Sorceress Rising (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 2) (16 page)

Tethys looked
Lillian up and down. “The Sorceress, as you are supposed to be, not as you are
now. You came, your power a vast light around you, chasing away the shadows,
exposing the ocean floor and leaving the demon in the light. So blinded by the
brightness, the creature didn’t even see your Gargoyle Protector until he’d
already cleaved the demon in two. While your gargoyle dispatched the taint and
healed the living creatures around the vent, you cocooned me in your power and
healed me. You made me far stronger than I was to begin with.” The siren
chuckled, “and you ordered me to ask for aid the next time I planned to battle
a demon from the ancient times.”

Stronger?
What a dumbass thing to do.
“What unfortunate
judgment on the part of my older self,” she said and then realized the filter
on her mouth had failed completely. To be honest, she been taken aback by
Tethys’s words. The siren had known the Sorceress, had actually shared
something freely, which would have taken months to drag out of Gregory.

Lillian loved
him and trusted him with her life; however, he had kept secrets from her in the
past, and he almost never talked of what she was like as the Sorceress, or at
least he never shared stories about their past lives. Was that normal, or some
new mechanism he’d developed to protect his emotions?

But now wasn’t
the time to worry over their personal lives, not when there was an age old
siren talking of the extinction of the human race like she was talking about
wiping out a nest of termites.

“I was surprised
to find your hamadryad is in fact the Sorceress at the moment. Did you know I
tried reasoning with your tree before I attempted to put your gargoyle under my
spell? But a dryad’s tree, while intelligent after a fashion, doesn’t think
like either of us, and I couldn’t make her understand the threat the humans
represent. She knows good and evil, but she doesn’t understand why complacency
empowers evil. I suppose the nature of a hamadryad is not one of action.”

“Never really
thought about it.”

“Your gargoyle,
he and I had an interesting conversation while he slept. He loves the humans no
more than I, but he loves you, and you somehow extorted a promise from him to
allow the humans to continue as they are without intervention. With such a
promise, you made him go against his very nature. He is a protector, a
balancer, a destroyer of evil.”

“I figured he
had enough on his plate at the moment.”

Tethys flicked
herself with water in a lazy fashion. “Did you know the Riven could not exist
without the weakness of man? Yet, you asked Gregory to turn a blind eye to the
human evil all around.”

“Strange, I
thought the Fae were also in danger of becoming hosts to the Riven.”

“Only here, in
this Realm, where they are forced to expend so much magic simply to hide
themselves from the humans.” Tethys flexed her arms and lifted herself into a
sitting position. “Beware dryad, there is a greater danger than the Riven; you
are changing your Gargoyle Protector, infecting him with your mortal weakness
and your human-centric moral compass. You have also taught your gargoyle how to
lie. He is an Avatar to the father of us all and yet he has come close to
breaking some of those vows for you. He yearns to love you as a mate.”

Lillian narrowed
her eyes, annoyance overriding fear for the first time in hours. “And what
concern is it of yours?”

Tethys’s laugh
had a tone both beautiful and chilling at the same time. “It will be every
sentient being’s concern if you do not do something to curb your dire influence
over your gargoyle. You say you won’t allow me to use either of you, that I and
my plans for humanity are evil. But it is you, and your weakness, which taints
your gargoyle. If you continue as you are, you will give the Lady of Battles
exactly what she wants.”

Lillian’s
stomach cramped like she had rocks in it. The siren’s words were dreadful,
because they struck with note after note of truth.

Had she really
forced Gregory to be other than he was supposed to be? And would he be punished
for those changes she had inflicted on him? Gregory would never tell her.

Focus. Think
of something else,
she chanted in her mind. “What
you say does have a ring of truth, but I can’t just stand by and allow you to
murder all the humans the world over.”

The siren
laughed, a bright, clear sound. “They’re doing a fine job themselves, I merely
propose to help them along. And it need not be all of them, half would be
enough to collapse their civilization. Their technology would fail and they
would be back to living off the land and sea within a generation.”

“It’s still mass
murder.”

