“Chaela, I beg your favor and have brought a sacrifice to please you.”
A terrible shriek echoed through the chamber and bursts of fire heated the floor where he would once again touch her. Looking into the darkness, he tried to see her but could not. Not yet.
“Accept my gift, oh my goddess.”
Hugh lifted the man up and held him over the opening. Slitting his throat first, Hugh lowered him slowly into the void. With his throat cut, the man could not scream as the anguishing fire destroyed him, but that did not stop him from trying. The blood gurgled out, dripping on the floor all over the chamber, as the goddess consumed him. Hugh released him and listened until all he could hear were the goddess’s exhalations. He created a wave of fire there on the floor, covering the portal, and called out to her again. Barely able to kneel from the agony of her first touch, he spoke again.
There was so much more coming.
“If I have pleased you, grant me your favor, my goddess.”
Crawling forward, he thrust his hand into the portal and waited. The fire melted his skin and his hand turned like molten metal. His body burned in torment . . . and pleasure. He screamed and screamed at the pain of this joining with his goddess. When his voice was gone, she still did not let go.
“You failed me, Hugh,” she said. “I must be freed. You must free me!” she screamed from the void. The stone walls shook at the sound. “The gateway is nearby. Water.”
“I will,” he gasped out, trying to understand her words. His skin was engulfed in flames and burned, melting and reforming only to burn again. There was no pleasure now, only relentless suffering without an end.
“Free me,” she whispered. “And there will be much favor for you, my faithful one,” she promised.
Now her touch changed and his body reacted. His prick hardened and he neared a sexual release. His skin burned but now pleasure raced through his blood as she sent waves of bliss through him. His seed spent, he fell back when she released him. The sound of wings fluttering was all he could hear as she moved away.
Rolling away from the portal, he waited for his body to recover from this encounter. She had punished him this time. He felt her anger and her disappointment. As he waited for his skin to mend, the whispers began anew. The priest was praying again.
“You will carry out the ritual, priest,” he said when his throat finally healed. “And then you will be the first offering to the goddess when she is free,” he warned. Rolling to his side and then pushing up onto his knees, he laughed at this one.
“It will be a great honor,” Hugh said. “You will not live to enjoy it, but you will be remembered by the faithful.”
Standing now, he straightened up, running his hands over his flesh. Resilient. Renewed. Younger. He pulled his robe on and opened the door. The chamber was empty and silent now, the portal closed. Eudes waited there. Other than a quick glance at Hugh’s hair, now black again no doubt, Eudes did not react.
“Bring them along,” Hugh ordered.
Climbing the steps out of the lower chamber, he found the day half gone. Time did not pass at the same speed when he communed with the goddess as it did when he was not in her presence. He’d lost hours in the agony she gave him. Hours of being undone and remade. Of pain and torment. Of pleasure and release.
Now, he needed to find the circle. The goddess had said “water” during their joining. Was the circle near the water? From what he’d learned, most of the stone circles here were close to two big lakes in the center of the island. Or did she mean something else?
This was not as easy as finding the first circle. His father had done so much of the searching and preparation for that. He’d known the location before the others did. Now, in this strange land, he had to search for it. Or . . .
He could simply wait for the other bloodlines to find it and then use the waterblood and stormblood to open it to save her father and their friend.
They were not the only ones using human spies to keep watch. His men reported back often. That was how he’d captured the priest. Funny, a Roman priest who also knew the old gods. Ironic too that he would be the one praying the ritual to free Chaela.
As they left the church grounds, Hugh decided to use Svein’s house while they waited. He was not opposed to a bit of luxury and a few good meals while he gathered knowledge for the next step.
And, the housekeeper learned her place quite quickly with the right incentives. Bruised, bloodied and on her knees before him was his favorite.
He gave the few women to his men to reward them and to keep them busy while he waited. A bit of sexual pleasure held a man’s loyalty and Hugh used it on those he needed. Soon all the servants there learned that they did not answer to the old master.
And never would again.
Soren went back to the broch the next morning. The priests had made great progress in copying the symbols and drawings as rapidly as possible, working without stopping even through the night. Precious parchment sheets lay strewn around the main chamber, placed there as they were finished. Studying them, side by side, he looked for anything he might recognize. Or a symbol or sign that might indicate the hiding place of the circle they needed.
Efforts to locate Ander were unsuccessful, but Soren did not doubt that de Gifford had him. Word was that he and his men were at Svein’s house in Orphir waiting. Waiting for what they knew not. Tension grew in the camp as preparations were made for so many different schemes and scenarios. Roger had the fighting men well in hand, but William did not think they would be needed, as in the first battle.
Marcus did not think that Ander possessed the knowledge to perform the ritual, so William ordered more guards on all the priests. Only Aislinn with her own personal hulking guard was permitted any freedom. The warrior was not well liked, Soren could tell, and most of the priests scattered at his approach. But the man answered only to Brienne and did whatever she asked of him—protecting Aislinn was his only duty now.
“Soren,” Ran called from below. He walked down into the lower chamber to answer her call.
“Look at this part,” she said, pointing to a section of the wall in the direction of the main stone circles. “So many signs and symbols there, and there.” She outlined several of the strange ones. “Einar had squares drawn there on his other map.”
