Somewhere down the hall a door opened, then closed. Footsteps. Without thinking, Izzy dropped the picture, jumped up and left the room. The hall was empty, and she made it back downstairs unobserved.

“Where’s Sky?” she asked Jeb. She felt strange and wondered if the tea had something in it. But, weirdly, she was starting not to care.

“You’re in luck,” he said. “She’s just arrived. And she’s eager to see you. Ausar will take you upstairs to her.”

◆◆◆

Sky sat cross-legged on a large, low bed, its four posts carved into lotus blossoms from which hung white chiffon panels. She was admiring herself in a round hand mirror with the handle in the shape of an ankh. White roses in glass bowls had been placed around the room, white candles burned in sconces, and music—drums and flutes—whispered from hidden speakers. Sky’s unnaturally smooth and brown skin had been recently oiled like lemon-polished wood. “I’m so glad you came, darling.”

There was nowhere else to sit except the bed with Sky, so Izzy remained standing.

“Have something to drink.” Sky got up, poured another cup of tea for Izzy, handed it to her, sat down again, and adjusted the white silk robe over her thighs. Izzy doubted that the woman wore anything underneath. The inner swell of one breast was visible through the opening of her robe. “I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said.

Izzy said nothing.

“I see you’ve hurt yourself. And shaved your head.”

Izzy reflexively touched her scalp as if protecting her head from a blow.

“The journeywoman often shaves off her hair as a sign of mourning as she searches for the beloved,” Sky said. “She often becomes injured while on her quest. You intuited this. But I want to help you, so that you aren’t so alone.”

What the hell was she talking about? Was she high? Amanda had seemed high. Were they all high? Was Izzy high? “What do you know about Cyrus?”

“Do you believe in resurrection?” Sky asked then. “Because I do. I believe that in some ways the beloved is always with us.”

Izzy rubbed her temples and shook her head from side to side to clear it, but the faint buzzing remained.

“I think everything is possible,” Sky went on. “When the conditions are right. When the world is ready. Take King Tut’s pectoral breastplate for example. Howard Carter, who discovered his tomb, thought the greenish gold gem, used to make the large scarab carrying the sun and moon, was chalcedony, ordinary quartz. But then minerals like lechatelierite and baddeleyite and also iron, nickel, chromium, cobalt, and iridium were discovered in the material. The greenish yellow material was made by a meteorite hitting earth, burning the sand, then cooling in the air and showering down on the desert.

“We are all sharing the earth’s pain,” said Sky.