By that time, Helen had returned, holding a young rabbit by the ears. It hung limp from her hand, as though stunned. Had she somehow mesmerized it? Alice could not help the prickle of tears that came to her eyes. Of course she had helped Mrs. Poole skin and butcher a hare before, for stews and pies. But this one was so young and vulnerable!
The white, heatless energic fire had consumed the mummy wrappings. Out of that flame had walked a beautiful black cat—the same cat she was currently scratching under the chin. Bastet meowed—clearly, she wanted something to eat. Cats were cats, even if they were two thousand years old! Bast was certainly older than Alpha and Omega, even if you did not count her millennia of sleep, but she reminded Alice of the Athena Club cats and Mrs. Poole’s kitchen.
The second thing Queen Tera had done was look at Helen critically. “You have the power in you—you and your daughter. I felt it when you raised me from my sleep. How much of it can you use?”
“Only a little,” said Helen, with more humility than Alice had seen her display thus far. “Illusions, mostly. And I can do this.” She had put her hands close together, about an inch apart. Sparks had shot between her fingers, startling Alice. “But that is all. And even that, I have worked years to attain.”
Tera had shaken her head. “I will teach you how to use your abilities so that you can draw upon the true energic powers of the Earth. Now you are using only the power of your own body, your own mind. That is why you can do so little. You must draw upon the great body, the great mind, of the Earth itself—of Geb who lies below us, and Nut who stretches above. There is power in the stones and soil, in the grass and trees, in the clouds above, even in the stars. Here, we can draw power from the ocean, with its restless waves. I have not seen such an ocean before—it fills me with longing for I know not what. First we will conquer this England of yours. That will not be difficult. And then we shall establish an empire such as the world has not known since Octavian. Margaret, what else did your father loot from my tomb? Show me the rest of the artifacts.”
“How can she speak English so well?” Alice had whispered to her mother. “I thought you said she could speak Egyptian and Greek—but English didn’t even exist, did it, when she was mummified?”
“Quiet, Lydia,” Helen had replied in a low voice. “Tera might hear you and be insulted. Usually after death, individual consciousness returns to the energic power of the universe, which is like a great ocean. But not Tera’s—somehow, and I have to confess that I don’t understand all the details, her consciousness was bound to her tomb. The priestesses of Isis, at least those who were on her side, planned that if she died in the battle against Augustus, they would resurrect her later to fight the Roman occupation—that was why they left all the necessary implements and instructions for the ritual in her burial chamber. But they were never able to. She was betrayed by one of her own priestesses, who refused to fight when the Roman soldiers came. At least this is what Margaret told me. The Roman victory was too complete: The temple was requisitioned for barracks, the order was disbanded, and the priestesses were scattered to the corners of the known world. Tera’s consciousness waited in her tomb for almost two thousand years. It sensed Margaret’s presence even before she stumbled over the door in the sand. It summoned her—Margaret told me that it was like being called indoors by her nursemaid when she was a child after a day of playing on the rocks of Kyllion Cove. And when she put on the scarab necklace—well, it functions as a sort of conduit, like a telegraph wire. But a conduit of energic waves. Tera spoke to her through the necklace. She told her how to interpret the hieroglyphs correctly, how to enact the ritual—and what to leave out so that her father would not be able to enact it correctly. The conduit worked both ways. She has been inside Margaret’s mind for months. It must be strange for Margaret now, not having that connection.”
“But then…” Alice did not want to be quiet. She wanted to know what was going on. Anyway, Tera was not paying attention to them. She was sorting through the artifacts that had come from her tomb, looking for clothing, jewelry, small pots and jars of various sorts that seemed to contain cosmetics. “Was this your plan all along? Yours and Miss Trelawny’s?” All that time her mother had obeyed Moriarty, was she planning his fiery death? And what about Margaret Trelawny’s father and fiancé? “When Professor Trelawny died—”
“You don’t think Margaret was going to allow her father to raise Tera from the dead, do you? That would not have done at all. She knew Moriarty through her father—once or twice, Moriarty had helped him smuggle valuable artifacts out of Egypt. Moriarty went to Professor Trelawny’s funeral, and I accompanied him. That was where I met Margaret. Tera’s consciousness in her sensed my mesmeric abilities. After the funeral, at a somber tea in the church refectory, she came up to me and whispered, “How would you like to rule the world?” That was the beginning of our collaboration. Moriarty had already formed his Order of the Golden Dawn and begun infiltrating the government. And he was already familiar with mesmeric power from his friendship with my father. It was easy enough to lead him to the idea of the ritual. He was a fool—a useful fool for a while. We used him and his ridiculous order until he was no longer needed. That’s all.”
“But are we still kidnapping Queen Victoria?” Alice asked doubtfully.
“Of course. She’s very old, much too old and frail to be queen. We want someone strong, someone who can build up the British Empire. Tera will rule for a while as Victoria, but once we have consolidated our power, Victoria will die in a convincing and innocuous way, and Tera will take her place as Queen and Empress. How she does that will depend on the specific circumstances. Will we need to assassinate the Crown Prince, or will he simply abdicate? That is still to be decided. As Moriarty discovered, Prince Edward has very little support in the government—I have no doubt the ministers and members of parliament would welcome a strong monarch. Moriarty had already started bringing them to his side, whether by persuasion, bribery, or blackmail—his efforts will be useful to us. What he began, we can continue by the judicious application of fear and mesmerism. Once Tera holds the reins of power, the world will see a ruler the likes of which it has never known. She will revitalize our empire in a way Moriarty would never have understood.”
“And what will you do with Her Majesty?” Alice asked. She was afraid to hear the answer.
“Keep her here, in the dungeon,” said Helen. “For a while, at least, until she is no longer needed. Of course we shall treat her well—no harm will come to her until absolutely necessary. We will, eventually, need a convincing corpse.”
Alice had not known what to say. She has simply shuddered at the cold, precise way in which Helen had described this horrifying plan. She must try to stop it—but how?
“And you, Lydia.” Tera had turned to look at Alice, who trembled just a little in her boots. The Egyptian queen was neither large nor imposing. In Soho, she had put on one of Margaret’s dresses, which covered her from neck to toes in black crepe. Alice could not help thinking of her as a sort of ghost. The scarab necklace was still around her neck, over the bodice. Although there were wrinkles under her eyes and over her forehead, she certainly did not look two thousand years old. She moved with the ease and elasticity of a young woman. Nevertheless, Alice could not forget how she had blasted Justine with nothing but a pointed finger and the power of her mind.