The Diamond Sphinx (The Lost Ancients Book 6)

by Marie Andreas

  “I, for one, do not wish to annoy our tiny general.” Lorcan nudged his horse forward.

  Alric helped me get up on mine, and it was probably a good thing. The girls might have broken whatever spell this place dropped on me, but I felt stiff. I was startled when he gave me a kiss on my hand.

  “Sorry. Again.” He sighed, gave me a crooked smile that could make any woman’s heart melt, then went and got back on his horse.

  Okay, if me getting spelled was what was needed to get us back on track, I was all for the discomfort of that spell.

  The rest of the trip was quiet, aside from some muttering between Padraig and Lorcan as they debated some scroll. About halfway to the line of trees, the sky started darkening.

  “I believe we want to move faster.” Lorcan looked up from his scroll with a scowl. “We should have had enough time, but Taryn collapsing put us back a bit.”

  Lorcan had been cryptic about this place, and finding out that we had a time limit didn’t appear to be settling well with anyone.

  “You didn’t say it would be this tight.” Even Padraig looked a bit annoyed.

  “Is this a walk the horses faster, or a run situation?” Alric had resumed the lead and looked ready to run his horse regardless.

  I had to say I agreed. The sky was looking less friendly by the second, and the ground seemed to be trembling.

  “Does anyone else feel that? Is it an earthquake? Rakasa?” I looked around.

  “Not an earthquake, nor rakasa. Run!” Lorcan flicked his reins and his horse ran ahead.

  Alric called for his horse to run and the rest of ours followed. Good thing I was holding on; clearly the horse felt the others of its kind were smarter than the person sitting on it. It was right; the horses probably would have started running as soon as the sky changed.

  As we ran, I looked back over my shoulder and swore. Lorcan must have seen the line of some sort of animals coming our way. Lots of animals. Big animals covering the plains. And shaking the ground.

  Chapter Forty

  I had no idea what they were, nor did I care. I just really hoped they didn’t like thick forests. The horses seemed to agree with my thoughts and sped up.

  “Is fun!” Crusty yelled. I didn’t even see them come back, but the flock plus the constructs were zipping along overhead.

  “Zoom!” Leaf yelled. Bunky and Irving gronked, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves. Of course the flyers were happy; they weren’t on the ground near those beasts.

  The ground was shaking more, or maybe it was my imagination since it was damn hard to tell on the back of a racing horse. A quick glance back confirmed that whatever those things were, they were closer than before.

  The forest was closer than the mystery beasts were, but it had been further than I’d thought. I didn’t think we were going to get there before the herd of creatures caught up with us.

  Then fog spread over the trees and drifted out across the plain. At first I thought it was a spell from one of my friends, but looking around it was clear they were focused on outrunning the herd.

  I didn’t think I liked the look of the fog. Luckily, neither did the animals charging us and the herd changed direction as easily as a flock of birds. I got a quick look at them as they turned behind us. Large horned animals, easily a good foot or two taller than our horses. With six legs.

  I almost fell off my horse, but yup, six. Maybe they were somehow related to the minkies since the first time I saw one it had six legs.

  We slowed our horses down once the herd changed direction.

  “What were those?” Wasn’t sure I really wanted to know, but stupid curiosity was sort of my thing.

  “I never thought to see them.” Lorcan watched the line of animals get smaller with a look of wonder and a heavy sigh. “They appear to be thrails. They once roamed the plains of our world, but they were little more than myths even in the Ancient’s documents. The Ancients must have saved the last of them and placed them here.”

  “As long as they keep going that way, I’ll like them just fine.” Even Covey looked rattled after our run. “So where now? That forest?”

  Alric nodded. “From what was on that map, the place Lorcan and Padraig identified is in there. And I really wouldn’t use magic in there, no matter what happens.”

  I opened my mouth to mention that Lorcan already told us no magic in here…then shut it. I was probably the worst of all of us about impulsive use of magic. Another reminder probably wasn’t a bad idea.

