by Robin Danner
“Who disturbs My sacred space?” the feminine voice demanded. Lin’s first sight of the Moon Goddess froze her in her tracks.
“Is that…” Marko breathed, his helmet fogging.
“I see it, too,” Greiling muttered.
The goddess flung a hand out and, even though it was memory now, Lin couldn't stop the cold-water fear that clenched her gut. Beside her, Greiling and Marko dropped, completely and suddenly unconscious.
The Goddess stared at her, blue flames in her eyes. “You resist my power?”
Lin's mouth was too dry to answer. Her mind couldn't quite wrap around the logic of seeing a woman dressed in a tunic, without suit or helmet, appear out of nowhere and pad barefoot around this old dome as if it were a summer day on Earth.
She hadn't needed to answer, though, as the Goddess crawled inside her head and read her thoughts. “Lost…separated from your friends…such a shame. You have invaded my sacred space uninvited, and for that you must make amends. But you know who I am and you keep the faith that honors me. Perform a single task for me, and the slate will be wiped clean.”
“Wh-what task?” Lin asked, her brain aching. She felt violated. Exposed. The Goddess wasn't supposed to be like this. So calculating and…cold.
“My Hound has gone astray. Find him and return him to me. You have seventy-two hours.”
“How? Where?” Lin asked. “I don't even know where to start.” Maybe she saw inside my heart. Maybe she knew how little I believed. Needless to say, that was quite changed right now.
Diana pulled a glittering mote from the crown encircling her head. A diamond chip on a spun-silver chain gleamed in her hand. “You know how to use a pendulum, do you not?”
“I've been a moonwitch all my life,” Lin said. She had just never expected the religious aspect of it to be quite so…literal. “I can work a pendulum.” The Oracles—the religious leaders of the Lunar colony—had trained her to use dowsing equipment to find concentrated pockets of trapped He-3 in Moon dust.
She took the bob from Diana. It was freezing, even through her spacesuit gloves. She slipped it into a cargo pocket on her belt. “What will happen to my friends?”
“They remain trapped until you fulfill your end of the bargain. You, however, will go to the jewels that gird the waist of Gaia, as scheduled.”
The jewels—she must have meant the ring-cities. Lin's throat tightened. “How did you…” Stupid question. The Goddess could easily have known that she'd been volunteered to represent the Moon at the LEO Independence parade. Mostly as a way to get her off the Moon while her little peccadillo with the city Councilman blew over.
She looked down towards the still forms of Greiling and Marko. The old stories started coming back to her. Diana hunted with a pack of hounds, and always shot her arrows true. And the Goddess had once turned a man into a stag for stumbling across her while bathing. But they were supposed to be just stories, different from the living Goddess they prayed to in Circles. “Okay,” she said cautiously. “I'll find your dog…”
“Hound.”
In the old stories, the Gods could be bargained with. “I'll find your Hound for you in exchange for the lives of these two and those of the other team.”
“Done.” Then, Diana had put her hand on Lin's chest. A cold blast had shot through her, through her suit and into her skin to lodge just under her breastbone, and she had slumped forward.
Sonny's gentle touch under her chin brought her back to herself. “Thanks,” he said. “I think I can see some things.”
Lin blinked. “What do I do now?” she asked.
He stroked her hair. “Go back to your shuttle and tell Max to wait for my signal. You'll know what to do then.”
Taking comfort from other people wasn't something she engaged in. But in this case, she leaned into Sonny's touch. His golden eyes penetrated hers, and an ache tightened in her chest. He lifted a hand and placed his index finger against her forehead. “Be at peace, Lin Itoh,” he said.
Her mind filled with warmth and light. Heat swelled in her, driving away the chill that seemed to take up permanent residence. Fantasies that always seemed to lurk beneath her consciousness surged to the surface of her mind. Lovers, men whose bodies had slid over hers and whose lips, tongues, and hands had found places that triggered her pleasure centers. The shiver of the brink of orgasm, and the heat of hyper-awareness. The satisfaction of being replete. The loving embrace of acceptance.
Her eyes snapped open. Sonny smiled down at her. “Damn,” she breathed. “No wonder everybody and their sister wants to work on the Helios project.”
