THEY didn't leave his lair. They ate and discussed more changes Mikki wanted to enact in the realm - like a specific limit to the time the rose gate would be opened to allow men into and out of the realm. And the fact that the weather was growing colder as winter approached, so it would be prudent if Mikki commanded Flame to warm the gardens, even if just briefly during the darkest part of the night. Black spot, she explained to Asterius, liked to creep out in cold weather, and it was hard to get rid of once it spread.
Mikki loved talking with him, and it didn't take long for her to realize why. Asterius listened to her. Truly and completely, he heard what she said. She tried to think of the last man she'd known who had actually listened to her, and she couldn't remember one. Not one man had ever shown her the quality of respect and sincere interest Asterius showed her. It was supremely ironic that a being who wasn't literally a man knew instinctively what so many "real" men didn't seem to be able to grasp: women want to be heard and respected. It was really that simple.
His power thrilled her. It was a seductive lure of which she didn't think she'd ever get enough. She loved the exhilaration she felt just to be able to touch him, to stroke that incredible body and know he was hers.
That night they made love on the fur pallet, tenderly discovering more of the secrets their bodies held. Mikki delighted in the fact that his skin was so sensitive and that a light caress could leave him engorged and ready for her. Satiated, they fell asleep in each other's arms, secure in their love and the knowledge that tomorrow would be another day they would spend together.
"Empousa! You must come!"
Mikki thought she was dreaming. She knew she was in bed with Asterius - she could feel him tense and surge from their pallet - but she also clearly heard Gii's frantic voice. What was the handmaiden doing in Asterius's lair? Then her sleep-clouded mind cleared and understanding burst in.
"What is the danger?" Asterius boomed, pulling on his tunic and buckling his cuirasse.
"The roses . . ." Mikki's mouth had gone dry, and her stomach clenched. "Gii, what has happened to the roses?"
Gii hurried to her Empousa's side, quickly wrapping the chiton she'd carried with her around Mikki's naked body while she spoke in quick, short sentences.
"The Elementals and I went to the rose gate at dawn. We thought to be certain no trace of yesterday's violence was left to disturb you." Gii's voice shook, and her face was deathly pale. "They're dying, Empousa. All of them."
"The roses!" Mikki said.
Though it wasn't a question, Gii answered, "Yes."
"The wall - is the barrier still intact?" Asterius said.
"Yes, and there are no Dream Stealers in the realm. No one is in the realm who shouldn't be. We made certain all the men departed yesterday, and none have been invited to return."
"I must go," Asterius told Mikki.
"Yes - go, go quickly. I'll be right behind you," Mikki said.
He paused only long enough to touch the side of her face in a gentle caress before the sound of his hooves echoed from the cave walls as he thundered from his lair.
"Hurry," Mikki said. "I need to get out there, too."
Minutes later, the two women rushed into the gardens. Mikki felt the change the instant she left the cave. Her head ached, and nausea rose in her throat.
"Show me the quickest path to the gate," Mikki told Gii and then neither woman had breath to waste on talking. They ran.
Women were crowded around the rose beds that ringed the gate, milling like frightened sheep. And Mikki understood why. It was worse than she had imagined. She pushed her way past them, taking only a cursory look at the dying beds. She needed to get to the heart of the disease that had suddenly afflicted the roses, and she knew she would find its center at the gate. She broke through the last group of women and staggered to a halt. Asterius was already at the gate, his keen eyes studying the forest as he paced back and forth before it. The other three Elementals weren't watching him; they were staring at the roses in the beds adjacent to the gate. Their faces were strained and pale. When they saw Mikki, they rushed to meet her.
"Empousa, it is terrible," Aeras whispered.
"What has happened to them, Empousa?" Nera said, keeping her voice low.
"I don't know. I can't tell yet. Give me room and let me examine them." Mikki felt the press of the women's fear almost as much as she felt the roses' sickness. "Have the women move back."
All the Elementals except Gii hurried off to speak to the watching, waiting groups of women.
"Do not ask me to leave, too," Gii said quietly. "You look as if you might faint at any moment. I want to stay with you. If you fall, I'll be there to catch you."
"As will I," Asterius said, joining them.
"The Dream Stealers?" Mikki asked.
