“What was your father’s name?” Mr. Henry asked.
“Geert Ackermann. But he took my mother’s maiden name.”
“What was your father’s birth name?”
“Neumann.”
Mr. Henry sat back. “Oh, dear.”
“What?” Meino and Kaleb asked in unison.
“Please leave me to work. You have given a piece to an old puzzle. One that I think will explain your past, too.” Mr. Henry stood, and Kaleb moved to leave the library. To not feel alone, Meino followed the demigod from the library. But maybe the demigod wanted to go back to what he was doing before Meino had interrupted. Maybe Meino should find some place to do something else.
“Hey.” Kaleb stopped and turned to face Meino. “Your presence makes the Earned in me hungry to serve you. I’ll stay with you. I’d actually love to talk to you about magic.” Kaleb looked genuinely curious.
“Let’s go sit with Burkhart, then.”
Kaleb nodded, and they joined Burkhart on the terrace. Only a few more hours until the sun would set. Meino wished he knew what the change was, but he’d have to wait until sundown to see.
Chapter Forty
Meino and Burkhart sat outside on the sundeck and watched the full moon. Meino’s whole world had exploded into tiny pieces along with Burkhart, and now he sat with him again. So far, he hadn’t figured out what had changed. Burkhart’s skin was still soft and warm, and his irises were still a green marble. Burkhart couldn’t tell what had changed, either, he just knew that the demigod had infused something extra in him, but he had no idea what it was. He didn’t even know if it was intended.
“Thank God the Order has someone so powerful on their side.” Meino closed his eyes, enjoying the steady thumping in Burkhart’s chest. His Gargoyle had grown a heart near the nexus in Scotland.
“I have love for him now. The kind I have for the Angel who gave me consciousness.”
Meino looked up, grinning. “You do know the demigod is actually younger than me, right? I don’t think he’s ready to be Dad, either.”
Burkhart chuckled. “I shall call him by his name, then.”
Pritchard cleared his throat behind them. “My baroque garden project isn’t that interesting in the moonlight. Yet. But Mr. Henry has something interesting to tell us in the library.”
Meino and Burkhart followed Pritchard back to the library, where everybody but Lucien was assembled. Even the young demigod.
“Thank you for joining us.” Mr. Henry pointed them to sit with the others. “Many things are moving fast at the moment, and Kaleb has promised to assist us in finding magic. It is important that the wizards of the Order are the first to learn from him, as you are magical and can do harm without knowing it. As I understand it, arrangements have been made for you to be Mr. Talbot’s protégé?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Meino said, feeling excited about sharing Burkhart’s world. But he also felt afraid, since someone as powerful as the demigod was to teach him. But he’d saved Burkhart’s life, and Meino’s gratitude toward the young demigod far outweighed the troubles on his mind.
“Mr. Talbot and Vibeke will join us here in the States along with their son. But let us start with something that will put your mind at ease. Mr. Talbot contacted me months ago, asking me to help with your genealogy. It has been a worthy puzzle, and it leaves me no doubt that your great-grandfather was indeed a friend to this Order, maybe even an uninitiated protégé to Mr. Sellman or his protégé, Manuel Schäfer.” Mr. Henry put a binder on the table and opened it, taking out a piece of paper. “As most family names follow the paternal line, it made for some difficulties prior to the digital world, and I have had help going to churches in Germany to find the information. Your father took your mother’s maiden name of Ackermann. Before that, your family name was Neumann.”
“That’s as far back as I know, too,” Meino said, nodding.
“And here comes the puzzle. In the church records of the birth of your grandfather, Felix Neumann, there is a text written, but it is not one I can read. Nathan, would you be so kind and take a look?”
Nathan stood, took the note, and looked it over with a contemplative frown on his young face. Then his brows shot up. “I know this, I’ve seen it before!” He stared out the window a minute while everybody watched and waited. “But where. Just a second. Lucien!” Nathan stalked to the door and left the library.
