“No, it didn’t have the outcome I’d hoped,” the siren answered and laughed openly. “He said he might have said yes but for one detail.”
Lillian arched an eyebrow and moved into range. “A rather large detail, I imagine. Well, more like 3.5 billion smaller details. I think that is about how many souls your help would send to the afterlife. I won’t barter one soul to save myself; I certainly won’t trade a few billion innocent human lives just so I can become the Sorceress again. No bloody deal.”
She snapped the crossbow into position and loosed the bolt. It flew true, its trajectory level with the siren’s upper body. With an impossible gesture too fast to follow, Tethys swatted the bolt, knocking it to the side where it embedded itself in the muddy bank. Lillian was already reloading it when the crossbow took up a subtle vibration in her hands. It lasted for all of three seconds, and then she was suddenly clenching empty air, gaping with sickening astonishment at where it had been.
“Ah,” Tethys said, sounding as calm as a lazy summer morning, as if Lillian hadn’t even attempted a shot, “That’s what your gargoyle said you would say. Apparently he knows you better than you know him. But that doesn’t change my goal. You’ve forced my hand. I had so hoped you would make this easy. I truly don’t want to enslave your gargoyle. He is such a noble beast. So much better had it come from you.”
Her heart pounding in her throat, Lillian glared at the siren. “If you could have enchanted Gregory, you already would have, and you wouldn’t need me to give him any orders.”
“True and false,” Tethys said with a mysterious smile.
“And what does that mean?”
“Even though Gregory is male, I’d still have no chance at winning him over under normal circumstances, but we find ourselves in an unusual situation this day. He’s still weakened from expelling large quantities of magic to produce weapons for the land-bound fae. It would be the perfect time to enchant him. Unfortunately, while he remains in stone, my power cannot touch him. So now he can heal and grow stronger, all while being impervious to my song. Once he is at full strength, he will awaken. At which point, it won’t go well for me. If he lets me live, I imagine it will be locked away behind a powerful spell.”
The siren pointed to the maze’s northern exit, and then pushed herself backward until her lower half was below the water line. “Lucky for me, Fate has opened another path for me to choose.”
Lillian jerked around as she caught an unpleasant odor. Something unwholesome was coming. She could sense it deep down in the soles of her feet. The forest around her gave warning, the trees aware of an evil passing through their domain. She took a step back, the unconscious move drawing Tethys’ attention away from Gregory and back to her.
“Young dryad, stay. There is something I want to show you.” There was a commotion at the north entrance of the maze, accompanied by much growling and snarling as a tall, humanoid figure was shoved forward at sword-point. The unidentified person dropped down into a defensive crouch. Three fae followed close at his heels, hemming him in and directing his momentum.
Lillian snarled in recognition, and two-inch black claws emerged from the tips of her fingers.
The Riven answered her in kind, its snarl harsh on her ears.
Chapter 24
WHILE SHE WAS LESS than happy to see one of them here in her grove, she held her position—not truly afraid of one lone Riven. If she had to, she could fight it in her gargoyle form. That nature simmered just below the surface, demanding she answer the challenge, eager to dispatch the Riven sullying her grove. Instead of forcing the dominant bloodline back, she held it in check, ready if she needed it, but stopped short of a full shift, which might neutralize her grandmother’s spell. That spell might be her last chance of escaping the siren.
Lillian narrowed her eyes, every sense homing in on the Riven. Actually, the beast hemorrhaged a black ooze from a dozen wounds. It looked like it might expire in front of her at any moment.
“Why,” Lillian pointed at the offending creature occupying her grove, “is that Gods’ blighted beast here? One alone is no threat to Gregory or me. If this is what you wanted me to see, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m already intimately acquainted with the murdering, soul-stealing little monsters. I doubt you can show me anything new about them.”
“No, but I did find this one and many others on the edge of your territory. As a favor to you and the local fae, I killed all but this one.”
“How nice of you.” Lilian’s voice dripped with sarcasm, but she was already inching closer to where Gregory slept.
At some point during the conversation, the Riven had turned his attention squarely upon the siren. If anything, the Riven looked more distraught and sank lower into its fighting crouch, fangs gleaming, and claws extended in extreme threat.
“I left this one alive because I thought to use it as evidence in case you didn’t believe me about the secondary threat, but then I decided on a better use for the creature.” Tethys gestured for the three fae to herd the Riven closer.
Lillian focused on keeping her breath and heart rate slow and even, but she allowed her claws to grow another half-inch. Darting her eyes between the Riven and the enchanted ward stones ringing Gregory in a protective circle, she briefly debated ending the Riven before he reached the stone circle or allowing him to fry himself on the protective wards.
In the end, she decided to leave him to be incinerated on the wards, less tainted blood to contaminate her grove that way.
One of the sword-carrying sidhe made a jab at the Riven. With a desperate contortion of his body, the Riven avoided being impaled and leaped back another dozen steps to land two feet inside the ward stone circle. A second later, Lillian realized the wards hadn’t activated, not so much as a spark of magic flickered along their lengths.
Tethys had nullified the protection on the stones.
