“Ye would help those ye dinna even know?” asked a raspy voice from deeper in the darkness. “Why?”
“Because I would hope someone would show me the same mercy.” Refusing to show fear, Calia pushed up from the floor and settled her stance on the part of the stone she knew to be solid. “I am Calia. Wife and fated mate to Mathison Shadowmist.” Just saying it aloud made her feel better. Somehow safer.
“The grand chieftain is dead,” said a different voice in a pitifully whiny tone from farther off to her right.
“He is not,” argued a louder voice to the left. “That is why Bansys sent us here to die, remember? But we know the truth, and the truth cannot be killed.”
Intrigued, Calia wondered just how much company she had here in the pit. “Who are you? How many of you are in here?”
“We are Legion,” said the original voice that almost made her cringe with its grating harshness. The very act of speaking sounded as though it caused its owner pain. “We served, guarded, and counseled the grand chieftain from the time of his birth to the moment that treasonous curse ended all our lives. Our numbers are endless. Our spirits fill this space. But fear not, when ye speak to one of us, ye speak to all, and since the grand chieftain possesses our eternal loyalty, we are now loyal to ye as well.”
“Thank you.” While honored, her heart still sank. If these valiant people couldn’t find a way out of this place, even after their spirits had been ripped from their bodies, how could she? After allowing herself a heavy sigh, she squared her shoulders and stood taller. “I know you’ve been trapped here forever.” In her mind, three hundred years was forever, and she was sure it felt like forever to them, too. “But please tell me there is some hope of escaping—or at least doing something to counter those witches. I refuse to go down without a fight.”
“Alas,” the raspy voice said, “magic is the only way, and we have none. The witches stripped us of our powers before they cast us into the darkness.”
“Well, they couldn’t strip me of mine because I had none to begin with.” Strangely enough, Calia found some hope in that particular angle.
“But ye do have powers,” said the whiny voice. “That is how we found ye. Ye fair glow with it. Yers is the first light we have seen in three centuries.”
“What are they talking about?” she asked Intuition.
“It must be the new mate bond and the melding of our powers—or quite possibly love. Love is the strongest power in all creation.”
A shiver rippled up Calia’s spine, then wrapped its fingers around her heart and squeezed. Was she brave enough to allow herself to love Mathison? “What if he doesn’t love me back?” she whispered more to herself than Intuition. In her entire life, the only one who had ever loved her without question was Gillian.
“Do you love him?”
“I don’t know what it feels like to love anyone other than my child. I know I can no longer imagine a life without him. That feeling is unmistakable.” She swallowed hard, fighting the lump of mixed emotions doing its best to cut off her air. “But we’ve only known each other for a few days. It’s impossible to love someone so quickly.”
“Why?”
“Because it just is. Everybody knows that.”
“Everybody?”
“Yes. Everybody.”
“Then what of that movie you loved because it epitomized love at first sight?”
“Movies aren’t real.” Calia had the distinct impression she was losing this argument with her spirit wolf. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
The many voices of Legion drowned out Intuition’s quiet assent with a thunderous, “Aye!”
“Be that as it may,” Calia said, scrambling to escape this slippery emotional slope, “how could my feelings for Mathison convert to a power that would help us escape?”
“A beacon,” the loudest voice of Legion said. “’Twill help the grand chieftain find ye.”
“I don’t want him anywhere near those witches. I feel like they’re setting a trap for him and using me as the cheese.”
“Such a fine wife for our grand chieftain,” the whiny voice said. “She fears more for him than she does for herself.”
“You have truly won their allegiance now.” Intuition sounded pleased. “One can never have too many allies.”
“I just wish those allies came with a flashlight.” Calia still didn’t like the idea of doing nothing other than waiting for Mathison to come to her rescue. Without a doubt, she knew it was a trap. “You said I cast a glow. How come I can’t see this glow?” She fluttered her fingers in front of her face and couldn’t even tell they were there, other than the breeze she stirred.
“That we canna say,” the raspy voice said. “Perhaps because the glow comes from within ye? Or mayhap because ye have yet to commit yer heart fully to yer bond? Ye must believe it to see it.”
“We still see ye,” the loudest Legion ghost said in a voice that boomed and echoed through the void. “Ye resemble a wee spunkie.”
