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"The King looked at Mekare with disbeliefDestroy her body!' Helplessly he looked at his wife

"But Akasha merely smiled bitterly The words ca She merely looked at us with plain hatred; then she looked at the King When she looked to us, she put the question 'We are dead things, aren't we? We cannot live if it departs We do not eat; we do not drink, save for the blood it wants; our bodies throw off no waste any longer; we have not changed in one single particular since that awful night; we are not alive anymore '

"Mekare didn't answer I knew that she was studying the to see their forms not as a human would see them but as a witch would see them, to let the quiet and the stillness collect around theht observe the tiny iaze Into a trance she fell as she looked at them and listened And when she spoke her voice was flat, dull:

" 'It is working on your body; it is working and working as fire works on the wood it consu and working and its work is inevitable; it is the continuance of the fusion which has taken place; that is why the sun hurts it, for it is using all of its energy to do what itdown upon it '

" 'Or the bright light of a torch even,' the King sighed

" 'At times not even a candle flame,' said the Queen

" 'Yes,' Mekare said, shaking off the trance finally 'And you are dead,' she said in a whisper 'Yet you are alive! If the wounds healed as you say they did; if you brought the King back as you say you did, why, you o into the burning rays of the sun '

" 'No, this cannot continue!' the King said 'The thirst, you don't kno terrible is the thirst '

"But the Queen only s bodies now These are hosts for this demon ' Her lip treods!

" 'Answer us, witches,' said the King 'Could it be that we are divine beings now, blessed with gifts that only gods share?' He smiled as he said it; he so wanted to believe it 'Could it not be that when your deods intervened?'

"An evil light shone in the Queen's eye How she loved this idea, but she didn't believe itnot really

"Mekare looked at o forward and to touch them as she had done She wantedfurther that she wanted to say, yet she was not sure of it And in truth, I had slightly stronger powers of the instinctive nature, though less of a gift for words than she

"I went forward; I touched their white skin, though it repelled me as they repelled me for all that they had done to our people and us I touched theazed at them; and I saw the work of which Mekare spoke, I could even hear it, the tireless churning of the spirit within I stilled my mind; I cleared it utterly of all preconception or fear and then as the calmness of the trance deepened in me, I allowed myself to speak ' 'It wants more humans,' I said I looked at Mekare This hat she had suspected

" 'We offer to it all we can!' the Queen gasped And the blush of shahtness to her pale cheeks And the King's face colored also And I understood then, as did Mekare, that when they drank the blood they felt ecstasy Never had they known such pleasure, not in their beds, not at the banquet table, not when drunk with beer or wine That was the source of the sha; it had been theIt had been the pleasure Ah, these tere such a pair

"But they had misunderstood o in and ; it is too immense to be contained within two small bodies The thirst will become bearable only when you make others, for they will share the burden of it with you ' " 'No!' the Queen screamed 'That is unthinkable ' " 'Surely it cannot be so si declared 'Why, ere both ods warred with this deods warred and won ' " 'I think not,' I said