Thankfully the scientists were working in shifts or pulling all-nighters. It wasn’t terribly long before one of the scientists exited the building for a smoke break.
She walked between the sentinels on watch and slipped through the door before it closed. Inside, she stepped with care, not wanting her footfalls to give her presence away.
Making her slow, careful way by the soldiers stationed at the entrance, she traveled deeper into the building, down two flights of stairs and along the darkened hall and passed the labs. She paused and peered in a small window. Inside the classroom that had once been one of the high school’s labs, lights were still on and a few whitecoats moved around.
Anna stepped away from the door and continued down the hall. The next room was where the day’s batch of ward-spelled prototype weapons were stored before being field-tested. Once that was done, they’d be moved to the armory.
There were too many eyes on the armory to get inside easily, so she’d hoped that this room would be an easier target. Which it was, but there were still problems. Like the three soldiers on guard duty she’d already walked past in the hall.
Getting her ass riddled with bullets wouldn’t help Shadowlight one bit. With a glower at the nearest guard, Anna moved away from the door she wanted and headed to the end of the hall. Glancing down its length, she took in the scene.
Yep. More guards like she’d expected.
She studied them a moment, and when one turned his back and started to walk away from his buddy, Anna summoned her shadow magic and sent it out to surround him. After casting a quick glance over her shoulder and noting the other soldier was still walking in the opposite direction, Anna reached out to her target and pressed her fingers against his hand.
He jerked at the touch but dropped like a sack of bricks the next moment. She eased him to the ground and glanced up at the other target.
The second soldier turned back in her direction and was scanning the area where his buddy should have been.
“Hendricks. Peterson. Come in.”
“Peterson here.”
“Vickers with you?”
“Nope.”
“Then we have a problem.” His gun pointed unwaveringly at the spot Anna had just been.
She continued toward the next target as he scanned the hall. When she was even with him, she brushed her fingers along his jaw. It was the easiest bit of exposed skin to make contact with.
Like the first soldier, this one’s eyes rolled back in his head and he went limp. She lowered him to the ground and returned to the north corridor.
The other two soldiers each felt the briefest ghostly touch and then they too were no longer a problem.
Anna returned to the door she needed and reached for the handle. It was locked which wasn’t a surprise. Nor was it a problem for her increased gargoyle strength and her shadow magic.
Her magic flowed inside the lock and hardened into tiny shards of darkness which expanded within the lock mechanism. With a sharp cracking sound and the crunch of metal, the knob came off in her hand. With a bit more wiggling, the locking mechanism inside suffered a similar fate.
She stepped inside the room and saw what she needed stacked up in their storage racks.
Jackpot.
Chapter 28
ANNA WAS EXITING THE building just as Major Resnick entered, trailed by an entourage. Seeing Resnick caused a stab of pain to twist deep in her guts. He’d be disappointed in her, which would hurt worse than the court-martial she knew was coming her way if she survived her self-appointed mission.
Resnick and her father were friends. She’d known him since she was a kid. Hell, he was like an uncle to her. Disappointing him was going to be far worse than the court-martial, but it couldn’t be helped. Not this time.
Squaring her shoulders, she waited for Resnick and the others to file past before she darted through the closing door and out into the night. Once she was free of the base, and no longer had to be as careful of her passage, she hauled ass back to where Daryna had said to meet.
Daryna had told Anna she had an hour to gather what she would need. She’d made it back with eleven minutes to spare. Daryna was already there and waiting.
So far, so good. While Anna wasn’t certain of the other woman’s real motives, she didn’t have the luxury to care. Rescuing Shadowlight came first.
While she sprinted up to the spot where Daryna was working, Anna studied the area. It was greatly changed. Daryna had been busy as promised and was presently finishing up some fancy-looking spell.
To Anna’s enhanced gargoyle vision, the twenty-foot circle that surrounded Daryna glowed a bluish white. It was so bright it destroyed Anna’s night vision, and she had to blink away the phantom lines and spots from her vision.
“Good, you’re back. I’m just finishing the last layer of the portal spell.” Daryna painted two more symbols in the air with precise gestures of her hands.
After another buzzing wave of magic tingled along Anna’s skin, Daryna rotated the symbols until they were hovering parallel to the ground. With a gentle push, she sent the last two symbols floating down to join the rest of the circle. Like pieces of a puzzle, they snapped into place and the entire circle glowed even brighter.
“It’s ready. Come.”
Anna hesitated a moment, not wanting to come so close to the vast power she felt throbbing in the glowing lines of the spell. The magic felt wild and pent-up, ready to lash out at anyone foolish enough to set order to its chaos.
After eyeing the spell for a moment more, she stepped over the first bright line.
Inside several more symbols glowed white with their own power. Again she hesitated, but not because she was scared. She just didn’t want to screw the spell up and waste time while it was fixed.
“You can walk through the magic without harm,” Daryna said as she tweaked one of the symbols.
