Goddess's Saga 1: Touch of the Goddess (19 page)

It had probably been noiseless when it was stil
l used frequently, but after all this time it made a loud scraping noise. Maria wrinkled her nose and Olga covered her ears.

Stale air flowed past him and he couldn’t help but wonder what ancient viruses they just released into the unsuspecting atmosphere.

Oh well, if anything’s dangerous I’m sure she’ll deal with it.

He peeked into a long and dark corridor. It seemed a little damp, but overall in good shape.

Maria nodded towards the hallway.

“After you, handsome.”

The corridor stretched
in under the large buildings and wasn’t the most inviting place Stephan ever saw, but he had certainly been in worse.

He flashed Maria a smile and took a couple of steps inside.

The doorway was so low he had to bend his head to get through, but there was plenty of room inside. She followed him and the walls started to glow with a soft light, chasing away the darkness that ruled for so long.

The door began to cl
ose behind them and Olga ran in, clearly reluctant to be left alone with all the death outside.

I guess she’s
alright if she can still run.

At first, the corridor seemed to lead nowhere but down, carved out of the very mountain that had been underneath their feet. After a few minutes, however, the walls began to change, growing more polished and shiny, looking more like they once had.

Behind him, Olga said,
“Hey guys, shouldn’t we go back...”

Then,
she ran past him. “I see something!”

He hurried to catch up with her, just in case. It didn’t seem likely that they’d encounter anything dangerous in this tomb, but one could never be too sure.

Olga stood by an intricately carved door, flanked by a statue on either side. Everything was well preserved, and even if the statues were old and cracked, one could still distinguish their features. They were of tall and slender creatures, sitting on their hind legs. Each had four arms, holding different items hard to make out.

Maria muttered, “I wonder if they held weapons or food...”

The statues had perked ears and long noses, almost like dogs. Olga’s voice held unusual awe.

“
Wow. I wonder if that’s what they looked like. I can’t believe someone else lived here before us.”

“
I doubt it. Humans on old Earth liked to put statues of gargoyles or lions outside their houses, but they sure don’t look like them.”

Maria’s words made Stephan chuckle.

I’ve met a lot of people who resembled gargoyles. They might not have visible horns, but they sure have ugly snouts.

He lifted his hand to the door handle, expecting it to fall to dust between his fingers, but it
both held together and worked, and the door swung open without a sound. The air that flowed out over them was dry and dusty, and inside the room, piles of debris on the floor marked places where wooden furniture once stood. Some of it remained, defying the ages, but not much.

There
had been stone shelves lining the walls, and they were still there, dusty and cracked, but holding together. A lot of the contents had fallen apart during the past few centuries. Much of it had turned into fragments or powder, but a surprising amount of shelves remained filled with ancient scrolls and books, so old and fragile they could burst into pieces at the slightest touch.

Both girls seemed enthralled with the find and he leaned his back against the wall
.

This would be a long wait.

*****

The room had been sealed off for so long even the insects died and long since turned to dust
.

Olga sneezed as she pulled a scroll from a shelf. This one was in a little bette
r shape than most of the others, and she rolled it out.

“I will send scientists over here, they can handle this much better.
Any knowledge that is in here should be incorporated with the library and saved for future generations.”

Maria nodded and Olga flashed a smile. For once, they agreed.

They bent over the scroll side by side.

Much of the ink had vanished, but it was still possible to make out well-drawn images of people and animals tied together by a beautiful but alien handwriting.

“I wonder what it says.”

“This is a very interesting scroll. I
t tells something of the history of this place and of the people who built it. My guess is that it was used for education, like a school-book.”

Olga stared at her.

“You’re making that up.”

“
I don’t make stuff up. You should bring this home, there’s a lot to learn from it.”

“
If you can read it, what does it say?”

Maria flashed a smile.

“Well, the people from the fortress were basically humanoid, but taller and thinner than humans. They had large black eyes and shimmering, pale, green skin. Wait...”

She pulled a hand through the air, and Olga stared at the image that suddenly hung in front of her.

“
They’re beautiful. What happened to them?”

“
Let’s see... Oh, they were at war with the people from the underground, and they were losing. They built these rooms to protect their knowledge, just in case someone would survive.”

“That’s so sad. I guess the rooms worked better than they anticipated.”

She heard Stephan rummage around behind them. He poked the corner of a wooden shelf and it turned to dust.

“
Why couldn’t we have found something a little more interesting than old scrolls? Like a treasury chamber or an armoury.”

Maria smirked.

“Keep looking, maybe you’ll find it.”

“
Hmh.”

The scroll caught Olga’s attention again.

“What’s that?”

She pointed to a stocky creature with short legs and arms that reached the floor.

