Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(106)

And then Mikki felt a jolt of shock as she recognized one of the women.

"Mama!" she cried.

Before Mikki could rush forward, Hecate said softly, "It is not your time, Mikado. Your destiny is not complete yet."

Through streaming tears, she stared at the goddess. "But it is my mother, isn't it?"

"It is, indeed. And look closely. You will see your grandmother, as well."

Mikki watched breathlessly. Yes - she did recognize the stunning young woman who danced holding her mother's hand. She had looked into that beautiful face countless times, only when she'd known her it had been lined by life and wisdom.

"Where are they?"

"The Elysian Fields," Sevillana said, her voice filled with awe.

"There they will be eternally young and happy and free."

"Take your place beside them, Sevillana. Your banishment is over." Slowly, the old woman stood. She turned to Mikki and hugged her tightly. "Have a blessed life, my dear," she whispered.

"Tell my mother and grandmother that I love them," Mikki whispered back to her.

"I shall. They will be as proud of you as I am, daughter."

Sevillana walked through the boundary of the sacred circle to the goddess. She stopped before Hecate, and, sobbing again, she curtseyed deeply. The goddess reached out and embraced her, kissing each of the old woman's cheeks.

"Enter Elysian with my blessing, Sevillana."

The old woman walked through the door the goddess had opened to paradise, and as she did her body changed. Old age fell from her like a discarded cloak, until with a shout of joy the beautiful young Sevillana took her place with the group of dancing maidens. Then the door faded and was once again nothing more than rain-heavy mist and darkness.

"I am pleased to see you again, my Empousa," Hecate said.

Mikki wiped the tears from her face and smiled at the goddess. "I'm unbelievably glad to see you, too. If I had known I could do this - invoke you here - I would have cast the circle and called you months ago."

"Ah, but then you would have been missing one piece in the invocation - the anointing oil of an Empousa. You needed Sevillana for that."

"You're right - you're right. I don't know . . . I've learned so much today that my mind can't seem to hold it all. I'm so glad you forgave Sevillana." Then Mikki blinked in surprise, as more of the pieces of the puzzle fit together. "The first night I was in the realm - you said you'd made a mistake and you wanted to fix it. That mistake was about Sevillana and Asterius, wasn't it?"

"It was." Hecate sighed, a sound that Mikki found amazingly mortal and fallible. "I should not have punished them as I did. Sevillana was young and selfish - I knew that when I chose her as my Empousa. I mistakenly hoped the power in her blood would mature her. It did not."

"And what about Asterius?" Mikki asked, feeling like she should hold her breath.

"That was my biggest mistake. I gifted him with the heart and soul of a man and then refused to truly acknowledge that he was, indeed, more than a beast. In that respect I was even more selfish than his mother, who could not see more than her own mistakes whenever she gazed upon him. I was wrong to disallow him a mate - to believe he was a creature who needed no more than duty to exist. It was my fault his need drove him to choose unwisely when Sevillana tempted him. It was anger at myself that caused me to banish her and bespell him. Unfortunately, I understood that too late. Then all I could do was to wait for the right mortal to be born. One who could see the truth and have the courage to act upon it."

"Then you'll let me love him, if only until Beltane?"

"No, Mikado."

Mikki's body went cold and still. "Please, Hecate. I love him. Let me make him happy, even if it's only for a little while."

"The roses thrive, Mikado."

Confused at the sudden change in subject, Mikki said, "Good. I did what I felt had to be done."

"You sacrificed yourself willingly, calling upon the oath of love and trust with which you were bound into my service."

"Yes, Hecate."

"That has never before happened in the Realm of the Rose. Oh, yes, for generations Empousas have given their blood to nurture the realm, but they did so because they had to, because it was the thread of life Fate and Destiny had together woven for them. But you, Mikado Empousai, a mortal woman from a land almost completely bereft of magick, willingly sacrificed yourself to save something as nebulous as the dreams of mankind. And you also saw the man within the beast and let yourself love him, breaking his spell of loneliness and isolation."

"I - I just did what my instincts told me to do. I loved the realm. It was my home, and protecting it, and everyone in it, was worth dying for," Mikki said quickly, feeling completely overwhelmed by the goddess's praise. "Asterius wasn't hard to love." She smiled and moved her shoulders nervously. "Isn't there always something of a beast within every strong man? It's part of what makes them so deliciously different from us." She took a deep breath. "Can't you please let me return to him? I give you my word that I will willingly go back to the fountain on Beltane night."

"What you have done has changed the fabric of the realm, Empousa. Your sacrifice was pure - unsullied by the bonds of duty or force or fear. There need never be another Beltane sacrifice; your blood has insured that."