The lion’s scream told her that she hit it, but Darci didn’t wait to see where the arrow went. She dropped the front of the bow to the ground and stepped through the handle on the end of it, then grasped the bowstring on either side of the stock, pulling it upward until the locking mechanism caught the string. In one, practiced motion, she slid her foot out of the handle, nocked one of the arrows that she’d pulled off and raised the crossbow toward the charging beast.
It was only fifteen feet from their campsite, too close for the scope, so she aimed along the fixed sights and squeezed the trigger. The arrow embedded into the lion’s front shoulder and it shrieked its anger at her as it continued bounding forward.
Darci stood her ground and then dove to the side when it leapt. She felt a searing pain across her shoulder as the cat adjusted in midair, swiping one enormous paw down while it sailed overhead. Her face hit a split second before her body slammed into the rocky ground. She skidded for several feet before finally coming to a stop.
She rolled awkwardly to her side in time to see Frederick shout, “Aaah Uhh!” as he swung his sword, cleaving open the creature’s neck. It turned its head and grasped the blade with its teeth, twisting the sword from his hand. The ringing of metal against the hard ground seemed to freeze in the air as the beast took ragged breaths.
Their horses cried in terror at the sight of the monster, pulling against their leads. Darci had a fleeting thought that if they broke free then the quest would be jeopardized, but they couldn’t do anything until the threat from the lion was gone.
She snapped her eyes back to the beast. It still stood, so she jumped to her feet and pulled her dagger free. The creature swung its head listlessly toward her, causing her to freeze. The combination of Frederick’s sword and her arrows may have severely wounded it, but the lion was still dangerous.
Brandt drew his sword and the animal turned its head back to the other three. It took a tentative step toward them and stumbled.
“Stay back from it,” Darci warned. “It’s not dead.”
“Yeah, but shouldn’t we just kill it and be done with it?” Brandt asked.
His voice reinvigorated the lion and it lunged forward. Tanya and Frederick moved out of the way, but Brandt fell backward, hitting his head on a rock and knocking himself unconscious.
“Shit,” the archer muttered, dropping the dagger. She cocked her crossbow once more. The beast made several efforts to move forward, but the injuries to its shoulders limited its mobility, causing it to roll slightly onto its side, giving her the opportunity she needed. She aimed at the gaping wound in the lion’s neck, hoping that the injury would allow her arrow to penetrate deep enough to reach its heart. The crossbow bucked up slightly as Darci pulled the trigger. Her eyes never left the target and she watched the arrow burrow into the lion nearly halfway up the shaft.
It wasn’t a quick death, but it did the job.
No one moved for a few moments, everyone wanted to ensure that the beast was dead. Then, they all began moving at once. Tanya rushed to see if Brandt was alright and Frederick retrieved his sword. He pulled it quickly across the lion’s throat to guarantee that it wouldn’t attack them after they’d dismissed it as another lifeless carcass in the wastes.
Darci went over to the horses to soothe them. The appearance of the big cat had spooked them and even with her there, they continued to stare at the lion, pulling to the end of their reigns with their ears flattened in terror.
“We’re going to have to move campsites,” the archer announced. “The horses aren’t going to calm down with the body of that lion so close.”
Tanya looked up from where she knelt with Brandt. “He’s still out,” she said.
“Well, we need to wake him up or lash him to the back of a horse. If we lose one of these horses, we’re in trouble. That desert on the Mistress’ map will kill us if we’re on foot.”
Frederick, who’d wiped his blade clean on the lion’s fur, agreed. “I don’t relish sleeping near this thing either. The smell of blood will bring in other predators soon enough.”
“We won’t go far,” Darci said. “Just about a mile or so to get away from it. That should be far enough to calm the horses, but not so far that we risk going near the edges of the cliffs.”
“If Brandt’s injured, we shouldn’t move him,” Tanya countered.
“We can’t stay here, Tanya,” Frederick said as he slid his sword into its scabbard. “She’s right. If we lose the horses, then we decrease our chances of getting to Jade anytime soon.”
“Okay,” Tanya relented, looking over at Frederick. “I’ll need a few moments to make sure we’ve got everything.”
She follows his lead, Darci observed. She’d seen it in a few subtle examples, but this was an outright change of direction for Tanya. When it came to matters of fieldcraft or warfare, she clearly passed the responsibility over to him. I need to continue to get Frederick to agree with me so I can steer this party where we need to go.
It was useful information that she filed away for later.
They packed up their gear and tied the unconscious Brandt to his horse, then secured the reigns to Frederick’s saddle. Right before they left, Darci recovered her first two arrows from the lion’s carcass. The other was buried too deeply to pull out. Never know when these will come in handy, she told herself.
*****
“Uncle Garrett is the king?” Varan asked incredulously.
“Yup. Everybody in Homelake has to do what he says,” Jade replied in between mouthfuls of food.
When they’d brought her to their house from the priests’ rectory, Freya and Varan discovered that the girl was famished. The last meal she could remember eating was a dinner in remembrance of Varan and Caleb at the Traxx family home. She told them that she had shadowy memories of being given water on the journey from Homelake, but didn’t remember much else.
