“Something like this I’d imagine? But on a smaller scale maybe. I don’t know.” Obsidian sounded exhausted.
She snuggled closer to him and glanced around once more.
“Do you need a healer?” she asked just to be certain, but it looked like her magic had sealed his wound, and his other injuries were gone. “I didn’t even know I could heal like that.”
“I didn’t either, but it’s good one of us does. We tend to get into a lot of trouble.” He gave his side a cautious poke. “I don’t think a healer can do any more for me than you already have.”
“Good.”
“Now all I need is my Kyrsu.” He yawned and wrapped an arm around her waist.
She glanced around. First at the dome and then everyone on the outside. The dome’s magic was impressive and damn near impenetrable. No one would be getting past it anytime soon. Not unless she allowed it and right at this moment she wasn’t feeling very magnanimous. They could just sit out there on their collective asses until she and Obsidian were healed and rested.
Besides, it looked like most of the bodies on the ground were picking themselves up or being helped up by others.
She’d likely feel guilty later, but now all she felt was numb. Emotionally empty.
Briefly, she wondered if the emotional numbness of a berserker was a little like being a psychopath. That the thought didn’t inspire fear probably should have scared her.
But she couldn’t even feel fear.
Yawning, she curled closer to Obsidian and then with a silent command and a wave of power, she ordered both their bodies to shift to their stone forms to recover.
Chapter 43
Obsidian yawned and stretched, feeling a little tender where the spear had thrust deep, but his injuries were healed, and the drug the elders had given him had been purged from his body.
All in all, he felt good, physically.
Mentally? That was another matter altogether.
But there was only so much Anna and the healers could do. Restoring his peace of mind wasn’t one of them.
He’d woken from his stone sleep before Anna and found that Thayn, with the aid of Lord Draydrak, had been able to undo the spell his Kyrsu had hastily raised to protect them while they healed.
The elder had brought them to the healer’s quarters, where he remained.
Obsidian’s body was on the mend, but his mind was restless, thoughts and theories about why Rook had sabotaged the test churned endlessly.
If the elder had merely wanted to test Anna’s tolerance to threats directed at her Rasoren, the elder could have set something up during regular practice. It wasn’t necessary to do it in front of everyone or was that the point?
Did Rook want the entire gargoyle legion to see what he and Anna were capable of before it was unleashed on the battlefield? That still seemed a poor excuse for such a spectacular risk. Others had been harmed. Rook was lucky there hadn’t been any deaths. Anna in berserker mode wasn’t known for mercy.
Perhaps she’d managed to retain enough of ‘Anna’ to reason that the legion gargoyles weren’t a threat.
As for Rook, he could have done a series of smaller demonstrations throughout their training sessions. But the elder hadn’t exercise caution. Now, in the blink of an eye, all Anna’s hard work to gain the legion’s trust had been undone. Could she ever regain their people’s confidence, or would they judge her a threat?
A soft grunt drew his gaze down to Anna. His restless thoughts must have disturbed her sleep, for she’d still been stone up until a moment ago. The shimmer of magic even now danced along her skin, before being swallowed back.
Her eyes blinked open to stare at him.
Or at least she tried. Dawn’s light angled in and struck her right in the eyes. Groaning, she rolled over onto her belly, shielding her face.
“Oh my god. What the fuck did I drink? Fuck, I don’t care what it’s called. Just don’t let me drink it ever again.”
“You’re not drunk.”
“Obviously. I’m all too sober now.”
“It’s a reaction from calling more magic than your body is trained to handle.”
“Ugh. Remind me to go easy next time, will you?”
“I don’t think you were in a respective mood to listen to reason.”
“Meh.” She rested her face in her hands. “Stop talking. My head is going to explode.”
“Stop whining and come here,” he said with a grin.
When she didn’t move, he sat cross-legged on the bench and then dragged her unresisting body closer to him until he could roll her over and position her head in his lap.
She groaned dramatically.
Calling a tiny bit of his shadow magic to the tips of his fingers, he gently worked them between the rows of her braids. He wasn’t a natural healer like Anna or some of the dryads, but he’d learned this trick from Maradryn. The smallest trace of the tingling magic could sooth headaches.
“Oh, you’re a god. Thank you.” Anna’s unguarded expression made him smile, but it wasn’t likely to last. As soon as she remembered what she’d done, doubt and self-loathing would replace it.
Which was why he was in no hurry to have this rare peaceful moment end.
But eventually he’d rubbed away the worst of the pain, and her eyes opened and spotted the ceiling of the healers’ quarters.
Her brows drew together in thought and then her earlier blissful expression became shuttered. She compressed her lips.
“I fucked up, didn’t I?”
Following her progress along their link, he witnessed when she recalled all that had happened. Much of it would be blurry and hazy, but there was enough for her to piece together events.
“I flipped and hulked out on everyone when you were hurt, didn’t I?”
He wasn’t familiar with the term, but its meaning was clear enough in her mind. “Yes. Though, this wasn’t your fault. You were just reacting to what you perceived as a danger to me.”
Obsidian explained what he’d been theorizing about while she’d slept.
