The Golden Basilisk (The Lost Ancients Book 5)

by Marie Andreas

  Lorcan shuffled through the pages again, waving the mage glow closer as something became difficult to read. “Damn it. We have to get to the Spheres immediately; Nivinal might have already made his way there. He could have left days ago.”

  “But we’ve seen him,” Kelm said.

  “We’ve seen his projections. I think Nivinal might have taken a page from Glorinal—the chimera appears to be inside him. He was dangerous before, he is even more so now.”

  Everyone was silent on the way back, only the sound of Lorcan shuffling through pages and softly swearing was heard.

  I looked up. “Where are the faeries? And Bunky and the gargoyle?” I hadn’t noticed when they faded off, but at some point the girls had gotten bored of antagonizing Flarinen.

  Alric looked around as well. “They need to get back here if we’re going to get out soon.” He rubbed his arms. “Did it get colder?”

  I hadn’t noticed at first, but now that he mentioned it, he was right. The temperature was dropping rapidly.

  “I think there’s more than that,” Padraig pointed toward the center of town. A whirling vortex of light was forming, reaching higher and higher. It started blue-white but was now turning orange and red on the edges.

  “What is it? Could Reginald be doing something?” I asked. I picked up my pace, the temperature was becoming unbearable.

  “Untie me and I will find out,” Flarinen said.

  None of us even acknowledged him.

  The house was locked up and we grabbed our things and got the horses ready. I kept trying to call the faeries but none of them had shown up yet. Nor had the constructs, but aside from the faeries I had no way of mentally reaching them.

  “I think we need to see what that is,” Padraig said. Nasif and Lorcan nodded in agreement, Covey and Alric shook their heads. Dueble and I both shrugged to each other.

  “That desert is going to get hot by mid-day, my people are adapted for it, the rest of you certainly aren’t.” Covey secured one more pack on the top of the wagon. We were using both wagons and the horses seemed ready to go after their rest.

  “We need to get out of here. I can’t explain why. But we do,” Alric said as he took the driver’s seat for the large wagon. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one disturbed by that. Alric was straightforward—he didn’t have undefined inclinations. His being unable to define why he was feeling weird about something was enough to pull me into the ‘let’s get the hell out of here’ camp.

  Padraig silently climbed atop the smaller wagon. Nasif rode with Lorcan, while Dueble joined us. We finally untied Flarinen so he could get his armor on and mount his horse, but Alric took away his weapons and tethered his horse to the back of the smaller wagon. Kelm watched with wide eyes but didn’t say anything.

  The vortex over the center of Null was mostly reds and yellows now. The fact that people weren’t running out from that area made me feel a little better. Not a lot, but it was enough to let me tell myself leaving was a better idea. The faeries not responding bothered me, but they could catch up with us. I was really doing a lot of self-counseling right now.

  Lorcan watched it for a few moments before he finally got in the wagon. I understood his pensiveness. We were in the middle of a lot of strange things, but we couldn’t go hounding after all of them.

  I was the last one in the wagon when a frantic gronking filled the air.

  36

  I dropped off the step into the wagon as Bunky and the gargoyle flew into the torchlight. Both were extremely agitated and kept flying around all of us. Bunky stopped in front of me and gronked a few times, but I had never been able to understand him. Alric came over and held up his hand.

  Bunky switched to him and repeated his gronks, a bit louder this time.

  “Damn it, we have to go get them.” Alric grabbed his sword and cape. “The faeries are trapped in the bar—and they’ve been drinking heavily.”

  I grabbed the sword Covey had lent me. “What happened? And how did it happen so soon? They couldn’t have left us more than a half hour ago.”

  He shrugged. “I can’t get that out of him, I’m honestly not sure if he knows. The faeries flew to the pub and started drinking hard. He and the gargoyle were watching over them, but within minutes two men caged the faeries. Bunky tried to free them but one of the men was a magic user and kept the constructs at bay.”

  “Reginald?” Padraig was also arming himself.

  “Not from what it sounds like,” Alric said. “We shouldn’t all go, though. Padraig and I can get them back and meet you on the edge of town.” He pointed out into the dark. I knew there was a road out of town over there, but only because I’d seen it in the daylight. It was completely dark away from the lights of the town.

  “I’m going as well. Those miscreants are my problem—no one locks them up except me.” I had my knife, Covey’s sword, and my heavy cloak that I’d pulled out of my pack. The temperature had stopped dropping but it hadn’t gone up yet either.

  “If she’s going, I’m going,” Covey hadn’t added any more clothing, nor weapons, but she flexed her fingers.

  “I don’t think we want too many people to go,” Nasif said as he watched the sky over the center of town. The reds were heavier now. “If that is any sort of a magic buildup, and I think we have to assume it is, we might have a hard time getting the wagons out of here if things go bad.”

  “Agreed. Padraig, myself, and Taryn.” I knew from the slight pause that Alric didn’t want me to go, but we’d have to deal with that issue later.

  The others sorted themselves out and Covey backed down. She’d drive our wagon, and Nasif would drive Lorcan’s.

