Berserker, the wind sighed.
“There is no such thing as a Berserker,” Gavrael grimly informed the night. He was no longer the foolish boy who’d been infatuated with the prospect of unbeatable strength; no longer the youth who’d once been willing to offer his immortal soul for absolute power and control. Besides, his own eyes were deep brown, and always had been. Never had history recorded a brown-eyed Berserker.
Call me.
Gavrael flinched. This last figment of his traumatized mind had been a command, undeniable, irresistible. The hair on the back of his neck stood up on end and his skin prickled. Not once in all his years of playing at summoning a Berserker had he ever felt so peculiar. His blood pounded through his veins and he felt as if he teetered on the brink of an abyss that both lured and repulsed him.
Screams filled the valley. Child after child fell while he stood high above the battle, helpless to alter the course of events. He would do anything to save them: barter, trade, steal, murder—anything.
Tears streamed down his face as a tiny lass with blond ringlets wailed her last breath. There would be no mother’s arms for her, no bonny suitor, no wedding, no babes—not a breath more precious life. Blood stained the front of her frock, and he stared at it, mesmerized. His universe narrowed to a tunnel of vision in which the blood blossoming on her chest became a vast, crimson whirlpool, sucking him down and down …
Something inside him snapped.
He threw his head back and howled, the words ricocheting off the rocks of Wotan’s Cleft. “Hear me, Odin, I summon the Berserker! I, Gavrael Roderick Icarus McIllioch, offer my life—nay, my soul—for vengeance. I command the Berserker!”
The moderate breeze turned suddenly violent, lashing leaves and dirt into the air. Gavrael flung his arms up to shield his face from the needle-sharp sting of flying debris. Branches, no match for the fierce gale, snapped free and battered his body like clumsy spears hurled from the trees. Black clouds scuttled across the night sky, momentarily obscuring the moon. The unnatural wind keened through the channels of rock on Wotan’s Cleft, briefly muffling the screams from the valley below. Suddenly the night exploded in a flash of dazzling blue and Gavrael felt his body … change.
He snarled, baring his teeth, as he felt something irrevocable mutate deep within him.
He could smell dozens of scents from the battle below—the rusty, metallic odor of blood and steel and hate.
He could hear whispers from the McKane camp on the far horizon.
He saw for the first time that the warriors appeared to be moving in slow motion. How had he failed to notice it before? It would be absurdly easy to slip in and destroy them all while they were moving as if slogging through wet sand. So easy to destroy. So easy …
Gavrael sucked in rapid breaths of air, pumping his chest full before charging into the valley below. As he plunged into the slaughter, the sound of laughter echoed off the stone basin that cupped the valley. He realized it was coming from his own lips only when the McKane began to fall beneath his sword.
Hours later, Gavrael stumbled through the burning remains of Tuluth. The McKane were gone, either dead or driven off. The surviving villagers were tending the wounded and walking in wide, cautious circles around the young son of the McIllioch.
“Near to threescore ye killed, lad,” an old man with bright eyes whispered when Gavrael passed. “Not even yer da in his prime could do such a thing. Ye be far more berserk.”
Gavrael glanced at him, startled. Before he could ask what he meant by that comment, the old man melted into the billowing smoke.
“Ye took down three in one swing of yer sword, lad,” another man called.
A child flung his arms around Gavrael’s knees. “Ye saved me life, ye did!” the lad cried. “Tha’ ole McKane woulda had me for his supper. Thank ye! Me ma’s thanking ye too.”
Gavrael smiled at the boy, then turned to the mother, who crossed herself and didn’t look remotely appreciative. His smile faded. “I’m not a monster—”
“I know what ye are, lad.” Her gaze never left his. To Gavrael’s ears her words were harsh and condemning. “I know exactly what ye are and doona be thinking otherwise. Get on with ye now! Yer da’s in trouble.” She pointed a quivering finger past the last row of smoldering huts.
Gavrael narrowed his eyes against the smoke and stumbled forward. He’d never felt so drained in all his life. Moving awkwardly, he rounded one of the few huts still standing and jerked to a halt.
His da was crumpled on the ground, covered with blood, his sword abandoned at his side in the dirt.