First Queen of the Gryphons (Ishtar's Legacy Book 5)

by Lisa Blackwood

  Today, Amata had burst into his chambers while it was still dark outside and proceeded to peel off her robe to show him her back. While he’d still been shaking sleep away, he’d hauled himself to all fours and padded over to her for a closer look at the mark. The tattoo had spread down the length of her spine and now glowed with shimmering magic. High Priestess Ereshti had explained that it meant the goddess mark was ready to be anointed with king’s blood—his blood.

  A curl of pride flowed through his spirit.

  His Blade was coming into her power, and she needed something only he could give.

  That Amata had rushed to him, and not gone to the priestess first, pleased his beast immensely. She was coming to trust him.

  Another part of his mind had noted that if he’d gone to sleep in his human form, having Amata burst into his chambers and strip out of her clothing might have had an even more exciting outcome.

  With a mental grin in remembrance, he made a note to shift to his human form each night once they set out on their journey.

  It couldn’t hurt to begin wooing his Blade and might prove very rewarding since she was human and might be more willing to indulge in a little love play, unlike a gryphon female.

  “Hey, I see one,” Amata called, dragging him from the paths his mind had been journeying down.

  He scanned the slopes to either side and then spotted the ram about the same time it saw winged death flying over the valley. Predictably, the herbivore broke into a panicked run, seeking to outrun a predator. Unfortunately for the ram, a gryphon wasn’t something that could be outrun.

  Though this one might have a chance at escape since Hillalum wasn’t the hunter this day.

  Upon his back, Amata shifted, her upper body twisting as she drew an arrow from her quiver. Unlike the first day, she no longer clung to his back with her fingers digging into his fur and feathers. Now she maintained her seat using hips, thighs, and her long muscular legs as if she’d been riding a gryphon all her life.

  They’d even begun to develop a silent language between the two of them. He’d communicate his intentions to swoop, dive, glide or bank by the position of his ears and the tilt of his shoulders, and she, in turn, communicated her wishes by the pressure and motion of her body where it touched his.

  Just now, the slight pressure of her left calf against his ribs told him to bank to the right.

  He obeyed. Amata drew her bow in one smooth motion and released the arrow with barely a hesitation. The arrow flew true. But moments before it would have impaled the ram, another gryphon burst out of hiding and leaped into the air directly in front of the herbivore.

  The ram twisted away from the threat of death directly in front of it and scrambled down the slope. Amata’s arrow bounced off the cliff wall where the sheep had been moments ago.

  Amata cursed at the miss. “I didn’t even see the gryphon.”

  He admitted he hadn’t either. And that was dangerous. He was allowing himself to become too distracted by the novelty of having his lovely Blade on his back.

  “Hillalum,” she thumped him on the shoulder for emphases. “There’s more than one!”

  Two more males had taken flight from different parts of the valley, and they weren’t alone. There were two females as well. Hillalum's eyes narrowed, and he issued a challenge to the group.

  “What’s going on?” Amata bit out as she drew another arrow from her quiver.

  “You won’t need that,” he reassured her. “This is a group of adolescents. An older breeding pair died over the winter. The three males and two females have each come to claim the territory. I assume they were resting after an early bout of fighting, or they are still sizing each other up. Our arrival has changed the group dynamic.”

  “You’re their king, right?”

  “Yes. As I’m about to remind them, but they are adolescents, feeling the surge of new hormones and instincts for the first time. They are spoiling for a fight.”

  The three males darted toward his position, screaming challenges at him, seeing him as the most significant threat to their claims on the territory. The two females dropped back to watch. Though they glowered and postured at each other, they weren’t his concern.

  “Are you sure I shouldn’t shoot at them to warn them off?” Amata asked.

  “Don’t. I’ll handle this,” Hillalum said and then screeched out his challenge to the trio.

  When he was nearly upon them, he dived, arrowing straight toward the group. He forced them to scatter as he darted down to the valley floor far below. Behind him, he sensed the other males regrouping to give chase.

  But they were too slow, and he was already landing in a cloud of dust and whipped up grass.

  “Hillalum, what’s going on?” Amata barked at him.

  He twisted his head to look at her. “A territorial battle. The three males will team up against me, knowing I’m the greatest threat. The females will watch to see which male is the most impressive. Then the females will fight for supremacy over the territory. The winning pair will likely form a hunting partnership to hold the territory against other interlopers.”

  “You have to fight three at once? I don’t like this,” Amata growled. Her scent changed, taking on overtones of aggression and protectiveness.

  “Ishtar may have created me and given me the title of king, but I fought and earned that title by the rite of blood. This battle will be over in a matter of moments.”

  The other three males landed one after another, kicking up dust in a wide cloud. The males spaced themselves out in a circle around Hillalum.

  “Dismount,” he ordered. “I’ll not risk a battle with my fellow gryphons with you on my back.

  “Three against one? Not happening.” Amata drew her bow. "I swear I'll shoot the first one to approach. Ereshti said my purpose was to protect the King of the Gryphons. That would be you in case you've forgotten."

