Breaking Gods (4 page)

It was the last sentence stated until they were far away from the abbey and on their way home to the Citadel outpost on Norfing. It was time to wait for another beast to raise it head, and they would assess and swoop down. Policing talents on untalented worlds was their business and business was booming.

Three weeks later, Redol struck again and he was not alone.

They were finishing the pear harvest and Lieta felt the waves of hostility. She ordered everyone into the abbey and she left the orchard. There was no sense in harming the trees.

There were hundreds of metres between the orchard and the abbey. She spread Specialist Valuu’s shields out and pulled them from the abbey gate toward her. The cursing made her smile. They hadn’t expected her to know they were there.

A rushing sound behind her made her hurry. She jerked on the two weights against her shield and threw them toward the bodies attacking her turned body.

She turned slowly and faced Redol once again. “You are certainly not a quitter.”

“She is mine and she knows it.”

Lieta felt the ripple in the energy behind her and she sighed. She knew that Venila had to do this, but it created additional tension.

Venila came forward in the robes of a monk. “I am not returning to you, Redol. I am not yours. I am my own woman and I will remain here at the abbey where I am safe and my contributions are honoured.”

Venila came and stood next to Lieta. The wind blew the fabric against the slight swell of her belly and she put a reflexive hand over her child.

Redol reeled back. “They have brainwashed you.”

Venila chuckled. “On the contrary. They left me alone and only touched me when I touched first. I have had another lover since I have been here and it was an eye-opening experience. To be touched with gentleness and not with rage nearly brought me to tears.”

He looked like he was going to cry. “I had to keep you in line. I had to earn the respect of the men around me.”

“I am a
healer,
Redol! My talent calls me to the wounded as yours calls you to battle. You never understood that. I needed to go to the injured and weak no matter what your men thought. That is the price of being with a healer. Beating me until I couldn’t walk didn’t show your strength, it showed your weakness and lack of control.”

His jaw worked and balls of wind gathered on his fists. “Where is your lover? What does he do?”

“
She
sculpts the stone with her bare fingers. Her strength is incredible and her gentleness is more so. She fills my soul and holds me when I cry.”

Lieta was proud that Venila was declaring her preference. Her internal struggles had eased the moment she knew what she was in all aspects of her personality. Mind and body had finally found harmony and she glowed with it.

Redol flinched and he screamed, “Abomination!”

Lieta caught the riot of wind and held it a foot away from Venila. She was unruffled by the storm and was completely confident in Lieta’s ability to keep her safe. It was humbling.

She gripped the wind and pulled it away from Venila, splitting it and firing it at the two men who had regained visibility.

“Leave, Redol, and do not return. There is nothing for you here.”

“They will think me weak.” He wavered.

“Your wind redirected has left both of your men broken and bloody. If Venila wishes to, she has full permission to heal them, but if you attack her, I will pin you to that tree through your chest and rip out your heart.”

He nodded nervously but she could see his eyes calculating as Venila moved forward. It was time to see if he had any self-control.

Venila helped her back into the abbey, the blood on her gown was alarming but none of it was hers. Having to carry out a threat was always difficult, but it had kept the abbey from incursions for two decades.

“I hate to say it, but I am glad it is over.” Venila whispered it to Lieta as she walked her to the bathing pools with the inhabitants giving them a wide berth.

Lieta sat and Venila unlaced her boots, and Lieta stood to let the gown slip up and off her body. Once she was naked, Lieta dove into the pool and went for a swim. The water was part of Mother and Father, so anyone bathing in it, they knew from skin to soul.

She stayed under the water for ten minutes, feeling the peace of the deep water. When she was ready, she stood and walked along the bottom of the pool until she surfaced.

The three specialists from the Citadel were standing at the foot of the pool. She nodded and continued to approach them wearing nothing but the water. Sister Esrai was waiting for her with a towel and robe.

