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

Shadowlight bound down the path, the afternoon shadows
already growing long behind him. He was alone for the first time in his life
and found the experience….interesting and a little lonely. Though he was proud
his father had given him a mission. He was supposed to join Greenborrow while
his parents prepared to aid Gregory and Lillian.

When he’d first learned his sister and her guardian
needed help, he’d wanted to go with them. Infiltrating the humans’ territory
and switching samples had sounded fun, and it would have given him the
opportunity to practice his invisibility weaving. However, he also liked the
leshii, making his present assignment tolerable.

Oh, well. There would be time to sneak up on mortals
later. He had an important job to do. Help Greenborrow determine if other
members of the Fae were missing and how many. He really was on his way to do
that. He just happened also to be finishing the patrol his parents had started.
He’d watched as his parents had cleaned the sites they’d found. He’d even
helped at the last two, so he knew he was more than capable if he should run
into a battle site in need of cleaning.

It didn’t make sense to him why all the Fae viewed the
humans the way they did, not when they had other creatures to fear. Hmmm, he
was
young and had never met a human in person. Perhaps it wasn’t right to judge.

Shadowlight turned down a new game trail, and the
scent of Riven and old battle hit him full across all his senses. He skidded to
a halt, scenting the air, seeking the direction of the highest concentration.
Ah. There, to the left of the track he was presently following. He took his
time studying the immediate area for dangers and ambushes. His mother’s
hamadryad had shown him a great many survival skills while he gestated inside
her. He saw no reason not to trust to her teachings.

Even with his concealment magic shrouding him from
view, he belly crawled along the ground on all fours, making as little noise as
possible. When he’d taken in the scene fully, he studied it a few moments more
to be certain.

Scattered across the ground, like boulders left by a
retreating glacier, several broken bodies, of both human and Riven origin, lay
in a haphazard circle around the base of a balsam fir. Even the evergreen’s
pungent fragrance couldn’t hide the breath-stealing scent of violent death and
the stomach-souring stench of Riven taint.

The stench burned his nose, tongue, and throat, but he
ignored those senses and focused on others as he eased into the immediate area.
He called his magic and rid the earth of the demon-tainted corpses first, and
then the human bodies next. He added a prayer to speed their souls into the
next life.

He noted some of the humans had died from mortal
wounds inflicted by the attacking Riven, while others showed obvious signs of
Riven infection. The sharp fangs and claws were some of the earliest signs of
contamination. Interestingly, some of the humans must have swiftly come to
understand what their companions were turning into and ended them before the
change made them harder to kill.

He continued to cleanse the land, following a trail of
broken underbrush and trampled greenery.

Here, there were fresher signs. He came upon another
Riven where it had crawled away from the battle. He glanced at the signs on the
ground. No, it was not crawling away, it was crawling in pursuit of something
else. A second blood trail led away from the battle.

The Riven, its mad hunger driving it ever onward, had
managed to crawl quite a distance with only one leg. The other looked to have
been sheared off by one of the human weapons his sister had warned him about.
During the past night’s battle with the Riven, he’d heard the fierce noise the
guns made, and he’d already seen the damage many times while he aided his
parents purifying the forest.

Shadowlight glanced down at the body once more before
summoning magic to dispose of it. Had this one not been driven to continue the
hunt for its prey, it might have survived the night.

But judging by how the head had been severed from its
neck, he guessed its intended ‘prey’ had gotten tired of being hunted and had
set an ambush for the Riven. He continued his search with more caution than
earlier. This battle’s participants might not all be as dead as he’d first
thought. Easing into deeper shadows, he continued his hunt. When he reached the
blood trail’s end, he found two more Riven and a human soldier. The human lay
propped against an old giant of a tree, his body wedged between two of its
massive roots.

Braced against the soldier’s drawn up legs, the long
metal device, which he’d learned was what made the fierce sounds and tore the
flesh of its victims to shreds by using many tiny projectiles, lay dormant.

Of the two Riven, the one just to the left side of the
soldier was dead, its body torn with ragged tears, but that wasn’t what killed
it. It had been decapitated, and not with the swift, clean stroke of a sword.
It looked more like it had been hacked at repeatedly with a smaller blade. The
wounds spoke of desperation, or perhaps the last fierce strength of one knowing
his own end was at hand but was determined to take another of the enemy with him.

Shadowlight felt surprise and respect stir in his
heart. Here was one of Light’s champions, found among the humans, but a hero
all the same. The human’s heart still beat, as weak and labored as his
breathing, but it would not for much longer, not with the wounds he had
suffered.

Besides, the soldier had sustained several Riven
bites, and their taint was already infiltrating his body. He would grant the
soldier a merciful death once he’d dealt with the other remaining Riven.

This Riven squirmed and thrashed as it tried to free
itself from where it was impaled on a broken sapling. Glancing at the sapling,
and giving it a once over, Shadowlight noted the sharpened point. So it was a
spear trap, not an accident. Clever human.

Even with the fierce wounds, including one which had
taken most of one arm, the Riven continued its slow, painful struggle toward
the human.

Shadowlight didn’t know what it planned to do once it
reached its destination. It wasn’t as if the human could become anymore
tainted. One of his father’s memories surfaced and slid along his
consciousness. Ah, that was the Riven’s plan. The demon soul within had
concluded its host body was too damaged to repair and the human only a few
strides away was a better option to act as host until another was found.
Together the old Riven spirit and the new one developing within the human’s
soul would find a place to hide for a time, and then start infecting others to
rebuild their numbers.

