“Do you promise?”
I nodded. What was I doing making promises to a griffin?
“Do you need someone to guard any treasure?” Idral sniffled.
“Um, I have that covered,” I hesitated, not sure where he was going with that. “Thank you, though.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
“See? You don’t even trust me.” He sniffled.
“That’s not true.” I meant it, too. “I just have that covered at the moment. If something changes, though, I’d definitely want you for the job.”
“I thought maybe since I have experience,” Idral said, tracing one long talon through the dirt in front of him. “Most people who have treasure want it guarded by the best. I can see why you wouldn’t want me.”
The Crux Crucio Orbis no doubt had a little treasure. Kai had a stockpile of things he’d hidden around the world. At the rate I was tracking down magical artifacts, there would be quite a bit of treasure eventually if I was lucky and didn’t get myself killed finding it. And if I wasn’t so blinded by my own brilliance that I was looking in the wrong direction all the time.
I gave a vague shake of my head and a non-committal grunt. Griffins love nothing more than guarding treasure, and Idral was trying to get me to offer him a job.
“What about your pile of treasure that you left? Don’t you still have to guard that?”
Idral nodded. “If I had the right location, I could guard that, my egg, and anything else that was valuable. Down here, it’s hard to expand.” He waved a taloned foot carelessly and tried not to look me in the eye. I caught him sneaking glances at me, though.
I hid my smile. “Would you be interested in guarding my treasure if you found the right location?” He looked indifferent as if my vague offer was beneath him. I sighed. “I have treasure, and there will probably be more on the way. Are you looking to expand?”
“Would there be a relocation plan?” He wanted it to sound like a bargaining point, but I caught the mixture of hope and dread in his tone. Idral moved his wings, and I realized the problem immediately. The caves beneath Rome were too small for the griffin to spread out his wings. It had probably been hundreds of years since he’d flown.
“Oh, right. Um, sure, if it came to that.” I hesitated. I owned a hundred and fifty secluded acres in the Berkshire Mountains. There was room for a griffin with a treasure trove. I stopped myself because I wasn’t in Rome to adopt a lonely griffin. Then again, Idral would be an excellent addition to the magical menagerie I was apparently building. I couldn’t bring my stuff to Rome because it was too far for me to travel, so relocation would probably be necessary.
I didn’t mention the portal from my backyard to Trajan’s Market because the thought of leaving a lonely griffin in the cramped caverns of subterranean Rome seemed heartless.
“You’d have to work for my organization. I need to talk to my partner about it first, though. He’s kind of in charge of personnel.”
Hope flared in his golden eyes, but his voice shook a bit when he spoke. “I’ll think about it.” He said, sounding like he wasn’t sure.
“And you know that I’m a witch. You wouldn’t be protecting against witchcraft.” I pointed out, trying to dissuade him because I seemed to be considering it more than he was. Where was I going to put a griffin? And why wasn’t he acting enthusiastically?
“But wouldn’t it be other witches who would be interested in your treasure? Your magical treasure, which requires magical protection.”
He had me there. I nodded.
“Then I would be guarding against witchcraft, in a way. I would adapt.” He looked so hopeful.
“But I would be using witchcraft. All the time. So would the others in my organization. Well, not all of them but most. You couldn’t interfere with that.”
“Could you provide me with a list of who is allowed to use witchcraft and who is not?”
I gaped at him, puffed out my cheeks, and nodded in a non-committal way.
“Then I will consider your offer.” Idral declared.
I hadn’t made an offer, but I still saw the glittery tears in his eyes. Yup, I was going to adopt a griffin. “It’s safe where you’d be going, for what that’s worth, and your power won’t be drained.”
“Do you have caves?” His shoulders trembled.
I didn’t have any caves that I was aware of. “I don’t think so.”
“I’ll think about it,” Idral said, sounding a little more interested.
“Good. While you think, I’ll get your egg.”
Idral shivered with what looked like excitement, making his feathers rustle. “Then we will free Sidaffri.”
It seemed I was in for a full day at the office.
