The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1)

by Marie Andreas

  “Interesting.” But his tone said he really didn’t think so.

  I was fine to work in silence. While I didn’t mind talking with my patron, it felt like he was looking for something in our conversation.

  The rest of the dig was exceedingly uneventful. But considering how eventful my life had been as of late, I was more than happy for dull. Thaddeus still wouldn’t let us into the chamber, although I was pretty sure I could fit in without disturbing anything.

  That thought must have shown on my face because he carefully set a store-bought shielding spell over the entrance to the dig.

  “Well, lass, yet another fruitful day. Tomorrow we may be ready to enter the chamber.” Thaddeus packed up the last of his dig tools and walked with me out.

  We parted ways at the edge of the ruins, me heading further in to town, planning on hitting the Shimmering Dewdrop on the way home. Dirty or not, I needed a drink after last night.

  Chapter 27

  The Shimmering Dewdrop was really calling my name, and I was almost there, when a thought derailed my plans. Covey. As much as I wanted to pretend that my life was normal, and strange men weren’t kidnapping me at all times of the day, that wasn’t my life. Resolving what was causing my life to head down the crapper needed to take some precedence. Which meant heading over to Covey’s house on a night when I desperately just wanted to sidle up to the bar. I’d also been hoping that Marcos might be there this evening. I hadn’t seen him since whatever had happened the night I found the body.

  Maybe he had decided I was associated with far too many dead bodies and left town. I also paused on my new direction away from the pub. A peek wouldn’t hurt. And if he was there, well then, that might still be getting some answers. Such as whether that amazing kiss I recalled came from him or Alric.

  As cowardly and odd as Marcos was, I couldn’t help but hope that it was his lips I kept dreaming about. If it had been Alric I might just have to join a convent.

  But spending time going into the pub wouldn’t help solve the mystery of my life, and Covey might.

  So with a sigh, I departed toward Covey’s nice, plain neighborhood. She lived in such a quiet and respectable part of town I swear the houses themselves gave me dirty looks when I came by.

  It wasn’t really that late, but I was still surprised to see that Covey’s house was thoroughly well lit. You pretty much could tell what room Covey was in at any time from the dim glow that she’d move from room to room.

  But right now her house looked like it was lit up to welcome the Chosen ones.

  More than a little disturbing, but I was here now, so I wasn’t going to waste the trip.

  Knocking on the door got no answer.

  I knocked again.

  This time I heard laughing, but not close enough to the door to hear who it was. But what if it wasn’t good laughter? Had someone followed my connection to Covey and was laughing even as they tortured her? Paranoia was becoming my go-to response, but that didn’t make it any less potentially valid.

  I tested the door. It was open. Damn. That meant I now had to decide if I was going to be brave and charge in to possibly save my best friend or if I was going to be smart and go find someone with weapons.

  A low-level rumble bounced off the partially open door.

  Swearing at myself, I pushed the door open completely and snuck inside. They weren’t in the front room, and not a single stitch of fabric was out of place. That was a good sign, however, I wouldn’t put it beyond Covey to force her attackers to wait while she straightened any imagined mess.

  As reassuring as the lack of mess was, the fact that the door had been open and Covey still hadn’t responded to my entrance had me worried. The woman had ears like a blind mole during mating season.

  I crept forward, hugging the wall as I approached the kitchen. The sounds were coming from there.

  A loud cackle made me jump from my hiding place before I was ready, and I stumbled into the kitchen.

  “How good of you to drop by, Taryn.” The tone in Covey’s voice made me do a triple take. First off, she didn’t really like people dropping by, even me. Secondly, she sounded positively giddy.

  And she was laughing with a handsome man at her table. One I knew far too well. Alric.

  “I believe you already know our friend, Alric. Come over and take a seat. We were just discussing some of the mysteries surrounding the elven scrolls.”

