“Oh, God. You’ve been in my head. You’ve seen.”
Bands of pressure were squeezing her chest. Her lungs burned. She was holding her breath and gasped a deep lungful of air. Still, it did nothing to combat the dread.
“No. You’ve kept the memories from me but I can feel the pain. It’s not hard to figure out what must be the cause. You’ll speak of it one day when you’re ready.”
Anna wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready.
Chapter 30
The next morning could have been far more awkward if they had time to think and talk. But Anna was saved from that by a pre-dawn knock at Obsidian’s door. Master Banrook informed them that Lord Draydrak wished to speak with the pair.
Which was why she now stood in a chamber in Death’s temple several floors below ground. She had a vague recollection of this place from her time after she’d been injured and Banrook had carried her through these passages with a frightened Shadowlight trailing behind.
Now Obsidian stood beside her, confident and ready to face Death.
While Anna might not be feeling such surety when they were about to meet a demigod, she wasn’t frightened either. Just cautious. This demigod had had ample opportunity to do her and Obsidian harm over the years. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t.
He had, in fact, given Shadowlight a safe place to be a kid for a while before growing up.
So, she stood staring up at the ‘viewing mirror’ where it shimmered in the center of the chamber. The mirror was of a size with even the most pretentious of drive-in theater screens. Presently, it showed what one might mistake as a mirror image of the room they were standing in, except for the fact she and Obsidian weren’t in the reflection.
Her gargoyle partner had confirmed they were looking into the future. Their own time to be precise. When she’d asked if this was like the time portal they’d crossed to get here, he’d shaken his head and brushed his knuckles against the spell. The simple touch had sent ripples through the image for half a minute before it calmed again.
They’d waited maybe five minutes when Anna heard the clopping sound of massive hooves on stone. She drew in a quick breath and waited. A vast shadow arrived a few strides before the Lord of the Underworld appeared, dwarfing the expansive room with its hundred and fifty-foot ceiling.
The four armed, four-legged god of death tilted his gargoyle-like head downward and then down some more until his eyes locked upon them.
“Greetings my Rasoren and Kyrsu.” He circled once and then twice more before folding his legs under him and reclining. A second later his tail wrapped around his body in a cat-like manner.
Her brain still hadn’t settled on what kind of animal he’d modeled his form after. The head was gargoyle-like certainly, as were the wings and tail, but his neck, shoulders, and body with its four sturdy legs had a more equine quality. But he didn’t move like either of those species. The graceful and flowing movement, almost like he didn’t have joints, was rather like one of the big cats.
“Corporal Anna Mackenzie, I am older than all those species.” It was said in a humorous tone.
Thankfully.
She didn’t need to start out this meeting by offending a demigod of death with a foolish thought.
“I have summoned you because now that Anna has awakened you both have a decision to make. It is no secret that I wish for you both to serve as leaders for my army. But I have no interest in slaves. You must choose this path willingly.” Lord Draydrak paused. “Obsidian is now old enough and far enough in his training to make his decision, but, Anna, you have much to learn first. It is not a decision to be made lightly. You have a year as Haven counts time to decide. That will give you time to train and catch up to Obsidian’s level. After that, if you wish to return to your place and time, I will release you.”
Beside her Obsidian was practically twitching with the need to speak, but Lord Dray laughed at him. “Easy, my Rasoren. If Anna chooses to go and you wish to go with her, I will release you from my service as well.”
Obsidian dropped into a deep bow. “Thank you, my Lord.”
“Though as gargoyles, you will always hear my summons and be bound to come, but I shall always rerelease you. I cannot undo what you are.”
Anna understood that all gargoyles were somehow bound to serve the demigod. So the last part wasn’t entirely new. Though it was likely to cause trouble later down the road.
“I have a secondary reason to call you before me. Your mentors have reported the trouble with the Journeyman named Reaver. I shall speak with him. You need not worry about further trouble on that front. However, I have also felt a disturbance between you.”
He shifted, two hands coming to rest on the ground directly between them.
“Nothing can come between your bond without creating a weakness. If a wound—even an emotional one—is left to fester, it will sicken you both, taint your spirits and your magic. That is the nature of your bond. But your greatest gift and strength is that your bond can also be used to create a unity that will be equal to the Avatars. The kind of strength even the darkest of evil cannot touch.”
Shit. The demigod sensed the flaw in her armor. But it wouldn’t remain just her flaw. It would become Obsidian’s as well if she didn’t find a way to fix herself. The dread she’d felt last night returned tenfold.
“Do you understand what I’m telling you? Your link will not be complete—will, in fact, be a liability—until you both learn to merge your hearts, minds, and souls completely.”
Damnit. He was saying if she didn’t get her shit together and her head screwed on straight, she could get Obsidian killed in battle.”
“Do not judge yourself so harshly, Kyrsu.” Draydrak’s expression softened. “What you suffered did not lessen your strength, your spirit, or your will. And you are not the only one with fears holding you back. Obsidian has his own. Ones he’s only now fully realizing. But together, you and he can heal those unseen wounds and find a peace you’ve never known.”
