They answered, 'By Allah in Aklis! he can carve a way whither he will
with the Sword.'
But Abarak cried, 'O Karavejis and Veejravoosh! he bath peered through
the veil of the Ferrying Figure.'
Now, when they heard his words, the visages of the Genii darkened, and
they exclaimed sorrowfully, 'Serve we such a one?'
And they looked at Shibli Bagarag a look of anger, so that he, whose wits
were in past occurrences, imagined them his enemy and the foe of Noorna
split in two, crying, 'How? Is Karaz a couple? and do I multiply him with
strokes of the Sword?'
Thereupon he drew the Sword from his girdle in wrath, flourishing it; and
Karavejis and Veejravoosh felt the might of the Sword, and prostrated
themselves to the ground at his feet. And Abarak said, 'Arise, and bring
us swiftly to the mountain of outer Aklis.'
Then said they, 'Seek a passage down yonder brook in the moonbeams; and
it is the sole passage for him now.'
Abarak went with them to the brook that was making watery music to itself
between banks of splintered rock and over broad slabs of marble, bubbling
here and there about the roots of large-leaved water-flowers, and
catching the mirrored moon of Aklis in whirls, breaking it in lances.
Then they waded into the water knee-deep, and the two Genii seized hold
of a great slab of marble in the middle of the water, and under was a
hollow brimmed with the brook, that the brook partly filled and flowed
over. Then the Genii said to Abarak, 'Plunge!' and they said the same to
Shibli Bagarag. The swayer of the Sword replied, as it had been a simple
occasion, a common matter, and a thing for the exercise of civility,
'With pleasure and all willingness!' Thereupon he tightened his girth,
and arrowing his two hands, flung up his heels and disappeared in the
depths, Abarak following. Surely, those two went diving downward till it
seemed to each there was no bottom in the depth, and they would not cease
to feel the rushing of the water in their ears till the time anticipated
by mortals.