  The fog that had been drifting along the ground was now rising higher, as if the trees ahead of us were calling it. Or creating it. I wasn’t an expert on trees, but the forest we were going toward was an odd one, and not just because of the fog. I was used to the giant gapen trees with their heavy limbs and thick above ground, roots. These trees were thin and gangly, their branches reaching up in twisted formations high above us. Even from this distance, strands of moss could be seen hanging from them. As we rode closer, I saw they were also covered in short green moss. So were the rocks and assorted odd shapes covering the ground under the trees. I was even more hesitant about having to go through this place—who knew if that moss was aggressive against everything, or just things that held still too long. I made a note to not sleep in these woods if I could help it.

  The faeries had largely settled down as we approached the forest. They were fine while we were being chased by those beasts, but the forest clearly made them uneasy. They kept dropping down to land on people instead of flying. They were also speaking in native faery a lot more. Bunky and Irving continued doing their normal recon, but I’d noticed that the closer we had gotten to the woods, the shorter their circles were and the more time they spent close to us. When we went into the forest, they both were flying so low they were almost bumping onto our heads. There was room, but neither construct apparently wanted to be near the twisted tree limbs above us.

  As we continued deeper into the trees, I noticed that not all of what I thought were rocks were round. “I know you said this area had a heavy magic distortion, but is that making the rocks square?” Yup, not all of them, but there were definitely more than a few very square, moss-covered boulders sitting around. Most were not huge, maybe a foot or two high but in the distance I could see larger ones. Or a few of them had joined together.

  Lorcan looked up from the scroll he was studying as he rode. “Actually, those are carved blocks, the remains of an ancient civilization.”

  I almost pulled up my horse. “Ancients? The Ancients lived here?” That brought a whole new level of interest to this place. I knew they’d said that the Ancients had utilized these places, but if there were ruins maybe this place wasn’t too bad. Killer spells and rampaging beasts aside.

  “No, at least not that we know of. These people were here even before them supposedly. The stones are all that is left, and nothing is known of their culture.” He gestured to the groupings of stones that we were passing. “But don’t touch them. This forest drains magic from others, but has plenty of its own. And it protects those blocks.”

  Okay, that just raised the interest and the creep factor. I wasn’t sure if it was Lorcan’s words or something from the forest, but an ache settled in my joints and bones. “I don’t think it likes us being here.” I rubbed my arms and pulled my cloak tighter. One disadvantage of riding, I couldn’t cuddle into Alric for warmth.

  “It doesn’t,” Padraig said. He’d put away the book he’d been reading while riding, and looked up at the trees in wonder. “They want to be left alone. They are old and set in their ways. The drain of magic isn’t because they can use it, it’s because they know it will keep most people away.” Leaf and a few of the others had been riding on his shoulders. He held out a hand for her to jump down onto. None of the faeries had flown in the last half hour, pretty much as soon as we crossed into the trees.

  “How are you feeling?” He rubbed her back.

  “Is no good. Must be. But no good.” She folded down cros
s-legged into his hand. He dropped a small piece of sugar next to her. She stuffed it in her mouth and grinned. “Bether.” The piece took up almost her entire mouth and bulged her cheeks out. She looked like she didn’t care at all.

  Soon the rest of the faeries climbed up Padraig’s horse. But even for sugar none of them flew.

  “Garbage? Can you fly?” I’d assumed their staying with us was more related to whatever devious plans they’d been conversing about. But not flying for sugar was another thing entirely.

  “Yes,” she said as she held onto two larger chunks of sugar. Then she slumped forward. “No. Is can’t.”

  “I wondered if they would be able to when we was discovered that the sphinx was here. I know the rumors of this place and the magic drain, and since faeries are magic, I thought this might happen to them. It shouldn’t impact the constructs ability to fly however.” Mathilda said. The faeries that had been riding with her scrambled back up her horse, their cheeks stuffed with sugar. “Girls, you can go back to my house. Wait for us to come back. I’m sure Bunky and Irving can help get you there.”

