The Scourge of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood #3)

The stone groaned in rebellion, but it could not defy an Aldermaston. It swiveled open silently, opening to the sound of rushing water and mist. The room beyond contained a giant pool, crafted from stones and tile and filled with overflowing water. There were three Leerings carved into pillars high on the wall and the rushing waterfalls came from them. The center of the pool contained a whirlpool. The waters swirled and churned in a spiral around the whorl. A single Leering rose from the edge of the water in front of her, the stone with the burning snake insignia.

The tiles and stone leading up to the Leering were beneath a shallow layer of water. Lia looked at the water and felt the thundering mewling of Myriad Ones within the pool. There were millions of them.

Lia raised her glowing hand into the maston sign. The waters parted away from her, leaving a path of dry stone to the Leering. She approached the serpent Leering, listening to the churn and foam of the waterfall, feeling the mist on her face as she approached. The room was dark, except for the light coming from her hand and the burning snakes carved into the Leering. This was the final place. This was where a girl became a hetaera after making the oaths and forging her kystrel. She stared at the Leering and experienced a rush of blackness inside her soul just looking at it. The water bubbled and hissed as if flames from beneath the pool were beginning to ravage the waters. The mist turned into steam. It burned hotter and hotter as she approached. The entire stone shuddered with power, trying to blast her away from it. But Lia pressed on, approaching the stone, her hand in the maston sign as she walked.

The Leering began to crack with power, the stone vibrating and humming as it tried to force her away.

Lia reached the Leering, barely able to see it from the haze of steam. The waters bubbled like a livid cauldron. Reaching out, Lia touched the image of the serpent with her glowing hand.

As Lia closed her eyes, she saw in her mind every girl and every woman who had ever stood before the awful Leering. In her minds eye, she watched them press their naked shoulder against the burning image and watched it sear their flesh with a brand they would wear the rest of their days. The kystrel was a token of their power, but their power came from the binding they received by touching the stone – a binding of a Myriad One inside their body. The Myriad Ones were given complete control over the hetaera, to use them as they wished until they were finally persuaded to kill themselves, thus releasing the Myriad One and making them available to join with another hetaera. The cycle had been repeated over and over for centuries. Young girls, inexperienced in the ways of power and manipulation, were suddenly wiser than their limited years, able to seduce and influence even the strongest minds. She saw Pareigis, a shivering little girl barely thirteen at the time of her binding. She saw countless others. The final girl, the one who had made the final oaths and promises was Hillel.

Lia felt the power of the Medium thrust through her hand as it touched the stone. The Blight began its work. Every hetaera had a brand on her shoulder, the brand of the twin serpents. The Blight infected the Leering and every woman who had the brand in her skin. Lia shuddered, realizing what she was doing. The Blight would take the form of a disease, a sickness, a plague that would ravage the land. The disease would be transmitted to its victims through a kiss. Lia’s mind opened up and she saw the devastation that was coming. It would come slowly, creeping stealthily. Every kiss from a hetaera would transmit the plague. Every victim would die an agonizing and slow death. It would take time, weeks and months, even years before the survivors began to understand who was causing the plague. Then every hetaera would be hunted and killed. Women would be forbidden to read or study from tomes. The deaths would still continue, plague after plague, secret after secret, until everyone in every kingdom had been destroyed. The last man alive would be the Earl of Dieyre. She saw him in her mind, alone in the world.

The glow disappeared from her hand. The curse had been invoked.

The Medium whispered to her. Bind it with the irrevocare sigil.

Lia wept at what she had seen. She sobbed as she realized that she was causing the death of untold thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Her hand had brought the plague that would destroy the world, save those who escaped on the ships. She remembered the Aldermaston of Tintern, how he said that the name of Ellowyn Demont would be spoken of good and evil by many. She remembered Maderos at Muirwood Abbey after she had passed the maston trial.

This hand – will impact the lives of millions of souls. Your name will be had for good as well as for evil. But to those who know the truth, they will always hold you in reverence for what this hand will yet do.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, she raised her hand and made the sign of the eight-pointed star. The irrevocare sigil bound the curse to the Leering forever.

It was done.

Lia knelt at the foot of the Leering and sobbed, wracked with emotions too vast to control or even understand. A single thought burned through the storm of feelings. Colvin was with Hillel. Somewhere, the man she loved was with a woman she hated. A woman who Colvin believed was Ellowyn Demont. And one kiss from her would kill him.





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