The Priestess and the Thief Kindred Tales 30 - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,3

the rest of us have to run lest we get trampled or clawed or steamed. It’s not her fault she’s a female.”

Elli sadly missed her lovely zorels—especially Thune, their best stud buck who responded to anyone else with savage kicks and hissing but who was as tame as a lambkin with her. She wondered how her brothers were managing him without her—he could get into a terrible temper if he wasn’t treated just right…

She had heard that the Earth people had animals called “horses” that were a little like the zorels of her home world—well, the back end of them was like a zorel, anyway—having powerful hind legs and hooves. But the front part of a zorel looked more like the mythical Earth creature called a “dragon,” with claws and scales and the ability to snort hot steam or even flames, in the rarest bloodlines.

Elli had never seen a ‘flamer’ but Thune could scald the skin off you if he was angry—not that he’d ever worked up a head of steam near her. They had been friends from the moment she looked in the buck’s golden eyes and touched his proud, arching neck with its long, feathered mane…

She sighed again, wishing for animal companionship. The priestesses were forbidden to have pets and even if they had been allowed, she doubted anyone would let her bring a zorel buck or even a zorel doe aboard the Mother Ship—they were too large and scary.

She had seen no animals since she arrived here but the Earth animals the humans sometimes brought to the parklands surrounding the Sacred Grove. Elli longed to go talk to them and pet the strange creatures, which wagged their tails and panted a lot, as though they were hot. She thought they might be called “cogs” or “bogs,”—but she was forbidden from interaction with the humans, as well as the Kindred warriors until after she had partaken in the Shriving ceremony and drunk of the cup of Mortem Amore.

Supposedly one sip from that cup would kill all the wrong and illicit desires that had been plaguing her all her life. Then she could put the shame of her past behind her and look forward to a serene existence, free of any lusts of the flesh.

From what Elli had heard, this used to be a voluntary ceremony—an extra step some of the senior priestesses took in order to make them be able to “See” into the minds of the warriors who came to them for help, without being infected by the scenes of sexual lust and pleasure they often witnessed during the psychic connection. But the Ascending Priestess Superior had decided that it ought to be mandatory for all novices before they could interact with the general population of the Mother Ship.

Thoughts of the Ascending Priestess Superior made her shiver and reminded Elli that she was supposed to be meditating. She tried again to fix her mind on the Goddess and closed her eyes.

Oh Mother of All Life, she prayed. I’m so sorry for what I did at the human’s Christmas party. I know it was wrong to want that male to touch me—though in my defense, he had given me the drugged punch.

Then she realized that sounded like she was trying to excuse her shame and she felt guilty all over again.

Not that it’s any excuse, she prayed on hurriedly. I have always had wrong desires—I admit this, Goddess. I crave spicy food and I love to work with zorels instead of sewing and baking as a proper female should. I am not ladylike enough and I am lacking in the social graces. I—

A loud chime sounded, letting her know that meditation time was over. But she had barely gotten any meditation done at all, Elli thought, feeling dismayed. She’d spent the whole time thinking of home and missing her old life, which was wrong.

But there was no time to berate herself more—she had to get to the Sacred Grove for the Veneration of the Goddess. If she was late, her punishment would only increase.

Two

Elli hurried through the plain white hallways with the other novices and priestesses and took the winding stairs up to the level with the Sacred Grove. As she stepped barefoot onto the cool, damp grass, she reminded herself that she was lucky to be allowed out of the lower quarters at all.

For an entire week after the incident at the human Christmas party, she had been in seclusion—forced to stay only in her cell doing