Rising Fire, page 21
A servant approached with a summons to meet with Lord Hugh, and William knew he would find out more. With a nod, he released Gautier and Armand, who would leave as soon as they could.
Following the servant, who kept glancing behind himself nervously, William paused inside the family residence. He looked down the corridor and listened for signs of the men, but found no trace of them. Lifting his head, he inhaled and knew they had been here.
Instead of going to the large chamber where they’d dined the night before or some other Presence Chamber, the servant trotted ahead, beckoning him to follow, up several stairways to a chamber on the top floor. They walked to the last chamber, and the servant knocked lightly, whispering his lord’s name before he ran away.
The door was framed in a wood William had never seen and intricately carved with symbols and images. Most were unknown to him, but one caught his attention. It was the same battle-ax shape that was now burning in the flesh of his arm. But the one symbol used most often to decorate this frame was fire.
Brienne had some power over fire, which seemed to have come from Lord Hugh. Where did William’s power come from? His beliefs in the world around him shifted in that moment as he finally accepted what Marcus had tried to tell him. It was not a good feeling. If he had this power, then who else did? Who bore the other symbols on the doorframe? And what powers did they carry?
The door opened and Brienne greeted him and bade him enter with a shy smile and a pale pink blush. She stepped back to allow him entrance.
Gavin’s scent was here. He could smell it. Will glanced around the chamber and saw only Lord Hugh, sitting in a chair that was not unlike a throne. As he moved farther into the chamber and Brienne closed the door, the overwhelming odors assaulted his senses and he fought not to show his shock.
Pain and fear permeated the chamber and even the walls. Will had not imagined that those two things had scents, but he knew them now. Glancing toward Lord Hugh and attempting to approach him was nearly impossible due to the stench of dying and death. As he crossed the chamber to bow before the lord, the smoky smell of burning flesh and wood filled his nostrils and his gaze began to edge toward red.
And yet Brienne was unaffected.
Meeting her eyes, he knew that was not true—she was fighting something as well. Her mouth gave it away, her lower lip trembling as it did when she was nervous or afraid. In that moment, he knew he must get her out of here to safety. He must take her . . . now.
“My lord,” he began, as he rose from the bow. “I know this is precipitous, but I would offer for your daughter’s hand in marriage.”
Brienne’s shock showed immediately on her face, but before she could react, Lord Hugh’s loud laughter filled the chamber.
“My bastard for the king’s bastard, then, Sir William? Do you think it a good match?” Lord Hugh stood and walked to Brienne’s side, lifting her face as though examining her skin. “She is fetching—is she not?”
Will did not respond. His vision began to redden, and he took in a slow, deep breath, trying to force it out. He needed to be calm now. He needed to be in control. For her. For her.
“Was she what you expected in your bed? As fiery and lively as her mother was in mine?”
Brienne gasped and pulled from his grasp. “You knew?” she accused. “You knew I went to him?”
She did not deny or explain what had happened between them. She only studied her father’s face, and then the realization of the extent and methods he used to control her crossed her lovely features. She raised her hand then, swinging toward Lord Hugh to slap him.
And froze in place.
When Will tried to reach her, he could not, for something—someone—was in his thoughts, stopping him. Every attempt to move resulted in crippling pain. His vision began to narrow and grow more red as he could only watch the scene before him.
No words were spoken between father and daughter, but some battle raged on between them. If Hugh was using the same pain against her, how did she survive it? When she crumpled to the floor at Hugh’s feet with a cry, he knew the victor. Lord Hugh walked in front of Will, exerting his power against him to keep him immobile.
“You want her, William Warblood? She is yours. And you need not bind yourself to her in marriage, since I know you hope to find a more suitable bride to establish your line. Take her; use her; keep her or discard her when you finish with her.”
Hugh circled him, now chuckling, as Will tried to force his hold off. He’d used the same word or name that Marcus had in describing him—warblood. So Hugh knew.
“You need only to give yourself and your powers over to me and she is yours. But there is so much more at stake now. You can have your own kingdom. Establish your own bloodline and dynasty. Take what you want from the humans who will serve us. Take who you want. It can be yours with a word, Warblood.”
William continued to fight for control and failed as Hugh walked around him, taunting him, teasing him, tempting him to join this growing evil.
“Oh wait!” he said, a sarcastic bite in his voice. “It appears you cannot move.” Suddenly, the pain in his head increased, and he screamed against it . . . but no sound came out of his throat. His lungs would not take in air.
“You have a decision to make, William. You can accept your destiny and be at my side in the great endeavor to right an ancient wrong,” he said, continuing to walk around him. When he stood directly before him, he said, “Or you can watch her die before you do.”
The pain holding him there was so great, he could not even move his gaze to see her on the floor. His body shuddered and shook as he tried to change and could not. He could not even breathe. Some force held him in place and kept his warblood from rising.
“This is bigger than your quest for lands, King’s Knight. This is bigger than your father the king or even Scotland. And by standing with me, you will gain more than you ever imagined you could. She is the least of it, but she can be yours.”