  I slowly came in, but seriously debated just turning around and walking out. But there on the table were the two scrolls and a pile of notes next to them. One I recognized from Covey’s office, the other must have been the one Alric stole. What was going on? She was ready to kill him not three days ago, and now they were laughing and carrying on? And she was looking like a school girl with her first crush?

  “It’s nice to see you again.”

  I almost fell down again once I got a good look at Alric. Had she not stated that it was him, and had I not accidentally committed that profile to memory, I probably wouldn’t have recognized him. Bookish and bland, his features were still the same, but washed out. His clothing was conservative and he had a pair of spectacles perched in front of his green eyes. Even those looked different however. Instead of their bright green color accented with a dangerous glint, they seemed quite calm and hazel.

  I didn’t trust him for a second.

  First he works some sort of mojo on my faeries, winning them over in an unheard of manner, now my best friend? Once we got away from Covey, he and I were going to have a serious conversation. Actually, part of me wanted to avoid any conversation with him. I still had no idea who had been on my bed the other night. Or why they had been left there. As it was I’d washed the entire bedding and flipped the mattress a few times even though it appeared Alric must have done so when he took the body.

  “What’s the matter?” Covey asked as she settled back down into her seat. “I thought you would be glad to see him.” Not only was she acting strange, she was losing her memory. She was the one who had pointed out that Alric was at the root of many of my problems. Maybe she hadn’t pointed it out, but she had vehemently agreed with my assessment.

  “Why are you talking to him?” I kept my voice low and tried to talk out of the corner of my mouth. I doubted it would do any good, he had demonstrated disgustingly good hearing in the past.

  “Why ever not? He’s not your enemy, are you?” She practically burbled as she rose again and went to pour me some tea.

  Was she spelled? She’d said at one point that she didn’t think Alric was a magic user, but more than a few odd things had happened when he was around. His control over the faeries for one. But Covey was smart when it came to avoiding being spelled. Even though as I was magic numb I couldn’t feel them, I knew she would have wards up.

  The light green glass of her wizard’s ball in the window winked happily in the glows. So, no spell.

  “I have never thought of myself as Taryn’s enemy. I have only tried to help.” Even his voice was low and meek. He may not have used a spell, but he was very good at being what people wanted to see. He knew Covey well enough to know what type of person she would respond to.

  And he’d done it so well I couldn’t get her away to explain things to her.

  “Right.” I wanted to add more, but Covey practically shoved me into the chair at the table. Then she slid a cup of tea and little sandwiches in front of me.

  “I’m glad you came by. We’re trying to put our minds together and transcribe the scrolls.” Covey settled down in her chair, but only after making sure she topped off Alric’s tea cup.

  “Yeah, about that.” I blew on my tea quickly, then took a sip. “He did steal one, after all. Knocked you out, kidnapped me, stole the scroll—any of it sounding familiar?” If I had expected Alric to look guilty I’d be waiting until morning. He simply gave me a bland smile and pushed his fake glasses up the bridge of his nose.

  “I explained that to Dr. Ghrelin when I came here. I’d been misled a
bout the status of the scrolls, who had them, and why. I immediately came to offer the scroll and my services once I realized I had been duped.”

  “I told you to call me Covey.” The last time there was a grin that big on her reptilian face she was getting ready to swallow something. Then again, she already had. I had no idea what Alric’s real agenda was, but I knew it wasn’t what he was telling her.

  “Anyway, none of that matters. I think we’ve solved some of the words. This here means ‘storm’ then this one is ‘sleeping’, I think.”

  I tuned her out for a moment and frantically searched my jacket pockets. Her words triggered the memory of that scrap I’d found in my bedroom. After holding off the girls from destroying it, again, I’d decided to keep it in my work jacket. Probably not the safest spot for an ancient bit of scroll, but the scraps were tougher than they appeared.

  “I don’t think that’s ‘sleeping’.” I unfolded the long tear of paper that I’d found under my bed.

  “Oh? Why?” Covey asked without looking up. Alric however was staring at the strip of paper in my hands.

