Naamah's Curse - Jacqueline Carey [218]
I didn’t know how Amrita went about settling her expanded staff within her expanded household, and I didn’t care. It was enough for now to know that she did. I trusted my golden Rani to keep her word.
In the chamber I shared with Bao, I removed the pouch containing the necklace with Kamadeva’s diamond from my pocket. It weighed heavy in my hand, singing softly to me. Although I’d thought myself jaded on treasure, this was no mortal gem. I had the urge to open the pouch and look at it once more, to gaze on the dark, shifting embers at the black diamond’s core. In Kurugiri and on the journey, there had been no time to think about it.
Now I couldn’t help but wonder how it would look around my neck, what I would be like wielding it.
“Tempted, Moirin?” Bao was watching me.
“No.” I set the pouch down quickly on a dressing table. “Just… wondering. I can’t help it.”
He came over to me. “You wonder what you would be like?” I nodded. Bao touched my cheek with his fingertips. “You would be desirable beyond bearing,” he said soberly. “You already incite powerful desire. Were you to don Kamadeva’s diamond, I think no one would be able to resist you, for the diamond would reflect your own considerable passions back at them. Men would walk through fire for the chance to touch your skin—and women, too. Men would gladly fight to the death for your favor without being asked. I daresay you couldn’t stop them from doing it. Is that what you want?”
“No!” I said. “Of course not.” And it was true, almost entirely true; but there was a tiny piece of me that said otherwise. The vanity and pride that was wounded by the fact that I had wanted Raphael de Mereliot more than he had wanted me; by the fact that I’d failed to seduce Aleksei in Vralia; even the fact that my lady Amrita had only offered herself to me out of compassion.
But I could envision the Maghuin Dhonn Herself turning away from me in reproach, Her eyes filled with immense sorrow and regret.
I sighed. “I will ask the Rani for a coffer with a strong lock, and I will put Kamadeva’s diamond in it and throw away the key. Let the priests worry about opening it when it is returned to the temple.”
Bao smiled. “I think that is wise. Such powerful objects are dangerous to mere mortals, even ones with the blood of the goddess of desire running in their veins.”
I put my arms around his neck. “Desirable beyond bearing, hmm?”
He nodded gravely, arms circling my waist. “Oh, yes.”
I kissed him. “I would like to have a bath, and a very large meal, and then I would like to sleep in a warm bed, possibly for two days straight through. After that, I would very much like to hear more about these strong desires I incite. Does that sound reasonable to you?”
“Yes, Moirin.” Bao’s dark eyes glinted, and he bent his head to return my kiss. “Very, very reasonable.”
His diadh-anam flickered against mine, gentle as a caress. Kamadeva’s diamond sang in its pouch, and somewhere the bright lady smiled.
“Oh, good,” I said with relief.
SEVENTY-SEVEN
A s it was, it took only a single night’s sleep to restore me to a semblance of normalcy; and we awoke to good news.
“Hasan Dar’s fever broke in the night,” the Rani Amrita informed us at the breakfast table, her face beaming. “His wound needs to drain yet, but the physician thinks he will recover fully.”
“That’s wonderful!” I said. “I’m so pleased to hear it, my lady.”
“Yes.” The light in her face faded a bit. “There have been far too many deaths already, eh?”
Bao heaped his plate with eggs cooked with vegetables and spices, warm flatbread, and savory fried lentil-cakes filled with pickled achar. “What of the others, highness?”
It brought back her vibrant smile. “Well, all are healing well!”
While we ate, Amrita and Ravindra told us what had transpired in our absence. It had caused a great scandal that Pradeep and the guards had transported the bodies of the fallen to the temple of funeral pyres, both their highnesses accompanying them. Although the Rani had not made a formal announcement rescinding