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voice spoke again. ‘There will be no other day. Ask what you want now.’
    Narmer’s eyes opened wide in shock. ‘Why? I’ll have other questions on other days!’
    ‘Because that’s the way it is,’ said the Oracle shortly.
    ‘But I have to speak to you again!’ cried Narmer.
    ‘What question is so difficult that you have to ask it tomorrow, not today?’
    ‘I—I just want to talk to you!’ It was true, he realised. Being a prince could be lonely. But here was someone—some thing —he could talk to. Who understood more than just the types of fish in the nets and what sort of bread was for dinner.
    More silence. ‘I’m sorry, so sorry,’ said the voice softly. ‘I can’t come again. I wish I could. So sorry…’
    Narmer frowned. For a moment the voice had been almost familiar. As though in her sorrow the Oracle had spoken without thinking, using a different voice from the one she had used before…
    I can’t come again , she had said. But oracles didn’t have bodies. How could the Oracle come again ? And that phrase, sorry, so sorry . Where had he heard it before? With that same almost-accent?
    ‘ Mrrrr? ’ said the cat into the silence. It sat up again, sending a waft of cat scent across the gully.
    The scent of cat. And the musky, animal scent the night before, under the scent of spices.
    ‘I know who you are,’ said Narmer quietly.
    ‘What do you mean?’ The Oracle’s old voice was back again, without the hint of accent. ‘I’m an oracle.’
    ‘No, you’re not. You’re a young man, like me. You’re the Trader’s translator.’
    ‘I’m not!’
    ‘You are. There’s a crevice in the rock. I didn’t see it among the shadows yesterday. That’s where you’re hiding.’ Narmer tried to keep the anger from his voice. ‘Come on. Come out where I can see you.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Why do you think?’ said Narmer bitterly. ‘So I can give you the beating you deserve. Pretending to be an oracle! Pretending to have a girl’s voice!’
    ‘I didn’t pretend! I’m not a boy.’
    ‘Are you still claiming you’re an oracle?’
    ‘No. I’m not an oracle. I’m a girl.’

CHAPTER 5
    The cat stood up, waving its huge tail from side to side. Its golden eyes flashed at Narmer as though he were a desert mouse who might dare to resist becoming breakfast.
    Narmer took a step back. ‘What’s wrong with it?’ he called to the unseen watcher in the crevice. ‘Is it going to attack me?’ He lifted his spear.
    ‘She knows you’re angry with me,’ said the girl’s voice coolly. ‘Throw her the lizard on your belt.’
    ‘Will that stop her?’
    He could almost hear the shrug. ‘Maybe.’
    Narmer untied the bit of dried gut that held the lizard and threw the animal to the cat. She caught it in her teeth before it hit the ground. She stopped for a moment, as though considering whether to accept it, then padded back to her rock and ripped open its belly with her teeth.
    Narmer let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He wasn’t sure he would have had time to hurl his spear if she had leapt.
    ‘Thank you,’ he said to the blank cliff face. ‘But I still want to see you.’
    Another pause. ‘To thrash me?’
    ‘No, I don’t beat girls. I want an explanation.’
    ‘I wanted to talk to you, that’s all.’
    ‘Why not talk to me at the palace? Or won’t your master let you?’
    ‘What? Oh, no. My master is very good to me.’
    ‘Then why? Why trick me like that?’
    Something moved behind the rock face. Narmer heard the sound of feet limping across the sand.
    For a moment the young man of the night before stood there in the shadows of the crevice. The same long robe, the same scarf across the face. And then the scarf was lowered.
    Narmer gasped.
    ‘Yes,’ said the girl bitterly. ‘Now you know why I hide behind a scarf and rock, Prince Narmer. Now you know.’
    They sat in the sunlight, a little away from the cat as she tore at the lizard.
    Narmer cast another look at the