Gargoyle Rising

by Meraki P. Lyhne

  “What’s that in pounds?” Ms. Stephanie asked. “Four hundred...”

  “Four hundred fifty something,” Meino said. “Is that because of the molecular differences when you animate?”

  “Yes, I’m quite a bit heavier when pure stone.” Burkhart stepped off the scale.

  “Well, means the suspensions in the van won’t buckle under you,” Hardy said.

  Meino grinned. “Depends on the van.”

  Ms. Stephanie glanced his way but said nothing as they made their way back to join the others. At the sight of a pair of feet sticking out behind the refrigerator display case, Meino turned his head to look the other way.

  “Order members are approaching,” Burkhart announced.

  Meino stayed with Burkhart and hid his face against the Gargoyle’s chest, careful not to bump his sore face against the hard body. “Did it hurt when the hammer hit you?”

  “Yes. I have never felt pain as a stone. Nor cold or warmth. But this was... I have no words to describe it. And fear. I felt fear when they hit you, but a different fear than when I thought I would lose your friendship by being reduced to stone.”

  The kind of fear Burkhart described was probably like the bone-deep dread Meino had felt at the prospect of the fire breathers smashing Burkhart. Why would he feel such warmth spread in him at the sentiment?

  “Clean up aisle five!” Ms. Stephanie joked, and the men around her snorted laughter. “Our van is here. Let’s get you out of here, Meino, and have a doctor look you over.”

  They left the shop through the back and piled into the van. Meino stayed close to Burkhart, who had trouble sitting on a seat. He crouched on the floor and held onto the seats as the van set in motion and took them away from the store.

  “How long will it be until we are at the safe house?” Burkhart asked Ms. Stephanie.

  “Less than an hour, I should think.”

  Burkhart reached up to caress Meino’s shoulder. “Maybe then you can have warm food.”

  “Food on the run?” Ms. Stephanie asked.

  “Yeah. Protein bars, water, and bruised apples. And there are only so many ways to slap a sandwich together.”

  Ms. Stephanie chuckled, nodding. “Yeah. I’ll get you something. The travel plans aren’t made for now, but I need you to be relatively easy to move, day or night.”

  “I won’t leave Burk.”

  She turned to stare at him. She kind of scared him. Meino, while being blinded by snot and tears, had heard the authority in her voice. With her facing him, he could see it in her eyes. An involuntary mental image of the cobweb fracture marking Burkhart flashed in Meino’s head.

  “I won’t!”

  “Will you let me fly you then?”

  Meino sighed deeply and looked at Burkhart. “I promised you, so yeah. If it means I won’t have to leave you.”

  Burkhart turned to face Ms. Stephanie. “Once your doctor has looked at Meino, please point us in the direction of the Order home we are to bring the books to, and I will take him there by air. If that home is within my reach tonight, then we will go soon.”

  “It isn’t, but you’ll get a home in the Order to rest on during the day and where Meino will be safe and comfortable.”

  “Where are we going?” Meino asked.

  “Only Burkhart will know. For safety reasons. I’m sorry, Meino, but we are a very secretive Order—”

  Meino looked out the window, still wondering about the Order. “I think I kinda understand your reasons to be.”

  “Your English is very good.”

  Meino looked at her again. “Thanks. I... read a lot.”

  She nodded, smiling, her gaze darting to Burkhart again and again.

  “Have you never seen an animated Gargoyle before?” Meino asked.

  “No.” Her professional and authoritarian exterior shattered to reveal her eagerness.

  Meino looked at Burkhart, who smiled and held out his hand to her. Meino recognized the way he did it, but Burkhart looked less explorative than he had when the two of them had met for the first time. Meino wondered whether it had been just as new and strange to Burkhart as it had been to Meino. Why wouldn’t it have been? Well, Burkhart had taken the change better than Meino had, that was for sure, and Ms. Stephanie looked more collected than Meino had been, too. But she was part of an Order that handled rare magic, so she was probably cool with most new things. She certainly looked like one of those cool and level minded people who didn’t get scared by anything.