“They were the people of the underworld, who these guys warred with.”

Stephan whistled through his teeth and his voice seemed oddly distant.

“Babe, you should come over here for a second.”

Maria glanced up, said, “Ooh,” and disappeared out of sight. She sounded so interested Olga had to look too.

At first, she only saw the couple kissing, but after a second she realized she saw them so well because he found another door.

A door that now opened to a brightly lit room.

What is that?

She put the scroll in her pack and rolled her eyes as she walked past the lovebirds. She was lonely after losing everyone she cared for, and it was impossible not to be attracted to Stephan. Seeing their open displays of affection made
her losses harder to bear.

Looking through the open door, she forgot all about it.

“Guys, did you see this?”

Rows of corroded metal she
lves held neatly labelled boxes made of an alien material that withstood the test of time. Even though she couldn’t read the peeling text, she could look at the pictures just fine.

T
here were seeds and DNA-samples of thousands, maybe tens of thousands species. The technology visible everywhere in the room contrasted with the scrolls in the library. Maybe they’d already been old when they were stored.

She reached to touch one of the little boxes and found it freezing cold.
Some ancient mechanism still functioned, keeping the samples at the right temperature.

Equipment lined the walls, and something resembling a computer terminal made from alien crystals and the same material as the boxes towered in the middle of the hall.

“I wonder if it still works.”

She jumped w
hen Stephan answered.

“
I think it does, it’s probably what controls the temperature in here.”

Maria wandered around the room, ogling what
seemed to be equipment to turn samples into living beings.

“
Olga, your people will be very careful with this discovery, won’t they?”

“
Yes... I suppose we will.”

As tempting as
it was to reawaken a long-dead species, it might not be the best idea.

“We have to go, it’ll be dark soon.”

Maria’s words seemed bizarre; they hadn’t been underground
that
long.

“No, there’s so much to see.”

“It’s too big, you’ll have to come back. See it from the bright side, you won’t be bored.”

I guess... It’s a treasure cove.

*****

The outside was dark indeed and Stephan gazed up at foreign stars.

I must have lost track of time down there. How odd.

Olga squinted.

“
I suppose we’ll have to deal with all the corpses. We will hold funerals to respect memories of lost friends and to comfort those who are still living...”

She sounds like she’s holding a speech.

“Are you okay?”

“
No. I’m not ready to deal with all this.”

She wandered off to the side, towards a part of the old building
that still seemed fairly intact, and Maria marched further into the castle, seemingly filled with purpose.

Crap. Who
do I follow?

He didn’t want to let either of them out of his sight.
It was true that his girl could take care of herself in a way Olga wouldn’t be able to, but he also felt his place was by Maria’s side, not following a half-stranger.

Olga solved his dilemma by running back
from a crooked doorway, leaning towards a boulder and throwing up.

Great. What new atrocity did she find?

T
he dusk revealed a human laying on the ground, arms and legs sprawling, tied securely to hooks fastened in the stone wall. The infected had been feasting on the insides when they died, and deeming from the amounts of blood all around, the victim must have been alive when they cut him open and began to eat.

A fat and shiny fly-like being crawled on the victims
’ intestines.

The room
smelled, and he had seen more than enough.

I bet that made me suitably pale.

Olga pleaded, “Let’s just leave. Please. Nothing can be gained from staying any longer.”

Maria jogged towards them.

“Stop wasting time. We haven’t done what we came for, and we can’t leave.”

Olga burst out,
“You haven’t seen what’s in there. They’re all dead. There’s nothing to gain from going any further, unless possibly to satisfy your morbid mind.”

“
I know exactly what’s in there, and if you don’t want to go on that’s fine. You can stay right where you are or go back to the rover. It’s your people, but I’m sure they won’t hold it against you.”

With
that, she made a dismissive gesture and turned around, striding towards the centre of the castle. Stephan hurried to catch up with her, and he heard Olga come running too.

“Wait up, guys, don’t leave me here.”

The further in they ventured, the more dead bodies lined their path. The stench of rotting meat was getting to him, but he’d never confess it.

Thick clouds of insects buzzed to the sides of the path.

They sound hungry.

Olga trudged on behind Stephan and Maria, angry with herself.

It was true that she had known and been emotionally attached to most of these people. She had grown up with them and knew the name of each and every one, but she still felt inferior and weak in comparison to the others.

They didn’t seem the least troubled by the smell or the bugs or all the death.

Something glimmering in the grass caught her eye, and she veered off to take a look, being very careful where she put her feet.

Whatever grains of sanity I still have will snap if I step on a corpse. Just imagine a foot sinking into someone’s chest...