  Garbage had started chewing one of her sweets and swallowed. “Can’t leave. This our time. We ready. Can fly, but won’t. Miss flying though.”

  I narrowed my eyes and watched them. “You have something going on here and it’s important.” Something about the way Garbage spoke, and their recent behavior, made me wonder. “And not about the relics.”

  General Garbage puffed out her chest. “Yes. Is our place. War kitties come. We battle.”

  “Wait, you’re going to fight the cats?”

  She scowled at me. “No. With kitties. Frophacy say no fly—need kitties. Fight those.” She pointed over my shoulder.

  At first I thought it was the minkie playing games again, but it wasn’t white. The creature she pointed to was a muddy gray-brown. The size of a small dog, but wider and heavier than the cats, it was low to the ground with a pointed face, and inch-long fangs. It snarled at us, and then scurried deeper into the woods.

  “Did everyone see that? And what was it?”

  Affirmatives came from my friends, but no answers.

  “We fight. Those boy faeries.” Garbage was still fierce, but there was a rare sadness on her face as well. “Told them not done. Now they go bad.”

  “Wait.” I’d seen these boy faeries a few times. They looked like a combination of an elf and a giant faery. Granted, the last time they weren’t helping us—but that thing looked vicious and was definitely an animal. “How can that be a boy faery?”

  “Is unfinished!” The girls all joined in, but while they did raise their voices, they didn’t yell. These woods subdued even Crusty.

  “I get it, they aren’t finished. But that wouldn’t turn them into a…whatever that was.” I waved in the direction the thing had gone.

  Mathilda’s eyes got huge, and she leaned over her horse’s neck to whisper to Lorcan.

  He shook his head, and then slowly stopped. “Perhaps? But they were as mythological as the sceanra anam. Who, yes I know have appeared beyond the pages of myth. But these?”

  “Someone please tell me something?” The fact that Alric, Padraig, and Covey were sitting there looking concerned was freaking me out.

  Mathilda spoke up first. “That creature looked like a vhin. A mythological creature of great violence. They aren’t supposed to be real, but the myths said they were made from the souls of those who betrayed their kind.” Everyone was looking at her except the faeries. All of them were looking down. And they looked sad. “If that is what that was, and the myths and what the faeries are saying is true—that thing was once a male faery. They supposedly betrayed faery-kind before the war where we lost the Ancients. The stories say none of the faeries had been there in that final battle—because of whatever the males did.”

  “Is true. They betray long ago. Stop us from helping. Sent back. Supposed to be remade. Come back too soon. Now bad.” Garbage took a deep breath and her sadness was replaced with determination. “We fight.”

  As she spoke a fleet of cats started coming into the woods. Far more than just the twenty-three for the faeries we traveled with. As they got closer, it was clear that the cats had pieces of metal armor—the broken-up sarcophagus in many cases—and most had feather-clad faeries riding them. A group of riderless cats came toward our horses.

  Garbage and her troops had changed into their war feathers while I watched the feline invasion. Then they dropped down to their waiting feline steeds.

  “So where did these cats and the other faeries come from?” Covey asked as she watched them circle us. “I know you faeries seem to be able to pop around, but last I checked cats weren’t magical.”

  This was just taking a bizarre turn, but I had a bigger concern than how they got into a sealed hidden realm. “So all the time you were cat racing, you were training to fight unfinished boy faeries?” I wasn’t even sure where to start with that one.

  “Cats come through house—faeries bring.” Leaf nodded from atop her feline.

  Mathilda laughed and shook her head. “They used the magical essence of my house to bring their troops through.” She tipped her head. “But you didn’t train for this fight, did you?”

  “No first. When boys kept showing?” Garbage shrugged.

  “Let me take a stab at it,” Padraig said. “Your stories told you a big fight was coming, so you trained with the cats. The cat racing in Beccia. This isn’t that fight, but you knew the boy faeries would be in these woods, didn’t you?”

