the stillness. He knew that it came from the beating of an angel’s wings. All his body trembled, his head fell forward a little and his eyes closed.
‘This is death,’ he thought, ‘and my fate has come. A little longer, and she would have loved me.’ But he did not speak aloud.
Again Zehowah’s face was turned towards the wall, and still the sound of her weeping filled the air, not subsiding and dying away, but rather increasing with every moment.
‘Life is not yet gone,’ said Khaled in his heart. ‘There is yet hope.’ For he no longer felt the cold breath on his forehead, and the trembling had ceased for a moment.
He tried to speak aloud, but his lips could not form words nor his throat utter sounds, and he was amazed at his weakness. A great despair came upon him and his eyes were darkened so that he could not see the lights.
‘If only I could speak to her now, she might love me yet!’ he thought.
The distant murmur from without was louder now and reached the room, and he heard it. He tried with all his might to raise his hand, to lift his head, to speak a single word.
‘It may be that this is the nature of death,’ he thought again, ‘and I am already dead.’
The noise from the multitude came louder and louder. Zehowah heard it and her breath was caught in her throat. She looked up and saw that the high window of the chamber was no longer quite dark. The day was dawning. Then pressing her bosom with her hands she looked again at Khaled. His head was bent upon his breast and he was so still that she thought he had fallen asleep. A cry broke from her lips.
‘He cares not!’ she exclaimed. ‘What is it to him, whether I go, or stay?’
Again Khaled felt the cool breeze in the room, fanning his forehead, and once more his limbs trembled. Then he felt that his strength was returning and that he could move. He raised his head and looked at Zehowah, and just then there was a distant crashing roar, as the Bedouins began to strike upon the gates.
‘It is time,’ he said, and taking his sword in his hand he rose from his seat.
Zehowah came towards him with outstretched hands, wet cheeks and burning eyes. She stood before him as though to bar the way, and hinder him from going out.
‘What is it to you, whether I go, or stay?’ he asked, repeating her own words.
‘What is it? By Allah, it is all my life — I will not let you go!’ And she took hold of his wrists with her weak woman’s hands, and tried to thrust him back.
‘Go, Zehowah,’ he answered, gently pressing her from him. ‘Go now, and let me meet them alone, knowing that you are safe. For though this be pity which you feel, I know it is nothing more.’
He would have passed by her, but still she held him and kept before him.
‘You shall not go!’ she cried. ‘I will prevent you with my body. Pity, you say? Oh, Khaled! Is pity fierce? Is pity strong? Does pity burn like fire? You shall not go, I say!’
Then her hands grew cold upon his wrists, her cheeks burned and in her eyes there was a deep and gleaming light. All this Khaled felt and saw, while he heard the raging of the multitude without. His sight grew again uncertain. A third time the cool breath blew in his face.
‘Yet it cannot be love,’ he said uncertainly. Yet she heard him.
‘Not love? Khaled, Khaled — my life, my breath, my soul — breath of my life, life of my spirit — oh, Khaled, you have never loved as I love you now!’
Her hands let go his wrists and clasped about his neck, and her face was hidden upon his shoulder while her breath came and went like the gusts of the burning storm in summer.
But as he held her, Khaled looked up and saw that the Angel of Allah was before him, having a smiling countenance and bearing in his hand a bright flame like the crescent moon.
‘It is well done, O Khaled,’ said the Angel, ‘and this is thy reward. Allah sends thee this to be thy own and to live after thy body, saying that thou hast well earned it, for love such as thou hast got now is a rare thing, not common with women and least of all with wives of kings. And now Allah alone knows what thy fate is to be, but thou shalt be judged at the end like other men, according to thy deeds, be they good or evil. And so receive thy soul and do with it as thou wilt.’
The Angel then held out the flame which was like the crescent moon and it immediately took shape and became the brighter image of Khaled himself, endowed with immortality, and the knowledge of its own good and evil. And when Khaled had looked at it fixedly for a moment, being overcome with joy, the vision of himself disappeared, and he was aware that it had entered his own body and taken up its life within him.
‘Return thanks to Allah, and go thy way to the end,’ said the Angel, who then unfolded his wings and departed to paradise whence he had come.
But Khaled clasped Zehowah tightly in his arms, and looking upwards repeated the first chapter of the Koran and also the one hundred and tenth chapter, which is entitled, Assistance. When he had performed these inward devotions he turned his gaze upon Zehowah and kissed her.
‘Praise be to Allah,’ he said, ‘for this and all blessings. But now let us defend ourselves if we can, my beloved, for I think my enemies are at hand.’
And so he would have stooped to take up his sword which had fallen upon the floor. But still Zehowah held him and would not let him go.
‘Not yet, Khaled!’ she cried. ‘Not yet, soul of my soul! The gates are very strong, and will withstand this battering for some time.’
