Thereupon, the twain entered the pillar, leaving Rabesqurat prone, and
the waves of the sea bounding toward her where she lay. Now, they
descended and ascended flights of slippery steps, and sped together along
murky passages, in which light never was, and under arches of caves with
hanging crystals, groping and tumbling on hurriedly, till they came to an
obstruction, and felt an iron door, frosty to the touch. Then Abarak said
to Shibli Bagarag, 'Smite!' And the youth lifted the bar to his right
shoulder, and smote; and the door obeyed the blow, and discovered an
opening into a strange dusky land, as it seemed a valley, on one side of
which was a ragged copper sun setting low, large as a warrior's battered
shield, giving deep red lights to a brook that fell, and over a flat
stream a red reflection, and to the sides of the hills a dark red glow.
The sky was a brown colour; the earth a deeper brown, like the skins of
tawny lions. Trees with reddened stems stood about the valley, scattered
and in groups, showing between their leaves the cheeks of melancholy
fruits swarthily tinged, and toward the centre of the valley a shining
palace was visible, supported by massive columns of marble reddened by
that copper sun. Shibli Bagarag was awed at the stillness that hung
everywhere, and said to Abarak, 'Where am I, O Abarak? the look of this
place is fearful!'
And the little man answered, 'Where, but beneath the mountains in Aklis?
Wullahy! I should know it, I that keep the passage of the seventh
pillar!'
Then the thought of his betrothed Noorna, and her beauty, and the words,
'Remember the seventh pillar,' struck the heart of Shibli Bagarag, and he
exclaimed passionately, 'Is she in safety? Noorna, my companion, my
betrothed, netted by thee, O Abarak!'
Abarak answered sharply, 'Speak not of betrothals in this place, or the
sword of Aklis will move without a hand!'
But Shibli Bagarag waxed the colour of the sun that was over them, and
cried, 'By Allah! I will smite thee with the bar, if thou swear not to
her safety, and point not out to me where she now is.'
Then said Abarak, 'Thou wilt make a better use of the bar by lifting it
to my shoulder, and poising it, and peering through it.'
Shibli Bagarag lifted the bar to the shoulder of Abarak, and poised it,
and peered through the length of it, and lo! there was a sea tossing in
tumult, and one pillar standing erect in the midst of the sea; and on the
pillar, above the washing waves, with hair blown back, and flapping
raiment, pale but smiling still, Noorna, his betrothed!
Now, when he saw her, he made a rush to the door of the passage; but
Abarak blocked the way, crying, 'Fool! a step backward in Aklis is
death!'
And when he had wrestled with him and reined him, Abarak said, 'Haste to
reach the Sword from the sons of Aklis, if thou wouldst save her.'
He drew him to the brink of the stream, and whistled a parrot's whistle;
and Shibli Bagarag beheld a boat draped with drooping white lotuses that
floated slowly toward them; and when it was near, he and Abarak entered
it, and saw one, a veiled figure, sitting in the stern, who neither moved
to them nor spake, but steered the boat to a certain point of land across
the stream, where stood an elephant ready girt for travellers to mount
him; and the elephant kneeled among the reeds as they approached, that
they might mount him, and when they had each taken a seat, moved off,
waving his trunk. Presently the elephant came to a halt, and went upon
his knees again, and the two slid off his back, and were among black
slaves that bowed to the ground before them, and led them to the shining
gates of the palace in silence. Now, on the first marble step of the
palace there sat an old white-headed man dressed like a dervish, who held
out at arm's length a branch of gold with golden singing-birds between
its leaves, saying, 'This for the strongest of ye!'
Abarak exclaimed, 'I am that one'; and he held forth his hand for the
branch.
But Shibli Bagarag cried, 'Nay, 'tis mine. Wullahy, what has not the
strength of this hand overthrown?'
Then the brows of Abarak twisted; his limbs twitched, and he bawled, 'To
the proof!' waking all the echoes of Aklis. Shibli Bagarag was tempted in
his desire for the golden branch to lift the iron bar upon Abarak, when
lo! the phial of Paravid fell from his vest, and he took it, and
sprinkled a portion of the waters over the singing birds, and in a moment
they burst into a sweet union of voices, singing, in the words of the
poet:
When for one serpent were two asses match?
How shall one foe but with wiles master double?
So let the strong keep for ever good watch,
Lest their strength prove a snare, and themselves a mere bubble;
For vanity maketh the strongest most weak,
As lions and men totter after the struggle.
Ye heroes, be modest! while combats ye seek,
The cunning one trippeth ye both with a juggle.
Now, at this verse of the birds Shibli Bagarag fixed his eye on the old
man, and the beard of the old man shrivelled; he waxed in size, and flew
up in a blaze and with a baffled shout bearing the branch; surely, his
features were those of Karaz, and Shibli Bagarag knew him by the length
of his limbs, his stiff ears, and copper skin. Then he laughed a loud
laugh, but Abarak sobbed, saying, 'By this know I that I never should
have seized the Sword, even though I had vanquished the illusions of
Rabesqurat, which held me fast half-way.'
So Shibli Bagarag stared at him, and said, 'Wert thou also a searcher, O
Abarak?'
But Abarak cried, 'Rouse not the talkative tongue of the past, O youth!
Wullahy! relinquish the bar that is my bar, won by me, for the Sword is
within thy grip, and they await thee up yonder steps. Go! go! and look
for me here on thy return.'