Nimmet, Goddess of Love

by Anastasia Rabiyah

  Well past midday, the guards changed. An older, more silent set of men watched over her as she sat there. Sima heard Leuj’s steps before he appeared in the open doorway, his blond hair freshly swept back and his mouth a straight line. She sat up, gathering herself for a verbal battle.

  The guards stepped aside to let him pass. "Sima," he said, his voice unusually low. "Are you hurt?" He crossed the room in wide strides to hover over her. "I was worried about you. What happened? Did that Unangi man do anything to you?"

  "Let me go," she ordered, with more fire in her command than she thought she’d ever done before. "Your guards told me you had some woman killed to take my place. What’s your plan for me?"

  He sat beside her on the metal bench, his lips tight. "I wanted you to love me," he explained. "I loved you, Sima, the way you carried yourself in the debates, how you weren’t afraid to stand up to anyone, not even your father. And he never understood you, never valued that trait about you. I wanted to marry you and hoped you’d come to love me."

  "Love you? What is love to you? You don’t even know what it means!" She wrestled with the folds of her blanket, readying to slap him.

  "No. I don’t. You’re right about that." He frowned and she thought she saw emotion flashing in his green eyes. Sima dismissed the idea. He’s not capable of feeling!

  "You’ve attacked my homeland, haven’t you?"

  He nodded.

  Her open hand flew, striking him across his cheek so hard that his head turned. She wanted to punch him, to crash her fist against that perfect nose until it broke, spilling blood across his cream-colored shirt. Sima drew her hand back and made ready to hit him a second time. Her fingers balled in midair.

  "Stop it," Leuj muttered, catching her fist with one hand.

  She readied the other, slapping at him as best she could. He caught her other hand, halting her efforts. She gasped when he barked orders to his guards in Kyleenian. The two men turned their backs on them. A metal door slid shut, sealing them in the privacy of the small cell.

  "Why do you fight me?" he asked, forcing her hands down. "It excites me that you do, but I don’t understand it. Women bend to my will; they submit to me, but not you."

  "Is my father dead?" She struggled against his hold. Leuj’s strength overwhelmed her as he moved closer. The scent of a different cologne assaulted her senses when he pressed his chest into her face.

  "No," he answered, his face above her head. "The troops haven’t found him yet. It’s only a matter of time."

  "Let me go, Leuj. I’m dead to anyone that matters. Please, just let me go." She sobbed as she spoke, "I’m not what you want; I can never love you."

  His heavy hold released her hands as he moved to embrace her. "Sima, just let me hold you for a little while. I’m tired. My head hurts and it keeps pounding no matter what I take to stop the pain. I dreamt of you after we first met. I wanted to tell you about it; I want to tell you now, if you’ll listen."

  She shook her head. Listening to a madman’s dreams was useless. He stroked her hair with one hand. The med blanket had fallen away in the struggle, and she hated being naked in his presence.

  "I was in the dark, in a place that was cold. I remember feeling so alone, so helpless. I know it’s only a dream, that dreams are meaningless, but Sima, you came to me there. You took my hand and helped me stand up. You knew the way out. I wanted to get out, but I didn’t know how."

  "It was just a dream," she said against his shoulder. "I don’t know how to get you out of whatever it is you’re into. Find your own way out."

  He clung to her, weeping all of a sudden against the top of her head. "I can’t," he said over and over. "I can’t."

  Chapter Twenty Six – Seven

  The mirrors blocked his way as he inched along. Superstitious, Razi refused to break them. He came face to face with another one, smiled at his battered reflection, and then grasped the sides of the looking glass. Turning it slowly, he managed to free it from the rubber-coated runners. He laid it on its side and crawled through. There was no way to judge which direction he headed. Every turn, every crawl space looked the same. He followed his heart, a faint sense that he was going the right way, and he hoped for the best.

  As he crawled through the passage, he thought of Sima. She must think I abandoned her. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but his guts clenched every time he thought about it. He came to the end of the crawl space, leaned over the edge of the metal shaft and looked down. An old, aluminum ladder lined the wall below. At the bottom of the service area, he noticed the flashing lights of an active touchscreen. Beside those lights, a servant’s door waited to either damn him or become his new path to freedom.

