Sorceress Rising (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 2) (18 page)

Gregory. The
siren.

It dawned on
Lillian the siren had had to release her in order to turn her full powers back
upon Gregory.

Tethys began to
sing, and Lillian felt herself going under a second time even though this
enchantment wasn’t focused on her. Cold power shimmered along Gregory’s skin as
he summoned defensive magic. His skin took on the rough seeming of stone.

Tethys sang and
runes blazed to life along his skin, preventing him from resuming his stone
form.

Gregory roared
in anger and pain, lashing out with magic. The wave of magic was unfocused and
shot over the siren’s head, though she’d hunched lower in the water.

The wave
continued past the siren to sheer through one wall of the cedar maze. Its
momentum carried the magic, and its destructive force, beyond Lillian’s field
of view from this side of the doorway.

Having expanded
so much power in one shot weakened Gregory, and he slumped down onto his knees,
panting with his head bowed.

Desperately
wanting to help, Lillian crouched next to him and flared her wings, mantling
them around Gregory in a vain attempt to shield him from the siren’s song.

But of course,
her action did nothing to prevent Gregory’s enslavement.

Helpless to do
anything, Lillian could only watch in despair as he fell under Tethys’s song a
second time.

Her gut
tightened. This was a mild version of what the Lady of Battles wanted to do to
them. Maybe Tethys would be the kinder mistress. The warm fog was back,
soothing, coercing.

“Lillian,” a
voice called from behind, the words dark and rich, the tone deep and beautiful,
so like Gregory’s, and yet not.

Swaying, Lillian
found herself hovering at the threshold of the magic doorway, Gregory at her
side. She didn’t even remember standing up, but she was at the doorway, ready
to take the last few steps to accept the siren’s offer.

Curiosity flared
briefly, but died as the siren’s song swelled to match the dark beauty of the
second voice.

“Lillian! I did
not sire you so you could become a slave.”

The medallion
around Lillian’s neck heated to the point of pain, and then with a wave of
scorching magic racing across her skin, she was herself again, Tethys’ voice
weaving nothing more than a beautiful song. Shadows to her left shivered and a
gargoyle similar in build to Gregory appeared before her startled eyes.

With a gasp,
Lillian stepped away from both the doorway and the newcomer. Her hurried
backpedaling nearly had her running over a smaller body behind her.

The delicate
female sidestepped in time.

Lillian whirled
to face this second newcomer while she tried to determine if there were others
with these two, or if they had come alone.

That they were a
threat was all too certain.

She’d seen them
four months before at a distance when Gregory had first discovered the demon
seed within her and had tried to dig it out with less than favorable results.
That time Lillian had only a glimpse of the dryad and gargoyle standing before
her now, but she’d known whom they were even then. They had been a part of the
first eight years of her life, a time that was nothing more than a blank void,
except for a few details filled in by others and what she herself had
uncovered. But she knew them on a visceral level nonetheless.

Her birth
parents.

The amulet Gran
had given her with the cryptic message ‘smear three drops of your blood upon
the amulet and it will summon your last allies’ now became clear.

It all made
sense—why Gran had been reluctant to give it to her, and the command to use it
as a last resort.

Well, this was
as last resort as it got. She needed to know one thing first however, and she
modulated her voice to be heard over Tethys’s song, which she noted seemed not
to affect her at all now that the medallion was hot to the touch, nor did the
song seem to influence Lillian’s parents. Handy trick that.

“If you’ve come
to aid me for my own sake, I thank you. But if you come only on the Lady of
Battles’ order, then leave me to my fate. I will know if you lie.” Her voice
came out strong, almost like she was in command of the situation, though her
words were completely false bravado, she couldn’t detect lies as well as
Gregory. And even
he
might have trouble gauging her parents. If they had
been double-crossing the Lady of Battles for the better part of twenty years,
they were masters at twisting the truth.

“We knew we
could never sit by and allow the Lady of Battles to destroy you,” Lillian’s
mother spoke for both of them.

A loud growl
crested above the siren’s song.

Gregory.

She jerked her
attention back to her beloved in time to see him launch himself at her father.
Her mother danced nimbly out of the way and dragged Lillian stumbling along
behind as both males rolled past in a biting, snarling ball of winged fury.

“Do you accept
our offer of aid, daughter?” her dryad mother asked as she calmly watched the
two males continue to inflict damage on each other. “We are running out of
time.”

