Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset 2

by Lisa Blackwood

  “Never fear. You both still have a part to play in this before it is over.”

  Anna narrowed her eyes. That sounded a lot like demigods moving pieces on the chessboard again. Well, fortunately, she was a knight with really sharp claws, big-ass guns, and enough ordnance to make her enemies bleed.

  Daryna walked from the glowing circle as she continued to instruct Anna. “The spell will drop you about a day’s walk from the Lady of Battles’ temple. With the map to guide you, you will find the temple easily enough. However, the time of day you arrive will influence your plans.”

  Anna stopped herself from strumming her fingers against her thigh. Obviously, she wasn’t going to attempt a rescue in broad daylight.

  “Your instincts will be to try to infiltrate the temple at night, but that would be a mistake. Many of the creatures that serve her are nocturnal and will be hibernating during the day, or if awake, their senses dulled.”

  “Like vampires?”

  “Worse, my dear. Much worse.”

  “Nice,” Anna muttered to herself. “But the ward-spelled weapons should still work on them?”

  “Yes. But your best defense will be secrecy and shadows. Don’t let your guard down for a moment, even in the daytime. Not all who serve her are night dwellers.”

  “I won’t,” Anna agreed. I like my own ass, thanks. And I won’t do Shadowlight a scrap of good if I’m dead.

  “Do you have any other questions?”

  “Hell, yes. But we’re out of time. Let’s do this before Gregory finds us.”

  “Very well.”

  Daryna stepped from the circle and raised her arms. As she did so, the circle’s light flickered and shifted to shades of pastel. When she began to chant, the pale color shifted again, changing to a darker hue, fiercer and somehow more aggressive in tone. Again, Anna was reminded of the wildness she sensed in the magic.

  “May the Divine Ones continue to bless you.”

  Bless me? Not bloody likely. Let me survive with my skin intact to torture me more later? Hopefully.

  A wall of power encircled her, and a great pressure descended upon her body. It continued to increase. There was a reason she hadn’t joined the air force. Pulling G’s wasn’t her idea of fun. For a moment, she thought the magic was going to grind her bones into the ground.

  Above her, the magic swirled in a violent vortex. Her heart in her throat, she watched as what she was certain was an angry and ravenous wormhole reached down and swallowed her whole.

  Gravity vanished along with any sense of up or down. As Anna’s body was catapulted into the next realm over, she wished she’d thought to ask more about the transportation spell. Like what to expect and how bloody long would it last?

  At least, she could take some pride in the fact that she wasn’t screaming or puking.

  Then as swiftly as the sensory bombardment had started, it abruptly ended.

  Her head still spinning, Anna found herself on her hands and knees in a stream. It was icy cold and flowed down a steep slope before it eventually reached the valley floor a few hundred feet below.

  Anna picked herself up out of the stream and looked around in more detail. The valley seemed uninhabited, and so far as she could tell no one had seen her arrival. She stomped ashore after she had determined moving wasn’t going to draw unwanted attention.

  “Welcome to fantasyland. Methinks it’s going to go downhill from here.”

  She glanced at the sun to gauge how much daylight she had left only to find a second, smaller one riding in the sky with it.

  Two suns.

  Yep.

  Shaking her head in disbelief, she called her shadow magic to hide and then headed for the closest trees to act as cover. Once she oriented herself using the map, she would start the hunt for Shadowlight. Now that she was here in this realm, that tiny speck of magic that burned deep in her brain detected Shadowlight faint and far away. But alive.

  Never had she been so happy for her magic. She only hoped he could sense her and know help was on its way.

  “I’m coming for you, kid. Just hang on.”

  Chapter 29

  Daryna turned her back on the fading ring of magic she’d used to send Anna to the Magic Realm. Knowing her time was limited, she immediately began summoning another spell that would carry her to Gryton’s camp. If he was still there. Weariness was creeping across her senses, and she knew her body was beginning to show the stress of calling upon so much magic in so short a time. But it couldn’t be helped. And she still had more spell work to complete this night.

