Sorceress Hunting (A Gargoyle and Sorceress Tale Book 3) (15 page)

The smell of dripping fat and wood smoke had her
stomach growling for the third time. The rabbits weren’t ready yet, but she was
eyeing them anyway. If the damned gargoyle didn’t get back here with something
else to eat, she was going to start picking off the most done bits.

As if her silent thought summoned the kid, the
gargoyle appeared out of the woods. He passed through the energy barrier like
it wasn’t there and dropped down next to her. With the help of the fire’s
light, she could see the wet blueberry stains on his claws. Glancing at his
muzzle, she grinned.

His pearly whites were more purple than pearly at the
moment.

He held out the bag to her and waited like a dog on
point.

“Thanks, kid.” She took the bag and tentatively patted
his shoulder, holding back the ‘good boy’ his happy wiggling inspired.

If it wasn’t for the wings and horns, she would have
sworn gargoyles and canines had a common ancestor somewhere not too far back in
the family tree.

“Ah, good you’re back,” Greenborrow said, setting
aside his carving. “Though if I know anything about gargoyles, you probably ate
as many as you picked.”

Greenborrow stood and stretched, and then came over to
investigate the cooking fire.

He fell silent again and both Anna and Shadowlight
tracked his every move as he re-arranged the coals and turned the rabbits on
the spit.

As Anna waited, she mentally coached herself not to
lose her cool, showing anger or annoyance to this Fae could be very, very bad.

But oh, how she wanted to shout ‘out with it, old man’
but she didn’t.

Shadowlight flicked first one ear and then the other
in Greenborrow’s direction. Finally the older Fae finished what he was doing
and returned to his seat.

“Oh, yes, what were we going to talk about again?” he
paused, looking thoughtful and then a smile spread across his face. “Right,
Shadowlight was going to test his vocabulary and explain to me why he put all
our lives at risk to save one human, when he’d been instructed to report any
and all battle sites to me. Honestly, I suppose this mess is equally mine. His
mother and father were busy elsewhere and they had entrusted his safety to me.
I should have made certain there was no way Shadowlight would come upon such a
scene without an adult at his side.” Greenborrow made a little shrug. “That
makes any trouble the kid gets into my responsibility. However, we have a deal.
So, Shadowlight, start talking.”

Anna found herself leaning forward. It was more than
just because her ass was on the line—though that was part of it, certainly. She
admired the kid’s spunk, his bravery and selflessness in saving her. She didn’t
want to see him get hurt.

Shadowlight looked down at his hands as he thought
over what Greenborrow had said. “She had killed three Riven by the time I found
her, well two and a half. The last one was impaled on a trap she’d set. She was
brave even when she first saw me.” He paused. “She didn’t want to become one of
them. She asked that I kill her.”

Anna reached out and touched Shadowlight on the
forearm. “I would never have asked had I known you were only a child.”

He flashed her a toothy grin. “I know. You have a pure
heart—a noble spirit. It fought to remain free of the Riven’s taint, but there
were too many bites and you were losing that battle.” Shadowlight looked over
at the leshii. “I would have done my duty had she not asked to die by my hand.
I’m a gargoyle, born knowing my duty—age does not factor into this. She asked
to die, so she wasn’t yet a Riven. She didn’t want to harm others. She wasn’t
afraid for herself. Even at the end, she worried what would happen to others
when she rose a Riven.”

Shadowlight stood and paced around the campfire. “But
she also wanted revenge against those whom had murdered members of her team,
her military family. Her heart and spirit burned as brightly as any gargoyle’s.
I couldn’t kill her.” He dropped his head, his shoulders drooping in defeat. “I
know I failed my duty to the other Fae, but I would have betrayed a part of my
gargoyle nature if I hadn’t tried to help her. She serves the Light, as surely
as I do.”