  He felt safe with her. He hoped he’d feel safe with the rest of the members of the Order, too.

  Chapter Sixteen

  They arrived at the safe house along with the three people who had saved them in the store. Meino looked around the villa and wondered what made it a safe house. He wondered about a lot of things regarding the Order, but he’d trust Burkhart regarding that. He was made by Angels who also called the humans of the Order allies. That had to mean the Angels trusted them, too.

  Wow, Angels. What else was out there?

  Meino sat with his backpack, and Burkhart took an awkward seat next to him on the couch. It groaned under him, making Meino snicker.

  Ms. Stephanie and Hardy took a seat in the armchairs while the third in their crew left the den.

  “I’m sorry, what’s his name?” Meino asked.

  Ms. Stephanie looked the way the man had left and smiled. “David. His job is to help get all your belongings to safety.”

  The Charger? Meino’s thoughts stopped at that. Once they kicked back into gear, he thought about the books he had in storage.

  “Where’s safety?”

  “Well, first we need to get you to safety, but in the long run we need to hide you somewhere useful.”

  “How... what does that mean?”

  “The spell you know is one the Order has looked for. We once had it, but it was lost with Mr. Sellman just prior to World War Two. His Gargoyle was also animated, but it was destroyed during an attack on his home. We lost a lot of magic that day.”

  “That was when we were hidden,” Burkhart added.

  “You are one of Mr. Sellman’s eight?” Ms. Stephanie asked, staring agape.

  “I am.”

  David came in with a tray and placed it on the table. It held cookies and coffee and tea, and Meino’s mouth watered. David took a seat next to Ms. Stephanie and took her hand, smiling at her. Meino looked at their hands and saw identical wedding bands.

  “So, you want me and Burkhart hidden away?”

  “Yes, along with the books you carry,” Ms. Stephanie said while pouring coffee. “We have a member in the Order who is our expert in spells. His name is Mr. Talbot. He’s been trying to piece it back together since his initiation. We’d like for you to go to his home and stay there until we figure out where you would be most happy and useful to us while we work to secure you.”

  “I’m happiest fixing cars and reading fiction.”

  “Fixing cars?” David asked, perking up. “Mr. Thomas, maybe?” David looked at his wife who nodded. “We’d have to get Meino to the States then.”

  “Yes, maybe by the way of a home closer by,” Ms. Stephanie mused, tapping her chin.

  “Will you point out residences in the Order so that I may plan our trip?” Burkhart asked, and Meino’s heart sank at the prospect of being flown somewhere by Burkhart. But he had promised, and he wouldn’t go back on his word.

  “Of course,” David said, placing the cups—even one in front of Burkhart.

  “I’m sorry, my anatomy does not allow me to consume food or drinks.”

  “Sorry, we... didn’t know.” David took the cup and placed it on the tray again.

  Meino helped himself to a cookie and took a bite. The side of his mouth hurt when he opened it, so he ended up nibbling at the cookie instead while wondering what other spells his books contained.

  “Another possible plan could be to hold you up here for the night and move
the two of you by dawn. If it’s a route you think wise, we’d appreciate it if you could move into the van on your own.” Ms. Stephanie smiled at Burkhart.

  “Why at daytime?” Meino asked.

  “Because moving a Gargoyle is usually something done with a crane. We have the connections to hide Burkhart during the transport, so the ones after him won’t sense him moving. Which we actually fear they would if you flew there on your own.”

  “And me? I stay with him, right?”

  “Of course you do,” David said. “You ride with us. I have a refrigerated truck with compartments in the back. One is offline and protected by magic. Once that door is closed, no one can sense what’s inside. We move magic all over Europe in it.”

  Burkhart smiled. Then he frowned. “If it is protected by magic, will I be unable to sense the world around me and unable to talk to and sense Meino?”

