“That doesn’t count.”
She winked at him. “Still older than you.”
“Oh, shut up.” But a foolish grin ruined his attempt to scold her. To hide it, he looked back out over the water.
The human didn’t leave to return to her work, though. “Penny for your thoughts.”
“I don’t even know what a penny is. As for my thoughts, you regularly read them anyway.”
“The novelty is wearing off. Figured I’d just ask this time.”
He sighed and turned to her. “They are somewhere between disbelief and denial. I’ve avoided Lord Death for over six thousand years. Yet here I am, willingly entering his domain, not to fight, but to surrender.”
“Well, at least you shouldn’t have to wait long to learn your fate.” She glanced at her watch. “Thayn said the gargoyle scouts would make the flight to the island and back in less than an hour. It’s been close to an hour now. The only thing we don’t know is how long it will take Lord Draydrak to plan a response.”
“It’s the response that concerns me. Not the gargoyle scouts.”
“Maybe this Lord Draydrak will surprise you? Thayn is fun. And Anna and Obsidian say the demigod is nothing like his sister. I think I even heard Anna describe him as kind and soft-spoken of all things. Who knows, maybe you and your older brother will be friends.”
“He’s not my brother in the sense you speak. The Divine Ones created him using their Avatars as hosts.”
“Yeah, well, it’s complicated—so I’m just going to go with brother.”
Gryton snorted. And as for being friends with Death? He held back another snort of disbelief. No. They were the opposite of friends.
Besides, Gryton didn’t have friends.
His thoughts spun off in another direction and he frowned. Well, perhaps that statement wasn’t as true as it once had been.
He turned to gaze upon the Null—Erika, he acknowledged. He’d begun to call her by her name in his own thoughts.
While he hadn’t set out to become friends, something like friendship was growing up between them, and no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t seem able to weed it out.
Perhaps it was only natural and not a sign of some internal flaw in his composition. She was the first person besides his mother to risk her life to save his.
Only recently had his mother’s hamadryad saved him. Then his mother had begun to train him to better control his feral magic. And now the Null had acted to save him as well. Never in his long life had anyone cared to protect him.
It was... nice.
It was also a weakness that he didn’t like.
He huffed. Being around soft-hearted beings was making him equally soft. The fastest way to get killed was to lose his edge. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He couldn’t let friendship grow up even more between them.
Erika started to laugh as she pushed away from the tree. “If it puts your mind at ease, think of it as me risking my ass to save all the rest of the Earth instead of just you. By the way, I’d do it again. Save the Earth, I mean.”
He arched a brow. He knew there was more to it than that. Their soul-binding had grown strong enough that he could look into her mind and feel some of what she felt. And right this moment it allowed him to sense she was becoming attached to him.
He’d find a way to use that.
Erika just snorted and slapped the back of his head. “I can still hear your thoughts, Hot Stuff.”
“I know. I just like to see if I can get a rise out of you.”
“Hmmm. Think I’m rubbing off on you, Hot Stuff.”
“No doubt,” he said, about to say more when the wings of a hundred Legion gargoyles appeared to blacken the sky as they dropped their shadow magic. A moment later, the first of them landed on the cliff.
Gryton’s grin vanished.
Fate had just turned her full attention back to him. And that had never been a good thing in his experience.
Chapter 43
Lillian
AT LAST, THE SUMMONS came. Lillian wasn’t sure who was more uneasy, her mate or her son. But the time to face Lord Death had come. A hundred gargoyles—an honor guard—escorted them. Thayn led the flight. Anna and Obsidian flew to either side of him. Next came Gryton and Private Erika Emerson on their gargoyle mounts.
Gryton’s mount for the flight was Truth in Shadows, the gargoyle who had played herald and announced the return of Anna and Obsidian.
The other gargoyle was the youngster called Oath. Lillian was rather sure Obsidian had called in favors among his personal friends to find mounts for the Null and the fire elemental.
