As for their brother, Black Windows, whom I have captured, he must be sacrificed, since I have sworn it, unless you yield, when I will plead for his life to the god, with what result I cannot tell.

Yield, then, and I will not even slay the Abati; they shall live on and serve the Fung as slaves and minister to the glory of Harmac." "It may not be, it may not be!" Maqueda answered, striking the pommel of her saddle with her small hand.

"Shall Jehovah whom Solomon, my father, worshipped, Jehovah of all the generations, do homage to an idol shaped by the hands He made?
My people are worn out; they have forgot their faith and gone astray, as did Israel in the desert.

I know it.

It may even happen that the time has come for them to perish, who are no longer warriors, as of old.