Knight of Darkness

by Kinley MacGregor

  She hesitated.

  He smiled down at her. “Come on, Merewyn. No need to be bashful after all the two of us have shared. Near death. Tauntings aplenty and three lunatics in a forest…Tell me what it is that you’d like?”

  She looked away as if the wrong answer would hurt so much that she couldn’t bear to see his face should he deny her. “Do you think that if we get out of here you could return me to my time? I should like desperately to go home again.”

  Varian ached for those heartfelt words even though he didn’t really understand the sentiment. He’d never had much of a home to miss. “What of your father and the way he treated you?”

  “I don’t want to go back for him. I should like to make amends to the man I betrayed. He wanted to marry me, and I should have made good my betrothal. I was wrong for doing what I did to him.”

  Her words amazed him. “You would suffer a marriage with him just to apologize?”

  “Since the day I ran from my home, I’ve suffered far worse. It’s time I grew up and acted accordingly.” Her gaze met his, and the sincerity of it scorched him. “Would you please help me do this?”

  A part of him screamed out against it, but she was right, and, like Arthur, she was trying to do the right thing for the right reasons. “I will.”

  “Thank you.”

  He inclined his head to her and would have kissed her again had a scream not rung out.

  Jerking back, he cocked his head to locate it. Not that he needed to bother. Another rang out just behind it.

  Chapter 11

  Varian led the way toward the sound, eager to see what’d happened now. He was expecting the very worst so when he broke through the forest to find a group of harmless greenish gray rocks surrounding Merrick, he was a bit perturbed by the man’s screaming.

  Eyes wide, Merrick had pressed himself against a tree as if terrified of the inanimate objects.

  Varian glanced around to look for Merrick’s brothers and Blaise, but they were nowhere to be seen. “Where are the others?”

  “Sh!” he snapped angrily, “They’ll turn on you if you speak too loudly.”

  Varian exchanged a frown with Merewyn. “I think he’s lost his mind.”

  A wicked gleam lightened her eyes. “Maybe the rocks ate the others.”

  Varian laughed at the absurd idea until two of the rocks turned slowly toward them as if they were sizing them up. He didn’t even have time to speak before the rocks flew at him of their own volition.

  “Run!” he shouted, ducking out of their way. But they didn’t fly straight. Instead, they turned about and came at him like lightning. The first one hit him in the back, and the second struck his leg, knocking him to the ground. He was forced to lie on his stomach to keep them from striking his face. But as soon as he did that, they started pounding him along his back and on top of his head.

  Damn! It hurt.

  Merewyn squeaked, then ran to try to help him, which only caused the rocks to attack her as well.

  “What are these things?” he shouted at Merrick before he summoned his armor back on his body to protect him. It worked only in that it kept the rocks from breaking his skull or bones, but he still couldn’t rise under the force of their combined attack.

  “Gaulstones,” Merrick said from between clenched teeth as he pressed himself even closer to the tree. Given his fervor and fear, Varian was actually surprised the man wasn’t climbing it.

  But that didn’t change the fact that the rocks were still hammering him. “Gallstones? They attack from the inside, not out.”

  “No,” Blaise said from behind him, “they’re goylestones.”

  Varian looked to Blaise, who was running toward them from the right. The mandrake rushed toward Merewyn to chase the stones away from her while Varian was still trying to pry them off his back.

  “What the hell is a goylestone?” he asked the mandrake.

  Instead of answering, Blaise, who had himself wrapped around Merewyn, made a deep, echoing dragon’s growl.

  The rocks actually shuddered and cried before they scattered by rolling and running into the forest. Varian scowled at the sight of a couple of them that appeared to be waving stubby arms above their heads as they rushed off. They looked strangely like people.

  That was the damnedest thing he’d ever seen, and as a sorcerer, he’d seen some rather freakish things in his lifetime. Rolling over, all he could do was gape at their flight.

  Crossing the distance between them, Blaise held his hand out to Varian to help him up. “To answer your question, goylestones are the rocks that grow into gargoyles. It’s what makes them. They’re not particularly intelligent, which is why they have to be controlled for the most part by others, but they are highly mobile.”

