The Emerald Dragon (The Lost Ancients Book 3) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The wagon we were in started moving, but not quickly or well. I had to figure the leader of this group got the best of them and if his was this bad, it didn’t bode well for the rest of his gang. Tag had been leaning against me in such a way as to keep me from flying about too much but it was hard to keep upright with my hands tied.

“Look, you guys have me, there’s no one for me to see until we stop except for you, can’t we take the cloth and rope off?”

He was silent for a few moments, then he pulled the rope free of my hands.

“Thanks.” Even though it had only been a few minutes, I rubbed my wrists and shuddered. Rope on my wrists did that, gave me flashbacks of my dead former patron, Thaddeus. Having the person you worked for turn into an evil syclarion bent on world domination tended to do that.

After a moment’s hesitation, the cloth over my eyes was removed. Obviously, I could have done it myself, but I really hoped that if I built a rapport with Tag, it would help me down the line.

The outsides of the carriages had all looked shabby. The inside was worse. “So how long have you guys had these?” The interior was filled with thick heavy brocades; once upon a time it had probably looked bright and garish. Like probably a hundred years ago. Now it looked tired, sad, and like a dust explosion ready to happen.

I grabbed my nose as that thought brought an overwhelming urge to sneeze.

“Locksead got them right before we came down here. Before we just used to travel on foot or by horse if we could steal some.” He pulled back a tattered and heavy-looking purple drape and looked outside. The glass windows must have been replacements, they were in far better shape than the rest of the wagon. Dark shapes passed us, but with hardly any light, I couldn’t tell what they were. His lean face was drawn when he turned back to me. “Beccia was going to be our big pay day. Now we’re on the run again.”

He looked so sad I almost felt bad that I might possibly be the cause of them being discovered. Then I shook myself. It was Locksead who decided to grab me. Carlon had the tile and could have taken off as silently as he came. I felt bad for Tag but not for the rest of the criminal horde.

The carriage was moving unevenly; most likely Locksead was trying to work his way around giant tree roots. I had no idea where we were, but we were clearly still in the elven ruins, which meant massive gapen trees.

I heard yelling, and the carriage picked up speed. Tag looked out again, but it was fear in his eyes now, not sadness. “I only see two carriages behind us now.” He sucked in a breath. “One. Some sort of flying creatures attacked the third one; Carlon’s a good fighter though, so maybe he can survive. It’s us and Jackal and whoever is in his carriage; no one else is behind us.”

My mouth went dry. “What kind of flying creatures? Long, snake-like things? About four or five feet long and all black?” The girls had said that fewer of the sceanra anam remained, but they’d also implied there had been a lot more originally than we believed.

Tag’s look told me it wasn’t them, and he was a bit concerned that I thought it might be. “Naw. Big hawk things, with lion heads. Probably about as tall as Jackal.” At my blank look he nodded. “The big guy who carried you in, the one driving the carriage behind us.” He looked back out the window and shook his head. “I saw two of them that hit that carriage.”

Only Tag and I were in this carriage, with Locksead up front driving. If the one behind us was about the same size, only five or six out of twenty or thirty hadn’t been captured or possibly killed. By what sounded like a pair of gryphons.

All of my thoughts slammed out of my head, along with any breath in my lungs, as the carriage took a hard hit that sent Tag and I flying off our seats.

The branches of the trees we raced through were becoming more aggressive in trying to stop us which meant Locksead was heading deeper into the woods. “Why doesn’t he go for the road? This carriage will get stuck in here.” I was counting the seconds until the axles broke or a wheel fell off and we were at the mercy of whatever creatures were after us.

“He’s aiming for a ruin we found months ago. Wasn’t big enough for all of us. But it would be fine now.” His voice caught and I realized that while, yes, they were all thieves, these people were Tag’s family. In addition, a bunch of gryphons had just snatched or eaten most of them. I was studiously ignoring the fact that gryphons didn’t exist.

I hadn’t been aware of it until it stopped, but Locksead and the driver behind us had both been yelling to their horses. We were still moving, the carriage swaying from side to side, but both drivers were silent. Tag started to look out the window, saw me watching, and held it closed. “I’m sorry, but we can’t take the chance, you know?”

I nodded. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t hoped to get a glimpse of where we were, but I wouldn’t want Tag to get in trouble.

“So Beccia’s guards use those lion birds to chase thieves?” His eyes were round and I thought that maybe for the first time since he’d joined Locksead’s gang he was re-thinking things.

