"Why didn't you tell sooner, you silly? We could have arranged things, and now look at yourself: it is too late," said Rita, feeling Maki's body as an experienced midwife. Pregnancy seemed monstrous in a little creature like Maki, almost a child.
"Saakera's Ethiopian has some stuff. Shall I ask her? Perhaps it could still be done...."
"Oh, Rita, don't speak of it, please don't!"
"Very well, don't whine.... What was I talking about? Yes, about Ankhi. She wants to run away and join Tuta. The rascals did not stay long in prison—they escaped to Nut-Amon; I expect they'll stir up a rising there. No, I would not have let them off: they ought to have been killed on the spot. But our courtiers are all traitors and scoundrels."
She spoke listlessly, evidently thinking of something else. Suddenly she smiled, as though recalling something funny.
"Shiha is a clever man! Do you know what he says of Enra?" Shiha was the high priest and eunuch of the god Attis.
"What?" Maki asked. She started slightly at the name of Shiha and Rita noticed it.
"He says Enra lives as though all were well with the world; but all is not well!"
"All is not well?" Maki repeated, frowning with the childish effort to understand.
"Do you remember Yuma's death?" Rita went on. Yuma was a little black slave who died of a tarantula sting.