The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9)

by Lisa Blackwood

  “I haven’t yet decided whether you’re any better than Tethys. It seems everyone wants to use us, or own us, or possess us.” Lillian left unsaid the uncharitable thought that that seemed the natural order of things for avatars of the gods. She and Gregory were, in fact, tools owned by the Divine Ones. Gregory might word it slightly differently without a hint of censure, but he’d never tried to hide the fact either. “I’ll listen to you, but I make no promises. If you so much as try to force my hand, I’ll take my chances with Tethys.”

  Lillian’s father approached, a great dark shadow, but lacking the comfort of Gregory’s presence. This gargoyle, father though he might be to her, was a stranger. Thus, a suspect until proven an ally.

  Her father’s body language was all open curiosity, and she was certain he wanted to come closer for a hug, or maybe a sniff? She hadn’t a clue how family relations might work among gargoyles.

  The third newcomer, another male gargoyle, sidled up on her right side. Feeling suddenly hemmed in, she shifted her weight, wings spreading for balance and talons coming up.

  Her parents both stepped back.

  “Lillian, easy, don’t hurt him,” her mother pleaded softly.

  Lillian blinked at her. Don’t hurt him?

  He was as big as she was, which did put him slightly shorter than either Gregory or her father. And the newcomer was slim, less bulky, his gait somewhat awkward, almost coltish in his movements.

  He continued to approach her position, looking for all the world like he was vibrating with excitement.

  “Lillian, meet your brother.” Her father’s tone made it sound like she should already know that detail but uttered it aloud for clarification’s sake.

  “My brother?” Lillian’s mind blanked and kept trying to visualize her older, human brother Jason.

  “He’s newly emerged from my hamadryad,” Lillian’s mother said with a touch of pride. “He came early, sensing our distress at your situation. As soon as your grandmother gave you the medallion, we were able to sense the danger to you and your gargoyle. We came as soon as Shadowlight was mobile.

  “Brother?” Lillian croaked, still hung up on the fact she had a younger brother. He’d just emerged—by that, her mother meant born. Her little brother had just been born and had already come to help her battle Tethys?

  Lillian drew a calming breath. So far, she’d say her family had risked more for her than she’d ever risked for them. The image of Gregory and her father fighting flashed across her closed eyelids. There was no way she wanted Gregory and her little brother to meet, not until her other half was in full possession of himself again. She opened her eyes and speared her mother with her gaze. “I want to hear more, but not here. You’re correct. Gregory is going to come storming back any moment.”

  Lillian’s mother nodded and then gestured to where her father was standing next to another portal doorway, one like Gregory had created. Only this one opened onto a night-shadowed meadow, the darker bulk of trees marking the boundaries.

  She could well be looking at a very pretty trap. Then again, her parents were presently the only hope she had of freeing Gregory from Tethys’s spell. And if they were still serving the Lady of Battles, well then, they had even less reason to want Gregory entrapped by another. Lillian would use them to help her free Gregory, and if they planned to in turn betray her to the Battle Goddess, she would just double cross them first.

  A touch of guilt was followed by a strong, protective instinct. It warmed her heart as she looked upon her younger brother. All she saw was innocence and determination in his gaze.

  Him she would protect and give Gran another grandchild to mother if Lillian’s own parents proved deceitful.

  Decision made, she met her little brother’s gaze and held her hands out to him. He clasped them eagerly.

  “Come,” she said with a gentle squeeze of her fingers, “I want to get to know you. My grandmother, the human woman who raised me,” Lillian clarified for him when his ears flicked forward in question, “named me Lillian. I heard our mother call you Shadowlight, correct?”

  “Yes.” His voice was deep and rusty with disuse, or maybe it was more that he was just learning to use his voice for the first time.

  They walked through the doorway and into the tall grasses of the meadow. The moon was still climbing the sky, but its nearly full brilliance bathed the field in light bright enough she could make out the fluffy seed heads swaying in the wind.

  “Do you know why you’re here, Shadowlight?”

