Louise Cooper - Indigo 06 - Avatar

by Louise Cooper - Indigo 06

  “So you tell me,” Indigo replied. “But I have only your word for that, haven’t I, Uluye?”

  Uluye’s expression changed. “What do you mean? I don’t understand you.”

  The darkness was beginning to lighten perceptibly. Dawn was close; the mist was already thinning and soon the sun would rise. Indigo began to walk away from the corpse on its frame, wanting to remove herself from its vicinity before daylight forced her to see it in all its stark and grisly detail. Uluye followed her. She didn’t repeat her question, but Indigo sensed that she was holding back only with the greatest difficulty and through a sense of stubborn pride.

  Somehow, without knowing how or why, she had touched Uluye on a raw nerve. There was something more to this, and here and now, with no one to overhear them, Indigo wondered if she might have found a weapon with which to crack the High Priestess’s stone mask and challenge her to tell the truth. Uluye’s cold-bloodedness in the face of another human being’s ugly death had made Indigo angry enough, and thus reckless enough, to try.

  She stopped near the rock where her litter had been set the previous night and turned to look Uluye squarely in the face.

  “You may or may not be aware of this, Uluye,” she said, “but I have no recollection whatever of anything that happened to me in the trance state. I don’t know what I said or what I did. For all I can tell, I might have sat in that chair squealing and grunting in a fair imitation of a pig, while you laughed inwardly at my animal noises and told your congregation whatever you wanted them to hear.”

  Uluye looked appalled. “That is blasphemy!”

  “Not to me. The Ancestral Lady is your goddess, not mine. That is, if you believe she exists at all.”

  The color drained from the High Priestess’s lips and her eyes widened with rage. “Don’t dare to speak such perversion in my presence! I will not tolerate this!”

  “You have no choice but to tolerate it, have you?” Indigo retorted. “Not if I am what it suits you to claim I am. Which is it to be, Uluye? Am I your chosen oracle or not? Did I truly speak last night, or did you stage the whole spectacle to inveigle a gullible and superstitious crowd into believing what you wanted it to believe? Tell me the truth!”

  Uluye hissed like a, snake. “Do you dare to call me a charlatan?”

  “Oh, no. You’re no charlatan, I know that very well. But when the oracle speaks to the people, at whose behest is she speaking? At the Ancestral Lady’s—or at yours?”

  Uluye stared at her for a long time. The sun’s first rays were touching the treetops now, and in the mist the priestess’s tall figure seemed to be haloed in cold fire. Then she spoke.

  “You are treading a thin and perilous path, Indigo. I am the chosen servant of the»Ancestral Lady, and by impugning me, you also impugn the Lady herself. I warn you, be careful, or you may find that your time in this world will end far sooner than you expect.”

  Indigo stood very still. “Is that a threat, Uluye?”

  “Not a threat; a prophecy. Foresight isn’t the province of the oracle alone, and I know the Ancestral Lady’s ways far better than you do.” She stepped forward, then reached out and took hold of Indigo’s arm. “You may be the Lady’s chosen oracle, but you are as much her servant as any of us.”

  Indigo tried to pull her arm away, but Uluye held on. Grimya came forward, a growl forming in her throat; quickly Indigo sent a mental message warning her back. She had broken through Uluye’s barrier, albeit in a way she hadn’t expected, and she didn’t want to lose her advantage now. Uluye wouldn’t hurt her; she didn’t think the priestess was even angry anymore. If anything, she was afraid.

  “I give fealty to only one goddess,” Indigo told her with icy calm. “And that goddess is the Earth Mother herself.”

  “No,” Uluye said. “You serve the Ancestral Lady. She has chosen you, and she rules you, as she rules us all.”

  Suddenly Indigo experienced a terrible sense of dija vu. Her own declaration, Uluye’s emphatic reply—she had heard such words before; she had clashed with someone, wrangled in this same way. When, and where? She couldn’t remember!

  I have chosen you, and you have no choice but to obey me….

  Uluye’s grip on her arm tightened suddenly. “What? What is it?” For the space of a moment, the scene before Indigo’s eyes winked out. Then her senses returned and she found herself staring blearily into the priestess’s avid and wide-eyed face.

