by Kate Gallwey
The disorientation got worse and by eight months I couldn’t stand without falling over, the centre of my body kept shifting all over the place and it effected my balance, so I stayed put in our marriage bed and cursed and swore at all around me, my temper lashed out at everyone in range, not many stayed around but poor Seth. He proved himself to be totally dedicated to me and our child to be, he let me vent my temper and would cater to my every irritable whim.
At the end of eight months I went into labour and if I had been human I would have died of pain and blood loss, but if I had been human I would have been created with the right sort of systems for this kind of thing. I eventually learnt how to shut down nerve ending and pain receptors and how to stop blood flowing, but the fact that it took me about a week to learn this irritated me further. But the constant surges of pain rippling through me made my life a misery.
Not going into too much detail, I do not have the right sort of internal equipment and the baby had to come out some where so about a week of this we realised that the baby could not come out, I very painfully split myself in two in certain areas and the baby came out.
He was squalling and making such a racket that told everyone that he was annoyed and irritated as I was about the whole procedure. My body does not do the childbirth thing very easily, last time with my daughter I almost died too.
Seth caught the baby and was transformed at that moment; he lost his heart.
We called him Seraph and he had black hair and black eyes like his father. He was wilder and more uncontrollable than Seth had ever been. I found a woman who had three children and had just lost one in a stillbirth and she provided milk for my baby, my body didn’t know how and I couldn’t instruct it.
He grew in short bursts and laughed his way through weaning, teething and was full of affection for everything and everyone around him. He would hold his arms out and demand ‘cuddle now!’ and was always free with his hugs and kisses. He had a wily way of charming all around him and when getting caught for something he shouldn’t be doing, would flash you a smile and a laugh that was infectious and then run away as fast as his little legs could carry him, giggling all the way.
He filled our lives with such love, but boy, was he a handful and kept us constantly on our toes with his behaviour.
I would watch him with wonderment and his every move fascinated me. I watched every eyelash grow with awe and loved every minute of his growth. He loved horses and Seth put him on a horse before he could walk, and he and Seth would make every excuse to go ridding together. It was a wonderful time, full of love and laughter.
Seth and I still had a strong enough bond together that we both recognised that the other now came second in each others affections now, and it was fine. Our sex life had come to a complete halt during my pregnancy started up again when Seraph was about two months old and our passion for each other was just as strong. We provided a united team when dealing with our son and as a father I couldn’t fault him.
It was a different time and things were done differently than today. Seth worked with the horses and other livestock and I dealt with the home, gardens and kitchens.
The kitchen was my arena and I ruled it with a rule of iron. We grew our small holding into a large one and soon we had over sixty people working on the land or in the house for us.
We got raided once by human bandits and lost a barn and some cattle to fire, so a small stock hold wall was enlarged and rebuilt with stone and a small village was being created with Seth as Headman. When we got joined by a blacksmith it became official and the village of Seth was created, I was so proud of him.
When Seraph turned ten summers old we got raided by human bandits again and the women and children huddled in the cellars and Seth and the men defended us and the livestock.
Seraph was too young to fight and was told to stay with the rest of the children, he disobeyed and when I found out he was missing I raced to the walls and found him fighting beside his father. I lost my temper and stormed the walls, summoning my sword as I did and cut down any bandit who came near my son.
They had never seen me fight and I think I over reacted, but I made my point, and no one argued or disagreed with me for quite a while afterwards.
My inner family knew I was different; it didn’t seem to matter to them. But the additions to our village were still shocked at a female wielding a sword. Females were encouraged to stay at home and have babies. Times change and sometimes humans moved backwards in their evolution.
I gave Seraph such a hiding, that he was properly sorry and then he surprised me about a week later by asking me to teach him to use a sword. Seth had been teaching him for years but I was honoured that he didn’t see me as just a mere female or just his mother, he was a good boy.
So I began teaching him. We started out with the sword and then added the staff and then the bow and arrow; he had good co-ordination and ability. He could ride like the wind and had inherited his father’s way with animals. He came away with the very best that his parent’s genetics had to offer but for some reason he was very susceptible to illness. Seraph still seemed to be just a human boy in every way. In his thirteenth summer he got a fever that was going through those parts at that time. Seth got it as well but recovered after one of my ‘potions’, it didn’t work on Seraph. His temperature went dangerously high and I could do nothing to stop it. I hated being powerless and I just held his hand and tried to feed him my Life Essence, he wouldn’t take it and it flowed right back, I was at a loss.
Eventually the fever broke and he slept but he recovered slowly and then was his normal laughing self again. This happened again about a year later and once again we nearly lost him.
During sometime in his fourteenth year and neighbour and his rather rounded daughter arrived at our village and after some angry words it appeared that Seraph was to be a father. Seth was impressed though he tried to show his disproval. I was resigned to Seraph wild ways and not really that surprised.