Shadowlight growled softly and released his
concealment spell, wanting the Riven to know what was going to send it back to
the dark. When the beast became aware of something other than its human target,
the Riven glanced up at Shadowlight, flashing its fangs in a mix of surprise
and defiance.

Shadowlight unleashed a lance of destroying light and
sent it cascading deep into the heart of the misbegotten beast. The Riven
opened its mouth wide in a silent scream and then blew apart into a hundred
thousand wisps of shadow and light. With its destruction, the forest around
Shadowlight already felt cleaner. He turned his attention to the human-killed
Riven next, vanishing its taint with the same purifying spell.

He scanned the immediate area looking for other Riven,
but sensed only the taint of their spilled blood. He went to work on that,
wanting to postpone the other grisly task for a few moments more.

“Enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or some shit like
that,” a voice gasped close at hand. Shadowlight swung his attention back to
where the soldier lay. He’d thought the soldier was unconscious, but he was
wrong. A set of dark brown eyes studied him under thick dark lashes.

“Do a girl a favor and do to me what you just did to
those things.” She coughed and then gasped in pain.

Shadowlight paced closer until he was almost on top of
the soldier. This close he could scent the soldier’s female essence over all
the blood, gore, and taint. Not a male like he’d first thought.

“Don’t know what you are,” she choked out, and then
dragged the back of her hand across her bloody lips, “and don’t really care as
long as you kill me before I turn into one of those evil bastards. I can feel
it growing inside. But it fears you.”

Curious, Shadowlight hunched down next to the human.

She studied him in turn, her gaze lacking fear. His
mother’s memories showed that for some, when death came for them, it was a
relief and they did not fear the end. While others cried and begged and
pleaded, fighting against what came next until their last breath.

“I am a gargoyle,” he said into the silence.

“Gargoyle, eh?” She seemed to think his words over for
a moment. “Well, Gargoyle, since you’re no friend of those things…”

“Riven,” he supplied and then added, “No. They serve
the Dark, not the Light.”

“Riven. Suits them. Can I count on you…?” She held a
knife in one hand, likely the one she’d used to kill the Riven, and gave it a
little shake. “Can’t seem to do it myself.”

No, she wouldn’t. The Riven taint wouldn’t let her. It
needed a viable host to anchor it to this realm.

Shadowlight took the blade from her. He didn’t need it
to finish her off, but again he wanted something to postpone what he’d have to
do next. He’d seen his mother and father do what needed doing several times
this night. As for himself, he’d yet to end any life not already a Riven. Those
ones were already dead in one sense. This human watching him with her
pain-filled eyes was something else altogether, and he feared the act would
change him in some way. He suddenly felt his age. He wanted his mother or
father at his side.

But they weren’t here. And the human was.

She was young. Although several years older than him.
From what he’d seen and sensed, she was brave and as honorable as a gargoyle.
He couldn’t leave her bright spirit to be overtaken and enslaved by the Riven
tainting it.

Yet, he found himself reluctant to end her life even
though it was required.

The Riven taint was too deeply embedded to be routed
out by normal magical means. While he had powerful healing abilities and could
fight off Riven taint with little effort, the human had no such reserves left.

His dryad mother was a healer, and her knowledge and
memories told him his magic could heal the human’s injuries, but the Riven
taint was not something that could be healed. It had to be hunted down and
eradicated first.

By its very nature, his magic-laced gargoyle blood was
designed to hunt and eradicate evil. A blood exchange would kill the Riven
taint, but there was a good chance the human wouldn’t survive it either. If she
did, what then? She’d be tied to him for life, just like the unicorn was to
Gregory.

And that was just with one blood exchange. He feared
this would take many more. All his knowledge came from his parents’ memories,
but neither of them had ever had reason to heal a human in such a way. He
wasn’t even certain it would work.

A brave human was dying at his feet, worse than dying
actually. He had to help, or at least try.

“Little human, can you still hear me?”

She blinked her eyes open and then took a moment to
focus on him. “Yes. Just do it. You’re running out of time. It’s growing stronger.”

“You are brave, stronger, I think, than many of your
kind. There may be another way to help you.” Shadowlight dropped down onto his
haunches and mantled his wings around himself. He really didn’t want to kill
her, sensing it might darken a part of his soul if he did.  “Gargoyle blood
contains powerful healing and purifying magic. If I share my blood with you, it
would hunt down the Riven taint in yours and destroy it. However, it might also
kill you along with the taint.”

She laughed, and it turned into a groan. “God, this is
the strangest conversation I’ve ever had. I’m worse than dead without your
help. The worse your blood can do is kill me.”

“Yes, but it would be a painful death.” Shadowlight
gave a little shrug. “I could grant you a quicker death with my talons.
However, if you are not afraid of pain, I would prefer to heal you.”

“Can’t believe I’m talking to a hallucination. On the
off chance this is real, I’d be stupid to say no. Besides, I really want to get
revenge on the bastards who killed my squad.”

Her voice drifted into silence, and he realized she’d
just passed out again. She’d given consent, though, hadn’t she?

Shadowlight gave another little shrug. He understood
her reasoning. If he’d been in a similar circumstance, he’d want a second
chance to live, to hunt down his enemies, to avenge his family. Because that’s
what he sensed when she’d spoke of avenging her squad. They were a family.

He brought his wrist up to his muzzle. A swift, sharp
nip and his fangs sliced through his skin and his own blood coated his lips.
Scanning the human, he sought the locations of the Riven bites. Finding five in
total, he dripped his own blood upon them.