Chapter Seven
When Athan returned, he stopped short and just stared at Melinda for a full minute.
“Breathtaking,” he whispered when he found his voice again.
Melinda gulped and averted her gaze self-consciously. The dress fit perfectly, attached at the shoulders with gold clips and gathered at the waist with the girdle. Full-length sleeves, open along the arms, ended at the wrists with delicately-tooled gold cuffs.
The material covered her front and back but left her legs exposed on the sides. It clung to her as she moved, showing off all her curves.
Her shoes consisted of simple sandals with thin golden cords that laced up her calves. She had piled her hair up in a bun and secured it with a pair of golden sticks provided by the Wish Panel.
“I look like I belong on a Grecian urn,” she said.
“You are beautiful,” Athan told her with a sincerity Melinda wanted to believe, but that seed of doubt Roth had planted left her wondering.
As she followed him from her rooms – her first time leaving them since arriving on the ship – Melinda decided to try another test of Athan’s honesty.
“I’m really nervous about this,” she said. “What if I’m too nervous to perform the blessings?”
“You need not worry,” Athan said, walking beside her.
“But what if I can’t enter the trance state?” she pressed. “Isn’t that kind of imperative to the ritual?”
“The High Holy Council will guide you,” he said. “They have methods.”
“Like what, exactly?”
“I cannot say.”
Cannot? Melinda wondered. Or will not? She glanced around. And where the fuck is Roth?
She remembered the married man she had met online, how he had lied to her to get what he wanted. Had Roth played her the same way?
Got your ‘blessing’ and ran. Seems like every guy I ever meet is the same way – human or alien.
The ship had docked on Volos. When the doors opened, a cheer went up from the large crowd gathered at the platform. Melinda frowned.
“I thought you said there were only two thousand Volosians left,” she said. “This looks more like two hundred thousand.”
She looked around, remembering what Roth had said about the women dying from a plague, something Athan had neglected to tell her.
“And why are they all men?” This is it, she thought. This is his chance to come clean.
“You will receive your answers soon,” Athan said, shutting her down right away. “Now, no more questions. It is time to meet the High Holy Council.”
He escorted her down the ramp to the waiting throng. She heard them chanting one word, over and over.
“Oracle! Oracle!”
Four men dressed in green robes and carrying staves approached, their faces tattooed with strange symbols. Athan bowed low.
“High Holy Council of Volos,” he said, “I bring you the new Oracle of Life. Long may we receive the Blessings of Eternity.”
“Eternal Life,” the eldest of the four said. White streaks threaded through his red hair. “We shall now escort the Oracle to the Temple of the Sacred Pool.” He held out his hand to Melinda, palm up.
Hesitant, she accepted it, feeling his warm fingers close around hers. He tapped the stone beneath their feet with his staff and in a blink they disappeared from the station.
They reappeared a moment later on some pinkish stone steps at the base of a huge, sheer cliff face. A great doorway had been chiseled into the stone. Melinda frowned. It looks like Petra, she thought, recalling images of the ancient city in Jordan she had seen in movies and books over the years. She looked around but did not see Athan. She began to grow anxious again.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” she said.
“All will be well,” the red-haired Council member told her. “Come with us.”
Reluctantly, Melinda followed, lifting her skirts so she wouldn’t trip on them.
They went inside and followed a passage that opened up onto a large grotto filled with beautiful mosaic tiles, twisting columns of marble that reached high into the shadows above, and flowers that gave off a heady, almost hypnotic aroma.
A dais stood at the center of the chamber, three steps up, each step adorned with images of dragons. At the top, Melinda saw a round pool that reminded her of the tub in her room back on the ship.
Maybe that was intentional, she thought. She noted the steps descending down into the water. On the opposite side, she saw something that made her frown: a chair carved of white stone – perhaps alabaster – the back of which reclined while two large arms rose up on either side from the seat.
No, Melinda thought, remembering her last trip to the gynecologist. Not arms. Stirrups. Suddenly, she realized Roth had been telling the truth.
She would be placed in that cradle, her legs propped up and open. They’re going to drug me and have sex with me.
“Oh, hell to the no!” she said, and turned to run back the way she came – only to be blocked by Athan. She stared up at him.
“You tricked me,” she said, glaring at him in accusation. “You didn’t say they were going to fuck me. You probably have no intention of ever letting me leave, either.”
One side of Athan’s mouth twitched in a smile. “Such crude language in such a sacred place,” he murmured. “At least you will be silent through the blessings.”
“Because you plan to put me in a trance and keep me there?” she challenged. She tore off the heavy girdle and threw it to the tiled floor at his feet.
“I’m not doing it. I’ll die before I let you touch me. Your whole race will be right behind me, too, unless you can find someone else to take my place – and I hope to hell you don’t. I hope not one more woman has to be forced to cater to your whims.
‘Preservation of your race…’” She snorted in derision. “You just want to live forever, revered as gods, and you don’t care how many innocent people you use to achieve that goal!”
“Calm her, Athan!” one of the Holy Councilmen snapped. “Her anger disrupts the transference properties of the Sacred Ceremony!”
“Take her out of here,” another said, waving his arms to drive them away. “Go! Before she taints this place with her negativity!”
Athan shook his head. “Pathetic,” he muttered.
“Yeah? Well, fuck you, too!” Melinda said, raising her hand with middle finger extended.
Athan reached out and snatched her by that wrist, and in another flash they vanished from the temple. When they rematerialized, they were in a small room with no windows and no furnishings, just a dark box with light that emanated from the floor.
Melinda had no time to get her bearings when a shaft of red light enveloped her. She found herself immobilized, unable to move her arms or legs. She stood there, hands at her sides, and looked at Athan. “What are you going to do to me?”
“What we have always intended to do,” Athan replied. He walked around her slowly, looking her over as he flexed his fingers. “You will be prepared. You will be ensconced at the Temple. And you will provide what we need.”
He stopped in front of her and shook his head. “What a foolish child. Your life is but a fraction of a heartbeat, a tiny speck of dust compared to the vastness of our existence. We have always been here, and we shall always remain. We have never bargained for our time. It is there for us. It is ours. We are entitled to it.”
“You’re going to run out of it one day,” Melinda ground out through her teeth. She felt a pressure on her jaws, forcing her to keep her head up in one position. It did not stop her from finding her voice or using it.
“Resources dry up. You lost your women and you can’t reproduce. That’s why you want to live forever – because you have no one to continue your legacy.” She chuckled. “And you called me ‘pathetic.’”
She saw his gold eyes flash, saw his cheek twitch from the willpower it took to keep his rage in check. “The blessings begin at dawn,” he announced. “The same moment that your autonomy ends.”
Melinda squinted as he disappeared with a quick, bright flash. As purple and green spots danced before her eyes, she let out a sigh.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. More than that, she wanted to go back to Earth, to her stupid, useless life where no one gave a shit about her enough to notice her.
“I don’t want to be ‘special,’” she whispered. “I want to go home.”