No, not since I fled from Memphis to save myself
from death, or what is worse--the defilement of a forced marriage with
Abi, my Uncle, and Pharaoh's murderer."
Now the High-Priest turned and stared at those behind him, and all who
were present stared at the Queen.
"Pardon me," he said, "but how can this thing be, seeing that for those
two years we have seen your Majesty day by day living among us as the
wife of Abi?"
Now Tua looked at Asti, who stood at her side, and the tall and noble
Asti looked at the High-Priest, saying:
"You know me, do you not?"
"Aye, Lady," he answered, "we know you. You were the wife of Mermes,
the last shoot of a royal tree, and you are the mother of the Lord
Rames yonder, against whom we came out to make war. We know you well,
O greatest of all the seers in Egypt, Mistress of Secret Things. But we
believed that you had perished in the temple of Sekhet at Memphis, that
temple where Pharaoh died. Now we understand that, being a magician, you
only vanished thence.
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