Gregory felt Lillian draw in a breath. He pinned his ears just in time as she screamed, “Gran, we’re coming. Hold on.”
The three massive bears bolted past, drawing the Hunt into a new charge.
He and the other gargoyles followed close behind the bears, decapitating the carpet of broken Riven bodies they left in their wake.
Decapitation proved the most effective way to neutralize the Riven until their remains could be burned in purifying fire. The bears’ lethal claws did an excellent job for the most part, but a few demons had been agile enough to avoid killing blows. One such Riven snarled at Gregory.
It was not so lucky to avoid his claws.
The Hunt pushed onward, breaching the maze. Within, the fighting grew more intense, the confined space forcing the fighters on both sides to use uglier tactics.
He found himself unable to get a good swing without tangling with the warrior next to him, and he resorted to severing the Riven’s head from its body using his jaws. Spitting out the tainted blood from his last kill, he took down the next Riven in similar fashion.
Lillian was left with nothing to do, and by her inventive curses, she wasn’t pleased with being unable to contribute.
The going was slow, but when they turned a corner in the maze, they were able to see Vivian and a dozen other coven members defending their position against close to thirty Riven. With the enemy stretched out between them, he went about the business of reducing their number. Lillian’s father and brother took up flanking positions a few steps behind.
Seeing three gargoyles advancing sent the Riven into a frenzy. Some of their number attempted escape by scaling the maze’s cedar walls.
A stirring of magic drew his eyes from the Riven to the cedars themselves.
Ah. He smiled. Now he sensed what Greenborrow had been doing in the maze of late, and also why the enemy had opted for the longer route to the center of the maze instead of cutting, climbing, or clawing their way in a direct line through the greenery. But desperation now made them attempt the walls.
One Riven was making a fair bit of headway and had climbed a good two-thirds of the way to the top when the dense greenery shifted and pulled the demon’s upper body inside.
There was several moments of snarling and screaming before the cries were cut short by a wet, tearing sound. The cedar walls gave themselves a shake and spat out the Riven’s lower body first, followed a couple seconds later by the upper portion. Five other Riven attempting the same climb met with similar resistance and outcome.
Lillian gasped. “I’m never pruning the maze again, ever!”
“Why,” Gregory asked between one kill and the next. “You’re a dryad, all plants like you. Even bloodthirsty trees planted by a leshii.”
“I know why Gran wanted me to increase their blood meal feedings.”
Lillian might have said more, but she had to take out a Riven that got past his claws when four rushed him at once.
He shoved the body off her long blade and continued forward, leaving the still struggling beast for Shadowlight to finish.
Several more Riven fell before him and he was suddenly standing before Gran as she battled one of the last enemies. She slammed her staff down on the Riven’s skull, then looked up at him and gave him a weary smile. “Glad to see you finally showed up. And you brought the Hunt, I always knew you were a dependable boy.” Gran leaned on her staff for a moment and panted. Sweat dripped down her temples and covered her face. She and the others with her were covered in blood and gore—too much of it their own.
As Lillian slid from his back to give Vivian a hug, Gregory admitted to suffering similar bites and claw marks. None of them were unscathed, but they were alive.
“I’m sorry,” he said with a formal half bow in respect to Gran. “We came as soon as we could.”
“Forgiven, my dear,” she said as she and Lillian broke apart, and she hefted her staff once more. “But we need to get to the center of the maze. The Riven attacked from both directions and the others don’t have the Hunt to aid them, they may already be overrun.”
He nodded and shouted orders to the rest of the Hunt for the fastest to come forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he noted when Lillian’s brother came alongside Gran and bent a wing.
Gran took the arrival of more gargoyles in stride, and with a nod accepted Shadowlight’s invitation. She mounted in one smooth motion despite her numerous injuries. Gregory dropped back to all fours and Lillian silently remounted him as well.
