The Wretched of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood 1)

It begins with a thought.

No, it was not the Aldermaston’s will that had done it. You cannot force the Medium, Colvin said. If you try and force it, it flees. Instead, you open yourself to the Medium. You seek its will. To understand its purposes.

But why would it have sent her this far to fail? Why would the Cruciger orb lead her to a Leering in the middle of the Bearden Muir and not show a way to escape? Surely there was one path of safety that would have led from the thicket. Surely…

Do not doubt! Do not doubt, Lia!

Almaguer’s voice was cold, yet throbbing. “Once you have tasted this power, it grows like a hunger. Do you feel that hunger, child? Whatever you desire, you can achieve. Anything. Anything you desire. I must have it back.” She felt his fingers graze her skin, by her throat. But she did not feel afraid. The thoughts of Muirwood lingered. His hands were trembling, his fingers trembling. As if some power shook him. He was trying to pull out the ring from her bodice.

“Give it to me!”

Lia kept her eyes shut, thinking on that night the Aldermaston had calmed the storm. She remembered understanding his thoughts, that he dreaded she would learn to use the Medium. That she would gain access to its powers.

What would you have me do? Lia whispered in her mind. I will do it. I will do anything asked of me.

It was as if a key turned inside her thoughts and a new door opened to her. That was the only way to describe it. The door was possibilities. Connections, thoughts, insights, wisdom – a thousand intersecting strands, like a cobweb. It was a moment of clarity. She understood now. It came as a rush.

The Medium had not abandoned her to the sheriff and his men. It had delivered them into her hands.

Suddenly, from the silence of her thoughts, she heard screaming – all the screaming like a chanting sound rich with horror and vengeance. The blood of the dead mastons they had slain was screaming to her. Instead of being surrounded by smoke shapes, she felt the blood singing to her. Begging her to act. Pleading with her for justice.

It was time.

Another memory came – of a moment she and Colvin shared in the kitchen. Something in his words had caused a rush and heat through her. Leering stones help bring the power out of yourself. The stones represent us. They were exciting words – thrilling words. A great deep thought had brushed against her mind, so large she could not feel the edges of it. After the last few days, she knew more – she could feel the edges now. That somehow, the ability to cause fire, or water, or plague, or life slept inside of her, not the stone.

Her back pressed against a Leering boulder with her own face carved into it. The Medium had known this time would come to her. It had inspired the Aldermaston to carve what he did years in advance not because the Aldermaston had known it would happen. But because the Medium had brought all the events together for her to act on it.

Lia opened her eyes as the sheriff fished the ring out.

There it was, a gleaming gold wedding band, dangling on a string that she had worn since she was nine. Her evidence that the Medium was real.

Almaguer looked at it, confused, his face twisting with shock and surprise. Then he looked at her.

I do not even need a Leering to make fire, she thought.

Flames engulfed her body. The door in her mind was still open. The power of the Medium surged through her, filling the grove with a towering wall of fire. It swept from her like a flood, charring oak, grass, and everything in its path into ash. It burned hotter and hotter – more than any fire she had ever summoned in the ovens of the abbey kitchen. The iron bands around her wrists melted away, her skin and clothes unharmed. There were no screams as the sheriff and his men died. They were just snuffed out by the Medium’s vengeance. It was over in an instant, their intentions spoiled. All along they had believed themselves the master of the moment. Even at the end, Almaguer had been sure she wore his medallion. Flames raged like a storm, filling the starry night sky. Trees were afire, sending columns of smoke into the air. The ground shook from the intensity. The screams of dead mastons fell silent at her triumph – submitting to the roar of the fire. Behind her, even the boulder cracked with the constant blast of heat.

Lia stood slowly, unharmed by the inferno. Her head was dizzy with the feeling of power. She knew that if the Medium asked her to, she could raise a mountain by lifting her hand. Looking down at her front, she saw the golden ring over her dress and was grateful to the Medium for protecting it. She untied the pouch at her waist and withdrew the Cruciger orb. It shone with radiant light, glowing fiercely with the power of Medium. It was almost too bright to look at.

Bring me to Colvin, she asked it, squinting, and the orb began whirring. It pointed the way.