Anna swallowed and stared at her feet for a moment. Then, spine stiffening and shoulders straightening, she looked up and met the demigod’s eyes. She was done with being weak. “I will not disappoint you, Obsidian, or myself. I will become the Kyrsu my Rasoren will need in the coming war.”
“You will,” Lord Draydrak agreed.
Beside her, Obsidian shifted, his one wing coming to curl around her shoulders. “You already are the Kyrsu I need, but together we will heal you, so these dark memories no longer haunt your days.”
Chapter 31
(The Present)
Vaspara once again found herself marching in a direction she’d rather not be heading. This time Sorac, Bervicta, and the sidhe-demoness sisters were with her. They’d been ordered by their goddess to find out how the blood witch’s spell was coming. She hadn’t reported in over three days.
If they were lucky, the witch had miscalculated and been eaten by her own spell. But Vaspara was never so fortunate. Otherwise, she and Sorac would have been shipped out on patrol yesterday and would have missed the Battle Goddess’s latest summons. But Korsha and Ernya were late getting back with their newest trainees because winter storms had closed off the passes. And even magic could only do so much.
The faint whiff of death that always clung to this section of corridors was growing stronger by the step. Another hundred steps and it was all she could smell. Fifty more steps and she could taste death on her lips.
“Goddess,” Sorac choked, raising his hand to his face and slowing. “If that gets any worse, I’m just going to torch the entire section.”
“I’d wait until the bodies have been removed before burning them, were I you. Otherwise, the entire keep will smell like a charnel house.” Vaspara rounded the corner and halted so suddenly Sorac ran into her from behind.
“You sure you don’t want me to just burn the entire keep?” Sorac asked as he peered over her shoulder. “We could rebuild. Probably quicker, too.”
Bervicta
craned her neck and then whistled. “That’s just nasty.”
Bodies were stacked seven high on both sides of the corridor as far as the eye could see.
Behind her one of the sidhe-demoness sisters made an offended sounded. “Why haven’t the servants cleaned this mess up yet?”
“The ‘mess’ is the servants,” Sorac said in a low voice. “Since you just got back from a patrol, I assume you haven’t been to your quarters yet. You’ll notice something missing.”
Vaspara was glad Sorac had been able to spirit her servants away on the same trip he’d delivered his to safety. Once it was safe, he’d go retrieve them. She’d later learned, Bervicta had stashed her servants in preservation spells and sank them to the bottom of the lake beside the training field.
Bervicta was glancing back at the line of young trainees still following in their mistress’s wake. The harpy’s expression was dark as she looked back to Vaspara. “Should we suggest they clean up the dead, so the witch doesn’t use the youngsters as a snack? I think Korsha and her sister are only now starting to realize the true depth of Taryin’s darkness.”
Vaspara turned. “You there!”
The foremost of the soldiers started at being addressed by one of the other captains.
“Yes, you. Stop looking toward your mistress for permission. Gather your men and clean this mess up. Take the bodies out to the edge of the practice yard and burn them to ash.”
Korsha’s eyes widened slightly in understanding, and she turned to her men to give them further instructions on how to find the nearest exit from the keep.
Then the five captains continued up the hall in single file until they reached the door to the witch’s workroom. Here the smell of death was almost overpowered by the taint of blood magic. Almost, but not quite.
Vaspara called through the door twice. When she got no response, she really did start to wonder if the witch had fallen prey to one of her creations. A surge of hope welled in Vaspara’s dark little heart as she pushed open the heavy door.
The first sight of the room snuffed out that hope.
Taryin lay slumped across her worktable. Alive. Though barely.
Above her, a dark, churning power hung in the air. Inside its swirling mass, ebony shadows danced with a rusty red mist. The speed and pattern of its shifting energy currents changed between heartbeats. Sometimes it was slow, almost graceful in its movements. Other times it was quick and jerky, reminding her of something in its death throws.
“I don’t think I’ve been so unlucky as to witness anything half as evil as that…thing…until now.” Sorac’s voice was colored with awe and revulsion.
“Not unless you count the unconscious witch.”
“Well. True. But we could do something about that.”
Vaspara eyed the spell. “We could. If that thing will allow us to get close enough.”
When she stepped closer to the spell, it spun with more excitement.
“Hold up,” Sorac warned. “I think that thing can read our intentions.”
“You might be right.” Curse it. They might not get another opportunity like this to take out the witch. But Sorac was correct. The spell calmed when she set aside the idea of terminating the witch.
“Besides, we need the witch to control that thing.”
“I’ll distract the spell. You see if you can get Taryin and escape with her.”
“I’m not leaving you in a room with that thing.” Sorac’s brows were drawn down into a line above his nose.
“I’m not suicidal. I am not staying. We’ll leave together and then put some powerful wards around this chamber before we go report to the Battle Goddess.” Vaspara eyed the slowly spinning evil once more. “Whatever the witch has sought to create, I think she was successful.”
“Yes,” Sorac agreed. “I feel sorry for Anna and that poor gargoyle cub of hers.”
