Goddess of the Rose (21 page)

The image angered her.

Hecate had chosen her as High Priestess, Empousa of the Realm of the Rose.
She
had summoned
him.
It had been her instincts that had alerted them to a possible danger. It didn't matter that she didn't totally understand the danger. She was doing what Hecate had chosen her to do. And damnit! He had touched her first! What the hell game did he think he was playing, and by what right did he think he could dismiss her? She was no girl child dressed up in the robes of power. She was a grown woman—independent and intelligent. She didn't tolerate patronizing men, with or without hooves and horns. Mikki slitted her eyes at him and spoke slowly and distinctly.

“There are things I need to know before you run away.”

“I do not run—”

“No!” She shouted the word, ignoring the warning in his voice. “I speak with Hecate's authority. This time it's your turn to listen and answer.”

His face was alien in its mixture of man and beast, but she was certain she saw approval register in his dark eyes.

“What is it you wish to know, Empousa?” he said. Turning, he walked the few paces back to her.

She felt his approach as if he changed the pattern of the air around them. She swallowed hard, careful to keep her voice businesslike and her mind from wandering.

“I need to know if there is one area of the rose wall that is more easily penetrated than the rest of it. Maybe a place where there is a break in the roses, like around a door or a gate.”

He considered, then nodded, his shaggy mane spilling over his broad shoulders with the movement. “Yes, there is a gate in the roses, and it makes sense that that is where the barrier might be most easily breached.”

“Do the handmaidens know about this gate?”

He nodded again. “Yes, Empousa.”

“Then I'll have them show me where it is after I have them collect fertilizer.”

His thick brows shot up. “You expect the handmaidens to tend the roses?”

She looked at him like he was totally nuts. “How do you expect me, all by myself, to tend this many roses? They need to be fertilized, pruned and deadheaded, and that's just for a start. I'd kill myself trying to do all that alone, not to mention that I wouldn't get it all done. That's not smart or productive.”

His face had hardened again into an unreadable mask. She blew out a burst of frustrated breath.

“Are you telling me that the other Empousas did all that by themselves?”

“I do not recall an Empousa commanding the women to do anything to the roses except to cut bouquets to decorate her room.”

“What about the fertilizing and pest control and the general care roses always need?”

“These roses have never before needed that kind of care. They simply required the presence of the Empousa to thrive.”

“They've never been sick before?”

“Never.”

“And before the, um, time you spent as a statue, you'd been here a long time?”

“I have been here since Hecate claimed dominion over the realm.”

Which, Mikki guessed, had been a damn long time ago. So for literally eons the roses had been healthy, without needing any care except for the presence of Hecate's High Priestess. Until now, when she had suddenly become Empousa. Great. The news just kept getting better and better.

“Well, it looks like times have changed, or I'm a different type of Empousa, because the roses need care now. I can't do it on my own, so the women are going to have to help me.”

He looked at her silently for what felt to Mikki like a long time before saying, “I believe you are a different type of High Priestess.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“Neither,” he said gruffly. “It is simply a fact.”

“I think it's good,” she said firmly, determined to be undaunted by his cynical attitude. She knew from her personal propensity for cynicism that the attitude usually hid feelings that were too painful to let the world see. Her cynicism had hidden the fact that she never felt like she truly belonged. She wondered what his was covering. Did it have something to do with what he had done to cause Hecate to turn him to stone and banish him? She realized she had been standing there gawking at him, and she hastily continued. “But I suppose changing worlds has made me more likely to think different is good.”

“Odd,” he said, his deep voice edged with sarcasm. “It did not have the same effect upon me.”

“I imagine if I'd been turned to stone I wouldn't be so willing to think ‘different' was synonymous with ‘good,' either. But at least you know I can't cause you to turn into a statue,” she said and wanted to cover her flapping mouth with her hand and stop her stupid words as she watched his face go rigid with tension.

“Is that all you wish to ask me, Empousa? I should go to the rose wall and inspect the boundary.”

“Yes, I'll get the women and meet you at the gate.” Mikki had to shout the last part of her sentence at his swiftly departing back. “You're welcome,” she muttered. God, he was confusing! One second he was all smoky-eyed and erotically dangerous—talk about the classic bad boy! And the next second he was withdrawn and cynical. It was like he was two people.

“What the hell am I thinking?” She shook her head at herself. “He's not two people; he's a person and an animal, and I need to quit having delusions of a young Marlon Brando (with horns) and remember He Is Not Human.” Interracial dating was fine. Interspecies dating? “Please, Mikado. Just please. Relocate your common sense and take care of the roses.” With a sigh she started down the path Gii had taken to the center of the gardens, heading into what she was sure would be the continuation of a vastly difficult day.

 

 

The gathered women parted like a sea of delicately colored flowers to make a path for Mikki to join the four handmaidens who were standing within Hecate's Temple. Many of the women called greetings to her, but they were decidedly more subdued than they had been the night before. Mikki hoped they were in the mood to work. She climbed the temple steps, smiled a quick hello to the Elementals and then turned to face the crowd.
Please don't let me sound as nervous as I am
, she thought. Immediately, Hecate's stern voice spoke from her memory.
When you speak, it is my power that answers.
The memory boosted her confidence. She ignored the lingering soreness in her body and the vague nausea she seemed unable to get rid of and looked out at the crowd, purposefully meeting the eyes of several of the women as she spoke.

“The roses are sick.”

Frightened murmurs ran through the group, and Mikki had to raise her hand to silence them.

“But that's why I'm here. I understand roses. I know what they need, and with your help, we can make them healthy again.” Mikki was pleased at the attentive expressions of the listening women. “The first thing we must do is fertilize them. So I need you to gather things that roses need to thrive.” She paused, ordering the thoughts in her head. She'd already realized the obvious—that she would have to depend on wholly organic methods of fertilizing and pest and disease control, and that wasn't all bad. Many times the natural ways were the best. Last night she'd eaten meat that tasted like prosciutto. That was pork, wasn't it? Which meant they had to have pigs somewhere. It was a start . . .

