Free Remembered by Hazel Hunter Page B

she managed to drag Galia into an alcove before the ceremony. She smothered Galia’s mouth in a quick kiss before hugging her tight.
    “I love you,” Galia said, clutching her. “I love you so.”
    Mina’s smile was confident.
    “I love you to the end of the world and beyond it.” Mina separated from her, and held her at arm’s length. “Come back to me.”
    As quickly as Mina had found her, she was gone, losing herself in the crowd. Though it pained Galia’s heart, she knew Mina only meant to spare her a tortured goodbye. Even so, amidst the revelers flowing around her, she’d never felt more alone.
    The shrine of the Goddess lay at the heart of the palace. As she neared it, the crowds thinned, until the final few corridors down which she turned were empty. But in the last hall, outside the high metal doors, stood two guards. At the sight of her, they came to attention, but they did not touch the doors. As the chosen of the Goddess, that was Galia’s duty. She opened the double doors to a space that was more like a rock-hewn cave than a room. Waiting for her at the far end was the Oracle and Strayke.
    Strayke stood at attention, and wore his armor and mask again. Somehow it was fitting that he went clad for battle. The Oracle was dressed in the sacred black of her office. Her face was no more expressive than Strayke’s mask. Galia wore only a plain, white silk gown, and no sandals.
    “You are called by the Goddess, and now you will journey underground. As you travel below, we offer you the protection of the willing sacrifice.”
    “I am here,” Strayke said, his resonant voice filling the chamber with the ritual words. “I will serve, and I will lay down all for you,”
    Galia swallowed.
    “I undertake this journey for the city of Tenebris and for the heart that follows the Goddess.”
    The Oracle nodded, and Galia strode forward. She turned to a trapdoor in the ground next to her. Though it looked heavy, the Oracle moved it easily. Descending into the depths below, there were steps carved into the stone and eerie blue witchfire that clung to the walls. Galia took a deep breath and started down. As she passed her mentor of the past five years, the Oracle looked on impassively. She heard Strayke’s boots behind her. In unison their footsteps tread downward until Strayke’s head must have descended below ground level, because the trapdoor closed above them. Galia jerked at the sound, but luckily stepped down to the landing at the same time. Ahead was a smooth, stone corridor, twice as broad as the stairs behind them, with just enough blue light to show the way. It sloped downward at a gentle incline.
    “Did you think of me?”
    The words startled her. She came to a halting stop, and turned to Strayke. In the space of a heartbeat, all of the fears of the past five years suddenly confronted her. Though she trembled with the awful weight of her burden of guilt, she was shocked at a feeling she hadn’t anticipated: relief.
    “Yes,” she whispered, staring at him.
    “I thought of you,” he said. There was a roughness to his voice. He took a step closer. “I thought of both of you every night. I don’t know what else to call it but love. I thought of you when I was killing. I thought of you when I was going to be killed. I tried to blur your faces with other women, other men. It never worked, and I realized it was because I didn’t want it to.”
    “How can you say that?” Galia whispered harshly. “I betrayed you. I let them take you. I chose Mina.”
    “Was it because you loved me less?”
    Gods, the pain in his voice! Tears sprang to her eyes. Any words she would have spoken were trapped in her constricting throat. She furiously shook her head.
    “If Mina had been separated from you,” Strayke said, “she would have died.” Hot tears streamed down Galia’s face, and he took a step closer. “I wanted you both to live. I wanted you both to remember me. That was what I needed.”
    “And now you