“Oh, lucky Anna,” Lillian hissed. “You two are cut from the same cloth.”
Gregory looked perplexed, so Lillian explained. “Now the Battle Goddess has them both to torture. She’ll use one against the other as leverage. She’ll break them both.”
“Then she will find she has forged a weapon that will cut the hand that wields it.”
“She. Is. Going. To. Torture. Them.” Lillian rocked forward onto her talon-tipped toes until she stood muzzle to muzzle with Gregory.
“Yes. The Battle Goddess is not above torture, both physical and spiritual. But as long as there is life, there is hope. The Lady of Battles will not kill them. And I do plan to rescue them. Soon. Just as soon as I get my talons upon Gryton and we have a ‘heart to heart’ and I determine if he’s as worthy as my other half says he is.”
Daryna stepped in closer to Gregory, reaching out to touch the side of his face, but he stepped out of reach.
Allowing her arm to fall back to her side, she tilted her head and her gaze turned vacant for a moment.
“Ah. That might be a bit of a problem as he just resurrected the remains of the spell I created to send Anna to the Magic Realm. He’s a quick study.”
Gregory snarled something in his native tongue and Lillian didn’t blame him.
“Peace. For now, it’s better this way. Besides, I still have faith that the human will find a way to free Shadowlight even before Gryton has a chance to aid in their escape. That human is tenacious and lethal. Before I sent her, I made sure she had an honest chance at rescuing the cub.”
“What else did you do?” Gregory asked, but sounded tired and like nothing would surprise him anymore.
“I further enhanced her gargoyle bloodline. She won’t shift into a full gargoyle for some months yet, but she will be stronger, faster and far more lethal.”
“So you gave mamma bear bigger teeth and sharper claws? Are you actually trying to get her killed?” Lillian couldn’t help the accusation. Screw being a peacekeeper. She knew Daryna disdained the humans.
Daryna arched an eyebrow. “Do you not know I can read you when we are close and you are angry?”
“Yeah. Well. At least I’m honest.”
“You haven’t always been honest to Gregory.”
Lillian growled and looked at Gregory. “You deal with her. She’s your other half.”
“It’s time we return to Major Resnick and explain to our human allies what you have done. You will no longer have the freedoms you had before. Do you understand what I am saying?” Gregory asked.
Daryna huffed out a sigh. “Yes. And you have my word that as long as you give Gryton a chance, I will not go against your wishes again.”
Gregory snorted out a humorless laugh. “Oh, my Sorceress. It’s not just me you will have to convince. It is the humans. I have agreed to be their ally and they mine. Thus, I have a few more rules to adhere to than in previous lives. Those humans might see things in a very different light.”
“I will tell them the same thing I have told you. If given a choice, Gryton will side with us, and he will be a powerful ally in the fight against the Battle Goddess. And I think the humans will understand the value of having a ‘man on the inside’ to act as our spy.”
“Yeah,” Lillian muttered under her breath. “Because double agents are oh so trustworthy.”
Daryna glanced in Lillian’s direction. “Gryton will side with us. He has no love for the Battle Goddess.”
“Maybe,” Lillian said grudgingly. “But we’re done chatting. It’s time to go share this new information with Major Resnick. I’ll let him figure out how to word it to his superiors. But after that, we’re forming a plan to rescue Shadowlight.”
Gregory nodded agreement and then began to summon spirit magic and directed it into another of those portal spells. She really did need to learn more about magic and see if she could create such a spell. But that was a concern for later. Now, it was time to come clean with the humans.
Daryna stepped up beside Gregory, showing herself to be docile and willing.
Lillian wondered how long that would last if Gregory later met Gryton and didn’t agree with Daryna’s assessment of their son.
Eyeing the Mother’s Sorceress, Lillian couldn’t help but think about that clichéd phrase about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Somehow, given the situation she found herself in, it seemed like sage advice.
For now, her war with her sorceress self might be over, but the tension was still there, hinting at more war and peril just over the horizon. And come it would. For tomorrow they would begin the hunt for Gryton and find a way to rescue Shadowlight and Anna.
Thank you for reading Sorceress at War.
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Sorceress Enraged
Sorceress Enraged
A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale
Book 5
Lisa Blackwood
Copyright
Sorceress Enraged © 2017 by Lisa Smeaton
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and characters are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any print or electronic form without author's permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Cover Art Designed by Heather Sender
Edited by Tracy Vandervliet
Blurb
While Lillian and Gregory have their hands full trying to track down Commander Gryton and prepare for an imminent invasion, Corporal Anna Mackenzie has her own set of problems. And surprisingly, it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that she’d been converted into a gargoyle by a well-meaning cub.
No. Her new gargoyle nature is something she’ll come to grips with…eventually. Having that same gargoyle cub abducted by an evil demigoddess? That’s another story altogether.
