"Nysa," says Cara, "What if we don't come back?" Nysa is spooning her and now his strong arms pull her closer. "Not everybody does. And no one can talk about what happens in the catacombs. That's what frightens me, more than anything."
"I'll bring you back," he says. "No matter what. And everyone says it's wonderful; the deepest experience of their lives. That's what everybody says. Look how many go back to the catacombs! Father's been four times, to serve in the Rites." He strokes her arm, her waist, and she purrs and presses against him. The backs of her legs hug his knees.
"I know. But those who don't come back, those the Cat Abasis keeps -- Mother Ekata says they stay with her, forever in her womb." She rolls over on the straw mattress, studies his face in the moonlight. "She's been teaching me, you know. Not just the herbs and the little magic, and how to lead the rituals. She's been teaching me the deep magic."
"The deep -- the magic inside? I thought that was dangerous. I thought you couldn't do that without the Mystery--"
"You can. A little. She can't tell me everything, can't break her own oath. But you have to, to learn the catsong. You use the deep magic." She bites her lip. Nysa finds this very distracting. "I've seen--not her face, not before I've, you know, Seen--but, I suppose, her silhouette. The shape of the Queen of the Earth, and how she fills the soil and breathes within the roots of all the plants and opens up to receive the dead and -- it's so beautiful, Nysa. But it scares the shit out of me."
