The Hidden Goddess (51 page)

She walked along the gravel paths under the great arching roof of glass, brushing a trickle of sweat from her brow. Always so humid in here. She remembered roots and calling birds and sunlight streaming down through a broken and sundered aperture.

She came to a stop before the Dragon’s Eye orchid and placed her hands on the thick woody vine. She closed her eyes.

The memory of Zeno greeted her.
Oh, hello there. It’s you. What was your name again?

Ososolyeh
, Emily said.

Emily spent the rest of the afternoon sitting cross-legged before the Dragon’s Eye orchid, searching for the bits of Zeno’s memories that had been scattered like dandelion fluff all across the country. It was a pleasant pastime. She wandered through root and leaf and branch, from one shining
ocean to the other, looking for pieces of his mind. It was a fresh pleasure every time she found another bit—a memory in the root of an elm in Chicago, a fleeting thought in the petal of a fireweed in New Jersey. She brought these memories to him like pinecones in her hands, proudly.

In the jungles above the ruins of the Temple, held in the broad heart of the tree Zeno had escaped into—the first one that had been his savior—they found the memory of a boy with white-blond hair. He was working in a field of wheat, calling to Zeno bad-temperedly to come and help. Zeno respired pleasantly through his leaves.

Ah, Nikolai
, he said.
There you are! How I’ve missed you
.

Emily smiled, remembering with Zeno for a moment before giving the memory back to him.

A warm hand touched her shoulder. She flinched slightly, the pleasant memory of the wheatfield and the white-blond boy scattering with the jump of her heart. She remembered Utisz’ hand, remembered a slashing black knife.

“It’s all right,” Stanton murmured gently. “It’s only me.”

Emily opened her eyes, smiled up at him. She looked past Stanton and saw that Perun was standing behind him, hat in hand, white-blond hair shining in the sunlight.

“We’ve come to ask for your direction,
mat’ syra zemliya,
” Perun said, head low. “Goddess of the Earth.”

Emily sat in the dirt with the Dragon’s Eye orchid rising at her back, and Perun and Stanton sat before her, their legs crossed, hands resting on their knees.

“Dmitri Alekseivitch,” she called. “I know you’re back there.”

Dmitri, who’d been hiding unsuccessfully behind a large stand of palms, came out. He would not look at her, but he came to sit behind Stanton and Perun, at a respectful distance.

“Emilia Vladimirovna,” he said, with great formality.

“You were speaking with Emeritus Zeno.” Perun’s eyes traveled to the Dragon’s Eye orchid, and there was sadness in them. “How is he?”

“Your brother is dead, Nikolai Illarionovich Zeno,” Emily said, looking back at him. “Other than that, he’ll be fine.”

Perun smiled to himself, shaking his head as he looked down at his lap. Stanton twisted himself to look at Perun.

“Emeritus Zeno was your brother?” His eyes were astonished. “But he was over a hundred and seventy years old. He kept himself alive with magic. How could you …”

Perun lifted his cigarette.

“I keep myself alive with science,” he said. “A preservative drug I inhale almost constantly.” He looked at the cigarette smoking between his fingers. “Though now that the great work of my life is finished, perhaps I’ll give the stinking things up.” He ground it out in the dirt beside him, swept some gravel over the butt to cover it. As he dusted off his hands, he looked at Emily.

“We have completed our diggings in the ruins of the Temple,” Perun said. “You might be surprised at what we have found.”

He reached into his pocket and withdrew the hair sticks—battered and bent. He handed them to Emily, and she took them in trembling hands. She’d never expected to see them again.

“Now, it must be decided what is to be done with them.”

“We’re going to decide?” Emily said.

“No, Goddess,” Perun said. “Not we. You.”

Emily looked down at them, feeling sudden weight press down on her shoulders.

“We have deciphered them,” Perun said. “It turns out they contain one more secret that we never guessed at. They do indeed contain the formula for Volos’ Anodyne—a very powerful poison that would make magic unpracticeable for humans. Morozovich completed it before your father ever left Russia.”

“But that was in 1851!” Emily said. “If Morozovich completed the poison twenty-five years ago, why was it never implemented?”

