Blazing Earth (19 page)

The boy grimaced then from the pain Hugh was sending into him for not responding to his question. Kirwyn surprised Hugh by blinking and shaking off the pain before lifting his head to meet Hugh's gaze.

Very interesting.

“You, boy,” Geoffrey called out, motioning to one of the guards. “Show respect to my cousin and do not raise your eyes to your betters.”

Before Hugh could intervene, the nearest guard lifted his hand and struck the boy across the face. The blow, with the strength of the guard and the weight of the gauntlet he wore, forced the boy to his knees. Hugh watched as Tolan's son wiped the blood from his cheek and pushed up to his feet, daring a peek at Hugh as he did.

Bold. Not so stupid as to look directly at him . . . not yet . . . but not willing to play the fool as his cousin did next to him.

What he would not have given for a son like this one! Neither of his own brothers, the one with whom he had shared a womb for nine months or the one who now commanded his army, had the mettle of this
one. Hugh walked over and stood directly in front of Kirwyn now, opening his own senses up to search for any sign of power.

“Look at me, Kirwyn.”

The boy met his gaze and Hugh searched him as he had his own daughter. Not forceful enough to hurt him unnecessarily, but using his own to find a glimmer of the earthblood there in his human body.

“How many years have you, Kirwyn?” he asked again, this time softly. He heard his cousin's gasp of surprise. It was true that Hugh did not ask twice, let alone a third time. However, this one was different somehow.

“Ten and almost five, my lord,” the boy replied, already holding his gaze longer than most could.

Ah. The time of power rising.

Hugh looked deeper and found it there. A small kernel waiting to burst into being. Green, like his father. Potential for a great being lay there in his core. Hugh pulled back and met the boy's gaze then.

“Where is your father?” he asked. He put his hand on Kirwyn's shoulder. “And there is no cause for you to lie to me.” The boy narrowed his eyes and then nodded, accepting his words.

“I know not, my lord,” he said.

“Does your cousin there know?” Hugh asked, nodding at the man who had not raised his eyes from the floor before him.

“Nay, my lord.” The man shook harder, but the boy never wavered.

Hugh made a decision in that moment unlike any
he'd made before in his entire life. He would take this boy, once the goddess was freed, and train him himself. He might not be an earthblood, but Hugh knew how to wield the power that came from the gods. In the new order of things, Kirwyn could be a valuable ally.

“I know where your father will be,” he said, taking the boy under his arm. “We shall go there and meet up with him.”

Kirwyn nodded and Hugh led him up the stairs. They would finish their noon meal and then ride north to Durrington and do the goddess's bidding.

“Come, eat,” Hugh invited the boy to the table. He looked at Hugh and then at Geoffrey, who was near apoplexy, his face drawn tight in shock. “Sit.”

Hugh's original plan was to force Tolan and his sunblood, whom he'd now mated with, to open the gateway or lose his son. And he might yet have to do that. But he would accept this other possibility. It all depended on the value Tolan placed on his son's life. Seeing the boy now, he thought it would be a high enough one to force his compliance.

He questioned the boy as they ate and knew by the end that Kirwyn was an intelligent lad who heard and saw much more than he was supposed to. He was kind, too—a trait Hugh would rid him of quickly—for Hugh found him stuffing half-eaten crusts of bread into his tunic when he thought Hugh was not looking. For the cousin who remained standing before them but who threw longing glances at the sumptuous food on the table.

“Feed him,” Hugh called out.

A guard led the cousin to a smaller table there and a servant placed food before him. The only reason Hugh allowed it was to keep from distracting the boy from answering his questions.

Geoffrey once more reacted in surprise. “My lord?”

“Eat your supper, cousin,” Hugh ordered. “Worry not over my actions.”

Just because his cousin was now needed would not stop Hugh from killing him once his task was done. He had never realized how annoying and sycophantic a man his cousin had become.

Eudes entered the hall to say everyone was ready, and Hugh nodded. He was not . . . quite . . . ready.

“So, Kirwyn, tell me of your father's lands in Durrington.”

By the time they did mount up, Hugh understood more about Tolan, his freely held lands in Durrington, and his son.

Strangely, he hoped he would not have to kill the boy to make his point. Oh, he would if it was necessary. He would sacrifice—and had already done so—just about anyone to complete his mission to open the gateway. But somehow he understood that he would not enjoy killing the boy as much as he would some others. With a glance at Geoffrey, he called the order out to his half brother.

Tolan took the horses and smacked their rumps to make them run away. He turned to Thea and held out his hand. They approached the raised embankment, which he leveled before them. Just as they crossed it, the winds above them began to swirl and blow. A wave flowed up from the river Avon and stopped before them.

One moment wind and water, and the next Soren and Ran.

“It took you long enough to get here,” Soren said, glancing at both of them.

Ran elbowed her husband before nodding at Thea. “Soren, they have mated.”

Soren glanced at them and then nodded. “They have. I hope it makes you stronger together than you are separately, as it helped me and Ran when we faced it.”

Tolan kissed the back of Thea's hand. They would be stronger together. He knew it.

“We tried to enter, but neither of us could,” Ran said. “I can be the water in the ground, yet something stops me from getting inside that.”

