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The speed of her descent astonished her; mo in the courtyard, her body aching for one flashing instant, and then cold and still

The screah the walls, a dizzying throb, the taruesome and repetitive sound And before her were the pyres, spitting, crackling, the dead bodies darkening as they lay heaped on the burning wood The stench sickened her Yet for a long ti flesh, the blackening stuave off sudden wisps of white s mountain air could not reach her here

She stared at the distant wooden door to the inner sanctuain, bitterly There And she found herself ht of the inner cha chant

"Azi over and over, their backs turned to her as they pressed to the center of the candle-lighted hall, their hands raised, twisting at the wrists in rhyth heads "Azim! Azim! Azim-Azim-Azim! Ahhhh Zeeeeures turned, circling in place on their bare feet, but they did not see her Their eyes were closed, their dark faces s as they repeated the revered name

She pushed into the thick of theeous colored silks and clattering gold jewelry, all repeating the invocation in horrifying ht the smell of fever, starvation, dead bodies fallen in the press, unheeded in the co to a marble column, as if to anchor herself in the turbulent stream of movement and noise

And then she saw Azim in the leaht of the candles, his head bound in a black silk turban, his long e of ed in kohl, were enor beat of the dru his fists forward and drawing the upon an invisible wall His slippered feet tapped the marble in frenzied rhythm Blood oozed from the corners of his mouth His expression was one of utter mindless absorption

Yet he knew that she had come And from the center of his dance, he looked directly at her, and she saw his blood-smeared lips curl in a smile

Pandora, my beautiful immortal Pandora

Glutted with the feast he was, plump and heated with it as she had seldom ever seen an iave a shrill cry His acolytes ca at his outstretched wrists with their ceremonial knives

And the faithful surged against hiushed out The chant grew louder, led cries of those nearest hi lifted, his body stretched out full length on the shoulders of his followers, golden slippers pointed to the high tessellated ceiling, the knives slashing at his ankles and again at his wrists where the wounds had already closed

The rew ainst her, oblivious to the coldness and hardness of the ancient limbs beneath her soft shapeless wool clothes She did not move She let herself be surrounded, drawn in She saw Azi, wounds already healed He beckoned to her to join him Silently she refused

She watched as he reached out and snatched a victi wo open her slender throat

The crowd had lost the perfect shape of the syllables it chanted; it was now a simple wordless cry that came from every mouth

Chapter 4

Eyes wide as if in horror at his oer, Aziht, then dashed the body on the stones before hiled as the faithful surrounded it, hands out in supplication to their staggering god