Gold Dust walked through the Secret Passage. Cobwebs did not net her face. The Shah had just had a visitor. A man? A woman? She would miss the king. He had shared intimate secrets with her; he had guarded her against the plotting of the harem; he had loved her in his own way, with all of his passion and the fierceness of his beliefs. In his palace, she had grown into a woman, given birth to Raven, and discovered the world through the eyes of two eunuchs as different as good and evil. She prayed Hazel-Boy would be waiting. Her bones made the walk difficult. She glanced through a porthole. The moon shone at a northern angle. In a few hours the sun would rise. She turned her eyes back to the Secret Passage. A blush of lilac drifted in and out of the shadows. A wave of silver. A flash of gold. She slowed down. A snake of gold coiled around a white arm. Ruby-jeweled eyes. Raven.

She walked toward the gold snake with bloody eyes and crushed her daughter against her breasts.

Raven circled her arms around Gold Dust and kissed her on the neck. Her mother must be on her way to the Shah to beg for his forgiveness. Her father’s breath was still on her. Never again would she allow another woman close to his quarters.

“Madar, the order has gone out. You must escape.”

“I know,” Gold Dust murmured.

“Pedar won’t change his mind!” She did not understand her mother, her hands sliding over her hair, securing the snake around her arm, twirling her belt, toying with the buckle. She seemed detached from the world and her fate. “Madar, don’t you understand? You’re in danger!”

Gold Dust’s fingers traced her daughter’s face to sear in her mind the outline of her features, the border of her eyes, her brows, her lashes.

Like a wild animal sensitive to the smell of weakness, Raven’s nostrils flared.

Gold Dust withdrew. She must not tarnish these last moments. She must leave behind a courageous image. “Hazel-Boy will meet me to help me escape.”

Raven’s eyes flickered. She could deal with the sultanas who vied for her father’s attention. But she did not know how to handle a ravishing eunuch who had been the Shah’s companion of many years. She stroked the snake that hugged her arm. “I’ll help both of you. But Hazel-Boy must never return to the palace. If it’s found out he assisted you, both our lives will be in danger.”

“My princess, your life will always be honored.” They had not heard Hazel-Boy approach from behind.

Raven and the eunuch latched stares in an understanding that springs from being bound to the same man. Gold Dust took in Raven’s stares, poisonous vipers aimed at a rival, and her suspicions were confirmed. For years, she had lived with a gnawing premonition that had made her life bitter, but not hopeless. Now she didn’t want certainty to replace doubt. Then despair would render her helpless. Her bones had just grown stronger. They could not take another blow.