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  The priestess went pale. “Very well. But if you won’t allow me to make anyone ill, I don’t see how you can prove your claim.”

  “I do.” Nadiah stepped forward and beckoned. “Sophia, my dear friend, come forward.”

  Sophie, who had been watching the exchange between Rast and the priestess with breathless excitement, suddenly felt her heart begin to pound. “Oh, Nadiah,” she began uncertainly. “I don’t know—”

  “I do,” Nadiah said with loving sternness. “Didn’t you say that your womb had been closed for a reason? This is the reason, Sophia. Come forward now and fear not to be healed by the Counselor .”

  Sophia looked at her in wonder. Could this really be the giggly teenaged-acting girl who used to say “Omigoddess!” all the time? The girl who had gossiped with her about Sylvan and given her a zan-daro or make-over when they first met on Tranq Prime?

  Nadiah had matured so much in such a short time. She truly was no longer a girl but a full grown female who had come into her own. And when she spoke, her words had the ring of a higher authority about them.

  “The Goddess,” Sylvan whispered through their link as Sophie made her way up the steps of the dais that held the throne. “Nadiah speaks with her power now. She’ll make a fine Lyzel to Rast’s Challa.”

  “They’re a perfect match,” Sophie agreed, as she finally reached the top of the dais and stood before the throne.

  She wasn’t sure what came next and she was afraid to touch the white marble chair—after all, she wasn’t the one getting married to the rightful ruler of the whole freaking planet. It might zap her if she wasn’t careful.

  “Be at ease dear friend,” Nadiah murmured, touching her arm gently. “And prepare yourself to be healed.”

  Before Sophie could ask any questions about what being healed entailed, Rast rose from the throne and stepped toward her. “It’s all right,” he said when he saw her frightened look. “It won’t hurt.”

  “I don’t care if it does.” Sophie raised her chin. “As long as it means I can have a baby. Sylvan and I want one so much.”

  “Of course you do.” Rast smiled at her and stepped closer. “Just hold still. It’s all in the wings.”

  Sophie opened her mouth to ask what he meant and then she was surrounded by a soft wall of iridescent feathers. She wasn’t aware of Rast at all, though she sensed he was there somewhere. Mostly she simply felt encompassed on all sides by the warm, soft, glimmering wings. “Oh,” she whispered breathlessly. “Oh, they’re beautiful.”

  “And functional.” Rast’s voice seemed to come from far away. “Just hold still,” he murmured. “And let me concentrate.”

  Sophie did as he said, holding as still as she could though at first she felt nothing. Then, a warm tingling sensation started in her toes and rushed up her legs. She gasped as it arrowed inward and lodged itself deep in her pelvis like a glowing ball of heat between her hips. “Oh, my,” she murmured as the tingling and the warmth grew and grew until it was almost overwhelming. Just as it grew so intense she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, it suddenly ebbed away, leaving her feeling shaky but more completely well than she had ever been before.

  “There, that’s it,” Rast muttered and suddenly the curtain of feathers was withdrawn.

  “Th-thank you.” Sophie took a tottering step forward and nearly stumbled down the steps of the dais. Luckily, Sylvan was there to catch her.

  “How do you feel?” he murmured, putting an arm around her waist and supporting her down the remaining steps. “Are you all right?”

  “I feel wonderful, actually,” Sophie admitted. “Just…just amazing.”

  “But are you healed?” he asked.

  “She is.” Nadiah answered the question, her clear voice ringing out in the vast, echoing space. Sophie recognized the look on her friend’s face at once.

  “Look,” she whispered to Sylvan. “She’s having a prophecy!”

  And indeed, Nadiah was. When she turned to look at Sophie, her new blue-green eyes had gone a pure emerald and her voice was deeper, richer and more authoritative somehow.

  “Sophia, my daughter,” she said, inclining her head graciously. “Your faith has been rewarded. I say to you now that your womb shall be full of life. You and your male, Sylvan, shall have sons upon sons to comfort you and bless your union.”

  “Thank you.” Sophie bowed reverently. Behind her she heard murmurs of surprise from Lissa and the other assembled priestesses who had been standing silently throughout the entire confrontation.

  “The Goddess,” they were saying. “The Lyzel is now the mouthpiece of the Goddess! Hear how the Mother of All Life speaks through her!”

  “How dare you!” The high priestess rounded on them, a snarl of hatred on her face. “It is I who am the mouthpiece of the Goddess. She speaks only through me.”

  “No longer, Priestess.” There was a caged power in Nadiah’s voice now—or in the voice which was speaking through her, Sophie thought. “You,” she said, pointing at the priestess. “Have misused the power I granted you for the last time. I hereby rescind that power and cast you down from your office as high priestess. From this day forth, you will be the lowest of the low—the meanest novice who comes to learn the ways of the temple shall be above you.”

  “No,” whispered the priestess and Sophie saw that the solid emerald hue was leaking from her eyes. It left behind two very ordinary light brown eyes with no green at all in them. Her hair also turned, from a rich green to a drab, dishwater blonde. Lines appeared on her face and she suddenly looked old. “Please,” she whispered. “Please, Mother of All Life. You…you are a gracious Goddess…a forgiving goddess…”

  “There are some things I cannot forgive,” the Goddess said through Nadiah. “You have lied in my name, you have blasphemed by speaking such lies here in my holy mountain in the very temple you were sworn to guide with humility and love. You have used the power I granted you for harm instead of good—sickening this little one I am speaking through almost to death.”

  “It was the only way,” the priestess protested. “Please, Goddess, I had to bring your chosen servant, the new Counselor , to First World.”

  Nadiah’s face drew into a disapproving frown. “You did so only because you thought you could control him and thus increase your own power over the planet. Do not lie to me—I know your heart!”

  “Please, Goddess…” the priestess began but Nadiah held up a hand.

  “And last but not least, you have laid a curse upon one I sent to you for guidance. Great was his burden and weary his load of guilt. Yet instead of granting him healing and forgiveness as he asked, you cursed him with a future filled with pain and suffering.”

  “He was a hybrid,” the priestess protested. “His blood wasn’t pure enough to receive your blessing, my Goddess.”

  “It was his humbled heart I was interested in, not his bloodline.” Nadiah said. “Now go. Get to the barracks below the mountain and begin your new duties. I will have you in my temple no longer.”

  The priestess—or former priestess, Sophie supposed—opened her mouth to reply but only a choking sound came out. Her drab brown eyes filled with terror and she turned and fled, running down the temple steps so fast it was a wonder she didn’t fall and break her neck.

  There was a soft moan and Sophie turned to see that Nadiah had collapsed into Rast’s lap. She looked faint and was holding her head.

  “Nadiah?” Rast murmured. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

  “I…I’m fine.” She shook her head and looked up. “I just had another al’lei, didn’t I? What happened?”

  It was Lissa who answered. “The Goddess spoke through you.” She looked at Nadiah reverently and then turned her attention to Rast. “My Counselor , may I be the first to pay homage to the two of you, the rightful Challa and Lyzel of First World.” She bowed low before the throne.

  All of the other priestesses bowed as well and Sophie, thinking it was only right, copied their gesture. From