llar; he remembered
Shagpat even vacantly in his mind, as one sheaf of barley amid other
sheaves of the bearded field, so was he overcome by the awfulness of that
sight behind the veil of the Veiled Figure!

As they advanced to the passage, he was aware of an impediment to its
entrance, as it had been a wall of stone there; and seeing Abarak enter
the passage without let, he kicked hard in front at the invisible
obstruction, but there was no coming by. Abarak returned to him, and took
his right arm, and raised the sleeve from his wrist, and lo, the two
remaining hairs of Garraveen twisted round it in sapphire winds. Cried
he, 'Oh, the generosity of Gulrevaz! she has left these two hairs that he
may accomplish swiftly the destiny marked for him! but now, since his
gazing through that veil, he must part with them to get out of Aklis.'
And he muttered, 'His star is a strange one! one that leadeth him to
fortune by the path of frowns! to greatness by the aid of thwackings!
Truly the ways of Allah are wonderful!' Shibli Bagarag resisted him in
nothing, and Abarak loosed the two bright hairs from his wrist, and those
two hairs swelled and took glittering scales, and were sapphire snakes
with wings of intense emerald; and they rose in the air spirally
together, each over each, so that to see them one would fancy in the
darkness a fountain of sapphire waters flashed with the sheen of emerald.
When they had reached a height loftier than the topmost palace-towers of
Aklis, they descended like javelins into the earth, and in a moment
re-appeared, in the shape of Genii when they are charitably disposed to
them they visit; not much above the mortal size, nor overbright, save for
a certain fire in their eyes when they turned them; and they were clothed
each from head to foot in an armour of sapphire plates shot with steely
emerald. Surely the dragon-fly that darteth all day in the blaze over
pools is like what they were. Abarak bit his forefinger and said, 'Who be
ye, O sons of brilliance?'

They answered, 'Karavejis and Veejravoosh, slaves of the Sword.'

Then he said, 'Come with us now, O slaves of the Sword, and help us to
the mountain of outer Aklis.'

They answered, 'O thou, there be but two means for us of quitting Aklis:
on the wrist of the Master, or down the blade of the Sword! and from the
wrist of the Master we have been loosed, and no one of thy race can tie
us to it again.'

Abarak said, 'How then shall the Master l