  Merewyn didn’t appear to be harmed, but Merrick was still clinging to his tree as if afraid they’d come right back.

  Removing his helm, Varian rubbed at the back of his head, where a small lump was forming from the rock that had struck him there. “Yeah, well, at the moment, I think they may have rattled my brains, too.” He winced as he rubbed a particularly tender spot. “Why have I never seen one of them before?”

  “They don’t normally come out in the daylight. Like gargoyles, they’re nocturnal. Maybe it’s something here in the valley that makes them feel safe.”

  Merewyn frowned. “I thought gargoyles couldn’t move in daylight at all unless Morgen or another commanded them to.”

  “The free ones can move independently during the day, they just don’t like to. But the goylestones, since they’re not as capable of defending themselves, usually hide from everything and everyone.”

  Varian considered that. There were two kinds of gargoyles. Those who were born as such and those who were made. The latter were humans or Adoni who’d been cursed into gargoyle form. They generally weren’t a happy bunch, but they were highly intelligent. The former were servants, and Morgen used many of them to fight in her army.

  “So why did they run from you?” he asked Blaise.

  “When in dragon form, mandrakes eat them, and they fear being our food. They have a high concentrate of pyrite, flint, and coal, which our bodies break down internally and use to make fire.”

  There was something he hadn’t known before. “Wow, Blaise,” he said dryly, “and here I thought you only annoyed me.”

  Blaise rolled his eyes at him.

  “You eat babies?” Merewyn asked in a startled tone as she joined them.

  “Well, they’re not really babies, they’re rocks.”

  She gave him a suspicious, doubting stare. “You just said they were baby gargoyles.”

  “I don’t eat the big ones. I eat the small ones.”

  “The babies!”

  Blaise opened his mouth.

  “Save yourself,” Varian said. “You’ve lost this match, Blaise. You’re a baby gargoyle killer. Face it.”

  “But…they’re rocks. I don’t eat the ones that move around.”

  Varian snorted. “Sure you don’t. That’s what all the baby-rock killers say.”

  Blaise screwed his face up in disgust.

  But before he could say anything, Merewyn spoke up. “Will they return?” She brushed at the dirt on her dress.

  Blaise looked back at the forest where they’d vanished. “Probably. As I said, they’re not real bright.”

  Varian recalled the former knights of the Round Table, whom Morgen had cursed when they’d defied her during Arthur’s rule. “Makes me pity Garafyn and the others who were turned into gargoyles.”

  Blaise concurred. “Definitely.”

  Merrick was a bit hesitant as he moved away from his tree to join them. “Where are Derrick and Erik?”

  Blaise shrugged. “I don’t know. They were right with me a few minutes ago when we heard you screaming…so how did you fall behind anyway?”

  “I thought I heard Varian and Merewyn in the woods. I went to tell them where we were when all of a sudden I was attacked by the rocks. T
hey were pummeling me so badly that I couldn’t move away from the tree.”

  Blaise scoffed. “Yeah, it’s a damn shame to get your butt kicked by rocks.”

  Merrick was indignant over his laughing tone. “Stoning’s a vicious way to go.”

  Varian rubbed the back of his head where his lump was growing significantly. “Not that I particularly want to defend Merrick, but those little rocks did happen to hurt. Thank the gods for armor.”

  Merewyn gave him a sweet, sympathetic pout. “Poor baby.” She reached up to rub his sore spot, but honestly he’d much rather have her rub something else that was bothering him. The touch of her hand made his entire body break out into chills. Not to mention that the smell of her so close played total havoc with his hormones.

  He honestly wanted to curl up beside her and start purring like a cat.

  More than that, he had a vicious need to nibble her body until he was drunk on her scent. And there was a thought that made him glad he was wearing his armor again since it kept his erection hidden from the ones around him.

  Stepping away from her before he actually did purr, he looked at Merrick. “What other nasty surprises do we have in store for us?”

