That hope only lasted until Taryin came on the Battle Goddess’s order to bind Vaspara’s soul with darkest magic.
During the ritual, Vaspara had prayed to the Divine Ones for death, but they didn’t grant it. Instead, a cool, almost oily power now shifted and crawled under her skin, burrowing through her chest and up along her spine and into her mind. She was still herself and yet not. Something fundamental was being stolen away day by day.
But she was now regularly granted time out of her cell to feed and care for the draklings. They even restored her title of captain, and they allowed her to continue training her troops. Sorac was granted all these things as well. And yet Vaspara couldn’t feel near the amount of joy such change should have brought.
The only thing that might have pierced the blood witch’s spell—seeing Sorac and feeling his love for her and his draklings—was far beyond her reach, the Goddess having ordered that Vaspara and Sorac never see each other ever again.
She’d had to content herself with his fading scent each time she visited the draklings after he’d already been and gone. Then one day Sorac had started leaving her letters in the draklings cavern. Reading his words of love had finally sparked joy like she’d once felt, and that hope helped her to endure the witch’s spell.
And since nothing in Taryin’s orders had forbidden communicating through letters, Vaspara had written back. They’d both been cautious not to reveal that small bit of contact for fear a new order would stop them from sharing in even that bit of solace.
After reading each one, she committed it to memory and then swiftly burned the letter, fearing to leave evidence for others to find.
Vaspara was just thinking of ways she and Sorac might steal a few moments together here and there when her cell door rattled as the latch was pulled back. A moment later, two figures blocked some of the light.
“We discovered your little secret, Succubus,” Taryin hissed.
Bervicta marched into the cell. “I put my life and career on the line for you!”
What? What had they discovered that she hadn’t already told the harpy? Sorac’s letters? Neither of them would be this enraged over that. A simple order would swiftly put an end to it.
With no idea what they were referring to, Vaspara just came to her feet and stood defiantly, maintaining her silence.
“The djinn,” Bervicta shouted, but her eyes were calm and trying to convey something. “He finally slipped up when Taryin and I were bringing him into the draklings’ chamber for guard duty. The little ones were awake and hungry. We both witnessed how swiftly the little ones latched on and began feeding from his power.”
Taryin smiled. “He couldn’t resist my questioning. That wasn’t the first time he’s fed them either. He admitted to providing what they needed regularly back on the island when you and Sorac were off building a village.”
In sudden understanding, Vaspara realized Bervicta had never told the Battle Goddess of the djinn’s ability to feed the draklings. Now it made sense why Vaspara and Sorac had been granted so much time with the little ones. Vaspara knew she owed the harpy for that gift, and it was time to repay the debt.
She sneered at the two women. “Of course I withheld information that would cause my death. And since you didn’t directly question me about if the djinn could feed the draklings, I never had to answer you.”
“We know your secret now, and I’ve already shared it with the Battle Goddess.” Taryin smiled, the look predatory. “I’ve been ordered to reassign you to a new task now that you’re expendable.”
Chapter 35
Gryton
IN THE DAYS AFTER STALKS the Darkness was returned to life, Gryton fell into a routine of training, interrogations, testing by the scientists, and then more training. The only glimmer of enjoyment he took from the entire experience was that the Null had to suffer through the same things.
But at least there was an end in sight.
All the misery would culminate in a week’s time when the Avatars and Major Resnick would lead a mixed company of human, fae, and gargoyles into the Magic Realm to meet with the Lord of the Underworld. If all went well, then they would continue on to Haven where the new legion would meet their equally new allies.
It all sounded well and good, but Gryton didn’t trust any of it.
Besides the obvious trap where Anna, Obsidian, and Thayn might be doing all this to lead him into Lord Draydrak’s reach, something else was off. Gryton experienced a tingle of warning every time he looked upon Thayn. Gryton’s instincts were telling him the oldest gargoyle wasn’t being truthful with the Avatars.
Oh, not even the ancient one could lie to the Avatars and not be discovered. But withhold the full truth as to his purpose here? That was entirely within a gargoyle’s ability to hide without triggering an alarm in others, even Gryton’s sire and dam.
But Gryton had been born suspicious. It was the only reason he was still alive.
And all his finely-honed instincts said this was all an elaborate trap for someone. The most likely targets would be him or his parents for begetting him.
He would have spoken about this to his mother except he was never alone with her. And he couldn’t mention it in front of his father. Thayn was one of Gregory’s oldest friends. He wouldn’t believe the ancient gargoyle capable of deception until he buried a blade in the Avatar’s heart and sent Gregory back to the Divine Ones.
If he could trust the Null, he might have confided in her since even with all her faults, she was a shrewd one. He snorted to himself. She was in his head enough she may already have seen some of his concerns and reported them to her masters.
But if she hadn’t already discovered his worries, he wasn’t about to betray them to her so she could spread the word. Stealth and secrecy might be the only weapons he had to use against Thayn’s plans.
Presently the Null was talking to Anna. The two women had struck up an odd friendship. They took great pleasure in trying to surpass each other in annoying him. They’d already tried so many ‘nicknames’ on him he was immune to their jokes and insults, but that hadn’t stopped them from laughing and jesting with each other.
