Page 121 (1/2)

" 'And that which had been transparent was now drenched in blood And aI saw, shapeless, and enorhout it And yet this thing had another property to it, a center, it see center which was in h s sca In my belly it circled as I clawed atout of me!

" 'And it see-the blood mist that surrounded me and envelopedthis way and that as it scurried withininto my hands one moment and into my feet the next Up my spine it ran

" 'I would die, surely I would die, I thought Then came a moment of blindness! Silence It had killed ain, should I not? Yet suddenly I opened my eyes; I sat up off the floor as if no attack had befallentorch in his hand!-the trees of the garden-why, it was as if I had never truly seen such sione coht hurt my eyes; I could not endure its brilliance Yet I had been saved frolorified and made perfect Except that-' And there she stopped

"She stared before her, indifferent for a moment Then she said, 'Khay who stood beside her, watching her; trying to fathos she said, just as we tried to fathom them

" 'Your spirit,' she said 'It tried to destroy us But soreat power has intervened to triuain her conviction deserted her The lies stopped on her tongue Her face was suddenly cold with menace And sweetly she said: 'Tell us, witches, itches You who know all the secrets What is the nahed She looked atAnd the old warning of the spirits ca and Queen would ask us questions and they would not like our answers We would be destroyed --"Then the Queen turned her back She sat down and bowed her head And it was then, and only then, that her true sadness ca smiled at us, wearily 'We are in pain, witches, he said 'We could be

ar the burden of this transformation if only we understood it better You, who have cos invisible; tell us what you know of such ic; help us if you will, for you know that we never meant to harm you, only to spread the truth and the law '

"We did not dwell on the stupidity of this statehter and so forth and so on But Mekare de now tell what he could recall

"He spoke of things which you-all of you seated here-surely know Of hoas dying; and how he tasted the blood from his hich had covered his face; and of how his body quickened, and wanted this blood, and then how he took it froave it; and then he became as she was But for hi running rampant within him The thirst, it's unbearable,' he said to us 'Unbearable ' And he too bowed his head

"We stood in silence for aat each other, Mekare and I, and as always, Mekare spoke first;

" 'We know no name for what you are,' she said 'We know no stories of such a thing ever happening in this world before But it's plain enough what took place ' She fixed her eyes upon the Queen 'As you perceived your own death, your soul sought toas souls so often do But as it rose, the spirit A invisible as your soul was invisible; and in the norht have easily overcoone on to realms we do not know

" 'But this spirit had long before wrought a change within hie that was utterly new This spirit had tasted the blood of humans whom he had pierced or tor there, and full of blood despite its many wounds, had life still

" 'And so the spirit, thirsting, plunged down into your body, his invisible form still wedded to your soul

" "Still youas possessed persons often do But now the tiny core of this spirit- the thing ofcenter of all spirits, froy conies-was suddenly filled with blood as never in the past

" 'And so the fusion of blood and tinified and accelerated; and blood flowed through all his body, both material and nonmaterial, and this was the blood cloud that you saw

" 'But it is the pain you felt which is h your limbs For surely as inevitable death caed with the flesh of your body as its energy had already an in which ed with spirit; and a new thing was formed '