Olivia spins on her heel and storms out of the storeroom and slams the door.
Where are you going? Yip demands.
Olivia grinds her teeth and glares back at the closed door.
I just broke into the administration office, snuck through the boy’s dormitory and stole a key from a praying priest and brought it back for you. I’ll probably go to Hell for that, she sends him through the door.
I don’t think—
Shush! I’m in pain and I’m scared and all you can do is call me names. I’m not a simpleton and you can find your own way out of the stupid storeroom.
I didn’t call you a simpleton, Yip states flatly.
I heard you.
I said, ‘even a simpleton knows the difference between a gargoyle and a Grotesque’.
So I’m worse than a simpleton? Olivia demands.
Well, technically…yes, Yip admits.
And you expect me to still help you?
Ah…yes. He admits. That would be nice.
It would be nice to get an apology, Olivia says.
Exactly, Yip says. That wasn’t quite an apology but I will accept it anyway.
Not from me, an apology from you.
Oh I’m sorry you’re a moron, Yip offers.
Olivia groans in exasperation. You don’t have many friends, do you?
Yip doesn’t reply.
Olivia groans again and pulls the door open. “Ok, what do you need me to do?”
You have to get me out of here and onto the roof before moonrise tonight.
Olivia tries to pick Yip up. He might not be much bigger than a cat but he is solid stone. She just manages to lift him with her good arm but there is no way she will be carrying him any distance. And there is certainly no way she is going to be climbing onto any roofs with him.
“You are too heavy, Yip,” she complains.
Think of a way, Yip says. If you don’t get me out of here, the bad things that are happening are going to get worse.
Olivia scratches her head then she starts taking things out of her backpack. She pulls the bag over his head and tips him off the box.
Yip lets out a mental scream.
Olivia only just manages to catch the bag before it hits the ground. She tugs the zipper closed and levers the backpack up onto her shoulder. Sharp knobs of stone poke into her back.
I’m upside down, Yip protests.
“Do you want to get out of here or not?” Olivia demanded.
Yip stops complaining.
“I’m going to have bruises from carrying you,” Olivia complains, as she relocks the door and creeps back up the steps.
Olivia feels an odd itch between her shoulder blades but doesn’t see the cold eyes watching her. As she reaches the front doors of the school, she sees Mum and Dad walking across the courtyard toward her.
“Olivia,” Dad calls out. “We were getting worried.” He reaches out to take the backpack.
Olivia shrugs away. “It’s OK, Dad. I can manage the bag.” The straps are cutting into her shoulders and she thinks her legs are going to give way any second but she can’t let Dad take the bag. “I was just seeing if there was any important work I missed out on this week.”
At the car, Olivia hefts the backpack onto the backseat and clambers in after it.
“How was your first day back at school?” Mum asks.
Olivia thinks of everything that has happened. Her friends being more interested in the new girl, losing her old seat, being sent to the principal and the crazy telepathic conversations with the little gargoyle.
Grotesque, Yip corrects irately.
Olivia wonders if she can mentally poke out her tongue.
From Yips reaction, apparently she can.
That brings a smile to her lips and she files it away for future reference. “It wasn’t all bad,” she replies to Mum’s question. “I felt a bit off after recess and had a rest in sick bay for a while but I’m fine now.” She thinks she should cover her bases in case the school decides to tell her parents.
“Why didn’t you get them to call?” Mum turns in her seat to give Olivia a serious look.
“It wasn’t that bad.”
When they arrive home, Olivia goes through the house and out into the backyard. She empties Yip out onto the floor of her cubbyhouse. “I’ll work out some way to get you on the roof by moonrise,” Olivia promises. She closes the cubbyhouse door and walks back to the house.
Out on the street across from Olivia’s town house, malicious eyes stand watch.
Chapter 22
Tru Colours
The leader of the Trixies sits on the rooftop watching the sun dip behind the western horizon. Down in the deep shadows of the alley, her younger kin timidly slip from their hiding places. They shudder at the sight of the sunlight falling across her face as she glares down at them with contempt.
Immunity to sunlight is another benefit of age, she thinks. Her days of hiding from the sun are gone. Where once that golden light would have blackened and blistered her skin, now it merely stings like a half-hearted slap. It isn’t comfortable but she is used to pain now and she enjoys the effect her defiance of the sun has on the younger Trixies.
She thinks back to this morning, when she caught the four oldest of her fold trying to convince the others to leave—to leave her!
That type of treachery could not be let stand and she is about to give them a lesson.
When she steps into the shadows to confront them, three look down in submission but Tru, the Trixie who led the little Guardian into the trap, holds her gaze defiantly.
The leader snarls, showing jagged teeth. Hard fingers snake into Tru’s pale hair and twist.
Tru has just turned seven, but looks younger. Even though seven is old for a Trixie, it is no physical match for a thirteen-year-old who is hitting puberty. Pumped up on the hormones that accompany that, the older girl is infused with powers and malice no Trixie has ever experienced before.
Tru refuses to scream which infuriates the leader. She drags Tru out of the shadows and strides into a beam of bright sunlight. Tru screams and gouges at the older Trixies arm, its nails biting into flesh.
