A scream woke her. She thought it was her own, torn finally from lungs that heaved for breath. But sitting up in her bed, gasping, it sounded again.
Cananea.
Greer scrambled from her cot and was through her door before she even thought to be afraid of what she might find. Her eyes flashed through the common room’s darkness—the table, the chairs, the food larders—Cananea.
She had wedged herself back in a corner and shrank there, screaming. Greer looked quickly for an offender and saw none. She ran to Cananea and heard other doors opening behind her.
“What is it?” Hannah asked. Megan began to cry. Khassis lit a candle and held it up.
Greer bundled Cananea in her arms and brought her out of the corner. Terrified, shaking, the teenager burrowed into her arms. Greer held her tightly and willed her own heart to be still so it could communicate stillness to the girl.
“You are safe, Cananea,” Greer whispered fiercely. “You are safe. No one will harm you. We are here. We will protect you.”
Cananea’s screams subsided into an outpouring of sobs and hiccups. She clung to Greer and cried, her tears dampening both their gowns. Slowly, carefully, Greer drew the girl across the room, then sat with her on a chair.
Khassis had searched the whole Sanctuary and now returned and shook his head to Greer. Hannah lit more candles and started a small fire to brew tea.
“There’s no one else here,” Greer told Cananea. “Khassis has searched and no one else is here. You are safe.”
“There was!” Cananea cried hysterically. “There was a ... a man here!”
Greer felt anger leap in her and capped it for Cananea. “What man?”
“I don’t know,” Cananea sobbed. “It was dark. I went to get a sip of water and he was there—standing before your door.”
“My door?” Greer’s stifled anger resurged, tinged with fear. “What was he doing?”
“Just ... standing. He heard me and turned. I was scared. I screamed. I ran into the corner and—and he was gone.”
Greer forced herself to be calm and smoothed the girl’s hair. “You did just fine, honey, just fine. Did you ... could you recognize him?”
“No,” Cananea wailed, shuddering. “It was too dark.” She didn’t want to try to pierce the gloaming of her memory, didn’t want to see him.
“All right,” Greer whispered. “It’s all right. Here, Hannah has made some sleeping tea for you. Drink this.”
“I’m afraid to sleep,” Cananea sniffed.
“That’s all right. We’ll all be right here. We’ll have candles lit and we’ll keep your door open and we’ll watch out for you. It’s all right.”
It was quite a while later before Cananea and Meg finally dropped off into a reluctant sleep and the adults sat around the table over more clear-thinking tea. The door to the girls’ room stood open and every moment or so either Greer or Hannah or Khassis glanced in. They talked in low whispers.
“This is getting out of hand,” Khassis said, not bothering to hide his anger. “I would like to catch this person and put an end to this.”
“Yes, so would I,” Greer agreed, “but in the meantime I worry about the girls. The Sanctuary is supposed to be the safest of places, safe in a sacred way. It can’t be that, now.”
“Can we call Ankutse, perhaps?” Hannah suggested. “Have him create locks for our doors and covers for our windows?”
“And live in a closed box?” Greer shuddered, remembering her dream. “I can’t live that way.”
“Then what?” Khassis asked.
“I’m not sure,” Greer said. “But I think the girls should go home to their families.”
Sadly, reluctant to give credence to the danger, Hannah and Khassis agreed.
CHAPTER 30
The girls moved out of the Sanctuary that day. Still shaken by the encounter, they communicated their fear to their parents who looked at Greer with a mixture of pleading and dismay.
“What is happening?” Megan’s mother asked.
Greer shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Then what should we do?” the woman pleaded.
Greer met her eyes and answered with unadorned honesty, “Do whatever it is you feel you must.”
When Reyes learned of the intrusion, he charged into the Sanctuary, livid, and vented on Greer.
“You have your guardian and your priest,” he shouted angrily at Greer, “and I will be Hannah’s. There is a vacant room here now; I will take it as mine so that I can protect Hannah as Khassis protects you.”