  “We don’t know,” David said. “If that’s the route you chose, I’ll call for the truck to be delivered here, but it won’t be here until half an hour before sunup, so we can’t even try it out. And that timetable is only if you make up your mind within the next hour.”

  “We should find a different way if it shuts you out,” Meino said.

  Burkhart smiled but looked thoughtful. “I think me and your books dropping off the grid would be for the best,” Burkhart said, but he didn’t look pleased by his decision. “By what route?”

  “Let me just make a call.” Ms. Stephanie stood and left the room.

  Meino drank his coffee and ate his cookie, happy to discover that his teeth didn’t hurt. But his face did, and the skin around his eyes felt tighter.

  Ms. Stephanie returned, pocketing her phone as she reclaimed her seat.

  “Ms. Theresa will take you in. Mr. Talbot says it’s paramount that we get Burkhart to Ms. Theresa.”

  “Okay, so to Scotland,” David concluded. “We drive from here to France, where we load up with Eurotunnel Freight in Coquelles and cross to Folkestone. And we drive from there.”

  That would take a week, Meino feared. He slumped back and looked at Burkhart. “Can I see Burk while we’re on the road?”

  “Well, once sealed it has to remain sealed until we’re at our destination. It can be popped on hallowed ground in emergency cases.”

  Meino didn’t want to not be able to see Burkhart for so long, but he could see the point in it. And he hated himself for liking the idea for the simple fact that he didn’t have to be flown anywhere. “But you’ll be animated during the night and stuck in that box.”

  “Yes. But Meino, you forget one thing. I am made to sit still and wait for very long periods of time. I can choose to take on the stone form even when animated.”

  “But this is a week.”

  “Hardly that long,” David said.

  Burkhart chuckled. “Long period of time for a Gargoyle is centuries. It will be harder on you than it will be on me.”

  Well, there was that difference in their perception of time. What swayed him the most was that Burkhart thought the Order’s plan was the best one.

  “Okay,” Meino said quietly, playing with the last of his cookie until he noticed it might make him look like some sulky kid. He placed the cookie on a napkin and turned to face Burkhart. He’d come to love always having him around, and he wondered why it was so different with him. Maybe because he was there but still wasn’t, and because he wasn’t around to expect a whole lot from Meino.

  Meino took his coffee cup. “I have a driver’s license for a truck that size, just so you know.”

  “We have another driver. We’re both employed by the company whose truck we’re driving in.” David did air-quotation when saying that. “We have been for thirteen years, so it’s air tight. We can drive almost non-stop, and when we have to stop, we’ll see if we can do it on hallowed ground.”

  “You’re gonna drive a refrigerated truck onto a cemetery?” Meino asked, not seeing how that could go undetected at all.

  “No.” David chuckled. “I have a GPS with hallowed ground marked. Hallowed ground doesn’t keep to the limits of the walls or fences around churches. There are even spots of hallowed ground with nothing on them.”

  “Oh, that’s... kinda handy.”

  “We are pretty good at what we do,” Ms. Stephanie said.

  “My wife is so modest,” David said, grinning at Ms. Stephanie. “But... we are pretty good.”

  Meino chuckled and glanced at Burkhart, who didn’t object. “Okay. I’m just...”

  “Afraid? That’s very normal,” Ms. Stephanie said. “A team of operatives will be following you while another team will be gathering your possessions. If you’d write down your address for us and give us any details we might need.”

  “Can you move a car?” Meino asked.

  “I think we should stick with the essentials.”

  “Oh, the car is essential,” Burkhart said, getting a frown from the two operatives.

  “Let’s put it this way,” Meino said. “If you go back for just one thing. It’s the car.”

  Ms. Stephanie and David exchanged glances.

  “What is it about that car?” David asked.

  “It’s a Dodge Charger my dad bought for him and me to fix up together. But he died shortly after. It’s all I have of him. That and all my tools.”

  “And your books,” Burkhart said.

  “Yeah...” Meino thought about the meters worth of books he had on the shelves in the small apartment above the garage. But they probably weren’t the ones Burkhart meant. “The ones probably holding magic are in storage.”