Without needing to speak, the three gargoyles bound into motion. They ran as swiftly as the twists and turns of the maze allowed. The Wild Hunt kept pace. He was proud of their valiant efforts this night, because none of them had had an easy task to complete.
Shadowlight pulled up even with him, and he realized Gran wanted to speak.
“Tethys sensed the Riven coming and released us from her enchantments so we could prepare for the coming battle. She stayed behind with Lillian’s hamadryad to protect it should we all fall before the Rivens’ onslaught.”
“What happened to all the guests?” Lillian asked.
Yes, what had happened to all the humans? He’d not noticed their lack until Lillian mention it, when it fact, he should have been tripping over their Riven ravaged bodies.
“Tethys commanded the civilians to the north end of town, well away from where she sensed the Riven came. She saved their lives, though I think it was mainly so the Riven couldn’t use them as new hosts. Heaven only knows what the townsfolk will do when they return to themselves.” Gran gave a little, half-hearted shake of her head. “If we survive this night, I don’t know how we’re going to spin this to keep the humans in the dark.”
“Blame the military, most of the town probably will anyway without our help.” Lillian’s reply sounded gruff and tired. She should never have had to endure half the events she’d experienced this night. He vowed to do a better job in the future. Ahead, a sharp bend looked more like a dead end, but was in fact the inside edge of the maze. Their destination was almost in sight.
They took the last corner without slowing, and burst out of the maze into the small glade.
A quick glance showed many Riven had already forced their way free of the narrow north entrance, and were now shoving back or overrunning the few surviving defenders. As the tide flowed into the glade, it broke into three distinct flows. One group swarmed the defenders, forcing them against one of the inner cedar walls where the sidhe didn’t have room to swing their deadly long swords and were forced to use smaller blades to hack and thrust.
Behind him more of the Wild Hunt emerged from the maze. He motioned half their number to attack the Riven at the opposite entrance. They had to slow the number of Riven reaching the inner glade, or they’d simply mob the Hunt and trap the defenders with sheer numbers.
Vivian led the first wave of the Hunt to engage the enemy. If they were able to keep the remaining Riven trapped within the close confines of the maze itself, they had a chance to end the conflict relatively quickly, with less of their own blood decorating the ground.
Or so he hoped.
As the second wave of the Hunt gathered behind him, he did a quick tally and found seventeen already at his heels with more pouring in behind them. Out of time, he led the charge toward the siren’s location. The first batch of Riven had started to encircle the tree even before Gregory had covered half the distance.
As he closed in on the hamadryad, he spotted Tethys at last. She rose up from the stream, her power falling from her like water, where it swirled around her in an ever increasing current. Then with a subtle shift in her shoulders and a flick of her great tailfin, she loosed a wave of magic upon the unsuspecting Riven.
Her spell-wave crashed over the first row of them, physically forcing them back even as the defensive magic triggered in bright flashes of light. The powerful spell ripped the moisture from the Riven, leaving dry husks, incapable of movement in its wake. Even over the distance, Gregory felt the
pressure of that spell dance along his skin. By her sudden sharply drawn breath, Lillian, too, felt that fearful power.
Tethys continued to lash the demons with blast after blast of her magic.
But there had to be close to eighty Riven already within the glade.
Gregory slammed into the nearest one and twisted its head from its shoulders with a mighty heave. Lillian slashed the throat out of another while he was busy with his own.
He speared another with his tail as it tried to slip under his guard. Horns, claws, tail spikes, and teeth, he used all his natural weapons, but he needed more. Lillian’s father used magic as well, bits of shadows and moonlight devouring his enemies.
Gregory was mildly envious. But this close to Lillian’s hamadryad, and its link to the Magic Realm, combined with the new tattoo circling his throat, made him leery of using his magic for fear of somehow falling under the Battle Goddess’s sway. But he had no choice.
If even one Riven reached Lillian’s hamadryad and was able to make it to the Magic Realm, it could then summon the rest of its kin here while the Clan and Coven were weakened. If his allies fell, he and Lillian would become easier prey for the Battle Goddess.