Lillian started
toward the two, concern driving her forward even when she knew she wasn’t ready
for a fight in gargoyle form, not like the one she was witnessing. The two
fighters would break apart, then with lightning fast moves come together again
in a fury of slashing, biting, and lethal kicking. Even their tails and wings
were weapons. Both fighters already had an alarming number of bloody welts
covering their skin.

“Do something.
They are going to kill each other.”

“Kill each
other? Perhaps, but not for days. They’re both hard-headed gargoyles and at the
moment fairly well matched.” The dryad made a gesture to the two males.
“Normally, your other half could finish your father with ease, but Gregory has
had a hard time of it recently, yes?”

The heat from
the medallion increased, forcing Lillian to clasp its chain and hold it away
from her skin.

“Exactly.” Her
mother nodded at the medallion and then inclined her head in the direction of
the siren. “There lays the true danger. The medallions are reaching the limit
of their ability to protect us.”

At her words,
Lillian noticed her mother was also wearing one of the medallions. Had her
father been wearing one?

More
importantly, could one help Gregory?

“Time to
exchange greetings with the siren,” her mother said and motioned Lillian
forward, back toward the door in the air. When they were almost to the
threshold, her mother pulled ahead and gave a formal bow, like something from a
long ago court, or two martial artists facing each other. Her skirts swirled
around her, made of some glorious burgundy and black fabric.

Lillian blinked,
then a second time to be certain, but yes, her mother had just plucked a bit of
black off the skirt.

As she
straightened, she spun the bit of glassy black shadow in her fingers,
readjusting her hold on the shard and then flinging it almost faster than
Lillian’s gargoyle-enhanced vision could track. The bit of black, a tiny little
throwing knife, she realized, flew through the air. Unwaveringly, it hit its
mark and buried itself inches deep in Tethys’ throat.

Her song cut off
mid-note as she gagged on blood and the solid bit of blackness lodged in her
vocal cords. Clawing at the knife, the siren bent over and retched blood as she
dug it out.

“That will not
slow her for long,” her mother said as she dragged Lillian away from the
doorway. Seconds later, a blast of power streaked through the magic
construction, lashing out at the empty space they’d stood in only a moment ago.

“Now,” her
mother called.

Another gargoyle
emerged from the shadows near where Gregory still fought with her father.
Instinctively, she drew breath to call a warning to Gregory, but her father
sprang away before she could, his momentum carrying him in front of the
doorway. Gregory followed close on his tail.

And the third
gargoyle struck with a blast of magic. It slammed into Gregory and tossed him
right through the doorway and halfway to where the siren still thrashed in the
stream. Gregory rolled, his arms, wings and tail all trying to slow his
momentum; however, it was one of the stone rings circling her glade which
finally stopped him. Lillian winced at the impact that shattered stone.

Looking beyond
Gregory to where Tethys struggled, Lillian saw her lips moving, but only blood
came out. Oh, she would have been screaming orders to her other slaves, but
without her voice to command them, the other Fae stood waiting, blank as
sleepwalkers.

Concern for
Gregory drew her eyes back to his hunched form. He remained still for several
moments, and Lillian’s traitorous feet were already moving her toward him. With
a grunt and shake, he righted himself and then bolted back into motion.

Lillian’s mother
flicked more of the black shards, but her aim wasn’t for Gregory. They collided
with the magic doorway, sinking deep into its border. She continued to throw
more shards into the weaving until it bristled with them. Then with a high
pitched whine, the magic holding the threshold open collapsed, taking the door
and its view of the center of the maze with it.

Gregory vanished
still on the other side, trapped there with the siren. Lillian felt hollow
inside. She’d allowed her parents to betray him.

She’d betrayed
Gregory, her protector, the other half of her soul.

As if unaware of
Lillian’s inner turmoil, her mother brushed her hands clean of whatever
residual magic might coat them and then turned to Lillian. “We must strategize
how to capture and hold your gargoyle long enough to free him from the siren’s
power, but we need to move first before Gregory returns. It will not take him
long to build another threshold to this place. He will be desperate to find
you.”