  “Does she speak to you?” Uluye demanded breathlessly. “Tell me—tell me!”

  Before Indigo could respond or protest, Grimya, snarling, sprang at the priestess and knocked her off balance. Uluye reeled back and the wolf interposed herself between the two women, head down, showing her fangs.

  “No, Grimya!” Indigo had recovered her outward composure, though she felt shaken. “She meant no harm.”

  The wolf relaxed a little, though still bristling, and over her head Uluye met Indigo’s gaze uncertainly. “She understands your own tongue … ?”

  “Yes.” Indigo reverted to the Dark Islers’ speech. “She won’t attack you unless she believes you want to hurt me.”

  The other woman’s eyes narrowed and the frown reappeared on her face. Indigo realized suddenly that Uluye wouldn’t dare to harm her, for whatever personal animosity she might harbor—and that was an unknown quantity—she believed in her goddess as unshakably as Indigo believed in the Earth Mother, and she also believed that the Ancestral Lady had chosen Indigo as her own avatar.

  Uluye said: “She came to you. Only for a moment, but she came. I know; I felt her presence.” There was a peculiarly defensive note in her voice that Indigo had never heard before; then suddenly her tone changed and the old arrogance was back. “What did she impart to you? I insist that you tell me! I am her High Priestess. I must know!”

  Indigo’s anger rose afresh. Something had happened, she was well aware of it, but it had come and gone so swiftly that she was left with only the memory of a momentary blackout, nothing more. And Uluye’s probing did little but raise her temper. She had had more than enough of this arrogant, imperious tyrant.

  “I can’t tell you, because I don’t know!” She met Uluye’s challenging stare with a challenge of her own. “Unless you have the power to delve into my mind and discover the truth for yourself, I can’t help you!” And before Uluye could answer, she stalked away across the arena.

  “Wait!” Something in Uluye’s tone—a pleading note?— made Indigo pause. She looked back. The High Priestess hadn’t followed her but stood rigid on the sand. From her expression, Indigo knew immediately that she had no such divinatory power and resented the fact.

  “What is it?” Indigo asked, her voice cold.

  Uluye approached, but cautiously, keeping a prudent distance. “There is something wrong,” she declared harshly. “The Ancestral Lady has spoken to you, and yet you .are incapable of telling me what she has said. This has never happened before. You must try to remember. You must!”

  Indigo’s temper boiled over. “Damn you, Uluye, what manner of retarded child do you take me for? Do you think I’m playing games with you? Do you imagine I take some perverse pleasure in hiding the truth? I assure you, I’m doing no such thing. I don’t like this any more than you do; and above all, I don’t like the idea that my mind is being taken over and used by something I can’t even interpret, let alone control. If anyone is playing games, Uluye, it’s your precious Ancestral Lady—so you’d best look to her for your answers, not to me!”

  This time when Uluye called after her, Indigo ignored her furious demands to come back. Seeming, she strode away so fast that Grimya had to run to catch up with her—until, not looking where she was going, she collided with someone, barely visible in the mist, who cut across her path.

  “Your pardon, Indigo!” Yima, Uluye’s daughter, made an apologetic obeisance, then stopped, chagrined, as she saw Indigo’s face. “Is something amiss? Can I—”

  “Yima.” Quick, padding footsteps announced Uluye
. She stepped in front of Indigo as though to bar her from Yima’s sight and stared hard at her daughter. Her voice was clipped as she struggled to suppress her feelings. “You’re abroad early. Where have you been?”

  Yima blanched a little at the tone and held up a handful of freshly dug roots. “Shalune asked me to gather a supply of irro, Mother. She said they should be picked in the hour before dawn.”

  She sounded breathless. Uluye continued to scrutinize her face for a few moments, then, apparently satisfied, nodded curtly. “Take them back to the citadel.”

  “Yes, Mother.” Yima seemed relieved to be dismissed and hurried away.

  When she had gone, Indigo and Uluye stood motionless on the sand. Yima’s unwitting intervention had taken the edge from their clash and both were calmer now, but they were still unsure of each other and as wary as two cats meeting on the borders of their territories. At last, seeing that Indigo wasn’t willing to speak first, Uluye broke the hiatus.