  With a focused push of her will, a portal spell appeared in the air. Daryna raised her chin and prepared to face her son. Between one step and the next, she was far from where she’d been.

  Here the air was free of the stink of humans and technology. The rich scent of balsam fir and other evergreens filled her lungs. She breathed deep and wiggled her bare toes in the needles and loam under her feet.

  Being born into a dryad body had some interesting advantages. The trees told her all that went on in their domain. Gryton had returned less than two hours ago, but he’d already set a few defensive spells before limping into his temporary home.

  Relief that he was still here washed through her.

  If he’d intentionally betrayed her and deliberately orchestrated Shadowlight’s capture, Gryton wouldn’t have returned to the first place she’d look. No son of hers would be so foolish.

  In truth, she hadn’t assumed Gryton had betrayed her. While his earlier thoughts had been tainted with distrust of her motives, there had been no dishonesty. It was good that she wouldn’t have to hunt him down and start fresh with his taming.

  Expanding her power, she learned more about his condition. Presently, his emotions came to her. He was awake and in pain and expecting to be hunted down at any moment, but his honor demanded he take responsibility for his own failures.

  During the fight, Gregory had injured him, but she hadn’t known how badly.

  “Gryton, my child. Lower the defenses, I’m coming in.”

  “I’m not a child,” came his surly reply. “Even though I was foolishly naïve to believe I could trick the Battle Goddess and the warriors under my command, I didn’t intentionally betray you or the young gargoyle.”

  “I know.” Daryna grinned. If he was grumpy, his injuries couldn’t have been too extensive.

  Gryton didn’t lower his defenses as she’d asked, but they became visible without her having to counter them. She carefully picked her way over and around all the trigger spells.

  She ducked her head as she stepped through the cavern’s low entrance. Inside was the familiar narrow crevice that finally widened several paces in. Firelight flickered on the walls, but there was nothing cooking over the fire.

  Gryton sat next to it. He’d removed his armor from his upper body and was dressing a couple dozen shallow slashes that covered his shoulders, arms, and chest.

  He’d torn up two of the canvas bags she’d used to bring the supplies. She was carrying another similar bag again today. This one was filled with an assortment of bandages and salves. Not that he would need them for long. She planned to heal him well before the dawn when Gregory would begin his hunt.

  But the bandages and gauze would help with the cleanup.

  “Lillian did an excellent job on you.”

  Gryton snorted. His lips curled away from his fangs, but there was a hint of admiration. “See how well you do going into battle and trying to overpower your opponents without actually killing them. And when your opponents are gargoyles, let me assure you that is no easy task.”

  “Yes, about that,” Daryna said as she set her bag down next to Gryton and pulled out a few squares of some linen-type material. “Gregory has enough of your blood and essence to track you. He’s attending to Lillian’s minor injuries, but once he is done that, he will be on the hunt well before dawn, I imagine.”

  Gryton poured a bit of water onto a cloth using one of the humans’ stra
nge soft-sided clear bottles and then started dabbing at his wounds. When it was clean of crusted blood, he moved to the next. “I’m not going to sit by and allow my gargoyle sire to kill me without a fight.”

  “I don’t intend for you and Gregory to meet face-to-face just yet. He’s not ready to hear the truth.” Daryna handed Gryton another bit of cloth. “I intend to weave a spell upon you that will hide you from Gregory’s searching magic. It’s not a permanent fix, but it will be better than nothing.”

  Again, Gryton grunted in way of acknowledgment.

  “You’re very like your father. Grumpy. Non-communicative. Brooding…”

  His fangs flashed again. “What does it matter if I am? He’ll still hate me on principle.”

  That might very well be true, Daryna decided. But she didn’t utter that aloud.

  “We have other problems.”

  He jerked his head in a swift affirmative, his expression turning slightly less haughty. “I only expected those I specified for the mission to come. That many more came must mean the Battle Goddess suspects me of treason.”

