So she said, ''Tis in Aklis, in the mountains of the Koosh; and the seven
sons of Aklis sharpen it day and night till the adventurer cometh to
claim it for his occasion. Whoso succeedeth in coming to them they know
to have power over the sword, and 'tis then holiday for them. Many are
the impediments, and they are as holes where the fox haunteth. So they
deliver to his hand the sword till his object is attained, his Event
mastered, smitten through with it; and 'tis called the Sword of Events.
Surely, with it the father of the Seven vanquished the mighty Roc,
Kroojis, that threatened mankind with ruin, and a stain of the Roc's
blood is yet on the hilt of the sword. How sayest thou, O
Feshnavat,--shall we devote ourselves to get possession of that Sword?'
So the Vizier brightened at her words, and said, 'O excellent in wisdom
and star of counsel! speak further, and as to the means.'
Noorna bin Noorka continued, 'Thou knowest, O my father, I am proficient
in the arts of magic, and I am what I am, and what I shall be, by its
uses. 'Tis known to thee also that I hold a Genie in bondage, and can
utter ten spells and one spell in a breath. Surely my services to the
youth in his attainment of the Sword will be beyond price! Now to reach
Aklis and the Sword there are three things needed--charms: and one is a
phial full of the waters of Paravid from the wells in the mountain
yon-side the desert; and one, certain hairs that grow in the tail of the
horse Garraveen, he that roameth wild in the meadows of Melistan; and
one, that the youth gather and bear to Aklis, for the white antelope
Gulrevaz, the Lily of the Lovely Light that groweth in the hollow of the
crags over the Enchanted Sea: with these spells he will command the Sword
of Aklis, and nothing can bar him passage. Moreover I will expend in his
aid all my subtleties, my transformations, the stores of my wisdom. Many
seek this Sword, and people the realms of Rabesqurat, or are beasts in
Aklis, or crowned Apes, or go to feed the Roc, Kroojis, in the abyss
beneath the Roc's-egg bridge; but there's virtue in Shibli Bagarag:
wullahy! I am wistful in him of the hand of Destiny, and he will succeed
in this undertaking if he dareth it.'
Shibli Bagarag cried, 'At thy bidding, O Noorna! Care I for dangers? I'm
on fire to wield the Sword, and master the Event.'
Thereupon, Noorna bin Noorka arose instantly, and took him by the cheeks
a tender pinch, and praised him. Then drew she round him a circle with
her forefinger that left a mark like the shimmering of evanescent green
flame, saying, 'White was the day I set eyes on thee!' Round the Vizier,
her father, she drew a like circle; and she took an unguent, and traced
with it characters on the two circles, and letters of strange form,
arrowy, lance-like, like leaning sheaves, and crouching baboons, and
kicking jackasses, and cocks a-crow, and lutes slack-strung; and she
knelt and mumbled over and over words of magic, like the drone of a bee
to hear, and as a roll of water, nothing distinguishable. After that she
sought for an unguent of a red colour, and smeared it on a part of the
floor by the corner of the room, and wrote on it in silver fluid a word
that was the word 'Eblis,' and over that likewise she droned awhile.
Presently she arose with a white-heated face, the sweat on her brow, and
said to Shibli Bagarag and Feshnavat hurriedly and in a harsh tone, 'How?
have ye fear?'