The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1) (5 page)

BOOK: The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1)
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“Rumors spread fast when you know what to listen for. You weren’t home last night so I kept an ear out,” he said. “As for the girls, they saw prey of some kind. Most likely a rat or weasel.”

I smiled at that. Very appropriate even if inaccurate.

“But they’ll find us later.” Harlan neatly spun me down an adjoining alley. “They always do. First we have a proposition, one that you are uniquely suited for.”

I sighed at the gleam in his eye. It never boded well for me if he let that gleam make an appearance. “What now, Harlan? I’m glad you rallied the troops to get me out, but I’ve had a really bad few days. I just want to go back to my place and get some sleep.”

“No, no, that won’t do. You see the vandals who killed your odiferous landlady also did some re-designing of your abode.” He raised a hand at my gasp. “Not to worry, I have my wives over there returning things to normal. Should be ship shape in a few hours.” The smile that joined the gleam was extremely bad for me. He was up to something I was going to hate. Something I couldn’t get out of.

 

Chapter 6

 

 

With a heavy sigh, I gave in and let Harlan and his cronies lead me where they wanted. I was simply too hungry, exhausted, and confused to argue about it.

My spirits lifted and crashed at the same moment when I realized where we were going. Sort of an odd feeling, not unlike someone pulling a rug out from under you while you were standing on a rocking ship. Harlan was leading us to the Shimmering Dewdrop. He didn’t go there often, being as he preferred old digger bars where the chairs were artifacts in their own right. The fact that he was taking me to my favorite bar for this conference of his was another bad sign.

Early evening like this was actually a slower time for the Dewdrop. The daytime drunks had all headed for bed to get an early start on the next day’s attacks on their liver. The night drunks weren’t out of bed yet.

The soothing murmur of a handful of voices hit my ears an instant before Harlan barreled through the two wooden swinging doors.

“Good to see you, Taryn,” Karys called out from her usual table. The stunning, dark-haired, dark-eyed man leaning up against her was new. Most likely he was a pirate. Karys may have had to give up the sea, but that didn’t stop her love of pirates.

But her smile was forced and not because of the lean man next to her.

Over in his usual position at the bar, Foxy hadn’t looked up, just kept polishing the same glass with a rag. Foxmorton never polished a glass twice in his life.

In the corner two swarthy men glanced at me, but kept looking back to their table. The twins must have just gotten back from a job; Alejandro and Max were pawing over ill-gotten gains. But their movements were slower, as if they were trying to watch me without letting me see their intent. Their third brother, who rarely would even be in the same room with them and absolutely refused to allow any of them to be called a triplet, stood near the side door. He gave me a smile-less nod then went outside. Abhijeet was a mysterious soul sometimes, but that was odd even for him.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” I said to the room of people carefully not trying to say or do anything to show what they were thinking. “I didn’t kill her.”

“We knew that, sweetie,” Karys said with a look at her companion, but at least her smile was approaching normal now.

“They don’t think you did anything of the sort.” Harlan patted my arm and led me to the far corner. His silent companions trailed behind. That was one good side effect of me being an accused murderess— his companions were rarely silent yet they hadn’t said one word the entire trip over here. All three, oddly looking very much alike, sat a good foot away from the table Harlan hovered over.

I rubbed my forehead and waved at Foxy for a drink. I shouldn’t have anything to drink on my near empty stomach, but I had to have something. Besides, Old Sod ale was thick enough to be a meal. And eventually Foxy would bring over something that would pass for dinner.

“What is it, Harlan?” I sighed as I took a long sip of the rich, almost black, ale. The knots in my back and shoulders twitched as they loosened.

Harlan nodded to his friends in an attempt to include them, but they still weren’t moving any closer. “Well, you see….” The look I gave him over the rim of my glass must have been bitchy. He shook himself out of the longwinded tale he was going to tell. “Actually, I’ll be blunt. We want you to break into the south dig and find out what they’re doing.”

