Destiny's Lovers (7 page)

“As you wish, Tamat.” Sidra bowed her head in
acquiescence.

“I have an obvious objection to this plan,
and I’m surprised you haven’t thought of it,” Reid said, knowing he
need not voice his true thoughts, for Tamat surely knew how he felt
about Janina. He wanted to declare publicly that he would mate with
no woman except Janina. He did not, because, recalling that she was
sworn a virgin priestess, he feared that such a declaration would
place her in jeopardy. Instead, he tried to make Tamat change her
plans for him by raising a practical question. “Won’t the men of
the village be angry about the arrangement you propose, and resent
me because I can make free with their womenfolk? Wouldn’t that
anger rebound upon you and the other priests and priestesses and
thus create problems between temple and village?”

“Not at all,” Tamat replied with smooth
confidence. “The men are accustomed to sharing their women, and the
women to sharing their men. The number of births among us is low,
and freedom between men and women is one way to increase our
population. Only a few couples prefer to keep exclusively to each
other, and all of them live on farms well outside the village.
Oddly enough, they usually produce four or five children, some of
whom later come to live in the village, so we do not insist that
those couples share themselves with others. Therefore, you will be
required to lend yourself only to women of the village. You need
not worry about angering anyone but me, Reid.

“Osiyar, I will see him housed with you,”
Tamat went on. “You are the one who has the most contact with the
villagers. Begin by teaching Reid their ways. We will also accustom
the villagers to his presence. By the time the moons are both full
again, by the night of the next festival, there should be at least
one or two women who will choose him, if only for the novelty he
represents. If he is successful in impregnating them, there will be
other willing women at later festivals.”

It was then that Reid heard a sound from the
previously silent Janina, just the beginning of a quickly smothered
sob. Looking at her frozen face, gazing into her mist-blue eyes, he
saw pain and knew with a stab of mingled guilt and joy that she was
not indifferent to him even though she had refused his love-making.
And he also knew that she believed there was nothing she, or he,
could do to prevent the fate Tamat had just decreed for him.

* * * * *

In late evening, Osiyar joined Tamat in her
small audience chamber for their daily discussion of events in
Ruthlen. As always, no one else was present, not even Sidra.

“There is only one thing to talk about
tonight,” Osiyar observed, seating himself next to her, “and that
is Reid. The man has an incredibly strong will to live if the urge
to destroy himself could not overcome him in the forest or while he
was ascending the cliff. That is our last defense against anyone
who tries to penetrate the shield to enter Ruthlen. Reid should be
dead by now, would be dead were he any other man. Which makes me
wonder, Tamat. Did you bring him here deliberately?”

“No,” Tamat replied. “I was informed by
Philian, who was on duty then maintaining the shield, that a man
had entered the outermost defenses. I am as surprised as you are
that he succeeded in reaching us, but now that he is here, it is
only sensible to make use of him instead of destroying him.”

“For the present,” Osiyar agreed, watching
her face closely for any change of expression. “And in the
future?”

“Ah, who can foretell the future?” said Tamat
with an odd inflection to her voice.

“Under certain circumstances, Janina can,”
Osiyar replied quietly, his eyes still on Tamat’s face. If he saw
anything there to indicate what Tamat’s deepest thoughts might be,
he gave no sign. After a pause he spoke again. “I would not
disagree with you when anyone else was present, but Sidra’s
objection to allowing Reid to mate with the village women is a
sound one. I can only conclude that you have some well-founded but
unrevealed reason for your decision to use him in such a way.”

“Osiyar, you have shared my growing despair
at the decline in our population, and at the inherited ill health
of so many of our people. You know my fear that within another
generation or two, Ruthlen may cease to exist, for few will remain
alive.” Suddenly Tamat’s eyes were shining with excitement. Her
voice became that of a much younger woman, a woman with renewed
purpose to her life. “Dear friend, share now my joy at the new hope
we have been given, for Reid could well prove to be our salvation.
I searched his mind thoroughly, and he has a portion of the Gift.
He has never been trained, of course, having spent his life in the
Jurisdiction where use of the Gift is strictly forbidden. He could
not control his ability should it be set free in him, so we must
take care never to rouse it, or he would go mad and be useless to
us. But his children can inherit the Gift from him as well as from
their mothers. Reid brings us not only new genetic material, but a
fresh infusion of telepathic strength. He is exactly what Ruthlen
needs.”