I almost laughed at the idea of our criminally lazy city guards having trained creatures of myth on call. “Gryphons. Creatures like you described are called gryphons. They only exist in myth, along with dragons, hippogriffs, and manticores. And no, our guards wouldn’t even bother to come into the ruins looking for you, let alone have the kind of magic users involved that could make it seem like a pair of gryphons were attacking people.” It was so silent outside as we made our way through goddess knew where in the ruins that I dropped my voice without thinking.

“Someone else with a lot of magic to burn is after you guys. And no, it’s not because of me.” I’d seen him open his mouth to comment but I shook my head. Alric might be able to pull that off. But he was missing.

A sinking feeling hit my stomach. Whoever and whatever those rakasa were, they had power. Judging by the fact they seemed to be using explosives and pre-set spells to augment their digging, they alone didn’t have enough to glamour someone into a creature of myth.

But a certain homicidal and totally crazy elf they dragged out of a cave might.

The wagon started slowing down, then stopped completely.

“He’s walking us in. I’ve only been here once; it’s going to be a tight fit with the wagons.”

I braced myself to keep from sliding as the wagon suddenly went into a steep incline. We were obviously almost there, wherever there was. “Tag, have you seen any elves aside from Orenda, or any short, dangerous-looking guys who like to stamp things with a dragon symbol?”

He had been looking out the window, but dropped the tattered curtain at my question. “Not sure about another elf. If there was, they were covered. Locksead met with a few folks yesterday, but they all had hoods and cloaks. But they were tall. He didn’t have what they were looking for, so they stalked off. Not seen any short folks except for those damn brownies. We’ve run into them a few times since we got here. They were hiding deeper in the forest but started heading toward town last week. Annoying little buggers but I wouldn’t say dangerous.” He leaned forward, curiosity overwhelming fear. “What do the dangerous little guys look like?”

I wished I could tell him some wonderfully scary story. From the look on his face, he was one of those kids who loved sitting around a fire late at night scaring his friends. But all I had was the truth. “I have no idea. I assume they look scary from their history. But the elf would be noticeable without a hood: black hair, silver eyes, and full-blooded-insane elf.”

The door rattled. “Come on, untie her and get out. I need you both to help push us in.” Locksead solved the little untied problem. Which neither Tag nor I had even though of.

We both rustled about, then Tag opened the door for me. Locksead wasn’t kidding; the wagon only made it part way inside what looked like a large, steep cave. Without waiting to be told again, Tag and I went to the back and pushed. Jackal and his wagon right behind us dashed any thoughts I had of running away.

We got both of the wagons, the horses, and the six of us inside, then Locksead darted out and came back pulling a huge shrub collection behind him.

Tag grabbed a pair of glows from the wagon and led us past the wagon. He handed me one then lifted his up higher as we entered the biggest part of the cave.

It wasn’t a cave, but a smaller, more ornate and less robbed, version of the ballroom we’d been in. Just how many intact and buried buildings were out here in the wild ruins? “How do you guys keep finding these?” I kept the glow up high as I drifted to a gilded wall. The marks looked similar to the sarcophagus, and for a moment I thought perhaps we’d found an Ancient room, but closer inspection pointed out they were similar, but not the same. The relief was built-up paint, not hammered metal.

It was as if someone had seen the sarcophagus but didn’t have access to it anymore and made this from memory. The basic feel of the designs on the sarcophagus were there, but the details were off. Parts that I recognized were connected to pieces I knew didn’t belong. This entire wall was covered in it, but the rest of the walls looked bare.

Locksead must have felt they were secure in this new hiding place. He went from hunted man to enterprising thief in mere seconds as he waved at the walls. “All right, digger. Earn your keep. This stuff worth anything if we get it off the walls?”

He no longer seemed worried about me seeing the rest of his gangs’ faces. Since there were only three others, I guess he figured they could take their chances with me.

“No.” I kept looking at the wall, but I’d been able to tell that right off. “This is fascinating, and pure elven royalty. However, you couldn’t get it off intact. The gold paint is starting to flake off. This room had probably been sealed whenever it collapsed. Now that air is getting to it, it will completely flake off within a few more weeks.”

“I figured.” Locksead grunted and turned to a hulking blond brute who had to be Jackal. “Did you get a good look at the attackers?”

