Lair of Beasts [Book I in the Curse Of Blood Saga]

Chapter XXXIX - Óðinnssønn (Lucian's POV)

The sun had yet to crest the horizon as I emerged like a phantom into the predawn stillness; nary a bird stirred in its bough for here lay the spectral silence of limbo that covered the shadowy landscape. 'Twould tarry no longer than it took for dawn to ascend its pulpit and spreads wakefulness across the sleepy parish.

I had preceded the others and listened intently as they too crept from Niflheim's smokey depths. I closed my eyes, relieved to feel the fragrant breeze as it brushed crisply across my sodden brow. The entrance to the subterranean tunnel that connected our underworld to the outside lay amidst the crumbling ruins of an old well shaft.

I had scaled twenty feet of ancient rock to reach the forest floor, and should any daring and unwelcome fool think to venture below... they would find naught but their deaths at the bottom of the jagged floor of the shaft for there was no ladder, nor any steps to place a foot or hand, by which to conduct a body's safe descent. 

The entrance to our netherworld was a harrowing journey. The impression was fractured unexpectedly by a strident scream that fractured the peace.

Aria! 

I felt my lifeblood drain from my face as my heart twisted and dropped into my gut. Had I not possessed an unearthly ear, I would not have heard her agony as it reached desperately toward me across the impossible range that separated us still.

I had been sprinting through the underground ere I reached the surface, but now I moved as though a veritable blur through the gloomy half-light, heedless of my preternatural speed and whom might be near enough to notice. I heard my father hissing for me to ease my pace, but I was beyond his reasoning and urged my legs to further reckless speeds.

From the corner of my eye, as I moved between the shadows like an invisible wraith, I noticed one of the castle sentinels peering from the guard tower before he cast a weary eye to the east, as if coaxing the sun from its bed so that he might be relieved of his watch. He did not notice as I flew through the gatehouse like a winged demon; neither of his eyes had had the chance to blink ere I disappeared again from view, but I knew he would soon fix his tired gaze westward again for his eccentric master would be arriving anon.

Had the gate not been already opened to me, in readiness of Godwin's return, I might have scaled the very ramparts and flung myself down into the bailey. It was certainly an ability I was possessed withal, my father's wrath be damned! Fortunately, it had not come to that. I wrenched the keeps doors open and leaped up the stairs to my chamber, from whence Aria's cries had poured forth, instead of ascending the curtain walls as I was wont to do.

The physician had prescribed that Aria be removed from our solar to a laying-in chamber, a dark and dreary room disconnected from all natural light, whereby her body would ready itself for childbirth. However, Aria had refused passionately; the thought of laying ensconced in that gloomy, little chamber for the remainder of her pregnancy, tapestried windows blotting the sunlight from her dungeon, had repelled her severely and I had readily overruled the doctor's orders.

Between hearing her first scream and finally attaining the level whither I was bound, she had purged her lungs more times than I had thought to count and I was by this stage ashen. I burst through the door, nearly knocking the obstruction from its hinges, and made my way immediately to Aria's side, ignoring the yelps of surprise that issued from the chamber's lesser occupants. I did not calm until my hands had sought her out, till my fingers had consoled themselves against her heated flesh, and I was finally able to behold the rose-tinged flesh that bespoke of her salubrious state.

Having assured myself that she was whole and hale, if in somewhat of a delirium, I whipped my head around and, with unholy eyes, impaled the three women — one of whom was my mother — that beheld me with gaping mouths, my audacity having stupefied them utterly. I had, in my benumbed frenzy, heard their enraged shrieks, but had neither cared nor answered them in my fell haste to be near Aria.