Forgotten (59 page)

“
Oh, uh…hello,” Liv said
blankly. “Are you lost? Maybe looking for another patient? I can
help you if you want—I work here so I can find whoever it is you’re
here to see.”

“
I am here to see Kate.”
The priestess glided into the room serenely, apparently unconcerned
about the looks of uncertainty the other girls were giving
her.

“
Do I know you?” Kate
asked as the girl settled, as graceful as a swan at the foot of her
bed. “I mean, I do—I know you’re a priestess—but I don’t think
we’ve ever been introduced.”

The priestess sat beside her swollen left
ankle, which was propped up on a pillow. Gently, she put one long,
slim hand on Kate’s bandaged foot.

“
My name is irrelevant,”
she said, looking at Kate intently. “I am here because I have a
message for you, Kate—a message from the Mother of All Life—the
Goddess herself.”

“
You do?” Kate looked at
her blankly. “Uh, what?”

The girl closed her brilliant green eyes for
a moment and then she began to recite.

“
All that was lost shall
be restored

All that is hidden revealed

All that is broken will mended be

And all that was shattered be healed”

“
Um…what does that mean,
exactly?” Kate asked when she was done.

But the priestess simply gave her a
mysterious smile.

“
I can only tell you what
was given to me to say.”

“
By the Goddess, right?
Well, did she give anything else?” Liv asked practically. “Because
Kate here is in a bad way. She could really use some concrete
advice on what to do next.”

“
Or maybe a sign,” Sophie
added helpfully.

The priestess smiled at Kate. “I may tell
you one more thing—the desire of your heart is already yours. You
need only reach out your hand to pluck it.”

“
What? What desire of my
heart?” Kate demanded. “I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“
No,” the priestess said
mysteriously. “But you will.”

She squeezed Kate’s wounded foot very gently
and rose to go.

“
Wait!” Kate called.
“Wait—I still don’t understand!” Forgetting that she had a hurt
ankle, she hopped out of bed and ran to the priestess, who was
already halfway out the door. “Please,” she begged. “Tell me
more!”

The priestess looked her in the eyes.

“
Only one more thing—do
not ignore your appetites. They must be fed.”

“
What?” Kate shook her
head, more confused than ever. “But that makes even less sense than
anything else you’ve said. “Please—”

But the priestess had slipped out the door
and closed it behind her. By the time Kate fumbled it open again,
she was gone and Commander Sylvan was standing there instead. He
was wearing a pale blue uniform shirt which matched his ice blue
eyes and a white bandage was wrapped around his right thumb.

“
Well, hello.” He looked
at Kate with a little frown on his face. “Excuse me but I was under
the impression that you had a badly twisted ankle as well
as…
ahem
, other
injuries. How are you walking around?”

“
Huh?” Kate looked
stupidly down at her feet. The tight bandage which had been wound
around her left ankle was loose and trailing on the
floor.

“
He’s right, Kate!” Sophie
hopped up to go stand with her. “How
are
you walking? Your ankle was
terrible just a minute ago—it was all puffy and
swollen.”

“
Looked like a sausage,”
Liv added. “In my professional opinion.” She gave Kate a
smile.

“
I…I don’t know.” Kate
looked down at herself again. “It was throbbing like crazy just a
minute ago and now it feels fine.” She took a few experimental
steps and then bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.
“Perfectly fine,” she muttered.

“
Well, it doesn’t look
like you’re injured now,” Sylvan remarked. “But I’ve never heard of
this kind of spontaneous healing happening without some outside
source.”

“
There
was
an outside source,” Sophie said
quietly. “'
All that is broken will mended
be…And all that was shattered be healed.'
She said that—the priestess said it!”

“
Yes—and she was touching
Kate’s ankle while she spoke,” Liv put in excitedly. “Kate, she
must have healed you.”

“
What?” Kate shook her
head. “No way. Is that even possible?”

“
Are you walking around
without pain on a foot that looked like a sausage a minute ago?”
Liv asked, smiling.

“
I guess I am.” Kate shook
her head. “But I still don’t understand how or why or what she
meant by everything she said.”

“
You don’t have to
understand—you just have to believe,” Sophie told her.

Sylvan frowned. “Forgive me, ladies, but are
you saying that a priestess came into Kate’s room and healed
her?”

“
And gave her a prophesy,”
Sophie added. “Well, kind of a prophesy. It rhymed,
anyway.”

“
You must have seen her
leave,” Liv said to him. “She went out the door literally two
seconds before you came in.”

But Sylvan was shaking his head.

“
I’m afraid not. I was
standing at the central station getting my thumb bandaged by one of
the techs and watching Kate’s door for the past ten minutes and I
haven’t seen anyone go in or out but Olivia.”

“
What?” Sophie frowned.
“But…but that’s not possible.”

“
Unless that priestess
wasn’t really a priestess,” Liv said quietly.

“
What? What does that
mean?” Kate objected. “We know she’s a priestess—we all saw her.
And I saw her before too—she’s the one who talked to Rone the first
time we were here, when he went to ask for healing at the Sacred
Grove. I recognized her—she was so young and pretty.”

“
I’ll ask, but I do not
believe there are any young priestesses aboard,” Sylvan said
thoughtfully. “They tend to be older here because it takes years of
seniority to get a position aboard the Mother Ship.”

“
So you’re saying…what are
you saying?” Kate asked blankly.

“
I am saying that it is
possible you had a visitation from the Goddess herself,” Sylvan
said softly. “She comes in many guises and forms to see her
children and she is ever closest to those who are
hurting.”

“
That doesn’t seem
possible,” Kate objected.

