Read Online The Breeder by Eden Bradley - Free Book Online

life, a challenging one. But they were free of the strictures of the Temple, of the city and the council. Free to live as they chose, to love as they chose.
    She loved him.
    Akaash.
    She’d known for a while. Perhaps even since he had first spoken to her of love. He was her first thought when she woke. He was in her dreams each night. His scent, his voice, had become a part of her. She lived now between her visits to him only to be with him again.
    Nitara sat on her bed, combing her hair, waiting for nightfall. Her body hummed with yearning, her heart, her mind, filled with nothing but him.
    “Nitara.”
    It was Nikkan. He came quickly into the room.
    “I have heard from Hel, Xian’s Sun Guard. The message has been delivered.”
    Her heart was a hammer in her chest. “We have only a few days before my Sacrifice.”
    “It was delivered some days ago. I have just received confirmation.”
    “Then there is nothing more we can do.”
    “Little Sister, I’ll help in any way I can. I’ll be in the Temple that day to create a distraction as we discussed with Akaash.”
    “It will take more than one person, Nikkan. What can you do alone?”
    “I have already asked Leilin to come here.”
    “We put her at risk.”
    “She’ll take it willingly.”
    “I will, Sister.” Leilin walked in, took Nitara in her arms.
    Nitara’s eyes pooled with tears. “It is much to ask of you both.”
    “There is nothing too great to ask of those you love. Are we not asked to give our bodies, our lives, to the Goddess because we love her? Should we not do as much for those people we love?”
    “It feels right. But it seems counter to what we’re taught. Our service to the Goddess is supposed to come first. And if you believe in those tenets, how can you be willing to help me now?”
    Leilin pulled back to look at her. “Because ever since our mother was taken from us, I’ve questioned the ways and the rituals. Little Sister, we are born under a curse,” she whispered harshly. “We cannot serve the Goddess, faith strong in our hearts, allowing us to do what we must without pain. We’re born doubting. Our mother prayed we’d be stronger than she was, that we wouldn’t share her same fate. She cursed herself for having brought this on her children. For leaving us. For Nikkan’s fate. I’ve spent my life fighting it. I bit back the tears at my Sacrifice, as I brought the knife down, into the chest of the man who lost his life in the name of the Goddess.
    “I gave our people twelve children. I did it for the Goddess. But also because our mother asked that I watch over you. I would wish something more for you. This is your chance. If you can have a life, it will be worth whatever I have to give up in order for that to happen.”
    “And for me, as well,” Nikkan said. “I have an idea… I’ll need Leilin’s help. If it works, it will get you and Akaash out of the temple.”
    “I will never see either of you again.” The tears spilled, hot on her cheeks.
    Leilin stroked her hair. “Live for us, Nitara. You’re the only one of us with any hope of that.”
    She nodded, embraced Leilin. Nikkan’s hand was on her shoulder, firm and reassuring.
    If only she could be sure that this would work. She had nothing to rely on but the efforts of a handful of idealistic humans against the Goddess herself.
    It was sacrilege. It left her with no familiar ritual, no Goddess to pray to. Her altar was nothing now but a statue made with human hands, an empty bowl. Her religion, her very perception of who and what she was, was shattered. If she made it out of the Temple alive, she would have nothing to hang on to but Akaash.
    But she loved him. And he would be enough.
     
    The morning of Nitara’s Sacrifice began before dawn. Leilin came to wake her, accompanied by the Crone, Meidra, as well as several of her Breeder sisters—Seti, Tilan and Fareen. They took her, naked, from her bed, down into the bowels of the Temple.
    Today is the day my