“Amen,” they said.
If Ander could pray a Christian prayer for a man who worshipped other gods, how could she argue? Did it matter to the gods who created this circle if a prayer of a different god was offered? She thought not. “So what must I do? What must we do?” Ander asked them.
“Aislinn and Marcus told me that you must say the prayers while we shed our blood together on the altar. Then we must find the stone carrying our mark and place the blood on it.”
“And then?” he asked.
“Then the gods who built this place will seal it once more and she cannot get back into the world.”
“You will teach me the prayer? ’Tis a song?”
“Aye,” Soren said.
They helped him to walk to the altar, giving a wide pass around the opening to the barrier. Once there, Soren drew out his dagger and handed it to Ander. “Begin this way . . .”
Soren sang the first line of the song and Ander repeated it. Ran held her breath or sang along under it, alternating back and forth and hardly able to breathe at all in the tenseness that surrounded them.
By the end of the second line, the stones began to vibrate. At the third, the chiming reached an earsplitting level. Ran prepared herself for the final line. Soren sang it and Ander hesitated for a moment, not repeating the last part of it.
No one moved as Ander fought some battle within himself. He managed to keep from saying another word as some fragment of Hugh’s will struggled to overwhelm the priest’s own. The stones clamored and the goddess shrieked as though close to gaining her freedom. The light surrounding the rings shot off bursts into the night sky.
The wrong word and they would be destroyed.
Was that Hugh’s plan after all? If he could not get them to open the circle, he would destroy it?
Nay! It would happen like this. She would not let Soren and Ander die.
Touching the priest and Soren, she nodded and Soren followed her lead, setting the winds to spin around the three of them, blocking out everything else. Then, she accepted Soren’s strength and passed it to his broken friend.
Ander gasped but did not speak at first. Then his smile spoke of success. As he gave voice to the last part, they joined hands and he cut with the dagger over the altar. Her turquoise blood and Soren’s silver mixed with the wine red of Ander’s. The pool of it glowed with power. Their marks all lit as though afire.
“Put the blood on your mark and find the place on the stone that is yours,” Soren said. “I will help Ander.” Soren half carried, half dragged Ander around the circle until he found the one for the priest. Leaning him there, he helped him raise his arm to the mark. Ander hissed as he touched the blood there.
The screaming and torment became louder and louder in the center as Chaela realized she would fail. Ran rushed to the stone marked with the waves and held her arm up to it. She watched as Soren found the one marked for the stormblood and, with a nod to her and then Ander, he lifted his arm and touched the blood to the mark.
The stones groaned, bending and twisting as stone could not. They expanded before their eyes, stretching higher and higher into the sky above them. The chiming within them grew louder and louder until Ran wanted to scream against it. Her arm, her mark, her blood were still sealed to the stone behind her.
Now, above them, were six creatures or beings, all glowing in the colors of their bloodlines, the same as in her vision. The goddess Nantosuelta smiled at her as Taranis blessed Soren. Then, impossibly, the stones reached over the circle, meeting in the middle and melded over the void. With a crash, the altar stone cracked spilling their blood onto the floor. It trickled across, following the spaces between the stones until it reached the barrier.
Then, the light was in the circle, shining out around them, sealing the barrier so no being could escape. The shrieking grew softer and softer until it faded out of existence.
And all was silent.
In an instant, the stones were as they had been when first placed there. The light and sounds were gone and the three of them stood in the middle of it all on the stone-laid floor. Ran looked around and saw William and Brienne standing near the path.
Soren met her gaze and nodded at the stone behind her. She turned to find the goddess there. Glancing back at him, Ran saw a man behind Soren.Taranis,the goddess whispered. As the goddess entered her, the god entered Soren once more.
“De Gifford is a coward,” Ander said when Brienne and William reached the ring.
But there would be time to speak of such things and to deal with her grief when the goddess left her. Now, Ran understood what last service they asked from their bloodline. She met Soren in the middle of the circle and let the goddess forth.
Taranis, my love,the goddess said, taking him in her arms and kissing him. She opened her mouth to him as she would open her body for him.
The winds rose around them, and the fireblood understood. She led the warblood and priest from there, leaving the henge to them.
Nantosuelta, must we part?Taranis asked her.I cannot bear the separation.
Love me now, husband. Love me enough to last until we are returned to each other,she urged.
