She sighed. “It isn’t anything flashy. I can display it when we reach the abbey. I need my people around for it.”
They nodded in acceptance, and Lieta kept their path on a direct line through the fields and into the rear entrance of the abbey. Mother and Father were strong in this area. They watched the back of the abbey and the fields beyond while Lieta took the front.
The hall ran around the central garden and let them out in the main square. Sister Esrai came running. “Lieta, are these the representatives?”
“Yes. I would suggest the female as the protector. Either of the men will disturb the fields. I need to find a bag and pack some robes.”
She saw the Citadel personnel looking at each other before the woman looked at her. “It is you? You are the talent we are to take away?”
Lieta nodded. “I am. I will return in a moment. Sister Esrai is an excellent hostess. I am sure that you will be comfortable until I return.”
One of the men said, “Wait, you said you would demonstrate your talent.”
She smiled. “Fine, demonstrate yours.”
He raised his hand and a ball of flame appeared in his palm. Lieta did the same. He lobbed the ball at her and she tossed hers to him. He caught it and he stared into his hand. “It is my fire.”
She took his offering and defused it. “No, it is a replica of your fire. You, show me the vines.”
He smiled at her order, and he knelt to pull a cable of green from the earth. Lieta did the same, but she stayed upright as she eased a tendril upward.
“I copy active talents. Nothing more, nothing less.” She pulled the green into a post that Mother and Father could either reabsorb or allow the post to stand and flourish.
She left the amazed Citadel personnel standing there and she headed off to find a satchel to carry her two changes of clothing.
Acolyte Venila came to her, “Is it true that you are leaving us?”
Lieta nodded and continued to her quarters with the woman scurrying after her.
“How can you leave us? What if he comes back?”
Lieta paused and turned. “If he comes back, the guard that has been summoned will take care of it. She will protect you and all within these walls. I am sure of it.”
“How can you leave?” It was a whispered wail.
Lieta swallowed and kept her back straight. “Because I have been asked to leave and I have been promised that I can come back and resume my life. I don’t live here because it is my choice. I serve because it is what I was born to do. This is where I belong.”
Venila nodded. “Can I help?”
Lieta put her arm around the young healer and they resumed the path to her room.
It took some digging, but she managed to find a bag to tuck her two spare gowns in along with a folded set of lace-up boots. She stood and put the bag over her shoulder. “Right. I guess I should go.”
Venila hugged her. “Take care.”
“You too. Don’t get out of the abbey until we know that he has given up. If you have to for whatever reason, take the guard with you. Do not think that you can slip past him. I had something special planned for him, but now, it has to wait until I return. He isn’t to be trusted, no matter what he says. I know that much for certain.”
Venila sniffled. “Yes, Lieta. I can’t thank you enough for getting him away from me.”
Lieta stroked her hair. “I know. You were very brave in getting away from him. If you hadn’t made it to our territory, I never would have had a chance to stop him. You chose to leave, and you chose to live. Remember that.”
The smile came from Venila’s soul and it warmed Lieta from head to toe.
“I choose.”
“It is always your choice. And now, I choose to follow orders and get my butt back here as fast as I can.”
They left her quarters and she closed the door. There was nothing inside beyond her bedroll and her sleeping mat. Still, neatness was treasured at the abbey, so closing her door was a worn-in habit.
“Why aren’t you the abbess?” Venila asked the question that had been asked over a dozen times in her life.
“I am not a member of the order. It was decided when I was a babe that I wasn’t to be part of the order but, instead, to be a curator of it.”
Venila looked at her. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
Lieta shook her head. “Why should it? It is what I was raised for.”
She looked at the newest arrival. “You grew up in a different community, but here, we are all aimed at the abbey surviving and thriving. The monks wed and have children, spending their spare time in meditation. This is a quiet, orderly place, and you either grow to love it or you will decide to leave and we will help you enter a new community, distant from him and his reach.”
