Sorceress Rising (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 2) (26 page)

“How far could travelers
deviate from my hamadryad’s actual location?” That information would give them
at least some idea where a Riven army might appear.

Gregory’s ears
flicked back toward her a few times as if he was debating her question. Finally
he said,
“It would depend on how much power they were willing to expend. The
more power, the farther the distance.”

So much for
that idea
, Lillian grumbled in the depths of her
own mind. “How can we keep the Riven from arriving in mass? Is there a way to
sever the bridge between the two hamadryads, even for a short while?”

“Not from
this end,”
Gregory replied.

“From the Magic
Realm, then?”

Gregory remained
silent.

“Yes,”
her father said with equal reluctance.
“But whoever tried would
soon find an army marching upon them. To truly neutralize the threat, the Riven
army must be destroyed.”

Lillian’s
thoughts turned in another unhappy direction. “From what I’ve gathered, the
Riven do not serve the Lady of Battles. They are like an experiment gone wrong.
Yet she does nothing to curtail their activities? Why? She doesn’t seem the
type to share power. Doesn’t she want to invade this Realm or conquer the
entire universe or something like that?”

Her father made
a huffing sound, though Lillian couldn’t decide if it was agreement or
disagreement with her line of thought.

Her mother took
pity and clarified for her. “The situation is complex. More so than even your
gargoyle beloved may realize,” she said and glanced at Gregory. “The Lady of
Battles mostly considers the Riven beneath her notice. From time to time, when
they became too numerous, she would eradicate those encroaching upon her
territories. Beyond that, she paid them little heed for they were nothing
compared to her power. She was more focused on building her own army.”

Lillian
tightened her hold on Gregory as he gathered himself and leapt over a fallen
tree. When the way was smooth again, she asked, “If the Battle Goddess was
looking to build an army, why didn’t she conscript the Riven—she and they seem
like they’d make a perfectly bloodthirsty match.”

Her father
huffed out a chuckle.
“That was the problem. She demands loyalty above all
else in her soldiers.”

Lillian’s
stomach tightened at his words. If that was true, why were her parents here?
Even though they had survived Gregory calling on divine power to heal the Hunt,
that mention about loyalty put her parents’ true motives into question once
again.

“By your
expression, I know what you’re thinking, and,” her mother gave a slight shift
to her shoulders, “yes, I was loyal to my Lady. All her subjects are, and I
would still be serving her if I thought her actions wouldn’t bring about the
death of my children.”

A cold lump
formed in Lillian’s stomach, but River continued with barely a pause.

“We were her
subjects long before the loss of her consort and the schism with her twin,
which led to a millennium-long war. She was not always as she is now. Long ago
her battles were against darkness, her twin fighting at her side. She once was
a goddess of justice.”

“The glory of
what one once was, no matter how great, doesn’t remain untarnished by the
misdeeds of our present existence,”
Gregory said
with undisguised censure.

Her mother bowed
her head ever so slightly. “That truth took me a long time to understand. I
held out hope for centuries that time or reason would gentle the rage burning
within her. A small part still hopes for that one day, but I could not sit by
and wait for that day, not when my own flesh and blood would suffer at her hand
to sate her need for vengeance.”

“Nicely put,”
Lillian added, “but that doesn’t explain why she’s suddenly allowing an army of
Riven to cross her borders unchecked.”

“Doesn’t it?”
her father picked up the story.
“She can’t come to this Realm to
retrieve you, not while the duality curse holds sway. Without her twin’s
agreement, she is trapped in her temple. And the Lord of the Underworld will
never allow his twin to walk free, not willingly. So she is forced to use other
methods to shape the outcome of certain events.”

“The Riven.”

He nodded.
“She
doesn’t control them but she is allowing them to invade her own land. We think
she wants them to come to this Realm to force Gregory to fight or flee with you
back to the Magic Realm. Once there, she believes you will be strong enough to
overpower him and serve him up as a great prize.”

Lillian thought
she’d just tripped her parents up with her questioning. “I thought she wanted
me to beget a child with Gregory so she can use it in her fight against her
twin—a way to finally win the blood feud.”

“That was the
original plan,” River agreed, “but she never took into account that Gregory
would emerge from his mother’s tree two whole years early so that he could come
to your rescue. And you, yourself, further surprised her a quarter year ago
when you refused to return until Gregory was fully ‘yours’.”

