The Tablet became heavier and heavier in the Turk's hands and the prince shouted at him now, sword slicing the sky into jagged pieces.
"Bring it back or I'll feed you to my dogs!" Farid shouted. "You are very brave, although I don't know if you understand that!"
"And here I took you for a bit of a sycophant, Farid," Baryut shouted back. "A bit of a hanger-on."
"Not in the least. You believe too little and know too much."
Soon Baryut was trapped at the edge of a ravine. In a coffeehouse. A ravine. The prince would kill him now and the Tablet would go back to Smaragdine and he would never write another book. Or perhaps even another sentence.
Baryut wheeled around and drew his sword to make his stand at the edge of the ravine.
"Sacrilege!" Farid screamed, galloping forward. Their horses
