Louise Cooper - Indigo 06 - Avatar (9 page)

It wasn’t long before she learned more. As her comprehension of the Dark Islers’ speech grew, she discovered that the priestesses’ cult was concerned above all else with death. Death was a powerful and constant presence in this feverish and disease-ridden climate, and the borders between the dead and the living worlds were narrow and often uncertain. The greatest gateway to the realm of the dead, so people believed, was the lake itself—and beneath the lake’s waters lay the Ancestral Lady’s domain.

If the Ancestral Lady was a goddess, Grimya decided soberly, she was a far cry indeed from the great Earth Mother worshiped in other parts of the world. The Ancestral Lady was undisputed Mistress of the Dead, meting out reward or punishment to the souls of the departed who entered her underworld realm and became, willing or not, her subjects. And it seemed that her subjects, even in death, were unwilling to relinquish entirely their hold on the world they’d left behind.

When she witnessed the evening ceremony for the first time, Grimya didn’t immediately understand its significance. As the sun began to set, a group of women left the citadel and walked around the lake’s edge. They carried blazing torches, and long staves with which they beat the ground ferociously, and as they walked, they uttered wild shrieks and bloodcurdling howls that mingled with the thud of the drums from the citadel’s lower levels. The wolf, sitting on what had become her favorite rock near the water’s edge, where the air was a little cooler, watched in fascination, until her sharp ears caught the sound of a soft footfall behind her. She turned her head and saw Shalune approaching.

“Our rituals puzzle you, eh, Grimya?” Shalune grinned at her, then turned to watch the procession, which now had reached the far side of the lake. She clearly didn’t expect a response from the wolf, but was merely talking as she would to any animal, and though Grimya longed to answer, she didn’t dare reveal that she could speak, or even understand.

“We must circle the lake every night,” Shalune went on. “Otherwise, the dead ones might come up from the Ancestral Lady’s realm below the lake to trouble us.”

Grimya’s ears pricked forward and she stared at the woman, astonished. What manner of deity would send dead slaves to plague her own followers? She whined, and Shalune laughed.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. The shouting, and the sticks and drums, will frighten the zombies and spirits away. They won’t come tormenting us now. Besides,” she added with a trace of pride, “when the Ancestral Lady spoke to us last night, she promised us no plagues this season, as a reward for following the signs she sent us and finding her new oracle. She is pleased with us.”

She brushed Grimya’s fur lightly, almost as though it were a touchstone, and walked away, leaving the wolf gazing after her in consternation as she realized that her suspicion of the previous night had been confirmed. The arrival of Shalune and her cohorts at the traders’
kemb
had been no coincidence. Some power, some prophecy, had
led
them to Indigo; and that, added to the lodestone’s emphatic message, turned Grimya’s early suspicion into certainty. The next demon was here, she was in no doubt of it now. And she believed she knew the form it had taken.

The sun had vanished behind the trees, and the blood-red reflections were fading from the lake as its surface dulled to pewter gray. The ritual was coming to an end; the drums fell silent as the priestesses’ cries ceased and the returning procession made its way toward the ziggurat. Grimya watched them pass, and shivered.
Indigo
, she thought,
you must get well again quickly! There is so much I have to tell you ... and I don’t think it would be wise to wait much longer.

On their third morning in the citadel, Shalune at last pronounced her patient fully fit. Grimya was deeply relieved, for the healer had kept Indigo sedated and therefore unreachable throughout her relapse, and this was the first time since the ceremony on the cliff top that the wolf had been able to talk to her.

Grimya was dismayed to discover that Indigo recalled almost nothing of what had happened at the ceremony. At first she wondered if the aftereffects of Shalune’s herbal drugs were clouding her friend’s memory, but Indigo was too lucid and too clearheaded for such a theory to be possible. She simply didn’t remember; and when she heard what Grimya had to tell her, she was deeply disturbed.

“You say that I
changed
?” They were alone in the cave while Shalune was about other business, but Indigo suspected that they wouldn’t have their privacy for long.

“Not in the way you l-ooked,” Grimya told her. “But I sensed someone—or something—else where your mind should have been. And I did not l-like it. Then, when you began to speak, I knew that that, too, was not you.”

“What did I say?”

