The Sign of Seven Trilogy
Read The Sign of Seven Trilogy Online
Authors: Nora Roberts
Honest Illusions
Private Scandals
Hidden Riches
True Betrayals
Montana Sky
Born in Fire
Born in Ice
Born in Shame
Daring to Dream
Holding the Dream
Finding the Dream
Sanctuary
Homeport
Sea Swept
Rising Tides
Inner Harbor
The Reef
River's End
Jewels of the Sun
Carolina Moon
Tears of the Moon
Heart of the Sea
The Villa
From the Heart
Midnight Bayou
Dance Upon the Air
Heaven and Earth
Face the Fire
Chesapeake Blue
Birthright
Remember When
(
WITH J. D. ROBB
)
Key of Light
Key of Knowledge
Key of Valor
Northern Lights
Blue Dahlia
Black Rose
Blue Smoke
Red Lily
Angels Fall
Morrigan's Cross
Dance of the Gods
Valley of Silence
High Noon
Tribute
Black Hills
Vision in White
Bed of Roses
WRITING AS J. D. ROBB
Naked in Death
Glory in Death
Immortal in Death
Rapture in Death
Ceremony in Death
Vengeance in Death
Holiday in Death
Conspiracy in Death
Loyalty in Death
Witness in Death
Judgment in Death
Betrayal in Death
Seduction in Death
Reunion in Death
Purity in Death
Portrait in Death
Imitation in Death
Divided in Death
Visions in Death
Survivor in Death
Origin in Death
Memory in Death
Born in Death
Innocent in Death
Creation in Death
Strangers in Death
Salvation in Death
Promises in Death
Kindred in Death
Fantasy in Death
Blood Brothers
The Hollow
The Pagan Stone
Nora Roberts
JOVE BOOKS, NEW YORK
It had been the Pagan Stone for hundreds of years, long before three boys stood around it and spilled their blood in a bond of brotherhood, unwittingly releasing a force bent on destructionâ¦
Every seven years, there comes a week in July when the locals do unspeakable thingsâand then don't seem to remember them. The collective madness has made itself known beyond the town borders and has given Hawkins Hollow the reputation of a village possessed.
This modern-day legend draws reporter and author Quinn Black to Hawkins Hollow with the hope of making the eerie happening the subject of her new book. It is only February, but Caleb Hawkins, descendent of the town founders, has already seen and felt the stirrings of evil. Though he can never forget the beginning of the terror in the woods twenty-one years ago, the signs have never been this strong before. Cal will need the help of his best friends, Fox and Gage, but surprisingly he must rely on Quinn as well. She, too, can see the evil that the locals cannot, somehow connecting her to the townâand to Cal. As winter turns to spring, Cal and Quinn will shed their inhibitions, surrendering to a growing desire. They will form the cornerstone of a group of men and women bound by fate, passion, and the fight against what is to come from out of the darknessâ¦
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
BLOOD BROTHERS
A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2007 by Nora Roberts.
Excerpt from
The Hollow
copyright © 2007 by Nora Roberts.
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ISBN: 1-101-14733-4
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To my boys,
who roamed the woods,
even when they weren't supposed to.
Where God hath a temple,
the Devil will have a chapel.
âROBERT BURTON
The childhood shows the man
As morning shows the day.
âJOHN MILTON
Hawkins Hollow
Maryland Province
1652
I
T CRAWLED ALONG THE AIR THAT HUNG HEAVY
as wet wool over the glade. Through the snakes of fog that slid silent over the ground, its hate crept. It came for him through the heat-smothered night.
It wanted his death.
So he waited as it pushed its way through the woods, its torch raised toward the empty sky, as it waded across the streams, around the thickets where small animals huddled in fear of the scent it bore with it.
Hellsmoke.
He had sent Ann and the lives she carried in her womb away, to safety. She had not wept, he thought now as he sprinkled the herbs he'd selected over water. Not his Ann. But he had seen the grief on her face, in the deep, dark eyes he had loved through this lifetime, and all the others before.
The three would be born from her, raised by her, and taught by her. And from them, when the time came, there would be three more.
What power he had would be theirs, these sons, who would loose their first cries long, long after this night's work was done. To leave them what tools they would need, the weapons they would wield, he risked all he had, all he was.
His legacy to them was in blood, in heart, in vision.
In this last hour he would do all he could to provide them with what was needed to carry the burden, to remain true, to see their destiny.
His voice was strong and clear as he called to wind and water, to earth and fire. In the hearth the flames snapped. In the bowl the water trembled.
