The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,100
Beedra—who was happy to be working for her old mistress again—taking notes. She let herself out of the suite and found the lift to the Sacred Grove.
She just wondered who she would see there when she went to confess her sins to the Goddess.
Fifty-Seven
“There she is! Ellilah! Over here!”
Elli looked up at the sound of the voices and was surprised to see the human doctor Liv and the human girl named Sonja coming towards her through the green and purple trees of the Sacred Grove. Both of them were barefoot, since the Sacred Grove was holy ground, which made Elli realize that she still had her riding boots on. Hurriedly, she took them off and went to greet her friends.
“Hello,” she said tentatively, putting out her hands to them. “What are you two doing here?”
She didn’t know them very well—Sonja had been the one who had gotten her to admit what had happened during the Christmas party and Liv had been the doctor who had examined her—but both of the human women were kind and sweet.
“We’re looking for you!” Sonja exclaimed, taking Elli’s offered hand and squeezing it.
“We heard you were back on the Mother Ship,” Liv said, taking her other hand. “We’ve been trying to get to see you for days but the Ascending Priestess Superior just kept telling us you were in ‘seclusion’ whatever that means.”
“In fact, we were in a meeting with Commander Sylvan, complaining that we couldn’t get to see you when the man who drugged the punch at the Christmas party got dragged in by the guards,” Sonja continued.
“And he told us that you haven’t even been on the Mother Ship for the past week—he said the two of you were on Pok on some kind of quest,” Liv went on. “Of course, Sylvan didn’t believe him at first—”
“But then this booming voice came out of nowhere saying, “The warrior speaks the truth! Go to the suite of the Priestess Superior where you will find the novice is in danger,” Sonja finished. She shivered. “Whew—I was scared to death! I’d never heard the Goddess speak out loud like that before!”
“She certainly makes an impression,” Liv agreed. “But are you all right?” she asked, looking at Elli anxiously. “You’re not hurt, are you? Sylvan got to you in time?”
“I’m fine,” Elli assured her. She squeezed both their hands. “Thank you both for coming, it’s very kind. But…”
“But the person you really want to see is your man, right?” Sonja looked at her shrewdly. “I take it you’ve forgiven him for drugging your punch?”
Elli nodded.
“That seems like a lifetime ago. He and I can’t ever be together but…but I’d still like to see him one more time.”
“Of course, you do,” Liv said gently. “Go on—he’s waiting at the other end of the Sacred Grove. Sonja and I are just glad to see you’re safe.”
”More than glad!” Sonja gave her hand another squeeze, then let her go and gave Elli a gentle push on the shoulder. “Well? Go on—go talk to him. He’s waiting for you.”
Elli thanked them once more and then went in the direction her new friends had pointed. Though she knew it could be nothing but a bittersweet meeting, she wanted to see Roke one last time and tell him that they had succeeded in their quest and the old Priestess Superior was healed.
Fifty-Eight
Roke was pacing back and forth in front of the statue of the Goddess. The Goddess’s face was calm and serene and her statue was placed on a slightly raised dais. A woven arch laden with flowering vines curved gracefully over it. It reminded him of the arch he and Ellilah had passed beneath during their formal introduction to the Tenebrian Court.
Gods, that seemed like years ago now—hard to believe it was barely more than a week! So much had happened, so much had changed.
Roke himself had changed.
As he had tried to explain his situation to Commander Sylvan, to tell about the adventures they’d had and explain how he felt that Ellilah was in trouble and needed help, he had felt something shift inside him. It was as though telling someone else—an outsider—about what he had seen and done and experienced with Ellilah, had allowed him to see what he felt for her clearly for the first time.
The fear of commitment that he’d felt all his life, ever since his mother had died and his father had descended into agonizing depression, had suddenly lifted. And Roke had realized that, Havoc or not,