Lillian decided Gregory was a little rusty on hamadryad speech. “I think you might be a little overconfident there.”
“That is why we have Darkness, Greenborrow, River, two dozen fae archers, and many more human snipers.”
Lillian didn’t correct him on any of it, not even the snipers. The soldiers, while they did carry big guns and looked like they knew how to use them, weren’t snipers. Then again, maybe the snipers were far enough off she couldn’t sense them.
That was all well and good, but the hamadryad might not consider Gryton a threat because she had brought him here for some purpose.
Lillian liked her tree better before she started thinking and waving all her magic around.
She could feel the steady current of magic as it flowed away from the tree and on out into the Mortal Realm. Not for the first time she wondered if the tree was planning on converting the Mortal Realm into a second Magic Realm.
“As much as I didn’t like having command of all that power, I think I still preferred me being the Sorceress instead of you,” she mumbled to her tree. “At least that way, when everything goes sideways, I’ll know who to blame.” But now?
Perhaps sensing her agitation or understanding her words, the hamadryad’s branches shuddered, and three of the closest boughs reached out to touch her on the shoulder.
It was a pat of reassurance.
She wasn’t reassured.
All will be as it should be.
Lillian jerked back in surprise. Ha, and Gregory says hamadryads can’t talk—bullshit.
The hamadryad retracted her branches, and Lillian was still mulling over the words when the tree added something else.
The bright warmth has come.
That one took her off guard for a second before she deciphered the meaning.
Gregory had said Gryton was a fire elemental, beyond that no one seemed to know what he was.
But bright warmth might refer to the heat of a fire.
“Gregory! Gryton is coming. I think he’s already within the maze.” Then as an afterthought, she shouted a final order at him. “Do anything you must to kill Gryton.”
LILLIAN’S WORDS OF warning and final order spurred Gregory into a higher level of battle readiness.
Shadows and the intense power from the Magic Realm swirled around him in a robust half-seen current. The abundance of raw power was waiting for him to shape it into whatever spells he would require.
In truth, he didn’t know what Gryton was, or what it would take to stop him.
He just hoped magic from the Spirit Realm wasn’t required. Lillian’s fears about that power might be warranted. To call upon it a second time would probably kill him. The scars were still visible against his dark skin from his last near-fatal attempt.
There was a slight click and then a short sound of static from the humans’ radios, and then silence again.
But it was enough to signal Gryton had been spotted.
Gran had said that was how the humans would know when Gryton was almost upon them.
Stretching his senses out beyond the glade’s center, he scanned for the commander within the maze’s corridors. As he’d expected, there was no sign of his opponent.
Lips curling back from his teeth, he growled softly. Darkness heard and answered from his position at the other end of the glade.
Whitethorn had demanded to be present though Gregory thought it might just be to guard against any human treachery.
The other’s distrust and tension crawled across his skin, and Gregory’s wings shuddered at the prickly sensation. Jaws agape slightly, he tasted the breeze, seeking information on his enemy. Nothing.
His ears tracked every little sound, every little shift the humans and fae made—though the humans were louder. Each heartbeat, each breath, each rustle of the leaves, he looked for what didn’t belong.
Still nothing.
He sent another wave of magic outward, seeking his prey’s thoughts, hunting intentions as he would any target. It had never failed him before.
Why could he not sense their enemy when the hamadryad already had?
It made no sense.
Then with a sudden dreadful understanding, he knew why he couldn’t sense Gryton. The slave collar had another master besides Lillian.
Gryton had created them, he might be able to use it to hide his presence. Panic threatened to steal Gregory’s confidence, but he forced the useless flood of emotions back. Reason returned. If Gryton had the power to command him as Lillian could, his opponent wouldn’t risk a fight here, nor would he have attempted to use Shadowlight as bait. He’d simply have commanded Gregory to take Lillian and return with her to the Battle Goddess’s temple.