The leader forces Tru onto her knees and bends her backward so the sun scorches the exposed skin of her stomach, where the Hello-Kitty tee-shirt has ridden up. Tru’s throat and face also catch the sun. Its skin begins to bubble and crisp.
Tru wails, flailing its arms about uselessly. Skin splits open and begins to tatter into tendrils of smoky shadow.
Within seconds, Tru dissolves and disappears.
It’s a good lesson and will stop the Trixies whispering against her.
They will learn, she promises herself. And I’ll make sure none of them lives long enough to share my powers.
She takes slow menacing steps toward them and watches the young ones scatter from her path. A concentration of her will draws them reluctantly to her. She revels in her power over them.
She laughs and motions to Bitti and Gia to come closer still.
They edge forward hesitantly.
“Darlings,” she says. “I was terribly impressed with your little trick at the dance club.”
Bitti smiles and Gia bobs a little curtsy at the praise.
“I have a special task for you tonight.”
Bitti rubs its hands together eagerly. It is beginning to enjoy these more serious games.
“One of the humans is interfering.” She snarls as the words come out. “She has been poking around near the Guardians.”
Gia gasps. Even statue-trapped, the Guardians send waves of fear through the gathered Trixies.
It had taken the leader every ounce of power to force the Trixies into fighting the little pest Grotesque and not to flee from Cygnet, his rescuer.
“We can’t have nasty people trying to wake up the Guardians, can we?” she demands.
The gathered young ones shudder at the thought.
“Their leader is dead—shattered into hundreds of pieces. And do
you know what the others will do if they are ever moon touched again?” She has their full attention now. “You two are going to visit Olivia Stone tonight and make sure she never interferes with me again.”
“Where is she?” Bitti asks.
The leader walks over to the little wooden door in the wall at the end of the alley. “She lives too close to our little hideout. After dark you can slip inside and play some wicked tricks.”
Bitti and Gia nod their heads.
“Permanently wicked!”
Chapter 23
An Undignified Awakening
On the far side of the high brick wall, Olivia slips out through the back door of the terrace house and walks across the narrow yard to her cubbyhouse. The moon isn’t due to rise for another ten minutes.
Olivia isn’t certain how she knows that but she is sure it’s true.
“Yip,” she calls, as she opens the cubbyhouse door. “Are you there?”
Ah—statue! The sarcasm carries on his mental reply. Do you think I might have popped to the shops for a milkshake or something?
“Actually,” she snaps at him, “I’d almost convinced myself I was going mad and I’d come down here and all I’d find would be an ugly lump of rock.”
Ugly. His tone is incredulous. There’s no ne—
“Oh, shush,” Olivia interrupts. “Do you want my help or not?”
No need to get personal.
“I’m thinking, garden ornament. You’d go nicely in amongst Mum’s petunias. You might even scare the slugs away.”
Yip gives a mental growl.
“Do you have to be on any special roof? she asks.
Technically not, he admits. I suppose the roof of your little terrace will do.
“I wasn’t thinking of the terrace.” Olivia drags Yip into the yard. She spins him around to face the cubbyhouse.
No, he says.
“Yes,” Olivia replies.
That’s degrading, he whines. I think I’d rather stay statue-trapped.
“It’s that or my neighbour’s dog kennel,” Olivia offers.
At least dogs have a proud history of protecting mankind, Yip says.
“It’s a Chihuahua.”
Oh.
Olivia pulls out one of the chairs and drags it to the back of the cubbyhouse, out of sight of the terrace’s back door. She comes back and starts dragging Yip there as well.
Why are we going all the way around here? Yip asks.
“I don’t want Mum and Dad seeing what I’m doing, and I’ll be doing this one-handed. I’m pretty sure I’ll drop you at least once…”
Drop me?
“I thought you’d rather land on the grass than the concrete.”
Oh.
Olivia unwinds a piece of rope and ties it around Yip’s chest.
That tickles, he protests.
“You are made of stone.”
Still tickles.
Olivia throws the other end over the roof and hurries to the front. She takes the rope into the cubbyhouse and passes the end out through the window.
She grunts as she hefts Yip. She squeezes him between her body and the back wall as she tugs in the slack on the rope. She is sweating with the effort.
She does the same thing twice more until he is shoulder height off the ground. He is still twenty centimetres short of the roof.
“Do you have to be all the way up on the roof?” Olivia pants with exertion.
I just have to be touching it.
Olivia looks at her watch. There is only a little over a minute to moonrise. She wraps the rope around her wrist and braces her right foot on the back wall of the cubbyhouse. Her bad leg trembles. She hopes her knee doesn’t give way.
Twenty seconds. The second hand on her watch ticks away.
Olivia takes a deep breath, bunches her muscles, leans back and heaves with all her strength.
Yip scrapes against the wall. One of his horns jams on the edge of the roof.
Soft moonlight slants into the rear yard of Olivia’s terrace house just as her foot slips on the grass. The rope slides through her hand and burns a coil of pain into her wrist and palm.