As for Anna’s partner, Obsidian looked almost as perplexed as Gryton felt. As if thinking of him summoned the massive wall of muscle, Obsidian appeared in Gryton’s line of vision.
“You. Practice ring. Now.”
Gryton snorted and snatched up one of the practice swords from a bench as he walked past. After his and Obsidian’s first disastrous match in the ring, no one trusted either of them. They’d both been ordered to wear temporary control collars Gregory had made for them to stop them from using magic in the ring.
They were almost at the practice sands when Anna called out. “Hey, wait you two. Major Resnick wants the soldiers to learn some basic sword skills to add to their combat skills.”
“If we’re down to swords and crossbows,” the Null muttered to herself, “we’re so fucked it won’t matter.”
“What was that, Erika?” Gran shouted from the other side of the ring while spinning her quarterstaff lazily. “I don’t think I caught all of that.”
“Nothing. Just talking to myself,” she shouted and then added in a whisper once she’d moved safely behind Obsidian’s concealing wings, “You crazy old witch.”
Gryton’s gaze followed the Null. He grinned and directed his question at Anna. “You wish me to train the Null?”
Anna snorted. “No. I want Obsidian to train her. I’m not giving you a chance to kill her, she’s too good at needling you. I’m not risking losing such a remarkable ally.”
“How disappointing,” Gryton said, fighting back a rare genuine smile. “Guess that leaves you and me for the next matchup.”
Obsidian stomped forward, his voice more growl than words. “If you think I’m letting you anywhere near my Kyrsu...”
“Nope. So not happening,” the Null barked out as she scooped up a practice sword and prodded Gryton in the chest with its tip. “No way am
I letting you draw Obsidian into another fight. Not on my watch. If you’ve got such a hard-on to cross swords with a woman, you can cross swords with me.”
“You’re female?” He challenged with a laugh. “You’re sure?”
She waved her other hand at him, the middle finger raised in a lonely salute.
He snorted, having gathered the meaning a while ago. “I’d really rather not fornicate with you.”
“Missed something in the translation. Get your ass in the ring, Hot Stuff.”
Not one to turn down a challenge, he joined her in the ring and was as surprised as everyone else that she possessed some basic skills. Her defeat was still easy. He didn’t even have to work that hard to disarm her the first time, but he still found himself fascinated why and how she possessed the basics of swordsmanship.
“Where did you learn to hold a sword? I wasn’t aware humans of this world trained in edged weapons, preferring to put all your faith in the less reliable gun.”
“I told you about my weird siblings. The oldest two try drilling some basic moves into me at every family get together. Most competitive family on the planet. I swear.”
Anna chuckled as she joined them. “You haven’t met my brothers yet. Five of them. Only one isn’t military. Competitive doesn’t even describe what happens on the rare occasion they all manage to get together.”
There was a soft tone in her words at the mention of her brothers. It was clear she missed them. The Null was drawing breath to commiserate when Gryton snapped his sword out, striking hers and nearly knocking it out of her hand.
“Less talk,” Gryton said as he attacked, “more swordplay. Unless you want to be killed by the first sword you meet on the battlefield?”
The Null wasn’t put off by his abrasiveness. “Ah. I think he cares. What do you think, Anna?”
“Tin Man doesn’t have a heart.” Anna’s grin was huge, her words spoken in jest, but she’d hit upon the truth.
He didn’t have a heart. He didn’t feel compassion or other weak emotions that could get him killed. His motives had changed when he’d learned her purpose was probably to neutralize the djinn and not assassinate him, but his purpose was no less selfish. The longer he could keep the Null alive, the better his own chances of survival became. He just had to bend her to his will, and then he could use her to kill his enemies.
After all, even demigods weren’t immune to Nulls. If he could win this Null’s loyalty, he might be able to use her to kill Lord Draydrak and the Lady of Battles. Leaving only the Avatars as a threat to his existence. And as far as their relationship with him went, he was sure he was winning his mother’s affection.
His sire? Hmmm. That was another thing entirely. But if he could win one half of the Avatars, the other half would eventually come around. Their shared nature was a weakness in such a situation, a weakness he had no issue with exploiting.
Their weakness also reminded him why he preferred to be singular for all eternity.
“If that’s true, why do you want to get in Anna’s pants so bad?”
He’d thought he was keeping the Null too busy to peer into his head. Apparently, he needed to keep her busier if he wanted privacy. Lunging toward her, he brought his sword down upon hers with bone-breaking force. As he’d expected, her ability absorbed most of the impact, but not all of it. She stumbled back three steps.
“Ooh! Testy. Hit a nerve.” She chuckled but had to retreat from him, her clumsy parries and thrusts no match for his more skilled strikes.
She might be no match for him, but he allowed her to stay on her feet. He was just warming up.
“A human term ‘to scratch an itch’ describes it best.”
He planned to enjoy this little helping of revenge for all the times she’d fed from him.
The Null was soon sweating and panting, but her mouth never stopped. “I’m curious. You say scratch an itch, but as a fire elemental are you even really male? As in with the biological drive to reproduce and all?”
