The Emerald Dragon (The Lost Ancients Book 3)

by Marie Andreas

  “Can’t you even walk straight? You’ve been drinking again?” Jackal was behind us but his annoying remarks meant he hadn’t noticed us touching.

  Alric pulled back a step away from me. “I have to drink to deal with morons like you.” The two silently snarled at each other, but I thought I saw a slight grin flash on Jackal’s face and an echo on Alric’s. They were clearly not the enemies they pretended to be, or rather Carlon and Jackal weren’t. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Jackal gave me the creeps.

  The guards behind us pushed us through the foyer and into a large office. The outside of the buildings and people might be sad and faded looking, but that was not the case here. The room was easily twice the size of The Shimmering Dewdrop, with a ceiling that the long-lost elves would have admired. Ornate paintings had been crafted to fill the ceiling above us, mostly of people who I assumed were the prior mayors. Most were human, with a few other races scattered in. All looked like extremely successful, and grossly overdressed, merchants. Which made sense—Kenithworth was primarily a merchant town. At least it had been.

  The mayor’s desk took up almost the entire back wall. He sat high above the rest of us, his desk and surrounding furnishings all displayed on a raised platform at least two feet off the ground. The entire collection was carved out of a single gapen tree, and judging by the rings still showing in the wood, it had been a giant.

  The mayor himself was made to look even smaller in comparison. It was difficult to see much of his features—his hat was even larger and more ridiculous looking than his assistant’s—but he looked to be some sort of gnome half-breed. I didn’t know gnomes could be civil enough to breed with other races. He bowed and waved us all into the room. His assistant and two of the guards stepped forward with us, and the rest of the guards stayed outside and shut the door behind us. “Please, sit, my esteemed guests. I am so honored by your presence.”

  I didn’t point out that we hadn’t had an option on coming, but silently took one of the fancy, overstuffed, velvet chairs. The cost of one of these behemoths could fund a team of diggers for at least a year, probably two.

  “I’m sure you are wondering why I have called you here. We have been having some recent difficulties with odd creatures attacking the city as well as very peculiar things going on at our dig sites. I will be forthright with you; people are vanishing out in the wilds around the city. I am extremely honored that the famous archeologist from Beccia and her equally talented companion, Harlan, is here at our small site, but you must take extreme caution.”

  Both Harlan and I sat a bit straighter. It was so common for us to call ourselves diggers that when someone used our proper name it made us giddy.

  “I am afraid I will have to insist on sending guards with you, for your own protection, you realize.” He beamed at his own good will and concern for us.

  There went the real reason. Whether people were vanishing at the area or not, he wanted to have eyes on what we were going after. Not good.

  “The location that you have secured was attacked a few days ago. No one was working it, clearly, since you had not yet arrived. However, there were a few minor explosions there.”

  He turned toward Alric and Jackal. “You were listed as the primary aids to your boss, one Locksead, whom I believe is not in attendance?”

  Jackal nodded. “Aye, we’re the foremen for the site. Locksead is hurt and couldn’t make it.” He scowled at the guards. “But we are perfectly able to guard our own.”

  Alric stayed silent. However, he folded his arms and gave a fierce Carlon scowl. He also looked a bit paler than before. The injury must not be mixing too well with the energy he needed to avoid that huge spell breaker ball outside.

  “I do not mean to cast doubt upon your skills.” The mayor gave a toothy grin to both Alric and Jackal. “Two such men must truly be fearsome in a fight. However, you do understand that we cannot take a risk with Beccia’s celebrities. We would be bereft if anything should happen to anyone in this party.”

  Jackal took a breath to continue arguing, but Alric turned to him and shook his head. Considering I had a feeling that it was mostly because of Jackal’s hardheaded nature that we had been forced to detour into this town, instead of on our way to set up camp at the site, I agreed with Alric. The mayor was clearly some kind of despot and wouldn’t let anything in his mini-kingdom happen without knowing about it. We played by his rules, or we went home.