  Leaf nodded from her cat. “Queen Mungoosey tell Garbage.”

  Queen Mungoosey was the leader of the faeries, a small gray cat-like faery I’d only seen briefly. She had a falling out with my girls, and their growing cohort. My three had dragged the rest of the faeries in to save us when Alric and Thaddeus ripped open our dimension with the glass gargoyle. That was against their prophecy apparently. That and their drinking and general hooliganism had distanced them from their queen.

  “Queen Mungoosey told you to fight? Here?” They’d met with her a few days ago, but I’d almost forgotten how solemn they’d been when they returned.

  “Yes, so can be in big battle—only way to join. Must send boy faeries back to be finished.” Garbage adjusted her feathers. It looked like she had more than the rest of the faeries.

  The way she said finished left no room for interpretation. She might not be happy about it, but the way to send them back was by killing them in battle. If they did that, then their queen was going to welcome them back into the fold, so to speak? Just proved that all faeries, not only mine, had their own odd way of seeing the world. It was bad timing that this was going to go on while we were skulking around a touchy and dangerous forest trying to calculate where the diamond sphinx had ended up.

  I really hoped it wasn’t under one of those blocks.

  “Is the fight here? Can we help?” Padraig was obviously fascinated where as I was becoming more disturbed.

  “Fight will come. You no help.” Garbage climbed up and kissed him on the cheek. “Watch, no magic. No help.” She looked over to me. “No one.”

  I’m not sure why she was focusing on me. I, probably more so than anyone here, knew what those faeries were capable of. Or maybe that was the reason. Obviously, the caveat of no flying in battle was meant to make this a test of skill as well as proving this group of faeries was ready to rejoin the wild ones.

  “Agreed. But you won’t leave once you’ve reunited with Queen Mungoosey, will you?” That thought worried me.

  Crusty ran to my horse and quickly climbed up. “No. Never leave.” She tried kissing my cheek but ended up in my ear instead. The thought was good though.

  “Thank you,” I said as she and Garbage both ran back to their cats.

  We continued through the forest, but this time, Padraig led, and Alric dropped to the back. I knew they said that no one else from the outside should be able to get in here, so the standard security protocol being in place m
eant they figured there were more dangers than rampaging herds and vicious looking former faeries.

  I dropped back in this new line up to ride alongside Alric. Well, where I could. The path between the trees seemed to be getting narrower and even riding single file might start proving tricky soon.

  “I am sorry I was being a jerk. Again.” Alric shook his head. “I hope we can get that relic out of you for good soon, but even though the geas might be forcing my reactions, I’ve been sloppy about letting it get to me.” He reached out a hand.

  I held it for a few minutes, not easy on horseback and even less so when trees kept getting in our way.

  “I understand.” I looked toward his arm but didn’t see any glow. “Nothing now?”

  “Not a thing.” He held his arm up and pushed back the sleeve. The mark was completely invisible. “There’s no glamour on it right now either, since we had to stop using magic.”

  Made sense, the geas was a thousand-year-old spell and we were in a place with no magic. “We could just stay here and you’d never have a problem with the geas again.”

  He shuddered and rolled his sleeve back down. “This place doesn’t bother you? It looks almost normal, but just off enough to be disturbing.”

  “Yeah, it bothers me too. And the whole almost dying of a cold issue kind of ruined it for me as well. But it’s nice to see you smile again.”

  “I promise, when this is done, we’ll find a place just for us, have some real alone time.” His smile was genuine and I loved seeing it. But I had a feeling it was going to be a long time before that happened.

  “With us!” Crusty yelled from her trusty feline steed. The cats were so damn quiet that even with armor on I hadn’t noticed she’d dropped back with us.

  “Um, sure, sweetie. But you guys might need some time with Queen Mungoosey and the wild faeries. Celebration time.” I was happy the faeries weren’t planning on leaving me after they rejoined the main flock, but I really didn’t want them along on a romantic trip with Alric.