Gregory ignored the human and continued to dress. Daryna just rolled her eyes and then looked at Lillian. “You know, our gargoyle has never been modest, but I think he does this intentionally because the humans are so very silly about nudity.”
“I’ll be waiting in the car,” Lillian said and shook her head. She followed the sound of her brother’s muttering.
LILLIAN STOOD IN ONE of the lower levels of what used to be a community building but was now just called HQ. The office had been converted into a hospital room and she now leaned against the wall with Gregory while Daryna explained to River that her youngest child was now a prisoner of the Battle Goddess.
Her mother was on crutches, and while her hair had started to grow back, her body was still covered in terrible burns. Gregory had been working some healing magic, but even so, anyone with two eyes could see it was pure determination on the dryad’s part that she was on her feet at all.
“She has my Shadowlight?” River whispered in horror, her already pale complexion from being bedridden for over two months washed out farther. “Darkness and I gave up everything to see that he wouldn’t grow up there.”
“I know,” Daryna whispered. “And I am sorry. You have my word that we’ll get him back.”
Lillian wasn’t sure if her mother could be trusted, but she did feel sympathy for the poor woman. To learn her mate was dead, or the next thing to it, would be a great enough blow after waking from a coma. Then to learn that her youngest child had been stolen away? Those two losses would cripple those with lesser fortitude. River was tough, though, and Lillian could see the rage rising within her now. Her weakened body did not lessen the fire of her spirit.
“Your word? Your word means nothing!” River slapped Daryna’s consoling hands away. “This is all your fault!”
Gregory stepped between them and gently pushed Daryna behind him while he spoke to the dryad in soft tones. “We will get him back. I promise you that.”
Stepping forward, Lillian joined them. “At least my little brother isn’t alone. Anna is there with him. She refused to stand down and went against orders to attempt a rescue.”
Lillian sat down on the edge of the bed and urged the surprised River to sit next to her.
“The human was the only one who went?”
“Yes,” Lillian answered. “She loves Shadowlight like a little brother. And while she knew the odds were bad, she chose to go anyway.”
“A human?” River whispered. “Only the human was brave enough to go.”
“Yes.”
River’s expression hardened. “Then Shadowlight picked well. She is a worthy Kyrsu. When we get them back, I will tell her as much.”
Lillian hugged the stranger who was her mother. “We will get them back.”
“Yes, we will,” River’s nostrils flared. “Just don’t expect either of them to still be the same.”
Her mother had just given voice to one of Lillian’s greatest fears. At the words, even the age-old Avatars looked a touch more worried than they had before.
Drawing in a deep shaking breath, Lillian vowed that no matter what had happened to Anna and Shadowlight, or what they had become, she would still stand by them. Surely, they couldn’t be worse than Gryton, not after only a few weeks’ exposure to the Battle Goddess.
Lillian prayed that was true.
Chapter 29
THICK AUTUMN DEW SPARKLED brightly on the hamadryad’s soft needles. The sun hadn’t been up long enough to burn it away yet, and the glade had that damp, earthy smell that always reminded Lillian of home. Later in the day, as the sun warmed the fallen leaves, the scent would change to a sweeter, richer essence.
But she wouldn’t see that today. Shortly, she would step inside the hamadryad and feel its bark close in around her. Well, she wouldn’t actually feel the bark closing, since she’d already be drifting to sleep, but it would still happen.
And then her tree would take something precious from her.
Touching the round curve of her belly, she told herself she would have had to do this in the next few days anyway. A dryad only carried the fetus for three months before giving it to her tree to gestate for the remaining years.
Giving the fetus to the tree a few days early wouldn’t harm her baby, but it would allow Lillian to go with Gregory. There was no way she would let Gregory venture into the Magic Realm by himself.
She took a step closer to her tree, her chin high and shoulders square.
“Once you’re inside the tree, you will sleep. You won’t feel anything until the tree releases you and you wake fully recovered.” Daryna said.
Recovered? Since when was being pregnant an illness? But she knew what Daryna meant. Lillian would emerge fit and ready for battle.
“The Sorceress is correct,” River agreed, surprising Lillian. River and Daryna had only just met an hour ago but had already developed a strong dislike to each other.
Gregory’s hands settled on her shoulders. “Take as much time to prepare as you need.”
“I’m ready.” Lillian untied the belt of her robe and Gregory mantled his wings around her.
Stepping forward, she raised her arms away from her body, caressing the hamadryad’s branches as she called on the earthy power of a dryad.
Her senses expanded out in all directions and even into the ground. Below her feet, magic pulsed with a steady slow rhythm, a slow, barely heard pulse. It was the heart song of the planet. Humans might not realize it, or even stop to think about it, but Earth was a living entity as much as she or Gregory, or any one of the fae and military personnel she sensed nearby. When she called on her dryad magic, she felt a true connection with the Earth.
She reveled in the power of the vast forest all around, until she felt calm and as unmoving as the land. Stable. Firm. Fixed in place.
When she brushed at the hamadryad’s branches a second time, they shifted, moving out of the way so that she could reach the thick trunk.
