Oh! why is my heart so heavy in me?
That black dog of yours read the visions that I summoned but might not look on, and they were good visions.

They showed that the woman who loved you is dead; they showed us wedded, and other deeper things.
Surely he would not dare to lie to me, knowing that if he did I would flay him living and throw him to the vultures.

Why, then, is my heart so heavy in me?
Would you escape me, Vernoon?
Nay, you are not so cruel, nor could you do it except by death.

Moreover, man, know that even in death you cannot escape me, for there be sure I shall follow you and claim you, to whose side my spirit has toiled for ages, and what is there so strong that it can snatch you from my hand ?" She looked at him a moment, and seizing his hand burst into a flood of tears, and seizing his hand threw herself upon her knees and kissed it again and again.
"Go now," she said, "go, and let my love go with you, through lives and deaths, and all the dreams beyond, oh! let my love go with you, as it shall, Vernoon." So he went, leaving her weeping on her knees.
During the dark hours that followed Alan and madness were not far apart.
What could he do?
Escape was utterly impossible.

For weeks he and Jeekie had considered it in vain.