"This is your territory. School her fast before I snatch a bone out of her narrow behind."
Damali's attention went from one woman to the next. Did one of them call the sister serving drinks Eve?
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long story, baby. But hey, you know how this goes. You find Mr. Right, fall in love, get your head twisted around by some other fine bastard, then have issues. Feel me?"
Damali couldn't stop gaping. Then she realized one by one, that each woman was marked by a symbol she hadn't noticed before. Their tattoos were made of silvery light, and she couldn't take her eyes off of them.
"Take a walk with us," the one pointed out as Eve said, moving toward the mirror. "You game for some insight?"
From some strange place in her soul, Damali found her head nodding in the affirmative. She came nearer to the woman than was probably advisable, as Eve's hands touched the mirror and melted into it like it was water. "We had to strip your blade from you, hon, until you could learn to use it right, because what's coming for you-you can't fight like you just did out there. The Sankofa burned off for the same reason."
The others nodded.
"You will get your ass beat down if you go after her like you just did, hear?" the woman in red said, obviously still salty about her dress. "Lilith will f**k you up good, if you don't watch your back, and no man is worth all that."
Damali's eyes were so wide that she couldn't blink. Then someone behind her pushed her and she was alone in a vast, stone enclosure.
Angry as a wet hen, she fell forward into a place that had sepiahued marble walls. The color surrounded her and she was on the landing of a massive staircase. Towering oblong windows allowed in the breaking dawn, and an infant's coo made her look up to the top of the next landing.
Instinct propelled her forward. Bounding up the wide, slippery steps, she took them two at a time, and then stopped as she neared the child and saw the crosscut on its finger. Immediate panic tore through her as she recognized the tiny brown infant that had big, frightened eyes. It was the baby from the Australian master's castle.
Damali began backing up as the baby slowly grew, aged, and became a weathered old man with snow-white hair. He smiled a black, toothless grin, his leathery face dotted with white paint, making her remember the circle of Aborigines. He pointed to his chest to keep her from running away, showing her the markings of the sixth seal that he guarded. The white matrix of paint on his bare chest glowed golden for a moment, and then he flung a sash of white cloth from his waist over it, making it return to normal, and a walking stick appeared in his hand.
He nodded and then bowed, motioning to her with his stick to follow him. Although he didn't wait as he proceeded, occasionally he glanced over his shoulder still smiling, almost mocking Damali for being wary and keeping her distance.
Once she reached the top of the stairs he pointed with the stick to a wide hallway. A glasslike wash of violet light spilled across the marble. Impatient, he clicked the stick on the ground three times and stomped his rusty bare feet hard, waving her forward, and then disappeared.
She keened all her senses, straining to use her third eye, to feel vibrations, to hear, all to no avail. Where were they?
She began walking forward, feeling amazingly light as each footfall lifted her slightly off the floor. Soon the glasslike purple rays covered her as she entered its full beam, and instantly the mere intent of moving forward rushed her to an open atrium filled with swirling golden-white light and women's voices.
Damali squinted as a large opalescent oval table came into view, and seated before her were the seven women. Four were sitting on one side, three on the other of an empty, high, Kemetian throne carved in alabaster, with a falcon-winged sun disc bearing the Ankh symbol of fertility within it. She recognized Nzinga instantly this time. The red siren's getup had completely thrown her off. Then she saw the Amazon sitting to her right, and dropped to one knee. She'd failed the ultimate test. Oh, dear God.
She'd been summoned to the council of Neterus! Queens of old, beyond the chamber of spirits called the holy of holies within the pyramids. Maybe she was dead and this was judgment day.
"Queen mothers," Damali murmured, without looking up. "You have summoned me? I, uh, didn't recognize you, at first, and-"
"You must approach all sisters with respect. It would have avoided any confusion. That's the problem today. Always carry yourself in a dignified manner, no matter the circumstances. No one has respect." The elder queen whom Damali had offended folded her arms over her ample br**sts and thrust her chin up.
"Queen daughter, arise. Your mother-seer summoned us. We had a need to intervene," the Amazon said more calmly.
Damali slowly stood, awed at the majestic women before her. Each wore a brilliant, shimmering hue of the chakra system, from the deepest jewel ruby to striking amethyst. The Amazon, the newest addition to the council, was swathed in glowing novice white, and like the others, she bore a living, silvery Adinkra symbol on her body. Hers was an Akoben, a war horn, placed on her individualized power center-her forearm; her blade arm.
Damali was speechless as she looked at the flawless beauty of the eldest woman whom she now instantly knew to be Eve. Her hair was a tangle of thick African braids scooped up in a complex cone, her headdress a crown of woven lotus blossoms. Her dress was a glasslike sheath of glistening rubies, her dark almond-shaped eyes smoldered with patience and wisdom and truth. She turned slowly to walk around the table and be seated, allowing Damali to glimpse the backless gown so she'd understand that she was also anointed with a Sankofa tattoo, one placed just at the base of her spine like Damali's. However, Eve's mark was a scrolling heart variation of the same symbol. She offered Damali a discreet wink. Her high cheekbones and lush mouth seemed to barely conceal a wry smile as she cocked her head and folded her hands before her at the table.
"I have walked a mile in your footfalls, dear one," Eve said calmly. "But you must-"
"Not be foolish!" Nzinga said, cutting Eve off, the sleeves of her royal violet gown shimmering as her arms swept before her. "She was my protege, a warrior. This is unacceptable!" Nzinga thrust her chin upward, her proud neck stretching as the light from the wide windows behind the table glinted off her unblemished ebony skin. "We don't have time for this."
Pure panic riddled Damali as her gaze swept the powerful females before her. Their silvery symbols painted new realities in her mind; Eve had a heart Sankofa anointed over her base, primal energy chakra; it's meaning clear-you can always undo your mistakes; the Amazon had a war horn, symbolizing a call to arms. At the base of Nzinga's neck, just before her spine began, was what appeared to be a double-bladed battleaxe;Akoko nan tiaba na enkum ha ... the hen treads upon its chicks but does not kill them. Damali took heart in the symbol. Maybe she'd get beat down today, but not officially killed.
"Girl, listen," Eve finally said, breaking into current vernacular to try to ease Damali's humiliation. "You know how this thing goes. She's supposed to cuss out and beat down anything that comes for her or her family. The chile is supposed to go down swinging. Now, I personally give her points for courage, because she came in that joint buck-wild and ready to just do the damned thing."
"See, that's just the thing, Eve. You always liked living on the edge." Nzinga gave her a testy smile.
Eve stroked her snake armband. "It has had its merits as well as its drawbacks, but please don't act like you can't go there, 'Zinga."
"Don't get in my business," Nzinga warned with a smile. "We can turn this table over up in here, if you start."