“She raged
about that for a half moon,”
her father said with
undisguised humor,
“before calming and deciding to send us to learn just
what was going on in this Realm. We reported back with an altered account of
events. She would never have believed it coming from me, but your mother was
her most trusted confidant. I suppose that was why I was given into her keeping
when I was first captured.”

Now that was
something she wanted to know more about.

Her thoughts
de-railed when the abusively loud crack of gun fire split the night. And not
the type of guns used by hunters. No, this was the kind she’d only heard in the
movies, not real life. Instinctively, her back muscles knotted with tension and
she held Gregory around his neck so tightly she was surprised he didn’t
complain.

“Those are
the weapons the human warriors carry, aren’t they?”
Gregory asked with another brush of his mind against hers.

“Yes.”

“Then they
are free of Tethys’s enchantments, which means one of two things.”

Lillian
swallowed. “Bad news, and yet more bad news?”

Gregory tilted
his head enough to give her his exasperated gargoyle look.
“It means either
she has released everyone under her control so they can fight the Riven, or
that the enemy has already overrun her position and her enchantments died with
her.”

Lillian sent up
a silent plea to the heavens for the siren’s survival. Three hours ago, she
wouldn’t have believed she’d be praying for Tethys.

Then again, the
phrase ‘choosing the lesser evil’ had originated somewhere. She wasn’t the
first person, nor would she be the last, to eat her own words and side with a
former enemy to face a greater threat.

As they drew
closer to the savage sounds disrupting the night, Gregory winced at the
bruising noise. He skirted wide, not wanting Lillian or any of the Hunt to get
caught in the path of the tiny vicious projectiles.

At his mental
command, six sidhe archers broke off from the Hunt to aid the human soldiers.
The sidhe took to the trees, that relatively high position might offer them
some protection from the path of the bullets.

Having no time
to partake in the smaller skirmishes, he continued to run, intent on the main
Riven force closing in on Lillian’s hamadryad.

Lillian held her
peace at the direction of his thoughts; however, she turned her head to track
where the sidhe had disappeared. A new tension in her body told of her
indecision.

“The sidhe
will do what they can for the humans. We must stop the main force before it can
reach your hamadryad.”
Gregory softened the harsh
edges of his thoughts, allowing compassion to bleed across their mental link.
“I’m
sorry, but I fear there will be many deaths this night—clan, coven, and human
alike.”

Lillian’s
thoughts brushed his in return, warm with the depth of her love for him. “Run
swiftly, my love, and perhaps we can prevent greater losses.”

He lengthened
his stride in silent agreement. They passed several other smaller skirmishes
along the way. Gregory ran down two Riven with the poor judgment to get in his
way. To either side, he saw Lillian’s father and brother take down their own
share of the enemy.

On the outer
edge of the gardens, Gregory ordered her to draw her blades. She did as he
asked even as more Riven poured out of the night-shrouded greenery, forcing the
Wild Hunt to slow. This particular horde fought and died with a greater
ferocity, and he assumed they were there to slow the Hunt no matter the cost.

At first
Lillian’s two long blades must have felt awkward compared to the type she was
accustomed to, for her moves were cautious to the point of hesitant. Gregory
brushed his thoughts with her then, showing her what she needed in order to
wield the blades with a deadlier precision. Soon she was instinctively hacking
and cutting at Riven. Her rudimentary skills bloomed into something far fiercer
under his guidance and he smiled. As her kill count increased, so too did her
confidence. Then her thoughts darted to the possibility of dismounting to give
him a greater freedom of movement.

“No,”
he sent in a mental blast of desperation.
“Stay where you are.
We’ll fight better together than apart. Merge your thoughts more fully with
mine.”

There was a
small hesitation on her part, and then he felt her thoughts brush more firmly
against his, then deeper, until they were fully merged.

His spirit
thrilled with happiness and pleasure, uncaring that it was battle that forced
the bond. With her astride, they were of one mind, body, and soul. It fed that
all-consuming craving to belong, his greatest weakness, and as close as they
were merged, he couldn’t hide it from her. The shame at his personal weakness
was still there, but mild and muted by the sheer joy of running into battle
with his lady upon his back.

