“Harper? Goddess-damn it!” Shad had seen the panicked look in her eyes but he didn’t think she’d slipped. She’d gone under too quickly for that—she must have been pulled.
“Do not allow your feet to leave the path or The Watchers will be most upset.”
The bathing attendant’s words echoed in his head even as Shad jumped into the pool. Was that what had happened to Harper? Had she gotten off the path and something had grabbed her?
“Harper? Where are you?” he shouted, feeling around in the tarry muck at the end of the pool. Since he was much taller than her, the stuff wasn’t quite up to his shoulders but it was incredibly sludgy and hard to move in.
The bottom felt slick at first under his bare feet but then it quickly grew rough and jagged as he waded to where Harper had disappeared. Shad didn’t give a damn. Even though it hurt like Hell, he plowed ahead, feeling blindly in the slime, trying to find Harper.
How long had she been under by now? Half a minute? A whole minute? Two? How long could she hold her breath? Shad knew she was a strong swimmer but moving through the slime was like trying to move in tar or glue. The resistance against his limbs was relentless.
Dimly he was aware that the bathing attendant was standing at the foot of the pool shouting something and waving her arms frantically. He thought she was telling him he had to get out.
“You must not be in the pool at the same time as the Empress! You will confuse the Goddess! You must get out—get out now!” she shouted.
“Fuck you!” he shouted back at her. “Where is she? I have to find her! Where’s Harper?”
Suddenly something that felt like a hand—maybe a webbed hand—grabbed him by the ankle and tugged.
If Shad had been any shorter, he might have been pulled off balance and dragged under, as Harper had been. He remained upright, however and was able to pull his ankle out of the thing’s (the watcher’s?) grasp and kick out at it instead of going under.
His foot connected with something and no more hands grabbed at him but Shad was beginning to feel frantic. It must have been three minutes Harper had been under by now and he couldn’t find her.
She was going to die and this time he really wouldn’t ever see her again. The looper was out of power and they would never reach the end of the current loop now. Hadn’t he told her that the past resisted being changed? He never should have let her get into this slime-pit of a pool by herself! This path had been so free of troubles—well, relatively free compared to others—that he’d become complacent, believing that all he had to do was trust to see her to the end.
Stupid! Shad told himself savagely. You’re so fucking stupid! What’s wrong with you, letting her go alone? Now you’re going to lose her forever without even the chance of finding her at the other end of the loop when you’re too young for her.
“Harper,” he cried in fear and frustration, still feeling for her with great sweeps of his arms. “Oh Goddess, where is she?”
Then he heard the voice of the Goddess—not She Who Alters but The Mother of All Life, the Kindred Goddess whom he had known so well as a child. She had spoken to him often back then but her voice had faded as he grew. Now it came to him clearly once more.
“Be still, warrior. Be still and watch for a moment.”
It was the hardest thing he’d ever done but Shad forced himself to be still. Ignoring the shouts of the bathing attendant, he watched the surface of the slime which was perfectly flat and calm now that he’d stopped moving. Ripples didn’t carry very far in such a thick surface.
And speaking of ripples—there—right there, by a band of crimson red. Was there a faint ripple? And a bubble rising to the surface?
“Harper!” he roared and surged forward, reaching for her.
This time he caught something—something long and slick and rope-like which nearly slipped out of his hand. Shad tightened his fist, wrapping the slick stuff around his forearm and pulled as hard as he could.
Harper broke the surface gasping for air, blinded by the colored slime which coated her face. It was her hair, which had come down out of the elaborate twist she’d put it up in, that Shad had in his fist.
As soon as he could he got untangled from it and pulled her into his arms.
“Sweetheart—Kallana…” He looked at her anxiously. She was taking deep, heaving breaths as though she couldn’t get enough air and every inch of her was dripping with the multicolored, waxy slime.
“Sh-shad?” she managed to gasp at last. “Oh thank God! They…they grabbed me and they wouldn’t let me go!”
“Who grabbed you?” Shad asked. “Fucking Watchers I guess,” he answered his own question when she shook her head. As he spoke, he felt soft, webbed fingers trying to wrap their way around one ankle again.
With a low curse, he drew back and kicked out, jostling Harper, who cried out weakly.
“Come on, sweetheart—we’re getting the Seven Hells out of here,” he growled.
As he waded towards the deep end of the pool where the color was as black as coal, he became aware that the bathing attendant was still shouting.
“Get out! You have to get out! Two cannot be in the Cleansing Pool at once—it is blasphemy! The Slime has been defiled. You have to get out!” she shrieked, dancing around the edge of the pool in agitation. Her large, yellow eyes blinked continuously as she shouted and begged and gestured for them to leave the pool.
“All right, all right,” Shad growled angrily. “We’re going as fast as we fucking can.”
“No, no—you cannot get out at the same time,” the girl exclaimed. “You must get out first and leave the Empress in the pool. She is the supplicant—only she must remain to be taken by the Goddess!”
“Leave her in here so she can get grabbed by those Watcher things again? I don’t fucking think so,” Shad snarled. “I’m bringing her to the edge and we’ll get out together.”
“You cannot! You must not!” the attendant protested, as he finally reached the far edge of the pool. “If you do—”
But her words were cut off by a low humming sound which grew suddenly so loud Shad couldn’t hear anything else. At the same time, the lights in the vast pool area became blindingly bright.
