“What would be?” Mathilda asked, but when he didn’t respond, she raised him higher.
The leader of the bandits started flopping around; clearly the freeze spell was wearing off. Covey went over and kicked him.
“The diamond, a huge diamond in the shape of a sphinx. The man that spoke to Jahnuis described you all and said we’d find it easily in your possessions.”
Mathilda let him fall to the ground, and then stepped back with us. Covey stayed near the bandits in case any of them needed more kicking.
“Damn it, the mayor didn’t have to go after us. They sent these idiots after us thinking they were going to get rich off the massive diamond we were just hauling around with us.” Alric kept his voice low. “And whoever sent them had a lot of money, that spell breaker was top of the line, a few hundred gold easily.”
“But they know we don’t have it yet, correct?” Lorcan nodded to me. “Why send them to rob us of something we don’t have?”
“Most likely to stop us completely.” I walked over to the lead bandit and stared into his eyes. “Whether you found it or not, you were going to kill us.” I really wish I knew where this knowledge came from. Kind of like that move I’d done when the guy came up behind me. The piece of armor in my cloak sang a little louder. Crap—the armor was doing it? I already had one relic messing with me; I didn’t need more Ancient things joining in. The singing quieted again, just a little melody on the edge of awareness.
“We can’t let them go, nor take them with us.” Padraig had been quiet, but the way he was watching me said he’d noticed something odd about me.
“I get to kill the leader,” Covey said as she flexed her fingers.
“Maybe leave them for Orenda’s brother?” Alric said and looked to me. “We leave them here, they’ll find them. They can haul them to the enclave, and let Nasif and Dueble talk to them.”
“Wait, Orenda has a brother? And he’s here?” Covey had unflexed her fingers and was focusing on us now.
“We would have told you when we got here, but you were busy.” I looked to the pile of bandits. “Are they secure there? I’d rather continue this in comfort.”
Mathilda flung another spell at them then walked toward her cottage. “Yes, and I agree. And I found this on our friend.” She held up a crushed piece of paper as she walked by.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I hadn’t seen her even touch the bandit she had in the air, but Mathilda was a sly one. We followed her into the cottage, but the faeries and constructs didn’t follow us.
“Girls? Aren’t you coming in?” I held the door open, but the flyers stayed hovering near the tree line.
“Needs talks. Not happy.” Garbage might not have heard all of what had happened to the faeries traveling with Orenda and Harlan, but she’d heard enough to piss her off. Not that it was difficult to do.
Bunky and Irving bobbed around, torn between which group to go with. I finally waved them on. “Stay with the girls, Bunky. You and Irving can keep an eye on them. Just come tell us if they do anything rash.” I turned toward Garbage. “And that means, don’t leave this clearing, got it?” There had been an itchy feeling between my shoulder blades ever since we saw the bandits. I had a feeling we might need to hit the road quickly.
“We talk,” Garbage said. Which of course didn’t acknowledge my comment, and she had no intention of doing so. In her mind, if the talking resulted in a good reason to leave, they’d leave. My only hope was that Bunky and Irving would warn us.
“Okay, so what’s on the paper?” I settled in on the sofa next to Alric.
“I thought you were first going to tell us about seeing Orenda’s brother?” Covey wasn’t going to let go of that one.
“The paper seems to be more important right now, but I agree we need to hear of your adventures.” Lorcan had been trying to get a peek at the paper, but Mathilda was holding it tight.
“The paper is quick and easy. Not only did our enemies set us up to be followed by this group of bandits, they made sure all of Beccia thinks we are carrying a huge diamond.” She held up the paper. “Crude drawing of us, along with the general direction we were heading. And a reward for anyone who brought back the other items with it. The finders could keep the diamond.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Alric scowled at the paper and Mathilda handed it to him. “Edana wants the sphinx. If she was behind this, she wouldn’t be offering to let the finder keep it.”