The siren stared
Lillian down like she was talking to a child. “Poachers killed 20,000 elephants
for their ivory last year. On my journey here, it was just one story I read
about in something called a magazine dedicated to wildlife. Humans murder out
of greed, desperation, and madness. Do humans not put down rabid animals? I’ll
merely be doing the same thing on a larger scale.”

“What about
those trying to change? What about the innocent children who have no control
over what their elders do? Would you murder helpless infants?

“Ah, you truly
are young, child-like almost. Is this what remains of the Sorceress with all
her knowledge and wisdom stripped away? An innocent. I see why the Gargoyle
Protector can’t protect himself from you. You work great damage with your
wholesome innocence.” Tethys snorted. “A deadly temptation to a gargoyle. I’m
surprised he hasn’t given in and just had you. You wouldn’t be able to resist
him even if you wanted to.” The siren’s lips turned up in a smile. “But you
wouldn’t really put up a fight.”

Lillian’s
fingers tightened on her crossbow as she fought the urge to just take a shot
and hope for the best.

Tethys sighed
and made a soothing noise. “Don’t get all confrontational, dryad. We both know
I speak the truth.”

“Your version,”
Lillian snapped.

“I don’t lie. I
never have. Sirens are always forthright in our answers. Think about what I’ve
said. We are not enemies. I can help free you and your gargoyle from the trap
the Lady of Battles devised for you.”

“We don’t need
the kind of help you’re offering.”

“Yes, your
hamadryad is doing a fine job of killing the demon seed trapped within—it was
very ingenious of the tree to remove it from you while she healed you. And I
would judge the tree to finish her work in another three or four months. But I
doubt you and Gregory have the time. Either the Lady of Battles will send her
minions, or you and Gregory will give in to the desire growing between you.”

“I won’t allow
it to…”

Tethys cut her
off with a slashing motion of one arm. “I can offer you another option. I am
powerful enough to sing the demon seed to death. Then I can help you rejoin
your hamadryad and you can take back your soul and become the Sorceress as she
was meant to be. Once you are whole, the Lady of Battles will be unable to
withstand your joint power. You can take the battle to her and teach her it is
unwise to pit oneself against the Avatars of the Divine Ones.”

Oh, it
sounded so tempting,
Lillian thought,
but for
one little detail.
“Is this the same deal you offered Gregory while he
slept in stone? Since you’re now pandering it to me, I take it your plan didn’t
go so well.”

“No, it didn’t
have the effect I’d hoped,” the siren answered and laughed openly. “He said he
might have said yes had he also thought you’d ever forgive him. So I come to
you with the same deal.”

“And a very
tempting deal it is, except for one rather large detail. Well, more like 3.5
billion smaller details. I think that is how many souls my decision would cost.
I won’t barter one soul to save myself; I certainly won’t trade a few billion
innocent human lives just so I can become the Sorceress again. No bloody deal.”

She snapped the
crossbow into position and loosed the bolt. It flew true, its trajectory level
with the siren’s upper body. With an impossible gesture too fast to follow,
Tethys swatted the bolt, knocking it to the side where it embedded itself in
the muddy bank. Lillian was already reloading it when the crossbow took up a
subtle vibration in her hands. It lasted for all of three seconds, and then she
was suddenly clenching empty air, gaping with sickening astonishment at where
it had been.

“Ah,” Tethys
said, sounding as calm as a lazy summer morning, as if Lillian hadn’t even
attempted a shot, “That’s what your gargoyle said you would say, apparently he
knows you better than you know him. But that doesn’t change my goal. You’ve
forced my hand. I had so hoped you would make this easy. I truly don’t want to
enslave your gargoyle. He is such a noble beast. So much better had it come
from you.”

Her heart
pounding in her throat, Lillian glared at the siren, not liking the turn of
events but admitting it was going exactly the way she feared it would. Not
knowing what to say next or how to extract herself and her gargoyle from
immediate danger, Lillian fell back on pure bravado.

“If you could
have enchanted Gregory, you already would have, and you wouldn’t need me to
give him any orders.”

“True and
false,” Tethys said with a mysterious smile.

“And what does
that mean?”