“I will give it every opportunity. I enjoy the peace and the jam is coming along very well.”
Lieta chuckled. “Your baby will be fine here as well, Venila. Don’t think we didn’t notice.”
It was Venila’s own talent that had shown Lieta the truth of it the day they met. Carrying the woman to the abbey, the last few feet to safety, had shown her more than she wanted to know about anatomy and what could be done in the name of love if the soul was black.
She settled into the seat on the shuttle and followed their instructions for the harness. She was to address the two men as specialists and they would address her as the same.
The feeling of being separated from the world she had rested on all her life was strange but exciting. She shivered and watched the world fall away beneath them as they took off on their predetermined path.
They were taking her to where she could do the most good and she had to take their word for it, that it was the best thing for her to be doing right now. She could feel the moment the artificial gravity took hold. It had a strange, unyielding feeling, like walking on rocks instead of grass, only in every cell of her body.
“We have left the reach of your world. I am guessing that you will need some training for a more modern environment.” Specialist Ukiss smiled, his kind brown eyes at odds with the slight horns protruding from his scalp.
She unclasped the harness and rose to her feet. “Please. We have a few items at the abbey, but I would like to see them in action. Do you know where you are taking me?”
“I will show you how we work the kitchen and the lav, and then, you will get your briefing. You can ask anything you wish along the way.”
“Excellent. Please, show me anything you deem essential to my mission and blending in.”
She got the briefing on how to use the lav, and she was talked through making herself a cup of tea. The dispenser was interesting. The idea of selecting an image and having it removed and heated for consumption was amusing. The monks rose before dawn to bake the bread for the abbey, this would get all of them to their meditations with Mother and Father on time.
She smiled and sat with her cup. “Right. Tell me about where I am going and what I am doing.”
Ukiss nodded and got to his feet, snagging a flat object that resembled a modern version of an old data pad that they had at the abbey. Mother and Father kept it charged and monks could use it for study or entertainment. Lieta relaxed because it was familiar technology.
“The world of Darhil has been under a sort of siege for the last decade. A god walks amongst them and they tremble at his approach.” Ukiss brought up images of her target.
A handsome man wearing nothing but a flowing skirt fastened with a tight sash stood on a marble dais and raised his arms to the sky. Lightning flashed and streamed from the sky, pooling and crackling around his hands before he thrust his fists toward a mountain and it crumbled under the explosive power.
“He has enslaved twenty percent of the population along racial divides and he is attempting to breed every female he comes across.” He gave her a serious look. “That is not why you are here.”
“I am aware. Fortunately, that is not a weakness that I have. I can and will resist him.”
“If you can mimic talents, that might stop the lightning, but if this is a pheromone, you might be in for trouble. We won’t be able to help you. You are going in alone. All strangers are kept at the spaceport and all new females are carried to the palace for selection.”
Lieta nodded. “Is my clothing appropriate?”
“If they want you in something else, they will give it to you. Can your talent be detected?”
She cocked her head. “Could you or Specialist Heirak detect it?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Nor has even the most curious of detector talents. I simply am what I am.”
Ukiss nodded. “Good.”
There was a silence and he finally looked at her directly with those kind brown eyes. “What are you?”
“Shall I tell you what I know?”
“If you would not mind. I confess to deep curiosity.”
Lieta leaned back and sipped at her tea. “I remember a terrible scream and my mother’s eyes staring at me before a man with black eyes took her away. I cried and cried, it seemed like days, but my mother came back and held me, running toward the abbey in the rain. My mother was the right shape, but her eyes were black and they burned with stars. She put me down, stroked my cheek and screamed as the man pulled her away once again. The scream brought a monk and he brought me to Sister Esrai. The rest of my life has been the abbey.”
“Who was your mother? How old were you?”
“From what Sister Esrai told me, I was a few hours old. Apparently, I was set up a little differently even then.”
