"Come, Prince, since we cannot go without you.

Surely you do not wish to sacrifice the lives of all of us as an offering to the great spirit of the lady who is dead.

It is one that she would not seek." Then Aziel knelt down and kissed the brow of the dead Elissa, and went his way, saying no word.
***** That night, when the darkness fell, the sky behind these travellers grew red with fire.
"Behold the end of the golden city!" said Metem.

"Zimboe is food for flames and its children for the sword.

Issachar was a prophet indeed, who foretold that it should be so." Aziel bowed his head, remembering that Issachar had foretold also that for Elissa and for him there was hope beyond the grave.