“Under attack by were dragons, Golden Control!”

Aamankhotep listened to the recording one last time as his troop carrier descended to the scene of the massacre. His rare and striking green eyes were circled by fine red lines threading through the white. Otherwise his stern visage betrayed no trace of his whirling emotions.

“No! Do not land! There are no dragons there! Evade! Change direction!” Rohjer's voice sounded faint, in the background. And then there was nothing.

Aamankhotep sighed and stood. An hour since... he stopped detecting Rohjer's presence at all in the godworld. Gone for four days. He never should have let him go! An hour since Dethar came to him in his private quarters and gave him the news. The award ceremony canceled, Aamankhotep flew north to this site, where the air car went down. Impatiently, the Were Jaguar King, Deputy of Sunset Highland, let 20 of his men debark before him. Their cheeks and foreheads flashed new colors and shapes telling the tales of the sites they had seen and the personages they served.

The dead lay in heaps as though flung by great force, with skin and clothing bloodily torn apart as though by wild animals. Dethar directed his attention to the terrible blisters and black burnt flesh which could only be caused by Identic energy weapons. Slug throwers, the ancient ancestor of such sidearms were outlawed on Ardjia and had always been. All of the guards, the men specially chosen by Dethar and approved by Aamankhotep to guard Rohjer on his little vacation to go play with the northern shamans. All dead. They were quickly accounted for, even the mangled parts of the pilot and co-pilot. No sign of Rohjer, nor his silver and red brocade, his wands, no whisper of... Aamankhotep delved deep into the godworld, forcing his mind to stay in the present and recent past as he examined the scene through his ka eyes.

“No dragons were here,” he murmured. Not the large land lizards of the southern Highland, nor the large flying were beasts of the Midland.

Dethar only nodded, disgusted with the whole business. Trying to pull the ka blessed of Cloudbank Midlands into this violent attack on Lord Lightfall and the Highlands. Who would attempt such a trickery and why? Obviously, Identics were involved. No ka blessed of Ardjia would stoop to such clumsy inelegant weapons.

The dark grey air chariot lay resting peacefully on the ground amongst the trees. Despite having the nose removed by something she had landed gently and well which spoke of the guards and Rohjer being in control all the way to the ground. But why no further message? Well, obviously the messaging equipment was destroyed. Why did he not call me? Aamankhotep's hurt heart wanted to cry out. Again obviously, he was busy.

“He had the boy with him?” Aamankhotep asked, knowing full well it was so.

“And one blood slave,” Dethar answered.

“Rohjer would try to save them first before his own safety,” Aamankhotep murmured softly, approaching the broken craft with all his senses open and receiving. Dethar followed close behind, rod out and ready to shoot defensive ka spells in case of any attack. Aamankhotep moved slowly, navigating past the warped metal until he stood within the relatively unharmed interior of the air chariot. “There,” he said, moving to where Rohjer had sat. Being so intimately connected with his Royal Advisor, Aamankhotep knew where Rohjer had been and tried to imagine what he had done. A child.... what would he do with the child?

Rohjer was cunning and very good at concealing things. Aamankhotep daily wondered how much he truly did not know about the blue-eyed man from the stars. When he had first chased him, he had pretended to be a tiny bug and nearly fooled both Dethar and himself. Subtle was his specialty. Aamankhotep carefully ran his ka-enhanced gaze over every thread and seam of the seats. The guards had all storage cupboards open. Aamankhotep examined the carpet, and found its heartbeat.

“Here!” he said. “Under here.” He pointed in front of his feet and guards knelt to pull at seats and carpet. The flooring came up and they could all see the latch of a door or container. When opened, there lay Dedicant Erak sound asleep.

“Come to me,” Aamankhotep whispered releasing Rohjer's hold of sleep on the young boy's mind.

“Ah! Aamankhotep!” Erak piped, popping up out of the hold in an explosion of soft gold cabin blankets. “Lord Aamankhotep! Lord Were Jaguar! Master Rohjer said it was not dragons!” He looked around blinking. Then his hand flew to his heart. “Is Lord Master Rohjer dead?”

“No!” Aamankhotep shouted, his control seriously tested in that moment. He took a shuddering breath and all the ka adept guards around him watched carefully, no doubt running through plans of how to get the boy out of the way should their King lash out in his anger and misery. The pain of being cut off from a successfully ritually Claimed usually resulted in madness.