Her essence
shifted deeper within his soul, followed by the soothing wash of her voice in
his mind.
“There is no shame in what you feel.”

Another six
Riven in his path forced him to bury his fierce joy and focus on battle. More
bodies fell before his claws and Lillian’s silver blades. Within moments, the
pristine gravel path darkened with blood and more unwholesome substances.

He continued
down the path with a reckless speed, spearheading the mad charge, the rest of
the Hunt swift on his heels. He didn’t slow until he came upon the hulking
shadow of Lillian’s maze. A great mass of Riven had already made their way
inside the south entrance. Distantly, the sounds of battle reached his ears,
and he knew there must be another group of Riven attacking from the north
entrance of the maze as well.

The wind carried
the snarls, grunts, and screams of battle. More importantly, his keen hearing told
him that the battle hadn’t yet reached the middle of the maze where Lillian’s
tree grew.

Within, an
unknown number of his people still fought.

A familiar voice
rose above the din of battle, shouting orders and encouragement. Vivian’s tone
confirming there was still hope. There was still time to stop the Riven. The
gods had been merciful.

Gregory felt
Lillian draw in a breath. He pinned his ears just in time as she screamed,
“Gran, we’re coming. Hold on.”

The three
massive bears bolted past, drawing the Hunt into a new charge.

He and the other
gargoyles followed close behind the bears, decapitating the carpet of broken
Riven bodies they left in their wake.

Decapitation
proved the most effective way to neutralize the Riven until their remains could
be burned in purifying fire. The bears’ lethal claws did an excellent job for
the most part, but a few demons had been agile enough to avoid killing blows.
One such Riven snarled at Gregory.

It was not so
lucky to avoid his claws.

The Hunt pushed
onward, breaching the maze. Within, the fighting grew more intense, the
confined space forcing the fighters on both sides to use uglier tactics.

He found himself
unable to get a good swing without tangling with the warrior next to him, and
he resorted to severing the Riven’s head from its body using his jaws. Spitting
out the tainted blood from his last kill, he took down the next Riven in
similar fashion.

Lillian was left
with nothing to do, and by her inventive curses, she wasn’t pleased with being
unable to contribute.

The going was
slow, but when they turned a corner in the maze, they were able to see Vivian
and a dozen other coven members defending their position against close to
thirty Riven. With the enemy stretched out between them, he went about the
business of reducing their number. Lillian’s father and brother took up
flanking positions a few steps behind.

Seeing three
gargoyles advancing sent the Riven into a frenzy. Some of their number
attempted escape by scaling the maze’s cedar walls.

A stirring of
magic drew his eyes from the Riven to the cedars themselves.

Ah. He smiled.
Now he sensed what Greenborrow had been doing in the maze of late, and also why
the enemy had opted for the longer route to the center of the maze instead of
cutting, climbing, or clawing their way in a direct line through the greenery.
But desperation now made them attempt the walls.

One Riven was
making a fair bit of headway and had climbed a good two-thirds of the way to
the top when the dense greenery shifted and pulled the demon’s upper body
inside.

There was
several moments of snarling and screaming before the cries were cut short by a
wet, tearing sound. The cedar walls gave themselves a shake and spat out the
Riven’s lower body first, followed a couple seconds later by the upper portion.
Five other Riven attempting the same climb met with similar resistance and
outcome.

Lillian gasped.
“I’m never pruning the maze again, ever!”

“Why,” Gregory
asked between one kill and the next. “You’re a dryad, all plants like you. Even
bloodthirsty trees planted by a leshii.”

“I know why Gran
wanted me to increase their blood meal feedings.”

Lillian might
have said more, but she had to take out a Riven that got past his claws when
four rushed him at once.

He shoved the
body off her long blade and continued forward, leaving the still struggling
beast for Shadowlight to finish.

Several more
Riven fell before him and he was suddenly standing before Gran as she battled
one of the last enemies. She slammed her staff down on the Riven’s skull, then
looked up at him and gave him a weary smile. “Glad to see you finally showed
up. And you brought the Hunt, I always knew you were a dependable boy.” Gran
leaned on her staff for a moment and panted. Sweat dripped down her temples and
covered her face. She and the others with her were covered in blood and
gore—too much of it their own.

