The King's Spy (The Augur's Eye Book 2)

by Guy Antibes

  The digging continued, but there wasn’t another artifact found for the simple reason, they only needed the one phony to use as bait. After all the excitement, Whit held out a copy of the map of Old Garri with incorrect markings and rolled it up. They broke camp and set up at the next phony spot before going into the nearby village for dinner.

  Whit hid the artifact with the map in an easily accessible hiding place. When they returned from dinner, both the part and the map were gone.

  “I am surprised they waited so long. They should have sent thugs,” Yetti said with her arms on her hips. “The next time, Zarl and I will guard the goods. Won’t we Zarl?”

  “If you say so, Yetti,” the ogre said.

  Whit smiled. “Then there is no reason to spend another night in this dirt pile.”

  “Why don’t we look for them?” Fistian said.

  Whit thought for a moment. “We can do a flyover. There are enough pixies in the skies above this village and occasionally over the old capital. Argien and I can do it.”

  “I’m coming along,” Yetti said.

  They took Yetti and flew higher than the pixies typically did and found two carriages lined up at an inn in another village on the other side of the old ruin. They landed and walked into the common room to see Sedge, Paros Porch, and Barine arguing with Deechie.

  Sedge looked at them. “I knew you’d find us. Deechie said we’d be safe here.”

  “So, what if I did?” Deechie said.

  “We want the map and our artifact back,” Yetti said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Deechie said.

  “I’m talking about giving the University of Herringbone a bad name,” Whit said. “You had the innkeeper tell you when we left with the promise your team would be taking over our rooms, and yet here you are. What will the innkeeper think along with others in Garri?”

  “Why should I care? Why should you care?” Deechie said.

  “I have a shred of honor,” Whit said.

  “Honor means nothing to a magician.”

  “I thought you might have a thread of decency, Deechie, but you’ve proven that my assumption was false,” Whit said.

  “Everything about you is false,” Deechie said. Whit could hear a trace of truculence in Deechie’s voice.

  “We don’t go around stealing other’s possessions,” Argien said.

  Deechie shrugged. “Whatever you found and whatever you find is the College of Magic’s property.”

  “What?” Whit asked. Had he missed something?

  “That possession is in the rules. Read them,” Deechie said.

  “And you are the university?” Whit said, trying not to be cowed by the human.

  “I represent the College of Magic,” Deechie said, lifting his chin.

  Whit took a deep breath. “You’ll be sorry if you try to pass off the two artifacts that you stole as your discoveries,” Whit said between his teeth.

  “Time will tell what you can do, if anything, about whatever we find,” Deechie said, stalking out of the room.

  “Coward!” Barine said underneath her breath as the human walked out of the room.

  Whit heard the comment clearly and guessed that Deechie had too. “Sorry to interrupt your argument,” Whit said.

  Paros looked very embarrassed. “Deechie is playing his own game.”

  “He has always done so,” Whit said. “Is he your official leader?”

  “No!” Sedge said. “We all told him to leave, but he won’t accept that. He has threatened us all collectively and individually.”

  “With what?” Argien asked.

  “Expulsion from the team and even expulsion from the university.”

  Argien snorted. “He can’t go that far.”

  “No.” Porch said, “but his threats carry some weight with those of us enrolled in the College of Magic. Deechie has never been someone to cross, and that is why he is still here. I won’t tell you what the argument was about, but you can guess.”

  “I’m only not telling you because of my cousin,” Sedge said. “Keep at it but find a better place to hide whatever you find.”

  That was an admission of the theft, but Whit didn’t pursue it. He had accomplished his task of proving that they had lost a valuable find.

  “Then we will leave. Now we’ll have to poke around at random without the map, but I’m not going to waste much more time in Perisia,” Whit said. “As far as they are concerned, there is only one more part to find.”

  They left the three disgruntled rivals in the common room and returned to the camp.

  After describing their experience with Deechie, Pin couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t know if you could have done a better job. We are certain Deechie stole the fake, and they think it is genuine after your running after them. Now what?”

  “We break into two groups after tomorrow. I was thinking of one more day at a false site before we head to the real sites.”

  “Then sleep tight” Gambol said. “I, for one, am tired, and with all your flying, you should be too.”

  ~

  The time had finally come to do the real searching. Whit, Argien, and Fistian dug in the area where Ionna had said the royal library use to be. The accounts that Ornnis had read to him indicated the parts were hidden in an audience hall. From everything Whit could tell, an audience hall in the library had the best chance to be where the Eye parts were hidden. They each took a different area and began to remove dirt.

  Whit started each site with a little ogre magic to loosen the dirt. The rest of the digging was up to them. Whit wondered about the strategy being the right one. Perhaps, all of them should have worked in a single spot, but Fistian called out when he hit something solid. Whit and Argien ran to his digging and helped him uncover what looked to be a section of floor about three feet below ground level.

  “I’ll use a bit more ogre magic, but I can’t use all my power up. We may need it if we can get inside,” Whit said.