Chapter 22
Idral sent a puff of magic at the small metal grate, and it popped off the wall, making a loud clanging noise that echoed around the tunnels.
I nudged him gently with my hand. “When breaking into a place, it’s usually best to be quiet, so they don’t know you’re coming.”
He lifted one massive shoulder and reached around me to pluck the grate up with a taloned foot. “Are you afraid of being captured?”
“A little bit,” I admitted, kneeling in front of the hole. I took off my backpack and opened the top. Ka’Tehm poked his blue head out, and I heard the sharp intake of breath behind me.
I turned toward Idral and raised my eyebrows. He’d backed up, and he was holding one taloned foot across his spotted chest. His crest of feathers vibrated.
“This is Ka’Tehm. We work together.” I offered.
The griffin leaned forward cautiously, bringing his beak to within an inch of Ka’Tehm’s sparkling blue fur. He sniffed and backed up quickly, a shiver rustling his wings. I looked down at Ka’Tehm, who blinked innocent eyes at me. That was a mystery that I’d have to solve eventually, but I had a meeting to get to so I was in a bit of a hurry. “Can you find it?” I asked Ka’Tehm.
He blinked once.
I watched the blue beaver float into the tunnel and crawled in after him on my belly. I had to wiggle around to squeeze my behind through the narrow opening. Fortunately, once I was inside, there was a little more room. I crawled forward, dragging myself through on my elbows because the tunnel wasn’t wide enough to bend my knees and use my feet.
I like small spaces and darkness, but feeling the walls of the tunnel brush against my backside, my knees, and my hips as I shimmied forward made my heart clench. All I could think about was the massive amount of rock, brick, and plaster that was above my head and the possibility that the shaft would dead-end or take a turn that my less-than-flexible and curvier-than-average human body wouldn’t be able to handle. I had no idea if I could back myself out of the tight space or if I’d spend eternity trapped in a dark tunnel, eventually ending up like the piles of bones in the necropolis.
I comforted myself with the thought that after about four days without food or water, I’d probably have lost enough weight to back out if my energy held up.
I followed the faint blue glow of Ka’Tehm to another grate in the wall. I pushed against it, and it rattled just a little.
“Can you see if it’s bolted on?” I whispered to Ka’Tehm. He misted through the grate like it was nothing and hovered in front of me blinking once.
I sighed. “Can you take them out, maybe?”
He blinked once again. I was grinding my teeth impatiently when I heard the bolts clatter onto the floor. Why didn’t he ever just volunteer these things? I pushed against the grate after the last bolt dropped, and I lowered it to the floor. I hauled myself out of the tunnel and into a very well-organized storage room. I looked expectantly at Ka’Tehm, and he floated off, inspecting the boxes before he stopped and hovered in front of a wooden crate stacked on a high shelf.
“Naturally, it’s not on the floor,” I said, looking up at the shelf and tapping my foot. I scanned the space looking for a ladder, but that would have been too easy. I tur
ned my attention to the base of the shelf and began stacking boxes, building my own ladder to the prize. When I finally piled enough boxes to reach the wooden crate, I realized it was larger than I’d thought it would be. I grabbed it and hauled it toward me, grossly underestimating the weight.
When it slid off the shelf, I nearly took all forty pounds of the wooden crate right in the face, but I corrected just in time to twist to the side and drop it on the edge of the box I was standing on narrowly missing my foot.
The weight was enough to unbalance me, and my precarious box-ladder shifted. In a panic, I grabbed at the shelf, over correcting when it occurred to me that pulling the entire thing onto myself would be very bad, and I slammed my forehead into the metal ledge as I fell forward. Overcompensation would be the death of me someday.
Stars flashed in front of my eyes, and I pulled myself back to my feet, balancing with my arms spread wide while I waited for the boxes to stop swaying. I felt my head and checked my palm for blood. Ka’Tehm hovered in front of me again, a concerned look on his face.
“I’m fine,” I whispered. “I hope you’re sure this is the one.”
Ka’Tehm blinked once.
“Is there a magic lamp in here by any chance?” I looked around the room.
He blinked twice.
