"I don't know. It was found dead in the garden. Someone must have climbed a tree and been listening at the window, and the cat smelt him out and rushed at him and he ripped its belly with a knife."
"But who could it have been?"
"Probably some spy of Mahu's."
"Impossible. Mahu knows that Tuta is a faithful servant of the king. Why should he be watched?
"He might well be. All we do at court is to watch one another."
"And you watch me?"
"I do. Do you remember how you spoke about me with the king in the desert? I know everything—I know that you betray me."
He gave her a long, intent look.
"No, Merira," she said quietly. "It is not I who betray you—you do it yourself. You deceive yourself: you want to hate him and you cannot—you love him...."
"I don't know. Perhaps I do love him. But love, too, is sometimes cruel—more cruel than hate. It is said 'love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire; many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.' Do you know this?"