by P. C. Cast
“I may have misjudged you, bird.” Death sounded annoyed and dismissive. “Begone. Return to your solitude. My Reapers and I leave this evening. We will take the city of the Others after dark. Then I shall come for you, and begin to awaken my true Consort. Leave my sight and remain gone from my sight until I return to collect you. You make me weary.”
“Yes, my Lord.” Dove bowed deeply again. She reached out for Lily’s arm and the girl began to lead her away, but the God’s sharp command halted them.
“Your Attendant can remain in your place,” Death said. “I feel the need for the sweet release you deny me. Come here, little flower,” He said to Lily.
Dove could feel her friend’s body begin to tremble. “Which Attendant would most like to lie with the God?” she whispered quickly to Lily.
“Rabbit—she would give herself willingly to him,” Lily whispered back in a tremulous voice.
Dove turned her head, speaking nonchalantly over her shoulder. “I have need of my Lily to guide me back to my solitude. Your Reapers make it difficult for me to find my way safely within the Temple. Rabbit!” Dove called.
“Yes, my Lady!” came the girl’s breathless reply from somewhere behind Dove.
“Would you be pleased to see to my Lord’s needs while Lily is busy elsewhere?”
“Oh yes, Mistress!” Her answer was immediate and eager.
“Present yourself to Death,” Dove commanded.
“Yes, Mistress!”
Dove could hear Rabbit’s bare feet padding over the tile floor as she hurried to the God’s balcony.
“She is full-bosomed and her skin is almost unmarred.” Lily spoke under her breath to her Mistress. “I’ve overheard several of the men calling her beautiful.”
“Disrobe, Rabbit. Show yourself to our God.” Even though Dove could feel Rabbit’s eagerness and heard her clothes slithering immediately to the ground, still her stomach rolled. “My Lord? Does this Attendant please You?”
Dove heard Death chuckle low, intimately, in a tone she understood all too well. “She will do just fine. Now, as I said, leave me! I tire of you.”
“Get us out of here. Forever,” Dove told Lily quietly. “Now!”
Against the backdrop of low sighs, girlish giggles, and deep moans of ecstasy, Lily pretended to lead Dove to the rear of the chamber and her private area, but they paused there only long enough for Dove and Lily to pull on the shoes they had hidden under her pallet. Then Lily peered back and announced, “They are all watching Rabbit please the God—even the Reapers who were inside the chamber.”
“It is time. Circle around my private area. Then we pause to be quite certain no one is watching before we head out of the Temple.”
Lily did as her Mistress and friend asked, pausing to peer across the wide chamber.
“Daisy and Lace have joined Rabbit. They are dancing for the God. The Reapers cannot take their eyes from them,” Lily reported. “We can leave without being seen!”
Dove should have rushed out of the Temple to freedom, but she hesitated one last time. “Lily, are you quite sure there are no other Attendants who feel as we do?”
“Mistress, I’ve told you before—no. The Attendants like the attention of the Reapers. The men are finally strong, healthy, and they have the ear of a God. They want to live the future Death has planned for the People. They are content to be cared for and to imagine a life lived in the trees, free of disease and death.”
“But they won’t be free of Death. He will subjugate them all.”
“It is a subjugation they welcome,” Lily said.
Dove lifted her chin. “Then let us leave this awful place. But slowly. We should walk as if we are doing nothing out of the ordinary.”
“I understand.”
Holding hands tightly, the two girls walked across the God’s chamber, following the narrow path that led through the rubble that was the stairway to the courtyard. There they paused.
“What do you see?” Dove asked.
“The firepots are lit. They’re being tended by some of the sick ones. You know, the People who are too old or too ill to be of interest to the God, so He has left them unchanged and given them menial tasks to perform until they die. I’ve hidden our packs behind the rubble on the far side of the courtyard.”
“Then let us go there.”
“The old ones will see you, Mistress,” Lily said.
“I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about Death.”
“Then you have no worries, at least not until much later. For the time being, He is well entertained,” Lily said.
