One problem at a time. Get the humans prepared. Then he’d do what he could to finish preparing the Fae of this world. Only then, once he’d done all he could for the earth, would he return to Lord Death and rally the Gargoyle Legion. He’d left that as the last task on his list for he feared the Lord of the Underworld might send him back to face the Divine Ones’ judgment.
He’d reassured Lillian more than once that if the Divine Ones were truly angry at them for bending a few sacred laws and begetting a child, he and Lillian would already have been wiped from existence and recalled to the Spirit Realm immediately.
While his words might be true, it didn’t mean there would be no punishment. He just hoped the punishment wouldn’t result in his and Lillian’s separation.
“What’s wrong my gargoyle?” Daryna asked, her voice rich with concern for him.
He’d never been good at hiding his thoughts from her. With a glance in Lillian’s direction, he saw that she was deep in conversation with Gran and Resnick. Deeming it safe, he shared his thoughts with Daryna.
Her expression smoothed after a moment, a soft smile gracing her lips. “I do not think we need to fear Divine judgment or wrath. Most of what has unfolded in this lifetime is a direct result of the Battle Goddess’s meddling. If any deserve punishment, it is her.”
Daryna glanced away from him, looking off into the horizon. When she spoke again, it was in a voice that held a bitter tinge to it. “And we know the Divine Ones have never been able to call to heel their wildest child. What we have done is minor in comparison.”
Her words might ring with truth, but that didn’t mean he felt any better.
However, he didn’t have time to dwell on it now. The teams that would be hunting him and his protégés were already in position. Gregory dropped to all fours and loped over to where the other gargoyles waited. It was going to be another long day. He could feel it in his bones.
Chapter 20
Lillian was just moving in for the ‘kill,’ her sights set on one of the new soldiers recently assigned to the training units when a magical disturbance raced across all her senses.
Shadowlight, Anna, and Gregory all froze in place and looked to the east. They’d felt it, too. Whatever ‘it’ was. Gregory lunged up to stand on two legs while he dropped his cloaking magic. Effectively appearing out of thin air in front of the soldiers.
He held up a hand and addressed the soldier closest to him.
“Inform Major Resnick and the other human leaders that someone, or even several individuals, have just arrived in the Mortal Realm. And they are not allies.” Gregory turned toward Lillian. “Those newcomers can only be here at the Battle Goddess’s behest. I imagine they’re here to find out what happened to their commander as well as River and Darkness. When they learn of Gryton’s defeat and Darkness’s death, they’ll try to capture River.”
“But why come now? Surely the Battle Goddess isn’t yet ready for a full-scale war.”
“This is most likely reconnaissance on our enemies’ part. But do not fear. The spell Daryna and I wove around the hamadryad will have captured and transported them to the holding spell well outside of town. I’ll deal with these interlopers.”
“We’ll rally the humans and go together,” Lillian said with growing unease.
Gregory shook his head. “No, I want you to stay well away from the danger. Play fighting with the humans is one thing; battling a real enemy is something else altogether. I won’t allow you to risk your life or that of our unborn child.”
Lillian’s hand crept down to the curve of her stomach. The concept of a child was so new, she often forgot she was pregnant. She barely showed and she didn’t feel that different. But the tiny life was strong within her. While she wanted to be stubborn, she wouldn’t risk her child either. “Very well. I’ll stay behind.”
“Daryna will transport you, Shadowlight, and Anna back to the hamadryad. The tree has some of the most powerful shielding. The Mother’s Sorceress will stay behind to protect you in the off chance one of the enemies manages to get past me.”
“What about you? You don’t know how many you will be facing.”
“I’ll take a small army of human soldiers to face the newcomers. Once the enemy has been neutralized, I will call you to me.”
Lillian stepped up to Gregory and gave him a hug. Nuzzling him, she inhaled his scent, drawing it deep into her lungs. Letting him go was hard, but she did.
“You be careful and make sure you come back to us in one piece.” Lillian stepped back and allowed Daryna to take her place.
The other woman stood on tiptoes until Gregory bowed his muzzle a few inches. Daryna pressed a lingering kiss to the side of Gregory’s cheek. For once, the usual jealousy didn’t manifest; Lillian was too worried about her mate’s well-being.
Daryna smiled up at Gregory. “As my firstborn body has already said, be safe and return to us. I will keep all the young ones safe while you deal with the enemy.”
Gregory huffed softly and then nodded. With one more glance at Lillian, he turned and dropped to all fours. With a powerful leap, he broke into a ground-devouring run. Within seconds he was out of sight, but Lillian could still follow his progress in her mind.
“Come, we need to go to the hamadryad,” Daryna urged. “We’ll guard her just in case any of the enemies get past Gregory. Once they realize they don’t have the element of surprise and are outnumbered, they will seek to escape back to the Magic Realm to inform the Battle Goddess what is really going on here.”
Lillian found herself actually nodding in agreement to something the Mother’s Sorceress said. Together with Shadowlight and Anna, Lillian hung back while Daryna summoned a strange portal in the air. The spell shifted and swirled with bright flashes of magic for about ten seconds and then it calmed, forming a door in the air. On the other side was the south entrance to her maze.