  “There are matters afoot here that I think neither of us is yet in a position to understand,” she said cautiously. “I must think on this, and search for a solution.” Then she became aloof once more, distant and coldly formal. “I will consult with my senior priestesses and let you know the outcome of our deliberations.”

  “As you please,” Indigo replied quietly. The explosive moment was past and her anger had subsided; she saw a hint of uncertainty in Uluye’s eyes and, for a moment, almost felt sympathy for her.

  Uluye nodded. “You’d best return to your quarters now. It’s time to eat.”

  Grimya, behind them, was looking back over her shoulder. Full daylight had arrived, the mist was lifting, and at the lake’s edge the wooden frame with the dead woman tied to it was clearly visible. Indigo read what was in the she-wolf’s mind and remembered how her clash—or was it a clash? She wasn’t so sure now—with Uluye had begun.

  “What of … her?” she asked, indicating the thing by the water’s edge.

  Uluye shrugged. “She isn’t worthy of being given to the lake; the Ancestral Lady has no use for servants such as her. Hushu will come for the body in good time. Tonight, perhaps tomorrow night. There is nothing more we need do.” She turned to face Indigo fully and, as Yima had done, made the customary obeisance, though from her the gesture was a formality with little meaning. Then she turned her back, stalked away and began to climb the stairs.

  “Wake up. We have matters to discuss.”

  The imperious voice broke Shalune’s pleasant dream, and she opened bleary eyes to see Uluye standing over her. With an effort, the fat woman sat up, saw the early daylight filtering in through the cave’s curtain, which Uluye hadn’t troubled to close behind her, and grunted irritably.

  “It’s barely dawn!” Newly awakened and not at her best, Shalune spoke in a tone that was a good deal less respectful than it should have been. “Why should I be disturbed at such an hour?”

  “Because I order it.” Uluye’s voice took on a venomous edge, and even through the lingering veils of sleepiness, Shalune realized that the High Priestess wasn’t in the best of moods. Aware that she’d overstepped the mark, she swallowed a yawn and made a gesture that conveyed both apology and acquiescence.

  “Forgive me, Uluye. You took me unaware.”

  “So I see.” Uluye hadn’t missed the resentful glint in her subordinate’s eyes, but she ignored it, instead bestowing a sweeping, scathing glance on the untidy quarters. “You live like a pig. Have a novice clear this mess, or do it yourself.”

  Shalune didn’t answer but climbed from her rattan bed and shuffled to the hearth, where she blew on the embers of the fire and began to prepare food and drink to offer her unexpected and unwanted visitor. Uluye paced the length of the room a few times, then swept a pile of Shalune’s clothing from one of the boat-shaped chairs and sat down, swinging one long leg across the other in a clear indication of her irritable mood. Without preamble, she said, “I want to talk to you about Indigo.”

  “Indigo?” Shalune paused and looked up at her in surprise. “Yes. What’s wrong with her? I wasn’t aware that anything was wrong.”

  “Then you’re a fool.” Uluye stood up and began to pace again. “There’s a flaw in her, Shalune, and I don’t like it. The Ancestral Lady speaks through her, and yet afterward Indigo remembers nothing of what happened.”

  Shalune frowned “I know she had a lapse of memory during her enthronement in the temple. But that was only to be expected; she was exhausted, she hadn’t fully recovered from the fever. I told you at the time that you were expecting too much of her too soon.” Her dark eyes flashed. “With the greatest respect.”

  They exchanged a look of mutual dislike, and Uluye’s lip curled. “I’m not talking about the enthronement ceremony. I’m talking about last night. And again this morning.”

  That took Shalune by surprise. “This morning?” she echoed. “What happened this morning?”

  Under other circumstances Uluye would have privately relished revealing knowledge to which Shalune wasn’t already privy; however, at the moment she was too preoccupied to even notice the fat woman’s chagrin. “At dawn,” she said, “while you were still snoring, I went to the lakeside and I found Indigo walking there. While we were speaking together, the Ancestral Lady came to her.”

  Shalune uttered a soft oath. “What did she say?”

  “That’s just it. She said nothing. Or at least, nothing that Indigo was willing to tell me.”