  Alric stepped forward with a nod. “Agreed. Thank you for the extra protection. We’d like to set up camp before the sun falls, may we leave now?” The voice was Carlon, but the words were completely Alric. Hopefully it wouldn’t make Jackal question anything.

  The small mayor nodded regally and waved one hand for the guards. “Of course, we wouldn’t want anything to happen if you got there in the dark. However, be very wary of the pits. We do not know what the ruffians were up to, but we felt it better to leave them undisturbed for the archeologists to assess.”

  The guards on the other side of the door pushed it open and we started heading out.

  “Taryn, could you please stay? Just for a moment.” The mayor’s voice caught me as I was almost out the door. Again, my choices were nonexistent.

  I waved Harlan to keep going and plastered a smile on my face. “Of course.” I kept the smile locked in and went back to my chair. To my surprise, the mayor stepped down from his platform desk and took up the seat next to mine.

  “Thank you ever so for waiting.” He looked up and waited until the doors were shut again.

  I forced down the chill that went up my back.

  “I have a proposal for you; one which I and my backers believe only you can assist us on.” He was still trying to sound polite and considerate, but I could hear how forced it was now. “There are a number of prophecies that speak of a time that we believe is coming upon us. They all have different names and details, but they all speak of a time of fixing. Of changes that will forever alter this world for better or worse.”

  I kept my face calm. I knew the faeries had prophesies, ones big enough that by breaking them to help save my life and the city of Beccia, they had caused a rift in the faery population. I hadn’t heard of others, but prophesies were really more Covey and Alric’s area, not mine.

  “Very interesting. However, I don’t know how that pertains to me. I’m a simple digger, nothing more.”

  He leaned forward and his grin grew more predatory. “I doubt you are a simple anything. However, you may be correct; this may not pertain to you. A massive weapon of destruction, one so far back in time its exact function has been long lost, is slowly coming to the surface of our world. You have found two pieces.” He held up his hand as I started to shake my head. “I know you do not have them. I will not ask you where they are. Not yet anyway. However, since you found two, there’s a good chance you are connected to the finder of myth. Many of the prophesies speak of a finder who will call forth the pieces and allow the resurrection of the seventh Sphere. We believe you are she.” He held his hands out to encompass the room. “All of this and far more could be yours if you work with my people.” He leaned forward as if to say something else, and then instead patted my knee. “No need to worry about it now. Just think on it.” He quickly rose to his feet and paused until I did so as well. I wasn’t sure what had changed but something was making him very anxious to get me out of the office. He rang a small bell and the door flew open immediately, held by one of the guards.

  “Thank you again, we will be in contact.” The mayor followed us out into the hall, shook my hand distractedly, and then popped back into his office. Had I not moved fast enough the door would have smacked me.

  “Your companions are outside.” The voice sounded like the first guard who had been at the gate. That was interesting. Either they’d only been at the gate for us, or they switched guards regularly.

  I quickly got outside. Once they saw me come out, the few stragglers still outside their wagons got inside. Each driv
er’s seat now also had a non-armor wearing, but still armed, guard with our drivers. Two were syclarions; the one with Tag was human. Six more guards on horseback waited to ride out behind us.

  I was the last one getting to the wagons when Covey came running up.

  “Thank you for waiting for me.” She pitched her voice loud enough for anyone who wanted to hear to do so. “I was unable to catch Grimwold. I’m afraid he’s left us for good.”

  I nodded and motioned for her to climb in the wagon, and then I followed.

  “Harlan said the mayor wanted to talk to you separately. Is everything all right?” Orenda leaned forward and dropped her voice. “Is he one of those vile syclarions? They did nothing but stare at me the entire time you were all inside.”

  “No, he’s some sort of gnome-breed. As to what he wanted, I’m not sure. He mentioned some prophesies and a finder of some sort who would put a fearsome weapon back together.” I gave a quick lowdown of his brief conversation, including the fact I believed there had been something more, but he ended it suddenly.

  “Did you find your friend?”