“Unless she is certain she can take it from whoever finds it. There’s always a chance that if we did have it, and someone did take it from us, that they wouldn’t go back for the second reward. But most thieves are too greedy—they’d go back.” Padraig took the flyer from Alric and shook his head.
“Or there is a second faction besides her’s,” Lorcan said. “Just because those two crime lords were killed doesn’t mean there couldn’t be two or more groups behind what’s happening. That mayor friend of yours might not be working with this woman. These relics have been appearing for over a year now. Word spreads quickly among thieves.”
“So we need to modify our direction and travel faster. You win, Alric. No more time to pace ourselves,” Padraig said. “Now, you found Orenda’s brother?”
Everyone started gathering their things as Alric and I filled them in on Orenda, Harlan, and the knights. Mathilda was furious at them for caging the faeries.
“That was thoroughly uncalled for.” She was securing her cottage as well. She’d try to keep moving it along with us, but there was a better chance than before that she’d have to leave it behind. She shrugged off the fact that she didn’t have a horse.
“That’s what the girls were talking about just now.” My things were packed, and aside from Mathilda, I was the last one. “So, do we leave the bandits for Balith?” I was fine if I had to kill someone to save myself or someone I cared for. But going out and slaughtering a bunch of tied-up and spelled bandits wasn’t high on my okay list.
I opened the door to find the pack of faeries hovering right outside. “We no kill. Yet.” Garbage was talking about the elven knights, or I assumed so. But it coincided with what was going on in my head.
She was fuming, but I was certain they’d find something to work out their frustrations on soon enough. I felt bad for the wildlife we might meet along the way.
“I think I can trigger a spell to call your friends to this clearing,” Mathilda said from her open doorway after the rest of us had come out. “You mentioned that she was a healer?” At my nod, she continued. “I can set the spell to be triggered to her. Leave a note of what instructions you have, and I’ll make sure to spell it for compulsion for her brother. I don’t like to do that, but locking up the faeries wasn’t nice.” She held out a quill and paper.
Alric quickly wrote a note and handed it to her.
Mathilda said a few spell words over it, and then settled a larger spell over the bandits. “It is done. The first layer will call to your friend Orenda, and the second layer will make that brother of hers, whom I already dislike, obey. These hooligans will end up under the care of Nasif, and I added my sister too.”
I chuckled. Nasif and Dueble would have been one thing, having Siabiane on them was something else. Especially with whatever spells Mathilda added to that note. Most likely neither the bandits nor the elven knights were going to have a good time of things for a while.
“We’ll need to travel further in the woods; we’re still a few days out from the hidden realm,” Alric got on his horse and nodded to the cottage. “You might want to ride now, if we have to go too far off it could be difficult to find each other.” He didn’t seem concerned about her lack of a horse either. Maybe elves just called them as needed. Although I’d yet to see any of them do that. However, Mathilda seemed more connected to nature than the rest of them.
She looked up at her cottage and smiled. “I think I have at least another day’s travel in here. And now that I have found Taryn again, I will be able to find you, n
ever worry.” Her smile dropped. “Just be wary on the trail. Common hooligans won’t be able to follow me while this is moving, but they can follow you.”
Everyone was on their horses, with the constructs and faeries circling in their eagerness to go. “Let’s go. I want to get some distance between us and whoever else might be following.” Alric led the group with me, Covey, Lorcan, and Padraig stringing out behind.
Even though the faeries and Bunky and Irving hadn’t found signs of anyone near us, everyone stayed silent. Alric led us far deeper into the woods.
Alric was hunched down on his horse, but I knew he was watching everything around him.
The faeries and constructs were flitting around high in the trees, not dropping too low, but not flying off, either. I’d say they understood that we needed to move quickly and silently, except that would never be a consideration for faery behavior. Not for any length of time anyway. I guessed they were mulling over whatever Queen Mungoosey had told them now that we were getting closer to the hidden realm. That and Garbage was probably annoyed she hadn’t been able to hunt down Balith and his knights.
