The Emerald Dragon (The Lost Ancients Book 3)

by Marie Andreas

  Orenda was standing back. Harlan had moved forward, but she hadn’t budged and was carefully not standing inside the cave mouth. She also wouldn’t look at Locksead.

  “You led them to us? They killed your friends. They killed your lover. Carlon was taken as we tried to escape.” Locksead’s eyes were more hurt than angry. Carlon may have wooed her away from him but Locksead still had a thing for her.

  “I didn’t lead them here. They found you on their own.” She pointed up to the faeries hovering a foot or two in the air above us. “Rather, their friends did.”

  There was a look of wonder and interest on her face now. I’d liked it better when she was afraid of them.

  “I’m not saying they should join us, but they didn’t kill anyone.” That was Carlon stepping out from behind Orenda. She jumped about a foot in the air at his voice then tried to hug him. He shoved her aside and came into the cavern.

  He was bulkier than I’d guessed originally. It was more noticeable now because he was soaking wet. He had medium brown hair, badly cut, and ratty at the ends. His face would have been okay, except for the two jagged scars. One just to the far side of his right eye, close enough he’d been lucky he hadn’t lost it. The other cut toward his mouth on his left side giving the corner of his mouth a permanent sneer.

  But Orenda looked at him as if he was the most gorgeous thing in the world.

  Carlon continued to ignore the love-struck elf. “They captured them. They almost got me, one of their shapeshifters, the things who had been pretending to be gryphons, chased me into the stream some ways back. But I got away. Some big guy with tusks and a bunch of gnomes dragged the rest into the city. We need to get moving with this plan. Now. I’m not losing my cut.” He seemed to notice the small group for the first time. “Is this all who is left?”

  Locksead shook his head. “I knew they couldn’t have had gryphons. Yes, this is it.” He hooked a finger at Orenda. “So she didn’t help at all from what you saw? Answer truth, with your brain not your loins.”

  Orenda blushed but she was still making goo-goo eyes at the nasty man.

  “She didn’t. I’m done with her, that’s why I left before.” He spun toward the stricken elf. “I told you, we’re through.”

  I was watching them both closely, or I probably wouldn’t have seen what happened. Orenda’s face fell, and she looked ready to start screaming, crying, or most likely both. Then I saw Carlon’s right fingers flicker. Like someone casting a small spell.

  Orenda’s eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted. Luckily, Harlan was close enough to grab her.

  Interesting. Tag had said they had no serious magic users with them, yet here we had Carlon shutting up a discarded lover with a spell. I looked to see if Covey had noticed, but she was watching Locksead as if she was deciding where to start chomping parts off.

  “Let’s try to stay calm here.” I stepped between Locksead, Covey, and Carlon. “Yes, they did kidnap me. That one,” I turned to Carlon, “stole a tile I’d found at the epicenter of the most recent shake-up. He, along with these two, then kidnapped me.” I pointed to Jackal, who was trying to hide, and Locksead. “However, they were going to offer me a deal for a job, and it involves a find.” I turned to Covey. “An Ancient find up in Kenithworth. I was going to say yes.”

  There were a few moments of silence, only marred by Harlan crooning, “There, there,” to an unconscious, but oddly smiling, Orenda.

  Garbage dropped down to hover right in front of my face. “So we no get to kill? She say we can hurt people.” Her lower lip stuck out and she waved around her war stick as if she were an annoyed cat and it was her tail.

  “None of them should come with us. I know enough about relics; we don’t need some digger girl and her flying bats.” Carlon was getting on my last nerve. He’d annoyed me just hearing about his antics from Tag. Right now, I wanted to find a cliff to drop him off of.

  “I get him at least?” Garbage zoomed right up to Carlon and waved her stick in his face. He moved to swing at her but she dodged.

  “Look, even if Orenda still wants to come along, Locksead said you need more people. You need me.” I took a step toward Carlon and stuck a finger in his chest. “Not that they can’t defend themselves, because they can, but if you ever touch one of the faeries, I will destroy you.”