He shook his head. "There is no sign of them. Not within the realm, and not as far as I can see or sense in the forest." He looked around at the roses. "But it seems they need not be present to destroy."
Mikki drew a deep breath. "Okay, then let's see what I can do to fix it."
The Elemental and the Guardian shadowed her as she moved slowly from bed to bed, examining rose after rose, but soon she forgot they were anywhere near her. The roses consumed her. She'd never seen devastation so horrible. They looked like they had been afflicted with a mixture of Botrytis Blight and Brown Canker and then burned from the inside out. The leaves were shriveled and covered in a dirty-looking fungus, but it felt like no fungus she'd ever encountered. It was sticky, and it smelled like rotting flesh. The canes of the bushes were blackened, with swollen places that looked like an old arthritic woman's knuckles. The buds were shriveled and a deep, bruised purple color.
Mikki straightened from inspecting another dead bush and gazed out into the gardens. Like a poisonous wave, she could see that the sickness was spreading, and she felt a bone-deep chill of fear. This blight wasn't natural. It had been brought to the realm by the evil of the Dream Stealers. Intuition told her that the disease had been in the oily cloud of evil each creature had dissolved into. They hadn't really been dead. She didn't imagine that creatures like that could ever really be killed. Hatred, envy, fear, and selfishness were emotions that would always slither around the fringes of mankind, waiting for their chance to strike and destroy dreams.
It was true they had been banished from the realm, but not soon enough. And Mikki had no idea how to battle something that had infected her roses through creatures of nightmares.
"Empousa," Gii asked timidly. "What would you have us do to save them?"
Mikki looked from the Earth Elemental to her lover. Both were watching her with expressions that were concerned, but she could also see the hope in their eyes and the confidence they had in her.
"I - I have to think! Just stay here and leave me alone for a second." Abruptly, Mikki walked away from them. She left the dying beds and went down the wide marble path that led to the rose gate, thinking she'd sit under the ancient oak and try to come up with a plan - any plan.
A splash of color caught at the corner of her vision, and she stopped and stared. Pink blossoms, in full and healthy bloom, filled two plants that sat in the middle of an otherwise blighted and dying bed. She hurried to the bushes, breathing their sweet scent and caressing the vibrant green of their leaves as if they were prodigal children newly returned. Salet Roses - she recognized them easily. They were one of her favorite Old Garden varieties, with their double blooms and abundant midseason and fall repeat blossoming. But why had these two bushes been spared from the killing blight?
She looked around, searching for spots of brightness within the ocean of rot and disease. She found a splash of red in the bed closest to the rose gate. Quickly, she made her way there. Three bushes there, all at the edge of the bed, were in full bloom. Their color and the deep, true rose fragrance of the blooms identified them as Chrysler Imperials.
What did the two types of roses have in common? Chrysler Imperial was a Hybrid Tea Rose; Salet was of the Old Garden variety. One was red; the other pink. And they weren't even near each other. Mikki stared at the healthy pink where it sat, blooming contentedly, seemingly unfazed by the death around it. Mikki shivered. Hadn't the Salet bed been the one the Dreams Stealers had forced her down in the middle of? They'd meant to rape her there. Thankfully, Asterius had arrived in time and -
Mikki's breath caught. She knew why these roses lived, thrived even in the midst of others that had succumbed to death and disease; she knew what all five bushes had in common. Her blood had touched each of them.
Mikki walked unsteadily to a nearby bench, making it just in time for her to sit as her knees gave way.
She had been in the Salet bed when she had taken the blow on her shoulder. Absently, she touched her shoulder, remembering how freely it had bled. Then near the gate - that was where Hatred had sliced through the vein at her throat. She vaguely remembered lying there, half in the bed, half on the marble path, as blood pumped from her body.
Her blood had saved the roses, had protected them from the Dream Stealer's poison. She put her face in her hands and tried to understand the enormity of her discovery. Over and over the words my blood saved them played in her head.
"Mikado, the women await your command."
She looked up, blinking her vision clear. Asterius knelt beside the bench and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"Trust yourself, my love. You will find a way to heal them."
She stared into his dark, expressive eyes and knew what he said was the truth. She knew how to heal the roses, and she did trust herself. Now all she needed to do was to find the courage to act.