Anna shrugged and marched straight to the center of the circle. She already had all her gear packed away. She’d even taken a tranquilizer rifle. It wouldn’t do any good against armor-clad enemies, but she hoped that within the heart of the Battle Goddess’s domain, not everyone she encountered would be dressed in full body armor. She’d also brought three of the spell-warded rifles and enough ammo for a small siege, just in case they were fanatical enough to go in full body armor all the time.
“My spell will deliver you deep inside the Battle Goddess’s territory. I designed it to have a minimal disturbance on the flows of magic in the surrounding area. So, the spell won’t betray your location, but that doesn’t mean your arrival won’t be witnessed.” Daryna shrugged in an offhanded way.
“I might pop into existence in front of a hostile. Better have my shit together. Got it. What else can I expect?”
“I’ve created the promised map in more detail.”
Daryna held out the nondescript brown tube. Anna pulled off one end and tipped out the map. When she unrolled it, she found a hand drawn map or one created by magic. The parchment might have been honest-to-god animal skin.
But the map was legible with what looked like mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers marked out upon it.
“If something happens to the medallions, but you’re not so desperate as to seek out Lord Death, show Shadowlight this map. He will be able to use his father’s memories and this map to lead you safely into the neighboring kingdom of Falconsmead. It’s a land ruled by Whitethorn’s distant kin.” Daryna paused and glanced north as if there was something there drawing away her attention.
With a shake of her head, she continued. “A warning though, they are not friendly to those who serve the Battle Goddess. Though, they do respect gargoyles. While sidhe of the Magic Realm will be suspicious of you, they will not kill you outright. But there are pookas which hunt the lands between the two kingdoms. Beware to avoid their notice.”
Ah, fantasyland just sounded so delightful. “Eh, yeah. But either you, Lillian or Gregory will come for Shadowlight and me eventually, right?”
> “Never fear. You both still have a part to play in this before it is over.”
Anna narrowed her eyes. That sounded a lot like demigods moving pieces on the chessboard again. Well, fortunately, she was a knight with really sharp claws, big-ass guns, and enough ordnance to make her enemies bleed.
Daryna walked from the glowing circle as she continued to instruct Anna. “The spell will drop you about a day’s walk from the Battle Goddess’s temple. With the map to guide you, you will find the temple easily enough. However, the time of day you arrive will influence your plans.”
Anna stopped herself from strumming her fingers against her thigh. Obviously, she wasn’t going to attempt a rescue in broad daylight.
“Your instincts will be to try to infiltrate the temple at night, but that would be a mistake. Many of the creatures that serve her are nocturnal and will be hibernating during the day, or if awake, their senses dulled.”
“Like vampires?”
“Worse, my dear. Much worse.”
“Nice,” Anna muttered to herself. “But the ward-spelled weapons should still work on them?”
“Yes. But your best defense will be secrecy and shadows. Don’t let your guard down for a moment, even in the daytime. Not all who serve her are night dwellers.”
“I won’t,” Anna agreed. I like my own ass, thanks. And I won’t do Shadowlight a scrap of good if I’m dead.
“Do you have any other questions?”
“Hell, yes. But we’re out of time. Let’s do this before Gregory finds us.”
“Very well.”
Daryna stepped from the circle and raised her arms. As she did so, the circle’s light flickered and shifted to shades of pastel. When she began to chant, the pale color shifted again, changing to a darker hue, fiercer and somehow more aggressive in tone. Again, Anna was reminded of the wildness she sensed in the magic.
“May the Divine Ones continue to bless you.”
Bless me? Not bloody likely. Let me survive with my skin intact to torture me more later? Hopefully.
A wall of power encircled her, and a great pressure descended upon her body. It continued to increase. There was a reason she hadn’t joined the air force. Pulling G’s wasn’t her idea of fun. For a moment, she thought the magic was going to grind her bones into the ground.
Above her, the magic swirled in a violent vortex. Her heart in her throat, she watched as what she was certain was an angry and ravenous wormhole reached down and swallowed her whole.
Gravity vanished along with any sense of up or down. As Anna’s body was catapulted into the next realm over, she wished she’d thought to ask more about the transportation spell. Like what to expect and how bloody long would it last?
At least, she could take some pride in the fact that she wasn’t screaming or puking.
Then as swiftly as the sensory bombardment had started, it abruptly ended.
Her head still spinning, Anna found herself on her hands and knees in a stream. It was icy cold and flowed down a steep slope before it eventually reached the valley floor a few hundred feet below.
Anna picked herself up out of the stream and looked around in more detail. The valley seemed uninhabited, and so far as she could tell no one had seen her arrival. She stomped ashore after she had determined moving wasn’t going to draw unwanted attention.
“Welcome to fantasyland. Methinks it’s going to go downhill from here.”
She glanced at the sun to gauge how much daylight she had left only to find a second, smaller one riding in the sky with it.
Two suns.
Yep.
Shaking her head in disbelief, she called her shadow magic to hide and then headed for the closest trees to act as cover. Once she oriented herself using the map, she would start the hunt for Shadowlight. Now that she was here in this realm, the tiny speck of magic that burned deep in her brain detected Shadowlight faint and far away. But alive.
Never had she been so happy for her magic. She only hoped he could sense her and know help was on its way.
