Max Allan Collins

'The people of Ur,' she said, 'are reeling from the death of their king.'

At this mention of the father he'd murdered, Tak­met smiled a little. The sorceress did not reveal her repulsion, merely continued.

'Pheron's tribes are evacuating their villages,' she said. 'They are without direction... . Leaderless.'

Memnon's eyes tightened. 'And what of the Nu­bian?'

Cassandra shook her head, and her dangling ear­rings made small music. 'Balthazar ... and his peo­ple ... remain hidden from my sight.'

The warlord's eyes flared. 'Do the gods shield them?'

She offered him a tiny shrug. 'My gift does not reveal this, my lord.'

Memnon drew in a deep breath, then let it out, before throwing a smiling glance at, first, Takmet, then Thorak. 'Give our generals the news of this disarray in Ur. Have them make ready my armies.'

'Yes, my lord,' Takmet said.

Thorak said the same.

As the advisers made their exit, Memnon ap­proached Cassandra and touched her shoulder, his smile surprisingly gentle. 'You think me cruel?'

'I rarely think of you at all,' she said, though her tone lacked the apparent contempt of her words.

He strolled to a table of food and ripped a shank of venison from a platter. 'You sorely test my good nature, Cassandra.'

'I am here only to fulfill a purpose.'

He turned to her, holding the shank of meat like a club. 'Yes? Perhaps you've forgotten what life is like, outside these palace walls.'

The warlord tossed the venison across the room, and his young lion and tiger began to scuffle over it, until finally they were snarling and snapping at the meat and each other.

'That is what it is like out there, my pet,' he said to her. 'Heartless ... ignornant... savage ...'

What an apt description of Memnon himself, the sorceress thought; but she did not share this view with her host.

With a wave, Memnon summoned guards from the periphery who separated the two beasts, yanking them back on their chains; one guard cleaved the remainder of the shank of meat with his sword, and gave each animal its share.

Memnon returned to the seated woman's side. 'That ignorance . .. that barbarism ... I can change it all. Am I not called the Teacher of Men? I can transmute savagery into civilization, in our lifetimes. Just as the prophecy says ...'

As if not even listening, Cassandra rose and wan­dered to that table of food and drink; she poured herself a goblet of wine. But her words indicated she had indeed paid attention to her lord: 'I know the prophecy.'

'You should,' he said, going to her. 'The vision, after all, was yours, Cassandra. ... Say it.'

'Don't you know it, my lord? Don't the words ring in your mind at every moment?'

'Say it!'

She sighed. ' 'By tolling bell, and thunder's swell... a flaming star falls from the sky. By a full moon's glow, in House of Scorpio ... kneeling men bow, to the king ... on high.' '

'Such lovely words,' he said, and with the back of his hand he stroked her cheek. 'Such a lovely woman ... what a queen you'll make. For I am that king of legend, my love ... celebrated by the gods themselves.'