I grabbed his wrist to stop him but he was so much stronger in his distress.
“Let me,” Severus said. He took hold of the torc around Galahad’s throat and groaned. Both he and Galahad sank to the small bed. I knelt before them. Severus’ fey heritage glowed inside his eyes, one becoming a deep shining green, the other a richer darker brown.
“The torc is enchanted,” he whispered. “It is hurting his mind. Muddling him. Burning him. He cannot think clearly, only act through the orders he is given. You are the only thing he sees and understand as kindness and love in his life. He cannot think, Holt. He cannot function without orders. Orders from The Lady.”
I stared into Galahad’s eyes and watched the terrible emotions swamping him gradually fade. The thigh muscles under my hands suddenly relaxed.
“Holt,” he sighed in contentment and smiled.
“Hello, my friend,” I said. “It’s good to see you at last.”
“And this is Severus,” he said, turning his head slightly to look at my companion.
“Hello,” Severus said slightly breathlessly, with his hands on the torc. “I can’t do this for long, it’s too powerful,” he said to me.
“There’s no way we can take it off?” I asked Severus.
“I can’t, I’m not strong enough, nor am I clever enough. I can’t undo spells this complex. All I can do is channel the chaos away for a short time.” Severus began to sweat with the effort.
“How are you really?” I asked Galahad, realising time was horribly short.
“I’m still alive, thanks to you,” he said, taking my hands. “Gods, I’ve missed you.”
“We don’t have long left,” Severus said, his voice straining.
“How can I help you?” I asked Galahad, our fingers entwined.
“This thing around my neck, it’s confusing and muddling my mind. I cannot think clearly through its magic unless I begin to shred our bonding. I’d rather be mad than live without you inside me,” he said. The intensity of his voice surprised me, our emotional connection finally equal it seemed.
“Galahad...” I whispered, imagining the commitment it would take to sustain our bonding through such a terrible punishment.
“You need to listen,” he said. “I cannot leave unless we find a small golden box which contains a vial of my blood. That’s what is tying me to the torc. The gold is enchanted. The blood is the thing making me a victim.”
“If I destroy it will it release you?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think so, but I don’t know. I do know I can’t leave it here. If I do I’ll simply go mad and die. The box has to be with you,” he said. Severus moaned and Galahad glanced at him.
“Why is it so quiet here?” I asked. The urgency of our escape multiplying tenfold in my mind the longer we were here and more I learned of Galahad’s damage.
Galahad shrugged. “I’m not certain but it won’t last long. We won’t be able to cut our way out of here. I can only fight if she allows it; she controls the magic inside the torc. She can turn up the noise of the chaos if she wants to hurt me or switch it off completely if she needs me to focus on something completely.”
“Where is the box?” I asked. My mind raced, trying to fit in all the events surrounding us and tasks we had to complete.
“In her rooms. I’ll be able to get you there even if I am babbling like a fucking fool.” He was very angry.
“A beautiful fool,” I said, caressing his jaw for a tender moment.
“Your fool,” he decided. He turned his head slightly and kissed my wrist. A slow groan issued forth, one of pain not pleasure and Severus collapsed, panting heavily, into Galahad’s lap. A mist of madness descended over my friend’s eyes and he began to whimper, clutching my hand and pulling his hair.
I bit back my sorrow and hoped I smiled kindly. “It’s alright, Galahad. We’ll find a way to make it stop. We’ll fix this.”
“Fix,” he murmured.
I nodded and glanced down at Severus. “Are you alright?” I asked him.
He blinked heavily. “Not exactly. Gods, Holt, you have no idea what a rats nest of a mind he has. I’m amazed he can function at all.”
“What are you talking about?” I rose and began trying to find anything which might belong to Galahad in the small room. Apart from the clothes he stood up in, there was nothing.
