by Nhys Glover
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
EPILOGUE
GODDESS UNBOUND:
A Reverse Harem Fantasy
The Airluds Trilogy Book 3
Nhys Glover
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. With the exception of historical events and people used as background for the story, or those clearly in the public domain, the names, characters and incidents portrayed in this work come wholly from the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental
Published by Belisama Press
© Nhys Glover 2017
The right of Nhys Glover to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This book is copyright. All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please delete it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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OTHER BOOKS BY NHYS GLOVER
ANCIENT ROMAN HISTORICAL ROMANCES:
Liquid Fire
The Barbarian's Mistress
Lionslayer's Woman (Sequel to Liquid Fire)
White Raven's Lover (Sequel to Barbarian's Mistress)
The Gladiator's Bride (Sequel to White Raven's Lover)
WEREWOLF KEEP TRILOGY:
Guardian of Werewolf Keep
Imprisoned at Werewolf Keep
Defiance at Werewolf Keep
Insane (A novella)
NEW ATLANTIS TIME TRAVEL SERIES:
Nine Lives (Cara/Jac)
The Dreamer's Prince (Jane/Julio)
Savage (Faith/ Luke)
Shared Soul (Maggie/Travis)
Bitter Oath (Liv/ Rene)
The Titan Drowns (Eilish/Max, Karl/Lizzie, Pia/Marco)
The Key (Kat/Bart)
Pieces (Krista/Dirk)
Second Chance (Bree/Hakon)
Watcher (Jin/Rafe)
Vision of You (Ellen/Duke)
Osiris (Takhara/Dan)
Causality (Willow/Jarvidh)
Gods of Time (Teagan/Jason, Lucien/Alba)
Book of Seeds (Shay/Cy)
SCORPIO SONS SF/SHIFTER ROMANCE SERIES:
1: Colton 2: Connor 3: Cooper 4: Chase
5: Cameron 6: Caleb 7: Conrad 8: Charles
GREYWORLD SERIES:
(Paranormal Sweet Romance)
1: The Anomaly
2: Mallory
3: Earth Angel
4: Crag Wraith
THE AIRLUDS TRILOGY:
The Sacrifice
The Chosen One
Goddess Unbound
OTHERS:
The Way Home (Ghost Romance)
Caught in a Dream (SF Sweet Romance)
Labyrinth of Light (New Age Inspirational)
Chapter One
AIRSHA
The man woke me from the depths of sleep, urgently telling me that we needed to go, now! Groggily, I did his bidding. I didn't understand what was happening, but I understood urgency, fear and the need to escape.
I climbed out of the monstrous bed and dressed in the clothes provided for me, a plain tunic and breeches. It seemed familiar apparel. Mayhap I was not a woman at all? Glancing down at my swelling breasts, I corrected that thought immediately. I was most definitely female.
Taking his outstretched hand, I let the stranger lead me out of the airy, luxurious room and down a dark corridor. In the back of my mind I felt uncertainty, a sense that what was happening was not right. But I had no idea what was right. I had no idea about anything, I realised with a start. How was that possible?
Digging my heels in a little to slow our hasty progress, I tried to assess the situation. Now sleep had been cleared from my mind I could think properly for the first time. But think about what? Escape? This stranger? This place I was escaping from? The reason for it? I had no answers. Why did I not have answers?!
"Come. We must go now! If they find us we will die!"
That at least was familiar. I knew the need to escape for my very life. I knew it too well. But where did I know it from? Why was it familiar?
I gave in to the familiar need for escape and let the man hurry me along. The corridor ended abruptly and we turned down a flight of stone stairs that likely led to more populated areas of this... this place. How did I know that? What was this place? Not a prison, that was certain. The room I'd left was neither small nor mean, and the door and windows had not been barred. Then why did I need to escape it?
At the bottom of the stairs we turned down an even darker and narrower corridor. The only light came from the burning sconces on the walls. It felt like those walls were closing in on me. I couldn't breathe. Struggling to get my hand free of the man's tight grasp, I fell to the stone floor. This didn't feel right. Nothing about this felt right.
The man dragged me to my feet, swearing softly under his breath, and led me on. His hold was not harsh or cruel, just insistent. If it had been otherwise I would have fought him harder. But no, he genuinely seemed to want to help me. To save me from something terrible.
What terrible fate could lie in a place so lovely? The room I had awoken in had been very fine indeed. And there had been several trunks of clothing lined up against the wall. From the window I had heard the laughter of childlings. How could any of that be terrible?
It could be. A glittering cage was still a cage. But with an open door? My mind kept reminding me. What need for escape if the door was not locked?
While my brain continued to mull over this dilemma, I realised we had left the building and were now in the courtyard. A smallish wagon pulled by four huge beastlings stood as if waiting for us.
