As Paramodice and the princess were returned to the prison, they could not stop thinking about how they were going to die tomorrow. The princess wept uncontrollably.
"My love, is this our last love?" she asked again, her face turned toward Paramodice. "Are we really dying tomorrow?"
Paramodice took her hands. "I can't believe this is the end, my princess. I just hope our love will not end like this." He cried bitterly while still holding her. "This cannot be our last love. This can't be our last love." He embraced her, and both of them wept.
"We only know what happens when we are alive; we never know what happens in the realm of death," the princess said between sobs.
Paramodice wiped his eyes. "I agree, my princess. If love can continue in the afterlife, perhaps we will continue there. I can't believe what that priest said. We must be in a dream — when we heard the wicked chief priest say we will be offered to the gods of this land tomorrow, it felt like a nightmare."
The princess kept crying. "Are we really to be offered tomorrow? Will our blood flow on the shrine? We have no family here to mourn us, and there is nobody I know to send word to my father to rescue us. We did not come to die in another man's land." Her cries grew more frantic; Paramodice tried to console her, though he too could not stop his own tears.
"Let today remain forever," Paramodice said, clutching her as if trying to keep time still. "Let tomorrow never come, so we may spend more hours together before death. Let us give birth to children who will carry both our faces before we die. If time could only stop, we would enjoy today and forget the evil of tomorrow."
The princess lifted her head through her tears. "Since we cannot stop time and cannot stop tomorrow from coming, is this our last love, my love? If an eagle could take us away, we would climb on its wing and fly to the forest. If there is any chance of escape, we would run and hide there for life."
"I have told you, my love," Princess Oasi said, "that nobody wants us here; nobody needs us. They do not want us to rule or show our love in front of them. That is why I asked that we remain in the forest, where only animals would disturb us. That place would be better than facing death tomorrow."
"I am sorry, my love," Paramodice continued, ashamed and fragile. "It cannot end like this. I believe the old man will not leave us alone in this matter. He never told me that both of us would die."
Princess Oasi wiped her face and said, "Now that we are to die tomorrow and we cannot find the old man — the one you said sent us here, the one you said God sent to protect us in that strange forest — why did he not allow us to remain in the forest? Now we are on the brink of death and do not see him fighting for us or releasing us to run away."
Whenever I open my eyes and do not see death, I feel it creeping nearer. A blackness has fallen over us and ended our love.
"Let us wait," Paramodice answered, trying to summon hope. "Maybe we can escape tomorrow — I mean our death. I don't know who will help us; I don't know who will fight for us. Perhaps that old man will come tomorrow."
Then Paramodice sang softly to the princess:
On the day I set my eyes on you,
I knew I had found my wife.
On the day I set my love on you,
I found my beauty-dove.
My princess, my princess,
You will still be my beauty-dove
Even after this world.
I remember the time we had together —
I only wish to continue to be with you, my love.
But death keeps on knocking,
Knocking, knocking.
Will this be our last love, my princess?
When Paramodice finished, the princess sang too:
I love you, my love,
I love you, my love.
The day I saw you in my father's palace,
I could not take my eyes off you.
When I saw that man in my dream, I was filled with joy;
I thought we would continue this journey together.
But death comes —
Death is now knocking, knocking.
Is this a dream I should name, or reality, my love?
When the princess finished, they wept again, bitterly. As night drew closer, they became more resigned, seeing themselves as already dead each time the hour passed. They prayed that the morning would not come.
Morning came, stubborn as a drum, with the cock's crow. A greater fear gripped their hearts as they expected the guards to arrive to take them to the shrine.
"Is this our last love?" the princess wailed once more, clinging to Paramodice.
Paramodice embraced her as if he would never see her again.
The prison guard opened the door and spoke in a hard voice: "Now the time for you to be offered to our gods has come. The king has commanded us to bring you."
They dragged the lovers from the cell. Paramodice and the princess cried uncontrollably. "Please—we are strangers! Spare our lives!"
The guards were unmoved. "We are less concerned about your pleading than we are about the land. We do not want to face the anger of the gods. To avoid that, they demanded your blood." So they dragged them before the king.
King Tatara addressed his guards with grim satisfaction. "The day has finally come. These strangers, who would let evil befall our land, shall be sacrificed. Take them to the shrine. I will be there to witness their death with my council."
The palace guards bound Paramodice and Oasi and led them toward the shrine. "Have pity on us," they begged, their voices thin as dry grass. The king was deaf to their pleas.