Sorceress Hunting (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 3) (21 page)

She dodged. Mostly. The smell of burnt hair and a new
throb covering most of her left shoulder and neck said she hadn’t dodged the
last one fast enough.

Behind her, fire was starting to lick at the carpet
and walls. As it spread, its heat radiated against her skin, fed by new fuel.
She couldn’t spare the fire any more attention, or she’d be just more fuel.

Shadowlight still fought, his tail whipping around,
the lethal blade-tipped end seeking a weakness in Tin Man’s armor.

Which gave her an idea. She darted forward in the same
moment Shadowlight twisted and heaved himself back to his feet. He head butted
Tin Man in his armor-plated chest, which didn’t do much damage, but it
succeeded in keeping Anna from getting charbroiled.

The kid had heart.

Now if she would just land a blow. While Tin Man and
Shadowlight grappled for the chain, she sprang at them. She slammed into
Shadowlight’s back, and their combined weight felled Tin Man like he was a tree
in a hurricane.

She drew her arm back and then stabbed down toward the
slit in his helmet’s visor.

Something slowed her strike, a force she could feel in
her arm, wrist, and fingers. Whatever it was, stopped the blade from sliding
all the way home. The muscles in her arm flexed, trying to force it deeper. She
might as well have been trying to penetrate concrete.

Shadowlight’s claws curled around her hand in a
crushing grip and their combined strength forced the blade a few inches lower,
its tip sliding past the visor’s opening.

Tin Man screamed. Fire raced up the blade’s length to
engulf both her and Shadowlight’s arms before her brain ordered her to jerk
back. The same invisible force which had messed up her strike now lashed out at
them with punishing force. A second wave tossed them both clear of Tin Man who
continued to howl in pain.

His howling turned to something more akin to cursing,
but it was in a language she didn’t know. He slapped a hand over his visor in
an instinctive action—it wasn’t like it would do anything for the pain and
blood—and struggled to his feet.

But she spotted another opportunity to inflict some
damage.

She rolled to her knees as she picked up the knife
with her left hand. She tried not to look at her right hand, but still glimpsed
a charred, blackened mess. After the initial flash of pain, there was only a
kind of numb deadness about it.

That probably wasn’t a good thing.

Her vision was starting to blur strangely. No wait,
that wasn’t her vision. Tin Man was muttering and moving his right hand in an
intricate pattern. Something was forming along the north wall.

It shimmered as magic danced and sparkled. Whatever it
was took the form of a large window, or maybe a door.

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 desperate 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 armor
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 weighed 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 armor. 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 armor 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, sizing 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 luck, 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 armored
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 armored 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 armor 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 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, gray 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.

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 stench of blood and burned flesh.

“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, but 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 had been 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 favor 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 hamadryad. 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’ 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.”

Gregory agreed, ushering Lillian from the room.

“Oh,” Gran called over her shoulder. “Take Gryton’s
dagger and the piece of armor to the other Fae and see if you can come up with
a way to track him.”

Gregory huffed a second agreement.

They left the room in silence. Lillian didn’t have to
touch their mental link to know Gregory’s thoughts and emotions.

His earlier rage had been replaced by a limp tail and
drooping wings. He wouldn’t meet her gaze.

She waited until they were far enough away that Gran
and River wouldn’t overhear their words.

“This isn’t your fault, Gregory.” She reached out and
touched his arm.

He pulled away from her touch. “Of course it is. I am
the Protector, Lord of the Gargoyles. One such as Commander Gryton should never
have been able to venture into this Realm without my knowing! I failed in my
duty.”

“How so?” she countered but didn’t give him the chance
to answer. “I think it’s likely my hamadryad is behind this, at least in part.
I told you she was hiding something from me.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying. The Sorceress
would never side with evil.”

“You’re being a hard-headed male. I’m not convinced
the old rule book still applies in this lifetime. We’ve bent those old rules so
badly I think we’re dealing with a whole new set.”

Gregory grunted and hunched his shoulders as if that
would change the course of their discussion. “They have not changed merely
because I am foresworn.”

Lillian stopped. Well then. So that was the deeper
issue. She should have known.

“Hmmm, if either of us is guilty of not upholding our
duties, that would be me. Each knuckle-headed, moronic decision which has
nearly led to disaster has always originated with one of my ideas or actions.
That we are still here is due entirely to benevolent gods.”

“You may say it is so, but that does not make it true.
I have allowed myself to be distracted far too many times. I will endeavor to
do better.” He turned to her suddenly and wrapped his arms around her. “I will
not fail you again, and I will never fail our child.”

Lillian’s need to finish the conversation faded, but
the knowledge that this present mess was not Gregory’s fault did not diminish.

She would find out what her hamadryad was planning,
but first they had to stop Commander Gryton from returning to the Magic Realm.