throwing himself into the sea.
"Then the strength of the hands began to weaken. And at last, but not for many months, he felt them no
more. But still he went, always afraid, until word came to him from the village. He had been right-he had
not killed her. But later someone else did. That girl had what you have named the dark wisdom. Si!
Perhaps it turned against her at the end-as in the end it turned against the witch we knew."
I said: "It is curious that you should say that, Ricori…strange that you should speak of the dark wisdom
turning against the one who commands it…but of that I will speak later. Love and hate and power-three
lusts-always these seem to have been the three legs of the tripod on which burns the dark flame; the
supports of the stage from which the death-dolls leap…
"Do you know who is the first recorded Maker of Dolls? No? Well, he was a God, Ricori. His name