That gave him a tiny bit of comfort. Lillian started toward him again. He glowered at her, and she halted but didn’t return to her spot. At least she was still within the protection of the hamadryad’s branches.
His gaze was just sliding away from Lillian when Darkness burst into motion, leaping toward the maze entrance he was guarding.
Shadows raced ten feet before him and collided with a wall of fire. A second wave of the fiery power exploded outward from the maze’s opening to meet the gargoyle’s magical attack.
Bright light seared Gregory’s eyes when the two opposing forces met.
His vision was still obscured by dark spots, but he was already summoning a spear of magic to penetrate his enemy’s shields.
A loud explosion of sound abused his ears as the human soldiers nearest Gryton’s position found a target.
A shard of fire broke away from the wall and raced toward the humans. Gregory was faster. A wall of his own power deflected Gryton’s away from the human soldiers and into the green cedar walls beside them.
The cedars burst into flame. Gregory didn’t have time to worry about the maze, but raced toward it, calling more shadow magic to mix with the smoke and flames. When it was a sufficient churning mass to hide his energy spears, he sent it ahead as he raced toward Gryton.
Gregory circled to the right, avoiding Gryton’s shifting wall of flames and sent a spear of power at his enemy. Swatting the spear aside at the last moment, Commander Gryton lunged to the side and nearly into Darkness’s drawn sword.
Gryton deflected the point and sidestepped away from the gargoyle and took several steps into the glade before a rain of arrows and bullets diverted him back toward Darkness.
Gregory leaped toward the enemy fire elemental just as he lashed out.
A massive ball of fire and molten heat smashed into the ground five body-lengths to Gregory’s left, shaking the ground hard enough to lift Gregory off his feet. He tumbled sideways through the air until he collided with the tall cedar walls of the maze. Their springy growth softened his landing, but it took a few precious seconds to free himself. Each second, he expected to feel Gryton’s punishing fire upon his skin.
Finally, free of his green prison, he dropped to the ground and sought out Gryton. His enemy was only twenty feet away, still close to the maze’s south entrance. Darkness was doggedly hounding him with sharp little bits of shadow magic, preventing him from getting closer to the hamadryad.
The other gargoyle was not without injury. One wing membrane was split and blackened by fire, and he was favoring his left foreleg. Other oozing burnt patches crisscrossed his hide.
Gryton was not without his injuries either. One of the fae had managed to land an arrow. The shaft had gone straight through Gryton’s thigh where the armor was missing from the previous attack on Shadowlight.
It had probably been the fae’s last act in this life. A glance behind confirmed what his other senses had already told him.
Many of the fae and human soldiers had been killed, Gryton’s formidable power having incinerated all the magical protections he and Darkness had erected.
Gregory stalked Gryton, calling on more magic from the Magic Realm, but fearing it wouldn’t be enough to stop this fire elemental.
The hamadryad was also summonin
g power. This from the Spirit Realm, he felt its renewing chill against his skin. That raw power might be the only thing capable of extinguishing Gryton’s fiery magic. At least Lillian was safe, protected by the Sorceress.
He thanked the hamadryad silently, and then reassured of Lillian’s safety, he turned his full attention back to the lethal enemy who must be destroyed at all cost.
Gryton was not some low-level servant of the Battle Goddess. He had to be one of the last surviving fire demons from the ancient time.
Gregory had thought he and the Sorceress had eradicated ones such as him long ago. They must have missed one, or he had been hiding behind the Battle Goddess’s power all this time.
Either way, it was past time Gryton returned to the Spirit Realm.
Gregory and Darkness lunged at the same time, sending their magics out ahead of them. Their combined power hit Gryton squarely in the chest. The elemental roared in pain and rage, then lashed out with another wave of burning power. Gregory returned the magic blast for blast.
But what would have vaporized almost any other enemy had little effect on this one. Worse, Gregory could feel himself weakening faster than his enemy.
