The Sapphire Manticore (The Lost Ancients Book 4)

by Marie Andreas

  An improvement of sorts.

  “Guys, couldn’t we find another way? That thing that had been chasing us is probably gone, and I really think—” A roar of rocks or other large heavy objects slammed up against the other side of the still invisible door. Then they rolled back and slammed into it again.

  Damn it. I made sure my pack was tight, grabbed Garbage off my hair yet again and took Alric’s hand. I even let him help me on the boat.

  “Boats aren’t safe.” I wasn’t saying it to anyone specifically, I was sure they both knew my viewpoint. I wanted it thoroughly stated again.

  He leaned his head down closely and kissed the top of my head. “You’ll be fine.” He climbed in next to me.

  Padraig freed the line, and climbed on board as well. I’d expected the faeries and Bunky to fly, but all four settled in on the bottom of the boat just as if they did it every day.

  The small boat moved without paddles, and the water seemed to be flowing stronger. Padraig leaned on the tiller, at least that was what I assumed it was, and we floated toward the center of the waterway.

  Another crashing from the stairs and the walls. Alric held out his hand over the water and we picked up speed.

  I hung to both sides of the boat and thought good thoughts.

  You couldn’t see much from the landing because there was an arch in either direction. I’d been afraid it was a completed tunnel, nothing to make a fear of water worse than to have it occur in a nice dark tunnel. We were past the tunnel portion within a few minutes. The new area was still a tunnel, but, like the landing area, the ceiling was far taller. A light glow lit the top.

  “Is that a weird fungus? I think there was some in the tower they put me in.” It felt like it had been weeks since we’d arrived and I’d been in the tower.

  “Yes, although I doubt Reginald would appreciate your calling it weird. It’s his own creation. He’s a horticulturalist by trade,” Padraig said as he watched the sides. The walls were set back more like the landing, but they had little moss on them so seeing was difficult.

  “He hasn’t been here recently, that’s for sure.” Alric was also looking at the walls. He still had his sword in his hand and didn’t look happy.

  “Okay, now I know elves are different than us normal folks, but you talk about Reginald as if he were still alive. He’s a ghost, right?”

  “He is the ghost. The only one we’ve ever heard of in the entire elven histories. It has to do with how he died—” Padraig was cut off by a massive explosion behind us. The tunnel way we’d come through was slammed with a wall of water, and then it started collapsing.

  The wave came toward us.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  The collapsing rocks had helped slow down the wave, trapping most of the water on that side, but they also pushed the remaining water toward us.

  “Get down on the bottom!” Alric yelled over the roar of another explosion.

  I dropped down and huddled with the faeries and Bunky as both Alric and Padric cast spells. The water passed over us as if we were in a bubble.

  Nevertheless, while the water itself had been dispersed, the force of it had not.

  Our little boat rocked forward and for a brief moment was heading for one of the walls. Then Padraig grabbed the tiller and moved us back toward the center, or as well as he could. Alric was still throwing spells, but there wasn’t much to be done about the force of the water.

  We went through two more of the narrow tunnel passageways before we slowed down.

  “What was that?” I thought about climbing back up on my seat but decided it was probably better where I was.

  “Nothing good.” Alric looked to Padraig but he shook his head. “Whatever it was, we’re past it.”

  Again, the not-a-good-liar-without-his-glamour issue. Poor Alric, he really needed to get whatever was wrong with his glamour fixed so he could lie better.

  “We shouldn’t stay on the waterway.” Padraig looked behind us, but the force of the water was spent. “This whole tunnel could fill up if too much water was released from whatever that explosion was.”

  While I was happy about the ‘let’s get out of the floating death trap’ idea, I was not happy about the reason for it. Not to mention, while the moss seemed to be a bit brighter here, so the sides could be seen, I didn’t see any way out.

  “Do you think we’re clear of the castle yet? Coming up in the middle of things with me in tow would not be a good idea,” Alric said.

  I knew that he wasn’t concerned about being a wanted man—he’d been that way off and on since I first met him. He was concerned about his status causing us a problem.

  “You’ve forgotten the layout already?” Padraig said as he studied the right side of the waterway for something. “You wouldn’t know it by him today, Taryn, but our Alric was quite the sewer rat as a child.”

  I laughed, and then looked down. “We’re sailing in a sewer?” I knew it stunk, but that was disgusting.

  “Not like what Beccia would have, no.” Alric said. “The nickname fits though. I would try anything to escape my grandmother. But that was a long time ago.”

  “This really slow,” Garbage said. She wasn’t frantic nor trying to climb on my head this time, so I wasn’t too worried something bad was going to happen.

  Bunky and all three girls rose up and flew over our heads. “We get us out.”

  I should have called them back. Who knew if they intended to find a way for all of us to get out or not.

  “There, next spot.” Crusty came zipping back. The waterway had bent a bit, along with getting narrower, but they were around the corner. At my nod, Crusty vanished again.

  “I knew it was nearby,” Alric said, ignoring the snort from Padraig.

  We rounded the corner and found the spot she was talking about—a dead end.