"I'm going to Hecate's Temple to speak to the women. Have the Elementals gather them and meet me there."
"Yes, my Empousa," Asterius said. He bowed to her and then took her hand and kissed it gently.
MIKKI stood within the raised temple. The four Elementals had formed a semi-circle behind her. Asterius stood behind them, near the goddess's ever-burning flame. Mikki looked out at the large group of women. They were silent, their faces set with worry and fear, every particle of their attention focused on their Empousa. She lifted her chin and drew a deep breath, projecting her voice into the crowd.
"We have a lot of work to do. We need to move fast, and we need to be focused. The disease that is killing the roses must be stopped, and I give you my word that I know how to stop it." She paused as a sigh of relief rippled through the crowd. "They'll be no dividing into the four groups this time. All of us need to focus on the area closest to the rose gate and work our way out from there. First, I want buckets of the strongest wine we have brought out to the gardens." She saw the looks of surprise on the women's faces, and it almost made her smile. "What you are going to do is to cut the diseased roses down to the ground. Then take the canes and pile them outside the rose wall, where Floga will burn them. As you move from bush to bush, be sure to dip your shears in the buckets of wine. It will help stop the disease from spreading to parts of the plants that have not been infected. Your shears must be razor sharp, and you need to make each cut at an angle." Her eyes passed around the group, looking confidently into the women's eyes. "Are there any questions?"
No one spoke.
"Then let's get to work." The women hurried off in groups to gather cutting tools and wine, and Mikki turned to face her handmaidens. "I wasn't exaggerating. We have to work hard and fast. The disease is spreading at an unnatural rate." Her eyes found Asterius in the shadows. "Asterius, as much as I don't like the idea of opening that damned gate, my instincts tell me that burning the sick roses inside the realm would be a terrible mistake."
"Then we follow your instincts, Empousa," he said. "And I will be there to guard the open gate."
"I know you will. That's why I'm not afraid to open it." She smiled at her handmaidens and had to work hard to keep the tears from her eyes. "And I know each of you will do whatever it takes to help heal the roses. I'm proud of you, and I believe in you. The Realm of the Rose will thrive again, I promise."
"We believe you, Empousa," Gii said. She walked to Mikki and kissed her gently on the cheek before curtseying and hurrying out to the roses.
"We trust you, Empousa," Aeras said. She, too, kissed Mikki before dropping into the familiar, graceful curtsey and departing.
The Water Elemental walked forward to take her turn kissing the High Priestess, but Mikki's question made her pause.
"Nera, I seem to remember that someone told me that the fountain" - Mikki nodded her head in the direction of the massive water feature that bubbled and frothed beside Hecate's Temple - "is the main source of irrigation for the realm. Is that true?"
"Yes, Empousa."
"So water in those troughs actually reaches all the rose beds?"
"Of course, Empousa." Nera smiled and continued. "Before you commanded my element to visit every fourth morning, it rarely rained here."
Mikki made herself return Nera's warm smile. "Thank you. That's good to know."
"We support you, Empousa," Nera said. She kissed Mikki and then departed.
"We love you, Empousa," Floga said. The last to kiss Mikki, Floga hesitated before curtseying. A tear trailed slowly down her smooth cheek as the Elemental said, "Forgive me for doubting you, Empousa. As my element, I am sometimes too rash and my thoughts burn too brightly."
Mikki hugged her. "There's nothing to forgive," she whispered.
When they were alone, Mikki went to Asterius and stepped into his arms. For just a moment, she let herself absorb his strength and his love, knowing the peace that comes with finding that one person to whom you were meant to be bound. But she didn't allow him to hold her for long. She couldn't.
TIME surprised Mikki by passing slowly. Maybe it was because the work of cutting the rotting, diseased roses and dragging them outside the wall to their pyre was so damn hard and depressing. Or maybe it was because Mikki's mind couldn't stop thinking about what the future held. Either way, it seemed that several eternities had passed in that one, endless day. Mikki had fallen into a hypnotic rhythm of cut - dip - cut - dip, so she was surprised to look up and see that, finally, the sky had darkened enough for Floga to light the torches up and down the rose wall.
