An Evil Eye

109

When the man from the mountains first saw the sea, he knelt and wept, wondering how any man could command such an immensity.

But as the day wore on, he grew more used to it; he swallowed his doubts. The pasha was a man, like any other. He would die, as a man did.

The man with the knife did not stop to look at the swollen welt across his chest. It was changing color, weeping; and darker tentacles were spreading across his skin.

He stumbled on, to the sound of the gulls mocking him over the little waves.