Oath was the more boisterous of the two, asking Private Emerson about her family and life on Earth. Erika graciously answered all the youth’s questions. They’d both been awkward in the flight's beginning, Erika having never ridden gargoyle-back before and Oath being young and still inexperienced with a rider.
Gregory followed close on Oath’s tail, and Lillian positioned herself near Truth and Gryton. Behind Lillian, Major Resnick and his team had been strapped into saddles for the flight to the island. There had been much cursing and grumbling when they’d learned they would be flying gargoyle-back, but they’d been good sports about it once they realized there were no boats.
For their part, the Legion gargoyles were good-natured about carrying the humans.
Even burdened with riders, the flight was short, and soon the group was dropping out of the sky to sweep over beautiful white sand beaches. As the gargoyles winged their way higher up into the island’s interior, Lillian gazed upon the gardens and streams and pools spreading out in all directions, as far as the eye could see. It was just like she remembered.
She’d missed this place and its guardian. So had Gregory. His joy at returning to what he considered a second home outside of the Spirit Realm was flowing along their mental link. While they’d helped the Divine Ones birth Lord Death, Lillian and her other half had come to see Lord Draydrak as a brother. After all, they were all created by the Divine Ones.
It was nice to be home.
Thayn winged his way higher into the island until the central temple grew large. Circling, the group came in for a landing one by one. She and Gregory came in right behind Gryton and Erika, but their son was already off Truth’s back and several feet away before Lillian had even folded her wings.
Erika and Oath had landed without incident.
Before she could check over the rest of the group, the sound of massive hooves on stone reached her. She looked to the south to see Draydrak galloping toward them.
“Fuck me! I know I was told that he was centaur-like, but no one said he was half the size of a mountain,” Erika muttered to Gryton loud enough for all to hear.
“Shh,” Lillian soothed, hoping to calm the other woman. “He’s a friend and won’t hurt you.”
“What about Gryton?”
“Gregory and I will talk to him and smooth things over.”
Lord Draydrak skidded to a halt in a spray of sand and grit. Bending his head, he pointed his muzzle toward them as he studied the group, his eyes searching.
“Ah, the Avatars have returned. Both the new and the old. And they’ve come with an unexpected player. The Divine Ones have been busy.” Lord Draydrak flashed them all an evil-looking grin.
“Gryton, it was never your death I sought.”
Faster than Lillian could weave a spell or even cry out a warning, Lord Draydrak reached down and scooped up Erika in one of his giant hands.
“It was hers,” Draydrak bellowed, “And you did so conveniently bring me the one thing that can kill Death. I can’t allow that to happen.” Then he spun on his hindquarters and galloped in the opposite direction. Spreading his wings wide, he caught a current and soared into the air, heading toward the island’s east shore and the ocean.
Erika screamed in pain and fear.
“He will drown the Null!” Gregory shouted and then bolted into motion, spreading his wings to give chase.
The
other legion gargoyles scattered as Major Resnick and his men shouted out warnings and curses, their weapons trained on the retreating forms of Lord Death and Gregory. But there was nothing they could do to save the Null.
Instinctively, Lillian began summoning magic, weaving battle spells even as she wondered how she had miscalculated so badly. Her eyes tracked toward Thayn, where he stood off to one side.
Lord Draydrak did nothing the eldest of the gargoyles did not know about.
He had to have known what Lord Death had planned. She’d never thought their oldest friend would deceive them in such a way. Betrayal was bitter in her mouth.
Beside her, Anna and Obsidian shook off their surprise and began summoning power as they took to the air. Moments later they were racing in pursuit of Draydrak. They, at least, were still true allies.
But Lillian was the Sorceress. She did not need to physically chase after the enemy to hunt him.
She wasn’t the only one not giving chase. Beside her, Gryton was calling on power, waves of molten fire licking between the scales of his armor. That had surprised her for a moment. She’d thought he’d have given chase. Then she realized he lacked wings, and no one would win a foot race against Lord Draydrak.
