A thrill that, in spite of all, amounted to real happiness shot through her trembling frame.

"Can he not be redeemed?" she exclaimed, clasping her hands eagerly.

"Where is he now?"

The trader pondered.

"I too have a brother," said he, "and we parted at a day's march from the tents of the Anakim, as we have parted many a time, trusting to meet yet once again before we die. My course lay hither to the great city; for are not my camels laden with silks and spices and costly jewels, such as rich Babylon must have at all hazards and at any cost? I pray you, damsel, remember I am a fair trader; I ask for no greater profit than enables me to get bread for myself and forage for my beasts. Some there be who scruple not to rob with the scales, as the Amalekite robs with the spear; but such prosper not in life, and long before their beards turn gray, their flesh is eaten by vultures and their bones whiten the plain.

"My lord spoke of the a.s.syrian," interrupted Ishtar. "Is he safe? Is he alive?"

"That he is alive, my daughter," replied the merchant, "if care and good usage can keep the life in a valuable captive, I will answer with my head. We bought him at a remunerative price, and my brother is even less likely than myself to let one suffer damage whose welfare is of such marketable value. That he is safe with the other goods I have sufficient reason to hope. Surely they joined a caravan guarded by more than five hundred hors.e.m.e.n of the desert. Ere now they must have reached the pleasant confines of my home--the broad-leaved oaks, the cool green valleys, and the breezy mountains of the north."

"The north!" repeated Ishtar, aghast and discomfited. "What! beyond Nineveh?"

"Far beyond Nineveh," said the other, "far beyond the boundaries of the land of Shinar, where the banner of Ashur hath never been lifted, the spear of the a.s.syrian never dulled its point in blood--in the land of corn and wine, pasture and fruit tree, flocks and herds, peace and plenty, the happy hill country of Armenia!"

"Sold to the Armenian for a slave!" was her answer. "O, my lord, shall I never see him again?"

He pitied her from his heart.

"Much may be done," said he, "with these three weapons, sword, bow, and spear; more yet with these, time, wisdom, patience. Add but a little gold, and who shall say that aught is impossible? My brother is one of those who, setting before them an object in the plain, turn neither to right nor left till they have reached it. The a.s.syrian is of fine frame and goodly stature, fit to stand on the steps of a throne. My brother hath determined he will sell him to no meaner purchaser than a king. Not all the wealth of Armenia will tempt him from his purpose, and to the king he will be sold. I have spoken."

Then he turned away to prosecute his business with those who were waiting around for examination of his merchandise, and Ishtar found herself alone and friendless in the crowded market--alone, with a wild foolish hope in her heart, and Sarchedon's amulet in her hand.

From the time she lost sight of him, she had never faltered one single moment in her resolution; arduous, impossible as seemed her task, she would not relinquish it even now.

Had she needed any farther stimulant to exertion she would have found it in the reflection that he, the distinguished warrior, the ornament of a court, the flower of a host, the treasure of her own heart, was a slave!

At least she knew where he had gone; at least there was one spot of earth on which her loving thoughts could light, like weary birds, and take their rest. But how to reach him? how to span the cruel distance that lay between? Gazing wistfully on the amulet in her hand, she would have bartered all her hopes here and hereafter, peace and safety, life and beauty, innocence itself, in exchange for the wings of a dove.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII

BOND AND FREE

"A horned owl in the twilight; a horned owl in the dark! How many horns does my owl hold up!" A merry laugh was ringing in her ear, a soft hand was laid over her eyes, while the white fingers of its fellow twinkled before her face, and Ishtar recognised the voice of Kalmim, challenging her to one of those foolish games of guessing so popular from the earliest ages with the thoughtless children of the south.

It was something to meet a friend, and of her own s.e.x, even though that friend was one with whom her deeper, purer nature had but little in common. Strung to their highest pitch, her feelings now gave way; and leaning on Kalmim's shoulder, Ishtar burst into a pa.s.sion of weeping that perhaps did more to calm and restore her than all the feminine consolations and condolences lavished by the other, whose compa.s.sion, lying near the surface, seemed easily aroused and quickly exhausted.

A weeping girl was no unusual sight in the public places of great Babylon. Exciting neither pity nor comment, Ishtar and Kalmim withdrew unnoticed from the crowd, to stand apart in the shelter of a gigantic fountain, erected for the refreshment of her people by the Great Queen, where the younger woman soon recovered composure to answer the voluble questions of the elder.

"Where have you been hiding, and what have you been doing, and why have we never seen you at the well, in the temple, at market, sacrifice, or on the city wall?" said Kalmim, flirting the water about while she dipped her white hand in its marble basin. "Surely the days of mourning are past, and those of feasting should have begun. Why, then, in the name of Ashtaroth, do I find the fairest damsel in Babylon with her eyes unpainted, her head untied, and, my dear, a dress that looks as if it had been trodden in the dust by every beast in the market? How did you ever get it so rumpled and soiled?"

Ignoring this important consideration, Ishtar took the other by the hand, and gazing in her face with large serious eyes, replied,

"Kalmim, I believe you would serve me, if you could. I believe you are my friend."

"As far as one woman can be a friend to another," laughed Kalmim. "And that is about as far as I could fathom the great river with my bodkin.

Trust me, dear, you are too comely to possess friends, either men or women. Nevertheless, you sat on my knees when you were a curly-headed child, and I--well, when I was better and happier than I am now. I would serve you if I could. By the light of Shamash, I would, though I might hate myself and you the next minute! Take me, therefore, while the good mood is on. What can I do to please my white-faced Ishtar?"

"You have influence and power," was the reply. "He--my father used--I have heard it said that you are deep in her counsels, and high in favour with the Great Queen."

