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"And what is that?" Ramses asked.
Enamon placed it inside his jacket pocket. When Ramses met his eyes, he responded with only a blank stare, a quiet, polite reminder that he was under no obligation to answer Ramses' questions.
"It's pollen from the angel blossom," Bektaten said.
"And it requires no ring or dagger to be effective?"
"It's a more complex tool," she answered. "It is how I was able to see inside the estate where he now holds Cleopatra."
"And how does it work?" Julie asked.
"You'll see," Enamon answered.
"You are not to use it yourself," Bektaten said. "Either of you. You
don't have the experience."
"You're giving us your men as well," Ramses said.
"I am," she answered.
"And we're to leave you and Sibyl unguarded?" Julie asked.
"Dear Julie," Bektaten said, running one long-fingered hand down the doors of the mahogany cabinet, "I am not unguarded."
Julie nodded.
In the tense silence that followed, Ramses picked up one of the sheathed daggers by its handle, tested its weight in his hand. When Julie did the same, a protective urge flared inside him, and, as if sensing it, she met his eyes quickly. She was daring him to forbid her to join this mission. So he did nothing of the kind. But he could not help but smile at her show of defiance and strength, the way it tensed her lips, making them look succulent and kissable at the very moment when he knew a kiss might be seen as a crass dismissal of her resolve.
Bektaten studied them both. So did Enamon, as if they thought they might not have the strength for what lay ahead.
"I have armed your mission," the queen said, "and so now it is my right to apply conditions to it."
Ramses placed the dagger back on the table. "If these conditions are not agreed to, will your arms be withdrawn?"
She ignored this question. "You will bring Cleopatra here so that we may confine her and assess the true nature of her being, as well as the nature of what she is becoming and how it affects our new friend Sibyl Parker. You are not to destroy her with what I give you. You are to destroy only her captors and all else that stands in your way. As I have already said to you, Ramses, to kill Cleopatra in haste may place Sibyl in great peril. I will not allow this."
Ramses looked to Julie. Julie nodded her agreement.
"We agree. And your second condition?"
"Bring me Saqnos."
Difficult at first to pinpoint the source of anger in the room; the great heaving breath that sent currents of tension rippling through the silence that followed. The anger came from her servant Enamon. He was the one who had reacted to her order with a great inhalation. It was the first outward display of emotion Ramses had seen from this man, and it suggested he was more than just a servant. A constant companion. Had this Saqnos left wounds in him as deep as those he'd left in his queen?
Bektaten gazed back at Enamon silently, pain in her eyes, but a cold resolve to the rest of her expression.
"Do you feel that's wise?" Ramses asked.
"Wise?" she asked, turning her gaze from her companion to him.
"He seeks the pure elixir and always has. And you have it here."
"I have its ingredients here, scattered among many. It has not been mixed and it is never stored. Should he get free--"
"He will not get free." Enamon's voice was a deep, startling rumble. It startled even Bektaten. There was more than protectiveness in his tone. Also a note of reproach.
"Should he somehow find my garden," Bektaten began carefully, and it was clear her cool rephrasing was the only concession she would make to her servant's fear and anger over her choice, "he will once again be at a loss for how the ingredients are assembled."