“So, you see, I think this was exactly what Rook wanted to happen—at least your going berserker part. Though I don’t think he expected it to be quite so violent. At least I hope he didn’t.”
“Well, I for one am going to go ask him myself. Just as soon as I can stand up without the room spinning.”
“Tomorrow will be soon enough for that,” he said, and he gently brushed away some sand that was sticking to her temples.
If only his other worries were as easily brushed away.
Chapter 44
The day after Obsidian’s Adept Trial, Anna found herself high up on the slopes of the eastern peak picking berries with a group of novices and journeymen.
It was a mundane task, which was why the mentors had assigned it to her. Secretly, she was happy to do it because it got her away from most of the stares and whispers.
Reasonable, quiet, and unassuming had been her modus operandi since yesterday morning when she’d awoke in the healers’ quarter with a splitting headache. Later she and Obsidian had confronted the elders.
Rook had admitted his plan had gone a foul. Thayn clarified by adding that when Anna had tossed up her first shield, it caused the spear—which was supposed to miss—to change its trajectory.
The spear was only supposed to have clipped him, causing a flesh wound.
They’d wanted something that would cause a threat response in Anna, but nothing so dangerous to trigger a full berserker event.
Well, because Fate loved fucking with her, Rook and everyone else got to see the full package. Which was why she had been trying so hard to be quiet, unassuming and mostly invisible today.
It didn’t help that Obsidian had been sent off to a remote island for some traditional mumbo-jumbo where he was supposed to meditate on the duties that would now come with his new title of Adept.
While she was pleased that he’d completed the trial with flying colors and earned his title before eve
rything had gone sideways, she preferred him near. Her gargoyle nature was still edgy. Since there were no reported dangers, it had to be the new fear and hostility some of the legion felt toward her after the berserker event.
She kept telling her gargoyle nature to sit down, shut up, and don’t cause a stir. Obsidian didn’t need his Kyrsu making any more of a ruckus.
Probably no one was buying her docile, good girl routine. Though, no one had organized a torch and pitchfork-carrying mob either, so she supposed she wasn’t about to get lynched.
But that wasn’t even her most significant concern.
The more she thought about it, the more she was sure Rook, that cagey bastard, had wanted her to go berserker for some reason other than to study her threat responses. But she didn’t have proof. Sighing in frustration, she turned her attention back to her present task, for now.
Anna glowered unhappily at the berry bush she was presently picking bare of ripe fruit. Truth had laughed at her earlier when she popped a couple in her mouth and promptly spat them back out. He’d then informed her they were only used in cooking with honey to sweeten them. The jerk.
“By the way, how much longer do we have to do this?” Anna called to him where he was working on filling his basket farther up the slope.
He glanced in her direction, looking unhappier than picking a few hundred berries should merit.
Hmm…something was up.
“You.” She glared at him. “What’s that look about?”
Truth sighed and set down his woven basket. “We already have twice the berries we need. Obsidian wanted me to keep you busy today.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure. He wouldn’t go into detail, only that he had a task to complete that required solitude.”
“That’s what he told me as well.” Anna’s fingers strummed her thigh. “I thought it was some traditional ritual after becoming an Adept.”
“There is no tradition,” Truth confirmed.
“Damn it! Why didn’t I smell a lie?”
“He likely never told a lie, just didn’t correct your false assumption.”
“Fuck!” Anna abandoned her berry bushes and the baskets, half running up the slope toward a bare patch of rock where she had room to shift to gargoyle form.
She might be overreacting, but she couldn’t ignore the fact the elders might be setting up a test of some sort to see if Obsidian was like her.
“Where are you going? Anna!” Truth called her name as he came running up behind her.
“I’m going after Obsidian. I don’t know what the Masters have planned this time, but their last plan didn’t go so well.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I got my powers from Obsidian. I’m not the only berserker.” She said in a rush. “As a child, Shadowlight had that trait, too. Milder, but I can only imagine the breathtaking scope of Obsidian’s rage if they manage to trigger it, now, as an adult.”
“That makes no sense. If it were the mentors, he would simply have told me that. Though I see why the elders might not want you there.” Truth paused, and then said more softly. “It might not be the mentors.”
“Who else?” But then Anna knew. Reaver and the other gargoyles who might have turned hostile toward her and her Rasoren.
Anna reached the flat stretch of rocky ground and shifted. Moments later her wings were unfurling as she launched herself off the steep slope and into the air. Truth continued to shout after her as she climbed higher into the air.
Rounding the mountain’s peak, she spotted him beating his wings hard to catch up. She didn’t wait for him and headed out to sea, using her link to Obsidian to pinpoint his location.
“Obsidian are you alright? Can you hear me?” No answering words or thoughts echoed back along their link.
He was about eighty miles out. Easy distance for their link, but he didn’t respond, and she couldn’t touch his mind. How was that possible? Even if he was stone, she could still feel his mind.
Fear sped her wings, and she swiftly out distanced Truth.
“I can’t feel Obsidian. Can you?” she asked Truth along a private path.