Sonny laughed, and the sound of it filled her with visceral joy. “Go on, little moonwitch. Solar arrays don't run themselves.”
Chapter 6
Sonny's idea of a signal was a wide-band broadcast that had news agencies all over the solar system scrambling to post the headline that the Helios Array's initial test run would occur when the array beamed its first collected energy at the Martian moon of Deimos, to a point on the Voltaire crater.
“That's our cue,” said Max. “Back to Deimos we go.”
This time, they downloaded maps and rented a pallet sled to drive along the access tunnel, bypassing the residential areas until they came to the giant refinery that took up most of the tiny moon. Lin's pendulum jerked and bobbed on its chain, directing them to a dripping wet cavern whose walls were slick with slime. Max elected to stay back in the tunnel and keep the sled running. “Just call me the getaway driver,” he said.
Beside her, Rex took her hand. She squeezed his in return. The need to give him comfort overrode her own need to shut herself away from others. Maybe it was those liquid brown eyes of his.
She paused. “Rex,” she said quietly, hand clenched in the hip pocket of her coveralls.
“Uh-huh?”
She looked down at the slime-slickened ground, and back up again. “I just wanted…” sudden nerves twisted in her stomach, threatening to rise in her throat. “Here,” she said, and thrust her hand out towards him.
Rex took her clenched hand in his and she opened her fingers. She'd been squeezing the pendulum so hard that the edges had formed depressions in her hand. He looked up at her, a question in his eyes.
She licked her lips. “You said that you thought I was Diana, the first time you saw me on the parade float.” She couldn't blame him for the confused look on his face, so she rushed on. “I'm not. Her, I mean. I'm not your mistress. Nobody is.”
He stared down at the chip of precious stone she’d placed in his hand, then back up at her. “Thank you,” he said. “I think.”
Behind her, Max said quietly, “You have to give up your mistress to gain your freedom, Little Brother. Think you can do that?”
Rex looked from her to Max and back again. “Let's go, Lin.”
She walked beside her young lover, picking her way through the uneven floor of the tunnel, with only the most basic metal gridwork holding her magnetic shoes. Next to her, Rex placed his feet with more surety. After a jog in the wall, the tunnel suddenly opened up to a cavern and she stopped just short of colliding with Rex.
Lin's mouth went dry again as she saw the pale, beautiful Goddess waiting in the shadows. The urge to go to her and disappear into those shadows was almost too powerful to fight. Only the grip of Rex's hand in hers controlled her motions.
She stepped forward. “My Lady, your Arrow has found her Target.”
Diana's gaze burned as it raked over her. “So you have,” she said, stepping lightly over the debris. “My Hound has been a naughty boy, hasn't he?” She pulled one of the arrows from her quiver and caressed the fletching.
“I kept up my end of the bargain,” Lin said. The Goddess radiated an odd, alien aura.
“So you have,” Diana repeated. The shadows behind her…slithered. Even for Deimos, the air seemed much too humid. Less like air, and more like…breath. Like being inside a giant mouth.
Just like that? “What's going to happen to Rex?�
� she asked.
“Rex?” The Goddess laughed, the sound mocking. “You speak as if he has a name. As if he deserves an identity.”
A chill chased up Lin's spine. Hey, she thought. The Goddess she knew and worshipped didn't have such a streak of viciousness. The hand holding the arrow extended towards Rex and he dropped to his knees. The Goddess stripped the compulsion from him and Lin could see it like a thin mist floating upwards. “Leave now,” Diana said. “You and I are through.”
Lin tore her eyes away from Rex. “My miners?” she asked.
“They'll find egress to the surface through a point southeast of the Lunar Prime Meridian. If they stay alive long enough to find it.”
Her chest felt too tight. She tried to remember what Circles were like, before she'd lost so much of her faith. The Goddess she'd known then hadn't felt so cold and uncaring.
Diana pointed the arrow at Rex. “I can't have a Hound who refuses to heel. I can't hunt a Pack with anything less than absolute loyalty to my will.”
