The Sagittarius by K. Aten

Author:K. Aten [Aten, K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07GXZ91DB
Publisher: Regal Crest Enterprises
Published: 2018-08-28T07:00:00+00:00

WALKING INTO THE temple amid crowds of other Amazons felt like my very first time all over again. It had been exactly a sun-cycle since I last witnessed a ceremony within Artemis’s sacred walls. The air was warm inside, since the temple was just a much larger version of the many caves that dotted the country-side around Telequire. They were the very same caves that contained our hot pools used for bathing. Torches flickered around the large chamber and up on the dais near the back. Shana and I pushed forward until we could get as close as possible. The sight of the priestess standing near the altar and the bleating of the goat nearby took me back and I reached up to itch my forehead where I remembered the dried blood to be. It seemed as if a lifetime had gone by since I had last received the mark of the goddess. When I glanced up at the great statue of Artemis I was startled to see that we were directly in line with her stony gaze. The beautifully carved goddess looked down on me and I wondered if she stood in judgement. The smaller stag and bear statues faced the altar, indifferent.

Per the usual, I found my head stuffed with too many thoughts and too little understanding. Debating my place in the grand scheme of things seemed a foolish waste of time. But so too did my continued puzzling of the religious thread that wove itself through the fabric of our world. Did I really choose my path in life, or was it as Ori said, I was nothing more than an arrow of Artemis that had been shot across the sea and fetched back? I looked up for answers but the goddess’s gaze remained moored and impenetrable.

The crowd separated in a wave down the middle of the cavern and my breath caught as Artemis’s Chosen walked through and up the stairs to the raised platform. Everything about her seemed to glow and for the first time in my life I felt in the presence of something holy. The nation of women warriors quieted all at once and a voice cut through the silence. “Hail to our goddess Artemis! She who is the hunter, she who is hunted. It is you who wields the bow bringing prey to their knees. You are also the doe fleeing certain death in the woods.”

The words washed over me as past collided with present. Bits and pieces of the queen’s opening speech had been seared into my brain because I had reached for them in a time of need, in a place of desperation. Feeling one gaze among hundreds, I saw the queen watching me and knew for certain that I had not been forsaken. I was aware that just as Ori was Artemis’s Chosen, my heart and soul belonged to Ori. I was hers. My personal goddess was going to grace me with her future and I would do the same in return.

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