Such an outcome could not be allowed to come to pass.
“Lillian, you must order me to use my magic.”
“But you’re already weak. The tattoo. It’s too dangerous.”
“We don’t have a choice.” When there was a momentary break in the fighting, he turned his head to glance back at Lillian. “Give the order.”
“Gregory.” Lillian paused, her hesitation lasting only as long as it took her to draw back her arm and send a knife flying with practiced accuracy at a demon about to maul his side, then she turn and met his gaze, giving him a slight nod of understanding and agreement. “My Hunting Shadow, eradicate the Riven.” She slashed at another beast, almost removing its head but lacked the strength of arm to accomplish the feat.
“As my mistress commands,” he purred happily as his magic rose within him to do her bidding.
All around them the chilled magic of the Spirit Realm poured from him and flowed across the ground in an ever increasing circle.
It rose above the ground, floating and whirling slowly like thick fog born of cold air upon warm ground. He let it build for three more beats of his heart, then he ordered it into a hunting spell, shards of shadow and light that sought out the nearest Riven with vicious accuracy.
The magic stabbed deep into the nearest creature, shattering it from within, reducing it to specks of light and vapor. It died in silence, unable to cry out in pain or warning to any of its fellows. Even as the first blew apart, his magic sought more, first in ones and twos, then in greater numbers as his spell spread out before him.
He followed the trail his magic had cleared, drawing closer to Lillian’s hamadryad. More magic poured from him, becoming shadows and light and in turn hunting more of the Riven.
Another ten Riven fell before his magic, their bodies still disintegrating when an anguished wail drew his eyes back toward the siren. Several of the demons had gotten past her defensive spells and were savaging her with claws, and the dark glimmer of what could only be demon blades.
The area between his shoulder blades twitched with phantom pain as he remembered all too well the agony those things inflicted. He sent a current of magic across the distance to the siren’s aid. His spell caught four of the attackers but several managed to jump clear. They retreated to the far side of the stream.
A wave of magic rose from the water and slammed them into the cedar walls twenty feet away. The cedars swallowed their newest victims in a swift, hungry fashion.
Tethys continued to lash out with power, even as her blood turned the stream red. From what he could see, two demon blades were still embedded in her side. Hissing in frustration, pain, and anger she blasted more Riven out of existence.
Several Riven continued their attack, venturing into the water only to discover that ancient siren blood was as toxic to evil as gargoyle blood.
They screamed as they died. Gregory nodded to the siren over the distance and she returned the gesture in kind, then bared her teeth at the next wave of demons descending upon the hamadryad.
Gregory turned his magic upon the ones coming closest to the tree. Shadows and moonlight hunted them while he dealt with the ones near his person in the more mundane manner of tooth and claw.
The battle raged on for many more minutes. Lillian called encouragement the whole time until suddenly there were no more enemies within striking distance.
There were still a few other battles raging on, but even those would shortly be won.
Lillian’s mother and father had moved off to aid Gran and Shadowlight. Other Clan and Coven members were finishing off the few Riven still within the glade.
Gregory loped over to inspect Lillian’s hamadryad. The tree seemed whole and unharmed, and there was no taint of Riven essence upon her. They’d managed to prevent that at least.
Lillian dismounted for a better look.
A black shadow circled around from behind the tree and Gregory nodded to the pooka. The unicorn joined him a moment later, and they took up positions on either side of the tree, acting as sentries. He was about to thank them for their loyalty when Lillian whispered his name and then tapped him on the shoulder. He followed where she pointed, and he soon spotted Tethys where she lay in the stream, half up on the bank.
“Guard the tree,” he ordered the two equines.
They bobbed their heads in unison.
With Lillian a step behind, he approached with caution, but none of the Riven bodies piled up three deep along her stream banks showed any signs of movement.
