“No.” Lillian uttered the word before her brain had fully registered her intent. “No fucking way.”
They watched her, their expressions unreadable.
“Most definitely not. I’ll just go serve Tethys, doubtlessly she’s the better master.”
“You don’t mean it, not really,” her mother countered, “not when you have the means to free Gregory after you’ve broken the siren’s spell.”
“You’re saying it’s as easy as putting that thing around Gregory’s neck, breaking the siren’s spell, and then taking it back off again? I’m not that gullible.”
“Easy?” her father chuckled, “I imagine it will be anything but easy to get the wardstone collar on your Gargoyle Protector.”
“There is a matching collar which controls this one.” Lillian’s mother gestured to Shadowlight and he came galloping over. She held her hand out to him. There was a shifting of shadows around his neck as River unclasped something, and then the matching collar became visible in her hand. “Thank you for carrying this for me, love.” Shadowlight kissed her and then darted off to return to his firefly hunting. “Stalks the Darkness is forbidden to carry such a thing from the Lady’s realm, however, Shadowlight was not there long enough to have such restrictions placed on him yet. And I could only hide the one on my person without the close proximity causing them to become reactive.” Her mother held out the control collar.
Lillian shook her head and stepped back. River continued to hold it out. Eventually, with a deep sigh of displeasure, Lillian took it because she wanted to see how much a person’s freedom weighed.
It was surprisingly light, and so very delicate for something so evil.
“I can’t betray Gregory like this—I’m sorry, but what are my reassurances that this thing won’t just turn Gregory over to the Lady of Battles?”
“You have our word, which I know isn’t much to you yet, but we are telling the truth.” The dryad sighed, her expression closing once again. “But you must know there is no guarantee the siren will not turn you both over to the Lady. We are aware Tethys is bitter about what humans have done to nature. Gregory is already taxing her power, and if the two of you prove too difficult to break to her plans, there is a chance, small I would wager, that she might turn you both over to the Lady of Battles in exchange for aid from that quarter.”
Her father made a thoughtful grunt and added, “Or she may fulfill her promise to Gregory and make you whole. Or if that fails, return you both to the master of all gargoyles—the Lord of the Underworld. There is a chance, a goodly one, Death may offer her a boon for the return of his most beloved gargoyle.”
“Beloved?” She really wanted to stop the parroting, but she had to ask. Later, she promised to make Gregory ‘magic-up’ a concise history of the Avatars. And she would read the damn thing from cover to cover without complaint even if it was ten thousand pages long.
“As relationships go, it is an interesting one. You might think it a father-son relationship as the Divine Ones used you and Gregory to birth the twins, but over the centuries, Gregory and the Lord of the Underworld became more like brothers.”
That explained one thing. “Then it’s not just the power of the Avatars the Lady of Battles wants? She wants to specifically break Gregory so she can use him against her twin. Nice.” Then Lillian saw another option. “I don’t have to choose between either a device made by the Battle Goddess’s hand or the siren’s song. There is a third party. If I run to the Lord of the Underworld, Gregory would follow, and once there, surely Lord Death would set Gregory free.”
A long silent hesitation was punctuated by uneasy looks between her parents. Her father was the one to answer. “Yes, the Lord of the Underworld would restore Gregory.”
Lillian took a deep breath. “You’re a gargoyle. You must know how to get there. Can you teach me what I need to know to seek him out?”
“You are correct. All gargoyles can find the way. Though it is much easier to travel from the Magic Realm to the Mortal Realm than the other way, the trip is possible from here. However, it would take much power, and even more will.”
Lillian cocked her head. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Before Gregory started expending large amounts of power to prepare the Fae of this world for the coming battle, he had power enough to bring you to the Lord of the Underworld. Yet he chose not to. Why do you think he made that decision?”
“Because of me.” Her tail twitched in sudden, fearful understanding. She forced it to still. “To protect me.”
“As I said earlier, the Lord of the Underworld would restore Gregory.” Her father’s look took in her form, from the tips of her horns to the sharp talons on her toes. “He would not stop there. He would free you from what his twin has worked upon you.”
“I wouldn’t be a gargoyle anymore, you mean.” She had feared this side of her nature. It was so primal, and yet it had fast become a part of her. Would she miss it if it were stripped from her?
She flexed her talons in the loam under foot and gave her wings a little shake, and feared the answer to that question would be a ‘yes’.
“Your gargoyle side isn’t something the Lord of the Underworld can just unmake,” her mother told her bluntly. “You were born this way. And I’m afraid once he was finished with you, you wouldn’t still be among the living.”
“But surely…”
Her mother made a sweeping motion with one delicate hand. “He would grant you and your hamadryad a swift death and then watch over your soul to prevent his twin from working her mischief a second time. That is the swiftest way to restore you. Once you were yourself again, you would thank him for his aid.”
“But what about the Riven preparing to overrun this world? The Lady of Battles’ scheme?”
“If he freed your spirit, you could then be reborn as you were intended. Gregory, too, since your other half would seek a quick end by Death’s hand. Once that happened, the Lady of Battles’ plans would unravel and she’d no longer be a threat to this or any Realm.”
