The embrace of nature held no comfort for the Christian knight. In his eyes it was not epiphany but nightmare, and when he dropped to his knees, fl ailing, his soul was not enlightened, but appalled.

Before him, rising up from a shore, the landscape seethed. Every soulless creature of the fallen world-horned beasts, great spotted cats, and countless wild things-crept toward him. Snakes, lizards, toads slithered among them, while overhead crows and predatory birds circled and shrieked. Even the trees hissed threats, while the wind and the water over which he fl oated were full of menace.

At the forefront stood a dark-skinned man, nude but for a white kilt and shorn but for a single braid on the left side of his head. The devil surely, and the creature that sprang from his arms and grew to womanhood before his eyes could only be his spawn.

Then revelation came. Yes, it was the devil' s portal; there was the proof. On his left side stood the forbidden tree, the woman-headed serpent twisted in its boughs, and on his right, the black-winged Angel of Death.

It was the garden of temptation, and the creatures calling to him were the enemies of God. Yet they were beasts, and God had given him dominion over them. As if in confi rmation, the sphere of light * 192 *

Vulture's Kiss behind him gave forth the one command: "Silence them that rise up against me."

Then Nekhbet/Valerie felt the iron bolt shoot through her, and she was torn loose from the howling knight.

She fl uttered upward away from the other arrows and, aghast, saw the knight lurch to his feet and snatch up the Child. He held her for a heartbeat out over the wall. Then, while the mother shrieked he let the infant drop onto the stone pavement to be crushed under the horses'

hooves.

Convulsed with horror , she ascended again above the Citadel and fl ew over the city in the spasms of death. She hovered over the Frankish knights as they slaughtered every creature in their path: Saracen, Jew, and Byzantine, everything that was not like them. Small groups huddled in the doorways or fl ed into the houses, mosques, and temples, but always they were found and hacked to death. In the narrow passageways where the blood could not escape, it gathered into pools from the dismembered bodies and stained the horses' hocks and the stirrups of the knights.

Then fi nally it was dusk and the Frankish men could no longer see friend from infi del. They sheathed their swords and set to looting what had not already been claimed.

The vulture looked again to the Citadel and watched, choking with sorrow. On the ground where the Child had been trampled, jackals had gathered. They did not eat, but took the broken infant body in their jaws and trotted off. Then, by evening light, the victor and the last defenders crossed the same stone courtyard.

They passed before her in a brief cavalcade, black forms against the blood red sky. The Frankish general led them, his protective banner over all the others. Behind him, the emir led the refugees: eight weaponless guards and the two women, who rode together on one horse. The one in front rode silently; the other sobbed, collapsed against her back. Last of all, in angular silhouette, a man perched high on a camel, its white coat, even in the darkness, outlining the bulky camel bags that hung on its side.

* 193 *

45.

Allies Defeat, expulsion, night. She thrashed, wracked by silent sobbing and by the iron bolt that pierced her chest.

The innocent Child, their hope for all the world, was crushed in an instant because of her . She had misjudged the immutability of his rage and had provoked him to infanticide. Her heart broke at the realization.

The vulture's kiss had killed the Child.

"Valerie. Wake up. What is it?" A familiar voice penetrated the pain. Hands caressed her face and she opened her eyes.

Najya reached across her and switched on the table lamp by the bed. "You were crying in your sleep, habibti. What's wrong?"

Valerie sat up, shaken, and ran a hand through her hair that was clammy with sweat. "I saw it," she said hoarsely. "It was awful."

"You had a nightmare, that's all."

"No. It wasn't just a dream." She rubbed her forehead and looked inwardly for a moment, then took a long breath. "She was right. If I had known, I wouldn't have had the stomach for it."

"She? Who? What are you talking about?" Najya was sitting up next to her now. With the sheet across her waist, she looked as she had in the hammam. How much had happened since then, ten terrible days ago. Valerie was still reeling.

"I'm so glad you're here." She leaned her head on Najya'

s shoulder.

Najya kissed her hair, then her eyes. "I'm glad I'm here too. I told you I'd follow you." She stroked damp hair out of Valerie's face. "Talk to me."

Valerie pressed the heels of her hands over her eyes, piecing together the images. "I saw..." She stopped, then started again.