Shocked by the normally quiet man’s outburst, Greer was still aware enough to realize that his anger and contempt were not for her but for the intruder; he was merely expressing to her. Unexpectedly amused by his rare show of passion, she embraced him.
“Be calm,” she told the Marked One, “and be welcome.”
The abrupt acceptance of his outburst stunned him into silence. He smiled slowly, disbelievingly at Greer, then looked further and beamed at Hannah. Greer had never seen him look so pleased. She glanced back at her friend and saw an answering look in Hannah’s eyes. The healer fairly glowed with peace and pleasure.
Why, she loves him, Greer thought. Surprised by the certainty of her feeling, she looked over at Khassis. He, too, had seen the exchange, and he answered Greer’s look with a small smile and a nod. Yes, and he loves her.
Celedon was not as pleased about Reyes’ change of residence as Greer might have thought.
“You definitely need more protection,” he agreed, thinking earnestly, “but I don’t know if that will help.”
“How can it not?” Greer asked.
Celedon scowled. “Khassis was also there, in his room. What good did that do?”
Immediately angry, Greer drew breath to dress Celedon down but he waved that aside. “Guardians behind closed doors don’t help. I will move my entire group here, to the open yard of the Sanctuary. We will watch all windows and doors day and night.”
“I thought your two watchdogs were already doing that,” Greer said sarcastically.
Celedon flushed. “I will see to it personally that no one enters the Sanctuary unchallenged again.”
Greer was unmoved. “You do as you wish. But I think perhaps you are right about the guardians behind closed doors.” Celedon smiled, pleased that Greer accepted the wisdom of his plan. Greer went on. “I will ask Khassis to move into my room and Reyes to stay with Hannah.” She watched Celedon’s grin turn into a grimace. “Then, I think, I shall be as protected as possible.”
Khassis agreed with Greer’s plan as soon as she informed him but railed against having the Marked Ones camp in the open yard.
“Their sentries have done no good,” he spat, apologizing only with his eyes to Reyes. “Let them stay across the creek; we can protect our own.”
“I doubt Celedon will listen,” Reyes said quietly to Greer. With a pained look on his face, he said, “He wants only to be your priest, your one companion. He will not be put off until he achieves it.”
Khassis snorted.
Greer leaned across the table toward Reyes and impaled him with her glittering gray eyes. “You talk against your master?” she asked.
Reyes flushed, dropped his eyes. The struggle in him was obvious. Finally he found Hannah’s hand on the table, held it tightly and raised his eyes to Greer.
“I have no master,” he said clearly. “I serve the Goddess only, and Her true servants.”
Relieved, Greer sat back. She flicked her eyes to Hannah. “Do you both accept that we share rooms, then? That we alone can protect ourselves?”
Hannah, suddenly shy, bit her lip and nodded. “Yes. I accept.” She looked at Reyes.
Reyes seemed to measure the look in her eyes. “You would have me?” he asked softly.
She drew a steadying breath. “Yes.”
“Then,” Reyes said, his relief obvious, “I will come.”
Oblivious to the newly loving couple, Khassis moved behind Greer and
set his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled. In silence, the lovers of many lives over celebrated the love of the once-born.
There was a jagged edge to that winter that had nothing to do with cold. The valley seemed to suffer under a cloud of tension, an invisible heaviness that bore down peoples’ spirits and eclipsed their joy.
Even the Sanctuary was chilly but not from the weather. As Greer had feared, the sacredness of it had been violated; the air of warmth and safety was gone. People still came to seek Greer out for advice or counsel but their mood was different, as well it would be, Greer thought, after being questioned by Celedon before being allowed entry. The Marked Ones were zealous in their protectiveness and trusted no one. They looked with suspicion on everyone who approached the Sanctuary or Greer. They monitored all who entered the temple and monitored Greer whenever she left it. Soon the barricade of Marked Ones was a two-way obstacle for anyone going in or out.
Then, too Celedon began to screen the applicants who would come for audience with Greer and little by little he began dispensing counsel to them, telling Greer they were small things, too small to bother her with. Most of the people balked at that at first but in time they so associated the Marked Ones with Greer, Hannah, and the Sanctuary that they came to accept Celedon’s counsel as, also, Greer’s.
