Divine by Mistake (49 page)

“Never,” my husband’s voice rasped harshly as he came down again and again, smashing Nuada’s evil into nothingness.

A shout below me caused me to look from the gory scene in time to see the armies of Woulff and McNamara joining our warriors. The centaurs and humans merged into a single force, and with a shared mind they began decimating the weakened Fomorian army.

A wave of dizziness passed over me, and I suddenly found it hard to breathe.

“Rhea!” ClanFintan’s voice sounded a long way off.

“I can’t…”
I felt myself inexorably pulled back to my fallen body. As I was sucked down, my eyes fluttered open long enough to see ClanFintan rushing to me and gathering me in his arms.

“Hold on,” he said as my vision darkened. “I am taking you home.”

And then I knew nothing more.

As evening fell the wind shifted, and I gave thanks to my Goddess. For three days the stench of burning bodies had permeated the temple, which hadn’t helped to soothe the enormous pain in my head. Carolan had assured me the lump on my left temple was only the size of a cockerel’s stone (translation: a rooster’s testicle—who knew?), but I was pretty sure it was the size of a mutated grapefruit, and it sported a veritable rainbow of bruised colors. Anyway, the consensus was that I would recover with all of my wits. Well, thank God(dess).

The Fomorians had been killed by the thousands. Our combined armies had rallied and the creatures, already weakened by smallpox, could not stand before their power.

Carolan hypothesized that because the Fomorians were humanoid, but not actually
human,
their bodies were exceptionally susceptible to the disease. Their incubation time was less than ours, and the disease progressed more rapidly with them. By the evening of the battle the scene outside the temple was something straight out of the old horror flick
Night of the Living Dead.
At least, that’s how Victoria described it to me (not that she’d actually seen the movie). I had still been drifting in and out of the Concussion Land of Puke and See Double, so I only got a secondhand description. Vic said the creatures literally began rending the flesh from their bones with their own claws. They quit fighting. Each appeared to be in a world of his own, locked in some kind of agony with his own skin as his claws raked across already battle-bloodied flesh to gouge and tear mercilessly. She explained that the battle had been reduced to our warriors raining arrows down upon the agonized Fomorians as the Huntresses ended their misery.

“If we had allowed them to suffer,” Victoria had said afterward, “we would be no better than them.” So the battle had ended with the sounds of mercy.

There was still the question of what could be done to help the women who were carrying Fomorian fetuses, but Carolan was working diligently on that problem. By the time the women from Guardian Castle arrived, he assured us he would be ready for them.

“Jeesh, I’m tired of staying in bed,” I muttered to myself. And it wasn’t even a good kind of romantic interlude in bed with my handsome husband. It was a rest-my-big-head-and-take-lots-of-boring-naps kind of interlude.

Gingerly, I sat up, hoping the puking and spinning had stopped. Other than the ever-present splitting headache, I seemed fine.

So I stood up.

Well, maybe semi-fine would be a better description. I don’t normally feel each beat of my heart in my head. Carefully, I walked to my floor-to-ceiling windows and opened one of the doorlike glass panes. The evening was beautiful and warm. Still being careful, I stepped out into my private garden and took a deep breath of the fresh scent of the honeysuckle bushes that were blooming all around its perimeter. (Note to self: ask one of my nymphs to cut a bouquet of these for my bedroom.)

“Lady Rhiannon!” a little voice chirped.

Thinking of nymphs had obviously conjured one, and I watched as the girl walked shyly across the garden to curtsy deeply before me.

“Tarah!” I reached out and gave her a hug that made her lovely face flush with pleasure.

“My Lady!” She returned my embrace enthusiastically before continuing, “The stable maidens sent me to inquire if you were well enough to come to the stable.” Her smile widened. “The child, Kristianna, is ready for her ride on Epona.”

“That sounds wonderful. Tell them I’m on my way.”

“I’m pleased to see you have recovered, my Lady,” she said, seeming reluctant to leave my side.

“And I’m glad to see you’re better, too.” Most of the scabs had already dropped off her face and arms, and I could see that she had been lucky. Except for a few marks that would fade over time, she would recover fully from her illness.

“Thank you, my Lady. I am anxious to return to my duties.” She shyly turned her head to the side, and I was entranced by the unexpected view of her profile. The girl suddenly reminded me so strongly of Terpsichore that I felt my eyes fill with tears.

“Honey, have you ever considered a future in dance?”

Color flooded her face as she answered, barely holding in check her youthful enthusiasm, “Oh, my Lady, dance is all that I dream about!”

With an intuitive feeling I knew the martyred Muse would approve of this young replica.

