"Again, you don't want to tell me?"
"I don't."
"You killed the god Bull, your Mreura, or was it Hapius?"
Hapius was the bull of Memphis and Mreura the bull of Heliopolis, the incarnate god of the Sun. "We, too, had a Mreura," Ankhi went on, not waiting for an answer. "It died two years ago: I was very fond of it. It was old and blind. I used to go into its stable, put my arms round it and kiss its head, and it would lick my face and bellow into my ear as though to say something. To kill a creature like that, good heavens! It's like killing a baby...."
She paused, and looking at Dio from under her brows said suddenly:
"They have found a wax doll in the palace."
"What wax doll?"
"A charmed one, with its heart pierced by a needle; the person whose name is written on the wax is sure to die. The king's name was written on it; they found it in the king's bedchamber...."
She paused again and asked:
"How long have you been here?"