Tethys lay almost as unmoving as her conquered enemies, only the slow flutter of her gills and the slight rise and fall of her chest showed she still lived. No part of her body was untouched, and blood still welled sluggishly from a hundred wounds. She might have survived all that, but her own trident had been broken and both parts speared her body. The lower shaft had been driven through her chest and it pinned her to the bank. The three pronged crown was buried in her abdomen.
It looked like it had been plunged in several times before the hand that had wielded it had given out, or more likely, had been killed by Tethys’ dying will.
“Tethys, can you hear me?” he asked directly into her mind, hoping a spark of her fierce nature and pride were still there.
“Yes, Avatar.” She answered in kind, though her essence was weak and pain filled. “But even you can’t save me. Grant me a boon and give me a merciful ending.”
“It is as you said. I can’t save you. But I can thank you for protecting Lillian’s hamadryad.”
“It was the least I could do after what my actions almost allowed. The Riven would have violated this Realm far more quickly and far more thoroughly than the humans ever could.”
“I am glad you saw that before the end.” Gregory pulled her broken trident from her abdomen and then wrapped both hands around the broken shaft, just above where it speared through her chest. “But there is one more thing you can do for me, one last task only you can perform.”
He yanked the shaft free and Tethys issued a weak, bloody gurgle, but her eyes blinked open as he lifted her into his arms. “I can send you back to the Magic Realm, in spirit at least. Before you pass on into the next life, I would ask you to carry a message to the Lord of the Underworld for me. Tell him all you know and have seen here. As a reward, he might gift you with more time to seek vengeance for what the Riven have done, but I cannot promise you that.”
“Send me then, and I will tell Death everything before I venture forth into the next life. It matters not if he gives me more time. I do not deserve or crave it, but if it is granted, I promise to spend it well.”
Gregory nodded at the words. There was no deception in her, she meant what she said.
He bowed his muzzle to her forehead and placed a kiss there. “Go, regain your honor.”
<
br /> He lowered her body to the ground at the base of the hamadryad, but her spirit was already on its way, speeding toward the Magic Realm and Lord Death.
Gregory could not say how the Lord of the Underworld would react to the news of everything that had happened here tonight, but at least Tethys could give him some valuable details, especially about the Riven army amassing at the edge of his twin’s territory.
And Death would be clever enough to see Gregory had just given him a way to dispatch that army without violating the duality curse that held the Lady of Battles imprisoned.
Gregory smiled harshly as Tethys’s body turned to sea foam and seeped into the ground under the hamadryad. Lillian made a surprised exclamation. He merely tucked her against his side to reassure her.
“What was all that about?”
He waited until Lillian’s parents, brother, and grandmother joined them under the hamadryad before explaining.
Vivian’s expression hinted that she already knew the answer, and her smile grew bigger, turning into what Lillian had always called her grandmother’s shit-eating grin—which was a repulsive human adage, but that smile always drew an answering one from him.
“What I wouldn’t give to be there to see the outcome of that,” Gran said with a chuckle.
Lillian’s parents merely watched Gran with puzzled looks.
“Come,” Gran said in a tone that was all business once again. “We need to see to the wounded, dispose of the Riven’s remains, get cleaned up, and then sit down for proper introductions.” She eyed Shadowlight with open interest. “If I’m not mistaken, I believe I just inherited another grandchild. More the merrier, I always say.”
Shadowlight practically vibrated with happiness. He was as bruised, battered, and bitten up as the rest of them, but he galloped over to Gran and bumped his muzzle under her hand. With a chuckle, she obliged. But she multitasked even then, giving Lillian’s biological parents a once over that was civil, though a touch cool. “We’ll divide into groups and triage the scene. Lillian, you can take Shadowlight and introduce him to Jason and Alan. You’ll be aiding Uncle Alan in cleansing the tainted blood.” Gran turned her attention to her next set of victims. “Gregory, I would like you and…” she glanced at Lillian’s father with a raised brow.
Sorceress Rising (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 2) Page 25