  The bastard winked at me.

  He’d just dumped his former lover in front of me, and now he was trying to get together. “Eww.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but judging by the muffled snorts behind me I was glad I had. I could see Tag just out of the corner of my eye with both hands over his mouth trying not to laugh. Carlon looked like he wished he’d dropped me in that pit when he found me.

  Good to know we felt the same about each other.

  “I decide who goes on this mission.” Locksead stepped forward, cutting off all of the snickers. “You’re right, we do need more people. Since the rest of my team is spending time with your prison system, at least for now, I need extra people to make this work. I’ll cut you in for the same amount I would have with others. However, you will have to work, this isn’t a free ride. I’ll leave you wherever we are the moment I think one of you is slacking off, or trying to betray us.”

  “We shouldn’t take them. They’ll slow us down. We don’t have the extra wagons anymore,” Carlon said.

  “Would one more help?” Covey asked with a sigh. “Most of them didn’t survive being attacked; you should have taken better care of them. But we hid one and the horse from the guards a little ways back from here.”

  “I found it.” The voice came from behind us. I knew that voice. Just wasn’t used to it sounding weasely and defeated. I was used to it sounding weasely and arrogant. Grimwold stepped into view. “Well, to be truthful, I was hiding in it. I moved it here, but the horse wouldn’t come any closer.”

  He moved forward then realized who he was talking to. His face paled as it flashed from Harlan, to Covey, to me.

  “Wold, I thought you got snagged in the first wagon?” Jackal came forward and pounded Grimwold on the back which almost sent him flying across the room. Would I never be free of this idiot?

  “How long as he been with you?” I kept an eye on him, but he mostly cowered and tried to hide behind Jackal.

  “He came here a day ago. Only magic user we have on hand, so we let him join up.” Jackal slapped him again. “He had some presents for Locksead. Ain’t seen no magic yet though.”

  I wasn’t sure if they were buddies or Grimwold was now Jackal’s favorite toy. Last I’d seen Grimwold he was trying to bargain with a criminal to get to Kenithworth. I wondered whom he had robbed to buy passage with this gang, because he clearly didn’t have any money before.

  I was going to ask them if they knew who he was, but judging by Tag’s reactions to me asking about his previous life this was a don’t-ask, don’t-tell gang. If they knew he used to work for Largen, the former master crime lord of Beccia, it probably would only increase his standing with them.

  I simply nodded slowly. At this point Grimwold was more afraid of me than anything else. Whatever gift he’d given Locksead for the ride out of town was stolen and he figured I could identify it.

  “Look, we’re all here and this is what we do the job with.” Locksead had been standing back watching, and clearly decided he’d run with what he had. “The ladies get the wagon in the back. Rest of you sleep where you want.”

  Carlon’s face had been getting darker as the people he clearly didn’t want involved, joined his gang. And from what it sounded like, the plan was at least half his. “I’ll take first watch. I’ll wake Jackal in four hours.” He didn’t even wait for a response, but stalked off into the night.

  Good. Maybe if he was annoyed enough he’d leave.

  I watched Orenda as he strode by her, but she didn’t even blink. Whatever he’d done to her in bed previously, she was now ready to move on. With the help of whatever spell he’d flung at her at any rate.

&nb
sp; Harlan escorted Orenda over to the far wagon, and Covey and I followed. Well, partially. Covey turned to Locksead. “If we’re going anywhere, we need our own supplies. I’m going back into town and getting things for Taryn, Orenda, Harlan, and myself. Don’t try to leave without me.”

  Locksead was tall, but Covey was even taller. His featherlike hair ruffled a bit as if trying to make up the difference, but he finally nodded. He even smiled. “I grew up around trellians. I know better than to piss one off.”

  Covey nodded to him, then me, and went off into the night.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Unfortunately, the next day dawned with Carlon still around. Covey had come back a few hours before dawn, dropped all of our stuff in the wagon, then woke me up so I could explain what in the hell I was doing.