“And after that, He will be attacking the Others. I won’t worry until tomorrow.”
“And by tomorrow, we will be well away from this place,” Lily said.
They moved across the courtyard slowly, as if the Oracle and her favorite Attendant were out for a stroll. Several of the old, sick People called greetings to Dove. She smiled and nodded, careful to behave as she would any other day.
Her and Lily’s travel packs were where Lily had left them. Behind the concealment of a broken building, the girls strapped the packs across their backs. Lily took her Mistress’s hand again.
“Are you ready?”
“I’m trying to be.” Dove’s breath had gotten short and she felt hot and cold at the same time.
“Mistress, are you well?”
“I’ve never been outside the courtyard,” Dove blurted. “When I was born, I was brought directly to the Watchers to be sacrificed to the God, but one of the crones proclaimed that I was born sightless because the God had gifted me with inner sight so that I could part the veils of the world and see the Divine. I have known sixteen winters since then. I have known fear and anger, love and joy, hate and disgust, but I have never known anything outside the God’s Temple and this courtyard.”
“Mistress, I believe the Watchers were right. You can peer into the Divine. Have—have you looked through the veil and glimpsed our future?” Lily asked hesitantly.
“I have,” Dove said slowly. She hated lying to her friend, but what choice did she have? If Lily knew Dove was just an eyeless girl with whom Death was infatuated, would she help her escape? She couldn’t chance Lily changing her mind. So Dove lied with an ease she had been practicing her entire life. “All I see for sure is if we stay, Death will overtake us.” She touched Lily’s arm gently. “I’m sorry that I will be a burden to you. Out there”—Dove gestured before them—“I will be helpless without you.”
“Then you have nothing to fear, Mistress, for I shall not leave your side.”
Dove hugged her. “Thank you, Lily. I give you my word that someday you will be rewarded for your fidelity to me.”
“Escaping Death is all the reward I need. And now we need to move. The sun has risen and we need to get far from the City before dark.”
“You brought the ropes so that we can tie ourselves to the boughs of a mighty tree tonight, didn’t you?”
“Of course, Mistress,” Lily said. “I followed the Reapers yesterday as you asked. I know the way to the ridge that separates the City from the Others, and the hidden path that takes us to a crossing point. Soon we will be out of our territory and in the concealment of the forest.”
The girls began walking. Dove’s arm was linked through Lily’s and the Attendant’s eyes constantly scanned the ground before them so that she could guide her Mistress around clumps of ferns, tree roots, and fallen logs.
“When we reach the ridge and cross it, then we turn south. Dead Eye told me he found sign to the south of a people who live burrowed into the earth,” Dove said.
“And your Champion said they were peaceful?”
Although she had already explained this to Lily, Dove understood the girl’s need for reassurance. “Yes. He said they tend plants and weave. I asked him if it wouldn’t be less trouble to take over their burrows rather than battle with the tree people, but my Champion said he did not wish to burrow into the ground when he could live in the clouds
instead.” Dove shook her head. “I wish I had found a way to stop him. Maybe he would still be here with me and the God would have remained asleep.”
“Mistress, I mean no disrespect, but I believe Dead Eye’s fate was sealed when he was chosen to be the God’s Champion. You could not have stopped it. You are an Oracle, not a God.”
Dove bit her lip, nodded, and kept putting one foot in front of the other. She was frightened and unsure about the future, but that fear was nothing compared to the terror of losing herself, as Dead Eye had lost himself.
“I will survive. It is what I do.” She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until Lily responded.
“And I will be by your side.”
“Thank you, my friend. As we walk, let us pray to the Great Goddess for her help,” Dove said.
She held tightly to her friend, her guide, her salvation and left Death behind as she fervently prayed to a Goddess she could only hope was listening.
CHAPTER 35
Just before dawn Mari and Nik awoke, slowly, sensually, bodies tangled together with an intimacy Mari couldn’t have imagined before loving Nik. Mari didn’t want to let him go, but she knew it was like taking a dressing from a wound—better if it happened quickly so that the suffering wasn’t prolonged.
