They’d also practiced the power that they inherited from the goddess until they’d honed it and controlled it. Perfected it.
Now only Hugh and his knowledge and powers could open the doorway to the other realm and allow Chaela back in. Since the bloodlines of those who worshipped the other old gods had dissipated so much, now was the perfect time to attempt it. There was barely enough of it left in any of the other six families. Hugh’s father had known the time was coming, so he’d sought out others descended from Chaela to ensure that his son would be powerful enough to guide the goddess back into the world and serve her.
Hugh nodded as his blood heated and he heard the goddess calling to him. Closing his eyes, he inhaled several slow, deep breaths and let them out, trying to calm the excitement coursing through him. He was close, so very close now, and nothing could stop him in his quest.
Chaos would reenter the world, throwing kingdoms and their rulers into confusion and disarray. Chaela would rule as she should have aeons ago. Hugh would be her right hand, as one of her blood and her rightful consort. Together they would control everything in the human world. No one, nothing, would be able to stop them.
He opened his eyes, and the flames appeared before him. He spread them across the width of the chamber, like a wall. Heat built, and his skin grew hot, but he forced the fire out of his body and into the flames. Everything in the chamber disappeared as another place opened before him.
And out of that dark emptiness, she floated. Sometimes she appeared in the shape of the ancient flying beast; other times she took human form. Though he was tempted to fall to his knees before her, he remained standing, his power holding the portal open. She came close, but she could not enter here or leave the realm where she was still imprisoned.
“My faithful servant,” she whispered. “Hugh.”
“Always yours,” he answered, feeling her nearness and the surge of heat and power in his blood whenever he was in her presence. He walked closer to the wall of flames and held out his hand, penetrating the barrier as he could. Knowing what would happen, he prepared himself for it.
So much power! So much strength! So much pain! He clenched his jaws together to keep from screaming at Chaela’s contact. The touch of her fire seared him to the soul, and the intensity began to burn his skin away, but he forced himself to remain still under the pain and anguish of it.
The rewards would be so great and worth every second of agony he suffered at her touch. The pleasure that came from such agony coursed through his body.
Images filled his mind, and words raced through his ears, circling in his thoughts and overwhelming him. His cock stood and hardened and throbbed as though his body readied itself to join with a woman.
She did this to him. The pain and fire did this. His heart beat so fast and strongly that he thought it might burst. His lungs burned with every breath. His muscles pulsed and strengthened with each second. Then he fell to his knees, crying out loudly, but he never removed his hand from inside Chaela’s wall of fire. Completely in her power, controlled by the pain and the promise of ecstasy and release, he waited as she told him all she wanted him to know.
Seconds or minutes or hours passed. Hugh was not certain how long he remained kneeling before her, burned and burning within and without and overwhelmed by all she shared with him through their link. Then, in an instant, she released his hand, and he fell to the floor, spent in every way and yet invigorated by this exchange. The flames surged around him, singeing his skin until he climbed to his feet and called them under control. Peering through them, he realized that the portal was closed and the goddess gone.
“Chaela, my goddess,” he said, bowing deeply in homage.
“My faithful one.” Her whisper filled the chamber once more, sending waves of shivers through his heated and burned flesh. “It is time to claim all that is mine.”
He could not contain his joy. For years he’d waited and watched and learned and prepared for this moment, the time when he could unleash his powers and gather his minions to seek out those of the other bloodlines and use them to open the doorways to the goddess’s prison world. Use them and then destroy them for their ancestors’ betrayal those aeons ago.
Hugh spread out his arms, leaned back his head, and roared out his joy. Finally, he’d be able to serve the goddess and gain all he deserved. His battle cry echoed through the chamber and then out into the night.
His moment of celebration over, Hugh strode back up the tower stairs into his own chambers and readied orders to his followers of this wondrous news. It was time to free Chaela and fulfill their ultimate mission.
Closing the doorway, he sent out riders to begin the search for the others. Now that Chaela issued the call, the other bloodlines would rise to it as well, just as her followers would. Time would be crucial to find the gatekeepers who would open the doorways closed by the blood of Chaela’s son. He needed to find the priests who would even now be making their way to the first of the circles.
Only a passing glimpse of himself in the looking glass as he gathered his garments to dress slowed him. Touching his chest, Hugh watched in the reflection as his hand moved over skin that was now more youthful and unmarked by the ravages of time and age. His face had changed, appearing twenty or so years younger, the wrinkles gone and his cheeks no longer sallow or drawn. He laughed and noticed his voice was different as well, stronger and deeper, as it had been when he was in the flower of manhood.
But the most shocking change was his hair. No longer did gray and white mix with the black of his youth. Nay, instead it was black once more, as it had not been for more than a score of years.
He smiled, realizing that the touch of his goddess had done this. Imagining all that could be done when she crossed to the human world, he laughed again. Only then did he notice the other change to his body.
The patch of skin that had risen on his forearm now bore the mark of his goddess. As though burned and marked with ink, two flames intertwined there. His mouth lifted into a grin when the flames moved, twisting and dancing as he caused real ones to do. They burned as they moved but did not destroy the skin there. ’Twas a constant reminder of his link to Chaela, and he found it pleasurable to feel the burn. It made his blood and the flesh of his body simmer with arousal that did not diminish as he dressed or as he ate his evening meal. And when he took a wench to his bed that night and plowed her with the relentless vigor and force of youth, the flames leapt and pulsed on his skin, increasing the strength of his release. The constant pain there magnified his pleasure and his desire for satisfaction.
It burned its mark on his bedmate when he touched it to her skin. As he took the woman repeatedly through that night, marking her again and again with his new, burning insignia, he found even more pleasure in her terror and anguish. He wondered at what other changes would come with the goddess’s return.
This particular one he liked.
ChapterFour
Seven days.
Seven days after speaking to the king and hearing his disturbing words and suspicions, William traveled along the road that approached the village of Yester. Two days of preparation had turned to five as he sought out and discovered more bits of hearsay and gossip and, he hoped, some truths about Lord Hugh de Gifford. Some of it, if shared, would make him sound like a raving madman. Not unlike the king had sounded during their shocking conversation.
He knew better than to share those suspicions or thoughts with anyone, or he’d find himself hanged for treason. Glancing over at the men riding at his side, William thought on how to parse out the needed details without revealing what the king had prohibited him from sharing. Roger and Gautier had guarded his back more times than he could remember. Herve, though new to his men, had proven himself valiant and strong in battle. All of them were worthy of the truth, but did he dare?
Shielding his eyes from the midday sun, he studied the road ahead of them. Upon leaving Dunfermline, their journey proceeded without interruption or delay, first to the south and then to the east, where Lord Hugh’s lands and keep lay.
