Realm of Scamall
Evalle had lost count of days.
Germanus explained that days ran at a different pace in his realm. If she wanted to entertain herself by keeping track, she could figure approximately five days in here for every one in the human world.
Had she been here five or maybe six realm days?
Her gryphon had suffered wounds on top of wounds the entire time. The best healing she could manage was to merely stop the bleeding, which left thick scars.
Germanus had to be behind that. He held all the power in this realm ... other than the god who created this, whom he had yet to name.
She would not have voluntarily fought any of the beasts in his little kingdom, but he continued to throw her into a pit with ferocious adversaries who looked at her like dinner.
In fact, she’d bet Germanus kept them starving.
He fed her only once a day and even at that it was some disgusting gruel. She ate it and fought every threat for one reason—to remain alive long enough for Storm to find her. Her mother’s voice pushed her to show her inner strength.
Evalle sucked it up time and again to do her best, but she rarely slept for fear of watching Storm die in multiple ways. Surviving became more difficult with every new realm day.
Shift after shift, her human body still reflected the damage inflicted on it from battling a wyvern. She’d been sure she was battling a dragon at first until she took in the wyvern’s reptilian body with an arrow-shaped tip on its tail. Fortunately for her, it had no fire-breathing capability like a dragon. Then she’d fought a bird the size of a house known as a roc. That one had ripped one of her wings loose, which took everything she could call up to heal.
Germanus would announce each new creature with fanfare. The last one had been a cockatrice, which also resembled a two-legged dragon but with the head of a rooster. After killing that one, she’d limped away with her hind legs chewed up.
She was past the point of caring about how the scars looked or the damage to her body. She could only put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.
Darkness crept into her mind, constantly telling her if Storm could have found her, he’d be here by now.
When her mother’s voice argued to stay in the moment, Evalle pushed harder, determined to survive and find a way out of this realm. But if she couldn’t get out, she believed Storm, Daegan, Adrianna, Tzader and Quinn would find her.
She blinked her eyes and realized once again she was in the fighting pit in her gryphon form. The single benefit she’d found was that the realm sunlight did not affect her. She hadn’t had her glasses since waking up in this hellhole, but neither was she blind outside the castle.
“Ready to face the kwane, Evalle?” Germanus called from his throne high above a round amphitheater much like the Colosseum. Maybe that’s where he got the inspiration.
Had Germanus been around when that Roman structure was being built?
“Evalle?”
Standing awkwardly on her crooked, but now stronger, rear leg, she looked up at him and just stared.
She’d faced every creature he’d thrown at her.
Now he expected her to fight a kwane. What was that?
She finally nodded her gryphon head, indicating she was ready.
When the gate opened, a black bird the size of a human walked into the arena. All those black feathers and one spot of color, a dark gold beak with large nostril holes.
Birds tended to have fragile bones compared to a gryphon, no matter the size.
She started shaking her head, telling Germanus she would not kill some creature in cold blood. Even if that bird breathed fire, it wouldn’t go one round with her. Every other flying critter had attacked Evalle’s gryphon with intent to kill.
Her gryphon stood ten feet tall and seriously outweighed that bird.
“I’m waiting, Evalle.”
Instead of answering, she shifted to her human form, hoping the damn bird wouldn’t attack her. She’d had occasional use of her kinetics, again controlled by the whims of Germanus. When she stood barefooted in her usual sack dress, she looked up to find Germanus seething.
Score.
He stood up and yelled, “I did not bring you here to use as a sacrificial offering.”
Maybe she was feeling stronger or maybe she was losing her mind, but she yelled back, “I still don’t know why I’m here, but I’m not killing something that much smaller than my gryphon. If this is all for your sport, you need to raise your expectations.”
He mounted one of his gargoyles, and it flew him down to the arena. He gave the kwane a command and it backed up ten steps to stand near the gate.
Walking over to Evalle, he said, “You will regret testing my limits.”
“I doubt it. On the other hand, if I knew what you wanted and why I’m here other than to prove I will survive, this would be simpler.”
“Very well, I’ll tell you. I had hoped to get you better trained first, but—”
“Better trained?” she asked with no small amount of sarcasm. “I’ve killed a wyvern, a roc, a cockatrice and I would have smashed this bird if I sat on it.”
He allowed her to interrupt, then continued. “As I was saying, you are dragging your feet in training. These first battle opponents have been nothing compared to what I have in this realm. My goal is not for you to kill all of the beasts, only to cull out the weak ones. If I wanted you destroyed, I would have done so long ago, but you will play an important role when Daegan does arrive.”
She didn’t want to ask, but she needed to know. “What role?”
“You will help kill the dragon, of course.”
Her mouth opened, then closed, in shock. This guy was freaking delusional. “First of all, I’m not even that powerful. Second, I am not attacking the dragon king of the Beladors.”
“You will be strong enough with the aid of my army, which you will lead,” he argued.