Sensing what she needed, or perhaps feeling the life inside Lillian, the tree shifted and shook as a fissure formed a foot above her head. The crack continued all the way down the trunk until it hit the root base. Widening farther, red, fibrous tissue pulled back exposing a dark cavern inside. Lillian drew in a deep breath and stepped inside.
Already the tree sang to her. A deep, slow melody wrapped around her and her consciousness started to recede. As the tree cradled her, she sang of ancient times and the slow turning of the seasons, telling how everything unfolded for a reason and that all would be well with her child.
The last thing she remembered was Gregory’s thoughts in her mind. “Sleep well, my beloved mate. Know that I will stand guard and never leave your side.”
THE EARTH TURNED, THE sun journeyed across the sky, and the forest whispered its knowledge into her mind. She was aware, and yet she wasn’t Lillian. She was hamadryad and all the worries and cares that haunted her dryad form did not concern her in the least.
All would be well. Even now her gargoyle mate stood guard and fed her magic-laced blood as was right and proper.
The earth turned.
Day gave way to night.
Turning, always slowly turning, night once again surrendered to the day.
Hamadryad thought about sleeping and keeping her dryad, too. The cold season was coming and surely her dryad would much prefer to wake again when the warm rains returned.
“No,” her gargoyle mate scolded her, though his emotions were more amused than alarmed. “Return my dryad mate to me. She and I have much to do before this realm is safe.”
He was an old and wise one.
Very well, Hamadryad agreed.
She pulled back her enfolding bark and allowed cold air to wake her dryad. Once her dryad began to stir, Hamadryad turned her attention back to their child, singing to her so that she would not miss the sound of her mother’s heartbeat. She crooned of love and magic and the slow turning of the seasons.
LILLIAN GASPED AS SHE came awake. Like the firs
t time she emerged from the hamadryad, gravity threatened to drag her uncoordinated body from the tree before she was ready.
Unlike last time, Gregory was there, lifting her into his arms.
Though this time he wasn’t the focus of her attention, not entirely. A hand came to rest against her now flat belly. She’d known the child would be gone when she awoke, but it wasn’t anything like she’d expected. There was no sense of abandonment. She was still with her child. Her child was still with her.
She didn’t know what was different this time, but she’d never felt the connection with her hamadryad as strongly as she did now. It must be because of the child. All she had to do was close her eyes and reach for the hamadryad and she could feel her baby sleeping deep and safe within.
“It’s done,” she told Gregory.
“I know. You did well.”
“Now we need to go find Shadowlight and Anna.”
“Yes,” Gregory agreed, and he started to lick the sticky, sweet sap from her skin.
Lillian batted his muzzle away. “Hmm. Maybe a shower first before we go save the world.”
Chapter 30
GREGORY STOOD OFF TO one side of the clearing and summoned power from both Magic and Spirit Realms. Daryna took what he provided and wove it into an intricate, knotted tapestry that, once finished, would form a portal to their destination.
While the spell that had carried Anna to the Magic Realm was similar, this one’s power requirements were greater. They were transporting a much larger group, but this one also needed to remain open. Once they found and freed Anna and Shadowlight, they’d need a swift exit.
During the two hours they’d worked on the spell, Lillian was never further from him than an outstretched wing. Her concern for him, while not warranted, still warmed his heart. Which was about the only thing on or in his body that was warm.
A fine coating of frost now covered his body as power continued to roll off him in waves. Even though Lillian couldn’t manipulate the magic that went into a higher level spell like this one, her body had been created to house the soul of the Mother’s Sorceress and could withstand the river of power rushing from him. That same power would vaporize an ordinary mortal.
Significantly further away, Major Resnick waited with his two teams. Even further back, the rest of the human herd, which seemed to follow him wherever he went, waited and watched and measured and recorded. Gregory huffed in annoyance. Why did he allow these gnats to hover around him again?
Oh yes, because he’d agreed to an alliance and these scientists were part of the deal.
“Gregory, pleasant thoughts,” Lillian said with a touch of humor. “Even I can see that stray bit of magic snaking its way toward the good doctors.”
He huffed in acknowledgment and gathered the stray power back in line.
“Thank you, Gregory,” Daryna said, dragging his attention to the spell work. “That will be sufficient for now.”
She was correct. The spell was almost complete. Certainly, further along than he’d realized. It was foolish to allow himself to become distracted by the presence of a few human scientists.
As he swallowed back the flow of unneeded power, he watched Daryna put the final touches on the transparent walls of shimmering energy. This portal spell looked more like a maze or a labyrinth than the usual smaller, flat disc.
The level of control and strength it took to form such a spell here in the Mortal Realm impressed even him. “Your spell work is magnificent.”
Daryna laughed. “It better be. Our lives may count on this spell for a swift return if things go ill once we’re in the Magic Realm.”
Nodding agreement, he stepped into the powerful circle and gestured Lillian forward. Once the three of them wove their way to the center of the spell, Gregory called out to Resnick.
The human had proven brave in the past and he showed his inner strength again by walking into the spell without hesitation. Daryna indicated where Resnick should stand, and he swiftly followed orders. The rest of the two teams were just as efficient.