Anna has never failed to accomplish something once she’s put her mind to it, and her mind is now firmly set on seeing the young gargoyle freed at any cost. And if the evil demigoddess gets in her way…the Lady of Battles will be in for the fight of her immortal life.
Prologue
Never had the sound of the ocean crashing against the cliffs failed to soothe him, but the restlessness of an unknown future had drawn Draydrak here to the edge of his self-imposed prison, and this dawn the seas failed to calm his rising unease.
Soon, the Divine Ones would call upon him to serve. He felt it in his soul. Yet, for the first time in his existence, he wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to succeed. Or even if that was his wish. He was weary of his role.
As this planet’s sun cleared the horizon, its light stretched across the sky in a white-gold glow. The perpetual beauty of the act wasn’t lost on him. It represented hope’s ever-renewing promise.
New beginnings.
The one thing beyond his power to give himself. And not unlike all the mortals upon the mortal plane, he craved the one thing he himself could not have.
A hundred thousand times each moment his power bestowed the gift of new beginnings upon all the souls of the universe. Many mortals feared it, fought it, terrified to accept his embrace, his greatest gift, not understanding that it was merely a new beginning. Hope. The promise of life eternal as ordained by the Divine Ones at the beginning.
The one thing forbidden to him.
Death.
But Lord Death could not succumb to his own power, even though he would willingly embrace it for the chance to absolve his greatest mistake and end the rivalry with his sist
er.
In the past, he had tried. Even falling upon his four swords to no avail. His magic was tied to his twin’s and hers to his. Once, long ago, when he and his twin had first started their war, he had attempted to kill her and send her back to the Divine Ones for healing.
To the woe of all the Realms, the Battle Goddess would live as long as her twin existed and Draydrak could not die.
Their war had threatened to destabilize all of creation until the Avatars had been reborn into the Magic Realm and they had shown him a way to imprison his wayward sibling.
Thus, the duality curse had been born, trapping both twins in their respective temples.
Draydrak had gone willingly. His twin had not. Even trapped within her temple, she still sought to continue the war, raising armies and setting them loose every few thousand years.
The Avatars returned each time to put an end to her rebellions. Until this time, when his twin had found a way to manipulate even them.
War was coming again, and this time he wished an eternal ending to this on-going strife. He wanted a new beginning for them all, especially his sister. She needed healing only the Divine Ones could grant.
But first, he needed to win the coming war and find a way to strike a fatal blow that his twin would not be able to escape.
“Dray?” The ocean breeze tried to steal the words of the speaker, but Thayn was too determined to let anything, even an innocent breeze, interfere with his plans. “Might I have a word with you?”
Thayn was always there to draw him from his melancholy thoughts. Draydrak shifted his weight and glanced over his shoulder to an outcropping of rock where the gargoyle elder perched.
“Of course, my old friend,” he said as he turned to face the much smaller gargoyle. Boulders crumbled under Dray’s hooves as he turned his back on the ocean and the ever-seductive call of renewal the rising sun represented. “Speak.”
The gargoyle’s ears flicked forward and back, betraying some small hint of uncertainty. At last, he said what was on his mind. “My Lord, the entire council felt the arrival of two new gargoyles in this realm. But they are unlike any to come before them.”
Ah. His gargoyle legion had felt the arrival of his twin’s newest experiment.
“I am aware,” he confirmed. “They are my sister’s doing.”
“Of course, but do you wish us to raid the Battle Goddess’s lands and capture these two?”
There was a hint of excitement in the old gargoyle’s expression.
Dray hated to dash his general’s hopes, but he feared these two were not born of Divine will, were instead firmly his sister’s creatures, or would be before long. Although, that was yet to be determined. Perhaps they could still be reasoned with, persuaded into doing what was right.
“No, I’ll not waste gargoyle lives on such an endeavor until I’ve learned more about them myself.” Draydrak paused and glanced back towards the rising sun. “If I find them worthy of saving, then I will act, but if they are just more souls turned by my sister’s corrupt power, then I will free their souls to return to the Divine Ones.”
“But, my Lord, one of them is female. A female gargoyle, surely this is what the Divine Ones prophesized long ago.”
Ah. Of course, his gargoyles would wish to believe the coming of the first female gargoyle would mark his own mate’s arrival as the ancient prophecy said.
“I am sorry my old friend, I very much doubt this is Divine will.”
The gargoyle huffed out an amused snort. “It’s not for myself I ask, or even the rest of the gargoyle Legion—the dryads suit us well enough. I had hoped for your sake this would signal the beginning of the prophecy.”
Dray’s lips curled back from his fangs as he grinned down at Thayn. “Foolish old gargoyle. I am too set in my ways to want a mate. Besides, what female would be brave enough to court death?”
“The female the Divine Ones chose for you, I would assume?” The gargoyle replied with dry wit.
Draydrak chuckled and gestured at his own body with all four of his arms. Once he’d made his point, he folded his arms and allowed his wings to expand to catch the ocean breeze.