“It’s never that easy. Let’s get out of here before my concussion gets worse.” I picked up the heavy box and hauled it down the stack of boxes one level at a time. I took a moment to put the boxes I’d borrowed back in their places before I shoved the prize through the hole, grateful it at least fit through the opening. I was about to slither in after it when I realized there was no way to close the grate if I went in head first, but it would be impossible to crawl back feet first. I looked at Ka’Tehm.
“If I can stick the grate to the hole with magic, can you put the bolts back in?”
He blinked once.
I wasn’t sure if that made me happy or not. I’d probably have to burn through my reserves to conceal my entrance point, but it was the best thing to do. Maybe I’d have time to run back to the hotel and do the worm tango again before meeting with Paolina. I slid headfirst into the tunnel and focused on drawing a current of earth magic from the walls of the tunnel. I closed my eyes and visualized that thread of energy wrapping around the metal, pulling it toward the opening.
I was trembling and shaking with effort, but I didn’t feel like I’d tapped the reserves at all. I felt a cold, wet sensation on my right leg and realized Ka’Tehm was directing me. The feeling drifted from the back of my leg to the front, and I lowered the thread of energy, hearing the scrape of metal against stone. I concentrated on holding the object in place so Ka’Tehm could bolt it. My focus was so intense that when the critter tapped my forehead with his magical paw, my eyes flew open. Ka’Tehm hovered in front of me and waved.
“Nice work, partner,” I whispered, shaking my head to clear it. I pushed the box in front of me and inched slowly back to Idral, pushing the box in front of me with an annoyingly slow rhythm that sounded like scraaaaape, thump, thump, scraaaaape, thump, thump.
By the time I saw the faint glow of light around the edges of the box, every muscle was screaming. My elbows and forearms were rubbed raw, and I wasn’t sure I could push the box another inch. I gave it a final shove and winced as my knuckles scraped against the rough wall. The box teetered on the edge, and I steadied it, my back protesting the stretch.
“A little help, Idral,” I called out. Nothing.
“Idral?” I said in a lower voice. Ka’Tehm had vanished, and I had no choice but to move forward. I had no idea where the griffin could have gone, but I didn’t like the fact that he had abandoned his post when I was due back with his treasure. I pushed the box out, trying to keep control of it, so it didn’t land with a thud on the ground. I managed to maintain enough of a grip on the box so that the sound was relatively quiet, and I pulled myself out of the hole, looking around cautiously.
Ka’Tehm floated in front of me, and his eyes reflected my feeling of dread. I shook my head at him and pointed to the box before turning my palms upward. There was no way I could carry something that heavy through the tunnels. He hovered over it, and the nails that held it together popped out and landed with a faint tingle on top of the lid. I narrowed my eyes at him. It would have been easier to push the relic through the tunnel if it wasn’t inside the heavy wooden crate.
I lifted the lid and found a layer of disintegrated fabric that had been wrapped around the item to provide a cushion and prevent damage. Beneath that was a copper reliquary the size of a gallon milk jug. The sides were covered in enameled gilt copper nailed to a wooden frame. A smooth cabochon of Rock Crystal was inset into the top to join the four steeply sloping sides. A small slide-bolt connected the top to a square base that was inset with cabochons of various gems on each side. Out of the wooden crate, it weighed about twenty-five pounds.
Before I put it in my bag, I slid the bolts back and lifted the lid. In the beam of my flashlight, a burnished orange egg with black and gold speckles nestled on a bed of pale blue Byzantine silk. I shut the lid, slid the bolts into place, and stuffed it in my backpack. I hefted the object onto my shoulders and slid the larger wooden crate back into the tunnel as far as possible. I mouthed ‘Let’s go,’ to Ka’Tehm. The magical blue beaver floated through the tunnels, making turns that didn’t seem familiar while I ran behind him as silently as possible.
Ka’Tehm stopped, and I flattened myself against the wall, listening to the voice of Idral arguing with another voice that I didn’t recognize. I tapped Ka’Tehm on the back, and when he looked at me, I mouthed the word closer. He blinked twice. I looked at my watch. I had just under ninety minutes to make it to my meeting with Paolina Serafini, so I had time to eavesdrop to gather a little more information.
