Is there time to explain? It's a very good question, it's true. But a better one is, will it really matter, even if there isn't? Perhaps there is no way out of this. Perhaps Lolotte has won, perhaps it is already past dawn. Perhaps they're all dead already, and soon she'll be dead--or married, or worse.

"Here," she says frantically, rushing for the doors at the front of the throne room, forcing them open as if desperate for a glimpse of the sky outside--how long has it been?--as much as she is for an escape. "Daddy--Genesta--they'll both die at dawn if I don't--oh, hurry!"