Not all, however, for some of the most horrible and most deformed ones were pampered and used to satisfy abnormal desires. We saw no men—only boys with the faces of women and women with the faces of boys; sensing the approach of new terrors, they fled toward plateaus inhabited only by men. Since the death of Camaralzaman, the men had all left the town. Maddened by the desire for men, these forsaken women, like those whom we had met, would sometimes venture into the countryside; thinking that some men who had come down from the plateaus might come, they disguised themselves in order to seduce them. We learned this, not at the outset, but only after the queen, having led us into the palace, came to tell us that she was holding us prisoner.

Enticing captivity, more perfidious than harsh jails. These women desired our caresses, and they kept us imprisoned in order that they might satisfy their desires.

From the first day the sailors were lost; then one by one the others fell; but there remained twelve of us who would not give in.

The queen became enamored of us; she had us bathe in warm pools and perfumed us with nitrobenzene; she reclothed us in splendid cloaks; but avoiding her caresses, we thought only of our departure. She thought boredom would overcome our resistance, and long days elapsed. We waited; but over the monotonous Ocean moved not a single gust; the air was as blue as the sea; and we did not know what had become of the ship.

From noon until evening we slept in small rooms with glassed doors that opened out on a wide stairway leading down to the sea. When the rays of the evening sun struck the panes, we would go outside. Then the air was calmer; from the sea there arose a scented coolness; we would inhale the cool air and remain enraptured for a short while before descending; at this hour the sun was plunging into the sea; oblique rays struck the marble steps and infused them with scarlet transparencies. Slowly then, all twelve of us, majestic, symmetrical and solemn because of our sumptuous attire, walked down toward the sun, down to the last step where a light breeze sprayed our robes with foam.

At other times or on other days we would sit, all twelve of us, on a raised throne, each like a king, facing the sea and watching the tide rise and fall; we were hoping that perhaps on the waves would appear a sail or in the sky a cloud swollen by a propitious wind. Restrained by our nobility, we made no gestures and remained silent; but when in the evening our fallen hope departed with the light, then, like a wail of despair, a great sob welled up in our chests. And the queen would come running to gloat over our distress, to study us; but she always found us motionless, our dry eyes gazing toward the place where the sun had set. She saw clearly that we were thinking of the ship, and we dared not ask her what had happened to it.

Since we kept resisting and seemed more austere to her each day, the queen tried to distract us, thinking that in games and festive activities we would forget our voyage and our destinies. They seemed to us very serious and precise; our pride was heightened by this resistance, and underneath the splendor of our cloaks we felt welling in our hearts an irrepressible desire for glorious actions.

Pompous gardens with tiered terraces descended from the palace to the sea. Sea water flowed in through marble canals, and the trees hung low overhead; strong bindweeds interwined, forming swaying bridges and swings. At the mouth of the canals they floated in a dense cluster that resisted the sharpest blades; farther along, the water in the canals was always calm. Boats moved through the canals, and we saw fish swimming in their mysterious shadows; but we dared not bathe there because of stinging crabs and cruel lobsters.

On the shore near the town was a cave to which we were taken by the queen. The boat entered through a narrow opening that vanished from sight soon after we passed through it; the light in traveling through the blue water under the rocks took on the color of the waves whose movements appeared as faint flickers on the walls. The boat followed a circuitous route between two rows of basaltic columns; the air and the diaphanous water intermingled and became indistinguishable; everything was shrouded by bluish light. At the base of the descending columns were sand, algae and rocks from which the indeterminate light seemed to emanate.

Above our heads played the shadow of the boat. In the depths of the cave the sand fanned out into a beach lashed by small waves. We would have liked to swim in this ocean fairyland, but we dared not bathe for fear of crabs and lampreys.

In this manner the queen entertained us; though we continued to resist, our hearts thrilled at the sight of the marvels through which she hoped to seduce us. At night in the boat at sea, watching the stars and constellations wholly unlike those that appear in our skies, we sang:

“Queen! Queen of chimerical islands, queen with necklaces of coral, you whom we would have loved if you had come at dawn, queen of our despair, beautiful Haïatalnefus, oh let us depart!”

Then she said, “Why? What will you do?” and we did not know the answer. She continued:

“Stay with us; I yearn for you. One night, I would have you know, you were sleeping in your rooms; without a sound I came and kissed your eyes, and your soul was refreshed by the kiss that I placed on them. Stay. The winds have fallen, and you no longer have a ship. What will you seek elsewhere?”

And we did not know what to say, for she could not understand that all of this could not satisfy the vast yearning of our souls. We were weeping in our anxiety.

“Madame, oh what should I say to you? Nobility and supreme beauty always draw our tears.