Then he was free, and he fell to his knees on the floor, dragging in huge gasps of air and forcing his lungs to breathe. Will tried to reach for Brienne who still did not move, but Hugh stopped him, stepping between them and dragging him back to his feet.
“Join me. Join us. I will show you how to use the power of your warrior blood as we travel north to accomplish our holy quest,” he whispered in the voice that every evil temptation used. “We will be invincible.” Then Hugh thrust him away toward the door and watched him through veiled eyes with his arms crossed over his chest.
“You have two hours, Warblood. Send your men packing and stand with us or fall with them.” Hugh lifted his head and nodded toward the hillside where Marcus hid.
“And Brienne?” he asked, unwilling to leave her behind. His senses told him he had no choice.
“She is alive until you make your choice.”
William knew he was lying, but he could not take the chance to challenge him on it. If she was alive, it was because Hugh needed her for some purpose, for some part of this “great endeavor” of which he spoke. Alone, he could not defeat this man who held such inhuman powers. He needed help and needed to get to them now. Will lifted the latch and was pushed through the door. When it slammed behind him, he could not open it again.
He ran, grabbing his horse and riding as fast as he could out of Yester Castle, with the terrible stench still in his nostrils. Brienne was in danger and he must find a way to get back to her and help her.
By the time he reached the hillside opposite his own camp, he could barely keep his vision clear and his blood from seething through his body, changing it. But he would, because right now in this moment, it was the only way to save her. He jumped from his horse before it had even stopped and stood before Marcus and the young seer.
“Tell me more. Tell me what I have to do.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Brienne.” The voice was like a whisper, slipping into the darkness where she existed now. “Brienne, sweet, wake up.”
“Father?” It was Gavin’s voice that spoke to her, calling her toward him.
Pain! More pain struck her and she fell back.
“Brienne.” He called her once more. She forced her eyes open.
She lay on the stone floor of a chamber she’d never seen before. Gavin and James knelt next to her, staring down at her. They helped her to stand, and she remembered battling her father over William. Turning around she saw Lord Hugh there, standing before a wall, staring at it.
“What is this place?” she asked, brushing the dirt from her palms and pushing her hair out of her face. She could see and feel the terror in both Gavin and James. He answered instead.
“This is the first sacred place my grandfather discovered here in Scotland. An ancient circle of stones buried deep in the ground. The king at the time gave my grandfather these lands, never knowing of the kind of power that existed here.”
He lifted his hands and touched the wall, almost caressing it, as he slid his hands carefully over its surface in a circular motion. She shivered just watching him.
“Are we belowground now?” The dampness and cold spoke of a cavern or a cave that sank deep into the bedrock.
“Aye. This chamber was the first one built by the goddess,” he replied. He faced her now, but never lost contact with the wall. “Chaela sent her power through to my grandfather, and he used it to build this,” he said, glancing around the chamber. “Now that you are awake, you will feel it.”
And she did.
Her blood carried it through her body. Every brick in this chamber had been touched by evil. And she had been, too, since the same power of this evil flowed through her blood. She knew what was about to happen, so she flung herself away from Gavin and James.
And became fire.
A body of living, breathing, moving fire.
She could see the horror and shock in their faces but paid them no heed.
The fireblood was free now, and she reveled as its power pulsed through her, burning and surging stronger each moment. She walked over to where her father stood and reached out with hands of fire to touch the wall as he did, trying to glean the source of its power. Instead she felt something moving toward them from the other side.
“What comes?” she asked in a whisper of heat and sound. She knew it was a being of immense force and it approached from behind that barrier. The fire that she was now could not resist its call.
The wall disappeared to nothing. Her fiery hands passed through the opening and she waited. It was coming.
Chaela was coming.
Her father’s laughter grew louder, and she sensed that it was coming from a place of desolation and emptiness. An instant later, the searing touch of another fire melded with hers, and she screamed in agony and ecstasy as they merged. This was nothing like what she’d felt when her father had touched her or punished her. She fell back then, swirling and burning and screaming from the inconceivable power and pain of the one. Gathering her fire, she moved closer to the goddess. Peering into the place beyond the barrier there, she watched and waited and saw something so magical and ancient that her human mind could not comprehend it. It flickered inside her thoughts, but she could not hold the image there.
“This is our goddess. This is—”
CHAELA.
The voice screamed it so loudly that every brick and stone in the chamber shuddered. Gavin and James fell unconscious at the sound. The pull of it, the call of it, drew her once more, her flames silently sliding toward the opening.
“Our power flows from her, daughter. Chaela is the source of all firebloods. Worship HER now and forever.”
She could no more refuse than she could change her form back to the human she used to be. She moved across the chamber and lowered herself to the floor, sliding her flaming hands back into the barrier in obedience. She waited for the terrible torment to strike.
Daughter of my blood. Daughter of my fire, Chaela said, as the goddess caressed Brienne’s hands with scalding, molten heat until she lost herself to it, screaming at the unending anguish. Memories of betrayal and exile flowed between them through this fiery connection. She saw the ancient ones. She watched their attack. She felt their powers against Chaela and saw her defeat.
