Spinning around, Roke squinted to see who was shouting from the dimness of the stables.
“Roke, it’s me—I’m here.” Ellilah came out from behind the pawing, snorting Demon, who was guarding her protectively. “It’s all right, Demon,” she told him, stroking his neck. “It’s just Roke—you know him, right? He won’t hurt me.”
Her words felt like a knife in Roke’s heart, but he tried not to show it.
“If you’re safe in here then who did I just throw in the water trough?” he demanded roughly. “And who hit you?” he asked, seeing the red mark forming on her swelling cheek.
“You ungrateful foreign bastards! You’ll pay for this! You’ll pay!” A high, angry shriek followed by a splashing sound answered his questions.
Turning, Roke saw the Crown Prince himself climbing out of the water trough. His fine clothes were mostly burned away, though it was clear they must have saved him from the worst of the flames. At least, he didn’t look burned…though his skin did have a strange, melted look about it. Also, it had turned from pale, delicate blue to a blotchy, mottled purple.
“Look at me!” The Crown Prince shrieked, holding out his now disfigured arms. “Look what you’ve done to me! You threw me in the poison and now my beauty is ruined—ruined!”
“You were never much to look at in the first place, you frog-faced bastard,” Roke growled. “What happened? You hit Ellilah and Demon flamed you for it?”
“He did more than hit me.” Ellilah’s voice was shaky. “He…he tried to…to…rape me.” She seemed to be struggling to get the words out and when Roke looked at her, he saw that she was hanging onto Demon for dear life, her arms wrapped as far as they could go around the big zorel’s neck.
Demon had one forelimb curled protectively around his little mistress and he was glaring at the screaming Crown Prince with red eyes, as though he might be thinking of flaming him again.
“I’ll have the lot of you executed!” the Tenebrian monarch was shouting, his voice a high-pitched, angry whine. “And I’ll have that big brute drawn and quartered while he’s still alive! Oh, my beautiful skin! My perfect complexion! Ruined! Guards—guards!”
Roke looked around reflexively and saw that the distressed monarch’s wailing was having some effect. The grooms who usually worked in the stables were coming back and one or two royal guards were beginning to come from the palace.
“Quick!” He turned to Ellilah. “We have to get out of here!”
“But I never got a piece of the Lattice!” she protested. “And I won’t leave Demon for him to kill,” she added, glaring at the Crown Prince, who was looking worse every moment. Most of his luxuriant hair had been burned away, Roke saw, and his newly bald scalp, which was an angry shade of purple, was peeling and melting at the same time.
“We’ll bring Demon with us,” he told Ellilah. “There’s room for him in my cargo hold. But we have to go now! If the guards catch us, we’ll never leave the palace alive.”
“Kill you! I’ll kill you all!” the Crown Prince was shrieking, as though to make Roke’s point for him. “Guards, guards—execute them at once!”
“All right.” Ellilah lifted her chin. “Then we’ll go. Come on.”
She swung herself up on Demon’s back as naturally and easily as though performing a practiced dance move. Then she nodded at Roke.
“Up behind me—hurry!”
Roke didn’t like the idea of riding on the menacing Demon—especially not bareback—but there was little choice. He had to admit they would be faster on the great beast than on foot.
“Fine.” Taking a deep breath, he hoisted himself up behind her and threw a leg over the broad back.
Demon shied a bit, but Ellilah stroked his neck and said something that calmed him down. Then she gripped his long, feathery mane and turned her head to look at Roke.
“Hold on to me,” she told him. “Demon will get us out of here but you have to hold on.”
Roke wrapped his arms around her waist as she urged the huge zorel forward.
“Go Demon—take us away from here!” Roke heard her say. And then he felt the enormous animal gather himself and Demon leapt away, galloping out of the stable, past the screaming, melting prince, and out into the wild lands beyond the palace grounds.
Forty-Seven
“Head West!” Roke shouted as the wind whistled past their ears.
