At this, Ampho, raised his voice and replied quickly with an air of self-importance and officiousness, "Ahem! As his Highness wishes!"
Then he raised and settled his shoulders bravely as he opened his mouth, screwed his eyes shut tightly, tilted his head back, and bawled loudly into the high vaulted stone ceiling, "All keep silence before the great Emperor Euphrates!"
A chorus of Court Officers immediately chanted, "All give ear and keep silence!"
In the sudden silence, the widows shifted their eyes nervously around the crowded court, fearful of the awesome power of the great Emperor Euphrates that so many should automatically kowtow to him with such unfailing ritual precision.
"Mark my words," said Emperor Euphrates. This was spoken for the benefit of the Royal Scribe, one called Ibi, who was also a man of great age like unto Ampho. Off to one side, aged Ibi promptly reached for his marking sticks, and impatiently signaled an apprentice to deliver a fresh clay tablet to him.
"One called Puffat," declared Emperor Euphrates, "has died an honorable death."
"Here ye all! One called Puffat…" Ampho cried out, howling Emperor Euphrates' pronouncements. When he had finished repeating the proclamation, he turned his head to his emperor and waited for the next royal pronouncement.
"One called Conabar," said Emperor Euphrates, "and one called Kadrug, both of whom doth magnify themselves against the Imperial throne and doth conspire unlawfully to slay his relations and diminish his blood line, shall appear before His Majesty, and their entrails shall be read to determine their guilt or innocence."
When Emperor Euphrates paused for breath, Ampho raised his voice and howled the decree loudly. Thus were pronounced both men's death sentences in typically indirect fashion.
Emperor Euphrates's claim to being a divinely appointed ruler and sorcerer depended most frequently and blatantly upon the habitual practice of killing off some victim for who-cares-what offence, and then ceremonially 'reading' the victim's entrails, invariably pronouncing that their guilt and worthiness of death by execution was clearly foretold there.