"Jerusalem had fallen. The last Saracens were fi ghting from the tower * 194 *

Vulture's Kiss in the Citadel, and the crusaders convinced them to surrender. The emir of the city, his guard, and two women came out. Two men also, but the crusaders killed one of them. The baby too. Oh, Najya, they killed the baby."

Najya was silent for a moment. Then, she spoke quietly . "You can't have known that. History books only talk about ad Dawla and his guard. Nowhere do they mention the women or the baby . How could you have dreamed what only my family knows?"

Valerie drew her knees up and rested her forearms on them. "I keep trying to tell you. It wasn't a dream. It was from Nekhbet. She was here, while you slept. And if you accept a dream that's impossible, why can't you accept the possibility of Nekhbet? At least for the moment."

Najya leaned against her. "All right. For the moment. I'm sorry. I promised to suspend disbelief. Tell me more about the...scene. We'll fi gure this out."

Valerie stared blankly into space, letting the images emer ge from memory. "There were the crusaders: Godfrey of Bouillon, Raymond of Toulouse, I think. I remember their names from history books, though. And I read about the emir, though I don't think I ever knew his name. The ones who surrendered, does your family story tell who they were?"

"The emir was called Idris ad Dawla, and he is the ancestor I was telling you about. We don't know the name of the two women, but they were his wives, one of them presumably my maternal ancestor . The other two men were merchants, at least the one who was killed."

Valerie took her shirt from the end of the bed and pulled it on as she stood up. She pushed the hinged window out as far as it would go.

A slight evening breeze blew in, relieving the stuffi ness of the room.

"There was another scene, at dusk." Valerie stared at nothing and tried to recall the details. "All of them were leaving the city, all but the one who was killed. The emir, the women, and another man behind them riding a white camel and carrying...I don' t know. Something large and bulky in his camel bags."

"Yes, he appears in my family story too.

A merchant, or scholar, and what he carried out of the city-stolen or rescued, I don't know-were books, precious manuscripts. They made him rich when he returned to Egypt. If you dreamt all those details, it is beyond coincidence. What else was there?"

* 195 *

Valerie closed her eyes. "The slaughter." She shook her head to try to dispel the memory. "Jackals had gotten into the city somehow , and they were carrying away the baby's body. She brooded a moment. "Of course," she whispered, "that's what she meant."

"Darling, you've lost me again."

"The Child of the gods was killed here in Jerusalem, by fanaticism, and by...a misunderstanding. And nothing has changed today but the degree of bloodshed. We have to send Nefi back to Egypt immediately.

I'll go and get her tomorrow morning." Valerie took Najya' s closed hand and brought it to her lips. "Habibti, I swear to you...on what we shared last night, I'll be able to prove all of this to you eventually. But for now, you have to trust that what I tell you is real, however bizarre it sounds. Lives depend on it!"

Najya covered Valerie's hand with her own. "Because it' s you, and because of last night, I believe you."

They both startled at the sound of knocking at the door.

* 196 *

Vulture's Kiss

46.

Malleus malefi carum Itzak Ibrahim stood in the hotel corridor , eyes directed toward Valerie's feet in apparent embarrassment at standing before a strange woman's bedroom. One hand lay over his heart in a gesture of apology; the other held a rolled piece of paper.

"Forgive me, Dr . Foret, for disturbing you in the middle of the night, but my granddaughter is missing. I wanted to call the police, but I found this." He unrolled the paper with palsied hands and she took it from him.

Alarm struck her at the fi rst line. She struggled to keep her own hand from shaking as the various possibilities fl ew through her head.

One thing was certain though; it wasn't a police matter.

"No, it's not necessary to call the police. Everything' s fi ne," she lied. "I'm sorry that she's caused this unnecessary concern. It looks like a mutual friend of ours has had an emergency and she's gone to her. She probably didn't want to disturb you."

Itzak raised his eyes from the fl oor for a moment, registered shock at her scant covering, and dropped them again. "But why didn' t she leave a note in a language I know?"

"I...uh...I'm sure she didn't expect you to fi nd it until the morning.

She must have thought you'd simply telephone me and didn't imagine it would cause you so much worry . It was foolish of her , and I'll tell her so."

Appearing to be reassured, he made a slight bow and backed away ,.

his hand once again over his heart. "Then I'm sorry to have bothered you, and thank you for your help, Dr. Foret."

