He’d said he was taking Shadowlight home.
Oh. God. They were out of time and Shadowlight was hurt, unmoving beside her. The need to protect forefront in her mind, she studied her target one last time and prayed her aim was true. Her dad had taught her how to throw a knife, had always drilled her to keep practicing with both hands until she was as accurate with her left as she was with her right. Too bad she’d never gotten that good.
If she lived, she promised to practice until her arms were ready to fall off.
With the last of her strength and a hardy prayer, she sent the knife flying toward its target. A wet, meaty sound registered on her ears. There was another loud hiss, and then with a pained grunt, Tin Man yanked the knife from where it had embedded up under his arm joint where his armour didn’t protect.
He made no other sound as he turned his attention from the magic door, which now showed a view of a deeply forested area. She couldn’t see his expression behind the helmet’s visor, but the intensity of his banked rage weight heavily upon her. Or maybe that was just gravity and physical weakness turning her muscles to water.
Tin Man took a step toward her, flame bursting to life along both arms, hovering just above his armour. He jerked the dagger free of his flesh and with a disdainful flick, tossed it back towards her where it clattered on the floor before bumping to a stop against the toe of her boot.
“You both will learn your place even if I must burn the reminder into your flesh.”
Now that sounded like a world of pain.
A glance down at Shadowlight confirmed he was still out cold. No chance he could escape Tin Man’s wrath.
Anna threw herself down upon the kid and already knew her attempt to shield him would fail. He was just too big.
Another roar shook the house. It sounded a lot like Shadowlight’s, but this one was deeper and definitely meaner. It came again and she could feel the floor tremor slightly.
Tin Man whipped around and drew a sword from a scabbard at his hip. While he was distracted, Anna palmed his discarded dagger. If he was stupid enough to arm her, she was more than happy to sheath it in some other part of his body.
Something partially obscured by shifting shadows burst from around the corner and up the final few stairs.
Tin Man didn’t wait for the fight to come to him and loosed more of his fireballs on the newcomer. The gargoyle, she could see him now, ran straight into the wall of fire coming toward him. She sucked in a concerned breath, but the fire didn’t slow the gargoyle as he lunged at Tin Man.
The other sidestepped the gargoyle at the last moment, but the gargoyle snapped at Tin Man’s thigh as he passed, tearing away a chunk of armour with a small spray of blood.
In a blur she was barely able to follow, the gargoyle attacked again. Tin Man struck with both magic and steel. The sword sliced through part of the gargoyle’s wing membrane, causing a nasty three-foot tear. By the angle of the strike, Tin Man had been aiming to take the gargoyle’s head.
The two opponents circled, eyeing each other up. Tin Man chanced a glance in her direction, and she could practically see the frustration seeping from him. Yeah, he very much wanted to take Shadowlight with him.
“Tough love, fucker,” she said and gave him the finger.
The two opponents resumed the fight. She would have said the two were evenly matched, but that wasn’t really the case. Tin Man had already defeated her and Shadowlight—though she’d managed to score a couple hits on him—and from what she saw now, she knew he had been taking it easy on them. He hadn’t wanted to kill either of them.
But he certainly wasn’t terribly concerned about that stipulation now. Tin Man slashed at the gargoyle again, and then slammed his armoured fist against the gargoyle’s head.
While the gargoyle was stunned, Tin Man kicked out, catching the gargoyle in the side and slamming him into a wall.
Tin Man came within inches of losing his own head as another opponent arrived on the scene. Anna only had a moment to register Greenborrow’s presence before he swung a massive club at Tin Man’s head.
In a move to make any martial artist proud, Tin Man darted to the side, deflected the blow and then stepped in behind the leshii.
Anna fully expected to see the point of a sword burst through the front of the startled leshii’s chest, but heard the ring of sword on sword instead.