“If you take Rigel and Laru out, I’ll heat up the last of the rabbit stew for all of us,” Mari said.
Nik kissed her nose. “Tea with lots of honey, too?”
“Sora says that’s the only way my tea is drinkable.”
“Sora is a smart girl.”
“Nik!” She smacked his naked butt teasingly as he bent to put on his pants.
He laughed and moved out of range. “But don’t tell her I said that.”
“Your secret is safe with me. Rigel, sweet boy, go with Nik and Laru.” The young Shepherd put his paws up on her pallet, licking her face, before he trotted after the other two males.
Mari washed and had the stew simmering and tea steeping when her males returned. She loved how the proprietary words fit together: her males. They did belong to her and she to them. Before Nik and Rigel and Laru, she couldn’t have imagined her life so filled with people and animals and love—and now she couldn’t imagine her life without them. She’d just tucked a sprig of forget-me-nots behind her ear when her males burst into the little burrow, bringing with them noise and laughter and love.
The canines dug into their much cooler stew while Mari dished up full bowls for herself and Nik—and she added a healthy dose of honey to her questionable tea. Then Nik and Mari sat beside each other, bodies so close they often touched, gazes just as often meeting and holding. Mari loved the fact that she could reach out and touch him—whenever she wanted to—and that the more comfortable she felt with him, the more affectionate Nik was in return.
Mari ate slowly, savoring each moment with Nik, knowing that this was the last they would be alone for a very long time. But inevitably the meal ended and Nik began packing his satchel, preparing to leave.
“Davis should be here any moment.” Nik went to the door to the snug little burrow and opened it. “Rigel, Laru, let me know when you scent Cammy.” The Shepherds padded to the open doorway and stretched out in the sunlight, eyes deceptively half lidded. He took Mari’s hand, sitting beside her. “Let’s go over it one more time.”
She nodded and gripped his hand tightly. “Okay. You and Davis are going to circle around the Tribe, coming at them from the direction of the Gathering Site by Crawfish Creek.”
“Which is the opposite direction from which you and the Pack will make your way to the Channel at dawn, the day after tomorrow, whether we’ve rejoined you by then or not.”
“That makes me nervous, Nik. You say you’re not going to let them see you—you’re going to sneak in, get a Mother Plant, and get out. Yet you want us to go to the Channel from the opposite direction, whether you and Davis have returned to the birthing burrow or not in case you get caught. I don’t like it.”
“Mari, it’s wise to plan for the worst and envision the best. That’s all I’m doing. I have every intention of spending our last night in this forest with you and our Pack at the birthing burrow and then leaving at dawn. But if dawn on the sixth day breaks and we haven’t returned yet I’ll meet you at the Channel.” When she started to protest again, he pressed his finger gently against her lips. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. There are many reasons we might not make it back to the burrow in time. The Tribe should be very active rebuilding right now. I have no idea where they have moved the Mother Plants, and I may have to stay hidden until well into the night before I am able to take one. If that’s the case, it would be better for all of us if Davis and I went directly to the Channel and waited for the Pack. By the time you get there we’ll already be with the boats and will have taken care of any lookouts there might be.”
“You won’t kill them, right?”
“Not unless they’re Thaddeus. Then I don’t make any promises.”
“Agreed. I don’t much like Cyril, either, but don’t kill that old man.”
Nik touched her cheek. “I won’t, Mari. I’m not a killer.”
“I know. I’m just—”
“Scared? Worried?” he offered.
“Both.”
“It’s okay. It’d be stupid not to be scared and worried. I am. But I also believe in myself—and Laru, and Davis with his Cammy. And most of all you, Mari, and our Pack.”
“I do, too, Nik. So, if you’re not back by dawn the day after tomorrow, we’ll meet at the Channel at dusk,” she said with more confidence.
