Free Wraiths of Time by Andre Norton

Princess Ashake, she whose form you wear, swore that it was her venture alone. For the Candace could not be risked, and there is no other of the whole Blood in this generation, so thin have our ranks now become. Thus we went to the most holy place where the vibrations of the Power had long been, and there she threw herself into the unknown. There she must also have met the full force of some hate like unto Khasti’s.”
    Carey? Tallahassee’s thought caught and held upon the man who had made so plain his dislike.… It could well be Carey, influenced beyond his knowledge or belief, had been the hostile focus.
    â€œWhen she returned”—Jayta paused, and then went on—“it would seem that because you, too, had laid hand on the Rod, she must draw you with her. And this was too great a strain on the Talent we had summoned to our backing. Thus she was gone from us, even as she fulfilled the mighty task she had bent herself to do. Also—there was that creature of Khasti’s who would have followed her—perhaps it was necessary for her to strive with him also in your time. For he came after—but”—there was complete satisfaction in Jayta’s thought now—“him I was able to seal outside now that Key and Rod had returned. I know not if his master has managed to draw him back by whatever unhallowed means he employs, but if he has—then Khasti knows what we have done. Also Userkof knows, for it was the personal guards of his household who broke in upon us at Meroë and were forced to acknowledge that they had no right of intrusion upon the Daughter of the Blood.”
    At least there was logic in Jayta’s explanation, wild as it might seem to Tallahassee. If she could accept this all as reality, then the fact of her sudden transportation here was true.
    â€œWhat do you want of me?” she asked.
    An expression of surprise altered the harsh cast of Jayta’s features for a moment.
    â€œNeed you ask? The Candace, who knows all of this—save of Ashake’s death (though word of that is already on the way to her) is in the north on a state visit to the People of the Sea. She will return in time for the Half-Year Feast. We must then have the Rod ready for her hand. But to all others you must be Ashake! Those who were with us at Meroë are of the second circle of Believers and servers. They are sworn to a still tongue on this business for I needed their united power with mine to light the way for Ashake’s return. But in Amun you are the Princess Heir and must be—”
    â€œAnd if I choose not to aid your plans? I was drawn into this through no will of my own—”
    â€œHow?” countered Jayta.
    Tallahassee found herself telling of the wild night’s work in the museum and how she had been compelled to follow the ankh to the rod, of the presences she had felt during that strange struggle of wills.
    â€œKhasti’s creature. It was he who stole the Key and hid it so. It was he who hoped to reach the Rod before the Princess broke through to claim it. It was he who had you lay hand upon it, and so brought her to her death.”
    â€œYou say his ‘creature’. What do you mean?” Tallahassee asked.
    For a moment or two she believed that Jayta was not going to answer. Then the message came with obvious reluctance.
    â€œWe do not know by what means Khasti has learned of this thing, or how he projected his servant with the Rod into this other world of yours and in turn sent the Key after it. He has set up shields about his work of a kind we cannot pierce. And those who are of our Talent dare not try to spy on him, for they can be instantly detected by some trick of his own kind of power, as we discovered when the Rod vanished. To be unmasked by Khasti is death—we think—for none we sent returned, and neither could we after pick them up by personna-scanner. They—they simply vanished. But his servant