“West,” Elli repeated, pointing for Demon’s benefit. The zorel snorted and turned at once, heading where she was indicating. This was the first time he had ever showed her his true paces and the big zorel was so fast it nearly took her breath away. He had taken them easily out of range of even the guards’ long range weapons and now they were galloping free across the rolling plains.
“Will we make it?” she asked Roke, turning her head to look at him.
“We should,” he said grimly. “I parked my ship away from the main part of town just in case of trouble.”
“We’re in trouble all right,” Elli admitted. “I should have told you not to throw the Prince in the water trough—regular water melts the Tenebrians’ skin.”
“I was just trying to put him out. Though if I’d known what he was trying to do to you, I would have let him burn,” Roke said, his eyes turning red. “Did he manage to—?”
“No,” Elli said quickly. “Demon stopped him. He…he only tried.” She turned back around, looking between Demon’s long, silky ears to distract herself.
“I should have been there to stop him myself,” Roke growled in her ear. “Gods, I’m so sorry, little priestess.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for.” Elli lifted her chin and pointed at a sleek silver craft in the distance. “Is that your ship?”
“That’s it,” Roke told her. “Come on—we’re almost there!”
Leaning forward, Elli urged Demon on. Almost there—they were almost there. And soon she would be gone, leaving Pok and its angry prince and all the memories she’d made here behind forever…
Forty-Eight
“Where do you want to take him?” Roke asked, once they were safely in the air with no sign of pursuit behind them. The skies were empty right now but he was sure the Tenebrians would send someone after his ship if they hung around long enough.
Which was why he had no intention of hanging around.
“Him? Oh, Demon.” Ellilah sank into the passenger’s chair beside him wearily. She’d been holding Demon’s head and reassuring him during take-off so that the massive beast wouldn’t kick his way out of the cargo hold. Apparently he was settled now, or she wouldn’t have left him to come up to the front of the ship.
“Yes. I’m assuming there isn’t room for a beast his size aboard the Mother Ship?” Roke raised an eyebrow at her.
“You’re right.” For a moment she looked like she might cry. “They’d never let me keep him there. Or any other zorel for that matter. The humans would consider them too dangerous.”
“Do you have a place in mind where he’ll be safe, then?” Roke asked. “I’m sorry, but he can’t stay with me either, little priestess,” he added gently. “I don’t know how long he’d be willing to tolerate my cargo hold without you. You’re his person—not me.”
Ellilah looked deep in thought for a moment, her forehead creasing in concentration.
“There’s a patch of wild land out behind my family’s ranch on Torl Prime,” she said at last. “He can be free there and no one will bother him.”
“Are you sure?” Roke asked, frowning. “You don’t want to give him to your family?”
Ellilah shook her head firmly.
“Demon was never meant to belong to anyone,” she said softly. “Some creatures just can’t be owned—not unless they own a piece of you, too.” She looked up at Roke briefly. “Do you know what I mean?”
Roke felt his heart throb with pain and regret.
“Yes, little priestess,” he said, his voice low and harsh. “I do.” He cleared his throat. “Don’t worry—we’ll get
him safely to Torl Prime.”
“Thank you.” She looked down at her hands. “And…thank you for coming to save me at the stables.”
“I should have come a hell of a lot sooner,” Roke said savagely. He was still angry with himself for ignoring the feeling of concern the Goddess had been sending him. “Thank the Goddess that Demon was there to save you from that bastard’s advances. I should have let him burn to fucking death!”
“I think the punishment of looking like he does now and living in a Court full of vain nobles who care more about looks than anything else is a worse punishment than death,” Ellilah said thoughtfully.
“You’re right. I doubt he’ll want anyone ‘Mirroring’ him now,” Roke said—and then wished immediately that he could call the words back. The last thing he wanted to do was bring up the disastrous Mirroring from the night before. “Ellilah,” he began. “I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t worry about it.” She looked away from him, staring out the viewscreen at the round globe of Torl Prime growing in the ship’s field of view. “Let’s just get Demon somewhere safe so that horrible Prince can’t hurt him.”
