So thinking, she closed her eyes and tried to relax.
Mother, she thought. I prayed like you told me to. Maybe I’ll be seeing you soon…
Fifty-Four
As he flew low over the archipelago of islands that dotted Genu Six’s western sea, Need began praying for the first time in ten cycles.
There were hundreds of islands—maybe thousands. Drung could be on any one of them with Lan’ara, already doing horrible things to her.
And it was all his fault.
“Goddess,” he said hoarsely, scanning the many tiny, sandy dots displayed on his viewscreen. “I don’t know where Lan’ara is and it’s my fault she’s been taken. I am so sorry for the wrong I did, but she shouldn’t have to pay for it. Please, please just help me find her!”
There was a moment of silence and then a resonant, feminine voice filled the cabin of the shuttlecraft he was in. It was the same voice which had told him to buy Lan’ara in the first place, Need realized, but this time it was louder…and angrier.
“Warrior,” it said sharply, “I am most seriously DISPLEASED with you.”
Need jerked and swallowed hard as he glanced around the cabin. There was nothing to be seen, but he could feel a presence in the small space with him—an entity so overwhelming it seemed to squeeze all the oxygen out of the air and make it hard to breathe. This was the Goddess, he realized and her Wrath was immense.
“G-goddess?” he stuttered hoarsely.
“I mourned for your sorrow and the loss of your mate,” the Goddess boomed in his ear. “And so, despite your bitterness, I sent you a new female to love and care for when the time was right. But you resisted loving her at every turn. And then you sold her—sold her like a piece of chattel! I am ashamed to call you one of my children—you do not deserve the name of KINDRED!”
This last was so loud that Need winced, his head ringing with the Goddess’s ire.
“I have no excuse,” he said, bowing his head abjectly. “I am guilty of all that you say, Goddess. I ask no forgiveness, for I am not worthy of it. I only beg that you help me find Lan’ara before the Trollox harms her—if he hasn’t already.”
There was a long moment in which the Goddess seemed to be considering his words.
“Very well,” she said at last. “But I do this not for you, but for the girl who is also praying for my help. And know this, Warrior—even if you save her, you have destroyed her trust in you and in all males. It may take a long time to earn it back—if, indeed, you are able to earn it back at all.”
Need swallowed hard. Only now, when she was in such awful danger, did he finally admit to himself what he had known deep down from the first—he loved Lan’ara. Loved her desperately and now the Goddess was telling him that he might have lost her forever, through his own foolishness and ignorance and pride.
“Even so, I need to save her, Goddess,” he said humbly. “Or die trying. Please—lead me to her.”
“I will take you to her myself,” the Goddess told him. “Take your hands off the controls of your craft and I will guide it.”
“But if I take my hands off the steering yoke, I’ll crash!” Need protested.
“Do you wish my help or not, Warrior?” The Goddess’s voice was ice-cold. “I thought you said you would be willing to die trying to save your female? Or were you lying to me?”
“No, Goddess—I wasn’t lying. I…I trust you.”
And with a deep breath, Need removed his hands from the steering yoke and folded them in his lap.
At first the shuttlecraft jerked and began to nose-dive down to the cerulean blue waters below.
Need sucked in a breath and fisted his hands by his sides, fighting to keep himself from grabbing for the yoke again. He had one chance to find Lan’ara and that was to let the Goddess guide him—literally. He had to trust that she would find him worthy enough to save Lan’ara instead of hurtling him into the ocean below.
After a moment that seemed as long as an eternity, the craft jerked upward again and then turned to the left. It began a long, slow, smooth descent and landed on an apparently abandoned island dotted with tall trees with long, silvery fronds. The shuttle parked itself in the feathery shadows of the nearby trees and then the engine turned off—all without Need touching it at all.
“A little way into the forest you will find a cabin,” the Goddess told him. “Go in armed. And hurry, Warrior—the girl’s fate is almost upon her!”
Then her presence was gone from the shuttle, as suddenly as it had arrived. Clearly, The Mother of All Life had gone back to wherever it was she had come from—it was up to Need now.