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The inevitable happened Queen Delar became a student of Suza, Suzama privately initiated the queen in a small room in Suzama&039;s own ho the vibrations in there would never recover from Ory and the evil Setian initiations Also, Suzama did not want the powerful priests to knoas happening She asked the queen to keep quiet about her practices for the ti to live

Sixdid die, and Queen Delar moved more boldly than Suzama wished

The queen immediately proclaied any ished to follow Suzah not to make it a state order Suzama refused to teach anyone as forced into the practice At the sae team of laborers to build a temple to Isis not far from the Great Pyramid, which Suzama refused to enter The queen wanted an elaborate te, and so Suzama had her own place in which to teach within a year of the king&039;s death Suzama filled it with plants and flowers and different-colored crystals brought fro this period, the Setians suf?fered a great setback as far as their influence was concerned Yet the queen did not banish them from the land, because Suzama had advised her not to I questioned ly about freedoht that she even protected as clearly an evil group Yet I doubt if even Suzama kne many assassins Ory sent to dispose of Suzama and me Of course, none of those assassins ever re-turned to their leader, even when they caroups of three and four I seldom rested in those days and never sat with my back to a door

But I never drank Setian blood Just the sroup was definitely working with subtle powers of soan to pay more heed to their rumored contacts with an ancient reptilian race, which they achieved through a mind-meld process that used identical twins as catalysts Even ate their rumored liaisons with the direct remains of the sa other suns I knew the Setians were getting their power from somewhere else, and I wanted to find the root of it Yet I reat strength in their eyes, a enerate to subdue weaker wills Naturally, their power did not work on me, but I could see the effect on the people in the city, wherever they were allowed to speak Suzareat prophet and the , even when her temple was complete, was relatively sainst her

Fortunately, Suzama did shield the queen from Ory and his cult Queen Delar wouldn&039;t even h I did see Ory froh he was always polite to me, I never failed to hear the hiss of a snake beneath his breath Why shouldn&039;t I recog-nize it? In a sense ere cousins Yaksha, a yashini by nature, had created me And the yashinis ell known in India as a race of mystical serpents

Yet Ory never res And my power to influence the wills of others was much different from the power of the Setians For their power left their victims weak and disoriented Many never recovered from it and this power beca, because it sowed seeds of consciousness that were not one&039;s own

I could see that matters would eventually come to a head with the Setians, only the clireater than I could ever have iined Suzama was only nineteen when I received a personal invitation from Ory He wanted to meet me alone in the desert so that we could discuss our differences and try to put an end to our conflict This was only six days after I had slain ten of his people who had stolen into the Teht Ory had never sent so many before and I had been lucky to kill them all, had he sent twice the number both Suzama and I would have died Actually, I wondered why he had not, which should have served as a warning to me

I sent back aI would be happy to meet him

He planned to killto the desert I met with Suzama to tell her my plans She was in her inner chamber in the te when I entered but put aside the papyrus so that I could not see it Her usual war Before I could speak, she wanted to knohy I was dressed for the desert

"You are wrong to think your ene to be on guard I aht deep in the desert He has chosen the spot but I knoell When the head vanishes, the body falls It will end tonight"

But Suzama shook her head "This is not ht the stars are particularly inauspicious Cancel the ht now"

I sat beside her She ale silk cushions Dressed in a simple white robe, she wore a blue scarf around her neck Woven inside it were threads of gold that outlined all the constellations in the sky, even those seen from the bottom of the world The latter, Suzama said, she had seen in visions I had no doubt they were correct, even though I would not listen to her when it came to Ory It was my turn to shake my head

"I never told you how many of his people I slew last week," I said

"How rimaced "In here?"

"I was able to deal with most of them outside But there will be more if I don&039;t destroy Ory now"

"But you don&039;t know Ory You don&039;t knohat he is"

"Of course I do He is a Setian"

Suzaravely "He is a real Setian Just as you are no longer human, he is not one of our kind Those he sent to kill us before were mere students" She paused "I suspect he is not from this world"

"I don&039;t care," I say "If he comes alone, I can deal with him And if he doesn&039;t, then I will know and decide what to do But I know I must face him It is foolish to wait"

Suza your wisdom, I can only decide based on what I see and know"

She stroked , which was bare beneath my robe

"You know, I foresaw this conversation," she said "Nothing I say to you right noill change your mind That is because of who you are and because of the stars above They pretend to be your stars but they&039;re not" She paused and spoke as if she were far away "They are arranged as they were the night you were transformed into a vampire"

I am shocked "Is this true?"

She nods solemnly "The serpent walked the forest The lizard crawls in the sand It is the sa and her eyes were daht is a time of transfor?"

"Yes Death is the biggest transforht kill me"

"Yes It is possible"

"You don&039;t know for sure?"

She was a long ti

"No The Divine Mother does not show me" She shook herself and came back to Earth, for a moht, even written words Go then, and go with tight I ait here for you I will be here when you return,"

I hug her "I owe you a great deal Tonight, perhaps I can repay you"

There was a place twenty miles from the city, deep in the desert, called the Bowl of Flies In the late spring the flies would be so thick there during the day that it would be hard to breathe without inhaling theht they would all but vanish, and there was no reason to explain why they ca for the flies to eat, unless a sain, an unusual number of animals did collapse in that spot Even a bird could seize up in ht and fall dead into the place

Ory wanted to meet me in the bowl

I arrived early to see if he had assassins hidden The area appeared empty for far around There was no moon but I didn&039;t need it My eyes were not drawn to the sky as they usually hen the stars were so bright Suzaood-bye almost in midsentence Words are useless now

Ory was suddenly there, sitting on a cae how I hadn&039;t heard hiot down off his animal and slowly moved toward me I had also come on a camel but had sent my beast off ForOn the way ho Ory&039;s head Likewith his sharp dagger Listening closely, I could still detect no others, and I thought him a fool to meet me under such circue bald head shiny even in the faint starlight It susting ointht maybe you would not coranted an exclusive audience with such a renowned spiritual figure"

"Do you knohence our spiritual power comes?"