“A sweet one?” Kat objected. “Then what do you want salsa for?”
“Never you mind,” Olivia said crossly. “Just pass it. And the peanut butter and chocolate chips while you’re at it.”
Kat made a face but passed the requested ingredients to her friend. “Okay, now that Queen Olivia is happy, go on with your story, doll.” She nodded encouragingly at Nadiah.
Nadiah wasn’t sure where to begin but she found herself telling them how she’d realized that she was in love with Rast. The way he stood up for her against her parents and Y’dex, and the way she thought he could never love her back because of what Sylvan had made him promise.
Sophia let out a sigh at this point. “I love him with all my heart and I know Sylvan was just trying to look out for you but…”
“But men sure are stupid sometimes, aren’t they?” Olivia finished for her, licking a mixture of salsa and peanut butter off her fingers.
Sophia gave her a mock slap on the arm. “Hey, that’s my guy you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Liv grinned unrepentantly. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure Baird would have done the same thing. Or any of the guys, really. It’s not a Sylvan thing, it’s a male thing.” She nodded. “Go on, Nadiah. What happened next?”
“Well…” Nadiah told about the three challenges but when she got to the part about Y’dex’s tharp inching up and falling down to expose him to the entire audience, the girls broke up into a fit of giggles.
“Oh no!” Sophia gasped, holding her sides. “I know I shouldn’t laugh because I’ve had that happen to me before and I totally understand how mortifying it can be.”
“What happened to you is actually what gave me the idea in the first place,” Nadiah admitted. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course she doesn’t mind,” Kat said. “But go on with the story—what happened next?”
Nadiah was really beginning to enjoy telling her story but when she got to the challenge of wills with the mud worms, she couldn’t help noticing that both Olivia and Lauren looked sick.
“Skip the in-depth descriptions if you don’t mind, please,” Lauren said faintly.
“Yeah, it’s enough for us to know Rast had to eat a live worm as big as his forearm,” Liv said. “We really don’t need details.”
“I’m sorry,” Nadiah said contritely. She hurried on, telling them how Y’dex had lifted and dropped her and Rast had caught her and saved her life. The girls exclaimed in horror and Liv offered the opinion that Y’dex should be “strung up by his balls.” But it wasn’t until she told about the last challenge, the challenge of blood, that Nadiah really began to blush.
“You shared blood with him?” Sophia asked softly and Nadiah nodded. Being bonded to a Blood Kindred, she knew her friend really understood the significance of the act. But the other girls seemed to sense it too. And when she spoke of the way she’d been pulled between the two males, all four of them made sympathetic faces.
“That must have hurt like hell,” Kat remarked. “Being torn in two like that.”
“It was the most painful experience of my life,” Nadiah said softly. “I didn’t think I could stand it. Didn’t think I could free myself from Y’dex—it hurt too much. But when Rast shouted to me that he loved me, I finally found the strength.”
“It nearly killed her, though,” Sophia put in. “Tell them about seeing your dead grandmother, Nadiah.”
“What?” Lauren’s amber eyes were wide. “You saw who?”
Nadiah told them as much as she remembered about the experience but she couldn’t help feeling like there was something she was leaving out. Something important. She wished she could sit and think about it for a minute but the other girls were hanging on her words. She had to finish her story. Oh well, she thought uneasily. Maybe it will come to me later…
“And then I woke up in Rast’s arms,” she went on. “Because he’d taken the other half of the blood bond into his own heart. But the magistrate didn’t want to let us go even though Rast had won me fair and square…” She told about Magistrate Licklow’s attempt to declare the challenge void and how her friends had stopped him by threatening to tell the Elders about his attempt to fix the challenges.
“Good for them!” Sophia declared. “I never liked that nasty Magistrate Licklow ever since he accused me of fondling him under the table.”
“He what?” Lauren demanded and then, of course, they had to digress and talk about what had happened on Sophia’s trip to Tranq Prime. When they had all finished laughing about that, Nadiah was finally able to finish her own story.
“So he carried me back to our ship and told me he loved me. And we’ve spent the last three days on the ride home, er, enjoying each other’s company.”
“Oh, no…” Kat shook her head. “You don’t get off that easy. We can all see you have the same color eyes which Sophia informs us means you’ve still got your V card. But there’s no way you spent three days and nights in one of those dinky little ships with the man you loved without doing something dirty.”
Olivia nodded. “Details. We want details.”
Nadiah could feel herself blushing to the roots of her hair and she twisted her fingers together nervously. “I’d be happy to tell you, uh, details, but I thought Sophia had something to say.” She looked at her friend, pleading with her eyes. “Sophia?”
“All right.” Sophia took a deep breath and Nadiah noticed that the other three girls immediately got quiet.
“You gonna tell us what’s been bothering you the past few days, hon?” Kat asked.
Sophia nodded. “I am but it’s not easy to say.” She looked down at her hands. “I…I’m barren. I can’t get pregnant.”
“What?” the three of them shouted together.
“And you’ve known this how long?” Olivia demanded.
