The Diamond Sphinx (The Lost Ancients Book 6)

by Marie Andreas

  “Do I want to know what the distraction is?” Part of me was curious, the other a bit concerned.

  “Amara and Dogmaela are going to sing,” Padraig said. “Nothing too wild, but Amara is going to put some special effort into it. Along with plants, her people can use some sound magic. They should cast a light spell that won’t be picked up by any other magic users and keep everyone in town focused on them, whether they are in the pub or not.”

  Covey nodded. “There have been theories of the connections between plants and music, it’s interesting to know that on some level they might be right.”

  The faeries buzzed around aimlessly after their fun of hunting the brownies. Garbage had sent the extra ones back to wherever they came from, but her faery gang still appeared out for trouble. If we were trying to be stealthy about leaving, having them on the warpath and traveling with us as we left Beccia wasn’t a good idea.

  “Hey, girls, I think Lorcan needed you to take a message to Mathilda; right, Lorcan?” I hoped this would work; they were getting more fidgety as I watched.

  He’d been lost in his own thoughts but caught on quickly. “Ah yes. We do need to let her know of our movements. She and her cottage should be moving toward the east of us. I need you to stick together and get the message through.”

  “All? I send those.” Garbage pointed to a clump of her faeries. Clearly, she didn’t want to be left out of whatever we were doing.

  “I need all of you to go; it is a very important task. Once you get to her, you must guard her and her cottage. Only all of you working together can do that.” Lorcan held out a handful of sugar and the faeries swarmed him, each grabbing a piece, shoving it in their mouths, and flying back.

  Garbage had taken the biggest piece, so she had to remove it before she spoke. “We do.” Then she shoved it back in her mouth and flew toward the door.

  I opened the door again and she favored me with a nod as if this was her decision, then led her troop back out through the pub.

  “At least that’s taken care of, thank you, Lorcan.” Considering he was still in the ‘aren’t faeries cute’ stage, I wasn’t sure how well that was going to go. I’d just wanted them to stay clear while we were leaving, but sticking with Mathilda for a bit was a good idea too. Bunky and Irving were far better at staying inconspicuous, even if, just by existing, they were quite noticeable. I’d realized that the people of Beccia simply ignored what they didn’t understand.

  Maybe I should’ve followed their lead.

  “Attention!” Foxy’s voice boomed through the pub and out the open front door. He had a great voice for speaking over the din of a crowded pub, but given the time, there couldn’t be more than a dozen people out there. Needless to say, they immediately went quiet.

  “Today we have a treat. My lovely wife Amara will be singing a song from her homeland, accompanied by Dogmaela.”

  Amara’s voice was clear like a stream, with Dogmaela hitting the lower notes.

  “And that’s our cue,” Lorcan said as he led the way.

  No one, aside from Foxy, even glanced at us as we skirted past the main part of the pub and out the alley door. People in the streets had stopped and were facing the pub but didn’t look at us.

  Bunky and Irving flew low over our heads; another advantage of them over the faeries, Bunky understood a lot more than they did. Or the faeries understood, but they just didn’t care.

  We got to the horses and rode to the hedge. Amara had triggered it to respond to my touch again. Alric had wanted it to be him, but she obviously didn’t trust him after his earlier problem.

  I got off my horse and put a hand on the greenery. Nothing happened. I glanced at the others, but they just shrugged. Lorcan gave me a nod. I put two hands on it.

  It was only the last few months of freakish things happening to me that kept me from screaming as the branches reached out and engulfed me.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Greenness enveloped me, but aside from the pressure from the plant surrounding me as it pulled me forward, I didn’t feel pain. A vision of that severed rakasa arm we’d found made me rethink the scream, but while it was definitely pushing me forward, the hedge wasn’t hurting me.

  “I don’t think this is what Amara meant.” I kept my mouth closed after saying the words, as some leaves got a bit too close. I felt odd talking to a bunch of shrubbery, but the movement stopped. “We need a passage for us and our horses.” The hedge kept pushing me forward, but now I felt an opening behind me.

