"Satan's whore," he spat back, and knocked her on the side of the head with his fi st. She felt to the ground stunned and moaning.

The other woman clutched her black robe around herself and backed away.

Savoring the game, he cornered her between the branches of a tree, and their two bodies touched. Her eyes were wide with fear , but she did not struggle as he encircled her throat with his hand. He might have heard the faint sounds of movement behind him, of something being pried from the ground, but he did not care.

His pulse racing, his manhood hard against the Saracen witch, he croaked, "A pity you are not a Christian. I would fi ll you full of children and you would serve me while you bore them, one by one."

Oh, he could smell the spices in her hair. He thrust against her, his head swimming with lust. He could hear his own breath and hers, and closed his eyes for one delicious moment.

White-hot pain exploded in his head as the rock crashed against him from behind and knocked him sideways. The woman slid away from him and he collapsed against the tree. It took several moments for him to regain his senses, to realize his khuffi a had slid off his head and his hair had sprung out. When he could stand up again, the two witches had vanished.

He would have chased them down and killed them, but the sound of shepherds returning with their fl ock prevented pursuit. He knelt quickly at the pool' s edge, splashed water on the cut behind his ear , then set the khuffi a back in place.

He tightened his saddle and rode off, back to the Flemish bivouac at Asur. Seething, he recalled the pair of witches that had been found in his own woods. Wild women, unbaptized, who lived in squalor with their animals-a pack of foxes and rabbits and cats, and even a crow that did their bidding. They confessed under torture to fornication with the devil and were given to the fi re, but the event had unnerved him. He had their house burned, along with such of their cats and rabbits as could * 133 *

be caught. It was shortly afterward that his wife had died in childbirth, and he was certain something of the witches' spell had lingered.

Evil was persistent. The Christian lands themselves were ever threatened by it. All around them savages and infi dels pressed in, and the evil seeped ever through the cracks. One had to be on guard against it always-and when possible to strike before it manifested.

The pope had called them to defend the Byzantines, but for Ludolf this crusade was a private thing. He drew a connection between the witches' spell that killed his wife and the evil that they marched against in the Holy Land. And he could not abide to see a cat.

* 134 *

Vulture's Kiss

34.

Flight At the entrance of the museum, Valerie peered down the length of the street looking for a taxi. Then she saw Auset's parents, at the foot of the stone steps. They saw her too at the same moment and climbed toward her, obviously upset.

Her heart sank. Was there some new disaster?

Mahmoud al Fakhir stood in front of her, panting from the sudden climb. Hannah came up behind him more slowly , looking no less anxious.

"Is everything all-?"

"Doctor Foret. Do you know where my daughter is?" He showed no emotion, but his hand trembled until he gripped the metal banister.

"No, I don' t." Her excitement and confusion about the museum revelations gave way to alarm. "I left her at home. Didn' t she leave a note or anything? How did you know where I was?"

Al Fakhir scowled, clearly in no mood to be questioned in return.

"We went to your hotel fi rst," Hannah volunteered. "They said you might be here working. We thought she might have decided to join you for a while, for a trip perhaps."

"A trip?" Valerie was speechless. "What kind of trip?"

"I don' t know, but our granddaughter is missing too." Hannah clasped her hands together like a school teacher, but the anxiety on her face was anything but prim. "Are you sure you don't know-?"

"You were with her yesterday ," al Fakhir persisted. "Did she tell you of any plans?"

"You mean with respect to Reverend Carter? I gave her the name of a lawyer to contact and told her that her legal position was strong.

She was angry when I left, but that's all."

"Angry? Why?"

"Sayyid al Fakhir. It's not my place to discuss your relationship with your daughter . But surely you were aware that she was furious about being pressured to marry someone from your mosque."

* 135 *

Al Fakhir's anxious face became stone. "Y ou are quite right, Dr .

Foret. It is not your place." He turned around abruptly and descended the stairs again. At the bottom, he glanced up and waited for his wife to follow.

Hannah laid a hand on Valerie's forearm. "You do not understand our family. If my husband could not force Auset to marry when she carried her child, he cannot force her to marry when she is a widow. He knows this, and it is diffi cult for him. He must balance his faith on one side and his family on the other."

"I'm sorry. Auset may have overreacted, but she didn' t tell me anything. I really don't know where she is."

"We found this." Hannah held out something toward her , something wrapped in linen and tied with a cord.

Valerie held it for a moment before she realized that it was Rekemheb's statue.

"What is it?" Hannah asked. "Why would she leave this note on top of it?" She held out a postcard with a picture of the pyramids on the front, and on the back, in hurriedly scribbled Arabic, "Don't worry about me. I'm fi ne. Please give this to Valerie."

"A doll with the face of Derek, dressed as an Egyptian priest?

What does it mean?" Hannah unclasped her hands, imploring. "Please, we are very worried. So many terrible things have happened."

"It's just...a souvenir," Valerie lied. "It has no special meaning."

She unwrapped it and felt, to her surprise, that it was warm. From Hannah's hand or pocket? It seemed too warm for that. Then she saw the tiny piece of paper tucked under the wooden arm and withdrew it.

She frowned. "It says, 'I'll call Derek,'" Valerie read out loud.

Hannah's face registered relief, then confusion. "Derek? How can she call a dead man?"

Valerie rubbed the side of her face for a moment. It made no sense to her either. Then she slapped her hand to her belt. "Of course! His phone. I keep forgetting to turn it on." She opened it and waited. After a moment the phone light shone, and a few seconds later , the message signal sounded. She held it to her ear.

Her chest tightened as she heard her own desperate messages to him, messages that he had never erased and probably never even heard.

Then, at the last message, she sagged with relief.