“I’m coming for you, kid. Just hang on.”
Chapter 29
DARYNA TURNED HER BACK on the fading ring of magic she’d used to send Anna to the Magic Realm. Knowing her time was limited, she immediately began summoning another spell that would carry her to Gryton’s camp. If he was still there. Weariness was creeping across her senses, and she knew her body was beginning to show the stress of calling upon so much magic in so short a time. But it couldn’t be helped. And she still had more spell work to complete this night.
With a focused push of her will, a portal spell appeared in the air. Daryna raised her chin and prepared to face her son. Between one step and the next, she was far from where she’d been.
Here the air was free of the stink of humans and technology. The rich scent of balsam fir and other evergreens filled her lungs. She breathed deep and wiggled her bare toes in the needles and loam under her feet.
Being born into a dryad body had some interesting advantages. The trees told her all that went on in their domain. Gryton had returned less than two hours ago, but he’d already set a few defensive spells before limping into his temporary home.
Relief that he was still here washed through her.
If he’d intentionally betrayed her and deliberately orchestrated Shadowlight’s capture, Gryton wouldn’t have returned to the first place she’d look. No son of hers would be so foolish.
In truth, she hadn’t assumed Gryton had betrayed her. While his earlier thoughts had been tainted with distrust of her motives, there had been no dishonesty. It was good that she wouldn’t have to hunt him down and start fresh with his taming.
Expanding her power, she learned more about his condition. Presently, his emotions came to her. He was awake and in pain and expecting to be hunted down at any moment, but his honor demanded he take responsibility for his own failures.
During the fight, Gregory had injured him, but she hadn’t known how badly.
“Gryton, my child. Lower the defenses, I’m coming in.”
“I’m not a child,” came his surly reply. “Even though I was foolishly naïve to believe I could trick the Battle Goddess and the warriors under my command, I didn’t intentionally betray you or the young gargoyle.”
“I know.” Daryna grinned. If he was grumpy, his injuries couldn’t have been too extensive.
Gryton didn’t lower his defenses as she’d asked, but they became visible without her having to counter them. She carefully picked her way over and around all the trigger spells.
She ducked her head as she stepped through the cavern’s low entrance. Inside was the familiar narrow crevice that finally widened several paces in. Firelight flickered on the walls, but there was nothing cooking over the fire.
Gryton sat next to it. His upper body armor was missing, and he was working on healing a dozen shallow slashes that covered his shoulders, arms, and chest. The damage allowed his internal fire magic to glow from behind the injuries.
Not that he would carry them for long. She planned to aid in healing him well before the dawn when Gregory would begin his hunt.
“Lillian did an excellent job on you.”
Gryton snorted. His lips curled away from his fangs, but there was a hint of admiration. “See how well you do going into battle and trying to overpower your opponents without actually killing them. And when your opponents are gargoyles, let me assure you that is no easy task.”
“Yes, about that,” Daryna said as she set her bag of supplies down next to Gryton. “Gregory has enough of your blood and essence to track you. He’s attending to Lillian’s minor injuries, but once he has done that, he will be on the hunt well before dawn, I imagine.”
Gryton ran a finger along one of the slashes as he murmured a healing chant. “I’m not going to sit by and allow my gargoyle sire to kill me without a fight.”
“I don’t intend for you and Gregory to meet face-to-face just yet. He’s not ready to hear the truth.” Daryna reached
out and placed a hand over one of Gryton’s wounds and healed it. “I intend to weave a spell upon you that will hide you from Gregory’s searching magic. It’s not a permanent fix, but it will be better than nothing.”
Again, Gryton grunted in way of acknowledgment.
“You’re very like your father. Grumpy. Non-communicative. Brooding...”
His fangs flashed again. “What does it matter if I am? He’ll still hate me on principle.”
That might very well be true, Daryna decided. But she didn’t utter that aloud.
“We have other problems.”
He jerked his head in a swift affirmative, his expression turning slightly less haughty. “I only expected those I specified for the mission to come. That many more came must mean the Battle Goddess suspects me of treason.”
“Perhaps she did, but those who captured Shadowlight saw Gregory attack you. They will carry that news back to the Battle Goddess. If we are lucky, she will assume you are actually innocent of betrayal and that by coming here you acted to retrieve the collars that Darkness and River stole. And your actions also allowed Shadowlight to be captured. We can use that to our advantage. It never hurts to have a spy in our enemy’s court.”
“That wasn’t my intention. If I go back, she will see through my deception and will seek my death just as surely as her brother did in the past.”
Daryna laughed. “Then tonight’s session will be about how to hide your innermost thoughts, showing her only what you want her to see, what she will think she has pried from your unwilling mind.”
Gryton glanced down at the fire so his pale skin didn’t betray his shame. “I lack the control needed to do as you say.”
“As a child raised in her kingdom for eight years, under her ever-watchful eye, I managed to hide my plans from her,” Daryna said as she handed him another piece of white gauze. “If I could do that for all those years, you’ll be able to manage well enough with some guidance from me. You’ve already excelled well beyond what you were capable of a few days ago.”
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 94
