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“I see.” The priestess looked Thrax up and down.
“This woman makes a passionate plea on your behalf, yet I see you are still unwilling, Warrior,” she said. “Why do you not wish to be cleansed?”
“Because I don’t fucking deserve to be cleansed!” Thrax growled. “You don’t know what I’ve done—I don’t even deserve to live!”
“Thrax!” Andi gasped, and now the tears were back in her eyes. “Don’t talk like that about yourself!”
“It’s true.” He looked down at the priestess. “I’m a murderer and a rapist—a Broken One. I’ve done things and had things done to me that have stained my soul. Can the Goddess cleanse me of all that?” The priestess looked him up and down again silently and Thrax felt the dull rush of shame filling him. “Just like I thought,” he muttered. “There’s no hope for a bastard like me.”
“There is always hope,” the priestess said sharply. “The Goddess can cleanse any sin…but you must be willing to be cleansed. First you must come with me, to the Sacred Fountain.” She looked at Andi. “And since the Goddess spoke to you on your partner’s behalf, you must come too.”
“Good luck, doll,” Kat said to Andi. “I’ll stay here with the weapons and the shoes—you two get the job done.”
“We’ll try.” Andi looked troubled—as she should, Thrax thought, since he still didn’t want to go through with the ceremony.
“You do that.” Kat gave her a hug and then the three of them—Thrax, Andi, and the priestess, went deeper into the Sacred Grove.
They walked through the trees until they came to a small clearing. In the center was a fountain which had a statue of the Goddess. She had a stern but kind face and she was holding a chalice in both hands. Silvery water bubbled from the cup of the chalice and poured into the basin below. It looked dream-like in the “moonlight” from the dimmed, artificial sun.
“This is the Fountain of Cleansing,” the priestess told them. “But before the ceremony begins, I must Look Into you,” she told Thrax.
Thrax wanted to back away from her. He’d never had this particular psychic procedure before, but he had heard from other warriors who had, that it was intensely uncomfortable. But the priestess was waiting quietly and Andi was too.
It was the look in his partner’s eyes that finally convinced Thrax to kneel. The anger she’d shown him earlier was gone—replaced by deep concern and caring. She was squeezing her little hands into fists at her sides and staring at him as though she could will him into cooperating with the priestess.
She cares about me so much, he thought. Maybe she even loves me.
He didn’t deserve Andi’s love, but he couldn’t ignore it either. Unwillingly, he knelt in the grass and waited for what came next.
32
ANDI
Andi watched anxiously as her tall partner finally sank to his knees in the grass. The priestess stepped forward, her long white robes swishing, and placed her fingertips against his temples. Then her eyes rolled up in her head, showing only the whites—which were light green—and she began to Look into him.
Thrax stiffened visibly and nearly jerked away as the priestess began the procedure.
“Fuck! Feels like you’re shuffling though my memories like a deck of cards,” he complained hoarsely.
“I must See in order to Know. Now be silent!” the priestess commanded.
Thrax subsided but there was an unhappy look on his face as the priestess continued.
“You had a happy childhood and parents that cared for you,” she murmured, her eyes still turned inward as she spoke. “But then I see it—your ship was taken by slavers. And they sold you…sold you to the Mistress.”
A low moan broke from Thrax’s throat and he trembled under the priestess’s fingers. But he didn’t try to pull away—maybe he was too deep in the trance, Andi thought. Maybe he was watching what the priestess was seeing as she Looked into him.
“She ‘trained’ you,” the priestess continued. “Ah, I feel your pain—she broke your barriers, she took what she had no right to take. She made you feel both pleasure and shame—they were connected.”
Thrax moaned again, his big body rigid as he knelt there in the grass. Andi felt her heart swelling as she watched. God, what horrible things had that bitch done to him?
“She hurt you too—she put her brand on your body and your soul—though she is dead, still she lives in you. She forced you to do things…and then forget them. But now the memories have come to life like unquiet ghosts. Ah, Goddess…the pain!”
The priestess pulled her hands away abruptly, as though she’d been burned and her eyes went back to normal—well, as normal as green-within-green eyes can look, anyway, Andi thought.
“What happened?” she asked anxiously, looking at Thrax, who was still on his knees. His head was hanging low and his broad shoulders were slumped.
“His trauma runs deep.” The priestess took a deep breath. “It had been forgotten—scabbed over—like a wound that festers deep inside. But the last mission the two of you went on together ripped the scab off. And seeing the Mistress who hurt him so badly brought everything back for him.”