* 136 *

Vulture's Kiss "Auset's all right. She' s gone to the one place she knows she'll be taken care of, even without money-and where Reverend Carter can't lay hands on her ." Or anybody else , she thought to herself, but didn't say out loud. Valerie clapped the phone shut. "She's on her way to Jerusalem."

* 137 *

35.

Proof of Faith What have you done? What have you done!"

Valerie felt rough hands shake her shoulders and yank her out of deep sleep. Struggling fi rst with dream panic, she fi nally reached consciousness.

"Nekhbet!" She shrugged off the hands and sat up. "What are you talking about?" She went on the of fensive. "What do you mean, what have I done! What have you been doing? Rekemheb is lost, Yussif and Derek are dead. Auset has fl ed to Jerusalem. And what have we heard from the gods? Nothing!"

Nekhbet would not be interrogated. "Al Quds. Jerusalem!" She spat the words. Whatever the name, it is the worst possible place. A malevolence follows her. You must fetch her back immediately."

"Of course there's a malevolence. Even I fi gured that out. So tell me who or what it is? You're a goddess, you must know!" She almost said "for God's sake," then realized the absurdity.

"I know only the past, which accumulates in endless memory. But in your world and time, I see only what I set eyes on. Surely this thing is inspired by the Aton and will have even greater power in Jerusalem."

"Well, this 'malevolence' doesn't need any more power than it' s got. It's already succeeded in killing two of us," Valerie retorted. "So, what really happened to Derek and Yussif? They died for the gods, didn't they? Because the chronicle is fi nished?" She realized that all her questions already held the answers.

Nekhbet nodded. "In part. The Aton struck fi rst at the ones who were not protected."

"Not protected? What the hell does that mean? Who did you protect, then? I must be one of the lucky ones. Or am I the next one out? What about Auset? Are you planning to raise the baby by your godly selves once they get her?"

"Be silent. These are childish words. Did you think it would be easy to defy the Aton, who dominates half the world? Did you think He would stand by while you plant the seeds of the old religion? The Child * 138 *

Vulture's Kiss is under my wing, but we did not anticipate harm to the rest of you. We were mistaken."

"Mistaken." Valerie said the word with contempt. "Y es, so it would seem. Well, now that Yussif and Derek are taken, will they live as kas? It's the least you can do."

"Sarcasm does not become you.

And neither do your idle fl irtations."

"Flirtations?" Valerie scowled at the non sequitur . "You mean Najya Khoury? What's she got to do with anything?"

Nekhbet looked at her darkly, and Valerie remembered her kisses that she had misread as desire. But they had had nothing to do with passion and had merely torn her apart and scattered her all over Egypt.

She felt both cheated of what she longed for and like a fool for longing for it in the fi rst place.

"Najya is none of your business. Besides, you're changing the subject. I asked you about Yussif and Derek."

"The subject is Jerusalem. The Aton is strong there. Though he is divided against himself, every brick and stone contains him, and we are powerless. You must bring her back."

"The Aton is strong everywhere, and there are more immediate threats here. Surely you are aware that Derek'

s father is claiming custody of Nefi ."

"He is harmless. Bring her back." Eons looked out through her eyes. Valerie wavered. The very presence of the goddess took hold of her and excited her , vastly more than any woman had. But what in mortal women was inebriating, was in Nekhbet a toxic dose. She stood her ground. "You'll have to tell me why."

Nekhbet exhaled exasperation and pressed her exquisitely curved lips together. "Because the kas of Yussif and Derek depend on it. They stand before the judges even now , but cannot pass into the underworld."

"You mean because they don' t know the incantations? But no one's going to know them. They're antiquated, meaningless spells."

"It is not the incantations. That is the least of it. The scales have weighed their heavy hearts, and the judges know that Auset has gone to the city of the One God."

"You're saying that if I bring Auset back to the fold, the judges * 139 *

will let them pass? Is that the deal being offered?"

Nekhbet moved, lithely , in an arc around her , feet not actually touching the fl oor. "Nothing is being of fered. It is not a transaction."

She opened her hands. The gesture reminded Valerie of paintings she'd seen of female saints.

"See it from our eyes. Our two living believers are full of doubt, and the mother of the Child has thrown of f our protection and fl ed to the city of the Aton. You are the last one, and you quarrel with me. If you are so embittered that you cannot win over a single new believer , we have nothing to hope for."

"I wrote your chronicle. Isn' t that enough? You also want me to proselytize?" Valerie thought of Jehovah' s Witnesses, knocking on front doors and handing out pamphlets on the street.

"This one thing would show the judges that the words of Jehuti live." Nekhbet fell silent for a moment, then took another tack. "Perhaps you will better understand if you see for yourself where they are now."

She held out a dark, white-nailed hand as if inviting her to dance.

Valerie remembered the hand and its pale fi ngernails, and she understood the invitation. Nekhbet was of fering the god-kiss, the embrace that had opened her soul and given her the vision of all Egypt.

Foolish mortal that she was, she had learned too late that the kiss, for all its stunning effect, was emotionless. Nekhbet did not love her-did not love anyone.

"No," she said softly. "I don't need to see them. Derek saved me from death once. If you tell me this is the condition of their rescue, that I must bring a new believer, I'll try. I owe him this."

"All right, then." Nekhbet seemed unprepared for the refusal of the kiss. "I'll leave you to it."

"All right," Valerie repeated and waited for the goddess to disappear, as usual, after making her point.

Instead, Nekhbet leaned forward and lightly pressed her lips on Valerie's mouth, for a second only , not enough to spark the vision or stir desire. A brief, bewildering kiss, like some awkward, inexperienced girl. Then she did disappear, leaving in the empty place where she had been, the sound of her command.

"Go to Jerusalem."

* 140 *

Vulture's Kiss