The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1) (18 page)

“I was hoping that you would be willing to work for me?” The dwarf looked more imp than mountain digger as he watched both of our faces. Covey’s had to be more shocked than mine. Far weirder things had been happening than an academic wanting to be a patron to me as of late for it to shock me too much. More importantly, an academic financially able to be a patron. The contract digs were prohibitively expensive.

Covey was sizing up her fellow faculty member with new eyes. How in the hell could he afford a digger and contract?

“Don’t mean to be rude, but I thought buying a patronage was pricy? At least that’s what all my former patrons always complained about.” Certainly wasn’t what they paid the diggers. Oh, a good one could make enough to live very well. But you had to have had some big finds for that level.

“Well, ahem, yes.” He peered furtively around the room, then got up and closed the door to Covey’s office. “I haven’t been completely honest with Dr. Ghrelin, nor I’m afraid the rest of the staff and faculty here at the university.” He returned to his perch on the low shelves and folded his hands primly in his lap. “I’m rich.”

“Excuse me?”

“You said you came from a poor mining town in northern Yubian.” Covey was clearly pissed. She didn’t take to people misleading her, let alone outright lying.

“That was true, however I actually now own the mining town.” His voice dropped as if embarrassed. “I inherited a potato farm in west Hollis we make—”

“
You’re
the Westfield potato farm? They’re huge. Every business buys their potatoes from them.” I was shocked. All the finest places got their produce from them. Foxy even bought a shipment once for a special party when I got my first digger job. They were amazing.

“Yes, well I am,” he said. “However it has nothing to do with me wanting to hire you. I think having an archeologist associated with the university could only bring good things.”

Covey was shaking her head, still sizing up her co-worker. “The Grand Dean won’t approve it. He keeps saying we have to stay clear of direct involvement with digs.”

“Which is why he didn’t go through the Grand Dean, I’m thinking.” I studied my potential patron carefully. There might be something here after all.

“You are as bright as Dr. Ghrelin has said.” He beamed up at me. “Yes, I do not need to go through the university, since I have my own funds. I do not believe that even the Grand Dean would be adverse to what information I find with my own money.”

“You may be right.” Covey steepled her extremely long fingers in front of her face, studying him as if he were a new find. “What are you looking for?”

“A rare artifact. A glass dome.”

The word glass caught my attention right away. What was it with everyone looking for glass objects in a thousand-plus-year-old dig site?

“A dome, you say?” I acted interested, hoping I could find out if this was a trap or he was crazy before I signed any contracts.

“Yes, yes.” He jumped off the bookcase, and scurried over to Covey’s desk. “If you don’t mind?” At her nod, he unrolled an ancient scroll. I wasn’t sure, but it looked elvish.

“You can read that?” I said it before Covey could. Of course Dr. Thaddeus had no way of knowing that if he said yes, Covey was probably going to rip out his throat. She had been working on the mystery language for so long it would not be a pretty sight if someone else broke it first.

“Alas, no.” He pointed to some drawings on the edges. “But there have been some agreements on some simple glyphs. Dr. Ghrelin herself has published most of the articles I take my translations from.”

Smart man. He knew Covey better than I thought. Her look went from hostile to preening in a second.

“Here it mentions a glass dome, a large dome of glass, protected under the city.” He tapped the scroll, sending flecks off. “I believe this dome is a power artifact. One of those used to contain the power of the elven mystics.”

Covey sat back in her chair. He’d lost her. She didn’t believe in the mythical powers of the elves any more than the kindness of strangers. She believed they existed, and built some amazing things, but she doubted they were any more powerful than mages of today. If they had been so powerful, what happened to them?

“Good luck with that, Thaddeus,” she said as she pushed his scroll back at him. “So, Taryn, do you want to work for him? I may not agree with some of his assessments, but he’s got funding.”

Hell, she didn’t agree with anything once she heard ‘elven mystics’. But he did have money and it would get me out of bounty work. Sammy was going to haunt me for a while. I was sure he deserved what he got; I’d just never been so immediately connected to a death.

“I’d love to work for you, Dr. Thaddeus. Where’s the dig?”