  Kelm and Flarinen hadn’t said a thing. In Kelm’s case, I figured it was because he was used to taking orders. Flarinen appeared to be pouting. I had too much going on to deal with the emotional issues of an annoying elven knight, so I ignored him.

  The wagons got off with orders to keep riding toward the Spheres, a good four-day ride, if we didn’t show up at the meeting place within an hour.

  We made our way towards the center of town but didn’t see a lot of people on the street. Far different from less than an hour ago. The few we did see where heading toward the pub. Of course, the pub appeared to be directly under the swirling vertex. On a plus side the closer we got to it the warmer the air became.

  The pub must have held almost every citizen of Null, and all of them were watching a group of thugs poking a large cage.

  I was sure Alric and Padraig had an actual plan, but once I saw the cage on the bar, and my faeries inside, I pretty much lost it. My push spell was up and running in a second, shoving the closest jackasses back from the cage. I had to temper it since I didn’t want to hurt the faeries.

  I shook my head at that thought. Faeries were damage proof. I tried to send another spell but a stabbing in my head told me I hadn’t fully recovered from Reginald’s little spelled cage.

  Which was fine. I waved my borrowed sword in the air and ran toward the bar. I knew that wasn’t the best fighting stance, but I didn’t care. Alric and Padraig had dropped whatever plan they might have had and followed me in fighting.

  I’d damaged the cage more than I’d realized with my spell and the faeries kicked it open. All of them seemed fine albeit soggy. There was alcohol all over the bar. It didn’t look or smell like ale, and I’d never seen the girls drink the hard stuff. From the smell, they had been drinking it, bathing in it, and soaking the bar with it. Or someone else had.

  I’d also never seen the girls use their war sticks to start a fire.

  Twenty-three sticks were out, and all of them appeared to be on fire. They actually looked to be the same color as the vortex I knew was above us. I had a bad feeling those twenty-three were behind it, and the results weren’t going to be good.

  Fire and a bar covered in hard alcohol. I’d been so focused on my anger at what was done to the faeries it took me a moment to have those two thoughts latch to each other.

 
; “No!” I was about a foot away from the faeries when I yelled. All of them looked at me. Then tipped their war sticks onto the bar.

  I expected a fire, not the rumbling lightning crack that sliced through half the bar. And the roof. The vortex had gone purple, but all of the energy was now coming down through the faeries’ war sticks.

  “We have to run, now!” Alric yelled in my ear.

  A whirlwind was building inside the bar with my faeries inside of it.

  “Not without them!” I yelled back. “Bunky! Get them out of here!” The wind from the vortex stole my voice. The faeries were radiating anger and the bar was going up in flames.

  “Girls! Now!”

  Garbage finally looked up and nodded.

  “We go now.” She yelled as she, the constructs, and the rest of the faeries flew out of the bar.

  Another crack of red lightening shot through the hole in the roof and blew out the back of the bar.

  Everyone was now running out, so we did as well. The difference was most of the population only ran out of the bar, and then stood in the street to watch the destruction.

  I started to as well; it was strangely transfixing. But Alric grabbed my arm and pulled me. “I’ve never seen anything like that vortex spell. It appears that the faeries created it, but they have no control over it. We might not get out of town in time.”

  “We’re out of the bar though,” I said. The faeries and their construct escorts were out of sight. I’d sent an image of the wagons to them, but wasn’t sure if they’d received it or not.

  “The bar isn’t the only thing under attack.” Padraig ran alongside us and looked ready to grab my other arm if I didn’t run faster. I wasn’t short, but both had much longer legs than me. I picked up speed.

  Alric was partially right—we didn’t get out of town fast enough. At least not by our feet. The explosion of the entire block the pub had been on threw us past the last few buildings.

  The landing wasn’t as hard as it should have been but Alric had been muttering spells as we got picked up, so maybe he had slowed our descent. I scrambled to my feet and looked back.

  A wall of fire and flying debris rushed toward us as well as panicked people trying to outrun it. Alric and Padraig stood up and both held out their hands. Green fire crackled from Padraig’s hand and a soothing blue came from Alric’s.

  A moment later the explosion rushed over us.

  The blue from Alric had been a shield; it was close, barely coming an inch over Padraig’s head. But it held.

  The effects of Padraig’s spell were all around us as well—the explosion froze. Everything, debris, flame, people were locked in a light green film. I wasn’t sure how much further the explosion would have gone, but it looked plenty strong in its frozen state.

  Alric closed his fist and the shield vanished. Padraig pushed on a piece of the green frozen spell, and the frozen, green explosion crumbled. We worked our way out a bit at a time.

  People who had survived the initial blast were running out from the frozen green mass, but the entire town was destroyed.

  Once I got past the frozen explosion I turned back and shook my head. “The faeries caused all of that?” I knew they could be destructive, but this was on an entirely new level. Yes, the bastards who’d been tormenting them should be punished, but to take out an entire town? That seemed a bit much even for the mercurial Garbage Blossom.

  Alric stomped a large piece of frozen explosion into dust and joined me. The view was impressive. Aside from the frozen explosion, nothing was left standing. “I don’t know. Whatever caused that vortex above the pub seemed to be feeding into them. But if they had that much power, I have a hard time believing whoever caged them could hold them against their will.”

