“How long do you think that will hold them?” she asked.
“Long enough to get away.”
“Good, we need to warn the servants and somehow get them out of here. I’m not leaving them behind—”
Pain exploded in her abdomen. She was suddenly propelled backward, and then her body crashed into one of the workroom’s stone walls. Her head cracked against the unyielding surface and her vision darkened until she was temporarily blind.
The pain in her side was intense, a burning agony, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. Screams assaulted her ears. It took longer than it should for her to understand she was the one screaming.
She forced her lips together. It stopped the sound, but not the pain. She wasn’t sure if anything short of death could end the terrible suffering. Anna only hoped there were no guards outside in the hall to hear.
Her hands reached blindly to the point where the greatest agony radiated. Blinking slowly and focusing on her breathing helped to clear her vision. Through her wavering sight, she saw what her hands had already felt.
A long crystalline spear was pinning her to the wall. Its tainted, muddy amber color told her it was forged of blood magic.
She tried to pull the spear from her side, but it was sticky with blood and Anna’s grip was too weak. The sound of battle dragged Anna out of her own agony long enough to focus on her surroundings.
Shadowlight was in a battle with the blood witch and he was outmatched. Anna’s protective instincts roused even through the waves of blinding pain. Power stirred deep within, giving her renewed strength.
“Should’ve taken her head,” Anna muttered as she hacked up blood.
Not good. This was so not good. Oh, hell. This was going to hurt like a mother.
But Shadowlight was in danger. Roaring in rage and agony, Anna ripped the spear from the wall and out of her body. Crashing to the ground, she lay there for a moment, but her magic bond to Shadowlight was urging her to fight. She gripped the spear and used it as a walking stick to hoist herself to her feet.
The younger gargoyle was still fighting Taryin, but his magic was having trouble breaking past the barrier she’d built around herself. Anna glanced at the blood witch’s protective dome of power and then back down at the sickly amber spear in her hand.
Would the witch’s shields block a weapon forged of her own power?
Time to find out.
Anna took advantage of Taryin’s distraction and took the last few staggering steps toward her prey. While Shadowlight kept her busy, Anna launched the spear with all the force left in her arm. It struck, impaling the witch in the center of her back.
Shadowlight struck from the front. His powerful blow spun Taryin around.
As Anna collapsed to her knees, she smiled at the blood witch’s shocked expression.
“Got you again. Bitch.”
Shadowlight reached down and grabbed the blood witch and dragged her farther from Anna.
“Wait.” Anna’s call came out more of a whimper than a shout, but she forced her voice to steady. “Take the bitch’s head. I don’t want her coming after us again.”
Shadowlight nodded and reached down. There was a brief struggle and then came the wet, ragged sound of tearing flesh, snapping bones, and the pop of cartilage. He’d just beheaded the witch with his bare hands.
That he’d had to do that himself would have upset Anna more if she wasn’t bleeding to death.
A moment later a hulking shadow was standing over her and then Shadowlight gathered her broken body up in his arms.
“Anna?” Her name came out a sob.
“Going to be okay, kid. I’m not dying here in this place.” Anna patted his cheek, leaving bloody smears behind. “Call shadows to hide us and then take me back to my room.”
He did as she asked, running back to their chambers as fast as he could. The bumping and jolting was a fresh agony, but Anna locked her jaws to prevent any sound from escaping. She needed to give Shadowlight as much time as possible to free himself of the collar and then escape.
Anna might have control of his command collar, but she didn’t know what would happen if she died and he was still wearing it. Probably nothing good for him.
When they reached their chambers, Lanya and her husband rushed forward and helped Shadowlight carry her to the bed.
“You need to go,” Anna said weakly as she looked up at the ceiling. “All of you. Go. Leave me.”
“Go?” Lanya said. “We will not leave without you.”
But to Anna’s relief, Lanya’s husband was already rushing to pull a large sack out of Anna’s wardrobe. It was the go-bag she’d been putting together for their escape.
She’d been worried the servants would find it while cleaning. Guess that answered that question of the family’s loyalty.
The father ordered his two children to pack a cloak and change of clean clothes and whatever other food and medicine was already in the chamber.
She was glad he understood what was coming. Her gaze returned to Lanya who was trying to slow the blood pouring from Anna’s side.
Fighting past the pain, she sought calm. “Lanya, when I first came here, I was sent by the Mother’s Sorceress. She gave me two medallions. They would allow me to return to my home once I found Shadowlight. I buried them a day’s travel outside the city.” Anna closed her eyes against the pain still ravaging her body and then focused on the memory and exact location where she’d buried the two medallions.
She explained the location in detail to the two servants. The entire time Shadowlight knelt beside her, his hands pressed against her wound as he shared power with her. He was trying to heal her, but she knew enough about how their strange magical link worked to know that while he might be able to heal her, it would take days. They didn’t have the luxury of days. They probably didn’t even have hours. Someone was bound to notice that there were three captains missing.
And this wound was bad, really bad. It felt like there was still a part of the blood witch inside her, feeding on her. While Taryin might be dead, apparently her evil magic didn’t die with her. This reminded her of what the Riven had done to her when she’d first met Shadowlight. And yet, as horrible as the Riven attack and consequent taint had been, this was somehow worse.