He inherited that from both Seth and myself, I couldn’t really be that upset. I gave the neighbour a large purse of gold and he left his daughter with us. Her name was Rhea and she became a fine asset to our household. Not long after we had our first grandchild, we named her Ianthe. She had bright red hair and was equally as wild as her father.
This happened again with two other neighbours daughters in the winter and to yet another two in the spring by the end his fifteenth year he had five daughters all with different mothers. Then came the triplets with one poor girl and then twins. All his children were girls, all were strong and healthy it was a good thing I had a lot of gold to pay off their fathers and we had a big house because he had only just gotten started.
The mothers of my granddaughters were a loud and joyfully bunch and they were a fine addition to our family and the girl children they bore all had various shades of red hair. Some of them had light coloured eyes and I could see my features in their sweet little faces. Seth and I started looking for a suitable wife for our prolific son.
When Seraph turned seventeen time and space stood still for one instant and the world held its breath. Seraph had a decision to make and he made it without turning a hair. The actual meaning and immense consequence of this decision was lost on all of us at the time.
All he told me was that he was asked to make a choice to be like his father or his mother and he chose to be like his father. Who asked him? Was my question, but he shrugged it off with a
“I dunno.”
He became fully and irrevocably human that day.
Two more daughters later and another set of twins and Seth went to a nearby town to enquire about a suitable wife for Seraph.
The old ways of stealing a bride was fading and arranged marriages were far more ‘modern’ and easier for the parents to control. So off Seth went with some men from our village to find Seraph a wife, I never saw Seth alive again.
CHA
PTER TWENTY
MaDness
The men
he was travelling with brought his body back with them. His horse had got its foot stuck in a hole and had broken his leg in the fall, Seth had broken his neck.
I washed his body and then we buried him in the hillside of his village, in was a sad affair, people came from miles around to pay their respects. I felt like I had broken my heart and was emotionally very fragile. I had trouble breathing and found I had a lot of pain in my chest. For someone who doesn’t need to breathe and can stop pain with a thought, I was in a bad way. I wanted to die too and couldn’t stop weeping; I avoided everyone for many months.
Seraph was a great support to me at this time and he was to take over as head man of our village, the village of Seth. He was showing excellent leadership skills. I worked beside him teaching him all the things a leader needs to know. He rewarded me with two more granddaughters and then settled down with the mother of his first child, the one called Rhea.
Rhea took over many of my duties in the garden and in the kitchen while I grieved for Seth and we were both happy to let that situation remain. She was firm and very fair and made excellent decisions. She had been trained as a housekeeper at her fathers farm and now she had matured, made an excellent head women and worked as an equal partner along side Seraph. Rhea wasn’t afraid of me and was quite willing to stand her ground with me if she thought it necessary. This always gets my respect, if nothing else. I have mentioned before that I have quite a temper and she got the short end of things often.
She and Seraph settled down together and it was all working fine. Then she got pregnant again and in the usual amount of time gave birth to a fiery little red haired boy called Cain.
My first grandson.
Cain became the light of my life, I loved him so much. Too much, I think looking back. But my life with my family was getting to be a bit awkward as I hadn’t aged. I tried putting grey streaks through my hair but people I had lived with all their short lives noticed that I didn’t change and would turn away from me as I walked through our village. I began to have to step back and let Seraph and Rhea do more of the running of things for people didn’t like someone not aging, they were superstitious and fingers began to point at me.
So I stayed at home and was down graded to looking after Seraph’s sixteen daughters and one son.
All had various shades of red hair and together caused so much disorder I had to rely on magic to keep everyone safe and out of mischief. I had to use every bit of my skills and talents keeping them focused and out of trouble; Seraph had been easy in comparison.
Lisele called me from Shambala and we arranged for four of my eldest granddaughters to be schooled and educated in Shambala for Ianthe had already been caught sneaking out to visit a boy, and she was only just ten summers old and I wanted her to be a child for a little while longer before she had children of her own. Seth’s and Seraph’s sex drive was breeding true, and it probably wasn’t all theirs.
I heard that not long after I became a Great Grandmother so we weren’t all that successful with Ianthe. Another four went to Scotland and were schooled intensively, but all became mothers very young and bred like rabbits.
The youngest three stayed with me and little Cain was my little darling boy that learnt weapons, letters and math and at the age of four, to his mother’s horror, began to work magic.
I was just as fascinated with Cain’s development as I was his fathers. He was blood of my blood and I enjoyed every minute of his life. His grey green eyes sparkled with deep intelligence and he also had that easy charm and that persistent streak of his grandfather.
He had a keen interest in magic that was unique among his siblings, we had already studied the basics of raising fire and shaping and shielding. He was a natural and excelled from a very early age. He had so much potential; I still grieve for his loss.
I was not really well in those days and Seraph and his son kept me sane, for I was very emotional and still felt brittle and damaged from Seth’s death.
