Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3) (3 page)

Unfortunately, all his efforts to simply
replace the host had been unsuccessful and the man was resisting
his urgings to hunt them down ever since he had come so close to
making him kill them. The only thing he had managed to do was urge
the man to start the war faster in hopes that it would either
distract the humans into returning to their capital, or take over
the area fast enough that they could be killed in combat. He
worried that this wouldn’t be enough. He might be forced to use
less savory means to accomplish his goals. Nuko mentally
sighed.

*

Nathair jumped as a voice suddenly sounded in
his head.

-
Human?
-

Nathair felt a wave of annoyance wash over
him; it must be the alien presence that had been trying to
manipulate his thoughts lately.

“My
name
is Nathair. But you can call
me Master, My Liege, or God. Who are you?” he asked it rudely,
smiling a bit to himself, reminded of the days not that far gone
when he had been known only as Master.

-
I am Nuko. The one you call
the Sleeping God
.
- A feeling of extreme displeasure at
having to speak to something so beneath him spread over Nathair,
but he couldn’t tell whether it was his own distaste or that of the
infiltrator.

Nathair snorted. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken,
because
I
am that god.
I
believe you are a leftover
remnant of someone who was sucked into the Bloodstone before
someone who could actually handle it came along,” he told the voice
smugly. “I suggest that you stop clinging to this world and let
yourself pass on to the next.” He felt a welling up of anger from
within him and this time recognized it as the intruders.

-
This is not the
case
.
- It inserted the feeling quite strongly onto his
subconscious. -
You have bonded with my Bloodstone, a
vessel which carries a tiny portion of myself. I am indeed the
origin of the stone. The vast power you feel that you have right
now is the merest fraction of the power I hold in my rightful form,
from which you are drawing out the tiniest amount. It is nowhere
near my real power. And nowhere near what I could give you if you
were to agree to help me
.-

“If you’re so powerful, why do you need my
help?” Nathair felt the surge of anger once again, but it was
quickly quelled, and he got the feeling that whatever it was was
mentally taking a deep breath.

-
My peers, the ones you call
the Three and others, locked me away in a prison many of your years
ago. Before they had done so, I created the Bloodstone so that I
might still interact with the outside world and form a partnership
with a human who would help me find my imprisoned body and free
me
.
-

The close bond that Nathair shared with this
being allowed him to recognize the subtle difference in the way
that it described this ‘partnership with a human’ and he was quite
sure that negotiating with the human was not the intended
method.

Nathair felt a shiver run down his spine, the
surety of the voice was chilling, and he couldn’t help but wonder
if it actually was…but his own thoughts were interrupted as it was
still talking, -
The two girls that you are intent
upon collecting as your own may have already contacted those who
put me in this prison and I am concerned that they may have been
sent to harm my body
.
-

Nathair’s mind suddenly felt as though
knowledge had been dumped into it and he took a moment to sift
through it. When the gods - who weren’t actually gods, but rather
just dragons whose longevity and magical prowess made them seem
that way - decided that it was time to leave the humans to their
own devices, they left behind three stones, the Kiani Stones, which
would help to guide them. Representatives from the three factions
had put their essences into each of these stones so that they may
still commune with the humans in times of need, but would be free
to go other places. The source of the river where his girls had
gone to was where the Kiani Stones had been hidden away. Is that
why he had suddenly wanted to stop them from getting there?

“If you are so all-powerful why would the
threat of mere humans, that I can feel you hold in such contempt,
be of any concern to you?”

