Something was inside his mind, pushing him, pushing him to accept this offer. He could not breathe now. Pain exploded in his head.
“Even as she punishes those who do not serve her,” he said, staring into Soren’s eyes. The pain grew more with each passing moment, until Soren broke free with one thought.
Ran.
He became the winds and tore away from the fireblood. De Gifford screamed out in anger and set everything on the beach and the surrounding area on fire.
“You will come to me. She will come to me,” he shouted as Soren flew higher. “Chaela will be served!”
Some force rippled through the air as de Gifford screamed out the name of the one he served. The name had its own power.
After sending a message to Svein on the whispering winds, Soren raced back across the sea and the islands to Ran. Forming his body before her, he met her startled gaze and knelt before her.
“’Tis worse than we thought, much worse,” he said.
Hugh tried to keep hold of the Stormblood, but he could not. His powers lessened day by day because for too long he was too far away from a place where he could commune with the goddess. If he was to defeat the Warriors of the Stone Circles and bring these two to his side, he needed to find a place that opened to the void.
The one thing working in his favor was that the gatekeepers here were so new to their powers that they still thought in human ways. That would slow them down and give him time to do what he must do. He turned and walked to Svein.
“You will take me to the place where they are,” he ordered. Pushing his will into the human, he repeated the order. “You will take me there.”
Svein blinked several times and moaned as the pain of resisting heightened. Hugh pushed again and once more until blood began to drip from the man’s nose and eyes.
“Why do you resist so?” he asked, walking up to him. Staring into his bloody gaze, Hugh asked again. “To resist is pain and death, human. I can cause it. You have seen it, so doubt not my intention. So why do you resist my wishes?” He needed this man or Hugh would have caused his head to explode as he usually did to those who disobeyed.
“Ran,” Svein whispered.
The same word that the Stormblood had uttered before he escaped. But it was not a word, was it? It was a name.
“Your daughter?” he asked. Svein could only close his eyes. De Gifford released him and the man fell to the sands, gasping for air and in agony.
Hugh smiled. Both Svein and the Stormblood were linked to the Waterblood—one by blood, the other by desire. He’d felt that connection as soon as the Stormblood realized the pleasure in exercising his power. Controlling her would be much easier now that he understood the Stormblood’s weakness.
He had no doubt that the winds and sea would release the ships momentarily, just as he did not doubt that Svein would take him to the island where the other Bloods were. He closed his eyes and spread his senses out, seeking the other Warriors who would oppose him. Ripples on the edges of his senses warned of their approach.
“Take him to his men, Eudes. We will leave as soon as the winds and sea let go of their hold on the ships.”Take us to your home,he ordered with a thought.Directly there,he pushed.
Blood gushed from Svein’s head. Hugh cared not. As long as someone could hold him up and the man could mumble, he was of use. As soon as his usefulness ended, so would his life.
The thought of so much destruction and death ahead brightened Hugh’s mood. Knowing that he would control the storm and seas in a very short time made him smile.
Chaela, I will free you soon, my Goddess,he whispered. Soon.
Twelve
“I fearwe must release the ships, Ran,” Soren said to her as he knelt before her. “He is torturing innocent men until we let him go his way.”
“And my father? Does he yet live?” she asked, hoping their actions had not resulted in his death along with the others.
“He lives. The man, Lord Hugh de Gifford, knows you are Svein’s daughter.” Soren took her hands and she did not resist. He had some terrible news to tell her, she knew. “He will keep Svein alive as long as there is a use for him. At this moment, his usefulness is related to you, Ran.”
“So he stays alive as long as Hugh de Gifford thinks to control me through him?”
Soren confirmed her words with a nod.
Ran had seen the way men worked and how men of power controlled. Watching as her father plied his business over the last two years had exposed her to the corruption and dealings of men who wanted something. If she had been naive when she’d left, she did not remain that way for long. It was the type of marriage in which she would find herself, if they all survived.
The truth of the matter sank into her soul. Unless they could come up with a way to defeat this evil man and the entity he served, her father would die. Chances were that he would die before they could defeat him. The tears began before she realized it.
