“Yes. If we don’t, and people find out we have an ongoing sexual relationship, it’ll all fall apart. Let me give them a Vessel. A bride for the whole church will be something strong and powerful to worship. It’ll unify us at a time when we’re threatening to self-destruct.”
“But what about the practicalities, Ethan? Do you really want a child?”
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. “Why not? It’ll be our child.” Telling himself he was only doing it to appease Bart, he leaned forward to kiss him, to prove he could be demonstrative. But the second their lips touched he realized Bart was right. He was as g*y as a man could be. His partner was impotent, but he was in love with him, anyway. And he hated women, especially attractive women like Rachel, because even she couldn’t tempt him, and that made it impossible for him to be anything his father would admire, approve of…or envy.
Sarah had never dreamed there was a secret room beneath the Enlightenment Hall, let alone a damp hole in the ground that looked and felt more like a medieval dungeon. She’d participated in some rituals inside the hall’s main assembly room and knew there were other rituals for those who’d taken the Covenant—a few lasted all night long. But she’d assumed they occurred inside the hall, too. Now that she’d seen the altar, the ring of stones, the candles, the torches and the thick mats lying all around, she knew that probably wasn’t the case. Whatever Ethan’s most devoted followers did down here was accompanied by the burning of incense. The scent was so strong she could barely breathe. Having smelled the same scent on Ethan’s clothing a number of times, she connected it with him.
“What goes on during the Covenant of Brotherly Love Celebration?” she asked Martha.
Martha didn’t answer. Maybe she couldn’t. She was lying in a heap in the next cell, hardly moving. Once they’d passed through the gates into Paradise, she’d begun to squeal for all she was worth. She couldn’t actually scream because of her gag, but she was making enough noise that Sarah had used the diversion to jump out of the Jeep. She’d hoped to get help, to alert someone to what Bartholomew was doing. But she hadn’t succeeded. As soon as she’d landed on the ground, Bart had been on her. And he’d used chloroform to make quick work of her defiance. She couldn’t remember anything from that moment until she woke up here, in a cage down a wide hall off the main cavern, where the altar was located. She could see that there was at least one other cell, an empty one, on the far side of Martha’s. Perhaps there were more; it was difficult to tell. There was only one torch burning, and it was near the altar.
“Martha?”
She heard movement, a groan, but nothing she could make any sense of. Chances were Martha couldn’t think straight. If Bart had used chloroform on Sarah when she jumped out, he might have used it on Martha again, too.
The possibility of an overdose, of Martha dying down here, made Sarah anxious. Although they were only eight feet apart, they were separated by metal bars. Sarah couldn’t even get close enough to check.
Hugging her knees to her body, she shivered against the chill. The temperature was much lower than on the surface, but it wasn’t cold. She was having some sort of reaction to the chloroform, the fear coursing through her, or both.
Glumly, she stared out at the altar, the top of which resembled a giant phallus. Sarah wished it was the flickering light that made it look that way, but she knew it wasn’t. The Covenanters embraced sex as the greatest life-giving source there was. Sarah had no problem with that. But the altar had a white marble base that was covered in velvet cushions—with manacles in each corner. Did they restrain women? Maybe even rape them?
She hoped not. She’d planned to take the Covenant of Brotherly Love next month. It was a goal she’d been working toward since she’d joined the church. She would’ve done it long ago except she’d wanted to be sure she approached it with the proper gravity and respect. Ethan had made very clear that there was no going back.
She thought of all the time she’d spent reading the Bible and praying that the Lord would purify her soul so she’d be worthy. What she was seeing now turned all of that on its head. It seemed so sacrilegious, an absolute mockery of all she held dear.
“Help me,” Martha mumbled. “Please…help me.”
Sarah scrambled over to the bars. “Don’t worry,” she said. “You’re going to be okay. You’re not alone. I’m here.”
“Who are you?”
“Sarah.”
“Sarah, the one who…who saved me from the stoning?”
“Yes.” But she was also the one who’d betrayed her at the grocery store. Did Martha not remember?
“I don’t feel so good. I’m…sick.”
“It’s the chloroform. Try to relax and let your body recover.”
“What happened?” she asked, but seemed to get her bearings before Sarah could explain. “Oh, God…we’re in the pit! I can smell it.”
“What does that mean? What goes on down here?”
Martha dragged herself closer, until she could lean against the bars between them. “Rituals, supposedly.”
“What kind of rituals?”
“A celebration of the procreative power.” She rubbed her face, drew in a deep breath. “At least, that’s what I used to believe when I participated. Now I realize that it’s nothing more than an orgy for the benefit of Ethan and his Guides.”
“An orgy?” Sarah echoed. Already disillusioned, she almost couldn’t grasp such a base concept in conjunction with the church she’d once loved. “So the rumors, what outsiders are saying about us, it’s all true?”
“Ethan describes it in a more…positive light, but—” she laughed bitterly “—it’s all to satisfy his own lusts.”
Orgies were bad enough. But…what about the manacles? Sarah swallowed hard. “Everyone who participates…they—they’re willing to be involved, right?”
“They were when I was down here. It was only the covenanted few.”
Sarah cast another glance at that ominous altar. “So why would anyone need to be restrained?”
Martha rubbed her temples. “It’s just…part of the show. It’s more powerful if the woman seems completely dominated.”
“And these cages?”
Martha lifted her hands to the bars. “I was told they’re symbolic, too. Ethan frees those who are kept here as he will free the souls who accept the truth of his church.”