  “Our parents hope to make this Realm home for a little while. At least until it is safe to return to the Magic Realm.”

  In other words, until she and Gregory taught the Lady of Battles a lesson not soon to be forgotten, and it was safe for everyone to return.

  Ah, the clarity of innocence.

  And her little brother, no matter what nasty surprise the Battle Goddess might have planted within him, was innocent of any wrongdoing on his part. It wasn’t his fault he’d been born into a situation beyond his control.

  And just like that, Shadowlight became one of the things she would protect.

  It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known him this time yesterday. She knew he existed now, and he was a part of her family.

  More than happy by his older sister’s acceptance, Shadowlight proceeded to sniff every inch of her mane. Then he moved to her face where he started in with big, sloppy gargoyle kisses, which must be a species quirk and not just some inherent Gregory-ism.

  After a few moments of mutual washing, Lillian pushed Shadowlight’s questing muzzle away. “I need to talk with our parents for a few minutes.”

  He bobbed his head in that seemingly universal sign of understanding, then wandered off to go chase the fireflies randomly blinking around the meadow.

  He looked so terribly young.

  But just how young?

  From Gregory’s and the other dryads’ explanations, she knew a gargoyle child was usually gestated in the hamadryad tree until he was ten years of age, at which point the tree would go into labor and birth the fully-grown gargoyle.

  Even as ten-year-olds, gargoyles were deadly to evil. Gregory had come to her rescue when they were both only eight, choosing to be born two years early so he could free her from the Battle Goddess’s domain.

  Gregory had finished maturing while he’d slept in stone here on earth. She knew Gregory had faced and killed many dangers to extract her from the lady’s domain, but he was an Avatar. That powerful magic already his to control, even at the tender age of eight, and he’d had the added benefit of many lifetimes of knowledge to call upon.

  And yet her brother had none of that, and still, he’d come to her rescue.

  It told her something she’d always suspected about the loyalty and bravery of gargoyles.

  It also explained her own well-developed, protective instincts. Those, too, must be a species characteristic.

  “Tell me how we can overcome Tethys’ enchantment,” Lillian paused, her voice shaking slightly, “but first tell me your names because they were stripped from me shortly after I arrived here. And I very much want to know my parents.”

  Her gargoyle father was the first to step up, and he gave her a huge embrace, lifting her a few inches off the ground.

  Lillian held back a sob, only now realizing how much of an emotional void there was from not knowing her parents.

  When he put her down, he stepped back and looked her in the eye and said, “I am Stalks the Darkness.”

  After a moment, she cleared her throat and scrubbed away the tears on her forearm. “Do you mind if I call you Darkness?

  “Darkness,” her father rumbled, “suits me well enough.”

  Her mother came forward and placed her hands on Lillian’s shoulders and then bowed until their foreheads pressed together briefly. She said something in a language Lillian didn’t have a hope of following, but she assumed the alien mouthful was her mother’s real name.

  Perhaps seei
ng her daughter’s expression, she clarified, “In your human tongue, I would be called Born at the Mountain’s Foot Where the River Runs Cold.”

  Lillian mulled that name over for a moment. “Do you mind if I call you River?”

  Her mother smiled softly. “Darkness and Shadowlight call me that. You are welcome to as well.”

  “Thank you.”

  Her mother reached one delicate hand out to Lillian’s nearest horn in wonder. “I don’t care that it was through the Lady’s manipulation, but you make a most beautiful gargoyle. Such a strong, brave young woman would make any mother proud, but I am doubly so because I know what you had to overcome.”

  “Thank you,” Lillian whispered. “I would like to know more about my family, but Gregory can track me anywhere.”

  Her father made a deep huffing sound. “He wouldn’t be much of a protector if he couldn’t.” She thought she detected a hint of reproach as if he thought Gregory hadn’t been doing a very good job.

  Overprotective gargoyles, she muttered into the sanctity of her own mind before she fully realized she was one of those overly protective gargoyles.

