The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1) (30 page)

“I know, they showed me they had them. But I’m all right.” I still wasn’t ready to talk about the almost torture. “There’s only one thing all of them would want.” I said it but I could tell Covey and Harlan thought of it the same second I did. “The glass gargoyle.”

“Harlan told me you’d found it. But they couldn’t know how to use it properly.” Covey shook her head. “I didn’t tell you or Alric, but I did get a small part translated. You have to use it just right, or it will destroy the wielder.”

I tugged on my ropes, but they were tight. “Which would be a bad thing because why? These aren’t our friends.” A shudder went through me at how much Thaddeus was not my friend. We had to get out of here before he came back.

“I know, but it will take out Beccia and probably the two neighboring towns if handled incorrectly. We need Alric to come get us.”

That she was counting on him to save us scared me almost more than the idea of Thaddeus getting ahold of an artifact that could destroy time, at least as we knew it.

I still hadn’t made up my mind about Alric. That he hadn’t grabbed Covey was reassuring. I still didn’t know if he was behind the rest of this mess. Thaddeus’s comment indicated he knew him, but it didn’t clarify which side he was on. They could have been working together and Alric betrayed him by giving me those papers.

“They could use the gargoyle properly if they had help.” Harlan looked up from his bonds. He’d managed to chew through half of them and might actually be able to free himself soon. I had no idea he could bend that wide body that well. “I think Alric is working with them. Someone definitely has been leading them along. Even Cirocco isn’t smart enough to have figured everything out without help.”

“If you’re trying to imply that Alric would turn against us, I won’t hear it.” Covey too had managed to free a few layers of bonds. Her naturally shedding skin was shedding a bit sooner than usual due to her increasing annoyance. “Besides you told me that Taryn gave him the gargoyle. Why would he be looking for it if he has it?”

I was surprised to hear how she defended him. I’d been sure their friendship the other night was some sort of spell Alric had used on her. Now I wondered if that had been the only thing.

“But we don’t know who he is. Covey, he’s lied to everyone since I first found him. He could be a mass murderer for all we know.” I pulled on my ropes but I’d already figured out that the only way I was getting free was to have one of the others untie me. Or hope that the faeries figured out my note and came to the rescue.

“Thaddeus is who we have to worry about, even if Alric is working with him.” Still not up to saying what happened, it was as if speaking of it would make it real. But they needed to know he was evil.

“Now see here. Just because he didn’t support your findings, doesn’t mean he’s not who he said he was. He is an academic after all.” Covey popped the joints in her wrist to get more wiggle room.

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

“He didn’t support my findings? What findings? I have a problem with him lying to me about who he really was. Those papers they took when they grabbed us showed the real Thaddeus. He died three years ago.”

Covey looked like I’d grown an extra head. Harlan wisely stayed out of things and kept chewing on his bonds.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Taryn. I went to see the dean at Thaddeus’s request. He’d been afraid that you might do something drastic since the two of you disagreed about the age of the dig site.”

“The what?” This was not good. “Covey, that’s not what happened. The dig was ruined this morning. The jinn brothers are most likely dead and buried in the middle of it, because of him. When did you see him?”

“He was in my office when you came in.”

Even Harlan looked up at that. He knew she’d been alone.

“You were alone, Covey.”

Now it was Covey’s turn to finally look worried. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I know what I saw.” She shook her head. “I spoke to him not two minutes before you arrived.”

Maybe we could find another way around whatever he’d done to her. “Did he keep talking when I was there? Did he move out of the way?”

Covey shook her head and started flexing her arms. “No. He just wasn’t there.” The ridge above her eyes lowered and her eyes went flat. “He used a mind warp spell on me. Me, a trained academic.”

This might actually work to our advantage. Covey was getting mad. Very mad. The more she thought about it, the more her muscles flexed and the strain on her bonds increased.

“That son of a bitch. He disguised himself as an academic to get to my scrolls?
My
scrolls?”

I’d spent most of my acquaintance with Covey trying to avoid seeing her really mad. Trellians were unpredictable when really mad, and that wasn’t a good combination with their impressive strength.