“Hog manure,” she said, and the bright, attentive expressions dropped into frowns. “You do have pigs, right?”

A few heads nodded hesitantly.

“Good. I want you to fill baskets with pig manure.” Hardly taking a breath, she turned to Nera. The Water Elemental was watching her with large, round eyes. “Nera, is there a lake or sea nearby?”

“Yes, Empousa, there is a large lake within the realm.”

“Excellent.” She turned back to the crowd. “I'll need fish heads, entrails—anything you'd normally throw away instead of cooking. Actually,” she continued as if the group of women wasn't staring slack-jawed at her, “I need dead organic matter, both plant and animal. Gii, I'm assuming that the forest outside the rose wall is dark and dense?”

“It is, Empousa.”

“Then the forest floor should be rich with loam. Bring buckets or baskets or whatever, along with something to turn over the ground around the roses so we can mix the fertilizer into the soil.”

“But bring them where, Empousa?” Gii said.

“Oh, I'm sorry.” Mikki spoke so her voice carried out over the crowd. “Bring everything, empty baskets and those filled with the fertilizer I've mentioned, along with gardening tools, to the gate in the rose wall. We'll start there.”

No one moved.

“Now would be good,” Mikki said firmly. “The roses have been ignored too long.”

Still no one moved.

Floga cleared her throat and moved closer to Mikki. “Empousa, this is highly irregular.”

“What is? That I've told you we need to fertilize the roses or that you're refusing to do as an Empousa asks?”

Floga paled. “I would not refuse your bidding, Empousa.”

Mikki looked at her other three handmaids.

“None of us would refuse you, Priestess,” Gii said quickly, and the girls nodded agreement.

Mikki swung her gaze out to the crowd and raised her voice, making sure she sounded well and truly pissed. “Then is it only the women of the realm who refuse to obey Hecate's Empousa?”

The crowd stirred restlessly. One woman, who was probably about Mikki's age, stepped forward and curtseyed quickly.

“My sisters and I will gather the baskets for the forest loam, Empousa.”

Another woman moved to the front of the group. “I will bring the fish offal.”

“As will I.”

“And I.”

“We will see to the hogs,” a young girl said from the middle of a group of teenagers.

Mikki wanted to weep with relief and thank them all profusely. But her gut told her that was not the reaction the people expected, or deserved. So instead she simply said, “Then I will meet you at the gate. You'll need to hurry. We have a long day ahead of us. The quicker we get started, the better.” She turned her back to the dispersing crowd and caught Gii's eyes. “I'll need you to show me where the gate is,” she whispered.

Gii smiled her approval before bowing her head and dropping into a deep, respectful curtsey. “As you wish, Empousa.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“
T
HERE! This is the rose wall. The gate is just around that bend in the hedge.” Gii pointed a little way ahead of them at an area of the wall that curved back toward the gardens.

“Multiflora roses—that figures.” Following the imposing boundary that seemed to materialize out of the air, Mikki shook her head. “Well, they have been called a living wall, but I've never seen them contained in such an orderly way.”

She'd seen multiflora roses take over pastures and completely destroy them in less than a couple years, but stretching before her was a huge wall of the wild roses that had apparently been tamed. She and Gii turned with the curving wall. Mikki gazed up. The mass of climbing roses had to be at least twelve feet tall. “Do they ever spread and threaten to take over the forest?”
Or the rest of the realm
, she mused silently.

“The rose wall obeys Hecate's command.”

Mikki felt Gii's body jerk in response to the Guardian's deep voice, and she was profoundly grateful that she, too, hadn't jumped out of her skin when he spoke. But then, she'd known he was going to meet her at the wall. Subconsciously, or maybe not so subconsciously, she'd been waiting for him to appear. Her gaze shifted from the roses to the Guardian. He was standing on the other end of the curve they had been following, framed by what looked like an immense gate made entirely of multiflora roses. As per usual, his strong face was somber and his expression unreadable, but his eyes . . . his eyes seared her.
He is not going to intimidate me. He's a security guard—a big, grumpy security guard. I'm Empousa, which would translate at the very least to his supervisor.
Mikki smiled pleasantly.

“I know more than a few ranchers in my old world who would pay just about anything to have Hecate command roses like these to behave themselves.”

He frowned. “Hecate is not a merchant who can be—”

“I didn't mean that literally. I was just kidding,” Mikki interrupted, working hard not to roll her eyes. She glanced at Gii. The Elemental had her lips pressed tightly together in a thin white line, and her eyes darted nervously back and forth from the Guardian to Mikki.
Huh. I guess no one kids with the Guardian. Or maybe the Empousa has never had a sense of humor before—the others were probably too young to have acquired one.
Yet another thing she was going to have to change.

“Okay, well, obviously this is the gate.” Mikki ignored both of them and marched over to stand not far from the Guardian. From the corner of her eye she noticed that Gii followed her but was careful not to get too close to the man-creature. Mikki moved nearer the gate, observing that the roses that made up the wall looked only marginally healthier than the sickly plants in the gardens. The leaves of the multiflora roses were still mostly green, but there was a disturbing amount of yellowed foliage mixed in with healthy growth. There were a few half-hearted light pink buds, but none of the blooms had opened. She touched leaves, turning them over and looking in amidst the mass of plant that made up the body of the hedge, checking automatically for black spots and insects.

“I don't see anything specifically wrong with them—no obvious disease or insect infestation.” She sighed and chewed her lip. “Like the rest of the roses in the gardens, they just look sick.”