In silence, she towelled off and slipped the robe on. Tea had been prepared and was waiting for her at the nearby table. “Join me, please, and tell me what you need.”

The specialists looked at each other nervously. Valuu asked, “Did…you just kill someone?”

Lieta sighed. “I did. He beat a woman nearly to death and when she ran here, he followed. You met her and dealt with him. Redol. This time, he brought reinforcements. I had to stop him or he would have raised an army to destroy Venila.”

Valuu asked, “Why?”

“His clan doesn’t hold with same-sex bonding. Unfortunately, Venila’s psyche does. She found love and support here, and she is flourishing. She told him that, told him that she wanted nothing to do with him and he would not take no for an answer. He could have walked away, but no, he brought witnesses. With those two men there, he could not back down. I struck them down and gave him an out. He held to his fury and there is nothing to do with a man who gets his validation from other men and not those who love him.”

Lieta poured tea for all of them; her hands shook.

To her surprise, Heirak helped her steady her hand as she drank. His eyes held understanding and compassion. “Sometimes you have to do what you are forced to by circumstance. It doesn’t mean you enjoy it or that you are not glad, but the regret of the necessity of it is always with you. He knew you meant what you said. He had no reason to doubt it, but his pride allowed him only one way out. For the safety of everyone in the abbey, you had to do what you did.”

Her tremors stopped. “I appreciate your understanding, but you are not here to give me therapy. What do you need?”

They brought out a data pad, and in the dimly lit confines of the bathing pool, they showed her horrors that made her actions of the previous hours look like finger painting.

“He flays anyone who crosses him. He is forcing his armies across the continent and folk are dying by the hundreds.” Ukiss leaned forward with his brown gaze urgent.

She nodded. “Sister Esrai?”

“Mother and Father are waiting. They also wish you to bring Specialist Valuu.”

She got to her feet. “Come along, Specialist, this is the moment you were waiting for.”

“Heirak, Ukiss, I am sure that the sister will see you situated in the common room. We will return when Mother and Father have finished their conversation.”

With her robe whispering around her legs, she began the trip to the inner garden with Valuu scrambling to catch up.

Lieta didn’t feel like talking. She pressed her hand to the door. “Place your palm next to mine. If two are summoned, two must ask for entrance.”

Valuu pressed her hand to the wood and the click was audible. “How do they know?”

“You will understand.”

They walked the halls and entered the garden. “This is the inner garden. Remove your footwear if you can. It helps Mother and Father communicate directly.”

She waited while Valuu pulled off her boots. Once her silvery feet were exposed, her eyes widened. “They are…we are…”

“Come this way and sit on the bench.” Lieta pulled her wooden skin around her and registered Valuu’s gasp.

“Valuu, I know you asked everyone about the scope of my talent. You were subtle but no one keeps secrets from me. They lined up to tell me everything that had gone on here the moment I arrived.”

She took her seat on the bench and showed Valuu where to sit. The specialist was nervous.

“Relax. Mother and Father are merely entities in a different form. They are not bipedal but they can support and cherish those who are.”

The tree shifted and opened with Mother and Father stepping forward. Lieta made the introductions. “Mother and Father. This is Specialist Valuu. Specialist Valuu, this is Mother and Father.”

“Dearest child, thank you for the introduction. I have asked to speak with the specialist because she knows about the surge in the children of my kind. Though she does not know what they are.”

Mother and Father sat between them and spoke of the race of the Aruda, told of the pairs of seeds scattered across a thousand worlds. Explained about the children made to become one with the populations, but the Aruda could not always choose where they landed and some floated to worlds with spacefaring technology. Over hundreds and thousands of years, those children evolved into something extraordinarily powerful and if their progenitors did not check them, they could become an unstoppable evil and spread like a cancer across the universe.

The entire time that Mother and Father were speaking, tendrils caressed Lieta’s hand as she learned the same information that was being illuminated to Valuu.

