The Rising Page 23

  She didn’t finish that.

  “You do not want?” I prompted.

  She still didn’t share.

  “If you don’t wish to talk about it,” I murmured.

  Again, she gave me her gaze. “I almost lost him once for doing something he did not like. I do not want to lose him again.”

  Ah.

  Understandable, but not recommendable.

  “That is no union,” I told her gently.

  She stared at me.

  “He cannot have all he wishes just because you desire greatly not to lose him,” I told her. “You will lose too much of yourself in that and either become a shadow of what you once were, or your love for him will dim before it entirely fades away as you begin to hate him for the things you cannot have, for you have given so much to him.”

  Her gaze drifted down to the mane of her mount.

  “Serena,” I called, and watched as it took some effort, but she again looked to me. “I do not know Chu hardly at all,” I said. “But from what I have seen, especially when he is with you, he strikes me as a man who not only would want to know your desires, but also would be willing to discuss them with you.”

  She thought on this a moment before she replied, “This likely matters not, depending on what might befall us as we fight the Beast.”

  “This is true, but trust me, my friend, it is in the now that you must establish how you will communicate with the one you love. I did not do that with Aramus, and we wasted months of our marriage to anger and frustration. And now, we face…”

  “Ha-Lah,” she murmured when I was unable to continue.

  I lifted my chin. “I believe in my heart we will succeed. I must. There would be no point going on if I did not. But this does not mean I do not think about that not happening, and in doing so, regret the time I wasted having the man I loved and not talking to him.”

  She studied me a moment with thoughtful, but warm brown eyes before she nodded decisively and declared, “I will be forthcoming with Chu about my desires.”

  “Good,” I murmured.

  “And now I will express my gratitude to you for your training.”

  I started laughing, but through it said, “You are most welcome.”

  She again faced forward, remarking, “She has given me much I do not deserve.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Elena.”

  I was perplexed. “What has she given you that you don’t deserve?”

  “You. Silence. Farah. Herself.”

  It was this time that I stared.

  “Serena, she has not given you this,” I told her.

  She gave me her eyes.

  “You earned it,” I said.

  A becoming pink tinged her cheeks that had nothing to do with the chill air coming off the sea.

  And again, I lost her gaze.

  But I left it at that, wishing her to think on it, and understand it, as we came upon a part of the lane that was, on one side, nothing but craggy black rock that inclined so steeply, no houses or building could be built upon it.

  It did not take much time for us to reach Lowgate, which was named thus as it was at sea level. But the gate was not low, nor was it small. As was Highgate, Lowgate was most tall and it was very wide. It was made up of thick wood painted a glistening black, and it was elaborately ornate with wrought iron in a way that was both splendid to look at and forbidding.

  Last, it was opened for us before our arrival.

  We rode through, our grand procession, with the guards at the gate standing at attention and saluting Cassius as we did.

  I noted often, my husband, some ways in front of me, riding next to True, looked back as if I might disappear into thin air.

  Each time he did, I gave him a reassuring smile.

  As for me, I took heart in the sea as we traversed the track beside it, feeling, and glorying in the mist striking the skin of my face as the waves struck the rocks at our sides.

  As the road curved inland, the guards at the front of the procession took a narrower path that would keep us traversing alongside the sea.

  And in some time, they guided their mounts up along the cliffs. Mars and Cassius were at the lead, Jorie and Chu behind them, my husband and True behind them, then Elena and Silence, Farah and Melisse, and myself and Serena broke off from them to ride low.

  I saw the small outcropping, that formed a kind of bowl, which Melisse had referred to as “The Cauldron.”

  And when I saw it, a shiver stole through me.

  This was where, in times gone by, the women of Airen would steal away to meet to discuss their plight and make plans to alleviate it, many of these being petitions to the king.

  And this was where, to make his point brutally known, the king put the leader of this effort to death by hanging her from her neck.

