Gasping, she looked up into the night sky and stared at the stars. With shaking hands, she felt up the breastplate covering her chest, expecting to find it and her chest caved inward. Marvel of marvels, it wasn’t even dented, and no part of her body was screaming at her about broken bones.
I think that was the mother of all spankings, Anna thought to herself.
“Dafuq?” Anna huffed out as she rolled off the other unfortunate students. “Why didn’t you warn me you were into bowling?”
Laughing, Sorac walked over and helped her to her feet.
“Just testing your berserker response. Gryton warned me about it, but I honestly thought he was over exaggerating. So far, you’ve seemed calm under pressure, but the young gargoyle is a trigger.”
Captain Sorac gave her a companionable pat. “I’ll guide and hone that into something breathtaking to behold on the battlefield. The Battle Goddess will be impressed.”
Faster than she could react, Sorac switched from patting her shoulder to clamping her throat in a vice-like hold. “If you ever attack me again, make sure you can win, or I’ll beat you until you cry tears of blood.”
Shadowlight snarled in warning. Sorac released Anna and spun to face the gargoyle. “And snarling only warns your opponent of an incoming attack. If you wish to survive, you need to be the master of your instincts.”
The growling stopped, but he still flashed a good bit of fang, which Sorac ignored. “The blood witch will start your training in battle magic next. She’ll meet you at the stone ring at the south end of the practice fields. There was blood spilled there recently.” He pointed off to the left of where they stood. “Captain Vaspara still has command of your control collar. I wanted you and Shadowlight to be able to act freely for this test. But now off you go.”
Damn it. How had Anna not noticed Vaspara hadn’t transferred control of Shadowlight’s collar to Sorac when she’d escorted them to the practice field? She needed to be more observant, not less, if they had any hope of escape.
Mentally kicking herself, she followed as Shadowlight headed off in the direction Sorac had indicated. When they reached the outer edge of the practice field and left its many torches behind, Anna squinted out into the darkness. Downslope of their position, she could just make out a large ring of standing stones backlit by one of the rising moons.
“That looks ominous,” Shadowlight said, his tail twitching ever so gently.
“Yep,” Anna agreed and doggedly started forward, Shadowlight close on her heels.
With each limping step, her armor grew heavier. She swore it found every last bruise with pinpoint accuracy. If she already hurt this much now, tomorrow was going to be so much more fun.
“Someone needs to remind that sadistic prick that he’s not supposed to kill us,” Anna muttered as she allowed herself to hobble now that they were out of Sorac’s sight.
“At least you didn’t break anything,” Shadowlight added helpfully.
“Fine, you get to be the bowling ball next time Sorac feels like playing tenpin.”
Besides a few bruises that would heal in a day or two thanks to her new gargoyle genetics, she wasn’t hurt. At least not physically. Starting now, she really needed to step up her game.
Anna studied the night-shrouded landscape as they approached the standing stones. The blood witch could even now be studying them.
Chapter 21
SHADOWLIGHT SCENTED Anna’s rising alertness, a scent akin to nervousness, but not quite. His own scent likely betrayed his weariness and the hint of fear. As far as he was concerned, fear was a natural, healthy response when one was walking to meet one such as the blood witch.
Though Anna wasn’t a fan of Captain Sorac, he wasn’t so bad, and even Gryton didn’t make Shadowlight’s gargoyle nature scream warnings the way the blood witch did.
He debated attempting to kill her. He’d gladly accept the repercussions if not for two things. First, they’d surely harm Anna instead of him as Gryton had threatened. And second, he wasn’t sure if he could match one as powerful as Taryin in battle, even if he caught her unaware.
“I heard that,” Anna said along their mental link. “Don’t do anything foolish, kid. We need to learn more about her abilities before we get into a duel with her.”
As usual, Anna’s words were wise. He’d heed them. He just didn’t like having to work with a creature with such a blackened soul.
