Genghis Khan

27.
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GENGHIS KHAN
Is this madman toying with me?
Your Highness:
JEBAY
in any case, his life is in our hands.
( .-. . .
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'.: ·.- .
( :_.
GENGHIS KHAN
Go tell the Skylark that we will give him satisfaction. Have
them do whatever is needed. You may go.
THE AIDE BOWS, EXITS •._ THE KHAN .
BEGINS TO PACE. A SINISTER RAY
OF SUNLIGHT FALLS ON THE . ARM OF
THE THRONE, CARESSING THE DRAGON'S
HEAD AND SENDING A GOLDEN REFLEC­
TION ACROSS THE ROOM. T~E RAY
FADES; THE DAY DIES. THE KHAN
STOPS PACING. HIS VOICE IS DEEP
AND EVEN IN THE DESCENDING DARK­
NESS.
This is the first tirne--the first time that I've bent to
the wishes of another. And to the Skylark--a madman! Ha!
This day: Korocha. And the old man of Shensi. I am old.
But how can I grow old? It is my duty to live! General,
do you remember how old I am?
JEBAY
I've been in the service of Your Higfiness since I was a
youth. In those days, we used to laugh that we were born
on the same day. And this year, I believe I shall be--
'--i
HE HESITATES, LOOKS AT THE KH.AJ.~.
THEY SMILE AT ONE ANOTHER.
GENGHIS KHAN
(SOFTLY) Then how old are we, General'Jebay?
JEBAY
In the spring, · I shall be seventy.
THERE IS A LONG MOMENT OF SILENCE ·•
. GENGHIS KHAN
(DISTANTLY) And so the Khan is seventy. Seventy long years
of living on horseback, intoxi~ated with blood, trampling
the plains of the continent. And to what end? One day soon,
I too shall be put into the earth.
J~BAY
Your Highness is still as strong as a god.
GENGHIS KHAN
Jebay, Jebay: no one escapes death. Each life carries in
itself the seed of its own destruction. It is the law of
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