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serving Good.”
    “But I am Satan’s consort!” Jolie protested. “Even Satan knows the meaning of honor, and so do you. Satan cannot openly support your action in preventing that soul from descending to him, but the forces of Good have no such conflict of interest. Can you serve Good to this extent, in order to buy time for Orlene to recover her initiative?”
    Jolie saw how cleverly this offer was designed. Satan indeed did not want Orlene in Hell! He wanted her in as good a situation as possible before Gaea learned of it. So, just as Gaea would not openly consummate her marriage to Satan, Satan would not openly support Good. But his interest in this particular matter was the same as Gaea’s and Jolie’s.
    “Yes, I can do this,” Jolie agreed. “It will not be easy,” Luna warned. “I think it best not to tell you the manner this relates to my interest, but you will be charged with serving that interest as it becomes apparent to you, until you leave that host.”
    “I agree to this,” Jolie said.
    “And I see no need to acquaint Gaea with what you have told me, until there is a better resolution,” Luna said. “Now I must go, but Zane will be along presently, and he will take you to the girl.”
    “I’ll have to tell Gaea where I’m going.”
    “No need; she knows.” Luna left.
    Jolie stood, bemused. How could Gaea know? Then she realized that Gaea’s suggestion had not been offhand, about seeing Luna. She must have cleared it first, or at least have known that Luna had such a need. The Incarnations had levels of communications that others hardly fathomed, and Luna was in certain respects like an Incarnation.
    She remembered, too, the first time she had animated Gaea’s physical body and gone to make love to Satan. It had been nominally Parry and Jolie, as it had been so long ago in life, and as such, wonderful. But it was also the secret, forbidden consummation of Satan and Gaea, the Incarnations of Evil and Nature. There had been only one direct evidence of that which an outsider could have recognized: when Satan had asked Jolie to thank the one whose body she had borrowed, and Gaea had said in her own voice, “She knows.”
    Luna had been similarly certain. But she had also agreed to keep Jolie’s information private, for now. So Gaea knew that Jolie’s business was serious and in good hands, and that was enough.
    She waited, hanging on to the limp soul, and in an hour there was a sound outside. She looked out, and there was Mortis, the beautiful, pale death-horse, trotting down through the air toward the yard. The two griffins set up a squawking of welcome. Mortis landed, the hooded figure dismounted, and the animals sniffed noses.
    Thanatos strode to the house. Jolie stepped through the closed door to meet him. She was, of course, used to his skull visage; he was actually a living man, become the Incarnation of Death when he killed his predecessor, and his appearance was only his costume. “Luna said-”
    “Yes. Are you ready?”
    “Yes.” There was that hidden communication again! “It is not far from here. Ride with me.” Jolie followed as he returned to Mortis. The horse became a pale car, somehow knowing his master’s desire unspoken. His master? Mortis had outlasted several Officeholders! Jolie tried to enter the car but could not pass through the substance; Thanatos had to open the door for her, in seeming gallantry which was not mock. The associates of the Incarnations had special qualities too; Jolie had not realized that Mortis was ghost-proof, but it did not surprise her.
    “I understand Nox is involved,” Thanatos remarked as the car moved smoothly out of the grounds, self-guided.
    “She made this person into a man and caused him to attempt rape,” Jolie replied. “Now her evil overbalances her good and she is sinking, but I don’t think it’s fair.”
    “Her balance is positive, not negative,” Thanatos said. “She sinks only because she believes she is evil, but