  Last, this was where her daughter, in lament, prayed to the land gods and the sea gods to give her strength and magic to avenge her mother and free her sisters.

  In other words, this was where the Nadirii Sisterhood was formed from oppression, anger, heartbreak and hope.

  The men directed their steeds off to the side, positioning them in a semi-circle to face The Cauldron.

  And in turn, each woman rode to her man, situated her horse, dismounted and handed over the reins.

  The wind was whipping my cloak and frock about me, my curls catching my lips and eyelashes, as we approached the bowl of black rock at the edge of the sea.

  The waters smacked against the short cliff at our side, sending up spray, and I looked to Silence to see if she was feeling what I was feeling.

  Her eyes were alive at the same time wistful, and I wondered if her desire was the same as mine.

  That being to rush to the cliff and dive off.

  Feeling my attention on her, hers came to me and a brightness came about her expression where I knew she did, indeed, feel precisely as I did.

  I sent her a small smile before I began to pay attention to the matter at hand.

  “The rocks are rough, but I bid you to sit on them, cross-legged, in a circle,” Melisse instructed. “Knees touching, holding hands, gazes to each other, and nothing else. This is important, witches,” she stated sternly. “No matter what happens during the drawing, concentrate on your sisters, and naught else.”

  These words did not fill me with delight.

  However, I did as told, taking Serena’s hand on one side, Farah’s on the other. And Elena held Farah’s other hand, and Silence’s. Thus, Silence held Elena and Serena.

  Once we made a circle, we held tight and all sat down, crossing our legs as we did, so that our knees were touching.

  I felt the coarseness of the rock at my bottom, the cold of it, the damp, but I did not move and did not place my gaze anywhere but to one of my sisters.

  Though, it sounded and even felt as if the sea close to us had begun to churn.

  “Are you ready to begin?” Melisse asked.

  Elena started the round of “Yes.”

  “You will not interrupt,” Melisse ordered, and I was assuming this was to the men. “You are here as observers only. You keep your seats on your mounts and your distance. This is crucial. Am I heard?”

  A masculine chorus of “Yes,” sounded, but they did not sound as positive as the feminine version.

  “We will begin,” Melisse decreed.

  I looked amongst all my sisters at once, feeling their expectation and restlessness along with my own.

  “It is to Ophelia we call,” Melisse intoned, and I turned my gaze to Elena to see hers holding direct to Serena’s. “It is to Jasmine that we call,” Melisse went on. “Rosehana. Tatiana. Eladora. Millicent. It is to Mary and Brianna and Bella and Kalla. We call to Nissa, June, Alicia, Emma. And we call to Audrey and Blythe, Dya and Magga, Abigail and Frieda. We call to Aileen and Coral, and we call to Fahla. We call to you. We call to our sisters who were lost on this land who have now joined the veil. We call to you for this drawing.”

  I co
uld now not only sense but hear the sea was definitely churning.

  And the sky was darkening.

  Further, there was an odd warmth at my knees.

  I shifted my gaze to Silence.

  Melisse’s voice rose, out of necessity to be heard above the noise of nature, but also as she fell deeper into the spell.

  And now she was rounding us, walking close behind us. I could feel her cloak drift across my skin as she passed me, the material cracking like a whip in a now bitter wind.

  “We call to you to fill your sisters,” she chanted. “We call to you to lend your magic. We call to you to give your strength. We call to you to offer your power. We call to you to do what you did when your feet walked this earth. We call you to stand amongst the Sisterhood. To strengthen it. To protect it. To bring it glory.”

  As we were becoming wet through, I turned my gaze to Farah. The waters were slapping against the rocks, showering us with their spray.

  And I was finding it hard to see her for not only did it seem the sun was disappearing from the sky, there was a thick mist, almost a fog, or maybe it was smoke, blowing up from the center of The Cauldron in the middle of us, at the same time the heat I was feeling grew more intense.