  While they could debate about this until the first male attacked, Hillalum had another idea and swiftly sat on his haunches. Amata rolled off his back with a string of curses. She recovered quickly and was back up with her bow in her hand, but Hillalum didn’t give her a chance to carry out her threat.

  He launched his attack on the nearest male, lunging with his talons extended to do damage.

  While a territorial battle wasn’t often to the death, he wasn't going to waste time taking it easy on these three.

  Besides, Hillalum thought as he erected his ears and screeched another challenge, for the first time in his life he had a female he wanted to impress.

  Chapter 11

  A mix of anger, frustration, and fear for Hillalum had Amata gripping her bow with white knuckles. But buried under all that, a not-so-small part of her was impressed. Her gryphon partner showed his prowess in the way he battled three gryphons at once.

  While he moved with grace, he was also lethal and efficient, doling out swats and bites and savage kicks with his hind paws. The other males soon all had battle damage while Hillalum didn’t yet have so much as a broken feather.

  Presently Hillalum and the three males circled each other. The magic that had been sleeping within Amata until only this morning now peered out from her eyes and studied the opponents. Suddenly, she somehow knew the exact moment Hillalum was going to go in and neutralize the tawny furred male.

  The power wasn’t wrong.

  Hillalum sprinted forward, bolting into motion from a standstill. The move caught the other gryphon by surprise, and her king tipped the other male over, exposing his vulnerable underbelly. But Hillalum went for his throat instead, his beak clamping onto the other’s neck.

  Having hunted enough with her gryphon partner, she knew what that powerful beak could do to flesh.

  But to her surprise, it didn't rip and tear. Instead, it just clamped down on the other male’s throat until the tawny furred fellow pissed himself and went still.

  Amata was sure the male had to be dead, but her new magic seemed to think otherwise, so she continued t
o watch. Hillalum released the male from his grasp and then started away before pausing to kick dirt on his fallen opponent.

  That done, he strutted toward Amata, completely ignoring the other two males.

  Thankfully, the other two didn’t attack.

  That’s when she realized there must be some formal combat rules to gryphon territorial displays. But she didn’t know what they were, so kept her bow at the ready.

  Hillalum halted before her and then half circled her until his larger body was wrapped around her. Then he rubbed his beak against her shoulder and purred.

  Not knowing what else she was supposed to do, but knowing something was expected, she placed her free hand on his shoulder and gave him a good scratch in return. His purrs intensified, and he lowered his head to butt it against her stomach. Though she noticed he continued to send pointed glowers at the other two males.

  “Am I supposed to stroke your head or stroke something else… because if it’s something else, you can just go rethink that.”

  Hillalum gave a gryphon chuckle.

  Movement at the site of the battle drew her gaze back there. The male her gryphon had defeated was picking himself up. After a shake, he slunk off to lick his wounds.

  Once the first male was gone, Hillalum unwrapped himself from around her and screeched another challenge at the other two males. They lowered their heads and charged.

  Amata huffed unhappily and then walked to a low, wide boulder and used it as a bench. Hillalum soon picked his next opponent—a big male with coppery feathers and sandy colored fur. On the surface, it looked like these males proved more of a challenge than the first, but again Amata’s new power told her something else.

  Hillalum was more interested in impressing her than finishing the battle quickly.

  “Idiot male,” Amata muttered as she fingered her bow. “Get it over with.”

  Hillalum must have sensed something of her mood for he changed tactics and within moments the battle was over with the second male pinned under him.

  This male didn’t piss himself, Amata noticed, but he also surrendered as soon as his back hit the ground, his body going limp.

  With a final growl and a little shake, Hillalum released his second opponent and stalked back over to Amata.

  He’d almost reached her when one of the female gryphons approached, purring softly at Hillalum.

  He stopped and looked at the female, his expression neither welcoming nor repelling. If anything, Amata would say the slant of his ears expressed his boredom at the female’s overture. After a moment, Hillalum glanced back at Amata, his expression taking on what she was coming to understand was a question.

  This time she was pretty sure it was a ‘aren’t you going to come over here and do something about this’ type of look.

  Amata just shook her head.

  Nope. I'm not getting involved in a territorial mate finding battle.

  Hillalum just huffed as if he was offended, and then he turned and launched himself on the last male.

  Amata would have watched it as avidly as the first two fights, but just then she noticed the two female gryphons were no longer posturing and threatening each other. They were both looking in Amata’s direction with their heads low in threat.

  She didn’t even have a chance to curse before the two female gryphons were racing toward her.

  Rolling off the boulder she’d been using as a bench, she dropped behind it and crouched in the sandy dirt. One of the females, the smaller grey and brown one, leaped onto the rock where Amata had been but a moment before. When she reached down to swat at her opponent, Amata smacked the massive paw aside with the flat of her sword.

  “That was me being nice,” Amata growled out at the gryphon. “Next time I’m just taking your whole leg.”

  The gryphon snarled, her back legs bunching with muscle.

  Amata knew the female was about to pounce.

  “Ishtar in the Heavens, please give your servant strength,” she spat the words out more like they were a curse than a prayer.

