“Just as long as I can still imprint.” Lynn spoke her fears aloud.
“Do you have any reason to doubt it?” Gina asked.
“In myself, no. But”—Lynn paused and looked down at her clasped hands—“before now, I’ve always had the support and sanctity of the temple behind me. Sisters telling me what to do.”
“The Sisters’ advice was helpful?” Gina said ironically.
“Well, no, not in the detail. But it meant I didn’t have to take responsibility for...” Lynn’s words trailed away as she reached the core of her uncertainty, facing it fully for the first time. She continued speaking. “I guess that’s it. The Sisters always made sure I knew it wasn’t really me creating a new life, a new soul. I was just a conduit for the Goddess. But now I have to ask myself whether I, personally, have the right to create a new human being.”
“But the doing has always been in your hands, and yours alone. Celaeno isn’t a Goddess. I admit I don’t know all the things that go into a starship, but I’m damned certain there isn’t a piece of machinery up there that bestows moral prerogatives.”
Lynn sighed deeply. “In my head I’ve a strong suspicion you may be right. But in my heart...”
Gina reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “Then follow your heart, trust your own feelings. Stop looking for absolute values and focus on the practical facts.”
“How do you mean?”
“Do you have any doubts about whether Chip and Katryn will make good parents?”
“Of course not.”
“And you know how much they want a child?”
“Yes.”
“So why are you sitting in here when you could be doing something about it?”
Gina had a talent for reducing complex ethical questions to the breathtakingly simple. Sometimes Lynn felt dizzy trying to keep up. Sometimes she just had to take things on trust. She shook her head in bemusement and then said, “You’re probably right.”
“Of course I’m right. I’m always right. It’s one of the best things about me. Now come on. I can guarantee Chip and Katryn are even more nervous than you, so don’t keep them waiting.” Gina got to her feet and started for the door. “Have they decided who’s going to carry the baby?”
Lynn caught up at her side. “Yes, Chip.”
“Really? I’ve been told it gives a fascinating insight into a relationship which one chooses to bear the first child.” Gina frowned. “But I haven’t a blessed clue what it’s supposed to mean.”
It was against all precedent to perform an imprinting in the open air, but there was no room that would hold the numbers who wanted to be present. In fact, every Ranger and heretic, without exception, had gathered in the open space outside the stone house. They all knew there would be little to see, but that was not the point. They would be witnessing the start of their future.
Lynn looked up at the clear unblemished blue of the sky. For a second, her doubts resurfaced, and then they were utterly swept away. Lynn took a deep breath of the sweet fresh air. She understood the truth of what Gina had said; regardless of whether Celaeno was a Goddess or a spacecraft, imprinting was something in which she should follow her own heart. She stepped into the center of the open space and beckoned Chip and Katryn out to meet her. As Gina had predicted, both looked uncharacteristically nervous, shuffling from foot to foot. Lynn gave her most encouraging smile. “Are you ready?” she asked.
They both nodded. Katryn swallowed and asked, “What do you want us to do?” while Chip looked too tense to speak.
It was a good question. The traditional arrangement was undoubtedly symbolic of something, but there was no altar for Chip to lie on, and Lynn had never been comfortable with the sacrifice-like overtones. She smiled. There was no need to try to replicate the temple procedures. All that was necessary was that there be physical contact between them. The new life was something they three were going to create together as a shared act, and her heart told her exactly how she wanted to do things.
“We should sit in a circle and take each other’s hand.”
At first the two Rangers seemed surprised, but then they matched her smile.
The ground felt reassuringly right beneath Lynn as she sat down. Her earlier doubts seemed laughable. She was an Imprinter, and the temple was not a tribute to life. It was a prison where the Sisters tried to keep captive the source of their power, but life was meant to be free.
She took their hands and gave her last few instructions, “I’m afraid this might be a bit boring for you. It will probably take a couple of hours. But while I’m in the trance, you can talk. It won’t disturb me. Just don’t let go of my hands. Okay?”
Chip and Katryn nodded, then their heads turned slightly and they met each other’s eyes in a deep, searching gaze. The look Lynn had seen so many couples exchange before. For a second, her concentration slipped, but she restrained the urge to search the crowd to see if she could spot Kim. The heart was not always a reliable guide. Instead, she focused on the feel of the two hands she held, the texture, the warmth, the life within them. Waves of energy began to flow around the circle, carrying her away and sweeping her effortlessly into the imprinting trance.
Chapter Twenty—Over the Edge
The sun beat down mercilessly on the vegetable patch at the edge of the village. Lynn paused to wipe the sweat from her eyes, then stood back leaning on the hoe, and contemplated the long line of weeds that still stretched in front of her. It was backbreaking, thirsty work, but it was not supposed to be a race. No one would criticize her if she took a short break. In fact, no one would criticize her if she did not lift a finger at all around the farm, which was part of the reason why she tended to push herself so hard. For too much of her life, she had been an abstract object of veneration. Now she was going to insist on being treated like everyone else. But it was not necessary to kill herself from thirst. Lynn speared the hoe into the ground and walked back down the row of tomato plants to where the goatskin water flask lay beside the road.
