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turned and ran. Ian did not run after them. His Companion rose in him. The pain shot through him. Then
he was in front of them, turning to face them. They trembled, gibbering. Two strokes and it was done.
He stood in a circle of bloody sand and body parts as the power eased back down his veins. The singing
sank to a hum and was gone. Ian blinked.
What had he done? Of twelve, not one was left alive. Most were not whole. He breathed out slowly and
dropped the sword. The sound as it hit the sand was loud in the silence of death around him. Twelve
Berbers, six drivers& Beth!
He looked around him and started for the black slash of the ravine at a run. But again his Companion
rushed up through his veins. His surroundings blurred. The pain
slashed for a single instant. He was at the ravine. It loomed above him. Beth stepped out of the shadows.
Ian! She stumbled to meet him. Ian, are you hurt? She touched him, examining him in the dim
predawn that she could not see in as well as he could.
He looked down at his own body, realizing his wounds for the first time. His burnoose was splashed with
blood, his hands covered in gore to the elbows, but only his shoulder and his groin shrieked and told him
he was hurt. I ll be fine. It won t last long, you know.
Sit, she ordered. I ll gather up the camels.
He started to protest. We need you whole, she said, annoyed. Be sensible.
He sighed. Yes, O Sensible One. He slid down against the rock wall as he watched her stand still and
cluck to the frightened beasts. To his amazement, not only the camels but also several horses came
slowly up to her outstretched hand. She tethered the camels to one another and led one horse. Two
others followed meekly. Her air of calm acceptance attracted them. Was that acceptance born of her
practical connection to the world? He wished he felt connected. Ever since he had become& say it, a
vampire, connection to the world of men and animals and living had been growing more tenuous. Now he
felt most alive when the Companion was surging through his veins. He didn t like to think about that.
As he watched Beth approach, he could feel his sinews knitting themselves. He was healing faster than he
had before. If he concentrated, he could feel the split ligaments in his groin reaching for each other, the
blood vessels reuniting. His body was making itself whole a useful talent, to be sure. His soul wanted
wholeness, too. Would that that were as easy.
He leaned back against the rock wall of the ravine, cool now with night. He rolled his head and stared
into the darkness as the narrow rift disappeared into the high rock walls. Then he sat straight and looked
at the opposite wall, the sand floor, the view out across the desert. A premonition cascaded over him.
Uncertainty warred with recognition. He peered into the dark cleft again with sight that now penetrated
where human eyes could not have seen. There! He pushed himself erect and took a few steps into the
darkness.
A giant s stair was cut into the rock wall with steps impossibly high. The night he had been here with
Asharti came flooding back: his exhaustion, despair. His only glimmer of hope had been that he would
die, no matter how horrible the death.
The hand on his shoulder made him jump. He swung around and only just stopped himself from striking
out at Beth. For God s sake! he swore. You almost got yourself killed.
Sorry, she said sheepishly. I called. You did not hear.
He glanced behind her to where she had hobbled one camel and one horse and tied the rest together. His
senses sifted the air. Just faintly, he smelled cinnamon and the coming dawn.
Beth studied his face. Is this& ?
He nodded and strode to the pack animals. If we hurry, we can make it, if not to the temple itself, then
to shelter in one of the tombs before the sun rises very far. He untied two leather water bags, slung them
both upon his shoulder, and strode past Beth. He did not wait to see if she followed. Beth would not
falter now.
She did not, though she sometimes had to run to keep up. But she did not complain. They passed the
great pillars of the entrance to the city. Beth craned to see their capitals as they hurried by. The ornately
carved doors to the occasional tombs made her hesitate, but he called her on. He knew how much she
wanted to study these most wonderful proofs of her father s dream. But somewhere the sun was already
over the horizon.
Once she touched his arm. What were Berbers doing this far south? she asked.
I have no idea, he said shortly, intent on gaining shelter.
She nodded thoughtfully. Just wondering.
They had walked for more than an hour before they came to the ruined square, with its toppled columns
and desecrated statues. Ian paused to get his bearings. Which way?
Beth wandered over to one huge stone head, chipped and shattered by its fall, and stood staring at it. Ian
was drawn to her side. What is it?
You tell me, she said softly.
Ian cocked his head to examine the face. The eyes slanted; the lips were tiny and straight, the nose
inhumanly long, the diminutive chin pointed. A likeness of the Old One? He Who Waits.
Beth gave a shudder, as well she might. Ian wondered for the thousandth time if there was some way he
could have avoided bringing her to this godforsaken place. She glanced to another statue, still standing.
This one clearly had the head of a sphinx, like the one in Cairo, even down to the fact that the head was a
little too small for the body. But the two statues had originally matched, being two sides of an arch. She
chewed her lip, speculating. If they had finished revising both figures, their presence might have been
hidden forever. She glanced up at Ian and managed a smile. Now we know who built the Sphinx so
long ago that it could erode from rainfall. Whatever happens, I shall be grateful for that knowledge.
A breath of dawn brought a stronger scent of cinnamon, now tinged with ambergris. Ian shook himself.
Over there. He led the way among the ruins as he felt the sun peek over the wall behind him. He was
taking her into a place of unthinkable danger. He must send her back to the surface once she had
decoded the entry to the chamber of the Old One. But the camel drivers were dead. What if the Old
One killed him? It was not only a possible but also a likely outcome. She had water enough to get back
to Haasi Fokra, but she would be alone in a desert that had Berber raiders in it. That had never been the
plan.
Berbers. What had Beth said? What were Berbers doing this far south? Air hissed in through Ian s
teeth. Because they were part of an army that belonged to Asharti? Asharti had every reason to be here
in the place that was the source of her strength. The attackers were not vampires. But only a hundred or
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