The Priest (14 page)

“You didn’t sleep enough last night,” Guen
said, and then she seemed to realize they had been standing outside
the slave’s cell for several minutes and opened it for him.

Mauricio entered his
palace
and
looked at the bare walls. “So, this is it,” he said, facing the
door where Guen was working on changing the frequency on his
collar.

“This is it. Have a nice dream.” Guen
punched the last digit of the code securing him inside his cell,
and before closing the door, she looked back at him one last
time.

Mauricio caught the brief hesitation on the
woman’s face. Was Guen going to say something? Or was it regret,
already? Did he really want to know? No, not really. He already
knew enough. He felt paralyzed by the sensation of being unable to
change his fate. Mauricio had always been conscious of his state as
a slave, but he had decided to make the best out of it. Now he felt
like screaming and yelling about the injustice of it all. And he
didn’t want to sleep through his last night on Ginecea.

“Mauricio?” A light tapping on the door woke
him up.

Mauricio was surprised that he had fallen
asleep after all. His name was repeated several times before he
answered back.

“Rosie? What are you doing out there?” He
was even more surprised that Rosie had found him.

“I wanted to talk to you,” Rosie
whispered.

“I’m glad you came.” Mauricio sat on the
floor by the door. He planted his bare feet on the cold tiles and
waited for her to say something else. He imagined that she was
doing the same on the other side of the wall.

“I hate that we can’t be free to talk,”
Rosie said after a long silence.

“But at least you are here now.” Mauricio
put a hand on the door, and then he laid his forehead on the
metallic surface, ignoring the tingling collar.

“My mothers are barely talking to me.
They’re worried that my pregnancy is going to reflect badly on
them. Their publicist has been working non-stop to find a way to
recover from this PR disaster.” Rosie’s voice was closer to the
door now.

“What do you think she will come up with?”
Mauricio felt some warmth seeping through the door where he had
laid his hand. It was just his fertile imagination, but he liked to
think that she was laying her hand on the other side.

“A nice girl from a nice family. The perfect
wife to raise this child without scandals.” Rosie tried to sound
light, but even through the metal surface, the words came out
anything but light. She sounded worried and ashamed.

“Do you already know her?” Mauricio banged
his forehead on the door, slowly and deliberately. He was angrier
than he thought he could possibly be after being told that he would
die soon. Mauricio’s stomach contracted to the size of a walnut.
The sole idea of Rosie getting married to some “nice girl” was
unbearable.

“I do. My mothers and hers have been trying
to marry us off for some time now. Lavinia comes from an
influential family loyal to my mothers’ party, and it would be
beneficial for everybody involved if we tied the knot,” Rosie spoke
slowly, and she seemed to be crying.

“Do you want to marry this girl?” Mauricio
couldn’t think straight. He wished he had the power to tear down
walls.

“No! I already told you. I wanted to raise
this baby by myself. Only us. It’s not that Lavinia isn’t a good
person. She is, actually. But I don’t love her. I’ve always looked
at her as a good friend, but nothing more than that. I don’t want
to spend a lifetime with her. It wouldn’t be fair to any of us.”
Rosie was crying and her voice came through the wall hoarse and
sad.

“Who is…?” Mauricio wanted to ask her if she
had changed her mind about raising the child alone, since she was
using the past tense, but was afraid to ask.

“If it were possible, I would like to be
with you.” Rosie let out the words all together, barely
breathing.

“There are cameras everywhere,” Mauricio
said, soon after his heart had started beating again. He wanted to
say anything else but this. He wanted to confess that if he wasn’t
going to die anyway, he would have given his life just to spend
time with her like they were doing now. He wanted to say that the
pain he was feeling at knowing that she was going to be betrothed
was the worst torture he had suffered in his whole life. He wanted
to implore her not to marry, not to someone she didn’t love. Not
ever.

“I don’t care,” she answered, and Mauricio
could hear that she was hurt by his words.

