When she straightened from her bow, the witch drew herself to her full height. “My spell is one for spying. It’s a magic even a gargoyle will not sense.”
That was an ambitious statement. Gargoyles didn’t miss much. They certainly would scent blood magic. Taryin must have enslaved some magic-rich creature or traded with an upper-level demon to complete her spell.
The witch smiled at Vaspara as if she knew the succubus’ thoughts. Though it was more likely Taryin was just reading her expressions. Still, she tightened her mental barriers another notch.
“I summoned a djinn.”
“You what?!” The Battle Goddess shouted, nearly deafening her captains.
“A djinn, my Goddess, is the only creature with magic that is similar enough to a gargoyle’s to hide my blood magic from their sharp noses. But fear not, I captured this djinn and trapped him in a vessel made in the Mortal Realm. He cannot escape swiftly. And once you are freed from the duality curse, you can carry him to one of the planets in the Mortal Realm, and safely release him there or simply leave him to free himself. In the meantime, I can siphon some of his power from the storage vessel and use that to fuel more spells.”
Beside Vaspara, the harpy made a strangled sound. She didn’t blame Bervicta. A djinn. As far as she knew, there was less than ten left in all existence. Once there had been many more, but their numbers had dwindled over time as they were used in long ago wars, djinn pitted against djinn, forced to kill each other for the benefit of their temporary masters.
Temporary because a djinn always found a way to escape his or her prison eventually. And when they did, they always leveled their master’s kingdom. Or the whole damn planet.
Some speculated it was not revenge, but just that opening a portal to the Spirit Realm and having an uncontrolled amount of power from that plain mix with that of the Magic Realm always resulted in an explosive event.
But the Avatars could travel between the realms and call spirit magic without blowing big holes in the universe. Didn’t that suggest a djinn could do so as well? If they wished.
Likely they were just vengeful.
That was part of the reason no one was foolish enough to attempt to summon a djinn any more. The other reason was that as each djinn died, their power was transferred to their brothers and sisters, making each remaining djinn stronger.
But that was a long-ago time before even the Battle Goddess had been chained to her temple.
Now, the few remaining djinns dwelled in the Spirit Realm, safely out of reach. Or so Vaspara had believed. Somehow the witch had risked the old magic and summoned one of them forth.
“Tell me more about your spell.” Their goddess’s chilling voice said she was still displeased that the blood witch had gone ahead with such a dangerous plan without consulting her.
“The spell I created must first be carried into the gargoyles’ territory.” Taryin paused as if thinking. “I’d suggest a trusted lieutenant, one skilled enough to hold his own against a gargoyle and capable of landing a grievous wound on his opponent.”
The Battle Goddess made a humming sound and signaled the witch to continue.
“The moment the lieutenant dies, his death will trigger and feed the spell, so it is strong enough to invade the gargoyle who landed the death blow. The gargoyle will lose consciousness and turn to stone while the spell melds with his spirit. When he wakes, he’ll just think it was a normal wound requiring their healing stone sleep.”
“That sounds promising,” the Lady of Battles admitted. “Go on.”
“Once he wakes, he will become our spy and won’t even realize it. The spell is also sentient. When it finds a hint of Anna or Shadowlight, it will begin influencing the host until it finds them, then it will transmit their exact location to me.” Taryin paused, her expression calm as she waited to see if the Battle Goddess would find this spell worthy of the risk of summoning a djinn.
At last, the Lady of Battles shook back her hair and straightened. “Your contribution is enough that I shall not kill you for your unsanctioned actions. This time. If you ever again make such a decision without speaking to me first, you will not find me so forgiving.”
“I would expect nothing less, my Lady.” Taryin paused and bowed again. When she straightened, she met the demigoddess’s eyes. “Once the spell reports their location, did you want an assassination or a rescue mission? The spell will be able to carry out an assassination. A rescue will take far more resources.”
“We shall wait to see what your spell finds first, then I will decide.”
“Very well my Lady.”
“And give me the djinn,” the Battle Goddess commanded. “I shall keep him in my temple where he’s less likely to find a mind he can influence.”
“Of course, my Goddess.” The blood witch reached into her robe and withdrew a beautiful, jewel-encrusted drinking vessel. Its top was corked and sealed with wax and layer upon layer of spells.
Taryin carefully placed it in the Lady’s outstretched hand.
Taking the vessel, the Battle Goddess folded her fingers over it and then brought it up to her breastplate where she carefully tucked it between her cleavage.
The vessel hadn’t been any longer than Vaspara’s arm.
Strange that something so small could hold a power great enough to level worlds.
Chapter 36
Obsidian stomped beside Anna as they made their way along one of the bridges on their way to the main cliffside gathering.
“Why don’t you just growl, snarl or beat the shit out of some poor training target? It might make you feel better.” Anna said in a light tone.
“I’m fine! The healers are just coddling me. The wing joint is almost completely healed.”
“Sure, it is. That’s why we’re walking then?”