“Gregory is
male. Under the correct situation, I could eventually win him over. He’s still
weakened from expelling large quantities of magic to produce weapons for the
land-bound Fae. It would be the perfect time to enchant him. Unfortunately,
while he remains in stone, my power cannot touch him. So now he can heal, grow
stronger, all while being impervious to my song. Once he is at full strength,
he will awaken. At which point, it won’t go well for me. If he lets me live, I
imagine it will be locked away behind a powerful spell.”

The siren
pointed to the maze’s northern exit, and then pushed herself backward until her
lower half was below the water line.

Lillian jerked
around as she caught an unpleasant odor. Something unwholesome was coming. She
could sense it deep down in the soles of her feet; the forest around her gave
warning, the trees aware of an evil passing through their domain. She took a
step back, the unconscious move drew Tethys’ attention away from Gregory and
back to her.

“Young dryad,
stay. There is something I want to show you.” There was a commotion at the
north entrance of the maze, accompanied by much growling and snarling as a
tall, humanoid figure was shoved forward at sword point. The unidentified
person dropped down into a defensive crouch. Three Fae followed close at his
heels, hemming him in and directing his momentum.

Lillian snarled
in recognition and two-inch black claws emerged from the tips of her fingers.

The Riven
answered her in kind, its snarl harsh on her ears.

While she was
less than happy to see one of them here in her grove, she held her position—not
truly afraid of one lone Riven. If she had to, she could fight it in her
gargoyle form. That nature simmered just below the surface, demanding she
answer the challenge, eager to dispatch the Riven sullying her grove. Instead
of forcing the dominant bloodline back, she held it in check, ready if she
needed it, but stopped short of a full shift, which might neutralize her
grandmother’s spell. That spell might be her last chance of escaping the siren.

Lillian narrowed
her eyes, every sense honing in on the Riven. Actually, the beast hemorrhaged a
black ooze from a dozen wounds. It looked like it might expire in front of her
at any moment.

“Why,” Lillian
pointed at the offending creature occupying her grove, “is that Gods’ blighted
beast here? One alone is no threat to Gregory or myself. If this is what you
wanted me to see, I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m already intimately
acquainted with the murdering, soul stealing little monsters. I doubt you can
show me anything new about them.”

“No, but I did
find this one and many others on the edge of your territory. As a favor to you
and the local Fae, I killed all but this one.”

“How nice of
you.” Lilian’s voice dripped with sarcasm but she was already inching closer to
where Gregory slept.

At some point
during the conversation, the Riven had turned his attention squarely between
Lillian and the siren. If anything, the Riven looked more distraught and sank
lower into its fighting crouch, fangs gleaming and claws extended in extreme
threat.

“I left this one
alive because I thought to use it as evidence in case you didn’t believe me
about the secondary threat, but then I decided on a better use for the
creature.” Tethys gestured for the three Fae to herd the Riven closer.

Lillian focused
on keeping her breath and heart rate slow and even, but she allowed her claws
to grow another half inch. Darting her eyes between the Riven and the enchanted
ward stones ringing Gregory in a protective circle, she briefly debated ending
the Riven before he reached the stone circle or allowing him to fry himself on
the protective wards.

In the end, she
decided to leave him to be incinerated on the wards, less tainted blood to
contaminate her grove that way.

One of the spear-carrying
sidhe made a jab at the Riven. With a desperate contortion of his body, the
Riven avoided being impaled and leaped back another dozen steps to land two
feet inside the ward stone circle. A second later, Lillian realized the wards
didn’t activate, not so much as a spark of magic flickered along their lengths.

Tethys had nullified
the protection on the stones.

Her heart
starting to pound with the sudden rise of adrenalin, Lillian glanced at
Gregory.

What other
protective spells had the siren neutralized?

The Riven seemed
to think along the same lines, for with one last disbelieving look at the stone
circle, he turned his hate filled eyes toward the sleeping gargoyle.

No!
Tethys planned to use the Riven to force Gregory to defend himself.

Lillian snarled
her own challenge and bolted toward the Riven, every logical thought forced
beneath the need to protect her mate.

She shifted
while still in the air, her wings stretching out, carrying her across the
distance. She snatched at the Riven, but the creature twisted away from her
claws.

