The Scourge of Muirwood (36 page)

Lia’s eyes were wet with tears of sorrow and hatred. This was the work of the hetaera and they had succeeded in destroying all the Abbeys. Their dominion would be short-lived, Lia vowed. Raising her head, she walked towards the burning walls and summoned the power of the Medium to aid her.

* * *

“It is midnight. Twelfth Night. The world is ours.”

- Ellowyn Demont at Billerbeck Abbey

* * *

Lia passed through the burning rubble of Muirwood, immune to the heat and tongues of flame. The fire consumed the stones, leaving stumps and stubble. The Abbey would burn until dawn and there would be nothing left. Unless she stopped it at the source.

She left near the pond, the waters befouled with chunks of ash and floating debris. As she crossed, she saw a huge ring of Dahomeyjan knights inside the cloister. The cloister walls and gates were down and tossed aside. The Leering in the middle of the fountain was in flames, shooting blasts of fire into the night sky. The knights carried tomes to the Leering and heaved them into the fountain, which was now full of molten aurichalcum. Lia gazed in shock as she saw the Leering consuming tome after tome, each one having spent a lifetime engraving. Crouched nearby were goldsmiths, dozens of them, scooping up the molten stream and fashioning them into rings and bracelets and tiaras. The smell of cider was strong in the air. Knights staggered and laughed, clapping each other on the back as they continued the work of destruction.

Lia saw a speck in the distance – in the night sky the direction of the Tor. There was something burning on the crest of the hill. With a sickening dread, she already knew what it meant.

Closing her eyes, she fell deep inside herself. She journeyed through her memories to a night, long ago. It was after her ninth name day, the night of the great storm. She remembered the smells from the kitchen. The plop of the water seeping in from the roof. The Aldermaston and Pasqua were there. Sowe was asleep in the loft. The storm – the flooding of the cemetery. She remembered the sound of lightning, the torrent of rain that had lasted for days. The mud and grass she had tromped in earlier that day. The ring she still wore around her neck, its hard edge still a reminder of that night. A storm. A great storm. A storm greater than any Muirwood had endured for hundreds of years. That was what she desired. Water to put out the flames, the quench them once and for all.

Come to me!
she commanded.
I invoke a storm to purge the Abbey. To cleanse it from this defilement.
Lifting her head, she opened her eyes, her hand up in the maston sign. “Be it thus so. May storms always come to defend this ground should any seek to ruin it again.” She made the sign of the irrevocare sigil.

Someone had seen her. She heard the cautious footsteps approaching.

“Lia? Is it…is it you?”

She turned and saw Duerden, clutching a cider cup. He gaped at her, his eyes wild with astonishment. He looked older. Worse, he looked a stranger to her. There was something more serious in his eyes, an expression of a much older man and not a boy her own age. As she looked at his face, she saw it clearly through the Gift of Seering. He was infected with the plague.

“Oh, Duerden,” she murmured with a throb in her voice. “What have you done?”

“It is you!” he said, his voice plaintive yet his expression was wracked with guilt and confusion. “But look at you. Where is…Lia…the baby? Where is the baby?”

She saw it on his face with her hunter’s gaze. There was a dab of rouge on the corner of his mouth where a woman had kissed him.

“You wanted to become a maston,” Lia said, her heart breaking. “Instead, you helped destroy them. What are you talking about, Duerden? What baby?”

His face twitched with spasms, his voice choking with emotion. “You were sent away to another Abbey. To keep it secret! You were with child. The Aldermaston’s child – the baby. The child. You…you were with child. What…but…were you not with child, Lia? Like Reome?” His eyes were desperate and helpless. The cup dropped from his hand.

“No, Duerden,” she said, shaking her head violently. “That is a lie! You were deceived by the Queen Dowager. Duerden, do you not understand? The Aldermaston was murdered. He was not a traitor. It was not an execution. He was murdered. Demont was murdered!”

Duerden shook his head in a daze. “No, he fell sick. He was poisoned by Pasqua.”

“No, Duerden! He was murdered. All of the mastons have been murdered. The Abbeys are no more. When, Duerden?” She gave him a fierce look. “When did you begin listening to the Queen Dowager? You are hers. I can smell her on your clothes. Her stain is in your blood as well. When, Duerden? When did it happen to you?”

His expression was haunted, his voice quavering. “Before…Whitsunday. She spoke to me while I was walking in the gardens. She…oh, Lia, what have I done! She was so friendly to me. She did not tease me. She…Lia…she…what have I done!”

“You are infected,” Lia said, shaking her head. “The Blight. You are infected with it. She kissed you. She kissed you again tonight.” Lia’s heart broke with pain. “You cannot leave these shores. You will die, like everyone else. I am so sorry, Duerden. You will be sick. You will be very sick, very soon. Leave Muirwood while you can. A storm is coming. If you stay here, you will die tonight. Go as far away as you can, but you can never return. Go!”

Duerden began to sob like a child, overwhelmed by his despair. He was devastated. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Go!”

Lia felt the Myriad Ones surround her. Their mewling sounds and hisses filled her senses with loathing and animosity and pure hatred. They were drawn to her, wheedling at her mind with their thoughts. She turned around slowly and there was Pareigis, the Queen Dowager, in a gown as dark at the night, the silver fringe glittering. Her eyes glowed silver and the wind rustled her hair. Her fingers were curled like talons.

“He is not yours to command,” Pareigis said with an imperious voice. “You spurned him, girl. Remember? A broken heart is easily seduced.”

Lia grit her teeth but did not back away. “I broke your hold over Seth. I will break your hold over him. I do not fear you. I know who you really are.”

A gust of wind swept across the grass, bringing the scent of fire mixed with flowers. Pareigis’ hair whipped across her face. Pressure began to build in the air. Lia felt it inside her ears.