He and another gargoyle had collided during one of their aerial combat sessions. This exercise had reminded her of a medieval melee in the sky. The other gargoyle—a novice—had been at fault. Knowing they were going to crash, Obsidian had turned in the air, taking the brunt of the impact when they’d hit the ground. It had been a chivalrous gesture to protect the youngling from getting crushed under his heavier mass.
“You’re lucky you didn’t break your wing joints. The healers are correct. You need another day to heal.”
He huffed and muttered under his breath.
“Relax, Truth said the mentors agreed to partner us, so you can rest assured I’ll be in good hands.”
“I could take you out in a couple days after I’m healed.”
Anna snorted. “What, and have the dryads be all pissed that we didn’t bring in enough of the octopus things?”
Another reason she wanted to go fishing was because the healers had plied him with copious amounts of magic to repair his wings and back, and now he was feeling amorous again. He couldn’t help that side effect, but she didn’t need to be around making it worse for him.
It wouldn’t be an issue if she had her own place, but she was still rooming with Obsidian, since Rook had said they needed to be together at night, so their sleeping minds could use the link to process all they’d learned that day.
“Anna.” He reached out and forced her to halt and face him. “Be safe. Don’t take risks or allow yourself to get distracted. The ocean currents at the base of the cliff are dangerous.”
“Yes, Mom!”
∞∞∞
Obsidian could only watch as Anna, in the company of Truth and the rest of the hunting party, took off, launching themselves from the cliff with wild abandon.
If he hadn’t been injured, it would have been him flying wingtip to wingtip with his Kyrsu and then teaching her how to swim in the rough coastal waters.
During the Solstice Festival the gargoyles hunted for the dryads, bringing them their favorite delicacies. As such, he would typically be out hunting, but since he’d been injured, he’d expected to get grounded. He’d naively been looking forward to spending the afternoon with Anna, but she’d
gone behind his back and talked with Truth, who’d gone to the mentors.
Why did it feel like the two people he loved most were working against him today?
Truth? Huh. He was probably trying to be helpful. But Anna? He wasn’t blind.
Obsidian knew it was because he’d been subtly trying to court Anna ever since they’d linked minds and he’d discovered that they were both strong enough to love each other without enslaving each other.
The healers’ magic would likely embolden him later, and his Kyrsu knew that and was in full panic mode. Outwardly, she was all business, almost aloof. Inwardly, she was running because she didn’t want him to get close enough to learn whatever secret she was trying to keep buried. Though he doubted she even understood that yet herself.
Anna’s acceptance and belief in him had allowed him to overcome his fears. Now it was his turn to fix what was broken in her.
Unfortunately, the damned healing magic had got his blood up. If he could trust their link not to flare and share something distracting with Anna, he’d have been tempted to return to his dwelling and deal with the issue.
But he couldn’t do anything that might distract Anna while she was hunting.
Perhaps a long soak in the baths would help take his mind off his Kyrsu for a time.
∞∞∞
Sometime later, in the seclusion of one of the smaller private bathing pools, Obsidian stripped and descended into the water, allowing the current to tug him in the direction of one of the carved sitting alcoves.
The water was too warm to help cool his blood. Narrowing his eyes, he called on his shadow magic and soon that chilling power helped to cool the water. Leaning back, he closed his eyes and sighed.
The bath might have been more enjoyable if Anna had been here with him, but it was still nice. And he was weary. His eyelids grew heavy as he drifted closer to sleep.
Chapter 37
There had been any number of what the fuck moments in the last few months. But if Anna ever wrote up that long overdue report, fishing for alien octopus with a gargoyle and mermaid—fine, they called themselves sirens—was likely to raise a few eyebrows.
“For the record,” Anna shouted to be heard over the thunder of the waves as they skimmed above the white peaks. “This kinda sucks.”
Truth laughed. “It does, doesn’t it?”
They had already made over two dozen such dives, and Anna was growing weary. It was hard work. The gargoyles flew along the cliffs, within a few feet of the water while the sirens located where on the cliff wall the octopus-like creature was holed up.
A siren could only sense where the creatures lived, she couldn’t get close enough to the razor-sharp rocks to pluck the octopus off the cliff base. That’s where the gargoyles came in.
Once a siren located their target prey, a gargoyle would dive in just seconds before a wave hit and use their talons to cling to the cliff face as the water began to recede. While they clung to the wall, they’d snatched up as many of the octopuses as they could and then climbed higher before flying to safety ahead of the next massive, bone-jarring wave.
Anna’s first attempt hadn’t been successful. She wasn’t so foolish to do that again. She would likely sport the bruises tomorrow after being slammed against the cliff. Luck had been with her, though, since those first waves had been small.
If it had been a more significant wave, like the ones rolling in now, she might have gotten pulled out to sea by the riptide.
Gargoyles were surprisingly strong swimmers, able to use their wings something like a penguin. It had been fun at first, but now that the currents were getting stronger, it was just plain old work.
Thankfully they were almost done, Truth claiming the group had gathered enough to satisfy both dryads and sirens.
“We just need to do three more dives each.” Truth said, echoing her thoughts. He sounded as weary as she felt.
“Thank God. If the elders and mentors wanted to fast-track the novices and journeymen’s stamina training, just assign them this on a daily basis.”