  David sat forward. “You have more of those than the ones in your possession?”

  “Yeah. Two or three boxes full.”

  “Oh, shit, we need to get to them first. They unravel everything in your life and will be looking for stuff like that. Where is it?”

  “Under my former bosses’ name in Hamburg. He let me keep the storage space when I quit to open up my own garage.”

  “Do you have a key?”

  “Yeah.” Meino looked through his bag and found them. He was about to take the key out of the bundle, but the other keys were for the garage and apartment, so David would probably need them, too. Meino tossed him the entire bundle. “I’ll write down the addresses.”

  “Thanks.” David got up to find paper and a pen and then pulled out his phone as he left the room. Meino jotted down the address for the storage along with the details about his own address.

  “How much magic do you know about?” Ms. Stephanie asked.

  “Until Burk, nothing.”

  “How did you come across it?”

  Meino sat back with his cookie and coffee and looked at the big patient Gargoyle at his side. “Dad always told me fantastic stories. After my mom died, we went on actual adventures to a crypt, where we found Burkhart. After my dad died, I used a spell in the book he gave me. But nothing happened.”

  “When was that?”

  “I was a kid. Eleven years old. Didn’t know enough to see that the spell continued on the next page. I finished it about three weeks ago because Burk kept calling to me in my dreams. The next day, he sat outside the door to my roof terrace.”

  “Wow,” she muttered, staring out the window. “And now? How much do you know about now?”

  “Just what Burk told me exists, but nothing specific.”

  “So, you grew up with a whole lot of magic in your possession without knowing about it?”

  “Pretty much, yeah. Dad always said he’d let me read the books when I got older. That we’d look into magical worlds. I always thought he meant the fantasy books and all the fantasy worlds we made up together.”

  “Not all was fantasy, Meino,” Burkhart said.

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, I’m real. So are the mirrors you pretended to look into and ask advice.”

  “The mirrors?” Meino thought back, but it was, truth be told, p
retty hazy what he remembered. “I thought he got that from Snow White.”

  “No, that’s where Snow White got it. That magic is old—older than European folk stories.”

  “I see. I’m never going to look at a fantasy story the same again.”

  “As you shouldn’t,” Ms. Stephanie said, smiling knowingly.

  David returned and took a seat. “Your things are being collected.”

  “And shipped where?”

  “To wherever we find a safe place for you.”

  “With Burkhart by your side, you can be sure it is with someone in the Order.” Ms. Stephanie looked at her watch. “And we have fifteen hours to spend on something before we need to get Burkhart ready to be hidden. What would you two like to do?”

  “Uhm...” Meino looked at Burkhart. The past weeks, Meino had just walked or sat around in his sleeping bag and chatted with Burkhart. Now they had an opportunity to do other stuff. He wondered how one’s mentality could change so much over so short a time.

  “Herbie,” Burkhart said.

  Meino blinked. “Herbie?”

  “Will you watch TV with me? Show me Herbie? Show me how the Dodge is alive to you?”

  “Well, it’s kinda like you. You were stone until I loved you, and now you’re alive.”

  Burkhart cocked his head and looked touched. Meino’s words finally registered to himself. He loved the Gargoyle, didn’t he? Not in a... love your mom or sibling or boyfriend kind of way but something deep and profound. A bond. Not having felt anything he’d call love since his parents were taken away from him in such a short time, it was actually difficult to put words to exactly what he felt for Burkhart. But love was probably right. What kind of love was a different matter, though, and it was the one he had trouble pinpointing.

  “We don’t have Herbie, sorry,” Ms. Stephanie said, breaking Meino’s thoughts.

  “I have never watched TV,” Burkhart said. “I have seen it from afar but never understood what was in it.”

  “Why not at Meino’s place?” David asked.

  “I don’t have a TV,” Meino said. “I read books or fix cars.” Meino smiled and scooted closer to Burkhart. “How about we let you zap, then.”