It was all too easy to imagine Stephan having to carry her out of there over his shoulder. She imagined herself hysterical, screaming, and tearing at her hair, or even clawing at her own eyes.

Then, she saw the trinket clearly, heard herself utter a sound somewhere between a wail and a groan, and fell down to her knees.

Stephan and Maria came running for her, but she didn’t have the willpower to answer them, or even look at them.

She squeezed the little object in her hands, hard enough to cut through the skin, making her palm bleed.

Tears trickled down her cheeks, and she was vaguely aware of Maria kneeling next to her.

The Goddess said, “I know you don’t think it right now, but it’s alright.”

You’re wrong. Everything’s wrong and nothing is the way it’s supposed to be. He’s dead. They’re all dead.

She didn’t have the energy to object. She clung to Maria instead, crying, and holding on to her father’s badge.

Up until finding the badge, Olga nurtured hope that someone from her family survived. Now, even that flickering flame was extinguished, and it took a while for her to regain her composure. By the time they moved further into the ruins, it was almost completely dark.

She still sniffled, but struggled to keep it in.

Maria seemed filled with purpose, looking like she had a place to be or a deadline to meet. Stephan followed without questions, so she did too.

Being alone in the dark with all the dead was out of the question.

The old courtyard would have been treacherous in the best of times.

F
allen rocks and other debris from the crumbling ruins was strewn everywhere over the ground, and Olga stumbled repeatedly.

How can they walk as if it’s the middle of the
day. I’m not too surprised over her, but he does it too.

Nocturnal animals started to move
, and a bird made an eerie sound as it dove down towards an unsuspecting prey. Something howled in the forest surrounding the ruins. The noises might not be too bad when sitting safe inside a building, but out here, paired with the old ruins, the stench of rotting flesh, and the occasional remains of one of the others, their expedition seemed more and more like a nightmare.

I could have stayed at home. I shouldn’t have come. I’m not like
them, I’m not cut out for this.

They passed a hole in the ground surrounded by a crumbling rock wall. It reeked of decaying meat and Stephan took out a small flashlight from a pocket, shining the beam into the hole.

It would have been really nice if he used that to light our way. Oh well, he apparently sees quite well, he probably didn’t think about it.

Funny how easy it was to fight down the snarky remarks when it was about
him
.

He turned away after a couple of
seconds, with an expression so neutral it seemed calculated. Olga wanted to look too, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her away when she tried to get close.

“
Hey, what are you doing?”

“
There’s nothing down there you want to see.”

“
Let me go, I’m old enough to decide what to do.”

He shrugged and released his grip.

“Fine, have it your way. The others must have thrown the remains of their victims down there to dispose of the bodies. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He seemed completely unfazed, clearly as nervously inclined as a rock, but his words unnerve
d her.

A well filled with rotting bodies.

It held remains of friends and family, sculls with tufts of hair and decaying skin...

She shook her head and ran after Maria instead.

Why doesn’t she wait for us? Everyone here is dead, why is she in such a hurry? I mean, I’d like to hurry, in the other direction.

She found the other woman
outside a building close to the centre of the old dilapidated fort, pulling at a thick plank that would not budge. The door was barred with slabs of rock and old boards.

“
I want to get through without using powers. Whoever’s on the other side will be afraid enough as it is.”

She never makes sense, does she?

Stephan went to work on the heavy barrier.

Did the others build this? How did the
y manage? It would take me hours to get through.

F
or Stephan, breaking a path only took a few minutes. Neither he or Maria moved to enter, and nothing came out for a thick stench.

What are we waiting for?

Then, there was a soft whimpering noise, and Maria moved forward, lighting up the dark with a mysterious glow. Stephan lifted an eyebrow and followed her, and Olga took a quick look around before entering behind them.

At
first, she couldn’t see a thing.

It might have been more
psychological than her eyes needing to adjust. She wasn’t ready to handle the inside.

Faces appeared in the darkness, pale and dirty with eyes that seemed much too large, and when her brain finally decoded the information, she gasped for air.

Dirty, sick, hungry
, and dehydrated, kidnapped, and locked in, these were survivors.

L
iving people from the colony kept as a food supply.

S
he had almost turned her back on them.

She had wanted to go home to the comfort of her own house,
home to supper and a glass of wine, and if her friends had let her, these people,
her
people, would have been abandoned and left to die.

Moving everyone back with the rover was out of the question.
They were too many, it was too dark, and it would take too long. Maria glanced over at Stephan, wordlessly asking for advice, and he shrugged.

It won’t make any difference if she uses her
powers, she’s already making the walls glow. People are just too relieved to question it.

She mumbled, “Go ahead, please. Another little miracle will give them hope and something to believe in, something to talk about during years to come.”

