Harold Lamb

“ Kirdy set this down to the working of the evil spirits that must frequent such a place.
Although he got up, to walk stiffly up and down between the boulders, drowsiness clutched at him and was not to be shaken off. So, when at last he seated himself by the unconscious girl, his head slipped forward on his chest. He had to struggle for breath. Almost at once the two voices of the pass swelled in volume, and strange words came to the Cossack's ears:
“Ai-a—come and see! The night birds await thee! Many have come! Come thou!”
That was the cry of the night wind. ”

“ What matter? The dead were the dead.
“They paid us no heed!” Nada mused. “Ai, Kirdy, it was surely a warning.”
By now the light was strong enough for him to look closely into her eyes, shadowed by weariness and yet bright with a kind of fever. And he groaned, clutching both hands upon his belt. They were at the gate of the Earth Girdle; beyond might be a barren land where food could not be hunted down.
In his anger, a few nights ago, he had ordered Nada to ride on, with him. Better for her, if she had struck him down with the yataghan! Better, perhaps, if she had kept at Otrèpiev's side. ”

“ When they had parted, a girl-child with flowers in her hair, laughed at the Faith.
Yet when the old men and the youths girded on their armor and went with their chariots to a distant battle, the women kept the Law and abode by the Faith. ”