“I think that the Lady Kemmah and Ru here had something to do with that, Niece.”
“Yes, yet they did but fulfil their offices, whereas you travelled up Nile to rescue us.”
“Fulfilling my orders, Niece.”
“Then you brought us to the pyramids and there you watched over my childhood, teaching me all the little that I know. Afterwards it was you who led me to Babylon and in secret worked upon the heart of the Great King, so that, as though at my prayers, he abandoned his plan of wedding me to Mir-bel and gave me this great army that has brought us victory and peace.”
“God, for His own purposes, changed the heart of my father, Ditanah, on that matter, not I, Niece.”
“Afterwards,” she continued, taking no heed of his words, “you comforted me in a hundred ways; also it was you who held me back from accompanying the five thousand to the mountain stronghold which, had I done so, would have brought me to death or shame. Oh! and I know not what besides. And how have I paid you back? Often enough with pride and angry words and rebellion against your commands; aye, and disbelief when you told me that if I found patience all would work for my good and that of Khian, whom I believed dead, even when you bade me hope on. Yet,” she added in another voice, “if I behaved thus, it was your fault, not mine, for who was it that spoiled me in my youth, giving me my way when I should have been taught obedience?”
“The holy Roy, I think; also the Lady Kemmah,” answered Tau with his quiet smile.
At this moment guards challenged without. Then the curtain of the pavilion was drawn and, heralded by Ru, there entered the old Vizier Anath and with him others of the councillors and captains of the Shepherds.
Anath and his company prostrated themselves thrice, to Nefra, to Khian, and to the Prince Abeshu, the General of the armies of Babylon.
“Queen and Princess,” he said, “on behalf of all the Shepherds we come to surrender to you the city of Tanis and to pray your clemency for those who have fought against you and for every one who breathes within its walls. Is it granted?”