“I don’t know. I did not under-stand the words. But the women grew very excited, and there was r-rejoicing.” (What had Shalune said as they watched the lakeside ceremony the next evening? “The Ancestral Lady is pleased with us....”) Grimya hesitated, then: “Indigo, have you st-udied the lodestone since you woke? For I fear that...” She stopped as she saw her friend’s expression, and Indigo nodded gravely.

“Yes, Grimya, I’ve studied it, and it confirmed what we both suspected. The demon’s here in the citadel. And you believe we’ve found it, don’t you?”

“Yess,” Grimya growled softly. “I believe it takes the form of this cr-reature they call the An-cestral Lady.” She showed her teeth in an uneasy gesture. “I also think she was the one who came into your mind when you sat in the stone chair. I smelled death, like rr-otten meat, and she is very closely con-cerned with death.”

The thought that such a being might have gained control of her mind, however briefly, made Indigo shudder. “By the Mother, this is some kind of insanity,” she said, softly but with feeling. “I’m not an oracle!”

“The women here think that you are.” Grimya hesitated, then added ominously, “It would seem that the An-cestral Lady thinks so, too.”

Suddenly, unbidden, an image of dark eyes fringed with silver flicked momentarily through Indigo’s mind. She was startled by it, and Grimya’s head came up sharply as she caught the momentary disturbance in her mind. “Indigo? What is wrr-ong?”

“I don’t know.” The image had gone, and Indigo shook her head. “I thought for a moment that some memory from that night was coming back to me, but I must have been mistaken.” She glanced toward the cave’s entrance. “I wish I could talk to Uluye. If only I could speak her language, I might make her understand that I am not what she thinks me.”

Grimya remembered the spear-wielding priestesses who had subtly but emphatically reinforced Uluye’s will during the ceremony. “I am not s-sure if that would be wise,” she said. “Uluye has great power here—worldly power, that is; I don’t know about any other kind. If you tell her that you don’t want to be her oracle, she will not l-like it. She would make a dangerous enemy. It would be safer to do what she wants, at least for now. Besides,” she added, “there might be other rreasons for saying nothing. If this Ancestral Lady is the demon, what does that make Uluye herself?”

Indigo looked at her in chagrin. “I hadn’t considered that—I hadn’t even thought of it!”

“I’m not s-saying that Uluye is evil. I am saying that we do not kn ...
know
.”

“And until we do, we’d be very foolish to risk telling her anything like the truth. Besides, even if Uluye isn’t directly connected with the demon, I doubt that reasoning with her would achieve anything.”

Indigo looked around at the well-furnished cave, at the growing heap of gifts and offerings brought by the citadel’s inhabitants during the past two days. “These women may fete us and bestow every luxury on us, but that doesn’t change the harsh fact that we’re prisoners here; and that effectively means Uluye’s prisoners. The priestesses may revere their supposed oracle, but whether they know it or not, their first loyalty is to Uluye herself. The oracle speaks, but Uluye interprets and acts, and as the oracle’s mouthpiece, she has absolute power over everyone.” She smiled grimly and without humor. “When she proclaimed me as the new oracle, I became the cornerstone of that power. She won’t let any dissension from me jeopardize her position, and she has enough warriors at her beck and call to ensure that I don’t dissent. So it seems, doesn’t it, that I’ve little choice but to bow to her will.”

Grimya dipped her head. “That might not be such a bad thing though, m-might it? If we are rright about the demon, then as the oracle, you at least have found a way to come close to it.”

“True; but in many ways that troubles me more than anything else. Remember the Bray curse and what came of it? I wouldn’t want to risk opening myself to a power like that a second time.” A small, sharp frown knitted her brows. “I don’t think I could bear to go through something like that again.”

Grimya whined softly. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to bring back painful memories.”

“No, no; you were right to say what you did. It’s just that...” She sighed. “Don’t mistake me, dear Grimya. I know how loyal you are and how strong you are, and that means more to me than I can ever say. But even with your love and your help to support me, I still wish I had another ally here. If there were someone in the citadel whom I could trust to help me in what I have to do, I’d feel less vulnerable.”

Grimya was silent for a few moments. Then she said: “Perhaps you should talk with Sha-lune.”

