Dark Heat

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Dark Heat Page 7

by Leigh Wyndfield


  Chapter Nine

  The dungeon darkened as the sun set. Garron stood below the grate, a growing feeling of dread spreading from his gut through his body, down into his fingertips and toes. Something had happened, and Caelan wasn't coming back. How he knew, he wasn't sure, but he did.

  "We need to start digging,” Danner whispered, his urgency turning his words into a hiss.

  "In a moment.” Time was running out. Tonight was the night. He had to go.

  Gazing upward yet again, he debated his options. As sure as he was that she wasn't coming back, he couldn't seem to bring himself to leave. If he was wrong, she might be attacked and hurt before he could reach her.

  But he had one last night before Mabon, and it was either leave now or die tomorrow. What if he left tonight and she was returned after he was gone? Goddess above! The thought of his freedom while she was swallowed whole in The Abyss by some half mad prisoner made his insides wrench.

  Rolf appeared beside him, crossing his arms exactly as Garron had his and staring up at the grate with a slight sneer twisting his meaty lips.

  For a moment, they stood like that, then Rolf broke the silence. “Think she's coming back?"

  "No,” Garron said, keeping the emotion from his voice.

  "Then why are you standing here?"

  "I'm not sure."

  Rolf nodded as if that made sense. “I think you and I can come to an understanding, Protector. You allowed us to bargain your woman, and one good turn deserves another.” Rolf grinned, his lips an ironic twist. “I think we don't need to be at war, and as a gesture of my good faith, if your woman is lowered down, I'll bring her to you unharmed."

  "And what do you get from me for this service?"

  "Peace. You stay out of my business, Garron, and I'll stay out of yours.” Rolf leaned closer, lowering his voice. “So you don't have to waste precious digging hours waiting for her to return.” A knowing grin twisted his lips.

  So Rolf knew he was tunneling out. Garron debated what to do about it. Acting as if Rolf's information was wrong would be unwise. Rolf's assured stance said clearly that he knew beyond any doubt what Garron was up to. “If you know what I'm doing, why haven't you reported me?"

  "Because it's going to be fun to watch them scramble when Mabon comes, and they're missing two of their precious six sacrifices. Both you and Danner are supposed to be killed tomorrow.” Rolf snickered. “Won't the God of War be pissed when He isn't honored properly?” Rubbing his hands together in glee, Rolf looked like a child in a room full of sweets. “Maybe King Useph will go into one of his rages and have them sacrifice Sneed instead."

  "A nice thought,” Garron agreed, but he wished he could see Rolf's face better. This sudden change of heart didn't sit well with him. Still, there were few choices. He either tunneled or died. If Rolf turned him in to the guards, then he was no worse off than he'd be tomorrow if he stopped his plans to escape. “Why don't you come with us?"

  "My kingdom is here, Protector. And here I'll stay. Having you leave will ensure I don't have to kill you. Or that you finally become lucky and end up killing me."

  Garron knew Rolf was born to rule this dungeon. Top side, he'd be a mean little man people avoided, but here prisoners worshipped him.

  Garron took one last glance at the grate, saying a silent goodbye to a woman he'd come to feel more for than he'd thought possible in a few short days. “Bring her to me, Rolf, if she comes."

  "She's not coming."

  "No,” Garron agreed, sadness at the thought twisting inside him. “But just in case. And I'll escape so that you can have your laugh."

  "We have a bargain then."

  * * * *

  Useph's breathing went shallow. Sweat and poison covered his face.

  Caelan had bathed quickly, changing into the robes that someone had brought her. Now she knelt in prayer to the Goddess, asking for healing power.

  Hours had gone by while she fought the fast acting poison, which seemed able to regenerate itself more quickly than she could expel it. She'd gotten here just in time. She hoped. As she prayed, she wondered for the first time if maybe she wouldn't be able to save the King.

  "Why haven't you healed him?” Sneed snarled yet again. Over the last hours, Caelan had watched him become more and more concerned that Useph might actually die. Panic had set in. Sneed might be stealing money from the crown, but he needed Useph to maintain his place in life.