Her heart starting to pound with the sudden rise of adrenaline, Lillian glanced at Gregory.
What other protective spells had the siren neutralized?
The Riven seemed to think along the same lines, for with one last, disbelieving look at the stone circle, he turned his hate-filled eyes toward the sleeping gargoyle.
No! Tethys planned to use the Riven to force Gregory to defend himself.
Lillian snarled her own challenge and bolted toward the Riven, every logical thought forced aside, only the need to protect her soulmate remained.
She shifted while still in the air, her wings stretching out, carrying her across the distance. She snatched at the Riven, but the creature twisted away from her claws.
With a flash of silver in the shadows, he summoned a demon blade and came at her.
Lillian arched away from the blade. Remembering what one had done to Gregory gave her a healthy respect for the thrice-cursed things. Using her powerful tail as a weapon, she swiped at the Riven’s legs, forcing it to jump into the air. She nearly speared him on her talons while he was distracted.
He twisted impossibly fast a second time and darted under a low-hanging branch behind the tree. Growling in rage, Lillian gave chase. A sudden, burning pain sliced across her back, just below where her wings attached. Yowling in fury, she spun, slashing out defensively at an enemy who wasn’t there.
A second slice seared across her side, blood welling from a shallow wound that hadn’t been there seconds ago.
She smelled the strong odor of sap mixing with the coppery stink of her blood and knew in a moment of lucidity, the Riven was attacking her tree, stabbing and slashing at her hamadryad in a vain attempt to kill her.
Lillian howled out her wrath again. A second, much deeper roar answered her call. It came from behind, and suddenly Gregory was racing past her to circle the tree.
The Riven burst out from behind the trunk, Gregory on its tail and closing fast. The Riven put on a burst of speed, leaping straight toward Lillian with its demon blade extended before it.
Gregory lashed out with a blast of bone-chilling pow
er, catching the Riven in the back. The demon’s momentum continued to carry it toward Lillian even as Gregory’s magic burned along the length of its body.
Lillian sidestepped and lashed out at the beast. Her talons severed its head from its shoulders as it careened past. For good measure, Gregory leaped onto the corpse and blasted it with a second wave of magic.
With a hiss and final crackle, the Riven’s body burned to ash, and then ash swirled into a fog-like smoke until even it was gone.
Gregory raked the ground with his talons, then drew a deep breath and coughed it back out in an enraged snort. He took two steps toward Lillian, his muzzle pointed slightly upward, and his lips pulled back to inhale another deep breath. She dropped to all fours and padded over to him, both to allow him to inspect her wounds and so she could check for any he might have gathered.
They were mere feet apart when a beautiful and eerie song filled the glade. Gregory twitched an ear in the direction of the song. Then he turned his entire head and neck, taking a half-step away from her.
Her own ears swung forward, seeking the source of the sound. Her body was just starting to mimic Gregory’s actions when a high-pitched snap echoed in her ears, piercing deep with a sudden agony, and then all the world went silent.
Bereft without the beautiful song, she whined and pawed at her ears, hoping to unblock them, but her hands came back covered in a few traces of blood. She snarled again, thinking this was more of the Riven’s work.
But there was something she wasn’t remembering.
Something about that beautiful song.
Something dangerous.
Gran had told her about a spell and a song.
Then the web of an enchantment fell away, and everything came rushing back.
She shook herself then stretched, surprised to find herself resting on the ground.
In a sudden panic, Lillian bolted to her feet and searched for Gregory. She found him halfway between her and the siren.
He was crouched, his tail flicking in what she first took as annoyance. She changed her mind after she noticed his long ears flicking toward the siren, and then back in Lillian’s direction. Every so often, Gregory would glance at her, his expression vague and uncertain as if he was undecided what he was supposed to do.
At the bank of the stream, Tethys waited, still half out of the water, her tail lazily splashing water over her body as she sang. For the moment, Lillian couldn’t hear the song. She’d been lucky her shift to gargoyle form hadn’t neutralized Gran’s spell, but she didn’t know how much longer her luck would last. If she had any hope of helping Gregory, she had to do something now, before her gargoyle blood healed her ruptured eardrums.
A quick glance down at one of her Riven-inflicted injuries confirmed it had already stopped bleeding. Her hamadryad was much stronger from the periodic feedings of Gregory’s blood. What she’d normally consider a benefit was, in this instance, an unfortunate side effect. She couldn’t assume the healing powers would wait to heal her ears until all the other wounds were healed. For all she knew, her injuries might all be healing at the same rate.
She glanced between Gregory and Tethys.
There was no way she could remove Gregory from the siren’s influence—he weighed too much, and he seemed disinclined to move from the spot anyway. She turned her attention back to the siren. Was it possible to eliminate her?
By their very natures, gargoyles were immune to many forms of magical attack. Perhaps her gargoyle body could overcome the siren’s defensive magic where her magic-enhanced crossbow had failed.
Lillian leaped into motion, sending a silent prayer that what she did ranked as bravery, not stupidity.
The distance between Lillian and her prey halved. Her talons extended to their full length and her jaws parted in preparation to savage the siren’s throat. Let’s see if the bitch can sing without vocal cords.
