Naamah's Blessing - By Jacqueline Carey Page 0,3

aware that Queen Jehanne…?” Like me earlier, he let the sentence dangle unfinished.

“Aye,” I murmured. “That, I heard.”

He straightened his shoulders. “Well, then. I would not be remiss in my duty to a descendant of House Courcel.” He gestured at young Leo and his crew of street-lads, listening and gaping silently. “Shall I disperse this ragtag rabble for you? I can assign a cadre of guards to assist you with your needs.”

I hesitated.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Bao interjected, slinging one arm over Leo’s shoulders, causing the lad’s eyes to brighten. “We like… how do you say it? Ragtag rabble.”

The harbor-master bowed formally. “As you wish.”

After he took his leave, we said our thanks and farewells to Captain Ramchandra, who had escorted us safely to these shores. He bowed to us in the Bhodistani manner, his palms pressed together.

“It has been my very great honor!” he said. “I give thanks to you for restoring Kamadeva’s diamond to its proper place.”

Bao glanced sidelong at me, amused.

I cleared my throat. “It was our honor to do so.”

We had done that, Bao and I. The Rani Amrita had charged us with the task of returning Kamadeva’s diamond, a black jewel forged from the ashes of the Bhodistani god of desire, to the temple from which it had been stolen by Jagrati, a woman reckoned by her own people to be untouchable. I had carried it in a locked coffer for leagues upon leagues, fearful of its temptations.

All too well, I knew its power.

So did Bao, better than I did.

But we had carried it willingly for the sake of our lady Amrita; she who had withstood its allure when Jagrati the Spider Queen bore it; she who had had the strength to surrender it. In the temple where it had resided for many, many hundreds of years, we watched the priests break open the coffer, daring with trembling hands to transfer the diamond with its fiery heart filled with dark, shifting hues into the cupped and open hands of the god Shiva’s effigy.

There, it resided—a blessing ready to be invoked by all who sought it, and not a weapon to be wielded by any one soul.

The bright lady had approved.

“Hey, lady!” young Leo called breathlessly, trotting beneath the weight of one of our trunks. “I know who you are! I remember!”

“Oh, you do, do you?” I glanced at him. He couldn’t have been more than nine or ten when I’d left Terre d’Ange, but there was no underestimating the D’Angeline capacity for gossip.

“Oh, aye!” His face was flushed, but his eyes shone. “It was when the biggest ship in the world was in the harbor! D’ye remember, Michel?” he asked one of his companions. The other lad grunted in assent. “We went to look at it every day! From Ch’in, they said. You look like one of their sailors,” he added to Bao.

“Was he uncommonly handsome?” Bao inquired cheerfully.

“No!” Leo’s flush deepened. “I mean, not like one particular fellow. You look like all of them.”

Bao raised his brows at me.

“Uncommonly handsome,” I assured him.

“Anyway,” Leo continued heedlessly, “I remember! We went to watch the ship set sail, too. It was like watching a floating palace set out to sea! And everyone said that half-breed”—he lowered his voice—“bear-witch who summoned demons and ruined Lord Raphael and seduced the Queen was being sent away on the ship! That was you, wasn’t it?”

I sighed. “First of all, they were fallen spirits, not demons—”

He interrupted me. “What’s the difference?”

“Ah… I’m not sure,” I admitted. “At any rate, I didn’t summon them, I just… helped.”

“Those idiots couldn’t have done a thing without you,” Bao scoffed. “Your magic opened the doorway that let the demon through.”

“You’re not helping,” I informed him.

“So you really can do magic?” one of the other lads asked, wide-eyed. He stumbled over a cobblestone, and would have dropped the trunk he was carrying if Bao hadn’t caught it. “Can you turn into a bear?” He looked excited and horrified at the thought.

“No,” I said gently. “The Maghuin Dhonn Herself took that gift away from us long before I was born. Do you know the story of Prince Imriel?” All of them nodded; it was one of the great tales of Terre d’Ange. “Well, that’s why She took it away. Now all my people have left is a small gift for magic meant to conceal and protect us.”

“But it can be used for other things, too,” Bao added. “Good and bad. Moirin was very foolish to use