Sands of Destiny Read Online Free Page B

indrawn breath. “See this steel, of Damascus inlaid with writings from the Koran which gives the metal great power against devils and succubi. I doubt me not that it would sink readily into your heart. Shall I test the potency of the blade?”
    “Nay, Lord,” stammered tbe merchant. “I did but jest.”
    “Jest? Then you would not deny me a smile at the sight of your blood?”
    “I have eaten your salt,” babbled the fat merchant, now in a terror. “I have shared your bread. You cannot kill me now.”
    “You are safe beneath the laws of hospitality until the next dawn,” admitted the Sheik. “Yet do not trifle with me man of too great flesh, It comes to me that you and those like you are the first to sell their dignity for Ferengi gold. It would be as well for you to remember that. Remember too that the Veiled Ones have a long arm and that their power does not end with the ending of the desert.”
    “Why speak to me so,” whined the merchant. “Have I not done as I promised? Here I have brought you many rifles from distant lands. Good weapons with which to slay the infidel. I....”
    “Are the guns the same as used by the Ferengi?”
    “The Foreign Legion? Lebels? Yes, it was as you so ordered.” The whine increased. “Other weapons would have come cheaper, lord, but these rifles are scarce and difficult to obtain. Much gold I had to spend in having them shipped across the water. More to close the right eyes and seal the right mouths. Of profit I do not speak, it is sufficient that I serve you, but the risk! Aye the risk!”
    “It would be a greater risk should you fail to serve,” said the Toureg coldly. “Much have we of the desert stood from you and yours. Now, either you are with us or against us, there can be no middle path.” A slippered foot came into Corville’s range of vision. “Are you certain that these dogs are as dead?”
    “Certain, mighty Sheik.”
    “So?” There was the subtle scrape of steel sliding from leather. “It may be that they lie with ears open to our words. Test them.”
    “Test them? How?”
    “Fool! Can a man resist the thrust of a knife?” The Toureg stooped and deliberately thrust the point of his dagger into a man’s arm. “So, this one at least sleeps well. The others....”
    “Wait, lord!” The fat merchant stepped before the tall nomad. “Think of what you do. These dogs have no idea as to what we carry and why we are here. Leave them in peace I pray you for the love of Allah. Take the things I have brought, give me the gold you have promised, and let me be on my way. With the rugs you have carried here to exchange for the loads they will not suspect that anything has occurred between us. A little hashish perhaps,” the merchant’s shrug showed how tolerated the drug traffic was by the natives, “but that is all. It will seem as though you desired sport with us and there will be no loose tongues to set the Ferengi on their guard.”
    “The Ferengi! The unbelieving dogs! The infidel, the hated of Allah and the loved of Shaitan! Death to the Ferengi!”
    “Aye, lord, but softly. Time to talk of death when we have driven them to the sea. In the meantime, let us act with caution and tread the path of true wisdom. Is it not written that what will be will be?”
    “It is so written,” agreed the Sheik, “but it is also written that what a man is then so also is what he will become. And there are other writings in the sacred books of Allah. Yet what is your fear to me?”
    “Think, lord, and you will see the hidden wisdom. Guns have I fetched you, many guns, and there can be more, many more if....” He paused, suggestively, and Corville could almost see the man’s instinctive gesturing with his thumb and forefinger.
    “Gold,” said the Sheik. “You know that we have little gold.”
    “And yet you could obtain more? Not gold, but other things? Money, the paper used by the Ferengi is of value, gems and precious stones, small things that a man could