"Haggard, H Rider- Morning Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haggard H. Rider)

heard so often, touched his head with the feathers of her fan.
Thereon, as though glad of an excuse to express his ill-humour, Abi
sprang up and boxed her ears so heavily that the poor girl fell to the
deck.

"Awkward cat," he cried, "do that again and you shall be flogged until
your robe sticks to your back!"

"Pardon, mighty Lord," she said, beginning to weep, "it was an
accident; the wind caught my fan."

"So the rod shall catch your skin, if you are not more careful,
Merytra. Stop that snivelling and go send Kaku the Astrologer here.
Go, both, I weary of the sight of your ugly faces."

The girl rose, and with her fellow slave ran swiftly to the ladder
that led to the waist of the ship.

"He called me a cat," Merytra hissed through her white teeth to her
companion. "Well, if so, Sekhet the cat-headed is my godmother, and
she is the Lady of Vengeance."

"Yes," answered the other, "and he said that we were both ugly--we,
whom every lord who comes near the Court admires so much! Oh! I wish a
holy crocodile would eat him, black pig!"

"Then why don't they buy us? Abi would sell his daughters, much more
his fan-bearers--at a price."

"Because they hope to get us for nothing, my dear, and what is more,
if I can manage it one of them shall, for I am tired of this life.
Have your fling while you can, I say. Who knows at which corner
Osiris, Lord of Death, is waiting."

"Hush!" whispered Merytra, "there is that knave of an astrologer, and
he looks cross, too."

Then, hand in hand, they went to this lean and learned man and humbly
bowed themselves before him.

"Master of the Stars," said Merytra, "we have a message for you. No,
do not look at my cheek, please, the marks are not magical, only those
of the divine fingers of the glorious hand of the most exalted Prince
Abi, son of the Pharaoh happily ruling in Osiris, etc., etc., etc., of
the right, royal blood of Egypt--that is on one side, and on the other
of a divine lady whom Khem the Spirit, or Ptah the Creator, thought
fit to dip in a vat of black dye."

"Hem!" said Kaku glancing nervously over his shoulder. Then, seeing
that there was no one near, he added, "you had better be careful what