The Passion of Cleopatra (Ramses the Damned 2)

Julie closed the distance between them, took Sibyl's hands in hers, and spread them slightly so she could get a better look at the clothes she wore.

"You're sure you must leave?" Ramses asked.

Sibyl flinched slightly, as if she were startled to have the tension in the room described so directly.

"Yes," she whispered. "I'm very sure."

"What guides you in this decision?" Bektaten asked.

If she'd flinched at the sound of Ramses' voice, Bektaten's voice caused Sibyl to go still. Fear? Awe? Did it matter, if one of those feelings led her to answer the question honestly?

Bektaten took several steps across the stone floor. Cautious and restrained, as if she could see the power she held over Sibyl and didn't want to overwhelm her with a fast approach.

"We know she travels now with Alex Savarell. That they seek to escape London and Yorkshire and perhaps Britain itself. Do you know this, Sibyl? Can you glimpse them through that which connects you now?"

They had not told Sibyl of what Alex had revealed to Julie the day before, but she didn't seem remotely surprised to hear of it now.

Had Bektaten held this information back on purpose? Was this a last-minute attempt to keep her from leaving?

Sibyl was silent for a while.

Then she leaned forward and kissed Julie gently on the cheek.

And then, to Ramses' surprise, Sibyl walked past Julie and began to approach the oldest immortal any of them might ever know. She held her head up and fixed a welcoming smile to her face, both signs that this movement required her utmost courage. For her experience of Bektaten had been limited and shrouded in fear; she'd seen the queen as nothing more than a mute witness to her tales and the architect of Saqnos's fatal leap. A source of mystery and death. And through the fog of these feelings, she seemed to be selecting her next words very carefully.

"There's no end to the gratitude I feel for you," Sibyl said, "that I will always feel for you. It would have been so easy to abandon me to my confusion. To dismiss my piteous wails that you free Cleopatra from her captors. And you could have quite easily kept all that you have here a secret from me. But you did nothing of the kind.

"Instead, you've done far more than illuminate the strange nature of my condition. Or this connection, or whatever we shall now call it. All of you..." She glanced about the room now, surveying each of them in kind. "All of you have done so much more than that. You see, there were times throughout my life when most thought me utterly mad. My vivid dreams, my love of stories. My intolerance for monotonous everyday rituals. The intensity with which I seemed to experience everything. In the eyes of my family, these were things to be tolerated at best, even when my writing brought them considerable profit.

"And so I've always been made to feel like a creature out of step with most of the world. But after meeting all of you, after being brought here and cared for and listened to, after each of you revealed your true nature to me, I feel that way no longer, and I never will again.

"I'm now privy to a great truth. Our souls, the souls we believe to be part and parcel of our bodies, are immortal, and those souls follow their own path. I possess a soul that once belonged to another, and after I die, that soul will travel on. Most human beings live and die without ever having such a great truth revealed to them. But it has been revealed to me."

Bektaten nodded, and again she smiled.

"And so I thank you," said Sibyl. "And I will always thank you."

With that, Sibyl extended her hand to Bektaten. For a moment, Ramses thought the queen might reject this gesture. Consider it beneath her to shake hands with a mortal woman in this way. And in a manner of speaking, she did reject it. She ignored Sibyl's outstretched hand and gently took hold of the woman's shoulders instead.

"You will always be welcome here," said Bektaten. "As you will be in any place I call a home." Bektaten bent forward and kissed Sibyl on the forehead. "Fare thee well, Sibyl Parker. Fare thee well and remain as brave as you have been so far. For the mysteries that lie ahead for you are unknown even to me."

Sibyl nodded, blinked back tears, then turned her attention to Ramses.

He kissed her on the cheek, released her to Julie's warm embrace, and then suddenly they were watching her depart.

Before Sibyl could step out into the light, Julie said, "Sibyl, do you truly believe we'd harm her if we helped you find her? Is that why you want to find her alone?"

Ramses was relieved she'd said it so specifically. That they hadn't brought this farewell to a close without addressing Sibyl's true motives.

"No," Sibyl finally said, "I believe she's harmed all of you, and too recently for those wounds to entirely heal."

"And if she wishes to harm you?" Ramses asked.

Sibyl swallowed. And so this fear was with her. And that was a good thing, Ramses thought. That she had at least considered this possibility. That it informed whatever she might plan to do.

"I have but one hope. To convince her that I'm the key to her restoration. If I fail in that, nothing can save either one of us. Not in this life."

Before they could question her on this, Sibyl stepped through the door and drew it firmly shut behind her.