escaped under the tent! Quickly! Search for him!"
36 The Guards looked behind the woman and nearly fainted away when Gray
Goat emerged from the curtains. "You are mistaken, woman," he announced. "I am quite alive."
37 The woman turned and looked at him in horror. "But you CAN'T be!"
she gasped.
38 The First Speaker appeared through his curtains, quickly adjusting
his robes. "What is happening?" he asked.
39 "There has been a murder," explained Gray Goat. "Fortunately the
wrong man was slain, or I would not stand here, breathing. "
40 "No!" the woman screamed, "No!" She seized a lamp, rushed through
the center curtains, and lit the lamps inside. Then, with a terrible
wail, she began to cry.
41 Gray Goat had held the others back, but now they followed. The woman
bent over her mate, the bloody dagger in her hand. She looked up at
Gray Goat. "The lamp," she screamed, "the smoke...YOU! You accursed
demon! You knew all along! You knew! You used me! You made me HIS assassin instead of yours!" She rose and
started towards Gray Goat, but the Guards drew their weapons and
advanced. She quickly backed away.
42 "Surrender, woman!" commanded Gray Goat. "You do not have to die.
Give us your weapon!"
43 "And live out my days," the woman answered, "working like a slave,
or as some prison Guard's whore? No thank you, nor, will the crowds
scream for my death and watch me die. I prefer THIS way." She drove her
weapon into her own heart before anyone could move. "I curse
you," she gasped, "every hour of every day, I curse you! Some day may
you burn in hell!" She fell to the floor and her breath left her.