  Razi was not a religious man. Nothing in his life ever seemed to spawn from some unseen holy presence, but he said a small prayer at that moment, hoping this might be the way out. He climbed down face first, clutched a rung and flipped sideways to get his footing below. The whole action proved awkward, and he guessed he was lucky not to have fallen on his ass at the bottom of that small service room. "A lot of good that would do me and Sima," he muttered.

  The keypad required no code, a simple device from older times. He assumed he was still in a part of the palace seldom used by its current owner. Pressing the open button, he stepped aside and waited. The old door slid slowly, as if it lacked care over the years. Outside the chamber, the pungent aroma of stock and jasmine clung to the stagnant air. He peeked out and realized he’d come to one of the greenhouses that bordered the south side of the palace gardens.

  Razi sighed his relief. In his uniform, he stood a chance at not being noticed here. Unless, of course, guards are perusing the area for a tall, dark Unangi man they think kidnapped the Oemir’s lover. He chuckled at himself. Starting out into the high rows of plants, he kept a wary eye ahead in case anyone came.

  The greenhouse stood taller and wider than most Irnian homes. He kept to the wall, moving at a steady pace to where he thought the main doors might be. Like everything else the Oemir possessed, the garden seemed to be another obsession. Exotic plants waited for spring; strange fruit clung to vines Razi didn’t recognize. He wasn’t much of a gardener, but he decided if he lived through this, he would be.

  The door was a sprint away when he stopped. Masculine voices interrupted the silence outside. He watched their shadows as the men talked, their hands moving in the air in an animated way. One laughed; the other snorted in disgust. They walked away, calling back and forth every so often.

  Darting forward, Razi turned the handle, cracked open the door and spied on the outdoor scene. Rain drizzled in the late midday sky, misting the thick plants in the garden beyond. Thunder startled him, but when he looked up at the expanse of sun-tinted clouds, he feared what he saw approaching.

  "Those aren’t birds!" Warships moved in definitive patterns to announce their origin. He’d watched a show about it on the history channel once. Irnian warships spaced themselves in arrow shaped rows of twelve, Kyleenian ones traveled in nines, and Tarafian ships, being wider, traveled in bands of seven.

  He paused to count one grouping as it crossed a patch of empty sky. "Seven," he whispered. "Taraf is attacking Irnia."

  Sirens screeched out a warning throughout the palace grounds. Razi ran, sprinting through the ornate pathways, past stone guardians and intricate carvings in precious metals. Lavender sprawled in a sloping field to one side. To the other, roses climbed gilded trellises. The blossoms called to him, and the statue in their midst looked all too familiar. "Nimmet," he said, in sudden awe of the relic. The television hadn’t done justice to her beauty. He wanted to touch the carving, to pause a moment and take in the mystery of it, but he knew time was short.

  He turned to take in the palace. The tinted windows facing the garden revealed nothing. Sima could be behind any one of those panes, or none at all, especially given her last escape attempt. He ducked behind a topiary shaped like a Tagian warhorse. Guards ran past, their stunners drawn. Razi watche
d them pass before following just behind more who gathered at the edge of the gardens. He glimpsed the empty lot where Lensi usually parked her church shuttle.

  Where is Lensi? By now, she should have come and gone with her workers. The dragon lily bed across the way showed no signs of her having visited today. That set him ill at ease. What if Leuj blamed her for what I did? What if he has her? If she’s dead?

  He sprinted across the flagstone path toward the unguarded entry to the palace, the same passage he’d come in when he cut his hand the other day. He went the way he knew, through the guestroom and past the curtains to the first servant’s hall he’d entered. He ran, counting the viewscreens. The room Sima had originally occupied stood empty, the glass replaced.

  Within the servant hall, the alarms seemed less intense, almost droning beyond his line of hearing. Razi kept walking, his gaze raking over each vidscreen. His heart pounded in his ears. He realized how hungry he was. He hadn’t eaten for a day and having been pampered in the Ward, his stomach protested against this new deprivation.