But there were other ways to win.
She called on a greater flow of magic from the Spirit Realm, then spread her wings, allowing the opposing magics to create currents in the air and lift her up. Draydrak’s betrayal would cost him greatly.
Even as the need for revenge burned in her soul, her heart was heavy with the knowledge she’d failed the human woman. Lillian’s attack would be too late to save Erika if the Lord of the Underworld wanted the Null dead.
If he wanted her dead...
If...
Oh!
She reached for Lord Death. His mental shields admitted her, and then she was within his mind, that calm, soothing place where rational thought ruled. There was no hatred or animosity flowing from Draydrak despite his earlier outward aggression and harsh words.
Lillian's eyes widened in understanding at what she found in his mind. Draydrak wasn’t harming Erika, not yet. This was all an elaborate trick. Or a trap. He wanted them to chase him.
No. He wanted Gryton to chase him.
Then it all clicked, coming together. The real reason Lord Draydrak had been hunting Gryton all these years.
It wasn’t to kill him; it was to—
“Gryton wait! It’s a trick!”
A wave of heat hit her, blowing her off her feet. All around, legion gargoyles and Resnick and his men were knocked to the ground by hurricane-force winds that had suddenly materialized out of nowhere. Spitting sand from her mouth, she scrambled back to her feet.
She squinted between her lashes, seeking her son even as her magic snapped a protective shield around her. Within moments, she found Gryton.
He was still where he’d been. But now fire rolled off him. The scales of his body armor cracked open along his back, his elemental magic expanding out around him in an ever-enlarging circle. Within heartbeats, the tall wall of fire split in two, taking the form of a pair of vast wings.
“Gryton, wait! He wants you to attack him! Stay! Let us rescue Erika! Calm yourself!”
“No!” His denial came out more roar than word.
“This is what Lord Draydrak wants!”
But it was too late. Gryton was beyond hearing her or anyone else.
The dragon was only interested in one thing: rescuing his maiden.
Roaring his fury, the elemental dragon ripped its way free of Gryton’s body. A narrow, angular head on a long sinuous neck towered over Lillian. His form continued to solidify. Broad shoulders merged into a powerful chest wrapped with muscle. The vast wings cast a growing shadow as the dragon grew in size.
“Our son is breathtaking,” Lillian whispered to Gregory along their mental link a moment before the massive dragon covered with fire-gilded burgundy and gold scales gathered his powerful hindquarters and launched himself after Lord Draydrak with an earth-shaking roar.
“Breathtakingly pissed off by the sound,” Gregory corrected.
“Indeed,” Lillian agreed as she raced after her elemental dragon son. It was clear he was hellbent on turning this world to ash in his quest to save the life of his Null.
The story continues in Sorceress Eternal, the final installment in the Gargoyle & Sorceress Tales.
Sorceress Eternal
A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale
Book 9
Lisa Blackwood
Sorceress Eternal
Chapter 1
Erika
THE ANCIENT CHINESE curse ‘may you live in interesting times’ which wasn’t, in fact, ancient or Chinese in origin was still a perfect curse for Erika’s present situation. Because life couldn’t get much more interesting than having one four-armed and four-legged titan scoop you up and gallop away as another even older demigod gave chase. And they, in turn, were both being hunted by a really pissed off fire elemental.
Interesting times indeed.
The normal skin-tingling sensation of her gift feeding had revved up far past a mild tingling and was now a burning itch between muscles and overlying skin.
And that wasn’t even the worst of it. With each of the titan’s strides, the shock of his hooves striking the ground traveled up his frame and into her body until she was bouncing up and down in the cage of his fingers. For the first time in her life, she could relate to a rubber ball in an energetic child’s hands.