“Shalune?” Indigo looked at her in surprise.

“Yess. I don’t wish to be rrr-ash, but ... since you fell ill again, I think I have begun to like her. Also, my instinct tells me that all is not well between her and Uluye. I thh-
ink
they disagree about many things, and that Sha-lune would like to be leader here in Uluye’s place. I don’t know the proper word for it, but I think she is ... a better person.”

Accompanying that statement came a mental image that combined rationality, common sense and a willingness to reason without dogma. Indigo, who had thought that choosing between the two priestesses was a matter of deciding the lesser of two evils, was both surprised and intrigued. She’d surmised that Shalune was second only to Uluye in the cult hierarchy; if, as Grimya implied, Shalune was dissatisfied with Uluye’s leadership, then it was indeed possible that she might prove to be the ally they needed. Indigo didn’t want to become embroiled in a power struggle between the two women; it would involve too many complications, perhaps even too many risks. But if she could win Shalune’s trust, while keeping herself apart from any quarrels that might be brewing between the woman and her leader, at least the worst of the risks might be avoided.

“I would not say that you should trrr-ust her,” Grimya said. “Not yet. But I think she might be ready to be our frriend, and my instinct tells me that would be a good beginning.”

“Your instinct’s rarely wrong, Grimya, and I’m inclined to rely on it. Shalune’s as unlikely an ally as anyone might think to find, but I’ll try to befriend her.” Indigo glanced again toward the cave’s entrance. “It may be only a small step. But if the Ancestral Lady is the demon we’re seeking, it could be a vital step.”

Indigo watched as Shalune deftly hooked a pot from the fireside and began to ladle the contents into two clay bowls.

“This is the first time I’ve been able to tell you how grateful I am to you, Shalune,” she said in the Dark Isle tongue. “I should have expressed it before now, but I didn’t know how to say it properly in your language.”

Shalune looked up and grinned at her. “There’s nothing to be grateful for. I only did what the Ancestral Lady told me; anyone else would have done the same.”

Indigo listened while Grimya silently translated unfamiliar words and phrases. These were few now; they had been in the citadel for fifteen days, and with the wolf’s help, she had made very rapid progress in learning the Dark Islers’ speech. She returned Shalune’s smile, wondering if she might venture to ask her some questions that Uluye, it seemed, wasn’t prepared to answer in any detail.

To begin with, she hadn’t yet been called upon to perform the oracle’s duties a second time. She wouldn’t deny for a moment that she was glad of that, but she also found it strange. However, when she had tried tentatively to ask Uluye about it, Uluye’s only response had been to shrug and say that that was in the Ancestral Lady’s hands.

Shalune, though, might be more forthcoming, and so Indigo said: “Shalune, may I ask you a question?”

“Ask.” Then Shalune chuckled. “Though it should be me asking you, eh? You’re the oracle, after all!”

“So everyone says. But since that first night, I’ve not been expected to speak again.” She paused. “I’ve been wondering when the next occasion will come.”

“We can’t predict that,” Shalune told her. “It’s for the Ancestral Lady to choose the time and the place for her next revelation, not us. She will speak through you again when she has something to say, and not before. But don’t worry,” she added, again giving Indigo her startling, ferocious grin. “When the time comes, you’ll know of it before anyone else!”

Encouraged by the woman’s good humor and her willingness to speak freely, Indigo asked, “But what if the time doesn’t come? What if you’re wrong, and I’m not an oracle after all?”

Shalune looked blank. “That’s not possible. You are.”

“How can you be certain?”

“Because the signs were clear, of course. Uluye surely told you about the signs?”

Indigo shook her head. “No. I tried to ask, but ... well ...”

Shalune hesitated for a moment, as though not sure of how frank she dared be, then shrugged. “Uluye maybe had her reasons for not saying. But I haven’t got any reasons. The Ancestral Lady’s last words to us through her old oracle were that we should travel southwestward on our search and we would find the chosen one taking shelter from a great storm. The chosen one, the oracle said, would have an animal for her companion, and our first test would be the saving of her life with our healing and our magic.” She shrugged again. “How could the two we searched for have been anyone but you and Grimya? Unless you were a
hushu
trying to trick us, and we’d have found that out by now!“ She chuckled throatily.