She had just settled on the grass bank and uncorked the flask when a shadow fell across her.
“How’s the weeding going?” a voice asked.
Lynn looked up. Chip was standing above her. “Slowly.”
“You don’t have to do it, you know.”
“Yes, I do. It’s for the good of my soul.”
“But I thought you were guaranteed a place in heaven as one of Celaeno’s chosen,” Chip said lightly.
“And even as we speak, the Chief Consultant is probably trying to talk the Goddess into reconsidering my status.”
“Does that worry you?” Chip sounded genuinely curious.
“Not too much.”
“Do you think Gina’s right about Celaeno and the Elder-Ones?”
Lynn wrinkled her nose. “She might be. But even if she isn’t and I die and get sent to hell, at least I won’t have to spend all eternity listening to Sister Dunsin.”
Chip laughed and sat down beside her. “You know, you’re nothing like how I thought an Imprinter would be.”
That’s what Kim once said to me, Lynn thought, but did not voice the words aloud. She passed the water flask to Chip. “I’m sorry to be a disappointment.”
“Oh no. You certainly haven’t been that,” Chip said, looking meaningfully at her own stomach, although it would be a few months yet before there was any noticeable sign of her pregnancy.
“But I’m feeling a bit superfluous at the moment, now that I’ve run out of people who want children.”
“You still have a fair amount of work to do, monitoring us and the babies.”
“That’s hardly a full-time job, and Gina or Lilian would be quite capable of looking after you. Even Carma could, as long as there were no complications. I only do it because”—Lynn paused, looking wistful—“because I’ve never had the chance to see the babies develop before.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Normally a couple only gets the one appointment with the Imprinter. But what
I’m most looking forward to is when the babies are born and I get to see them and hold them.”
“I think Katryn and I are quite looking forward to that part ourselves.” For once, Chip’s voice was quietly serious.
Lynn smiled at her. “Anyway, I’ve fulfilled my commitments as an Imprinter, and I’m not needed as a doctor or a vet, so I might as well be useful as a weeder.”
Chip looked solemn. “Well, I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but...” She pointed to a tiny green shoot. “You’ve missed one.”
“Thank you.” Lynn barged the Ranger with her shoulder. “So what’s your excuse for sitting here, doing nothing?”
“I’m waiting for Kim. We’re making some more cover points for archers up on the sides of the wall. She wants us to go and check out the angles.” Chip looked sideways at Lynn. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Kim recently?”
“No. I hardly get to see her at all these days.” Lynn fought to keep her voice neutral.
“Don’t you two—” Chip broke off guiltily and then glanced toward the village. Whatever she might have been about to ask was abandoned at the sight of Kim walking along the road to where they sat. “Ah, here she comes now.” Chip scrambled to her feet, brushing dead grass from her clothes. “What kept you?” she called out.
“Nothing worth mentioning. I’m sorry,” Kim replied as she drew close and then tagged on the end, “Good morning, Lynn.”
“Good morning.”
“Right, shall we go and see about the archers?” Kim’s attention was immediately back with Chip. The two Rangers headed off on the short walk to the wall.
Lynn sat and watched them go. Then her head sank and she pinched the bridge of her nose between finger and thumb, fighting back the tears. That last exchange was the nearest thing to a conversation she’d had with Kim for days. The Ranger captain was definitely avoiding her, but sitting and crying about it was going to achieve nothing. Lynn marched up the line of tomatoes, seized the hoe, and re-attacked the weeds with the force of her despair.
*
The end of the row of plants was getting close, and Lynn’s thoughts were shifting on to the subject of lunch. Suddenly a desperate cry rang out over the fields, coming from the direction of the wall. The scream was all the more ominous for being cut off abruptly. Work across the valley stopped as people looked toward the source of the sound. Lynn also stared at the wall, shielding her eyes from the sun. She could see people moving to one end, where a massive, weathered cliff face overshadowed the mouth of the valley. Lynn knew a stairway was being cut into this crag to give access to higher viewpoints. Women were gathering around the bottom of the steps, and then one broke away, racing frantically back to the village.
“What’s up?” Lynn called as the runner approached.
“Renie’s fallen. I’m getting a rope,” the woman replied, gasping but not breaking stride as she shot past.
Lynn tossed her hoe aside and began running to the wall. By the time she got there, clusters of people were blocking the steps. Lynn began to squeeze her way through, but at that moment, Kim’s voice shouted from above. “If you don’t have a reason to be here, then back off. Sergeant Horte, get these people off the steps and don’t let anyone up without permission. Gomez, Akmar, we’re going to need a stretcher. See to it.”
People shuffled back, needing only the slightest urging from the sergeant, while the two named Rangers immediately began hunting for items to use in improvising a stretcher, but Lynn carried on undeterred. Horte looked at her uncomfortably, clearly unwilling to stand in the way of an Imprinter, despite her captain’s orders. “Um...I’m not supposed...” she began.
“It’s okay. I’ve got a reason. It sounds like a healer is needed.”