“I knew you had some deeper purpose.” Leaning
back in his chair, Osiyar regarded her with respect and affection.
“I am also certain you have some other plan for Reid besides this
mating arrangement. You would never do anything so serious as allow
a stranger to live here without several good reasons.”

“I see certain possibilities,” Tamat replied,
not denying what Osiyar had said. “More than that I will not say
just now.”

“And Janina? What of her?”

“Janina has done nothing wrong,” Tamat
declared, a little too quickly. Osiyar’s eyebrows went up, and he
looked at his Co-Ruler with a slight smile.

“Nothing?” he asked in a tone weighted with
meaning.

“Very little,” Tamat amended. “Janina is a
victim of her own innocence. She cannot be blamed for anyone else’s
transgressions.”

“And you love her. That is enough for me to
know. I am willing to drop the subject of Janina’s actions.”

“She will remain true to her vows, unless she
is released from them,” Tamat declared.

“Will you release her?”

“Not I. Not yet. But, dear Osiyar, there are
greater powers than those of Tamat of Ruthlen,” the High Priestess
said with a soft laugh. “Even I cannot rule over the emotions of
others, and emotions, as you and I know, are often unruly and have
been known to spoil the best of plans.”

On the morning after Reid arrived in Ruthlen,
Sidra summoned Janina as soon as it was daylight.

“On Tamat’s command,” Sidra said, “you and I
will go to the sacred grove to make certain nothing has been
disturbed by Reid’s presence there.”

“I told Tamat all was well,” Janina answered.
“Reid did not touch the Water.”

“Nevertheless, you will come with me.”

When Sidra used that tone, Janina knew there
was no way to stop her. Obediently, she strapped the water jar to
her back and walked beside the older priestess through the village,
where Sidra was greeted with low bows of reverence and wishes for a
pleasant day while Janina was pointedly ignored as if she were
invisible.

The people of Ruthlen had never been an
especially kind folk. Their constant fear of renewed attack from
the Cetans and their precarious perch on a tiny crescent of land at
the edge of a dangerous sea did not incline them toward the gentler
virtues. But they had always been honest and hardworking, and
usually fair toward one another. These were necessary qualities for
a community that was so few in number.

Lately, however, Janina had been disturbed by
signs of increasing dishonesty. In the distribution of fish on days
when the catch was poor, in the settling of a boundary dispute
between farmers, in the question of who would inherit a tiny
cottage just outside the village, Sidra had recently begun to speak
for the side that paid her the greater honor. Though Osiyar was the
final judge of all such disputes, and though he prided himself on
his unbiased fairness, he listened to Sidra’s opinions when they
were offered, as well as to Tamat’s. Sidra had no hesitation about
speaking her mind on these occasions, nor any apparent qualms about
favoring those plaintiffs whom Janina had previously noticed
currying her favor in anticipation of the day when she would become
High Priestess. All was done so subtly, so delicately, that neither
Tamat nor Osiyar could object to Sidra’s careful reasoning.

Thinking how different Sidra was from Tamat,
forcing to the bottom of her mind an uneasy sense of encroaching
corruption, Janina heaved a deep sigh and turned with Sidra onto
the road leading to the sacred grove. And there, when she lifted
her eyes toward the tall peaks, her thoughts were distracted from
Sidra’s activities.

“The mountains are casting out more steam
than usual,” Janina observed.

“Perhaps they are displeased by the presence
of a stranger among us,” Sidra observed sourly.

Janina Knew Sidra did not believe what she
had just said. In fact, Janina doubted that Sidra believed in
anything at all except the telepathic powers of her own mind and of
the minds of the other priests and priestesses. And Tamat. Sidra’s
love and reverence for Tamat was deep and true. It was that fact,
and that alone, which made Sidra tolerable to Janina.

