Sorceress at War (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 4)

by Lisa Blackwood

  She’d just emerged from the portal when armored vehicles came rolling up to the entrance. Major Resnick jumped out of one before it had come to a full stop. Daryna explained what was happening while ushering them all into the maze.

  A few minutes later, Lillian found herself again in the shadow of her hamadryad tree. Daryna stood just inside the stone ring. Magic shimmered in the air around her as she added another layer of powerful shields to what was already anchored to the stone ring.

  Outside the ring of standing stones, more soldiers waited, alert and ready to target anything or anyone they didn’t know.

  Anna stood apart from the other soldiers but was dressed in combat gear, with one of the modified military rifles resting in her hands. The ward-spell glowed an eerie green even in the bright light of day.

  Shadowlight paced a circle around Anna, his tail flicking in agitation or perhaps eagerness. Lethal little shards of obsidian shadow magic danced and spun around him, awaiting his command to bite deep into an enemy.

  Lillian hated to break it to her little brother that if all went well, none of them would be catching so much as the scent of the enemy.

  In theory. Not that anything in Lillian’s life ever went according to plan.

  Her eyes slid back towards Daryna where she was adding a second spell and then to Anna who was armed for Armageddon and checking her weapons for the third time. Shadowlight paced into her line of sight again. Lillian couldn’t help but notice that very little of the boisterous child was in evidence; a vigilant gargoyle had replaced him.

  Lillian reflexively checked her own harnesses, scabbards and twin swords, feeling a little less sure.

  Even if Gregory defeated the newcomers, there was a good chance that Commander Gryton, would feel the arrival of warriors from his realm. She feared that might be enough to draw him back out of hiding.

  Lillian’s gaze returned to Shadowlight again. She wished there was a place they could stash the young gargoyle where he’d be safe, but nowhere was truly safe from Gryton, as he’d proven in the past. He’d once ventured into Lillian’s own home.

  In the future, they’d have to think of some kind of super-powered safe room where they could secure Shadowlight until the danger was past. But for now, Lillian supposed the best way to keep him safe was to keep him near one of the Avatars.

  Still, she wished there was somewhere safer for him far from a potential battlefield.

  “Anna, once this is over, remind me to talk to Gregory about building a safe room for Shadowlight.”

  The soldier side-eyed Lillian and then turned her attention to Shadowlight with a snort. “And who is going to sit on him to make sure he stays put?”

  It wasn’t lost on Lillian that making a safe room and getting Shadowlight to stay there would be two separate problems.

  Anna’s expression still held a hint of humor, but otherwise, the soldier was all business. A slight flare in the magic current drew Lillian’s attention back to the Sorceress.

  Daryna was just lowering her arms to her sides when their gazes met. She nodded for Lillian to come closer.

  Lillian flicked a wing in annoyance at being summoned but came forward as she was bid.

  “Do you want to watch Gregory while he battles the enemy?” Daryna asked as she held out her right hand.

  While Lillian could sense his thoughts and track his location to some extent, she wasn’t always able to see through his eyes now that she was no longer the Mother’s Sorceress. The greater the distance, the fainter her link to him.

  Of course, I want to know what Gregory’s doing! As her manipulative, meddling doppelgänger was well aware.

  Outwardly, Lillian merely nodded her head and reached out for the other woman’s hand.

  When their fingers touched, Lillian’s vision darkened unnaturally for a moment before a new location blurred into being.

  “Where am—?” Lillian started to ask but felt Gregory’s mind. She was there with him mentally, seeing what he was seeing. He acknowledged her arrival with a spike of warm joy.

  Somewhat uncertainly, Lillian formed words in her mind. “Am I a distraction? I don’t want my presence to endanger you.”

  Gregory’s warm joy sharpen into thoughts and words that soon filled her mind.

  “You are always a welcome distraction, my beloved. However to make things easier, stay silent once I engage the enemy,” he paused and lifted his muzzle high while he sprinted between two military vehicles.