I should have known something was wrong by the vacant and disgustingly hopefully smile he gave me.

Chapter 21

Of course, little did I know that Thaddeus’s pick for his dig was the absolutely last spot I would want. He picked a plot far from every other dig site, which might be encouraging as it could be completely virgin ground. Except for three things: he picked it by consulting an ancient, and in my opinion, false, oracle, it was buried under years’ worth of debris from other digs, and the reason it was buried under all that debris was that no one, absolutely no one, thought there were any ruins to be found there.

So the plus side was that I had a patron and didn’t have to bounty hunt anymore. The bad side was the patron was a loon and I’d be digging through ancient garbage for at least four weeks before I’d even hit dirt.

After spending the afternoon and early evening in his office listening to his terrifying plans, at least terrifying as far as any hopes I had for ever advancing my reputation as an archeologist, I was ready for a drink.

The Shimmering Dewdrop was in a rowdy mood. No furniture had started flying, but the night was still young and this seemed the evening for it.

Perhaps the tension of closing down the ruins hadn’t fled, people still seemed bottled up and on edge. Or maybe it was just me.

I swung onto a bar stool. The tables were claimed and no one I wanted to be with was claiming them. Dogmaela swaggered up to me and slammed down a full pint of Old Sod.

“Your friend looking for you.” Her voice was deeper than usual, not a good sign for the males in the pub. Hopefully Foxy planned on letting her off for the next few days as troll breeding habits were dangerous and unpredictable at best.

“Which friend?” I asked as I took a long pull of my drink. I had a theory that there wasn’t a problem out there that Old Sod couldn’t fix. It just sometimes took a lot of Old Sod.

“Tall, dark, handsome.” Her voice lowered even more and she muttered a few trollish words I didn’t understand. The description left out Harlan, besides she knew him. So Marcos or Alric?

“The one friend with the jinn,” she said as she nodded to the corner.

Because of the crowd, I hadn’t seen him when I came in, but Marcos was across the pub talking to Max. Max noticed me first and pulled on Marcos’ arm. Marcos turned and flashed me a stunning smile. There was something to be said for beautiful and cowardly. At least I’d never have to pull him out of the river. I raised my hand, then nodded over to the seat next to me.

Marcos put one finger up then ushered Max out of the pub.

Okay that was odd.

I was just turning back to my ale, when Marcos came back in and joined me.

“Ah, my lovely one, I have missed you.” His pout made it seem like I’d been hiding from him. Never mind that he had abandoned me one time and ignored me the next.

“Where’s Max?” Not that I really cared but it seemed odd that he rushed him out then came back alone.

Marcos took my hand and rubbed his thumb gently around the palm. “I do not know. He said he must run, so I said good-bye. The jinns are mysterious, I do not question their ways.”

The next hour was spent with Marcos trying very hard to woo me, and me not trying very hard to remain un-wooed. Marcos was like that huge slice of crumbleberry pie, sweet, not good for you, but felt oh-so wonderful. I’d had a rough week and deserved some crumbleberry pie.

We’d finished eating, and far too much drinking, when Marcos suggested we go back to my place. With the latest rash of weirdness going on concerning my abode, the idea of a romantic interlude there didn’t sound like a good idea. But he said his place was under repair and he was staying with friends, so that was out.

We made it inside my door before we started going after each other for real. I really felt the time I’d been between boyfriends. But lying on the sofa making out like teenagers wasn’t my idea of making up for lost time though, even if both of us had lost most of our clothing.

“Come on, we’ll be more comfortable in bed,” I broke for air long enough to say.

“Oh, my sweet, anywhere with you is like a cloud.” While normally a line like that would make me gag, when it was issued by someone with a solid and toned torso, and hands of magic, I was willing to overlook it.

“Come on. Besides, if the girls come home, it’d be better if we weren’t in here.”

That did it. Like most people, he had a respect for the annoyance level of three faeries. He gracefully rose to his feet, his ardor clearly showing in his eyes, and lifted me up in his arms.

I snuggled into his bare shoulder, plying it with little kisses as he nudged open the door.