“Of course.” And clamping his jaw shut on all the stupid, useless things that wanted to come out of his mouth, Roke shut up and flew.
Forty-Nine
“Now, you be good.” Elli stroked the soft black muzzle for the last time. “Be safe and take care of yourself,” she told Demon. “There’s plenty of grass and a nice cold stream down in the woods over there.” She pointed towards the forest at the far end of the rolling plane, making sure the big zorel knew what she meant. “So you should be just fine here.”
Demon snorted a question and she shook her head in answer.
“I’m sorry, sweet boy but this might be the last time I see you. I’ll try to visit you, but I can’t…can’t make any promises.”
Demon snorted again and this time Elli felt sorrow coming from him when she stroked his glossy neck.
“I know—I’ll miss you, too,” she whispered. “If it was up to me, I’d come back here and make a ranch near my family’s and live with you the rest of my life—you and a whole herd of zorels. But it’s not up to me. I’m sorry.”
Throwing her arms around the proud, arching neck, she hugged the big zorel as well as she could.
“You’re a good boy,” she told him. “I’ll write to my family and tell them to send a zorel doe or two to come and visit you sometimes. I think you’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Demon snorted in agreement and wrapped one foreleg around her legs protectively. He understood that Elli was saying a final goodbye and he was saying one as well.
As she hugged the big creature, tears flowed down Elli’s cheeks and into his feathery mane. She wasn’t just saying goodbye to Demon—she was saying goodbye to the life she loved more than any other—training and riding zorels. She would be going back to the cold, sterile life of a priestess with no one to love and no one to love her—no one to hold her at night or kiss her or—
No! Realizing where her thoughts were taking her, Elli pushed them away. She knew it wasn’t just Demon or ranch life that she was crying for—it was the loss of Roke. The big warrior had gotten into her heart and now Elli didn’t know how to get him out again.
Yes, you do, whispered the little voice in her head. Just a sip from the cup of Mortem Amore will erase your pain. Just get back to the Mother Ship and do what you need to do.
With a final caress, she left Demon and walked to the edge of the pasture, where Roke was waiting. There was only one way to get rid of the guilt and loss she felt and Elli was determined to do it.
Fifty
“Where to now? Back to the Mother Ship, I guess?” Roke asked, raising an eyebrow at Elli as she buckled herself into the passenger seat of his ship.
Elli nodded.
“Yes, I suppose. Though I don’t really have an excuse to go back since I never got a piece of the Healing Lattice for the old Priestess Superior. Still…what else can I do?” She sighed.
“As for that, I have something I think might help.”
Roke reached into an inner pocket and drew out a carefully folded white handkerchief of the same fine linen all the Tenebrian nobles used. Unfolding it, he held out his hand to Elli, who stared in surprise and delight.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, nudging the tiny crystal twig—about an inch long—that rested in Roke’s cupped palm. It glittered like a captured piece of rainbow, throwing multicolored shadows on the ceiling of the cockpit. “You got a piece after all! How did you do it?”
Roke shrugged and gave her a crooked grin.
“Told you I was a thief. I had a feeling the Crown Prince wasn’t going to keep his word, so I helped myself to a piece while the two of you were busy planning how you would lead Demon in the Grand Parade, to make him look brave and noble.” He made a face. “The bastard.”
“This is wonderful!” Elli exclaimed. “Now I don’t have to go back empty handed! And maybe if I heal the old Priestess Superior, I won’t be punished as much!”
Roke frowned as he put the handkerchief with its precious contents into her hand.
“You expect to be punished?”
Elli looked down at the tiny crystal shard.
“After the way I behaved, yes, I’m afraid so,” she said in a low voice.
“But it wasn’t your fault—it was my fault,” Roke protested. “Look—let me go with you and try to explain. Let me take the blame.”