The man was easily as tall as Foxy, but as far as I could tell was pure human. Although given his size and bulk, I’d wager there was a very human-looking giant not too far back in his family tree. Thick blond hair hit past his shoulders in a tight ponytail and the more I heard him, I could tell his accent was from the north.

“Just the ones that grabbed Carlon. They were lion-birds, like them stories. One flew up and grabbed the reins, the other smothered Carlon so he couldn’t fight back. He didn’t even get a chance to scream.”

Locksead started pacing. “I don’t know if we can pull this off with this few. First we lose our bait, Orenda, now most of my crew. Damn it, this was Carlon’s plan. He needed to be here.”

I’d gathered the two men didn’t get along, but there was more than just a plan going awry in his voice. At some point he and Carlon had been friends.

“What were you after?” I tried to grab the words the moment they jumped out of my mouth. I’d learned one thing dealing with criminals, the less you knew about their evil plans, the safer you were.

Unfortunately, my constant curiosity didn’t see it that way.

Locksead scowled then gave a shrug. “Might as well tell you. It was a long shot that a trained group like us could do it, now we can’t. So no harm in telling you. There’s a big Ancient find up past Kenithworth. Problem is, it’s on protected land. We can’t go in without sanctioned diggers. I have a dig site pulled, but I was planning on sending in folks pretending to be an established digger couple. I don’t have time to create new false papers.” His eyes showed him recalculating his plans even as we spoke. “But if you help us pull this off, you’ll get a cut.”

He looked way too sure I would say yes. My face must have gone into overdrive when he mentioned Ancients. That and they were going north—the general direction the changeling had indicated Alric had been taken.

“I can’t just pick up and leave. There are people who will be looking for me.” I narrowed my eyes. “Dangerous people. The ones who defeated the syclarions when they invaded our town.”

One thing about Locksead, he was the ruler of this group. He didn’t even look to the others for agreement, and none of them looked like they’d expected it. “You can tell your friends you’re leaving for a trip and get whatever you need. You’re not our prisoner.” His attempt at a smile was scarier than his scowl. “You’d be one of us, for the time being anyway.”

I kept facing him, but gave a quick glance to Tag. The boy’s eyes were huge and he gave one short nod. It wasn’t as if I’d really be a thief after all. I’d be working a dig site with a specific goal. I was a digger. We dug. Damn, I was really working on talking myself into this.

Part of me couldn’t believe I was even considering taking it. They’d kidnapped me. Held me against my will. However, the temptation of a pure Ancient find, and hopefully finding where Alric was, was too much.

I found myself nodding.

Locksead grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. Soon, the remains of his nefarious gang surrounded me as they pounded me on the back.

“Welcome to our world.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

If his temptation of the possibly Ancient find wasn’t enough—I still thought of it as only possible to keep my hopes from being dashed—those maps might have been enough for me to join him. Actually, in a way, he’d hired me. Qianru had shut down her dig until she got back next month, and there was nothing to say I couldn’t work with another patron.

Locksead was in no way a patron, but even if he had been a legitimate patron, the Antiquities Museum, and all the supporting lists for patrons and diggers, was in a deep hole right now. Because of the size of the ruins in Beccia, the Antiquities Museum there handled all the digs in this half of the Kingdom. With it gone, who was to say if he was a patron or not? I recognized Covey’s voice in my head, chastising me for lying to myself to justify doing what I wanted to do but knew I shouldn’t. I did what I did in person and ignored her voice.

Then I realized I
was
hearing her. She was on the other side of the shrub collection Locksead had pulled as cover, and she was pissed.

“I know you’re in there, and I know you kidnapped Taryn. Let her go now and I will keep the gryphons contained.”

“Aye! Let her go! These beasts are hungry!” That was Harlan, trying his best to sound fierce. A farce that would fall apart the moment Locksead saw him.

“This take too long!” That would be Garbage Blossom, and an annoyed one at that. A second after her yell, she, followed closely by Leaf, Crusty and a handful of other colorful and overall-clad faeries, burst through the shrub as if it wasn’t even there. Their war sticks whirling at high speed decimated it.

“You die now.” Garbage pointed her war stick and she and all of the faeries formed a tight circle around Locksead. None of them had their war feathers on, so they must have gathered in a hurry. I’d expected him to laugh it off but by the look on his face and the way he held perfectly still, he clearly had heard of the faeries and their war sticks. I recognized most of the ones with mine; they were Garbage’s best students. A slightly maniacal black and white one named Penqow and a purple one with crooked light pink wings I think I’d heard called Dingle Bottom were right behind Garbage and looked nearly as bloodthirsty as their leader. But none of them looked calm.