At last, the creature everyone called Lord Death slowed. After a moment, she realized she could hear the sound of the ocean over the rushing of blood in her head. Then there came one final round of bouncing before all motion ceased. She’d ridden enough horses to know the demigod had just skidded to a hasty halt likely because something unexpected blocked his path.
Light appeared between his fingers as one of the hands holding her trapped lifted away. She blinked against the sudden brightness but was soon able to see a gargoyle hovering in the air directly in the demigod’s path. Beyond the gargoyle’s shoulder, tall ocean waves rolled into shore.
It would have been pretty if she hadn’t also suspected the demigod holding her planned to gallop straight into the ocean and hold her below the surface. Even as her gift continued to suck the magic from the demigod, she knew she’d never be able to drain him fast enough to stop him from galloping into the ocean with her.
Briefly, she flashed back to the time when she’d faced the assassin spell, and Gryton had told her it was too risky to attack, that she might not be ready to face such a foe. He’d later told her she would need much more practice before facing off against the Lord of the Underworld.
Seemed Hot Stuff was right.
“Release the Null, Draydrak,” Gregory barked out the order. “My Sorceress tells me you have already succeeded in what you really planned.”
“It is as the Divine Ones said,” Draydrak agreed.
“Are you going to release the Null? Or must I take her from you?”
The Lord of the Underworld snorted. “I have no wish to fight you. I know I won’t win. However, there is one more thing Gryton needs to realize to finish his maturation.”
Erika scowled in sudden understanding. This wasn’t about her powers as a Null. This was entirely about Gryton.
She was bait.
Unfortunately for Lord Draydrak, no one had told him she was no helpless, whimpering female in need of rescuing. And now that they were on a sandy beach to judge by the sound of the titan’s footfalls, a fall to the ground likely wouldn’t break anything.
Dropping to her hands and knees, she pressed her hands against the skin of the giant’s palm.
While she might not be able to absorb enough power to incapacitate Lord Death, she should be able to drain him enough to allow the Avatar an easier win. And if she managed to paralyze his hand? That was one less to hold a sword.
As her gift continued to feed, the burning pain under her skin edged u
p a notch. She looked up at Gregory, hoping for a distraction to take her mind off the pain.
She wasn’t disappointed.
Where Gregory had been hovering only a moment ago, now a pulsing ball of light was expanding out in some kind of spell. It grew taller by the second, shifting and flowing with purpose until it was twice as tall as the mountainous demigod.
Lord Draydrak drew three of his swords, his fourth remaining in its sheath since he couldn’t put her down. Or perhaps his hand was paralyzed by her feeding as she’d hoped. Whatever the reason, Lord Death advanced upon the Avatar with only three of his four swords drawn.
Which might be more than enough since, as far as she could tell, Gregory wasn’t wielding a weapon. Though perhaps the shimmering ropes of power expanding outward were becoming weapons.
Lord Death burst into motion once more, forcing Erika to grab at his large fingers or risk rolling off his palm, and by the sound of his hooves scrambling over loose rocks, the ground below was no longer going to be a soft landing if she fell. When she was able to look back up, it was to see the Avatar’s magic had taken on a vaguely humanoid shape.
Draydrak reared back, leaping away from a wave of power directed at him. By the sound, he was once more on sandy beach.
The next moment, the demigod was leaning down to deposit her roughly on the shore as he continued to gallop down the beach. She only had a moment to register the warmth of the sand and the scent of the ocean before she forced herself up. An act that was made more difficult by her burning muscles. But she made it to her feet.
Draydrak was now a good two hundred feet down the beach. Gregory was much closer, crouched down with his wings folded around him. After rushing up to the gargoyle, she discovered she was standing next to a stone statue.
What on God’s green earth?
She glanced back up at the towering magic she’d mistaken for the beginnings of a spell. But this was no spell. The bright magic swirling and snapping in the breeze was taking on shape and substance. She could now see wings, a tail, and other gargoyle features as she studied the glowing godlike being.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 180
