They moved swiftly into the city and made their way toward her hamadryad in this realm. Gryton didn’t have much time, but thankfully, Lillian’s instincts told her the tree was not much farther, just north and west of their present location.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, shadows became scarcer, but Gregory and Daryna navigated the strangely empty city with familiarity, finding narrow alleyways and tree-shaded walkways. The city wasn’t completely empty, though. They still had to avoid guards on watch and subdued servants going about their business.
“News of Shadowlight and Anna’s escape must have reached the servants by now. Why isn’t the city in an uproar?”
“The servants are likely too frightened to show themselves while the Battle Goddess is raging.” Gregory’s ears flicked toward Lillian as he spoke. “And her senior warriors are all within her temple, but I am still on alert for any signs we have been detected.”
So far, they’d been lucky. They hadn’t been forced to take out further patrols after that first one to rescue the human family. If they’d been forced to take out more patrols, their enemies would soon realize something was amiss.
At last, they made their way through the fortress city and reached its north wall. Beyond that was a sprawling field that gently sloped away from the city’s wall. It was a practice yard, Gregory said, but she didn’t even give it a cursory scan. Her gaze locked onto the two trees that grew further down the slope.
Hamadryads. One of them was hers from when she’d lived here as a child. The other belonged to her mother. As she drew closer, Lillian saw why they were unharmed from any form of the Battle Goddess’s retaliation. A shimmering dome of energy encased the two trees.
“That’s the spell Daryna and I created so no one else could easily venture into the Mortal Realm.” Gregory rolled his eyes in her direction. “You know how I hate uninvited guests.”
“Wait. If nothing can pass that shield, why does the Battle Goddess think she can send Gryton through to Earth?”
Gregory huffed and made a sour expression. “The magic is attuned to me, Daryna and you. Gryton is our son. The magic recognizes him as part of us.”
“The Battle Goddess knows Gryton is yours?”
“Yes. It must be why she offered to shelter him. It certainly had nothing to do with kindness towards an orphaned child.”
They made it through the practice yard and reached the enormous shimmering dome. Bright sparks of color danced and flared over the surface, shimmering and spinning like the rainbow hues on the surface of the bubble. Only this bubble wouldn’t break when touched.
“You said the spell would only recognize us.” Lillian kept her voice lowered so it wouldn’t carry. “What about the humans?”
Gregory reached over to nuzzle her. “My worrier.”
“Well, someone has to, since shit hits the fan almost daily.”
“The spell will let us bring others through with us, but there is a little…” Gregory paused as if searching for the correct word.
“Blip in your plan?” Lillian supplied.
“Hmm. Yes. Though it’s not a large problem.”
“Out with it.”
“We must wait outside until Gryton is brought here and shoved through the dome,” Gregory explained. “When someone passes through the barrier, it will be noticeable. We’ll hide close enough to the dome that we can slip across when they send Gryton through.”
Understanding clicked. The swirling pretty bits of color would change when disturbed.
Lillian glanced across the area. “There’s not much cover.”
“Stealth has served us well so far. We will trust in our magic and hope the Divine Ones give us their blessing.”
Ah. It was hope and pray time. Nice and reassuring.
Resnick sidled up next to them, and Gregory explained the situation. For his part, Resnick took it well. “Alpha team reports they and the family are safely back at the portal.”
“Good,” Gregory said as he scanned the area for hidden dangers. “Have your men go through and then radio back once they reach Earth. The portal will carry the signal while it remains open. However, once the human family and your men go through, I want Gran to close the portal. She knows what to do. We won’t be returning home that way and I don’t want a patrol accidentally stumbling upon it.”
“I’ll see it’s done.”
“Thank you.” Gregory scanned the area once more. “The Battle Goddess’s soldiers will likely approach there, between those two ridges,” Gregory pointed to the narrow gully. “If we move west along the dome’s curve, we will be in the tallest hamadryad’s shadow and still be able to see them coming while remaining out of their direct path. Besides, it’s better to be downwind in case one among them can scent something my shadow magic might fail to hide.”