But it wasn’t his physical form that he was worried about. It was within his power to take other shapes for short times. No, his true fear was rooted in what had happened to his sister. She had once been loyal to the Divine Ones. At least until the day her mate, the Shieldbearer, had decided he wanted the power over life and death and was willing to kill Draydrak to secure it.
When Draydrak had killed his twin’s mate, her grief over losing him had twisted her soul until she became the darkly obsessed being that now wanted to rule all of creation so every living creature would feel the sorrow she now felt.
That’s what love had done to his twin. He would avoid such a fate at almost any cost. So far, the Divine Ones seemed to concur, for they had not used their Avatars to birth another demigod into the universe to become his mate.
“Well, then, if you’re not going to order the gargoyle Legion to invade your sister’s territory, what are your orders instead?”
The old gargoyle wasn’t going to give up just yet.
Dray had no time for a foolish prophecy or an equally foolish romantic old fool. No, he would deny fate, prophecy, and even medaling elderly matchmakers.
“Continue training the young ones as you have been,” he said, but then surprised himself by adding, “And send more gargoyles to scout along my sister’s domain. I will see what I can learn about her two newest projects and discover if they are slaves or willing servants. If the latter, and should they attempt an escape, I want some of my army near to collect them and bring them here.”
And just like that, he felt Fate tightening her clutches. Still, he didn’t take back his words. Rescue mission or assassination attempt, foiling his sister’s plans for these two would be a worthy use of his time.
PART 1
Chapter 1
Anna had been following a river for most of the morning when she spotted what looked like a path cutting along one side of the valley. Her first thought was that it was a game trail because she hadn’t seen any signs of civilization since she first arrived in fantasyland last evening.
Last night she’d found a spot to shelter beside a fallen tree and used her night vision goggles to scan for signs of hostiles. There’d been nothing but wildlife. Deer and wolves were plentiful. So too were the sizeable hairy mountain goats. She’d even spotted a big cat-like shape on the opposite slope.
Fantasyland looked a lot like the Rockies. Well, if one removed roads, towns, and people.
This morning she’d started out near dawn and traveled alongside the stream she’d landed in yesterday, eventually coming to the river she now followed. Not once in the fifteen-kilometer hike had she seen another human or other fae. Which made her wonder if the locals knew better than to venture in the direction she was headed.
She hiked for another three kilometers and then spotted something that made her halt and crouch low. After a moment, she rose from her crouch and then slowly traversed the rocky ground until she reached a large outcropping. She used it to hide.
Peering through her scope, she scanned the terrain ahead. A break in the thinning greenery was what had first caught her interest. The view through her scope confirmed it was too uniform for a game trail.
Someone had built a road to cut through the mountain pass, and a road almost always went somewhere. It had probably been running alongside the river all along, its location hidden by the thick tree canopy. Now that the vegetation was sparser, she could clearly see the pale line of the road.
This one led out of the valley and began to snake its way up toward a pass in the mountains. The higher the road climbed, the sparser the cover. Fewer trees and shrubs meant less cover to hide her movements.
While that was unfortunate, it wouldn’t stop her. This road led in the direction her magic said Shadowlight lay. She thanked whatever god was responsible, for as long as that magic tugged
her closer to him, she knew he was still alive.
If he was alive, she could rescue him.
She scanned the rough road again before rising from her crouch behind the cluster of boulders. It would be too dangerous to use the road even if it would make her route marginally quicker. Anna hadn’t seen any patrols, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.
Jogging cross country might take a little longer than following the road, but it was better than getting captured.
After hoisting her pack, she adjusted it and then checked her gun. Once everything was in order, she broke into a lope.
“Hold on, kid. I’m coming for you.”
∞∞∞
Anna stayed close to the road for the rest of the day. The sun was just beginning its descent when the road reached the narrow pass she’d seen earlier. The trees were thinner here, the ground rockier. Staying close to the western side of the pass, she hid herself using shadow magic.
She marched two more kilometers before the pass dumped her into another valley. Instincts screamed a warning, telling her this one wasn’t empty of habitation. Glancing around, she slipped between the cliff wall and a section of rock that had fallen from above.
After Anna had inched her way up the rock pile, she peered towards what she’d only glimpsed before. Blinking against the glare of the setting sun, she studied the mountainous city carved out of the northern slope of the valley.
This, then, was the road’s destination. Midway up the slope, pillars cut from a blood-red stone rose out of the ground and flanked the road. Studying the rise of the land through her scope, she saw where the road merged into a staircase two-thirds of the way up the mountain.
From her present vantage point, it didn’t look like the slope on either side was scalable without climbing gear.
Not good.
If she wished to go farther, she would need to call upon her gargoyle shadow magic after dark and attempt the climb with the hope no one discovered her. There was no way she was turning back now. Her eyes drifted higher to study the fortress or city or whatever one called an evil overlord’s abode.
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