It had to be the tattoo draining some of his magic away harmlessly, so it wasn’t reaching Gryton with full strength.
Gregory was pondering this new problem when Darkness raced past him and shouted, “Protect my children!”
“Stop!”
But Darkness had already raced into the river of Gregory’s magic and together, their combined power was enough for Darkness to slip past Gryton’s defensive shields. Gregory lunged after him, clearing the swirling mist, fire, and smoke in time to see Darkness impale himself upon Gryton’s sword.
The visor of Gryton’s helmet was up, and Gregory saw his enemy’s startled expression.
Darkness snatched at Gryton’s wrist, locking them together and Gregory realized what the other gargoyle was trying to do.
Chilled power from the Spirit Realm rushed toward them, turning Darkness’s skin to stone, as his soul prepared to depart.
All gargoyles returned to Lord Death upon their own demise, and Darkness was planning on taking Gryton with him.
If Gryton was an ancient fire demon as Gregory speculated, Darkness’s sacrifice might not be sufficient to drag their enemy along with him.
Lillian screamed her father’s name as she started toward them.
Darkness spun out hundreds of filaments of his shadow magic, attempting to tie the other male to him, to hold onto Gryton with more than physical strength, but he was losing the battle.
Jerking with desperate strength, Gryton freed himself.
Drawing his own sword, Gregory attacked. In a blur of speed, he drove his sword’s point forward, but the commander’s second blade deflected his own. In retaliation, he used his blade-tipped tail to slash at Gryton’s unprotected face. The fire elemental proved to be just a hair faster.
Drawing his second sword from its scabbard, Gregory sent the deadly sharp tip slicing toward Gryton’s neck.
The commander caught the sword, the force of the blow cutting deep.
Fire and blood welled up from between Gryton’s hands where he held Gregory’s sword trapped. Moments later, an intense wave of molten heat rushed up the length of Gregory’s sword, vaporizing both blade and hilt.
Pain lanced up his arm and shoulder, but he drove into Gryton, grappling with him and forcing him back, away from the hamadryad one step at a time.
“Let me go, and no one else need die this day,” Gryton rasped. “I only want away from this cursed land before it brings about the death of us all.”
Ah. That was truth. Gripping his enemy by the throat, Gregory felt something of Gryton’s thoughts, emotions, and power.
He was a fire elemental, but not a fire demon of the ancient world. He was something else, something newer—young compared to Gregory’s vast age.
And half-trained as he was, Gryton was ruled by his power—he didn’t control it.
Could he be crossing swords with the Battle Goddess’s son?
How had such a thing come about? If so, how had she hidden him for so long?
Gryton’s power surged again, greater this time than before. Only Gregory’s talons, where they had pierced through the commander’s armor, held his enemy locked in place and prevented him from being tossed aside by the blast wave.
The power raced past him, out into the glade where it caught Lillian as she ran to his aid. The force lifted her off her feet and tossed her back toward her tree where she hit the ground and rolled with the limpness of death or unconsciousness.
He slammed his weight into Gryton, forcing him to his knees.
Lillian wasn’t dead. He would have known instantly if she was, but still, he worried for her.
Without his spirit magic, he knew he couldn’t defeat Gryton, not quickly, certainly not fast enough to prevent other friends, allies, and family from dying.
But Darkness had shown him the way.
With a last look where Lillian lay, the mother of his yet unborn child, alive and beautiful in her gargoyle form, he closed his eyes and called to a power greater than himself.
It answered his call with a joyful rush. His scars flared to life and began to glow as the trapped power looked for the easiest route of escape.
Gregory locked his jaws against the first wave of pain as his body struggled to hold itself together even as more magic flowed into him from the Spirit Realm.
Lillian had ordered him to do whatever was required to win, and she hadn’t realized her mistake, and now she was unconscious, unable to stop him, for which he was grateful.