  “Perhaps she did, but those who captured Shadowlight saw Gregory attack you. They will carry that news back to the Battle Goddess. If we are lucky, she will assume you are actually innocent of betrayal and that by coming here you acted to retrieve the collars that Darkness and River stole. And your actions also allowed Shadowlight to be captured. We can use that to our advantage. It never hurts to have a spy in our enemy’s court.”

  “That wasn’t my intention. If I go back, she will see through my deception and will seek my death just as surely as her brother did in the past.”

  Daryna laughed. “Then tonight’s session will be about how to hide your innermost thoughts, showing her only what you want her to see, what she will think she has pried from your unwilling mind.”

  Gryton glanced down at the fire so his pale skin didn’t betray his shame. “I lack the control needed to do as you say.”

  “As a child raised in her kingdom for eight years, under her ever-watchful eye, I managed to hide my plans from her,” Daryna said as she handed him another piece of white gauze. “If I could do that for all those years, you’ll be able to manage well enough with some guidance from me. You’ve already excelled well beyond what you were capable of a few days ago.”

  Gryton still looked skeptical but seemed willing to put his trust in her. “Very well. You haven’t misled me. But I still don’t know if I’ll be able to rescue Shadowlight from the Battle Goddess’s domain.”

  “Oh. You won’t need to worry about that. I’ve already sent another for that purpose.”

  “You sent Gregory, after all? I thought you said he was attending to Lillian.”

  “Oh, he has a plan to rescue Shadowlight. It involves sinking his claws into you, but I came up with a better, less risky idea about how to extract the young gargoyle cub from our enemy.”

  One of Gryton’s eyebrows arched in question.

  Ah, she’d surprised him. It only lasted a moment before his expression smoothed into understanding. “You’ve sent the berserker. But why? She is nowhere near ready to undertake her part in your plan. Her hope of successfully freeing Shadowlight is far less than my own odds.”

  “My son, you have so much to learn. This is a long game. I don’t expect the hybrid to succeed. Not right away. First, she needs to see what true evil is. She needs to focus all that potential she has locked inside her. Only then will we be able to shape her into a weapon to aim at the heart of the Battle Goddess.”

  Gryton looked unhappy. “If she goes after Shadowlight, she will become the Battle Goddess’s weapon as well, not yours.”

  “Like you are?”

  “That’s different.”

  “Not so very much. And, yes, the Battle Goddess will teach her hate. But the human is a rare soul. Her moral code is an iron core that runs deep. The Battle Goddess will not be able to corrupt her. Besides, Shadowlight will need a friend in the unfortunate situation he has found himself in. The shared hardship will only cement their bond of friendship into something truly astounding.”

  “How can you be so confident the human hybrid will survive with her morals intact?”

  “Because,” Daryna said with absolute certainty that came from far outside her own mind. “Shadowlight finding and saving Anna was Divine will.”

  Gryton laughed, a harsh sound full of bitter amusement. “It must be true. Only the Divine Ones would create such a harrowing and complex path to inflict upon some hapless soul.”

  “The Divine Ones set many tests and trials so that our souls may learn and grow.”

  “Then I must be very well learned.”

  “Indeed,” Daryna said. “However, there is still much you must learn, and time is short. I still need to heal you, weave a few spells, and then go seek out Lillian and Gregory. All before they realize I’m missing.”

  “Life is never dull, is it Mother?”

  “No, my son,” Daryna said with genuine mirth. “It never is. Now let me teach you how to lie so that even the Battle Goddess won’t know the truth from falsehood.”

  Chapter 30

  A pounding on the door jolted Lillian out of deep sleep. Gregory growled out something dark and menacing, which was quite a feat since he was in human form. But that didn’t impede his reflexes at all. He was already fully awake and stalking buck-naked towards the door.

  “Gregory. For the love of God, put clothes on.”

  Of course, he ignored her.

  Lillian grabbed her own robe and pulled it on moments before Gregory jerked the door open. “Are the Lord of the Underworld and the Lady of Battles presently battling on the front lawn?”

  Gran stood framed by the door. Major Resnick was at her shoulder and looking downright impatient. Lillian’s grandmother answered first, her voice sounding a touch distracted as she took in Gregory’s form. “No. I don’t think so, my boy. Something else has come up though.”