  “We need to get moving,” Padraig said. As Alric and I had been transfixed by the frozen mass of debris, Padraig had been shifting the broken pieces through his hand. “My spell isn’t going to hold. There’s another force pushing at it, trying to release the power behind the explosion.”

  He started running and Alric and I were right behind him. We’d gotten to the furthest buildings outside of town when a second explosion knocked us all off our feet. I got up as quickly as I could and was in time to see the entire town of Null implode on itself.

  Aside from a few more aftershocks as the ground adjusted to the change, nothing came our way.

  “Do either of you have the slightest idea what happened?” I looked from one to the other. “And be honest.”

  “Not at all,” Padraig said. “I’ve never seen anything of the like. My spell should have dissolved the force of the explosion completely, yet all it did was slow it down.”

  “I’ve no idea.” Alric shook his head at the damage behind us. “As for the faeries involvement, I think we need to find out from them what they did. Too bad Siabiane isn’t with us; she’s more of the faery talker.”

  I opened my mouth to debate that; the girls were mine as much as they were anyone’s. But I held back in agreement. Even after all these years, fully understanding them was a painful and often useless endeavor. I also wished Siabiane was with us but not only for the faeries. The level of magic being used was getting higher and more complicated. The more serious magic users we had the better.

  We started walking toward the road and our friends. I was grateful to be with two sharp-eyed elves; with the light from the explosion gone, I had no idea where we were going.

  Silence filled the air as those people who could get away had fled, and the rest had been sucked into the giant hole in the ground that was once Null.

  I heard the faeries before I saw them. Normally they were quiet in flight; their chattering was what gave them away, not their wings. This time they weren’t chattering, but they were flying so fast I heard a buzzing sound as they approached. In fact, the swarm flew past us then doubled back.

  “Is bad. Not all go boom,” Garbage said to Alric.

  “Did you cause the boom back there?” I asked. Garbage stayed near Alric but Crusty came toward me.

  “That little boom. Big boom not us. But bad here.” She looked soggy and smelled as if a vat of hundred proof alcohol had been dumped on her.

  She also looked exhausted. They all did. I opened my cloak. “Do you want to ride inside? We’ll catch up to the others soon and all of you can ride in the wagon.”

  Crusty gratefully flew into my cloak and nestled into a pocket. Garbage turned to me with a frown.

  “Gone. Wagon people gone.” She also looked like she was about to drop out of the sky. I couldn’t fit twenty-three faeries in my cloak, but maybe between the three of us we could. None of them looked like they could stay in the air much longer. Bunky and the gargoyle seemed fine, but I was afraid to put the faeries on their backs—they’d probably fall off in their condition.

  Padraig took off his cloak and held it out. “I really don’t need this, maybe they could ride in it?”

  I took it and knotted the ends to make a pouch. I didn’t even say anything but all of the faeries except Garbage and Crusty dove into it. Crusty was snoring in my pocket, and Garbage settled on my hand.

  “Sweetie, what happened to our friends?”

  Garbage was fading fast. “They go. Bad take them all. Sleep now.”

  37

  I wanted to ask more questions, and from Alric and Padraig’s faces they did as well. But Garbage tumbled over before she got near the pouch I’d made. Alric caught her and gently put her in with the others.

  “Bad could mean anything or anyone,” I said, as I tied the corners of the pouch together and worked it over my shoulder like a baby sling. Seeing the faeries being tormented like that had torn something inside of me. They were as much my friends as the rest of the people I travelled with, and for all of their trouble making they were innocent in a fashion. If the idiots behind the attack on the faeries hadn’t blown up with the town, and I ever found them, they might regret surviving. I forced myself not to think about what might be happening to
the rest of our people. Garbage could be wrong. I’d only believe her when we got to where the meet was.

  “I think we can guess who, however.” Alric had no trouble in the dark and led us down the road. “Nivinal might have also been behind what happened to the faeries.”

  “Agreed and that would be why he set up the faeries—he was counting on Taryn going into town.” Padraig’s look was mostly lost in the darkness, but I was sure I was missing something. “The plan being once your body was no longer intact, he could get the manticore. We have to assume the manticore, like all of the relics, is indestructible.”

  I had to start jogging since Alric was setting a fast pace, but I shot a quick look at Padraig. “The manticore isn’t intact inside me. I think I would know if a lump that big was physically inside my body. It dispersed, or something, when it decided to jump in me.” I hadn’t thought of it before, not really. That thing was inside me, but not intact—I knew it somehow. I also knew I didn’t want to think about it too much or I’d run screaming into the night.

  “When the body it inhabits is gone, it will reconstruct.” Padraig sounded far too sure to be speculating on this, and Alric was staying out of it and silently leading the way.

  “You’ve read something.” I kept walking faster. Alric was picking up the pace again. I shook my finger at Padraig as we walked. “This isn’t speculation, you’ve found out something about the manticore.” I refrained from adding that it was something they knew I didn’t want to hear.

  “Now, it’s not a verified source.” Alric didn’t look back, but he did slow down a bit. “I asked them not to tell you until we were certain.”