The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate

When a page boy in a bark-cloth garment arrived, Bessas, Myron, Kothar, and Zayd set forth with Merqetek and Ajang. With a sinking sensation, Myron ducked through the low portal in the skull-decked stockade. They proceeded along an avenue lined with the huts of officials and nobles, whose women sat in front of the huts, pounding meal in wooden mortars with wooden pestles.

Screams came from ahead, where a man was lashed to a post. A small crowd had gathered to watch two other men mutilate the bound man, cutting him to pieces a little at a time. But when the travelers appeared, the crowd left the execution to gape at the strangers instead.

"Why is this man being tortured?" asked Myron. The page replied:

"He was convicted of adultery."

"Sink me in the Vourukasha Sea!" said Bessas. "We seem to have fallen among strait-laced folk. Zayd, warn your lads not to try to borrow any more women."

"I don't like this place," said Myron as they marched on up the hill.

At last they came to the square in front of the palace. This structure was, like King Gau's palace, a glorified thatched hut. But it was larger and grander; its woodwork was painted blood red.

"You stand here," said the page.

Spearmen stood around the square in rigid rows. A stool in front of the principal entrance served as a throne. Around the throne, a score of Akulangba squatted in long tree-bark robes. Other members of the court huddled in front of the lines of spearmen. A swarm of pages stood around, and to one side squatted a group of drummers.

Myron stood for, he thought, at least half an hour, shifting from foot to foot and ignoring the stares of several hundred pairs of eyes. At last a page stepped out of the palace, crying:

"Bwana mkubwa anaja! Nyamazani! Chini!"

All the Akulangba in the square threw themselves prone. So did Ajang and Merqetek. Myron, Kothar, and Zayd might have done likewise, but Bessas held out a hand.

"I have my own thoughts on this," he said. "Do not prostrate yourselves unless I tell you to."

King Ravonga, followed by another horde of attendants, walked out of his palace. He walked with a peculiar strut, swinging each leg stiffly out sidewise in a semicircle before setting it down before him. He halted in front of his stool and stared across the open space at the four whites. Bessas and his companions bowed low.

Ravonga was taller than most of his people and powerful, with a long face and large luminous eyes. He looked not over thirty.

At last the long silence broke; one of the minor notables sneezed. Instantly the king turned his head and spoke:

"Kumwua!"

Several spearmen pounced upon the offender and dragged him off. The drums struck up a rhythmic roar, almost drowning the cries of the doomed man. A brawny man, with a large hardwood club over his shoulder, strolled after the struggling group as they disappeared around the end of a fence that extended out from one wing of the palace. The victim's cries were cut off sharply; the drumming ceased.