She glanced past the leshii to where Tin Man was sparring with yet another opponent. When Greenborrow turned to aid the newest arrival, Anna discovered it was a diminutive woman who looked barely strong enough to lift one sword, let alone the two she wielded with grace.
But damn, she was good as she danced around Tin Man in the narrow confines of the hall. The woman darted in and slashed with one sword while she parried with the other. Tin Man spoke in a foreign language. While it was an elegant sounding language, Anna imagined what he said to the woman was anything but nice.
The smaller woman brought her two swords up in a clear attempt to remove his head from his armour clad shoulders.
At some point, the gargoyle had rejoined the fight. He landed a blow with his long tail that Tin Man didn’t see coming.
It unbalanced him, sending him stumbling toward the leshii who swung his club with such force and speed it made her think of a professional baseball player.
The armour along Tin Man’s right shoulder crumpled under the impact and he roared in rage—pain too probably, but she was sure that was mostly irate fury.
From that point on, the fight took on the feel of a brawl, no—make that a melee.
Anna slumped to the side, taking her weight on her least injured shoulder just as her senses hummed a new warning. The air around her vibrated. She could feel it in her breast bone and even her lungs. She dropped flat a second time as an intense wave of fire blew outward from where Tin Man stood.
The bright fiery blast, as intense as a grenade, blew apart a portion of the ceiling and walls nearest it, and sent the other opponents flying backward. Anna felt the fire race over her and on down the hall.
She hurt, so she was alive. It took longer to figure out what had happened. At first, she’d thought he’d blown himself up like a suicide bomber. As she picked herself up off the floor and blinked spots from her vision, she saw him bolt past and dive out a second story window at the end of the hall.
The gargoyle and Greenborrow rolled to their feet, looking a little worse for wear, but they followed him out the window just as more people came charging up the stairs.
Through an increasing fuzzy grey field of vision, Anna tried to study the newcomers. She struggled back to her feet and protectively stood over Shadowlight, Tin Man’s dagger clasped in her good hand, ready to protect the kid with her dying breath if it came to that.
Friend or foe she wondered?
The smaller woman with the swords spoke to the newcomers.
Friends, then, Anna guessed.
An older woman with a long grey braid falling over one shoulder and hefting a substantial looking staff in one hand tilted her head at Anna, giving her the once over and then she asked in a surprisingly calm voice. “Who the hell are you and why are you in my house?”
Anna drew herself up straighter and nearly fell flat on her face when her one knee gave out. She settled for just staying on her feet, borrowing some of the wall’s strength to do it. “Corporal Anna Mackenzie. I’ll gut anyone who tries to hurt the kid.”
Anna’s vision darkened more and she knew that last bit was pure bullshit. She weaved like a drunk, her feet or the floor rolling out from under her and suddenly gravity was winning. She didn’t even feel the floor when she hit.
Chapter Thirty
By the time she and Gregory ran back to the house, Lillian had found they’d already missed the main battle, but she’d been in time to see the human standing over Shadowlight faint dead away. Deciding to voice what everyone else was thinking, she asked, “Who is that?”
Her brother Jason approached the fallen woman and felt
around for a pulse. “Corporal Anna Mackenzie apparently. She’s alive. Guess that makes her our problem now.”
Gran stormed forward and pushed Jason out of the way. “Go get as many others as you can and follow Greenborrow and Darkness. I’m pretty sure that was Commander Gryton. We cannot let him get away.”
Gregory huffed out an affirmative, his tail still flicked with agitation. He looked like he wanted to go hunt down Gryton then and there, but he hovered near Lillian and she thought it was more than just the collars that kept him there.
Jason nodded sharply and then hurried to do Gran’s bidding. River used the opening Jason created to reach Shadowlight’s side. Lillian made to follow but Gregory blocked her.
“Gregory, does the human actually look like she’s capable of hurting anyone at the moment?”
“She’s not human, not fully.” But he grudgingly stepped toward Shadowlight and allowed Lillian to go to her little brother’s side. With Gregory’s help, they were able to move the human and gently roll Shadowlight on to his back and take inventory of his injuries.
