was sixteen and her name was Ha-nahkt. She was a virgin priestess dedicated to the goddess Isis.
She was wearing a fine linen shift that fell from her waist to her ankles. Above the waist, she wore
nothing except a deep silver collar strung with beads of amethyst, carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli.
There were two silver bracelets on her upper arms and two on her wrists.
Morning was her favorite time.
This morning she carefully placed her offering in front of the statue of Isis. Lotus blossoms, small cakes,
and beer. Then, facing south, she began the chant to wake the goddess up.
"Awaken, Isis, Mother of the Stars, Great of Magic, Mistress of all the World, Sovereign of her father,
Mightier than the gods,
Lady of the Waters of Life,
Powerful of Heart,
Isis of the Ten Thousand Names ..."
A step sounded behind her and she broke off short, feeling startled and annoyed.
"I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?"
It was a woman, a beautiful woman with long black hair.
"You're not allowed in here," Ha-nahkt said sharply. "Only priests and priestesses..." Her voice trailed
off as she looked at the woman more closely. Maybe she is a priestess, she thought. There's something in
her face....
"I just want to talk to you," the woman said. Her voice was husky and persuasive, almost mesmerizing.
"It's very important." She smiled and Ha-nahkt felt hairs stir at the back of her neck.
If she's a priestess, I bet she's a priestess of Set. Set was the most evil of all the gods-and one of the
most powerful. Ha-nahkt could sense power in this woman, no question about that. But evil? She wasn't
sure.
"My name is Maya. And what I have to tell you may save your life."
Ha-nahkt stood still. Part of her wanted to run from Maya, to go and get her best friend Khet-hetep-"es.
Or, better yet, one of the senior priestesses. But another part of her was curious.
"I really shouldn't stop in the middle of the chant," she began.
"It's about the stranger."
Ha-nahkt lost her breath.
There was a long moment of silence, and then she said, "I don't know what you're talking about." She
could hear the shake in her own voice.
"Oh, yes, you do. The stranger. Tall, blond, handsome... and with such sad dark eyes. The one you've
been meeting on the sly."
Ha-nahkt could feel the shaking take over her whole body. She was a priestess, sworn to the goddess.
If anyone found she'd been meeting a man. ...
"Oh, don't worry, little one," Maya said and laughed. "I'm not here to turn you in. Just the opposite, in
fact. I want to help you."
"We haven't done anything," Ha-nahkt faltered. "Just kissed. He says he doesn't want me to leave the
temple. He isn't going to stay long. He says he saw me, and he just had to speak to me."
"And no wonder," Maya said in a cooing tone. She touched Ha-nahkt's hair lightly and Ha-nahkt moved
instinctively away. "You're such a pretty girl. Such unusual coloring for this part of the world. I suppose
you think you love him."
"I do love him," Ha-nahkt blurted before she could stop herself. Then she lowered her voice. "But I
know my duty. He says that in the next world we'll be together." She didn't want to tell the rest of it, the
remarkable things she'd seen with the stranger, the way she'd recognized him. The way they were
destined for each other.
"And you believed him? Oh, my dear child. You're so innocent. I suppose that comes from living your
life in a temple." She gazed around thoughtfully, then looked back at Hannah. Her face became grave and
regretful.
"I hate to have to tell you this," she said. "But the
stranger does not love you. The truth is that he's a very evil man. The truth is that he's not a man at all.
He's an Ur-Demon and he wants to steal your sa."
Oh, Isis, Ha-nahkt thought. Sa was the breath of life, the magical force that allowed you to live. She'd
heard of demons who wanted to steal it. But she couldn't believe it of the stranger. He seemed so gentle,
so kind...
"It's true," Maya said positively. She glanced at Ha-nahkt sideways. "And you know it is, if you think
about it. Why else would he want to taste your blood?"
Ha-nahkt started and flushed. "How do you know-?" She stopped and bit her lip.
"You've been meeting him at night by the lotus pool, when everyone else is asleep," Maya said. "And I
suppose you thought it wouldn't hurt to let him drink a little of your blood. Not much. Just a bit. It was
exciting. But I'm telling you the truth, now-it will hurt you. He's a demon and he wants you dead."