We let kids into our Circles, she thought. We tell them that the Moon Goddess loves us all. That she smiles on us when we put flowers on the offering table. We tell them that Moon cakes are the Goddess's way of making us happy, even if they do make your teeth ache if you're over seven. We tell little girls that Diana's a fierce and independent Goddess, and they can be just like her if they want.
With a swift swipe, Diana brought the arrow down in a slashing motion across Rex's torso. He cried out and hunched over, blood dripping from between his fingers where the arrow's head had cut. Then his body began to change.
Lin's eyes widened as Rex’s spine lengthened and his legs shortened. Muscle and bone and sinew moved underneath skin, twisting and reforming. Rex stopped screaming and whimpered. His nose lengthened. His teeth burst out through a jaw reshaped as if a massive hand had grabbed it and squeezed. Yet through it all, his eyes—those liquid, dark, expressive eyes—remained the same.
A low keening sounded through the cavern, and she realized it came from her own throat. Rex fell to one side, his body shaking with great heaves.
We call her our Mother. Mothers don't do this.
“Stop it!” she shouted. “Stop, please!” As stupid moves went, it ranked high. But giving voice to the wrongness of it spurred her to more than words. She flung herself at the Goddess, between her and Rex.
The touch of Diana's flesh against her own sent cold washing through her. Frost formed on her hands where she touched the Moon Goddess. Diana's gaze met hers and dark, alien fire burned in her eyes. “You dare…” she bared her teeth. “An Arrow does not turn on the Huntress!”
“No, ma'am,” she said, stomach quivering. “I'm no longer your Arrow.” Her throat clogged. I'm no longer your worshipper. “And you are not the Goddess I once loved.”
Diana's hair burst into blue flame. “Get out! Ungrateful wretch!” She clenched a fist and Lin felt that place in her midsection, just under her breastbone, collapse.
She fought for breath as she fumbled for the radio clipped to her hip. “Ma…” she gasped out. Come on, Max. Cold despair seeped over her, both from without and within. The shard of industrial diamond hanging around her neck frosted over. The cold radiated from the Goddess, snaking out along the warm, damp floor of the cavern, and mist rose from the reaction, fogging her view.
* * * *
She didn't know how long she had lain there on the floor, her eyes holding Rex's, before a warm, broad hand touched her back. Life and feeling flooded back into her. The mist swirled around her face, beams of dusty gold shooting through the pale, blank greyness.
A form crouched down beside her. “Lin!” Max's voice held urgency to it. “Come on, Precious. Get up.”
She made a feeble grab for his duster. “Don't…call me…Precious.”
“We can talk about it later,” he said. “Just get up now. There's fireworks gonna start.”
She rolled to one side. “Rex,” she said. “He's…”
The mist swirled again, bisected by beams of golden light. Small flares ignited and died in seconds where mist met light. Rex lay on the floor, still shaking, but his features returning to man instead of beast. She pushed herself up and looked away from him to see Sonny Solaverde's broad-shouldered body between them and the mad Moon Goddess. “I thought they were beaming energy here, not Sonny.”
Max helped Rex to his feet and she stepped over to his other side to support him. “He comes with the energy,” he said.
In front of them, Sonny spoke softly. “My Lady, your humble servant wishes only to assist you.”
Diana turned her cold gaze on Sonny. Lin fought to keep from flinching. But the Goddess simply turned her head to one side. “Do I know you? Why do you thrust yourself into My presence?” She leaned forward. “You have the stink of harsh light on you. Begone from here, for our light is cool and soothes the beasts of darkness.”
“Lovely Diana,” Sonny said. “The sickness from the poison arrows of betrayal darkens your heart. Let me heal you of this affliction.”
The Goddess bristled. “I have no afflictions.” Her hair flared. “Leave at once!”
“That will do, Diana.” Sonny's voice hardened.
“You dare…”
“You're damn right I dare. And it's nowhere near as offensive as whatever you've been up to with the Titans!”
Diana's fist clenched, and the heat was sucked from the room again. Lin's teeth chattered. Diana swept her arm out and a wall of cold air shoved them back. Lin lost her balance and crumpled backwards. She lay on her back and gasped for air again, her body cataloguing bruises, aches, and pains it wasn't going to let her forget about.
