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

of the woods gave way to light, and we emerged at the edge of a path, a great cliff on one side. The clash of battle sounded in the distance, stone giants falling and spells exploding.

This was the battle! The one I had been involved with, and there it was. Megha, as I was very much aware, had been undercover on the other side. She was charging forth now with this group of miscreants, and there at her side was a young Fatiha.

A sideways glance at me and Fatiha stopped in her tracks. Megha came to a stop, too, turning to see Fatiha pointing at her with a shaking finger.

“You… you get the fuck out of her.”

I blinked, confused, and looked around. Or was it Megha looking around? I couldn’t be certain.

“I’ve seen you in visions. I know the role you hope to play in all this, and I won’t fucking let you!” Fatiha strode up to me, that shaking finger in my face. Megha’s face… fuck, I didn’t know, but it was there!

So, I spoke. “You need to be stopped.”

Fatiha shook her head, reaching out and pulling me from Megha. Yes, she actually pulled me out of Megha, and over toward the edge of the cliff. A glance back showed Megha standing there, frozen, the rest of them, too.

For a moment I thought she would throw me from the cliff, but she stood there, holding me, pointing.

“Look!” she shouted.

I did. Over the edge and down below, where a vast battleground was revealed. Upon it, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of dead orcs and the like. Monsters.

“No, not fucking monsters!” Fatiha shouted, pulling me so close that my nose nearly touched hers. “Lives. Creatures that mattered every bit as much as those fucking elves, every bit as much as you.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

“Armies… armies of men who can’t handle the idea that creatures like these would ever exist among them. The same men who will see to it that history books forget, that the people of your time will populate the world with fictional accounts, so that any idea that it ever once could have been real is discredited.”

“And Rianne? The others?”

“Are doing what they think is right. Fighting me and mine because we cross lines, because we aren’t afraid to hurt people to make the world a better place. But, don’t you see?” She indicated the myriad bodies. “They are no different than us!”

I gulped, confused. Why would Megha have brought me here? Did she know this would happen?

“Don’t worry about her.” Fatiha pulled me back, away from the cliff, and shoved me away so that I fell on my ass. “Worry about me—when we meet, remember this moment.”

Her next step was a blur, one that threw me right back into Megha’s body and we were running towards the battle lines, but then backward, away from it, moving in time. Megha with Fatiha, in a tent, orcs there, a female orc holding the male as he bled out, blood seeping into the ground.

“This cannot stand,” Fatiha said, and glanced at me.

Where are you? Megha’s thoughts came to me.

I reached out to her, trying to understand what was going on, and found myself in a village. There was a man bashing a woman’s head against a wooden pole, the woman collapsing to the ground, me running to her and shouting, “Mother!” before the man’s knee caught me in the face and sent me onto my back, staring up at a thatched roof with blurred vision.

Turning my head, I looked at the woman—a Drow—thinking, Mother, stay with me. Stay…

Everything shook and blurred more, blackness shooting across my vision in streaks, and then Megha was there, grabbing me and pulling me into her and I was back, flying over D.C., landing on a tree as the creature beneath her vanished.

You disappeared for a while, her thoughts said.

I’m back.

You saw.

It wasn’t a question, but a simple statement. We shared certain parts of our minds, and she was aware of what I had witnessed.

What she said doesn’t make her right, doesn’t justify all of this, I sent her way.

Not in the slightest.

At least we agreed on that, although I wasn’t sure why Megha thought it necessary to show me. Did she somehow think I would change anything about our trajectory? For the moment, I couldn’t linger on it, because we had a job to do.

Megha had the same thought, apparently, because she lowered herself from the tree, drew a deep breath, and started strolling up to the mansion in front of us.

142

Everything about walking into that coven felt like a trap, and yet we were sending Megha in all by herself. Well, by herself and with me, mentally at least. My ability to sense magic and danger showed me alarms going off, various wards being activated.

But nothing that said one way or the other how they were reacting to her arrival.

You’re breathing too loud, Megha communicated.

I’m not even breathing where you are, I responded.

She chuckled. Messing with you.

She was almost to the door before the first sign of life showed up, and even then, it was in the form of a translucent Drow. He wore long robes of silver over black, with black eyeliner that moved into a point in a way that reminded me of women in Ancient Egypt. His white hair fell over his shoulders but was pulled back behind his pointy ears.

“Megha, to what do we owe the honor?” he asked.

It’s not going to work, Megha sent, instantly on alert. But I’m going for it anyway.

Be… careful.

“I’m here to speak with Fatiha,” Megha said. “Is she in?”

The Drow offered a smile, and only when looking closely did I notice the hint of scorn. Megha was right. Still, she was going for it.

“Of course. She was expecting you.” The Drow moved aside, motioning Megha in.

She entered the place to find it vastly different from when we had last been there, right before I had been arrested. No charade here,