“It is your pity that you do not fear me,” Pareigis said. “You have been troublesome to me. That trouble will end tonight. You are the last maston. I have saved you for last.”

The wind began to whip more violently.

“You summon a storm?” Pareigis said with delight. “I am the Queen of storms. Water is my dominion.”

“You have no dominion,” Lia said. “You only steal. Nothing is truly yours. I know your power. I do not fear it. You cannot harm me.”

Pareigis’ eyes flashed with murder. “Harm you? I will kill you, little one. You also will be trapped on this pitiful earth. The mastons who fell before you were fortunate because they could return to Idumea. But not you. This is your reward, foolish child. This is what the Medium bestows on you for your faithfulness.” She spat the word. “Misery. That is your reward. I give you misery for bread and suffering for cider.”

In the distance, there was thunder.

Lia stared at Pareigis, unconcerned. “You will go. Depart from Muirwood and never return.” She took a step towards her.

“You cannot command
me
!” Pareigis shrieked in fury. “I command the oceans and the waves and they obey
me
. The winds come at
my
calling. Fire burns at
my
will. You cannot command
me
!”

“By the Medium, I command you to leave,” Lia said, holding up her hand in the maston sign.

Lightning lashed in the sky. The wind began to keen and howl like wolves. Lia’s hair was also whipped about her face. Her clothes thrashed with the fury of the gale. She took another step closer.

Pareigis’s raven hair spun wildly around her. She was hunched, as if under a huge weight. “This is my world. You are my daughter. I have destroyed all of the mastons and I will destroy you! Do you think you can defy an army led by the Dochte Mandar? I allowed this Abbey’s defenses to destroy my army. It was part of my plan to ruin you. This is my dominion!”

Lia took another step. The air felt like it would burn. “You have taken everything from me. My true family. My real home. The one I love. There is nothing else you can take from me. I surrender all that I am and all that I have to the Medium’s will. I speak your true name. You are Ereshkigal, the Unborn. You will depart.”

“No! You cannot command me! You are a child! Nothing but a child!”

The sky lit up with jagged shards of lightning. The trees swayed wildly. Plump drops of rain began to splatter against the walls and against Lia’s face.

“You are Ereshkigal, the Unborn. You will depart.”

The look in Pareigis’ eyes was wild with frustration and fury. She screamed then, a sound so loud and startling and unearthly that it made Lia shrink inside. The scream grew louder and louder, drowning out the booms of thunder. Pareigis’ fingers, hooked into claws, swept forward as she rushed to rake Lia with them.

Lia grabbed her wrists, holding her back with all her strength as the storm cracked open and torrents of rain began to dash from the skies. Lia clenched Pareigis’ wrists tightly, digging her heels into the ground to help her balance.

“You are Ereshkigal, the Unborn!” Lia shouted. “You will depart!”

It was as if all the strength gushed out of Pareigis’ body. Lia found herself holding the frail girl up by her wrists as she sagged and collapsed. Lightning seared the air, revealing onlooking Dahomeyjan knights who stared at Lia and the Queen Dowager with awe and terror.

On her knees in front of Lia, the Queen Dowager’s eyes fluttered open.

“Where am I?” she whispered, her voice a tiny frail wheeze. She spoke in Dahomeyjan. “What Abbey is this that burns?” she said, gazing at the fires raging within Muirwood. The rain began to quench the flames.

The Queen Dowager’s hair was soon drenched with rain and she stared up at Lia in confusion and terror. “What land is this?”

Lia helped her to stand. “This is a foreign land. You must return to your country. You are sick, my lady. You will make others sick if you kiss them.” She stared into her eyes. “Please, do not make others sick.”

Pareigis blinked with the rain, confused.

“Duerden,” Lia said, turning around. He was on the ground, huddled against the downpour. “Help her to get away. Take her far away. The storm will get worse until she is gone. Go or it will kill you both.”

He nodded mutely and came forward, helping Pareigis to stand. He supported her and guided her in the rain towards the broken outer gates.

Chunks of ice began to thud against the grass and trees. Lia knew the storm was still building its strength. It was far from spent. It would be the greatest storm that Muirwood had ever known. And somehow, in her heart, she knew that it would last for three days and three nights.

Hugging herself and her dripping clothes, Lia walked slowly to the Aldermaston’s kitchen seeking shelter.

The penultimate force of the storm did not strike Muirwood until just before dawn. The noise came as the sound of a rushing wind so mighty it was as if ten thousand wagons were hurtling by at the same moment. Lia watched from the windows of the loft, but could see nothing but raindrops and ice lashing against the panes. The wind was a ghostly sound, shrieking and roaring. Hunkering within the kitchen, Lia felt no fear. She knew the Medium would protect her. But even still, she clutched her childhood blanket and listened to the chaos and havoc whipping and whirling outside.

When dawn arrived, the storm had abated somewhat, but the light revealed the damage. Lia stared in shock.

All that remained of Muirwood Abbey were trusses and struts, tall lonely chunks of stone that had once formed the mighty walls.

“It is gone,” she said to herself, amazed at the devastation. What sort of wind had come which would hurl away stone?

After pulling on a cloak, Lia wandered out in the rain and stared in astonishment at the skeletal remains of the Abbey. A few segments of wall still stood, but they were like broken clay fragments giving only the shade of resemblance to the original.

In the midst of the Abbey, a gaping hole exposed the dungeon room where the maston rights were instructed. Oddly, the benches and altar were still there. It was now open to be seen and even the stairwell leading there was still intact. It was while Lia wandered the wet grounds around it that she saw the floor stone raise up and curious heads began to poke out. Kieran Ven and the others emerged from the tunnels below ground. Lia watched their faces as they emerged into open air where once an Abbey had stood.