Raging Sea (25 page)

Two days later

North Sea, east of Orkney

F
rom the moment he'd sent the priest into the circle, Hugh had had a very bad feeling about how the ceremony would turn out. His power to control another's thoughts had always worked before, but the others had already been controlled by fear of him. Ander Erlandson had no fear to use against him.

Then, when it seemed that hours had passed with no changes or signs, he suspected the worst. And when the stones began to chime and stretch, he knew the one thing he could not afford to have happen had just occurred.

He used a moment when his daughter and the warblood were distracted by the sights and sounds within the circle to kill Svein and toss his body on the dead priest's. By the time they noticed, he had already escaped to the waiting horses over the hill. Eudes had everything prepared for their departure and it took little time to accomplish.

And now they were trapped by an angry sea, off course and out of control. As they drifted farther and farther east, Hugh could only hope that his last remaining spy could give him the words of the prophecy. For now, he held on as huge waves thrashed the ships and the sailors lost hope of survival.

Hugh knew the Warriors must feel very satisfied. They had managed in two different ways to seal two different circles. Oh, he had taken their high priest, but another had been put in his place already.

Well, they had better not feel too comfortable believing that they would win again. For he knew one truth about himself—he was a dangerous man to have as an enemy. Now more so since he had failed his goddess twice. Desperate men lost all care for limitations.

Worse, he knew it would not be the pleasure he always anticipated the next time he communed with her. The pain and agony usually reserved for sacrifices or enemies would be his. She would hold back nothing to show her displeasure. He would not come out of this unscathed, he knew that. And he feared the cost of this second failure. Would he even survive the punishment she would mete out?

He shivered then, not with the usual arousal that anticipation of touching her fire brought him. Nay, this was cold, steely fear in his gut.

Everything he had planned, everything his father and generations before him had worked toward was in jeopardy because he had underestimated the power of a pure heart. As the possible punishments he would suffer filled his mind, Hugh knew one thing—he would not fail her again.

If she let him live . . .

Orkney lies just to the north of Scotland and has been inhabited for thousands of years by a succession of peoples and more recently by Picts, then the Norse and then the Scots. It is made up of seventy islands, though people live on only twenty or so.

It is a magical place and its landscape is covered with reminders of all those who had come before—stone circles, burial mounds, stone cairns and buried villages.

I've had the opportunity to visit there twice and even did a full-day archeological tour on my last trip in 2009. I spent the day walking, climbing and crawling my way around stone circles, into burial mounds and cairns, through ruins and even across the causeway that connects the Brough of Birsay to the Mainland. Because it's a tidal island, there are only a few hours each day when that's possible!

So, when this series began forming, I knew that Orkney
must
be the setting for one of the stories. Little did I know that the places I chose for some of my scenes—including the huge stone circle they discover under the lake—would actually be discovered!

The first little serendipitous moment came after I'd written the scenes involving the under-chamber beneath the Broch of Gurness. Apparently there really are not under-chambers in these round stone towers, but I needed one for my story so I created it . . . or so I thought! While proofing my scenes, I found a Web site about the Broch that revealed experts had just discovered a buried stone stairway leading down to an underground chamber . . . beneath the Broch!

Then, in planning the location of the gateway circle, I needed it to be near some of the other more famous circles on the Mainland of Orkney—Brodgar, Stenness—but not one of them. In looking at both current and historical maps, I knew I wanted it set in the middle of what is now known to be the center of Neolithic Orkney. With the recent and ongoing excavations at the Ness of Brodgar, I knew “my circle” was nearby. With two huge lakes surrounding the sites, I decided to strategically place mine
IN THE LAKE
and have the hero and heroine use their powers to uncover it.

Guess what! In researching the area and the water levels thousands of years ago, I found an article about the changing levels in Orkney and a new geological study/sonar mapping they've just finished in that area . . . and they've found something that looks like a large stone circle, bigger than Brodgar,
IN THAT LAKE
! I got chills when I read it, realizing that what I call my “story's magic moments” had happened again.

As a writer, it is such a thrill when those kinds of moments happen. It's like the story in my mind is tying itself to something bigger and telling me things I did not know. It gives me shivers when it happens, and the whole Novels of the Stone Circles series has done that time and time again!

If you would like more information on today's Orkney, I would suggest visiting the official tourism site: www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/orkney/

For lots of historical information and info on the current/ongoing archeological excavations, these sites are great: www.orkneyjar.com/index.html and http://ngm .nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/neolithic-orkney/smith-text.

This page had a great map of the area where “my circle” is: http://www.orkneyjar.com/ archaeology/ nessofbrodgar/

The Warriors of Destiny will next move south to England in their battle against evil, and I've already experienced a couple of “magic moments” about that area. Stonehenge and the area around it are revealing more and more secrets, and the story in my mind has already tapped into some of those! Did you know that more than fifteen stone and wood henges have been discovered all around Stonehenge? And that . . .

I think I'll wait and share those tidbits in the next story!

Terri

Read on for a sneak peek at the next

Novel of the Stone Circles,

BLAZING EARTH

Coming out in April 2016 from Signet Eclipse.

E
lethea looked up from her mending at the soft knock on her door. A more insistent one would have meant one of the villagers needed her attention. This kind signaled only one thing to her—the arrival of Tolan. She placed the torn tunic back into the basket sitting by the small hearth and went to see.

After lifting the latch, she eased the wooden door open a scant inch and glanced outside. In the dark of the night, he stood there outlined by the full moon's light, taller than most men in the village. She recognized his form at once.

He nodded and, in that deep tone of voice that never failed to send whispers of heat through her, Tolan greeted her. “Elethea, how do you fare?”

She wanted to laugh. His words were so commonplace, as though his arrival at her cottage in the hour when most of the village slept followed the way things were in Durlington. Elethea did not doubt for a moment that many knew of their assignations. Still. . . .

“I am well, Tolan.” She stepped back and opened the door wider. “And how was your journey?” He'd been away seeing to their lord's concerns for almost a fortnight.

He'd accepted the invitation as he always did—in a calm, even manner. She doubted that anyone who'd met him, save for possibly his dead wife, had ever seen the passion that lived within his composed exterior. But Elethea had glimpsed it once in the fields, observing him as he'd tended to his lands, and then every time he'd joined her in her bed.

Before closing the door, she took the small lantern from the rock that sat beside it and brought light inside. It had been her signal to others that she was still awake and could help them. With Tolan's arrival though, she wished no interruptions.

He stood in the middle of the room, his head nearly touching the roof above. And he watched her with a dark intensity that her body understood. “I am well.” He loosened his cloak and tossed it over a bench against the wall.

“But I have missed you, Thea.” He crossed the distance between them in two strides and pulled her into his arms. “I have missed you greatly.”

His mouth captured hers, and she gave herself over to him, waiting for the passion within him to overwhelm the calm control he exuded. Two weeks without him had left her restless and needing his touch. Needing the taste of him. Needing the strength and passion he would show her.

He took her breath away even as he'd kissed her that first time. By the second and third and fourth kisses, she lost the ability to stand. Tolan slid his arms around her, holding her up and drawing her close.

“I think you have missed me, too,” he whispered.

He kissed down her throat and used his teeth on that sensitive spot just near her shoulder. She arched against him, aroused by everything he did. His answer was to slide his hand down, caressing the fullness of her breast, and then over her stomach until he reached . . .

The sigh escaped as he grazed his hand over the junction of her thighs. Another as he rubbed harder there, the friction and pressure of his touch even through her garments caused her body to heat and weep its own moisture. She ached now, worse than the moment before, and she pressed against his hand, begging for more.

“End this, Tolan,” she whimpered out as his fingers slid between her legs, all the while continuing to caress and press the place where she wanted . . . him.

“Ah,” he whispered after he'd claimed her mouth another time, “I think you have missed me greatly, Thea.”

Elethea held her breath and his gaze as his hand slid down her gown and gathered it up. His fingers on her skin made her shiver, her body tensing in anticipation. Then, he moved slowly up her thigh and she panted with each inch closer. When his fingers slipped into the sensitive heated folds there, her head fell back and she gasped at the pleasure of it.

His mouth on her neck made her shiver again, and she reached up to untie her own laces, wanting his tongue on her breasts. He chuckled, understanding the madness he was causing, and when she'd somehow managed to loosen the edge of her gown and tug it down, his mouth was there, tasting and nipping along her skin.

He ceased neither his mouth nor his hand, pushing her body toward the edge of control. Somehow they'd moved a few paces, and now she felt the wall behind her, giving her support as he relentlessly pleasured her. He lifted his mouth from her and caught her gaze. She knew what he would do now. He liked to watch her face as she reached completion.

Her body wound tighter and tighter until she could not breathe or speak. He forced moan after moan from her until the tightness exploded within her and she arched against his hand over and over. Tolan's fingers teased that small bud within the folds until she could do nothing but feel wave after wave of pleasure coursing through her body as her release occurred.

Tolan watched the way her eyes glazed over in passion as he stroked her deep and fast. Her body reacted in ways she probably did not even know, but he could see them and feel them and even smell them. His hand between her legs grew wet with her arousal and the bud beneath his finger stiffened, much like his own cock did.

Her mouth grew rounder, and she licked her lips as her body kept pace with his hand. When he brought her to release, her gasps grew stronger and louder until she screamed out in the quietness of her cottage.

His body throbbed and ached for its own release, but this time was for her. It had been too long. Too many nights without being inside of her body and finding that moment of joining and complete pleasure. He held her there, pressed against the wall, his hand sliding in gentle caresses as her body eased down from the height of passion. When she sighed, he smiled and kissed her one more time.

“I have a perfectly comfortable bed right over there,” she said, nodding behind him.

“Aye, you do.” He nodded as he spoke. “But I could not wait.”

Tolan removed his hand and let her gown fall. She did not cover her breasts, and he wanted to lean over and suckle the rose-colored nipples. He would. And she would scream again for him many more times before dawn's light brightened the sky and woke the village. Thea trembled when he stepped back and she reached out to grab hold of his arms. She let out a soft laugh as he guided her to a stool.

Something deep within him felt satisfied that he could cause such a reaction in her with only his touch. His cock, still hard and erect, reminded him that there were other ways to seek release.

“Can you stay, or must you return to your house?” she asked, reaching up for her laces.

He stayed her hands with his, sliding his finger along the edge of the opened gown and shift. She shivered as he touched her nipples. His flesh throbbed with need. Tolan crouched before her and pulled the garments out of his way. Her breasts pressed against his fingers, and he teased them.

He watched as a lovely blush rose up into the skin of her breasts and then into her neck and cheeks. But this was not embarrassment. It was arousal. Tolan leaned in and tasted first one and then the other, licking around the edge of each nipple before pulling it into his mouth and sucking it. Her reaction was immediate; she arched against him and grabbed his hair. When he lifted his mouth from her skin, she pulled him back. Laughing, he looked up into her dark brown eyes and smiled.

“I am staying the night, Thea.” He slid his arms around her and lifted her from the stool. “Let us put that perfectly comfortable bed to use,” he urged.

It took little effort and time to reach the bed, and soon their garments were removed, and they drove each other mad with desire, delaying their releases until they could not resist.

Tolan had missed everything about her while away from Durlington on the lord's business. Not just this, but also the way she smiled when she greeted him. Especially when she came upon him unexpectedly and her eyes lit at the sight of him. He loved the way she saw to the needs of the injured and sick of their village, her touch gentle and her care thorough and compassionate. She was as successful a healer as he was a farmer.

Once the fires of passion were tended, and as the light of the morning sun began to creep into the lower edge of the sky, Tolan knew that this was the woman he wanted in his life. The woman he wanted as his wife, to be at his side and in his house and bed . . . and most important, in his heart.

The miles that he'd crossed and the days away from her had made that clear to him. He'd remained unmarried since Corliss's death a few years ago, and he'd raised their son on his own. Now, though, now he was ready to marry, and he prayed Thea would say aye.

She roused in his embrace, sliding her leg over his and smiling a soft, satisfied grin. He held her close and tried to think of the perfect words to say to her. Her gaze narrowed onto his, and she spoke first.

“What is it, Tolan?” She reached up and caressed his brow and cheeks with her fingers. “Is something wrong?”

“Nay, Thea. All is well.” Tolan eased back just a bit, still keeping her near, but with enough room to speak. “I have a matter to discuss with you. That is all.”

“This sounds serious.” Thea pushed up to sit, her long brown hair flowing over her shoulders and pooling onto her lap. It hid nothing of her charms from his sight.

“It is serious. It is a matter of marriage.”

At the hint of a frown, quickly hidden, Tolan suspected that the topic did not please her, and her answer would not please him.