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That bee girl, Alice, had been giving Lydia beeswax in exchange for clothing and shoes. People were interesting and resourceful. Durga was a little bit in love with humanity today.

"It's good to see you smile, Emissary."

"It's good to smile, Prince Khai."

He frowned. "Emissary. Prince Khai. So formal."

"You are a prince, and I am the Emissary." She remembered something else. "And I have my obligations. I need to go to Corcovado now." Fear seized her. What was she doing, strolling through a settlement with a potential lover? "I have to tell them about the souls. We can't let one more birth take place without ensoulment."

"Is it so urgent?"

"If you could feel it -- I think this was Asherah's plan all along. She wanted Jake to be lord sheriff, knowing he was soulless, knowing he would have the courage to run the liminal gauntlet. She couldn't just tell me about it. I had to experience the void myself to truly understand."

Asherah had not forsaken her! This had been a test, and she had risen to it.

At the citadel, Geraldo was waiting. "Emissary." He looked at Khai nervously. "Will Lord Ardri be returning soon?"

"We don't know." Interesting that Geraldo should care. He usually went out of his way to avoid Jake.

He held up a sealed note. "Prince Garrick gave this to me just before he left. He said Lord Ardri was to have it, but not until he had returned from the ashram."

"I'll see that Lord Ardri gets it."

Geraldo hesitated. Khai looked at him rather pointedly, and he handed the note over. Those eyebrows really were expressive.

Durga didn't break the seal until she and Khai were alone in her turret room. "Great Asherah."

"What is it, my lady?"

Durga rested a palm on Khai's chest. She loved to hear him say
my lady
with such concern and care. It was going to be so hard to say goodbye. "It's Char," she said. "Lady Charybdis." She read the note aloud:

If you want to see Lady Charybdis again, come to Garrick with the orbit runner.

Durga flew the orbital runner from Allel to Corcovado in half the Monster's best time. From the ritual, she still carried in her consciousness some of Jake's memories and experiences, and when she and Khai reached land in the southern hemisphere, she pulled a loop. The pug let out an emphatically unhappy wail. After that, the puppy wouldn't leave Khai's lap.

Reading the ransom note—how else could it be interpreted?—had sent a blast of Jake's emotions coursing through her. Pure blinding rage. The desire to murder Garrick. Raw emotion, straight from Jake's inner child.

She struggled to enforce her will on the mental mess. On the upside, she knew where Jake had hidden the orbit runner in Allel, and she knew how to fly it. She and Khai had each thrown some things in a bag, grabbed the dog, and snuck out of Allel in the runner.

"I don't know why Jake isn't in this thing every day," she said. "It's so much fun!"

"There." Khai looked a bit queasy. "The statue. We're almost there."

"What? You don't like the way Jake—that I fly?"

Khai rubbed his nose against the puppy. "Look! The statue! We're almost there!"

He was like a chalice playing with the infants. It suddenly hit her, how much pain she was about to cause in Sanguibahd. But she had no choice. "It's endearing when a big strong man shows his love-of-puppies side."

Khai just laughed and said, "My lady, I want you to see all my sides."

She knew he did. She was sure Khai was falling in love with her the way Jake loved Char. In the gauntlet, Durga had learned what that kind of love could be like for a man. Was like for Jake. Might be like for Khai. It was a shock how vulnerable it made them.

Part of her wanted Khai to love her that deeply, without compromise. But that was the selfish part of her. Because anything she allowed with Khai would have to end in separation. He must understand that.

She set her bearings for the tarmac. "This won't take long. We should be in the air again in a couple of hours." If Geraldo was spying for Garrick, then the prince wouldn't be expecting a response from Jake anytime soon.

In the meditation circle, Durga had been seized by the need to talk to Faina and set things right with all the chalices. The desire kept growing like an obsession, taking over her thoughts. It had been a while, but this felt like a compulsion sent by Asherah. She had to take care of it before heading to Garrick or she wouldn't be able to think straight.

She put the runner down in its usual place below the dirigidock and instructed the guards to keep everyone away. On their way to the admin building, Jordana ran out to meet them. She held out her arms and spun around to display the dark pink gi top she was wearing.

"Congratulations!" Durga said.

"I know! I'm a cherry blossom!" Jordana had been planning to test for the next level of proficiency in her martial arts training. "Faina tested me this morning." She performed a combination of kicks and punches, ending with a round kick/front punch and dramatic pose.

"
Aiya
! Very good." Durga put down her bag and applauded.

"A dog!" Jordana's eyes flashed blue fire at the sight of the pug in Khai's arms. "For me?" Jordana shaded her eyes with her hand and looked up at Khai. "Hello."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," Durga said. "It's a present to cheer Faina up. But I'm sure she'll let you play with it."

"Jake calls me sweetie."

"That's right, he does. Jordana, this is my friend, Prince Khai, the scion of Luxor. Where so much gold comes from. Would you show him where my suite is while I take the puppy to Faina?"

Durga traded her bag for the pug with Khai. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, and Jordana said
oooh
.
Durga rolled her eyes and shook her head and went to find Faina. She could already hear the compound gossip: the Emissary has at last taken a lover.

