The Solstice Bride Read online

  “I am aware of our past high priestess’ reports,” snapped Leader Kweetoo.

  “Yes, Leader. I apologize if you felt my remark was impertinent,” Falke said.

  “Kindly pay attention to what I am saying. The Goddess quite clearly feels the girl was at risk in the Temple and believed Ravenna needed to be removed immediately. She obviously knows where you are, and what the situation is there.”

  “Can you tell if the castle knows Ravenna is missing?” he asked.

  “We monitor all channels, both public and private, related to the queen,” Leader Kweetoo said. “So far, there’s only been one call between the queen and her security chief. My assumption is they don’t want anyone to be aware Ravenna has run off on them.”

  “Tami is dying. Can’t we get some medicine for her?” Falke asked.

  “No, I’m sorry,” Leader Kweetoo said. “Serving Priestess Tami is a great lady. I much respect her and what she has done there. I would help her if I could. But with you there, and now the girl, it would expose us to the queen.”

  Falke felt as if his whole soul was sagging with disappointment. “What do you wish me to do?”

  “I believe the Goddess has you and Ravenna in hand. There are hard tasks to be performed in the days ahead that Tami’s people apparently require your help with. You must meet the challenge. But if you keep the Goddess in your thoughts, you will make the right choices for the situation,” she said.

  That’s a fat load of help, slipped into his thoughts before he could squelch it.

  He heard Leader Kweetoo chuckle. “I understand, Falke. This was never going to be easy on you, and I am sorry for it. That things have gotten more difficult only makes my heart heavy for you. But you are strong enough and wise enough for this task, I feel sure. Ifijioku and High Priestess Ava always believed in you.”

  “Thank you, Leader. I will do my best,” he said.

  “Blessed be,” Leader Kweetoo said as she signed off.

  “Bloody hell,” he muttered, as he threw himself into the blanket. What “hard tasks in the days ahead” am I facing? And why me? Why Ravenna?

  Chapter Six

  Six Days to Midsummer

  Ravenna

  There was a murmuring in the distance. It felt ancient.

  Malevolent.

  Ravenna saw black candles burning in front of an altar of obsidian. The smell of blood—hot and scorched—filled the air.

  “Where is she?” demanded a familiar voice. Where is that brat?

  An ebony needle that had been shoved through a blackened cork floated in a dish of water and salt. It spun to and fro but didn’t settle anywhere.

  “Damn you! Where is the girl?”

  The needle trembled, then sank to the bottom of the dish.

  A hand slapped the dish off the altar. There was a scream of frustration and anger. “I must have her. I must have the girl! Find me the girl. Now!”

  Ravenna slipped back into her dreams, grateful the queen could not find her …

  Yet.

  “Get up!” someone demanded.

  Ravenna opened her eyes. Andi was standing over her.

  It wasn’t a dream. This is a horrible reality.

  Ravenna threw the blanket off, mouth feeling cottony and stomach rumbling. The air smelled close and stale—as she supposed it would in a shipping container. She felt dirty all over. She wished she could bathe in a vat of sanitizer. The idea that she’d have to use that primitive “toilet” again so revolted her, she could barely stand it. But her bladder had different ideas.

  Last night, Andi had insisted Ravenna sleep in her “quarters”—a packing crate hardly big enough for two—as “a brother shouldn’t sleep with his sister.” But first, Andi took Ravenna to the common loo—which was little more than a hole in the ground with an ironically placed toilet seat. The smell and the idea of peeing where everyone else had made it almost impossible to go, but finally Ravenna accomplished it. Then they went back to Andi’s quarters. There was no furniture, just some bedding on the floor. Andi threw herself into a pile of blankets, turned off the battery-powered lantern, and muttered, “G’night. Sleep tight.”

  As if, she’d grumbled to herself.

  Shortly, Andi was snoring surprisingly loudly. But Ravenna’s head wouldn’t let her rest. Her world had just been upended—how could she zonk out? She went over and over the evening and what led her to be in that odd place. It had started out so innocently.

  Maybe I should play back the events in real time, so I can hear them again.