When they entered the sacred grove, Sidra
went directly to the pavilion, while Janina stood on the moss,
looking into the pool. She felt the quiet presence that nearly
always greeted her there. Whatever it was, it had not been
disturbed or offended by Reid or by what they had done the day
before. Glancing at the khata bush with its weight of crimson
flowers, Janina drew a deep breath. She did not regret allowing
Reid to embrace her, but she understood it was best never to let
him touch her again. Remembering the strength of his arms around
her and the warm pressure of his body on hers, she began to
tremble. It would be difficult to stay away from him.

Sidra’s cool voice recalled her to duty.

“lift the stone,” Sidra ordered. “Let me see
if more medical supplies are needed. It is almost time to go into
the ravine to gather the last herbs of the season, and we ought to
be prepared in case someone is injured on the way.”

Once convinced that the only result of Reid’s
unauthorized visit to the sacred grove was the need for a full pot
of salve to replace the nearly empty one Janina had used on his
wounds, Sidra appeared to relax.

“Before we return,” she said with a last
glance around the grove, “let us investigate the tunnel Reid
used.”

She led the way to the opposite side of the
grove. She knew exactly where the tunnel was. It was no secret to
the priestesses. Sidra pulled back a bush that had grown during the
warm weather until it partially blocked the mouth of the tunnel.
She entered it, Janina following her.

The ceiling was low enough to make them bend
their heads while they walked through it to the opening in the face
of the cliff. They stood together on the narrow rock shelf, looking
across the ravine to the forest. Janina saw nothing but the green
trees and the dome of the purple-blue sky above them. She knew
Sidra, trained as she was and possessing telepathic powers second
only to Tamat’s, was able to see the shimmering boundaries of the
blanking shield.

“Look here.” Sidra moved to the very edge of
the rock shelf, pointing downward. Janina stepped forward to stand
beside her. “See how far Reid had to climb. What a determined man
he is. I think he will prove difficult to overcome. I will need to
strengthen myself against him. Lean over and look, Janina.”

At the thought of that great height, Janina’s
knees began to shake, but she made herself obey Sidra. Looking
straight downward into the deep, deep ravine made her feel
dizzy.

Sidra’s hand came to rest on her shoulder,
pressing a little too hard. Janina pulled away and stepped back
into the tunnel.

“Why, Janina, do you imagine I’d push you?”
Sidra smiled her lovely, false smile. “I’d never do anything that
stupid. There would be too many questions to answer. I’d be known
at once for the guilty one.”

She put an arm across Janina’s shoulders,
drawing her back through the tunnel to the grove.

“Why should I want to destroy you when you
can be so useful to me, Janina? Of course, your usefulness will not
last long, and then …”

Sidra left the thought unfinished, but Janina
knew what she meant. When Tamat was gone, when it was no longer
necessary to please the aged High Priestess, when Sidra herself was
High Priestess, and after she had forced Janina to swallow the
herbal potion again and again until her mind was broken by
prophesying, then Janina’s usefulness would end. Then Sidra would
find a reason to set Janina adrift, to face the terrors of the deep
sea. And then she would find a way to destroy Reid, too.

Janina knew it as surely as if she were a
telepath and had entered Sidra’s mind. Under the weight of Sidra’s
arm, Janina shivered, and watched Sidra smile at her again.

On the walk back to the temple, with the
Water for the priestesses’ rituals safely sealed into the jar on
her back, Janina’s thoughts turned once more to Reid. How brave he
was to scale that steep cliff! She would have been too frightened
to attempt it. She was afraid of so many things - the great height
from which she had just looked down, the vast rolling sea, the
monsters that lived in its depths. The list of her fears seemed
endless.

Until today, her worst fear of all had been
the fear of losing Tamat. It was because she knew how precarious
the old woman’s health was that Janina had never revealed to Tamat
any of the threats, veiled or open, which Sidra made about the time
when Tamat would be gone and Janina would be helpless against the
power of her successor.