  Covey’s face, which had drifted into her ‘scholar thinking about prophesies’ expression, dropped into a deep frown. “No. Worse than that, many of their top minds are also missing. The ones left are docile and stupid and are too afraid to talk about their missing peers.” She held out a small square puzzle box. “I found this tucked away under a floor board in his empty office.” She flipped it around a few times. “I have no idea what’s in it, or if it has any bearing on why he vanished. But I’ll figure it out eventually.”

  She was just putting it in her bag, when Orenda reached out. “Can I see that? It looks familiar.”

  Covey narrowed her eyes, and then slowly handed it over.

  “Yes, this is from my people.” Orenda tapped on one scuffed panel that held faint markings. “You see right here is where you’d enter the combination to open it. These are very rare; no one has made them since before the Breaking.” She reluctantly handed it back. “Be careful when you do try to open it. Many of them had spells attached that could explode in your face, release toxic air, or at the least, destroy whatever is in there if the code wasn’t entered correctly.”

  Covey took it and finished putting it back in her bag. However, I noticed she did it with more caution now.

  All three of us were silently lost in our thoughts as Tag called the horse to move and the wagon continued its journey. Any excitement I’d originally felt about this adventure got stomped into dust. Alric, and whatever Glorinal did to him, took it down a few notches, and the syclarions and the cryptically creepy mayor wiped out the rest. I hadn’t said anything, but I had a bad feeling about what they were doing in town. Covey’s missing friend and the other vanished intellectuals just made it more solid.

  Covey broke the silence with a pointed look at me. “That rib of Carlon’s must be getting worse. He doesn’t look good.” The look in her eyes worried me more than her words. Alric must be in bad shape for that look. I knew even with whatever help he was able to draw from my magic, that spell breaker ball had been hard on him. If something was about to go weird out here, we definitely needed his fighting and his magic. I didn’t care that Carlon didn’t have magic; if things went sideways, I’d expose Alric myself. Except he wouldn’t be much use if he collapsed before something happened.

  Since I couldn’t say anything really about Alric/Carlon with Orenda here, I just nodded and fiddled with one of the scrolls Covey had brought from Beccia.

  Scroll. I patted my vest pocket to confirm the scroll Alric gave me was still there. I needed to look at it, and so did Covey. But I couldn’t see a way to exclude Orenda. I had intended to wait until we set up camp at the dig site; since we were traveling in, we’d camp at the site. However, the way things were moving I wasn’t sure if we could wait that long.

  “I think I found one of your scrolls.” I pulled out the one Alric gave me and leaned toward Covey. She knew that I knew she wouldn’t misplace a scroll. Hopefully she’d guess where it came from.

  She shot a quick look in Orenda’s direction, but the elf was lost in thought.

  Covey unrolled the scroll. “Ah yes, I must have set it down at our last camp.” Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to scan it quickly. I hadn’t done anything more than glance at it, but it was elven, and very old. Not good for a quick read.

  Covey’s face went pale. She rolled it back up and was about to tuck it inside her cloak, when she shot me a look, then nodded to herself. And held the scroll out to Orenda.

  I had grown less annoyed by the elf woman’s high and mighty attitude over the last three weeks. And I sort of trusted her. Well, with Harlan’s heart anyway. I wasn’t sure I trusted her with a scroll. Especially one that made Covey go pale like that. It took a hell of a lot to freak her out, and she was currently extremely concerned and heading toward freaked out.

  “Orenda, what do you make of this?” Covey’s tone was neutral and she’d schooled her face, but she was watching Orenda like a snake with a mouse when the snake feared the mouse might bite back.

  Orenda blinked as she pulled her thoughts free. She looked genuinely grateful to be offered a diversion and took the scroll.

  That gratitude only lasted a minute. “What is this?” She held the scroll back to Covey, but Covey shook her head. “Why do you have this? These are the monsters who almost destroyed my people.”

  I took the scroll from Orenda’s hands. I wasn’t sure if Covey was hoping she’d tell her more about it, or was simply testing Orenda’s alliances.