  “Because I found this. And while I can’t read it now, I was able to read a part of it briefly when I first touched it. It said the storm of death to destroy all, and something about pulling out of time. It also mentioned a glass gargoyle.” I had my suspicions that the mysterious cloaked man who broke into my home a few days ago asking about the gargoyle might be Alric. He was far more than he appeared, of that I was certain. I watched him closely when I spoke.

  The calm bookish Alric of moments before vanished as he jumped to his feet to snatch the scrap out of my hand. Would have worked, except that I was half expecting him to do that and leapt back at the same instant causing him and me to crash backwards together.

  Covey was not amused by the resulting pile of limbs on her kitchen floor.

  “Damn it, get off of me!” I tried shoving Alric off of me while at the same time keeping a firm grasp of the scrap. Too many folks had messed up my life recently for him to run off with my first clue. Or at least the first clue I knew about and actually kept. Who knows what had been taken each time my place got ransacked.

  “I need to verify the translation.” The tone in his voice was definitely back into his meek academic mode. The location of his hands however, was not.

  “There’s nothing to translate there.” I adjusted my knee and pushed up. He quickly moved both hands and rolled free.

  “If you two are finished rolling around.” Covey leaned forward to help me up. Which she did, however she also took the scrap. I thought about fighting back but the truth was one of them would get it from me, and I’d rather it was her.

  After dusting ourselves off and sharing a few pointed glares, Alric and I both returned to the kitchen table. I carefully pulled my chair around so I was out of arm’s reach for him.

  “I can’t make out much. This seems to be of an older era than the two I had.” She looked up and scowled at me. “Why ever did you tear it?”

  “I didn’t tear it. I may not be as interested in non-translatable pages of gibberish as you two, but you know I would never damage an artifact.”

  Covey poured another cup of tea and stared at the fragment some more. Alric was watching me more than the scrap, but I was trying to ignore him.

  “But you said you were able to read it? How?”

  I didn’t like the look in Alric’s eyes when he asked me that. Covey still had her head down over the scrap so she didn’t see the flash of green that peered out of his lowered lids.

  The last thing I wanted to do was tell him anything.

  “I don’t know. When I picked it up, the words just came to me in a flash. Then I couldn’t read it anymore. But I remember what I saw.” Damn it! I didn’t want to tell him anything and here I was spilling everything. As a magic sink, spells shouldn’t work on me. Unless they were horrifically powerful. Alric held my eyes, but I broke the glare to look to Covey’s ward ball. Still burbling happily to itself with no reaction to any spell.

  Was Covey that far wrong? Could Alric be a magic user so powerful he could leave major ward spells undisturbed and get through to a magic-numb person? I shivered and moved my seat further from him.

  Covey was still engrossed in the slip of scroll, so I shot Alric a quick glance.

  And was totally unprepared for the look of utter confusion, with a smidge of fear that now filled his face. The look only lasted an instant, then he pushed back his glasses and resumed his meek appearance.

  Now that was interesting. He was almost scared of me. Like that time in his hidden hovel in the ruins, only I didn’t attack him this time. I’d have to store that information. If I could find out what disturbed him, I might be able to use it to my advantage.

  “It’s no use. I simply can’t translate any of it. Although if you are right about those words then that would change what we thought we had so far.” Covey shook herself and double blinked her eyes as if she’d just now realized how tired she was.

  “How did it get so late?” She quickly snatched up both scrolls while I reclaimed my small piece. “I think you’ll understand why I’ll keep these for now, won’t you, Alric?” She patted his hand, but wasn’t as solicitous as she had been moments before.

  “Well, I—”

  “Excellent. Perhaps you could come onto campus tomorrow. We still have much to discuss.” Covey bustled about and within moments had the scrolls locked up and the tea things stacked in her sink. “Thank you both for dropping by.”

  She stopped short of picking us both up and flinging us out the door, but I had a feeling that if we didn’t move fast enough that was going to be her next step. Whatever had been holding her in Alric’s thrall had been broken when he jumped me.

