He felt when the Null touched his thoughts for a few moments before she spoke.
“From what I can see in Gryton’s memories, she isn’t loathsome like many of the Battle Goddess’s army. And, hell. No one deserves that repulsive blood magic crawling around underneath their skin. Let me absorb the energy and free her from that at least.”
“As unpleasant as that spell likely is for Vaspara, you’ve already overtaxed yourself,” Anna said, saving Gryton from having to mention his own worry again. “You need to rest and recover, and then after Command has talked this over, you can see about destroying the blood magic spell if that’s how they want to handle this.”
“No.” Lillian’s single word rang with challenge, her firm tone reminding them all she was the Sorceress and there was no room for argument. “Erika will deal with the tainted magic now.”
Gryton spun to face his mother, his one brow raised in silent demand.
“I’m uncertain that what remains of the spell can’t spy upon us. We kill it now. If Erika accidentally kills the succubus, so be it. We already have enough knowledge of the djinn and the Battle Goddess’s plans to know what they plan next.”
Keeping his face neutral took some work, but he did, knowing they were all suddenly putting on an act for the benefit of anyone watching through the blood magic spell controlling Vaspara.
Erika glanced down at Vaspara again. “Magical malware. On it.”
She slowly lowered herself to kneel next to the succubus, pausing once to look up at the Sorceress. “You sure that coiling magic shit can’t infect me?”
“Very certain. All magic is just energy at its most basic level. Energy is neither good nor evil. And while it can take on the attributes of those who use it, as a Null, you simply draw out the energy and the rest of the magic’s nature just fades to nothing.”
“Hmmm.” Erika hesitated and then with a muttered ‘oh, hell’ she swiftly snatched up Vaspara’s nearest hand.
A jolt ran through the succubus’s body. In the next moment, she was jerking and thrashing as if in the grip of an invisible predator. Gryton knew this was no external predator.
Anna and Obsidian both moved forward to hold her down, only to be knocked back by a wave of Lillian’s power. “No one else approaches. The blood magic senses the Null. It’s trying to move to a new host to escape being destroyed.”
As if to reinforce his mother’s words, a twisting tendril of reddish-brown magic rose above Vaspara’s skin and thrashed in the air, seeking the nearest warm body. When one reached for him, he burned it to ash.
“I have this,” Erika said. “Step back, Hot Stuff.”
“Its existence insults my delicate sensibilities,” he said dryly.
“Well, we can’t have that, now can we?” She reached out with her other hand and locked her fingers around the thickest tendril and began squeezing. “Die you little bastards.”
Chapter 39
Vaspara
SHE BLINKED. THEN BLINKED again. She was staring up at a soft blue sky with puffy white clouds. Not the teal tone of home. Then Vaspara remembered. She’d been enslaved and sent to a planet in the Mortal Realm to assassinate Gryton and kill as many of the Avatars’ allies as possible.
It was doubtful Gryton’s death throes would have been enough to kill the Avatars, but they would have spent vast amounts of power to save themselves, thus weakening them and making them easier prey for the Lady of Battles.
But nothing had gone as planned.
And Vaspara wasn’t upset by that in the least.
The djinn’s assassin spell was gone, as was Taryin’s tainted magic. Vaspara breathed deeply. She felt so free. So clean.
Was she dead? She looked around and found herself surrounded by strangers. Humans mostly. A dryad and a gargoyle. Ah... they were the Avatars; she could feel their power.
While she was alive, she probably wouldn’t be for long.
Sighing, she closed her eyes and waited to be struck dead.
“My sire and dam will not kill you, Vaspara. They have something else planned.”
The voice was one she knew well: Gryton.
She opened her eyes again. “I can’t believe I never knew you were the Avatars’ son until the djinn told me.”
“It’s a complicated story. It might take a while to tell.” Gryton squatted next to her, a slanted smile on his lips.