  If Orenda heard us, she gave no sign, and her uneven snoring told me she was probably wiped out and actually sleeping. After she’d recovered from her collapse, she seemed like a different woman. Not sure better or worse, but definitely different.

  Covey and I had bantered back and forth for a bit about the wisdom of what I was thinking in joining up with them. However, after I reminded her that we needed to find Alric, and this was a free trip to the last place we thought he was headed, she didn’t argue anymore. She briefly filled me in on what had happened though.

  When I hadn’t come back, she and Harlan had started searching for me and found one of the changelings who had seen the entire thing from hiding in a tree. He wouldn’t say who had dragged him into the ground before, or why they released him, but was willing to help Covey find me as long as she didn’t ask questions about who originally hired them.

  Once she’d found out from Orenda more about Locksead’s gang and where they likely took me, Covey convinced the changelings to disguise themselves as gryphons and help capture the relic thieves and leave them for the guards.

  I was the first of us three to wake up, thanks to Carlon stomping about in front of the wagons. The man had probably only gotten a few hours’ sleep, but clearly he was determined to get us all on the road before the sun. Locksead might be the leader, but I had a feeling that Carlon was the evil mastermind.

  Maybe perpetual lack of sleep was what made him so disagreeable.

  I toyed with rolling over on my tiny bed and trying to sleep some more, but then Locksead started shouting orders to get people out of their beds. More importantly, I could smell breakfast.

  I rousted the other two and we left the wagon. I didn’t see any sight of the faeries and tried to call them without thinking. I froze and waited for the backlash, but my head refrained from exploding.

  And I was swarmed by a dozen faeries.

  “We here. Is good now.” Garbage was practically cheerful.

  I narrowed my eyes and studied all of the faeries. They seemed happy but not speed crazy. Still. “Did someone give you tea?”

  “No. Better.” Crusty did one of her crazed spirals then spun around the front wheel of the wagon. The doll carriage Tag had shown me sat there, clearly explored by the faeries. It would be a bit of a squeeze, but all twelve of them should fit.

  Tag stuck his head from around the front of the wagon. “I already had it in the wagon when we fled. I kinda heard about your faeries when I was in town, and thought after all this you could give it to them.”

  Crusty Bucket looped over to him and sat on his head. Some folks might take exception to that, but Tag looked like she’d showered him in gold.

  “Grab some food, and then load up.” Locksead had been conferring with Carlon and Jackal, then turned to all of us. “We’ve got a group looking for us. They’re moving slow, but they’ve got some weird animal with them. We can’t see it, but we can hear it. We leave now.”

  I turned to Covey. “Would Foxy keep looking for us?” I couldn’t imagine any animal he’d have on hand that would freak out a hardened thief like Locksead, but who knew.

  She shook her head as she gathered things to go back into our wagon. The girls’ carriage was the first thing inside. “No. I talked to him when I gathered our stuff. He’ll send someone around regularly to check on our places. I also left a note for the dean at the university, telling him I was extending my sabbatical. No one should be looking for us.”

  Harlan escorted Orenda to our wagon, and from the look in his eyes, he was looking for another wife. The fact that I was still seeing that look on Locksead’s face when he looked at her wasn’t a good sign.

  “Now, even in these rickety conveyances, we should get to Kenithworth within two weeks. If you need to take a rest at any time, simply tell Tag to pull over.” Harlan clapped a paw on Tag’s shoulder with enough force to almost bowl the boy over. “Our boy and I will take care of you.”

  The wince on Tag’s face was probably more from being put between Orenda, Harlan, and Locksead’s triangle than the actual blow. But he simply smiled and got into the driver’s seat.

  Harlan beamed at Covey and I, then drifted over to his assigned wagon.

  “Let’s move people!” Locksead was in the lead wagon and didn’t wait for anyone to respond before moving out.

  Covey was the last in and she took the bench opposite Orenda.

  “So how did you fall in with these brigands anyway?”