“But surely the Riven…”
Her father interrupted her again. “Once you and Gregory were reborn, you both would make short work of cleansing this Realm of the Riven.”
“But it would take at least another ten years before Gregory or I could return.”
“Likely longer,” her mother added. “Gregory, always choosing to return as a gargoyle, would be battle ready long before you fully matured.”
“But by then the Riven would have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, if not more.”
“The Lord of the Underworld deals in death. He would see it as an unpleasant set of circumstances that might take longer than he’d like to fix, but all would be set right in the end, with the Riven destroyed and the souls trapped within freed.”
“And this is the being Gregory reveres as noble?”
Her father sighed. “Your thinking is that of a human. The Lord of the Underworld is immortal. Ten or twenty years is nothing to him, a blink in time, a tiny drop, it is as nothing compared to the long years of his existence.”
Lillian shivered. To seek the Lord of the Underworld’s aid, was that her only option? Was she brave enough to act upon it if it was? She liked to think she would be brave enough to do what was right if that became the only path open to her.
She could never allow either herself or Gregory to fall under the Battle Goddess’s power. But the road to the Lord of the Underworld was one she wouldn’t be taking either, not until she had exhausted all other options, for she knew that twenty year delay would doom both the Clan and the Coven. They would be among the first the Riven hunted down. Gran, Jason, Uncle Alan, Whitethorn, Greenborrow, the unicorn and the pooka would all die, or worse, become hosts.
“I won’t serve the Lady of Battles, and the Lord of the Underworld is only a very last resort. I won’t doom this Realm, or those who raised and sheltered me simply to make my own life easier. There must be another way to win Gregory b
ack from the siren.”
Both her parents relaxed.
“Good,” Darkness’s voice sounded strained, “for no parent should have to help their child find death.”
Lillian didn’t delude herself into thinking she was as good at reading people as Gregory, but she was certain that was honest concern in their eyes.
“You find yourself in a difficult situation,” her mother said with a sad nod. “One of our making. Your father and I didn’t know the Lady of Battles planned to trap one of the Avatars, or we never would have made it so easy for her to use us to beget a host body.”
Lillian laughed. “I doubt willful agreement factors into any of the Battle Goddess’s plans. If you had known and protested, I’m certain she would simply have found other, less savoury ways to get what she wanted.”
Pacing away from her parents’ searching gazes helped her think. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as her little brother hunted something in the tall grasses, honing his newly discovered gargoyle reflexes. He leapt forward and nabbed a bit of brown fur in his jaws. A quick snap stopped its struggles. A rabbit, Lillian idly noted, her thoughts galvanizing around her newly made decision.
She came back to the center of the meadow where her parents waited. “Tell me more about the slave collar.” There was no point calling the magical device anything other than what it was.
“Once the final spells are in place, the wardstones prevent tampering and once activated, none but you will be able to command Gregory. You both must wear one for either to work.” River held out the chunk of metal and jewels. Reluctantly, Lillian accepted the command collar—it was almost as large as the slave collar. From a dream a few months ago that was not in fact a dream at all, but the Battle Goddess’s attempt to communicate with her, she remembered how immense the dark one was, like the mythological Titans of old, towering taller than a lofty tree. Lillian eyed the collar again. “A little small for a certain goddess, isn’t it?”
Her father nodded. “The spells weren’t yet finalized and I was able to shape it into something more to our needs.”
It hummed with power. She thought she detected a slight vibration, almost like the device possessed its own electrical power source.
Well it did have a power source, after a fashion—layers upon layers of spells were woven into the metal and jewels. She could feel them, sense them with that wildness in her blood, her gargoyle heritage. But none of that told her what they were actually designed to do.
“So they protect the wearer from outside magic?”
“Yes,” her mother said, then elaborated, “The Lady wanted them designed so her brother couldn’t override their magic—not quickly at least. Of course, there are two sets and they are supposed to be worn together. You and Gregory were to have worn the slave collars and the Battle Goddess, the controlling bracelets. Used separately as we plan, some of their inherent strength might be compromised, but they should still prove enough to overcome Tethys’s enchantment. Neither set was finished, but we were only able to steal this pair as General Gryton was presently working on the other.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do this to Gregory. Even if I trusted you impeccably, nothing you’ve said guarantees these things won’t just hand us over into the Battle Goddess’s keeping. You, yourself, can’t know that for certain.”
Her father sniffed at the bracelet with distaste. “Then don’t trust us alone. When Gregory arrives, if he is lucid enough, have him examine the collars. He can verify I did not miss anything or have sinister intentions. He will not tolerate them near you if he thinks they are a danger to you.”
Lillian’s ears perked up. She hadn’t thought of that possibility. And just before Gregory had tried to drag her back to Tethys, he’d been talking. If not himself, at least lucid. She just didn’t know if it would be enough to allow him to study the collars with any kind of accuracy.