“Hiding in shadows still feels like a piss-poor shelter,” Resnick stated as he and his team moved to the location Gregory indicated.
Lillian and Daryna were herded after them. Gregory came last and they settled in to wait.
It still felt strange waiting for the enemy to bring them Gryton. And a not so small part of her felt that they should be looking for him instead of just waiting for the Battle Goddess to finish torturing him.
But Gregory’s plan was sound. Wandering around an enemy fortress was a good way to get captured. So, Lillian waited.
Chapter 39
Gregory was the first to hear the approach of the newcomers, but Lillian picked up the sound seconds later. Soon a long line of armor-clad warriors approached. They were led by a beautiful woman wearing a long flowing dress. Her hair was unbound, a floating curtain that shifted with the wind.
She certainly wasn’t dressed for battle like the others. Lillian’s eyes narrowed. That could only mean her power was such that she did not fear the bite of an enemy’s blade. Or other forms of physical damage. That couldn’t be a good sign.
“Let me guess: the blood witch?”
“Yes,” Gregory replied with a soft hiss. “Don’t lower your mental shields during the fight or after, not until we’re home. Her power rivals that of the old ones.”
More comforting news.
Lillian and the others remain hunched down, but she could detect their shift to readiness.
Shortly before the enemy reached the outer edge of the dome, the woman in the lead raised her hand. The line of soldiers shifted as they moved to the side, parting to allow two other warriors forward. The newcomers held chains and dragged something behind them as they marched toward the blood witch’s location.
It wasn’t until they were at the front of the line that she saw what they dragged at the end of the chains. If she hadn’t known this had to be Gryton, she never would have recognized him.
The black lump of char raised an arm and gave his chains a savage jerk. The guards on either side stumbled but didn’t fall.
Gryton still had a little fight left in him. She didn’t know how. No one deserved to be, to have had done — whatever had been done to him.
God. Lillian ground her teeth together to stop the snarling growl that wanted to escape. Gregory shifted, and she realized he was holding Daryna back.
Suddenly the blood witch spun around, no longer addressing her soldiers but looking around like she sensed something the others hadn’t.
“Move,” Gregory ordered as he grabbed Stanton and Maracle and shoved them through the barrier. Resnick was propelled through next. Then Lillian was snatching up Laforce and Brown. She wrapped her tail around Willis just as Gregory shoved them all hard. Together the three of them stumbled through the barrier.
Daryna darted through next and ran past them. Gregory came last. He paused long enough to help Lillian to her feet and then he darted off in pursuit of Daryna.
Lillian dropped to all fours and ran after them. It didn’t take more than a second to know they were sprinting towards the section of dome where the blood witch and Gryton had last been located.
Ten seconds later Lillian
reached the front of the dome to find both Daryna and the blood witch summoning magic.
Other captains were already flinging balls and spears of fiery power at the dome.
The surface danced and flared with a thousand ripples, each new impact caused the pattern to cascade in a new direction.
So far nothing had made it through the shield, including Gryton. Lillian bound up to Gregory.
“We need to get Gryton,” she said as she watched the shifting bodies on the other side of the dome. “They’re dragging him further away.”
“Go to the edge of the shield and prepare to drag Gryton forward when I say. Use the chains. Don’t touch him directly.”
Lillian nodded and leaped to obey, still not knowing Gregory’s plan. Whatever it was must require a lot of power because he was drawing down a tornado of cold magic from the Spirit Realm.
He stood with his arms outstretched above his head as more and more power built. Outside the dome, the blood witch was doing the same. Then moments apart they both unleashed their respective powers. The dome shuddered under the impact. Lillian felt her heart drop down to her stomach, but the shield held and absorbed both powers.
