“No,”snapped Betina. “A Defiled One must strive to cry and sweat and bleed theimpurities from her body—she must not replenish herself until her purity isrestored.”
“But…whatelse can I do? What will it take to restore me?” Trin dared to ask. “I don’tknow what else the Goddess wants of me…and you’ve already forced me to give hersomething so precious…” Her eyes wandered to Swift and Silk, lying motionlessbeside her.
Thepriestess sneered. “You think the death of a few animals can appease the wrathof the Goddess of Judgment? Let me assure you, we have barely scratched thesurface of your sin.”
“But—”Trin began again. Just then, however, one of the other, lesser priestesses cameout of the temple and whispered something in the Head priestess’s ear.
Trinwondered what she was saying but the long hood the priestess wore over her facemuffled the noise.
“Really?”Betina’s beady eyes widened and she stared speculatively at Trin. “Is thattruly so?”
Thepriestess nodded solemnly.
“Well.This requires some thought. Come.” The high priestess motioned in the directionof the temple. Then she threw a glance back at Trin. “You—keep digging. Oh, andthink about what you would like to sacrifice next, at the ceremony tomorrowmorning.”
“Sacrificenext?” Trin could hardly believe herears. She motioned at the dead bodies of her beloved horses. “What are youtalking about? What more can I give—what does the Goddess require of me beforeshe’ll forgive me?”
Betina’seyes flashed.
“Sherequires that which is most precious to you. Tell me, something girl—did youlove the male you allowed to defile you?”
Thoughshe knew it would get her into worse trouble, Trin couldn’t bring herself tolie. Lifting her chin, she looked Betina in the eye.
“Yes,”she said simply. “I loved him.”
Thepriestess looked disgusted.
“Lovinga male…I thought as much. Well, if he were here the Goddess would require thatyou give him as your pets were given. But since he is not, you must part withsomething else—some part of yourself you would rather not lose.”
“I…I’vealready cut off my hair and given my blood and been permanently scarred,” Trinwhispered, touching her ragged fingertips to the bloody welts on her face.
“Thatis only the beginning. You must decide what you wish to lose. Some of theDefiled choose to cut off a finger…some an ear. Occasionally we have aparticularly remorseful candidate who elects to put out an eye.” She shrugged.“The choice is yours.”
Trinlooked at the priestess, her heart galloping in her chest. She had heard ofsuch practices—all the Daughters of Zetta Prime who were sent to the temple forreligious instruction had—but somehow she had never imagined they would beapplied to her.
“You…youwant to cut off my finger or poke…poke out my eye?” she whispered in a dry,breathless voice.
“Ohno, my dear…” Betina smiled maliciously. “I want you to cut off one of your fingers or poke out one of your eyes.This sacrifice must be made by you. Otherwisethe Goddess will not accept it.”
“But…but…”Trin shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing.
“NowI must go. Keep digging. Those beasts won’t bury themselves.”
Andthe high priestess turned, leaving Trin alone in the garden with only her deadhorses for company.
Chapter Thirty-four
“Ohhoney, look at you—you’re a mess!”
“Ihate to say it but Charlie’s right—you’re in a state.”
Trinlooked up blearily, trying to find the source of the voices. It was dark in thegarden—long past midnight she thought—and she had finally finished the graveshe’d been set to dig. She’d been too weak, though, to push Swift and Silk intothe huge hole. When she’d tried, a wave of dizziness had overcome her and shehad collapsed at the side of the grave, breathing hard as the world faded togray.
“Who…whoare you?” she managed to croak, looking up at them. They were wearing the robesof lesser priestesses but she couldn’t see their faces.
“Someonewho’s been watching you and who cares about you,” the first voice, calledCharlie said firmly. “Just think of me and Becca as your guardian angels.”
“Comeon, we’ve got to get her to safety—we should be able to sneak her out and getback to the ship before anyone notices if we hurry,” the second voice, who mustbe Becca said.
“No,I told you, Becca, she has to makeher own choice. We can’t take her until she wantsto go.”
“Justlook at her, poor thing! Of course shewants to go.”
“No,I don’t,” Trin tried to raise her voice to be heard but her words came out in adry croak. “I…I can’t,” she added and started coughing. “I’ve been so…sowicked. I deserve to be punished.”
“Oh,sweetie—is that what you think?”Becca’s voice was soft and sympathetic.
“It…it’swhat I know,” Trin whispered, wondering why a priestess would ask such anobvious question.
“Werethese horses yours?” Charlie asked, pointing at the still bodies of Swift andSilk. “So sad. I love horses but I didn’t think they had them outside ofEarth.”
“Theywere imported for me—I raised them from foals.” Trin felt like she would havecried again if she had any moisture left in her body to cry with. “Betina—thehigh priestess—s-shot them r-right in fr-fr-front of me. She said I had tosacrifice them as penance for my sins.”
“Whata bitch,” Charlie said flatly.
“Howawful!” Becca squeezed her arm sympathetically and Trin yelped as the long hrakka welts burned at the contact. “Oh,sorry—your poor arm!”
“Please…”Trin still didn’t know what to make of them. “Please, why are you here?”
“Tohelp you,” the first voice—the one called Charlie said.
“Andto get your ass out of here when you’re ready to go,” the second—Becca—added.
Theysupported Trin under her arms and helped her get up and back into the temple.Once inside they had a brief, whispered consultation about which way to go.
“Sheneeds a bath,” Becca said. “Or at least a shower—something. Just look at thepoor thing—she’s covered in dirt and blood.”
“Thatmight make them suspicious,” Charlie pointed out. “We can’t risk it.”
“Wehave to,” Becca said firmly. “Thinkof how unsanitary this is—she’s going to get an infection.”
“Please,”Trin croaked. “Water…”
Thatseemed to decide them.
“Wecan get her a drink when we get her bathed,” Becca said decisively. “She’s probablycompletely dehydrated.”
“Allright. Good thing Stavros was able to get the schematics of this place,”Charlie muttered. She consulted some kind of hand-held device and pointed.“Look, the bathing area is this way.”
Thethree of them walked down the long hallway, their bare feet whispering on thestone floor as they went. From time to time they passed other priestesses butnot many as it was very late. Charlie and Becca kept their heads low, theirfaces still cloaked by their gray hoods so that Trin had no idea what her newfriends looked like—if they really werefriends. She wondered tiredly where they came from and why they were botheringwith her. After all, what was she but worthless scum—a woman who had allowedherself to take pleasure in being with a male? Why would anyone want to helpher?
Herthoughts were interrupted when Becca said, “Here it is!”
Theyturned down a long corridor which had a simple white curtain at one end. Pastthe curtain they found the bathing area which was just a row of shower stalls dividedby hanging plasti-cloth sheets with spray nozzles attached to the stone walls.
“Okay,let me get this ready for you,” Charlie said, once she’d checked to see thatthey were alone. “We need it warm but not too hot since you’re all cut up.”
Shestood in one stall and pushed the sheet aside so she could reach the watergauge in the next one without getting her gray robes wet. But when the spray ofwater came out, she wasn’t pleased.