The Ta'e'sha Chronicles 2: Shards of the Mind

by Theolyn Boese

  The High Queen studied the deities silently for a moment. “We have witnessed Barik’s care pass from our Gods’ hands and into Yours, Lord and Lady. Punish him as you see fit,” she said quietly, her voice rolling like velvet across the listeners.

  Barik’s mother let out a choked cry of protest.

  Skye nodded gravely. “Thank you. We understand this was not a decision made lightly.”

  The High Queen nodded slowly in response.

  Gaia approached Thea and the other women. “Daughter and nieces, We would like to take some of your pain away first.”

  Thea stood up and knelt before her Lady. Giana was the second to come forward. She started to kneel as well, but Gaia stopped her with gentle hands on her arms. “You do not have to kneel, darling. You do not worship Us and We would not ask you to compromise your own beliefs.”

  Giana nodded slowly, looking at the floor. Claudette and Joyce stood next to her. They looked relieved they would not have to kneel. Sarah was the last to join them.

  Gaia smiled softly at the nervous women as she helped Thea rise. “Ladies, your faith is never groundless, someone is always listening.” Her gaze paused for a moment on Giana’s face.

  Skye came to stand behind Gaia. He smiled encouragingly at the nervous women.

  Thea watched as Gaia moved to stand before Claudette. She touched a single long, graceful finger to Claudette’s forehead. Claudette shuddered for a moment and then relaxed. When Gaia removed her finger and moved to Sarah, Claudette swayed tiredly.

  The Goddess repeated the action with Joyce and Giana who all had similar responses. They shuddered and turned pale before drooping with exhaustion.

  Thea looked up at her Lady without fear. She closed her eyes when that cool fingertip touched her forehead. Suddenly every action Barik had taken, every violation, swirled wildly through her brain. Then it melted away. It was not completely gone, but now it was fuzzy around the edges, as if it had happened years ago and to someone else. She was able to look at the memory without sweat breaking out on her body and feeling cold to the bone.

  She sighed softly at the sudden release of tension from her muscles. She hadn’t realized how tight she had been holding her body. It was magic. It was wonderful. She smiled gratefully up at her Goddess, who returned the smile tenderly.

  As one, the God and Goddess moved to Barik.

  Skye looked around the room before focusing his attention on Barik, who finally seemed to realize what he had done. “Barik, brother of Balai, you have been found guilty of the crimes of rape, torture, and murder. Your punishment shall be to live with your actions for the rest of your life.”

  Barik smirked, obviously not finding that a hardship.

  Skye moved behind him and motioned the guards to step away. He grasped Barik’s arms and nodded to Gaia.

  Barik started to look nervous again and began to struggle when Gaia reached toward him with the same finger that had touched the women.

  It did no good, Skye held him easily.

  Gaia touched Barik’s forehead.

  Barik stilled, then began to convulse and howl with agony. It was several minutes before Gaia lifted her fingertip away from him. He screamed and thrashed against the God’s hands. Skye released him and Barik slid from the chair and began clawing at his body. His screams of agony turned into terrified shrieks.

  Both Gods watched him dispassionately. “Every day you shall relive each attack, each fear, every moment of pain. You will experience their terror and the death of Theadora’s child. You will know what it is to live through it as one of your victims.” They spoke in unison, their forms beginning to glow with white light. “Every moment will be for you as it was for them. For the rest of your life.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Thea tried to suppress a vicious smile. It was a fitting punishment and far more justice than she had thought they would get. It was going to be hard to not take an inordinate amount of pleasure in it. She slid a sideways glance at the other women. They were watching Barik with a strange gleam in their eyes. They smiled queerly as they watched him writhe on the floor.

  She looked behind her at Kyrin and Daeshen. They, too, watched Barik twist and shake with dark pleasure. Her own feeling of satisfaction faded. It was sad. Even the punishment was sad. She knew she shouldn’t take pleasure in another’s pain. It made her no better than him. “Lady?” she whispered hesitantly. “Lord?”