Sophia bit her lip. “Just a little while. I…I had Sylvan run some tests after Lauren found out she was pregnant and—”
“Wait a minute,” Nadiah interrupted. “Lauren? You’re…?”
“Going to have a little girl,” Lauren said quietly. She looked happy but worried, Nadiah thought. “Xairn and I are very…excited.” She glanced at Sophia. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for my news to bring you pain.”
Sophia shook her head firmly. “Don’t be silly, Lauren. I’m happy for you and Liv. I just…I wish I had good news too. But when I went to ask the high priestess about it—”
“The high priestess who died?” Olivia asked, interrupting her.
Sophia nodded miserably. “She had some kind of a fit or a vision. Talked about how my womb had been…had been closed for a reason. She said I must go and stand before the Empty Throne.”
For some reason her words gave Nadiah a strange tingle along her spine. The Empty Throne, she thought. What is that? Something I forgot?
“I don’t understand,” Kat said, breaking her train of thought. “How can an empty throne heal you?”
“Not the throne itself, whoever sits on it,” Lauren corrected. “But who sits on it?”
“That’s just it, I don’t know.” Sophia looked unhappy. “And she never even promised it would heal me—she just said I had to go stand in front of it. It’s somewhere on First World—the Kindred home planet, that’s all I know. So Sylvan and I are planning a trip there as soon as…as… Oh my God, Nadiah,” she exclaimed suddenly, looking at Nadiah. “Are you okay?”
Nadiah, as it happened, was not okay. From the moment Sophia had said the words, “empty throne,” a strange feeling had been coming over her. A tingling sensation that started at her fingertips and grew to encompass her arms, head, and face. An al’lei, she thought, beginning to feel panicked. I’m going to have an al’lei. A waking dream. Oh, Goddess, please…
Suddenly Sophia’s suite and the coffee table with the girls gathered around it disappeared. Nadiah found herself standing in a vast, empty space with rounded white marble pillars rising to the sky. A flood of pale green light seemed t
o be coming from somewhere overhead but when she looked up, all she could see was an immense stone chair made of the same white marble as the pillars. It was empty and unadorned but somehow it seemed to emanate with a strange power she could feel humming in her bones. If I got too close it would kill me! she thought and then a voice began to speak. A voice which Nadiah heard in her head…but also coming from her own mouth. Goddess, help me, she thought wildly. It, no she, is speaking through me!
“He comes. He comes and the Empty Throne shall be filled again,” Nadiah heard herself say but the voice that came from her throat was not her own. It was deeper, filled with authority and power.
“Who…who comes?” Sophia quavered. “Nadiah, please…”
“He who is to fill the throne. There.” Nadiah turned, or rather, a force outside her body made her turn, and pointed at the doorway of the suite.
As if on cue, the door opened and Rast stepped in.
“Hi,” he said, smiling tentatively. “Excuse me. I hope you girls don’t mind but I came to get Nadiah. I think I’ve found someone who might—”
“She is not for you, warrior,” the voice coming from Nadiah’s throat proclaimed. Helpless to stop it, she felt herself rise from her place at the table and stalk slowly toward that male she loved. “We have felt your energy across the vast reaches of space and believe you are the one. You must relinquish your claim in the female, Nadiah, and come to First World to be tried.”
“What?” Rast frowned at her. “Is this some kind of joke? Why are you using that weird voice?”
“It’s no joke.” Sophia hurried to stand beside her. “She’s having a vision,” she whispered to Rast, her eyes huge and frightened. “Oh God, I hope it doesn’t kill her!”
“Kill her? What are you talking about?” Rast demanded. He took Nadiah by the shoulders and shook her. “Enough of this now, Nadiah. Enough. Snap out of it!”
Nadiah only wished she could. But the al’lei wasn’t over yet and the entity which had taken over her body was not ready to let her go.
“Take your hands from this female, for she is not for you,” she heard herself saying—or someone saying through her. “You are meant for greater things, Adam Rast. A higher purpose calls you.”
“What higher purpose? What are you talking about?” Rast demanded.
“You will come to First World,” the commanding voice insisted. “You will come to be tried. If you take the oath and pass the trial, you will sit upon the Empty Throne.”
“Look, you…whoever you are,” Rast said evenly, staring into Nadiah’s eyes. “I don’t know who you are or how you got inside my girlfriend but you get out and leave her alone right now or so help me God—”
Nadiah heard a strange, hollow laugh issue from her mouth. “It is in the name of the Goddess, the Mother of All Life, that we call you. We are finished arguing. You will appear before the Empty Throne in First World before this solar week is out. If you do not, this female will die.”
Suddenly, whatever or whoever it was left Nadiah in a rush. The room spun around her and she felt herself falling to the ground. Strong arms caught her.
“It’s all right, sweetheart. I’ve got you,” Rast murmured in her ear. “Are you okay now? Is that thing gone?”
“Yes…yes, I think so. I just feel so weak.” Nadiah put a hand to her cheek. “And so cold. Why is it so cold in here all of a sudden?”
“It’s not.” Sophia was biting her lip with worry. “Rast, feel her forehead. She looks flushed.”