  I was surprised Covey wouldn’t have asked her that when it first came out I’d been kidnapped. Most likely Covey’s focus at that time was finding me. Unfortunately for Orenda, that focus would now be on her and she was trapped in a moving wagon with a persistent professor.

  “Like I said previously, something was taken from my people. My clan is xenophobic, and they wouldn’t go into the world to get it. So I did.” She drifted off a bit as she looked out the window, but a cough from Covey brought her back. “While I was tracking it down here, I ran across Locksead and Carlon. Locksead can be charming and he said he had a plan to get some rare elven artifacts, but they needed a woman accomplice.” She shrugged. “My trail had gone cold, and I didn’t have much in the way of money, I had no idea how expensive things were out here, so I joined them.”

  “And then you left?”

  Orenda blushed heavily at that. “I thought I had found a life mate. I was wrong, he left me. I decided to go back to looking for my artifact on my own.” She frowned. “But the leads I had vanished. I don’t think it’s this far south.”

  All questions about more details about the emerald dragon were met with silence. She might have helped them find me, but she didn’t trust us.

  The wagon hit something large and far less mobile than it was and we all almost fell off our seats. Tag was doing a decent job of driving, but the ruins were too heavily tree filled to be good for anything with wheels. The faeries had all started out inside the wagon but were already working on pushing the window open to get out.

  “Wait. Before you leave,” I held the window that Dingle Bottom and Penqow were pushing against, “where is Bunky?” I hadn’t been too worried when the girls first showed up without him. He often went to go hang out with the wild faeries and Queen Mungoosey. However, I had no idea how long this trip would take and I didn’t want him missing us.

  “That who we get,” Garbage said as if obviously I should have known that. “He following followers. We get him back.”

  Following the followers? Damn, trying to get what he was seeing via the faeries would not be easy. I braced myself as the wagon started gaining speed—and bumps.

  “Get him, see what you can of who is behind us, and then find us quickly.” I felt better now that I knew my magic was as good as it ever was, so I should be able to call them, but I was still worried about being separated too long.

  The faeries all crammed out of the window all at once, not waiting for me to open it further.

  Orenda was watching them and a small smile crept across her face.

  “Not as scary as your myths say, are they?”

  She shook her head. “It seems as if many of our stories were wrong. Speaking of stories, back in the f
orest you had mentioned an elf friend?”

  I wasn’t thrilled about talking about Alric with her. However, the more I could get her to talk, the greater the chance she might start talking about something of interest. Like her people or this damn emerald dragon. Too many people were looking for it, and we still weren’t certain if it was related to the other two artifacts.

  “Well, not sure what all to say. His name is Alric. He’s an elf and his clan is at least a week’s ride to the west. But he’s only been in town less than a year.” That made me stop; had it really been less than a year? On one hand, it seemed like he’d been in my life forever, but on the other, a recent annoyance. I guess it depended on whether he was pissing me off or charming me.

  Orenda leaned forward. “That’s an auspicious name, if his people kept to the old ways like my people did. What is his family name?”

  I looked to Covey and shrugged. Great, here this man was becoming a possible contender for the big love of my life, and I never asked him for his last name? “I have to say—”

  “It’s Glasene. Alric de Glasene. Merchant family from what he told us,” Covey said with a smile of complete honesty. Her lying was artistic.

  Orenda had deflated a bit at the name. And probably at the merchant classification. Most likely, she was far higher up the food chain in her clan.

  Voices outside were yelling now and the wagon bounced badly, tossing us to the floor. Tag kept yelling at the horses, but clearly we were still in the ruins and they did not have many speed options.

  “We stand and fight!” That was Locksead and the wagon came to an abrupt stop at his words.

  Chapter Thirty

  I looked around the wagon for anything I could use to fight with. Covey didn’t need weapons although she pulled out her newly acquired sword. Later I’d have to ask her where she got it.

  Orenda rolled over to her back and pulled free her bow and quiver, then a pair of short swords. She handed one to me. “Can you use this?”