  The God and Goddess turned and looked at her enquiringly. They glided toward her with steps so smooth it was as if they didn’t need to use any muscles. It was disconcerting to watch.

  She looked down at the floor and switched to English. “I don’t want to be the person who takes pleasure in another’s misfortune.” She looked up at them solemnly. “It would be really easy for me to do the happy dance right now and I know I shouldn’t.”

  Gaia rolled her eyes. “Quit trying to be perfect, Thea. It’s irritating,” she replied, also in English.

  Thea glowered at the floor. “I’m not trying to be perfect!”

  Gaia snorted. “You’re trying, all right. You just haven’t made it. You’d have to quit throwing books at your husbands first.”

  Thea blushed bright red. Damn.

  “There is darkness in all things, child, even Us,” Skye stated quietly. “But there is something you could do to lessen the sorrow of his family,” he continued, watching Barik’s mother. She looked near collapse.

  “What’s that?” Thea asked warily. She had a feeling she should have kept her mouth shut.

  “She has lost both her children,” he replied, waving an arm toward her. “You could give her another.”

  Thea felt the blood drain from her face. She swayed on her feet. She was barely aware of Kyrin and Daeshen standing and quickly coming to her side. “What?” she asked, her voice hoarse with disbelief.

  Skye sighed softly. “It is a hard thing We ask. I know this, daughter.”

  Thea let out a choked laugh that held no humor. “Hard?” She looked around. The court asana and High Queen were watching them curiously, but without recognition. Thea realized they were still speaking in English. “Her family has already produced a suicide and a rapist. You want me to give them another chance?” She shook her head slowly.

  Gaia frowned down at her sternly. “Just as a child is not responsible for the actions of their parents, so too are their parents not always responsible for their children’s actions. For shame, daughter. She would do anything to change what has happened!”

  Thea hung her head. She knew that, but what They asked… She didn’t know if she could do it.

  Kyrin and Daeshen moved protectively closer.

  “What do They want, Thea?” Kyrin asked cautiously. He, too, spoke in English, understanding this conversation was to be kept private.

  “They want me to carry a child for Barik’s parents,” she whispered.

  He stiffened against her. She waited for the explosion.

  It didn’t come. She looked up at her husband. She watched the struggle on his face as he visibly tried to relax his muscles. Then, she looked at Daeshen, who was shaking his head slowly in disbelief.

  “Their son killed our child!” he finally burst out.

  The room went silent and everyone turned to stare. Those who could understand English began to whisper amongst themselves.

  Thea stroked his arm. “I will not carry Barik’s child,” she stated quietly, but firmly. Both men relaxed beside her.

  Behind Gaia and Skye, the Lithen of the Ta’e’sha coalesced.

  All the Ta’e’sha in the room rose again and knelt in the presence of their Gods.

  Samonan approached the trio anxiously. “There is a way, niece. We could help.” Her hands twisted together.

  Thea looked up at the sad Goddess. “How?” she asked tiredly. “I could not bear to carry his child. I-I think my body would abort it.” She shook her head.

  Kysout moved to stand next to his mate with a flick of his tail. Behind them, th
e remaining eight Gods and Goddess watched hopefully. Kysout moved his hand in a complicated motion. A pale, yellow-green light appeared. It formed into a small Ta’e’shian woman with spring green hair and tail. Her eyes shone like peridot jewels.

  “B-b-balai?” Barik’s mother choked out, reaching toward the woman.

  Balai turned and smiled gently at her mother. She turned back to Thea and watched her without saying anything.

  Samonan motioned toward Balai. “You could carry her child.”

  Behind them Barik screamed and threw himself toward his sister. “No! No, no, no! Don’t touch my sister!” The guards jumped on him and quickly wrestled him to the floor. He thrashed desperately under them, his ravaged face etched with grief and hatred. His fingernails cracked and tore as he tried to crawl toward them. Howls filled the air, making the people watching shudder in reaction.

