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The last funeral Char had attended was for Brandon who'd been killed by one of the DOGs' bombs. There had been no priest then, just as there was none for Rani today. Was that a mistake? Knowing there were gods didn't answer anything. Was there a heaven? Hell?

"Don't you always say this is hell?"

Asherah appeared beside Durga. Her curly blood-red hair was piled on top of her head, and two tiny foo dogs sat on her shoulders holding two pieces of gauzy cloth over her body. Char felt sick to her stomach. Everything went black.

"There is a Great Chain of Being." Durga's voice spoke through Char's mouth.

"All things are linked through the chain in the order of distance from the All, the Ultimate Reality."

Durga's voice mixed with Char's voice, still coming out of Char's mouth, the words flowing independent of Char's will.

"The All experiences the material plane through the human soul. If the soul disappears, everything disappears."

Asherah's voice entered the blend with the two human voices. Char's body shook with so much violence she thought her neck would snap.

"I am the god Asherah. I am that I am. I am eternal. The human race will not end. Samael made you, but I will save you."
   

"Char." The wet grass felt cool and welcome against Char's face. She didn't want to move. "Char!" Jake lifted her up off the ground. It took a moment to focus, to really see him.

She could still feel Asherah's will permeating her every cell. The goddess wanted to save the human race. Not because she liked humans, but to ensure her own continued existence. Too many souls had already been wiped out by the DOGs.

"Did you see?" she asked Jake. "Did you see her?"

"You and Durga went into a trance. You were staring like zombies while Asherah's words came out of your mouths at the same time."

"I don't remember all of it. What does she want?"

"She wants us to light candles," Jake said. "Beeswax."

"Now see, that's where we'll need a miracle." Char's field was hydroponics. Bees had gone extinct fifty years ago.

"And no prayers. She said to give our prayers to Samael."

"I think she has a love/hate relationship with Samael."

"That can't be good," Jake said, "when the gods don't get along."

The matriarch was on the ground with Durga's head in her lap. The little tyrant was comatose.

The end didn't come. They weren't all going to die. The gods were truly back, and at least one of them wasn't going to let the human race go. After three days, Durga came out of her coma, weak but otherwise fine.

Jake, on the other hand, was not fine. He withdrew into a kind of cocoon, mourning Rani. Char couldn't convince him he wasn't responsible. A month later, he was still going over the events surrounding her death.

"If only I'd put the antibiotics in the infirmary instead of the storage hold." They were having lunch in the courtyard outside the admin building.

"Antibiotics can't cure the effects of a disruptor blast. You didn't kill Rani. The DOG who shot her did."

Char bit into a huge red strawberry. She had to give Geraldo his due. The shibdab weasel ran Corcovado like clockwork, even down to providing fresh fruits and vegetables daily for everyone in the compound. "Speak of the weasel," she said under her breath. At that very moment, Geraldo was coming toward them across the courtyard.

He joined them without asking, looking typically pleased with
himself
. "Jake, I just spoke with your mother."

"How?" Char said. Magda had been the Emperor's favorite concubine. The
Space Junque
had belonged to her, a gift from her lover. Char knew Magda and Geraldo had some kind of connection because Rani had stayed in Corcovado for some time when she was young. She had hated it here.

"Her fallout shelter has communications. There must be a satellite at least partially operating in orbit. She made contact with us minutes ago."

"Let's go." Jake was already on his feet. The light had returned to his eyes. "And then we'll go to the Pacific Zone."

The
Space Junque
was gone but they still had the orbit runner, which flew nearly as fast in the atmosphere as it had in orbit. Over the Atlantic, the air seemed relatively clean. The runner's instruments detected surprisingly low levels of radiation.

"What?" Jake said when Char chuckled to herself.

"I just prayed to Asherah that the air would be as clean over the Pacific Zone, and then I remembered what she said about prayers. I hope she doesn't smite me."

"If you had some beeswax, you could light a candle."

It felt so good to laugh.

Magda's estate was in New Melbourne, a remote and beautiful island out of the path of war. "She's on the roof." Using telescoping sunglasses, Char spotted Magda from a mile out. She was waving a red and yellow silk scarf.

"Is anyone with her? Can you see?"

"Two women -- and a small child."

"Jordana survived," Jake whispered. A tear slid down his cheek. "Rani's daughter."

He landed the runner and scooped the child up into his arms. Her eyes flashed a blue light, and she squealed with happiness.

"Let's get out of here," Magda said. "Too many ghosts."

"Ghosts?" It was hard to believe Magda was intolerant of ghosts when she obviously cared for Rani's daughter, a mutant.

"Not living ghosts," Magda said. "Memories. Shades of the dead. Everyone on the island seems to have caught apocalyptic hysteria and either killed each other or themselves. Except those two. I have no idea who they are."

The two unknown women took the passenger seats in the back of the runner. They were alive but in shock. Not ghosting, but not interested in talking either. Char sat with Magda and Jordana. The toddler was fascinated with Char's unnatural red hair and kept trying to grab it.

As Char had expected, Jake's mother was magnificent. She was in her early fifties and as beautiful as an older woman with adequate resources could be. More beautiful. Char had heard of mitochondrial repair, but until now she'd never believed the therapy was perfected. The rich and connected always get the good stuff first.