A giant oaf pulled back the covering on the back of the wagon and my rescuer, or abductor, helped me up into it. We were surrounded by barrels. The man removed the lid from one barrel and told me to get in quickly. For a moment I fought the urge to obey. Did I want to go from a spacious and luxurious room to a stifling barrel?
"Quickly!" the man urged. "I will be in the one next to you. It will only be until we are out of the stronghold and the township. You can get out then."
I did as I was told. The barrel was for wine; I could smell the resin that had soaked deep into the wood. It made my head spin a little. But I scrunched down and realised there was plenty of room. Sitting on the bottom, knees at my chin, I watched the lid being placed on the top. How would I breathe? Was there enough air in the barrel to last me until we got far enough from the 'stronghold' that I could get out? At least I knew something now.
I was escaping from a stronghold.
What was a stronghold?
But it was too late for questions that would get no answers anyway. The lid was on and the covering replaced, and soon the wagon was creaking and swaying as it rumbled along the cobbled road. This was also familiar. Not the barrel, but hiding in a wagon. I'd done that before. So mayhap it was right to do it again.
I closed my eyes and worked to calm my fast-racing heart. Panic wouldn't serve me. If I was to survive whatever was happening to me, right or wrong, I needed to be calm about it. Mayhap, if I was calm, my mind might throw up hints about what was happening and why. It might tell me who I was.
Who I was? How could I forget who I was? It was insane. Mayhap that was it, I was insane. This was all just an illusion I had created in my troubled mind. Or a dream. Yes, a dream. Mayhap I was dreaming. Soon I would wake from the nightmare and be able to remember everything.
The rumbling of the wagon edged me back into sleep. I went willingly. When I awoke everything would be better. I'd know who I was and... and... I could act.
Chapter Two
FLEA
I relaxed back into the luxurious chair and watched the entertainment. My stomach was full, and my body was clean and dressed in fine clothing, though still befitting a boy. Airsha and the Airluds had arrived with their babes, and I could stop worrying. For the four days we were separated I'd been worried.
It was foolish, of course. Calun had shown me a picture of the beautiful cavern they were going to. Told me that Airsha needed a chance to recover from the shock of discovering her brother had betrayed her. They would take a few days for themselves and then be back, ready to start up the Airling Training Centre again. My job had been to tell the rebel leaders what had occurred, assure them Airsha was well, and get them to start looking for a new location.
And I had done all that. While resting and enjoying the comforts of the rebel stronghold with my airling-rider brothers. It was funny how a catastrophe can bring people together. For so long I had been the outsider, the 'cousin' of the Airluds, and seen to be given special treatment because of it. My presence among the other recruits had been barely acknowledged. Only Zem had seemed happy to accept me.
And as Zem rose in the recruits' esteem, I had too. Zem had cemented his position after leading the archers during the battle against the Godling's airling troopers, who had been intent on stealing away Airsha, the Goddess Incarnate.
None of the lads knew of my role in Airsha's twin brother's death. They knew I'd gone with the Airluds after Airshin when he'd left the centre in shambles, three airlings dead and the rest at each other's throats from magic. They knew he'd confessed everything before he died. Rama had slit his throat. They knew we'd raced back; too late to help with the battle, but in time to evacuate the centre before the Godling's army arrived.
What they didn't know was that I was a girl. That I wasn't related to the Airluds at all, but had come to the centre determined to bring down my rapist: Airshin. That I'd gone after the bastard with the Airluds because my skill of mind-reading was useful. It saved the painstakingly long and often faulty process of torture to discover what the betrayer knew. Although torture would have been more satisfying. For me and the husbands who had helplessly watched their wife being emotionally abused over many long moons by the little bastard.
The other recruits didn't know that, because of my ability, Airsha considered me an Air Mistress like her. Well, not quite like her. She was not only the Mistress of Air, but also of Earth, Fire and Water. Zem's mind had been full of information about the two enemy troopers who had been frozen to death in the blink of an eye. And before that, when rescuing her mother, she'd opened up the earth and let it swallow an Air Master and the troopers who were sent to trap her.
No, I was not nearly as gifted as Airsha. For which I was profoundly grateful. I would never want to be the Goddess' Chosen One. The one prophesied about millennia ago. The one on whose shoulders the whole rebellion rested. The one with a harem of male consorts who, it was prophesied, would father many magical childlings on her. Actually, the way it was worded, it sounded like she would have many childlings fathered by many men. Four was a lot, but was it 'many'?
So there was plenty my fellow recruits didn't know about me. But none of it mattered because I was now one of them, and we were all being feted as the rebels' first airling troopers. It was heady stuff.
When Airsha and her husbands had arrived late last evening, I'd quickly caught them up on what they'd missed. Then there'd been a round of meetings with the rebel leaders, where plans were made and remade under the close scrutiny of Darkin, Airsha's eldest husband.