He looked no better than the human.
“What do you mean she’s not fully human?” she asked with a cursory glance at the woman.
She detected no hint of Riven upon the soldier. Other than her grievous wounds, which should have killed a human by now, there was nothing overtly strange about her. Then again, she couldn’t scent anything over the blood and burned flesh stench.
“What do you know that I don’t?”
“Open your senses wide. What do they tell you?”
Aiming a questioning look at Gregory, she did as he asked even though she wanted to help her brother more than solve some mystery about a human she neither knew nor really cared about.
“Shadowlight will recover. He’ll be sore for a few days.” Gregory gestured at the human. “She is an oddity, certainly, and not to be trusted. However, as strange as her appearance here might be, Commander Gryton’s appearance is much more concerning. We must hunt him down first. Order me to hunt.”
“You can’t. You’re barely healed from whatever the collar did to you under the hamadryad.”
“If I wait, the trail will grow old.” Gregory snarled and paced over to the window Gryton had gone out earlier. “If he manages to make it back to the Magic Realm, this Realm will be doomed.”
“Yes, but we need a plan.”
“There is no time!”
“Think, damn it. Going anywhere near the creator of the slave collars is a very, very bad idea.”
Gregory grunted and stalked back to her side, ears flat and tail twitching.
Lillian decided to point out the obvious, since Gregory’s blood was up too much to remember something important. “The collars won’t allow you to hunt him alone. If you’re set on this, we’ll hunt him together.”
“Gryton must be stopped.” He looked over his shoulder at the broken window, his lips curling back from his teeth in a snarl. “We hunt him together. Tonight. Now.” Each word came out clipped and harsh.
Lillian’s hand dropped to curve protectively over her belly. She’d fought before, risked her life. Yet she’d be risking more than just her own life now. “Are you ready to risk our child?” Lillian knew that was a low blow, but needed him to see reason. He was still healing from what had happened when her hamadryad had tried to remove his collar. He was in no condition to fight Commander Gryton tonight.
A flicker of reason returned to his gaze. He took a deep breath and then gave a full body shake. Slowly, some of his battle rage melted away—not all of it. Tension still radiated off him in waves.
Lillian didn’t entirely trust his sudden compliance, so looked to distract him. “Why is there a soldier here? Would Gryton conscript humans to do his bidding?”
“I don’t know, but this human was protecting your little brother, not trying to capture him. I think we may have this human to thank for Shadowlight’s present freedom.”
Now that put a different spin on things.
“She was protecting Shadowlight of her own free will?”
“Hmmm, I imagine they were trying to protect each other.”
“I can explain,” Greenborrow shouted as he came stomping back up the stairs. “Darkness and the other Fae are out hunting for our dear commander. I thought I should return and explain about the human before anyone does anything…regrettable.”
He stomped his feet and rotated his shoulders like he was aligning his joints back in place.
“Tell us what you know.” Gregory didn’t look up at Greenborrow, much more interested in Gran’s work.
“Anna is Shadowlight’s pet human,” Greenborrow chuckled. “Though, I think he knows not to call her that in her hearing.”
“A pet human? Never in all my…” Gregory just shook his head, and studied the two in question. “And under our noses, too.”
“Yes, it serves us right for leaving a week old gargoyle to his own devices for long periods of time.”
“How long have you known?” Gran glanced up and glared at Greenborrow. “Children make mistakes in judgement. A ten thousand year old leshii should not.”
He waved his hands in surrender. “Only a few days.”
“Days,” Gran snorted. “Old fools and children will be the death of me yet.”
“Go on,” Gregory prodded, obviously not willing for this to descend into a bickering contest.
“The boy found the human just after the Riven battle. She’d killed two of the beasts and had done a fine job on a third. As you can imagine, she was infected by the time our young gargoyle found her. Shadowlight was impressed by her bravery. She’d asked him to put her out of her misery, but he couldn’t bring himself to end such a brave, determined spirit without trying to fight for her soul first.”
