"Whither?"
"Out into the world where I shall lead you."
"But you are a priest!"
"No longer. In the same way that I could put on the monk's cowl, I can lay it off again. That blow on the cheek that I received is the expiation for the sword stroke that I gave."
"And your vows?"
"God will not count this against me, and as for man, I care not. I have read the Holy Scriptures through to the end, and nowhere in them can be found that to love is a sin, and that to renounce love is a sacrifice pleasing to God. This monstrous idea is an invention of man."
One of the many occupants of the room of the dead stirred at these words, for she heard her own words—repeated to another. This was the fruit they bore!
"Listen, something moves in that room over there!"
"Don't look that way," said Tihamer.
"Who's there?"