Daryna called to them and walked on through. Lillian, Anna, and Shadowlight each glanced at the other and then with the equivalent of a group shrug, they crossed into the portal one at a time and out the other side, back to civilization.
She’d just emerged from the portal when armored vehicles came rolling up to the entrance. Major Resnick jumped out of one before it had come to a full stop. Daryna explained what was happening while ushering them all into the maze.
A few minutes later, Lillian found herself again in the shadow of her hamadryad tree. Daryna stood just inside the stone ring. Magic shimmered in the air around her as she added another layer of powerful shields to what was already anchored to the stone ring.
Outside the ring of standing stones, more soldiers waited, alert and ready to target anything or anyone they didn’t know.
Anna stood apart from the other soldiers but was dressed in combat gear, with one of the modified military rifles resting in her hands. The ward-spell glowed an eerie green even in the bright light of day.
Shadowlight paced a circle around Anna, his tail flicking in agitation or perhaps eagerness. Lethal little shards of obsidian shadow magic danced and spun around him, awaiting his command to bite deep into an enemy.
Lillian hated to break it to her little brother that if all went well, none of them would be catching so much as the scent of the enemy.
In theory. Not that anything in Lillian’s life ever went according to plan.
Her eyes slid back towards Daryna where she was adding a second spell and then to Anna who was armed for Armageddon and checking her weapons for the third time. Shadowlight paced into her line of sight again. Lillian couldn’t help but notice that very little of the boisterous child was in evidence; a vigilant gargoyle had replaced him.
Lillian reflexively checked her own harnesses, scabbards and twin swords, feeling a little less sure.
Even if Gregory defeated the newcomers, there was a good chance that Commander Gryton would feel the arrival of warriors from his realm. She feared that might be enough to draw him back out of hiding.
Lillian’s gaze retu
rned to Shadowlight again. She wished there was a place they could stash the young gargoyle where he’d be safe, but nowhere was truly safe from Gryton, as he’d proven in the past. He’d once ventured into Lillian’s own home.
In the future, they’d have to think of some kind of super-powered safe room where they could secure Shadowlight until the danger was past. But for now, Lillian supposed the best way to keep him safe was to keep him near one of the Avatars.
Still, she wished there was somewhere safer for him far from a potential battlefield.
“Anna, once this is over, remind me to talk to Gregory about building a safe room for Shadowlight.”
The soldier side-eyed Lillian and then turned her attention to Shadowlight with a snort. “And who is going to sit on him to make sure he stays put?”
It wasn’t lost on Lillian that making a safe room and getting Shadowlight to stay there would be two separate problems.
Anna’s expression still held a hint of humor, but otherwise, the soldier was all business. A slight flare in the magic current drew Lillian’s attention back to the Sorceress.
Daryna was just lowering her arms to her sides when their gazes met. She nodded for Lillian to come closer.
Lillian flicked a wing in annoyance at being summoned but came forward as she was bid.
“Do you want to watch Gregory while he battles the enemy?” Daryna asked as she held out her right hand.
While Lillian could sense his thoughts and track his location to some extent, she wasn’t always able to see through his eyes now that she was no longer the Mother’s Sorceress. The greater the distance, the fainter her link to him.
Of course, I want to know what Gregory’s doing! As her manipulative, meddling doppelgänger was well aware.
Outwardly, Lillian merely nodded her head and reached out for the other woman’s hand.
When their fingers touched, Lillian’s vision darkened unnaturally for a moment before a new location blurred into being.
“Where am—?” Lillian started to ask but felt Gregory’s mind. She was there with him mentally, seeing what he was seeing. He acknowledged her arrival with a spike of warm joy.
Somewhat uncertainly, Lillian formed words in her mind. “Am I a distraction? I don’t want my presence to endanger you.”
Gregory’s warm joy sharpened into thoughts and words that soon filled her mind.
“You are always a welcome distraction, my beloved. However, to make things easier, stay silent once I engage the enemy,” he paused and lifted his muzzle high while he sprinted between two military vehicles.
She sensed he was trying to learn something of the enemies by catching some news upon the breeze, but the stink of fumes from the vehicles disguised anything the wind might have carried.
Gregory put on a burst of speed and bolted ahead of the vehicles on either side.
His mind turned towards hers again. “I can smell nothing of the enemy, but I can feel them working to free themselves from my trap. They’ve already managed to damage it, and that tells me the Lady of Battles has not sent just any grunts for this task. These are powerful magic wielders. While perhaps not as powerful as Gryton, still lethal. But I won’t allow them past me.”
Lillian found herself nodding even though Gregory wouldn’t be able to see it. “I know. You will be victorious over these new enemies, and I will be here to mend your wounds—but please don’t get hurt too badly. You know I hate seeing you in pain.”
Gregory laughed. “I will keep that in mind. And while I do love how you look after my battle-weary body, I don’t actually like pain, so will do my best to minimize the number of scars.”
“Thank you,” Lillian whispered. She allowed her consciousness to drift. Gregory was still in her mind, but no longer forefront. She blinked, and her hamadryad’s glade came back into view.
