Raging Sea Read Online Free PDF Page A

journey.
    Though Bjorn and the others never took their watchful gazes off her, the final part of the journey was uneventful. Within hours they turned northward and made their way into the center of the islands and her father’s home in Orphir. His fleet of ships moored in nearby Kirkwall harbor during the high sailing season but he kept only a few this far north over the winters. The rest would be moved soon, since Orkney was the center of the world in which Svein Ragnarson ruled with his widespread shipping business.
    A shipping empire that she would be part of. That she would inherit. One that she would control.
    For that, she could bear returning home and chance seeing the man who had driven her away two years ago. The possibility of seeing Soren Thorson again and the pain she would suffer were costs she would willingly pay for the rewards she would gain.
    They arrived in Orphir to find that her father had not yet returned from northern Scotland. ’Twas not unusual, especially considering the storms she’d seen to the south. The last message from him said he would be here within a sennight of her arrival. So she would have time to visit with other kin and even the few people she called friends before she left Orkney for good.
    Her father’s servants were as efficient as ever and she found herself settled into her old chambers quickly. Aired and with fresh linens on the bed, the room welcomed her home. A hot meal was promised for later and a tray of bread and cheese sat before her within minutes. Waiting on her father’s return would not be such a bad thing while she was being cared for like this.
    She did not sleep while at sea, so she decided to rest a day before going into Kirkwall, to the market and to see to tasks she needed to complete before her father arrived. Tasks her brother would have seen to if he’d returned with her. But Erik had been a victim of Soren’s betrayal as much as she’d been and he’d vowed to never return to their home.
    As she drifted off to sleep, it was not dreams of that man that filled the hours until dawn, but the sounds of the water swirling around her. Especially the voices in the water. Impossible voices speaking impossible words.
    Ran.
    Daughter of the sea.
    Waterblood.
    Power.
    Command us.
    Only at dawn when she walked out of her chamber to the edge of the water did she realize that the sounds were not in her dreams. The same voices whispered to her from the water there, like the sirens of legend, luring her to enter their world.
    Northeast Coast of Scotland
    Lord Hugh de Gifford strode toward the tent erected there for his use. Surrounded by lackeys and followers, he considered his next move. His plans, the goddess’s plans, had stumbled in the first battle with those of the fire and war bloodlines, but he was engaged in a war. One battle, though it would have been sweetly satisfying, did not matter. There were four gateways. Four possible places for Chaela to reenter the human world and take control.
    And destroy her enemies.
    He would savor that scene. As he would savor watching those who had stood against him grovel at his feet, begging for mercy. A mercy that did not exist. If the daughter of his flesh thought she would be spared, if any of them did, they were mistaken. Waiting here for passage north had given him time to plan their executions.
    Once the goddess was freed, his own powers would soar and he could easily destroy the other fireblood. And he would. But for now, he had to wait for these damn storms to pass. If he did not know better, he would suspect that the stormblood was controlling them. He did know better though, for he could and would feel each bloodline as it arose and no more had . . . yet. Or was he so far from his source of power that his own was lessening?
    â€œMy lord?” Hugh whirled around to face Eudes, his commander, who’d managed to come upon him without warning. “I have found enough boats