I heard the click of Idral’s talons against the stone and knew the griffin was walking closer to where I was hidden. I heard a loud sniff, and I froze. He was trying to smell Ka’Tehm.
“Why has it taken you this long to find me, Shabe?” Idral growled. “If you’re telling the truth, you would have joined me in the search hundreds of years ago.”
“Basil gave my lamp and the egg to King Robert rather than part with a Byzantine princess. There was nothing I could do once I was bound to the Capatians in France!” The voice replied. “You found it, though, right? Your egg?”
A derisive snort was Idral’s only response.
“I watched over that egg while it was in France, Idral! I even sent you a message when your precious egg was sent to the Roman Pope. What more could you want? You owe me for protecting it.” Shabe demanded.
“Protecting?” Idral roared. “You were supposed to be guarding the egg while I searched for the lost treasure of Alexander. The Capatians were no match for you, Shabe! If you weren’t in your lamp, loafing, we wouldn’t be in this situation. They could have never bound you if you were doing your duty, but laziness and dishonesty were always your biggest faults.”
“I was not lazy. I was tricked! King Robert wanted to wed Zoe, Idral. I couldn’t let Basil send Princess Zoe to France!” The jinn sounded desperate and broken in a way that didn’t make me feel bad for him as much as it made me want to give him an Academy Award.
Idral growled, and I heard the clicking of his talons on the brick floor. “This Capatian King wanted Zoe so you told Basil that sending the princess away would end his reign and bring disaster to the empire, didn’t you? To save your beloved Zoe, you even sacrificed my egg! I heard rumors that one of the jinn betrayed his own kind, but I didn’t want to believe it was true.”
Idral gave a menacing growl, and I could hear the voice grow more distant as if the speaker had backed away from the angry griffin.
Shabe continued, sounding more desperate, “I had no choice Idral. They couldn’t send Zoe away, so I told Basil that he needed to offer King Robert something even more valuable. The only thing I could think of was the egg.” The jinn’s voice was riddled
with guilt. “I’m sorry, Idral, but I couldn’t let Zoe go because I loved her.”
Idral didn’t respond. Eventually, there was a bitter laugh from Shabe, and he continued his justification, “Once Basil realized she loved me as well, his sorcerer drained me. Right before I was forced back into my lamp, he pulled the iron pin from my ear and freed me. While I was unable to defend myself, Basil’s soldiers hid my lamp in the treasure that was given to King Robert. When my vessel was discovered in France, I was bound to a new master, and there was nothing I could do.” Shabe’s voice dripped with self-disgust. “I couldn’t retrieve your egg or make things right, so I sent you its location. I’ve been punished for a thousand years for my mistake, passed from master to master. The only reason I’m here now is because they brought me here to power their magic because of the other relics that are hidden here. You have to free me before they use all of my power.”
The voice was pitiful, but I wasn’t buying a word of it and I hoped Idral wasn’t either.
“Did you tell your masters about the other relics that are here?” Idral demanded.
Silence stretched for many heartbeats, but Shabe’s voice was broken when he spoke again. “No! I would never do such a thing. Nusku’s lamp is dangerous to all magic, even ours. Our kind only prospered when Julian brought the lamp back to Rome and it’s taking everything I have to work around it so they don’t suspect anything. I suppose it is justice since you and I are both here being drained by the relic we helped to send here.” The jinn responded, sounding hopeless.
“I did not help do that, Shabe. The jinn were sworn to protect that lamp, but you lost sight of your ideals. Where is the lamp now?”
“I don’t know! It disappeared the minute Julian brought it back. He said he’d put it someplace where nobody would see the light.”
“Sorcerers! You have served sorcerers for centuries, lying to them about your powers, because you betrayed your own kind for a princess who could never love a jinn! You know I can’t help you, Shabe. Your punishment is your own doing. You need to leave because I have no power to protect you.” Idral spat those words, and his voice was so loud I wondered if he’d been speaking to the jinn or to me.
Resistant Magic (Relic Hunter Book 5) Page 20