“
Neither does your ankle
suddenly being healed,” Sophie pointed out. “But it is.”

“
All right—say it was the
Goddess,” Kate said. “What does that mean? What should I
do?”

“
Listen to what she said,”
Liv answered. “I know it doesn’t make sense now but it will—the
words of the Goddess always do…in time.”

“
In time,” Kate echoed,
frowning. But she couldn’t help wondering if her time was running
out. What exactly had the priestess—or the Goddess in disguise if
her new friends were right—meant by her strange words? What was the
desire of Kate’s heart that she was talking about? What appetites
should she feed?

And in the meantime, what was she supposed
to do about Rone?

Chapter Twenty-eight

“
It’s a short trip back to
Earth,” Rone said, strapping himself in to the pilot’s seat in the
Finder. “I’ll have you home to your friend, Mimi, in no time but I
need to make a stop first.”

“
A stop where?” Kate
asked, shifting in her chair. Since Rone had come to get her for
their flight back to Earth that morning she had been
feeling…different. Restless somehow.

“
Just a different city on
Earth,” he said shortly. “Please don’t worry—I won’t be long.
Unless you wish me to drop you off first.”

Drop me off,
Kate thought bitterly.
As if I was a load of laundry he needed to drop at the dry
cleaners. I’m just another errand to him now—just another duty he
has to discharge before he can get on with his life.

But she didn’t fully believe that. Though
the big Kindred tried to remain stoic, every time she looked at him
from the corner of her eye, Kate could see the pain etched on his
features. There were lines around his mouth and shadows under his
eyes, as though he had spent a very restless night. Of course, she
couldn’t know for sure, since he had insisted they sleep in
separate guest rooms the night before. But looking at him, she
would have bet the price of the Rolex she’d been trying to sell
back when he first found her at the International Mall that he
hadn’t gotten a wink all night.

Just thinking of that—of her former life and
job—made Kate’s gut tie itself in knots. God, how could she go back
to that? To an everyday normal existence—to a life that didn’t
include Rone? Even though she was angry with him for acting the way
he was, the reality that she was about to lose him forever still
made her heart ache.

Goddess,
she thought, sending out a silent prayer.
If you’re going to help me fix this situation,
now would be the time to do it.

But no answer came—even
her Knowing was silent on the subject. Kate felt stuck—like she was
set on a course she knew was wrong but she couldn’t get off of
it.
Just like when I was stuck in the
Shadow side of the hall back in Flame and Frost,
she thought morosely.
Only there, Rone was willing to stay with me and even go with
me into danger. Now it seems like he can’t wait to see the end of
me.

But was that really how he felt? Looking at
the haggard expression on his strong face from the corner of her
eye, Kate wasn’t so sure.

“
So…what city are you
stopping at?” she asked, as casually as she could.

“
Sacramento, California,”
Rone said shortly.

“
Oh—can I come? I’ve never
been to California and I’ve always wanted to go.”

“
No,”
he said sharply. “I…my business there is private. And…” He
pinched the bridge of his nose hard, as though trying to drive back
a headache or maybe tears. “And you
have
been to California—you just
don’t remember it.”

“
I have?” Kate asked
softly. “Where? When?”

“
We went to see the
redwoods. It was one of the stops on our…on our honeymoon.” Rone
took a deep breath and went back to inputting destinations in the
navcom. Something about the way his fingers flew over the
complicated controls seemed to jog something loose in Kate’s
brain.

“
Hey—how many destinations
can you put into that thing at once?” she asked, trying to steer
away from the subject of their forgotten honeymoon.

“
Up to a hundred,” Rone
said tonelessly. “It enables you to plan an entire trip with stops
at various locations.”

“
And how many stops are
you making? After…after you drop me off?” Her voice was tight but
she tried to keep her face neutral.

“
Only two,” Rone said
shortly. “My journey is almost done.”

Kate didn’t know what he meant by that and
she was afraid to ask.

“
Rone—” she began but he
interrupted her.

“
Strap in, please. We’re
beginning the descent to Earth.”

As he had said, it didn’t take long. Before
she knew it, they were orbiting the familiar blue and green ball
Kate had called home for most of her life. She wondered how it
would be, being stuck on Earth for the rest of her days. Never
going anywhere else again or seeing any other parts of the
universe.

She’d always loved travel and exploring.
Being with Rone these past few weeks had been stressful for various
reasons but also exciting. Now she was going back to her ho-hum
life and her ho-hum job in the jewelry store—well, if they would
have her after the mess she’d left—never to explore again. At
least, not outside the confines of Earth.

As if being stuck on Earth
with no way to explore the universe is why you feel so sad,
whispered a little voice in the back of her
head.
Be honest Kate, it’s not the space
travel and exploration you’re going to miss—it’s your traveling
companion. It’s Rone.

Being held in his strong
arms, listening to him call her ‘baby’ and ‘
Lalli’,
hearing his soft, deep voice
in her ear and smelling his warm, comforting scent…she would never
have any of that again. Would never have
him
again…

Kate felt like she wanted to cry. She stared
steadily at the navcom as the big Kindred put them in a holding
pattern and prepared to take the shuttle down to the surface.

“
I won’t be long,” he
said, standing and reaching for something in one of the overhead
compartments.

“
Okay.” Kate blinked
rapidly, trying to keep the tears at bay. Instead of her
out-of-control emotions, she focused on Rone. He was holding a long
metal bar with some kind of clunky attachment at the end. “What is
that?” she asked, honestly bewildered. “Some kind of
wrench?”

“
It’s a hyperdrive
spanner.” Rone lifted it with one hand and thunked the other end
into his open palm, making a meaty
thwack
sound.