  Balai watched sadly. Thea could see that the ghost loved her brother and mourned what had happened to him. She moved through the air to where Claudette, Sarah, Joyce, and Giana stood watching. “I am so sorry,” she whispered in a voice that faded as soon as it met the air. Next, she swayed to Barik and looked down at him, her face a mask of sorrow. “You are lost to me now, brother.”

  He keened loudly as she left him, his mind completely broken.

  Balai blew a kiss to her mother and father. “I love you; tell all my parents.” Her mother sobbed and watched her with hungry eyes.

  Kysout sighed softly. “Come back, Balai.”

  She returned to her original position and watched Thea again.

  Thea looked down at the floor. “How? She is dead.” Kyrin and Daeshen tensed beside her again. She looked back up.

  All the Gods and Goddesses of Ta’e held up their hands. Colors began to swirl at Balai’s abdomen. A small ball of light detached itself and floated up to Thea’s eye level. It spun for a moment before turning into a glass globe the color of Balai’s eyes. A tiny pinpoint of light glowed within.

  “Just keep this globe safe, and should you decide to do this for Us, hold it to your stomach. The child will be conceived. The pregnancy will be easy and quick. Please, think on it, niece,” Samonan said softly.

  The Lithen and Balai faded away. Thea took the globe from the air and stared at it.

  Gaia and Skye each kissed her forehead.

  “The decision is yours, daughter. Should you decide not to do this, few will know,” Gaia said softly.

  The Ta’e’sha rose again as Gaia and Skye popped out with a flash of light.

  The High Queen returned to her seat. She motioned to the aide standing behind her and whispered in his ear. He nodded.

  The guards pulled Barik to his feet and dragged him out a side door.

  Shayateen addressed the room. “Barik shall be placed in the custody of the Temples. Visitors will be allowed only with written permission by my office.” She motioned to Thea. “Theadora, please come here.”

  Thea gulped and walked slowly to the table, still carefully holding the globe. “Yes, my lady?”

  The High Queen studied her silently for a moment. “Well, you have certainly treated the court to many things we have never seen before,” she said at length. “Would you care to enlighten us to the conversation that brought our Lithen to you? And the meaning of that object you are holding so carefully, as well, please.”

  Thea stroked her thumb over the globe. “They would like me to carry Balai’s child and give it to her mother to raise,” she said softly.

  The asana leaned toward her to hear her better.

  “This globe contains that child’s life force.” She met the queen’s gaze squarely. “I don’t know what I’ll do yet. I have to talk to my husbands and fiancée.”

  The queen leaned back in her chair. “I do not know this word, fiancée.”

  “It means betrothed, Your Majesty.”

  “I see. Where is your betrothed?”

  “She was not given permission to attend, Your Majesty. So, she went home to visit her family,” Thea said quietly.

  The High Queen tapped her nails on the table for several minutes. Finally she said, “I do not want to influence your decision, but I would like to point out that Karenina’s line will die out when she passes. The power of her Royal line will go to a cousin, also sterile and without a fertile daughter.” Karenina was Barik’s mother. “I would not like to see her line die.” The queen looked at her steadily.

  Thea thought quickly. She slowly raised her eyebrow. “Is that a Royal decree?” she finally asked in a cold tone. Not influence my decision, my ass!

  The queen looked startled.

  Thea didn’t back down.

  “A Royal decree? It is not.” Shayateen’s face hardened. “It is a strong suggestion.”

  Thea felt her Irish temper begin to smolder. She stomped to the evidence table and snatched up the casket containing her child’s body. She strode back and carefully set it on the table before the queen. “Your people have taken much from me,” she said in a low, carefully controlled voice. “I have no roots here. I have no family, other than those of my husbands. I have survived being attacked by a madman. I survived the death of my child. What I do have is the love of my God and Goddess, the love of my husbands and fiancée. I have my body and I will have my choice.” She pointed at the casket. “That baby died because someone else thought I was the cause of his problems. Your asana wanted to do tests on those fragile tissues to see if it was a boy or girl. I refused to let them touch my child. It should not matter. Would Barik have been tried more harshly if it were a girl? It was a baby. It was a life. That’s all that should matter.” She took a deep breath. “What gives you the right to ask this of me? You don’t know me. I doubt you have more than a passing care for me. Are you friends with Karenina? Is that why you think you should make this decision for me? That you can disregard how I would feel?” She set the globe beside the casket and pointed at it. “That little glowing light is related to the man who extinguished that glowing little light.” She moved her hand to point at the casket.

