"No," I answered smilingly; "a sore chest he may have tomorrow, but dead
he is not, for I turned the lance-point back as I spun it, and it was
the butt-end I threw at him!"

"It was none the less wonderful; I thought you were a common man, a prince
mayhap, come but from over the hills, but now something tells me you
are more than that," and she lapsed into thoughtful silence for a time.

Neither of us were wishful to go back amongst those who were raising
the bruised magician to his legs, but wandered away instead through
the deepening twilight towards the city over meadows whose damp, soft
fragrance loaded the air with sleepy pleasure, neither of us saying
a word till the dusk deepened and the quick night descended, while
we came amongst the gardened houses, the thousand lights of an unreal
city rising like a jewelled bank before us, and there An said she would
leave me for a time, meeting me again in the palace square later on,
"To see Princess Heru read the destinies of the year."

"What!" I exclaimed, "more magic? I have been brought up on more
substantial mental stuff than this."

"Nevertheless, I would advise you to come to the square," persisted
my companion. "It affects us all, and--who knows? --may affect you
more than any."

Therein poor An was unconsciously wearing the cloak of prophesy herself,
and, shrugging my shoulders good-humouredly, I kissed her chin, little
realising, as I let her fingers slip from mine, that I should see her
no more.