  When Ravenna was little, the queen had a device that recorded everything she said and did installed at the base of her skull. As she got older, Ravenna was pretty sure it was to keep tabs on her. And there were one or two incidents before she went to Temple that made her fairly sure of it.

  But it wasn’t something Ravenna could access on her own until she was eleven. By then, she was living at the Temple and had a roommate named Gina, who was a tech-maven. Ravenna had no idea how Gina had ended up with the initiates. She should have been building the nextgen of computer interfaces.

  One day, Gina turned on a little box, no bigger than her thumb. “There,” she said. “They can’t use their spy devices to hear us. They’ll just get a hum and think it’s interference.”

  That’s when Ravenna broke her silence and told her about the mental recorder.

  Gina was immediately fascinated and asked if she could tinker with it. “Oh, it’s got a GPS in there, too. This is seriously creepy spytech in your head!” Gina said she couldn’t fix it all at once. For the next six months, she dinked around back there for half-hour stretches when her little device was on. Eventually, she told Ravenna she was finished.

  Gina said, “I couldn’t turn it all the way off. And if I did, they’d just drug you and put in a new one while you slept. I put in a kill switch. Anytime you want to have privacy, think the words Go dark, and you’ll cut it off. They’ll hear what they do with my little device—a hum.” She gave Ravenna instructions on how to use every aspect of the mental journal, so that it was controlled by her—not the queen. The only thing Ravenna couldn’t do was erase stuff. Because of that, Ravenna had to keep her thoughts carefully controlled.

  Gina finished off, “I’ve also set the default GPS to this room. It’ll show you’re a good little girl, snug in bed.”

  Ravenna had hugged and hugged Gina. It was the first time she felt she had control of her own life.

  The next month, Gina was gone. Rumor was, she’d hacked into the queen’s secret files.

  She was disappeared—the only friend Ravenna’d ever had.

  Ravenna had searched the entire Temple for her roommate. She’d looked in the restricted areas. She searched in the rooms the teachers didn’t let initiates know existed. Ravenna had even personally challenged the headmistress—and gotten detention for three months.

  Nothing she did changed the fact that Gina was gone and probably dead. Her loss felt like a gut-punch.

  Gina’s kill-switch was why the Temple Guardians weren’t all over Tami’s people in the Exclusion Zone that minute. They believed Ravenna was in bed, asleep. She didn’t think they monitored her dreams, so they wouldn’t be wondering why the humming had gone on for so long.

  I’m free of them all, for the moment.

  The knowledge had made Ravenna feel kind of giddy last night. She had curled up and watched the events of the evening replay in her mind. When it was done, she wondered that she had gone off with Falke.

  But this morning’s dream-vision made it clear that the queen was aware Ravenna had run away. And to what a strange place! Everything felt too real. Too ugly. Too foreign.

  Andi handed Ravenna a plastic tub with some rice and lentils in it. “Brekkie. Sorry, there’s no spoon.”

  Ravenna nodded her thanks, wondering how to eat it. But she felt Andi watching her—judging her. Ravenna took a few fingers-full of the mix. The rice was just on the verge of going off, the beans were slightly burnt, a
nd there was a strange spice to it she couldn’t identify. This can’t be what these people have for food. It’s some sort of test.

  “Sorry there’s no bangers,” Andi said.

  Ravenna suppressed a shudder at the thought of what a sausage would be like there. “Thank you so much for bringing me breakfast, Andi. I certainly didn’t expect it.”

  “You’re not what I expected of the Bitch Queen’s daughter,” Andi said.

  That’s going to get old really fast. Still, I think Andi’s giving me a little respect, and I’ll take it. I don’t want her for an enemy. “What did you think?”

  “I thought you’d demand champagne for breakfast or something.”

  Ravenna chuckled, glad she’d eaten the horrid food without complaint. This is all they have.

  This was not a test.

  Andi went to stand at the doorway as Ravenna finished the unpleasant breakfast. It was an overcast, foggy day. Sounds were muffled. The gray early morning light flattened all the colors outside. There was a rank, damp odor in the still air.

  It was nothing like the sterile pleasantness of the Temple.