"Gii," she called to the Earth Elemental, who hurried to her side, smiling even though her eyes were bruised with shadows and her arms were pink with thorn scratches. "That's all we can do today. Have the women finish dragging what they've cut through the gate, and let's call it a day."
"Yes, Empousa," Gii said, looking relieved.
Mikki didn't blame her. Her own shoulders were aching and her hands were bruised and sore from the shears. Thankfully, they were razor sharp - a group of women had spent the day doing nothing but sharpening and re-sharpening blades. Mikki glanced down at the shears. Carefully, she dipped them in the bucket of wine and then cleaned them in the grass before hiding them at the base of the rose she'd just finished pruning.
"The women are finishing their tasks as you commanded, Empousa."
Gii's voice made Mikki jump guiltily, which she covered with a small laugh. Then she took the handmaiden's arm and said, "Walk with me a little?"
"Of course," Gii said.
They walked together silently, taking a meandering path back toward the rose gate. Mikki was satisfied by what she saw in the rose beds. The diseased bushes had been purged. It looked stark now, but she knew that in the spring they would grow back and be healthier and hardier than before. Roses were survivors - not the delicate fainting flowers too many people believed them to be. Mikki knew better. She knew about hidden strength and resilience. Too often people had misjudged her, discounting her as a pretty face and nothing more, or worse, considered her opinions inconsequential because she was "only" a woman. She thought about Asterius. He, too, had been misjudged, solely on his appearance. Little wonder they fit so well together.
"You were wrong about him," Mikki said softly.
Gii glanced at her, surprised by the High Priestess's words. "Him, Empousa?"
"The Guardian. He's not a beast, and he doesn't deserve to be treated like one."
Gii stayed carefully silent.
"I don't know what happened before. I don't know what he did, and now, I don't want to know. But let me tell you what I do know. He saved this realm yesterday when my mistake could have destroyed it. He would do the same today and tomorrow - or for every tomorrow until eternity. He's honorable, Gii. And he's kind. Did you know that he's an artist?"
"No," Gii said.
"He is."
"He loves you," Gii said hesitantly.
"I know. I love him, too." Mikki drew a deep breath. "And that's why I want you to promise me something. I want you to promise me that you'll treat him better. Don't ostracize him. He . . ." She paused, struggling against a wave of emotions. "He gets lonely, and I don't want him to spend eternity alone. If you change the way you react to him, so will all the handmaidens who come after the four of you. Would you do that for me?"
Gii stopped and gazed into the High Priestess's eyes. What she saw there made her breath catch. Then, slowly, she nodded. "Yes, Empousa. You have my oath."
"Thank you, Gii. Now, let's get out of here. It's been one damned long day," she said with forced cheerfulness.
They reached the rose wall in time to see Asterius closing the gate, much to Mikki's relief. For a little while the four Elementals, the Guardian, and the Empousa stood with the women of the realm and watched the diseased roses burn at the edge of the forest. Then the women began to move off in little groups, calling tired farewells to Mikki, until only the Elementals were left.
"You did well today," Mikki told them, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "I want you to know how proud I am of you."
The handmaidens smiled wearily at their Empousa.
"Tomorrow I want you to sleep past dawn - we'll all need the rest. Then eat breakfast and meet me at Hecate's Temple. We'll start again then, doing the same things we did today - pruning and burning the disease from the roses. But I believe they will be better tomorrow."
"Is that what your instinct tells you?" Gii said, grinning at her.
"That's most definitely what my instinct tells me." Mikki smiled through the tight, hot feeling in her chest. Then, impulsively, she hugged each of them before saying, "If you need me, you can find me in the Guardian's home." She enunciated "home" distinctly, deciding then and there that she would never call it a lair again. "Good night," Mikki called, turning to join Asterius where he waited in the shadows.
"Sleep well, Empousa." Gii hesitated only a moment and then added, "Good night, Guardian."
Mikki was facing him, so she saw the look of pleased surprise that crossed his powerful face.
"Fare you well, Earth," Asterius said somewhat stiffly.
Then each of the other three handmaidens called similar good nights, leaving the Guardian to gaze in wonder after them.
"In all the centuries I have been Guardian of this realm, that has never before happened."
"I told you I was going to change things." Mikki linked her arm through his. "Let's go home."