“If anyone else tries to touch it, outside of a lightning bearer, it would most likely fry their asses,” Ianto said.
“Yes.”
“Andthat’swhat happened to the town,” Tucker said.“Outside of the gargoyles, the power of the Heart builds until it unleashes on the land.When that happens, we get magnetic storms above, and anyone down here is electrocuted until nothing but ash remains.”
We all looked at the gargoyles, but they remained silent.
“Is that true?”I asked.
“Yes,” they answered together.
“But why were their clothes untouched?”Callan asked.“Only their bodies are gone.”
“The Stone seeks blood to survive.”
“That’s not disturbing at all,” Ianto muttered.
“The Stone hasn’t had blood in millennia,” Ellery said.“That town has been there for thousands of years.”
“Tempest is drenched in blood,” the third gargoyle replied.“It hasn’t known peace since our imprisonment.”
I recalled all the blood coating the fields during the Ghoul War.Sometimes it ran so thickly the ground couldn’t absorb it, and the battlegrounds would remain drenched in red puddles for days.
And the Ghoul War was just one of many violent acts Tempest had endured over the years.We’d soaked the ground again while trying to escape the fields with the women.
A conversation I had with Tucker shortly after discovering Ellery was a lightning bearer floated back across my mind…
“Yes, things are bad now, but countless times throughout history, Tempest was endangered, the amsirah were under duress, and we’ve had to fight to keep our home and our lives.Ghouls, dragons, wendigos, crazed rulers, greedy kings, and other rogue immortals have always sought to steal our realm from us,”he’d said.“Throughout our history, Tempest has rarely known peace.”
And he’d been right, but one question burned through my mind.
“How doyouknow that?”I demanded of the gargoyles.
CHAPTERSIXTY-FIVE
Ryker
“We can scent the blood,”the third replied.“It permeates the ground and flows throughout the land.The trees and earth tell us of their sorrow.”
“Oh yeah, that’s normal,” Callan muttered sarcastically.
“So much blood has spilled, and we would have helped prevent it all until we were betrayed,” the third continued.“We were the protectors of this land.”
“Then why would they imprison you?”Ellery asked.
“They didn’t think they needed us anymore.They werewrong.”
I could almost hear their maniacal laughter ringing in my head.Being right was something they thoroughly enjoyed.
I didn’t blame them.I’d gloat too if the bastards who’d imprisoned me suffered greatly because of it.
“And the power of the Heart is enough to bring all of you back to life?”Ellery asked as she waved her hand around the cavern.
“Yes,” they said together.
“You can free us,” the third pressed.
We all exchanged looks while the weight of that word hung heavily in the air.While I didn’t like what our ancestors did to them, we’d only heard one side of the story.
