“Yes. She even plans to sacrifice me so that my death throes kill this world, taking out both armies. But the Lady of Battles is a demigod. She’ll survive.”
“You speak madness.”
“Look to those you serve for true madness; the type void demons glory in. I only speak of what I’ve seen in the witch’s head.” The djinn chuckled then, a cold sound that chilled Sorac’s soul. “The Battle Goddess isn’t a match for two sets of Avatars and a mature Gryton. Have you ever seen an elemental dragon, firedrake? You are nothing compared to his power. He will crush you and your succubus love. And once the dragon and the Avatars are finished with the Battle Goddess, they will come for the blood witch, and then the rest of the army.”
“Why are you telling me any of this?”
“Because the blood witch is already weakened from all the spells she’s woven. Her hold over me is fraying. I have already unmade the spell she placed over your draklings. Soon I will be free of the witch. Then I will kill everyone except the Avatars, Vaspara, and you. Of course I’ll spare the sweet draklings as well.”
Sorac wanted to rejoice at the news the death spell holding his draklings hostage was gone, but he doubted the djinn ever acted out of complete benevolence.
“I see your doubt, firedrake. But my bottle has been stored in your old nest site with the draklings. The blood witch couldn’t risk the fragile nature of the bottle on a battlefield. So, while I am here pretending to serve and defend the witch, I influenced her into leaving my bottle back with the hatchlings. Free for the taking.”
The djinn’s power coiled seductively through Sorac’s mind, but even if the firedrake had been able to fight the spirit creature’s will, he still wouldn’t have.
“You have one chance to rescue your draklings and liberate my bottle. Once you have it, you can command me to reopen the portals to the Mortal Realm and redirect them to a different location. In the chaos, we can escape. Faced with Lord Draydrak’s arrival, many of the army will defect along with you both. You and the rest of the refugees can hide in the Mortal Realm, lost in the sea of abundant life there for a short time until we find a new world to make our home with your mate and your draklings.”
“You speak to me of the one thing I want more than anything, but if you’re wrong...” Sorac hissed softly. “My draklings. I can’t risk them.”
“Then don’t take my word for it. The elemental dragon comes. The Avatars beside him. And just behind them, Lord Draydrak will ride. Go to the south-west end of the valley. Cross over the rise. See for yourself.”
Then the djinn was gone from Sorac’s mind as swiftly as he’d come.
Sorac didn’t hesitate and dived, darting toward where he’d left the succubus making more battle magic lances on the grounds of the practice field behind the fortress. He landed hard, sending up a cloud of dust in all directions.
“Vaspara, come to me now!”
She jerked to attention at his words, but her trust in him was absolute, and she ran to his side and vaulted up onto his back without hesitation. Then she settled into place without question. Once he knew she was secure, he launched himself off the fortress’s south-facing cliff wall.
“What is it?”
“Gryton comes with his Null. And the djinns says the Avatars fly with him.”
“We knew that they’d come soon.”
“The djinn says Lord Draydrak will be riding with them.”
“What!” Vaspara silenced herself and calmed her body and mind before continuing. “If Lord Death comes, it will be a cataclysm like the ones of old.”
“Yes. And this one will be worse.”
“Worse? How?”
“The djinn says the blood witch is lost to madness. She will sacrifice the djinn to destroy this world, taking out Gryton, his Null, maybe even the Avatars.”
“But... but the goddess would be allowing the witch to sacrifice our army.”
“Yes.”
“She wouldn’t do that. Without us...”
“If she is free once more, she won’t need us to fight her battles.”
“Oh, Divine Ones be merciful.” After a few deep breaths, Vaspara was calm once more. “Could this just be one of the djinn’s tricks?”
“I do not believe so. He wants us to steal his bottle once again and escape with him to the Mortal Realm.” Sorac paused, mulling over some of the emotions that had bled into his mind along with the djinn’s thoughts. “He does not want to fight the Avatars or kill their son.”