With a flash of
silver in the shadows, he summoned a demon blade and came at her.

Lillian arched
away from the blade, remembering what one had done to Gregory gave her a
healthy respect for the thrice-cursed things. Using her powerful tail as a
weapon, she swiped at the Riven’s legs, forcing it to jump into the air where
she nearly speared him on her talons while he was distracted.

He twisted
impossibly fast a second time and darted under a low hanging branch behind the
tree. Growling in rage, Lillian gave chase. A sudden burning pain sliced across
her back, just below where her wings attached. Yowling in rage, she spun,
slashing out defensively at an enemy who wasn’t there.

A second slice
seared across her side, blood welling from a shallow wound that hadn’t been
there seconds ago.

She smelled the
strong odor of sap mixing with the coppery stink of her blood and knew in a
moment of lucidity, the Riven was attacking her tree, stabbing and slashing at
her hamadryad in a vain attempt to kill her.

Lillian howled
out her wrath again. A second, much deeper roar answered her call. It came from
behind and suddenly Gregory was racing past her to circle the tree.

The Riven burst
out from behind the trunk, Gregory on its tail and closing fast. The Riven put
on a burst of speed, leaping straight toward Lillian with its demon blade
extended before it.

Gregory lashed
out with a blast of bone chilling power, catching the Riven on one side. Its
momentum carried it toward Lillian even as Gregory’s magic burned along the
length of its body.

Lillian
sidestepped and slashed out at the beast. Her talons severed its head from its
shoulders as it careened past. For good measure, Gregory leaped onto the corpse
and blasted it with a second wave of magic.

With a hiss and
final crackle, the Riven’s body burned to ash, and then ash swirled into a
fog-like smoke until even it was gone.

Gregory raked
the ground with his talons, then drew a deep breath and coughed it back out on
an enraged snort. He took two steps toward Lillian, his muzzle pointed slightly
upward and his lips pulled back to inhale another deep breath. She dropped to
all fours and padded over to him, both to allow him to inspect her wounds and
so she could check for any he might have gathered.

They were mere
feet apart when a beautiful and eerie song filled the glade. Gregory twitched
an ear in the direction of the song. He turned his entire head and neck, taking
a half step away from her.

Her own ears
swung forward, seeking the source of the sound, her body was just starting to
mimic Gregory’s actions when a high pitched snap echoed in her ears, piercing
deep with a sudden agony, and then all the world went silent.

Bereft without
the beautiful song, she whined and pawed at her ears, hoping to unblock them,
but her hands came back covered in a few traces of blood. She snarled again,
thinking this was more of the Riven’s work.

But there was
something she wasn’t remembering.

Something about
that beautiful song.

Something
dangerous.

Gran had told
her about a spell and a song.

“I should
remember this,”
Lillian thought, the first clear
one she’d had in several heartbeats.
“Why can’t I remember?”

The web of an
enchantment fell away and everything came rushing back.

She shook
herself, then stretched, surprised to find herself resting on the ground.

In a sudden
panic, Lillian bolted to her feet and searched for Gregory. She found him
halfway between her and the siren.

He was crouched,
his tail flicking in what she first took as annoyance. She changed her mind
after she noticed his long ears flicking toward the siren, and then back in
Lillian’s direction. Every so often, Gregory would glance at her, his
expression vague and uncertain as if he was undecided what he was supposed to
do.

At the bank of
the stream, Tethys waited, still half out of the water, her tail lazily
splashing water over her body as she sang. For the moment, Lillian couldn’t
hear the song. She’d been lucky her shift to gargoyle hadn’t neutralized Gran’s
spell, but she didn’t know how much longer her luck would last. If she was to
help Gregory, she had to do something now, before her gargoyle blood healed her
ruptured eardrums.

A quick glance
down at the one injury she could see showed it had already stopped bleeding.
Her hamadryad was much stronger from the periodic feedings of Gregory’s blood.
What she’d normally consider a benefit was, in this instance, an unfortunate
side effect. She couldn’t assume the healing powers would wait to heal her ears
until all the other wounds were healed. For all she knew, her injuries might
all be healing at the same rate.