He laid the bloodstone on the cloth. Its deep green was generously spotted with red. He had treasured this stone, as had those who'd come before him. He had honored it. And now he poured power into it as one would pour water into a cup.
So his body shook and sweat and weakened as light hovered in a halo around the stone.
“For you now,” he murmured, “sons of sons. Three parts of one. In faith, in hope, in truth. One light, united, to strike back dark. And here, my vow. I will not rest until destiny is met.”
With the athame, he scored his palm so his blood fell onto the stone, into the water, and into the flame.
“Blood of my blood. Here I will hold until you come for me, until you loose what must be loosed again on the world. May the gods keep you.”
For a moment there was grief. Even through his purpose, there was grief. Not for his life, as the sands of it were dripping down the glass. He had no fear of death. No fear of what he would soon embrace that was not death. But he grieved that he would never lay his lips on Ann's again in this life. He would not see his children born, nor the children of his children. He grieved that he would not be able to stop the suffering to come, as he had been unable to stop the suffering that had come before, in so many other lifetimes.
He understood that he was not the instrument, but only the vessel to be filled and emptied at the needs of the gods.
So, weary from the work, saddened by the loss, he stood outside the little hut, beside the great stone, to meet his fate.
It came in the body of a man, but that was a shell. As his own body was a shell. It called itself Lazarus Twisse, an elder of “the godly.” He and those who followed had settled in the wilderness of this province when they broke with the Puritans of New England.
He studied them now in their torchlight, these men and the one who was not a man. These, he thought, who had come to the New World for religious freedom, and then persecuted and destroyed any who did not follow their single, narrow path.
“You are Giles Dent.”
“I am,” he said, “in this time and this place.”
Lazarus Twisse stepped forward. He wore the unrelieved formal black of an elder. His high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat shadowed his face. But Giles could see his eyes, and in his eyes, he saw the demon.
“Giles Dent, you and the female known as Ann Hawkins have been accused and found guilty of witchcraft and demonic practices.”
“Who accuses?”
“Bring the girl forward!” Lazarus ordered.
They pulled her, a man on each arm. She was a slight girl, barely six and ten by Giles's calculation. Her face was wax white with fear, her eyes drenched with it. Her hair had been shorn.
“Hester Deale, is this the witch who seduced you?”
“He and the one he calls wife laid hands on me.” She spoke as if in a trance. “They performed ungodly acts upon my body. They came to my window as ravens, flew into my room in the night. They stilled my throat so I could not speak or call for help.”
“Child,” Giles said gently, “what has been done to you?”
Those fear-swamped eyes stared through him. “They called to Satan as their god, and cut the throat of a cock in sacrifice. And drank its blood. They forced its blood on me. I could not stop them.”
“Hester Deale, do you renounce Satan?”
“I do renounce him.”
“Hester Deale, do you renounce Giles Dent and the woman Ann Hawkins as witches and heretics?”
“I do.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I do renounce them, and pray to God to save me. Pray to God to forgive me.”
“He will,” Giles whispered. “You are not to blame.”
“Where is the woman Ann Hawkins?” Lazarus demanded, and Giles turned his clear gray eyes to him.
“You will not find her.”
“Stand aside. I will enter this house of the devil.”
“You will not find her,” Giles repeated. For a moment he looked beyond Lazarus to the men and the handful of women who stood in his glade.
He saw death in their eyes, and more, the hunger for it. This was the demon's power, and his work.
Only in Hester's did Giles see fear or sorrow. So he used what he had to give, pushed his mind toward hers.
Run!
He saw her jolt, stumble back, then he turned to Lazarus.
“We know each other, you and I. Dispatch them, release them, and it will be between us alone.”
For an instant he saw the gleam of red in Lazarus's eyes. “You are done. Burn the witch!” he shouted. “Burn the devil house and all within it!”
They came with torches, and with clubs. Giles felt the blows rain on him, and the fury of the hate that was the demon's sharpest weapon.
They drove him to his knees, and the wood of the hut began to flame and smoke. Screams rang in his head, the madness of them.
With the last of his power he reached out toward the demon inside the man, with red rimming its dark eyes as it fed on the hate, the fear, the violence. He felt it gloat, he felt it
rising
, so sure of its victory, and the feast to follow.
And he ripped it to him, through the smoking air. He heard it scream in fury and pain as the flames bit into flesh. And he held it to him, close as a lover as the fire consumed them.
And with that union the fire burst, spread, destroyed every living thing in the glade.
It burned for a day and a night, like the belly of hell.