Severus finally managed to lever himself off Galahad’s lap but held his other hand and patted it gently offering reassurance. “The fear he had of loving you is what she’s using as the base for her control. He’s using you as a barrier to protect what’s left of his sanity. She’s using you as the tool to break him. She really doesn’t like the thought of men loving each other – I mean – really doesn’t like it. What she is filling his head with is terrible.” He shuddered.
“How often can you help him?” I asked.
Severus shook his head. “Not often enough. I don’t know what I’m doing to be honest. Maybe Torvec can help. If he takes over me, he could do something through you...”
I frowned and stood still considering Severus’ words. “I don’t like Torvec using you at all. He’s making you weak, exhausting you. It’s not fair.”
“It helps you and Galahad, it’s what I’m here for,” Severus said, with a matter-of-fact determination.
We’d been having this argument for weeks. Severus could talk with the dead and Torvec could channel through him directly because now he was dead he’d become stronger, but it cost Severus far too much. My lover meant a great deal to me and I didn’t want to lose him to a dead dragon.
“We’ll see,” I muttered. “It’s time we left this room and went to find this box.”
“What fun,” Severus said. “We are going to run around the home of the most dangerous person in Albion to find a golden box with a vial of Galahad’s blood in it, what could possibly go wrong?”
I chuckled, I couldn’t help it, the whole situation was absurd.
I found Galahad holding my hand so tightly I feared for my knuckles and he mumbled constantly under his breath, while I needed some more of the damned bugleweed to keep me going and Severus looked ready to drop from psychic exhaustion. Together we were about to evade The Lady of the Lake before she found out we’d broken into her precious citadel to steal her crowning glory – Galahad du Lac.
CHAPTER FIVE
We left the cell and Galahad pulled me back the way we came. Still there were no guards. When we reached the first junction he pulled me left and we entered new territory.
“Slow down, Galahad,” I whispered, dragging him to a halt. It was hard work, he’d lost weight but that didn’t stop him from being strong.
“Box,” he said again for the hundredth time.
“I know but I cannot fight like this,” I said holding up his hand where it clutched mine.
“Here, Galahad, take mine. I’ll keep you safe,” Severus said, holding his hand out.
Galahad frowned hard, clearly trying to work through something complicated. “I need to fight,” he said carefully.
“No, it’s alright, I can manage,” I said. “I just need both hands.”
“I am sorry I cannot be more help,” he said.
I clutched his face between my hands and stared into dark eyes trying to fight through the noise generated by the torc. “You are helping. You are here and we are together again.”
He nodded. “Together, Holt.”
I patted his hand and he finally let go, grabbing Severus’. The three of us walked carefully forward. I now carried my sword and my fighting knife. We were still alone and I still didn’t hear anything. The air around me seemed dry but had a strange scent on it, partly a heady incense and partly the same underwater stink I recognised from the Mer-King’s palace.
It didn’t help my paranoia.
We reached a fork in the hallways that were now crafted from finer stone. Galahad placed a hand on my shoulder and drew my attention to the right hand side. We walked slowly forward, my ears strai
ning every moment to catch the sound of anything other than the eerie silence.
“Holt, wait,” Severus hissed. I turned to look at him and saw his eyes were too bright.
“What is it? If it’s Torvec, I could do without his helpful interference right now.”
“It’s power, raw power and it’s calling to me,” he whispered. “It is magnificent.”
I frowned and glanced at Galahad but he began to rock with distress, a low level hum accompanying the movement. “Where is it coming from?” I asked Severus.
“This way,” he said, leading Galahad and pushing past me.
He moved fast and sure, even when Galahad tried diverting us toward his goal. I allowed Severus to have the control, concerned but curious about his overwhelming desire to find the source of the thing calling to him.
We were heading downward again, this hallway roughly hewn and narrow. Galahad finally bent his head after I rescued him from several near misses of decapitation. Severus was almost forcing us into a run through these low tunnels until I began to hear voices. I pulled us to a halt.