  "The poison is different from anything I've ever seen before. It's as if the moment I take a piece of it out of him, another piece duplicates itself."

  That was true. What she didn't say was that her connection with the Goddess didn't feel right to her. Worry made it hard to focus, the strange hum inside her a constant distraction. She'd exchanged power with Garron only a few hours ago, so perhaps it was his energy she felt twisting inside her. But it didn't feel like the warm aggressive hand of his magic. It felt softer, more rich—more like the feeling of the first sunbeam of spring hitting her face than the thrust of Battle Shout.

  She raised her hand over the King's chest. Speaking was a slow and draining art. Even small cuts could take many hours to heal if the connection with the Goddess wasn't strong. With complete focus, she blocked everyone and everything out of her mind. Holding her hand over his heart, she tried to draw the noxious green fluid from him.

  "Goddess help me take this poison from King Useph's body,” she said for the hundredth time. And just as it had every time she'd asked, a small piece of herself was lost left in exchange for the Goddess's help. It was a depleting process that left her feeling as if she'd been wrung like a wet rag, twisted, squeezed and battered.

  Another Speaker finally arrived from a nearby town, answering Caelan's request for help. Shandra's face glowed with the excitement of standing close to the King for the first time. She staggered through her curtsy, young and green, full of potential that might never arrive.

  Just looking at her made Caelan ache inside as she beckoned the girl to her side. She'd been Shandra once and had ended up turning into only a healer, albeit the Speaker to the King, instead of one of the all-seeing, all-knowing Council Mothers who'd devoted their lives to communion with the Goddess.

  Glancing back at the King on the edge of death, she realized there was no shame in that. Speakers saved lives. Speakers had their own power.

  Shandra wrinkled her nose. “Poison, then."

  "Yes,” Caelan agreed. She could no longer smell it. It had permeated the air long so that her nose had blocked the stench out, but if she concentrated, she could taste a bitter tang on the back of her tongue. “I'll need you to bathe the poison away as I draw it."

  After the short break, Caelan felt her exhaustion tenfold. Shandra would need to spell her so she could commune with the Goddess and gather her energy to heal again. Whatever the King had been poisoned with wasn't reacting to the usual words.

  "Can you Speak to him while I refocus?"

  Shandra nodded, shifting to take over, her hand sliding beneath Caelan's.

  As she climbed to her feet, aches she hadn't even notice screamed at her. She had started the healing already tired, hungry, and dehydrated from her time in The Abyss. Now, with her spiritual energy depleted, she felt a hundred years old.

  "Where are you going?” Sneed growled, catching her arm, his fingers biting into her skin.

  "I must refocus by praying to the Goddess. The poison is fast-acting and difficult to expel. I'm going to the King's Altar Room."

  "You're not leaving,” he snarled. “You will stay until he is healed."

  "Use your mind, Sneed. She isn't going to leave without healing me. She'll only get what she wants if she cures me. Let her go.” Useph's weak voice held complete conviction, and Caelan realized that because she'd asked for something in return, she'd finally become someone Useph understood.

  Sneed dropped her arm, and she slid quickly into the Altar Room. This was the King's personal place to commune with the Goddess.

  The
space was washed in mosaics, the walls a panoramic view of the nearby Goddess Temple where Caelan had lived for two years.

  For a moment, she stopped and stared at the familiar view. She hadn't thought of her time there in so long, choosing to block out that time in her life completely.

  When she'd first arrived, she'd been filled up with the Goddess's love and spirit, able to envision the past and future, as well as see when people spoke falsely. A life of study, meditation, and communion with the Goddess had stretched before her. Caelan had been so proud, so sure she was destined for the greatness of the Council.

  Staring at the mosaic of the Meditation Garden, she remembered her last time there. She'd sat beside the small waterfall, rage the likes of which she'd never known coursing through her body. Memories flooded back, her thoughts from that day swirling in her mind.

  How dare her mother dishonor their family? How could she have ruined them all with behavior so crass, so base, and unworthy? Had her mother been so caught up in this man she'd claimed she loved that no one mattered more to her, not even her only child?