  They cleared out enough dirt so they could all stand on the stone surface. Fistian’s pick broke through the flooring, revealing a black hole beneath their feet. They all worked on the entry point until it was large enough for someone to squeeze through. Fistian dropped the pick and listened to the thud not long after he dropped it.

  The gnome closed his eyes. “Maybe thirty feet to the bottom.” Fistian frowned. “I can’t jump that far, but you two can fly down,” he said.

  Whit regretted hearing the disappointment in his voice, but they couldn’t wait to get the rope the other team had. Argien entered first, followed by Whit.

  They landed in the center of a room about thirty feet square. Whit looked down at the flooring covered with dust.

  “Can I come down?” Fistian called from the hole.

  Whit looked up at the shaft of light illuminating the dust motes that Whit and Argien had stirred to life. “We can’t bring you down and then lift you back up thirty feet to get you out.”

  “I’ll take the carriage over to Gambol’s group and get a rope,” Fistian admitted.

  “Tell the others not to run over here. They will draw too much attention,” Whit said.

  Fistian left, and Argien and Whit were now on their own. Paint flaked off the decorative carvings on the wall, but after creating magic lights, Whit found the outlines of two doors on opposite ends of the room. After pushing and pulling everything in the vicinity for a latch, Argien pushed the first door in and it popped back out showing an inch of the edge. It took the strength of both of them using the pick to pry the door open, but they were finally able to create enough room to slide through to a corridor lined with doors.

  There was less dust on the floor, but the darkness was thicker and more cloying, if anything. The paint was in better shape, giving the pair a better idea of how the lower level of the library was originally meant to appear.

  They toured through the mostly empty rooms. A few books and scrolls had rotted on the shelves, but if the building was destro
yed by fire, it hadn’t made it down to where Argien and Whit wandered, because it appeared that the collection of works had been removed from the building.

  A pile of rocks and debris blocked a set of stone stairs leading up to the next level, which was gone. Whit and Argien felt like they had wasted their time, but perhaps that meant that the other door was where the audience hall was.

  The door at the other end of the hall was a larger double door, and Whit and Argien had to use the pick again to break through. They stepped into a meeting room of some kind. A table was up front with forty chairs, in five rows of eight across, facing the table. Dusty drapes lined one entire side of the room. This looked more like an audience hall. Whit had to tamp down the excitement he felt.

  Whit pulled the rotted curtains down, revealing an alcove. A low plinth had once held a statue, but it must have been removed when the building was abandoned.

  “This looks interesting,” Whit said, trying to minimize his enthusiasm. “The carvings are scenes featuring a female pixie adored by others.” He looked around the room and couldn’t see another decorated wall like this one. “If this is a feature put into the room, the alcove must be a significant spot.”

  He tapped the wall. “The panel on the left sounds different.”

  Argien took the pick and did more than tap the carving. It broke into pieces revealing a vacant space. The angel attached a magic light to the end of the pick and looked inside.

  “I see something on a shelf!” Argien said. Whit could hear and feel the excitement coming though his friend. “Help me get the rest of the panel removed.”

  They spent more minutes getting the panel broken and set aside until a small space was revealed. A small box two feet by one foot and less than a foot high sat in a small hiding place covered with dust. A tapestry, now worn and threadbare, protected the shelf. Whatever was in the box had to be valuable.

  Neither moved to take the box, but they both stood savoring the moment.

  “This might be it, you know,” Whit said. He stepped back and looked at the two remaining panels. “I think these are scenes from Saint Varetta’s life.”

  “How can you possibly know?”

  “See how the people appear to be venerating the female figure,” Whit said. “That would mean the box might hold relics from the saintess.”

  “Then let’s take a look,” Argien said.

  Whit had stalled for long enough. He reached into the space and grabbed the box. The wooden bottom of the shelf, weak with age, began to splinter, but Whit was able to retrieve the treasure intact before anything happened. He took the box to the table in the center front, not letting go of the treasure until he was sure the furniture seemed stable.

  “It’s gold!” Argien said. “Look at where you grabbed the box.”

  Whit conjured a little wind and blew most of the dust off revealing decorated golden sides. Whit recognized two of the same scenes on the box that were on the panels.

  “Here goes,” Whit said. He had to pry the tight-fitting top off.

  The top suddenly broke free with a cloud of dust coming from inside.

  Whit put his hand inside and felt hard items. He pulled out three rainbow-colored metal objects with dust covering his hands. “What do you think these are?” Whit asked with an irrepressible grin.

  “They are what you expected?” Argien asked.

  Whit nodded. “These are the three parts we sought to find. This is the cradle for something round,” he said. “The other parts are what my documents describe.”

  He explained their functions to Argien. Whit couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He cleaned off the lectern and dumped the rest of the box’s contents onto the surface. A rod of gold clanked out along with little hard bits.

  “It looks like most of this debris used to be cloth of some kind that didn’t hold up during the centuries. I wonder how long ago the box was sealed.”

  Whit picked up the rod. “This is a wand,” he said. “There isn’t a wand mentioned in the parts list for the Augur’s Eye.” He rummaged around, hoping to find the inner orb, but they found only three Eye artifacts. He held up the wand. “This can’t be the orb.”