Some instinct dragged her gaze away from Gryton to a female next to him. A slight shimmering surrounded her, rising off her body like heat, but it wasn’t heat. It was magic. The purest, most untainted magic she’d ever encountered. She couldn’t even determine what element the female was channeling.
“She’s a Null.” Gryton offered. “She drank the djinn’s assassin spell meant for me and devoured Blood Witch Taryin’s spell like a sweet treat after dinner. I imagine my sire and dam will want to explain the rest to you. They have plans you might be interested in hearing.”
“Plans?” Vaspara glanced back at the Avatars, noting the Sorceress’s surprisingly friendly expression. The Gargoyle Protector’s wasn’t as friendly, but he wasn’t trying to kill her either, so she slowly sat up.
That was when she spotted Anna and Obsidian.
“Hello Vaspara,” Anna said with a grin. “I have to say, I’m surprised you and Sorac didn’t just pretend to be dead along with the rest of the unit the Battle Goddess sent after us.”
Vaspara felt her throat tightening even as words poured out of her. “We did try. Sorac and I even escaped with his clutch and the djinn, but we were hunted down and captured.”
Words just kept pouring out of her. She wasn’t sure who was more surprised, her enemies or herself.
BY THE TIME SHE’D DIVULGED everything she knew, Vaspara even admitted that she would have joined the Avatars if she had a choice. But she didn’t. If she didn’t die Sorac and his little ones would be punished for her betrayal.
“Please kill me. Show me that much mercy. If you kill me now, Captain Bervicta will sense my death and carry the news back to the Battle Goddess. Sorac will live to raise our draklings.”
“Well,” the Sorceress said in a cheerful tone. “Isn’t it lucky for you I’m planning to let you escape with news that we have a Null on our side? I imagine that bit of news will save your life and restore your worth in the eyes of the Battle Goddess.”
“They’ll know I lied as soon as the blood witch enslaves me again.”
Smiling, the Sorceress tilted her head. “You can’t lie about what you don’t remember. I’ll take all your memories of this meeting, add a little spell of my own, create some fake memories to aid the deception, and then turn you loose. As far as you’ll know, you blacked out for a short time while the Null was destroying the blood witch’s work. Then you came to just as the Null was finishing off the djinn’s assassin spell.”
“I still don’t see how any of that will hold up to scrutiny. The Lady of Battles or Blood Witch Taryin will sense your tampering.”
The Sorceress laughed. “I gave birth to both the Twins. Gregory and I know their limits well. As for the blood witch, I’ve destroyed thousands of her kind. She’ll not sense my subtle spell. I can do this.”
Vaspara nodded, knowing she had to trust them. “Very well. Do whatever you need to destroy them.”
The Sorceress nodded benevolently. “In return for your help, I’ll do everything in my power to free the draklings before the final battle.”
“Thank you. They are innocent and don’t deserve what the Battle Goddess and Blood Witch Taryin have planned.”
“There is one other thing I need you to do for me.”
Vaspara nodded.
“I will have you carry a spell to the djinn for me. Do you agree to this?”
Vaspara would do anything to save and free Sorac and the little ones, and the Sorceress was offering her a chance. Her gaze returned to the Null.
A Null of all things! A being even blood witches feared. Beings designed to contain a raging djinn.
&
nbsp; For the first time since her capture, Vaspara felt hope.
“I’ll do anything you need.”
“Good,” the Sorceress said. “Let’s get started.”
Gryton cleared his throat. Drawing everyone’s attention back to him. “There’s just one flaw in my mother’s plan.”
The Sorceress nodded in understanding and Gryton continued.
“For Bervicta to believe any of this, we will have to make this look real. If you escape without a scratch, Bervicta will be suspicious. I’m afraid I will have to do some damage before you escape.”
Vaspara nodded, her eyes calm and knowing. “I’m a captain. I didn’t get that title without experiencing a lot of pain along the way.”
Gryton nodded. “And what’s a little more pain for a better future?”