They approached the ring of stones. Now that they were closer, the murky red glow cast off by the symbols etched into the stone was easier to see. The breeze shifted, and he caught the scent of old blood and a hint of sugary-tinged rot.
“What’s that stench?” Anna used the back of her wrist to cover her nostrils. She had a dagger gripped in each hand. After a moment, she lowered her hand and breathed through her mouth before he could warn her not to. “Gawd. I can taste the vile crap now, too.”
“It’s the beginnings of a blood magic weaving,” he told her.
“How do you know that? It’s worse than what we smelled yesterday at Taryin’s dungeon abode,” Anna made a face. “And we’re outside for fuck’s sakes. I would’ve noticed if it was this bad yesterday.”
“My father’s memories show me some things I’d rather not know. This is one of them.” Shadowlight paced up to the outer edge of the standing stones and sneezed violently.
It didn’t improve the scent.
He circled the stone ring, scanning for any signs of Vaspara or the blood witch. “I don’t see either of the captains,” Shadowlight said as he gazed at Anna and then toward the sky. He switched to their mental link, “Sorac didn’t order me to wait for Taryin. Only said that she’d meet us here. I wasn’t ordered to stay.”
Excitement made his heart race. His wings unfurled as blood pumped into the membranes.
Anna’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Hold up, kid. This is either a test, a trick, or a trap. All of the above will likely land us back in a dungeon before we can say ‘oh shit.’”
Her words extinguished childish exuberance and his earlier excitement turned to embarrassment. His ears drooped.
“Don’t punish yourself for looking for weaknesses in their guard. It might provide our only chance at freedom. This one was just too early and too easy. They won’t let their guard down anytime soon. Or, at least, not until we prove our willingness to be good little demonic soldiers.” Anna’s thoughts felt like a physical hug, so he didn’t feel quite so bad about practically leaping into such an obvious trap.
“Well, we might as well get this over with,” Anna said aloud and then stepped between two of the standing stones. They flared, the power trapped deep in the stone reacting to her passage.
Shadowlight followed a moment later. As soon as he was inside, a wall of energy expanded between each of the stones until they were surrounded by a solid looking dome.
Twisting, he slapped his blade-tipped tail against the barrier. As he’d expected, the barrier just flared brighter where he struck. Narrowing his eyes and pinning his ears, he edged closer to Anna and waited for an attack.
Anna slowly walked around the stone in the center of the ring, her attention locked on it. Drawing closer, he inhaled. Ah. That’s what had caught her attention.
“That’s not just a big ass chunk of rock, is it?” She halted before the stone that wasn’t a stone.
“No,” he agreed.
The magic emanating from the stone fluctuated and then drew in upon itself. The powerful illusion shifted and rippled like living darkness and then vanished in a blink. Captain Taryin stood before them where the rock had been.
“You did well to see past my little spell so quickly. I’ve fooled more than one of the other captains with it before. What gave me away?”
“Your scent,” Shadowlight answered honestly. “We would have picked it up sooner had the other blood magic not overpowered everything else.”
The blood witch motioned them over to another flat stone. She settled upon it like she would a benc
h, but an old reddish stain told any onlooker precisely what it was. He shifted, herding Anna farther from it.
If the blood witch thought to use them to increase her power...
“Fear not, young one. I have no intention of harming you or your Kyrsu. I’m here to instruct you in the ways of battle magic. There are various forms based on what lineage one hails from. But if a person is truly strong in magic, they can learn all the forms.”
Anna cut off the blood witch. “What you did there looks like shadow magic but wasn’t. The scent was different, so was the feel.”
Taryin nodded. “I had an opportunity to study a gargoyle and his shadow magic for many years.”
Anna’s expression, which had been hostile earlier, shifted to something darker and colder. “You might have enjoyed years of experimenting on Shadowlight’s father, but you will not treat the kid in such a way. I won’t let you. Understand?”
