I will say that I honour you more in this hour than I have honoured you
before, because you have dared to speak the truth to me, Montezuma's
daughter, when a lie had been so easy and so safe. That woman beyond
the seas should be grateful to you, but though I bear her no ill will,
between me and her there is a struggle to the death. We are strangers to
each other, and strangers we shall remain, but she has touched your
hand as I touch it now; you link us together and are our bond of enmity.
Farewell my husband that is to be. We shall meet no more till that sorry
day when a "slut" shall be given to a "felon" in marriage. I use your
own words, Teule!'

Then rising, Otomie cast her veil about her face and passed slowly
from the chamber, leaving me much disturbed. It was a bold deed to have
rejected the proffered love of this queen among women, and now that
I had done so I was not altogether glad. Would Lily, I wondered, have
offered to descend from such state, to cast off the purple of her
royal rank that she might lie at my side on the red stone of sacrifice?
Perhaps not, for this fierce fidelity is only to be found in women of
another breed. These daughters of the Sun love wholly when they love at
all, and as they love they hate. They ask no priest to consecrate their
vows, nor if these become hateful, will they be bound by them for duty's
sake. Their own desire is their law, but while it rules them they follow
it unflinchingly, and if need be, they seek its consummation in the
gates of death, or failing that, forgetfulness.



CHAPTER XIX

THE FOUR GODDESSES