XXVI

Inanna was still too weak to move but was able to sit up in bed now, propped up with pillows. It was time to get some food into her if she was going to regain her strength.

She met the delightful Ren and they were instant friends – she felt as though she had known her forever – they shared an unbreakable bond.

The strength of their friendship would grow and grow and she would turn out to be one of Inanna’s greatest teachers.

Inanna started with one meal a day, slowly increasing it over the weeks. Much trauma had been bestowed upon her and her weak and feeble body had suffered enormously. It would take time, baby steps, which suited Inanna just fine as she had nowhere to go and nowhere to be.

After some weeks, she managed to actually get out of bed unaided. There was always someone nearby as they weren’t quite sure of just how much damage Inanna sustained. It would be some time before everyone would feel comfortable leaving her. She could now get herself to the washroom, where someone would meet her, should she need any help.

The day the miracle occurred was when she was able to walk outside and down to the stables, the colour almost instantly returning to her face at the site of the horses. She could brush them but was not allowed to ride. It would be years before she was back in the saddle.

For now it was enough.

Inanna found great comfort in these majestic animals and they in her.

The horses played a massive part in her recovery. Inanna wasn’t yet ready to make her way into town. She was still fragile and being among throngs of people terrified her.

On occasions she would still be subjected to harrowing nightmares and would wake in a cold sweat, shaking and crying. Ren would get up calmly and pat her hair or hold her gently in her arms until she fell back to sleep.

Inanna was surrounded by angels, this she knew, and she was extremely grateful.

The old medicine woman taught Inanna to give thanks each and every night before she went to sleep.

“Give thanks Inanna, for all the wonderful things you have to be grateful for. It will bring you back to the present, which is a true gift – helping you realize just how fortunate you are my dear”, she would say.

Even when Eamon left, she would give thanks for having had the chance to meet him, to know love and to feel it so deeply. To have someone who would hold the space for her just to be: to be her self, unapologetically.

As the months went by and her strength increased, Lilith started to teach Inanna.

In Inanna, Lilith saw something extraordinary, an energy. She was different from others.

She had a sexual energy about her and Lilith doubted Inanna even knew she possessed it.

When Lilith first set eyes on Inanna, even battered and bruised she knew she had met her successor.

Inanna was to be the next High Priestess of Nor.