  She sensed he was trying to learn something of the enemies by catching some news upon the breeze, but the stink of fumes from the vehicles disguised anything the wind might have carried.

  Gregory put on a burst of speed and bolted ahead of the vehicles on either side.

  His mind turned towards hers again. “I can smell nothing of the enemy, but I can feel them working to free themselves from my trap. They’ve already managed to damage it, and that tells me the Lady of Battles has not sent just any grunts for this task. These are powerful magic wielders. While perhaps not as powerful as Gryton, still lethal. But I won’t allow them past me.”

  Lillian found herself nodding even though Gregory wouldn’t be able to see it. “I know. You will be victorious over these new enemies, and I will be here to mend your wounds—but please don’t get hurt too badly. You know I hate seeing you in pain.”

  Gregory laughed. “I will keep that in mind. And while I do love how you look after my battle-weary body, I don’t actually like pain, so will do my best to minimize the number of scars.”

  “Thank you,” Lillian whispered. She allowed her consciousness to drift. Gregory was still in her mind, but no longer forefront. She blinked, and her hamadryad’s glade came back into view.

  Anna and Shadowlight were still where they’d been all along, so too were the other soldiers. Only Daryna had moved to stand off to one side, her right hand now caressing one of the standing stones.

  “Thank you,” Lillian said as she glanced at Daryna.

  “Thanks are never needed. I exist to help you and Gregory overthrow the Battle Goddess.”

  When had overthrowing the Battle Goddess become part of the plan?

  Last she’d heard, the plan was to stop the Lady of Battles’ army and prevent her from breeding a legion of new gargoyle hybrids. There had been no mention of actually attempting to destroy the Battle Goddess. Which, come to think of it, Lillian would be totally cool with.

  But she’d thought the Divine Ones had wanted the Twins to learn some kind of moral lesson. Unless Lillian had misunderstood something, the Mother Goddess and the All-Father weren’t willing to kill their child. So why was the Mother’s Sorceress now talking about destroying the Lady of Battles?

  After the battle, Lillian would get Gregory alone and mention what Daryna had said. Or perhaps she would speak with the banshee first and see if the Fae had learned anything new.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  As they neared the location of the trap, Gregory darted off the road and into the forest. He led close to fifty Fae who answered the call. They would circle wide and flank the enemy while the human soldiers would come from the South and East.

  Dire wolves ran with elks and stags. There was even a moose carrying Greenborrow into battle with him. Gran rode the unicorn bareback while holding her staff in one hand. Gregory admired the elder’s skill and was glad to have her ride into battle beside him.

  On Gregory’s left, the pooka ran on silent hooves, a predatory shadow just waiting to ground the bones of his enemies beneath his hooves.

  The pooka’s single-mindedness brought a smile to Gregory’s lips. The pony was not the only one looking forward to the coming battle.

  Gregory was more than ready to face a real opponent after all the play hunting that he’d been doing as part of the cubs’ training.

  And perhaps it was a touch juvenile, but Lillian was with him in his mind, watching what he did and he wanted to impress her. Or at least live up to his own reputation, which, of late, was so
mewhat tarnished since coming to this realm.

  This felt a little like leading his gargoyles into battle. Something he’d missed since coming to the Mortal Realm.

  “We are nearly there.” He’d been about to explain strategy but halted as his attention was diverted. There was something wrong with one of the anchor-stones he’d created to lock the spell to this realm.

  Even over the distance, he could feel the pressure building in the anchor. A heartbeat later, stress fractures formed along the heated stone.

  A second and third anchor-stone now flared warnings at him.

  Damn. The trap wasn’t going to hold long enough for the Fae and military of this realm to get there in time.

  There were over a dozen soldiers left to guard the anchor-stones and half again that number of Fae.

