"As once you saved mine when it was forfeit, and at greater risk. Look
at your hand, it will remind you. It was but tit for tat. And, friend
Rames, this day I came near to being eaten by a worse crocodile than
that which dwells in the pool yonder."

"I guessed as much, Queen, and the thought made me mad. Had it not been
for that I should only have thrown him down. Now that crocodile will eat
no more maidens."

"No," answered Tua, rubbing her chin, "he has gone to be eaten by Set,
Devourer of Souls, has he not? But I think there may be trouble between
Egypt and Kesh, and what Pharaoh will say when he recovers I am sure I
do not know. May the gods protect me from his wrath."

"Tell me, if it pleases your Majesty, what is my fate? I have been
named General of this expedition over the heads of many, I who am but
a captain and a young man and an evil-doer. Am I to be killed on the
journey, or am I to be executed by the King of Kesh?"

"If any kill you on the journey, Rames, they shall render me an account,
be it the gods themselves, and as for the vengeance of the King of
Kesh--well, you will have two thousand picked men with you and the means
to gather more as you go. Listen now, for this is not in the decree or
in the letters," she added, bending towards him and whispering. "Egypt
has spies in Kesh, and, being industrious, I have read their reports.
The people there hate the upstart race that rules them, and the king,
who alone is left now that Amathel is dead, is old and half-witted, for
all that family drink too much. So if the worst comes to the worst, do
you think that you need be killed, you," she added meaningly, "who, if
the House of Amathel were not, would by descent be King of Kesh, as, if