  “You said you had a plan to help me free Gregory.”

  It was her father, Darkness, who answered her. “When Gregory comes to find you, we will already have in place several wards in this meadow to prevent him from building one of the portals that would allow him to return you quickly to the siren. His instincts will tell him to get you away from anything he perceives as dangerous—us being the greatest concern.

  “But we will not be here when he comes.” Darkness smiled, giving her one of those toothy gargoyle grins that gave anyone who saw one pause. “There will only be you waiting for him. In no distress whatsoever. He’ll likely check you over for traps, spells, or injuries. That will be the chance you’ll need to follow through with our plan.”

  River broke in. “You will not like the next part, but it must be done. It’s the only way to break the siren’s spell while she still lives. And with Gregory and the other fae to protect her, killing her will be far more difficult and risky than freeing your gargoyle our way.”

  “Your mother speaks the truth.” Her father nodded to Lillian, and then gestured to his mate. “Show her.”

  From around her hips, River removed a great belt—or girdle as they were called long ago—Lillian didn’t know what else to call the gem-encrusted band. She wasn’t up on her medieval fantasy fashions.

  When her mother handed the ornament to her father, and he demonstrated how it would go around a gargoyle’s neck, the item went from lavish fashion accessory to slave collar in the blink of an eye.

  Chapter 27

  “NO,” LILLIAN UTTERED the word before her brain had fully registered her intent. “No fucking way.”

  They watched her, their expressions unreadable.

  “Most definitely not. I’ll just go serve Tethys, doubtlessly she’s the better master.”

  “You don’t mean it, not really,” her mother countered, “not when you have the means to free Gregory after you’ve broken the siren’s spell.”

  “You’re saying it’s as easy as putting that thing around Gregory’s neck, breaking the siren’s spell, and then taking it back off again? I’m not that gullible.”

  “Easy?” Her father chuckled. “I imagine it will be anything but easy to get the ward stone collar on your Gargoyle Protector.”

  “There is a matching collar which controls this one.” Lillian’s mother gestured to Shadowlight, and he came galloping over. She held her hand out to him. There was a shifting of shadows around his neck as River unclasped something, and then the matching collar became visible in her hand. “Thank you for carrying this for me, love.” Shadowlight kissed her and then darted off to return to his firefly hunting. “Stalks the Darkness is forbidden to carry such a thing from the Lady’s realm; however Shadowlight was not there long enough to have such restrictions placed on him yet. And I could only hide the one on my person without the proximity causing them to become reactive.” Her mother held out the control collar.

  Lillian shook her head and stepped back. River continued to hold it out. Eventually, with a deep sigh of displeasure, Lillian took it because she wanted to see how much a person’s freedom weighed.

  It was surprisingly light and so very delicate for something so evil.

  “I can’t betray Gregory like this—I’m sorry, but what are my reassurances that this thing won’t just turn Gregory over to the Lady of Battles?”

  “You have our word, which likely means little to you, but we are telling the truth.” The dryad sighed, her expression closing once again. “But you must know there is no guarantee the siren will not turn you both over to the Lady. We are aware Tethys is bitter about what humans have done to this world. Gregory is already taxing her power, and if the two of you prove too difficult to break to her plans, there is a chance, small I would wager, that she might turn you both over to the Lady of Battles in exchange for aid from that quarter.”

  Her father made a thoughtful grunt and added, “Or she may fulfill her promise to Gregory and make you whole. Or if that fails, return you both to the master of all gargoyles—the Lord of the Underworld. There is a chance, a goodly one, Death may offer her a great boon for the return of his dear friend.”

  “Dear friend?” She really wanted to stop the parroting, but she had to ask. Later, she promised to make Gregory ‘magic-up’ a concise history of the Avatars. And she would read the damn thing from cover to cover without complaint even if it was ten thousand pages long.

  “As relationships go, it is an interesting one. You might think it a father-son relationship as the Divine Ones used you and Gregory to birth the twins, but over the centuries, Gregory and the Lord of the Underworld became more like brothers.”