Chapter 40
Bervicta
IT WAS TAKING TOO LONG. Vaspara should have completed the mission by now. Or failed. And by the earlier sounds of battle and no raging inferno rising into the sky afterward, Bervicta knew her friend had failed in her mission.
There was only one problem. Bervicta hadn’t sensed Vaspara’s death. She would have. They’d trained together, combining their personal magic many times. There would have been a resonance at the succubus’s death. But there had been none.
Had Vaspara been captured? The blood magic and the djinn’s spell should have forced Vaspara to complete her mission or die trying. A succubus, no matter how well trained, couldn’t withstand a djinn’s power.
Either way, something had gone drastically wrong.
But what?
Birds to the east of Bervicta’s position took to the air, crying a warning. Sharp eyes scanning the forest, she moved closer to where the birds had taken flight. Even expecting something to emerge from the forest, she didn’t recognize the figure staggering toward her until it came closer.
It was Vaspara, but her normally blonde hair had been burned away and two-thirds of her armor had been blackened, the exposed bits of skin red and oozing.
“By the Goddess!” The harpy wasn’t sure if she was beseeching the Lady of Battles or the mother goddess at that moment. She rushed forward and steadied the succubus. “What happened?”
“Gryton...” Vaspara’s voice broke, even it sounded damaged. “Gryton has a Null. She serves him, protects him.”
Vaspara doubled over and coughed up blood. When she straightened, she continued in a broken whisper. “We need to keep moving. The Null destroyed Captain Taryin’s magic and inadvertently freed me to act of my own free will. I escaped, barely, while the Null and the Avatars dealt with the djinn’s spell. But they won’t be far behind. We need to run.”
“No. We need to fly.” Bervicta stretched her still healing wing and eyed the succubus.
“You’ll never be able to get us both off the ground, not with that wing. Go. Save yourself.” Vaspara grimaced as she braced an arm against a tree. “I won’t prove much of an opponent, but maybe I can slow them down long enough for you to escape.”
“Fine.” Bervicta unbuckled her harness and discarded it and her sword.
“What are you doing?”
She began unbuckling her armor next. “Getting rid of extra weight. The less weight, the better with this wing.”
When Bervicta had shed all extra weight, she leaped into the air and flapped her wings.
“Good luck, my friend,” Vaspara said as she pushed away from the tree and drew her own sword. “I’ll try to slow them as much as I’m able.”
“About that...” Bervicta seized Vaspara with her long talon-tipped toes, digging deep for a secure grip.
Vaspara screamed but bit the sound off in the next moment. Not that it mattered. Vaspara would have left a blood scent a gargoyle still in his mother’s hamadryad could have followed.
Beating her wings harder, Bervicta gained speed and dragged herself and her burden through the forest. She could hear men not far behind. Her injured wing grew tired, but she pushed past the exhaustion, then the pain, and after that, she gritted her teeth and ignored the agony burning down her back.
But harpies were known to be strong-willed and stubborn.
Ahead she glimpsed the still active portal. The humans were just behind her now, their machines roaring above the trees. She put on a last desperate burst of speed.
Ten wingbeats later, Bervicta came in for a crash landing. She and Vaspara rolled across the ground, finally stopping just a few body lengths from the portal. With a snarl of pain and will, she waved her hand, calling on her magic to awaken the dormant portal.
As the magic sparked to life, Bervicta climbed to her feet and grabbed Vaspara’s arm and then hauled her up over her shoulder. Grunting at the new pain shooting down her spine, the harpy cursed and ran through the portal’s horizon as the soldiers came rushing up behind her.
Turning, she grinned at them as she willed the portal to close.
“We’ll have to play some other time, lovely, lovely men.” She cupped one of her breasts as she grinned back at them through the rapidly closing portal.
“They probably don’t even understand your words,” Vaspara mumbled.
“Likely not. But they’re males. I imagine they understood my meaning.”