“But I do. They’ll kill me soon, but you’ll
have to face the ire of your mothers. Your life will be ruined if
the wrong ears listen to what you just said. Someone could use it
to blackmail your mothers, and your life would never be the same.
You’ll be accused of perversion. There is no worse destiny for a
woman, and you know it.” Mauricio tried to explain the reasoning
behind his apparent coldness. He didn’t care about a President who
kept him under slavery—and ironically, in any other occasion he
would have rejoiced at the idea that
he
somehow could be the
cause for the downfall of the purest of the Ginecean pure
breeds—but he couldn’t bear the idea that Rosie would suffer
because of him. In a flash, he realized that he was betraying his
race by trying to protect a woman.

“I wouldn’t worry about my reputation being
tarnished. I am afraid that my mothers already think the worst of
me. I deceived them; I blackmailed the Priestess; I am
pregnant…”

“Yes, but openly talking to a man is
blasphemy,” Mauricio interrupted her. “Aren’t you worried of what
could happen to you if this conversation is being recorded?”

“Even if someone is listening, I doubt that
my mothers and the Priestess would gain anything by exposing me or
making any of this public.”

“Still, I don’t understand why you are
risking angering them over a slave. You don’t even know me. We have
only exchanged a few words.” Mauricio couldn’t believe that she was
serious.

“Because I won’t live with regrets. This
could be the last time you and I talk to each other, and I won’t
waste the opportunity to tell you the truth. Not to save a
reputation that isn’t even mine. And because you are the only
friend I have. You never saw me as the President’s daughter. You
never cared who I was. You accepted
me
. Not the brat, not
the pure breed, just me. You never had anything to gain by our
acquaintance, quite the opposite, actually. I caused your disgrace,
and I feel guilty because of it. I don’t want you to die. I can’t
accept that I am not going to see you again.” Rosie was
sobbing.

“Don’t say that. You’ll have a beautiful
life. You’ll have your baby to remind you of me.” Mauricio hadn’t
planned to say it like this. Rosie fell silent. He had immediate
second thoughts about revealing what he had put together.

“I’ll always remember you,” Rosie said
tentatively.

“And I’ll think of you as long as I’m
alive.”
I can promise that.

“It’s not enough for me,” she replied
softly.

“I’ll always be with you,” he said, thinking
of the little baby growing inside her.

She started crying loudly at his last words.
Mauricio decided that she had the right to know.

“Rosie, I’ll be alive in your baby girl.
Every time you look at her, you’ll know I’m there as well. I’ll
never leave you,” Mauricio said, hoping that she was going to let
him talk.

“I don’t understand…” Rosie had stopped
sobbing, at least.

Mauricio felt it was a sign to keep going.
“I heard the Priestess and the nurses talk about you and me. You
know why I wasn’t killed after I was found in your room?”
Mauricio’s feet were getting cold on the tiled floor. He shifted
his body slowly to reactivate the sleeping limbs.

“I didn’t think about it. I guess that they
spared your life because they saw in the recording that you didn’t
mean to harm me.”

He smiled at her words. Rosie’s world was a
good place to live in. “I was spared because they needed me to
provide fresh sperm, in case you needed it. This is the only thing
I’m good for.” Mauricio hoped he wasn’t too crude, but he didn’t
know how to say it without being direct, and time wasn’t on their
side.

“What—”

“Listen to me: Do you remember when you
almost lost the baby?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I was your private donor. They couldn’t
afford to lose me at that moment. Your pregnancy was at risk, and
there wasn’t any time to find another semental with the right
genetics. I happened to match the list of traits you wanted in your
baby.” Mauricio didn’t know how long they had left to talk. At any
moment, Guen or someone else would come to check the floor.

“But it can’t be! A man’s semen is used only
to conceive fathered women. Pure breeds go to the Temple to
conceive with the help of the Priestess. She invokes the blessing
of the Goddess, and the incognito descends on the women. Everybody
knows that!”

“Every
woman
knows that…” Mauricio
knew his words sounded blasphemous, but he had to tell his story.
And when he was done, she could decide. “From what I heard, the
Priestess uses the sementals to father both men and women. All
women. Even the pure breeds.” He heard her gasp and felt a pang
inside. He wanted her to believe him. He hadn’t realized how
important it was to him that Rosie trusted him. Then a terrible
thought flashed through his mind. At first, he refused to think it
through, but after a few seconds, it formed again in his mind and
he couldn’t ignore it. What if Rosie was going to hate her baby?
Could she still love her daughter if she knew that she was
fathered?

