THE food really was delicious, especially the cheese. Mikki took one last bite of a creamy white cheese she'd spread on a slice of chewy bread. She'd been carrying on a passionate love affair with cheese for as many years as she could remember - as her curvy butt could certainly attest to - and the selection someone had laid out for her breakfast was even more extraordinary than last night's feast.

Was that because the Guardian knew what she liked best? Could he, like Hecate, read the passions and fears in her mind? Had he plucked her favorite foods from her subconscious? If he had, then that would mean he would also know that she was thinking of him . . . and that she was intrigued as well as intimidated at the thought of seeing him again.

I am here for the roses!

She jumped guiltily. He was a beast. A creature from a strange world who had sworn an oath to guard Hecate's realm. Clearly, something had happened a long time ago and he had screwed up, Big Time, and ended up a statue in Tulsa.

What had he done? Whatever it was, she'd bet he wouldn't do it again. Mikki sighed. There were so damn many mysteries and unanswered questions here it was overwhelming. No! She shook her head and took a last sip of tea. She'd take things one step at a time and figure them out as she went. She just needed to think of this as a new job. It might be daunting to learn all the new . . . well . . . procedures, but not impossible.

And the Guardian? If she thought of him at all she should think of him like she would any security guard. For a moment the image of the Tulsa Rose Gardens' night watchman, Mel, flashed into her mind. He was short and round and very gray. Actually, he reminded her of a balding Santa Claus. Mel couldn't have been more different from the magnificent creature who had turned from stone into living flesh. Her lips curved up at the comparison. The Guardian and Mel? She really was crazy if she started thinking of the two of them as similar.

Mikki bit nervously at her lip. She didn't know how she was supposed to deal with the creature, the roses, the magick . . .

Before she could get overwhelmed - again - she stood and stretched carefully, focusing on working the stiffness out of her muscles. Her body had definitely felt better. Then she made her way slowly back into her bedroom. Busy. She needed to get to work and keep busy. It would help her muscles loosen up and her brain not to obsess on horns and hooves. And she was anxious to check out the roses. Her roses. Hecate had said that she was in charge of caring for them, that it was her destiny. She was no longer just another volunteer who daydreamed about making the gardens her own.

Eagerly, she looked around the room. Hecate had said to call the handmaidens to help her get dressed. Did that mean there was some kind of bell/rope system in her room? Isn't that how they did things in palaces "back in the day"? But this wasn't a scene from some old English movie with castles and such; this was a realm of myth and magick, something her personal life experiences hadn't exactly prepared her for.

"Maybe I should try calling a messenger owl. Talk about Hogwarts," she grumbled to herself. "Okay, you're being ridiculous." Mikki put her hands on her hips. "It can't be that hard. Hecate said to call them. So I'll call them." Actually, she thought she'd just call Gii. She felt the most connection with her, and, quite frankly, all four of the girls at once were a little more than she wanted to deal with so early. She cleared her throat. "Gii?" she said tentatively and then a little louder, "Gii, could you come here, please? I could use your help."

Nothing. Nadda. Zip. The handmaiden didn't suddenly materialize. No pitter-patter of little feet were heard rushing across her balcony.

"Okay, there must be another way to do this." Mikki paced while she thought. She was supposed to call the handmaidens . . . she came to an abrupt stop. The handmaidens were really the personification of their element. She'd called each of their elements into the circle last night. Maybe she could do something like that now. She closed her eyes and thought about Gii . . . the element Earth . . . last night the element's presence was preceded by scents that invoked the fertility of the earth and the harvest . . . the sweetness of newly cut hay . . . the ripeness of fruit and berries. Mikki could almost smell and taste the richness of a green and growing Earth.

"Gii," she said softly. "Come to me."

Almost instantly two quick knocks sounded on the far wall of her room. Mikki opened her eyes in time to see a door open seamlessly into the opulent bedroom, giving Mikki just a glimpse of a wide, moon-colored hallway as Gii hurried in. The handmaiden's arms were filled with several lengths of amber and cream and gold cloth.

"Good morning, Empousa." She curtseyed gracefully.

"I did it!" Mikki grinned. "I called and you came."

Gii's smile was warm. "Gladly, Empousa! It is a true pleasure to once again have Hecate's High Priestess within our realm. We have been idle too long." She paused and looked around her. "Did you not call the other handmaidens as well?"

"Actually, since I'm not used to having any handmaidens, I'd like to start with just you for today. Is that okay with you?"

"Whatever you wish, Empousa. It is an honor to be chosen to serve you."

The young woman's exuberance made Mikki feel a lot less nervous about not knowing what the hell she was doing. She was where she belonged. Everything else would fall into place. She nodded at Gii's laden arms. "I was going to say I needed you to help me find something to wear, but it looks like you already have that taken care of." Mentally Mikki crossed her fingers that today's outfit would cover both of her breasts.

"Naturally, Empousa. I knew you would be eager to oversee your gardens. When you summoned me I made certain that I was prepared."

Gii began helping Mikki out of her nightdress, and with the words your gardens echoing delightfully in her imagination, Mikki shrugged her way out of her clothes and held very still as the handmaiden took the long, rectangular length of gold fabric and wrapped it once around her body. With gold pins that appeared from the voluminous folds of her own robe, Gii fastened it at the shoulders. Thankfully, it formed a full bodice, covering both of her breasts. Then she unwound one of the elaborately braided belts from around her own waist and hung it low on Mikki's hips.

"Gii, I don't mean to complain, and I think this" - she hesitated, trying to think of the right word for the rectangle that had become a flowing, toga-like garment - "this dress is flattering and very feminine, but don't you have something else that's better suited to working in the garden?"

Gii straightened and gave Mikki a confused smile. "How could any garment be better suited than a chiton?"