Shadows shifted, and suddenly Gregory was piling sidelong into her, his greater bulk and massive wingspan carrying them sideways several feet until they both slammed into the base of his stone pedestal.
She took two swipes of his tongue to her face before it occurred that it wasn’t an attack on his part. Lillian tried to extract herself from their tangle of arms, wings, legs, and tails. But no matter how hard she tried, it was like pushing against a mountain.
Gregory continued to growl happily as he gave her gentle nips and licks on her exposed skin.
Lillian fought against Gregory’s overly happy greeting as it dawned on her that no song the siren sang could ever make him harm her. In fact, Tethys might not actually be able to force a person to do something outside of their innate character. Rather like a hypnotist, maybe her power only allowed her to influence what was already part of a person’s makeup.
When Tethys dialed up Gregory’s affectionate nature, he became as boisterous as a six-month-old puppy—if ever a puppy weighed in at half a ton.
She forced her head to the side so she could study the siren. Her adversary was still half out of the water, seemingly in no hurry for Gregory to bring her his prize. But then, maybe Tethys couldn’t force anyone as powerful as Gregory to do anything he didn’t want to do.
That’s how the siren will use him, Lillian thought with growing panic. All Tethys need do is command him to protect his ‘Sorceress’ against the threat the humans represent. And he would.
Hell!
She needed to escape, buy herself some time to think and strategize. There had to be a way to shatter the siren’s influence on Gregory.
Lillian glanced at the surrounding forest.
Maybe she could escape and lead Gregory deeper into the woods? If she got him away from the siren’s immediate vicinity, then he might shake off Tethys’ influence.
Lillian forced herself to relax, realizing fighting with Gregory was getting her nowhere. She lay still while he cleaned her Riven-inflicted wounds, but her mind was far from idle, and she formed the basis of a plan.
He’d loosened his hold marginally as he worked his way lower. When she shifted her weight enough to free one arm, he tensed. Lillian followed through with the motion anyway, pretending his mane had been her destination all along. Once her fingers were buried in his thick mane, she started to groom the few tangles loose.
Gregory’s death grip eased enough to allow her to shift positions so she could better reach his mane. As she reciprocated his grooming, her tongue lapped at his skin. After a moment she scraped her teeth over where her tongue had been.
Gregory rumbled in appreciation, shifting his body enough to reach the soft, delicate skin of her throat.
Leaning forward, she nuzzled him in a heartfelt apology and then brought to bear a palm-sized river stone from where it lined the border between the manicured grass and the stream’s edge.
The impact against the side of Gregory’s head made a dull thud, which turned her stomach. He keeled over sideways with a little push from her, but he caught himself on his arms and braced himself as he shook his head.
Lillian lunged away.
Her leap landed her a good ten feet from where she’d started. She didn’t slow or look behind like instinct clamored for her to do. The knowledge that Gregory would follow was equally instinctive.
He had always been her Hunting Shadow. It didn’t matter what spells or enchantments might have been cast, he would always follow.
She might not know what had befallen Gran and the unicorn, but once she freed Gregory from the siren’s influence, they would return together to face Tethys and learn the fate of their friends.
Her earlier despair easing, she raced into the depths of her maze with a lighter heart.
Chapter 25
LILLIAN MADE IT CLEAR of her maze and quickly left the gardens far behind as she made her way deeper into the forest. The darkness under the trees didn’t hinder her gargoyle eyesight. She barely slackened her pace. The only times she slowed was to maneuver around patches of underbrush too thick to go straight through. Occasionally, s
he was forced to leap over a group of sleeping fae or human soldiers.
She didn’t have a destination in mind, as her plan didn’t go much beyond running for her life and hoping Gregory followed. Once they were far enough away, she held a small, admittedly naïve, hope he might shake off the siren’s spell if he wasn’t within range of her song.
Part one of her plan had worked far better than she’d ever dared hope. Her hearing was mostly recovered, and she had only to twitch an ear to her back trail to easily hear Gregory following even over the whistle of the wind in her ears. He wasn’t bothering to be subtle, which also told her he was still firmly under the siren’s sway. Had Gregory been in sole command of his wits, he’d never have made so much noise.
Refusing to be disappointed, she continued doggedly northward, her gargoyle body not even winded after running for the better part of an hour.
IT HAD TO BE AFTER midnight now. Four hours of running had worn away her earlier exuberance, but still, she ran. Her muscles burned, and her strides grew shorter even as she ordered her body to run faster. As if sensing victory, Gregory put on a burst of speed until his nose was even with the tip of her tail. She could feel the heat of his breath.
One lunge would spell disaster. She had no doubt if he caught her this time, he would take her back to the siren, and she wouldn’t get a second chance at escape. Jumping over a fallen tree, she used the momentary cover it provided to veer sharply to the left.
Gregory leaped over the trunk and changed course in the air, flapping his wings and shooting ahead of her to drop down almost directly in her path.
She dropped to the ground, kicking up a wave of loam and leaf litter in front of her and then kept rolling, right under Gregory’s outstretched arms. She felt his fingers graze her hip as she slid by. But then she was off and running again.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 42
