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"It is to Ranigita. I find I need something, a ritual to ease the pain of this separation. I've decided to send her my dagger and this letter, but I wanted your advice before I acted."

Durga unfolded the letter.

My dear girl,

This dagger is my gift to you to symbolize our holy bond. As with many divine mysteries, our relationship is a paradox: our bond lives in our severance. We will never know each other, yet we serve Asherah equally. Our common purpose is the survival of the human race.

With unending love and affection, your breeder,

Faina of Sanguibahd

Faina opened a carved rosewood box lined with pink satin. It contained a dagger, the hilt designed to incorporate her lotus totem.

"Faina, I believe Asherah has spoken to us all through you." Durga returned the letter. "I am certain this is a proper and consoling thing to do, for you now, and for Ranigita when she is older. The other chalices may wish to follow your example."

Faina's lovely eyelashes fluttered. Her blue eyes were even more jewel-like with tears in them, but now she smiled through the tears.

In the lift, Durga realized she was hungry. She couldn't remember if there was anything good in her suite's little kitchen. She and Khai could grab something from the bistro and eat in the runner on the way to Garrick. She wouldn't mind showing him off.

"Khai?" He wasn't in the antechamber, but their bags were on the floor by the étagère. "Khai?" He wasn't in the kitchen. Jordana must have dragged him outside.

She pulled her dress out of her bag. Ugh. Wrinkles. She should have spread it out over a passenger seat on the flight down.

Despite Prince Garrick's cool
shibdabliness
,
he had been flustered by her appearance in this dress. Desire. Lust. Whatever its name, his emotions had thrown him off balance. Why not push the advantage? She gathered the dress up in her arms and went to the bedroom to change.

Khai was there, at the wall of windows, kissing -- her. She was wearing the dress, and Khai was bent over her, one hand behind her neck and the other on her breast. She moaned and murmured
I love you
.

"Get out!" Durga thought she was going to be sick.

Khai jerked his head in her direction and back to the Durga he had been kissing.

"Get out now!"

He broke away from the Empani. "Durga?"

"Trust me, Khai. I'll explain later. Go!" She closed the door behind him.

When she turned back to the Empani, it had shifted to Khai's form. He went down on his knees. "Forgive me, Durga! I didn't know. I thought it was you. I love you. I only want you, only you."

She burst out laughing at the melodramatics. "Is that what I want, Empani? My deepest desire?"

Her laughter seemed to help the Empani find itself again. It shifted shape to the familiar Rani form, though missing its usual serenity. The Empani perspired, and its skin tone was off, a bit gray, and the SJ tattoo was blurred. Durga wanted to pat it on the shoulder, make it feel better.

"Don't," the Empani said. "Please don't."

"I guess it isn't so good to see me today." The Empani apparently didn't get the joke. "What happened?"

"We were flying and felt a great longing for the Durga." The Empani recovered at least well enough to manifest Rani's proper skin tone. "We were compelled by the longing to come." The disgust in the Empani's voice was painful to hear.

"Why were you compelled? Who
are
the Empanii?
What
are you?"

"We are of Samael. Only Samael. We curse the day he created you."

"You've said that before. But why?"

"Samael ordered us to adore his creation, but we cursed it. Samael cursed us in return. He cast us away, out of his sight, in bondage forever to human desires. This is our punishment."

"I thought the Empanii were dying, but you've been hiding. Right?"

"Until we discover how to break the curse."

"Why are you here? I just saw Asherah. Did she send you with another message?"

"The desire is strong in that one you called Khai. I could not resist his desire. His longing for you drew me down from the sky."

Durga was deeply aware of Khai so close to her, inches away. She was also aware of the four Sanguibahd guards right behind them, sitting in the runner's passenger seats. The runner was a great little flying machine, but it was certainly lacking in privacy.

She wanted to reach out and touch Khai's forearm, reassure him … of what? Seeing him with the Empani had churned up so many feelings. Every time she looked at him, she felt more miserable.

His longing for you drew me down from the sky.

At the sight of Khai kissing someone else, she had wanted to die. Faina was right. It was no good to be bonded to another person. It hurt too much. Sure, Khai had thought he was kissing her. Her misery made no sense, but she couldn't shake it.

She was Emissary of Sanguibahd. He was scion of Luxor. Their lives were not theirs to give to another person. She was duty bound to the goddess. That bond was inviolate.

He was duty bound to his city, to provide it with heirs, to continue the dynasty that made Luxor survive and would make Luxor a great city-state. Once he had provided those heirs, he would take a queen. Inevitably, someday, Khai
would
kiss someone else.

Maybe it would help if they talked about something other than themselves. "Did you have a chance to speak with Versailles at all?"

"The man Ansel is an idiot." Khai answered immediately, as if he too had been trying to think of a safe subject. "Too caught up in making demands to state a plain case. But his sister has some sense. Apparently Geraldo did substitute a bagger. The chalice is innocent. The infant must have died en route to Versailles." Khai shook his head and scoffed. "The supposed heir Geraldo brought to the city was Caucasian. The chalice was Asian. I knew Geraldo was mendacious, but I didn't think he was stupid."

