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I didn't know what to say. What could it conceivably mean that the Voice meant to join a New York meeting if the Voice was emanating from Mekare? Would the Voice somehow through Khayman force the twins to travel to New York? I couldn't figure it. And what of Maharet envisioning that volcano and their fiery finish? Did the others know about that? I didn't dare to think of it in this company of minds that could rake mine with total ease.

"Believe me," said Sevraine. "I offered my presence, my sympathy, and my strength to Maharet only nights ago and I was rebuffed. I have told her in plain words who the Voice is and she has refused to believe it. She insists the Voice cannot be what we know it is. Maharet is a bruised and broken soul now. Maharet cannot stop this thing. She can't fathom that the Voice is coming from her own sister. Maharet is ruined."

"I can't give up on her that easily," I said. "I understand what you're saying. It's true. I went there and tried to talk with her and she forced me to leave. She used her power to physically push me away. Quite literally. But I can't give up on her as broken and bruised. That can't be right. The last time, when we all faced annihilation, she and Mekare saved us! We would all have died if ... Look, we ought to go to her now. You, me, Marius, whoever else we can find ..."

"Say this to them when we meet, all of us, under Armand's roof," Sevraine said.

But I was horror-struck at the thought of what might be happening in that jungle compound now. What if the Voice through Khayman found some way to do away with Maharet? It was unthinkable to me, and equally unthinkable that I might stand by and let this happen.

"I know this," said Sevraine. She was responding to my thoughts. "I am fully aware of it. But as I told you, this creature's destiny has been fulfilled. Maharet's found her twin, and in her twin she's confronted the nothingness, the emptiness--the sheer meaninglessness of life--that all of us face sooner or later, and maybe more than once, and maybe even many times. Maharet has not survived this final encounter. She has divorced herself from her mortal family. She has nothing now to sustain her. The tragedy of her mindless sister, Mekare, has devoured her. She's finished."

"You go join the others," I said. "I'll go back to the Amazon now and I'll take my stand with her. I can reach there before sunrise in that hemisphere."

"No, you mustn't do this." It was the voice of the spirit, Gremt. He was still sitting quite calmly to Sevraine's left as before. "You're needed at the conclave, and that's where you must go. If you return to Maharet's sanctuary now, she'll only drive you away again. And she may do worse."

"Forgive me," I said, straining to be courteous, "but what has this to do with you?"

"I knew this spirit, Amel," he answered, "for thousands of years before he came into the physical. If he had not come, not fused with Akasha, I might never have come, never have sought to take on a body and walk on the Earth in the guise of a human. I've been prompted in all I've done by him, by his descent into flesh and blood and my own love of flesh and blood. I followed him here."

"Well, that's a staggering revelation," I said. "And how many others like you are roaming around this Earth, may I ask, watching this pageant for pleasure?"

"I'm not watching the pageant for pleasure," he replied. "And if there are others from our realm who've concerned themselves with these events, they haven't made their presence known to me."

"Stop, please," Sevraine implored me. "It will all make more sense to you if you realize this being founded the Talamasca. Now, you know the Talamasca. You know their principles. You know their high-minded goals. You know their dedication. You loved and trusted David Talbot when he was still the Superior General of the Talamasca, a mortal scholar who did all in his power to be your friend. Well, Gremt Stryker Knollys founded the Talamasca, and that should answer all your questions as to his character. I don't know what other word to use but 'character.' You need not doubt Gremt."

I was speechless.

Of course I'd always known that some supernatural secret burned at the heart of the Talamasca, but what it was I'd never been able to fathom. And to the best of my knowledge, David did not know. And neither did Jesse who had also been a child of the Order long before her aunt Maharet had brought her into the Blood.

"Trust in me," said Gremt. "I am on your side now. I fear Amel. I have always feared him. I have always dreaded the day he would come into his own."

I listened patiently but said nothing.

"Tomorrow at sunset, we should all leave here together," said Sevraine. "And there I'll find those as old as I am, as powerful. I'm convinced of it. This conclave will draw them there and under moral constraints which I welcome and respect. Perhaps some have already arrived. And then we'll be in a position to determine what to do."

"And meanwhile," I said softly, "Maharet grapples with this on her own." I sought to banish all images of that volcano, Pacaya, in Guatemala, where our collective destiny might just en

d.

Sevraine's eyes locked on mine. Had she seen it?

Of course I know your fears, but why frighten the others? We do what we must do.

"Maharet will accept no one's help," said Gremt. "I too went to her. It was no use. I knew her when she was a mortal woman. I spoke to her when she was a mortal woman. I was among the spirits who listened to her voice." His voice remained even but he was becoming emotional, emotional as any genuine human being. "And now after all this time, she does not trust me, or listen to me. She cannot. In her mind she lost the voices of the spirits when she entered the Blood. And any spirit who seeks to incarnate as I've done she can't trust. She can only regard me with abhorrence and fear." He stopped, as if he couldn't continue. "I've always somehow known that she would turn her back on me when I stood before her, when I confessed to her that it was I, I who'd ..." And now he could not say anything more.

His eyes were glazed with tears. He sat back and appeared to take a deep breath, seeking to silently collect himself, and he pressed the fingers of his right hand hard against his own lips.

Why was this so seductive to me, so fascinating? Our emotions came from our minds, did they not, yet softened or hardened our physical bodies. And so his powerful spirit agitated this artfully made physical form in which he resided, with which he had become one. I felt drawn to him. I felt that he was no alien thing at all, but something very like us, a mystery whole unto himself, of course, but very like us.

"I have to go to Maharet," I said. I started to rise. "I have to stand with her now. You go to the conclave of course, but I'm going to her."

"Sit down," said Gabrielle.

I hesitated and then very reluctantly obeyed. I did want to reach the Amazon with hours to spare.

"There are other reasons why you should come with us," said Gabrielle, in the same firm voice.

"Oh, I know, don't tell me!" I said angrily. "They want me there. The young ones are clamoring for me to go. They attach some special importance to me. Armand and Louis want me to come. Benji wants me to come. I've heard it over and over."