Spiderwork (8 page)

What would the desire be like on that singer's face when he saw her in this! She picked up Char's telescoping shades and looked for the Versailles airship. Too late; it was out of range.

But wait. She had only assumed that the musician would be at the coronation. She didn't know for sure. This was terrible.

No. It was good. She should hope that he
wouldn't
be there. Asherah wouldn't send a musician from another city for her to play with. He had been rude and presumptuous, and he was beneath her notice, and she should put him out of her mind.

She wondered what his name was.

She focused the shades on Corcovado. No herons today. The birds usually congregated on the statue's outstretched arms, looking down on the world with their stern expressions. The idea of judgmental birds made her laugh.

She needed to laugh. Things weren't going well. Chita was surely ill, and Faina was out of control, and traveling in the Monster made Durga airsick. The dress was the only thing she looked forward to about this coronation.

"It's so good to see you again." The singer's voice.

She dropped the shades and whirled around. He was standing by the bed, smiling, his muscled arms crossed over his broad chest. He had that amused grin on his face. He raised an eyebrow and gave her, and the dress, an appreciative examination.

"Very funny," Durga said. "What is your name?"

The singer immediately shifted shape to that of Rani. It was her Empani.

Durga thought of this shapeshifter as her Empani. She was pretty sure it was always the same one. It had taken several shapes over the years. The old matriarch. Jake. When it realized that with Durga it could choose one of the forms in Durga's mind, it had settled on Rani.

Rani had been an exotic, like her daughter Jordana.
Like ghosts, exotics lost their body hair, but they had marvelous muscle tone and averaged seven feet tall. Their irises acquired a metallic sheen and flashed different colors depending on their emotions. And
shib
, did they ever have emotions.

Rani had had light brown skin and a flattish downturned nose. She had tattooed eyebrows, two arched rows of short vertical lines. The Empani could reproduce the metallic red-brown irises, but Durga had never seen them flash.

And there was a tattoo on the left cheek: SJ.

Empanii got into people's minds and took shapes from their longings and desires. The Empani usually had no control over which shape they shifted to, and the human never realized they were interacting with an Empani.

Durga always knew, though. She could talk to an Empani and know it was an Empani, no matter what shape it took. She still didn't know much about them, but she knew they hated human beings. She would never follow one over a cliff.

"No, you would not, little warrior." Empani Rani smiled.

As far as Durga knew, she was the only human who could speak to the underlying Empani. Another feature of being touched by Asherah. What
joy.
Regular people were enthralled by their Empanii, delighted by the encounter. Most Empani didn't take humans over cliffs.

But Durga didn't get fantasy. She got reality. And lectures. Durga's Empani was a master of constructive criticism.

"Why are you here? What am I doing wrong now?" She actually wouldn't mind some input today. If Asherah had abandoned her, then Durga would get advice where she could.

The Empani smirked. "Asherah is perfect, of course, but the space-time continuum confuses her. She forgets to take it into account in her schemes."

It was always disconcerting to Durga that the Empani could read her mind. "Are you a god?" She didn't think it was. She had never been awestruck in its presence.

"I serve Samael." Empani Rani frowned. What, it didn't appreciate her lack of awe?

"And Asherah?"

For a moment Durga thought she saw another shape, something taller. But no, it was Rani and -- oh! A chasm cracked opened in her heart, and sorrow rushed in to fill it. Searing, unending despair filled the chasm and gripped her senses. Sadness, sadness. "Stop!" She couldn't breathe. "Stop it!"

She lost the image. There was only Rani. The longing faded.

Empani Rani's eyes widened, but they didn't flash. "Asherah is Samael's consort. In his absence, she can sometimes force her will on us." Rage emanated from the Empani, as furious as the sorrow had been deep. Durga had to change that subject fast.

"Why are you here?"

"I bring a message from Asherah. Lord Ardri's coronation will be challenged."

"First of all, she wasn't around for me to consult on the choice of king. Second of all, wait a minute. She can't possibly object to Jake. She told me directly that she wanted him for lord sheriff of the Pacific Zone settlement."

"Garrick will object to Lord Ardri. Garrick wants the kingship. Their prince plans to protest formally during the coronation itself."

"On what grounds? Jake will be the best king in all the city-states. He built his settlement from nothing. His people adore him."

"But the Great Chain, you know."

"He's a lord! His father was the Emperor. He's natural born. His mother is the Matriarch, shib's sake."

"You have felt in deep meditation the weakening of the membrane that separates each human being from another."

Today, in fact, during the orientation class.

"You always draw back. Rightly so! To cross the veil to another soul is a risk. You might merge and lose your separate self in ecstatic bliss."

"We can't have that." It sounded wonderful, actually.

"There is a worse danger than to encounter another soul. That is to encounter no soul."

"I don't understand. How could that even be possible?"

"Every human has a body and a spirit which animates that body. Samael gave these constituents to humans at the mournful hour of their creation."

Mournful hour.
Nice.