And screamed like a school girl.

I landed on the floor with a thud, looking up to see my potential lover grabbing his clothing from the floor, not even bothering to put them on as he raced for the door.

Grumbling about cowardly gypsies, and rubbing my sore ass, I rose to my feet to see what had caused such a change.

And found a body. Again.

I didn’t think I knew this body, at least the way it was jumbled didn’t look like anyone I knew. To be honest, standing there practically naked in the partial dark, you couldn’t pay me enough to go near that thing.

I started to laugh.

My mind had simply had too much. There were dead people all over my life, crime lords and thieves following me, insane academics hiring me for obscure trash runs, and now when I tried to get a little nookie and relax—another dead body.

The laughter shook my entire body, my legs finally rattling so much that I had to slide to the floor. Eventually tears starting running down my face. I was no longer just laughing, but heading toward hysteria. It’s amazing that one can tell that is happening even as it occurs. Part of me felt outside, calmly observing this blubbering, giggling mass sitting on the floor in her underclothes.

“Taryn?”

Judging by the fact I heard a voice, yet I hadn’t heard a door, my cowardly suitor must have left the door open.

Luckily I was wallowing near my closet and could grab a long tunic and some old worn pants. I’d just slipped them on when a head popped in the doorway.

“Are you all right?”

The sight of Alric on top of everything else that had happened was almost too much. Instead of answering, another round of hysterical laugh-weeping took over.

“No, that would be very much no.” My voice sounded a lot stronger in my head than it did to my ears.

Alric was freshly dusty; clearly he’d been in the ruins. Except that no one would be there this time of night, at least no one legitimately there.

“It’s happened again,” I said with a hiccup as I pointed to the top of my bed. Alric had been focused on me when he came in and hadn’t noticed the corpse on my coverlet.

“Oh no.” He bundled me up and carried me out to my living room. He set me down on my sofa with more care than one would offer an elven vase. “This has nothing to do with you, do you understand?” He kept rubbing the side of my face, finally holding it so I’d meet his eyes. “This is because of me. Someone saw you bring me here last night.”

The words made a lot of sense; they just weren’t really getting to the core of the problem.

“No, not me, you,” I hiccupped again, realizing for possibly the first time that I was drunk.

“Oh crap,” he swore as he made that same realization. “You’re drunk, and I don’t have time to explain this.” He forced my eyes to meet his and I felt some odd pressure at the back of my skull. He didn’t seem happy when I giggled since it tickled. “That’s not good. You shouldn’t be awake.”

“I’m not that drunk, you know. I’m not one of those passing out kind of women. Otherwise, I would have passed out when I saw that,” I said as I pointed in the general direction of my room, or the kitchen, one or the other. “And, I didn’t pass out at the other body either.” I crowed, that would show him, thinking I would pass out.

“That’s not what I—” he said then stopped mid comment. “Wait, other body? You’ve had another body here?”

I giggled insanely. Even to my own ears it sounded insane. “Don’t be jealous—we didn’t make it to the bed—he ran off before he could finish the deed.” I leaned closer and lowered my voice. “There’s a dead body in my bed, you know.”

Alric pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. When he opened them I was still staring at him. “You didn’t have any whisky perchance, did you?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “No, my
friends
know better than to give it to me.”

Clearly he wasn’t going to trust me on that. “I need you to stay here on the sofa and try to go to sleep. This will be better in the morning, I promise.”

There seemed to be more he wanted to say, but he held back. Instead he got to his feet and pulled up the blanket I’d covered him with the night before. Peering into my eyes, I felt that odd push in the back on my head again, but not enough to tickle.

He actually smiled as he tucked the blanket around me. It was probably a good thing he didn’t do it often, as that was a dangerous smile.

I couldn’t help myself and reached up to kiss him.

I didn’t recall what happened in the ruins that clearly, but I knew this kiss was nothing like that. Soft and gentle, it was full of surprise. Both his and mine. He broke it off gently, pressing me back down on the sofa.

“I just don’t know who you are. Or what you are.” His green stare was intense and the pressure built in the back of my head for a third time. This time, that was the last thing I noticed.