The last words of Tua’s chant died away, and with them that picture passed. Janees leapt back from the edge of the pool, glaring at Asti.
“Sorceress!” he cried, “were you not my guest who names herself the mother of her who shall be my Queen, I swear that to-night you should die by torture in payment of this foul trick of yours.”
“Yet as it is,” answered Asti, “I think that I shall not die, since those who call upon the gods must not quarrel with their oracle. Moreover, I know now what you saw, and it may be nothing but a fantasy of your brain or of mine. Now let us sleep, I pray you, O King, for we are weary, and leave its secrets to the future. In three days we shall know what they may be.”
Then, without another word, Janees turned and left them.
“What was it that lay in the pool, Nurse?” asked Tua. “I saw nothing.”
“The shadow of a dead man, I think,” answered Asti grimly. “Some jealous god has looked upon this poor King whose crime is that he desires you, and therefore he must die. Of a truth it goes ill with your lovers, O Star of Amen, and sometimes I wonder if one who is dear to me will meet with better fortune at those royal eyes of yours. If ill befalls him I think that at the last I may learn to hate you, whom from the first I cherished.”
Now at the thought that she might bring death to Rames also, Tua’s tears began to gather, and her voice choked in her throat.
“Say not such evil-omened words,” she sobbed, “since you know well that if he is taken hence for whose sake I endure all these things, then I must follow him over the edge of the world. Moreover, you are unjust. Did I slay the Prince of Kesh, or was it another?”
“Another, Queen, but for your sake.”
“And would you have had me wed Abi the hog, the murderer of my father, and of your lord? Again, was it I who but now showed this barbarian chief a shadow in the water, or was it Asti the witch, Asti the prophetess of Amen? Lastly, will the man die, if die he must, because he loves me, which, being a woman I can forgive him, or because he laid the hands of violence upon me to force me to be his queen or mistress, which I forgive him not? Oh! Asti, you know well I am not as other women are. Perchance it is true that some blood that is not human runs in me; at least I fulfil a doom laid on me before my birth, and working woe or working weal, I go as my feet are led by ghosts and gods. Why, then, do you upbraid me?” and she ceased and wept outright.