Cracks appeared in Sonny's skin, and light bled out from between them. Lin watched, at first in horror, and then through the insides of her eyelids with awe, as Sonny's skin burst entirely and the fiery visage of the sun God stepped out from his human shell. “I should have seen that one coming,” she muttered.
“Sister,” Sonny—hell, Apollo, because who was she kidding—said, reaching out a hand to the enraged Diana. “End this. Now.”
“This isn't your affair, Brother,” Diana hissed. “My Hounds have betrayed me, and they must suffer for defying me. I will be respected. I am an Olympian!”
“And as such are bound by the laws of justice,” Apollo replied. “And the laws of non-intervention outside your own bailiwick.”
“Does that mean she could do this if we were on the Moon?” Lin asked, peeking out from between her fingers.
The Sun God's hair flickered and waved like plasma flame as he shook his head. “Olympian justice forbids us to take direct vengeance on mortals who have wronged us. It's not our way.”
“Not so heavy on the smiting, huh?” That was a relief.
“Not heavy on the entire intervention thing, either. At least, not on Earth. Now that mankind has followed us into our exile, the laws are somewhat…fluid again.” Once again, he was the amicable project engineer, in spite of the change in appearance. His features shifted though, and his next words came unmistakably from the Sun God. “But the laws against intervention from the Titans are sacrosanct.” He clenched his fist and a ball of blinding light formed. Lin looked away. “And the insult given by a Titan's presumption to sully my sister with its presence shall not go unpunished.” The light grew until she was forced to turn away.
Light this bright held no shadow. There was no escape from it. Closing her eyes simply filtered the blaze through thin flesh membranes. Sonny leaned down close to Lin and murmured, “You might want to take your friends and get out of here for a bit.”
Eyes streaming, Lin nodded. “Thank you.” She searched for Rex and Max by touch, and when she found them, she grabbed onto whatever limbs she could get a grip on and started dragging. Just as she turned away from the two deities, the blinding afterimage on the backs of her eyes burned the form of Apollo, plunging his arm into his sister's luminous body and pulling forth something squirming.
Her mus
cles burned. Her eyes ached. Her heart pounded against her ribcage and she thought about nothing more than getting the hells out of there before things got really, really ugly. In the blinding light, she heard a high-pitched, inhuman squeal that seemed to stretch on and on, digging into her skull and squeezing her brain.
She found the sled by touch and sagged against it. She felt one of the men stir. “Lin?” Rex's voice echoed in the blackness. “What happened?”
Her throat ached. “Sonny. He—he's fighting for his sister's honor.” It was as good a summary as any. “Can you help me get Max up into the sled? It's too dark and I can't find my glowstick.”
“Oh. Oh, Lin.” His voice sounded sympathetic. “Here,” he said, uncurling her fingers from what she assumed was Max's body. “Let me.”
“Is he…”
“No! No, he's alive.” She heard Rex scuffling, his movements echoing off the cavern walls. “He's just a heavy bastard when he's out cold.”
“How about you get the sled fired up so we can get some light in here, then,” she said. Max is alive. Rex is alive. And I'm alive. Miracles do happen.
“Um, Lin?”
“What?”
“Nevermind. Let me get you into the sled. I'll drive this time.” She felt his arms go underneath her legs and across her shoulders and he lifted her like a child. “Can you hold onto Max for me?”
“Sure,” she murmured. “Mmm. You smell nice.” She rested her head on his chest. “Is it okay if I keep you for awhile?” she asked. “I know you should probably find a girl your own age and everything, but until you do…” she trailed off.
“I think I'd like to stay with you,” he murmured, setting her down on the sled seat. “I think we both would.”
Both of them? Long term? Hells…why not? “I'll try not to be so bossy.”
“I kind of like being bossed around by you.”
“Then it's settled,” she said, sagging over Max's body. She’d never suspected how much tension she must have been carrying over him. Under her ass, the sled's anti-grav generator hummed to life. With the day she’d had, it wasn't hard to slip into an exhausted sleep in the velvet darkness that no longer threatened.