“What the hell is going on?” I whispered.
We heard a strange undulating chant, the rise and fall of which sent chills through to the marrow of my bones. I couldn’t distinguish words but even my human blood felt the power, just as I did in the stone circles. I wanted to run, my instinct strong, but the desire to find out what the hell our enemy was doing overrode common sense.
I forced Severus to walk behind me and I led the way toward the sinister and ethereal singing. The tunnel ended abruptly, filling with bright white light rather than the torches we’d been following. The air stank of incense so heady that I started to feel dizzy.
I ripped at the hem of my cloak. “Here, cover your faces I think this stink is a narcotic.”
“Oh, well, let’s not consume narcotics,” Severus muttered, staring hard at me.
“Let’s not take something we don’t understand,” I countered heavily.
He snorted but covered his face. I helped Galahad tie the cloth over his nose. We crept forward and slowly the noise became words but nothing I could understand.
Galahad started to worry at the torc again. “What is it?” I asked him.
“I can’t...”
I glanced at Severus but his eyes were out of focus, locked onto the power beginning to rise through him. Taking matters into my own hands I held Galahad’s face and reached for him through our ties of bonding.
We both shuddered, the strange connection twisted and had been strengthened through Severus’ and Torvec’s interference. When I came to, my lips were on Galahad’s. He slowly drew back from me.
“The language is old, the oldest of Albion. I’m not even sure it has a true name. It is speaking of magic, old and dark, calling to the heart of the world and the heavens. It isn’t speaking the language of Albion or the Brownies and Ogre. It is old like the shifters are old.” His words were clipped and he clearly struggled but they were lucid.
“Like the dragons?” I asked him while he fought to remain articulate.
“Yes, it might not even be a language of Albion. The shifters, the oldest of the fey, they... They came... I can’t, Holt. I’m losing it.” The shame and grief in his eyes broke my heart.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. Don’t fight it. We’ll figure everything out, Galahad.”
His mind slipped through my fingers and his hand curled around my wrist. Galahad du Lac wasn’t going to surrender me quickly. I turned back to the chanting and edged forward in the shadows cast by the unnaturally bright light.
The three of us crouched just inside a small archway, peering down into a vast hall. It looked as if the centre of a huge underwater mountain had been carved out and lit with ten thousand glowing white and pink crystals. Immense, soaring columns rose even beyond our height and we were a good forty feet from the mass of people below. I quickly realised we sat inside a working tunnel, several were scattered about the sides of the vast hall. Something, men perhaps, dug into the centre of this mountain and hollowed it out using these small rough avenues. The sounds, frenetic cries of adulation, from the people below us were gathering to some kind of frenzy, the noise enough to wake the souls in the Land of the Dead.
The tempo increased and with it so did the light. It became so bright I had to squint hard to keep watching a large dais in the centre of the crowd. The people were all perfectly ordinary fey, some from Sidhe heritage, some Salamander, others of mixed fey races and even some of the spirit fey like Dryads seemed to be here, though I didn’t understand how. The cry grew to a great volume and the lights were so bright. I held the back of Severus’ coat to make certain he didn’t topple forward, the pull for him to join the throng almost overwhelming my lover.
A new sound came through the cry of the crowd of several hundred strong; it was the chime of a mighty bell somewhere in the hall. The crowd began to sway as one body and through shaded eyes I watched the dais crack seamlessly open and another platform rise through the hole. The Lady of the Lake stood there, naked but for a golden belt holding a sword and her ankle length black hair covering her breasts and backside. Her arms were at her sides but she gave the air of a person who understood the stench of power and how to wield it.
The crowd became wild, I’d have said orgasmic but The Lady wasn’t known for tolerating lusts of any kind so I pushed the thought away. Damn, though, it was a good word for the heaving mass of people. Severus and Galahad were both responding to it, but fear kept me focused.