“Your father was bringing the poison to the Sini Mira when he met Catherine Kendall. Met her and fell in love with her. Your mother was cursed.” Perun cast a sidelong glance at
Stanton. “Just like the burned, the cursed cannot control the magic that runs through their veins. Your father knew that if Volos’ Anodyne was administered, she would die.”

“As would many others,” Emily said. “There are many people in the world who are cursed … or burned.” Her voice caught on the last word. “Implementing the poison would be like sentencing them all to death.”

“But My Divine,” Perun said, flashing her a smile. “I haven’t told you what else the hair sticks had on them.”

“There was something else?”

“Another formula—a formula that your father developed independently of Morozovich. A compound that I believe we should call Lyakhov’s Anodyne, in his honor.”

“Why two?” Emily said, but understanding was already stirring in her—understanding that was far beyond her own human ken.

“Lyakhov’s Anodyne is not a poison. It is very different. It is a readjustment of the very structure of the Mantic Anastomosis.” Perun paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “Its effect is similar, in some ways, to the ability Mr. Stanton’s body possesses. Mr. Stanton’s burned blood gives his liver the ability to filter and purify Exunge, as you saw. That ability, on an infinitesimally small scale, will be woven into all living creatures born after the Anodyne’s implementation. They will be able to assist the Mantic Anastomosis in processing Black Exunge. As this ability spreads over generations, the power to process Black Exunge will become widely distributed enough that Exunge will never again be able to build up in any quantity.”

Emily didn’t really understand the words, but she understood the idea in her gut, in her sensitive fingers. Lyakhov’s Anodyne would not kill those who were burned or cursed. It would not kill Stanton. That was all she needed to understand, really.

“It is why he didn’t contact us for so long,” Perun said. “Why he didn’t deliver the poison to us immediately. If we had known it was complete, we would have demanded it from him. We would have stopped at nothing to get it from him if he refused. And once we had it, we would have implemented it without a moment of hesitation.” Perun looked a little
ashamed. “He knew this. He spent the last years of his life looking for a way to save your mother from our impetuousness.”

There was a long silence. Finally, slowly, Perun climbed to his knees. He bowed down before Emily, his forehead pressed against the soft fragrant earth of the conservatory. Emily’s eyes found Stanton, widened questioningly, but Stanton put up both hands. The duties of a goddess, his upraised hands suggested, were not his to comment upon.

“We have come for your direction,
mat’ syra zemliya
, Goddess of the Earth.” Perun’s voice was muffled from beneath his outstretched arms. “How shall we proceed?”

The silence hung for quite a long time as Emily tried to figure out exactly what kind of goddessing she was supposed to provide. Finally, sighing, she pressed her hands flat against the earth and closed her eyes.

Lyakhov’s Anodyne
, Emily said simply, her voice making all the leaves in the conservatory rustle.

Perun straightened and nodded. He brushed dirt from his trousers as he rose. Reflexively, he reached into his pocket for his cigarette case, then, thinking better of it, tucked it back down. But then he remembered something. Reaching inside his coat, he pulled out a golden ball.

“I almost forgot,” he said, handing Komé’s rooting ball down to Emily. “I believe you will want to get her into the ground soon. She’s growing more quickly than anyone expected.”

Emily took the golden ball and held it in her lap, feeling the truth of Perun’s words with her new fingers. She smiled a greeting to Komé, but the baby oak tree within the ball had nothing to say to her at all.

Then Perun and Dmitri were gone, and Emily was left alone with Stanton, who sat looking at her, his eyes narrowed with glittering humor. She quirked him a smile, feeling ridiculous.

“Now you know how I feel,” he said. She lifted an eyebrow at him, made her face into a serious frown.

“That’s entirely different,” she said loftily. “You’re just a Sophos. I’m a goddess.”

He smiled at her as he stood up.

“Indeed,” he said. “But I knew that all along.”

He reached down to give her a hand up, pulled her close to his side. Heat pounded from his body in waves, an unspoken point of a discussion she already knew they were about to have. But she wasn’t quite ready for all that yet. First she had something to show him.