The Ranger sergeant still looked unsure, but Lynn had already pushed past and was on the steps. The path followed the route of an eroded crevice in the cliff face, in places climbing as steeply as a stepladder. The final few meters had been hacked into the side of a vertical buttress before leveling out. Lynn clambered up, using her hands as well as her feet, and emerged onto the end of a wide platform of rock. On one side, the cliffs continued up, but the other side ended abruptly in a crumbling edge with a panoramic view over the flood plain below the valley.
It was easy to see why the effort had been made to open the way up. At that point, the cliff projected beyond the mouth of the valley. The ledge presented a clear view across the front of the wall, allowing the entire area to be subjected to crossfire. Anyone trying to climb the barricade was likely to get an arrow in the back. Judging from the piles of rubble, work to level the platform and provide cover for archers was currently in progress.
Kim, Chip, and two other Rangers were already there, standing back from the precipice and talking quietly. They all glanced around as Lynn arrived. “Someone is injured?” she asked before anyone else had the chance to speak.
“Yes. Renie. She’s...” Kim pointed vaguely. Clearly, Lynn’s unexpected appearance had caught her by surprise, but she recovered quickly when the Imprinter stepped to the edge. Kim grabbed Lynn’s arm and pulled her back. “Watch what you’re doing. We don’t want two of you down there.”
Lynn looked at the restraining hand with irritation and then raised her eyes to Kim’s. “I’m not stupid. I’ll take care. But someone with medical knowledge should look at her.”
For once, Kim seemed unsure of what to say. Lynn shook her arm free, then knelt down beside the edge and peered over. The cliff dropped for more than a hundred meters until it reached the level where smashed boulders littered the ground between fir trees. A sudden onset of vertigo threatened to overwhelm Lynn, and the difference between up and down was lost, but she managed to tear her eyes from the distance and refocus closer at hand. At most points, little stood in the way of a body plunging to certain death, but Renie had been lucky and her fall had been stopped by a narrow cleft in the rock, scarcely five meters below the platform. The woman was still alive, that much was certain. However, she had a broken leg with other possible injuries, and her state of consciousness was open to question.
The sound of feet on the steps announced the runner’s return with a long coil of rope. Kim took it off the Ranger and said, “Any volunteers to go over?”
“Me,” Lynn said immediately.
“No.” Kim’s rebuttal was equally swift.
“Yes.” Lynn shifted back from the edge and stood up. “Renie should be examined before she’s moved, and since it has to be someone adept with the healer sense, you’ve got the choice of me, Gina, or Lilian. Unless you think Renie should lie there until Carma gets back from patrol. I think she’s due in tomorrow.”
Kim’s face set in a frown. Neither the crippled heretic leader nor the eighty-year-old Cloner was a feasible candidate for the job, but she was obviously unhappy with the idea of Lynn going over the edge. “You’re too valuable to risk.”
“Then don’t drop me.”
They stared at each other in confrontation while the others on the platform shifted uneasily. In the end, Kim gave way, although she insisted in personally tying the rope around Lynn and double-checking the knot.
A small flutter of panic unsettled Lynn’s stomach when she turned around and stepped back off the ledge, but she fixed her eyes on her feet and refused to look down, refused to even think about the drop beneath her. Soon she had reached the spot where Renie lay. Lynn called out to those above to stop letting out the line. The crevice was too narrow for her to get a proper foothold, so she was forced to semi-dangle as she made the examination. At the touch of Lynn’s hands, the injured woman’s eyelids quivered open, and with the return to consciousness, her face contorted in pain.
“It’s all right, you’re going to be fine,” Lynn said.
Hardly surprisingly, Renie looked dazed and unable to reply. Lynn placed a hand on her forehead and gently pushed her back into a deep sleep before continuing to investigate the injuries. The fall had left the woman severely bruised, her right leg
was broken, one shoulder was dislocated, and she had a potentially worrying blow to the head, but no other injury that had to be dealt with before she was moved. After an awkward struggle, Lynn removed the belt from Renie’s waist and bound her two legs together in a temporary splint. Performing the task was tricky while hanging half-suspended. The most difficult part of all was getting enough slack in the rope to put two loops under Renie’s arms, but finally the injured woman was secure and Lynn called out to be hauled up.
The ascent was worse than the way down. Lynn had no control over where she was going. It took all her effort, plus a few knocks and scrapes, to fend her comatose patient away from the jagged cliff face. Fortunately, the distance was not great and soon they reached the platform. Hands reached down and dragged them both to safety. The same hands also assisted Lynn to her feet and continued to clasp her, even after she had regained her balance and was well away from the edge.
With some surprise, Lynn realized that Kim was the one holding her, hugging her close—unexpected, though possibly not unnecessary, since her legs were feeling slightly wobbly now that she was standing on firm ground again, with time to think about what she had just done. She tried to remind herself that she had a patient who needed attention, but it was so tempting to spend a few seconds more, leaning against Kim and feeling Kim’s arms around her.
“Are you all right?” Kim asked softly.
“Yes, it was Renie who fell.” Lynn tried to sound nonchalant, but her legs were still wobbly, and she was no longer sure if this was due only to the memory of dangling over the long drop. She looked up and felt her pulse leap as her eyes met Kim’s.
The Temple at Landfall Page 22