Desert Rose

by Marie Brown

be playtime, after all.

  So after her food settled a bit, Lorrine ventured outside, into the dying light of late evening. She found a meager woodpile, and a pile of sectioned logs. If somebody went to the trouble of sectioning the logs, why in all hells didn't they just finish the job? But they hadn't, so she found axe and wedge and got busy before the sun set.

  It felt good using her upper body, after so much walking. Her legs still ached. How long had she walked? And why, after a lifetime of having nothing to do with magic, why was she suddenly a target for forces beyond her control? A compulsion spell built into an amulet, wielded by an asshole. A powerful geas. What came next, getting shapechanged into a frog? She hoped not. After all, the chances of Kama finding and kissing a frog were vanishingly slim.

  Lorrine laughed at herself as she positioned her next log, then realized she could barely see the thing. So she put away the tools and returned to the living quarters behind the temple.

  She found a bathing room and made use of it, then went back to bed, all without seeing the priestess Adele. Presumably she had religious duties to attend to and couldn't spend all her time hovering around a guest. Too bad, Lorrine rather wanted to hear more about the goddess Biao Tanu.

  She slept again, this time without dreams about her bladder. Rather, this time her conscience served up dreams of Kama in tears.

  Lorrine woke right before dawn, tears in her own eyes. She'd been so rotten to Kama. How could she be so mean? She'd known how sensitive Kama was, how easily wounded. And she'd been outright cruel, because of her ridiculous fear and prejudice.

  Lorrine rose and dressed. She still saw no sign of Adele, so she went back to the chopping block and started swinging the axe with vigor, trying to chop out her own inner pain.

  Loving a woman certainly came nowhere near the worst thing in the world. She could think of lots of worse things, now. So why had she always believed it was the worst thing ever, that it was completely perverted to fall in love with a member of her own sex? Kama would never mistreat her the way Derfek had.

  Maybe because she'd grown up in a strange little bubble, insulated from the rest of the world by her weird and opinionated mother. Malina had certainly had some very firm beliefs and opinions about propriety, and she'd pounded them into Lorrine with a fist of iron. Sometimes literally. And of course, her father had reinforced Malina's opinions about many things. He'd been born in Shandar, where everyone was as violently opposed to all things flit as the Dargasi were.

  At least on the surface. Did Shandar women secretly spend the nights in each other's arms, like the Dargasi girls did? Doubtful. Dargasi exiled perverts. People from Shandar Province burned them to death. Big difference in stakes.

  She finished chopping all the sectioned logs. The size of the pile, weighed against the length of the winter, seemed rather insignificant, but Lorrine had no idea what to do now. She could cut a tree down, maybe, but she really didn't know how. And she did know that an improperly cut tree would fall on and squash the unwary cutter.

  So she set off in search of Adele, to find out if any more work needed doing. She found the priestess in the main temple, cleaning the altar with a soft polishing cloth.

  "I've chopped all your existing logs," she said. The priestess looked up with a smile. "Is there anything more I can do for you? I have no idea how to cut down a tree, so I can't do much more with the wood, except maybe bring it in closer to the temple."

  "No need, my dear. You have repaid me well. My thanks."

  "You are very welcome. May I ask a question of you?"

  "Certainly. What is it you wish to know?"

  "Is there any way Biao Tanu could keep me safe from enchantment?" Lorrine asked, tugging at her hair. "Really, I seem prone to that sort of thing somehow. Controlled by a damned amulet, run into the ground by a geas. . . how do I protect myself from that sort of thing? It seems like a goddess might be able to help."

  Adele looked very solemn. "There is a way. Biao Tanu proposed a solution to your problem, for she suspected you would ask for her help. I told her you might not like the idea."

  "Try me. I don't like wasting my life getting bossed around by spells."

  "The goddess proposed protecting you from outside control, such as spells, geas, compulsions, curses, and the like. In return, she asks that you go into the world for her, bearing a token that will be her eyes and ears beyond the boundaries of her own temple, and rendering aid and assistance to women and children where required."

  "That's. . . some offer," Lorrine said thoughtfully. "I hadn't really thought such a thing was possible. I mean the protection part. But if it can be done, if the goddess can keep me safe from spells. . . That might be worth any inconvenience caused by doing something I'd probably do already. What's the penalty if I change my mind after accepting the offer?"

  "Loss of protection."

  "She won't come hunt me down and blast me to cinders on the spot?" Lorrine winced as her choice of words reminded her of Derfek's demise.

  Adele laughed. "That is a very unlikely scenario. My goddess does not tend to make charcoal of people."

  "Good. That's very good to know." Lorrine chewed her lip for moment, thinking. She was a pretty decent person at heart. Would she be able to live with herself if she saw women or children in need and did nothing to help, just walked off? Probably not. "Fine, then. What do I need to do?"

  "That is between you and Biao Tanu," Adele replied, smiling gently. "Please, follow me. I will take you into the inner sanctuary."

  Lorrine wondered if she were doing the best or the worst thing ever as she followed the priestess through the public parts of the temple and through a hidden door. It could so easily go either way. Good, in that she'd never have to worry about rogue mages, compulsions, or shadows that spoke ever again. Bad. . . well, best not to think of all the ways her life could go to fewmets if she stuck her nose in the wrong problem.

  "In here," Adele said, opening another door. "I will wait for you, to guide you back out."

  Lorrine stepped past the older woman with heart clenched into a quivering cramp of apprehension. She found herself in a small room, barely enough room to hold her and a gently glowing white quartz statue.

  Lorrine came very close to losing her composure when she saw the statue and took in the details of the form. Part human, part. . . cow?!

  Yes, indeed, part cow. The lower limbs were human legs sitting cross-legged. Four arms spread out from the torso in a position of meditation. Eight pendulous breasts marched up the torso. And over the top of it all, the face of a cow looked peacefully at Lorrine. With horns. And big, flopped-over ears.

  Lorrine reminded herself that many of the oldest deities known to mankind had animal features and deserved respect. Then she reminded herself of the visible power that had cleansed her of that damned geas. Then she bowed her head in respect and knelt before the statue.