The Scourge of Muirwood (33 page)

“I Gift you by your true name, Eprayim. I Gift you with courage and strength and power in the Medium. I bestow on you the rank of Aldermaston, the servant of all. May you speak no falsehood and honor your oaths. I grant you the demense and grounds of Muirwood Abbey, rightfully and properly to defend them as Aldermaston. To guide those who come there seeking escape. To guide them to Pry-Ree where the ships await. You will do this until you are released from your service or until death takes you. Be it thus so.”

As he spoke, Lia experienced a flood of warmth descend from the skin of her scalp all the way down to her soles. With the warmth came a weight – intangible, but very real. It was a burden of responsibility, a shifting of responsibility from the Aldermaston of Muirwood to her.

Lia’s eyes fluttered open in shock. “Is he dead, Maderos? Why did you Gift me with Muirwood? Is he truly dead…?”

“Hush, child. Too many questions. You must be an Aldermaston to learn the irrevocare sigil. That is all you need know right now. Do not pester me with questions. All will be revealed in time. Stand – you must learn the sigil.”

Lia rose, her legs trembling. She worried about Muirwood – about what was happening there. The feeling of uneasiness was as palpable as a mist. There was danger and fear. The Abbey was in terrible danger.

“Look at me,” Maderos said, cupping her chin. “You feel the burden already. I can see it. But you have another duty here to perform. Do you hear me?”

Lia swallowed, nodding.

“This is the irrevocare sigil. Watch my hand. You trace this shape in the air with your palm. Think of a block of stone. Down over up and across. A square. There is another square. It starts in the middle and goes this way. It is an eight-pointed star. It is the seal of Zedakah of the first Family. It is the sign he taught his posterity. It is the sign of the Aldermastons, the irrevocare sigil. Whatever you bind with this sign is bound forever, child. You will be commanded by the Medium when to make the sign. If you Gift someone and then make the sign, that Gift will remain with them forever. If you curse someone, the curse will last forever. You can never use it for yourself. You cannot bind someone to yourself or bind yourself to someone. Remember this, child. It is an important responsibility. Never use it against the Medium’s will. Great calamities have happened when that occurs. Do you understand?”

Lia nodded. “I understand.”

“You are an Aldermaston now. You have the authority of the irrevocare sigil. Go where the Medium bids you. I will wait for you here.”

Lia walked carefully around the rim of the circular chamber, staring at the cool light coming from a passageway on the other side. The stones were ancient and carved with masterful details – little patterns of leaves and symbols, cut into the stone and interspersed with glowing blue stones. There was a solemn feeling in the air, a whisper of centuries past. She did not know how long it had been since mastons had walked it, but she felt a peculiar reverence for the place. The pathway led to another tunnel, and from that tunnel, she experienced a Leering calling to her.

As she stepped into the tunnel, her heart spasmed with fear and terror. It struck her with such force that she nearly screamed and ran. Behind the terror beckoned the Leering, commanding her to come forward. She recognized that the fear was caused by stone faces carved into the archway ahead, their eyes white with power. She silenced them with her mind and they obeyed. The fear departed.

Walking hesitantly forward, Lia entered a small cupola. It was small enough to admit only a few people, but the space was consumed by a massive boulder. She did not know how the boulder managed to be there in such a confined space, but then realized immediately that the stones had been laid around it, shielding it from the eyes of the world. The boulder was crumbling in places and seemed as ancient as the world. The face was so worn by time that it was unrecognizable. It could have been a man’s or a woman’s face. The stone was smooth, as if touched by the sea for a thousand years. The power emanating from it was fearsome and immense – a huge presence that made her feel like the child she really was. This Leering had stood there for thousands of years. Who carved it and when?

Instantly she knew. The whispers told her it had been carved by King Zedakah himself. It was nearly as old as the world itself. It had been protected by the elements and safeguarded at Dochte for generations. Lia stared at it in awe. What kind of Leering was it? What powers did it hold?

Lia hesitated, staring at the face – imagining the man who had carved it. The first Aldermaston. The story of her family. A story that had been written and scrived for thousands of years. She swallowed with nervousness, feeling the weight of the responsibility. With a trembling hand, she reached out to touch the stone. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her fingers trembled as they brushed the stone.

Knowledge flooded her as she pressed her palm against the Leering.

It was the Blight Leering – a carving that would summon devastation. In her mind, she saw images from the past whirl by, instances where Aldermastons had been summoned by the Medium to Dochte Abbey to unleash a Blight on the world. Some of the figures she saw in her mind were old men. Some were young. Some were women, of various ages. Always the Medium warned before the destruction came. Always it offered a chance to flee or escape. But throughout the centuries, there would come times when the people were so hardened by the machinations of the hetaera that they would not listen to the whispers of the Medium. They drowned the whispers in drink, in music, in dance, in smoke. They were lured by the wiles of the daughters of Ereshkigal until nothing could save them. In her mind she saw the horrors of what happened when the hetaera ruled. There was murder and lust and actions so terrible it made Lia shrink to even consider what occurred. The only way to reverse it – the only way to bring humanity back to its senses again was the coming of a Blight.

Lia’s hand began to burn.

She had never experienced the pain of fire before. She tried to take her hand away, but she could not. Her hand burned, but it was not just the sharp scalding pain of fire. She felt it passing through the Leering to her. The Leerings were just a conduit. They connected two points, bringing together two separate forces, combining them.

Knowledge of the Blight filled her mind. In the past, the Blight had manifested itself in many forms. Some it had killed by drowning. Some it had killed with famine. This Blight was different.

The Leering released her.

Lia nearly stumbled back, staring at her glowing hand. She could not see the Blight, but it was there, cupped in her glowing palm. Instantly, she knew what she had to do. The Medium whispered for her to return to the hetaera garden.