Released a moment or an hour later, she crawled away from the barrier and lay on the floor.
“Brienne!” her father said. Opening her eyes, she watched as he crouched down next to her and put his hand into the very heart of her flames. “Come back now.”
She pulled the fire back deep inside her, gathering it back into her blood so that her human body returned then. Her skin was singed black and smoking while the birthmark on her human arm still blazed. The pain of it mixed with something else. Some feeling like the pleasure that she felt at William’s touch filled her body and blood then. Waves of pain and pleasure blended as her skin cooled and healed.
Lord Hugh took her by the shoulders and gazed at her with pride.
“Now you understand?” he asked, caressing her cheek and smoothing her hair over her shoulder. “The gift you have been given? The honor paid to you?”
Brienne’s thoughts were a jumbled mess. The memories of the goddess in her moment of defeat mixed with the horror and fear of her own mind, and she struggled to figure out what was real and what was not. She glanced over at the wall, where something unspeakable had happened and saw nothing there now. But she felt the power, now banked, waiting.
“The goddess is so pleased with you, daughter,” Lord Hugh said, stroking her arms and placing his hand over the burning brand on her skin. She hissed as his fire touched her skin. “We owe her much for the power she has given us. So much.”
He turned his head and looked at Gavin and James, who now stood in a haze of terror and disbelief in the corner. She tried to go to them, to explain that she was still . . . she was . . .
What was she? Truly, she did not know at this moment. Her father held her in place for a moment until she stopped trying.
“She is in need, Brienne.” He gazed into her eyes until she realized what he meant.
Them. The goddess needed them. Just as in her vision, a human must be offered.
“Sacrifice is the supreme way we worship her.” Once more she could not move. He walked over to the two men who had meant so much to her—one who’d raised her and loved her as his own and the other who’d accepted her when no one else would. “Choose, Brienne. Choose the best sacrifice to show the goddess how we are her servants.”
Lord Hugh came back to her, kissing her forehead and her mouth and whispering in her ear, “Go and bring one of them to the goddess. Your willingness to choose one of the humans shall please her.”
Her mind emptied itself. Nothingness filled it. She could not think of such a thing. She stood there mindless, stunned by such a horrific choice. It jolted her back to the true Brienne hiding within. And William’s words were the first she could hear there in the blankness.
You must know in your heart which one you are. Who and what you are, Brienne. And let no one take that from you.
She was Brienne, daughter of Gavin and Fia. She was human.
When Lord Hugh eased his hold on her so that she could make her choice, she did, choosing to throw herself at the opening in the wall. No one would die for her or by her hand. But the barrier held, and she hit it hard. Flung away by the impact, she tumbled to the floor.
“Stupid bitch!” he yelled, slapping her with the back of his hand and then flinging her at the wall. “Too damned human still. I will teach you the way of this,” he said.
She turned to flame and attacked him then, throwing every bit of what she’d learned in those hard lessons at him. She also needed to protect the two who watched. Lord Hugh disappeared and formed again behind her, wrapping himself around her flaming form and forcing her toward Gavin and James. Though Gavin stood firm, James backed away until the wall behind him stopped him. Lord Hugh grasped her hand, still flames, and reached out toward James.
Brienne fought him. She pulled away and tried to free herself from the fire she was, but his power encircled her and made her reach for the terrified James.
And Gavin stepped in front of him.
“Take me, Lord Hugh. Leave the boy,” the man who was her father said with a quiet braveness. His selfless words gave her the strength she needed to change to her human form.
“Nay, my lord,” she begged. “What do you want of me? Do you want me to obey you? I will,” she promised, kneeling before him. “Do you wish me to use my powers as you say? I will.” She put her head down at his feet. “I swear. Just let them live.”
Minutes passed as she prostrated herself before him.
She prayed with all her soul that he would relent.
“Ah, the sight of my obedient daughter abasing herself before me has moved me to mercy,” he finally said. “Rise and take your place at my side, daughter.”
She pushed herself to her feet and wiped the tears out of her eyes with the back of her hand. Lord Hugh’s expression was empty as she walked to stand beside him.
“I should thank you, Gavin, for raising her to respect her father’s words,” he said. “But I think she learned to be willful from you and the bitch you married.”
Before Brienne could stop him, Lord Hugh slammed Gavin into the wall with his power and held him there. Then, grabbing her hand in his, he pointed at James, who stumbled toward her in spite of his struggles not to. When the terrified young man stood within arm’s length, Hugh placed their hands, now flames, on the center of his chest and forced him back to the opening in the wall.
“Next time you will obey me the first time,” he warned her, as they pushed the screaming man through the barrier to the goddess.
Hugh released her, and she reached in, trying to grab James and pull him free. She heard his screams and then a roar before she lost her grip. Falling back, she wrapped her arms around her head, trying to block out the sounds as he was sacrificed within the darkness. Brienne fell to her knees and retched until she could only heave an empty stomach.
