Deceived Read online

  “I’ll send her over if I see her,” Liv promised and then dragged Sophie through the crowded picnic area near the Sacred Grove. Their family reunion had turned into a celebration of life, though not many people outside their inner circle knew that. Sylvan had told Sophie and Liv and Baird how close everyone aboard the entire Mother Ship had come to complete annihilation and how Commander Naught had saved the day.

  Accordingly, Liv and Sophie had decided to invite the stolid dark twin who looked to be about half cyborg to their party as well as Kat and Lock and Deep and Lauren and Xairn and all their kids. Soon the invitation had been thrown open to all the other Kindred brides Sophie and Liv were friends with and now the family reunion was almost a hundred people strong and growing.

  “Wow, this party is really getting started!” Sophie exclaimed, looking around. More and more people kept arriving, everyone bringing a favorite dish or recipe though most of the main dishes had been catered by Dark. He and Anna were standing behind a laden table and serving out some traditional Rigelian dishes that filled the area with warm, spicy, mouthwatering aromas.

  “I think Dark’s food is a hit,” Liv remarked, surveying the line to the table, which stretched almost to the Sacred Grove. Some of the priestesses had even come out, drawn by the delicious smells, and Sylvan had welcomed them graciously and asked them to stay and eat.

  “It’s a good thing I had Sylvan hold that restaurant spot open for him.” Sophie sounded smug. “He and Anna will be setting up right beside Lauren. It’s going to be perfect!”

  Liv groaned. “My waistline will never be the same with those two right beside each other. I won’t be able to visit one without visiting the other!”

  “That’s the idea.” Sophie laughed. “Dinner and dessert all in one place. And in the meantime, Kat has plenty to do, planning two Joining Ceremonies at once!”

  “That’s right, doll, but I never expected to plan a Joining Ceremony for a pairing puppet!” Kat came up to them, holding a bowl of Nana’s delicious homemade banana pudding. “Not that I mind as long as your Nana keeps on cooking. My God, this is good.” She took a reverent bite of the creamy pudding studded with golden chunks of bananas and crispy vanilla wafers. “I remember her making this for us when we were all kids,” she remarked. “I tried making it myself, but I could never get it right.”

  “It’s her homemade pudding recipe,” Liv said. “It makes all the difference.”

  “Just don’t ask her what she does with the batches that don’t turn out,” Sophie said dryly. “Because you do not want to know—trust me.”

  “Okay, I’m not even going to ask.” Kat shook her head. “I’m just thankful we get to keep your Nana even though all the other personalities have been sucked back into the Shannom-rah.”

  “Yes, it was the kindest thing to do,” Sophie agreed. “Nana was lucky she ended up in a pairing puppet but those others, like the stripper who landed in my Roombie, and the insurance salesman from Ohio who was in Liv’s blood Analyzer, really didn’t understand where they were or what they were doing.”

  “It would be really hard to be happy in the body of a machine when you were used to being in a human body, I guess,” Kat said. “Though I notice your new friend there seems to be about half and half.” She nodded at Commander Naught who was sitting at a table by himself and picking over a plate of food without actually seeming to eat any of it.

  “That’s Commander Naught,” Sophie told her. “Without him, we all would have been vaporized this morning.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” Kat’s eyes went wide.

  Rapidly, Sophie filled her in on the details of the High Council meeting that had occurred earlier that day. When she was finished, Kat was visibly shaken.

  “My God,” she finally managed to get out. “That’s terrible!”

  “He saved Sylvan’s life—all our lives,” Sophie said. “I’d give him a hug and a kiss if I didn’t think he wouldn’t like it.”

  “He’s very stoic,” Liv put in. “We think because the Tolleg surgeons gave him an emotion damper in order to control the pain after his twin died. He probably doesn’t feel much of anything—either pain or pleasure.”

  “So he’s a Twin Kindred who lost his brother? Poor guy.” Kat looked at him sympathetically. “I can’t imagine that loss. Deep and Lock are so close if something happened to one of them…” She shivered. “No, I can’t even let my mind go there!”

  “He’s a hero, but he’s all alone,” Sophie said sadly. “Do you think he would mind if we went and sat with him?”

  “I don’t know, but I think someone beat us to it. Look.” Kat nodded and the three girls watched Commander Naught.

  A young, shy-looking priestess had broken away from the group of her fellow priestesses and was walking towards him. Her full curves were emphasized by the flowing white robe of her order and she had long, blonde hair streaked with every color of green imaginable but her eyes—which were wide and frightened—were not yet the green-within-green that the older priestesses achieved after years of communing with the Goddess.

  “Who is that?” Liv asked in a hushed voice. “She looks familiar but I don’t think I’ve met her before.”

  “I think she’s new to the Mother Ship,” Sophie said. “Sylvan told me there were several new recruits coming from First World—she must be one of them.”

  “Well, she certainly brave to be approaching Commander Naught like that—especially when she looks scared to death!” Kat murmured.

  Indeed, the young priestess’s eyes were wide and uncertain as she made her way over to the hulking Dark Twin but she kept her chin high as she reached him.

  “May I sit with you?” Liv heard her say to Naught.

  He shrugged his broad shoulders—the metal one and the flesh one rolling together with the movement.

  “Do as you wish.” His voice was a harsh growl.

  The priestess’s face grew pale but sat down, directly opposite him. Then, to Liv’s surprise, she reached across the table and took his hand—the right one which was flesh.

  Commander Naught appeared startled too. He looked up at her uncertainly, his one gray eye widening in surprise.

  “Why do you touch me?” he asked, frowning, though he made no move to draw his hand away.

  “I have a message for you—a message from the Goddess herself.” The little priestess looked scared to death but she lifted her chin and looked him right in the eye.

  “Message? What message?” He scowled at her.

  The priestess took a deep breath, as though nerving herself up to deliver news she knew he wouldn’t like.

  “Listen to the words of the Goddess,” she began.

  “Warrior, your pain is deep and strong

  The way you have traveled is hard and long

  I know the question deep in your heart

  To answer it soon a quest you must start

  The answer you’ll find if you travel far

  To the moon of a planet by the double star.

  Find there in the system where all ones are two

  The ease to the pain which torments you.”

  “What?” Commander Naught frowned at her. “All ones are two? That makes no sense. Why do you speak in riddles? And what do you know of my pain?”

  “Only what the Goddess has told me,” the little priestess said. “I speak with her voice. And…” She cleared her throat. “I was told I must go with you on the quest she spoke of.”

  “What quest? This isn’t logical.” Naught pulled his hand out of hers and stood abruptly. “I must go. Please leave me alone.”

  Then he strode off, leaving the little priestess to sit there by herself, looking sad and uncertain but still defiant. Liv could almost read the look on her face.

  Well, I did what you told me Goddess and it blew up in my face. What now? she seemed to be thinking.

  “I think I see someone who needs a friend right about now,” Sophie murmured.

  “I think you’r