“You know that he does this?” Khassis demanded one night as they sat up late in their room. His cot had been moved to the space beneath the window but they still sat on Greer’s bed and often talked far into the night. Sometimes they slept in each other’s arms.
“Yes, I know he does it,” Greer said tiredly. “I hear about it afterwards when I walk the residences, and then, what can I do? The petitioners have already accepted his counsel and often acted on it.”
“He takes on too much,” Khassis muttered. “Soon he will be here in this room with us.”
Greer laughed a laugh without mirth. “He would if he could. He thinks to love me.”
Khassis regarded Greer with his firelit green eyes. “He is a fool,” he said. “He could never love you the way you deserve to be loved.”
Greer blushed, feeling very treasured and very pleased. “Your love is all I need—yours and Hannah’s.”
“And even I,” he said, “cannot love you the way you deserve.”
Greer stroked his cheek. “There will be other lifetimes for that,” she said.
It was midwinter when Greer began hearing things that disturbed her deeply. Not only was Celedon monitoring movement in and out of the Sanctuary, but movement in and out of the valley as well. Abel slipped through the Marked guards one day, saying Greer had sent for him, and told her that Celedon had taken it upon himself to watch over the stores of wild meat and firewood and to judge who got what amount and who went out in search of more. He meted out supplies according to some guidelines of his own and not by need as had always been done, and Abel had heard grumblings about some getting more than others. Those “some” were always friends of Celedon’s. And he sent his own comrades out of the valley for foraging, insisting that others were untrustworthy and might stockpile their own supplies or, worse, leave the valley altogether. It was as if Celedon feared his—Greer’s—people would run, leaving him a kingdom with no subjects.
After Abel left, the two couples pondered the meaning of it all.
“He has what he wanted,” Greer said. “Control.” She looked to Reyes for confirmation.
Reyes sighed heavily. “I’m afraid you are right. That is what he has always wanted. I think I knew that when I first saw him but I chose to believe there was a deeper faith behind his zeal. I know now I was right but blinded myself.”
“And have you noticed,” Khassis remarked, “that since he has gotten control, we’ve had no more vandals, no more intruders?”
“But we’ve been guarded,” Hannah said.
“Guards or not,” Greer said, “I have thought of that, Khassis, and I still consider it very possible.”
Hannah was stunned. “That Celedon would desecrate the Sanctuary himself in order to seize it?” She turned to Reyes. “Would he do that, do you think? Is his thinking so twisted?”
Reyes fiddled nervously with a drinking cup. “I ... often wondered that myself, if it was him. And, yes, I believe he could have done it. He’ll stop at nothing.” He raised his eyes to Greer, and Khassis. “Even murder.”
Hannah paled.
Khassis’ jaw tightened. “And I do not doubt who his first victim would be.”
Reyes nodded.
“But Greer,” Hannah said, clutching her friend’s hand. “Even you. If he is mad as all that, he could kill you, too, if you don’t give him his way.”
Greer shook off the threat. “No, he would never kill me. He cannot control me if I am dead. The only way I am of any use to him is alive. I am in no danger. But you,” she said to Khassis, “could be.”
“Let him try,” Khassis said boldly.
Reyes intervened. “It wouldn’t be like that, an open challenge. It would be silent, unwarned, a knife in the dark. You’d never know.”
Greer took Khassis’ hand. “We may be reading too much into Celedon’s ambition,” she said, “but just ... be careful. Please. Just be aware.”
And she knew by the look in his eyes that he already was.
The uneasiness continued into the coldest months, an unusually chill time for the temperate valley. The unexpected cold triggered a need for more fuel and food than normal, and the demand triggered more of Celedon’s power-mongering. He blamed it all on the weather, saying he had to monitor the supplies or they’d run out before spring. He said it was for their own good; they’d thank him later.