Mother and Father were trying to calm her, but she was still on edge. Killing was her least favourite activity, but based on those images, she was going to have to do it again.

She now knew the reason that she wasn’t in charge of the abbey, and it had nothing to do with her being a better guard than an administrator. She was a danger to herself and the people around her and a better tool than an abbess. Her fate was sealed.

Mother and Father turned to her. “You are wrong. I love you and you would be a fine abbess, but you have other things that must be done first. You are the only child of the Aruda to become what you are. All others are powerful, but their skills lie along one line only. You are strong and born to protect others. You have done an amazing job here and I want you to continue to develop your skills. That can’t be done in dribs and drabs. I am putting you into the fire, and I know you will be stronger for it.”

The wooden fingers caressed her temple and cheek. “Go and shake the universe, little light. Break the gods, and then come home to be with those who love you.”

Lieta dragged in a deep breath and hugged Mother and Father. Next to Sister Esrai, it was the closest thing to a family that she had. She memorized the feel of the bark, the scent of green, loam and wood. She would need to hold that memory when she was in space. She got the feeling she was going to need it.

One month later, she had arrested two Aruda and killed one. She had never been so glad to see the stone walls of home.

The path through the fields skimmed under her feet as she rushed to the rear entrance of the abbey and raced through the halls. She burst into the square and froze at the image in front of her.

The standard monks and acolytes were there, but so was Muraz. He was piling autumn vegetables with one of the acolytes and he was laughing.

Lieta let her power run under her skin, and it was only when a startled Specialist Valuu saw her that anyone noticed she was there.

Valuu must have seen something in her eyes, because she approached with her hands out in a calming pose. “Easy, Lieta. He is here as part of his probation. He was offered the chance to meet Mother and Father and learn from them. Muraz is safe to be around now.”

Muraz was looking at her with cautious eyes. They were a beautiful dark amethyst and he had thick dark lashes. His features were just as beautiful as they were the first time she had seen him, though his clothing was the modest robe of an acolyte of the Aruda Abbey.

Lieta said through clenched teeth. “How long has he been here?”

“Three weeks. He is serving three years supervised probation for his crimes on Darhil. Surprisingly, though he was looking for a breeding partner, he never found one. There was an entire seraglio of untouched women who were all returned home. The funny thing was that they didn’t want to go.”

There was too much power in her system. “Please excuse me.”

She tried to run for the front door of the abbey but Muraz got in the way. She struggled against him but he kissed her. All the fire and panic she had been feeling rushed out of her and into him. He shuddered as he took on her overflow of power.

When he raised his head, his lips were shining and his eyes glowed. “I am surprised that that worked.”

She blinked and punched him in the jaw a moment before she snapped her knee up.

Sister Esrai put her hand on Lieta’s arm. “Mother and Father want to see both of you.”

Lieta looked at the man kneeling on the ground with tears in his eyes. “Get up, Muraz. Time to take a meeting.”

He grunted and she helped him to his feet. “I suppose I deserved that.”

“You did. I liked that gown. I only had three.” She shrugged and walked with him to the chapel.

“You really grew up here?”

“Yes. I was one day old and found at the gates by Brother Eycar. He passed away ten years ago, but he named me the day that he found me by the gates.”

“What happened to your parents?”

“My father was killed, but my mother…I need to ask Mother and Father something.” Lieta had a reason for her tension. She had been eager to get some answers the moment that she had seen the woman from her earliest memories outside the temple where her third target had been sacrificing a child to gain some knowledge of the future.

Horror had gripped her, but she had stopped the butcher before he had completed his work. She had stopped him by splitting him into eight individual pieces, using his own talent.

She healed the child and the mother rushed forward sobbing, but in the gallery of those forced to view the massacre was a woman with brown hair, black eyes and creamy skin. The woman had a soft smile and a single tear running down her cheek. She nodded slightly and disappeared while Lieta stared.