Chapter 12 #3
“The grand chieftain is dead,” said a different voice in a pitifully whiny tone from farther off to her right.
“He is not,” argued a louder voice to the left. “That is why Bansys sent us here to die, remember? But we know the truth, and the truth cannot be killed.”
Intrigued, Calia wondered just how much company she had here in the pit. “Who are you? How many of you are in here?”
“We are Legion,” said the original voice that almost made her cringe with its grating harshness.
The very act of speaking sounded as though it caused its owner pain.
“We served, guarded, and counseled the grand chieftain from the time of his birth to the moment that treasonous curse ended all our lives. Our numbers are endless. Our spirits fill this space. But fear not, when ye speak to one of us, ye speak to all, and since the grand chieftain possesses our eternal loyalty, we are now loyal to ye as well.”
“Thank you.” While honored, her heart still sank.
If these valiant people couldn’t find a way out of this place, even after their spirits had been ripped from their bodies, how could she?
After allowing herself a heavy sigh, she squared her shoulders and stood taller.
“I know you’ve been trapped here forever.
” In her mind, three hundred years was forever, and she was sure it felt like forever to them, too.
“But please tell me there is some hope of escaping—or at least doing something to counter those witches. I refuse to go down without a fight.”
“Alas,” the raspy voice said, “magic is the only way, and we have none. The witches stripped us of our powers before they cast us into the darkness.”
“Well, they couldn’t strip me of mine because I had none to begin with.” Strangely enough, Calia found some hope in that particular angle.
“But ye do have powers,” said the whiny voice. “That is how we found ye. Ye fair glow with it. Yers is the first light we have seen in three centuries.”
“What are they talking about?” she asked Intuition.
“It must be the new mate bond and the melding of our powers—or quite possibly love. Love is the strongest power in all creation.”
A shiver rippled up Calia’s spine, then wrapped its fingers around her heart and squeezed.
Was she brave enough to allow herself to love Mathison?
“What if he doesn’t love me back?” she whispered more to herself than Intuition.
In her entire life, the only one who had ever loved her without question was Gillian.
“Do you love him?”
“I don’t know what it feels like to love anyone other than my child.
I know I can no longer imagine a life without him.
That feeling is unmistakable.” She swallowed hard, fighting the lump of mixed emotions doing its best to cut off her air.
“But we’ve only known each other for a few days.
It’s impossible to love someone so quickly. ”
“Why?”
“Because it just is. Everybody knows that.”
“Everybody?”
“Yes. Everybody.”
“Then what of that movie you loved because it epitomized love at first sight?”
“Movies aren’t real.” Calia had the distinct impression she was losing this argument with her spirit wolf. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
The many voices of Legion drowned out Intuition’s quiet assent with a thunderous, “Aye!”
“Be that as it may,” Calia said, scrambling to escape this slippery emotional slope, “how could my feelings for Mathison convert to a power that would help us escape?”
“A beacon,” the loudest voice of Legion said. “’Twill help the grand chieftain find ye.”
“I don’t want him anywhere near those witches. I feel like they’re setting a trap for him and using me as the cheese.”
“Such a fine wife for our grand chieftain,” the whiny voice said. “She fears more for him than she does for herself.”
“You have truly won their allegiance now.” Intuition sounded pleased. “One can never have too many allies.”
“I just wish those allies came with a flashlight.” Calia still didn’t like the idea of doing nothing other than waiting for Mathison to come to her rescue.
Without a doubt, she knew it was a trap.
“You said I cast a glow. How come I can’t see this glow?
” She fluttered her fingers in front of her face and couldn’t even tell they were there, other than the breeze she stirred.
“That we canna say,” the raspy voice said. “Perhaps because the glow comes from within ye? Or mayhap because ye have yet to commit yer heart fully to yer bond? Ye must believe it to see it.”
“We still see ye,” the loudest Legion ghost said in a voice that boomed and echoed through the void. “Ye resemble a wee spunkie.”
“What in the world is a ‘spunkie’?”
“A will-o’-the-wisp,” Intuition said. “Remember reading about those in that book of Scottish folklore?” She blew out a rare, barely audible sigh. “Magic courses through your veins, but it is latent, and I am unsure how to help you tap into it.”
Now it was Calia’s turn to sigh. “That’s one of those ‘you have to believe in it to make it work’ kind of things, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“Then I need to start believing.” She resettled her footing as if about to go through her self-defense exercises.
“The brightest and most magical moment of my life was when Mathison and I exploded into the in-between as soon as we spoke our binding vow. I’m going to concentrate on that.
Especially on the blinding white light that surrounded us.
Do you think that might amp up my glow to provide some light in here so I might see a way out? ”
“What is amp up?” the gruff-voiced Legion asked.
“Add strength to. Like throwing more wood on a fire to make it burn brighter.” If anyone had told Calia that she’d be standing in pitch blackness, talking not only to the voice in her head but also to what appeared to be a herd of ghosts, she would’ve called them crazy.
Well, by golly, she had wanted a change from all the pain she’d found in Tennessee, and this was most definitely a change.
“Be careful what you wish for,” she muttered, then spoke louder.
“Let me concentrate. Don’t anyone talk to me, please. ”
With both hands fisted to her heart, she closed her eyes and relived the moment she and Mathison were in the in-between.
She felt the warmth. The peacefulness. Dare she say it?
Yes, she dared. She felt the love return and wrap around her like a favorite blanket and hold her close, promising her she was safe.
Breathing in deeply, Mathison’s comforting scent steadied the memory even more.
Everything felt so real that she squinted against the blinding brightness and almost cried out.
“Open your eyes,” Intuition whispered.
As soon as Calia did, she wished she hadn’t. “Damn.”
The light from her memory beat back the impenetrable darkness, revealing glistening walls of black stone rising so high she couldn’t tell where they stopped.
This was indeed what some might call a bottomless pit, and at its center stood a pair of jagged spires with winding staircases wrapped around them.
The stairs led to narrow platforms perched at their tops.
But it wasn’t their jaw-dropping height that bothered her most. It was the deep mounds of bones piled around their bases.
An incalculable number of empty-eyed skulls stared out into nothingness.
Innumerable bodies lay twisted and broken.
Legion’s remains. Sent to a plunging death for their loyalty.
“So we weren’t placed on either of the platforms but at the bottom of the pit.” Calia scrubbed her arms. The grisly sight made the place seem a great deal colder.
“Strange, indeed,” Intuition remarked. “I wonder why?”
Then it came to Calia, clear as day. If she’d fallen to her death, she couldn’t try to send Mathison some sort of telepathic plea to come save her, if such a thing existed between shifter mates.
“I am definitely the cheese in the trap. They want me to lure Mathison here.” Under no circumstances would she do that.
Somehow, one way or another, she would get out of this hellhole all by herself—well, and with the help of her inner wolf and a bunch of ghosts.