To Shadowlight’s surprise, the blood witch only laughed. “I like my immortal existence. If I did permanent harm to the gargoyle, the Battle Goddess would burn me alive. However, if I killed you, she might let me live.”
Shadowlight growled.
"Silence, youngling. I have no wish to destroy your Kyrsu.” Taryin smiled, but it was chilling and didn't reach her eyes. “Now, let us begin. I will show you the foundation spells for the most common forms of blood, death, and battle magics."
In the next two hours, the blood witch explained the history of the various magic forms. Then she demonstrated them and asked him to copy what she’d shown him.
Reluctantly, he did as he was told. Some of the spells were familiar from his father’s memories, while others were completely foreign. During the uncomfortable training session, Anna sat and glowered. Sometimes she asked questions, even things he was uncertain about, and that’s how he knew she was learning alongside him even if she wasn’t yet strong enough in magic to work the difficult spells.
By the end of the second hour, he was feeling weary and unclean, as if he were coated with a fine dusting of grime.
Taryin snapped her fingers closed on a bit of blood magic she’d been spinning; the rusty colored flash was now a familiar sight, and he’d long since gone nose-dead to the odor.
“We’re almost out of time, since you need to report to Captain Honnan for your lessons in our history,” Taryin said, looking altogether too pleased with herself. “But before you go, I would like to do one more spell showing you how to tap into the potency of fresh blood.”
“And I’m sure you’ll just happen to need blood that isn’t your own,” said a feminine voice from out in the darkness.
Shadowlight looked over his shoulder. Captain Vaspara stood on the other side of the magic barrier, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Ah, Vaspara,” Taryin said with a hint of disdain in her voice. “We were just finishing up, but you’re correct, I didn’t bring fresh blood for the spell. I’ve run out since the Rasoren and his Kyrsu deprived me of the fresh bodies I was having delivered yesterday. I’ll have to procure a new source soon.”
“You do that. Now lower the shield or I’ll do it for you,” Captain Vaspara warned. “I need to get these two to their next lesson.”
The shield surrounding the stones crackled and then vanished from sight. He breathed a sigh of relief as the night breeze blew cool across his skin. Vaspara didn’t need to tell him to come, he was more than happy to escape the blood witch.
Anna was right there beside him. When they were out of earshot, she said with a somewhat sickly laugh, “I never thought I’d look forward to history lessons taught by an incubus. But I totally am. Anything is better than where we just were.”
“I want a bath,” Shadowlight whispered back to her.
“Just one more lesson and then we will be allowed to escape until last meal.”
At the mention of food, he perked up a touch.
Chapter 22
THEIR FIRST WEEK OF training turned out to be routine, no better or worse than the first full day of lessons, Anna supposed. As Gryton had promised, every third night they went before the Battle Goddess to undergo the same ritual ordeal they’d survived the first day where Shadowlight was required to absorb a portion of the demigoddess’s power, and Anna was force-fed a few drops of the gargoyle’s blood.
It was never good. Each time they had to go before the Lady of Battles marked yet another three days where Anna had failed to find an escape.
Weapons practice with Sorac was a favorite session, followed by Honnan’s lessons in history. So far, the male demon hadn’t tried anything, and Anna was certain that was because Gryton threatened to have the blood witch geld the sex demon if he so much as looked at Anna with a lustful gaze. So, all in all, it could have been much worse.
One week turned into two.
Before long two weeks of training slid into three.
Anna could see the gradual changes in Shadowlight. He was an inch or two taller and she thought he’d bulked up a little more. It was hard to judge with no other gargoyles around to compare him to.
And he wasn’t the only one changing. She was growing stronger and faster. It wasn’t her imagination either. Captain Sorac had commented on her quicker reflexes.
The Battle Goddess’s captains weren’t the only ones to notice Anna’s new abilities. At the end of every third night, when Anna was just drifting off to sleep after a long night of training and lessons, another terrifying being came to visit her.