"That's quite all right, Mr. Ibrahim. Please don't worry. I'm sure everything's fi ne. Good night." She shut the door and listened until she heard no more sound of him outside. Then she spun around. "Najya, this is it. This is the test of how much you trust me. Gods, how I need you to trust me."

"Test? What's going on?" Najya stood by the bed, the sheet wrapped toga-like around her. "The note. What does the note say?"

* 197 *

"She wrote it in French or , more likely , someone forced her to write it. I don' t even think she speaks French." She unrolled it again under the table lamp.

"Ils seront sacrifi es-lorsque Aton sera dans les cieux. La ou le Messie un jour apparaitera. La meme, la decendance de Rekemheb s'eteindre a jamais."

"I'm sorry. My French isn' t that good." Najya leaned over her shoulder.

"They shall be sacrifi ced-when the Aton rises in the sky. There where the Messiah will one day appear . Thus is the line of Rekemheb extinguished forever." Valerie sat down on the bed and read the note again to herself. "It's an announcement of an execution, just what we were talking about a while ago."

"I don't understand."

"Auset and Nefi have been kidnapped. Whoever has them is going to kill them when the sun comes up. And they forced her to write this note specifi cally for me."

"How do you know it's not an ordinary psychopath?" Najya began to get dressed.

"He calls the sun the Aton, a term that hasn' t been used in three thousand years." She read the letter for the fourth time. "'There where the Messiah shall one day come in.'

What does that mean?" She clenched and unclenched her hand.

Najya stared out the window that overlooked the dark city . "This city has got messiahs and prophets everywhere," she muttered. "V ia Dolorosa, Church of the Sepulchre, Bethesda-"

"But wait." She turned around. "The Messiah is supposed to enter the city one day through a double archway called the Golden Gate. All three religions see it as the place of Last Judgment. The Messiah is supposed to open the Gate of Grace for the Righteous and the Gate of Mercy for the repentant sinners."

"Can you get us through it? You must know how."

"No one can go through it, and you can' t even see it from inside.

It's a big hollow block. It's got a fl at roof, an interior with nothing but columns, and the outside wall has been bricked up for centuries."

"All the easier to hide someone there, then." Valerie pulled on her trousers and tied her shoes while she talked. "We'd better hope they're there. We haven't got time to search the whole city."

* 198 *

Vulture's Kiss She reached into the bottom of her knapsack and lifted out a small holstered revolver . She opened the cylinder , confi rmed that it was loaded, and closed it with a fl ick of her hand. "I hate carrying this," she said, hooking it onto her belt. "The last time I took it out, terrible things happened. Still, there' s no way I'd confront this madman unarmed, whoever he is."

Najya took a step back. "A pistol? My God, Valerie. Why can't we just call the police?"

"I told you this was a hard test. The police can't help. It's bigger than that." She fi shed out a small fl ashlight, clicked it on to test it, and slid it into her pocket.

The corridor was poorly lit, the hour late so that only the night lights were on. "It' s not a simple kidnapping by a lunatic. Yussif and Derek were killed by the same person who smashed Rekemheb-and for the same reason."

"Rekemheb?" Najya stayed at her side as they descended the main stairs to the empty souq. "Isn't that the name of the priest whose empty tomb you discovered?"

The door to the hotel swung shut behind them and left them in the midnight alley.

"It wasn't empty. He was there. Not just his mummy, but also his ka-his spirit. I told you this was going to require a lot of suspended disbelief."

"No more than the rest of the Egyptian theology that you've already gotten me to suspend it for. So what has destroying Rekemheb got to do with the kidnapping?"

The tin shutters that covered every shop in the tunnel-like Souq Khan al Zeit gave back a faint echo to their footfall and voices.

"He's the link. When he was alive, as a priest in the court of Meremptah, he heard the prophecy that his descendants would bring the gods back. The sequence of attacks-fi rst on his mummy, which killed his ka, and then on the two fathers-shows that someone, something, is set on wiping out all his descendants."

They emerged from the tunnel onto the Via Dolorosa.

"Wait. Descendants?"

"Derek, me, and ultimately Nefi , the Child. And I'm sure now that Nefi is at the heart of it. Someone is removing the rest of us, one by one, to get to her."

* 199 *