“Truthfully, I do not like this plan,” her father admitted, “but there is little else that will free Gregory from the siren now that her song has had time to dig deep into his spirit, and nothing we will be able to get our hands on before General Gryton learns this set is missing. He didn’t get his position by being slow of wit. He’ll know almost instantly what has happened. Once he alerts the Lady of Battles that she has been betrayed, nowhere within the Magic Realm will be safe for any of us.”
Lillian’s ears perked forward. “You said ‘little else’ not ‘nothing else’. What else can break the siren’s spell?”
“Dragon’s blood,” Lillian’s mother supplied. “It negates even the most powerful enchantments—perhaps even the spells upon the collars, given enough time. However, this siren is ancient, and would require blood from an equally ancient dragon. Fae grow stronger with age. We would need a dragon of equal strength to give its blood freely as it’s doubtful we could survive long enough to take it by force.”
“I don’t suppose dragons are friendly?”
“Dragons are not evil like human tales portray. They serve the light, but are not particularly hospitable or forgiving of those who once served the Battle Goddess, be it willingly or unwillingly.” Her father nodded at Lillian’s gargoyle form.
“So they’d take one look at my female gargoyle heritage and what…?”
Her father made a soft humming sound she’d come to associate with unhappiness. “They would likely try to purify you in fire. If this body dies, your hamadryad will as well, freeing your soul.”
“Hmm, yet more death. Imagine that. Someone needs to give the good guys of the Magic Realm a new playbook.”
Seeing her parents’ twin looks of bafflement, Lillian let that line of thought drop. “So we’re back to the collars. What hidden, dangerous surprises might the collars carry with them?”
“Once Commander Gryton knows they are missing, I imagine he will try to track their whereabouts.”
Her present location wasn’t a secret. Frowning down at her feet, her tail twitching in agitation, Lillian turned the massive collar in her hands. It reminded her of one of those Ancient Egyptian pieces the pharaohs wore.
She was concerned this General might be able to do more than track his device. “What is the chance he might be able to control me through this?”
“Less than slim. This was made for the Lady, don’t forget. You can imagine what she would do to Commander Gryton if she suspected he did something that would undermine her authority.”
“She’s not much for independent thinking among her underlings, I take it?”
“No,” came her father’s dry reply.
She hadn’t really thought what her parents were risking to help her. She glanced over at her younger brother where he was finishing his meal. “If she catches you, she’d kill you both, and my little brother, too. Probably him first, just to watch you suffer.”
It wasn’t a question and her parents didn’t need to answer. It was cold hard fact.
“I’m going to bring that temple of hers down around her ears and make it her tomb, or die trying.” Lillian hissed more to herself than anyone in particular.
She pinned her father with a fierce look. “So how is this going to work?”
Lillian’s father tilted his head suddenly, taking in the surrounding meadow and scenting the breeze. He snorted with distaste.
Then Lillian caught the scent as well. The undeniable stench of Riven, an unholy mix of death and dark magic.
In another moment of clarity another piece of the greater puzzle fell into place. “Death and dark magic. The Lady of Battles dabbled in what was rightfully her twin’s dominion. She created the Riven, didn’t she?”
“Indirectly, yes. The Lord of the Underworld would never create something so filled with mindless hate and destruction. In the past, when Lord Death attended to the balance, it was always with much deliberation and as much mercy as he could allow.”
The vision of a giant chess board over seen by Lord Death wasn’t a comforting one. But better him in control of that horrifying power tha
n allowing the Lady of Battles to defeat him and having her gain control of his power.
A stronger weft of Riven reached her nose. Just what she didn’t need. But fate was doing its usual thing.
Lillian flexed her claws. If she had to kill a few Riven before dealing with Gregory, so be it. The exercise might help her work out some of the fear and frustration currently churning in her blood.
“No,” her father ordered, “you will stay here and await Gregory. By now, he will have escaped the traps we placed to slow him down.”
Her ears flattened against her mane, and her lips started to peel back in a snarl, protective instincts rising again.
“Peace. They weren’t designed to harm, only to slow him. However, if we don’t put some distance between us, Gregory will do us some harm.”
Shadowlight came bounding up to her. Surprisingly strong, he scooped her up. “I’ll miss you.” He rumbled rather too loudly in her ear.
“Me, too.” Lillian countered, not wanting to hurt the young gargoyle’s feelings, but a touch confused.
River stepped up and gave her a hug as well, though a much more sedate one. “Dryads pass on instinct, memories, and life experiences to our offspring. Shadowlight knows you through my memories, and gargoyles are naturally very clannish and loyal. He already loves his older sister.”
Her mother moved off, allowing Darkness to embrace her. Before he broke away, she asked the one question that had been bothering her. “Even if Gregory looks at the collar and doesn’t blast it into next Tuesday and three realms over, what if the siren’s enchantment prevents him from putting it on? How am I supposed to get it on him then?” She pointed at the slave collar where her mother had left it. “Its appearance doesn’t inspire confidence.”
Her father laughed, surprising her. She’d thought him much too dower and standoffish for humor. “Then offer him a reward as incentive. You’re the first full blooded female born to our race. It shouldn’t be too difficult to get him to remain in one spot long enough to put it on him.”
The Avatars Series: Books 1-3 Page 45