"Well, it's an awful lot of material. Won't this" - she pointed at the length of golden fabric that hung gracefully to her feet - "just get in the way?"

"Not if you tuck it here and here." Gii demonstrated tucking her own lovely mint-colored chiton up into her belt so her long, strong legs were left mostly bare. The Earth Elemental held out her arms. "Our arms are not hindered by cumbersome sleeves, but if you feel chilled, you can easily wrap your palla around your shoulders."

"Palla?"

Gii wrinkled her forehead at her High Priestess. "Empousa, have you never before worn a chiton with a palla?"

With an effort, Mikki didn't shriek her frustration. "Gii, I explained to you last night that my old world is totally different. There I didn't know about priestesses or goddesses, and we don't dress anything like this. If I was going to work in the garden I would wear jeans" - here she mimicked stepping into a pair of pants - "and a short T-shirt that I'd pull over my head, and it would cover the top half of my body."

Gii looked horrified. "I do not mean to speak ill of your old world, Priestess, but it sounds barbaric! Why would a priestess, or any woman, choose to dress in such an unflattering, uncomfortable manner?"

Mikki meant to say that she'd never thought of jeans as unflattering or uncomfortable, but her eyes were caught by her reflection in the full-length mirror and the words stopped before she could form them. She looked like a queen from an ancient world. She walked slowly forward, studying herself carefully. The fabric was soft and unbinding, feminine and alluring. She had nothing on under it to crawl up her butt or to bite into her shoulders and leave red marks at the end of the day. Compared to this outfit, a bra, panties, jeans and a T-shirt were barbaric and uncomfortable.

"Teach me about this, Gii. You called it a chiton?"

"Yes, Empousa. It can swathe the female form in almost endless ways, especially when you add a palla or various other types of mantles." Taking a wide, soft brush from the vanity dresser, Gii fussed with Mikki's hair as she spoke, brushing it back and then tying it in place with a gold thread. "We believe our clothing should idealize a woman's body, rather than attempting to conceal its natural shape. Or bind it unnecessarily."

"There's no doubt that it's beautiful, but can I work in it?"

"Shall we see, Empousa?"

Mikki took the amber-colored palla from where it lay like a spilled treasure across the end of her bed and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Absolutely."

MIKKI knew something was wrong as soon as she approached the rose bed that had been planted so close to the stairs that led from her balcony that the roses brushed against the marble railing. It was the same sick feeling she'd had the night before, only this morning it was far stronger. Her stomach clenched, and she had to fight a bizarre impulse to be sick. The smile that had lit her face when she recognized the Old Garden Rose, Blush Noisette, faded along with the color in her cheeks. The bed was large and the plants well spaced, but the closer she got to them, the more obvious it was that they were not as healthy as they had appeared to be from above. She hurried down the rest of the steps. She ignored the sick feeling that had hit her as soon as she approached the roses and left the marble path, ploughing directly into the bed, muttering under her breath while she touched leaves and lifted canes to get a better look at the heart of the plants.

"Empousa?"

"They look terrible!" Mikki said without pausing in her inspection. "The leaves are yellow and limp. The canes are spindly. The blossoms, which seem fine from a distance, are really undersized and several don't look like they're going to open at all. When's the last time they were fertilized?"

Mikki didn't look up from the roses until she realized that Gii wasn't answering her. The handmaiden was staring uncomfortably at her tightly clasped hands.

"Gii, what's the problem? I just asked when was the last time the roses were fertilized. It's something that should be done regularly enough that . . ." Mikki's words trailed off as she realized that Gii was becoming more and more obviously upset.

"The Empousa cares for the roses," Gii blurted, without looking at Mikki.

"Are you telling me that for the entire time you've been without an Empousa no one's taken care of these roses?"

Gii finally lifted liquid eyes to Mikki. "It is the Empousa's sacred trust to care for the roses. Without their Empousa, Hecate bespelled them. They slept."

Just like the Guardian.

Mikki's mind whirred. Nausea rose in her throat again, and she was hardly able to concentrate on what else Gii was saying.

"There was nothing we could do for them. The roses wouldn't respond to us. They had stopped blooming." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "We believed they were dying."

"And none of you thought to mention this to me while we were frolicking around last night?" she cried, exasperated with herself for being so starry-eyed that she hadn't noticed how sick the seemingly beautiful gardens really were. And where the hell was her intuition last night? Today just getting near the beds made her feel like she was going to throw up her breakfast. Wait . . . maybe her intuition had been firmly intact. Last night she had just attributed it to nerves and lack of food, but she'd definitely been light-headed - her stomach had clenched and she'd felt sick. And then this morning she'd felt like she'd been beat up. It hadn't been because she was having a nervous breakdown or because she danced too much. Her body was reacting to the sickness in the roses.

Why hadn't Hecate warned her about the sorry state of her roses? Mikki frowned. What was it the goddess had said? You should know that this realm has long been without its Empousa. The roses will need your care . . .

Need her care? Mikki let her eyes sweep over the beds nearest to her, recognizing more Old Garden varieties, Eglantine and LaVille de Bruxelles. She narrowed her eyes at them. They looked sickly as hell, too! They definitely needed a lot more than a little of her care.

"We thought all would be well now that you are here. We even knew the moment you arrived because the roses suddenly began to bloom again."

"Gii, these roses aren't getting well. They're underdeveloped and anemic! And these pathetic things aren't normal blooms, they're . . . they're . . . they're more like final death throes than healthy blossoming."

Then, as if Hecate was still standing beside her, she heard the goddess's voice replay through her mind. The edges of the gardens are bound by a great wall of roses . . . The rose wall is what defines the boundaries between that world and ours . . . If the roses sicken, so, too, will this realm. A chill swept through Mikki, and she felt the warning in it pound with her blood.

She had to call the Guardian.