He arched a brow.
“I mean, I’ve been in your head enough times that I’ve seen things. When you were... er... new, you didn’t even have a body, let alone a gender. You were just,” her face screwed up as she looked for a way to describe what she’d seen.
“A sentient ball of molten power and fiery rage,” he offered helpfully. “One with an insatiable curiosity to learn what I was and where I came from mixed in with all the fury?”
“Yep.” She cleared her throat and continued in more serious tones, “I can understand that need to know things, to understand. I’ve always been fascinated by what makes a person tick.”
“And I’m a curiosity you can’t figure out?”
“Yeah. But I think I understand you better now.”
That was doubtful, but he’d toss her a bone. “Go on. Ask your question.”
“What made you first decide you wanted a flesh and blood body? Your first form was much more impervious to attack. And why male?”
“I wished to experience other sensations, other situations, to interact with the world without reducing everything I touched to ash. And to clarify, I tried a female form first.” He laughed at her surprised expression.
“Okay. I totally didn’t see that one coming.” She tilted her head one way and then another as if trying to imagine him with a female form. In the end, she just nodded. “I’ve been inside your head. I just can’t imagine you as a girl.”
“Since the Lady of Battles was the only being in the universe to offer me protection from her Twin’s army, I wished to honor her by emulating her, so I adapted my form into that of flesh and blood and female.”
“And...?” She gestured at his body.
“Being female never felt right. I decided there was something fundamentally male about my nature and took on this shape. I’ve worn this form for close to six thousand years.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Yep. I stand corrected. You’ve been male longer than almost any male alive. Shutting my mouth now.”
Then she came at him, their wooden swords clashing in dull thwacks before she spun away from him to slash at his back. He darted forward and circled her in a swift, deadly dance, allowing none of her strikes to land.
In a momentary pause in the fighting, Thayn interjected, “Well, I think I’ve learned more about Gryton in an afternoon than I could ever gather with thousands of years of spying.”
Gryton and the Null continued their fight, but they both glanced at the old gargoyle when a pause in their bout allowed. He noted that the gargoyle was staring at the human while rubbing his muzzle thoughtfully.
“Avatars, help spark an old fellow’s memory, would you?” Thayn shouted over the cracks of wooden swords.
Gryton’s sire and dam broke off their own practice with two of the human soldiers and wandered over to watch.
Thayn pointed at the Null. “What soul is that. In this magic deprived realm, I can’t see past the flesh to see the soul beyond.” His tone hinted that he’d been frustrated by that for a few days now.
Gregory approached the practice ring. “Lillian and I have been discussing this. But in this Realm, we are limited in the same way. Though we recognize a first wave soul when we see one.”
Gryton saw when his keeper’s eyes widened. “I’m not sure I really want to know what y’all are talking about, but you can’t just say something like that and stop there.”
Lillian laughed. “No. That wouldn’t hardly be fair. We know you’re an old soul. One of the first ones created after us and the djinns. You’re older than Gryton, the Twins, even Thayn. Though until we travel to the Magic Realm, we won’t be able to say for certain which soul is housed in your flesh and blood body.”
“Fine. Now I know y’all just pulling my leg. I’d know if I was a gazillion years old.”
Thayn huffed with sudden humor. “Gryton, you should be flattered. One of the first wave found you intriguing enough to suffer being born again. There may even have been a fig
ht to see just which of the elder souls got to be reborn to become the keeper of the Avatar’s son. Your birth is likely the most interesting thing to happen in the universe since the Twins’ creation.”
Gryton’s mother just rolled her eyes at Thayn’s comment and continued to explain the way of things to the Null. “Most souls don’t remember their previous lives. The older the soul, the more knowledge and memories they possess. It’s too much for most mortal brains to withstand, so while the soul remembers everything it ever experienced, the mortal mind only remembers what it experiences in the current lifetime.”
The Null’s mouth opened and then snapped closed, speechless for the first time. Gryton hadn’t thought that was possible.
“Some of the elder races are more highly evolved, their minds can process more. That’s why some, like gargoyles and the sidhe, will have some recall of previous lifetimes. Gargoyles are likely the most adapted to this since they have genetic memory passed down from father to son.”
As Gryton watched, the Null’s eyebrows scrunched over her nose. “Some humans claim to remember previous lives. Is that possible or just bullshit?”
“It is possible. In those cases, the soul and the mortal mind overlap during dreams. The ‘true dreaming’ happens when the soul’s memories bleed across during dreams. It isn’t enough to overtax the mortal mind, and often upon waking, they will just think it was an odd dream.”
“For the record, the whole ‘rebirth’ thing sounds kind of shitty. What’s the point if you have to relearn everything every freaking time?”
“It allows the soul to continue to learn,” Lillian said, then added with a hint of humor. “Or to fix things that went wrong in a previous life.”
“Still sounds about as much fun as a root canal.”
Lillian’s lips twisted with suppressed humor, but she merely nodded. “An old soul has often already seen and heard and experienced everything. They normally aren’t eager to embrace a new life. And we rarely see one of the First Wave reborn. They normally prefer to experience the wonders of the universe in a non-corporeal form.”
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 176