She wasn’t at all certain she could survive this even if Shadowlight had days to heal her.
“Shadowlight, you and the others need to go now before someone discovers what we did.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“You must. I’m dying.”
“You are,” agreed that beautiful, familiar voice inside her head. “The blood witch infected you with her spell. It’s not as sophisticated as the finished weaving would have been, but it is still killing you. Worse than killing you. When it is finished, your soul will be destroyed along with your body.”
Anna’s eyes widened at Death’s words.
“You can’t have her, neither can the blood witch. I won’t allow it.” Shadowlight’s grip on her tightened.
The poor cub. She’d promised that she wouldn’t abandon him. Yet like everyone else he loved, she was breaking that promise. She was dying.
Worse than dying if Lord Death was to be believed. But Shadowlight might live. That’s all Anna could hope for now.
“Shadowlight, I can’t be saved. You need to go. Escape for me. Help the human family escape.”
Shadowlight growled and shook his head. “I won’t leave you. You wouldn’t leave me.”
Damn stubborn gargoyle!
“Actually, you’re both incredibly stubborn,” Lord Death said with a hint of humor. “But of the two, I think the cub is mildly less so. Perhaps it’s time I talk to him. He might listen now that you are dying.”
“No. Wait!” But Lord Death was already gone, and she feared he was talking privately to the kid.
Chapter 33
SHORTLY AFTER THEY’D started out, Gregory had found a game trail. They’d followed its snaking path along
the valley for what he estimated was close to six hours when they came upon the cliff Daryna had described. As promised, it provided an excellent lookout for them to study the Battle Goddess’s fortress.
From here, Gregory could look down upon the foot traffic coming and going on the road. And yet being on the opposite mountain slope, there was minimal risk of exposure to the enemy. When dawn came, they would move down the slope and infiltrate the city under the cover of shadow magic. With luck, they’d locate Anna and Shadowlight and possibly Gryton, then be gone before an enemy had time to raise the alarm.
That was the plan.
The soft crackle of a radio drew Gregory’s gaze to where Major Resnick and Captain Stanton were discussing something amongst themselves. Resnick frowned and then glanced up at Gregory and Lillian.
“Alpha recon team was scouting a secondary exfil route in case the primary is compromised when they found another valley where the main canyon branched an hour back.” Resnick paused and then frowned. “They report the valley is full of what looks like thousands of statues. Rough count of at least ten thousand.”
“Those aren’t statues,” Daryna said.
“We didn’t think so. We’ve seen how the gargoyles can take on the likeness of stone when it suits them. I figured this might be something similar.” Resnick said
Gregory’s unease grew. “There are very few species besides gargoyles who can master that magic.”
Daryna nodded. “Yes, but as I’ve said, the Battle Goddess has been studying her brother’s soldiers. And she has found a way to raise a large army that only requires the resources of one a tenth of its size.”
“She conscripts them and then what?” Lillian asked, thinking aloud, “turns them to stone and then only wakes them when needed? Or are the soldiers not truly alive at all?”
“Your first guess is correct. The Battle Goddess raises, trains, and then enchants her soldiers, so they are in a state that is neither alive nor dead. When she has a large enough force to crush her enemies, she has her captains awaken and command them.”
Daryna fell silent. The others around her just stared in disbelief. Gregory didn’t blame them. The news came as a surprise to even him. It seemed his enemy had changed her methods since the last time he’d been born into the world.
Lillian growled softly at Daryna. “You knew this but didn’t bother to tell us?”
“The sleepers are not our immediate concern. It takes substantial spell work to wake them.” Daryna shrugged and Gregory thought Lillian was going to take her by her shoulders and shake her.
Instead, Lillian just sighed and asked, “Anything else you haven’t told us that we should know about?”
“Likely many things, but we don’t have half a year to get up to speed so I will fill you in later. Now, I think we need to concern ourselves with getting Anna and Shadowlight out and what to do if they’ve been corrupted and don’t want to come with us.”
Gregory merely nodded and hoped they’d all return safely to Earth and have nothing more immediate to concern themselves with than a lengthy and boring debriefing where Daryna told them everything else they didn’t yet know.
“Daryna if you withhold further information from me, there will be trouble.” He glowered at his other half. “But for now, my other half is correct, we need to go over the plan one more time in case anything goes wrong.”
Resnick nodded. “If no one else has been withholding information, we should—”
Lillian cut him off. “Major Resnick, while we’re telling the truth, there’s something else we haven’t told you.”
Gregory knew what she was going to say. He could have stopped her or deflected the conversation, but he didn’t. It was time to get this shame off his chest.
“The one you know as Commander Gryton is Gregory and Daryna’s son.”
Neither Resnick nor the other soldiers under his command said anything, though their faces were far from neutral. Resnick was the first to master speech after Lillian’s statement.
“Thank you, Lillian,” he said and then speared Gregory with his gaze. “Now one of the Avatars had better start talking.”
