Begone in safety, fearing nothing."
*****
"What happens now, Metem," asked Aziel, as the camels strode forward,
"and why am I set free who was expecting death? Is this some new
artifice of yours, or has the lady Elissa----" and he ceased.
"Upon the word of an honest merchant I cannot tell you, Prince.
Yesterday, as I was forced, I gave the message of king Ithobal to the
lady Elissa yonder in the tomb. She would answer me only one thing,
which she whispered in my ear through the bars of the holy tomb; that if
we could escape we should do so, moreover that you must have no fear for
her since she also had found a means of escape from Ithobal, and would
certainly join us upon the road."
As Metem spoke, the camels passed round the little hill on to the path
that ran beneath the tomb of Baaltis. There, standing upon the rock
some fifty feet above them, was Elissa, and with her, but at a distance,
Ithobal the king.
"Halt, prince Aziel," she called in a clear voice, "and hearken to my
farewell. I have bought your life, and the lives of your companions, and
you are free, for the road is clear and nothing can overtake the twelve
swiftest camels in Zimboe. Go, therefore, and be happy, forgetting
no word that has passed my lips. For all my words are true, even to a
certain promise which I made you lately by the mouth of Metem, and which
I now fulfil--that I would join you on your road lest you should deem me
faithless to the troth which I have so often sworn to you.
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