  “Would you like it if someone ordered you to carry the niece or nephew of the man who killed your child in your body? Would you caress your stomach? Would you love it? Or would you feel you had betrayed your child’s memory?” She placed her hands on the table and leaned forward, ignoring the nervous twitches of the Warrior Chosen guards behind the queen. “I will make this decision. Not you. I will discuss it with my husbands. Not you. I have only one queen and you just met her.”

  The High Queen stared at Thea in shock. She rapidly had to reassess her estimation of the small, dark-haired women standing before her. During the trial she had come to the conclusion Thea was fragile and easily swayed. Obviously, the woman who had trembled and hid her face during the viewing of the attack had many layers to her, and, perhaps, they hid a core of pure tempered steel. She slid a glance at Thea’s husbands. Kyrin was staring at his wife with slack-jawed shock while Daeshen just looked resigned. She thought she detected a faint gleam of amusement in his eyes.

  Not since she had been a child had someone dared to speak to her that way. It was not pleasant and she had to acknowledge she had, indeed, overstepped her bounds. She had forgotten the women of Earth were not her subjects. She sent a message to her aides on a mental thread. “We must address the situation of the Earth women’s citizenship tomorrow.”

  She thought about what Thea had said to her. She would never have tried to apply pressure to a Ta’e’shian woman like that. She was guilty of the very thing her God and Goddess had warned her about.

  She unconsciously thought of the human women as less.

  It would have to stop. Beginning with her. Personal feelings had no place in ruling a planet, but they did intrude. Somehow, she would have to find a way to change her perception.

  But, for now, she had to hold herself accountable for her own actions.

  “You are correct, Theadora Auralel. It is not my place to force a decision on you. I apologize,” she said sl
owly. The conversation had been kept low so the gallery could not hear them.

  There was a collective indrawn breath from the asana seated around her. She knew what they were thinking. The queen did not apologize. The queen’s word was absolute.

  She had watched the recordings of the visit her Gods had first made in Thea’s bedroom and perhaps the asana were not the only ones who had let their station elevate their sense of self worth. She, more than most, had to realize that being queen was for her people. Not for her.

  Thea nodded her acceptance of the apology. “I apologize for my outburst. I think everyone’s emotions are running high today. This has been a trying situation.”

  Shayateen smiled. The human woman was gracious, more gracious than many would have been in the same situation. She leaned forward and placed her hand on Thea’s. “I would like to know you better. Would you and your husbands join my family for dinner this evening?”

  Thea turned to look at her husbands. They nodded their acceptance. She turned back to the queen. “That would be lovely.”

  “Excellent,” Shayateen said with satisfaction. “My aide will contact you with the time.” She sent a signal to her aide, who quickly came forward and announced the end of the trial and court. She stood and left the courtroom.

  Thea turned back to her husbands. “Daeshen? Could you speak with the queen’s aide?”

  He nodded.

  She picked up the globe and then the casket. “May I take my child home now?” she asked the remaining asana.

  The High Priestess of the Balance Temple nodded gently. “We would not have been harsher if you had lost a daughter, Theadora,” she said quietly.

  Thea looked at the floor. “It’s just very hard for me, ma’am.” When she looked back up, the priestess she was preparing to leave. The lady nodded to Thea and left with the rest of the asana.

  Thea turned around and almost ran into Kyrin. He took the tiny casket from her and stroked her cheek with his free hand. “Are you ready to leave, love?” he asked her.