Then Greer heard of people leaving, slipping out of the valley at night, whole families disappearing into the pathless hills. Silently, she cheered them. She remembered the oracle, ages ago it seemed, who cautioned them to return to the land and leave the place of property and greed. For the valley had become that. Everyone, it seemed, worried more about who got what, how much was left and when they would get more, rather than about living the Goddess’ truth.
Hardly a moon away from the vernal equinox, Greer sat up one night and watched the star the old ones called Venus blaze down from a cold, moonless sky. Khassis dozed on his pallet, fitful. None of them, it seemed, slept well anymore. They were all more tense and more irritable than they should have been. Greer stared at the star planet and wondered what their little colony looked like from its lofty station.
A small rapping on the door brought Khassis immediately awake and Greer’s heart jumped. A hand to her throat, she nodded to Khassis.
“Who is it?” he demanded in a low voice.
“It is I,” Hannah whispered back.
Khassis opened the door. Hannah stood uneasily, fully dressed, with Reyes at her shoulder. Her eyes shifted from Khassis to Greer.
“Greer,” she said, “I must speak to you. I’m sorry if I woke you ...”
“You didn’t,” Greer said. “Come in. Reyes, too.”
Hannah faltered. “No. Please, I ... must talk to you alone. Khassis, would you mind?”
Khassis turned to Greer. “I can’t guard that window from the common room.”
Greer waved it off. “It’s all right. I think we all know no more intruders will bother us. Go on, Khassis. Leave us, just for a bit.”
Reluctantly, Khassis slipped past Hannah and he and Reyes took seats in the common room. Hannah stepped inside and closed the door. Half running to Greer, she embraced her friend and broke down into muffled sobs.
“Hannah, what is it?” Greer asked in concern. “What pains you? Is it Reyes?”
“No!” Hannah shook her head violently. “No, never Reyes. Greer, come sit on the bed. I have so much to say and no knowledge of how to say it.”
They sat. Hannah gulped in great breaths of air and dashed tears from her eyes. Greer clung to her hand and waited, not patiently. Finally Hannah dragged in a huge, steadying breath and began.
> “Greer—I am pregnant.”
“What?” Greer almost shouted. She smiled joyfully. “This is wonderful! You’ve wanted this for so long! Oh, Hannah, I am so happy for you. This is why you cry?”
“Yes,” Hannah wailed and broke into tears again. Sighing with amusement, Greer took her friend in her arms and held her as the tears wracked her body.
“I am so happy for you, Hannah,” she said, soothing her friend as one would a child. “You will be the best mother in the world, I know it. This is a lucky child to have you and Reyes. Does he know?”
Hannah nodded, still weepy.
“Then why do you cry? Is this joy, only?” Greer’s quick eyes saw the flash of pain in Hannah’s. “There is more, isn’t there?”
Valiantly Hannah mopped her face on her sleeve and tried to meet Greer’s expectant stare. She found the clear, gray eyes too vulnerable and looked away.
“Greer,” she started again, “I don’t know how else to say this. We are leaving the valley. Tonight.”
“Leaving?” The word was a disbelieving whisper, a shocked breath being knocked out. “Leaving, tonight?”
“Yes.” Tears threatened again. Hannah rushed on. “Greer, we’ve talked about it for days, Reyes and I, and we can’t stay here and raise our child among this tension and fear. Celedon is a tyrant, the people are fearful or belligerent, even the children have begun to fight and argue among themselves. I can’t bear my child here—not now. I won’t. I want my child to grow up as free and loving and natural as a wildflower. This valley—this place—is not what it once was, Greer. This is no longer the heart of the Goddess.” Tears streamed down her face, but she met Greer’s eyes. “I love you, Greer, and I vowed my life to you but now I have this child to bear and protect. I can’t stay here and compromise my child for you or for me or for anyone. I didn’t lie to you before, Greer, I love you and I gave my life to you, but now I ... I want it back. I want it for my child. Greer, can you ever forgive me? Can you understand what I must do? I never meant to betray you. I never meant to lie to you.”
Goddess Rising Page 42
