Mumbai: Eli Fantasme, the exquisite falcon familiar that had served House Deveraux for nearly a thousand years, wheeled above the Tower of Silence, where the corpse of a young girl rotted in the sun. Eli had watched the pallbearers carrying it into the stone structure. Hanging vines and brilliant purple and pink flowers cluttered the base of the carved stone turret and spilled over the path to the entrance. The Zoroastrians, who were the Magi mentioned in the Christian Bible, believed that all living things—including the earth, water, and fire—must be separated from dead, putrefying flesh, and they laid out their deceased in towers. But a chemical in Indian animal feed had killed off nearly all the vultures in the country. The bodies were left to rot in the sun, a process that took much longer than being devoured by vultures—and created anguish in the Zoroastrian community. Fantasme was eager to lend a hand, and Eli was glad to give him whatever he wanted. The Moores had held him hostage and tortured him, promising him unending torment if the Deveraux didn’t share the secret of conjuring the Black Fire with them.