The husky, mesmerizing voice went on and on. It was telling all about Ur-Demons who drank blood,
and men and women who could change into animals, and a place called the World of the Night, where
they all lived. Ha-nahkt's head began to spin.
And her heart shattered.
Literally. She could feel the jagged pieces of it every time she tried to breathe. A priestess didn't cry, but
tears were forcing themselves out of her closed lids.
Because she couldn't deny that the stranger did act a little like an Ur-Demon. Why else would he drink
blood?
And the things she'd seen with him, the feeling of
destiny... that must have all been magic. He had tricked her with spells.
Maya seemed to have finished her story. "Do you think you can remember all that?" she asked.
Ha-nahkt made a miserable gesture. What did it matter if she remembered it? She only wanted to be left
alone.
"Look at me!"
Ha-nahkt glanced up, startled. It was a mistake. Maya's eyes were strange; they seemed to turn different
colors from moment to moment, and once Ha-nahkt met them, she couldn't look away. She was caught
in a spell, and she felt her will slipping.
"Now," Maya said, and her eyes were deep gold and ancient as a crocodile's. "Remember all that. And
remember this. Remember... how he kills you."
And then the strangest thing of all happened.
It suddenly seemed to Ha-nahkt that she was two people. One of them was her ordinary self. And the
other was a different self, a distant self, who seemed to be looking on from the future. At this moment,
Ha-nahkt and the future self were seeing different things.
Ha-nahkt saw that Maya was gone and the temple was empty. And then she saw that someone else was
walking in. A tall figure, with light hair and dark fathomless eyes-the stranger. He smiled at her, walked
toward her with his arms held out. He grasped her with hands that were as strong as a demon's. Then he
showed his teeth.
The future self saw something else. She saw that Maya never left the temple. She saw Maya's face and
body ripple as if they were made of water-and then change. It was as if there were two images, one on
top of the other. The outward image was of the stranger, but it was Maya underneath.
That's it. That's how she did it.
The voice came from outside Ha-nahkt, and she didn't understand it. She didn't have time to think about
it, either, because the next instant she felt the tearing pain of teeth.
Oh, Isis, Goddess of Life, guide me to the other world....
"That's how she did it," Hannah breathed.
She was sitting up on the couch. She knew who she was, and more, she knew who she'd been.
It was another of those blinding flashes of illumination. She felt as if she were standing at the end of the
corridor of time and looking back at a hundred different versions of herself. They each looked slightly
different, and they wore different clothes, but they were all her. Her name had been Hanje, Anora, Xiana,
Nan Haiane, Honni, Ian, Annette. She had been a warrior, a priestess, a princess, a slave. And right now
she felt she had the strength of all her selves.
At the far end of the corridor, back where it was misty and blurry and faintly tinted pink and blue, she
seemed to see Hana smiling at her. And then Hana turned and walked away, her task accomplished.
Hannah took a deep breath and let it out.
"She did it with illusions," she said, hardly aware that she was talking out loud. "Maya. And she's done it
before, of course. Maybe every time. What do you do with somebody who keeps killing you over and
over? Never letting you live to your seventeenth birthday? Trying to destroy you, not just your life, but
your heart... ?"
She realized that Paul was staring at her. "You want me to answer that?"
Hannah shook her head even as she went on talking. "Goddess-I mean, God-she must hate me. I still
don't understand why. It must be because she wants Thierry herself-or maybe just because she wants
him miserable. She wants him to know that I'm terrified of him, that I hate him. And she did it. She
convinced me. She convinced my subconscious enough that I started warning myself against him."
"If any of this is true-which I'm not going to admit for a second, because they would definitely take my
license away-then I can tell you one thing," Paul said. "She sounds very, very dangerous."
"She is."
"Then why are you so happy?" he asked pathetically.
Hannah glanced at him and laughed. She couldn't hope to explain it.
But she was more than happy, she was exalted. She was buoyant, ecstatic, over the moon.
Thierry wasn't evil. She had the confirmation of a hundred selves whispering it to her. Maya was the
enemy, the snake in the garden. Thierry was exactly what he'd told her he was. Someone who had made
a terrible mistake and had spent millennia paying for it-and searching for her.