“Even if I were to consider doing that, which I’m not, what do you need with me? Why not fight him with your army? In fact, why would Daegan even care to come bother you if you had not grabbed me?”
“You will do as I say and battle whatever and whomever I point you toward.”
She crossed her arms. “No. I’ve been fighting to survive and I’ll kick anyone’s butt who tries to hurt me, but you can’t make me do anything you say like this bunch of flying sheep who jump when you snap your fingers.”
He sighed. “I keep trying to do this the simple way, but you are stubborn.”
“It’s a character flaw I fail to see the harm in.”
Turning, Germanus looked at the other side of the arena, which looked big enough to play two football games side by side.
Germanus waved a hand toward one of the four gates.
Screaming reached her ears. It came from deep inside the building on the other side of the fighting pit.
Evalle froze.
That had sounded human. She hadn’t seen any humans except Germanus and he wasn’t worthy of a place in the food chain.
The gate opened and an eight-foot-tall gargoyle she hadn’t seen before walked out, dragging the person still screaming. A young, human-looking guy.
Jerking back and forth, the guy yelled, “Let me go!” His voice sounded full of tears.
Growling, the gargoyle grabbed the young man by his shoulders and lifted him off the ground then turned him to face Germanus.
Evalle went still with shock.
No. That couldn’t be ...
“E-valllle! Save me!” Kardos cried out.
She lunged forward and was pinned in place. Her arms were locked to her side. She pleaded, “Let him go. Don’t hurt him.”
Germanus said, “Unfortunately, you keep forcing me to prove that I do rule this place and everyone here will do as I say, including you.” He turned to the kwane and quietly ordered, “Attack.”
The gargoyle released Kardos, who started for Evalle. Tears spilled down his face.
She yelled, “Runnnn!”
Kardos looked all around. The gate behind him closed.
“Don’t do this,” she begged. “Please don’t do this. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Germanus said nothing as the kwane opened its wings wide. Lightning shot down from a clear blue sky to strike the bird. Blue veins of electricity raced across its wings and body.
Then the bird’s beak opened and two fangs dropped down.
Kardos took one look at the bird, spun and ran for the gate that was shut tight. He flipped back around with terror streaking his young face.
The black vampire bird began herding Kardos from one side to the other.
Evalle’s heart banged her chest like fists beating to get out. She screamed at Germanus. “Stop it! You made your point. Stop it!”
He ignored her.
With a flick of its wing, the bird sent a lightning bolt of energy at Kardos that hit him so hard he lifted into the air, howling in pain.
The bird flew up and hovered as it stabbed those sharp fangs into the vulnerable teenage body.
Kardos and Evalle screamed at the same time.
Blood ran down the floating body and poured to the ground as the bird fed.
Evalle couldn’t feel her legs or hands. How could she have let them do that to Kardos? She yelled curses at Germanus between tears. “You miserable bastard. That boy did nothing to you. What kind of monster are you?”
Germanus calmly turned to her. “One you should not test again. I can bring the other twin, Lanna, that little pet gargoyle ... even Storm in here next. My friend who brought you here filled me in on all of them. He knew I would need that knowledge to deal with you. Are we finally clear on who is in charge?”
She couldn’t answer him. She drew shuddering breaths as she stared at the limp body now lying on the ground and no longer making a sound or moving. Her mind could not accept the image, but she smelled the fresh blood on her next strangled breath.
Germanus gave an order and his gargoyle scooped up the body.
“What are you doing with him?” Evalle said, her voice a broken sound even to her ears.
“I had intended to burn the remains.”
“No.” She cried the sad word.
“There is nothing you can do for him. If I don’t burn it, my army will use what is left for food.”
She wasn’t going to survive this after all. Her gaze locked on the gargoyle lumbering out of the arena. She would kill every creature in this place. There was nothing but evil here.
Germanus thought she’d lead his army?
Not if she managed to rip apart all of them.
Then she could help Daegan if he did find her, but something told her that Germanus had a trick up his sleeve he had yet to share with her.
Maybe she’d die here after all.
She could no longer regenerate from death like the other gryphons currently on Treoir Island. They all started with three regenerations and the others had used at least one.
The invisible clamp holding her in place vanished.
Germanus walked back to his gargoyle ride and climbed on. He said, “Are you ready to face the kwane now?”
With that, the gargoyle pushed off the ground, flying too easily for something his size with wings that small.
She turned to the black megabird, now bulked up after having fed on someone she loved.
She cracked her neck and called up her gryphon fast. Power surged in a flash flood through her body. The physical pain that shift caused was nothing compared to how her heart suffered.
I will destroy this one for you, Kardos, she vowed silently.
Then she would do her best to either take down every other creature here, including every fucking gargoyle, or draw her last breath trying.
Now she was glad she had not bonded with Storm or she could only wonder what fate he would face by being connected to her.
The kwane opened its winged arms.
New lightning bolts struck each wing. That miserable black bird made a high, keening noise of delight, then its fangs dropped.
Evalle lifted her gryphon head and roared in fury.
Bring it.