"I can't," Aset said, pulling Damali into an embrace. "Before when I went in to scan you, all queens stood with me united. Before, I was healing the damage to your womb that Dante's claw created, but I was not going in there to see whose baby it was. The small embryo was not there. If I attempt a scan, Eve will know."
Damali dropped her head to Aset's shoulder. But just as suddenly as she'd done that, all three queens jerked their heads up at the distur�bance coming down the hall. Nzinga was body blocking Eve, and yet Eve had deftly rounded her with the other queens on her heels.
"Why do you hide her from me!" Eve shouted, striding down the Great Hall in a billowing swirl of opalescent energy. "I have felt her pulse since the moment she entered our domain, yet I waited for her to come into the oval. Do you think I'm stupid, that I have lost all sensing capacity? Is this how you treat your most grieved sister?"
Nzinga lowered her battle-ax and the other queens parted. Eve slowly approached Damali, her ruby robe flowing in a long train be�hind her.
Damali stared at Eve's face. Her eyes were red and puffy from what she knew had been unrelenting sobs. Eve's coloring was ashen, mak�ing her once dewy brown complexion seem nearly gray in pallor. Even the regal queen's hair that was normally wound up in thick, dark locks was down on her shoulders, and beginning to get threads of graying silver within it. Worry lines creased her once flawless brow, and her eyes had a mad, disoriented look in them. Dark circles gave Eve the appearance of a woman slowly dying from within. Damali made a note to herself-before she took off Cain's head, she'd gore his heart by letting him know just what his foul behavior had done to his beloved mother.
"So, tell me," Eve said, standing in front of Damali with her head held high, new tears of rage slowly filling her large brown eyes. "How will you seduce my son to his death? What is the plan?"
Damali lifted her chin. "I will respect his parentage, the fact that he was once a Neteru, and for the sake of all humanity, I will make it swift and painless. He deserves that, as do you, dear Eve."
Eve nodded. "At least you are honest and have told me to my face, unlike my sisters. I see that your cheeks, like mine, are stained with tears of remorse-for that I thank you. I appreciate that you once loved him."
Damali kept her mouth shut, neither agreeing with or denying the charge, as she stared into Eve's tormented eyes. What would be the point of hurting Eve by correcting her and saying she'd never felt like that about Cain? But it wasn't a lie that she regretted having to exe�cute him.
A slow exhale of defeat exited Eve's body and made her dignified shoulders lower. "I had so hoped that he would cling to your Light, Damali... or that in Nod, he would find an angel." Eve swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around herself. "If he had found an angel... a healing one, from the Powers group on Ring Six, if not a Neteru queen, then he might have had a chance. If he escaped, and sired with the right female, the Light of what he made would have anchored him to our side and perhaps brought him back to our side of the family." Eve opened her arms out slowly. "Do you not see what I had prayed for? But he only found a Neteru queen who had already given her heart over to another like him." Eve shook her head. "Why couldn't you have chosen my son over Carlos?"
In that moment as Eve stood before her, Eve's beautiful, pained eyes searching hers, Damali knew that everything her elder queens had told her was true. Everything that Marlene had told her about a mother and a son was also true. Pity choked Damali's words and kept them lodged in her throat. She so badly wanted to tell Eve that no woman could change a man that way. He had to man-up on his own and make his own choices, just like Carlos had done-andthat was why she'd picked the man with superior spiritual strength to be her husband. The physical wasn't the issue; Cain was as fine a specimen as there ever was... seemed to have it all going on. But he was weak at the core if you put him in a lineup next to Carlos Rivera, in her mind.
"Eve, there is no way for me to answer your question," Damali whispered gently, watching the older queen lower her arms to her side.
If her heart wasn't racing so fast, she would have pressed Eve's hand to it to send the truth into the elder queen's palm... She would have said, dearest Queen Mother of all mothers, you know you are grabbing at straws. Your son is now a man, and that man made an ir�reversible choice... and now, even as his mother, you can't fix this for him.
Eve just set her jaw hard and looked away. Quiet mourning filled the Great Hall and the other queens respectfully lowered their gazes. Damali knew in her soul that, if no one,not even the queens, had been able to detect something that had presented while she was in Carlos's arms, namely, wings-that was something to keep strictly between him and her. Eve was already edging toward the high treason of po�tentially aiding and abetting her son through weakening the queens' efforts; all that Eve would need to learn is that she did have a little an�gel in her genes. Now it also made so much sense to Damali why even during the first scan by Aset, this part of her being was always hid�den... even from her. The situation was beyond volatile.