  Andi’s silver eyes roved over the area, her body in a fighter’s stance. Her tattoos made her face look like a fierce mask. Ravenna realized Andi was guarding her, looking for trouble. Am I in danger here?

  “Why do you have the tattoo and … all the other things?” Ravenna asked.

  “I do a lot of stealth stuff. It prevents the queen’s electronics from picking me up,” Andi said.

  “Stealth stuff? Like what?” Ravenna asked.

  “You done yet?” Andi demanded, instead of answering. “Tami and the others are waiting.”

  “I need to ...”

  “Yeah. This way.”

  Stretching her muscles as she’d been taught in the Temple, Ravenna took a deep breath, trying to shake off the feeling that the grime was seeping into her skin. She held out the bowl. “Where shall I put this, and whom may I thank for the food?”

  Andi took the bowl from Ravenna and flipped it into a crate near the door. “Mama Mouse’ll be glad to hear a kind word. I’ll introduce you later.”

  She led Ravenna to the common loo, then they went across the compound to where Tami lived. There was music coming from an old-fashioned loudspeaker up on a pole. It was something like a symphony, but with people singing. Ravenna stopped to stare, wondering where the music was coming from. Realizing that Andi had gone on without her, she ran to catch up. They climbed up to Tami’s quarters. A different man guarded the entrance with a shotgun.

  Andi nodded at him and headed in. Ravenna noted the containers she’d spotted the previous night were planted with herbs used for healing instead of food crops. On top of Tami’s crate was a very modern solar array. There’s a lot more here than meets the first look.

  Ravenna followed Andi inside. Tami was there, looking pale. Falke was standing over at the hob. He smiled at Ravenna, and again it was like a ray of sun came into the room. She couldn’t help but smile back. But the moment passed quickly as she noticed the other people in the small container-home. They stared at her. Two started whispering to each other.

  Ravenna went over and gave Tami a peck on the cheek. Her skin felt like dry, thin paper and was about as white. “How are you this morning?”

  Tami shrugged. “Well enough. You’ve eaten?” Ravenna nodded. “Get yourself some tea, then. We’re having a bit of a war council, as you can see.”

  Falke poured her some tea into a well-worn plastic cup. Ravenna’s hand tingled as his fingers brushed across it. What is it about him? But then he turned to the group and said in a voice dripping with scorn, “I’m glad you’re here, Ravenna. You’re going to witness this lot take on the queen today.”

  Instantly, Ravenna felt the group become hostile toward him. Why has he set them off like this, deliberately?

  “Not the queen herself,” Tami said. “That would be suicide. Besides, you’re already here to do something about that.”

  “What?” demanded a large man with no neck and a shaved head. His aura pulsed orange and brown—the life-glow of a bully and a narcissist. “What’s he gonna do? Kill ’er?”

  “I’m a priest of the Goddess,” Falke said. “We don’t kill people.”

  The others looked surprised. It was clear none of them knew Falke. But the large man shrugged noncommittally, clearly unimpressed.

  “How’s a priest going to help us, Tami?” an older black man demanded. His aura was a bright blue with streaks of red—a strong adept.

  “You cannot shoot or beat your way out of this problem,” Tami said. “That’s the queen’s way. It isn’t ours.”

  “Says you,” the big man grumbled.

  “Shut it, Gwylim,” Andi barked.

  Glowering, the big man leaned against the wall.

  Who is on whose side? Ravenna wondered.

  “What is it you want of me?” Falke asked. Ravenna felt a profound fatigue from him. But she also sensed he knew quite well what would happen in the conversation. Is there any situation he already doesn’t see the whole of? And what kind of training has he received that gives him this ability?

  “As I told you the other night, I’ve been trying to get adepts out of the country for the last eighteen years. Otherwise, those who don’t sign up with the queen are disappeared. Some are simply killed,” Tami said.

  “Yes,” Falke said. “The Sisterhood is aware of this.”

  Chills ran down Ravenna’s arms. Her latest roommate at the Temple, Olwen, once told Ravenna a schoolmate of hers went for testing and never came back. The disappearances were more extensive than she’d thought.