However, even I would admit that the change going through her right now was interesting to watch.

Her skin started to glow, a mobile flush actually, the patterns changing slightly as it flowed about her skin. Her eyes were almost silver now, and they too had an eerie glow, quite unlike her usual bright gold. Worst of all though was the low growling she made. It sounded like it came from the depths of her soul.

It sounded like anyone or anything who got in her way wasn’t going to be intact for long.

“Taryn, we may want to calm her down.” Harlan tried to hop his chair closer to me and further from Covey. “We have no idea what she’ll do. Most likely she is nothing but an animal right now.”

“I can hear you.” It was Covey’s voice but about three octaves lower than normal. But at least it was her and she was coherent.

Unfortunately the patterns on her skin were moving faster and the bonds holding her hands were getting thinner. I had hoped she’d get mad enough to get free, but I didn’t want her to go berserk on us. Trellians had a history of berserkers.

“I am not going to go insane. I am just very, very angry.” As she spoke she gave a single tug of both arms and popped the rope.

I hoped that was a good thing.

I hadn’t even noticed I had closed my eyes, but I must have because they were shut when I heard Covey’s words.

“If you’d stop shaking, you fat old cat, I’d be able to get this off easier.” She was bending over Harlan and pulling at his half-eaten ropes.

“I am not shaking.” Harlan’s voice was a bit of a squeak but he quickly coughed and brought it back to normal. “I am simply trying to assist you.”

Covey laughed, but since her voice was still scraping gravel it wasn’t a cheering sound. “You shouldn’t believe all you read, Harlan. My people can tap into our ancestors’ strength, but it does not mean our minds shrink as well.” With a tug she freed him then turned to me.

“Might I remove your bonds? Harlan felt threatened when I approached him. I wouldn’t want to scare you.” Her tone was pure Covey even if the voice wasn’t.

She still scared me. But the folks who grabbed us and what they were planning on doing to us scared me more.

“By all means. Please. Quickly even.” Now that freedom was near I couldn’t help but think I heard footsteps down the hall. Obviously I was stress hallucinating.

“No, I hear them too.” Covey tilted her head.

“What? I didn’t say it out loud.” Now she was freaking me out.

“Sorry, sometimes side-effect of going native. Ancestors were pre-vocal. But yes, there is someone outside.” She worked harder on my bonds getting them untied just as the door flew open.

Chapter 35

I wasn’t sure who I’d been expecting, but Foxmorton was possibly the last person who would have been on that list. Three bright flashes of color circled his head like a moving crown, and he clutched an ancient pike in his left hand.

“Am I too late?”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing and sobbing and moved my hands to try and get some feeling back into them as Covey freed me from the ropes. Foxy never left the Dewdrop. Ever. His home was an apartment above the pub and he had supplies brought in. Yet somehow the girls had convinced him to come to my rescue.

Hoping my feet had enough feeling in them after Covey ripped the rope off them as well, I jumped up and kissed Foxy soundly on the cheek. The girls changed their circling of him and zoomed over to Harlan.

“Oh, my little ones, it’s all right. I am safe.”

The girls were chittering so fast and at such a high range I certainly couldn’t understand them. But the fact was, I wasn’t the one they were most worried about. On the plus side, having the three faeries buzzing in concern over him did get rid of the last fears he had about Covey going native on him.

“No, Foxy, you’re just on time.” It took him a second to return the hug I gave him. Along with being homebound he wasn’t very physical. But he was clearly terrified.

Foxy’s eyes darted to all three of us, then he sat down with a thud on one of the recently abandoned chairs. “It’s terrible, Taryn, pure terrible. I was going to make sure you were all right when the little ones came into my pub.” He looked around, but there was no one in the hall behind him. “There are syclarions everywhere. They be tearing the town apart. They are looking for something, or someone, and they want it bad.” A shiver racked his massive chest. “One of ‘em even changed in front of me. One minute he was a dwarf, and next, one of them.”

