“You’ve never understood me,” I said. “Oh, it’s not an accusation. You live with illusions about me, which make it possible for you to visit with me, to speak with me, even to shelter me and help me. You couldn’t do that if you really knew what I was. I tried to tell you. When I spoke of my dreams … ”

“You’re wrong. That’s your vanity talking,” he said. “You love to imagine you’re worse than you are. What dreams? I don’t remember your ever speaking to me of dreams.”

I smiled. “You don’t? Think back, David. My dream of the tiger. I was afraid for you. And now the menace of the dream will be fulfilled.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to do it to you, David. I’m going to bring you to me.”

“What?” His voice dropped to a whisper. “What are you saying to me?” He leant forward, trying to see clearly the expression on my face. But the light was behind us, and his mortal vision wasn’t sharp enough for that.

“I just told you. I’m going to do it to you, David.”

“Why, why are you saying this?”

“Because it’s true,” I said. I stood up and pushed the chair aside with my leg.

He stared up at me. Only now did his body register the danger. I saw the fine muscles of his arms tense. His eyes were fixed on mine.

“Why are you saying this? You couldn’t do this to me,” he said.

“Of course I could. And I shall. Now. All along I’ve told you I was evil. I’ve told you I’m the very devil. The devil in your Faust, the devil of your visions, the tiger in my dream!”

“No, that’s not true.” He climbed to his feet, knocking the chair over behind him, and almost losing his balance. He stepped back into the room. “You’re not the devil, and you know that you’re not. Don’t do this to me! I forbid it!” He clenched his teeth on the last words. “You are in your own heart as human as I am. And you will not do it.”

“The hell I won’t,” I said. I laughed. I couldn’t help it suddenly. “David the Superior General,” I said. “David the Candomble priest.”

He backed across the tiled floor, the light fully illuminating his face, and the tense powerful muscles of his arms.

“Want to fight me? It’s useless. There’s no force on earth that can stop me from doing this.”

“I’ll die first,” he said, in a low strangled voice. His face was darkening, flushed with blood. Ah, David’s blood.

“I won’t let you die. Why don’t you call on your old Brazilian spirits? You don’t remember how to do it, do you? Your heart’s not in it. Well, it wouldn’t do you the slightest good if you did.”

“You can’t do this,” he said. He was struggling for calm. “You can’t repay me in this fashion.”

“Oh, but this is how the devil repays his helpers!”