to trap her in some devious way? Tears stung her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as she studied him. He was genuine, she decided, communicating his thoughts in the juvenile hope that he could transform her. “The Egyptian violated me in these very gardens, with Takshak’s guardsmen standing less than a thousand paces away!” she cried, even as mocking laugher pealed through the misty gardens. “Pray provide these details to your friends, so they may better grasp just how Takshak protects his High Tantrika! Come, now, mendicant, you pique me with your snippets…what else do they say?”

The lad was staring at her as if hypnotized. “That the Maharaja has no more use for you,” he said in a monotone, “that the Sumerian witch accompanies him everywhere, even to the for...

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