Yip crashes onto the grass.
Part 3
Strength
Chapter 24
Stone Magic
A sharp pain shoots through Olivia’s left knee and she is sure her tailbone is bruised. This whole thing is ridiculous. Now she is going to have to start all over again. She reaches for the rope and winces. The palm of her right hand is already starting to blister.
“Do you think you could be a bit more careful next time?” Yip demands. His words are muffled like he is talking through a pillow.
Olivia snaps her head around to see the Grotesque lying face down in the grass. “Maybe you should do it yourself next time.”
I think that’s a wonderful idea, Yip adds as he flexes his wings.
Although Olivia thought her mental conversations with Yip had prepared her for statues coming to life, and that monsters were real, she had been kind of hoping she was going mad instead.
The stone creature startles her and brings everything crashing home.
Yip sits up and stretches his long sinewy neck.
The crack makes Olivia wince.
Small clawed hands reach up and pick dirt and grass stalks out of his mouth and nose. “Ssppuck.” He spits more dirt to the ground. “That has to be the most undignified thing I have ever endured.”
He is a speaking with his mouth!
Olivia sits back, speechless while he picks at the knot on the rope around his chest. It’s like a kind of magic. One second she is sitting next to an inanimate statue and the next, it’s sitting up talking to her. This type of thing only happens in fairy stories. She pinches herself to see if she’s dreaming.
A bright thought comes to her. Maybe this is some sort of dream and none of the horrible things of the past week have actually happened at all. Maybe her arm and leg and the side of her face aren’t slowly turning to stone, and maybe she isn’t going slowly mad.
“I wish.” Yip’s reply dashes Olivia’s theory.
She looks at him and sighs.
He huffs as he stands and dusts himself off and looks past her.
“A doll’s house,” he complains loudly, and jabs Olivia with a stony finger. He stares at her with a horrified expression.
“Ouch…And it’s a cubbyhouse,” she corrects him.
Yip bustles past Olivia and disappears into the cubbyhouse. He appears again in the back window, next to where Olivia is still sitting on the ground rubbing her knee. He thrusts a tatty old doll out through the window and waves it at her accusingly.
“Doll’s house!”
There isn’t much Olivia can say to that. “It has a roof.” This is the best she can manage.
“I’m glad the other Guardians are still statue-trapped. I’d never live this down.”
“Aren’t you overreacting?” Olivia asks.
“Ha!” he snaps. “I’ve had fifty years of short jokes and snide comments from the others. Even the school’s official history book calls me a ‘quaint oddity’ and ‘the smallest known Grotesque ever carved’.” He growls the words as he speaks. “Quaint oddity indeed, I should let the Trixies wreck the city. That would show them.”
“Trixies?” Olivia asks.
Yip pulls himself out through the window and looks at the doll in his hands. He tosses it carelessly inside. “Trixies, the things that have been causing all the accidents and destruction over the last few nights.”
Olivia still looks blank.
“Trickster imps,” he says.
Olivia shakes her head.
“What do they teach children in school these days?”
It’s clear he doesn’t want her to answer because he continues without pausing for breath. “Obviously nothing useful.”
Do garg—Grotesques, actually breathe? Olivia thinks.
“Of course we don’t,” Yip snaps. “Made…of…stone…” He speaks
with exaggerated slowness, like he is talking to a very young child or an idiot. He accompanies each word with a sharp tap of a claw on his head.
“So,” Olivia says, “a Trixie is a Trickster Imp?”
“Exactly.” Yip claps his hands together.
“I think I’m getting it now. But what’s a Trickster Imp?” Olivia demands.
Yip rolls on the ground in frustration.
Chapter 25
Know Thy Enemy
“Trixies are mostly harmless imps who take the form of young female children. But that is just a glamour to mask their true forms,” Yip says. He speaks like he is reciting from a textbook. “They are solitary creatures who delight in playing tricks and practical jokes on their unsuspecting victims.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Not so bad,” Yip spits. He pauses for a moment then sits down beside Olivia and scratches tiredly at his head. “It’s not so bad,” he admits. “But something has gone wrong.”
“What?” asks Olivia.
“How should I know? I’ve been locked up in a storeroom for the last three days.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t even know what’s been happening.”
The two sit silently.
Olivia thinks about Yip’s description of the Trixies—creatures that take the form of young girls. That explains the drowning of Erik Mayse and his friends and why they didn’t find any sign of the young girl they tried to rescue.
“Something is causing the Trixies to go against their nature and work as a group,” Yip explains. “That’s why I went out looking for them on Sunday night. I thought it was just one Trixie and I could have handled that.”
Olivia listens intently.
“When I’d found it, it led me into a trap. There were at least a dozen of them.”
He pauses for so long, Olivia thinks he is finished.
“But the trap wasn’t for me,” he says sadly. “I was bait for one of the real Guardians. When Cygnet came, the Trixies attacked. We only just managed to escape and both of us were injured.” He lifts his hand and showed Olivia his missing finger. He doesn’t show her his missing tail.
Olivia Stone and the Trouble with Trixies Page 8