Durga lowered her voice. "I've wanted to get rid of Geraldo for years, but he founded Sanguibahd, and he has connections and influence all over the world. Still, he may have gone too far this time."

"It should be impossible even to attempt a switch like this," Khai said. "There needs to be a procedure in the process that protects the cities. And the chalices. Their honor must be above reproach."

"The world is becoming more complicated." Durga sighed. Khai was right about politics. She had no stomach for it or interest in it. Or time for it. "If there
were
some kind of council of cities, I wouldn't be flying up to Garrick now to demand Char's release. A council could force Garrick to follow the laws."

"My point exactly." Khai put his hand on hers. She pressed the back of her hand against his palm.

"Look." The instruments indicated they were ten minutes from Garrick. In the distance ahead, the sky was brown, and it grew filthier by the moment.

Within minutes they were above the city. A row of flashing lights guided Durga to a lighted circle on a tarmac where she put the runner down. Garrick was an ugly collection of old brown buildings, brown trees, black birds and brown clouds above. When it rained, it was probably brown rain.

"I think it smells worse than the first time I was here." She pulled Khai close and said, "I am so glad you're with me. Thank you for coming."

"If my life was my own, I would never leave you again." His lips found hers, and she melted into his arms. There was nothing chaste in his kiss. His entire body strained for her, she could feel it, and he moaned when she stroked his face.

"What if Asherah doesn't want me to have a lover?" The question was as much for herself as for Khai. "I'm afraid of what she might do to you."

"I am no fool, my lady. I fear the goddess. But my love is stronger than my fear."

"Touching." Prince Garrick appeared beside them, coming up out of a hole in the ground. "Truly." His gaze traveled over Durga, taking in the great deal of skin her dress didn't cover.

"I often think of Garrick as hell on earth," she said. "And then you appear as if from earth's bowels to confirm the theory."

"Clever girl." The prince gave Durga a saccharine smile and acknowledged Khai with a nod. "Luxor."

"Garrick." Durga felt the controlled malice in Khai's voice over her shoulder. There was no doubt he'd like to kill Prince Garrick right there -- for insulting her if for nothing else.

Prince Garrick gestured to the moving stairs behind him. "Shall we get in out of the air?"

She and Khai followed Prince Garrick down below the city surface. In the corridors they passed several priests dressed in the brown robes of the Samaelii. Not one female. They came to a reception hall that gave her the impression of a throne room. Portraits of former Garrick CEOs lined one wall.

"Durga?"

Char was seated like Persephone visiting Hades, on a couch next to a raised throne-like chair. As Char stood up, Prince Garrick sat down in the throne chair. His self-importance would be funny
if it weren't so … not funny
.

"Are you all right?" Durga said.

"Yes, but why are you here?" Char spotted Khai and looked back to Durga. Understanding spread over her face. "Why didn't Jake come?"

"He went to the ashram, Char. He ran the liminal gauntlet."

"No. No, he wouldn't do that. Not without me."

Durga took hold of Char's hands. "He didn't want you to suffer if something went wrong."

"That's crazy!" Char scoffed. Then her eyes grew large. "Something did go wrong." She paled and sank down on the sofa.

Durga sat down with her. "I'm not so sure about that, Char. I was there. I was part of the circle that created the gauntlet. When I left him, he was in a liminal state. But I really think it worked. He'll come out of it."

"Why did you leave him?" Char asked,
then
slowly shook her head. "Of course. Because of me."

"Lady Charybdis," Khai said. "Forgive my bluntness, but why did
you
leave Lord Ardri to go with Prince Garrick?"

"I left against my will, I assure you." Tears welled up in Char's eyes. Not tears of sorrow but of rage, accusation in her every word. "I would never come to this hellhole voluntarily. Everything dies in Garrick."

"So dramatic." Prince Garrick sighed and spread his arms in an appeal to Durga. "What you don't know is Ardri and his
ghost have
been secretly harboring a necessary world resource, hoarding it from the common good."

"The bees. You think I don't know about the hives?" Let him think Sanguibahd knew everything about everything. "Allel will receive the beekeeping charter. I doubt the bees would survive in this place anyway."

"They didn't," Char said.

Durga's heart jumped into her throat. "What do you mean?" In her link with Jake's consciousness, there had been nothing about Garrick taking the bees.

"Garrick stole over a hundred hives when he kidnapped me," Char said.

"Stole. Kidnapped." Prince Garrick waved his hand. "Insulting. Inaccurate."

"Every bee in every hive was dead within an hour of landing here," Char said.

Great Asherah, tell me he didn't take all of them!

"We only meant to put them in safekeeping," Prince Garrick said. "Who could believe a settlement could protect something so precious?"

"If the goddess put bees in Allel, what right do you have to interfere?" She'd have his head for this. If they were at the top of the world right now, she'd push him off. "Have you any idea what you've done?"

"He didn't get them all," Char said. "The rest of the hives
are
in safekeeping. In Allel. Let's get out of here."

"Now see, that's where we have a problem." Prince Garrick tapped his finger against his lips. "I can't let the orbital runner leave Garrick."

"What are you talking about, let?" Durga got to her feet. Prince Garrick
eyeballed
her dress again. Her plan had backfired. Prince Garrick's leering was making her feel
exgusted
,
as Maribel used to say.