  Farah’s hand tightened in mine, mine in hers, as well as my other in Serena’s, and Serena returned my grip as Melisse droned on.

  “Cast them down!” she exclaimed. “Offer the blessing! Provide the gift! Give them power!”

  The wind was fierce now, and the sea violent.

  I could feel it against my skin, hear it in my ears.

  And I could sense it, as if I could see the wind blowing, the sea rising up to crash against rock.

  No, it wasn’t seeing.

  It was as if I was a part of it.

  It was a part of me blowing.

  It was a part of me rising against the shore.

  I felt something touch me at my hip, another at my ankle, and I held the hands in mine even tighter as more crawled over my lower half, and I turned my eyes to Serena.

  “Yes! For justice! For freedom! For victory! For safety! For peace in all Triton! Cast it down!” Melisse exclaimed and then she commanded, “Draw it down, my sisters!”

  Even seated, I was finding it hard to keep my place. The wind had become a gale, I was wet through, finding it difficult to hold Serena’s eyes through the smoky fog that had enveloped us, to hold the hands in mine as they grew slippery with wet.

  I heard a shout I thought was Cassius and Melisse shrieked, “Stay back!”

  “Patience, strength, sister,” Serena encouraged, holding my hand fast.

  “Draw it down! Draw it down!” Melisse yelled.

  Whatever was slithering over me was snaking up my chest, my back.

  And I was one with it.

  And the sky beyond the smoke was night, the heat at our legs burning.

  And I was one with that too.

  I whipped my head around to Farah and then jumped in fear when I heard the terrible roar.

  “We must abort!” I heard Jorie boom.

  “Stay back!” Melisse screamed, and then to us urgently, “Draw it down! Draw it down, my sisters! Draw it down and take it in you!”

  I lifted my hands and tensed my arms, and as I did, I slid across the stone and pulled my sisters closer. The others did the same, and we were all now sitting atop what felt like burning coals, but ones that did not scorch flesh.

  Our circle growing tighter, we were almost in each other’s laps.

  Another roar, followed by a third and what sounded like the snapping together of gigantic jaws coming from the direction of the sea.

  “We are the Sisters of the Beast!” Elena suddenly cried.

  And I felt it like I had not before.

  I was born thus.

  I was born of them.

  I was born of Ophelia and Jasmine and Rosehana and all the others.

  And they were born of me.

  I felt the mother of the Nadirii rise in me.

  I felt her mother draw up in me.

  I felt the mother of all mothers deep within me.

  And I knew the others did too when Silence, Farah and I repeated, “We are the Sisters of the Beast!”

  “I serve my sisters!” Serena yelled.

  “We draw down the power of mighty witches!” Elena shouted.

  “We draw down the power of mighty witches!” the rest of us exclaimed.

  “We hold sacred the strength of women!” Elena yelled.

  “We hold sacred the strength of women!” we shouted.

  More roars, right on top of each other, so close, too close, almost upon us coming from the sea…one, two, three, four.

  “Cease this at once!” Mars bellowed.

  “Do not disturb the spell!” Melisse shrieked.

  The things crawling on me made it to my neck, slinking around, the tentacles gliding up into my hair.

  And they were of me.

  I welcomed them.

  “We are Sisters of the Beast!” Elena screamed.

  “We are Sisters of the Beast!” the lot of us cried. “We are Sisters of the Beast! We are Sisters of the Beast!”

  I felt a gust of heated breath above my head and then I heard my husband roar, “Ha-Lah!”

  “WE ARE SISTERS OF THE BEAST!”

  And with the might of the magic that descended, I was forced back, painfully hitting stone, my hands still clasped on each side, holding fast.

  Holding strong.

  Then, of a sudden, the warmth of sun shone down on me.

  I blinked into the blue sky above me before I saw a leaf idly blow in the breeze at the corner of my eye.

  Such was my surprise, I shifted my gaze to it and saw a vine of ivy retreating as I felt those that bound my body doing the same.