Father could not have done this. He knows how painful it is to me. How impossible. Yet Hhhamanhotep hints that Ttttutmosen plans his death on his birthday. He would lose all the gains I have given him here in the Highlands?

Oh yes Little God, the voice of the mind of his grandmother, Goddess Empress Hhhhatshepsut, absorbed at her death, spoke within his godmind. Your success on Sunset Highland surprised us all in the Hat Ka and across the Mainland. Delighted us as well, mind you. But none of us added the unity of the Highlands to our political calculations.

So I am a threat to him, Aamankhotep stated wearily. The gaping hole where Rohjer's life energy usually mingled with his own wore at his mind and heart. Four nights they had been apart and he had not complained, nor whined, nor skipped any of his duties; had added to them by spending time with both Sitamun, his First Wife from the Mainland and Iset, his Second Wife of the Golden Valley. He tried his dutiful best to be pleasant and engaged when in his true heart and mind, he counted the minutes till Rohjer was by his side again, in his bed again.

“All are accounted for, save Lord Lightfall,” a guard said clearly.

“Yes, he was kidnapped,” Aamankhotep's voice had a hoarseness to it. He breathed and looked around the bloody scene again. Night would soon fall. “By offworld ka users who clumsily disguised their attack with illusory dragons,” he stated slowly looking in growing concern at Dethar, who nodded his agreement with the summation.

“If he's not dead, my King, then why can't I feel him?” Erak asked sadly, still rubbing at his chest.

“Use your intelligence.” Aamankhotep's lips thinned into an almost smile. “Is that not what Lord Lightfall would tell you? His dead body is not here among so many. He is a great ka warrior and a pivotal asset. He knows Ardjia. He knows the Identic. He knows the Syndicate. And he knows the Tattva Sanga. He is too valuable to kill. So how has he been made to disappear, student of Lord Lightfall?”

“Nullstone,” Erak said, looking down to the ground to hide his embarrassment. Tightly controlled by the ka blessed and among other functions it was used to imprison the unruly ka blessed, nullstone's composition made ka or shakti inert. So handcuffs or a neck torc or collar rendered the ka blessed as though ka blind. A small benefit to those imprisoned in nullstone: it also rendered external ka attacks inert and harmless. Gun butts, whips, and bare knuckles worked around it well enough.

“Worry not young Erak. Rohjer is alive and we will retrieve him.” Aamankhotep spoke with authority.

He paused before entering the troop carrier. Was that a whiff of his father's great power? Or had the current God Emperor simply taken an interest in the lack of Rohjer's essence in the godworld. Surely, the were king cobra who sat on the throne of Ardjia and took note of everything that occurred, physically and metaphysically, would notice the loss of the most brightly burning spirit there in the godworld.

No other burns as brightly as my Lightfall.

Another hour until back in his Were Jaguar's Den, in the communication room, Aamankhotep and Dethar set about infiltrating and then scanning the logs of the star ships docked at the Throne at River Mouth and the intercore satellite that sat in geosynchronous orbit around Ardjia. Looking for communications that might give a clue as to any plans concerning the kidnapping, they left to a computer keyword program. They scanned their own sky reports of any vehicle near that of Rohjer's air car flight path. Radar at Gadus noted an air car heading west some twenty minutes before the attack, putting it in position at the right time. By the next morning, the intercore satellite coughed up the trajectory of a tiny ship departing Ardjia space just after the attack. They had the location of the anastomosis used and so an initial direction to follow, but that anastomosis led to Trinitron with its three anastomoses, one of which led to Parare and its seven anastomoses. They had no way to identify the ship from any other small ship across the Identic.

Ishaq leading Rohjer's contingent of guards returned from tending to the dead and bearing the news to the widows and parents. Aamankhotep left them and others to answer the Highland wide inquiries into the disappearance of Lord Lightfall's ka from the godworld. All of his bloodslaves would notice sooner or later, even if they were ka blind. Rohjer was deeply in their hearts.

Aamunet's birthday came soon. Aamankhotep would add the award ceremony to it, since she was the next main personage to congratulate her guards personally on their accomplishments. It was supposed to have been Rohjer's day...