Free Wraiths of Time by Andre Norton Page A

who did this thing—he, she, or it—could not have been of the Talent. For that, too, would have registered on those devices our mind-watchers maintain. We do know only that there must have been some alteration in the messenger-thief he sent. You say that the Princess you saw only as a shadow, and this other was also a shadow—a wraith in your world. Well”—again there was satisfaction in Jayta’s voice—“that other remains a wraith, since the Key has been turned against the creature’s return!”
    â€œIf I play this part you wish”—Tallahassee stared straight into the woman’s eyes as she formulated that thought with all the force she could summon—“then when it is done and your Queen safe once more, can you return me to my own time?”
    â€œI give you the truth. As it stands now, I am uncertain. But if Userkof is vanquished and all is safe—it may be that the Candace herself can do this thing. If so—she will have the backing in power of all of us who command the Talent.”
    â€œBut you are not sure?” persisted the girl.
    â€œI am not sure,” agreed the priestess. “What we can do, that we shall. There is this—we must do something, or all we have accomplished so far will be lost.”
    There was a strong determination in that, and Tallahassee felt a new wariness.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou must become Ashake—not only outwardly, as you are now but inwardly—owning her memories and knowledge.”
    Tallahassee could see the sense of that, but it would take some time, and how good would she be at learning the language, all the small details of the life of the girl she had replaced? Did they have weeks?
    â€œIt will take some time—”
    Jayta shook her head. “We cannot give you the Talent if you are not born with it. But all else can be shifted mind-to-mind from our archives—”
    â€œThe what?”
    â€œThe storehouse of knowledge possessed by all those who follow the way of Power, also those of the Blood who come to rule. The Rod.” She gestured to the box. “That is theirs by right, but it does not enrich their memories. Rather do all of us with the Talent come twice yearly to the shrine, and there cast our memories into the lap of the Great Power. Thus if I must know what the Daughter-of-Apedemek who was before me at an earlier time understood, I go to this storehouse and draw forth the memory of one who may have lived two lifetimes ago and wore the Golden Mask. What the Princess Ashake knew, you must have—”
    â€œComputer memory banks!” Tallahassee interrupted, excited that she could make such an identification with her own time.
    â€œI do not understand,” Jayta returned. “The picture in your mind—it is strange—like unto those things which Khasti has turned to. But in another time-world, who knows what form knowledge takes? There is one more whom we must admit to your secret, since only he will have power enough to use my seal and unlock for use Ashake’s recordings. I have already summoned him, and if luck favors us he will be here before daybreak. Now I urge you—eat, sleep, rest well, for what lies before you is no little task. We use such recordings only for a few facts. You must absorb many upon many and those as quickly as possible.”
    Jayta took the button from her own ear, coiled the line, and laid it neatly upon the top of the box sitting between them. At a clap of her hands, Idia entered and bowed.
    Tallahassee was at last able to shed the wig, her head feeling curiously light without its stifling weight. But when she glanced at her shorn skull in the mirror, she was a little startled. Did she look really that bad without hair? She wished that the ladies of Amun had not held to that particular legacy from Egypt. Another curtained door gave upon a bath wherein she was glad to plunge, washing away the remaining grit of