“We must still confirm this.”
“I know. That’s why I’m going to go see it for myself.” Sorac paused as he realized he had no right to take Vaspara with him if she did not want to go. The blood witch might still have enough power to spare to punish them if she thought they were trying to escape. “If you want to stay here, I understand.”
“I’m going with you, you great idiotic lizard, but we need to inform our battalions first.”
“Of course. I was just waiting until I knew if you wished to come.”
Then he reached out for the minds of his and Vaspara’s battalions, swiftly informing them that they were scouting for a new danger Sorac sensed coming. Then curling a wingtip, he set a course for the distant south-west end of the valley.
Below him, there was a ripple of movement as his and Vaspara’s battalions saluted them as he flew overhead.
He crossed the length of the valley floor swiftly, but he didn’t need to go more than half the distance to confirm the djinn’s words.
A pillar of fire and power was rising up into the sky, stretching from mountain peak to mountain peak. The shape wasn’t that of a dragon, but Sorac sensed this was a fire elemental. It had to be Gryton.
As the cloud stretched wider, it began to move, streaking toward them.
Sorac had seen enough to confirm the djinn’s words. He twisted in the air, circling back around. He was still turning when he saw the Avatars take to the air on either side of the burning storm.
As the valley opened up into deep sweeping slopes, the fiery cloud shifted and flowed down the slope, leaving Sorac a view of a four-armed, four-legged, winged monster flying some distance behind the cloud. The demigod was swiftly catching up to the Avatars and their storm-cloud son.
Sorac roared a warning to his soldiers, but the elemental dragon must have mistaken it for a challenge, for the beast at last shed its storm cover. As the monstrous molten bronze and gold beast with wings the width of the valley showed itself, it roared out its own challenge.
It was only then that Sorac realized there was a rider on the beast’s back, and she was singing like she was on a pleasure flight, not winging her way closer to war.
The Null’s absolute disregard for the seriousness of what was about to happen terrified Sorac more than anything else he’d seen or heard.
As the dragon drew closer, Sorac could make out the words of the Null’s song. She was singing about going home. And by the djinn’s own words, she was one of the ancient First Wave. Her home was the Spirit Realm, and she was singing about returning there. Great goddess. She planned to take them all with her.
Sorac screamed again and winged his way back toward the city fortress. When he was once again over his soldiers, he bellowed out another warning.
“We’ve been betrayed. Lord Death comes. The blood witch and the Battle Goddess have betrayed us. They plan to destroy us all. Retreat. Save yourselves!” He opened his mind to all the battalions and blasted them with everything the djinn had said and what Sorac had just confirmed with his discovery.
His duty to his soldiers fulfilled, Sorac retreated from the firestorm giving chase and desperately winged his way back to the fortress. He had to rescue his draklings and get the djinn’s bottle. It was the only way to stop the blood witch from forcing the djinn to sacrifice himself.
“Fly, my love. Fly!” Vaspara called encouragement, and he flew faster than he ever had before.
Moments later, he was arrowing down into the city where he land
ed and stormed the fortress, uncaring of what happened to anyone foolish enough to get between a firedrake and his draklings.
Chapter 26
Bervicta
“MY CAPTAIN. WHAT ARE your orders?” Bervicta’s second-in-command asked.
“To the void with both the blood witch and the Battle Goddess,” Bervicta bellowed, then she looked her Second in the eye. “Gather the battalion. I don’t know about you, but when Sorac flees in terror, it’s a signal to get your ass in motion and follow him.”
“My Captain?”
“Gryton knew the Battle Goddess would lose. Anna and Shadowlight knew. Now Sorac and Vaspara are leaving. Do you want to stay and die? Or would you prefer to follow the other two captains? Those two are survivors. They’ll have an escape plan. I plan on going with them.”
“But the Battle Goddess...”
“You heard Sorac. He’s the most honest person I know. We’ve been betrayed by the very one we serve. Time to cut our losses and save our backsides.”