Waiting with muscles taut, Lillian crouched, ready to dart forward and snatch Gryton at Gregory’s signal. Daryna joined in the fight and flung a torrent of magic towards the barrier. The Sorceress’s movements were a strange, graceful dance, almost like watching a martial artist, but instead of landing blows upon an opponent, her power raced to certain points on the shield, counteracting whatever the blood witch had been attempting.
“Now,” Gregory roared and Daryna flung a second vast wave of magic upon the barrier.
Lillian leaped forward as the dome’s circumference grew, pushing outward in an ever-widening circle. It expanded faster than the enemy could react, hitting armor clad figures and tossing them away like leaves before a train.
The blood witch was tossed back farther than the others as if the barrier was revolted by the taint of her touch.
But Gryton was now inside the dome. Lillian bolted forward. Remembering Gregory’s warning, she reached for the chain instead of Gryton’s ember-bright arms. She swiftly hauled him farther from the edge of the dome.
At least until she was brought up short by a new resistance. A glance over her shoulder confirmed her suspicions. One of the soldiers had managed to maintain a hold on his chain and was even now regaining his feet. The warrior was immense, his shoulders broad. Lillian grinned.
The fool had never played tug-of-war with a gargoyle. She bunched her shoulders and thigh muscles and then gave a mighty heave. The armor-clad figure on the opposite end of the chain smashed into the dome. He didn’t release his hold, so she gave him another two good bashes.
He still maintained his grip. Was the bastard part tick? He was latched on like one.
Soon he was joined by three of his friends. Lillian glanced over her shoulder for aid, but Gregory and Daryna were busy feeding the dome more power, strengthening the areas where the blood witch’s magic was beginning to eat through.
Help came in the form of Resnick and his team. The humans rushed forward, and four of them grabbed hold of the chain and aided her while Resnick aimed at the thick chain links. Strengthened by magic, it wasn’t an easy target. Two direct hits only dented the magic-reinforced metal.
But it still gave Lillian an idea and she summoned hundreds of sharp little shards of shadow magic and sent them chasing each other down the length of the chain towards the enemy combatants.
The first roar of pain was rewarded by a bit of slack in the chain. More yelps of pain reached her ears as further bits of her shadow magic found its way inside armor.
Stanton, Maracle and Brown quickly hauled the rest of the chain inside the dome while Lillian knelt next to Gryton. He didn’t look any better up close. As she studied him, ash and blackened flesh fell from his body.
“Gryton can you hear me?” Lillian asked as she reached for his manacles. A bit of shadow magic found the closure mechanism and wiggled until the cuff sprang free.
“I can hear you,” he said in a voice that sounded as dry, cracked, and abused as his flesh.
Lillian didn’t know what to say to him, so settled for the first thing that came to her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“There is nothing you can do to hurt me more than I already hurt.” Gryton suddenly reached out and grasped her hand.
His touch burned but Lillian held on.
“Thank you. Please talk to me.” There was fear in his voice.
“Daryna is coming. She’ll know how to help you.” Lillian hoped it was true.
As if her name had summoned her, the Sorceress was there. She took one look at Gryton and dropped to her knees. Tears ran down her cheeks as she took in her son’s condition.
She reached out and shattered a collar that was circling his throat. “My child, I’m going to siphon power from you and feed it into the dome. It will get better soon.” Daryna promised.
Lillian held Gryton’s hand while Daryna worked. As promised, the power flowed out of Gryton now that there was no collar preventing it. It must have worked like a one-way valve, allowing magic to flow into him, but not escape.
Once Daryna siphoned away a large portion of the power overloading Gryton’s system, Lillian witnessed a miracle: his body repaired itself, muscle and skin forming over his bones, hiding the molten core she’d seen shimmering between his ribs only minutes earlier.
Daryna was still working to heal Gryton, but he shoved at her weakly.
“Sorceress?” Lillian unfurled a wing and touched the other woman. Daryna felt different, weaker, less substantial. Even Gryton was concerned, so it must be bad. “You need to stop. You’re…fading.”
