wonderful days of her life and the happiest. Time passed without her knowing if it was hours or minutes, until at length she heard the sound of footsteps. Annoyed she turned round and saw the door open. Shayth entered out of breath and said, “My lady, he is following me. Here he is.”
She saw him enter, confidently, as if he were entering his own bedchamber. She was astonished, and overjoyed. “My lord,” she exclaimed.
Shayth withdrew and closed the door. The king cast a glance around the beautiful chamber and laughed, “Should I ask forgiveness for bursting in like this?”
She smiled happily. “The chamber and its mistress are yours, my lord.”
He laughed his charming laugh. It was a youthful wholesome laugh, bursting with life. He took hold of her elbow and led her over to the couch, and sitting her down, he took his seat next to her. “I feared that you might fall asleep before I came,” he said.
“Asleep. Sleep would never find his way into a night like this. The light of joy would make him think it daytime.”
His face turned serious. “How much more so if we should shine together.”
She had never felt such happiness before, her heart had never been so awake, so alive, and she had never known the pleasure of surrender as she knew it now before this remarkable human being. He was right. She was burning, but she did not say anything. She simply raised her eyes, overflowing with joy and brimming with love, and gazed at him. Then she spoke: “I never thought you would return this night.”
“Nor did I. But the meeting was heavy and tiresome, and I grew weary with concentrating. I felt troubled and restless. The man placed many decrees in front of me and I signed a few of them and listened to him with my mind distracted, until I could take no more and told him to put off the work until tomorrow. I did not think to return, I wanted to be alone that I might confer with myself. But once alone I found the solitude weighed down on me, and the night grew dreary and unbearable. Thereupon I scolded myself and said, ‘Why should I wait until tomorrow?’ It is my habit not to resist an emotion, so I did not hesitate, and here I am, with you.”
What a happy habit it was, and she was reaping its most delicious fruits. She felt by his side a wonderful joy as he trembled with life and passion. “Rhadopis, what a beautiful name that is. It falls upon my ears like music and means ‘love’ in my heart. This love is something wondrous. It can disarm a man whose nights are filled — with gorgeous women of every color and taste. It is truly remarkable. I — wonder how it — works. It seems to be a feeling of unease that torments my heart, at once a divine incantation recited on the loftiest plane of my soul, and yet a painful longing. It is you. Your stunning presence abides in every manifestation of the world and the soul. Look at this strong frame of mine, it feels a need for you as a drowning man feels the need for air to breathe.”
She shared his feelings and sensed his sincerity. He had spoken to describe one heart and had described two. Like him, she could hear the divine incantation, and beheld his image in the manifestations of the world and the soul, while her eyelids were heavy with dreams and ecstasy. At last their eyelashes touched and he asked her gently, “Why do you not speak, Rhadopis?”
She opened her beautiful eyes and looked at him with passion and longing. “What need have I of words, my lord? For so long, words flowed from my tongue and my heart was dead. But now, my heart is bursting with life and soaks up your words like the earth soaks up the warmth of the sun, and through it finds life.”
He smiled at her happily. “This love has plucked me from amidst a world replete with women.”
She returned his smile. “And it has plucked me from amidst a world overflowing with men.”
“I was stumbling about in my world, confused, and you were only an arm's length away from me. What a pity. I should have met you years ago.”
“We were both waiting for the falcon to bring us together.”
He held her hand tighter in his. “Yes, Rhadopis, the Fates were waiting for the falcon to appear on our horizon that they might set down on its page the most beautiful love story. I do not doubt that the falcon could not bear to put off our love any longer. We should not be apart after today. The most beautiful thing in the world is that we should be together.”
She sighed from the depths of her heart, “Yes, my lord, we should never be apart after this day. Here is my bosom for you, a verdant pasture for you to graze upon whenever you wish.”
He opened her palm between his hands and he squeezed it affectionately. “Come to me, Rhadopis. Let this palace be closed and its unclean past be forgotten, for I feel that every day that was wasted of my life before I knew you is a treacherous blow directed at my happiness.”
She had felt like one intoxicated, but now worrying doubts assailed her and she asked, “Does His Majesty wish me to move to his harem?”
He nodded his head, “You shall reside in its finest quarters.”
She lowered her eyes, dumbfounded, not knowing what to say. Her silence took him aback and he placed the fingers of his right hand under her delicate chin and lifted her face toward him. “What is the matter?”
She hesitated a moment then asked him, “Is that an order, Your Majesty?”
A look of dejection crossed his face when he heard the words “an order.” He said, “Of course not, Rhadopis. The language of orders has no place in love. I would never have wished before today to be stripped of my station and become again a human being making his way in life without assistance, encountering his fortune without favor. Forget Pharaoh for a moment and tell me if you do not want to spend your life with me.”
She was afraid he might misunderstand her concern and hesitation, and she said sincerely, “My desire for you, my lord, is as my desire for life itself. But the truth is more beautiful than that. The truth is that I have never truly loved life until I loved you. And the value of life for me now is that it makes me feel your love, and all my senses rejoice at your presence. Is it not an instinctive quality of lovers that they speak the truth? Ask the heart of Rhadopis, Your Majesty, and you will hear what I have already said. But I am confused and must ask why should I close the doors of my palace forever? It is me myself, Your Majesty, and you should love it as you love me. There is not a single part of it that I have not touched, my picture, my name, a statue of me. How can I ever leave it, for here descended the falcon that flew to you with the immortal message of love? How can I ever leave it when here love stirred in my heart for the first time? How can I ever leave it, my lord, when you yourself visited me here? It is worthy of any place where your feet have tread to belong, as my heart does, to you alone, and to never close its doors, ever.”
He listened to her, his senses sharpened, his heart burning and irrepressible. His soul concurred with every word she spoke, and stroking the tresses of her jet-black hair, he took her in his arms and planted upon her lips a kiss moist with sweet nectar.
“Rhadopis,” he said, “O love that has blended with my soul, the doors of this palace will not be closed, its rooms will not be plunged into darkness. It will remain, as we have become, a cradle for love, an amorous paradise, a lush garden wherein the seeds of memories are sown. I shall make of it a monument to love and I will cover its floor and walls with pure gold.”
Her face glowed with happiness, as she confided in him, “May your will be done, Your Majesty. I swear by my love for you that tomorrow I shall go to the temple of Sothis and wash my body with sacred oil to cleanse myself of this wicked past, and I shall return to the sanctuary with a pure new heart, like a flower pierces its sheath and turns its face to the rays of the sun.”
He put her hand on his heart and looked into her eyes, saying, “Rhadopis, today I am happy, I bear witness before the universe and the gods of my happiness. This is how I want my life to be. Look at me. Your dark eyes are more delicious to me than all the light of the world.”
That night the island of Biga slept while love lodged for the first time in its white palace, until the coal-black night gave way before the dreamy blueness of the dawn.
The shadow of love
It was late morning — when she awoke. The air — was hot and the blazing rays of the sun sent light and fire into the world. Her fine nightshift clung to her lissome body and her hair — was spread about in disarray, with tresses draped over her bosom and others cascading onto the pillow.
Blessed is an awakening that stirs beautiful memories in the heart. Her heart was a pasture of joy and the scent of flowers wafted in the air around her and the — world smiled — with happiness and joy. She felt with all her
