Read Online Passion's Blood by Cherif Fortin, Lynn Sanders - Free Book Online Page B

his perimeter as before, but the air had a strangely languid quality. When she gazed at Emric, he looked as he did that day in the meadow outside Brimhall: restive but strong, healthy, and full of vigor.
    She knew at once that she was dreaming, though she did not recall ever having a dream so lucid. There was a flutter of wings, and when Leanna turned to investigate, she saw a robed figure approaching.

    Leanna gasped when she recognized her mother, Ursanne.
    “Oh, Mother.” Tears rushed to Leanna’s eyes as they embraced. The weariness and pain of the last days flowed from her. “How I have missed you.”
    Though she understood she was dreaming, the clarity and power of her emotions struck Leanna with awe.
    “And I have missed you, Lea.” Her mother gently touched Leanna’s cheek.
    Leanna stared. She had almost forgotten the name by which her mother had called her as a child.
    Ursanne looked at Emric, who lay near them on the pallet. “Who is this man?”
    “Emric, the king,” Leanna said, then added, “… and my betrothed.”
    “Do you love him?” Ursanne asked with a gentle concern.
    “Yes, Mother, above all else.”
    “Then why do you let him die?”
    “I … I do not understand,” Leanna stammered.
    “Child, give me your hand.” Her mother’s voice echoed in the space around them. “You have the power … as you have always had it, for it was yours even before your birth.
    “O Mother! O Maiden! O Goddess!” Ursanne began to speak the ancient vow of Druid priestesses, which she had recited so often in years past. “Goddess of the Light, hearken to thy daughters. Grant thy power and thy wisdom, and in thy wisdom, grant sight, the Ningal, so that thy will be done. O Mother! O Maiden! O Goddess! Hear thy daughters’ oath: be true to the Queen of Light. True to Earth and Sea and Sky. Be true to thine own Self besides. True to Love above all else.”
    Leanna shivered as her mother completed the ancient oath.
    “True to Love above all else.” It had been so long since she said the words that she had forgotten the end of the verse.
    As her mind struggled to come to terms with the implications, she realizedUrsanne had spoken without vocalizing. She used the Ningal to communicate as she did years ago in their private moments together.
    Leanna closed her eyes. There was a peace within her she hadn’t felt in a long time. When she looked about again, Ursanne was gone.
    “Mother?” she cried.
    From the void she heard Ursanne’s voice calling her name softly.
    “Lady Leanna?”
    One of the men-at-arms shook her awake gently. Leanna opened her eyes. The dream had been so real, so compelling. She thought she could still hear the echo of her mother’s voice.
    “It’s the prince, my lady.” The man spoke with difficulty, his bearded face lined with worry. “He has … during the night …”
    Leanna’s heart lurched, and she turned toward Emric, reaching out to touch his pale cheek. Instead of the fever that had burned his skin, he now felt so very cold.
    “No!” she cried, scrambling to her knees.
    She pressed her ear to Emric’s lips, then to his heart, listening for a sign of life, but finding none. Her mind recoiled from thoughts too painful to bear. This was a nightmare from which there would be no awakening.
    Leanna placed her hands on his chest; she bade his heart to begin beating again. There had always been reservation within her toward Emric, despite the love that she bore him, for he had been forced into her life by the will of other men. Only now that he lay cold beneath her did she realize the purity of her love for him. It did not matter what had brought them together.
    The Goddess was a goddess of light. Her gift was the Ningal, the sight that revealed the light of life in all men. It could not be dimmed. It could not be blinded, even by the curtain of death.
    “No,” she cried again, fighting the grief welling up from inside her. “You cannot die. You must live!”
    She recited