“You think to trust him? Do not, Soren,” said Brienne.
“I do not trust him, but I know not all of you. You arrived on our island and began giving me orders. Tell me why I must do what you say.” Soren crossed his arms now and shook his head. “I will speak to him and see if I can trust him.”
“You cannot unleash this evil on the world, no matter what promise he makes you,” Roger argued. “Believe not a word he says.”
“As I said, I will make my own judgment.”
“And when he destroys you and everyone and everything you hold dear? How are we supposed to stop him then?” Brienne asked. “He is my father, Soren. I know him. Do not trust him.”
Soren stood alone in the middle of them, each one trying to convince him to stay. It was time for her to play her role.
“Soren, what do you mean to do?”
“I told you, Ran. These people are the strangers here. I am going back to speak with Lord Hugh. To strike a bargain,” Soren said.
“But he holds my father and Ander, demanding our compliance,” she said. “We cannot bargain to let evil return to this world.”
“I think if we give him what he wants, he will leave our lands and our lives can go back to what they were,” Soren said.
“What life would that be, Soren? The one we planned to have together? The one that you destroyed by seducing my brother’s betrothed? Or the one you have now? You have none because the woman you seduced and was forced to marry died.”
Try as she might to say these things as though in a play, the bitterness that lived within her seeped into the words. Aislinn, Brienne and Soren watched her closely and she knew they’d heard the truth within the planned words.
“I think you should go, Soren,” she said, turning away from him.
He disappeared in a second.
A strong wind wound its way through the camp, pulling up tents and stirring up the sands. When it moved out over the sea, she could feel him touching the water.
“What will we do now, William?” she asked. Ran did not know the next step, only that they would wait for Hugh to communicate with Soren.
“We should move our camp to be closer to the circle. We must be there to help however we can,” he said. Raising his voice, he continued. “We have to hope he comes to his senses and realizes he cannot bargain with the devil and think to win.”
She nodded and watched the warblood walk off. She felt sick, her stomach roiled and her head hurt, almost as though they had truly fought. Even knowing most of it had been a performance meant for the spies sent by Hugh, all she wanted to do was go to the sea. But to do so now would look as though she chased after him.
She would, though not yet.
So, she went to find Aislinn and hoped the young priestess could share more of her knowledge about the old gods with her.
Nineteen
Soren followedthe winds as they encircled the island, allowing them to lead him. In spite of knowing they’d planned it all out to give de Gifford’s spies something to report, he did not like it.
Most of all, he hated saying what he had to Ran and hearing her words about their separation. Under those words lay the betrayal that would never ease between them. For even if he explained and she believed him, there was still the fact that he had not chosen her. And worse, it was not his bairn that Aslaug took to her death, but Ran’s brother’s. Another secret he kept from her.
He laughed then, bitterness now filling his heart. All for naught. All for naught.
Well, his grandfather would have died a terrible death, so he was grateful it had never come to that.
And if these powers had risen at the time they were together and promised one to the other, how differently this might end.
Soren followed the winds higher and higher until he could look down on all of Orkney in one view. Going lower and lower until he was over the two largest of the mainland’s lakes, he searched the place where they believed the circle was. From up here, Soren could see the faint outline of it out in the middle of the lake. The size was immense, bigger than any henge of earth or stone he’d ever seen. Easily it was twice as large as nearby Brodgar’s Ring.
How low had the water been for men to build such a wonder? Considering how far out in the lake it was, he could not estimate the number of years since its creation. He knew of other stones and walls that now lay under the sea because of changes to the coastline from decades or centuries of relentless storms and currents. Had that happened here?
Swirling lower, he noticed the way the earth pitched near it, making it look as though the whole of the circle simply slid off the edge of the land into the water.
Had it? Had those gods Ran had witnessed had enough power to accomplish such a thing? If the powers they imbued into their bloodlines were any indication, he would have to say that they did have enough to cause such a thing to happen.
