Domestic Disturbance *HF* Chapter 6
By Gene
McConnell laughed. "Mr. Pembleton, just by your asking, I know you can tell what they are. Enchanted. The whole Keep is. Those trees shouldn't be in Scotland any more than those birds, but they are."
"They're beautiful," Alice said.
"Thank you," McConnell said.
Malachi and Gene exchanged glances.
McConnell led them to the Keep and in the open gate. There, guards with pikes stopped them.
"You'll leave you're horses here," McConnell said. "We'll care for them even better than our own. Fine they are."
Gene, Alice and Malachi dismounted. Gene felt self-conscious as ever, dismounting in a kilt. He wondered if there was a way to get off the horse without showing everyone his "twig and berries", but then again, they were seeing right up the crack of his ass, too, so he didn't care.
Three of McConnell's men led the horses away while the guards, McConnell, and the rest of his men surrounded Gene and his family and led them through the corridors of the castle.
"This castle has stood for 400 years," McConnell said. "Druids and Romans have stood here. It has always been a place of power. It has always been the McConnell's."
"Yet you're not the Clan Chief?" Gene asked.
McConnell glared, then spoke. "Someday I will be. I'm next in line. For now, no. But you will meet him. And perhaps you will join us. We'd love to have you among us."
The guards opened a double set of heavy oak doors and McConnell ushered them through. They stood in a large open chamber of stone. A chandelier hung in the middle of the room, blazing with candles. Gene noted that as at his home, the candles glowed, but the wax did not burn.
At the front of the chamber was a large, long, elevated table. Several men and a few women were seated at the table. At its center sat a man dressed all in red. He stood and smiled.
"Ah, we meet at last!" he said, raising a goblet of wine. "Welcome to McConnell Keep."
"Shit!" Gene gasped.
"What?" Alice said at his shoulder.
"He's the Cardinal. THe man who nearly killed Shaman."
THe Cardinal nodded knowingly, though he could't have heard Gene. "Yes, you know me, and I know you. You appear younger than I remember, Nathan. Perhaps you are younger. Time travel is a funny thing. But you are the same man, there is no doubt."
The man walked down the length of the table and descended to the hard stone floor, keeping his eyes on Gene the whole time. He approached Gene and nodded. Instantly, McConnell and his men held the arms of Gene, Alice and Malachi, lifting them off the ground enough to keep them from having leverage.
"Perhaps things will go differently for us this time, Nathan," the Cardinal said. "They've been so unpleasant before. We don't need to fight. We don't need to be rivals." He stopped pacing and stood before Gene. "This one is your son. Everyone here can sense his potential, even Aidan, who is far from the most gifted among us."
He stepped closer to Gene.
"I admire your attempt to settle down for a quiet life, my friend. Perhaps you can have one. If you join us. Become one of the enlightened. One of the Illuminated." He nodded at another man, and a servant approached carring a red-hot iron. The Cardinal took the cool end and looked at the hot tip.
"Wear our brand of your own free will, Nathan, and your power will increase more than you can imagine."
"Go Malachi!" Gene cried out. He picked up his legs, dropping all of his weight forward as he went limp. Malachi and Alice did the same, putting their captors off-balance. Then each of them got free in his or her own style - Alice slipped out of her captor's arms and chopped at one of his knees. Malachi raked the front of Aidan McConnell's shin with the heel of his boot. And Gene slammed his head back into his man's nose, then spun and hit the man in the stomach with his elbow.
"Go, go, go!" Gene yelled. "Get out!" He punched at anything that got near him while Alice ran for the door and Malachi hurdled and kicked at lunging bodies. Gene shoved another man behind him and followed Malachi out the door when he heard a sound like a rifle shot and felt searing pain around his legs just before he fell face first to the stone floor.
"Dad!" Malachi shouted, turning back.
"Go, go!" Gene said groggily. "Get her out!"
He turned his head back to see that his legs were bound in some kind of glowing wire and he was being dragged back to the Cardinal who held the other end in his hand. He was grinning broadly.
"Ah yes, Nathan. A noble effort. But I was more than ready for you. We've been ready since you took residence in that house. My soul whip has bound you and it will hold you as long as I choose. Struggling only brings pain. Now the game truly begins, does it not? The screaming, the torture. Your inevitable death. Unless you join us. Then we can bypass all that."
Gene went limp, then bucked his back and legs forward. The slack in the CArdinal's whip shot back and slapped across the Cardinal's face, hitting him in the eye and mouth.
"Arh!" he screamed. "Miserable cur!"
Aidan McConnell stepped forward and kicked Gene in the head, and the world went black.
"Bind him in the proper room," the Cardinal said. "When he awakes, we will begin. He will join our Clan or die. Let me know when you catch his wife and son. I wish to speak to them. Do not kill them."
"As you wish, m'lord," McConnell said, bowing.
End Part 6
Gene
Original and Longest-Running Editor
White Bastard/King's Pawn--HellFire Club
Knight of the Long-Necked Bottle
Forbidden by Law to Eat Onion Rings
Selectively Sterile
Wielder of Unbridled Contempt for Humanity
Clearest Colon this side of the Milky Way
Messiest Underwear this side of the Milky Way
Certified Bastard-Training Specialist
K, your neck is looking overloaded... Let me take some weight off it!