"There is a third constituent. The soul. A shard of the
All
itself, a pure particle of the Fullness. Not
a god.
It
is God
. In the time of universal fertility, nearly every human being received a soul. As technological reproduction increased, the number of souls diminished."

"And without a greater number of souls, the material world itself will cease to exist."

"As Asherah has revealed to you. On the Great Chain of Being, a soulless human is the lowest of the low."

Chita. It had been horrid sitting beside Chita during the meditation. Did she have no soul? Then why would Asherah make her a chalice?

"You have seen Chita's totem." As if that explained it.

"But what does this have to do with Jake becoming king? He's natural born."

"The soul finds its berth in a human form by slipping through a momentary rift between the sacred and profane worlds. Even in natural born humans, the rift does not always occur. As with Lord Ardri. He cannot be king. He has no soul."

"Does it have to be during gestation? How can we create a rift?"

"The rift is created by the
hieros gamos
, the sacred coupling that brings on the heights of ecstasy."

"Sexual orgasm."

"Not the pathetic release we have found humans so consumed with. Your species' obsession with profane coupling leaves us dumbfounded. The ways of Samael are truly mysterious."

The horrible longing sensation began to creep over Durga again. "So what then, a super orgasm? Orgasm of orgasms?" There. That put the Empani back on track.

"The
hieros gamos
is the sacred coupling that brings on the highest heights of ecstasy."

"You said that."

It can happen at any time during gestation, but the optimal time is in the sixth month when the body is well formed and the time of confinement is limited."

"What about Jake? How can he obtain a soul?"

"There is a way, but it is more likely to destroy his spirit than to ensoul him."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"A settlement priest of Asherah knows the way." The Empani's energy was fading. It was coming to the end of its message, but Durga didn't understand.

"What priest? Where do I find her?" The Empani's skin looked tired. Durga had never seen it sweat before. But it had never brought a message from Asherah before.

"Lord Ardri must run the liminal gauntlet."

"What the shib is the liminal gauntlet? Where is the priest?"

The Empani shifted back to the shape of the musician and smiled. Then it disappeared.

The first reaction to Durga's dress was decidedly negative. Her security detail was unhappy with the amount of space it took up. The two men were under Jake's orders to protect her, and the long trailing skirt made them have to stand too far away. She hadn't designed her dress with accessory guards in mind.

Getting into the lift, she and the guards had to gather the skirt in their arms so they could all fit. The poor men were red-faced with embarrassment. The unsophisticated settlement dwellers would probably rather battle raptors than carry silk taffeta for the Emissary of Sanguibahd.

She couldn't worry about their discomfort. "Captain Gordon, you will keep a distance when we're inside the hall."

The guard's frown deepened. "Lord Ardri has ordered me to protect you from those who would bother you in any way."

She softened her tone and touched his forearm. "You would intimidate the ambassadors and princes I must speak with. They will see you as Lord Ardri's agent, listening to words meant only for the Emissary."

At her touch, his red face turned purple. He seemed to struggle between his duty to protect her and his wish to ensure her comfort.

"No one can save me from bother, Captain Gordon, but if harm threatens I will be glad if you intervene." If the settlement priest were here tonight, Durga certainly didn't want Jake's guards listening to that conversation.

In the corridor Captain Gordon and his partner fell in behind her skirt's long train. She squared her shoulders to prepare for her entrance.

She had been so naïve. Showing the world she was no longer a child was the furthest thing from her mind. Her challenge now was to find a priest of Asherah who knew about the liminal gauntlet and to come up with a way to forestall Garrick's protest.

Also, how do you tell someone they have no soul?
 

Garrick didn't care about Jake's soul, but Durga did. The Empani had been right. On the Great Chain of Being, a soulless human would be the lowest of the low. Useless in the sacred effort to replenish the earth with—
souls!
Jake had to acquire a soul or he would lose everything he'd worked for.

"Durga, Emissary of Sanguibahd!"

She swept into the room in her most imperious manner. This was what people craved. Pomp. Ceremony. A fixed Great Chain of Being where everyone knew their place. Her place was at the top. She was the bridge to the goddess. Durga knew all about the glory. Now it was time to claim the power.

The guests gathered in the antechamber outside the dining hall went stone silent. Two delegates began to come forward eagerly, but Captain Gordon stopped them with a look.

Durga suppressed a smile. The guards had been a good idea after all. She recognized the delegates by their city symbols, a harp for Hibernia and a Tsuga cone for Ithaca. She would let them thank her for their charters later.

As she crossed the room to Char and Jake, she scanned for the green robes of a priest of Asherah. There was no one like that in the awestruck crowd. It wasn't her gown that mesmerized them. People tried not to stare at her hair and tattoo much more than they tried not to stare at her dress.

Jake and Char were much too happy. It was a bit off-putting. Durga accepted Char's outstretched hands and kissed her on both cheeks. "It's so good to see you again."

Char's eyes practically popped out of her head at the Empani greeting.

"No, no!" Durga said. "Sorry. I'm the real Durga. Believe me."