"Eve... I am so sorry," Damali finally whispered, truly meaning it. But it was futile to try to get Eve to come to terms with the fact that her son had most likely gone primarily dark years ago.
"As am I," Eve whispered, dropping her shoulders. "Then I guess there is nothing further for any of us to discuss."
Suddenly Eve looked so frail, so delicate, like a wilting red hibiscus that would drop its petals and soon blow away in the wind.
"We have to strengthen her, Eve," Nzinga said quietly, gaining nods from the other bereft queens. "She cannot go into battle with her powers waning. It will take all of us standing together and holding the image of her victory as one... just like we always do."
"Please, Eve," Joan said softly. "I was a warrior who led men in bat�tles and what is coming for the planet... our sister must be strong."
"How can I hold the image of my son's death in my mind?" Eve murmured, slowly drawing away from the group. "I cannot even hold the image of feminine conception in it, much less the death of my own child. No more children... the heartbreak is too much for the female spirit. Let the men war until the earth is a black cinder and you may join them in collecting the charred spoils of bone and ash and let your female war cries demand heads on pikes. I will not bring forth new life, under these conditions. I am dying from it all."
The stunned gathering of queens watched in horror as Eve slowly strode away, her shoulders bent, her breathing as labored as her wob�bly gait.
"Since last night," Nzinga said after Eve had closed herself away into a chamber, "all conception on the planet has ceased. Not even the flowers are reproducing. Nary a gnat has spawned. We don't have to wait for Cain's armies to eliminate life-he can simply stay in Hell for a season and the delicate ecosystem of nature will collapse. He's dragged his mother's heart into Dante's throne with him. Damali, we have never experienced anything so profoundly dangerous through�out the centuries!"
"Send Damali every battle tactic you own and the use of your most cherished gifts, sisters, that she may be victorious. There is much at stake, and too much riding on the outcome for personal grief to sway the results. Our young queen sister is, like Eve, emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. Replenish her. She must continue to fight," Nefertiti said. She cast a loving gaze in Damali's direction, holding Damali's secret and embedding a discreet message of support in her words. "Even though the personal sacrifice is difficult."
"Encircle her," Aset commanded. "Infuse her with all that we have left, even if it is not the fullness of our supply, it is our best chance."
Aset held Damali by the arms and opened her mind to Damali's. A small, glowing violet pyramid began to pulse in the center of Aset's forehead.Do not despair or lose hope. We will take your petition up to the Powers Angels for mediation. Also, as you heard Nzinga's words-all concep�tion ceased last night. It will be my silver-sent prayer on an urgent wind that it also included you. However, we won't know until your menses. After what we have seen of Eve's frame of mind, I do not want to risk a scan that she can detect.
Damali nodded.Neither do I, Great Queen. Neither do I.
The team knew the drill; everybody fall out and scramble to gather the weapons and necessities within their area of expertise. J.L. and Krissy rushed around the hacienda grabbing laptops and any com�puter hardware the team might need on the road. Marjorie and Juanita were on weather protection, ensuring that if the team went to cold climes or the desert, they had blankets, tents, sleeping bags, what�ever could protect against the elements.
Inez was on kitchen detail, stashing K-rations in a box, bottled wa�ter, and every deadly piece of cutlery she could lay her hands on. Shabazz, Rider, Berkfield, and Bobby were on guns, while Big Mike, Dan, and Jose were rounding up explosives and projectiles. Marlene was on communications and spiritual shields-her first point of con�tact was to the Covenant, the second to the telephone network of North American Guardian teams, then the sister packed her big black bag. It was a worldwide call to arms.
The two newest members of the team were runners, frantically go�ing from team cluster in the house to team cluster, responding quickly to whatever the more senior Guardians bellowed for them to fetch. Several times Heather almost bumped into Jasmine and vice versa, and everyone went still when the two collided with an ammo duffle.
"That's it!" Rider shouted. "Out! You two go stand on the porch and watch the freakin'sky for signs of our Neterus coming home, but my nerves can't take another grenade bag dropping."