Chapter Twelve
Dendros, third Moon of Anteres
This time he welcomed the cold. Guilt made him revel in its bone-chilling embrace. So different from the warmth of his lover’s arms.
Kadan picked his way along the narrow ice-covered path leading to the summit. He swore the path hadn’t been there on his first trip. Surely he’d have seen it. Though the surface was steep and slick, it was a far easier journey than his previous one.
Still, the burden he bore made this climb more difficult than the last. The wind howling in his ears carried a mournful refrain. You failed. You failed. Kadan, Omega Warrior of Anteres, defender and protector of the Worlds of the Seven Stars, had another unsuccessful mission to add to his record, this failure with a far higher price than the last. He dreaded confessing to the Sacred Oracle that the Heart of the Entity had been destroyed. Shattered into a million needle-sharp pieces on the rocks at the base of the canyon.
He’d put his love for an alien woman before the safety of his entire civilization. Let the Heart go, watched it crash onto the rocks below, as he dove forward and caught Maia.
The truth of it was, he wasn’t sorry. Every being in his world would be destroyed, but even if he had succeeded, they’d all die eventually. Each life must come to an end. Better to happily live out the days he had left, few though they may be, with the woman he loved by his side than to become a bitter old man, tortured every day by the knowledge that he’d abandoned the person who meant more to him than any other.
His path curved around a rough outcropping of rock ahead and for a few moments he was forced to hang on by his fingers again. Kadan cursed the gods roughly. He’d spent far too much fucking time clinging to the sides of cliffs lately.
Once past that obstacle, he was shocked to find himself at the summit of the mountain. On his last visit, the temple had been shrouded in gray mist. Tonight the other two moons of Anteres shone brightly in the clear sky above, reflecting off the ice-covered ground to bathe the building before him in pale, cold light.
Again, the huge doors stood open, beckoning him. Kadan mounted the slippery flight of steps carefully and stepped through the entryway.
The temple was as cold as the mountaintop on which it was built. Flames in the cauldrons burned as brightly as ever, but this time they gave off no warmth. Every huge column bore a flickering torch mounted halfway to the ceiling, throwing the room into pools of light and shadow. Without being invited, he headed toward the figure seated on the platform in the center of the cavernous space.
A stranger sat on the throne. A beautiful woman, her head bowed, dressed in a platinum gown that shimmered in the firelight. Silver-white hair flowed over her shoulders to graze her breasts, full and rounded under the form-fitting gown.
The fire’s glow reflected off her, nearly dazzling him, and he looked closer as he approached. Her hair gleamed because it was coated with ice, every strand. It rippled over her body like a frozen waterfall. And the gown—it was made of thousands of frost crystals.
She must be cold as the seventh hell. No wonder her nipples are hard. The thought popped unbidden into his mind.
She lifted her head and sharp black eyes bored into his. “No, I’m not cold,” she announced. “But thank you for your… concern. It is customary to kneel before me,” she added, with a note of irritation.
He knew that voice. And those eyes. Kadan fell to his knees.
“Holy One?”
“Who else did you expect?” she snapped.
“But… last time you were so …” He stammered then stopped, appalled at the insult he’d nearly uttered.
“Old? Ugly?” She shrugged. “You expected to see an Oracle worshipped by your people for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. A shriveled-up hag. So that’s what you got.”
“And this is your true form?”
She gave him a cool stare. “I take many forms. But we did not meet so you could find out how hard your cock will get if I let you continue to ogle my tits. Tell me about your Quest.”
“I…” He swallowed, forcing the words out despite the lump in his throat. “I… I cannot bring you the Heart of the Entity, Holy One. It is gone. Destroyed. Shattered into a million razor-thin shards.”
She frowned. “You destroyed it rather than bring it to me?”
“I had a choice, Holy One. Save the Heart of the Entity or save the life of the woman I love.” He met her eyes. “I have watched too many brave soldiers die in order for me to complete missions I’ve been charged with. Men whose lives I could have saved had I not blindly followed orders from those far removed from battle. Those men are gone, but the battles rage on.”
“So you saved the life of your woman and let the stone be destroyed.”
Guilt and shame vanished, replaced by a surge of anger. He’d risked his life while she sat on her ass on that ice throne. Who was she to sit in judgment of him?
“Damn right I did. I saw the thing. Held it in my hands. There was no mystical power in the Heart. It was nothing but a fucking rock!”
He took a deep breath, got control of his temper.
“Yes. I let the stone be destroyed.” He removed his sword from its scabbard, laid it on the ground in front of him. “I failed, Holy One. Failed the gods, failed you, failed my people. I submit to whatever punishment you and the Seneschal decree. Take my life if you deem it appropriate. I will die content in the knowledge that Maia survives. If the gods are merciful, my fellow warriors will succeed in their missions and we will still be victorious in the end.”
“Failed?” She stared at him as though he’d spoken in a different language. “Tell me, Great Warrior, what was the Quest I sent you on?”
He wondered if the witch’s brain had been permanently damaged by the cold. “Don’t you remember? You bade me bring you the talisman worshipped as the Heart of the Entity.”
“Fool!” Her shrill retort echoed off the cavernous walls. “That is not what the gods intended. You said it yourself. The object they revered had no mystical powers. ‘It was nothing but a fucking rock.’ I believe those were your exact words.”
She shook her head, as though frustrated with his stupidity. “Did you really think the gods would have an Omega Warrior, one of their chosen few, risk his life to steal a worthless hunk of stone? And did you never wonder how your body was able to heal with a blood transfusion that should have killed you?”
The Oracle waved a hand and the torches in the temple dimmed. A rhythmic thumping sound began, barely perceptible at first. He felt it more than heard it, vibrating through his body. Slow and deep. As he listened, it became louder, thrumming like the sound of the blood rushing through his veins.
“Your survival was due to a miracle. Not the trick of a sorceress or a conjurer, but the greatest miracle in the Universe. The miracle of life. Your body recognized the truth. You could never reject your lover’s gift. Your essence and her essence, your blood and her blood, were already one.”
Her voice died away, and he became aware of another sound underlying the first. A faster rhythm, swishing and pulsing. Faint in the beginning, then growing stronger and louder until it reverberated off the stone walls and filled the room.
The Oracle looked down at him, her eyes now soft and warm. And when she spoke, her voice was gentle.
“You say you failed? Impossible. You are an Omega Warrior, a man who follows no one’s orders. A man who charts his own course, creates the very destiny he was born to fulfill.” She cocked her head. “Listen. Do you hear them? Both of them? One is the beating heart of your woman, who lives because you chose love over blind obedience to the rules of warfare.
“And the other? The sound that grows stronger with every passing moment? That is the sound of the child in her womb. It is the heart the gods meant for you to bring back safely to Anteres. The beating heart of your unborn son—the Heart of the man who will one day defeat the Entity and save our World.”
The End