Which brought him back to his original problem. In order to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Trin was secure and unharmed, he had to get to her—but how?
He supposed he could go back down to Yonnie Six and steal a ship—maybe even take the one that belonged to Lord X while he was busy dealing with Two. But he might get caught. It would also take time and it had already been a day and a night since he cleared orbit around Yonnie Six. Since then he’d been studying the charts ceaselessly, looking for the fastest way to get to her—and not finding anything.
“There has to be a way,” he muttered, scrolling through the star charts again. “There has to be!”
“There is a way,” a warm, feminine voice said behind him.
“What? What the hell?” Thrace jumped and looked all around the confines of the small life pod. “Who said that? Or am I just hearing things?” He saw no one but he felt something…a presence that seemed to fill the ship. Or maybe he was just imagining it. Maybe his stress over Trin was driving him crazy…
“Your sanity is unimpaired,” the voice said. “I am the Goddess you choose not to believe in.”
“The Goddess? You mean the Mother of all Life—the one the Kindred worship?”
“The same.”
“Now I know I’m going crazy!” Thrace looked around wildly. “Why can’t I see you?”
“A mortal cannot withstand exposure to my glory,” the voice explained. “Only once was a male strong enough to do so and even then I had to veil myself so as not to destroy him.”
“All right, well…what do you want?” Thrace looked around at the seemingly empty air.
“You have left something unfinished on the planet below you. A dangerous foe to my children, of which I count you as one, still lives because you did not finish him.”
“You mean Two? I left him poisoned and in mortal agony—which was what he deserved. A quick, clean death is too good for a bastard like him,” Thrace snarled.
“Nonetheless, you have left a danger untended and I fear there will be much to pay in the future for what you have left undone.”
“Is that what you came to tell me?” Thrace demanded. “After everything that’s happened in my life, you show up now just to let me know I should have killed that bastard, Two after all?”
“No, that is not the only reason. I know you have not had the easiest life, my son.” The voice was soft and compassionate. “You have been tried in the fire but you have not been found wanting. Despite your past you were willing and able to give yourself to Trin and to love her.”
“Of course I love her,” he said roughly. “And I’m bonded to her but she’s blocking me. I can’t feel her anywhere. All I know is she’s gone home to undergo some kind of barbaric cleansing ritual.”
“It is a trial that will test Trin’s soul in the same way your first time as a slave tested yours,” the Goddess assured him.
Thrace felt a surge of panic.
“What are you saying? What are they doing to her? I have to get to her!”
“And you shall. But when you see Trin again, she will not be the same female who left you.”
“What does that mean? Please, Goddess…” Thrace looked around. “I…I can’t stand the idea of her being hurt.”
“Some pain is necessary to help her see the way,” the voice said softly. “But you will be able to heal her—providing she comes to you.”
“What do you mean, providing she comes?” Thrace demanded. “You’re the Goddess—can’t you tell if she’ll be willing to come to me or not?”
“There are many different futures, my son. I can only point my children in the right path and hope that they take it.”
“Well, I’m willing to try—willing to do anything to get her back,” Thrace said, exasperated. “But how in the Seven Hells am I going to get to her?”
“A way will be provided. You need only take it.”
“A way? What way?” He looked around but the voice and the presence which had filled the air around him was suddenly gone. What the hell? Thrace rubbed his forehead. Had he imagined the whole thing? Was his stress over Trin getting the better of him—giving him hallucinations? But no, the presence of the Goddess had been so real…
Just then the hailing frequency sounded from his viewscreen.
“What the hell?” he muttered again. Flipping on the screen to take the call, he was confronted with a blonde haired female and a male with long, dark red hair who looked Kindred.
“Thrace S’ver?” the male said, addressing him. “Greetings, brother. You don’t know us but we know you. And we’re here to help.”
Chapter Thirty-three
“Please, no more,” Trin whispered through dry lips. “Please, High Priestess, I feel so weak.”
“You are weak or you would not have allowed a male to penetrate you.” Betina, the high priestess gave her a disgusted look from under the elaborate headdress she wore. It was jet black, like her long robes, and encrusted with rubies the size of Trin’s thumb.
Trin wondered listlessly if her mother’s money had helped pay for the elaborate head gear. If so, she had made a sizable investment into one of the ugliest articles of clothing Trin had ever seen. It had stiff folds on either side and was peaked in front, coming to a point like a bird’s beak which cast the priestess’s sallow, narrow features into shadow. Her beady eyes glinted from the darkness, raking Trin with a judgmental stare that made her feel naked.
As a matter of fact, she was naked—abject humiliation was part of the ritual she was undergoing in an attempt to cleanse herself from the male influences she had allowed to enter her body. But being naked wasn’t nearly the worst part of the experience so far. Not nearly.
Trin passed a hand over her eyes, trying not to remember…wishing she could forget…
Her mother had been waiting to meet her at the front door of their domicile when she came home to Zetta Prime. She hadn’t even allowed Trin to enter the house for fear she would contaminate it. Instead, she had taken her straight to the Temple of the Goddess of Judgment, a vast, gray building with tall, imposing walls and numerous hooded priestesses roaming its echoing halls in bare feet.
The high priestess, Betina, had taken one look at Trin and dragged her to the inner sanctum of the main worship hall to stand before the huge, frowning statue of the Goddess of Judgment.
“Strip her!” the high priestess had ordered and two gray robed priestesses had complied, tearing Trin’s clothing from her body and leaving her standing there naked and shivering in the echoing chamber.
“Oh Goddess of Judgment,” Betina intoned, looking up at the tall, frowning statue. “One stands before you who has been Defiled. She has allowed a male to enter her and in so doing she has become unclean.” She pointed a finger at Trin. “Admit your sin!”
“I…” Trin’s voice had come out as a croak. “I…forgive me, Goddess—I have sinned. I have…allowed a male to…to penetrate me.” She took a gulping breath. “And…I enjoyed it. I…I’m so sorry. Please, forgive me.”
“She enjoyed it!” Betina sucked in her breath in horror.