“Well, it is now in the hands of our young linguist, but the esoteric alphabet in that note is what makes me connect his birth to that of an order. That you end up with Mr. Sellman’s Gargoyles and have grown up knowing about them is what makes me connect your family to this Order.” Mr. Henry sat before he scooted the binder across the table to Meino.
“Thank you for trying.”
“Oh, it was a pleasure. I do enjoy a good puzzle.” The old man flapped his fingers on top of his cane. “I am not at all surprised that our search is cut short. It was a troubled time. My mentor told me many stories about the battles that were fought in the dark before the Third Reich reached its peak. The Order fought, too, and we lost many of these battles. Some of us were hunted and captured, others killed. That was when we began training operatives to be our own soldiers to protect an army whose only defense was knowledge.
“Mr. Sellman wanted to create an army of Gargoyles, to awaken the Gargoyles to physically be able to protect us. He and his protégé worked hard on it. All Order members had allies to help create diversions if needed, but usually, these were not in the know of what our Order really did. Both Mr. Sellman and his protégé Manuel Schäfer were killed during one of these attacks, and what we’ve learned is that they were in the process of hiding their magic.”
Nathan came back in, his nose buried in a book. Everybody looked at him, but he didn’t notice anyone around him as he continued to the desk and sat down with the book.
“And the animated Gargoyle destroyed,” Meino said, bringing the old man back on track. “Do you remember him, Burk?”
“Yes. Mr. Sellman called him Steinmann.”
Meino scoffed at the name.
“He was a good watchman,” Burkhart continued. “He did not have the fortune to be awoken by a man who needed him as a companion. That might be why we have evolved so differently since we were given the second breath.”
“That, and we stayed at a nexus for six months, strengthening the spell,” Meino added.
“I got it,” Nathan exclaimed, getting up. He brought an old tattered leather journal to the seating arrangement. “In the back of my predecessor’s journal, Lucien’s former master, Erik, there was an inscription that I couldn’t read. It has fascinated me since I learned about it and the Order. What you found in the church records was the key to reading it.”
“Oh, wow, someone really wanted that secret kept,” Meino said.
“Yeah, and listen to this. It’s a riddle. To sleeping stone, I whisper a name. Ask them if you will. Hear it if you can.”
“Karl Reuter,” Burkhart said.
“Karl Reuter. I haven’t come across that name,” Mr. Henry said.
“I have,” Meino said. “It was the name of the man who took my grandfather to the crypt when he turned fourteen to guard the Gargoyles.”
“Yes, but Meino. Karl Reuter was the one who whispered the name,” Burkhart said. “Everyone can talk to a Gargoyle, but only the Order can hear us. The name I was to tell at the reciting of that sentence is Konstantin Marquardt.”
“Konstantin Marquardt is the founder of the Shadow Masters and Protectors,” Nathan said.
“And the Thule member who made the curse that bound the men to shadow,” Mr. Henry said.
“Shit just hit full circle,” Nathan said, plopping down on a chair.
“I’m confused,” Meino said.
“No wonder,” Mr. Henry said, thinking. “With that piece of the puzzle, we need only one. Konstantin Marquardt’s true name, because we know it was a pseudonym.”<
br />
“Manuel Schäfer,” Burkhart said.
“My... my great-grandfather?”
“So, he didn’t die with Mr. Sellman? This puzzle is so much bigger than I thought,” Mr. Henry said, looking surprised. “I’ve been missing vital pieces. Burkhart, do you know more?”
“Why would you never tell me this?” Meino asked, turning to face Burkhart fully.
“Because half a truth can be more dangerous than ignorance, Meino. We promised not to divulge the name or whose bloodline watched over us until we heard the quote that Nathan just recited. It was for your safety as well, little one.”
“Okay,” Meino said, thinking he still knew too little, and with his dad’s death maybe being a murder then the need for such secrecy was probably even more pronounced than he could understand. “I get it.”
“Mr. Sellman and Manuel Schäfer worked together on making the spell that would give us the second breath, as they called it, the first being consciousness which the Angels gave us. The second breath was to animate us. It was their plan to animate all eight of us.”
