A Wind in Cairo
"He is like a wind of fire," Al'zan murmured.
"A khamsin," said Zamaniyah. "The wind out of the desert,
that burns as it blows, and scours flesh from bone." The
horse sprang into flight, lashing with his heels,
slaughtering armies of air.
I heard a Bedouin say once that the will of God grants every
man three perfect gifts: a horse, a friend, and an enemy.
Inshallah! [Allah has willed it]
Sleep then, it must be. He had armor against dreams, but not
against what waited for him now, crouched under the very arch
of the gate. Even awake he knew its shape. Its claws were the
color of blooded blades.
Naming it would take a little of its strength. "Death," he
said in his own tongue as he lay on his mat. "I name you
Death."
It barely waited for his eyes to close. It seized him at the
very edge of sleep and devoured him. It rent him asunder; it
trampled his bones. It showed him what must, ineluctably, be.
It spat him up on the shores of dawn.
Hall of the Mountain King
Now you must prove your strength. Time was when you would
have done so in the fields under the stars, for any to watch
who wished to; and you would have kept a share of your seed
for the earth itself.
