Naamah's Blessing

upon me.
    Machasu obeyed.
    I summoned the twilight. It came with a gentle rush, embracing and easeful, softening the world into muted hues.
    “Lady?” Machasu glanced around with sudden alarm, finding me vanished.
    “I am here,” I said, willing her to hear me. “All is well. Rest, and be calm. When you awake, I will have returned.”
    She drew a shuddering breath. “What magic is this?”
    “Mine,” I said. “And it will not harm you.”
    The trek across the terraces to the far side of the mountain took the better part of an hour, but it was the first time I’d made it
alone
, free from the ever-present stream of ants. I sensed Bao’s wakeful presence in the distance, his
diadh-anam
quickening as mine drew nigh. There were a handful of thatched huts at the foot of the field.
    When I entered the one that contained Bao, he sat upright, wedged on the floor between a pair of slumbering D’Angelines.
    A sisal rope like the one in my bedchamber hung from the rafters of the hut, and its ball of nesting ants began to stir.
    “Be still,” I whispered to Bao.
    He nodded.
    I breathed the twilight over him, encompassing him. The ants settled. I held out my hand to Bao, beckoning.
    He threaded his way deftly through sleeping figures in the hut. “Moirin,” he breathed, wrapping his arms around me.
    Safe.
    Raphael was wrong, so wrong! There was nothing dull about the feeling, nothing at all. I buried my face against Bao’s throat, reveling in the comfort of his presence. Although I wanted it to last forever, I knew it could not. “Come with me, will you?” I made myself say. “Cusi is waiting.”
    Reluctantly, Bao released me. “Lead on.”
    By the time we made our way back to the city, the moon was standing high overhead, silvery-dim in the twilight. The door to the Temple of the Sun was unlocked, opening to our touch.
    Inside, there was a faint gasp as the door opened onto apparentnothingness. Ocllo and Cusi and several of the other Maidens of the Sun awaited us around the sacred fire, its flames burning silver-white. Their gazes darted all around the temple as I closed the great door softly behind us.
    All save Cusi’s. She was gazing directly at Bao as though she could see him despite the twilight, and I wondered if it were true, if by dint of her choice, she already had one foot in the spirit world. Her lips parted as I released the twilight, but unlike the others, Cusi did not jump and startle, and her gaze remained fixed on Bao.
    “You wish to speak to me?” she asked softly.
    He inclined his head, his gold ear-hoops glinting in the shadowy light. “I do.”
    Cusi beckoned to him. “Come.”
    Out of respect, the rest of us withdrew out of earshot as they went to stand beneath the immense golden disk of the sun god, where it appeared Bao questioned Cusi, who in turn spoke earnestly at length to him. Although I wondered what passed between them, I sensed it was a sacred and private matter.
    “So it is true,” Ocllo murmured to me. “You were able to approach the temple and enter it unseen. Is this also a gift of your gods?”
    “Aye,” I said. “A small gift for a dwindling folk, that we may conceal ourselves from hostile eyes.”
    “Why do you not simply escape?” she asked.
    I smiled ruefully. “If I could, I would, my lady. But I came to rescue our prince and his men, and I am not strong enough to hold the magic for so many or so long. And I do not think it is what was meant to be, nor what our gods and your ancestors intended.”
    Ocllo nodded toward the golden disk. “This, then?”
    “I fear so.”
    She touched my arm. “If it is meant to be, you should not fear it, little sister.”
    I glanced at her. “My lady, does the legend say exactly what will come to pass when the ancestors are called out of death into life? How they will save their folk?”
    “No,” Ocllo said with regret. “Only that they
will
come in our hour of need, in answer to a willing sacrifice offered by one who has walked in the land of death and returned.” She paused. “Do you doubt?”
    At the far end of the temple, Bao sank to one knee, his head lowered. Cusi placed both hands on his bowed head, her lips moving in a prayer of benediction, his bright shadow enveloping them both. My skin prickled at the sight, and a soft sigh echoed throughout the temple.
    “No,” I whispered. “I do not doubt.”
    Taking a step backward, Cusi held out her little bronze knife with both hands, offering it to Bao.
    He