  “So this is the great secret escape route? Or are the rocks an illusion?” I carefully ignored the fact that while some of the water was clearly making it through the rock fall in front of us, not all of it was and the water level was noticeably higher than the rest of the way we’d gone. Part of it was probably due to the wave of water from the explosion upstream, but clearly it wasn’t stopping.

  Moreover, as far as I could tell there was no way out.

  “Spot. We find.” Leaf flew a few loops in the air as if they had found a secret cache of ale.

  “Sweetie? This is great and all, but we need a way out.” More water was flowing in after us, and I kept telling myself it was not coming in faster.

  “Is out, there.” Garbage pointed to the ceiling. The very solid looking ceiling.

  “Should I panic now? Just let me know when I can panic,” I said to both Alric and Padraig.

  “No, they may be right.” Alric spent a few moments looking carefully along the waterline. How that related to the invisible-to-me ceiling exit, I had no idea.

  “There, we need to go to the side.” Alric didn’t turn to either of us but kept pointing at something only he could see on the right side.

  “No, is there.” Garbage flew in front of Alric pointing up, but he ignored her.

  “I know, but we have to get out our way.” He leaned forward but stayed inside the boat.

  Padraig got the boat to the side. As far as I could tell, there was as much of an exit here as there had been in the entire waterway—none at all.

  There was a ledge though, which was an improvement over the boat sitting in rapidly rising water. Luckily the ledge had steps to a still higher one, as the water was already starting to reach it. I grabbed my pack and scrambled up to the highest ledge.

  “I hope this is where you wanted, because our options are fading,” Padraig said as he secured the boat.

  “Yes.” Alric looked around, and then nodded to the faeries. “Fly up to the hole and go through it.”

  Padraig grabbed his own packs and stepped on the ledge. “You think we found the light tunnel entrance, don’t you?”

  Alric was still w
atching the faeries as they flew up to the center of the tunnel. Even with the glowing moss, they were almost impossible to see.

  “I’m hoping so. There was never a way to find it as a kid, since there was no way to get to the top, but they should be able to get to it.” A clicking sound came from way up high, and a door right in front of me appeared and opened.

  More like, creaked very slowly open, and I was sure it was being held closed solely by the spider webs behind it.

  Bunky had stayed behind when the girls flew up to the top and was now doing flybys over Alric’s head.

  “I know, I see it too, Bunky.” Alric joined me near the door.

  I’d gotten my pack back on. “Wait, you can understand him too?” I knew that with people trying to kill us and things exploding, the fact that my construct could talk to everyone else but me wasn’t high on the issues list. But it was damn annoying.

  “Not like Padraig can, his skill lies more with animal languages, but it was pretty clear what he wanted.”

  I looked up at him closely to see if he was trying to make me feel better. It looked like he was telling the truth.

  The faeries all swooped down and right out the barely open door. Bunky had come down with them but couldn’t fit so he bounced around a few times in the air until I gave the door a shove. It moved far enough for him to fly through but not much more.

  I pushed harder, but still nothing. Looking back at our former mode of transportation I was not happy to see that it was far closer than it was previously. The place where Padraig had tied it up was completely underwater.

  “Guys, we have a problem.” I pointed to the water. “And I can’t get this thing open.”

  Alric stepped around me, while Padraig cast some spell over the water. At least I assumed that was what he was doing. Either that or he was saying goodbye to our boat.

  I heard Alric grunt. He’d opened the door about another inch, but still not enough. Now I was freaking out. I knew how strong Alric was.

  Padraig clearly knew how strong Alric was as well. He left his spell casting and came up to join Alric on the door. His water spell must have been doing something while he was holding it. Once he released it, the water started coming in faster.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t going out any faster.

  Alric and Padraig both leaned against the door again, but still only moved it another inch. At this rate we were going to be swimming before they got it open.

  “Can’t either of you use a spell? Something?” The boat was at the point where I was pretty sure it was going to be dragged under the water, or snapped off its tie any time now.

  “Not here. I can spell the water and the air, but the structure itself is warded against magic. It’s connected to the castle, so any protections on it run through these stones,” Padraig said as he kept pushing.

  Alric looked thoughtful then stepped back from pushing and put one hand on the stones. The stone his hand was on glowed and he pulled it back quickly. Then he did it again and held it there.

  “The wards are broken.”

  Padraig looked up at his words, saw the glowing stone, then put his own hand on the door and muttered a spell. The door blew apart.

  I was glad about them breaking through—the water was almost to our step—but I had to think that having the ward down here be broken meant bad things for the rest of the castle.

  “We need to find out what’s happened.” Padraig was an alchemist so I understood the need to find things out, but now was not the time.

  “We need to get out of here, get to Qianru’s place, and then flee.” Alric grabbed my hand and pulled me around Padraig.

  “But… Agreed.” Padraig followed. I was busy looking at him so at first I hadn’t seen what had actually been holding the door shut.

  A mountain of bodies.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Again, hopefully the large number of heavy rocks around us kept anyone else from hearing me scream. Yet, again, it was justified. They weren’t bodies, rather, piles of bones. Okay, so technically they were once bodies, but judging by their current state that had been a long time ago. They’d been left in this locked stairwell and forgotten.