She finished her tea and went for a second cup. Getting knowledge of the forbidden machines made her smile.
Ukiss was staring at her. “You really think you can do this?”
Lieta took the tablet and brought up the man who was controlling the world. “I can break him.”
“Good. This isn’t going to be pleasant. Feel free to kick and scream when they take you.”
“How long until we get there?”
“Seven hours.”
“Do you mind if I sleep? It has been a long day.” She got to her feet. “Oh, how are you going to explain having me on your ship?”
“Easy, you ran away from an arranged marriage and we are taking you home.” He shrugged. “We look scary enough to manage it and our ship is going to start having trouble in six hours. The last hour will be made with oxygen masks on.”
She smiled and headed for the bunks that had been pointed out on her tour. “I can’t wait.”
It went off like clockwork. They began to suffer atmospheric trouble and sent out a distress call. Darhil requested the inhabitant manifest, and the moment that they received it, they were invited down.
Lieta sat in her seat and waited for the knock on the door. They had been told to wait for the customs and immigration officers to enter the ship.
Specialist Heirak gave her a nod, and he waited until the knock sounded before he hit the button to open the hatch.
Lieta felt nervous for the first time in a long while. The immigration officer touched her shoulder and smiled. “Please come with us, miss. We need to run you through decontamination.”
She was unbuckled and helped to her feet. They gently shepherded her out of the ship and she looked back. “Why aren’t they coming to?”
“The men are processed at a different facility. They will be taken out after you have been secured.” The officer chuckled. “There are only so many of us, so we have to engage the protocol in shifts.”
It sounded reasonable, so she didn’t struggle. She didn’t struggle when she was put into a version of the shower, but she yelped when her clothing dissolved under the liquid. She slapped at the walls in panic. “Let me out!”
She sobbed and pounded the plates of the wall with increasing strength as the liquid continued to flow over her. There was nowhere to hide.
She screamed and smashed her way through the plexi, falling in a naked, panting heap on top of the shards.
Hands helped her up and she fought them.
“Easy, miss. Easy. The gel must have detected a contaminant in your clothing. You are fine, miss. We will get you dressed.”
She felt something cool on her arm, and she looked down to see something shaped like a stubby cylinder with a trigger attached. She felt a swelling of darkness and realized that the shot was supposed to make her sleep. Lieta crumpled and let them lift her off the plexi and carry her away.
She let her body take on the rhythms of sleep. All those years of meditating were finally paying off.
They carried her carefully and placed her on a cool, flat surface. To her surprise, they stepped away from her.
Warm fingers trailed over her skin, and she heard a peculiar humming noise. Part of her thought she should recognize it.
The fingers pulled away from her, and she heard him say. “Prepare her and bring her into the palace. This is what I have been looking for.”
Hands went into action and she was lifted, bathed carefully and dressed. The touch of the hands grew more tentative, and she fluttered her eyes as if she was waking.
She shivered and sat up. “What happened?”
She looked down her body. “What am I wearing?”
The women that surrounded her smiled shyly. Their nut-brown skin was as nearly naked as she was.
“It is a Darhil traditional costume. It fits anyone, so we thought it would make it easier for you.”
Lieta got to her feet and was unsurprised to find them bare. The jewellery was an odd touch though. Bangles at her wrists and ankles jingled when she moved. That was going to get very annoying very quickly.
When she caught a look at herself in the mirror, she froze. “Oh hell no.”
The skirt was long, gauzy and was nearly transparent in a deep shade of green. A collar of beads that hung forward and back in black, green and gold covered her breasts.
Her hair had been brushed to a smooth, silky wave and a headband had a large precious stone on the centre of it. Decorations were looped over her ears and hung to her shoulders.
She had never looked like this in her life, and she realized that that was the point. It was a disorientation tactic that would put her in a vulnerable position.
Lieta made up her mind in that moment that the entire world of Darhil could see her naked if it would help her do what she had to do.