Destiny's Lovers Read Online Free Page B

the temple
compound.”
    They both knew that was true only so long as
Tamat lived. No one could foretell what would happen afterward,
under Sidra and Osiyar’s rule.
    “Go,” Tamat said, kissing Janina on the cheek
in a rare gesture of affection. “Bring us this day’s Water for the
rituals.”
    She looked after the departing girl with a
secret, knowing smile.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Reid thought he must be dreaming, or possibly
he had gone completely insane. With growing incredulity he stumbled
through the last few feet of the smooth-walled tunnel, toward the
astonishing vista opening just ahead of him. Now there was moss
beneath his feet once more, and trees and bushes growing
everywhere, but this was not the overgrown thickness of the forest.
This looked like a garden. He knew it could not be a garden,
because he was in the middle of the mountain. He could see on every
side the sheer gold-brown of solid rock rising upwards for
thousands of feet until the rock ended and the cloudless,
purple-blue sky began.
    Some cataclysmic force long ago must have
torn the center out of the mountain and allowed this open area to
form. He saw a pair of the long-tailed, red-and-yellow birds he had
noticed before in the ravine, and thought it was possible that
birds had deposited the seeds necessary to make the area look as it
did. But there was no easy explanation for what else he saw when he
moved forward.
    A round pavilion, a small white structure
surrounded by columns, sat beside a quiet pool which reflected the
building in its limpid surface. The pavilion was a miniature
version of the ancient structure Expedition Leaders Tank and Narisa
had discovered on their previous visit to this planet, and which
now served as their headquarters.
    Reid blinked several times, trying to clear
his sight, but the little building stayed where it was. It was an
illusion. It had to be.
    Abruptly, Reid was aware of something, some
Presence, and he knew he was in a sacred place. He told himself it
was ridiculous to feel this way, with a chill running up his spine
and his hair standing on end. His training was in science and
mathematics, which ought to have made him immune to the kind of
superstitious reaction he was experiencing. Yet he knew in some
deep inner part of himself that the Presence existed. He knew when
it - whatever it was - accepted him.
    Giddy with relief and exhaustion, he
staggered across the soft moss, catching at tree trunks to maintain
his balance. He nearly fell into the pool, but righted himself and
continued his erratic course along the edge of the water until he
reached the pavilion. It had three steps all around it, made of
polished white stone. The columns were stone, too, as was the domed
roof. There was a clear substance set into the center of the dome,
to let in the light. The effect of openness and the concentrated
light in this peculiar place within the mountain made the building
seem to glow against the green background.
    Reid’s legs gave way. He sat on the topmost
step, leaning his back against a column, trying to think. His mind
was clearer now, with the unknown presence gone from his
consciousness. The pavilion was immaculately clean, the garden -
for that was how he thought of it, that was what it must be - was
carefully tended. Someone had to do that regularly. Someone
intelligent. Possibly someone who would help him find Alia and
Herne and help them all get back to headquarters.
    But there wasn’t supposed to be intelligent
life on Dulan’s Planet. The telepaths who had once colonized it had
all been killed in a Cetan raid six hundred years ago, except for
the Dulan for whom the planet had been named and a few friends, who
had escaped to that larger white building on the lake, where they
had left a record of their history. Was it possible that others had
escaped, too, and, unknown to Dulan, built this structure?
    They would be telepaths. Reid found that idea
intriguing. Centuries ago, the Jurisdiction had banished