An angry flush rose to Kalmim's brow, and her laugh was not pleasant to hear, while she answered,

"The Great Queen is a woman like the rest of us. I wish I had never seen her haughty face. For days together it was Kalmim here, Kalmim there; who so quick-witted as Kalmim? whom could she trust like Kalmim? Kalmim was never to be out of her sight. I must have had a score of hands, and as many wings as Nisroch, to do half her bidding. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, lo, in the threading of a needle, all is changed, and because the Great King went to the stars or wherever he _did_ go, I am to be cast aside like a frayed robe or a soiled napkin, and must see her face no more. She might have been a little fonder of him while he _was_ here, I think, instead of making all this mourning now he's gone.

You would suppose that in the whole land of Shinar no wife was ever left a widow before. Queen though she be, she must take her chance with the others, I trow."

"And are you no longer in the royal service?" asked Ishtar, sadly disappointed.

"In the royal service I must ever be," answered Kalmim, "since I was born a bondwoman in old Nineveh, whence come the fairest of us, after all, say what they will of this great wicked town! I can no more help my bonds than my beauty, and I do not know, my pretty Ishtar, that I am more anxious to get rid of the one than the other. But it vexes me sore, and angers me too, when I think that the queen, because she sits in sackcloth and scatters ashes on her head, should refuse to admit her faithful slave and servant, who never failed her yet, even to the outer court of the palace. If I were free, like you, my dear, I swear by Baal I would take my leave of great Babylon for good and all!"

"Free!" repeated the girl bitterly, reflecting how little availed her freedom, her birth, even her beauty to attain the one object of her life, in the pursuit of which she was fain to implore the a.s.sistance of this bondwoman. "If I were _free_, as you say, I would leap on yonder camel, with a lump of dates and a barley-cake in my hand, turn his head for the northern mountains, and never wish to see the city walls again."

"I guessed it!" exclaimed Kalmim, clapping her hands. "The daughter of the stars has gone the way of us poor children of earth, as if she too were made of common clay. He has taken your heart with him, whoever he is. I see it all, and follow him you must, at any labour and at any cost. I can feel for you, dear: I know what it is. Now, there was Sethos, the Great King's cup-bearer, as goodly a youth as ever longed for a beard. And, lo, he vanishes one summer's morning with a score of hors.e.m.e.n, rides away into the desert, and I shall never see him more."

"Take comfort," rejoined Ishtar, glad to do a kindness even for this flighty dame. "I left him safe and well at Ascalon, and beheld him with my own eyes drinking wine of Eschol the night before I fled."

"At Ascalon!" exclaimed Kalmim. "Where Rekamat was--I heard them say so!

The treacherous tiger-cat! The false villain! See what it is to let a man find out you have thought twice about him. He cares no more for you than we do for a garment worn a score of times, or a husband we have known a score of years. And yet he swore and protested. Well, I was born under Ashtaroth, and I have been a fool like many another. Nevertheless, the broken jar will mend no doubt, and the empty gourd can be filled again at the stream."

"I think he came not into Ascalon of his own free will," answered Ishtar. "He galloped through the gate like one who rides for life, with a cloud of Egyptian hors.e.m.e.n at his heels."

"I wish with all my heart they had caught and flayed him alive!" laughed the other. "But I might have known him better than to think he would look at that cream-faced Rekamat, for all her delicate gait and her tawny hair. So he escaped with the skin of his teeth, say you, and was last seen safe in Ascalon. I pray you, is he there now?"

"I know not," answered Ishtar. "O Kalmim, I will trust you. I am so miserable. He entered the city with--with Sarchedon. And the walls were guarded, the watch set, because of the false Egyptian, so that a mouse could scarce creep out unnoticed. Nevertheless, we glided through the gate at sunrise, he and I, and--and, right or wrong, we fled into the wilderness."

"Like a pair of pelicans!" exclaimed the other in high glee. "And so, being in the wilderness, you made yourselves a nest no doubt, and folded your wings in peace, as it had been behind the city wall!"

"The children of Anak surprised us sleeping," sobbed Ishtar, whose tears were beginning to flow afresh. "They killed our dromedary, poor beast, and spoiled our goods--all that we had--a lump of bread and a handful of dates. They spared our lives in pity, but they set me down beside the Well of Palms, and they sold him into captivity. O Kalmim, comfort me, for indeed I fear I shall never see him more!"

Light-hearted and impressionable, the other was ready enough with sympathy, advice, and perhaps a.s.sistance, up to the point at which it could inconvenience herself.

"Take heart," said she; "the world is wide, but woman has her wits, as the bird of the air has its wings. Can you not discover where he is gone? Knowing this, surely the bow is bent, and the arrow fitted to the string. You need but let it fly."

"I was guided by Nisroch," was the tearful answer; "for I came hither into the market from the halls of my ruined home and the bones of my dead father. O Kalmim, I watched by them all last night, to drive the wild-dogs away."

Again she laid her face on the other's shoulder, and wept.

Kalmim was greatly moved.

"I will help you," she protested. "Indeed, I will. I have friends; I have lovers--scores of them, girl; and in high places too. I will seam my face with scars, tear out my hair by handfuls, but they shall listen to my prayer. What! is my cheek sun-burned? are mine eyes grown dim? I will force my way to the queen! I will humble myself before the prince!"

"The prince!" interrupted Ishtar. "He is in Ascalon."

"Foolish girl!" replied the other. "He is even now coming out from the queen's palace to do justice amongst the people. Every second morning he rides forth on a white horse, with a.s.sarac at his right hand. Grave has he grown, and severe, putting aside the wine-cup, speaking but a word at a time, and scarce suffering the people to look on his face. Ashtaroth, what a face it is! Surely he is more beautiful than dawn."