“A dwarf?” Covey said with a growl that ended in a hiss. She had been staying behind Harlan and as far from Foxy as she could get. Foxy and Covey didn’t see eye to eye on most things, but I had a feeling it was more than that.

Covey’s changed appearance, and what it meant, scared the hell out of me and I was her best friend. Foxy would probably pass out if he got a really good look at her.

“Aye, that he was. That wee book-learned one up at the university. The one you was digging for, Taryn.”

Thaddeus had been a syclarion? I had been working with, and almost tortured by, a syclarion? A shudder strong enough to almost knock me off my feet ran through me. To be on the safe side, I resumed my seat. An even nastier thought took hold.

“What did he look like, Foxy?” As his brow crunched up, I added, “Did he look like the others?” The one I was thinking of didn’t look a thing like the grunt syclarions. I didn’t know much about the race, most people didn’t. But they obviously had extremely different castes.

“Nah. Now you mentioning it, he looked different.” He pulled on one long floppy ear in thought. “Like he was more finished than the ones destroying the town.”

Sitting down hadn’t been such a good idea. I got to my feet and wobbled to the door as fast as was safe. Stepped around an unmoving guard that Foxy had probably hit on the way in, then I threw up.

Harlan ran forward, but Covey and the faeries stayed near the back of the room.

“Are you all right, child? Did they poison you?”

Foxy was right behind Harlan but didn’t say anything.

I wiped off my mouth with my hand, then wiped the hand on the guard’s shirt. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or not, and I really didn’t care.

“No, but I know who Thaddeus is. There’s an elite syclarion who is behind all of this.” I winced as I met their eyes. “Things I haven’t told any of you.”

I rubbed my temples and took deep breaths. Was there anybody in my life who wasn’t involved with the vile syclarion? I wasn’t about to tell Foxy, but I knew far too well what they were after. The glass gargoyle would give that bastard and his henchmen the power to change to world to their liking and destroy the rest.

I had to ask. “Did you see Alric?” I’d pretty much decided he had to be one of the bad guys. There were just too many things that he was involved in that weren’t good. But a tiny part of me wanted it not to be true.

Foxy started slowly nodding. “Aye, that I did.”

“What? He was helping them?” Covey didn’t come out of the room, counting on the shadows to keep her change unnoticed. I had no idea how long she’d stay in this warrior Covey state but while it would be difficult for Foxy, it might be what we needed to try and even up the score against the syclarion. At least long enough for us to get out of town. She clearly wasn’t happy that Alric was on the other side.

“Nah, not his way. He told me where to find you all as he was heading to some house up on The Hill, said he had a job to do. The little ladies weren’t really clear on direction.” Foxy leaned forward so the faeries couldn’t hear him. “To say truth, they didn’t say much at all, just keep talking about ‘boom’ whatever that be.”

I couldn’t help the goofy smile I was sure had plastered itself across my face. I was far more pleased than I should be that Alric hadn’t been working for the syclarion. “Wait, how did he know where we were?” Doubt punched a hole in my smile.

“Ah, he saw you being carried off. But couldn’t rescue you.” Foxy shook his head. “He may start fights, but he’s not strong like me.”

Now that was a blatant falsehood. I’d seen Alric fight. He was freakishly strong and more talented in ways of fighting than half the army. Yet he’d sent Foxy to save us. Which meant he was up to something else. Like an attack on Thaddeus’s house. I may have to kiss him for good when this was all over.

“We have to get out of here.” Covey stepped forward but had wrapped a battered poncho over herself. She looked a bit odd, but it covered most of her skin and with the hood pulled up it wasn’t possible to see her face.

“She okay?” Foxy had gotten to his feet and was pushing the unconscious guard back into the room we’d been kept in. But he kept an eye on Covey the entire time.

“I am fine.” It sounded like her teeth had barely unclenched to let the words out. “We need to find that one who changed. The little one.”

Foxy took a step back but he just nodded sagely. “I understand. But you won’t find him if he changes back into a syclarion.”

“I will find him.”

Personally, I never wanted to hear Covey’s voice hit those levels again in my life. And I think if she were as furious at me as she was about that syclarion who had pretended to be Thaddeus, I’d probably die on the spot and save her the effort. And that was just from the tone of her voice.