Gregory glanced up at the cloudless sky overhead, stars bright against the darkness. Dawn was still a few hours off. Now was as good of a time as any to explain about Gryton, he supposed. “It’s a long story, one I only learned of myself a few days ago...”
Chapter 34
DURING AN AWKWARD TWO-hour stint, Gregory laid out what he knew about Gryton and how he’d come into being. Daryna filled in details from what she’d gleaned from their son’s memories when she was helping him to learn control.
“You helped make him stronger?” Icy venom dripped from Resnick’s words.
The human had many uncomfortable questions and underlying them all was a simmering rage. Resnick’s anger wasn’t misplaced. Gryton had killed many innocent lives in his bid to return to the Magic Realm recently.
But the fact remained, Daryna had reached Gryton on some level, and with more parental guidance, he might be groomed into a powerful ally against the Battle Goddess. And a not so small part of Gregory wanted to give his son a chance to redeem himself.
“Gryton will have to answer for every life he’s taken. And, if he so much as ponders double-crossing us, he’s dead and neither of you will raise a hand to protect him. Or the alliance is over. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes,” Gregory said. “I will destroy him myself if he can’t be saved. I’ve already had this discussion with Daryna.”
“And you?” Resnick asked Lillian.
“You can take him out with my blessing if he hasn’t held up his end of the bargain and protected my brother and Anna from the worst this place has to offer.”
“You?” Resnick asked as he stared at Daryna.
“Gryton has never been given a chance to become other than what he is now. But if he is given a choice and directed down a different path, he will take it. I was in his mind and know he is capable of more than just cruelty and war.”
Resnick grunted doubtfully. “If he isn’t salvageable?”
“Then we will see his spirit is free to return to the Divine Ones.”
“We agree, then,” Gregory said softly. Before he could say more, the radio interrupted him.
Captain Stanton answered in a hushed tone. While the humans relayed some bit of news, Gregory looked out from between the two boulders he was sheltering behind, not trusting that someone within the fortress wouldn’t be able to hear or see past his illusions.
Resnick called Gregory’s name. “My men found something you might be interested in.”
Looking away from the fortress, Gregory’s ears flicked forward.
THE DIVINE ONES HAD a hand in this new development. Gregory could feel it. This family had been guided to him. Or more accurately, they’d been fleeing one of the Battle Goddess’s patrols when Alpha team had seen the family’s ill-fated escape attempt. As the soldiers had watched from their hiding place, they’d seen the family get overtaken and captured by the patrol.
Amid the shouting and screaming, the human soldiers had only recognized two words: Shadowlight and Anna. The human family, whoever they were, might have knowledge. Resnick, his men, Daryna, and Lillian all agreed with Gregory’s assessment.
The major ordered his men to follow the patrol until they could get there.
The trip didn’t take long. Once there, a subtle sleep spell targeting the patrol dealt with the enemy soldiers. Then he and Daryna wove spells so Resnick and his men could understand the human family while they were questioned.
It was Daryna who recognized the mother as River’s servant, Lanya.
Together they listened to the woman as she explained how Anna and Shadowlight had saved them. In turn, she and her family had loyally served the two new arrivals. Her story concluded with how Anna had been mortally wounded and the young gargoyle wouldn’t leave her side, but even then Shadowlight acted to protect the family by ordering them to flee the c
ity before an alarm was raised.
The servant’s story made it even more urgent that Gregory act now. He glanced up at the sky, which was coloring pink with the first hint of dawn. It would be better to wait until the sun was high in the sky and the worst of the fortress’s citizens asleep, but they were out of time.
Even if he couldn’t heal Anna, he wouldn’t leave her to die in that place. Certainly not with a blood witch in residence.
Gregory had thought he and his Sorceress had eradicated the entire blood witch coven eons ago, but it seemed that at least one still lived. He’d correct that mistake if Shadowlight and Anna hadn’t already managed to destroy her.
When they were finished questioning the parents, Resnick ordered Alpha team to escort them back to the portal. They’d be returning to Earth for their own safety, but also for the knowledge they had of the Battle Goddess’s domain.
Chapter 35
SHADOWLIGHT HAD ORDERED the servants away almost four hours ago, wanting them to have a chance to escape before guards learned something was amiss. As soon as they were gone, he’d used shadow magic to hunt down every last drop of Anna’s blood so it couldn’t be used in dark spells. He may not be able to save her, but he would do that for her.
Once all trace of her blood had been dealt with, he’d jumped up on the bed and curled around her body, mantling his wings to keep her warm. It was the only thing he could do for her. He’d already shared blood and power with her.
Lanya had dressed the wound the best she could before fleeing with her family. Shadowlight would have cloaked everyone in shadow magic and made his escape with them, but he’d been warned that if he tried to move Anna, she’d bleed out.
He couldn’t fly with her for the same reason, and Captain Taryin’s spell was somehow preventing Anna from embracing the healing stone sleep. All he could do was wait for her to heal enough that moving her wouldn’t kill her.
In the time since he’d first shared blood and magic with her, the terrible belly wound had slowly begun to knit itself together, but that wasn’t the greatest danger. The blood magic was eating away at her spirit. His power was countering Taryin’s spell, to some degree, but not enough.
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