“She shall be told, yet it will serve little, since who can turn Amenartas from her ends? Not I, be sure; nor could her father before me, nor any living man.”
“Nay, nor any god, Kallikrates, since the ends she follows are those of neither man nor god, but of something that stands beyond them both, as was the case of Pharaoh Nectanebes who begot her. Each of us shoots at his chosen mark, Kallikrates, you at yours, I at mine, and Amenartas at her own; therefore what right have we to judge of one another’s archery? Let her come to visit Noot and I pray that she may return the happier.”
Next morning ere the dawn I stood at the temple porch awaiting Philo and the litters. Came Amenartas cloaked heavily, for the air was cold, yet splendid even in those wrappings.
“Greeting, Wisdom’s Child,” she said, bowing in her courtlike fashion. “I learn that you and my husband would make some strange journey, and therefore, as a wife should, I accompany him.”
“That is so, royal Lady, though I knew not that you were wed to the lord Kallikrates.”
“What is marriage?” she asked. “Is it certain words mumbled before an altar and a priest, a thing of witnessed ceremony, or is it the union of the heart and flesh according to Nature’s custom and decree? But let that pass. Where my lord goes, there I accompany him.”
“None forbids you, O Lady of Egypt.”
“True, Prophetess. Yet my own heart forbids me. Know that but last night I was haunted by a very evil dream. It seemed to me that my father Nectanebes stood before me in a sable robe that was shot through with threads of fire. He spoke to me saying: ‘Daughter, beware of that witch who goes on a dreadful quest, taking with her one who is dear to you. At the end of that quest lies Doom for her, for him, for you, though each of these dooms be different!’”
“It may be so, Princess,” I answered coldly. “Then accompany me not and keep Kallikrates at your side.”
“That I cannot do,” she said in a sullen voice, “since now for the first time he will not listen to my pleading and crosses my will. You have laid your charm upon him as on others in the past, and where you lead, he follows.”