“May I ask?” Kaleb raised a finger. “Did they ask the Angels if that was okay?”
Burkhart nodded. “The Angel said that we were given to the humans of the Order so that we could watch over them. It would be our choice to rise and walk with them. If a human could compel us to join them, then we were allowed to.”
“Either the Angels never thought humans capable, or the Angels were big teases,” Meino said.
“Maybe a bit of both,” Kaleb said, grinning. “They do so love to watch us think. Sorry for interrupting, carry on.”
“It took them six years before they managed to awaken Steinmann. At that point, we all were willing to leave our post as watchers to become seekers.”
“What’s the difference?” Meino asked.
“We were made to sit still and observe and report, not go into battle or actively seek out enemies of our charges. With more and more Order members and magic being stolen and being moved toward the harm of others, we decided that we would all join his army, none more eager than the twins.”
“The two we are still missing,” Mr. Henry said, looking sad.
“Luckily, the spell was split in two and hidden, one part of it coded and put on the first Gargoyle, the other part put in a book.”
“But I awoke you.”
“You awoke the other half,” Burkhart said, squeezing Meino’s hand. “It took you two attempts, but the first half was done by your great-grandfather and Mr. Sellman the day their home was raided by men looking for a specific magic. They were casting the spell while men broke down the walls of their home. Mr. Sellman never kept both an item and its spell at the same place. He had a vault somewhere far beyond our eye’s reach. Until I heard Ms. Theresa and Mr. Talbot speak of Steinmann’s destruction, then I hoped he and the twins were in that vault. Now I fear the twins are lost completely.”
“The stories were always about the quest to find the twins,” Meino said, thinking about the story he’d read more times than he could count since he’d gotten his hands on the book again.
“I hope it is to find the vault,” Burkhart said. “Much magic is there for the Order to collect, but I don’t know where it is.”
“Who put you in the crypt?” Mr. Henry asked.
“Karl Reuter. He was married to Mr. Sellman’s sister. They hid us. As he whispered that name, he also told us he would keep the bloodline of Schäfer safe along with our location so that we would one day be returned to the Order.”
“You did that,” Mr. Henry said, smiling at Meino.
“No, far from it. Our quest has just begun.”
I will be your fearless Gargoyle and fly you into the Outer Kingdom.
Meino almost successfully suppressed a laugh. “I’d be very grateful for that. But maybe we should start with two refrigerated trucks and the help of a demigod who can move stone without a crane.”
“At your service,” Kaleb said.
There were so many details to what Burkhart had revealed that Meino still didn’t get, and it was clear that his family history had far more to do with the Order than he’d thought. What consequences it had brought about was still unclear, but it was obvious to Meino that it was not strictly good news that had come to see the light of day.
“There’s another aspect to this,” Nathan said. “Meino’s grandfather was in the Order, but he was also one of the founders of the Shadow Masters and Protectors. Mr. Severin told me the names, and that the Order member who did was from Thule, and that Thule corrupted his work. He was the one who leaked their spells to the Order during the war, he was the one who had the Gargoyles of Sellman hidden after the attack. Meino’s grandfather gave them the spell that trapped the Shadows.”
Meino felt anger and shame at being related to the one who had helped curse Lucien and Ethan, and he felt relieved that neither were allowed in the library at that moment. Nathan’s accusing tone didn’t help, but he could hardly blame him, since he loved Lucien.
“Manuel Schäfer, or Konstantin Marquardt as we know him, was one of them,” Mr. Henry said. “The other was killed. He stayed on the inside of Thule as one of the original Shadow Masters to leak intel to us.”
“Who was his Shadow?” Nathan asked.
“A man named Dan,” Mr. Henry said, pulling out a piece of paper from the file on the table. “Meino, this is the only photograph the Order has of your grandfather.”
“No, I saw plenty at Ms. Theresa’s place along with Mr. Sellman and the Gargoyles.” Meino took the photo and stared at it for a few seconds. “It’s too blurry to really make out if it’s the same person.”