Greenborrow nodded. “That’s all I wanted to hear.
Well, all I wanted her to hear and you to admit. You did nothing wrong, my fine
young gargoyle. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Shadowlight’s entire being perked back up and he
darted forward to give Greenborrow a sloppy looking kiss. The leshii batted at
the gargoyle and made half-hearted exclamations of annoyance.

“Thank you for understanding,” Shadowlight said with
one final wet-looking kiss before he dropped to all fours and settled back by
the fire.

Greenborrow dragged his forearm across his face a
couple times before continuing. “However, everyone is still going to make an
attempt on your pet human’s life. I had planned the same thing until I was
close enough to see just how you had saved her.”

Again, Shadowlight was on the defensive. “I didn’t
have a choice. The Riven taint was too strong to be removed by normal magical
means, but my father’s memories pointed to another solution.”

“You gave her your blood,” Greenborrow stated. His
guess was really damned accurate Anna noted.

“Yes,” the gargoyle admitted, sounding entirely too
guilty about it.

Now that couldn’t be a good thing.

“Did you give her a choice?”

Anna was sick of the other two talking over her head.
“Yes, he gave me a choice. He even read the list of risks involved, and how I
probably wouldn’t survive.”

“Did he tell you the blood exchanges would form a magical
link between the two of you if you did survive?”

“Yes. We can already pick up a few of each other’s
thoughts.” She glanced down at her fingernails and flexed them so the leshii
could see. “But I’m guessing there are a few more things still to be discussed.”

Shadowlight cringed. “Those and the other changes came
as a bit of a surprise. I was going to tell you about that,” he said, sounding
very young and uncertain. “But I didn’t have a chance, and then Greenborrow
found us.”

“The boy didn’t fully think through his actions,”
Greenborrow said with an assessing look directed at her. “Now it will be up to
us to protect him from harm.”

A thrill of alarm hummed through her being at his
words. “Are you saying his people will try to harm him because he acted to save
me?”

“Yes, and no.” Greenborrow rubbed at his whiskers.
“The boy could certainly come to harm while trying to protect you from the
other Fae, and he could be equally harmed by your death.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our young friend has done something never done before
when he saved you, a mere mortal. Gargoyles rarely share blood. Their blood is
tied to their magic, even outside of their bodies. Gargoyles are immortal, as
in they don’t age and they are hard to kill. Occasionally, they will take a
dryad mate to increase their numbers.” Greenborrow held up a hand to silence
her when she was going to ask a question. “But there are no female gargoyles,
well, there is one, but that’s a discussion for another day.”

“His sister, Lillian. Shadowlight told me about her,
and the Avatars.”

“Well then, hasn’t Shadowlight been an informative
fellow.”

Shadowlight whined and thumped his tail on the ground.

“He was very forthcoming. He told me about his
parents, the Avatars, and an evil demi-god bitch who wants to rule all the
known universe. Oh, he also told me the basic history of the Magic and Mortal
Realms. That about sum it up? Or did he miss anything?”

“The Spirit Realm?” Greenborrow suggested.

“Oh, right, he mentioned that, too.”

“We were both in the Spirit Realm not long ago.”
Shadowlight inched closer until his head was resting in her lap. “We may even
have been friends there. Maybe that’s why our paths crossed in this Realm.” His
eyes drifted closed. “Compared to us, Greenborrow has been away from the Spirit
Realm for a long, long time.”

That confirmed Anna’s earlier assumptions about
Greenborrow’s age.

“Anyone would seem old compared to you, young pup,”
Greenborrow said. “Yes, I’m old and have seen many things. I was born long ago
in the Magic Realm, before the Twins began their war.”

“What started the war? Shadowlight never said.” Anna
wanted to know as much about those twins as possible because they sounded like
bad news.

“Love.”

Anna arched an eyebrow and Shadowlight perked his ears
as if that answer had surprised him.

“Yes, love. The Lady of Battles once had a consort,
the Shieldbearer, but he became corrupted by greed and envy. He wanted the Lord
of the Underworld’s power for himself. The Lady of Battles did not see, or
turned a blind eye to that taint.”

