SWNOVELS The ringing (Chapter 27)
Dunn:
A cold wash of panic sweeps over me.
No, he has it wrong- it’s me using her.
Rachel’s in danger. That thought hits me so strongly it feels like someone punched me in the gut.
Did the goddess only give her to me to take her away?
No! I remind myself that the goddess is not the type of deity to fiddle with our lives and throw them away without purpose or meaning. She is a deliberate goddess. I just have to listen and I will find her reason.
“You will need to step down as Master Priest, of course, for the duration of your reeducation. But I have high hopes that the Temple in Yandhude will approve of your reinstatement” the High Priest explains without me confirming his assumption that Rachel somehow convinced me to hand over the information to the senators. I always knew there was a chance that I would be caught and the scheme would come to light, but somehow I always believed that I alone would be the one caught. I made sure Hertliz and his friends got Maya out of town and they agreed to help the other girls if they testified, I was so sure I covered all my bases.
“Your Eminence, I think you misunderstand.” I begin as the chair squeaks as the High Priest shifts his weight to lean back to better look at me. I look him directly in the eyes to convey my seriousness, “Rachel had nothing to do with it- I gave the information to the senators on my own.”
My heart is pounding as I wait for the High Priest to respond. The air feels suffocating and heavy as I fight the urge to wipe my sweaty hands on my robe.
“You are in deep, Dunn” he shakes his head as if disappointed, “I’m afraid it will take a lot of work for you to dig yourself out. The temple in Yandhude specializes in cases such as yours. I have a list of services around here somewhere…” he leans forward in the chair and pushes off of the wooden armrests to stand.
“You are not listening” I spit out desperately as he walks around his desk sifting through a few papers. He lifts a letter up from his desk; it’s smudged with dirt and crossed with lines from having been folded many times After pausing for a moment, he sets it back down and continues to look through his desk, “I am the one who organized everything- me alone.”
“Listen to me, Dunn. Ah there you are!” he grabs a paper out from a drawer in his desk and slams the drawer closed with a loud thud. He begins walking back around the desk to stand in front of the chair I’m sitting in, “you are going to Yandhude for the classes and meditations and whatever shit they do. You will go immediately- the two priests who escorted you here will take you.”
He shoves the paper in my lap and I am forced to grab it before it slips onto the floor. I look over it briefly; it’s a list of remediation activities on offer for wayward priests at the Yandhude temple. Considering everything, it’s much better than I expected to happen if I got caught. The wise thing would be to simply accept it and see what the senators can do on their end to continue the fight.
“And Rachel?” I look up into his warm brown eyes framed with wrinkles. If one didn’t know any better, you could see him as a fatherly figure, and maybe that is why so few people question his leadership. But I have to know what will happen to Rachel before I agree to go.
He gives me a small smile of sympathy and puts his hand on my shoulder, “Rachel has volunteered to be sacrificed at the next festival”
“She wouldn’t!” I stand and I’m immediately in the High Priest’s face. My heart is thudding so fast it’s a constant noise in my ear. Rachel would never agree to such a thing. No, I have to talk to her, I have to -.
“Sit down.” He looks at me hard in the eye, “we can’t have her causing disorder in the temple and that is exactly what she would do if she returned! She volunteered the moment she talked you into helping her.”
The pitch of the thudding in my ear becomes higher, so it’s a clang and a ring, a constant buzz. It feeds into my panic and my panic feeds into it.
“But Rachel didn’t do it- I did it!” I emphasize loudly. I’m breathing in quick pants as I try to control my alarm.
The High Priest takes a step back, placing space between us as he walks back to his chair, sits down, and calmly says: “It’s done. You are dismissed”
The buzzing grows louder, my lungs are constricted, my chest hurts. I open my mouth to say something to make the feeling stop, but nothing comes out. My brain is blank, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know how to fix this.
I take a step forward, slamming my hand on the desk as support. My eyes seek out anything that can make this right- anything to make this better, anything to free Rachel.
She must be terrified and alone. I did this to her, no- they did this to her. They took her from her planet and enslaved her to satisfy their sick desires while defiling the religion they profess to serve. I glare at the High Priest as he sits comfortably in the desk chair.