She glanced between
Gregory and Tethys.

There was no way
she could remove Gregory from the siren’s influence, he weighed too much and he
seemed disinclined to move from the spot anyway. She turned her attention back
to the siren. Was it possible to eliminate her?

By their very
natures, gargoyles were immune to many forms of magical attack. Perhaps her
gargoyle body could overcome the siren’s defensive magic where her magic-enhanced
crossbow had failed. And Tethys’ magic didn’t seem to be physical in nature, at
least Lillian had seen no sign of the dome-like shielding magic.

Lillian leaped
into motion, sending a silent prayer that what she did ranked as bravery not
stupidity.

The distance
between Lillian and her prey halved. Her talons extended to their full length,
her jaws parted in preparation to savage the siren’s throat.
Let’s see if
the bitch can sing sans vocal cords.

Shadows shifted
and suddenly Gregory was piling sidelong into her, his greater bulk and massive
wingspan carrying them sideways several feet until they both slammed into the
base of his stone pedestal.

She took two
swipes of his tongue to her face before it occurred that it wasn’t an attack on
his part. Lillian tried to extract herself from their tangle of arms, wings,
legs, and tails. But no matter how hard she tried, it was like pushing against
a mountain.

Gregory
continued to growl happily as he gave her gentle nips and licks on her exposed
skin.

Lillian fought
against Gregory’s overly happy greeting as it dawned on her that no song the
siren sang could ever make him harm her. In fact, Tethys might not actually be
able to force a person to do something outside of their innate character.
Rather like a hypnotist, her power allowed her to influence what was already a
part of a person’s makeup.

When Tethys
dialed up Gregory’s affectionate nature, he in turn became boisterous as a
six-month-old puppy—if ever a puppy weighed in at half a ton.

She forced her
head to the side so she could study the siren. Her adversary was still half out
of the water, seemingly in no hurry for Gregory to bring her his prize. But
then, maybe Tethys couldn’t force anyone as powerful as Gregory to do anything
he didn’t want to do.

But what if she
asked him to perform a task he didn’t find abhorrent?

That gave
Lillian pause.

She broke out in
a cold sweat.

Gregory had made
no attempt to hide his dislike of the human race and what it was currently
doing to the planet and each other. Tethys had pretty much come out and said
she wanted to reduce the human race to its hunter-gatherer origins.

Could the
siren influence Gregory enough to help?

Oh, hell,
yes.
It wouldn’t take much more than a nudge to get
Gregory to exterminate anything he perceived as evil. It was his sole purpose,
his reason for existing. That, and to protect his Sorceress.

That’s how
the siren will use him,
Lillian thought with
growing panic.
All Tethys need do is command him to protect his ‘Sorceress’
against the threat the humans represent. And he would.

Hell, she needed
to escape, buy herself sometime to think and strategize. There had to be a way
to breach the siren’s influence on Gregory.

Lillian glanced
at the surrounding forest.

Maybe she could
escape and lead Gregory deeper into the woods. If she got him away from the
siren’s immediate vicinity, then maybe he could rest and heal enough on his own
to shake off Tethys’s influence.

Gregory would
know how to fight the siren. Lillian relaxed, realizing fighting with him was
getting her nowhere. She lay still while Gregory cleaned her Riven inflicted
wounds, but her mind was far from idle, and she formed the basis of a plan.

He’d loosened
his hold marginally as he worked his way lower. When she shifted her weight
enough to free one arm, he tensed. Lillian followed through with the motion
anyway, pretending his mane had been her destination all along. Once her
fingers were buried in his thick mane, she started to groom the few tangles
loose.

Gregory’s death
grip eased enough to allow her to shift positions so she could better reach his
mane. The new position placed her sitting more upright with only one leg still
trapped under him. He sprawled against her, curled in a semi-circle around her,
his tail completely encircling her. She changed position again, bringing her
muzzle closer to where his neck met his shoulder.

As she
reciprocated his grooming, Lillian dragged in another breath of his heady
pheromones and nuzzled him in return. Her tongue lapped at his skin a moment or
two before her teeth scraped over where her tongue had been moments before.