Bervicta took to the air. She knew where Sorac was headed, and she’d help him and Vaspara battle their way to the draklings. There were worse ways to die than at the side of a friend.
Chapter 27
Anna
“DID THAT REALLY JUST happen?” Anna asked as she watched Sorac tell the entire lot of the Battle Goddess’s army to retreat.
“Yes,” Obsidian said, sounding only slightly less surprised than she felt. “He was always a smart one, seeing the truth of things.”
The Sorceress joined them, dipping lower to fly at Anna’s right wingtip. “That was some of Naharnin’s work. He has been whispering some truths into that firedrake’s ear, I would bet.”
Anna merely nodded.
Whatever the source, it was a great boon. The Battle Goddess’s army was in disarray with about half of the battalions marching forward to meet the Divine Ones’ army, and the other half in a disorganized shuffle, trying to decide what to do now that half their leadership had just defected. She imagined they would attempt to retreat and escape.
While they had nowhere to go, the added chaos would only help Anna’s side.
The only one that seemed disappointed was the dragon. He was clearly spoiling for a fight and thought some of his victims were getting away.
But Anna had other concerns beside what the elemental dragon might think. She glanced at Obsidian for what was probably the fifth time.
“I’m fine,” he rumbled softly into her mind.
He wasn’t, of course, not after losing two of his oldest friends. Anna worried for him. Physically, the healers had helped to restore him bodily, and his magic reserves were back up to what they’d been before, but his emotions...
That kind of trauma couldn’t simply be mended away by the healers.
He glanced at her again. “I will be fine, my Kyrsu. While my grief over my friends is very vivid, and the thought of never seeing Truth again in this life isn’t something I can fully accept, I will not fail you like I did them.”
“Obsidian, you didn’t fail them. It’s war. People die. There was nothing you could have done to save them.”
“I will not let the enemy have you. I...” he trailed off, and she felt his thoughts scatter, unable to face the thought of losing her like he had Truth and Meadow. “As much as the loss of my friends pains me, I couldn’t go on without you.”
“Of course you would.”
“Oh Anna, the link that binds us; I’m not sure if we would survive the other’s death. And if you died before me, I would gladly surrender my life to follow you into the afterlife.”
Anna hadn’t even thought of what one of their deaths would do to the other. She wouldn’t lie to herself, the thought of losing him terrified her and had been the fuel for her nightmares the last few nights. Now that he’d mention they might not survive each other’s deaths, it brought a morbid kind of relief.
But she couldn’t tell him that. Instead she reached for his mind once more. “Good partners don’t die on each other. They live for each other. But in battle, nothing is certain. If we do meet our end, promise me we’ll do it shoulder to shoulder.”
“That I can promise,” he rumbled softly in her mind, his thoughts full of love and determination.
Then they were nearly upon the enemy army, and there was no time for anything except the present.
The elemental dragon issued another of his deep roaring challenges. A moment later, Anna saw why as a bronze-toned being with flaming tattoos rose into the air five hundred feet ahead. Molten power swirled and danced in the air around him, and suddenly he was growing in size until the djinn was every bit as large as either the Lord of the Underworld or the Lady of Battles.
But the dragon was larger, and if Anna wasn’t mistaken, more enraged.
Screaming challenges, the fire elemental dived, arrowing toward the djinn.
Chapter 28
Erika
ERIKA HOLLERED ENCOURAGEMENTS to her dragon mount. They were both going to need every bit of encouragement for the coming fight. Even from across the valley, she’d been able to sense just how powerful the djinn was. He was equal to one of the Avatars easily. And he’d only grown scarier the closer they got.
But Gryton was born of the Avatars and was a demigod in his own right.
And the dragon had something the djinn didn’t—her, the mother of all Nulls.
“Come on, motherfucker! Give us your best!”