The hetaera gardens were empty, of course. The populace of the Abbey still thronged the furnace Leering as the last remnants were thrown to their deaths. The night was calm and the air smelled of jasmine. Lia entered the hedge maze, walking quickly until she reached the round stone lid that covered the lair. Staring at the stone, she knew in her mind the password that opened it and spoke the word aloud. The stone began to slide downward, sinking into the pit. Lia stepped on it quickly and descended into the black chasm. The previous time she had been terrified. There was no fear this time. Lia walked forward quickly, past the black gaps where the serpents waited for their victims. Her hand glowed more brightly now, the light keeping the snakes at bay.

Lia entered the chamber with the oath Leerings. They did not speak to her, for she had already made her oaths. In the center of the room, still in the floor, was the half-made kystrel. It was shallow in the grooves. The Medium commanded her to pick it up with her other hand, which she did after stooping. The kystrel was cold, lifeless. It was not a threat to her.

Walking forward, she met the barrier that had thwarted her before. Behind it, she sensed the Leering she had seen so often in her mind. The Leering with the twin snakes twisting into a circle. She felt its power throbbing, but it was pale compared to the Blight Leering she had just traveled from. She stared at the stone barrier. There was a dirge that would open the door – a command spoken by a Myriad One. But she was not controlled by a Myriad One.

“Open,” she commanded, drawing on the full power of the Medium.

The stone groaned in rebellion, but it could not defy an Aldermaston. It swiveled open silently, opening to the sound of rushing water and mist. The room beyond contained a giant pool, crafted from stones and tile and filled with overflowing water. There were three Leerings carved into pillars high on the wall and the rushing waterfalls came from them. The center of the pool contained a whirlpool. The waters swirled and churned in a spiral around the whorl. A single Leering rose from the edge of the water in front of her, the stone with the burning snake insignia.

The tiles and stone leading up to the Leering were beneath a shallow layer of water. Lia looked at the water and felt the thundering mewling of Myriad Ones within the pool. There were millions of them.

Lia raised her glowing hand into the maston sign. The waters parted away from her, leaving a path of dry stone to the Leering. She approached the serpent Leering, listening to the churn and foam of the waterfall, feeling the mist on her face as she approached. The room was dark, except for the light coming from her hand and the burning snakes carved into the Leering. This was the final place. This was where a girl became a hetaera after making the oaths and forging her kystrel. She stared at the Leering and experienced a rush of blackness inside her soul just looking at it. The water bubbled and hissed as if flames from beneath the pool were beginning to ravage the waters. The mist turned into steam. It burned hotter and hotter as she approached. The entire stone shuddered with power, trying to blast her away from it. But Lia pressed on, approaching the stone, her hand in the maston sign as she walked.

The Leering began to crack with power, the stone vibrating and humming as it tried to force her away.

Lia reached the Leering, barely able to see it from the haze of steam. The waters bubbled like a livid cauldron. Reaching out, Lia touched the image of the serpent with her glowing hand.

As Lia closed her eyes, she saw in her mind every girl and every woman who had ever stood before the awful Leering. In her minds eye, she watched them press their naked shoulder against the burning image and watched it sear their flesh with a brand they would wear the rest of their days. The kystrel was a token of their power, but their power came from the binding they received by touching the stone – a binding of a Myriad One inside their body. The Myriad Ones were given complete control over the hetaera, to use them as they wished until they were finally persuaded to kill themselves, thus releasing the Myriad One and making them available to join with another hetaera. The cycle had been repeated over and over for centuries. Young girls, inexperienced in the ways of power and manipulation, were suddenly wiser than their limited years, able to seduce and influence even the strongest minds. She saw Pareigis, a shivering little girl barely thirteen at the time of her binding. She saw countless others. The final girl, the one who had made the final oaths and promises was Hillel.

Lia felt the power of the Medium thrust through her hand as it touched the stone. The Blight began its work. Every hetaera had a brand on her shoulder, the brand of the twin serpents. The Blight infected the Leering and every woman who had the brand in her skin. Lia shuddered, realizing what she was doing. The Blight would take the form of a disease, a sickness, a plague that would ravage the land. The disease would be transmitted to its victims through a kiss. Lia’s mind opened up and she saw the devastation that was coming. It would come slowly, creeping stealthily. Every kiss from a hetaera would transmit the plague. Every victim would die an agonizing and slow death. It would take time, weeks and months, even years before the survivors began to understand who was causing the plague. Then every hetaera would be hunted and killed. Women would be forbidden to read or study from tomes. The deaths would still continue, plague after plague, secret after secret, until everyone in every kingdom had been destroyed. The last man alive would be the Earl of Dieyre. She saw him in her mind, alone in the world.

The glow disappeared from her hand. The curse had been invoked.

The Medium whispered to her.
Bind it with the irrevocare sigil.

Lia wept at what she had seen. She sobbed as she realized that she was causing the death of untold thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Her hand had brought the plague that would destroy the world, save those who escaped on the ships. She remembered the Aldermaston of Tintern, how he said that the name of Ellowyn Demont would be spoken of good and evil by many. She remembered Maderos at Muirwood Abbey after she had passed the maston trial.

This hand – will impact the lives of millions of souls. Your name will be had for good as well as for evil. But to those who know the truth, they will always hold you in reverence for what this hand will yet do.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she raised her hand and made the sign of the eight-pointed star. The irrevocare sigil bound the curse to the Leering forever.

It was done.

Lia knelt at the foot of the Leering and sobbed, wracked with emotions too vast to control or even understand. A single thought burned through the storm of feelings. Colvin was with Hillel. Somewhere, the man she loved was with a woman she hated. A woman who Colvin believed was Ellowyn Demont. And one kiss from her would kill him.