“Yes. We’ll load the boats as quickly as possible and then be off. I hate the idea of being on that swarm-be-damned river at night, but I know Sheena can navigate for us.”
“Like Antreas said, leaving at night is our best chance to get away from the Tribe without being seen,” Mari said.
“Yeah, the Tribe won’t be focused on the Channel at night. There aren’t any more captives on Farm Island to guard, and no one with any sense goes down that damn river after dark. We’ll be quick and quiet, and we’ll get away without any problems, but just in case we are spotted…”—Nik paused and reached into his travel satchel, drawing out a stone-topped hammer—“I’m going to break holes in the boats we don’t take. The Tribe’s filled with excellent Carpenters. They’ll be able to repair the boats, but not in time to chase us downriver.”
“That’s a good idea, Nik. And let’s hope the moon is bright. It is close to being full,” Mari said.
“Be sure we’re taking plenty of torches, though. Just in case.”
“We will. Don’t worry. The Pack will be ready. We’re almost ready now. All you need to focus on is getting the Mother Plants and getting out of there safely,” Mari said.
Laru made a low noise in his chest, then Rigel got to his feet, tail wagging as he sniffed the air.
“Cammy’s here,” Mari said, smiling at the two canines.
“Did you hear that from them both?” Nik asked, grinning incredulously.
“Yep, I did. Loud and clear,” she said. Then she added, “And Cammy’s not the only one I hear.” She and Nik were just making their way to the door when Davis’s voice drifted to them, muffled by the briars that protected Mari’s home.
“Hello the burrow!”
“Davis! We’re coming!” Nik shouted in return as he and Laru followed Mari and Rigel through the labyrinth of thorns.
As Mari held aside the last of the heavy bramble branches so that the four of them could emerge safely, she stopped, smiling in surprise. All of the Companions and their canines were there, standing in the morning sunlight, their smiles as bright as the golden day.
“What’s this about?” Nik asked, looking pleased but confused.
“We wanted to see you and Davis off,” Sheena said.
“And we wanted to do a little something for Mari,” O’Bryan said.
“Me? What?”
“Nik said you still have travel supplies to carry from your b
urrow,” Rose said. “And we’re here to help with that.”
“And we also thought we’d start a new tradition with you,” O’Bryan said.
“I like the sound of that,” Mari said. “What’s the new tradition?”
“In our City in the Trees we greeted each sunrise with our Sun Priest, absorbing the morning light and giving thanks to the Sun,” Davis explained. “You share moonlight with us—so we thought it was only right that we all share the morning sunlight with you.”
“Not that you need us to call down the sun. Anyone who can call down sunfire doesn’t need help with that,” O’Bryan said.
“But it’s better together,” Sheena said. “We wanted to share that with you, and with your permission we’d like to start sharing it with the Earth Walkers, too.”
Mari blinked in surprise. “But you know Earth Walkers can’t absorb sunlight.”
“Well, we didn’t know about moon magick until you shared that with us, and even though we can’t channel that power like you can, it feels great when you do it,” O’Bryan said.
“Yeah, so we were talking about it and we thought that maybe Earth Walkers might be able to feel something if Companions, as a group, call down sunlight,” Sheena said.
“And if they can’t, maybe they’ll find some beauty in it. Like we have found when we watch you draw down the moon,” Rose said.
Mari couldn’t imagine the sun making her feel any warmer than her Pack was making her feel. “I think that’s a wonderful idea! Thank you.” She glanced at Nik and saw that he was smiling through eyes that were suspiciously wet.
“I agree with our Moon Woman. That’s a wonderful idea,” he said.
“Then lead us, Sun Priest,” O’Bryan said. “And let us absorb the morning sunlight.”
Mari could feel the jolt that went through Nik when his cousin called him Sun Priest, and she squeezed his hand with encouragement, repeating, “Yes, lead us, Sun Priest.”
“All right then.” Nik met Mari’s eyes. “I know the perfect place for this, but I need your permission to go there, and your help.”