“This answer, royal Lady of Egypt,” and I pointed to the marble, “the answer of blood.”
“Blood! Whose blood? That of the Persians?”
“Nay, Lady, that of many who sit at this feast and who ere long shall sit at the table of Osiris, and of thousands who cling to them. Yet be comforted, Lady, not your blood. I think that you have much mischief to work ere you sit also at the table of Osiris, or mayhap at that of Set,” I added, giving thrust for thrust.
“Declare then their names, Seeress.”
“Nay, I declare them not. Go, seek them for yourself, Lady, or let Pharaoh your father seek, for is he not a magician? though what god gives him vision I do not know. You name me cheat, or rather you name the goddess cheat. Therefore the goddess is dumb and her prophetess is dumb.”
“Aye, I name you cheat,” she cried, who in her heart was mad with fear, “and cheat you are. Now let this temple hag who hides her hideousness behind a silken screen unveil that we may see her as she is, and let her be searched and the vase of dye be taken from her bosom or her robes.”
“Aye, let her be searched,” shouted the guests who were also afraid.
“No need to search, high lords,” I said in a quavering voice, as though I too were overcome with fear. “I will obey the Princess. I will unveil, yet I beseech you all, make not a mock of me when you see me as I am. Once I was perchance as fair as that royal Lady who commands, but years of abstinence and the sleepless search for wisdom mar the features and wither the frame. Moreover, time touches the locks, such of them as remain to me, since these too grow thin with age. Yet I will unveil and the vase of precious dye shall be the prize of him who first can snatch it from my bosom or my robe.”
“Aye,” said one of them, it was the king Tenes, “and in payment for her trick we will make her drink what remains of it to give colour to her poor old carcase.”
“Aye,” I answered, “and I will drink what remains of it for I think the stuff is harmless. Oh! be not angry because a poor conjurer plays her tricks.”