Anna and Shadowlight were still where they’d been all along, so too were the other soldiers. Only Daryna had moved to stand off to one side, her right hand now caressing one of the standing stones.
“Thank you,” Lillian said as she glanced at Daryna.
“Thanks are never needed. I exist to help you and Gregory overthrow the Battle Goddess.”
When had overthrowing the Battle Goddess become part of the plan?
Last she’d heard, the plan was to stop the Lady of Battles’ army and prevent her from breeding a legion of new gargoyle hybrids. There had been no mention of actually attempting to destroy the Battle Goddess. Which come to think of it, Lillian would be totally cool with.
But she’d thought the Divine Ones had wanted the Twins to learn some kind of moral lesson. Unless Lillian had misunderstood something, the Mother Goddess and the All-Father weren’t willing to kill their child. So why was the Mother’s Sorceress now talking about destroying the Lady of Battles?
After the battle, Lillian would get Gregory alone and mention what Daryna had said. Or perhaps she would speak with the banshee first and see if the Fae had learned anything new.
Chapter 21
As they neared the location of the trap, Gregory darted off the road and into the forest. He led close to fifty Fae who answered the call. They would circle wide and flank the enemy while the human soldiers would come from the South and East.
Dire wolves ran with elks and stags. There was even a moose carrying Greenborrow into battle with him. Gran rode the unicorn bareback while holding her staff in one hand. Gregory admired the elder’s skill and was glad to have her ride into battle beside him.
On Gregory’s left, the pooka ran on silent hooves, a predatory shadow just waiting to grind the bones of his enemies beneath his hooves.
The pooka’s single-mindedness brought a smile to Gregory’s lips. The pony was not the only one looking forward to the coming battle.
Gregory was more than ready to face a real opponent after all the play hunting that he’d been doing as part of the cubs’ training.
And perhaps it was a touch juvenile, but Lillian was with him in his mind, watching what he did, and he wanted to impress her. Or at least live up to his own reputation, which, of late, was somewhat tarnished since coming to this realm.
This felt a little like leading his gargoyles into battle. Something he’d missed since coming to the Mortal Realm.
“We are nearly there.” He’d been about to explain strategy but halted as his attention was diverted. There was something wrong with one of the anchor-stones he’d created to lock the spell to this realm.
Even over the distance, he could feel the pressure building in the anchor. A heartbeat later, stress fractures formed along the heated stone.
A second and third anchor-stone now flared warnings at him.
Damn. The trap wasn’t going to hold long enough for the Fae and military of this realm to get there in time.
There were over a dozen soldiers left to guard the anchor-stones and half again that number of Fae.
He glanced at Gran. “My trap is weakening and whatever is within has almost escaped. To do that so quickly, the newcomers must be fiercely powerful. The Fae and military stationed there won’t have a chance and will be wiped out if I don’t get there in the next few moments.”
Gregory called power from the Spirit Realm as he put on a burst of speed.
“Wait! What are you doing? Lillian will kill you if you mess yourself up again.”
“Stay the course. I’m going to help those already on location. Meet me there when you can.”
Behind him Gran cursed, but he continued to surge ahead, calling more power as he ran. He leaped into the air and spread his wings. One powerful beat and then a second and he was airborne. However, he had no intention of flying the distance.
Ahead, the magic he’d summoned from the Spirit Realm shimmered and churned. Moments before he would have collided with it, the spell snapped into being, opening a rift. On the other side was the dome shaped trap he’d created.
Gunfire reached his sensitive ears, and he knew his trap had been breached by one or more o
f the invaders if the humans were engaging.
Two more powerful wing beats propelled him through the rift.
Below, it was as he expected. A pair of the invaders had managed to fight their way through the burning shield of energy. Ten more armor-clad warriors were still confined within the trap but were working their way through the multilayered shield as he watched.
He swooped down on one of the warriors as he started towards the nearest anchor-stone.
The stones were outside Gregory’s trap, so he hadn’t added much in the way of protection, just enough to keep curious Fae and military scientists at bay.
Gunfire rang out again, which reminded Gregory not to summon his shadow magic to hide his approach. He’d felt the sting of the humans’ bullets enough to respect the tiny shards of metal. Getting winged by ‘friendly fire’ as Major Resnick called it, wasn’t something he needed.
He was going to get roughed up enough as it was.
The armor-clad figure continued towards his target, unaware Gregory was diving for him.
At the last minute, Gregory unfurled his wings and changed the angle of his descent to intercept the enemy.
They collided with a leaden thump, Gregory’s weight and momentum driving the other off his feet and together they continued backward a good twenty meters until the solid energy of the dome stopped them.
Power snapped and hissed, at which point Gregory realized the warrior’s armor was an iron mix of some kind.
Ah. That’s why they’d been able to force their way through his shield. A second realization occurred to him as he grappled with the invader. This creature—whatever he fought—wasn’t of Fae lineage. None of the Fae could wear armor such as this.
His impact had dented the other’s armor, and Gregory took advantage of the warped breastplate to pry up a corner near the arm. With a bit of work, Gregory managed to sink a few claws into exposed tissue.
Blood gushed, and the other male screamed.
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