After thought, she said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I find your explanation rather abstract. Can you be more specific?"
"I shall try." Srinivasa studied the diagrams pensively. "Mars and Saturn, courage and duty, are very strong in your husband. He is a warrior, with a warrior's strength, and a warrior's weakness, which is the inability to accept that his strength has limits. He torments himself because of his own perceived failings, not seeing them as necessary steps on the path. Jupiter, planet of faith and joy and growth, is also inherently strong, but it has been heavily afflicted for the last two years or so. An imprisonment of body, and now of spirit."
The chart had given the priest an understanding of Ian that was in some ways better than Laura's. A little afraid of what she might learn about herself, she said, "What are my strengths and weaknesses, Srinivasa?"
He smiled. "The feminine strength of Venus and the moon, of warmth and instinct and acceptance. You also have the strength of Mars and Saturn to command, but there is an imbalance of the masculine and feminine energies and a fear of your own power. A fear of all passion." He tapped the chart with his nail. "Events are now forcing you to confront the imbalance. Very soon you will begin to master the energies, though you will not be fully in balance until the birth of your son."
Laura caught her breath in disbelief. "Ian and I will have a son?"
"Yes, and..." His words were cut off when Kamala gave a warning cough. Regretfully the priest said, "Again I forgot that you do not want to know the future in too great detail. But you will not be surprised to hear that soon you will travel across the sea to a home that is very old, but new to you."
Laura nodded, a little dazed. Before today, she had vaguely assumed that astrology was a superstition that had died out in Europe and good riddance, but the Brahmin's skill was rapidly making a believer of her. He was saying things that no stranger could know, things she had not hinted at even to Kamala.
Srinivasa looked back at the diagrams and his brows drew together. "There is an ill-omened fixed star that I do not fully understand," he murmured, stroking his chin. "The planet of war will soon afflict critical points in the charts of you and your husband." Frowning, he glanced at Kamala for a moment. Then slowly, as if he was thinking out loud, he continued, "Great danger is imminent, but you will survive unscathed. "Your husband..." He pursed his lips. "Very soon your husband will be beneath the earth."
It took a moment to absorb the meaning of the statement. Then Laura realized that he had just predicted that Ian would soon die. As terror swept through her, she exclaimed, "No!"
When Srinivasa glanced up, mild surprise on his face, Laura sprang to her feet, her knee hitting the low table and jarring it so that the horoscope papers rustled across the ebony surface. "This is superstition and I won't listen to any more," she said with horror. "It can't be true and I won't believe it!''
Then she turned blindly and rushed through the arches that led into the courtyard. Ian beneath the earth, dead and cold, his strength and laughter stilled forever. No, she would not believe it, for belief was unbearable.
Yet she could not dismiss the prediction no matter how much she wanted to, for the priest had been right about so many other things. Very soon your husband will be beneath the earth.
How soon was very soon? If the Brahmin spoke truly, there was enough time left for her to conceive a child. But how could that happen? She wasn't pregnant yet, and she and Ian were physically more estranged now than they had ever been.
She stopped under the mulberry tree that provided shade for the courtyard and pressed a hand over the tight pain in her chest, too confused and unhappy to know what to think. The Brahmin had referred to Ian's death as calmly as he had mentioned the voyage over the sea, but then, the priest seemed to view death as not much more significant than changing one's clothing. Perhaps in a spiritual sense he was right, but Laura wasn't detached enough to take the broad view. She wanted Ian alive and happy, preferably with her.
But if not, at least somewhere on God's green earth, breathing the same air that she breathed. He deserved some happiness after all he had endured.
Kamala's soft voice sounded behind her. "Laura, are you all right? I thought you would find the horoscopes amusing and perhaps enlightening. I'm sorry you were upset."
Laura closed her eyes and made an effort to regain her composure before turning to her friend. "I'm sorry, Kamala. I hope Srinivasa doesn't feet insulted," she said in a voice that was almost even. "Perhaps he should do horoscopes only for Indians. As a European, I'm uncomfortable with the idea that the future is fixed and immutable."