The Lady lifted her arms and silence descended. Her cold, perfect beauty was astonishing, even to me. The wound I’d inflicted on her certainly hadn’t made any long term impact.
She remained silent for a long time, the crowd watching her with heavy expectation. I reached for Severus’ hand and drew his attention toward me. “I need Galahad to understand this,” I whispered. “Can you help?”
I watched him tackle the power flowing around him, drowning him and the slow return to me. “I think I can help but it’s not going to be easy with all this,” he said a little breathlessly, wafting a hand toward The Lady. He closed his eyes and reached for Galahad’s torc. One deep breath later and I watched Galahad’s eyes clear.
“If this is too much...” he said, glancing at Severus.
“I need you to look down there and understand what’s going on,” I said without preamble.
Galahad turned to the crowd below us and frowned when he saw The Lady, naked and alone on the platform. “The power she’s using,” he whispered. “What is she doing?” His eyes glazed and I touched his hand to force him to focus on me.
“I was hoping you’d figure that out,” I muttered.
The Lady began to speak. I didn’t recognise one word but a soft and hesitant translation came from Galahad.
“Our time is almost here, the scion of the Royal House of Albion is almost ready. Your prayers and offerings are soon to be rewarded.”
A soft murmur swept over the crowd.
“When I have control of the throne,” Galahad continued translating the words The Lady spouted, “we will be victorious. I will usher in the new wave of power for the fey. Too long we have been enslaved by the weaknesses brought to this land. The pollution of their ways, their so-called morals and equalities. There is no equality when those striving to be equal are so far below those of us who are superior.”
It didn’t take a genius to work out who polluted whom.
“I will guide us, coax us and if necessary force us back to the ancient ways. I will crush those who stand against us. I will sweep them aside because all that matters is the purity of the fey dominion. Any who stand against us shall be defeated and you...” She bent at the knee as if paying homage to vassals. “You are the ones who give me the oldest, purest form of power so we may rise up, we may strike at the heart of the corruption, use our icon of the Royal House, to defeat all who stand before us. I am your leader, your queen, your empress, your God.”
&nb
sp; The wash of light and power within the room knocked both Severus and Galahad over. I flinched as if struck hard. Light blazed. Noise rushed and a scented wind swept through the vast hall. Galahad began to whimper, rolling into a ball and rocking hard.
I touched Severus’ back and he turned, snarling toward me with Torvec’s elongated eyes. I scooted backward, shocked by his sudden appearance.
“She is rising,” Torvec said.
“So I gather,” I replied, watching him carefully, my hand tightening to the hilt of my sword.
Severus’ body moved toward me with a grace I remembered from Torvec. I hated this, I hated my lover being possessed. I’d grieved hard for Torvec but I’d never have him and I’d never be free of him either.
“She is gathering the old power about her. The old fey power of worship. It will raise her spirit to that of goddess if Galahad takes the throne and she marries him,” he said.
I felt my mouth drop open. “Marries him?”
“Why do you think she had the girl killed, Holt?”
I stared at the miserable ball of humanity. “I have to get him out of here,” I said.
“Probably a good plan,” Torvec snipped. He forced Severus’ body closer to me, we were nose to nose, within kissing distance. I drew back, pushing myself into the stone.
I scowled at him both cross and recognising the ping of desire rising within me; there were times I hated myself and this was one. “Enough, Torvec. I’m doing my best. Give me back Severus and please leave him alone. He has to help with Galahad, I’m not sure he’ll cope with both of you using him.” And I wouldn’t cope with seeing him repeatedly.
“He’s Kerith, he’ll manage,” Torvec said, and I heard his hunger for our passion.
“I don’t think he will, please, don’t hurt him.” Remaining calm was proving difficult, I wanted to react and violence started to become the predominant option.
“What about me?” Torvec whispered in misery, while I watched him fade slowly from Severus’ face.
Albion's Legacy (Sons Of Camelot Book 3) Page 3