Though perhaps he shouldn’t be surprised. The humans had been briefed at length on what to expect.
Once everyone was in place, Daryna nodded and Gregory gave the warning. “Brace yourselves. Breaching the Veil between the Realms is never pleasant.”
“We’re ready,” Resnick said.
Daryna needed no other prompting. The translucent walls of the labyrinth-like spell solidified, snapping around each of the travelers to hold them in place. The network of lines and the interconnecting knots holding it all together glowed brighter, taking on the brilliance of a miniature sun at circle’s center.
With a stomach-jolting tug, the spell activated, sending them hurtling toward the Magic Realm. A great pressure compressed his lungs, stealing his breath. It only lasted seconds as he knew it would, and then the weight shifted. Powerful currents of power drove him forward. The rushing continued and suddenly it was like he’d been tossed off a cliff to freefall through space.
Beside him, Lillian let out a whoop of surprise and she wasn’t the only one. Major Resnick was laughing as if this was the most fun he’d had in years. The human truly liked this? There was something seriously wrong with the man.
Slowly, the pressure and madly rushing power slowed. The world righted itself. Gregory looked up at the surrounding mountains where no mountains had been before.
“Welcome to the Magic Realm,” he told Resnick and his teams while he waited for his stomach to sort itself out of the knot it had put itself in.
Now the truly difficult part would begin.
Major Resnick and his men fanned out, searching for unseen dangers. Gregory sent his magic hunting for the same thing.
After several minutes, Resnick and Gregory both concluded their arrival hadn’t been noticed.
“We’re lucky,” Resnick noted.
“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Daryna said. “The spell was designed so no one would sense our arrival by magical means and I dumped us far enough away from the city that we wouldn’t be seen by random patrols either.”
“Two suns,” Resnick muttered with a shake of his head. “You told me, and I didn’t believe you.... but two suns! That’s going to take some getting used to.”
Daryna glanced at Lillian. “Welcome home.”
“I hope we don’t stay long. I don’t fancy becoming a slave,” Lillian shot back.
“Nor I,” Gregory agreed and then glanced upslope to the mountains high above. Long shadows were already reaching down from the slopes to cover the valley floor in shadow. In another hour it would be dark.
They’d planned their arrival to correspond with the setting of the first sun. Once the second sun vanished behind the horizon, they’d begin their travel, and if all went according to plan, they’d arrive at the fortress-city just before dawn when many of its protectors would be sleeping or have their senses dulled by the day.
Once the second sun made its descent, Gregory nodded to Resnick and the major gave the order to move out. Several team members fanned out around the still glowing portal spell—they would remain behind to guard it—while the rest of the humans moved away into the trees. Silent and swift, Gregory, Daryna, and Lillian kept pace.
All in all, Gregory admitted a little grudgingly that the humans were handling their foray into the Magic Realm well. Perhaps he’d have to rethink his opinion of humans. At least these humans.
Once they were away from the dampening spells built into the portal, Gregory’s magic picked up the essence of two gargoyles to the north and west, deep in the Battle Goddess’s domain. Not that he’d doubted Daryna’s message from Gryton, but this just confirmed that Anna and Shadowlight were very much alive.
Alive, but changed. The two were much more powerful than they’d been last he’d felt their essence back in the Mortal Realm. It was not unexpected, but it was still shocking.
Lillian was looking off to the north and west as well. “That’s them I feel, isn’t it?�
�
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“Gods, Gregory. They feel so much stronger, so different.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. We will fix whatever the Battle Goddess has done to them. Now we just have to get them out of there without getting a lot of our friends here killed.”
Lillian nodded in agreement.
If all went well, by this time tomorrow, they should be home with Anna and Shadowlight.
Chapter 31
CAPTAIN SORAC DIDN’T believe in fear, weakness, or hesitation as Anna’s first flight lessons highlighted. They were very much learn or die.
Maybe not die, she admitted as she sat squeezed between Shadowlight and Captain Sorac on the bench and ate her dinner. If she died, it would have enraged the Lady of Battles, but even so, Captain Sorac wasn’t above shoving her off a cliff when she took too long reading the wind currents.
After her first couple of ugly flight lessons, it did become easier. As Shadowlight promised, her wings, tail and horns began to feel like a part of her. Now, in the fifth week of her unwilling stay, Anna could shift to her gargoyle form and back to human the same day without falling into a dead sleep for hours afterward.
Shadowlight was also growing more powerful, both physically and magically. Worse, Commander Gryton no longer needed to chain him down when they were taken before the Battle Goddess for her special sessions.
He wasn’t the only one growing complacent. If Anna was honest with herself, she’d grown to like Vaspara and Sorac. Captain Vaspara had been teaching Anna and Shadowlight how to protect themselves from mental attacks by building impenetrable shields around their minds. It had been working, not even Gryton was able to sneak in and look around without her knowing.
As promised, Sorac was turning them into, if not masters, then at least proficient students of the sword.
Both mentors were fair, never unduly harsh—even if one was a succubus and the other a dragon. Well, actually, Sorac was something called a firedrake. Though, a fire-breathing, flying lizard was still a dragon in Anna’s books.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 113