Varan scratched his cheek in thought. How did his uncle end up as a king in a place called Homelake? They’d lived in a walled compound of about twenty or thirty homes in Texas when he was kidnapped and there wasn’t a lake anywhere near there that he knew of. He’d already asked her where the town was located, but she was too young to know those sorts of details.
“Well, I’m sure he’s a good king. It’s been a long time, but Uncle Garrett was always a level-headed man with a kind heart.”
She stared at him blankly, so he amended, “He was smart and nice.”
“Oh… Yeah, Grandad is really smart. Everybody likes him.”
“Okay, you two,” Freya interrupted from the kitchen where she’d been washing the dinner dishes with water from the river. “It’s very late and Jade needs to get some sleep.”
“I’m not tired, ma’am,” the little girl replied.
“You should be,” Freya countered. “You’ve been taken from your family and carried halfway across the country over the last three days. There’s no way you’re not tired.”
Jade held up her thumb and forefinger. “Maybe I’m a little bit tired.”
“That’s it,” the Mother said, throwing her towel onto the counter. “Off to bed.”
Varan watched as Freya led the girl to their second bedroom where she’d placed blankets on the couch there for her to keep warm. It was a strange set of circumstances that brought his cousin all the way out to the Willamette Valley and he was starting to believe—just a little bit—that maybe the Coven’s religious crazies were in tune with some type of higher being.
It wasn’t like his own beliefs that a woman tended a bunch of dead warriors in a beautiful field was any more sane. He knew that the goddess Freyja had spoken to him before, so why couldn’t the priests commune with Gaia?
“She fell right to sleep,” Freya said from behind him.
“Good,” he replied. “She must be exhausted. I can’t imagine that Thistle was gentle with her.”
“That’s why he drugged her,” she responded before dropping into the seat beside him. She reached across and
grabbed his hand. “Are you alright? I mean, this is more than a little odd that she’s part of your family—your real family that you’ve spent your entire life trying to forget.”
He waved his free hand dismissively. “I’m fine. The Traxx are dead to me.”
She released her grip and leaned back, crossing her arms under her breasts. “Even with what Jade said about them looking for you for weeks?”
“What does she know? She wasn’t around, that’s just what they told her. They abandoned us.”
“Then why do they hold a memorial each year on the anniversary of your kidnapping?”
“To appease their guilty consciences,” he retorted.
“Varan, I rarely talk to you about your feelings, because it seems like each time we do, our relationship takes a step back, but this time, I think you’re wrong. You need to open your mind and look at this objectively from an outside perspective. Your uncles didn’t abandon you, they searched for so long that their own children thought they were dead. That sounds like they were pretty damn committed to finding you.”
He sighed. Maybe she’s right. “What does it matter anyways? You know the reason Grobahn wanted to retrieve her in the first place. The Vultures are going to wipe them off the face of the earth before the end of winter.”
She shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do about that. But, you can’t dislike the girl because of who she is… Or because of who you are.”
“I never said that I didn’t like her. I’m just— I don’t know. I’m just confused about my feelings right now. I spent almost twenty years hating the Traxx for abandoning me to a life in the arena, then that gorgeous little girl shows up and says that they tried finding us and our kidnapping is such a big deal to them that they have a memorial every year… That’s a lot to put on somebody out of the blue.”
“You’re right. It is a lot, but you can handle it. We need to—”
“Um, excuse me, Miss Freya,” Jade interrupted, startling them.
Freya placed her hand on her chest. “Oh my goodness, girl. You scared me!”
“I’m sorry. I was wondering…” She looked down at her feet. “Can I stay out here with you two? I don’t like that strange man looking in my window.”
Varan jumped up and grabbed his dagger from the table behind the couch where they sat. “Stay here,” he ordered.
He slipped into the extra bedroom and edged along the wall until he stood next to the window. A quick glance told him that no one was directly outside, so he moved in front of it to see the full yard better. As he did so, the flowing cloak of a man disappeared around the corner at the front of the house.
The warrior burst from the room, nearly bowling over Freya and Jade, neither of whom had stayed where he told them to. “Someone was in the yard. By the time I got to Jade’s window, they’d slipped around the front of the house.”
Thud… Thud… THUD!
The front door shook under a heavy fist banging against it. Varan snapped the dagger’s sheath onto his belt and picked up his sword from the table by the front door where he’d set it when he came home. He slid it out of the scabbard and held it in one hand as he slid aside the curtains on the small, vertical windows beside the door.
Grobahn stood outside frowning.
“It’s the priest,” he muttered, looking back at the girls.
“What in the gods’ name does he want?” Freya asked. “It’s late and we have a little one to worry about these days.” She added the last part with an affectionate arm around the girl’s chest, pulling her in tight against her body.
“I don’t know.” He turned and unlocked the door before pulling it open. “Grobahn. It’s late, what is it that couldn’t keep until morning.”
The priest started to cross the threshold and thought better of it when he saw the sword in the warrior’s hand. “Expecting trouble?”