  Serena gave my hand a tug and I sat up, pulling Farah up on my other side.

  “You can look around now,” Serena shared.

  I turned my gaze to my lap, and I was correct.

  Vast tangles of ivy vines were receding to the stone.

  And the bowl in the middle of us was no longer billowing smoke. Instead, the embers of a dying fire were quickly disappearing.

  I turned my head to the sea and gasped.

  For I saw the colossally-long, scaly, eel-like forms of two double-headed angmostros slithering out to sea.

  My body hummed. My skin felt alive.

  No.

  I felt alive.

  More alive than I ever had.

  I was of the earth.

  I was of the sea.

  The sky.

  The fire.

  These women.

  The ones who had come before.

  And my power would serve the ones born after.

  “Can we bloody approach now?” Cassius bit off.

  “Yes,” Melisse allowed. “It is done.”

  In an instant, I was dragged off my arse, disconnected from my sisters, and pulled into Aramus’s arms.

  “Fuck, shite,” he spat over my head. “Bloody sirens-damned hell.”

  Well, apparently that was as intense to watch as it was to feel.

  I curved my arms around him to show him I was all right, and to make him the same.

  “You will not be doing that ever fucking again, piccolina,” I heard Mars decree.

  “Boarding a ship bound for any-damned-place else is looking a bloody sight better right now, Ellie,” Cassius clipped.

  “True?” I heard Farah call hesitantly.

  “We will talk later,” True bit out.

  “That was extraordinary,” I heard Chu murmur.

  “Wasn’t it?” Serena asked.

  I smiled against my husband’s chest.

  Chu would most definitely be at one with discussing Serena’s desires.

  Aramus pulled just enough away to scowl down at me.

  “I do not know what there is to smile about, wife,” he ground out. “A bloody angmostros almost bit your bloody head off.”

  “Reall
y?” I queried.

  “Really,” he stated curtly. “Or at least one bloody head of one, the other head of it nearly took Silence.”

  “How remarkable,” I muttered.

  “It wasn’t remarkable, Ha-Lah. It scared the shite out of me.”

  I pressed my lips together.

  He carried on scowling.

  “Can we get them back and dry and away from this gods-damned place?” Cassius demanded.

  “Of course, the ritual is done, the spell complete. We can go now,” Melisse stated calmly.

  She had barely finished speaking before Aramus was guiding me toward our mounts.

  I went with him, for he was in a state.

  But I did so looking back, to Elena, who was similarly being “guided” (though it appeared more like she was being dragged) to her mount by Cassius.

  To Silence, who was actually being carried by Mars.

  Also, to Farah, who was tucked so closely to True’s side, it was difficult to see where she ended and True started.

  And last, to Serena, who was talking calmly with Chu, still at The Cauldron.

  They were all casting glances around as well, we were catching eyes, catching smiles, sharing spirits.

  The future was a complete unknown.

  But in the present, I had this.

  I had these people.

  I had my sisters.

  And we…were…

  Magnificent.

  140

  The Revelation

  Teddy

  Office of the Head Constable, Crittich Keep, Notting Thicket

  WODELL

  “You’ll wait here a moment, if you don’t mind,” the head constable murmured after one of his men put his head around the door.

  “We don’t mind,” Teddy murmured back, though it was clear Faunus minded.

  Sitting at one side of him, Teddy saw him shifting in his seat.

  The constable rose from behind his desk and left the room.

  “We should be finished soon,” Teddy said to Faunus when the door closed behind the constable.

  Faunus said nothing.

  “He’s keen to take you home,” Moira declared from his other side.

  Teddy looked her way.

  “I am patient to do whatever Teddy feels needs done,” Faunus decreed.

  “You want to be done with Wodell in order to take him away,” she retorted.

  “Of course, I want to go home, and as it is also Teddy’s home, take him with me,” Faunus returned.