Although, thinking how terrifying Thaddeus was maybe this might be a match.

The crinkled look crawling across Foxy’s brow told me he was thinking that something might be up with Covey. I needed to get us moving before that thought worked its way into his brain.

“Harlan, can you get the faeries to come out of the room?” The girls had stayed behind and were entranced by something in the back of the room.

Harlan shrugged and stepped back inside only to be chased out a moment later by all three faeries. That was one way to get them out.

“No, no, no. Boom is coming.” Garbage had taken point and was waving a tiny fist in the air. “Stay here. Safe.”

Leaf and Crusty both looked uncomfortable and I realized they were going to go against their de facto leader.

“They no stay. Must go.” Crusty looked sad, then held up a tiny piece of thin fabric. It took me a second to realize it was some of Covey’s shed skin. “Queen Mungoosey said this happen.”

“No!” Garbage flew over and ripped the skin from Crusty’s hand. “Dangerous. They stay here.”

It was a scary day indeed. Kidnapped by syclarions, seeing Covey change into a monster, and I actually understood what the girls were talking about.

This ‘boom’ they kept talking about was going to happen soon. The faeries’ queen knew about it and told them. Garbage knew about it and didn’t want us to be hurt. I was more than a little surprised at that, but the look on her tiny face, on all of their faces actually, made a lump form in my stomach.

The faeries were far more than what most people thought. I wasn’t sure exactly what, but over the last week I’d realized they were more than just rampaging little drunkards. Something bad was going to happen in town, something that involved us. Garbage was going against her queen to try and save us.

I held out my hand and waved Garbage over. “Sweetie.” I rubbed the back of her head, something I did when they first came to me to get them to trust me. “Is it important that we all go into town? Is the boom going to happen there?”

Garbage tried to fold her arms and be gruff, but her eyes gave her away. “Yes. Queen Mungoosey said you there, he there, she there.” She pointed to me, Harlan, and Covey. “Big boom bad. Things die.”

“How do you know this is the time?” I kept my voice calm, but the fact was, as she spoke, something verified her words, and what they really meant, in my soul.

“This.” Crusty had picked up another small piece of Covey’s skin and flew over to Garbage and I. “Friend is changing. Sign.”

So a cat-like faery queen predicted that Covey would go berserk as a sign of the coming apocalypse? I wouldn’t believe a word of it except for what my gut was telling me.

I looked at my friends then at the faeries. I had to believe there was more of a reason for us to go into town than just die. Queen Mungoosey knew things no one else did. She knew we needed to go there.

Or maybe just me.

“Garbage, sweetie, could the others stay here? Maybe if I just go…”

The look on her tiny face told me my answer. Not only did I have to risk my life for whatever this prophesy was, I needed to risk my friends’ lives as well.

“I don’t care what they say, I’m going with you.” Covey had pushed back her hood, her skin was still mottled, in fact it was almost glowing, but her voice sounded calmer. Hopefully that meant her strength was still there, just maybe not the animal insanity.

Foxy and Harlan had both been standing back, but both nodded solemnly. Even though Foxy hadn’t been included in the faeries’ list, he was clearly not going to leave us.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. There was something to be said about friends willing to follow you into certain mayhem, and possibly death, on the say-so of a faery. Or rather against the say-so of a faery.

“No! I tell you, you go not to boom. Leave, you leave now.” Garbage’s lower lip trembled.

The sight of all three faeries with tears in their eyes was enough to have me running for the hills. But Queen Mungoosey had saved my ass at least two times that I knew of and I couldn’t let her down.

“Garbage, we can’t. Your queen needs us there for a reason. We’ll be okay.” I went to pat her head and she flew out of my hand.

“No you won’t. We leave. We leave no watch you die. Queen say we can’t be there. She say no faeries be near boom.” Without looking back, all three faeries flew opposite from the center of town.

I dusted off my hands and turned toward my friends. “That leaves the four of us against an army of syclarions. Who’s with me?”