“I tried to open it with winds. It did not budge,” Soren added. “I think that only the bloodline or lines that hid it so can expose it.”

Tolan looked over at the twisted trees of the forest and began to open them up. It took effort to unwind them from their tight knots and time, too. Longer than he'd expected it to. These must have stood for centuries and grown stronger with each earthblood who reinforced them. They could bend to allow him to enter, but to banish them completely would take hours.

“How long until the others arrive here?” Tolan asked, walking closer to the writhing trees.

“Let me see,” Soren answered before disappearing into the air around them.

A few minutes passed and Tolan concentrated on his task. Thea spoke quietly with Ran, waiting to help in whatever way she could. Then Soren was with them once more.

“Both groups travel here,” he explained. “Our people come from one direction. The others from Amesbury.”

“How long, Soren?” Tolan called out.

“About three hours.” Soren walked to his side. “I can try to slow Hugh and his men down. But . . .”

Tolan faced him and did not like the look on the stormblood's face. A glance at the waterblood showed the same dark expression.

“Hugh has your son.”

The words hung out in the air around them and Tolan could not think. He felt Thea's touch and wanted to sink into her and cling to her. He did not want to think about his son in the hands of a madman who controlled and could become fire.

“William and Roger went to get him as he said they would. By the time they arrived where you'd hidden them, Hugh and Geoffrey's men had found them and taken them to the keep.”

“I am sorry,” Ran said, tears streaming down her face.

Tolan shook his head and faced them all. “You speak as though he is dead. You said Hugh has him. Did you see him? Does he live?”

“Aye, he rides with Hugh. He is alive.”

Tolan had so many thoughts running through his mind that he could not focus on one. His son was in terrible danger. Hugh was ruthless and would stop at nothing to open this gateway. Tolan could not help this evil be unleashed on the world. His son would be killed if he did not.

“Tolan, what can we do?” Thea whispered to him.

“The only thing you can do is seal this gateway,” Ran said softly. “I know the high cost, but the price is the rest of humanity.”

“My son is—”

“Your son will be as dead as my father is, Tolan,” Ran said bitterly. “He may be alive now, but when Hugh gets here, he will kill him if you do not do his bidding.”

“Ran.” Thea began to argue with the Norse woman. Tolan shook his head and turned back to the task before him.

Tolan could not even think of sacrificing his son. The possibility simply could not be considered. So he pushed it all aside and did the only thing he could to give himself more time—he pushed with all his strength to clean this thicket away from the land beneath it. It was a slow process, for the living hedge resisted his efforts. Then he felt Thea behind him and she wrapped her arms around him, infusing her warmth and power into his body.

With a burst of strength, he pushed the twisted woods away and out, clearing it yard by yard, over the next hours. Finally, as darkness fell, so did the first layer of protection over the stone circles. Thea used her power to light his way as he walked around the perimeter removing the last bits with a fling of his hand.

Now they could see the huge area in the open. The embankment ran around the whole perimeter, higher on the hillside and lower toward the river's edge. Though he could not see any stones, Tolan could feel them. And he could feel that black abyss within the ground there.

“It is huge,” Thea said. “When it was covered, I could not imagine how big it was.” She walked at his side, still touching his arm.

“Aye.” Tolan studied the land before him and felt for the stones around them. “This was not built at the same time as the smaller circles within it.”

He pointed out the raised earth and then it began
to shudder and quake. Bit by bit, the soil shifted, rolling in waves away from the raised places. The earth rumbled and Tolan held on to Thea so she would not lose her balance as the stones rose.

One by one, they came from their hiding places, pushing up until each one was exposed. He heard Thea counting under her breath and smiled. He did not need to count, for he knew their number. One to mark every day of the year.

From where he watched, the stones erupted on each side of him, most likely as they had been hidden eons ago, until a complete circle stood where the hill had just minutes before.

“This is what I saw,” Thea said as she walked over to touch the nearest one. “Look! They are all different heights and shapes, but none are taller than I am.”

Some of the stones were no more than large boulders rolled into place. Others were taller and thinner, more like columns. Some carried the marks of shaping tools, while others seemed untouched in that way. Each of them reflected her light back, sparkling in shades of gold in the unusual sunlight Thea created.

“Tolan.” Ran called his name and he turned to face her. She called him back to things he did not wish to think about. Soren stood at her side. “What will you do?”

“What can I do, Ran? How can I condemn my son to a death he does not deserve? How can you make me choose?”

“My father faced the same death, Tolan. I wanted to save him. I bartered to save him. But I knew what I had to do when the choice had to be made.”

Her father had lived a full life. From what they'd told Tolan yesterday, Ran's father had been at the root of the betrayal and lies that had split Ran and Soren apart. Ran's father was not Kirwyn. Kirwyn was innocent of this. Tolan could not lose his son. Not now. Not this way. Not . . .

. . . not when he would have no others.

Tolan looked at Thea then and knew she was thinking the same thoughts. The misery on her face said it all to him and most assuredly, it spoke of her part.

