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shrewdly. “Why then do you not set aside your heathen ways, and petition the Lord of Hosts with a pure heart? Instead you come like a beggar who dares not approach the door, beseeching alms at the gate.”
    “Even Adonai Himself uses mortal hands to do His bidding, my lady,” I replied.
    “You claim your gods have sent you?”
    I spread my hands. “I do not have that right, not here. But I am Kushiel’s Chosen, and Kushiel was once the Punisher of God. This is a matter of justice, and justice is his province. My ladies, I am D’Angeline. It is bred in my blood and stamped on my flesh. While Adonai grieved for His son, Blessed Elua wandered unheeded, aided only by his Companions. We are his people, their people, born of their seed. When Adonai’s attention turned at last to Elua, a new covenant was made, between the Lord of Hosts and the Mother of Earth, and it is by that our lives are sealed. I cannot be other.”
    Another woman spoke; Semira, with eyes keen and birdlike in a wizened face. “Do you claim, then, that this Elua is the Mashiach?”
    “The Mashiach?” The question startled me. “No, mother. No D’Angeline has ever claimed such a thing. Elua is ... Elua.”
    “Ah, but your people were barbarians. How could they know?” She nibbled unthinking at her lower lip. “There are those who claimed Melek-Zadok was the Mashiach, and the Covenant of Wisdom the first step toward the great healing of the earth that His reign will betoken, when war shall be no more, and wisdom dwell in every heart.”
    “There are some,” another voice echoed, soft and tentative, “who say Adonai Himself will be reunited with His Eternal Bride when the Mashiach comes, and the union of Shalomon and Makeda was a forerunner of that celebration.”
    Silence followed on it, and I sensed that this was a women’s mystery, written nowhere in the chronicles of Habiru or Yeshuite.
    “It did not happen,” Semira said firmly. “This we know. Perhaps the fault lay in ourselves, for breaking the Covenant with which we were entrusted. Perhaps it was a false omen, a shadow only of greater things to come, for even in Melek-Zadok’s time, there was war. This Yeshua ben Yosef of whom you speak ... I do not think peace followed in his reign, either.”
    “No.” I shook my head. “The Yeshuites were united in his name, and the Habiru quarrelled no more among themselves, but peace-no. Even now, they have begun to divide once more, and the children of Yisra-el seek to carve out a new kingdom with blades.” Joscelin stirred at my words, and we exchanged a glance. He had played a role in that matter, though few people ever knew it, nor ever would.
    “What are you?” It was Ranit who spoke, brows knitting in frustration as she asked the same question with which Hanoch ben Hadad had greeted us. “Unprophesied, unlooked-for ... you do not fit ! Elua! Who is this Elua , to be born of blood and tears? Who are these angels, these Companions, to defy the will of Adonai and be worshipped as gods? It is evil, I say; vile and foul. How can you say otherwise?”
    “My lady.” Joscelin’s voice followed hers, calm and level as he gave his Cassiline bow. “I can speak to that, if you permit. I serve Cassiel, who alone among the Companions followed Elua out of the purity of his heart.” He paused. “Cassiel sought to embody the love and compassion that Adonai, in his ire, forswore. This I believe to be true.”
    “It is a dangerous heresy.” Ranit’s words trembled. “Dangerous, indeed!”
    “It may be,” I said. “Can you be sure, who have been sequestered here for so long? I do not ask for the Sacred Name itself; only the chance to approach the altar. If I am slain or struck dumb for my presumption, so be it. Yet I must ask, and try.”
    “And we shall be unveiled to the eye of Adonai,” Yevuneh murmured.
    “So you may,” I said steadily. “My lady Ranit accuses us of heresy. Is it meet that the children of Yisra-el should hide their treasures behind the grief of Isis? I cannot answer that, for D’Angelines consider all deities worthy of respect, Elua’s children being youngest-born on this earth. It is a question, my ladies, for wisdom to decide; not the wisdom of the Elders, but the wisdom of Makeda’s line, to which Shalomon himself deferred. This you hold among yourselves. Is it a thing that may be made to serve base ends?” I shook my head. “I do not believe so. ”
    “‘For wisdom is more mobile than any