  He glanced at Gran. “My trap is weakening and whatever is within has almost escaped. To do that so quickly, the newcomers must be fiercely powerful. The Fae and military stationed there won’t have a chance and will be wiped out if I don’t get there in the next few moments.”

  Gregory called power from the Spirit Realm as he put on a burst of speed.

  “Wait! What are you doing? Lillian will kill you if you mess yourself up again.”

  “Stay the course. I’m going to help those already on location. Meet me there when you can.”

  Behind him Gran cursed, but he continued to surge ahead, calling more power as he ran. He leaped into the air and spread his wings. One powerful beat and then a second and he was airborne. However, he had no intention of flying the distance.

  Ahead, the magic he’d summoned from the Spirit Realm shimmered and churned. Moments before he would have collided with it, the spell snapped into being, opening a rift. On the other side was the dome shaped trap he’d created.

  Gunfire reached his sensitive ears, and he knew his trap had been breached by one or more of the invaders if the humans were engaging.

  Two more powerful wing beats propelled him through the rift.

  Below, it was as he expected. A pair of the invaders had managed to fight their way through the burning shield of energy. Ten more armor-clad warriors were still confined within the trap but were working their way through the multilayered shield as he watched.

  He swooped down on one of the warriors as he started towards the nearest anchor-stone.

  The stones were outside Gregory’s trap, so he hadn’t added much in the way of protection, just enough to keep curious Fae and military scientists at bay.

  Gunfire rang out again, which reminded Gregory not to summon his shadow magic to hide his approach. He’d felt the sting of the humans’ bullets enough to respect the tiny shards of metal. Getting winged by ‘friendly fire’ as Major Resnick called it, wasn’t something he needed.

  He was likely going to get roughed up enough as it was.

  The armor clad figure continued towards his target, unaware Gregory was diving for him.

  At the last minute, Gregory unfurled his wings and changed his descent angle to intercept the enemy.

  They collided with a leaden thump, Gregory’s weight and momentum driving the other off his feet and together they continued backward a good twenty meters until the solid energy of the dome stopped them.

  Power snapped and hissed, at which point Gregory realized the warrior’s armor was an iron mix of some kind.

  Ah. That’s why they’d been able to force their way through his shield. A second realization occurred to him as he grappled with the invader. This creature—whatever he fought—wasn’t of Fae lineage. None of the Fae could wear armor such as this.

  His impact had dented the other’s armor, and Gregory took advantage of the warped breastplate to pry up a corner near the arm. With a bit of work, Gregory managed to sink a few claws into exposed tissue.

  Blood gushed, and the other male screamed.

  Good, they could feel pain and they could bleed, which likely meant they could die.

  They grappled with each other as the battle continued around them. He fought his opponent with lethal blows intended to end the fight quickly. There were eleven more opponents besides the one he fought. But the humans were keeping this one’s partner busy at least.

  Gregory worked the hole in his opponent’s armor bigger. Then summoning Spirit Magic, he channeled it into the opening. The scent of blood and burnt flesh clogged his nose, but above all that he could smell the taint of a demon. This one was not Riven, but something else.

  Apparently, the Battle Goddess had not learned her lesson from the Riven. Gregory wondered how long these hybrid demons would serve her before they, too, betrayed her like the Riven had.

  Well, she wouldn’t have to worry about this fellow’s betrayal. Spirit Magic continued to build within the armor. Trapped, it had nowhere to go since the armor was designed to prevent magic from entering, or, in this case, exiting.

  Gregory delivered a powerful kick and knocked the other male away seconds before the warrior screamed in high pitch agony. A moment later, demon, host, and armor all vaporized in a flash of bright magic. Sparks flew in all directions as the iron-mix armor melted into a molten slag. It splashed against his own shields and the surrounding area like wind-driven rain.

  Smoke rose up from the dry grass as a few tiny curls of flame appeared. Gregory waved at the small fires, extinguishing them before they could grow dangerous.

  He was darting forward to tackle the other opponent on this side of the dome when the energy flickered and flared wildly before it winked out of existence.