Tears formed in his eyes, and for what
seemed an eternity, he couldn’t speak. Mauricio felt a longing to
hold this little girl who wasn’t born yet. He wanted to protect
her, smile at her, and sing to her the lullabies his father had
sung to him.

“What you said isn’t believable. It’s like
saying that Ginecea is flat,” Rosie commented at last, breaking the
silence.

Mauricio was relieved by her words. She
didn’t sound like someone who was going to bolt in disgust. He
breathed slowly, until he could steady his voice, and then told her
everything he had put together. He started from the beginning,
explaining the series of coincidences that had put him in a
position to know what no man knew and probably very few women as
well. Rosie listened in absolute silence. She must have had
questions, but she waited for him to finish talking, and she was
still there at the end of the tale.

“So, there is no incognito?” Her voice came
out composed enough.

“I am your personal incognito.” Mauricio
rubbed his right temple with sweaty fingers. Talking was taking its
toll on his mind and body. It was the second night in a row with
little or no sleep at all, and he was going on pure will. “It’s the
only reason I’ve been spared death, until now…”

“Don’t say it.”

“It’s the truth. You are fine, the baby is
fine, and I‘m not needed anymore.”

“I don’t want to listen to this. I don’t
want to listen to anything.”

“I’m sorry, but you had to know. I wanted
you to know.”

“The things you’re saying are
blasphemous—”

“You’ll have time to think about what I told
you. You don’t have to believe me now, but promise me you’ll think
about it.” Mauricio waited for Rosie to answer back, and when she
didn’t say anything, he thought she had finally left. “Please,” he
said to the wall.

“I am trying,” she whispered.

“It’s the only thing I ask of you.”

“So, you are saying that there are no
differences between pure breeds, fathered women—” Rosie paused
longer than Mauricio thought was a good sign and then resumed with
a lower voice,“—and men. No… it can’t be. It simply can’t be…”

A muffled sound came from outside. Mauricio
didn’t know what to think about Rosie’s silence, and then he heard
the steps coming closer.

“Mistress? Going for a stroll?” Guen’s voice
was higher than necessary.

“I don’t usually sleep well at night, and
now the daily sickness and the nausea have also started. Walking
relaxes my nerves and gives me time to think,” Rosie answered
calmly.

“I’m not sure how much relaxation you can
achieve walking around this dreary place. This is not the most
beautiful area of the compound. Tarin is renowned for its
immaculate fields, but not for the elegance of the interiors,” the
guard commented with a sarcastic tone. “There’s nothing interesting
here,” she added with a sudden change of tone.

Mauricio had the distinct feeling that Guen
had seen Rosie talking to the wall of his cell, probably from a
comfortable seat inside the surveillance room. She was playing with
Rosie. Any moment now she would call her bluff and expose her.

“Mistress, I think I have a solution for
your problem. I’m at the end of my turn. I’ll accompany you to the
terrace, where you can have a private view of the sun rising over
the fields, if you like the idea. I assure you the sight is
dramatic,” Guen said, and just as she said it, other steps echoed
in the silent hallway. A few greetings were exchanged and Guen
officially passed the baton to the next guard.

Mauricio remained a few seconds on the
floor, not really sure of what to make of Guen’s actions. He was
worried about her intentions. He fought the nervousness that was
reducing his ability to think straight and went to lie down on the
bed. He tossed and turned on the uncomfortable surface for a long
time, and only when Tarin started to wake up did he close his
eyes.

A guard who wasn’t Guen woke him up. She
wasn’t gentle in the execution and seemed to enjoy having to
activate the collar to convince Mauricio that it was time to go to
work.
She could have powered it up another two notches
, he
thought, trying to find the bright side of the stinging burn on his
neck. He was out of the cell in mere seconds, and the collar
returned to a comfortable buzz. Mauricio automatically turned
toward the door opening onto the fields. Arias was already there,
peering through the window, waiting to escort him to the
cafeteria.