Covey broke up the tableau by stomping through the remains of the shrub. “I told you girls to wait. We needed to make sure no others were hiding.” She had a sword out, a new look for her but I knew she could use it, and she calmly held it up to Locksead’s throat. “We will be freeing our friend now.”

She and the faeries had been so focused on Locksead and his people they hadn’t seen me standing off to the side.

I coughed to get their attention. “I think I’m going with him.” I turned to see Harlan and Orenda bringing up the rear. Maybe the elf had been the one creating the illusion of the gryphons; I hadn’t counted her for a heavy magic user, but I could be wrong. “You all might want to as well.” I quickly spun back to Locksead. “Girls. Let him go. Extra faeries too.” Once they begrudgingly lowered their war sticks and broke their circle, I moved a bit closer to him.

“You need more people; these are good people. And my faeries will match anyone in a fight.” I was already committed, might as well drag the rest of my bunch along as well.

“Wait a minute,” Covey came next to me. “They kidnapped you, right? Out in the forest? Our little elf friend told Harlan and me about this gang.”

Orenda was standing back. Harlan had moved forward, but she hadn’t budged and was carefully not standing inside the cave mouth. She also wouldn’t look at Locksead.

“You led them to us? They killed your friends. They killed your lover. Carlon was taken as we tried to escape.” Locksead’s eyes were more hurt than angry. Carlon may have wooed her away from him but Locksead still had a thing for her.

“I didn’t lead them here. They found you on their own.” She pointed up to the faeries hovering a foot or two in the air above us. “Rather, their
friends
did.”

There was a look of wonder and interest on her face now. I’d liked it better when she was afraid of them.

“I’m not saying they should join us, but they didn’t kill anyone.” That was Carlon stepping out from behind Orenda. She jumped about a foot in the air at his voice then tried to hug him. He shoved her aside and came into the cavern.

He was bulkier than I’d guessed originally. It was more noticeable now because he was soaking wet. He had medium brown hair, badly cut, and ratty at the ends. His face would have been okay, except for the two jagged scars. One just to the far side of his right eye, close enough he’d been lucky he hadn’t lost it. The other cut toward his mouth on his left side giving the corner of his mouth a permanent sneer.

But Orenda looked at him as if he was the most gorgeous thing in the world.

Carlon continued to ignore the love-struck elf. “They captured them. They almost got me, one of their shapeshifters, the things who had been pretending to be gryphons, chased me into the stream some ways back. But I got away. Some big guy with tusks and a bunch of gnomes dragged the rest into the city. We need to get moving with this plan. Now. I’m not losing my cut.” He seemed to notice the small group for the first time. “Is this all who is left?”

Locksead shook his head. “I knew they couldn’t have had gryphons. Yes, this is it.” He hooked a finger at Orenda. “So she didn’t help at all from what you saw? Answer truth, with your brain not your loins.”

Orenda blushed but she was still making goo-goo eyes at the nasty man.

“She didn’t. I’m done with her, that’s why I left before.” He spun toward the stricken elf. “I told you, we’re through.”

I was watching them both closely, or I probably wouldn’t have seen what happened. Orenda’s face fell, and she looked ready to start screaming, crying, or most likely both. Then I saw Carlon’s right fingers flicker. Like someone casting a small spell.

Orenda’s eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted. Luckily, Harlan was close enough to grab her.

Interesting. Tag had said they had no serious magic users with them, yet here we had Carlon shutting up a discarded lover with a spell. I looked to see if Covey had noticed, but she was watching Locksead as if she was deciding where to start chomping parts off.

“Let’s try to stay calm here.” I stepped between Locksead, Covey, and Carlon. “Yes, they did kidnap me. That one,” I turned to Carlon, “stole a tile I’d found at the epicenter of the most recent shake-up. He, along with these two, then kidnapped me.” I pointed to Jackal, who was trying to hide, and Locksead. “However, they were going to offer me a deal for a job, and it involves a find.” I turned to Covey. “An Ancient find up in Kenithworth. I was going to say yes.”

There were a few moments of silence, only marred by Harlan crooning, “There, there,” to an unconscious, but oddly smiling, Orenda.

