Fate and the Watcher - Classic Reprint Author:Margaret Peterson Excerpt from Fate and the Watcher — All night the people had stood listening and waiting outside the Palace, and it seemed to them as if, with this simply spoken message, the shadows of darkness and death simultaneously lifted from over their heads. Day was abroad, the powers of light had routed the powers of darkness. — The sun has come, one old ... more »man spoke their thoughts aloud; and the King is alive. There is no more fear.
The man who had delivered the message stood at a great window in the Palace wall so high, so wide open to the air, that the whole of his figure was visible. He was attired in the grey loin cloth and chuddah of a mendicant priest, and the long, straight hair that hung about his face, and the face itself, were daubed and smeared with ashes Of the same grim colour. Strangely repulsive he might have seemed to Western eyes, yet there was beauty and strength in his face, and a certain aming pity in his eyes.
For a second or so he stood there, looking down at the people; then slowly he lifted his hands, raising them to his head, sweeping them out before him in a sign of farewell.
The King lives, be repeated; go ye to your homes in peace.
The crowd reiterated his news. First in whispers, for the hush of the night's vigil was still with them, then with little shouted sounds of joy. The King lives! They sang the words almost, turning to go their ways in excited groups, praising, even as they went, the gods who had dealt thus mercifully towards them.
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