Then the dragon was swinging all four of his legs into position, talons poised to rend. The djinn blasted them with a wave of magic, but it never hit, Erika having reached out with her talent and sucked the magic into herself.
“Nice try!” Then she reached farther, digging mental claws into the djinn’s swirling magic.
He sensed the danger and propelled himself away from them and up onto the valley’s western slope, climbing higher until he was perched up on the ridge.
Erika narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not getting away.”
But as soon as Gryton turned and pursued, Erika realized the djinn’s plan. As much as her dragon was a magical beast, he still had form and mass, still had a body and was limited in this form. He had to fight his way up the steep slope, battling the wind currents that blew over the mountain’s ridge.
And as she watched, the djinn fed more power into that breeze until it turned into a howling, many-toothed force. Snow and ice shards rained down upon them.
She was lucky. Sort of. As soon as the frozen water hit the dragon’s fiery shields, most of it turned to vapor and hit them as a thick mist.
“Damn it! Is the bastard trying to drown us?” Erika changed tactics, no longer trying to drain the djinn. He was too powerful to do so quickly, if at all. She switched to stealing the magic from his spells instead.
Her dragon made headway and then roared another challenge. This time a stream of molten magic issued from between his jaws. The fire struck the ice and snow just below the djinn. Erika thought the dragon had missed until the snowpack on the mountain peak began to crumble. While some of it avalanched down the mountainside, a vast majority of it vaporized at the contact with his elemental fire.
Magic-laced steam rose up in front of the djinn, forming a foggy sort of barrier. Erika didn’t understand the purpose until the dragon winged his way to the top and then swung his talons forward with another screamed challenge.
This time the djinn was blinded by the attack and didn’t move fast enough to avoid Gryton’s lightning-fast strike. The two came together with a sound like thunder rolling off the hills. Erika was nearly dislodged from the dragon’s back, but her harness held.
She clawed at Gryton’s scales as he went into a barrel roll trying to avoid the djinn’s strikes as they battled in the air, trying to gain mastery over each other.
The djinn was older and slyer, though. He attacked the dragon’s wings, knowing a grounded opponent would be much easier to destroy.
But when the djinn attacked with
claws of power intent on shredding the dragon’s wing membranes, the spirit creature’s claws dissolved as the magic forming them was sucked away.
“Oops! Wasn’t expecting that, were you jackass?” she shouted overtop of the roar of fire and the thunder of the dragon’s wings.
Trying a new tactic, she extended her Null’s abilities to surround her dragon like a set of magic-absorbing armor. Most of the djinn’s strikes didn’t penetrate deeply enough to threaten her dragon.
Or at least for now, until she had glutted herself on magic and reached her upper limit. She still had one. But thanks to the last few days of constant practice, she’d stretched her limits, and the upper threshold of how much power she could consume was now more than triple what it had been only a few days ago. She also had the advantage of being able to radiate magic back into her dragon partner, making him stronger.
But the djinn wasn’t an easy opponent to fight. For one, he didn’t seem to feel pain. No matter how many strikes her dragon landed, the djinn wasn’t hampered by his injuries. For that matter, the djinn appeared to absorb the damage and regenerate.
“Are we even making a dent?”
“Yes,” the dragon hissed. “Just not enough of one. Maybe this will do it.”
Then her dragon struck.
Like a giant game of pool, the force of Gryton’s strike drove the djinn downward at ballistic speeds. The impact leveled part of a mountain, and when the dust cleared enough to see, she spotted the djinn.
The sharpest point of the mountain range poked up through his chest.
“I don’t care if you’re a two billion-year-old djinn. That’s got to hurt like a son of a bitch.”
But the djinn didn’t struggle to free himself as she’d thought, highlighting the fact they weren’t fighting a flesh and blood opponent. Power rose up out of the djinn’s body, a great shimmering wave of golden magic. As she watched, his form shimmered, shrinking in size. That could only mean he was putting a lot of himself into his next attack.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 195