The question of whether or not Kirwyn had inherited his power was moot now. It mattered not to him. Kirwyn was his son, his only son, his only child. Tolan would rather offer himself up than let his son die.

She'd warned him not to marry her. Now, married and more, mated in the ways of the Old Ones, they shared an unbreakable bond of faith and love. Aislinn had told him that they'd be unable to produce any children outside of their union who would carry either of their powers, for only descendants of the gods could mate and create more of their bloodlines. Warriors of Destiny, as she called them, were born and not found or made. Only those called to be priests and serve the Warriors seemed to be spread all across the areas surrounding the gateways.

*   *   *

Thea watched his sorrow and misery and knew part of it was because he knew as she did that children were not possible between them. This would be a death sentence for his family, his bloodline, and his son.

All because she had given in and accepted his soft words and his love.

A boy who played no part in this battle of good and evil would pay the ultimate price, and it would destroy Tolan as sure as this evil minion would.

“How can you ask such a thing of him?” she asked Ran and Soren. “Losing a parent is expected, but to lose his only child?” She turned back and saw the stark horror of it on Tolan's face. “If you would sacrifice his son, how are you any better than the bloodthirsty gods?”

In her reasoning mind, she understood the necessity of losing one over losing humanity. But as she looked at the man she loved, her heart could simply not take it in.

So, what choice did he, they, make? For she had sworn to be at his side, and that was where she would stay, no matter what happened now.

“I pray you, just wait for William and the others. Speak to them before you make any decisions,” Ran begged.

That was when the noise began.

A terrible screeching sound came from under the ground around them. An inhuman, ungodly voice screamed out in rage, and the sound of it made Thea clutch her ears with her hands. But that did not stop or even lessen it. It was as if the sound was under and in and over and around them at the same time.

“She is here.” Soren's voice trembled then and Thea glanced at him.

Thea knew of whom he spoke and she could not say
the name, either. Not because of the priests, but because her voice would not put a simple, human name on such a terrible, fearsome being. The ground shook then, rumbling in waves outward from the place where Thea had witnessed the ritual in her visions. When the howling started, Thea fell to her knees in fear.

Tolan stood alone there, his stance wide and sure as he shifted with the waves in the ground. As she watched, his legs merged into the earth and he rode it as a boat on a sea did.

“Would you release that into the world, Tolan? I pray you to see reason,” Soren said.

“Leave him be!” Thea screamed out against the constant roar in the earth.

She climbed to her feet and went to him. She did not want to think about the possibilities of the monstrous thing in the abyss he'd mentioned getting out, but she understood the horrifying thing they were asking.

“Tolan?”

He stood stone-faced and stared at the earth.

“Can you hear me?”

The roar continued around them and she called over it. He gave a curt nod to acknowledge her presence there but said nothing else to her. She watched him there and could feel his heart breaking apart. They must do something. All the others were coming soon—the Warriors and priests and men as well as Hugh and his followers.

She knew when he'd made a decision, for his body turned to that creature she'd seen here before. One of
earth and plants that could walk like a man. Who was also a man. “I will uncover the circle. I must, regardless of my decision.”

For a moment, Thea was confused. The noise, the terrible groaning and roar that had overwhelmed them, stopped. Gone. Complete and utter silence covered them now. The usual sounds of night in this area—night birds, insects, animals on the prowl—ceased.

She looked to Soren and Ran and found them staring at Tolan, both in disbelief and surprise. They could each take the form of their power as Tolan did—even Thea lost her human body when she shone like the sun—yet it was still a shock to see it the first time.

Tolan looked at her and then disappeared, sinking completely into the ground. She could feel him moving away from them and toward the smaller of the two circles enclosed in this henge. The silence changed to something else now, not the screaming or the roar but a whisper.

Thea could not make out words being spoken. She moved toward the location she knew and watched and waited. Soren and Ran kept their distance, even moving away, as Tolan began his work. They'd said they could not enter the area around the circle, though Thea had no trouble approaching it.

Seconds turned to minutes before she saw the ground shifting where the stones had stood and would stand once again.

Ran had explained that she and Soren had used their powers together to uncover the circle of stones lying beneath the waters of the loch near Stenness in
Orkney. Combining storm and water, they had blown away the water and debris covering it and raised it from the loch's floor.

“Did it take you this long?” she shouted to them. From the stern expressions, she did not believe they would answer her at all.

“Nay!”

Since they could clearly not approach her, she walked to where they stood watching.

“These lands, this area, is heavily protected from both under and above the ground. Tolan's family has been spelling it for centuries, mayhap even from the beginning,” Ran said. “That is what Corann and Aislinn believe.”

“Are they close?”

“Aye, but not as close as they are,” Soren said, nodding behind her. “Get back where he cannot get to you,” he warned.

Thea ran back to the area nearest the circle and watched as a great troop of soldiers rode past his cottage and up over the embankment to the area now cleared of their protective thicket.

And there at the front rode Tolan's son.

In the grasp of a man whose power could be felt even at this distance.

“Sunblood!” Hugh called out to her. Kirwyn frowned as he met her gaze.

“Aye,” she replied, sending the light out around her, lighting the entire plain so that all were seen.

“Call your earthblood to you. We have much to discuss.”