Nathair felt that if the being could have
sighed it would have. -
Unfortunately, when I created
the Bloodstone, it inadvertently left my physical body vulnerable.
While I can only tap into a tiny amount of my otherwise vast
resources through the stone, my consciousness is tied up here,
leaving my physical being prone. The Kiani Stones were made only
for guidance and therefore do not require the dragon to put forth
much effort into maintaining and using them, however, the
Bloodstone that I created was meant for much more and needs that
much more of my conscious self here with it.
If
my peers have seen fit to send the human girls to my physical body
and destroy it, I would be helpless to stop them
.
-

Nathair’s mind whirled and he smiled cruelly.
“Well, so far you haven’t said too much to make me want to help
you. I already have more power than I ever thought possible, and
you’re saying that all I have to do to get you out of my head is
allow my girls to destroy your body? Perhaps I’ll find it and take
care of you myself.”

He felt smug, but at the being’s next words
he wasn’t sure if it was him that had felt it, the being, or both.
-
That would be unwise. As you have bonded with my
stone, you have become my host
.
- The annoyance he felt
he was sure was the being’s, and he felt a flash of the intruders
thoughts: That it would have liked to have seen Nathair’s essence
washed clean when he had ‘hosted’ the Bloodstone. Nathair shuddered
again. -
Therefore, our fates are entwined. If my
body is destroyed, while it will take me longer than I care to
spend regenerating, you will simply wink out of existence.
-

“Alright,” Nathair conceded unhappily, “You
have my attention, though I am still skeptical that you are
actually Nuko as you claim. Assuming for the moment that you are,
however, and that my girls are heading towards your body, what are
we to do about it?”

His decision was met with a wave of approval,
and Nuko told him of his plan…

CHAPTER 2

Layna didn’t wake until the next morning, but
she looked much more refreshed than she had previously. Gryffon
brought a bowl of broth over to her. “Good morning, sleepy
head.”

She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m feeling
much better though. I was really confused yesterday, but it’s
getting a little clearer now.” Layna looked around the cave. It was
just the two of them as Katya had gone out to hunt and Layna asked,
“So who exactly is Katya?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Gryffon answered
with a shrug, “she showed up the same day that you were poisoned
and helped save your life, and since then has been adamant about
helping to get you recovered.” He left out the part about Layna’s
parents and the package, he wasn’t sure that she was ready to hear
that quite yet. He also refrained from mentioning his reservations
over Katya’s trustworthiness. Until he knew what she was hiding, he
didn’t want to tarnish Layna’s opinion of her given the news she
would be receiving from the woman.

“I guess I owe her thanks then, huh?”

“Owe who?” Katya asked, appearing in the
entrance, her face shining from the misting of moisture she’d
gotten by walking behind the waterfall to get there.

“You,” Gryffon answered for Layna, “for the
healing that you did. And I owe you my thanks as well for that and
for helping bring her back.”

Katya didn’t comment, but a look passed
between them further solidifying Gryffon’s unease. “So do you
remember the very important thing now?” she asked instead.

Layna brought the bowl she had been sipping
broth from away from her mouth and looked to be collecting her
thoughts. “Yes, although I’m not one hundred percent sure that I
understand it all.” She took a deep breath and looked a little
embarrassed before adding, “And it might sound a little crazy.”
Gryffon gave her a lopsided grin and reached out to squeeze her
hand. She took it and held onto it to his pleasure. “Basically,
those three stones allowed me to communicate with the gods - only
they insist that they’re not gods, but simply beings who have been
around for a
very
long time and have taken it upon
themselves to help guide others when they are needed. Beings which
we have termed dragons. Apparently they’ve been tied up with a
problem of their own so they failed to notice a mistake they had
made.”

“Mistake?” Katya asked.

“Yes, there was one god - dragon -, Nuko,” at
Gryffon’s raised brow she acknowledged, “The Sleeping God, who
wanted to stay and actually act as gods to the peoples that the
dragons guided. But that wasn’t what their sacred creed says. They
only step in if they feel that a species will do itself or others
great harm if they don’t or if they are sorely needed for other
reasons. They told me that our own species had destroyed our
home-world so they cleansed this one with flame and brought us here
to start again.”

“Excuse me?” Katya’s voice was more than a
little skeptical.