I sputtered a mist of dark ale out at him. “What?” Never mind that I had just been thinking that I needed to do that very thing a few hours ago. My contemplating returning to Perallan’s last dig was a far cry from Harlan dragging me into one of his schemes.

He pulled back and gave me his best affronted look. But I refused to apologize. Nothing hit him, and besides, he deserved to be spit at for that suggestion since I’d just gotten out of jail.

“No reason to be rude,” he said as he settled back into his seat. “It’s nothing illegal. Just need you to pop in, see what they are doing, then pop back out.” He motioned toward himself and the three old farts behind him. “We’re far too old to be clambering over fences.”

“Fences? There aren’t any fences over the south dig…” I dropped my face to my waiting fists. “When did they put in the fences, Harlan?” Amazing how information had to be dragged out of such a gossipy individual.

“I was getting to that.” He bristled his fur in annoyance, a sure sign he was keeping still more information from me. “They put up the fences this morning. By ruling of the high council no less. A horrible affront—”

“You want me to climb fences put up by the
council
?” I leaned forward so only he could hear. “Do you want me dead? Or just want me back in prison for good? You do know the faeries will come live with you if anything happens to me.”

He had the decency to look worried at that one. As much as he enjoyed his visits with the girls, he wouldn’t want them around all the time. No sane person would.

“I wouldn’t ask if I thought there was a risk, Taryn, you know that.” He looked around, making sure even his cronies couldn’t hear us. “I think it somehow might be tied into the ransacking of your home. And Perallan’s death.”

Shit. He knew just what to say to get me interested in risking life, limb, and the pursuit of not living in a tiny box with bars.

“Perallan died of natural causes.” But the doubt that was creeping around my gut on little rat feet was clear in my voice as well.

“We all thought that.” Harlan patted my hand gently. “We don’t anymore. He’d been digging in the south zone long before he took you on as his digger. He was looking for something, always took on newer diggers, and he would switch out folks like you’d change underwear.” He tapped the table with one extended claw. “He was looking for something and he didn’t want anyone to know.”

I took another long pull of my ale. Surprisingly it was a lot closer to the bottom than I thought. “But somebody knew.”

“That’s what we think,” Harlan said and nodded back toward his cronies. “Somebody knew it and killed him for his secrets. When he didn’t tell them before he died, they went after his place. His widow said she had no recollection of selling all his belongings, but I think she was spelled take those actions and forget about them. High level too, as none of her friends picked up on it. Then they shut down the dig and went after you.”

“Damn it,” I swore a few more creative selections. “Do you think Alric is involved? What am I saying, of course he’s involved. That’s how my life goes.” I finished my remaining ale in one long swig then went back to holding my face up with my fists.

“Who is Alric?” Harlan sounded concerned, and looked that way as well when I finally looked up.

“The biggest mistake I’ve ever been paid for.” The ale was hitting me far harder than it should have. Of course aside from one or two of those miserable ration bars I hadn’t had any food in…far longer than I could recall. After a few minutes of wishing the excess alcohol out of my bloodstream—that didn’t work, by the way—I finally opened my eyes. “He’s my collar from last night. Or my attempt anyway.” My thoughts finally fought their way through the layers of Old Sod. “There’s more going on than you know, and I’ll bet you it somehow ties in to that bastard.”

I finally convinced Harlan to chase away his cronies and told him about Covey’s attack, the missing scroll, and my kidnapping. I’d tried to gloss over that portion quickly, but of course Harlan caught it like a three-legged blind mouse that fell into a vat of fresh cheese.

“You were kidnapped? You. Miss-I-Can-Take-Care-of-Anything was kidnapped.” He managed to glare, look concerned, and mock all at the same time. I had no idea chataling faces could make those contortions.

“I have never said I can take care of everything.” I held up my hand before he could even suck in enough air to argue. “I just don’t like people hovering over me.” Harlan had a tendency to do that, no matter how many times I told him I was fine.

I looked forlornly around for something to eat, but Foxy hadn’t come back yet.

“It doesn’t matter what led to me being kidnapped. The point is that he did it.” Another thought careened wildly into my fogged brain. “And he mentioned Perallan.”