  But her magic responded. Pain flared along her spine, and Amata felt a great weight press down upon her. Then the power flared again while it rushed over her shoulders and down her arms. A spear of light lanced down the length of her sword to strike the gryphon on the boulder, knocking the female backward out of her line of sight.

  Amata’s other hand formed into a fist with light glowing between her fingers.

  When the second gryphon slunk around the side of the boulder, preparing to attack, Amata knew just what to do with that female.

  Grinning savagely, she lunged forward and drove her fist up under the gryphon’s head. The magic gave her much greater strength, but that alone wasn’t what defeated this opponent. The magic outlining her fingers burst forth and slammed the gryphon backward a good five body lengths.

  When Amata straightened and came around the boulder to behold the scene, she spotted her two opponents rolling to their feet. They didn’t continue the fight, though.

  With uncertain looks directed at each other, reason swiftly returned to the gryphons’ gazes. They took a half step toward her, and Amata prepared to call on more power, but just then both females swept into deep bows, prostrating themselves before her.

  Well, that wasn’t what she’d expected. Without relaxing her guard, she glanced around for Hillalum.

  He had defeated the third male and was stalking over to her position again. This time his body language spoke of guilt and worry, not pride.

  He sniffed her over, checking for injuries, she knew.

  “I’m fine, my King.”

  “Thank the goddess.” His words were accompanied by soft hisses and slight slurs, showing how greatly worried he’d been for her.

  “Shh. All is well. I won my battle.”

  “You did. The territory is yours,” he purred as he stepped in closer to her. His head was still high, ears poised forward and tail stiff.

  The battle may be over, but he was still far from relaxed.

  When he glanced at the other gryphons, his ears pinned flat to his skull.

  She reached out and ran her fingers through the soft feathers of his neck and then on down to his fur covered shoulders. He leaned into her touch.

  “That’s it, my mighty King. Ignore them. You won as you said you would.”

  With her touching him, her newly awakening powers had an easier time reading him. His blood was up from the territorial challenges, but there was something more to it. It was early spring—the natural mating time for the gryphons.

  While Ereshti had said Ishtar had created Hillalum as the first of her new breed of gryphons and instilled in him compassion and gentler emotions, Amata would bet her sword he still shared a good number of traits with his wilder kin.

  And if she was understanding correctly what her power was telling her, Hillalum was thinking about how a successful hunting partnership often ended.

  Even if he’d been in human form, she wouldn’t have been ready to take the next step in their relationship just yet.

  And while she didn’t know everything there was to know about gryphons, she knew enough. If she couldn’t sate one need, perhaps she could distract him with another.

  Sheathing her sword, she glanced out into the surrounding valley.

  “Hmm, since we just won this land, why don’t we finish what we started. I'm hungry, and that ram looked nice and fat. We can probably still find him if we hurry.”

  Food and hunting partnerships were something even the more primitive side of his mind would understand. When she thumped him on the flank, he shifted his wing out of the way to allow her to mount.

  Grinning that her plan had worked, she mounted swiftly.

  He wasted no time and leaped up into the sky, his mighty wings pounding the air as he gained height.

  Shouting in joy, Amata thumped him on the shoulder again, urging him to go higher and faster. Never would she get sick of flying.

  Chapter 12

  T
he mountains stretched in a long line before her. She and Hillalum had already covered much ground in the past three days, but they still had far to go. The gryphon could make the journey in less time if he weren’t burdened with a rider and supplies, but he hadn’t complained.

  Not once.

  If she was to believe him, he enjoyed her company.

  Sunset was still a couple hours away. He could fly for hours yet if he wanted but she couldn’t. Amata was far more exhausted than she wanted to admit. It was more than just the travel. Ever since the day she’d faced the two female gryphons, the tattoo-like mark running down her spine had burned and ached like skin too long exposed to the sun. Or perhaps it was more like a burn from a fire.

  Hillalum had looked at it that first night, running his fingers gently down the mark, and told her there was no bleeding or bruising, though the skin around it did look red and inflamed. He’d ordered her not to call upon her power until after their first Blooding Ceremony. Or else she might permanently damage herself.

  Amata had nearly snorted at his words.

  She couldn’t have called on her magic if she’d wanted in the first two days. Though today she’d felt small stirrings of power throughout the day, so it was still there, and thankfully, she was recovering.

  Clinging to him all day made her joints burn and her thighs ache. Her arms as well, if to a lesser degree. She wasn’t sure if she could go a full day again tomorrow. She’d be useless if she couldn’t hold a sword or draw a bow once they reached the raiders’ location.

  They still had a few days to reach their destination. Her body might grow accustomed to the new mode of travel by then. She hoped.

  “I need to stop soon,” she called. “My legs can’t take much more.”

  “There is a cave near here according to the priestess’s map,” Hillalum said with a little hiss on some words.

  “Cave sounds great.”

  Hillalum nodded his agreement.

  ∞∞∞

  As Hillalum followed Amata up the rocky terrain, he winced as he watched her limping strides. He would have carried her the rest of the way, but she’d refused, saying walking hurt less than riding.