Rast pressed a hand which felt like a block of ice to her forehead and pulled back cursing. “She’s burning up! Was she sick before this happened?”
“No.” All the girls shook their heads. “She was fine,” Lauren said. “Perfectly fine.”
Sophia put a hand to her temple. “I’m calling Sylvan right now. We’ll find out what’s wrong with her, I promise.”
The next few minutes were a blur to Nadiah as Rast carried her to the couch and sat down, still holding her. Her head throbbed and her eyelids felt very hot and very heavy, as though someone had tied burning lead weights to them. The world greyed out for a few minutes and when it came back into focus she saw Sylvan looking at her with worry.
“Vashan fever,” he was saying to Rast, who also looked upset. “A rare disease on Tranq Prime which only affects virgin females. I’m afraid it usually kills its victims within a week. But I don’t see how Nadiah could have contracted it so quickly when—”
“A week,” Sophia interrupted. “That’s how long she said Rast had to get to First World.”
“What?” Sylvan demanded. “Who…”
But the world greyed out again and this time the grey turned to blackness. The Blackness, Nadiah thought. The Blackness which Eats the Stars. It’s coming…
And then…nothing.
Chapter Twenty-four
“I’m sorry to have to leave you so suddenly like this, old friend.” Sylvan had a harried look on his face as he rushed around the med station, collecting equipment to bring on his journey.
“Don’t worry about it. Nadiah is your kin—of course you have to take care of her.” Merrick watched his friend with worried eyes. Sylvan didn’t seem like himself. Of course, it wasn’t every day that a much beloved younger kinswoman was suddenly and mysteriously stricken with a fatal, fast acting disease. Vashan fever, much like Blood Fever, infected only young, virgin females but it was even faster acting and more deadly. “Did she contract it on Tranq Prime?” he asked as Sylvan stuffed more instruments into his pack.
“She must have.” Sylvan shook his head. “Of course, the symptoms don’t manifest at once, but…” He broke off and put a hand over his eyes. “Oh Goddess, if only I hadn’t warned Rast off her. The fever cannot attack females whose eyes have been changed. If only—”
“Stop.” Merrick gripped his friend by the shoulder. “Stop beating yourself up over this, Sylvan. You were only doing what any Tranq Prime kinsman would do—protecting her virtue.”
“I know.” Sylvan looked up, his ice blue eyes anguished. “But it’s her virtue that is allowing the fever to kill her.”
“What were you supposed to do?” Merrick said roughly. “Offer her up to him on a silver fucking platter? You were doing what you thought was right. No one can blame you for that.”
“I can,” Sylvan said bleakly. “And I will, for the rest of my days if we cannot get her help.”
“And you think the priestesses on First World hold the answer?” Merrick cocked an eyebrow at him.
Sylvan nodded. “They must. They are the only ones who serve beside the Empty Throne and that is where Rast was commanded to go. It’s also the subject of the other prophecy—the one Sophia received. So we’re all going together and bringing Nadiah to be healed.” He clenched his hands into fists. “If she can be healed.”
“Is there nothing you can do?” Merrick asked. “I thought if you caught the fever in its first symptoms—”
“That’s the thing.” Sylvan ran a hand though his hair. “There were no first symptoms. The fever came on her full blown. It was almost as though…as though she’d been cursed with it.”
“Cursed with it? By the high priestess, you mean?” Merrick frowned. “How very fucking unsurprising.”
Sylvan’s eyebrows shot up. “You met the High Priestess of the Empty Throne?”
Merrick shrugged. “I told you I went on pilgrimage there—to First World—before I got attacked by the Trissies, right?” He scowled. “I was trying to, I don’t know, get my mind right before I had to participate in your ceremony. Didn’t want to bring you bad luck.”
“What did she say to you?” Sylvan asked, looking at him intently. “Was it anything important?”
Merrick ran a finger down his scar, rubbing it where it bisected his eyebrow. It was a gesture he had when deep in thought. Actually, it was strange that he hadn’t remembered the priestess’s prophecy—or rather curse—until just now. But the deadly fight with the pirates, the worry over miss
ing his friend’s ceremony, and the excitement of finding Elise in the abandoned life pod had driven it all out of his mind.
“You shall find the bride you seek on your journey to help a friend seal his love. She who is meant for you waits wrapped in darkness—waits for your kiss to awaken her, warrior.”
Yes, that was what the High Priestess of the Empty Throne had said to him. And then she’d gotten angry because he hadn’t believed her. Angry enough to curse him, although she had denied it and said that he had cursed himself…
Merrick looked through the open doorway to the small room where Elise had been moved, stasis chamber and all for constant observation. Could the priestess have been talking about her? Hell no, that was ridiculous. Besides, she said he would find the bride that he sought and he wasn’t seeking any damn bride. The whole thing was just a coincidence. Still…
“Well?” Sylvan demanded and Merrick realized he had been caught up in his own thoughts too long.
“I’m sorry, Brother,” he said, shaking his head. “But I don’t see how what she told me can help you. I will tell you to watch out for her though—she doesn’t like being contradicted.”
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