“That’s the chain and bracelet showing on photos,” Nathan said, going to stand next to him to have a look. “See, bracelet there, chain there.”
“Oh. Who’s the third man in the photo?”
“My mentor,” Mr. Henry said, smiling.
Nathan put a hand on Meino’s shoulder. “I’m sorry for snapping at you like that.”
“Me, too. There’s just a kind of inherent shame left in the German people for some of the shit that happened during the war. Being told your granddad was at the forefront poked at it.”
Nathan squeezed his shoulder, and Meino had no problem forgiving his new friend.
“I would very much like to see that spell,” Kaleb said.
“Can you see how it was changed to create Shadows?” Nathan asked.
“I won’t know until I try.”
“It was in a book that was in my backpack. Oh, no, we didn’t leave that in that room, did we?”
“No, I brought everything. It’s with the Pack of Punishment, hold on.” Kaleb disappeared and returned a minute later next to Meino. Having been told how the Earned earned their energy, Meino had to suppress a shudder at the thought of what went on at that pack since he also knew the three men from that room had been moved there. Meino shooed the thoughts away and handed Kaleb the book once he’d opened it to the right page.
“That’s half the spell, right?” Nathan asked.
“Yes,” Burkhart said. “The first was hidden on Steinmann.”
“We are still working on collecting his full body, but much of it was lost. Stolen, we suspect.”
“I wonder whether it has to do with this.” Nathan was looking in the back of the old worn journal. “It makes no sense, though.”
“Try anyway,” Meino said. “Maybe Burkhart has heard of it.”
“The veil of the shunned covers the rare flower of air.”
“Air? Not breath?” Burkhart asked.
“No, definitely air.”
Meino glanced around, and all looked as confused as he was. It was somewhat disheartening to get so many riddles and secrets and vague pieces of a puzzle, but considering what the Order had tried to keep hidden, yet make clear enough for other Order members to decipher, then he understood the necessity.
“I will trance on i
t,” Kaleb said, looking in the book. “May I borrow the book?”
Meino wanted to deny him because he really didn’t want to part with it. But being as powerful as he was, Kaleb would without a doubt be able to protect the book better than Meino could. “Yes.”
Pritchard’s phone chimed. He got up, checking the caller. “Excuse me. Kaleb, I think we’re ready for you.”
Chapter Forty-one
Rebecca spent most of the flight to Minnesota praying and trying to come to terms with what fate she’d just delivered a young man to. But she hadn’t sealed his fate, God had. She was His tool to see His will done through her. If God hadn’t wanted Meino and the Gargoyle caught, He wouldn’t have placed them in the path of His trusted warriors. All she had to do was trust in God and His church. She had to trust in the hierarchy designed to mirror the Heavenly army of Angels.
The fear in Meino’s eyes had still cut into her, and something kept whispering in the back of her head that no one was supposed to make other people that scared. But it had to be the Devil whispering things like that, had to be the Devil trying to manipulate her away from securing God’s Kingdom on Earth by having her second-guess the need for God to remove the ponds of the Devil. Those humans had chosen their side. Or maybe some of them didn’t know? Maybe they needed to be saved instead? Shown the right path?
She didn’t come to a conclusion before the plane touched down. She missed Jared and his warm smiles. And just like that, she had to remind herself that he was like Meino—he did the Devil’s deeds.
She still smiled when she saw Jared, but today his smile didn’t reach his eyes.
“Welcome,” he said, gave her a shallow hug and a chaste kiss on the cheek, and took her luggage to haul it through the airport. She wondered whether it was because he’d gotten word that Meino’s plane had gone down somewhere.
Jared stopped by a van with blacked out windows. “We’re hitching a ride today.” He opened the door and motioned for her to get in. Once she was, he put the luggage in and closed the door, leaving Rebecca alone with Mr. Thomas, Jenny, and a man she didn’t remember the name of, but she remembered having seen him at Pritchard Browman’s engagement party.
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