“Don’t rush it—but when you’re feeling strong again, come see me. And we will talk more about your dreams.”

I let her chatter gaily as we walked across the garden to the exit that would lead her in the direction of the stables.

“Remember,” I called after her as she scampered ahead of me to announce that “Epona’s Chosen comes,” “see me when you are strong again.”

“Oh, I will, my Lady!”

“Thinking of helping Thalia rebuild the Muses?” ClanFintan’s velvet voice came from the shadows.

“Actually, I was thinking more about Terpsichore and what she would want,” I said thoughtfully.

I tilted my head and watched him walk out of the shadows toward me. The gentle light of evening was kind to a face and form that had no need of the favor. His powerful muscles rippled smoothly, and his recent wounds gave him a decidedly bad-boy appearance.

He brushed an errant curl back from my face.

“Please don’t ask me how I’m feeling, or order me back to bed.” I realized I might have been sounding a little grumpy.

“You seem to be standing and walking straight.” He leaned a little closer and sniffed at my face. “And it does not appear you have been throwing up.”

“No, damnit, I haven’t puked for an entire day.” Now I knew I sounded grumpy.

But my mood didn’t seem to put ClanFintan off.

“So, what
have
you been doing?” He sounded mischievous.

“I’ve been thinking about sending for Mariad so that Alanna can start training an assistant.”

He gave me a quizzical look.

“So she’s not so dang busy. Then she and Carolan can have more time
together.
” I held up my hands like I was framing a picture. “I see…three little girls in their future.”

He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around my waist, lifting my feet off the ground and pulling me firmly against him.

“And what do you see for our future?” His voice had deepened to the erotic tone I knew so well, and had been missing the past several nights.

“I see—” I nibbled on his earlobe, thinking that maybe a romp with my husband would be the cure for my headache “—a Change coming on tonight.”

He chuckled and kissed me quickly, slipping his arm under my butt and shifting my position in his arms so that I wasn’t dangling haphazardly. “I meant about
our
future children.”

“Children!”
I squeaked through the pounding in my head.

“Of course,” his chest rumbled. “We certainly have not been celibate.”

“But—” I sputtered.

“In that old world of yours did they not teach how babies are made?” He peered in mock seriousness into my face.

“But—” I repeated. “What will it be?”

“Boy or girl?” he asked, suddenly all innocence.

I thumped him soundly on his hard chest. “Horse or human?”

“Well…” He smiled down at me and kissed me on the forehead. “Whatever it is, it will certainly have the makings of an excellent equestrian.”

I let my hand slide between us so that it rested on my (relatively) flat stomach. I thought I felt a fluttering beneath my palm, and my hand jerked away like I’d received an electrical charge.

“A baby?” My voice was more than a little shaky.

“Perhaps you are feeling the promise of what is to come.” He hugged me against him; I loved the way his warmth engulfed me.

“The promise of the future,” I said.

“
Our
future,” he corrected me.

“
Our
future,” I repeated. “I like that.”

“As do I, Shannon,” he whispered against my lips. “As do I.”

But Rhiannon isn’t going to let Shannon rest in ClanFinton’s arms for long! Don’t miss their showdown in Divine by Choice, Available December 2006 from LUNA Books.

P.C. Cast was born in Illinois and grew up being shuttled back and forth between there and Oklahoma, which is where she fell in love with Quarter Horses and mythology (at about the same time). She could ride before she could walk, and she read every horse story she could get her hands on until her father introduced her to
The Lord of the Rings
when she was about ten. She went from that to Anne McCaffrey's
Pern
—and was hooked on fantasy for life.

Five days after graduating from high school, she joined the United States Air Force, which is where she began speaking professionally. After her tours with the USAF, Ms. Cast attended college as a literature major with a secondary education minor.

Her first novel,
Goddess by Mistake,
was published by a small press in 2001. Thoroughly shocking the author, it won The Prism, The Holt Medallion and the Laurel Wreath, as well as being a finalist for the National Readers Choice Award. Since then Ms. Cast has gone on to win numerous writing awards. She is the author of the very popular Goddess Summoning Series for Berkley, and is thrilled that with her Partholon series for LUNA Books she has been given the opportunity to continue the world she created in her first book.

P.C. Cast lives and teaches in Oklahoma with her fabulous daughter, her spoiled cat, Patchy Poo the Pud, and her Scotties—better known as the Scottinators. The daughter attends college. The cat has decided against higher education. The Scottinators are as yet undecided about their future.

If you enjoyed the eBook you just read, then you’ll love what we have for you next month!

ON SALE IN OCTOBER 2006

MAGIC STUDY by Maria Snyder, LUNA