Greenborrow took another drink from his flask.
“Unfortunately the Shieldbearer may not have been the wisest creature to ever
walk the universe. He challenged Lord Death. As you might imagine, he didn’t
live long to regret his foolish mistake. The Lady of Battles took exception to
her twin’s actions and the war grew up out of the bitterness between them.”

As much as the story was interesting, she wanted to
know how something that happened forever ago applied to her current situation,
but didn’t dare interrupt. Greenborrow seemed the type who liked to do things
in his own time. He’d eventually get to how all this related to her.

“The Twins’ dispute drew the attention of the Divine
Ones—and as punishment the twins were cast out of the Spirit Realm, forbidden
to return until they saw reason. Lord Death did not know how to gain his twin’s
forgiveness, so he has kept her focused on him for all these millennium so the
Magic and Mortal Realm need not suffer the Lady of Battle’s rages more than
needed.”

“Are you saying we have Death to thank for our
continued existence? That’s so fucked up.”

“Not your existence, no, but for keeping his twin in
check. They share a duality curse. While one is trapped within their temple in
the Magic Realm, so too is the other.”

Shadowlight blinked open his eyes sleepily. “The Lord
of the Underworld hasn’t left his temple in over ten thousand years, so the
Battle Goddess is forced to remain in hers.”

“But her servants are not,” Greenborrow said. “And she
still has many loyal servants and soldiers—an entire army’s worth.”

“Well, doesn’t she just sound like the charismatic,
demi-god, dictator type?”

“It gets worse—some of her worst nearly killed you.”

“The Riven.”

“Yes, they were one of her warped experiments that
didn’t work out as she planned. They were too vicious and turned on her.”

“They are also the reason why we now know there are
other beings on this planet as intelligent as us. For the record, I would have
happily continued on in ignorance.”

“Wouldn’t we all love to live in peace and ignorance,”
Greenborrow laughed. “Alas, that’s not what fate has in mind for us.”

“So, I take it the Lady of Battles is bad for earth
even if she isn’t taking a direct interest in us mortals.”

“There is a war coming, and it will likely spill over
into this realm.” Greenborrow’s expression was somber. “We all are very much in
danger. For a long time, many of the Fae have simply hidden away, but that
tactic is no longer viable.”

Anna held up her hand to stop the Fae’s words. She
would have stood and paced but Shadowlight had fallen asleep with his head
resting on her lap.

Poor kid had had a rough time of it.

Divine Ones, demi-gods, Avatars.

Well, fate certainly had been rolling out the worscase
scenarios lately, so by that way of reasoning, the old goat was probably
telling the truth.

She was going to have nightmares for a year.

“So you’re saying there is a whole host of less than
benevolent beings out there capable of swatting this planet and the entire
human race like a fly?”

“Hmmm, it would take considerable power and this is
only one planet of many, and said being would have to have a really good reason
to want to annihilate you, but yes, in theory, there are a few beings out in
the wilds of the universe capable of such power.”

“They don’t cover this kind of thing in basic
training.”

“Well, you’ll be happy to know the Divine Ones love
all creation, and have a number of safeguards to protect it.” The leshii gave
the fire’s embers a stir and then checked on their dinners. “The Avatars are
one such safeguard.”

Greenborrow removed one of the rabbits, transferring
it to another stick before handing it to her so she wouldn’t burn her hands.
Suddenly, she was far from hungry.

“Unfortunately, the Lady of Battles found a way to
force the Sorceress—the female half of the Avatars to be born within her
domain. There she remained until she called to her Gargoyle Protector—the male
half of the Avatars.”

Anna nibbled on a part of a thigh, the meat was a
little stringy, but her stomach reminded her it was starving. “Thank you for the
scary history lesson,” she added around a mouthful of meat, “but that still
doesn’t tell me about my present problem.” She waved her black nails at
Greenborrow.