“Hush!” warned the Prince. “My oath will permit no such thoughts, and it is not wise that you should thus speak. But I must now leave you. Is there anything I can do for you?”
“No, my brother. I desire you not to think evil of me. I am not gifted with the will of Athura. I have elected to suffer awhile in patience my strange and unnatural position as wife of the King. Sister and wife! Such I have heard is the evil custom of the Egyptians, who, it is said by Phanes, the Greek, even married their own mothers as well as their sisters, in order that their royal race might not mingle with a less royal! Have great care, my brother! The King would slay you if he dared. He is jealous of you.”
The Prince arose and stood looking down in great pity at the childish, careworn face of Artistone.
“I do not fear the King,” he said. “I am guarded by a powerful spirit who will not permit harm to come to me. I do not serve Cambyses, but, rather, the King of Kings and the Aryan race. I shall go into battle, rejoicing to fight for my people. I hope the day may soon come when I may aid in crushing those liars who are destroying true religion and leading Cambyses astray. But now I must go. Should need come, send for me.”
He turned to leave; but she asked, while a faint color suffused her pale cheeks: “What of the noble Gobryas? Is he well and—happy?”
“He is well, but he is not happy. Gobryas has been much pained by the action of the King in forcing you into this unnatural marriage. May I say to him that you remember him kindly?”
“Yes. Tell him that it will please me more than all else, if he shall acquit himself well in the battle, and that he must not too greatly endanger his life. We know not what the future has in store. Farewell, brother! May Sraosha place his buckler before you on the morrow!”
The Prince departed quietly. The child-queen buried her face in her arms and wept bitterly.
At the first gray light of morn the Prince and several officers rode swiftly along the front of the army. As they passed, the soldiers sprang up and shouted, clashing their arms upon their shields and demanding to be led to battle. He paused here and there to utter words of direction and advice to the officers. To the center he said: “You must move slowly forward and hold all the ground you gain until you see the cavalry charging the right of the enemy. Then go forward with a rush.” To the general of the right wing he said: “Stand fast here on the sand-dunes and attack not those Greeks until you see the cavalry charging the Egyptian right. Then go forward and quit you like men. For those Greeks are brave warriors.”
He paused before the King, who sat on a rude throne placed upon the summit of a hillock of sand from which he could view the battle. “Live forever, O King!” he said, saluting. “When it pleases you to order the battle joined, we are ready.”