Maria nodded, and in the next moment, they all stood in the square in the middle of the village with the rover parked neatly to the side.

How does she do that? What would it be like to have such power?

People inside the houses were having dinner, watching the darkness beyond their windows with fear. The news that the others were gone had yet to spread, and everyone would want to remain in the light where any attacker would be easy to see.

The
ir arrival still attracted attention, and the first few people brave or foolish enough to risk the night to satisfy their curiosity were soon joined by others.

The chaos was complete
, and Olga climbed up on a wooden crate to make herself heard and seen. She had the blackest conscience for wanting to leave earlier, for not being as brave as she thought she should be, and for leaving so much of the search and rescue to the off-world couple.

S
he plunged headfirst into the task of caring for the survivors and organizing everything, trying to make up for her imagined negligence.

*****

The next morning, Maria pulled the sheets up over her head.

“You won’t hold it against me if I stay here, right?”

Stephan laughed and patted her butt.

“How ‘bout I go get us some breakfast. I’ll be right back.”

It had been a few eventful days and he looked forward to returning to their carefree existence on the ship. He supposed they’d go look for whatever the map pointed to, just to have something to do, but there was no big hurry.

The large dining room was deserted, but
the sweet scents of newly baked bread and fresh coffee attacked his nostrils. He took a tray and put strawberries and croissants on it.

Her
favorites.

The door behind him opened so quietly he didn’t hear it, nor did he notice Olga approach until she spoke.

“Good morning.”

He turned around
, flashed a smile, and immediately wished he hadn’t looked. As much as he loved his girl, Olga was a striking woman difficult not to ogle. She was dressed in a thin robe that followed the contours of her body and left very little to his imagination, and her hair, still wet from her morning shower, was tied into a braid hanging over her shoulder.

“
You look, uh... You look good.”

He nodded, happy wi
th himself for saying
something
, even if it was dumb. It took an effort, but he tore his eyes away from her body and returned his attention to the tray.

Crap. I wish I was somewhere else, or that Maria was here.

Olga laughed at his awkward compliment.

“
I’m very happy you think so.”

She walked up closer to him,
peeked at his tray, and eyed the foods on the table. Did she know her breast pressed against him when she reached for a strawberry? Soft and warm...

She probably didn’t just know. S
he probably did it on purpose.

He pretended not to notice and put some pieces of fruit and a flower on a plate
.

It has to be obvious who this is for, and that I love her.

“Yesterday went so well. I couldn’t even imagine anyone still alive, and we would never have found them without you.”

All of a sudden, she looked like an enthusiastic little girl.

“I’m glad we could be of help.”

“Of help? You’ve saved us all.”

She’s so young. I can’t believe I was attracted to her a minute ago... I mean, she’s cute, but she can’t compare to...

His thoughts were
cut off by Olga throwing her arms around him, pressing her lips against his.

She caught him off guard, and his
first instinct was to hold the warm and soft female body that pressed against him. Then, his brain started working, and he was about to push her away from him, at least he thought he was, and he didn’t think he was kissing her back.

If he did, it certainly wasn
’t on purpose.

His eyes registered movement at the edge of his vision; he was out of time.

Maria had come looking for him and stood on the threshold, holding the door open with one hand.

This was a disaster.

She spun around without a word and the heavy door shut behind her with a thump that seemed all too final.

Stephan finally moved; he pushed Olga away and ran after his girl, calling out,
“Babe, it’s not what it looks like! I can explain!”

He couldn
’t, but that didn’t matter. It was too late. She was already gone.

“
I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. I wasn’t thinking. Maybe she’ll come back.”

“Shut up.”

Stephan left the stuttering girl behind and walked towards the room where he’d woken up perfectly happy only an hour or so earlier.

She’s gone, and she’s never coming back. She’s probably with Frank already. Stupid, stupid, stupid, how could I be so stupid?

It wasn’t as if Maria hadn’t warned him. He had seen the signs himself, but still blundered right into it. Now, he would pay with a lifetime of loneliness and remorse.

H
e wanted to take the few things they brought and leave; he couldn’t stand to see the place a moment longer.

Olga opened the door behind him and he didn’t even try to hide his irritation.

“What did you have to go and do that for?”

“
I’m so sorry. I wasn’t... I didn’t mean to... I think I love you.”

The
blurted out statement seemed to surprise even her, and she smacked a hand across her mouth, once again looking like a young girl. Stephan rolled his eyes and laughed joylessly as he pushed his way past her.

“
Well, isn’t that the joke of the day.”

He headed down the hallway, and she called out,

“Wait!”

At first, he didn
’t think he would stop, but his feet paused on their own.