“I haven’t yet
decided whether you’re any better than Tethys. It seems everyone wants to use
us, or own us, or possess us.” Lillian left unsaid the uncharitable thought,
that that seemed the natural order of things for avatars of the gods. She and
Gregory were, in point of fact, tools owned by the Divine Ones. Gregory might
word it slightly differently without a hint of censure, but he’d never tried to
hide the fact either. “I’ll listen to you, but I make no promises. If you so
much as try to force my hand, I’ll take my chances with Tethys.”

Lillian’s father
approached, a great dark shadow, but lacking the comfort of Gregory’s presence.
This gargoyle, father though he might be to her, was a complete stranger. Thus
suspect until proven an ally.

Her father’s body
language was all open curiosity, and she was certain he wanted to come closer
for a hug, or maybe a sniff? She hadn’t a clue how family relations might work
among gargoyles.

The third
newcomer, another male gargoyle, sidled up on her right side. Feeling suddenly
hemmed in she shifted her weight, wings spreading for balance and talons coming
up.

Her parents both
stepped back.

“Lillian, easy,
don’t hurt him.” Her mother cautioned.

Lillian blinked
at her. Don’t hurt him?

He was as big as
she was, which did put him slightly shorter than either Gregory or her father.
And the newcomer was slim, less bulky, his gait somewhat awkward, almost
coltish in his movements.

He continued to
approach her position, looking for all the world like he was vibrating with
excitement.

“Lillian, meet
your brother,” her father’s tone made it sound like she should already know
that detail, but uttered it aloud for clarification’s sake.

“My brother?”
Lillian’s mind blanked and kept trying to visualize her older, adoptive brother
Jason, but another part of her knew they meant her natural born brother.

“He’s newly
emerged from my hamadryad,” Lillian’s mother said with a touch of pride. “He
came early, sensing our distress at your situation. As soon as your grandmother
gave you the medallion, we were able to sense the danger to you and your
gargoyle. We came as soon as Shadowlight was mobile.

“Brother?”
Lillian croaked, still hung up on the fact she had a younger brother. He’d just
emerged—by that her mother meant born. Her little brother had just been born
and had already come to help her battle Tethys.

Lillian drew a
calming breath. So far, she’d say her family had risked more for her than she’d
ever risked for them. The image of Gregory and her father fighting flashed
across her closed eyelids. There was no way she wanted Gregory and her little
brother to meet, not until her other half was in full possession of himself
again. She opened her eyes and speared her mother with her gaze. “I want to
hear more, but not here. You’re correct. Gregory is going to come storming back
any moment.”

Lillian’s mother
nodded and then gestured to where her father was standing next to a doorway,
one like Gregory had created, only this one opened onto a night-shadowed
meadow, the darker bulk of trees marking the boundaries.

She could well
be looking at a very pretty trap. Then again, her parents were presently the
only hope she had of freeing Gregory from Tethys’ spell. And if they were still
serving the Lady of Battles, well then, they had even less reason to want
Gregory entrapped by another. Lillian would use them to help her free Gregory,
and if they planned to in turn betray her to the Battle Goddess, she would just
double cross them first.

A touch of guilt
was followed by a strong protective instinct. It warmed her heart as she looked
upon her younger brother. All she saw was innocence and determination in his
gaze.

Him she would
protect, and give Gran another grandchild to mother if Lillian’s own parents
proved deceitful.

Decision made,
she met her little brother’s gaze and held her hands out to him. He clasped
them eagerly.

“Come,” she said
with a gentle squeeze of her fingers, “I want to get to know you. My
grandmother, the human woman who raised me,” Lillian clarified for him when his
ears flicked forward in question, “named me Lillian. I heard our mother call
you Shadowlight, correct?”

“Yes.” His voice
was deep and rusty with disuse, or maybe it was more that he was just learning
to use his voice for the first time.

They walked
through the doorway and into the tall grasses of the meadow. The moon was still
climbing the sky, but its nearly full brilliance bathed the meadow in light
bright enough she could make out the fluffy seed heads swaying in the wind.

“Here, in the
Mortal Realm, we must hide ourselves from the humans, or blend in as best we
can so they do not learn of our existence and hunt us down. Is it okay if I
call you Shad for short? It sounds more like the nicknames we use here.”

“That would
please me. Our parents hope to make this Realm home for a little while. At
least until it is safe to return to the Magic Realm.”

In other words,
until she and Gregory taught the Lady of Battles a lesson not soon to be
forgotten, and it was safe for everyone to return.