“You didn’t break any vows—I did,” Elli reminded him. “Look…” She took a deep breath. “I’d really rather not talk about it right now, okay?”
“But it’s not right,” Roke growled fiercely. “I was the one who—”
“Who broke my heart?” Elli flared, her sorrow turning suddenly to anger.
His face twisted with self-recrimination.
“Ellilah, I never meant to—”
“It was my fault in the first place,” Elli said quickly. “I never should have let myself love you. I…” She shook her head, unable to finish.
“You…love me?” Roke’s deep voice was hesitant. Almost hopeful.
“I thought I did.” Elli shook her head quickly, not wanting to reveal her weakness. “But I was just being foolish. I was in love with the idea of being on an adventure—going on a quest. And working with zorels again.” She looked down at the tiny piece of Healing Lattice again. “I’ll never do any of that again. I’ll spend the rest of my life in the Sacred Grove—unless the Ascending Priestess Superior decides to send me back to the Priory of Extreme Atonement, which I suppose she might.”
“You shouldn’t have to go through all that, though,” Roke exclaimed. “You shouldn’t be a priestess at all, Ellilah! You clearly don’t have the temperament for it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She frowned at him.
“You’re hot-blooded, sweetheart. You were never meant for chastity.” Reaching out, he stroked her cheek gently. At once, Elli’s heart began to race and she felt herself flush with heat.
“Roke…” she protested uneasily, drawing away from his hand.
“And you’re clearly much better with zorels than saying morning and evening prayers and scrubbing pots and trimming trees,” he went on. “You have a gift from the Goddess—why don’t you use it?”
“Because I made a promise!” Elli exclaimed. “I swore vows to serve the Goddess all my life and just because I’ve broken those vows—at least some of them—doesn’t mean I can just abandon my calling! I took orders as a priestess and I must fulfill them.”
“All right, all right…” He held up his hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “If you’re really so determined to do something you hate the rest of your life…”
“What choice do I have?” Elli flared at him. “I might not have chosen this life, but I’m stuck in it now and that’s all there is to it. So please, just take me back to the Mother Ship and drop me off and you’ll never have to see me again.”
> “You know I don’t want that,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t want to part from you forever, little priestess.”
“We have no choice.” Elli shook her head. “Do you really think the Priestess Superior will let me see the male I broke my vows with? You’ll be lost to me, Roke—as lost as Demon is. I…I’ll never see either of you ever again.”
And with that, the tears that had been threatening to overwhelm her rose to the surface and she couldn’t hold them back anymore.
“Ellilah—” Roke reached for her but Elli pushed his hand away. She fumbled blindly with the seat harness and released herself. Walking on legs that trembled and swayed, she somehow made her way down the aisle towards the back of the ship, where she could cry in private.
“Ellilah,” Roke called again, but she only shook her head.
“Tell me…tell me when we get to the Mother Ship,” she managed to get out.
Then she turned and fled.
Fifty-One
“Just drop me off and leave again,” Ellilah told him as Roke landed his ship in the Mother Ship’s Docking Bay. He was relieved that he’d been allowed in at all, after he’d drugged the punch during the Christmas Party. But apparently the Ship Controller who granted access hadn’t flagged his vehicle as belonging to anyone but another solo Kindred warrior coming for a visit to the Mother Ship.
He was also relieved that the little priestess was no longer crying. It tore his heart to see her so upset and know he was the cause of it. But now Ellilah seemed to be all business—ready to go back to her old life and damn the consequences.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Roke asked, frowning. “If you’re so determined to confess, at least let me take the blame. I can explain everything.”
“The Ascending Priestess Superior won’t care what you say,” Ellilah told him. “In fact, having you there would probably make her even angrier.” She shook her head. “No, Roke—I have to do this alone. And you need to leave before someone realizes you’re the one who drugged the punch at the Christmas party.”
The Priestess and the Thief Page 23