  “I’m sorry, Taryn; sometimes he can be too literal.” The voice was Amara, but it was coming from all around me.

  I tumbled out on the other side as the hedge set me free. My friends, with Alric leading my horse, followed.

  I brushed off the extra plant life I’d gathered, and then got on my horse. I hadn’t been thrilled about riding, but that horse looked wonderful after being pushed around by a plant. “That was…different.”

  “We do apologize,” Amara’s disembodied voice came from behind us. “Safe travels and good luck.” Her last words dropped as the hedge closed behind us.

  My sword reappeared in its sheath. “Good of you to show up after the threat is gone.” I patted it.

  “Are you okay?” Alric had been slipping back into surly mode, a side effect from finding out Cirocco had taken him for a ride, but there was real concern in his eyes now.

  “I’m fine. It didn’t hurt me. To be honest, it felt more like a dog trying to get to know someone.”

  He nodded, but looked me over for injuries anyway. “Okay, then. Let’s head toward the main road a few miles up. We can hit it earlier than that, but I’d rather we stuck to lesser known roads for a bit.” Alric was definitely in his element skulking about; he was watching everything as we headed into the woods.

  I really wasn’t used to this part of Beccia. The outskirts to the north didn’t have a lot of farms or houses and most traffic was to the west, headed toward Kenithworth. That town was to the north, but also off west quite a bit. If we were following the map, we were going straight north.

  It didn’t take long for night to follow, but I did feel better that we’d left when we did. In part because it meant less time riding in the pitch black. True to his word, Alric got a clearthin glow set up to follow me around, but it didn’t make riding through the pitch dark woods that much better.

  “How far until we camp?” There was only a slight whine in my voice, but I wasn’t a horsewoman and we’d been riding for the last three hours. Any longer and my butt was going to go permanently numb.

  “I would rather we go just a bit further,” Lorcan said from his horse. He had one of the clearthin glows with him as well, but was using it to allow himself to read the mystery map. “Mathilda will join us tomorrow, so I’d like to time it correctly. We wouldn’t want to miss her cottage.”

  “I don’t think we can miss an entire cottage traveling along, but I need to get off soon.” Covey stretched her back. “Or I can tie my horse to one of yours and I’ll run alongside. My tailbone is not liking this.”

  “Sorry, Lorcan, this is a better place to stop,” Alric said as a dozen clearthin glows flew overhead and illuminated a small clearing.

  Even though we’d been on the road for a while, Alric was definitely the expert, so at his statement even Lorcan got off his horse.

  Things still weren’t normal between Alric and me. He was remained trapped in whatever was going on in his head. I didn’t see it flare again, but I did catch him rubbing his arm in the location of the geas from time to time.

  However, he clearly didn’t want to talk about any of it, so I went to set up my tent.

  We each had tiny, single person tents that looked like little more than thin fabric, but Amara had assured us they were extremely warm. She had a dryad friend with a magically enhanced silk pod tree who sent her reams of the fabric. I pointed out making clothing from it could be a nice side business for the pub.

  “Things still off, eh?” Covey
set her tent next to mine and had it up in a second. I had to refold mine three times before it finally worked.

  “Yes,” I said as I watched Alric set up his tent away from everyone. It should have made me feel better that he was avoiding everyone—but it didn’t. “Was he like this the entire month I was gone?” He’d said it hit him when he got to Beccia, but I wasn’t sure how the others felt.

  “Yes and no. He was irrational when we realized you were gone, and then prickly that we were moving too slow once we tried to follow. Which asks the question of just how did you hold off a seriously motivated tracker as long as you did? We couldn’t have been more than a few hours behind you when we took off, yet it wasn’t until a day or so before we found you that we knew for sure we were on your trail.” She grinned. “The faeries coming by and telling us that we were a bit off course didn’t make Alric happy. Especially when they wouldn’t stay with us and tell us what had happened to you.”