  “I have no idea. They’re pretty much countless here, and they change daily as Merlin and Nimue go at each other.”

  Oh, that just made it all so special. Nothing like dangers galore to brighten up the day and make him want to go skipping through the forest, singing a giddy tune or two. “I just love my life.”

  “Better than loving your death,” Blaise said with a crooked grin.

  “Yeah…” Varian wasn’t willing to concede that fully. “Maybe.”

  As they started forward, a small, whining sound stopped them dead in their tracks.

  Merewyn scanned the area around them until she saw that one of the rocks had returned. As strange as it sounded, the rock seemed to be crying. Since she was closest to it, it rolled over to her and gently nudged at her leg. The action reminded her of a pet dog, wanting attention and affection. It was so tall, it almost reached to her knee, and it appeared to have two small arms growing out of it that it wrapped around her calf.

  She looked up at the men, trying to understand what was happening.

  “It’s sprouting,” Merrick explained. “Once they reach a certain size, they begin to mutate into gargoyles. No one knows why.”

  “It’s their molecular structure.”

  They all stared at Blaise.

  “What? I was raised around Merlins. You learn these things. The goylestones are a by-product of when the original dragons were formed. Legend says they breathed their fire on them, and it altered their structure. The fire birthed them, and over time, they evolved into gargoyles, which my people believe are malformed dragons. It’s why they have wings and fangs like us. But because they’re born of rock and not flesh, they never fully develop into the higher form of dragon.” He pointed to the one at Merewyn’s leg. “That’s called a bantling there, and anytime between tomorrow and two weeks, it’ll turn into a gargoyle. In six months, it’ll be full-sized.”

  Her heart softened as she looked down and stroked the top of its…well, it wasn’t really a head. More like a large lump. “It’s a baby?”

  “Essentially. It must have fallen behind while the others ran off, so it’s trying to find something to cling to for comfort.”

  It didn’t make sense, but that touched her. She could understand feeling lost and scared, and wanting something, no, anything, to cling to. “You poor thing,” she said, bending down so that her face was even with where his might be if it were fully formed. “Are you scared?”

  The rock cried.

  Merewyn wrapped her arms around the cold stone to hold it, and it actually stopped crying.

  “It’s a rock, Merewyn,” Merrick said in an irritated tone.

  She shook her head. “No. It’s sentient.” She gave him a sideways glance, “Unlike some people I could mention.”

  Varian laughed out loud while Merrick’s face flushed red.

  “But it’s very stupid,” Merrick said defensively.

  Blaise snorted. “So are a lot of beings that are supposed to be intelligent.”

  Merrick’s features softened as if those words amused him. “That would be Erik.”

  It was Varian’s turn to pick on Merrick. “That would be anyone dumb enough to bed down with Morgen.”

  Merrick threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine, so I’m stupid, too. I’m still not a rock.”

  Ignoring them, Merewyn tried to pick up the rock, only to find it too heavy.

  “What are you doing?” Merrick asked.

  “We can’t leave him here. He’s scared.”

  “He’s a rock.”

  Varian sighed. “No. He’s a baby gargoyle, and he has a number of enemies who could kill him.”

  Merewyn frowned. “Such as?”

  “Anything that uses magick. They can chip him down and use his pieces for various spells.”

  She gasped in fear. That thought hadn’t even occurred to her. She put the rock behind her skirt instinctively to protect it and kept her hand on his head.

  Merrick gave her, then Varian, a peeved glare. “He’s a rock. It’s not like he could feel it, and how do you know it’s a he anyway?”

  “He would feel it,” Blaise said sternly. “They are living creatures, Merrick.”

  Merewyn’s stomach shrank at the thought of someone hurting him. She couldn’t allow that. “We can’t leave him here.”

  “How do you know it’s a he?” Merrick asked again.

  Merewyn shrugged as she looked behind her to where the rock was clinging to her leg, staring up at her. She could swear she saw his scared little face. “He seems like a he.”