  The ornate room he paused at had to be the Oemir’s bedchamber. A gilded metal door led from it, and he guessed the passage must go to the old room where he’d kept Sima. The thought turned his stomach. Had he raped her? Had he hurt her? The possibilities twisted and turned in his mind. He moved on, determined to find her.

  The next two screens showed empty rooms devoid of furniture or curtains, but the third stopped him in his tracks. Sister Lensi sat on a blue settee, her back to him and her auburn hair hanging free down her back. She seemed to be staring out the window toward the gardens. The main door to the sitting room she occupied was open wide and no guards stood near enough for him to see. He tapped at the touchscreen, hoping no strange keycode was required. Razi typed in laundry, the metal servant’s door clicked and he fumbled with the handle. He ended up tumbling onto the rug.

  "Raz?" Lensi’s voice sounded different.

  He stared at her bare feet for a moment, wondering where her shoes were. "You all right?" He looked up and frowned.

  She blushed bad. "Better than ever, but I think not for long. Taraf is bombing the south side."

  "I was in the garden. There’s warships all over the palace." He scrambled to his feet. "Lensi, we have to get out of here. I have to find Sima."

  She held up her hand, the palm facing him. "I don’t have anywhere to go. I belong here, with him."

  "Him who?" He grabbed her hand, squeezing her warm fingers.

  "Leuj. I love him. I’ll die here with him."

  "What’s gotten into you?" He jerked her toward him and studied her face. "Oemir Leuj is the enemy. He’s what you’ve been saving Unangi tribespeople from. He’s why you have all those refugees in the back of the Habiri church. What are you talking about?" Frustration welled inside him.

  She shook her head. "Go find your girl. I’m happy with my decision. Leuj said he’d be back in a bit. I’m sure he’s on his way here now." She forced a smile, pulled her hand free and turned back to the garden window. "Hurry up, Raz. They’ll start bombing any minute."

  "I’m not leaving you here with him."

  "Sure you are. If you want Sima, go find her. She’s not far, maybe near the kitchens. He said he’d bring me some pineapple after he talked to her. He had some strange dream a long time ago that he had to discuss with her."

  He swept a hand through his hair, worrying. This wasn’t the woman he knew, the woman who convinced Hicklan Wards to run away, the brave Habiri nun who smuggled Unangi refugees to safety. Something was wrong with her, but he couldn’t understand what. "I’ll come back for you. Stay here."

  She looked over her shoulder, her expression far too serene given the circumstances. "I’ll be here, but I’m not going anywhere without Leuj. I don’t expect that makes any sense to you, but it’s my choice."

  Chapter Twenty Seven – Escape

  The first bomb touched down somewhere near the center dome of his palace. Leuj recognized the sound of the imported Kyleenian glass screeching as it broke away. He carried Sima, though he didn’t know why. She didn’t want him, she hated him, but he wouldn’t leave her here to die. In silence, he cursed his slippers. The soft leather shoes were made for loafing around a posh palace all day, not for running.

  The acrid scent of smoke filled the hall, gagging and putrid in its own way. He looked over his shoulder and saw that his guess proved correct. Rubble lay in a heap at the far end of the hall. "I’ll get you out of here," he told her, but Sima only buried her face in his shirt, quivering in fear.

  He hurried along the rugs in his main hall. Running wasn’t an option while he carried her, but he refused to set her down, not until they were safe with Lensi in a shuttle. The kitchens buzzed with frightened servants and cooks. Leuj glanced through the round windows in the door and saw them all running the opposite way, making their own escapes.

  Another bomb touched down, this one farther away. He guessed it must be at the palace’s main entrance. In the distance, he heard people screaming, his people, his employees. He made it to the stairwell. Pausing, he saw the Unangi gardener barreling toward him. There was nowhere to go. Retreat would lead him to the crushed part of the palace. So Leuj held still. He closed his eyes when the Unangi plowed into him.