Today, in front of an arena full of expectant rebels, Airsha had demonstrated some of her many powers. She'd stood in the centre of the dusty oval − a tiny woman with white-blonde hair and violet-blue eyes, dressed in a blue silk gown − and became more.
It's hard to explain what happened. Demonstrating her powers − by stirring up the wind, freezing water that had been spilled across the ground, igniting a pile of firewood, and making the earth quake a little − was only part of it. More than her magic, it had been her presence that inspired her audience. Even before she began, she'd appeared larger and more commanding than someone her size could ever be.
When her display was over, and it had taken no more than a quarter turn of the sandglass, Airsha gave a brief speech, which she projected without the use of tools from Highlund.
"The Godling, my father, tried to sacrifice me to his non-existent gods to gain back his lost potency," she said in a normal voice that could be heard right to the back of the stands. "If he had known I had magic, he would have had me castrated so that I could not grow my power. He would have done that to me, as he had done it to too many of my sisters before me, because he knew the Prophesy. Just as his grandfather before him and his grandfather before that, right back through time, mutilated their daughters to protect themselves against the Prophesy. They all knew that the Goddess would send an incarnation of Herself to right the imbalance in the world they had wrought. And they adopted cruel means to protect themselves and their power against just such an occurrence.
"The Prophesy said that the Chosen One would have many elemental powers, which I have displayed here today. That she would bear many magical childlings to many men. I have already begun to fulfil that part of the Prophesy. Both my babes, boy and girl, are magical.
"So I say to you, as the prophesied Chosen One, the Goddess Incarnate − magic is not something that should be hoarded and used to manipulate and control. That was not the reason the Goddess gave it to us. Magic was to help us grow and prosper. It was meant for all, not just the favoured few.
"I do not ask you to fight for me in this rebellion against the Godling. I ask you to fight for the magic inside you. I ask you to fight for the right to use your power without fear. To no longer deny your birthright. I ask you to fight, as the peace-loving airlings have chosen to do, because it is the Will of the Goddess that the Godling be replaced. Not with another Godling, as has happened in the past. But with Her representative, who will foster freedom. I ask you to fight for the Goddess within all of you. So She can become the Goddess Unbound!"
Airsha's voice had become impassioned, her presence magnificent, by the time she cried, "Are you with me?"
If the crowd at that point hadn't stood up as one and cried "Aye!" I would have dropped dead on the spot. There was no other choice. We were under the spell of the Goddess. Every single one of us. And it was wonderful!
"Are you with me?" Airsha cried again, lifting her arms so the air swirled her blue skirts around her in billowing streams.
"Aye!" cried the crowd, even louder than before. My voice was already hoarse from the volume of my cries. I looked at Zem, who stood beside me in our place of honour with the other recruits, and I could see the same exultation I felt written on his pallid face.
"Are you with me?" Airsha cried for the last time, and Zem and I screamed out ou
r affirmation until we had no voice left.
Then Zem did the most outrageous thing, for him. He wrapped me in his arms and hugged me tight.
It wasn't sexual. He saw me as a lad like him. But it changed things somehow. We'd been outsiders together when we started out and cautiously joined forces. Now we stood together as part of a team. As strange and troubled as he still was, I found I cared about him. He was important to me. And with this hug I knew I was important to him.
So now we sat together, in our pride of place just below the high table of the Banquet Hall, where Aisha, her harem and the main leaders of the rebellion sat. And I was so proud I was fit to burst with it.
When Airsha made to leave, Darkin rose with her. I suspected she was off to feed the childlings, who were still less than two moons old. I had to rely on spoken words, because I was too far away to hear her unspoken ones. And those words confirmed I was right.
"Stay, I won't be long. I am safe within these walls. I just want to feed the babes and take a little time for myself. If you come to 'protect' me, you know what will happen. There will be time for that later. For now I feel... strange. I just need a little time... It's been a big day."
"If you're unwell I'll send for one of the healers," Darkin persisted, worry written all over his darkly handsome face. He wasn't my favourite Airlud. That was Calun. But I respected him, and knew he felt the same way about me. Even though I had lied my way into their inner circle. That in itself was a miracle.
I had gone from being a conster and a thief, living alone in poverty and fear, to being a respected airling trooper for the rebellion and friend to the Goddess Incarnate and her consorts. All because I was raped by Airsha's twin brother, Airshin. A bastard I had watched die for his many sins. Sometimes I wondered what would have become of me had he not taken me so cruelly in that alley when I was barely fourteen suncycles old. Would I still be running my cons to keep food in my belly and a rough roof over my head? Or would I be dead like my mother, beaten by a mark who found out he was being conned. Sometimes bad things led to good things.