  Ten more enemies rush forward from inside the shattered ring of anchor-stones.

  Oh. Lillian was going to be pissed at him.

  With a joyous roar, he charged towards them, his shadow magic darting before him. He collided with the fastest of the newcomers and tore his helmet from his head. A blast of Spirit magic took care of that fellow and Gregory was leaping forward again.

  But the others had seen what he’d done to two of their number, so swiftly drew back out of his way. He summoned more shadow magic and set it hunting. Most of the small shards were unable to get past the protections worked into the enemies’ armor, but it confused them and slowly herded them where Gregory wanted his next opponent.

  Leaping forward, he bound into a group of three enemies. While he blocked their blows with magic, he ripped at their armor and looked for other weaknesses he could exploit that would allow him to dispatch them swiftly.

  As he drove his present opponents back, gouging and tearing into breastplates, helmets and shoulder guards, the rest converged upon him and joined the fight. Gregory broke off the attack before their combined axes and swords could cut him to pieces.

  Several Armed military vehicles rolled into the meadow. Massive guns mounted on the backs took aim at the enemy. A second later, more gunfire tore through the air. The noise was enough he was surprised the air itself didn’t shatter like glass under the onslaught.

  Unfortunately, the Battle Goddess’ soldiers had powerful personal shields that stopped the bullets. But the sheer force and number prevented the enemy from spreading out. Ah. They were combining their power. They weren’t strong enough individually.

  Gregory circled around behind, preventing the enemy from retreating.

  That’s when he saw Gran and the other Fae arriving. They swiftly joined the military already in place. Then the two forces, both magical and mortal, focused their efforts on one enemy at a time. Gregory felt mild pride at how well they fought together. Perhaps the training sessions were beneficial, after all.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Lillian piggybacked on Daryna’s link to Gregory, and together they shared in his vision of the battle. Neither woman said anything to distract him. The last thing he needed was to have his attention divided.

  While she was glad to at least know what was going on, Lillian wished to be fighting by his side. She likely would have been if not for the tiny, fragile life within her womb. Not that she regretted her baby, not for a mo
ment. She just wanted Gregory safe, too.

  Lillian was drawing breath to demand Daryna go to his aid when military reinforcements and the other Fae arrived. The tension between her shoulder blades eased a touch, and she rolled them to try to further loosen up stiff muscles. Still, her wings twitched with nervousness.

  Daryna tilted her head to the side suddenly, like she was listening to something Lillian could not hear. She strained her senses, and then she felt it.

  Another tremor of magic shivered through the air.

  “Did you feel that?”

  Daryna blinked open her eyes. “Yes. I did. It’s not good news, I fear.”

  Lillian felt her talons flex. “Speak.”

  “It’s more of the Battle Goddess’ warriors.”

  Just what they didn’t need. Then she knew why Daryna looked so torn. “Go to Gregory. He’ll need your help.”

  “I can’t leave you and our child unprotected.”

  Flashing a hint of fang in a wicked gargoyle grin, Lillian stared down at Daryna and tightened her hold on her swords’ hilts. “While I may not be as lethal as either you or Gregory, I am not helpless. Besides, I also have Anna, Shadowlight, the banshee and a shit ton of military just waiting for a chance to get some of the Battle Goddess’ soldiers in their crosshairs.”

  Her tail flicked slowly back and forth while she waited for Daryna to answer. Perhaps she needed another nudge. “How much more danger do you think I’ll be in if Gregory and the others get more than they can handle? If even one or two of those enemies escape, where do you think they’re going to head next?”

  “They’ll come for the hamadryad. My spells will prevent them from traveling back to the Magic Realm, but if they are able to get close enough, they will be able to send a message requesting reinforcements. If the Battle Goddess thinks she has a chance to get a foothold in the Mortal Realm, she might act now even if she isn’t finished building her army. We must stop them before they can get close.”