Vaspara’s snort turned into a moan. “Goddess! Just put me down. I feel like my head will explode.”
Bervicta did as she was told and slowly lowered Vaspara to the ground. “You look terrible. But you’ll be good as new as soon as I get you to Sorac or the djinn.”
You just have to live long enough for that, Bervicta whispered in the privacy of her own mind. But going by how bad Vaspara looked, Bervicta wasn’t at all certain the succubus would live long enough to reach help.
Chapter 41
Gryton
“THEY MADE IT THROUGH the gate,” Major Resnick informed the group after he’d gotten off the radio.
Gryton merely nodded at the news. He hadn’t been surprised that Vaspara had made it once she met up with the winged female. Bervicta always completed a mission. He felt a touch of pride that the two had kept ahead of Major Resnick’s men without the humans having to stall and pretend difficulty in the hunt.
A disturbance in the shadows along the maze’s north wall warned Gryton they were about to get another visitor.
Thayn appeared in the glade a moment later. “The plan is in motion.”
As a group, everyone else in the glade turned to gaze questioningly at the gargoyle.
“We must return to the Magic Realm tonight,” he explained. “Now that the Lady of Battles knows we have a Null, she will be swift to mobilize her army. She can’t risk allowing the Null to fully mature.”
Thayn looked pleased by the turn of events, Gryton noticed. And not for the first time, he suspected the elder had something else planned. Come to think of it, where had he been during the attack?
“Pretty sure my superiors aren’t just going to allow me to go at your command. They must discuss this newest development since it changes a few things.”
Thayn grinned. “I think they will see reason. The longer we wait to go, the greater the likelihood the war will spill across the Veil and impact your Earth.”
“Well, since you put it that way...”
Chapter 42
Gryton
THAYN WASN’T WRONG. The humans had seen the reason they needed to move up their plans, and once the orders had been given, their soldiers interacted much like any unit Gryton himself had trained.
As soon as the humans were ready, the Avatars created one of the great portal spells to carry the expedition—aptly named Lethal Crossing by the humans—into the Magic Realm. At first, he’d been concerned Private Erika Emerson’s gift would activate and destabilize the spell when it was time for her to cross the threshold.
But they’d discovered a benefit in the djinn’s assassin spell. Erika had gorged herself on that power, and her body had been too busy radiating all that purified energy back into the surrounding environment to be interes
ted in the magic that powered the portal spell.
Now he dug the toe of his boot into the soft loam of the forest and breathed deeply of the fresh air. He’d missed the clean scent of green growing things, loam, and dampness. The atmosphere of the Magic Realm was just so much sweeter on his tongue.
“You missed this place, didn’t you?” Erika stated, drawing his attention back to where she was helping to set up tents that would be the first structures in the humans’ so-called forward operating base, or FOB. The humans did so love shortening names and titles. He was half surprised they hadn’t shortened his name to Gry or Ton.
“Can I get some help over here, Hot Stuff?”
Ah, yes. How could he forget? His keeper already had several silly nonsense names for him.
He glowered at her more out of routine than annoyance.
“The base will not build itself,” she added.
“You’re assuming Lord Death will even allow humans this close to his territory.”
Erika stopped what she was doing and joined him at the edge of the forest. A few body lengths from the last tree, a cliff wall dropped away to the ocean below. Far out across an expanse of blue-green water sat a vast island. Even over the distance, its size was impressive.
“The Avatars and Thayn seemed to think everything will go according to plan.” Erika cocked a hip and leaned against a tree. “And if you’re worried about this so-called Lord Death coming to kill you, I’m told Nulls are also known as god-killers. I’ll eat him if he tries to do something unwarranted to you.”
Snorting, he just shook his head at her ignorance. “You are a child and nowhere near ready to take on a demigod.”
“Not yet. But I will be.” She paused and looked thoughtful. “Hmmm. And as for old enough, if what the Avatars and Thayn say is true, I’m plenty old enough.”
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 179