Greenborrow waved at the unconscious gargoyle. “He didn’t really understand what he was doing when he saved her. If you look past all that blood and burns, you’ll see some of the changes. I don’t think that will be the last of them either.”
“But she’s human,” Lillian whispered, “I thought it only worked on dryads. Even then, it doesn’t change the dryad.”
“Interesting, isn’t it.” Greenborrow agreed.
Gran stood. “We will discuss this later. First we need to treat these two.”
There was some muttering and shifting of bodies, but Gran won in the end. Shadowlight and the human were moved into a medical area situated in the far back of the basement, in another series of hidden rooms.
“How many more secret rooms are there that I don’t know about?”
“A few,” Gran said and rolled her eyes. “It’s never come up in conversation.”
*****
After being shuffled to one side of the room, Lillian paced back and forth while River and Gran worked on Shadowlight and the human.
Gregory tilted his head and then cleared his throat. “Darkness reports he lost Gryton’s trail. He believes the commander used a pre-set magic weaving to transport himself to another location.”
It was too much to hope they would have tracked him down.
“Your father doesn’t know where it took Gryton, only that the spell wasn’t great enough to take him back to the Magic Realm.”
“Well that’s a blessing.”
“Wounded as Gryton is, Darkness doesn’t think our enemy will be able to return to the Battle Goddess under his own power any time in the next three days, not with the wounds they dealt him before he escaped.”
“Don’t suppose he’ll do everyone a favour and crawl off into some hedgerow somewhere to die.”
“No,” Gran barked. “So he will likely be seeking another way home before we have a chance to track and kill him.”
“You said he’s not powerful enough to get back to the Magic Realm at the moment.”
“Not under his own power, no. However, we know of one being capable of meeting his needs.” Gran didn’t look up from her work.
“You’re talking about my hamadrya
d. Why would she aid him? She is the Sorceress now, and as Gregory and I can attest to, she does possess higher thoughts. She’s waking to her power and memories. Surely the tree will recognize what Gryton is and prevent him from travelling between the realms.”
“Yes,” Gran said, a frown easily heard in her voice, “the Sorceress must have known Gryton was here. He had to have come here using her power. Otherwise, we would have felt a surge of foreign power at the time of his arrival and we would have investigated the cause. Which can only mean the Sorceress wants him here for some reason.”
Lillian touched the tattoo branded around her throat. “Gryton made these.”
“Exactly,” Gran said.
Gregory looked upon them both like he was seeing them for the first time and was horrified by what he saw. “The Sorceress would not side with evil.”
“Perhaps not,” Lillian said, “but what if she wants something from Commander Gryton, and she brought him here for that reason, Gran’s right. Otherwise, Gryton couldn’t have hidden his arrival. We would have felt it.” Lillian tapped the matching brand encircling Gregory’s throat. “But what if Gryton being here is part of my hamadryad’s plan to free us from these slave collars? Gryton created them, after all, he must know how to get them off.”
“The Sorceress does not need his help,” Gregory countered.
“But what if that is the Sorceress’s plan.”
“Doesn’t matter at this exact moment,” Gran cut in. “We need to heal Shadowlight and the human. I don’t like that Shadowlight hasn’t regained consciousness.”
River pressed her palm against Shadowlight’s forehead. Lillian felt the flare of magic, like a slight vibration against her skin. Her mother continued to pour magic into her little brother for a few moments more.
Removing her hand, she frowned. “I do not like what I feel either.”
Gran waved her hands in Lillian and Gregory’s direction. “Go join the other Fae and relieve Darkness. He’ll want to be here with his son.” She bestowed a stern look upon Gregory. “If you make it an order, Darkness won’t feel like he’s forsaking his duty just to be with his son.”
The Avatars Series: Books 1-3 Page 72