We were two hours into our trip when the arrow flew over my head. Far too close over my head. More followed but by then we were scrunching over our saddles and riding as fast as was safe.
They were coming from behind, so in my mind that was good. We could still out run them. Shooting in this dense of a forest couldn’t be easy. Of course, I’d been hanging around sneaky people for the last year. Soon, a tiny voice questioned why they would be trying to come after us when the likelihood of hitting us was slim. Which meant they were trying to herd us, not hit us. I opened my mouth to share my newfound wisdom, when Alric took off to the left, cutting away from the arrows and the direction they’d been trying to push us.
Padraig brought up the rear. He waited until we’d changed to Alric’s new direction, then spun and launched a volley of spell arrows.
I had been becoming a bit jaded about spells and fighting lately. But those were impressive. A bit longer than a standard arrow, their fletching looked like flame. A pair of screams told me that at least some of the group found targets.
“There are three behind us, but I can’t risk another spell. They also have a spell ball with them.”
Damn. Those things were expensive, and there was no way two separate troops of bandits were able to afford them. Whoever was sending the bandits our way was not only giving them directions, they were high-end outfitting them as well.
Alric was good at sliding through a forest unseen. That was a harder task with four of us trying to do the same behind him. The arrows stopped after Padraig’s spell arrows hit, but there were still sounds of pursuit. We zigged again and turned back the way we came. Or so it felt to me. The forest was thinning out but Alric adjusted our direction to stay in the denser trees.
That might work great for him; I know I was having a hard time keeping up. Padraig was awfully close to me.
“Fun! Why no arrows?” Crusty was the only faery in sight and she was flying backwards in front of me.
“Arrows are bad, sweetie. Where are the rest of the girls and Bunky and Irving?” I had been sitting up a bit more but slunk back down in case our pursuers started firing again.
“They go take care of things back there,” Crusty said and pointed behind me, where whoever was following us was.
“No, we need to get them back here.” I knew that under normal circumstances the faeries could hold their own. I was beginning to think there was no such thing as normal anymore. The last thing we needed was for our pursuers to hurt or grab the faeries or constructs.
“Is okay. Using golden growly thing. In friend gargoyle.” Crusty stopped flying and landed right behind the horse’s ears.
Chapter Thirty-Six
My brain was being bounced around by the horse or I would have immediately figured out what she was talking about. A few seconds later her meaning hit me.
The basilisk? Crap. I knew that Irving had disgorged the gargoyle into the chest, but we’d figured the basilisk was being difficult and just hadn’t wanted to come out. That he was able to access it and use it as a weapon wasn’t good.
Unfortunately, the sounds of pursuit were growing. Whoever our pursuers had been herding us toward must have figured out their trap was sprung and joined in the chase instead.
I hated the idea that the faeries and the constructs were off doing things with a rampaging relic bent on destruction, but right now all I could do was hang on to my horse.
Crusty was staying on top of my horse by hanging on to the forelock and mane. Her wings were tucked in behind her and her flower petal cap was long gone. She’d have an easier time of it if she just let go and flew, but judging by her grin she thought this was more fun.
Screams and thumps started coming from behind us.
“Something else is back there!” Padraig yelled.
“The faeries and constructs are using the basilisk!” I yelled back. This wasn’t a good way to tell them, but my friends needed to know.
Alric was in sight, but pretty far ahead. He spun his horse around a tree and came back as soon as the words left my mouth. I’d forgotten again how sharp elven ears were.
“We can’t let them do that,” he yelled as he approached.
The rest of us turned to follow him.
I used to feel guilty when my faeries did something bad—after this last year, I no longer had that issue. They were their own creatures and my control over them was non-existent. I still had a twinge at Irving’s duplicity since I’d fought to let him keep his relic—I never thought he’d use it. The basilisk would turn anyone who looked at it to stone. And unlike the rest of the relics so far, it had been very active in making certain people saw it.
