Goddess of the Rose (Goddess Summoning #4)(29)

Gii's frown was back. "But Mikado, this is the traditional dress for the Empousa's ebony moon ritual."

"Why would you want to add anything to it? You look quite lovely," Nera said, confusion wrinkling her smooth brow.

Mikki pointed at the reflection of her bare breast. "I'm half naked!"

Like those little bobbing-headed figures that sat on the dashboard of tacky cars, the four handmaidens nodded at her.

Mikki sighed and tried again. "How can I walk around with one of my br**sts exposed?" Not to mention her entire right leg and part of her pantiless butt. "It just can't be right."

"Of course it is right," the redheaded Floga said, clearly disconcerted by Mikki's negative reaction. "It is how Hecate's Empousa has always dressed for this ritual."

With a sudden flash of understanding Gii said, "Is it not normal in the mundane world for a priestess to perform rituals with her breast bared?"

"Actually, in the mundane world it's very abnormal to be seen in public with a bare breast - at least in my part of the world."

Gii shook her head sadly. "Women must be horribly restricted in your old world."

Mikki opened her mouth to set Gii straight - to tell her that women in modern, albeit mundane, America had equal rights with men and . . . But the image of the last rape victim she'd read about in the Tulsa World surfaced in her memory. The girl had been young, only twenty-one or twenty-two, and she had been attacked while she had been clubbing downtown. The newspaper report had made several slanted references to the seductive way she had been dressed, vaguely implying that she had caused her own rape. Hot on that memory came the voice of the newscaster she'd listened to as she'd dressed for work that morning. Seems a serial molester had attacked yet another Tulsa woman. As in the other instances, he'd come in through the woman's open bedroom window. Police and the media advised the public - the female public - to be more careful about locking their doors and windows. Mikki felt the stir of anger low in her gut. Women had been lectured, judged, and warned. Neither of the men had been condemned as the animals they clearly were. She met Gii's gaze.

"I think you might be right, even though on the surface it doesn't appear that way."

"Like hidden thoughts, it is the world beneath the easily seen one that most often controls us," Gii said.

Mikki nodded slowly. Then she turned back to her reflection in the mirror, straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. The woman who stared back at her looked exotic and incredibly feminine draped in liquid purple with her hair hanging free around her shoulders and her bare skin flushed a delicate blushing peach in the flickering candlelight. On an impulse, she swung out her bare leg, pointing her naked toes. The soft material of the ceremonial dress fluttered attractively in response. Sexy . . . she was definitely sexy - and that ten pounds or so she always seemed to battle with only added to her sensuous look. She was curvy and full-bodied and more beautiful than she had ever thought possible.

"I'm ready," she said firmly, more to herself than the four women who were watching her so intently.

Gii's smile was instantaneous. She grabbed Mikki's hand and tugged gently toward the open doors to the balcony. "Come! Hecate's Temple glows with light once more. Let us hurry and fill it with life, too!"

On a tide of silk and laughter, Mikki let herself be led across the balcony and down the pearl-colored stairs that emptied into the gardens. Another odd wave of dizzy sickness engulfed her as she followed the handmaidens. She gritted her teeth and did her best to ignore it, thinking that it was logical that changing worlds would be hard on one's system. Wide-eyed, she tried to take in everything as the girls hurried her along one of many curving marble paths that wound between row after row of roses. She could make out bubbling water features and benches, but everything was gently cloaked in night and shadow and the warm light of the fragrant oil lanterns that hung from the limbs of ornamental trees.

Then everything left her mind as the temple rose like a dream before them and Mikki stumbled to a halt. Torches blazed inside and out, illuminating tall, slim columns supporting the dome of a raised, open-air temple. In front of the temple sat a huge, multi-basin-shaped fountain. Crystal water cascaded from it, spilling all around its edges and into four marble troughs that appeared to carry the musical water out into the gardens.

The temple itself was elegant in its minimalist design. There was nothing inside the building except a single flame that burned brightly from the center of a broad, circular expanse of slick marble floor.

"Hecate's torch has been lit," Floga said in a voice choked with emotion. The beautiful scarlet-clad handmaiden was the first to ascend the stairs and enter the temple. "I felt it in my soul, but to see it once again makes my heart leap with gladness!" And then to Mikki's astonishment, Floga walked straight to the fire and caressed the flame as if it was a beloved child. Instead of burning her, the fire appeared to rejuvenate her. Her hands glowed where it touched her, and her red hair crackled around her as if it was alive.

"She's touching the fire!" Mikki gasped. "But it doesn't burn her."

"Of course it doesn't burn her," Gii said. "She is Flame."

With an effort, Mikki pulled her gaze from the scarlet handmaiden, turning her attention fully to Gii. "What do you mean 'she is Flame'?"