“Here he cannot enter,” said Adam. “Here he can hurt no one. Over him also is power given me.”
“Are the children in the house?” asked Lilith, and at the word the heart of Eve began to love her.
“He never dared touch a child,” she said. “Nor have you either ever hurt a child. Your own daughter you have but sent into the loveliest sleep, for she was already a long time dead when you slew her. And now Death shall be the atonemaker; you shall sleep together.”
“Wife,” said Adam, “let us first put the children to bed, that she may see them safe!”
He came back to fetch them. As soon as he was gone, the princess knelt to Eve, clasped her knees, and said,
“Beautiful Eve, persuade your husband to kill me: to you he will listen! Indeed I would but cannot open my hand.”
“You cannot die without opening it. To kill you would not serve you,” answered Eve. “But indeed he cannot! no one can kill you but the Shadow; and whom he kills never knows she is dead, but lives to do his will, and thinks she is doing her own.”
“Show me then to my grave; I am so weary I can live no longer. I must go to the Shadow—yet I would not!”
She did not, could not understand!
She struggled to rise, but fell at the feet of Eve. The Mother lifted, and carried her inward.