“No. His mind is closed off to me.” Concern tinted the gargoyle’s thoughts. “I don’t like this.”
“I can’t wait for you. Keep up as best you can.”
“Go, go. I’m calling our friends. We’ll meet you there as soon as possible.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter 45
Below, the ocean waves churned. They’d been growing larger the closer Anna got to Obsidian’s distant little island. A high black wall of clouds billowed out across the sky from the same general area.
Unfortunately, she feared the storm wasn’t natural, but fueled by uncontrolled magic. Obsidian’s magic. The taste was heavy and familiar in the humid air. She didn’t know what was being done to him, but her terror kept her wings beating at top speed even after fifty miles.
“Be at ease, young Kyrsu,” Death’s compelling voice was suddenly filling her head. “While your Rasoren is experiencing something he finds greatly distressing, he is in no physical danger.”
His reassurance fell short of actually reassuring her. “Why is he in distress?”
“Because there is a djinn within the Magic Realm and you no longer have the time needed to seal your powerful bond slowly, over time, as I would have preferred. But there was a faster way to see it molded into its potential. Obsidian is now undergoing the ordeal.”
“What is it? And was he willing?”
Death sighed out a long, sad note in her mind. “Your most traumatic memories. He’s reliving them. When it’s over, you’ll have no reason to keep a shield up around your mind. Once it’s done, he will understand as he never could have before, and you will be there to share in his pain and comfort him.”
Her heart felt like it seized in her chest. Obsidian was never supposed to see those. Never. She shuddered and swooped lower. Realizing the danger, she beat her wings harder and arrowed back higher into the sky.
“He was never supposed to see those. Why would he do this?”
Why would he do this to me? I trusted him.
“Your Rasoren can’t do anything that he’d see as harming you. He’s not physically capable. And he viewed what I asked him to do as a type of mind-rape. He’s a noble soul. But we don’t have time for noble. I forced him to take the memories.”
So, Death had done this to Obsidian.
Her rising rage had a target at least.
“Yes, I am the one who made a hard choice so neither of you would have to. Remember that before you decide to hate me forever.” Draydrak’s voice was filled with sadness. “Go to your Rasoren. He needs you now. Remember what you felt after the trauma and how all you wanted was to be comforted by your beloved? Obsidian will shortly find himself in the same emotional hell, but unlike the first time, you will be there to comfort him. Out of this shared pain and self-forgiveness, your magic will forge an unparalleled soul bond. One strong enough to rival what the Avatars share, and they began as one soul.”
Anna still seethed, but she would heed Draydrak’s words. None of this was Obsidian’s fault.
“I won’t fail Obsidian.”
“Good. Because your magical ability will increase tenfold and give you a fighting chance against a djinn of this one’s strength.”
“Go, Anna, rescue your Rasoren and forge a soul bond of a strength never seen before.”
She did, winging her way closer with each heartbeat.
Chapter 46
Anna battled the storm as she circled the island in large loops, drawing closer with each revolution. Obsidian was down there somewhere. Her magic might not be able to separate him from the maelstrom created by his power, but her keen gargoyle sight served her well, scanning the land.
Ah, there.
He looked like nothing more than a tightly curled bit of darkness against the pale sand of the beach. But it was him.
Curling a wing, s
he changed direction and arrowed towards him.
The crosswinds and layers of wild magic buffeted her, tossing her around in the air. She overshot her planned landing site next to Obsidian and crashed into the surf at the edge of the beach instead.
Sand, wind, and rain pelted her in vicious waves. She formed a translucent shield of magic to protect against the worst of it. Then dropping to all fours, she stalked across the beach, her talons digging in against the gale-force winds.
When she got closer to Obsidian’s location, she saw why she’d overshot her target. He sat within a protective dome. The storm winds circled it like the eye of a hurricane.
Inside the air was calm, not even a little breeze to stir his mane.
She hoped this dome was the reason she couldn’t touch his mind.
Though the way Obsidian was kneeling with his muzzle tucked against his chest, wings mantled around him, and rocking back and forth ever so slightly as magic continued to bleed off his skin didn’t look good.
She shouted his name.
He didn’t respond.
Or maybe it wasn’t that he didn’t respond. Perhaps he couldn’t, his mind trapped inside the memories.
There was one ray of hope. His magic didn’t consider her a threat, and she was able to touch the dome without harm. After a moment of gentle coercing, the magic of the dome-shield granted her entrance.
She went to him then and knelt without hesitation, placing a hand on his shoulders. His magic stirred in acknowledgment of her presence, licking and caressing along her skin in recognition, but it didn’t attempt to drive her away or otherwise harm her.
Running her fingers along his spine, she moved them up under his thick mane until she could stroke the back of his neck. As a child, he’d always found that comforting. She hoped he still did.
While he couldn’t respond, he might still be able to hear and feel.
“Oh, my brave Rasoren. I’ve failed to keep this horror from you. I’m sorrier than I can say but know I’m here with you. You’re not alone.” Her gargoyle nature stirred in response to his distress, her magic reaching out, seeking a way into his mind.
Legacy of the Sorceress (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 6) Page 25