Desdira remained silent.
When the plates were cleaned and the wine vessels emptied, Metok stood and yelled for dancers and entertainers and more jugs of beer and wine. Servants hurried to comply. They lighted colored flambeaux and refilled the goblets of all.
The dancers and musicians entered the wide central space of the throne hall, cleared for the evening’s display. To the harmonies and rhythms of whistles and strings and drums, the n***d young dancers pranced and posed and flung themselves about, their oiled flesh shimmering in the torchlight. All about the hall, dissipated revelers began to drop from their chairs to collapse snoring upon the floor—or to couple and writhe beneath tables.
Finally, Metok arose, hanging onto the tabletop, and announced that he and his queen should reti
