Ice Shards - By Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,36
answer then?”
I nodded and stepped into the steaming tub of water, sinking gratefully into the soothing warmth. I had to visit the temple, to ask them remove the curse. To tell them of what really happened and set the record straight.
“Will you take your old name again once you are cleared?” Camille handed me a soft cloth for washing, and some soapwort.
I shook my head. “No. I have been Iris for so long . . . and truly, I am not Pirkitta anymore. It would no more fit my nature than . . . than returning to the temple for good would. I realized today, on that mountain, that part of my life is over. It was what it was, and the Lady needed me to stop Vikkommin from becoming a terrifying sorcerer who would have used our religion as a battering ram against the world.”
Camille let out a soft sigh. “Power is so easily abused.”
She still hadn’t asked me what happened, only if I had resolved things. Now, waiting for her question, I realized she wasn’t going to, not until I was ready to talk about it.
I leaned back and closed my eyes. “I will tell you after I’ve bathed and eaten. Right now, it’s still too fresh. But tomorrow will you go to the temple with me when I make my stand and demand they break the curse?”
Camille laughed then. “Iris, I would think that by now you’d know we’d go to the ends of the earth—and beyond—for you. You’re family, babe. And not just because you take care of the house. You are as much family to me as Delilah and Menolly are.”
Considering that Camille’s sisters were her world, that was a great compliment and one I would not forget. Content with my place in the world, I let the water draw the chill out from my bones and tried to forget the sound of Vikkommin’s screams echoing in my head.
HOWL AND KITÄÄ, along with a contingent of their people, led us to the doors of the temple. “We will wait out here until you are done. We will not leave you here.”
I turned to all of them. “If you are sure, then I will try to make it brief. Camille, Smoky, and Roz will have to wait out here, but you may go with me.” I lifted the heavy knocker and let it fall against the door. I’d sent word to the temple the night before and they seemed to know that Vikkommin was gone, because I’d received a summons to attend the next morning.
The door opened, and for the first time in six hundred years I was allowed to enter the temple of my goddess. As we stepped into the elaborate hall, carved from the solid mountain rock and inlaid with marble and silver and alabaster, my heart broke. I’d been ostracized for so long that it physically hurt to enter these halls where I’d spent my youth, where I’d fallen in love, where I’d been tortured.
The temple was as I’d remembered it. The main hall was so tall a whisper would echo on the currents, get caught, and rebound from wall to wall. Benches wrought in silver and marble were scattered around the hall. The floor was an elaborate stone mosaic depicting Undutar fighting one of the fire giants.
“My gods, this is beautiful,” Camille whispered. “Our temples to the Moon Mother are more wild and feral, as is her nature.”
“It is lovely, isn’t it? I don’t know how many centuries it took to build this hall—look, someone’s coming.”
I watched as the woman I immediately recognized as the Priestess-Mother slowly walked across the hall, flanked by two Elders. Her station was evident by the ornamentation on her robes. And I recognized the Elders with her, even after all these years. They had been present at my torture and denial.
Starting to kneel, I found myself unwilling to show them respect. I had to force myself through the proper genuflections. I stood again, as quickly as I could while still paying homage.
“I have destroyed Vikkommin and released his soul. I also found out the truth of that night. I come to offer you proof of what happened and to demand that you remove your curse.” Of course, technically I had killed him, but it had been at the bequest of the Lady. Surely they couldn’t fault me for that.
“Follow us, Pirkitta.” And for the first time in six hundred years, my name had been uttered in the