Lord Death haunted her dreams, whispering promises of escape if she and the young gargoyle would simply surrender themselves to him.
If she was absolutely certain Shadowlight wouldn’t be harmed, Anna would have agreed to go with this other demigod. But he never promised to save anything more than their souls.
He was honest at least. If he found them incurable, he would free their souls before what his sister put into motion could taint their spirits.
Which, hey, was important and all, but Anna would have liked something with better odds than Russian roulette. If what the Battle Goddess had done to Shadowlight was not something Lord Death could fix, then seeking his aid would be tantamount to suicide.
“Simply find the most peaceful darkness within your mind and pass through it to come to me.” Lord Death repeated those words at the end of each of his dream visits.
Anna just wasn’t that desperate yet.
Though, she might be in the coming weeks if she hadn’t found a way to escape with the kid.
“Is it possible for gargoyles to reach Lord Death from anywhere?” Anna asked Shadowlight as she stirred her steaming cup of tea. She was sitting in a chair by the hearth in what Anna had come to think of as the living room. Shadowlight was drowsing in front of the fire.
He blinked open his eyes. “Hmmm, my father’s memories say it is possible. It is an offshoot of gargoyle shadow magic.”
That actually made sense, in a twisted kind of ‘magic’ logic.
“I still don’t like it,” Anna muttered.
“It might be better than staying here.” Shadowlight fingered the collar around his throat. “This prevents me from calling shadow magic unless I’m given permission during a training session.”
Secretly, that was a relief. She didn’t want the kid running back to Lord Death with only a fifty-fifty chance that he’d survive the encounter.
“I’ve been thinking about the collar. Some of our instructors trust us now more than when we first got here. They’re starting to relax. If I can catch one of them off-guard, I might be able to force them into surrendering control of the collar to me,” Anna said.
A loud rap sounded at the door and one of the servants quickly opened it.
“Lord Gryton,” Lanya said in a voice that was a touch louder than normal. “Shadowlight and Anna are almost ready.”
She hadn’t said out loud that it was still early, but the question was clear.
Anna wondered why Gryton was here. It wasn’t one of the Battle Goddess’s ritual day
s, and Gryton didn’t typically seek them out on the days when it was just lessons as usual.
“We’ll talk more later,” Anna said to Shadowlight. He bobbed his head in agreement.
Together they walked over to greet Gryton.
“You’re both to go before the Battle Goddess,” he said in a cold, clipped tone.
No niceties or even a bit of flirtation, which she was starting to come to expect.
That couldn’t be good. All business was never good.
After issuing the order, he turned sharply and marched back out the door and down the hall.
She and Shadowlight scrambled to catch up before he reinforced his statement with a verbal command.
Anna glanced sidelong at Shadowlight and then whispered along their mental link. “Someone’s in a pissy mood.”
Shadowlight huffed in agreement.
When they reached what she’d come to think of as the altar room, she gave it a quick scan. It looked the same as it had yesterday, the two altars made of gray stone with manacles just waiting for them.
Was the Battle Goddess planning to do this daily now? Or had something gone wrong with yesterday’s ritual?
Or had the blood witch gone to the Battle Goddess complaining that Anna wasn’t progressing fast enough?
Guards came forward to secure them to their altars. They didn’t fight. She wanted to though; her gargoyle instincts picked up some hint of danger or new deception, more than usual at least.
They’d just finished chaining Shadowlight down when she heard the Battle Goddess approach. Involuntarily, Anna’s muscles tensed. A few seconds later the demigoddess was in her customary place at the top of the stairs.
“My children, I am most proud of your progress.” A smile brightened the Battle Goddess’s features. “However, Captain Taryin informs me the female half is falling behind in her magic studies because her gargoyle nature isn’t developing as it should.”
The Complete Gargoyle and Sorceress Boxset (Books 1-9) Page 108