Truth snorted again. “The dryads would grow fat and the octopuses would swiftly become over-hunted.”
Below them, a head and shoulders broke the surface as one of the sirens called out two more locations.
“I think they are more demanding than our mentors. Or a dryad mate, for that matter,” Truth said after the siren had ducked back under. “It’s lucky we’re not cross-fertile with them. We’d be enslaved for sure.”
Truth’s humorous quip was pleasantly diverting, but Anna had another dive to time perfectly.
Studying the waves as they rolled toward the cliff, Anna picked out the biggest one—the one she’d ride to the cliff.
One…two…now. She tucked her wings and dove, arrowing into the wave. Her momentum carried her forward as she skimmed just below the surface, her wings stretched wide to stabilize her, and her tail acting as a rudder. The wave moved her toward the cliff.
Seconds before impact with the rocky cliff, she reared upright, her upper body coming out of the water a moment before the wave hit the cliff.
The weight of the wave against her back was brutal, but her gargoyle body was designed to absorb punishment.
Reaching blindly in the white surf, her talons found hand and foot holds just in time. A moment later, the wave receded, dropping away from the rocky cliff base.
Anna spotted one of the octopus-like creatures, a sizeable ten-armed beast almost as big as her upper body.
She was reaching to grab it when her link to Obsidian flared wildly and then opened a strong connection between them. She was still clinging to a cliff wall, angry surf crashing some distance below, but she was also, impossibly, back on the island in one of the private pools, seeing and feeling what Obsidian felt.
Oh, my God!
He had a woman under him, his body draped over her, dwarfing her smaller form in the cage of his arms. His jaws were locked around the back of her neck as his hips jerked against her.
“I’ve been busting my ass all day, and you’re getting your rocks off? Get out of my head!”
“Anna?”
His reply came startled and strained. He was likely as surprised as her by the unexpected link.
She didn’t care. “Get out of my head before you kill me you jackass.”
The vision of the bathing pool faded.
Anna heard Truth shouting at her a second before another massive wave slammed her into the cliff with rib-cracking force. A few short seconds of the ocean’s roar in her ears and then the white water was receding, taking her with it. She scrambled for handholds, anything she could use to prevent herself from being dragged deeper, but her talons only brushed against the slick surface a couple times before the churning water spun her in a circle and the riptide snatched her up.
Maybe twenty feet from the cliff, the current slammed her against another pile of rock, likely fallen from the cliff above some time ago, her mind noted in the odd way it did when time slowed, and death danced nearer.
She was dragged along for a few feet more, then she smashed into a sharp projection of rock. Red agony bloomed along her back and right wing. The current bumped her against rock again, jarring precious air from her lungs.
Clamping her muzzle and pinching her nostrils tightly closed, she fought the blinding pain and the ocean’s currents. But with her one wing out of commission, she couldn’t glide through the water even if she broke free of the riptide in the narrow channel she found herself in.
“Anna,” Obsidian screamed into her mind, “shift to stone. You can’t drown in that form. I’ll be there momentarily and will drag you through a portal to safety.”
In her mind, she could see what he planned to do.
The thought of Obsidian using magic to pull her to his side—to the very pool he and the unknown female had been screwing each other’s brains out in—sparked rage deep in her soul.
The hot emotion gave her strength, fueling her weary muscles and when the c
urrent slammed her into the next piece of cliff, she used her powerful thigh muscles to push off. Swimming for all she was worth, she broke free of the current. With each mighty kick, she drove herself closer to the surface.
Her wing was still a sharp agony as bone grated on bone, but she used that to further fuel her rage and to fight for the surface.
There was no way she was going to let Obsidian come play hero, not after he’d been the reason for the distraction in the first place.
Above her, the sunlight reflected off the surface, bright and beautiful, but at the edge of her vision gray was creeping in. She fought on, forcing her weary limbs to kick and thrash. Her lungs burned, a spasm seized them, and she choked on water.
She wasn’t going to make it.
She had to make it.
The damned ocean wasn’t going to be the death of her. She still had the blood witch to kill and a score to settle with the Battle Goddess.
“Anna! Don’t make me command you!” Obsidian was still in her head. The bastard. And he was moments away from taking the choice away from her.
“Fuck you, Obsidian.” Her vision narrowing further, she struggled closer to the surface.
Then a pale green, long-fingered hand wrapped around her wrist. The grip was surprisingly firm. Then with a near-violent tug, she was rocketing towards the surface.
The siren arched out of the water, breaching like a whale.
Anna popped up more like a buoy in rough seas, bouncing and bobbing as she coughed and retched on the air, her lungs burning anew as they relearned how to process air. A dark shadow appeared directly over her head and then Truth was grasping her shoulders with his hind feet. The talons dug in hard enough to draw blood, but she was too cold and exhausted to feel much in the way of pain.
She was too heavy, or maybe it was the raging seas which caught at her wings and created too much drag for him to haul her out of the water, but he managed to keep her head above the ocean waves and the siren returned, grasping Anna’s hands and helping Truth drag her dead weight to shore.
Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset 2 Page 63