Now it was Harlan’s time to spit his drink. It didn’t make it past his whiskers and he dabbed it up before continuing.

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place? This is important! This could change everything.” His crowing was cut short as three flashes of color slammed into him. All three faeries were jabbering excitedly, pointing and screeching until I thought for certain someone was going to make us leave.

Garbage Blossom bounced over to me, pulling at a lock of hair to grab my attention. I did what any exhausted, underfed, tortured soul would do,—I grabbed her and squished her on the table. A series of gasps from behind me told me the audience was still watching even if they hadn’t been able to hear what Harlan and I were saying. I rolled my eyes at Harlan, but he was busy pulling off his own little invaders. With a slight turn and nod toward the bystanders, I lifted my hand. Garbage flew up and lit on my head. The squishing hadn’t even slowed her down.

Faeries had been found alive and well under a ton of rocks. No one seemed to know what could kill them.

“Slow down, Garbage. I can’t understand you.” She was speaking so quickly that it was starting to blur into a single long hum.

“Foundhisnewhome. We found him.” She actually slowed herself down faster than I’d ever seen before. I knew instantly who she was talking about. She might hate Alric almost as much as I did.

“You found Alric? Where is he?” That son of a bitch may have gotten me out of prison for the time being, but he was directly or indirectly the source of far too many of my troubles. He and I needed to talk. Right after I swung by Harlan’s place for a nice big stick of heavy wood.

Garbage got too excited and broke two nearby wine glasses with her high pitch. With a deep breath she slowed down again. “He went into the ruins. Bad nasty fences, spelled, couldn’t go in.” A scowl took over her tiny orange face and her eyes narrowed. “But he got in.”

That was three. I wanted to go in and look at Perallan’s last dig, Harlan wanted me to find out why they shut things down, and now my handsome nemesis was secretly hiding out there. Three reasons. I turned to Harlan who had finally succeeded in containing the other two faeries. “You’ve got a deal. Tomorrow, I go over the fence.”

Harlan had finally heard the same thing Garbage just told me. “I believe you may be right. It does seem as if your friend is deeply involved in the situation at hand.” He leaned back as Foxy stepped in and placed a huge pile of food in front of me. Not his normal fare; he’d clearly gone into his own kitchen and prepared anything he could. Soup, a pile of leaf greens, what looked like a full chicken, and two loaves of round bread.

I looked up to catch Foxy’s eye, but he turned away too quickly. Foxy was one of the gentlest souls around, but hated it when he got caught being nice.

“Thanks.” I projected all the words I wanted to say into that one word.

The faeries stomped around a bit, still riled up from chasing Alric. I noticed that the more sober patrons left the pub. Faeries spoiling for a fight were almost as annoying as drunk ones. And they were more likely to actually hurt someone.

Harlan lifted one brow but didn’t say anything at the exodus as he broke off pieces of bread dipped in chicken broth for all three faeries.

“I think you need to tell me about this Alric. He is making himself a variable we cannot ignore.”

I nodded and filled Harlan in on what little information I had in between bites of food and another round of Old Sod. The faeries grumbled about me not sharing, but I wasn’t in the mood and shut them up with a glare.

“What is puzzling to me, however,” Harlan said around a chicken leg he’d stolen from my pile of food, “is why Cirocco and Largen are both after the same person.”

I pushed myself away from the table, taking care not to disturb three dozing faeries. Harlan had stuffed them so full that the overall-clad tummies on each looked like they’d swallowed a meatball. I appreciated that. After all that had been going on, I needed peace and sleep. Faeries pushed into food comas helped that become a reality.

“I have no idea, and I don’t care.” As small lie to myself. “When I get him I’ll turn him over to whoever has the biggest bounty and be done with it.” I watched the late-night drinkers come in for their usual rounds. The food and drink I’d consumed was about ready to lay me out flat.

“More important right now, do you think your wives have cleaned my place?” I fought to keep my eyelids from drooping. “I really need my bed about now.”

BOOK: The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1)
2.54Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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