“I know,” Layna said her tone indicating that
she hardly believed it herself, “so much for all the priests’
interpretations of the ‘cleansing fires’ representing other things.
Apparently it was really literally cleansed with fire,” she
laughed. “And there’s more. They claim that we didn’t have magic
before, but that the world they brought us to had,” she paused, at
a loss for words, and swung her hands around in an all-encompassing
motion, “chaotic amounts of it. They tamed a region for us and
lived among us for a short while by their standards, though they
mentioned many generations so I imagine it was actually some time,
to make sure that we would be able to adapt to the magical
environment. And we did; when they started seeing people with
talent emerge - people who could control the ambient magic - they
felt that we were ready to have them leave, that we would
eventually learn to cleanse the rest of the world for ourselves. As
they normally do, they chose three representatives to leave behind
the Kiani Stones, that’s what they call them, which are tiny
portions of the three chosen ones so that they could maintain a
connection with our world even as they moved on to another. If the
stewards of the stones felt the urging of the stone that their
guidance was needed, they could devote a small amount of energy and
help resolve the matter. That’s what the Word coming down the river
is, it was only supposed to be extra guidance, they didn’t mean for
it to turn into a worshiper-god relationship. In fact, they seemed
quite embarrassed that I was so in awe of speaking with them.”

“Do these voices in your head have names?”
Katya asked her and to his relief Layna actually gave a little
laugh at the question.

“Actually, they do. Cliodhna, Naoise, and
Kai. It’s the Three.”

“So what happened with Nuko?” Gryffon asked,
still stuck on what kind of mistake creatures such as she was
describing could have made and be so concerned about, and not at
all ready to think about the ramifications of Layna’s claims about
the Three.

“Right. When he wouldn’t give up his
ambitious talk about staying and ruling over the ones they helped,
the Elders decided that some isolation would do him good. Since we
only occupy a small portion of this world, they felt that it would
be safe to imprison him on it in the midst of the chaotic magic.
They thought that by the time we had evolved enough to be able to
cross and tame the wild magics to get to him, that he would have
learned his lesson and could be freed to rejoin them. They didn’t
realize quite how tainted his thoughts had become, and their
belated realization of how dangerous he is made them believe that
his presence here would be benign. Unfortunately, they didn’t count
on him creating the Bloodstone which has allowed him to interfere
with us, poisoning our race with his own ambitions. The Massacre
was due to his dark influence, and they said that the very moods of
the people could be affected by the dark aura seeping out from him.
Apparently, Aileen’s worries were more accurate than we thought.
And, because of whatever this problem is the Three are dealing with
- they refused to tell me what it was - they didn’t notice that it
had gotten so out of hand. That’s why they are breaking their
normal code and chose to interfere themselves in a more direct
manner. I’m told that I am now bonded to them so that they can see
our world through me, and they can communicate with me.”

Gryffon felt an odd emotion wash over him and
he resisted the urge to pull his hand out of Layna’s - and was
immediately embarrassed by the thought. It was still Layna, after
all, just because she had gods watching through her…

But she wasn’t finished. “They gathered
together the power they are able to wield here, which isn’t much
being so far away, to bring us this sword. Leoht was instrumental
in stopping the Dark King, who had harnessed the power of the
Bloodstone previously, and they believe it can help us destroy it
altogether now.”

“Us, as in the human race, or us as in we
three?”

“We three. Kai said that he could feel that
all of us had a part to play in how this would all turn out.”
Suddenly Layna’s eyes went white and she froze, cocking her head to
one side as if listening to some unknown sound. At this, Gryffon
did let go of her hand. She murmured something incoherent to
herself, oblivious to his reaction. She blinked and her eyes
cleared once more. She looked down, obviously embarrassed by the
next bit of information she had to pass along, “Apparently I am the
one who needs to use the sword, don’t ask me why, but you two will
have very important parts to play; and without all three of us
acting together, the world could fall into his hands.”