Magda's dark hair could be from coloring. It was her peaches and cream skin that gave her away. The wrinkles around her eyes were barely noticeable, her lips full and unlined.

To her surprise, Char wasn't intimidated. Magda reminded her of her own mother, a cold woman who never wanted children but had enjoyed them after they'd grown up.

"What is your name short for, my dear? You couldn't possibly have been named Char on purpose."

"Charybdis," Char answered. "And my twin sister's name is Scylla. We call her Sky."

Magda burst out laughing. Char felt completely comfortable with her.

Magda told Char about Jordana, a second-generation exotic. Unlike first-generation mutants whose hair fell out at puberty, Jordana had never had any body hair. No eyelashes or eyebrows. She was natural born, which made sense. As a mutant, even an exotic, Rani would never have been given a license for children.

A license. Who would issue licenses or enforce birthing laws now? Char looked out the window at the Pacific Ocean. "What's that?"

A fire like none she'd ever seen burned on the dead water below, an unnatural white-gold flame that consumed the agglomeration of plastic and oil and sludge. It covered the entire ocean with the exception of an occasional patch of sea.

When they reached land, the Pacific Zone was engulfed in the same fire. It gave off no smoke or heat but consumed everything it touched. Sky was down there somewhere, sealed in an underground vault designed to protect the
Tesla
project from nuclear war. There was nothing left to mark its location.

Char just hoped the vault would protect Sky from the gods' scourging blaze. For what else could fire like that be?

"We'll come back and find her, Char. I promise." Jake turned south. Ironic. The runner was made with
Tesla
technology.

This thing will go until it falls apart.

Well, it would go as long as solar wind existed. Considering all the recent violations of natural law, it wasn't a sure thing. Char took over the controls for the flight back so Jake could have a break and visit with his mother.

The fire burned until they were about twenty miles away from Corcovado. Char inhaled deeply and blew the breath out, trying to settle her stomach. She had been nauseous for the last hour. A sip from her bottle didn't help, even though it contained pure artesian water from the wells of Corcovado.

Mount Corcovado came into her shades' range. She used the slider to zoom in on the statue and get her bearings. Three white herons were perched on the statue's outstretched arms. They turned in one synchronized movement, as if they expected the runner. As if they could see this far out.

Those herons were always creepy.

On the south beach, divers were bringing up salvage from the bay where the
Space Junque
had crashed. The recovery of its supplies and hydroponics equipment had finally begun.

Char focused on one of the storage bins. Good. Then another. Good. Another. A huge relief -- the bins were intact. From what she'd seen on this trip, saving the seed in those bins was a godsend.

Godsend.
Cripes, Jake had joked that the word could be used literally now. He was right.

What did it matter, saving seed for crops, if all the human seed was destroyed in that bizarre fire? There might not even be any hospitals left, and if that fire burned the world over and destroyed all eggs on deposit, there weren't going to be any more children anyway.

Asherah had said she would save the human race. She'd better not be counting on nine little girls who still had to grow up.

Using the slider made Char's nausea worse. As soon as they were close enough for bare eyes, she took the shades off. A little better. She would still need Jake to take over for landing. It was quiet back there. Jake was staring out his window, a tired smile on his face. Jordana had finally fallen asleep in his arms. Magda had been asleep for hours.

"Cripes!" Char jerked the runner in an evasive maneuver. She'd almost hit something, a heron or seagull. Another wave of nausea rolled over her.

"Hey, Meadowlark, do you need a real pilot up there?" Jake actually laughed. Her hero to the rescue. He took Char's seat and guided the runner past Corcovado's sheer drop-off and to the tarmac behind the admin building.

Geraldo was waiting for them in the courtyard, his secretary and other hangers-on at hand. Durga was there, standing apart from Geraldo. The little warrior looked ready to start issuing orders, but when she saw Jordana her eyes lit up. The two-year-old toddled over, her eyes on Durga's hair.

Char stumbled over a loose tile. Geraldo steadied her, and she grimaced. Asherah had never appeared to him, but he was as much her tool as Char or Durga. He'd schemed for years to build a clean, pollution-free environment at Corcovado where fertile females could live. Sanguibahd, he called it.
Blood city
.

It wasn't that he had any respect or reverence for fertility. One time he had practically molested a cocktail server in front of Char. Rani had threatened to squish him like a fly. It was a mystery why Asherah would use such a shibdab.

Char really did feel awful. Her hands trembled and her jaw clattered.
Oh, cripes. No, no, no.
She knew this feeling. She crossed her arms in a self-hug, a shield in front of her chest.

Against her will her arms flung wide like The Redeemer, and her head bent forward. Her breathing accelerated into short rapid pants. She tried to slow it down, but it was like fighting against all the air in the world.

She rose off the ground. Not floating. Some force had lifted her. Was she leaving her body? Jake called to her, but he was so far away.

She hung suspended in the air, and a crowd poured into the courtyard. Her head jerked up. A voice not her own began to speak in her mouth. It was happening again. She could see the people below her, but she felt detached from time and space. Like watching a holofilm.

"My chalices are sacred; violate a chalice on pain of death…."