But had she?

The admin building was too quiet. Faina wasn't in any of the classrooms. They were empty. Durga found her in the Matriarch's office, sitting at Magda's desk. Crying, as usual. An odd wave of compassion washed over Durga, no doubt something from Jake's emotions.

"Faina, my sister. I've brought you a present."

Faina looked up from the letter she was writing. "Oh, Emissary. Chita is dead."

Durga swayed and balanced herself against the desk with one hand. She found a chair and let the dog down on the floor.

"What happened?"

"She went into labor and everything went wrong. She lost too much blood."

"The infant?"

"Alive. A girl."

Chita's proof of service. Oh, Chita! She'd been such a pain these last months, smug and insufferable. She was too young to get pregnant, but she didn't deserve this.

"Faina, call the chalices to the assembly hall immediately. Changes are going into effect starting this minute."

Durga left the admin building. She didn't want to see Khai just now. She didn't want to see anyone. She had to think for a few minutes before she addressed the chalices.

It was all so unfair.

She walked down to the grotto and out to the beach. It felt good to walk in the sunshine and listen to the surf, no fear of raptors. Corcovado was truly a paradise. A good old reliable white heron stared at her from a rock. Judgmental bird, strangely comforting.

This wasn't right. Chita was a chalice. Promised long life, given a totem,
blessed
with fertility. Some blessing.

"You question me now, Durga? How unlike you."

Asherah.

Durga threw herself on the sand at the goddess's feet. "What do you want of me?"

"You usually ask that question with fervor. You usually ask that question
really wanting
to know the answer. Are you still my little warrior?"

Durga got to her feet. As usual, Asherah was dressed in two pieces of filmy, flimsy material held over her body by creatures on her shoulders. Today it was two little serpents. Her hair was half piled on her head, half falling in front of her face and around her shoulders. Her pouty little mouth was drawn tight, like she was planning something definitely not fun for Durga.

"Why did Chita die?"

"I
smited
that one. It was her fate. I don't know why you're so surprised. I tried to prepare you."

"How did you do that?"

"Her totem. It's a palm frond."

"Yes?"
Totem is. Totem was.

"The sign of the martyr. Don't be sad, Durga. Chita didn't have a soul. She would have done no good as a chalice. Yet she has served a purpose, and I have rewarded her. Her spirit is in Elysium."

"What purpose?" There could be no purpose in such a death.

"You're wrong. Chita was a warning the other chalices will understand. No chalice shall be gravid before eighteen years. What have they been thinking? A hundred years of procreation lies ahead for them! But they must wait until their bodies are fully formed."

"Yes, Asherah."

 
"Now listen. I have a revelation for you. I may not see you for a while. Don't think it's because I don't love you. You are my chosen one."

I'll bet you say that to all the chosen ones.

"That's my little warrior. Now, hear me and obey."

The chalices accepted the New Revelation with more enthusiasm than Durga had expected. Of course they loved the idea of the auction and being paid and, best of all, having absolute power to say yes and no to the scions.

"There is a requirement," Durga said, "that each chalice agree to three contracts for a total of six ensouled births before retiring. This should not be a problem, with a hundred years to complete the task. Of course Sanguibahd expects that most of you will want to engage in far more than three contracts."

There was mixed reaction to being separated from the infants at birth. The non gravidas -- the ones who had never been pregnant -- had no problem it. The ones who had bonded with children were outraged.

"I have something to say on this." Faina stood up, the puppy in her arms. Her sadness was heavy, like a cloud over the hall. "I miss Ranigita so much. Sometimes I think I want to die. I praise Asherah for this revelation. It's wrong for us to fall in love with the infants. They don't belong to us. They belong to their cities. You will all be so much happier if you never make the bond; then you will never have to break it."

She sat down again and buried her face in the puppy's neck.

Durga continued. "Totems will be revealed to each chalice during the Rites of May of her eighteenth year. You are commanded to refrain from gestation until then. No chalice may enter into a contract until she receives her totem from the goddess. She will keep her totem like a treasure in her pocket and tell no one what it is until successful completion of her first contracted gestation. Break this command upon pain of death."

The soul ceremony, the
hieros gamos
, was the hit of the revelation. Everyone wanted to belong to the Team of Inquiry that would develop means and methods. Durga ended the assembly on that high note.

Faina met her at the door. "Emissary, may I speak with you?"

How convenient. "Let's go back to Magda's office," Durga said. She dreaded talking to Faina about Jake, but it had to be done. "I'm sorry, Faina, but you will have to see Lord Ardri one more time."

Durga left out the part about Jake being in a coma. Jake would recover, since this was all part of Asherah's plan, and there was no need to add to Faina's sorrows. "You will have to perform the
hieros gamos
for your current gestation."

Perform the
hieros gamos
. It sounded so much more clinical than
have the highest heights of orgasmic sex
.

"Don't worry about that, Emissary." Faina handed Durga a letter. "I have missed the child more than I have missed Lord Ardri. You were right to separate me from him."

Not convincing. But if that's the story Faina wanted to tell herself, then who was Durga to question it? "What is this letter?"