  Argien snickered. “I know a wand when I see one, but that is the first gold wand that these two eyes have beheld. What are the other pieces?”

  “Buttons,” Whit said rummaging through the dust. “Here are a couple of earrings.” He conjured a light breeze and directed it at the pile of dust and rotted cloth carefully leaving any items.

  “No necklace?” Argien said with a smile.

  Whit shook his head, but he scooped up the little pieces of gold and handed two of the buttons to Argien. “Souvenirs.”

  Argien blew the dust off the buttons. “They are a simple design.”

  Whit nodded. “The earrings are just as simple. We will find a use for them.” He shivered as he said it and shook his head with disbelief. “After all that we’ve been through, we walked right to it.”

  “Not exactly, but the coordinates from all our sources are what did it.”

  “Lots of work went into that research,” Whit said. “My ancestors, the ancient pixie searchers, and Ionna did the research, and we got the glory.”

  “We get the glory when these get delivered in Herringbone,” Argien said.

  Whit sighed and looked around at the damage they created. “We won’t be back here.”

  He held the wand and tried to feel the presence of Saint Varetta, but her essence couldn’t be found. Whit did feel some pixie power still inside the wand. They put the parts back into the gold box save the two buttons that Argien had.

  Whit and Argien looked into the chamber again but found nothing. The other two panels were attached to stone on the other side. Whit was certain they had found what they sought, and there wasn’t anything else for them in the hall.

  “At least we didn’t find any dead bodies,” Argien said, shivering as he stood in front of the door to the large chamber.

  “Boo!” a voice echoed in the room despite the dusty floor.

  Argien flinched so violently he almost knocked Whit over.

  “Razz!” Whit said. “That wasn’t very nice!”

  “What is that you are holding?” Razz asked, standing at the doorway leading to the first room.

  “You are looking at our success,” Argien said, recovered from his fright.

  “Let’s go up and take a look,” Razz said.

  “No. Get excited down here, and then when we emerge, look like we lost all our possessions to Deechie,” Whit said.

  “More playacting?” Razz asked.

  “Exactly,” Argien said.

  Whit hid the box as best he could under Razz’s cloak after showing their find to Razz.

  “I’m keeping the wand,” Whit said. “Is that okay with you?”

  “For all the money you’ve put out for the expedition?” He clapped Whit on the shoulder. “I’m happy for you and happy for us!?

  They closed the golden box again and flew out of the hole. The sun was about to fade for the day, and Whit shook his head, trying to be a good actor.

  “Nothing here. We might as well seal it up so no one gets hurt,” Argien said. “Fistian and I will do it.”

  “With my help,” Razz said.

  They all looked down. Fistian began to use a shovel to cut down branches to cover the hole. By the time dirt was back over the library’s roof, Zarl showed up and manipulated the dirt to look like it had never been disturbed.

  “Let’s get something to drink,” Whit said. “Failure makes me thirsty.”

  Fistian brought up the carriage, and Razz took the reins.

  ~

  “I thought we were so close,” Fistian said on the bumpy ride to Gambol’s camp.

  “We weren’t close,” Whit said, holding his cloak to his chest. “We were spot on. Here are the artifacts.”

  Fistian jumped up and hit his head on the inside roof. “We did it! We did it!”

  “Quiet. Deec
hie’s team is still lurking about. We are sad when we are out of the carriages,” Argien said.

  Whit told Gambol, and the gnome had the members of the team sit in one of the carriages while Whit showed them the artifacts and the golden box. The wand and the buttons were secrets for now, but the other trinkets weren’t. Everyone was ecstatic, but they were also trying hard not to show their elation once they stepped from the carriage.

  “What will you do now?” Pin asked, holding onto one of the ancient Eye parts.

  “The box stays. I don’t feel right taking all the treasure, so I thought we could leave the box behind in Perisia,” Whit said. “If you all agree I’ll take the gold box to the temple ruin. It belongs in a special place, and that’s the place that comes to mind. It’s either there or in the hands of King Quiller.”

  The group talked about giving up such a valuable treasure, but it was made by a follower of Varetta. The caretaker’s kindness convinced them all that Whit had the right idea.

  Whit couldn’t be more satisfied how everything turned out, and they had a very happy meal trying to look sad. The only disappointment was not finding the inner orb, the rumored fourth part.

  “Make sure you talk about finding one more artifact,” he said. “I’ll leave with a few of you tomorrow morning to present the box. As far as anyone else is concerned we went to get supplies.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  ~

  The temple ruin looked the same when the carriage rolled into the caretaker’s courtyard for the second time. Whit knocked on the door, but the caretaker wasn’t in. One of the workers on the plateau showed up.

  “She’s in the temple doing some cleaning. Your first visit prompted her to do a better job inside,” he said.

  “I have something I want to give her,” Whit said.

  In a few moments, the worker returned with the woman.

  “I found an artifact that was made by someone who worshipped Saint Varetta,” Whit said. “You don’t have to accept it, but I thought of you and this place when we found it.”