  The marble floor cracked when he hit. The back of his head exploded with heat. Weight shifted from his chest and Leuj knew Sima was gone. The Unangi man took her from him a second time. He rolled on his side, grasped the back of his skull and felt the slick wetness of blood. His eyes opened in time to see the gardener running, racing away with Sima in his arms like a coveted prize.

  Leuj tried to stand. He gripped an Illenooki table, spilling the trinkets gathered across its top as he struggled to regain his balance. He felt shaky, like he might fall at any second and black out.

  The Unangi shouted, drawing his attention. Leuj squinted at the man’s silhouette. "No. No, you can’t have Lensi too!" He lurched forward, determined to catch up, to stop the strange man from taking what was rightfully his.

  Lensi came out of the sitting room. He knew it was her though his vision kept blurring. She yelled at her attacker, and shoved him away.

  "Lensi…" he choked out. "Don’t go…" He held to the wall as he clambered along. She stood so far away, her hands on her wide hips. A bright light glittered from the palace entry further down the hall. It shone too white to be anything but another bomb. This one stole all sound from the palace. The floor rumbled beneath him. The walls quaked. Portraits and small carvings fell from their hooks, colliding with the floor. "Lensi!"

  Leuj placed his hands over his head. He screamed against the madness all around him. He knew no one could hear him as the rush of sound reverberated against the plastered palace walls, cracking them. Oh please, let me die here, he thought. Let my life end knowing one woman cared for me, that I found my match. I am content to be gone from this world. Lensi is right. I’m vile. I deserve nothing more than death.

  His ears rang from the blast. Dust spilled from the ceiling onto his back. He heard a faint voice, a familiar sound. Sturdy hands looped in his armpits. Someone strong pulled him to stand. He opened his eyes to the destruction and her face came clear. "Lensi, leave me here. I don’t deserve to live."

  She bit her bottom lip, shook her head and clasped his hand. "Nonsense." She dragged him along, blubbering something about a shuttle and Alga.

  He tried to keep his footing, to stay in time with her, but the blow to his head worked its way through his consciousness, shutting off thoughts and numbing the left side of his body.

  His mind wandered through memories, his father beating his mother, and his mother throwing her shoe at the former Oemir’s head when he left the room, then his father returning to beat her with it. He remembered his last two wives, how they’d come to his bed together like two thieves in the night, both tempting him to drink ‘wine’. He’d felt nothing after their deaths. He couldn’t remember the last time he visited his wives in the lower pal
aces. "Dead," he muttered as Lensi slid her arm around his waist. "They’re all dead now."

  "Don’t talk," she ordered. "I’m getting you out of here."

  "I should be dead. Enrue has every right to execute me." He smelled his garden behind the dust and the smoky flavor of hungry fire in the air. Lensi’s hand held him tight as she moved along.

  The hum of airships rent the air. He blinked as his vision cleared. There stood Nimmet in her blackened glory, naked to the world, reaching skyward to the bombs, her face a vision of sexual bliss. Leuj no longer doubted love. He felt remiss for having waited so long to realize its existence. The woman who urged him along loved him, and he didn’t really understand what that meant, just that she did and he had to have faith in her.

  Soldiers raced across the gardens. They came from the north wall, their heavy metal boots crushing the crocus rows. Leuj saw them; he knew he had no way to escape even though his guards spilled across the south wall to counter the attack.

  The jolting sound of guns rent the air. He turned his back to the approaching Tarafians. With all his remaining strength, he hurled himself into Lensi, knocking her to the ground. He felt fire pulsing through his body, the flaring pain of each entry wound even as he fell beside her. "Are you hit?" he choked out.

  Lensi touched his face, her eyes grim. "No." He felt her hand moving lower, testing his wounds, the places where the bullets had exited. "My God, Leuj, you are."

  "When my guards stop them, you run." He felt his life draining away with his blood. The sounds of battle thumped and raged all around the once peaceful garden. With a sickening crunch, the stature fell beside the couple. Leuj turned his head to face the fallen goddess. "Don’t come back for me, Lensi."