We finally were able to turn and follow Alric. Riderless horses passed us with bits of stones dropping off of them. At least the constructs were aiming for the riders and not the horses. Some nearby farmer was going to get a nice surprise of a dozen free horses soon.
Alric had stopped just ahead of us and we slowed to come around him. There was a circle of stone statues right in front of us. Part of the reason the horses had been saved was that many of the riders had gotten off of them. Which just made them easier targets for the basilisk.
The faeries were swarming around, yelling and waving their war sticks. Bunky was flying high. And Irving was collapsed at the bottom of a tree.
I moved to jump off my horse. How could his friends be celebrating if he was injured?
Alric held out a hand. “Wait a moment. He’s re-digesting the basilisk.”
Irving lifted off from the ground, wobbled a bit, and then flew up to join Bunky.
“They really let loose the basilisk?” Covey asked with a combination of fear and admiration.
Alric watched the woods around us. “I caught the tail end of it. The faeries swarmed the riders, destroyed the spell breaker, and got most of them off their horses. Bunky and Irving were circling the former riders, and Irving had his mouth open. I never saw the basilisk out, but once I knew what was in his open mouth, I didn’t look at him.” He shook his head as he watched our flyers looping around the trees. “And you’ll be glad to know the faeries are immune to the basilisk. I saw at least three take direct hits and it didn’t even slow them down.” He got off his horse and walked over to the collection of stone statues.
Padraig followed but went past them and a bit further into the woods. “There are some more back here, crumbling. Somehow they got the riders but not the horses.”
I was torn. On one hand the flyers saved us, but the risk they took was massive. However, watching the way Irving flew around I doubted we were getting that thing out of him unless he wanted it out. Maybe he felt that since he didn’t have defensive abilities like Bunky or the faeries, the basilisk was his weapon.
“Bunky and Irving? Come down here, please.” Unlike the faeries, the constructs usually listened to me. Unless the faeries told them somethi
ng that went against what I said. “That was good, thank you for stopping them. But, Irving, you are guarding one of the most important pieces of a deadly weapon. You can’t use it. Do you understand?” There was too much risk that the basilisk would fall out of him again and turn all of us to stone.
Both constructs looked at each other, and then turned to me with a head bob and gronk. Hopefully I got through.
“This is fascinating though.” Lorcan had gotten off his horse and was walking around the stone people. “I didn’t get a chance to see the prior victims. They truly are solid stone.” He picked up a few crumbled pieces, and then dropped them. “They feel vaguely alive in a way though. Horribly fascinating.”
“They must have been sent by the mayor. I can’t imagine Nivinal’s mother sending out common thugs to chase us.” I looked at the former thugs in question from my horse.
“But the crime lords controlled these people. The mayor had only been in town a few months,” Covey said, then rubbed her forehead. “And that was why Largen had been replaced, and when Cirocco found out, he was killed. Sorry, all of that horse riding has rattled my brain. Took me a bit to mentally catch up. ”
“It does explain your crime lord’s switch. I agree that this doesn’t seem like Nivinal, and by extension, not Edana either.” Padraig and Lorcan probably knew Nivinal, or rather, the Grand Inquisitor, better than anyone on our side.
“So, if there are two sides fighting over whatever they think they’ll find in Beccia, can’t we just wait them out? Nothing is there, right? Not anymore.” I didn’t want the syclarions and the scary magic users chasing after us, but it did make me nervous that they weren’t.
“We have no idea how long that might take. Once they realize that what they are looking for is gone, I think they will be coming after us.” Padraig gathered a few samples of the stone into a small bag.
“I think as long as Amara can keep the hedge up and the mayor and Edana out, we’re safe,” Alric said. “But we should keep moving. There’s no way to know how many enterprising folks the mayor pulled out of town before the hedge went up, and how many more he might have following us.”
The Diamond Sphinx (The Lost Ancients Book 6) Page 25