Varan placed the sword back on the table and allowed the door to swing wide. He took a step back to give their visitor enough room to come inside. “It never hurts to be prepared, priest. What do you need?”
Grobahn’s eyes wandered briefly around the candlelit room and settled on Freya and Jade. He sniffed through his flattened nose and said, “That seems to be a little rude for someone who stays free of charge in the Dominion.”
“I stay with the Mother. She’s the whole reason this place exists, remember?”
“Oh, I do indeed remember, outsider,” he whispered. “I remember all too well.”
Grobahn pushed past Varan toward the girls. “Mother. Daughter. How are you tonight?”
“We’re getting ready to go to bed for the night,” Freya answered.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“Yes, you did,” Varan interjected.
He ignored the comment and pressed on, “Mother, I have had a vision. I know how to unlock your powers.”
“That was fast,” the warrior muttered. While he may have been open to the prospect of Gaia being real, he absolutely didn’t believe that Grobahn was legitimate. He smelled dirty and was nothing but a charlatan who’d convinced the People to put him in power.
“Yes,” Grobahn answered, licking his lips. “It’s as I suspected. Once the Daughter and the Mother were united, Gaia gave us the answers we sought.”
“What do I need to do?” Freya asked.
“We must travel to a place where the earth opens up to a seemingly bottomless pit. My vision showed me the location and I’ve conferred with the others about what it means. We know where it is.”
He paused for effect, which made Varan roll his eyes. “Keep in mind that the people of the Dominion have been in the Willamette Valley for centuries. They were drawn here originally by the freedom of oppression and the need to explore their spirituality. This place in my vision is known to us as a place of great power.”
“So, we need to go there and do what?” Freya coaxed, rolling her hand to get the man to explain.
He continued on with his explanation, ignoring her question and obvious frustration, “It’s known as The Devil’s Hole. It was a closely guarded secret by the old government, before the fall of their society. My ancestors say that they used it for experiments with developing weapons of great power—which is why it was shut away from the world.
“Before the government took possession of the site, the legends say that men tried to find the bottom, but were never able to travel as far down as the opening went into the ground. Those who went into the Hole were changed men, often driven insane by the wonders of the pit. When dead animals were thrown into it, they would reappear weeks later, healthy and whole.”
“That sounds like something that goes against nature. Against everything that humanity stands for,” Varan stated. “Maybe the old government took control of it to protect the population.”
The priest whirled to face him. “Does it? And what is your formal training on the ways of our planet, of the way that nature responds to us and what humans have done? Think about it for a moment—if you can comprehend this. Men once traveled to the moon and back; they could cure diseases and communicate with the other side of the world. They had all of those marvelous inventions and they couldn’t find the bottom of a hole in the ground? Something is in there and now we know what it is.”
Grobahn threw his arms wide and shouted, “Mother Gaia lives in The Devil’s Hole!”
Jade jumped at his outburst and turned to hide her face against Freya’s stomach. “Your vision showed you that Gaia is in the pit?” the woman asked.
“Yes. We leave in the morning.”
“No, we don’t,” Freya said. “Jade is in no shape to travel. She’s exhausted after her abduction. We need at least a week, possibly two to prepare.”
“Mother, please. We’ve waited for one hundred and twenty years for this moment. You must allow us to leave in the morning.”
Varan stepped closer to the priest. “If you’ve waited so long,” he said menacingly, “what will waiting another week
or two matter?”
“You don’t understand!” Grobahn replied, practically crying in his desire to convince them to leave. “My vision showed us leaving. Everything must happen as soon as possible.”
“What did your vision show you about our trip to The Devil’s Hole?” Freya asked.
“I saw us leaving the Dominion with a party of thirteen in honor of the Wheel of the Year and the lunar cycle. We travel northwest for six nights, on the morning of the seventh we go into the pit. It is foretold.”
Freya frowned. “You haven’t told me that your vision actually told you when to begin the journey.”
“Soon…” the priest answered in dismay.
“No. If your vision happened the way you described it, there’s nothing telling us when we are to go.”
“The earth needs to be healed!”
“If I can make it happen, then I will—” She stopped and a strange look crossed her face.
“Freya, are you okay?” Varan asked.
She didn’t answer him. Instead, she blinked several times and then turned her head to look into the eyes of each person in the room. Varan did not see his lover reflected in the depths of those emerald greens.
“You will leave in four weeks to coincide with the Winter Solstice,” Freya said. “The annual rebirth of the sun is the perfect time for the healing to begin.”
“Mother, please,” Grobahn pleaded. “We need to go as soon as possible. We can’t wait all the way until Yule! The time is perfect now—”
“Fool. You know me not. You listen to the Taker, he has deceived you and led you astray.”
Grobahn recoiled as if struck. “You can’t talk to me like that. I am the High Priest of the Coven, Freya. It is I who had you brought to the Dominion.”
“Silence!” the Mother barked. Varan pulled Jade toward him and slid her behind his body to protect her. The woman standing before him was definitely not Freya.
“I have made my decision and you will abide by it, priest,” she continued. “The Winter Solstice is the turning point for the year; it will be the turning point for the entire planet.”
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