  I wasn’t surprised when I couldn’t make out much at first. However, a closer look let words like ‘world’s end’, ‘destruction’, and ‘dark death’ pop out for me. I had no idea why some elven words seemed to translate themselves for me, when the rest of the language seemed beyond my ability to learn. “It’s a manifesto from the Dark, isn’t it?”

  Neither said anything, but they both nodded slowly.

  Great. What in the hell was Alric doing with a scroll from Jovan’s band of homicidal maniacs?

  Chapter Forty

  “I think I might need to check on Carlon when we stop,” Covey said as she watched me put the scroll away.

  I had no idea why Alric gave me something he knew I couldn’t read. Unless he was counting on Covey or Orenda to read it. “That might be a good idea.”

  Orenda looked ready to step in with a comment, but I beat her to it. “Covey was a trained healer before she became a professor. Broken bones were her specialty.” I wasn’t lying really. Covey had certainly caused enough broken bones in her lifetime. And I didn’t know why Alric’s weakening glamour seemed to be affecting Orenda, but I needed to keep those two apart.

  I might not be sure he and I belonged together, but I knew I wasn’t ready to let some elf girl take him.

  It was a short ride to the ruins. Providing we were at the ruins when Tag yelled for the horse to stop. It had been less than an hour since we left the city and we’d been going down an incline the entire time. Covey had peered out the back curtain at least a dozen times, but I wasn’t sure if her scowls were because of Alric looking bad or the guards we had trailing behind us. Probably both.

  I pushed open the wagon door as soon as we stopped and blinked at the bright late afternoon sun. I might actually be grateful for Locksead’s weird hats. Unlike the ruins in Beccia, which were being devoured by huge trees at a rapid rate, these were almost completely bare. Well, relatively so. The trees were far narrower than the ones back home and more spread out. If the gapens in Beccia were the giant mob, the tall, thin pines up here were the aloof academics of the tree world. It was colder up here, so that was maybe why each tree seemed intent on having enough space around it to get all of the sun itself.

  “If you want to go climb one, you could while we get set up,” Covey said as she came out of the wagon behind me.

  “Funny.” I walked back past her and got my bags from the top of the
wagon. Covey and Orenda had weapons and, in Covey’s case, scrolls with them, so they kept most of their belongings in the wagon. I didn’t have much of value aside from my dagger and digger kit, both of which stayed on me. The rest of my belongings I had stuffed on top of the wagon along with Tag’s small bags.

  Usually, Tag would climb up first and toss down my bags with his, but he was locked in a deep discussion about the wagons with our ride-along guard, a tall skinny man, so I climbed up the side. Which gave me a perfect view of the faeries and Bunky as they came tearing into the site at full speed. Jackal’s wagon raced in right behind them. He threw the reins for the confused horse at the syclarion guard sitting next to him, then jumped off the driver’s seat as he came into the clearing.

  The faeries zipped by me, and Garbage started pounding on the wagon door.

  “Stop them!” Jackal yelled as he skidded to a halt just as Orenda opened the door and let the faeries in. Bunky stayed outside and buzzed fiercely at the irate man.

  “Why are you chasing my faeries?” I folded my arms but kept one hand on my dagger. I didn’t think he would be able to hurt them, but his face was bright red and he looked ready to choke something.

  “I’ve been losing ale this entire trip. Carlon kept saying I was drinking it and forgetting.” He spat toward Alric’s wagon. “But it weren’t that at all. They been taking it! They slipped in and took it while I was driving.”

  I made a show of looking inside the wagon. Yup, twelve little faeries all sitting there nice as could be. I noticed that Garbage, Leaf, and Dingle Bottom all had familiar looking tiny black bags in their hands.

  I shot them a stern glare, and then turned back to Jackal. “You’re welcome to look for yourself, but they don’t have anything.”

  He shoved Orenda and I out of the way and leaned into the wagon. I could still see the faeries and they were still holding perfectly still and looking as innocent as a bunch of newborn baby deer.