“Penelope’s sent us a wedding present,” Emily said, pulling at his hand. “Come see.”

She led their steps toward a broad paddock where the Institute’s horses were pastured. A pair of large black Morgans stood in the center of the field nipping at fresh green grass. Stanton’s eyes widened with surprise and sudden joy.

“Romulus! Remus!”

He whistled to the horses, and they trotted over to the rail diffidently. He pressed his fingers to their velvety muzzles. They whuffled him a restrained greeting.

“Penelope had such a time getting them to New York,” Emily said, as Stanton slicked his hand along Romulus’ thick-muscled neck. “They’re so all-fired lively.”

“Hello, gentlemen,” Stanton was saying softly. He looked at Emily. “I was always so fond of them.”

That was an understatement, Emily thought. Stanton was fond of his horses like Nero had been fond of a nice tune. And seeing them again after a time away, Emily could suddenly understand the pride he took in the magnificent animals. They looked as if they could take vertical flight from a dead standstill.

Stanton’s hand stilled on Romulus’ neck, stayed there for longer than Romulus liked. The animal danced away. Stanton’s hand fell to his side.

“What do you think?” Emily asked him. “How do they look?”

Stanton gave a whistle and a command and the horses went running. He stared after them as they cantered away. Then he turned, leaning back against the rail, giving her an appraising look.

“So, My Goddess,” Stanton said, adopting the brusque tone of a Sophos, “it’s time for that discussion you already knew we were going to have.”

The statement was somewhat cryptic, but Emily knew exactly what it referred to—the heat pouring from Stanton’s body. He was still burned. Even Ososolyeh had not been able to heal him of that. Or perhaps it had chosen not to, preferring to give him the choice. For the hundredth time, Emily felt both great appreciation for and great annoyance with the ancient consciousness of the earth.

“Lyakhov’s Anodyne won’t hurt you, won’t impede your ability to work magic or run the Institute,” Emily said. “There is nothing to discuss.”

“But there is,” Stanton said. “I can be cured. I had to preserve my ability to work magic so I could be Zeno’s
desperatus
, but now that’s over …” He paused. “I could give it all up, Emily. I could relinquish the power of the Institute and ask the blessing of the new Sophos. He could make me a silver touch-piece, and I could be healed. We could have a long and happy life. Together.”

“We are together,” she said. “Anything more than that isn’t really up to us, is it?”

Stanton considered this. Emily squeezed his hand again.

“By the way, the answer is
the rope isn’t tied to anything
,” she said.

Stanton looked at her, not comprehending.

“Horse has got a ten-foot rope around his neck, there’s hay twenty-five feet away … remember? Well, I figured it out. The rope isn’t tied to anything. Horse can eat all the damn hay he wants.”

“Now, that’s just not fair!” he protested. “You’ve got the whole consciousness of the earth on your side.”

“The point isn’t that I figured out your riddle, dear. The point is that you’re free to choose,” Emily said. “You’ve never been more powerful. You have a great future ahead of you. And I will be there for it, whether it’s long or short or somewhere in between.”

He looked at her.

“Even after everything?”

“Yes,” Emily said. “Even after everything.” She paused. “For better or for worse.”

She said no more, but basked in the warm certainty of conviction. Nothing mattered except that she loved him. Not Black Glass Goddesses, not sadistic ex-mistresses, not even the Institute. He was decent. She knew it down to the bones of the earth that stretched far beneath them.

“We can have a huge wedding, and I’ll make everyone love Dreadnought Stanton, Sophos of the Stanton Institute, as much as I do. Heck, I might even start an Admiration League.”

Stanton’s eyelids fluttered at the thought.

“And I’ll sit in hot parlors and drink tea with tedious old women, and if they annoy me, I’ll just wrap some roots around them. And even if I don’t love every minute of it, I’ll love you every minute.”

“The roots idea sounds promising,” he said, touching her face. “But even so, that’s an awful lot to ask. You’ve already given up so much.”

“I haven’t given up anything,” Emily said. “I’ve gained the world. Quite literally.”

“Still,” Stanton said. “Still—”

She put a finger over his lips.

“Not now,” she said. “Tomorrow.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX