Rising Fire (22 page)

“Tell me more. Tell me what I have to do.”

“B
rienne.” The voice was like a whisper, slipping into the darkness where she existed now. “Brienne, sweet, wake up.”

“Father?” It was Gavin's voice that spoke to her, calling her toward him.

Pain! More pain struck her and she fell back.

“Brienne.” He called her once more. She forced her eyes open.

She lay on the stone floor of a chamber she'd never seen before. Gavin and James knelt next to her, staring down at her. They helped her to stand, and she remembered battling her father over William. Turning around she saw Lord Hugh there, standing before a wall, staring at it.

“What is this place?” she asked, brushing the dirt from her palms and pushing her hair out of her face. She could see and feel the terror in both Gavin and James. He answered instead.

“This is the first sacred place my grandfather discovered here in Scotland. An ancient circle of stones buried deep in the ground. The king at the time gave my
grandfather these lands, never knowing of the kind of power that existed here.”

He lifted his hands and touched the wall, almost caressing it, as he slid his hands carefully over its surface in a circular motion. She shivered just watching him.

“Are we belowground now?” The dampness and cold spoke of a cavern or a cave that sank deep into the bedrock.

“Aye. This chamber was the first one built by the goddess,” he replied. He faced her now, but never lost contact with the wall. “Chaela sent her power through to my grandfather, and he used it to build this,” he said, glancing around the chamber. “Now that you are awake, you will feel it.”

And she did.

Her blood carried it through her body. Every brick in this chamber had been touched by evil. And she had been, too, since the same power of this evil flowed through her blood. She knew what was about to happen, so she flung herself away from Gavin and James.

And became fire.

A body of living, breathing, moving fire.

She could see the horror and shock in their faces but paid them no heed.

The fireblood was free now, and she reveled as its power pulsed through her, burning and surging stronger each moment. She walked over to where her father stood and reached out with hands of fire to touch the wall as he did, trying to glean the source of its power. Instead she felt something moving toward them from the other side.

“What comes?” she asked in a whisper of heat and sound. She knew it was a being of immense force and
it approached from behind that barrier. The fire that she was now could not resist its call.

The wall disappeared to nothing. Her fiery hands passed through the opening and she waited. It was coming.

Chaela was coming.

Her father's laughter grew louder, and she sensed that it was coming from a place of desolation and emptiness. An instant later, the searing touch of another fire melded with hers, and she screamed in agony and ecstasy as they merged. This was nothing like what she'd felt when her father had touched her or punished her.

She fell back then, swirling and burning and screaming from the inconceivable power and pain of the one. Gathering her fire, she moved closer to the goddess. Peering into the place beyond the barrier there, she watched and waited and saw something so magical and ancient that her human mind could not comprehend it. It flickered inside her thoughts, but she could not hold the image there.

“This is our goddess. This is—”

CHAELA
.

The voice screamed it so loudly that every brick and stone in the chamber shuddered. Gavin and James fell unconscious at the sound. The pull of it, the call of it, drew her once more, her flames silently sliding toward the opening.

“Our power flows from her, daughter. Chaela is the source of all firebloods. Worship
HER
now and forever.”

She could no more refuse than she could change her form back to the human she used to be. She moved across the chamber and lowered herself to the floor,
sliding her flaming hands back into the barrier in obedience. She waited for the terrible torment to strike.

Daughter of my blood. Daughter of my fire
, Chaela said, as the goddess caressed Brienne's hands with scalding, molten heat until she lost herself to it, screaming at the unending anguish. Memories of betrayal and exile flowed between them through this fiery connection. She saw the ancient ones. She watched their attack. She felt their powers against Chaela and saw her defeat.

Released a moment or an hour later, she crawled away from the barrier and lay on the floor.

“Brienne!” her father said. Opening her eyes, she watched as he crouched down next to her and put his hand into the very heart of her flames. “Come back now.”

She pulled the fire back deep inside her, gathering it back into her blood so that her human body returned then. Her skin was singed black and smoking while the birthmark on her human arm still blazed. The pain of it mixed with something else. Some feeling like the pleasure that she felt at William's touch filled her body and blood then. Waves of pain and pleasure blended as her skin cooled and healed.

Lord Hugh took her by the shoulders and gazed at her with pride.

“Now you understand?” he asked, caressing her cheek and smoothing her hair over her shoulder. “The gift you have been given? The honor paid to you?”

Brienne's thoughts were a jumbled mess. The memories of the goddess in her moment of defeat mixed with the horror and fear of her own mind, and she struggled to figure out what was real and what was not. She glanced over at the wall, where something
unspeakable had happened and saw nothing there now. But she felt the power, now banked, waiting.

“The goddess is so pleased with you, daughter,” Lord Hugh said, stroking her arms and placing his hand over the burning brand on her skin. She hissed as his fire touched her skin. “We owe her much for the power she has given us. So much.”

He turned his head and looked at Gavin and James, who now stood in a haze of terror and disbelief in the corner. She tried to go to them, to explain that she was still . . . she was . . .

What was she? Truly, she did not know at this moment. Her father held her in place for a moment until she stopped trying.

“She is in need, Brienne.” He gazed into her eyes until she realized what he meant.

Them. The goddess needed them. Just as in her vision, a human must be offered.

“Sacrifice is the supreme way we worship her.” Once more she could not move. He walked over to the two men who had meant so much to her—one who'd raised her and loved her as his own and the other who'd accepted her when no one else would. “Choose, Brienne. Choose the best sacrifice to show the goddess how we are her servants.”

Lord Hugh came back to her, kissing her forehead and her mouth and whispering in her ear, “Go and bring one of them to the goddess. Your willingness to choose one of the humans shall please her.”

Her mind emptied itself. Nothingness filled it. She could not think of such a thing. She stood there mindless, stunned by such a horrific choice. It jolted her back
to the true Brienne hiding within. And William's words were the first she could hear there in the blankness.

You must know in your heart which one you are. Who and what you are, Brienne. And let no one take that from you.

She was Brienne, daughter of Gavin and Fia. She was human.

When Lord Hugh eased his hold on her so that she could make her choice, she did, choosing to throw herself at the opening in the wall. No one would die for her or by her hand. But the barrier held, and she hit it hard. Flung away by the impact, she tumbled to the floor.

“Stupid bitch!” he yelled, slapping her with the back of his hand and then flinging her at the wall. “Too damned human still. I will teach you the way of this,” he said.

She turned to flame and attacked him then, throwing every bit of what she'd learned in those hard lessons at him. She also needed to protect the two who watched. Lord Hugh disappeared and formed again behind her, wrapping himself around her flaming form and forcing her toward Gavin and James. Though Gavin stood firm, James backed away until the wall behind him stopped him. Lord Hugh grasped her hand, still flames, and reached out toward James.

Brienne fought him. She pulled away and tried to free herself from the fire she was, but his power encircled her and made her reach for the terrified James.

And Gavin stepped in front of him.

“Take me, Lord Hugh. Leave the boy,” the man who was her father said with a quiet braveness. His selfless words gave her the strength she needed to change to her human form.

“Nay, my lord,” she begged. “What do you want of me? Do you want me to obey you? I will,” she promised, kneeling before him. “Do you wish me to use my powers as you say? I will.” She put her head down at his feet. “I swear. Just let them live.”

Minutes passed as she prostrated herself before him. She prayed with all her soul that he would relent.

“Ah, the sight of my obedient daughter abasing herself before me has moved me to mercy,” he finally said. “Rise and take your place at my side, daughter.”

She pushed herself to her feet and wiped the tears out of her eyes with the back of her hand. Lord Hugh's expression was empty as she walked to stand beside him.

“I should thank you, Gavin, for raising her to respect her father's words,” he said. “But I think she learned to be willful from you and the bitch you married.”

Before Brienne could stop him, Lord Hugh slammed Gavin into the wall with his power and held him there. Then, grabbing her hand in his, he pointed at James, who stumbled toward her in spite of his struggles not to. When the terrified young man stood within arm's length, Hugh placed their hands, now flames, on the center of his chest and forced him back to the opening in the wall.

“Next time, you will obey me,” he warned her, as they pushed the screaming man through the barrier to the goddess.

Hugh released her, and she reached in, trying to grab James and pull him free. She heard his screams and then a roar before she lost her grip. Falling back, she wrapped her arms around her head, trying to block out the sounds as he was sacrificed within the
darkness. Brienne fell to her knees and retched until she could only heave an empty stomach.

She had killed him. Killed James. And he knew it as she pushed him in to be destroyed by whatever lived on the other side of the barrier. Rocking back on her heels, she wanted to die.

When Lord Hugh released Gavin from his hold, she expected he would be her next punishment. She had no strength left to resist him and would not be able to save him. Sobbing, she curled into a ball on the floor, unable to watch her father die because of her.

“Get out,” Lord Hugh said quietly.

She lifted her head to see him directing Gavin to the steps. And she knew he would not leave her behind.

“I pray you, go now,” she begged him.

Then she lay back down and gave up the fight.

*   *   *

William would have liked nothing more than to laugh off every word that Marcus had told him that first day. Ancient gods and goddesses. Gateways. Stone circles. Prophecies and spells. And he might have if only . . .

If he had not seen the power of the fireblood.

If he had not felt the warblood bubbling within him.

With time racing by, they needed to take positions to stop Lord Hugh from escaping Yester. They must not let him get to the stone circle that sat somewhere in the northeast of the country. Having traveled to that region, William knew that there were countless standing stones and circles all over Scotland. Without knowing specifically which one it was, they would be wasting valuable time.

From what William could tell, none of the people with Marcus had any fighting skills at all. They would
be worthless in a battle, except he knew this would be no ordinary battle. And William would not remain an ordinary warrior for long either. He would be able to call the warblood to rise and fight, but whether he could control such a power was the unanswered question.

The most elite of Lord Hugh's soldiers would be the biggest concern for his men. And considering the cache of weapons hidden in the village, there must be more fighting men that Hugh had at the ready. Mayhap they were on the way from Gifford even now?

As his two hours came to a close, one of his men raced back to him from the village.

“They are not far behind me, Will,” Emery called out as he took his place within the line of horsed warriors behind him.

A burst of light filled the sky, and he peered in the distance toward the castle as fire rose above it. Then it was gone and he heard the sound of approaching riders. Had there been an explosion of some kind? Had Hugh destroyed the keep or castle behind him so that none could use it?

A few minutes later, the riders broke through the edge of the forest and he faced Hugh de Gifford on horseback. As he expected, Hugh held Brienne before him. Ashen and in a stupor, she looked exhausted. What had he done to her?

His blood roiled and raced and his vision began to narrow. This time he did not fight the changes though that did not make it easier. His muscles stretched and grew, his arms strengthened, and his legs grew longer.

“Keep your attention on her, William,” Marcus urged from behind. “Do not lose yourself as the power takes over.”

As Hugh's forces lined up across from his men, William became the warblood that lived within him. His vision, red and ringed, could see farther and better than his human eyes could. He could smell each of those around him and differentiate their own separate scents. His right arm became a war hammer and his left a huge sword. Now towering over the men, he leaned his head back and let out the war cry that simmered in his blood.

“Take them,” he ordered in a voice he did not recognize.

His legs ate up the ground beneath him, and he crossed the open space between the lines before anyone else could. And he ran right for her. Hugh called out a word, and many of his warriors ran in front of him, blocking Will from getting to her. Hugh pivoted and began to ride away, and the warblood could not allow that.