Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(27)

"Hecate, I don't know how," Mikki said.

"Of course you do!" she said fiercely. "The knowledge has been written in your blood. All you need do is turn your eye inward and learn to read what my hand printed there generations past."

The patter of slippered feet running on marble interrupted Mikki's reply. She and the goddess peered down on the gardens as four women hurried up the nearest path to the staircase that led to Mikki's balcony.

"Your handmaidens approach." Hecate glanced at the darkening sky. "I see that at least they haven't forgotten the proper order of things, though the Realm of the Rose has suffered with the absence of its Guardian and my Empousa."

Like a wave lapping eagerly on a thirsty beach, the four women rushed as one onto the balcony and instantly fell into deep, graceful curtseys, heads bowed, with their long, unbound hair falling forward to shade their bright faces. The handmaiden who wore buttercup yellow silks, a perfect compliment to her golden hair, spoke first. She lifted her face to the goddess and cried in a voice filled with gladness, "Hail Hecate! Great Goddess of the Ebony Moon!"

Next spoke the girl dressed in brilliant red whose fall of glossy scarlet hair blazed like fire. "Hail Hecate! Wise Goddess of Beasts!"

Mikki realized that she recognized the two remaining girls when the handmaiden dressed in sapphire blue with the waves of sea foam- colored hair lifted her head.

"Hail Hecate! Beautiful Goddess of Magick!"

Before the sound of her sweet voice had faded the brunette, who was tonight dressed in moss green silks the color of her large, dark-lashed eyes, lifted her head, face glowing with obvious joy.

"Hail Hecate! Goddess of the Crossroads between reality and dreams and mighty proctress of the Realm of the Rose."

"Rise, daughters. Come! Kiss my hand. I have missed you."

The handmaidens rushed to Hecate. Mikki realized that they were much younger than she had at first thought - really, they looked little older than teenagers, especially as each of them pressed her lips to the goddess's hand, giggling and cooing like happy children. Hecate touched their heads and greeted them, clearly pleased to see the youths. The enormous dogs at her feet wriggled, totally (and shockingly) puppylike, sniffing enthusiastically at the girls, accepting kisses and caresses from each as was their due. Then Hecate raised her torch high, and the handmaidens fell instantly silent.

"Handmaidens of Hecate, I bid you welcome the return of my Empousa!" At her proclamation, the torch blazed, sending a cascade of sparks falling in a whirlwind around the goddess.

The handmaidens gasped, whispering excitedly to one another as they curtseyed to Mikki. She was sure she heard the brunette hiss a clear "I told you she had returned!" to the others.

Hecate raised her hand for silence.

"Go within. There you will prepare the Empousa for the self-initiation ritual, which will be performed in the heart of my realm."

Once again Hecate lifted her torch, only this time she faced outward, looking over the vast gardens.

"Let the Temple of Hecate be lit once more!"

At the goddess's command, lights suddenly blazed from deep in the gardens. The handmaidens reacted with exclamations of excitement and joy. Wide-eyed, Mikki watched the silhouette of a columned temple suddenly illuminate.

"Go now," Hecate told the handmaidens gently. "The priestess will join you shortly."

The girls curtseyed deeply to the goddess and then scampered across the wide balcony and into the bedroom in which Mikki had awakened.

"You must do two things tonight, Mikado," Hecate told her sternly. "First, cast a sacred circle. The handmaidens will aid you in this until you learn to listen to the knowledge that sleeps within your blood. Second, you will perform a self-initiation ritual. In that ritual, you will dedicate yourself to a new life as my Empousa, a Priestess of the Blood of Hecate."

"But I don't know how to perform an initiation ritual! I don't know how to perform any ritual," Mikki said, exasperated at how inept she felt.

"Mikado!" Hecate's gray eyes pierced her. "You invoked my presence. You awakened my Guardian. There lives within your blood the knowledge of generations of my priestesses. If you do not have the courage to partake of that knowledge, cast the sacred circle and then choose to step from within it. I give you my oath that the moment you leave the circle, you will return to the life you left in that mundane world at the far side of my crossroads." The goddess's lip curled in disgust, and the flesh on Mikki's arms prickled in response as Hecate's divine anger sizzled around her. "Perhaps you shall marry . . . perhaps you shall not. Doubtless, you will produce a daughter, another Empousai, as you have come to call yourselves. You will live and die an ordinary life. And I will look to other generations for the return of my priestess. But if you do not break the sacred circle and instead choose to complete the ritual, know that as surely as your heart beats and your lifeblood flows you will forever after be my High Priestess, Empousa in the Realm of the Rose." Hecate lifted her blazing torch once again. "Decide tonight, Mikado Empousai, and know you will never receive another chance at changing your destiny!" Sparks showered from the torch, and with a great roar of wind, Hecate disappeared.

Chapter Ten

THOROUGHLY confused, Mikki stood alone, blinking away the bright spots of the goddess's light from her eyes. She was supposed to cast a circle? Wasn't that witch stuff? And if she managed to bumble her way through that, without being struck by lightning or swallowed up by Satan or who/whatever, she was supposed to listen to her blood to know how to perform a self-initiation ritual because she was an Empousa, a Priestess of Hecate. How?! What the heck was she going to do?