  “You know they just would have said I went boom.” I threw my pack in my tent. “I think it was the minkie blocking you from finding me.” Alric could vouch for me if needed, but I might as well start admitting I was seeing tiny white critters. I just wouldn’t mention it around the faeries.

  Covey had been getting out some food and almost dropped it. “You’ve been hanging around the faeries too long.”

  I waved her off. “No, really. Alric saw it too. It’s a tiny little beast that changes shape and color, and most people can’t see. It also seems to have magic, and I have a feeling it was masking our trail somehow. Then it stopped right before we found Mathilda.” I hadn’t really thought about it, but there was a good chance that the minkie was just handing me off to her. She might have claimed never to have been aware of them—I had a feeling they were aware of her.

  “I was going to ask what it looked like, but you just answered my question. How do you know it’s a minkie? Especially if the girls don’t see it?”

  I briefly explained about the first time I saw it—when the faeries called it a minkie, then forgot.

  “The critter wanted me to follow it after I’d changed. I didn’t tell anyone, but it was what I followed to get us through the sands to the Spheres in the first place. So I thought it was as good as anything to follow.” I shrugged. “Since it had led me away from you, I figure it might have been working to keep you off my trail.”

  “I don’t even know what to say to that,” Covey said as she ate. I was again amazed at her metabolism. We were hanging out with some fast metabolism, magic-using elves, and she ate them under the table.

  “I’ve set up a guard shift roster,” Alric said. “I don’t think anyone directly followed us, but we have to assume they did, or at least were expecting us to move. Lorcan first, then Covey, Padraig, and me.”

  I stepped forward. “And me?”

  “I didn’t know if you’d be—”

  I got in his face. “Do you not trust me? I’m not going to take off. I thought we settled this.” Yeah, having a fight in front of our closest friends probably wasn’t a good way to start a trip, but I didn’t care.

  “I was…” He stopped and shook his head. “You’re right. I made assumptions that I shouldn’t. You will be after Lorcan.” He looked ready to say more, but then tilted his head and stalked off.

  “Don’t worry my dear,” Lorcan said. “Alric has been under a lot of pressure, like us all. But even in the enclave, he was used to being on his own and worrying only about his actions. This last year has been a massive change for him. And that geas needs to be resolved. I’ve been looking in some of the older scrolls, the elven ones, but nothing yet.”

  “Thank you.” I gave him a hug. He just said what I probably knew if I really thought about it—okay, not the bit about how Alric was growing up, but the rest. It helped hearing it from someone else.

  Bunky and Irving had been hovering in the air, waiting. I waved them down. “Okay, guys, just like we did it before, only it’s just you two since we don’t have the girls.” Bunky gronked at me in agreement, then he and Irving took to the sky.

  I sat down next to the fire to eat my food.

  “So they fly recon for you?” Padraig sat down next to me.

  “Yeah, when I was out on my own, they and the faeries would scout the area we camped in. The constructs don’t need regular sleep, so they were good keeping watch. I know we have people watching, but I figure a few more eyes couldn’t hurt.”

  “Good thinking on using your resources when you left.” He leaned a bit closer and dropped his voice although Alric was at the other side of the camp. “I completely agree with your actions. You did what was best for those you cared about.”

  After Alric’s snit fit, and even Covey getting upset, it was nice that someone understood. “Thank you. I had no control over what I became, or very little. You’re an alchemist; is turning into something weird common among magic users?” A thought hit me. “Or was it something with the Spheres? Nivinal had been trying to blow that one up. My getting in the way didn’t stop it.”

  Padraig stared into the fire as he picked at his food. “Something could have been triggered with Nivinal. I knew him when he was pretending to be the inquisitor for our enclave—a cruel man and extremely powerful. Even so, I am surprised that the Sphere shattered. Did you actually hit it when the spell flung you back?”

