Malach turned. He climbed a tree, with the ease of a cat. The dogs stared, and Enki barked, but only once.

Malach swung from the high branches, and dropped back in a shower of rain.

His face was young. Ruth gazed at him. She said, "Are you going to leave me?"

"I'm going to take you away."

"Where?"

"Another country."

"Where?"

"Sing and wait."

"What?"

"An Assyrian poem. I must do with my life what I can. I must do as I must. I must love and be and kill. Sing and wait."

"What does it mean?"

"What do your questions mean," he said, "child in plaits?"

"It means I don't understand."

"Don't you."

Ruth considered. "Will I have to be punished again?"

"You must be taught."

"Will you be there?"

"Yes."

"Why?" she said.

He looked down at her. The sun was behind him, and turned the mane of his hair into a fire, darkened his face, so his eyes were the color of ashes.

"You and I," he said. "The same."

She was flattered. She smiled.

"Are we?"

They walked up the hill, and the dogs raced ahead of them. A couple coming from the opposite direction halted in fright. Oskar and Enki darted to either side and were away into the nude green chestnuts.

She asked him: "Will we have Christmas?" He did not reply, for once. Ruth said. "Emma always had it. Mommy… Rachaela didn't."

"You're a Christian, then," he said, "that you want to celebrate Christmas."

Ruth shook her head. "I don't believe in Jesus."

"He lived," said Malach.

"The Scarabae don't have Christmas," she decided.

That was the day they went to the museum.

They walked between the sand-polished stones, the gods with beast heads, and the pharoahs with the faces of wise girls. In the back rooms, into which they were secre-lively let, ancient things crouched in cases or lay about on tables, shining in the bright light.

"Here is an image of Sekmet," Malach" said. The goddess stood on a shelf, dark as coal, her lion head inscribed with whiskers that made her seem playful. "Sekmet, Power of Battle. She killed without mercy and drank the blood. Only another god could hold her back."

"How did he do it?"

"He gave her something she thought was blood, but it made her drunk instead."

"Then what happened?"

"She became gentle and clever."

Ruth scrutinized Sekmet.

There were cartouches of gold, and one set with lapis lazuli. Malach indicated small statues, naming them indolently. Once he said, "And this is wrongly labeled." He did not say what the label should read.

There was a great goddess or queen by a door. He put his fingers to her lips.

Ruth frowned jealously.

In the Roman section they passed the busts of generals, golden cups, and jugs of opaque greenish glass.

"At Lupercal they looked for werewolves," Malach said. "If they found them, they sent them into the forest. See this head from Germany. It's grinning."