The Serpent's Shadow

'So, the novice seeks to be Archbishop before he has even made his first vows!' she taunted him in flawless English, which probably startled him the more. 'Either you are a fool, or you take me for one. So which is it, O Lord of the World? Are you the fool, or do you think you can deceive one who can see into your empty head and heart?' She tilted her head mockingly, and waited for his answer.

He gritted his teeth, but did not get up and walk out, nor snap back an immediate insult.

'So, you have some self-control, at least,' she said when he made no reply. 'That is better than your erstwhile friends who follow the Dawn.' He started, and stared at her, the whites showing momentarily about his eyes. 'Oh yes, I know of them, and of you, and all you have said and done with them; why should this surprise you?' she continued. 'I have what they only pretend to, as you know. Well. You have ordered me about, and you have seen what that brings you. Now what will you do?'

What he did was the unusual but not entirely unexpected step of humbling himself. He bowed his proud head to her, although the stiffness in his neck was due entirely to pride and not to muscle strain.

'I apologize for my poor manners,' he said at last, after taking himself in hand and subduing his temper and his arrogance.

'That is an improvement.' She nodded, indicating that he should go on.

'I—' He gritted his teeth again; she heard them grinding. 'I beg that you should accept me as a disciple.'

'And what will you offer me for the privilege?' she asked, again surprising him. 'What, why should you be astonished? What I have is of value. Every Master is entitled to a fee for taking an Apprentice; the difference between me and those you have sought out in the past is that I am honest about requiring that fee, and I have far more to teach you than they have. You have so far given me no indication that you have any intention of making an exchange of value for value.'

His indignation was evident in every movement of his body—but he reached into his pocket for his wallet before she stopped him with an abrupt gesture of rejection.

'Money? I think not, Englishman,' she said sharply. 'What need have I of the dross of your money? My Goddess grants anything I need; I need not contaminate myself with your leavings to supply my wants.' She waved her hand around her chamber. 'Look about you! I have no hordes of idiot English hangers-on, and you see how I live. That I choose to dwell here and not in some 'fashionable district' is a matter of my convenience and privacy, and not because I cannot afford to live there. You must offer me something better than your abominable English pounds and pence.'

Clearly he had never found anyone who so forcefully rejected his money before. Shivani wasn't at all surprised at that; the Blat woman's begging habits were a matter of mirth among her dacoits. one or two of whom had penetrated the ranks of her servants before they learned just how empty her promises were. And the Crawly-man regularly milked the largesse of his disciples, though with a little more finesse.

Now the petitioner's mood shifted from indignation to puzzlement. 'Then what do you want?' he asked, so thoroughly discomfited that he had become, had he but known it, as malleable as she could have wished. She leaned forward; he mirrored her action, his ruddy cheeks pale with strain. He wanted what she had, more than wanted it. Under the influence of her manner and the drugs, he craved it. He would not yet do anything to get it, but that would come.

'Nothing small,' she replied in a low voice. 'Only what is proper. For the reward of becoming my disciple, I demand no less than your service, your devotion, and your obedience in all things.'

Over the course of the next hour, they bargained, but it was hopeless on his side of the bargain from the moment that he had asked what she wanted. In the end, she had him. He didn't know she had him, body and soul, but she did. He went away with orders to carry out; only when he had fulfilled them would she teach him anything.

For now his orders were simple things, and so far as he knew, harmless. He was merely to procure a list of addresses from the pension rolls of an importation company—one which imported opium as well as tea, and dealt in jewels which were not always honestly gotten—in which he was a not-so-petty official. When he brought it back to her, she would have a list of men who had worked in one of the many companies that traded in Indian misery, in this case, headquartered in Calcutta. From this, she could choose potential victims.

He protested over her instructions, and blustered, but they both knew it was merely for form's sake. He had not enough imagination to construe what she wanted with the list, and even if he had known, he probably would not have believed she had the means to carry out her plans. He went away knowing that there is always a price for anything that is genuine. That was the first step in what might become an extensive education, if he returned.

She summoned her handmaiden to escort the man to the street. The girl came with one of the dacoits, which was wise of her, in case the English decided to take out his humiliation on his escort. The dacoit was the one who took the man away; the handmaiden remained with her mistress.

'Come,' Shivani said, and returned to her private rooms to take off her ridiculous guise and assume a more comfortable set of garments.

There was, of course, the chance that the man would get his wits about him and not make a second visit; that was the chance she always had to take. You did not capture an. ape with shouting and chasing after it. You caught it by careful planning, tempting it in with things it could not resist, and seducing it with pleasures it was