Khaled, F. Marion Crawford [pdf ebook reader txt] 📗

I can find. And if they will go with me, it is well. But if not, I will go alone, and they and the rest will follow after.”

“It is summer, too,” said Zehowah, keeping him back. “Is this a time to go out into the northern desert? Both men and beasts will perish by the way.”

“Has not Allah bound every man’s fate about his neck? And can a man cast it from him?”

“I know not otherwise, but if heat and hunger and thirst do not kill the men, they will certainly destroy the beasts, whose names are not recorded by Asrael, and who have no destiny of their own.”

“You hinder me,” said Khaled. “And yet you do not know how many of the Shammar may be yet lurking within a day’s march of the city, slaying your people, burning their houses and destroying their harvest. Let me go. Will you love me better if I stay?”

“You will be the better able to get the victory.”

“Will you love me better if I stay?”

“If you go now, you may fail in your purpose and perish as well. How could I love you at all then?”

“It is the victory you love then⁠—not me?”

“Could I love defeat? Nay, do not be angry with me. Stay here at least until the evening. Think of the burning sun and the raging thirst and the smarting of your wounds which have only been dressed this first time. Think of the soldiers, too⁠—”

“They can bear what I can bear. Was it not summertime when the Prophet went out against the Romans?”

“I do not know. Stay with me, Khaled.”

“I will come back when I have destroyed the Shammars.”

“And if the soldiers will not go with you, will you indeed go out alone?”

“Yes. I will go alone. When they see that they will follow me. They are not foxes. They are brave men.”

Khaled rose and girt his sword about him. Zehowah helped him, seeing that she could not persuade him to stay.

“Farewell,” he said, shortly, and without so much as touching her hand he turned and went out. She followed him to the door of the room and stood watching as he went away.

“One of us two was to rule,” she said to herself, “and it is he, for I cannot move him. But what is this talk of love? Does he need love, who is himself the master?”

She sighed and went back to the carpet on which they had been sitting. Then she called in her women and bid them tell her all they had heard about the fight in the morning; and they, thinking to please her, extolled the deeds of Khaled and of the tens he had slain they made hundreds, and of the thousands of the enemy’s army, they made tens of thousands, till the walls of Riad could not have contained the hosts of which they spoke, and the dry sand of the desert could not have drunk all the blood which had been shed.

Meanwhile Khaled went into the outer court of the palace, where many soldiers were congregated together in the shade of the high wall, eating camel’s meat and blanket bread and drinking the water from the well. They were all able-bodied and unhurt, for those who had been wounded were at their houses, tended by their wives.

“Men of Riad!” cried Khaled, standing before them. “We have fought a good fight this morning and the power of our foes is broken. But all are not yet destroyed, and it may be that there are many thousands still lurking within a day’s march of the city, slaying the people, burning their houses and destroying their harvests. Let us go out and kill them all before they are able to go back to their own country. Afterwards we will pursue those who are already escaping, and we will lay all the tribes of Shammar under tribute and bring back the women captive.”

Thereupon a division arose among the soldiers. Some were for going at once with Khaled, but others said it was the hot season and no time for war.

“It is indeed summer,” said Khaled. “But if the Shammars were able to come to Riad in the heat, the men of Riad are able to go to them. And I at least will go at once, and those who wish to share the spoil will go with me, but those who are satisfied to sit in the shade and eat camel’s meat will stay behind. In an hour’s time I will ride out of the northern gate.”

So saying, Khaled rode slowly down into the city towards the marketplace. The people were carrying away their own dead, and dragging off the bodies of their enemies, with camels, by fours and fives tied together to bury them in a great ditch without the walls. When Khaled appeared, many of the men gathered round him, with cries of joy, for they had supposed that some of his wounds were dangerous and that they should not see him for many days.

“Wallah! He is with us again!” they shouted, jostling each other to get near, and standing on tiptoe to see the good mare that had carried him so well in the fight.

“Masallah! I am with you,” answered Khaled, “and if you will go with me we will send many more of the Shammars to eat thorns and thistles, as many as dwell in Kasim and Tabal Shammar as far as Haïl and by the help of Allah we will take the city of Haïl itself and divide the spoil and bring away the women captive; and when we have taken all that there is we will lay the land under tribute and make it subject to Nejed. So let those who will go with me arm themselves and take every man his horse or his camel, and dates and barley and water-skins, and in an hour’s time we will ride out. For Allah will certainly give