  “Yes, I did. Wait, did I break the Sphere?” That couldn’t be good for my future as a digger if it got out that I broke one of the Spheres.

  He sat down his dinner. “I don’t think so. Once you’d changed? Who knows? From your description you were huge. But as you, no.” He shook his head. “This has to be because of Nivinal. I wish his mother hadn’t killed him before I could.”

  The words were calm, and Padraig was usually a bastion of calm. But the raging anger at what had been done to his wife, his friends, and himself was clear on his face.

  “I don’t know that she did.” Alric had snuck up behind us and sat down next to me. “I can’t explain it, but I have an odd feeling that he’s still alive.”

  “I wish that were true just so I could destroy him myself. Do you not believe what the voice said to Taryn?”

  “That voice had seemed sure to me. I believed everything she said, including that she would have killed Alric.” I shuddered.

  Alric squeezed my hand. “I didn’t have the same experience that Taryn did, but yes, there was a truth to Taryn’s reaction. Edana killed Nivinal to get the obsidian chimera. I have no doubt on that.”

  “Could it have been something like the manticore? Like she only mostly killed him and his body released it?”

  “I don’t think so,” Alric said. “The two relics are different; the chimera doesn’t go inside someone on its own, it’s absorbed by a mage with the proper spell. The manticore just picks a likely victim. Besides, the manticore went back into you as soon as your status changed back—that wouldn’t help her gain the chimera.”

  “So she might have killed him, but then brought him back? Are there magic users who can do that?” That was a major game changer if true.

  “Not that I know of. Even powerful healers like your friend Orenda can only bring people back that are close to death; not bring someone back who has crossed.” Padraig looked down at the remains of his food. “But someone as strong as a tree goddess might be able to. And there are many theories that magic users were significantly stronger long ago.”

  That was something to chew over. If Nivinal was alive, and for the most part I trusted Alric’s hunches better than my own, then his mother was either another formerly missing goddess or someone from so long ago she’d make Lorcan look like a baby. Neither of those were great options.

  Chapter Thirty

  There hadn’t been any other world-changing comments by either elf, so I said good night and went to catch a quick nap before my watch.

  Amara was correct about her tents; within a few minutes of crawling in I was toasty warm and sound asleep.

  “
Bad! Not finished!” That yell echoed through my vague dreams and dragged me out of sleep. The tent was thin, so I could make out flying shapes tearing around the camp, their shadows visible as they passed in front of the fire. I had only taken off my cloak and boots when I crawled in since I knew I’d be on watch soon. I threw them back on and crawled out of the tent.

  About a dozen faeries, led by Leaf, who was yelling about bad and unfinished, were flying everywhere. Bunky and Irving must have heard her and came flying in from their recon as I looked up.

  “Attack! They attack!” This was from Crusty, looking more serious than I’d ever known her to be.

  “Slow down, sweetie. Tell me what’s wrong.” Aside from making sure all of us were up, I couldn’t tell what was going on. The only attack we were under was from them.

  Crusty flew to my outstretched hand and landed. “Boys attack mother lady.”

  I didn’t even know if faeries had parents, they seemed to just be. “Wait, someone is attacking Mathilda?” We had sent all the faeries to her.

  “Yes! Mother lady! Boys not finished. Bad. Attacking.”

  “Can you lead us to them?” Alric came up next to me.

  “Yes! We go, now!” Leaf had swung back around to us.

  Padraig, Covey, and Lorcan started pulling down the tents and gathering our supplies to put back on the horses. They weren’t much, but leaving them wasn’t a great idea.

  “Crusty, you and the rest of your faeries lead Bunky and Irving to Mathilda, defend her until we get there. Leaf can bring the rest of us in.” I knew they needed to get us, and that Mathilda was a powerful magic user, but they couldn’t have left that many faeries with Garbage if this many were with us.