Lillian wasn’t sure what else to call the dimming sense she had of the Sorceress.
Daryna ignored her demands to stop and continued to draw power away from Gryton. He jerked his hand from hers and crawled a few feet before collapsing.
Even without the link of skin on skin, the Sorceress continued to draw power from Gryton.
“Stop her,” he choked out in a dry, rasping voice.
“I don’t know how,” Lillian said, looking toward Gregory.
“She’s killing herself.”
Crap. “Gregory!”
Her bellow got an instant response from her mate; he spread his wings and flew to their location.
Lillian stepped back and stood with the human soldiers to give Gregory room to work with Gryton and Daryna.
“We’ve got a breach,” Resnick shouted.
Chapter 40
“Breach, breach, breach!” Resnick shouted, and his men took up formation in front of a section of dome where a series of fissures were forming. The blood witch and the other captains were now concentrating their attack upon that section of the barrier.
“We weakened the spell by forcing it to expand,” Gregory shouted to Lillian over the increasingly loud hum emitted by the distressed shield. “Once I shore up the Sorceress’s power and heal the damages to her body, I’ll create a second dome inside this one. But I need you and the humans to hold off the Battle Goddess’s soldiers long enough for me to do that. I just need a few minutes.”
“You’ve got it.”
Lillian sprinted to join the humans. Standing just off to the side on Resnick’s left, she began summoning a new barrage of tiny shards of shadow magic. With a flick of her wrist, she sent them spinning through the air, hunting those closest to breaching the dome. Her efforts were rewarded by new snarls and screams of pain.
When the largest fissure expanded enough for the first enemy swords to pierce the barrier, Resnick and his team started targeting the owners, aiming for anything they could hit through the narrow opening. More screams and roars of pain and the occasional cloud of red spray announced when their bullets found a mark. Not all the blood was red, but when hit, they did bleed. Bleeding was very good in this case.
The fallen bodies piled up, which
strangely helped slow the growth of the shield’s fissures. Lillian could only speculate the bodies were absorbing some of the magic meant to erode the dome.
Shouting encouragement to her human allies, Lillian called more shadow magic and sent several waves of obsidian shards flying. Soon more bodies were adding to the insulation around the shield.
At least until the enemies figured out what Lillian was doing and started to drag their dead out of the way.
Resnick cursed but didn’t stop firing. Soon more bodies took the place of the ones removed.
Lillian sent another wave of shadow magic through the barrier and then glanced over her shoulder at Gregory, Daryna and Gryton. Tin Man’s recovery was astonishing. He was sitting up, and his skin had regrown over two-thirds of his body. It still had to hurt like a son of a bitch.
When he opened his eyes, she was suddenly staring into his blazing amber gaze. She watched in shock as the rest of his wounds closed before her eyes and he was suddenly whole. He glanced over his shoulder at Daryna and then he looked back toward Lillian and the human soldiers.
His lips compressed, fire and rage burning in his eyes. Lillian began calling more of her shadow magic, thinking Gryton had played them all. But his fiery gaze slid past her and Resnick’s team. They weren’t Gryton’s targets.
He stood, stark naked and fully healed, his only clothing a fine coating of ash. Then before her eyes, the ash transformed into armor, the protective covering growing out of his body. As he walked past her, she realized it wasn’t metal at all, instead a material forged of his very magic.
A raging ball of fire appeared between his outstretched hands. With a violent motion, he pushed it away from his chest, sending it speeding toward the dome. The power hit the shield and raced past it to incinerate the first line of enemy soldiers.
More soldiers rushed forward to take their place, and beyond them, Lillian could still see the blood witch working some great spell. She didn’t know what it would do but knew it couldn’t be good.
Gryton was formidable, but he’d just about died. He couldn’t be a hundred percent right now. Lillian doubted if he was in any condition to match spells with the blood witch.
Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset 2 Page 40