Shad winced at the sudden brilliance and noise and tightened his grip on Harper. She was slippery in his arms,still covered in waxy slime, but he was damned if he’d let her go again. She—
Everything faded away. The vast pool, the shouting, dancing attendant, the multicolored slime…all of it was replaced by a soft, penetrating golden glow that seemed to come from all directions at once.
Shad looked down at himself. Somehow he was no longer holding Harper—instead she was standing beside him, holding his hand and breathing easy. They were naked and clean—perfectly clean, both of them. Every trace of the colorful slime that had coated their skin only seconds before was gone. It was even gone from Harper’s long hair which now fell in thick, shiny curls around her shoulders.
“Harper? Baby?” Shad looked at her, wondering how all this had happened. Where was the pool and the attendant and the slime? Where had he and Harper ended up? But all of those questions were secondary to finding out if she was all right. “Are you okay?” Shad asked her.
“I…I think I am.” She put a hand to her chest, right between her breasts, as though feeling for her heart. “But for a minute I thought I was drowning. The slime was so thick and I couldn’t breathe…”
She shivered and he put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close.
“I know, baby, but it’s over now. We’re safe.”
But were they? His thoughts came full circle again—where were they? Was there some new threat to Harper in this strange, softly glowing golden bubble they somehow found themselves in?
Shad looked around alertly, ready to fight anyone or anything that tried to hurt the woman he loved. If anyone tried anything he would kill them with his bare hands! He wouldn’t lose Harper again, Goddess damn it!
“Greetings, travelers.”
The low, feminine voice was filled with power and seemed to come from everywhere at once. It reminded Shad of the voice of the Kindred Goddess, the Mother of All Life, but somehow it was different—clearly a different deity although how he knew he could not have told.
“I perceive that you are most protective of your female,” the voice of She Who Alters—for it must be her—continued, speaking to Shad. “So protective that you refuse to leave her behind, even when you come before me. Though it is well known that I usually receive only one supplicant at a time.”
Shad tried to explain…and found that he couldn’t. Now, in the presence of the Goddess, his throat had somehow locked closed. He tried again, attempting to force words out but not a single sound emerged. Suddenly, he remembered something the bathing attendant had said—“Being in her glory will strike you dumb.”
At the time she’d told Harper that, he’d been certain she was speaking figuratively because of the awe she plainly felt for the deity. But now it occurred to him that he really couldn’t speak—which meant he was unable to explain that he was not the supplicant.
He looked frantically at Harper and tapped his throat. She opened her mouth to reply but no sound came out. Frowning, she shook her head.
Shad ground his teeth together silently. Goddess damn it—what were they going to do?
“Shadow Twin.” She Who Alters spoke again in that deep, rolling voice which came from every corner of the room and somehow from inside him as well. “One who is always alone—unable even to bond the female you love to you. Yes, I see the problem now.”
NO! Shad wanted to shout. No, that’s not the problem we need to have fixed! I’m not even the right supplicant! Dimly he remembered the bathing attendant also saying that having more than one supplicant before the Goddess at once could mess up She Who Alters’s perception of what needed to be changed. Was that what was happening here?
Desperately, he tried again—thinking to her as hard as he could.
Please, I am not the supplicant—Harper is. She needs to be changed—she is a ten’sora—one sought by the evil Hive in order to swell their ranks and breed an army to overtake her home planet and destroy my people. Please, listen to me—change Harper. CHANGE HARPER!
But She Who Alters didn’t seem capable of hearing thoughts and prayers the way the Kindred Goddess, the Mother of All life was. When she spoke again, it was still to Shad.
“I will cure this deformity inside you, Shadow Twin,” the deep voice murmured. You will never be alone again for now you shall be able to form a bond with your female the way the rest of your people can. In fact, I perceive that you and your female have drunk deeply of each other before coming to me—so the bond has already begun. You need only to seal it to be together for the rest of your lives.”
“No…NO!” Shad wanted to shout, but of course his voice was still locked. At that moment, he felt something shift inside him. Some deep hole inside him—a gaping chasm which had been with him all his life—was suddenly filled. For the first time he felt…whole.
Harper was part of that wholeness. As the Goddess had said, he could feel the beginnings of a bond with her. Through it he felt her uncertainty about what was happening and her worry that things were going wrong—the same emotions he himself was experiencing. He also felt her love for him—a feeling so strong it suffused him with light.
It was such a wonderful sensation he nearly forgot to be upset again. But then he realized afresh what had happened.
He had finally gotten Harper through to the end of the line—to a Goddess who could cure the ten’sora property within her and change the history of his people and hers.
But after all the trouble and toil and doubt and pain and tears, She Who Alters had fixed the wrong person—the wrong thing.
They had failed. It was their last chance and they had failed.
“Goddess!” he screamed at her in his head. “Goddess, please no! Please!”
But it was too late.
“Farewell,” the voice of She Who Alters murmured. “I return you to your original origins.”
The deep humming sound began again and the bubble of light around them grew so brilliant Shad had to squeeze his eyes closed or be blinded.
Everything disappeared and he knew he had failed.
And this time, there was no second chance.