‘Would you have him whom you love sit still in the net until the hunters come to catch him?’ he asked in a tender voice.
‘You said you would wait here,’ she pleaded. ‘If we must die, let us die here — our life will be a little longer so.’
‘Did I say so? I thought you did not love me then, and I would have slain a few only, for my own sake, that my blood might not be unavenged. But now I will slay them all, for your sake, and the bodies of the dead shall be a rampart for you.’
‘Oh, do not go!’ she cried again. ‘I know a secret passage from the palace, that leads out by the wall of the city — come quickly, there is yet time, and we shall escape — for Allah will protect us. Surely, when I was fainting in your arms I heard an angel’s voice — and surely the angel is yet with us, and will lighten the way as we go.’
‘The Angel was indeed here, for he brought me the soul that was promised, if you loved me. And now all is changed, for if we live, we get the victory and if we die we shall inherit paradise.’
And Zehowah looked into his eyes and saw the living soul flaming within, and she believed him.
‘If you had always been as you are now, I should have always loved you,’ she said softly, and stooping down she took up his sword and drew it out and put it into his hand. ‘I tried to wield one when you were not looking,’ she said, ‘but it hurt my wrist. Come, Khaled — let us go together.’
Then he kissed her once more, and she kissed him, and putting one arm about her, he led her swiftly out by the passage towards the great gate. It was now broad dawn and the light was coming in by the narrow windows.
Zehowah clung to Khaled closely, for the noise of the thundering blows was terrible and deafening, and the multitude without were shouting to each other and calling upon Abdullah to come out, for they supposed him to be in the palace. But the guards and soldiers within had all hidden themselves though they were awake, for there was no one to command them nor to lead them, and they dared not open the gate lest they themselves should be slain in the first rush of the crowd.
Then Khaled and Zehowah paused for a moment near the gate.
‘It is better that you should go back, my beloved,’ said Khaled. ‘Hear what a multitude of angry men are waiting outside.’
‘I will not leave you — neither in life nor in death,’ she answered.
‘Let it be so, then,’ said Khaled, ‘and I will do my best. For a hundred men could not stop the way before me now, and I think that of five hundred I could slay many.’
So he went up to the gate, and Zehowah stood a little behind him so as to be free of the first sweep of his sword.
‘Abdullah!’ cried some of the crowd without, while battering at the iron-bound doors. ‘Abdullah, thou son of Mohammed and father of lies, come out to us, or we will go to thee!’
‘Abdullah, thou thief, thou Persian, thou cheat, come out, and may boiling water be thy portion!’
‘Stand back from the gate, and I will open it to you!’ cried Khaled in a voice that might have been heard across the Red Desert as far as the shores of the great ocean.
‘I, Khaled, will open,’ he cried again.
Then there was a great silence and the people fell back a little.
Khaled drew the bolts and unfastened the locks, and opened the gates inward and stood forth alone in the morning light, his sword in his hand and his soul burning in his ey
es.
‘Khaled!’ cried the first who saw him, and the cry was taken up.
The shout was great, and full of joy and shook the earth. For the multitude had grown hot in anger against Abdullah, while they battered at the gates, supposing that he had slain Khaled. But he himself could not at first distinguish whether they were angry or glad.
‘If any man wishes to take my life,’ he cried, ‘let him come and take it.’
And the sword they all knew in battle, began to make a storm of lightning about his head in the morning sun.
Then the strong man who had wrestled and thrown the other before dawn, stood out alone and spoke in a loud voice.
‘We will have no Sultan but Khaled!’ he cried. ‘Give us Abdullah that we may make trappings for our camels from his skin.’
Then Khaled sheathed his sword and came forward from under the gate, and Zehowah stood veiled beside him.
‘Where is this Abdullah?’ he asked. ‘Find him if you can, for I would like to speak with him.’
Then there was silence for a space. But by this time Abdullah’s men had fled, for they had already been forced back in the crowding, and so soon as they saw Khaled standing unhurt under the palace gate, they turned quickly and ran for their lives to escape from the city, seeing that all was lost.
‘Where is Abdullah?’ Khaled asked again.
And a voice from afar off answered, as though heralding the coming of a great personage.
‘Behold Abdullah, the Sultan of Nejed!’ it cried.
Then the multitude turned angrily, grasping swords and spears and breathing curses. But the murmur broke suddenly into a shout of laughter louder even than the cry for Khaled had been. For a great procession had entered the square and the people made way for it as it advanced towards the palace.
First came a score of lepers, singing in hideous voices and dancing in the early sun, filthy and loathsome to behold. And then came all manner of cripples, laughing and chattering, with coloured rags fastened to their staves, an army of distorted apes.
Complete Works of F Marion Crawford Page 449