  “Does your Sisterhood know what’s happening to those with psi abilities?” demanded a young woman sitting in the corner. She had a sort of bruised-purple aura—so Ravenna knew she was injured but managing. It took a moment before Ravenna noticed, just as she blinked, that the woman was wearing a prosthetic leg. If Ravenna looked at it straight on, it appeared just the same as her flesh-and-blood one. The woman’s mental projection was hard to penetrate; Ravenna was impressed by her strength.

  “And you are?” Falk asked.

  “Donna Poole,” she said. “Are we supposed to address you as ‘Your Grace’ or ‘Priest Falke,’ and her as ‘Princess Raven-whatever?’”

  “Ravenna, please,” she said in a sort of final way, hoping they would stop insulting her.

  Falke managed a weak smile. “Falke is fine. And no, the Sisterhood doesn’t have a clear idea what the queen’s people are doing with adepts.”

  “Elliot Minto,” the black man said by way of introduction. “Does your group know where those with talent are being kept?”

  “No,” Falke said. “And they’ve been trying to find out.”

  “We have some leads,” Tami said.

  “And what do you propose to do?” Falke asked.

  “What the hell do you think? We’ll bust them up and take down her network of spies!” thundered Gwylim.

  His fierceness unsettled Ravenna. She swept the room trying to read the others. Although they didn’t like his bombastic outburst, fundamentally, they agreed with him.

  “Well, good luck with that,” Falke said.

  “Are priests too dainty to do the work a priestess will?” Andi demanded.

  She’s a priestess? Ravenna was taken aback by the very idea Andi had received training. “Where did you study?”

  Tami said, “I’ve been training a few in the field, as it were, since the Sisterhood hasn’t sent any help.”

  “And why is that?” Andi snapped at Falke. “Where is your precious fucking Sisterhood? Why aren’t they helping? Why’ve they left us to fend for ourselves or die?”

  The others watched the exchange carefully.

  “Ava—not the queen, but Priestess Ava—insisted they stay out of Britain if she was taken over by Morgaine,” Falke said.

  Does everyone know she’s really Morgaine but me? Ravenna wondered.

  “So, they
simply obeyed?” Elliot asked.

  “Ava was their High Priestess,” Falke explained. “Or she was the day before the Healing, She was planning to step down when she married Ron—the king.”

  “Why do we need Mr. Highnmighty here, anyway?” Gwylim asked.

  Tami sighed tiredly. “Because I can’t go with you, Gwylim. You’ll need a high-functioning adept to help you deal with what you’ll find.” She turned to look at Falke. “And that’s why you’ve got to help us, Younger Brother. You must see that you’re the only one to whom we can turn.”

  “I’m sorry, Tami,” Falke said. “I was assigned a very specific task. It will be hard enough to accomplish without having your agenda to cope with on top of that. I hadn’t expected to have to remove Ravenna from the Temple so soon. Surely they’re looking for her now.”

  Ravenna decided not to mention the dream she’d had about the queen searching for her through antique magical spells—mostly because she was fairly sure no one would believe her.

  “You have to go with us!” Andi insisted.

  Falke frowned, and Ravenna wondered what was troubling him suddenly. “I only have a short time to achieve what I need to. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can help you,” Falke said.

  “Enough of this talk,” snarled Gwylim. “Let’s move out while the fog is still with us.”

  Tami started coughing—hard. Before anyone else could reach her, Falke knelt beside her, holding her as the cough shook her entire body. Her aura dimmed so much that Ravenna could hardly perceive Tami’s lifeforce. Then, Falke’s remarkable violet-blue-white aura bowed out toward her, and it was as if he rekindled her inner fire, while losing none of his own. The others surrounded them, concern on their faces—even Gwylim.

  After a while, Tami patted Falke on the head. “Better, thanks.”

  He let her go but held her hand. “Are you sure?”

  Tami nodded. “I’m asking you, Priest Falke Drunemeton, to help us in our time of need. No matter your other errand. Because if you fail in your task, we will still have to live with things as they are. And I fear what my helpers will find is devastating … not just to Britain, but to the world.”