“I fear I could not, O Queen,” I answered.
“Thou art, indeed, the Destroyer; the man who is my bitterest enemy,” she observed, in a deeply reflective tone.
“How?” I inquired. “Surely I have done thee no wrong!”
“Since the day of Semiramis, the founder of Babylon and of Ea, it hath been told to each generation by our sages that a dark-faced stranger from the north shall one day enter our impregnable kingdom and approach its ruler,” she said, hoarsely. “His entry shall be the curse that Anu, god of Destruction, hath placed upon our land, and this our city, with walls unbreakable, shall be overthrown and crumble into dust. When Semiramis founded this our land of Ea, she made not sufficient sacrifice unto Anu, therefore the dread god overthrew her colossal Temple of the Sun, and laid a curse upon the city, saying that he would one day direct hereto the steps of a man from the world beyond, and that this man should be the Destroyer. Thou art the one sent by Anu.”
She had fixed her brilliant eyes upon me, holding me transfixed. There was in her face a strange look of combined terror and hatred.
“Well,” I said, after a pause, “believest thou that I am the prophesied doer of evil?”
“Assuredly thou art,” she answered. “All is evil in thine accursed world beyond.”
“And thou, the goddess Istar, believest that I am capable of working evil against this thy giant city!” I observed, smiling. “Thou fearest that I am possessed of the evil eye.”
“Thy coming fulfilleth the prophecies of our priests through ages,” she answered, in a low, harsh tone. “Thou art mine enemy. I, my people and my land are doomed.”
“This, then, was the reason that I was cast into the lion-pit,” I observed.