As Lillian slid
from his back to give Vivian a hug, Gregory admitted to suffering similar bites
and claw marks. None of them were unscathed, but they were alive.

“I’m sorry,” he
said with a formal half bow in respect to Gran. “We came as soon as we could.”

“Forgiven, my
dear,” she said as she and Lillian broke apart, and she hefted her staff once
more. “But we need to get to the center of the maze. The Riven attacked from
both directions and the others don’t have the Hunt to aid them, they may
already be overrun.”

He nodded and
shouted orders to the rest of the Hunt for the fastest to come forward. Out of
the corner of his eye, he noted when Lillian’s brother came alongside Gran and
bent a wing.

Gran took the
arrival of more gargoyles in stride, and with a nod accepted Shadowlight’s
invitation. She mounted in one smooth motion despite her numerous injuries.
Gregory dropped back to all fours and Lillian silently remounted him as well.

Without needing
to speak, the three gargoyles bound into motion. They ran as swiftly as the
twists and turns of the maze allowed. The Wild Hunt kept pace. He was proud of
their valiant efforts this night, because none of them had had an easy task to
complete.

Shadowlight
pulled up even with him, and he realized Gran wanted to speak.

“Tethys sensed
the Riven coming and released us from her enchantments so we could prepare for
the coming battle. She stayed behind with Lillian’s hamadryad to protect it
should we all fall before the Rivens’ onslaught.”

“What happened
to all the guests?” Lillian asked.

Yes, what had
happened to all the humans? He’d not noticed their lack until Lillian mention
it, when it fact, he should have been tripping over their Riven ravaged bodies.

“Tethys
commanded the civilians to the north end of town, well away from where she
sensed the Riven came. She saved their lives, though I think it was mainly so
the Riven couldn’t use them as new hosts. Heaven only knows what the townsfolk
will do when they return to themselves.” Gran gave a little, half-hearted shake
of her head. “If we survive this night, I don’t know how we’re going to spin
this to keep the humans in the dark.”

“Blame the
military, most of the town probably will anyway without our help.” Lillian’s
reply sounded gruff and tired. She should never have had to endure half the
events she’d experienced this night. He vowed to do a better job in the future.
Ahead, a sharp bend looked more like a dead end, but was in fact the inside
edge of the maze. Their destination was almost in sight.

They took the
last corner without slowing, and burst out of the maze into the small glade.

A quick glance
showed many Riven had already forced their way free of the narrow north
entrance, and were now shoving back or overrunning the few surviving defenders.
As the tide flowed into the glade, it broke into three distinct flows. One
group swarmed the defenders, forcing them against one of the inner cedar walls
where the sidhe didn’t have room to swing their deadly long swords and were
forced to use smaller blades to hack and thrust.

Behind him more
of the Wild Hunt emerged from the maze. He motioned half their number to attack
the Riven at the opposite entrance. They had to slow the number of Riven
reaching the inner glade, or they’d simply mob the Hunt and trap the defenders
with sheer numbers.

Vivian led the
first wave of the Hunt to engage the enemy. If they were able to keep the
remaining Riven trapped within the close confines of the maze itself, they had
a chance to end the conflict relatively quickly, with less of their own blood
decorating the ground.

Or so he hoped.

As the second
wave of the Hunt gathered behind him, he did a quick tally and found seventeen
already at his heels with more pouring in behind them. Out of time, he led the
charge toward the siren’s location. The first batch of Riven had started to
encircle the tree even before Gregory had covered half the distance.

As he closed in
on the hamadryad, he spotted Tethys at last. She rose up from the stream, her
power falling from her like water, where it swirled around her in an ever
increasing current. Then with a subtle shift in her shoulders and a flick of
her great tailfin, she loosed a wave of magic upon the unsuspecting Riven.

Her spell-wave
crashed over the first row of them, physically forcing them back even as the
defensive magic triggered in bright flashes of light. The powerful spell ripped
the moisture from the Riven, leaving dry husks, incapable of movement in its
wake. Even over the distance, Gregory felt the pressure of that spell dance
along his skin. By her sudden sharply drawn breath, Lillian, too, felt that
fearful power.

Tethys continued
to lash the demons with blast after blast of her magic.

But there had to
be close to eighty Riven already within the glade.