Gryton kicked and twisted, but Gregory held fast as the cold power of the Spirit Realm built within him.
He sent his mind seeking Lillian’s, to find her coming back to consciousness. It was too late to stop him from destroying himself and Gryton along with him, even if she issued another order. “Beloved, I am sorry. I saw no other way to save you and our child. I want more than anything to be there, but I must go for a while. Know I will return to you, even though it will be many years. Good-bye.”
Lillian jerked and rolled to her feet. “No! Gregory, no!”
Something else answered Lillian’s desperate call, and he felt the ground shaking and rolling under him. The force of a sudden violent surge tore his enemy from his clasp.
Gregory cursed and tried to go after him, but the ground heaved again as hundreds of thin reddish ropes coiled around his body. Tiny filaments sprouted from them and crawled along his skin.
Roots.
They were roots.
The hamadryad shuddered, her branches quaking as if a hurricane was bearing down on them. The ground heaved again.
One of Lillian’s endearing but naïve questions from an earlier conversation came back to him in a rush. She’d asked if the tree was going to relocate and walk back to the Magic Realm or some such. He’d brushed away her question as silly.
Now, he wasn’t so sure.
He wondered if the last thing he was going to see in this life was the marvel of a fifty-foot tree taking her first few steps.
He’d seen many strange things.
A walking tree wasn’t one of them.
His disbelieving thoughts snapped back into sharp focus when a thousand tiny roots prodded at his scars. Their questing tips sank in, digging deep, past skin and into muscle and bone.
He roared in pain as the tree began to feed.
Chapter 39
LILLIAN STAGGERED TO her feet and felt Gregory’s mind merge with hers, to say goodbye. She screamed her denial and started toward him, but her hamadryad reacted faster. She could only watch in horror as more roots shifted below the ground.
The roots got there first. Lillian arrived at his side just as he roared in agony.
Tiny filaments dug into his body. She felt what he felt at that moment. Blood and power leaked out a thousand tiny punctures.
Horror and helplessness filled Lill
ian, and she drew her dagger and reached for the nearest root.
No harm. Heal our beloved, her hamadryad whispered into her thoughts.
Lillian’s hand froze halfway to her target as she realized what her eyes were seeing.
The lattice-like webbing of a shielding spell glowed pale between the reddish roots covering him. Skin or armor, the roots didn’t care and dug into each equally. The tree fed upon his blood, but she was also drawing off the excess magic trying to tear itself free of Gregory’s body.
The hamadryad was preventing Gregory from being torn apart.
Still, it had to be unbearably painful, and Lillian paced a circle around him. At least he seemed to have passed out.
Gryton had staggered off several steps, heading in the direction of her hamadryad. Lillian narrowed her eyes and then sought out her mother.
She was bent over next to Darkness’s stone form, and a new lump grew in Lillian’s throat. River rose from beside her mate, tears leaving tracks down her face.
Her father—Lillian had never really known him, they’d only had days together.
It was not fair.
It was not just.
Well, by God and the Divine Ones, she’d just make her own damn justice.
River met Lillian’s eyes and then gave a nod in wordless agreement. With a swirl of long skirts and the hollow ring of twin swords being drawn, River darted after the retreating form of Gryton.
Lillian followed, her own swords ringing loud to her heightened gargoyle senses.
River’s sharp steel swept out in a deadly arc toward Gryton’s neck. He whirled and blocked, twisting his upper body enough to force River’s swords down and away.
He kicked at her, but she danced away and then darted back just as fast.
Swords clashed in a blur of bright silver light and the ring of honed blades. River slashed at Gryton. He snarled as the dryad’s sword cut a four-inch gash just above where the arrow had hit. In retaliation, he gave River her own red, gaping wound on her right arm. She came at him again, their sword hilts locking together for a moment. He took advantage of the opening to deliver a crippling blow to her shoulder with his armored elbow. There was a sickening crack, and River lost her grip on one sword.
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 76