The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1)

by Marie Andreas

  I debated making a run for it. Neither guard had taken out their weapons, but both were fine human examples that you didn’t have to be a minotaur to intimidate the hell out of people.

  Harlan was too far away to be a help, besides, he was far too honest to help me escape from the law.

  Dropping my head and sticking out my hands for the cuffs I was sure were coming, I stepped forward. “Yes, you caught me.”

  “Now see here, her legal counsel should be here.” Harlan caught up to us and puffed himself up. He might not be willing to help me break the law, but he would try to use it to delay them.

  The first guard pulled back with a large crease in his forehead. “Counsel? What for?”

  The second one stepped forward, reaching for my extended wrists. This was it. I was going into the slammer for good.

  “Here.” He slapped a packet of papers into my hand. “You’ve been removed as a suspect in the death of Nirtha Youghthen.” He looked at both Harlan and me. “What did you expect?”

  Before I could come up with something stupid, Harlan smoothly took the papers from me. “We were just wondering why you were following us, officers.”

  “Like we said, she’s free. Some guy came in a few hours ago with proof that Nirtha’s cousin did it. The cousin hightailed it out of town. We have to assume she’s guilty.”

  My face must have still looked contorted because both guards backed away and gave us a wide berth.

  I finally recovered when they were out of earshot.

  “What are those papers?” I reached for them but Harlan was still pouring over them.

  “Interesting. It says here your patron provided these documents. Everything except a written admission of guilt from your new landlady.”

  “Thaddeus? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Harlan had his thinking look on his face when he finally faced me. “No. The man who got you released a few days ago. An old gent by the name of Parker.”

  I didn’t know a Parker, but I sure knew who got me out of prison. “Alric.” Damn it, I wish he would decide which side he was on. He’s gone between being bad and good so many times that I was getting a strain in my neck.

  “It appears we may be wrong about him.”

  Harlan handed me the papers and I stuffed them into my now very full secret inner pocket. Even though the pocket ran the length of my side, at the rate it kept growing it wasn’t going to be secret for long.

  “Perhaps. I’m not sure we’ve seen all the sides of Alric yet.”

  Swearing at myself for letting him annoy me even when he wasn’t there, I stalked toward Covey’s office.

  At first I didn’t think she was there. The door was shut and I couldn’t see any light under the door. But I had to be sure. If Alric was torturing my best friend somewhere I needed to start after him now.

  “Covey?” The door pushed open easily, not a good sign. “Are you in here?”

  A shape in the dim room shook, then flipped on a glow light. “Taryn? Don’t you knock?”

  She was uninjured but rattled looking. As if she had no idea why she’d just found herself sitting alone in her office. In the dark.

  “Harlan? I think she’s okay, but…”

  Harlan stepped through the door at the same instant a spell bomb flew over his head and crashed at my feet. Burning liquid shot up and hit my arms and face. Two of Cirocco’s goons stood in the hallway. A surge of anger hit me and I tried to run for them but the bomb was too potent. I lost consciousness before I got two steps.

  ***

  A pounding in my head woke me up. Rather a pounding against my head. I opened one eye and slammed it shut again. A single glow was hovering at eye level, a shadowed form right beyond it. It hit me again. This time I realized whoever it was was hitting me with his finger.

  “I tried you know. I brought in all the best crime lords to help me find it. But none of them found a stupid piece of glass. Can you imagine the incompetence? Then I hired more to keep you out of the situation when it looked like you were involved. Zirtha was inspired, I will miss her.”

  I knew that voice. It was Thaddeus. Or rather whatever was pretending to be the late real Thaddeus. The light against my eyes eased up, so I opened them. It was him. That cheerful dwarven face was more demonic now, but it was him. I didn’t know what he wanted me to say, so I grunted in response. I tried to pull forward and only then realized I was tied to a chair. I would have freaked out more if I could focus on anything without my head swimming.

  “But, they all failed. They won’t get another chance at that.” His laugh was cold and dark. “Sammy was possibly my biggest mistake, I’d underestimated the minor crime elements, and by the time we realized what he’d stolen from Perallan, he’d lost it to a pack of squirrels.” He took a step back and shook his head as if Sammy had been a misbehaving student. “Rodents. He lost major artifacts to rodents. Never send a cherub to do, well, anyone’s job.” His shrug was so much like the dwarf I’d known it made me sick. “You see how that makes me look don’t you?”

  I wasn’t sure what response would save me, so I just nodded.

  Thaddeus’s frown grew deeper. “And you have caused some problems for me, young lady, you have. I was counting on that overwhelming curiosity you have to take care of both you and the dig. I’d thought I didn’t need either of you anymore. But you failed me too. Luckily, the jinn’s had also failed me, but were greedy enough to help me out in the end.”

  He came closer and rustled some papers in my face. “I do wonder who gave you these though. They were mine you see. Someone stole them.” He peered closely. “I was planning on asking if it was you, but I don’t think you’re that good. Perhaps, Alric, he is a rebellious sort. But how did you get them?”