  Her mother had been put to death for aiding her lover in his plot to kill the King. It was absolute and utter insanity, and if her mother hadn't had her head separated from her neck the day before, Caelan would have told her mother exactly what she thought of her.

  But now she knew why her mother had acted as she had, even if she didn't agree with all her decisions, and she mourned her death for the first time.

  Caelan stared at the bench she'd sat on and realized she hadn't just blamed her mother for what had happened. She'd blamed the Goddess. Secretly, she'd wondered how the Goddess, who was all knowing and all seeing, could let this happen.

  A shiver raced along her skin as Caelan finally saw what she'd done. She'd blamed the Goddess for her mother's sins, and it had cut her off from the loving power of her deity. How could Caelan feel the Goddess's love when she was so busy blaming the Goddess for her mother's wrongs? How could she feel the Goddess's power when she had been so filled with accusations, righteousness, and rage?

  Trying to still the trembling in her hands, Caelan lit seven candles, saying a prayer over each one. Then she knelt on the steps in front of the statue of the Goddess and bowed her head. “I have been blinded by my own anger and hate. I have pushed You away. I have blamed You for things that were not Your fault.” Tears built behind her eyes, and she blinked them away to focus on the loving gaze of her deity. “I see it now, when I couldn't see it before, and I ask Your forgiveness."

  She knew why she'd been able to have this epiphany. Through her relationship with Garron, she'd finally understood how a woman could love a man enough to sacrifice herself, sacrifice anything to save the man she loved. She still didn't agree with what her mother had done. It was selfish and wrong on so many levels. But Caelan finally at least understood how it could happen.

  And once she understood her mother, she was able to see that she'd blamed the Goddess for the trauma in her life, even though a child could have told her that the Goddess let people make their own mistakes.

  Tipping up her face and closing her eyes, Caelan felt the Goddess's love pour down onto her.

  Joy and power spilled from her eyes in silent tears, celebrating the end of ten years in a spiritual desert.

  And in that moment, Caelan finally understood that the Goddess had been with her this whole time. She had not been silent. She had only been waiting for Caelan to listen to her once more.

  Chapter Ten

  Garron passed the last rock to Danner, seeing the first ray of daylight cresting the horizon from his newly finished escape tunnel. The rush of excitement he'd expected didn't arrive.

  Sitting in the tunnel, he took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, the crisp sting of new spring filling his lungs. Worry ate at him, fear growing about where Caelan was and what could be happening to her.

  "We did it!” Danner said, his nervous voice quavering on the words. “We're out."

  Garron closed his eyes, and there, behind his lids, a picture of Caelan came to him. She knelt on cold marble, tears streaming down her face, the sleeves of her white robe pooled around the elbows of her outstretched hands.

  Danner shoved his shoulder. “What are you waiting for man? We're here. Let's go!"

  He couldn't do it. At least not without checking one last time that she hadn't been returned to The Abyss. “I'm going back to make sure Caelan isn't here.” He started to slide backwards, but Danner's body blocked him.

  "Are you insane? Garron, if you return, something might happen that keeps us from leaving. We must go now!” Danner's voice threaded with panic.

  "You can go. I'm not stopping you,” he said, understanding that his action made no sense. He just couldn't help himself. “Just back up so I can pass you and then you can leave. I need to make sure she's not here.” He knew she wasn't, but he couldn't afford to trust his gut.

  "No. I'm not going any place but out!” Danner's voice raised an octave. “Move so I can escape!"

  Garron sighed, and pulled himself through the entrance. Danner had finally gone around the bend, his nerves getting the better of him. Climbing to his feet, he made a sweeping motion with his hand. “Go, so I can check for her."

  Sliding through the hole, Danner looked beyond him. “Here,” he yelled, his voice cracking on the words.

  Men jumped from the woods, their spearheads glinting in the fragile sunrise. And in the blink of an eye, Garron stood surrounded, the action so fast, he couldn't think, his mind still on Caelan and the fact she might possibly be in The Abyss, that she might need him.

