Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

all. As more of those white mist creatures darted about, flying this time, another figure joined them, but only her silhouette was visible. Her attacks lashed out like whips from all directions, painful and drawing blood, causing me at one point to collapse to one knee—yes, even with my stone skin activated!

“Stay with me,” Kordelia said at my side, pulling me up and running to tear down three of the white creatures, followed by a blast from Aerona that caused the blackness to recede halfway.

Reaching out my hand, I summoned my staff and said, “Elfenol Streic,” causing the end to light up with electricity. Lightning bolts shot out and chained off those little creatures, even hitting the darkness and pushing it back further.

“No!” Ebrill shouted, reaching toward me, eyes wide with worry. I had been about to summon the Liahona, but froze. She was right. Using it against this being could backfire if she was part of the Nine.

Megha was riding her creature and sped over my head, suddenly leaping toward the silhouetted figure. For a moment, her hands were on its head and I saw glowing, was even able to make out stunning eyes, before Megha was thrown aside to slam into the roof, face-first. She skidded across it with a growl of pain, then was up, blood and torn skin marring half her beautiful features.

Ebrill met her, about to heal, but was thrown back by one of those dark whips.

It was all so chaotic. With each spell of ice claw or whatever else I called up, the enemy would shuffle in the darkness, making it very hard to land a hit. But, Aerona had said to contain the darkness. As I watched, it faded more since her attacks were targeted for it rather than the other enemies all about us.

So, that’s what I did. I barraged the darkness with every attack spell I knew. Then, as it retreated, I tried ice wall—again and again—trapping some of the darkness in the blocks of ice. More lightning strikes, but geared toward the darkness, along with ice claw and others. Steph joined in with her flame spells, while Kordelia and Riland attempted to keep the other forces busy and Shisa kept us shielded as best as he possibly could.

In a flash of light, Aerona had it under control. She pushed it back, knelt, and summoned a floating crystal of light that seemed to be battling one-on-one with the darkness. We surged, apparently winning.

I glanced over to see Yenifer there, claws holding onto the rooftop as her eyes roamed over each of us.

“Gertrude,” a voice said as Yenifer opened her mouth, but it didn’t feel right. Didn’t fit.

“Who’s there?” Aerona asked, taking a step closer to the massive gargoyle, who was nearly twice her size. “Give us back our friend.”

“Friend?” the voice was almost mocking. “Give me mine.”

A surge of darkness shot out from above, bursting forth from our containment fields and lashing Yenifer across the back. It interrupted her speech and sent her stumbling to one knee—still at my height.

I glanced up to see why our magic had failed, realizing it was likely due to the fact that a second being was approaching. This one had green skin and a darker shade of green cloth wrapped around her body in the right places, not much elsewhere. Green, flowing energy went from her to the sphere, and as she landed there was an explosion from our spell. The dark shape of the other figure that had been inside the black sphere landed, sphere gone.

While the first was mostly green but with dark red hair, the other reminded me of a human version of the creature Megha had summoned. All dark, flowing, not quite there. Her black eyes took me in, the other with blue eyes that seemed to flow like water.

“Gertrude is… gone,” the green one said.

Yenifer spun on them, growling, and then rose. Without another word, she jumped, diving over the side of the building. Gone.

I was confused, but less so than I had been. At least now we knew that someone was controlling her, to the extent that they were even using her voice. She was searching for Gertrude for some reason, but why?

At the moment, though, we had a problem. These two ladies were eyeing us, magic flickering around them at all levels

“Why do you seem… familiar?” Aerona asked.

Steph grunted. “The Nine Ladies of Ystawingun. This is Moronoe.” She indicated the first. “The green one is Gliten.”

A growl came from near my ankle where Shisa was moving closer to me, ready for defensive action.

“Moronoe,” I shouted, watching as the black sphere started to form again, flickering and shooting around her, vanishing then returning over and over, so that it was like a strobe effect the way the two ladies appeared. “What do you want?”

“The same thing she wanted,” Moronoe replied, her voice like a heavy chocolate. “Gertrude and everything she has on the gargoyles.”

“Gertrude is gone.”

“So I hear.”

“And her work?” the other cut in. “The research on the locations of the others, on the Ni—Ooomph!”

A tendril of black slime suddenly emerged from the sphere and covered Gliten’s mouth. Her eyes went wide, but the slime faded, leaving her with her mouth shut as she floated backward, giving prominence to Moronoe.

“Let us in, so that we may find what we’ve come for.”

“Not going to happen.” I stepped forward, staff at the ready. While summoning the Liahona might be exactly what they wanted me to do, I wasn’t sure how much of a choice I would have. The moment had the potential to go very bad, very fast.

As that strange black strobe effect continued, the two very dangerous women glaring at me and likely debating their next moves, my mind was elsewhere. Using my connection to the house, I was searching. Looking for any hidden rooms or chambers I might have missed. Nothing yet, but if Gertrude had found something, I had to imagine her notes or something could be located,