  Shalune looked at her sharply. “Do you mean that she kept the Ancestral Lady’s word from you?”

  “No, I do not! She wouldn’t dare do such a thing. I mean that she didn’t even know what had happened to her. The Ancestral Lady entered her mind for only a few moments, and afterward Indigo was unaware that anything had taken place.”

  Shalune stirred her pot, which was beginning to simmer. “She couldn’t have been dissembling? If the message she had been granted was something she thought you would not want to hear—”

  “How could she make such a judgment?” Uluye countered scornfully. “Besides, I would know. I would know. There are no two ways about it, Shalune. The Ancestral Lady came to her, but she was incapable of passing on what she had been told. That means—can only mean—that something is very wrong.”

  Shalune took the cooking-pot from the fire and poured the hot drink into two tall cups. Uluye took one without thanks and clasped it in both hands, inhaling the fragrant steam as she stared thoughtfully at the cave entrance.

  Shalune asked at last: “She has no memory? Not the smallest recollection?”

  “Not even the smallest. That, as I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, is unprecedented. And I believe that something within Indigo is blocking her memory and preventing her from knowing what she does.” She took a sip of her drink and started to pace once more. “I suppose we must.assume that you didn’t make some foolish mistake and bring back the wrong candidate.”

  Shalune bristled angrily. “I followed the signs, Uluye, as you well know. The Ancestral Lady made it quite clear that—”

  “Very well, very well; I’m not casting doubts on your much-vaunted efficiency. So, then: we accept that she is our chosen oracle and that the Ancestral Lady has entered her soul. But what else is within her? What is blocking the gateway in her mind between this world and the world of spirits? It may be that the Ancestral Lady has seen fit to set a flaw in her, as a test of our skills in finding and righting it, but somehow I don’t think so. The flaw stems from Indigo herself; from her own will. She’s trying to fight the Lady’s power, and that is a blasphemy that can’t be tolerated!”

  Shalune was shocked. “Uluye, I can’t believe that Indigo is evil!”

  “Evil?” Abruptly Uluye turned on her heel and looked hard at the other woman. “I didn’t say she is evil. But the flaw in her must be found, for until it is, she will continue to fail in her duty to the Lady.” She pointed a long finger at Shalune. “You are our senior healer as well as my deputy. You must help m
e to find it, and eradicate it.”

  Shalune looked up from under heavy, knitted brows. “That will be easier said than done, Uluye. if you’re right,” the emphasis was subtle but clear, “and there is something within her striving to block the Lady’s influence, I can’t begin to imagine what its nature might be.”

  “Then you’ll have to search for it all the more diligently.” Uluye finished her drink, set the empty cup down and gave her subordinate a hard look. “She seems to look upon you as a friend of sorts, so I suggest that you make the most of her trust. I charge you to keep watch on her, and to report anything untoward to me immediately.”

  Shalune shrugged her agreement. “And if I discover nothing?”

  Uluye pursed her lips tightly. “If you discover nothing, I will be obliged to consider other measures. If all else fails, there is one further option—to put the matter before the Ancestral Lady in person.”

  Shalune’s head came up sharply. “You mean, send her—”

  “Yes.”

  “But how? Such a thing can be done only when there is an essential reason, or we risk incurring the Lady’s wrath on us all.”

  “There is an essential reason; or there will be. Yima’s initiation trial.”

  Shalune was aghast. “Yima? She’s but sixteen—she’s too young!”

  “I was little older when I underwent the same test.” Then Uluye smiled unpleasantly. “Ah, but I forgot—you were originally an outsider, weren’t you? My trial took place before you came to us.”

  Shalune flushed, as though Uluye had touched a sore point. “Whatever your circumstances might have been, Yima’s only a child.”

  “She’s my child. That makes the difference, as it made the difference to my mother before me.” Uluye looked at the fat woman shrewdly. “Why should you object to her initiation taking place earlier than originally planned? Do you think her unsuitable to succeed me when I am called to the Ancestral Lady’s greater service?”

  Shalune glowered at her. “Certainly not. I’ve always fully approved of Yima as our next High Priestess, as you well know. I’m simply worried that she may not yet be ready to face the ordeal of initiation.”