  “It’s a he,” Blaise said definitively. “But he has no name. He won’t be able to name himself until his mouth forms, and he can speak clearly.”

  Merewyn took one of his arms in her hand. “Would you like to come with us?”

  It made a soft mumbling noise of agreement.

  Merrick still wasn’t convinced. “It’ll only slow us down. Get us caught.”

  Varian stepped forward between Merewyn and Merrick. “Then it slows us down until we find the rest of its…” He paused to frown at Blaise. “What the hell do they call their groups?”

  Blaise laughed. “Kith. Their units are call kiths.”

  Merewyn patted the rock’s head affectionately. “Then we shall be your kith until you find the others.”

  Merrick shook his head in disgust. “I can’t believe we’re dragging a rock behind us. Isn’t that called an anchor?”

  Varian narrowed his eyes on the man. “Shut up, Merrick. The lady’s happy, and so are we.”

  Grateful for Varian’s support, she took the rock’s hand.

  “I’m not happy,” Merrick mumbled under his breath.

  “And no one cares,” Varian and Blaise said in unison.

  Paying their naysayer no attention, they started back on their path through the woods, with Varian leading the way and Blaise pulling up the rear.

  It wasn’t long before they found Derrick and Erik, who were walking in circles as if they’d lost their way and couldn’t find a direction to go in.

  Erik was on the ground at Derrick’s feet as he scowled at the rock beside Merewyn. “What is that?”

  The ferret approached it cautiously so that he could smell it.

  Merrick looked at his brother wryly before he kicked dirt and leaves over Erik, who raised a tiny fist and chattered angrily at him. “Merewyn and Varian had a baby while you two bastards left me behind to die.”

  “Really?” Derrick said sarcastically, “Impressive timing, but what an ugly child.”

  Varian gestured toward the rock. “Sic ’im, Rocky. Make him pay for that insult.”

  To Merewyn’s surprise, the goylestone actually rolled over to Derrick and jumped on his foot. Cursing, Derrick pulled back and kicked him, which only hurt his foot more, wh
ile the rock put his hands on his hips and gave a rather smug pose.

  Blaise laughed. “Proves your earlier point about intelligence, huh?”

  Merewyn and Varian joined his laughter. The brothers, on the other hand, appeared less than amused.

  Varian crossed his arms over his chest as he smiled devilishly at them. “You have a ferret and we have a rock. It’s fair.”

  “Besides,” Merewyn couldn’t resist adding, “our rock is smarter.”

  “Definitely. He didn’t sleep with Morgen.”

  As if he approved of their support, Rocky rolled back toward them and wrapped his arms around Merewyn’s leg.

  Blaise shook his head at her actions. “You know, it takes a special woman to love a rock.”

  Varian agreed. “True enough.” He started forward. “Shall we continue on our way, good people?”

  Blaise held his arm out to indicate their path. “After you, of course.”

  Merrick picked Erik up and placed him on his shoulders so that the ferret could wrap around his brother’s neck.

  Varian and Derrick took the lead. Merrick followed them, then Merewyn and Rocky, with Blaise once more at their rear.

  Even with the brothers grumbling, they walked on through the day in fairly easy comradery, with their rock and ferret. It was about an hour to dusk when they reached the bridge. Varian left Blaise and Rocky with Merewyn while he and the others went in search of food.

  Blaise gathered wood, then used his magick to make a small fire for cooking and warmth. Something that caused Rocky to run screaming to Merewyn for protection.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t let him hurt you.”

  “Besides, I can’t eat you unless I’m in dragon form anyway, and right now that’s impossible for me to do.”

  Still, he trembled in her arms as if terrified. Merewyn comforted him as best she could, but she hated for him to be so scared. “I didn’t know gargoyles were ever this afraid.”

  “They’re not once they’re old enough to fly and they weigh more. He’s still young enough to be splintered.”

  That made sense to her even while Rocky wailed in panic. She tried her best to soothe him, but he seemed inconsolable. So she decided to try to distract his attention from Blaise. “So what shall we call you? I’m not really happy with Rocky, are you?”