  All three of us froze for a moment. Obviously, neither elf knew this was here either. Which would make sense if the only way to get here was to have a small flying friend pop the trigger three stories above us.

  There were steep stairs leading up. Aside from a few pieces that had fallen over the years, the bones were in huge piles to the side, not blocking the pathway. That would have had me screaming for months—trapped between rising water and climbing over the bones of a few hundred beings.

  “What is this?” As I spoke the faeries and Bunky flew down to us. I hadn’t noticed that they had flown ahead. Leaf and Crusty looked sad, Garbage looked angry. Bunky’s angry buzzing told me he was siding with Garbage.

  “They kill.” Garbage was staring at both Padraig and Alric. Her look was not unlike what she usually gave sceanra anams when she found them.

  Alric caught it. Padraig was busy examining a bone.

  “We didn’t do this, Garbage. We didn’t even know it was there.” Alric was angry as well. “Or did we?” He pulled Padraig’s arm.

  I wasn’t screaming anymore, but Alric had looked as shocked as I was. Padraig looked thoughtful.

  “I can assure you I had no idea these were here, and as far as I know Lorcan didn’t either. But he thought they could be somewhere.”

  “These are your people? You knew that you had a few hundred fellow elves lying around somewhere?” I was so hoping that if we actually found out who the Ancients were I wouldn’t be as disappointed as I was in the elves.

  “Yes and no,” Padraig finally looked up from the bone he was examining. “There are stories from when the first ones fled the Breaking. There was so much fear, terror, and confusion, no one knew who to trust. There was a battle when this castle was built.” He reverently laid the bone down.

  “Our forefathers fought with each other and with the other races that were starting to move into the area, just starting to come out of their caves.” Alric held a hand out over the macabre pile. “If the stories are true, these aren’t all elves.”

  Garbage nodded slowly. The wanting to kill something look had left her little orange face, but her arms were still folded.

  “You did bad.” She unfolded her arms to shake a finger at both elves, and then flew to join the others.

  A sloshing gurgle came from behind us. The water was still rising.

  “Um, guys? This bit of elven history sucks—and I mean really sucks—but unless we want to join them, we might need to move.” The water seemed to be slowing down, but I still wanted to get out of here, because of both the water and the bones.

  Alric took the pack Padraig had set down next to him just before a lap of water hit it. He put it on and started up the stairs. Padraig still looked at the bones, so I followed Alric. We were a few steps up when I heard Padraig behind us.

  “I’ve no idea where this will put us; this entire wing hasn’t been seen probably since they used it as a body dump.” Alric might be an elf, but right now he was not associating with his forefathers, or foremothers—Delphina had to have been alive during that time—at all.

  “We should tell someone about this.” Padraig didn’t sound sure, but he was obviously very upset.

  “How? I’m an escaped prisoner, someone is trying to kill Taryn, and you and Lorcan have everyone convinced you’re a madman.”

  “We could tell Siabiane.”

  Alric shot a look over his shoulder and I remembered we hadn’t told him that part of the plan.

  “We’re to get the others from Qianru’s house, then take the relics to Siabiane,” I said.

  I really hated it when people I was following stopped suddenly. I needed to start making sure I had a full arm’s length between us.

  “What? She can’t have them. We need to get out of here, somewhere far away. Padraig can go vis
it Siabiane and explain it to her.”

  “She’s been doing experiments recently and we think she can eventually figure them out.” Padraig had pulled himself out of whatever mood the bones had put him in.

  “We can’t give them to anyone—look what happened with the gargoyle being here.” Alric’s voice softened. “The enclave isn’t safe with these in it.”

  “You slow again.”

  I hadn’t even noticed the faeries and Bunky waiting up ahead. When we’d stopped for this new debate, Garbage buzzed back.

  “Bad things. You move. Now.” She looped around all three of us.

  I wasn’t sure if she meant bad things were coming or if she meant we were bad things. The way things had been as of late, I was going with bad things coming.

  Alric gave Padraig a look, shook his head, and silently continued up the stairs. I looked back. The water had crept forward to touch the bones but didn’t seem to be climbing higher. Hopefully we could leave word for someone to come bury these poor people properly.

  The rest of the way went quickly and quietly as both elves were lost in their own thoughts, and the faeries and Bunky stayed far enough ahead that even if they were talking I couldn’t hear them.

  We were almost to the top when Bunky came back to us and started pointing one tiny, goat-like hoof at a pile of bones. He was also buzzing, grumbling, and very agitated. Not too odd considering the room we were in, but this was the only pile of this height. They were on a closed-off landing, piled up against a heavily barred wooden door.

  Bunky was having an absolute fit.

  “There is something under there.” I knew I was a digger, but I wasn’t going to be the one plowing through those bones.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Alric said as he kept going.

  Bunky was ready to explode. I’d never seen him like this. I might not know much about constructs, but I knew in the past few months he’d become as dear to me as the faeries. If he was concerned about something under those bones, there was something we needed to see under those bones.

  “I’ll look.” Padraig came forward and gently started pulling back the bones. The pile wasn’t as full of bones as it looked. There were also a number of very rusted swords and one large pack.