Vaspara was more concerned about their own asses but admitted she didn’t like the idea of that thing hunting any of her trainees, even escaped ones.
“Come on. Let’s do this and report back to our Lady.”
Chapter 32
Anna’s first two weeks at Haven went smoothly after the couple of minor hiccups with Reaver and the not-so-minor encounter with Obsidian in the baths. But at least her heat cycle only lasted three days. She was all too happy it was behind her now. But in the days after that incident, it was easy to see Obsidian still blamed himself for what had happened. She didn’t know how to erase that fear; she just hoped showing him that she trusted him completely would soothe over the worst of it.
Her plan seemed to be working. Slowly he began to relax around her again.
As for day to day life, their routine was quickly established. She went to the healers early each morning to allow them to study her and to be sure the previous day’s work wasn’t too much for her system after sleeping in healing stone for thirteen years.
Overall, they seemed pleased with her progress and gave her a clean bill of health, which her instructors then took as permission to test her limits.
Her official gargoyle mentors were Master Verroc and Adept Shorban. Though Banrook, or Rook as he strongly preferred, attended all her sessions and took part in a good half. Her dryad instructors were usually Master Maradryn and Adept Takara. Both were calm, level-headed women.
Her new mentors regularly pitted her against other opponents as well. Of her training sessions, over two-thirds were combat based, leaving every third afternoon set aside for history lessons with various Journeymen.
All in all, it wasn’t so very different from what her daily routine had been like in the Battle Goddess’s kingdom. Well, except for the parts about not having to fear such things as the possibility of getting fed upon by an incubus, warding off an amorous Gryton, or finding a way to save innocent people from being sucked dry by a blood witch’s spells.
Anna had soon come to another realization. Here she could form friendships and alliances and not have to worry about the possibility of crossing swords with them on the battlefield in some future time. Not having to kill friends was always a plus.
Typically, this time of day, she would be practicing, but today Obsidian was training for his Adept Trial.
She was looking forward to seeing him fight.
They’d been spending so much time on her, keeping her busy, she hadn’t had time to see the full extent of what Obsidian could do.
Now she was getting her chance.
But when they reached the practice rings, Obsidian continued without slowing.
“I thought the elders were going to give you a workout?”
“They are, but not here. They have something more advanced in mind.”
Advanced might be his word for it, but Anna could think of far more apt words for the steep course with its dozens of obstacles spilling down the side of the mountain. While the ground course she’d run during her novice test had been relatively simple, this one was every extreme sports junkie’s wet dream.
The course was all stone pillars, rope bridges, broad jumps and tall walls that would give even the most diehard parkour nut pause.
“That’s one hellish looking obstacle course.” Anna scanned the terrain from the valley floor all the way up to the cloud-shrouded peaks.
“It’s fun.”
“Only a gargoyle would find that hot mess fun. You’re all insane.”
Obsidian snorted. “You’ll be glad to know the mentors want you to follow me down as I hunt and ‘kill’ as many opponents as I can find.”
“So…suicide hide and seek parkour. Yep, still sounds insane.”
“Come. Fly up to the top. Then you can shadow me all the way down. Don’t get separated. There’s a fair amount of risk for the unwary. So, stay focused and silent. Even a misstep can alert the others to our location.”
“You’re insane.”
He grinned suddenly and slapped his tail against her flank. “So are you for following me.”
Then he leaped into the air,
his wings beating mightily as he began the steep aerial climb up the mountain.
Instinctively, Anna spread her wings and followed.
Her gargoyle nature didn’t flag those words as a lie.
∞∞∞
Her initial assessment was correct. This course was a nightmare on a scale that she’d never experienced before.
Obsidian’s breakneck speed only made it worse. At least she had wings if anything went drastically wrong.
“Flying, even just a short glide, will get you disqualified,” Obsidian sent along their link. “Now focus your mind and concentrate.”
Duly reprimanded, Anna returned her focus upon their immediate environment and Obsidian’s well-muscled rump as he zig-zagged his way down the mountainside. He moved with a fluid grace that was positively impressive for one as big as him.
It took all her skills, instincts and endurance to keep up with him. And if it weren’t for their bond that burned with potent magic, linking them subconsciously, so they moved as one, she never would have kept up with him.
She used to be the swifter of the two, but he was breathtaking.
As they hurled themselves across a rock fall, Obsidian twisted in the air, rolling onto his back to launch a spear of shadow magic at the gargoyle rising out of a crevice ten feet behind them.
Anna had only spotted the gargoyle after Obsidian had targeted him.
His aim was true. A shower of bright sparks rained down, marking her partner’s seventeenth ‘kill’ so far.
“Keep up,” he barked out.
Damn. They’d fallen out of sync and Obsidian was now twenty feet ahead of her. Determined to regain that almost addictive feeling of oneness, she put on a burst of speed to catch up even as she focused her mind on the thread of sensations flowing down their link to her.
When she was alongside him once again, he slapped her flank playfully with his tail. Then he surprised her again by bumping her muzzle affectionately with his. “You’re doing well, but don’t allow yourself to get distracted. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”
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