Myths and Gargoyles Jamie Hawke (i read a book .TXT) 📖

isn’t it? You can see why Moronoe wants to take it from you.”

“Is that what she wants?”

Mizoa shifted her hands up and down as if weighing something. “More or less. My mother explains it like this—there’s no more powerful access point to magic than Avalon. When one group controls it, they have the advantage. Ironic, then, that using it causes more chance for the other side to be able to make a move on it.”

“Balance, I suppose.” Glancing back in the direction where Rianne had gone, I asked, “She’s really your mother?”

Mizoa nodded. “Not that I had much of a chance of getting to know her, what with the state of this land. Moronoe raised me as much as anyone did, but she showed her true nature early on.”

“And your father?”

“That is a more complicated answer.”

She waved a hand as Rianne had done. Rosy light rose around us again, only this time completely surrounding us, becoming the land and sky and everything in between. For a moment, all I could see was the light, then it faded to show an entirely different environment. The light had formed a canopy over us, what appeared to be a war tent of the olden days. There was a glint of metal from outside, but with golden light and silver waves, like it wasn’t really there—as it probably wasn’t.

In the middle of the tent, an old man in gray robes sat on a field chair, bent over some parchment with books stacked nearby. He looked like someone I should know. Like someone everyone knew, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“This was him,” Mizoa said, walking around to the other side of the old man, watching him. As I stepped closer, too, I saw that he was writing runes. A spell, it looked like, one that involved traveling a great distance and imbuing someone with amplified powers.

To my surprise, the old man looked up. He eyed me, then Mizoa. With a slight movement of his lower lip, he took her in as if trying to never let that image go, then stood. He walked to her, held out a hand. She put hers out too, and for a moment they seemed to touch, then took each other in an embrace.

As they met together, the rosy light flew in on them and, just like that, we were back, not in Avalon, but in the mansion. Only Steph was there, eyes on me first, then on Mizoa. Her eyebrow arched, then the corner of her lip went up.

Mizoa curtsied to her, then eyed the door. A moment later, it opened for Megha, the gargoyles behind her.

A nod to them, before turning back to me. “They will come back for you. Remember that. And be ready. Also…” She glanced at my red skirt and grinned. “Thank you.”

“You’ll stay for the fight?” I asked. “Help us?”

She shook her head. “I have sisters to find, my own battle to fight. But I’m sure the two will come together at some point.”

With that, she vanished, leaving the rosy robes to flutter to the floor.

Everyone watched, eyes lingering on those robes for a moment before turning to me.

“Why are you wearing a skirt?” Steph asked, stifling a laugh.

“I think it’s cute,” Kordelia offered. “Now, tell us where you’ve been.”

134

Everyone stared at me as I moved back to the bed, found my clothes, and dressed. The rosy skirt vanished as soon as it hit the floor. Not that I’d miss it.

Aerona looked uncharacteristically vulnerable as she said, “I’ve never had that happen to me while…”

The odd way I had been spirited out of the bedroom and into that strange dream-world where three of the remaining Nine Witches of Ystawingun awaited was starting to come back to me. Even worse, when it hit me how Aerona had opened herself up to me while dealing with grieving for her lost love.

“You have to realize I had no control over it,” I said.

“Still.” Aerona shrugged.

“Talk about… letdowns,” Kordelia added.

I held up my hands in surrender. “First, not my fault. Second, you won’t believe what happened.”

Filling them in as I dressed, I couldn’t help feeling a little pissed off. “Will I ever be able to simply sleep normally? First it was the time travel stuff, then to that Dark Land location, now… this?”

“And this time you weren’t asleep, anyway,” Steph pointed out. “I mean, did you really go mid-thrust?”

“I was about to pull out, I think.” Even I had to laugh at the idea. “Yeah, fucking ridiculous.”

“And we’re sure it’s real?” Kordelia asked. “We saw Mizoa, sure, but… maybe one of her spells?”

“It was real all the other times,” Megha noted.

I nodded. “It was as real as this moment, right here. Which is to say…” I looked around the room at the group, half of them nude, three of the five ladies being gargoyles. “Not a lot, admittedly.”

Ebrill grinned. “Want me to come over there and show you how real I am?”

“Not sure if that’s sexual or pain talk, or some combination, but now’s not the time,” Aerona cut in. “What Jericho’s saying is that, in addition to our previous interaction with Glitonea and what became Thitis, he’s now had contact with three members of the Nine.”

“A lot of damn contact,” Megha noted, scrunching her nose at me. I hadn’t gone into all the details—such as the healing of my scrotum—but they got the idea.

“That means only four of the Nine are completely unaccounted for,” Steph pointed out. “Morgen being one of them, and we don’t know which side she’s on.”

“Sides might be complicated when discussing the Nine,” Aerona argued. “I’d say it’s safe to assume they’re always on their own side.”

I shook my head. “Mizoa seems to be on our side.”

“For now.”

“If Rianne trusts her—” I started, but saw the look of defiance in Aerona’s eyes. “What? Something you’re not telling me?”

“I’ve seen things,” Aerona said. “When I was frozen in stone all those years. An awareness, you could say. When you’ve lived as long