that we are the Damned. We remembered it,
and we laughed.

We are writing this on the paper we had
hidden in our tunic together with the
written pages we had brought for the World
Council of Scholars, but never given to them.
We have much to speak of to ourselves,
and we hope we shall find the words
for it in the days to come. Now, we
cannot speak, for we cannot understand.




PART NINE

We have not written for many days.
We did not wish to speak. For we needed
no words to remember that which has happened to us.

It was on our second day in the forest that
we heard steps behind us. We hid in the bushes,
and we waited. The steps came closer.
And then we saw the fold of a white tunic
among the trees, and a gleam of gold.

We leapt forward, we ran to them, and
we stood looking upon the Golden One.