The House Of Gaian

whipped around the stones, splintering arrows before they could touch the riders.
    She changed back to her human form and stood up.
    “Ashk?” Liam said warily. “What’s happening?”
    “Can you move?” she replied, evading his question. When he nodded, she retrieved his sword and handed it to him. “Let’s go.”
    She walked back to her horse, picked up her bow and quiver, and headed for the stones, not even looking back to see if he followed, terrifyingly aware that she and Liam were the only people alive in that part of the field.
    The last rider following Selena swung into place, completing the circle. They circled again. And once more. The ground trembled. The wind howled. Lightning slashed the sky, bringing with it a brief cloudburst of rain. And fire ringed the circle made around the stones.
    As the last circle was completed, Selena swung left again, turning Mistrunner sharply back to face the stones. The others swung out of the circle and went past her, turning back until they formed a crescent with Selena at its center.
    Selena raised her arms. The cloudburst ended. Moments later, the sun shown down upon the field. And still moonlight glowed around the circle, forming a barrier.
    “Witch’s Hammer!” Selena shouted. “Show yourself, Master Inquisitor, or someone else will bargain for you!”
    Nothing happened. There were plenty of men moving among the stones, but no one answered. Finally, a cloaked, hooded figure appeared.
    “What are you to think you can bargain with me?” a growling voice shouted back.
    “I am vengeance—and I am justice. You tried to reshape our world to your own liking—and you have failed. We stand, and we will always stand. We are the Mother’s Daughters. We are the Mother’s Sons.
    We are the Pillars of the World. We are the House of Gaian. And we are going to grant your wish. You and your followers are exiled from this world, Inquisitor, but we will give you another to shape as you will.” Selena raised her arms higher. “I call earth!”
    “We call earth!” the Sons and Daughters repeated.
    “I call air!”
    “We call air!”
     
    “I call water!”
    “We call water!”
    “I call fire!”
    “We call fire!”
    Power flowed into the circle. Flowed and flowed.
    “By the light of the sun, by the light of the moon, by the four branches of the Mother, we make a world beyond this world, anchored to it but never a part of it. We make it out of dreams and will.” Selena pointed at the Witch’s Hammer. “As you will, so mote it be.”
    The ground shook. Lightning flashed. The fire that formed a circle rose so high Ashk could no longer see the stones.
    The power swirled inside the circle. Swirled and swirled.
    Then, with a tremendous thunderclap that knocked Ashk to the ground, it was gone.

 

     
     

Chapter 52

 

     
     

     
    waning moon
     
    Adolfo slowly got to his feet and looked around. Stone. Nothing but stone. And a spear of gold and silver light no thicker than a fist touching the stone a man’s length in front of him and rising up, up, up until it disappeared somewhere in that vaulted ceiling of stone.
    He didn’t like that light. Hated that light. It felt. . . clean ... and repulsive. He moved away from it. He had no trouble seeing. Fire burned among the stones, and the air reeked with the smell of sulfur. He tore off the cloak that now felt too hot and confining and went searching for the water he could hear trickling nearby. It spilled out from a crack and pooled in a hollowed stone that formed a basin. Bending over, he lapped the water. It tasted of blood, of gore, of rotting bodies. Delicious.
    He heard voices below him, saw the rocks piled together to make rough stairs leading down into the stones and the fire.
    “What happened?” asked one frightened voice. “Where are we?”
    “Where’s Master Adolfo?” another voice said. Then, shouting, “Master! Master Adolfo?”
    He walked down those rough stairs, moving toward the voices.
    “Where are we?”
    “It’s— Mother’s mercy! This is the Fiery Pit! We’ve been thrown into the Fiery Pit!”

    There is no Mother here , Adolfo thought. Only the Master. Only.. .
    Hunger.
    He followed the curve of the stairs, stopping when he saw them. Wolfram barons. Sylvalan barons.
    Guard captains and bowmen. His ...
    Meat.
    .. . Inquisitors. His ...
    Feast.
    . .. followers. He would show them the glory of the world he’d created for them. He would show them he was .. .
    Hunger.
    .... was