When Seraph died as well, I faded even more. He got sick and died of that persistent fever that returned year after year. I couldn’t save him no matter what I tried, and he just drifted further and further away from me with each breath. There was no other illnesses in the village and he wasn’t contagious, his body just got a fever and died leaving Rhea to run the village. I felt that part of me died with him and I drifted though the days and nights in a daze.
Cain brought me back from that edge of the abyss into madness but only just, I love too deeply and too much. Cain brought me presents and would pretend to read to me from my big books of magic that was in long dead tongues that he couldn’t read and he would hold the books upside down anyway, but his stories were filled with happy people singing brave songs as they went into battle to win yet again.
He was nearly seven years old and was such a bright boy with so much promise and life to live.
I was sort of recovering and had left my room to attend Cain’s seventh Birthday Party when Lucian arrived with his war party.
I never thought he would find me in those remote steppes but he did and he cut down my friends and neighbours and all that tried to prevent his path and strolled into my hall.
Two of the mothers of my granddaughters were cut down as they tried to bar him entry. For me it was like everything felt like a bad dream and went into slow motion and little seven year old Cain drew his new shiny Birthday Sword and attacked Lucian.
I couldn’t move as I watched as Lucian cuffed him out of his way and little Cain flew across the hall and bounced off the wall, there was an audible crack of his neck and he was gone.
I couldn’t move as I stared at that little crumpled body that was so still, I turned and faced Lucian and screamed.
In that scream were all my losses over the last few years and most of my mind.
In that scream I lost my soul. That was all I remembered for a very long time.
enD Of Part On e
PART TWO
Contents
Chapter 1 – Cast Into Hell Page 102 Chapter 2 – A Straw To Clutch Page 107 Chapter 3 – Bridge Of Love Page 110 Chapter 4 – Son Of The Sun Page 117 Chapter 5 – Killing The Devil Page 122 Chapter 6 – Escaping & Forgetting Page 126 Chapter 7 – The Sisterhood Page 130 Chapter 8 – Hound Of Lucifer Page 134 Chapter 9 – Seduction Page 139 Chapter 10 – “I Do” Page 144 Chapter 11 – Walking The Tables Page 149 Chapter 12 – Castle On The Rock Page 154 Chapter 13 – Castle of the Moon Page 159 Chapter 14 – Demon Orgy Page 163 Chapter 15 – Adrift At Sea Page 167 Chapter 16 – In The Dark Page 171 Chapter 17 – Wounds That Never Heal Page 174 Chapter 18 – Crying Real Tears Page 177 Chapter 19 - Earth Rape Page 180 Chapter 20- Snow Healing Page 183
CHA
PTER ONE
Cast intO hell
I came back to myself slowly, cold and dying. I was confused and dizzy, and then abruptly I left my body and felt momentarily free only to be sucked back into a cold pain filled body. I felt unclean and tasted magic that felt sick and polluted and it filled my nose and mouth until I was drowning in filth, its very touch made me feel ill and I retreated to that safe place in my mind.
Much later I drifted back again to find someone having sex with me. I felt a burst of anger that I had not been asked first and confused at this only to have to retreat back again due to the strong emotional rush.
Again my mind filled with thoughts and emotions and I was alone and cold, it was very dark and I had something around my neck. I registered each thought as it arose and concentrated on breathing in and out, I wiggled my toes and clasped my hands together. I was back and I was going to stay that way.
The air tasted burnt and thick and I couldn’t see in the dark. I knew it was dark because of a faint light reflecting back at me from above, but usually I can see in the dark, I had to breathe deeply a few times to stop the panic raising. I also felt heavy and when I tried to stand up I fell back, never had I felt so weak.
I was on another world; I was on the Hellions homeworld of Hell.
The next few days were some of the worst I have ever been through. It took me some time to find out, as I had lost the ability to understand languages, also how to teleport. I had the strength of a human and that was a big problem as I was expected to have sex with these barbarians and they hurt me and there was no visible way of escape.
I had a metal collar on which marked me the property of the Lord of this Keep. He was the biggest sadistic animal I have ever met. He tortured and killed females most evenings for entertainment, and made them feel hope at the end that they would escape death only to have it crushed out of them along with the light in their eyes. His name was Torek and he was my Master.
I played the mindless idiot as that is how I arrived in this place. I didn’t understand much at first but I watched as closely as I dared and gradually I picked up what was being spoken about around me. There wasn’t much, they were discussing their recent lays and kills especially about the lays that they had killed; I didn’t call them animals for nothing.
There are many smart intelligent Hellions but not in the barracks where I had been ‘stationed’. I was used by all fifteen warriors who called ‘Barrack Horse Leavings’ home (they have a horse-like creature with six legs that I called a horse).
They would just grab me, roll me onto my back and push my legs apart and enter me with a few badly aimed pushes, move up and down a bit and then roll off leaving me gritting my teeth with barely controlled anger. I learnt to keep out of the way as much as possible but it was a small bunk house with only three of us females to ‘service’ all fifteen, and they had quite an appetite.