  That explained one thing. “Then it’s not just the power of the Avatars the Lady of Battles wants? She wants to specifically break Gregory so she can use him against her twin. Nice.” Then Lillian saw another option. “I don’t have to choose between either a device made by the Battle Goddess’s hand or the siren’s song. There is a third party. If I run to the Lord of the Underworld, Gregory would follow, and once there, surely Lord Death would set Gregory free.”

  A long, silent hesitation was punctuated by uneasy looks between her parents. Her father was the one to answer. “Yes, the Lord of the Underworld would restore Gregory.”

  Lillian took a deep breath. “You’re a gargoyle. You must know how to get there. Can you teach me what I need to know to seek him out?”

  “As you say, all gargoyles can find the way. Though it is much easier to travel from the Magic Realm to the Mortal Realm than the other way, the trip is possible from here. However, it would take much power, and even more will.”

  Lillian cocked her head. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Before Gregory started expending large amounts of power to prepare the fae of this world for the coming battle, he had power enough to bring you to the Lord of the Underworld. Yet he chose not to. Why do you think he made that decision?”

  Her tail twitched in sudden, fearful understanding. She forced it to still. “To protect me.”

  “As I said earlier, the Lord of the Underworld would restore Gregory.” Her father’s look took in her form, from the tips of her horns to the sharp talons on her toes. “He would not stop there. He would free you from what his twin has worked upon you.”

  “I wouldn’t be a gargoyle anymore, you mean.” She had feared this side of her nature. It was so primal, and yet it had fast become a part of her. Would she miss it if it were stripped from her?

  She flexed her talons in the loam underfoot, gave her wings a little shake, and feared the answer to that question would be a ‘yes.’

  “Your gargoyle side isn’t something the Lord of the Underworld can just unmake,” her mother told her bluntly. “You were born this way. And I’m afraid once he was finished with you, you wouldn’t still be among the living.”
<
br />   “But surely...”

  Her mother made a sweeping motion with one delicate hand. “He would grant you and your hamadryad a swift death and then watch over your soul to prevent his twin from working her mischief a second time. That is the swiftest way to restore you. Once you were yourself again, you would thank him for his aid.”

  “But what about the Riven? The Battle Goddess’s scheme? The siren?”

  “If he freed your spirit, you could then be reborn as you were intended. Gregory, too, since your other half would seek a quick end by Death’s hand. Once that happened, the plans set in motion by the Lady of Battles would unravel, and she’d no longer be a threat to this or any Realm.”

  “But surely the Riven...”

  Her father interrupted her again. “Once you and Gregory were reborn, you both would make short work of cleansing this Realm of the Riven.”

  “But it would take at least another ten years before Gregory or I could return.”

  “Likely longer,” her mother added. “Gregory, always choosing to return as a gargoyle, would be battle ready long before you fully matured.”

  “But by then, the Riven would have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, if not more.”

  “The Lord of the Underworld deals in death. He would see it as an unpleasant set of circumstances that might take longer than he’d like to fix, but all would be set right in the end, with the Riven destroyed and the trapped souls freed.”

  “And this is the being Gregory reveres as noble?”

  Her father sighed. “Your thinking is that of a human. The Lord of the Underworld is immortal. Ten or twenty years is nothing to him—a blink in time, a tiny drop. It is as nothing compared to the long years of his existence.”

  Lillian shivered. To seek the Lord of the Underworld’s aid, was that her only option? Was she brave enough to act upon it if it was? She liked to think she would be brave enough to do what was right if that became the only path open to her.

  She could never allow either herself or Gregory to fall under the Battle Goddess’s power. But the road to the Lord of the Underworld was one she wouldn’t be taking either, not until she had exhausted all other options, for she knew that twenty-year delay would doom both the Clan and the Coven. They would be among the first the Riven hunted down. Gran, Jason, Whitethorn, Greenborrow, the unicorn, and the pooka would all die—or worse, become hosts.