  Lillian was bringing Gregory a robe to wear when Major Resnick pushed past him like he wasn’t afraid of getting bounced back out into the hall by an angry, naked human-formed gargoyle.

  “Anna is missing. Do you know anything about it?”

  Each word came up clipped and barely controlled. It was completely unlike the Resnick she had gotten to know. Gregory must have sensed it as well, for he merely took the robe Lillian offered and answered truthfully. “No. We haven’t seen Anna since she left with you after Shadowlight was taken. I wasn’t aware she was missing.”

  Lillian stepped in closer. “Anna was really broken up about what happened to Shadowlight. Are you sure she hasn’t gone someplace to be alone? She might be out in the forest hunting.”

  Resnick snorted. “Oh, I’m pretty sure she’s out hunting, but it’s not deer. We have security footage of her going into the restricted area, attacking fellow soldiers, and then stealing an assortment of the modified assault rifles and side arms.”

  “You’re certain it was Anna?” Gregory asked. “Several species of Fae can shapeshift and make themselves look like someone else.”

  “I remember. Like you did when you pretended to be one of my men.” Resnick shook his head. “Unfortunately, no, I don’t think that’s what happened. Anna was clearly using shadow magic.” Resnick tripped over the word magic like he was still having trouble using the term. “Only a gargoyle has that ability, correct?”

  “Yes,” Gregory agreed.

  “The only reason we know it was her is that we just had the banshee ward-spell the surveillance cameras to better protect the compound.”

  “Give me a few moments and I’ll be able to confirm if it was Anna and not a shapeshifter,” Gregory said as he closed his eyes and summoned magic.

  The beginnings of a spell raised gooseflesh upon Lillian’s arms. After a moment, he huffed angrily. “There are only two gargoyles in the Mortal Realm. Lillian and I.”

  Lillian jerked in surprise. “You’re saying Anna is gone. Do you think Gryton got to
her like he did Whitethorn and Goswin?”

  “I don’t know, but I intend to find out.” Gregory growled. “Take me to the place where Anna trespassed. I should be able to pick up her scent and then determine if she was forced into doing this.”

  Resnick nodded. “If Gryton didn’t get to her, then I fear she’s gone after him on her own to take revenge for what happened to Shadowlight. She might even now be Gryton’s prisoner.”

  “I wouldn’t be so certain of that,” Gregory said, closing his eyes. A moment later, Lillian felt him call power as he shifted back to his gargoyle form.

  She stared at Gregory, but it wasn’t because he’d shifted. She was getting better at reading his thoughts. “My God. You think Anna has gone after Shadowlight. But how is that even possible. She doesn’t have the power or knowledge to get to the Magic Realm. You once said that traveling between the realms took a lot of magical strength.”

  “Yes, it does. And, no, Anna couldn’t get there on her own. But if she had help…”

  The Mother’s Sorceress.

  Gregory thought Anna had somehow convinced Daryna to help. Lillian was worried for Anna of course, but she couldn’t bring herself to regret the woman’s decision. If Anna had managed to convince the Sorceress to help, it meant that Daryna thought Anna had a chance of rescuing Shadowlight.

  Resnick tilted his head to look up at Gregory. “There’s only one problem. Anna would never go against orders.”

  Gregory’s tail lashed back and forth with a great deal of violence. When Lillian touched his thoughts, she felt his ongoing internal debate. He was thinking about sharing something with Resnick he’d rather not.

  At last Gregory sighed and drew in a deep breath. “There is something we have not shared with you or your superiors. It regards Anna and Shadowlight and how the young gargoyle managed to save Anna’s life. It wasn’t natural; not even for a gargoyle.”

  Resnick froze in place, waiting for Gregory to continue.

  “Shadowlight was altered by the Battle Goddess. One such change is his ability to use his blood to heal others. Although, it doesn’t just heal them; it changes them as it did Anna. That part you know. What you don’t know is that there is a magical component that binds them together. Anna is Shadowlight’s second.”