l luck to cross my path. I have brought destruction to many, many
people."

Slowly, painfully, he turned on his back again, with Sophia helping.
Lovingly she stroked the few patches of his skin that were not torn or
burned or bruised.

When he was settled, he looked up at her and smiled in what she thought
was a strange way. She did not see the cause of his smile at first,
until he looked down at himself, and she followed his eyes. She saw that
his key of life had begun to raise itself.

"Daoud! After all you have been through?"

"I want you, Sophia, _because_ of what I have been through. Because of
what I nearly lost. I will tell you more tomorrow about what, God be
thanked, did not happen. For now"--he reached out a hand to her--"come
to me."

She understood. He must feel like a man who had come back from the dead.
Life was more precious to him than ever--and love. Tired and pain-racked
though he was, he wanted this moment of being with her again, which must
seem to him like a gift from God. And, indeed, perhaps that was exactly
what it was.

He lay back on the bed, his tortured body naked except for the cloth
wrappings tied over the worst of his wounds. His beautiful circumcised
phallos pulsed as it grew larger. She wanted to be naked with him, and
she threw off her outer tunic, unbelted her red silk gown, and pulled it
over her head. Her shift followed. Then she stepped out of the purple
felt slippers and stood before him, her arms held away from her body, to
let him see her.

She felt the warmth of her own desire for him spread through her.

He said, "You are a spring that gushes out of barren rock. I thirst for
you."

Carefully she climbed on the bed, straddling him. Slowly, so as not to
hurt him, she lowered herself over him, guiding him into her with gentle
fingers. A long sigh escaped him. She moved for both of them.

The instant after he groaned and reached his peak of love and pleasure,
he fell asleep, still lying on his back. He had just enough strength to
couple with me, she thought.

She rose from him and blew out the candles on the bedside table. The
night was cool, and she closed the casement windows of his room.

There was space between Daoud and the wall for her to lie beside him.
She stretched out there and stayed awake only long enough to kiss his
bare shoulder.

* * * * *

Forcing himself to wake up seemed as much torture for Daoud as anything
Erculi