  My face must have given something away, but to be honest I couldn’t feel enough of it to know. Whatever they’d used in the spell bomb really did a number on me. “You don’t want to tell me, do you?” This laugh was cold enough to freeze a haunch of beef in under two minutes. “That’s why we’re here, you and I. We’re going to have a nice discussion. About stolen artifacts, your friends, and anything else that might help me.” He stepped back and my heart stopped. Behind him was a well-used rack of knives, hammers, picks, and things I wasn’t going to try and identify.

  I screamed. But nothing came out. “What?” Now that came out, but another scream did nothing. Thaddeus’s laugh warmed up a few degrees which I now realized wasn’t a good thing.

  “I’m a spell user. Surprise. No one can hear you in here, and no one will find you in here. Ever.” He turned around to his collection of metal and rubbed his hands. “I haven’t been able to practice my art in a long time, what shall we start with?”

  I was just wondering if I could will myself unconscious when a pounding rattled the metal door.

  “I told you not to disturb me.” He didn’t even look up.

  “There be someone attacking your home, they got in, and we can’t get ‘em out.” From the voice, the thug sounded huge and nasty. And someone I would much rather face than the insane dwarf in front of me. My heart was pounding so loudly I was surprised my chest hadn’t cracked open.

  Thaddeus swore and covered the metal tools. “Never fear, I’ll be back.” He patted me on the head even though I tried to dodge. “But for now, sleep.”

  I blinked at him once, then everything went black.

  ***

  “Taryn? Wake up.” Harlan’s voice was low, but I couldn’t figure out why he was in my bedroom.

  “Go away, I wanna sleep.” I tried to turn and found myself immobile.

  “I wouldn’t twist so hard you’ll just knock your chair over.” Covey’s voice came from the other side. Since when had I started crawling into bed with Covey and Harlan?

  “Open your eyes slowly,” Harlan said an instant before I flung my lids open then slammed them shut as a barrage of pain stabbed into my brain. “It was one of Largen’s flunkies and that weasely Grimwold who works with Cirocco.
They must have hit you hard when you fought back.” He frowned. “Although you weren’t with us until just now. We’ve been here for hours.” He was clearly looking me over for injuries, but Thaddeus hadn’t gotten that far.

  That popped my eyes open again, but it didn’t hurt as much this time. Wait, what did he say? “I don’t remember fighting back. We went to see Covey and someone lobbed a spell bomb in the room.” I tried to shrug but my ropes wouldn’t even let me do that. “I blacked out then, we all did, right?” I wasn’t up to talking about my near death with Thaddeus. If I spoke about it right now, I might shatter.

  “Oh, but you did! The spell bomb dropped Covey and I, however we were only immobilized, not unconscious. You however, dropped to one knee, then shook off the spell like a rat shakes off water. It was quite inspiring. For a moment I thought you might be able to save us all. I never knew you had such skills of combat, my dear.”

  I studied his face through my still slightly bleary eyes, then switched to look at Covey. Her lean reptilian face was far too serious for this to be a bad joke.

  “But I can’t fight. Not like that anyway…how many people did I take down?” And why the hell couldn’t I tap into that when an insane dwarf was going to torture me?

  “At least five, and two may not ever get back up. If it weren’t that your dryad lineage precludes such a thing, I’d say it was a berserker rage. They sprayed you with some vile liquid which was what brought you down. It blinded you until one of their bruisers could knock you out.”

  My head was starting to pound. Whether it was from the beating it obviously took, or from the thinking about the impossible things Harlan was telling me I wasn’t sure. Now that I knew about it though, I did notice something odd. Something I’d felt each time I’d been exposed to whisky, but something more than that. I felt a burning and a feeling of invincibility when the spell hit. “Did either of you notice anything about their spell bomb? Did it have whisky in it?”

  “Dragon bane in a spell bomb?” Harlan let out a chuckle. “That might make those things less nasty, but I can’t see why one would put it in there. Besides, I didn’t think you turned into a champion fighter during those…events.”

  Now it was Covey’s turn to chortle. I glared at both of them.

  “No. I don’t. However I sort of feel like the morning after. Did either of you hear anything about what was in the spell bomb?”

  Harlan started to say no, but Covey cut him off.

  “Yes, as they were loading us into a carriage trunk. They were mad that it didn’t take you down, that it had been designed for all of our physiologies specifically.”

  That raised things to a whole new level. “So they were after the three of us? Only the three of us?” Who would want to make a highly targeted spell bomb for us? Alric was the only one I could think of who would connect the three of us together.

  “Why would they grab all of us though? They didn’t even torture us, or ask any real questions when they brought us here. But you were away, are you sure they didn’t hurt you? Oh, they took all of your papers, Taryn.” Harlan shook his head. “They didn’t seem to find anything else on any of us.”

  “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 w
hen 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.