  His fighting instincts rushed through his veins too late. He counted twenty King's soldiers, all dressed in full battle regalia. Fleeing into the cave was his only option, but when he spun, Danner blocked him.

  Danner had betrayed him. Danner, not Rolf. Why hadn't he even suspected? “Is this how you repay me for helping you?” Garron asked, his voice more tired than angry.

  "They caught me pilfering the tools. They'd laid them out to trap us.” Danner raised a shaking hand. “Garron, you have to believe me. I didn't approach them to betray you."

  Rough hands grabbed Garron's arms, twisting them behind his back.

  "Yeah, you're a real Saint, Danner,” one of the guards sneered. “He traded your life for his. Sneed's long suspected someone would try to tunnel out."

  "I have to live, Garron. I have to live.” Danner held up a hand in a plea.

  "Back in the hole, Danner."

  "I'm sorry, Garron. So sorry,” Danner whimpered.

  "If you're truly sorry, then promise me you'll protect Caelan if she ever comes back to The Abyss.” Garron put the full force of his Battle Shout not into saving himself but into reinforcing his order.

  "Y-yes,” Danner stammered. “I swear I will."

  Garron nodded. It was the best he could do. Two guards yanked him away, taking him not to freedom and not to The Abyss, but to death. He'd be one of the six sacrifices today to the God of War.

  * * * *

  The King was healed.

  In the windowless room, it was impossible to know the time, but Caelan suspected morning was approaching quickly or perhaps it already arrived. Garron would be close to tunneling out now, or maybe he'd already slid from the ground, lifting himself to freedom.

  She hadn't considered that healing Useph would take every ounce of her skill and so many hours that time stopped having meaning. Her bargain with Useph no longer mattered as it once had, since by now Garron would be gone. But she'd see it through.

  As Sneed helped Useph to his feet to enter his royal bath, she took a deep breath. Now was the time to remind the King of his promise, now was the time to be strong, even when she could barely stand on her own two feet, she was so exhausted.

  "My King,” she said, dropping to her knees before him.

  "Caelan,” he said, arrogance once again strong in his voice.

  "I ask you respectfully about your promise.” S
he didn't look up, too scared he'd go back on his word. What would stop him? Garron's escaped. He may have been free for hours. So would this really matter? Still, it was something she wanted to do for him, something she had to do to repay him.

  "Sneed, take care of it,” Useph said, his voice dryly amused.

  "But Sire, he's part of the Mabon sacrifice."

  Useph's eyes narrowed, and the room seemed to contract. “Not any longer.” Wrath swirled around him at Sneed's protest.

  Sneed dropped to one knee. “Yes, Sire. I will take care of it."

  "And find out who poisoned me. I want their head on a pike.” The King straightened to his full height and walked from the room unaided.

  Sneed's gaze met hers. Rage and fury simmered in every jerk he made as he climbed to his feet. “You little bitch. You had to try to save the one man who must die.” He paced a tight circle. Then he turned, striding from the room in a swish of his ceremonial robes.

  Garron should be already free. Sneed just didn't know it yet. My sacrifice came too late.

  In a daze, Caelan walked down the long corridor from the throne room, trying to figure out where to go. It didn't seem right to return to her old life. She wasn't the same person any longer.

  Ten years ago, why had she even returned to the castle? Why, when she'd become a Speaker, had the Council of the Goddess Temple sent her here? She was an excellent healer, but they could have sent someone else, someone with a less painful history.

  Stepping onto the battlements into the fresh, bright late morning sunlight, she realized why they'd sent her here. The Council in their wisdom had known staying in the castle would force her to eventually face her past demons.

  And she had.

  "It's so late,” she whispered into the crisp spring wind. “He's gone.” She wished she could see him in her mind, as she'd once seen visions as a child. But even if that power had returned to her, exhaustion made that impossible.

  Looking down at the rolling green hills of Useph's kingdom, Caelan decided to leave the castle, with the Council's blessing or without. She'd go to Trayborne and be their healer. Nothing had ever sounded so right to her.

 

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