  Yet another interesting bit for my Alric file.

  “Yes, thank you for the tea. Don’t worry, I know my way out.” I quickly made for the door, with any luck I could get away before Alric caught me.

  “I really think—”

  “That you should be going as well. I agree. This was a lovely visit. Taryn can show you out.” With that Covey shut off the main lights and bustled down the hall.

  Even I was surprised by that. Clearly there was something that snapped back once whatever hold Alric had had on her failed.

  I took his arm. If I couldn’t escape before him, I might as well make sure he cleared out of Covey’s home. “Come on, I’ll show you out.”

  Alric had given up even commenting at that point. I don’t think he was used to being cut off so often. He still seemed lost in thought when we got to the corner where I would head for home.

  “It’s been nice. Good night.” I pulled my arm free and tried not to think about his lips. Damn it, why did they come to mind? With a horrific feeling I realized he had been the one I’d kissed that night. The kiss I kept fantasizing about.

  I needed to get away from him and fast.

  “Wait, I want to ask you about—”

  “No time, sorry, I really have to leave.” So literally running down the street shouting my farewells wasn’t the best way to avoid him, but I wanted to be anywhere in the world except alone with him in the dark. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him, I suddenly realized that I didn’t trust me.

  Now what I should have done was head home. I was tired, tomorrow was going to be another long day at the dig, and sleep beckoned.

  In my typical fashion I ignored the beckoning and jogged all the way to the Shimmering Dewdrop.

  The pub was quiet tonight; of course it was far later than I usually came in. Karys and a handful of regulars were drifting in their cups, and Foxy was putting away the bulk of his glassware.

  Luckily for me, Marcos was sitting alone at the end of the bar.

  I’d managed to convince myself that since I didn’t know for absolute certainty that it was Alric’s kiss I’d been thinking about, that I couldn’t discount Marcos.

  “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while.” Cheesy line, but he hadn�
��t looked up since I came in the pub and I wasn’t sure what else to say. I hadn’t talked to him since he’d run screaming out of my house in our aborted attempt at sex. I really didn’t know the best way to approach someone in this situation.

  “My lady.” Marcos looked up, but he seemed oddly tired. Exhausted actually. There was no spark in those deep dark eyes at all. “I have been ill. I am so sorry that I had to leave you. Alas, I was far too ill to continue.” He took my hand and softly kissed it. “Will you forgive me?”

  He hadn’t looked ill at the time, and he certainly hadn’t been ill the night in my place. Or he hadn’t up until the moment he saw the body in my bed. But I really didn’t want to bring up the whole body issue, so if he was willing to overlook another dead body in my vicinity, I was willing to cut him some slack on claiming to be ill.

  “Of course. I was worried about you. But I had no way to reach you…?” I’d never asked for a way to reach him, but it might be nice to know where my mystery man lived.

  “Ah, my lovely little one. I live in a hovel. All of my worldly possessions were lost, destroyed by a jealous lover.” He had been drawing on my hand with his finger, but now looked up. I wondered how long he’d had to practice to get that lock of hair to fall just right over his brow.

  A huge yawn was my answer to his artfully practiced seduction.

  “I am so sorry!” I covered my mouth and shook my head. Marcos wasn’t my idea of a boyfriend, but he’d be fun to play with. Even play toys don’t like to be yawned at.

  “I see.” He pulled back and started to get off his barstool.

  “No, no, no!” I grabbed his hand and pulled him back. “I am so sorry. The fact is I shouldn’t have come in tonight. It’s late, I’m exhausted…” I let the rest just dangle out there but flashed him my best innocent look.

  “I understand. You must have discovered amazing finds in that room.” His grin was back in place.

  “Exactly. Well, not the room per se, we’re not in there yet. But it’s been very exciting.” A bald-faced lie. While I was glad that I was back digging, nothing even remotely exciting had happened yet. But I never liked to admit my life was more boring than the next person’s. “But it has left me wiped out.”