Garbage dropped down to hover right in front of my face. “So we no get to kill? She say we can hurt people.” Her lower lip stuck out and she waved around her war stick as if she were an annoyed cat and it was her tail.

“None of them should come with us. I know enough about relics; we don’t need some digger girl and her flying bats.” Carlon was getting on my last nerve. He’d annoyed me just hearing about his antics from Tag. Right now, I wanted to find a cliff to drop him off of.

“I get him at least?” Garbage zoomed right up to Carlon and waved her stick in his face. He moved to swing at her but she dodged.

“Look, even if Orenda still wants to come along, Locksead said you need more people. You need me.” I took a step toward Carlon and stuck a finger in his chest. “Not that they can’t defend themselves, because they can, but if you ever touch one of the faeries, I will destroy you.”

The bastard winked at me.

He’d just dumped his former lover in front of me, and now he was trying to get together. “Eww.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but judging by the muffled snorts behind me I was glad I had. I could see Tag just out of the corner of my eye with both hands over his mouth trying not to laugh. Carlon looked like he wished he’d dropped me in that pit when he found me.

Good to know we felt the same about each other.

“I decide who goes on this mission.” Locksead stepped forward, cutting off all of the snickers. “You’re right, we do need more people. Since the rest of my team is spending time with your prison system, at least for now, I need extra people to make this work. I’ll cut you in for the same amount I would have with others. However, you will have to work, this isn’t a free ride. I’ll leave you wherever we are the moment I think one of you is slacking off, or trying to betray us.”

“We shouldn’t take them. They’ll slow us down. We don’t have the extra wagons anymore,” Carlon said.

“Would one more help?” Covey asked with a sigh. “Most of them didn’t survive being attacked; you should have taken better care of them. But we hid one and the horse from the guards a little ways back from here.”

“I found it.” The voice came from behind us. I knew that voice. Just wasn’t used to it sounding weasely and defeated. I was used to it sounding weasely and arrogant. Grimwold stepped into view. “Well, to be truthful, I was hiding in it. I moved it here, but the horse wouldn’t come any closer.”

He moved forward then realized who he was talking to. His face paled as it flashed from Harlan, to Covey, to me.

“Wold, I thought you got snagged in the first wagon?” Jackal came forward and pounded Grimwold on the back which almost sent him flying across the room. Would I never be free of this idiot?

“How long as he been with you?” I kept an eye on him, but he mostly cowered and tried to hide behind Jackal.

“He came here a day ago. Only magic user we have on hand, so we let him join up.” Jackal slapped him again. “He had some presents for Locksead. Ain’t seen no magic yet though.”

I wasn’t sure if they were buddies or Grimwold was now Jackal’s favorite toy. Last I’d seen Grimwold he was trying to bargain with a criminal to get to Kenithworth. I wondered whom he had robbed to buy passage with this gang, because he clearly didn’t have any money before.

I was going to ask them if they knew who he was, but judging by Tag’s reactions to me asking about his previous life this was a don’t-ask, don’t-tell gang. If they knew he used to work for Largen, the former master crime lord of Beccia, it probably would only increase his standing with them.

I simply nodded slowly. At this point Grimwold was more afraid of me than anything else. Whatever gift he’d given Locksead for the ride out of town was stolen and he figured I could identify it.

“Look, we’re all here and this is what we do the job with.” Locksead had been standing back watching, and clearly decided he’d run with what he had. “The ladies get the wagon in the back. Rest of you sleep where you want.”

Carlon’s face had been getting darker as the people he clearly didn’t want involved, joined his gang. And from what it sounded like, the plan was at least half his. “I’ll take first watch. I’ll wake Jackal in four hours.” He didn’t even wait for a response, but stalked off into the night.

Good. Maybe if he was annoyed enough he’d leave.

I watched Orenda as he strode by her, but she didn’t even blink. Whatever he’d done to her in bed previously, she was now ready to move on. With the help of whatever spell he’d flung at her at any rate.

Harlan escorted Orenda over to the far wagon, and Covey and I followed. Well, partially. Covey turned to Locksead. “If we’re going anywhere, we need our own supplies. I’m going back into town and getting things for Taryn, Orenda, Harlan, and myself. Don’t try to leave without me.”

Locksead was tall, but Covey was even taller. His featherlike hair ruffled a bit as if trying to make up the difference, but he finally nodded. He even smiled. “I grew up around trellians. I know better than to piss one off.”

Covey nodded to him, then me, and went off into the night.