The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1)

by Marie Andreas

  She still scared me. But the folks who grabbed us and what they were planning on doing to us scared me more.

  “By all means. Please. Quickly even.” Now that freedom was near I couldn’t help but think I heard footsteps down the hall. Obviously I was stress hallucinating.

  “No, I hear them too.” Covey tilted her head.

  “What? I didn’t say it out loud.” Now she was freaking me out.

  “Sorry, sometimes side-effect of going native. Ancestors were pre-vocal. But yes, there is someone outside.” She worked harder on my bonds getting them untied just as the door flew open.

  Chapter 35

  I wasn’t sure who I’d been expecting, but Foxmorton was possibly the last person who would have been on that list. Three bright flashes of color circled his head like a moving crown, and he clutched an ancient pike in his left hand.

  “Am I too late?”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing and sobbing and moved my hands to try and get some feeling back into them as Covey freed me from the ropes. Foxy never left the Dewdrop. Ever. His home was an apartment above the pub and he had supplies brought in. Yet somehow the girls had convinced him to come to my rescue.

  Hoping my feet had enough feeling in them after Covey ripped the rope off them as well, I jumped up and kissed Foxy soundly on the cheek. The girls changed their circling of him and zoomed over to Harlan.

  “Oh, my little ones, it’s all right. I am safe.”

  The girls were chittering so fast and at such a high range I certainly couldn’t understand them. But the fact was, I wasn’t the one they were most worried about. On the plus side, having the three faeries buzzing in concern over him did get rid of the last fears he had about Covey going native on him.

  “No, Foxy, you’re just on time.” It took him a second to return the hug I gave him. Along with being homebound he wasn’t very physical. But he was clearly terrified.

  Foxy’s eyes darted to all three of us, then he sat down with a thud on one of the recently abandoned chairs. “It’s terrible, Taryn, pure terrible. I was going to make sure you were all right when the little ones came into my pub.” He looked around, but there was no one in the hall behind him. “There are syclarions everywhere. They be tearing the town apart. They are looking for something, or someone, and they want it bad.” A shiver racked his massive chest. “One of ‘em even changed in front of me. One minute he was a dwarf, and next, one of them.”

  “A dwarf?” Covey said with a growl that ended in a hiss. She had been staying behind Harlan and as far from Foxy as she could get. Foxy and Covey didn’t see eye to eye on most things, but I had a feeling it was more than that.

  Covey’s changed appearance, and what it meant, scared the hell out of me and I was her best friend. Foxy would probably pass out if he got a really good look at her.

  “Aye, that he was. That wee book-learned one up at the university. The one you was digging for, Taryn.”

  Thaddeus had been a syclarion? I had been working with, and almost tortured by, a syclarion? A shudder strong enough to almost knock me off my feet ran through me. To be on the safe side, I resumed my seat. An even nastier thought took hold.

  “What did he look like, Foxy?” As his brow crunched up, I added, “Did he look like the others?” The one I was thinking of didn’t look a thing like the grunt syclarions. I didn’t know much about the race, most people didn’t. But they obviously had extremely different castes.

  “Nah. Now you mentioning it, he looked different.” He pulled on one long floppy ear in thought. “Like he was more finished than the ones destroying the town.”

  Sitting down hadn’t been such a good idea. I got to my feet and wobbled to the door as fast as was safe. Stepped around an unmoving guard that Foxy had probably hit on the way in, then I threw up.

  Harlan ran forward, but Covey and the faeries stayed near the back of the room.

  “Are you all right, child? Did they poison you?”

  Foxy was right behind Harlan but didn’t say anything.

  I wiped off my mouth with my hand, then wiped the hand on the guard’s shirt. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or not, and I really didn’t care.

  “No, but I know who Thaddeus is. There’s an elite syclarion who is behind all of this.” I winced as I met their eyes. “Things I haven’t told any of you.”

  I rubbed my temples and took deep breaths. Was there anybody in my life who wasn’t involved with the vile syclarion? I wasn’t about to tell Foxy, but I knew far too well what they were after. The glass gargoyle would give that bastard and his henchmen the power to change to world to their liking and destroy the rest.

  I had to ask. “Did you see Alric?” I’d pretty much decided he had to be one of the bad guys. There were just too many things that he was involved in that weren’t good. But a tiny part of me wanted it not to be true.

  Foxy started slowly nodding. “Aye, that I did.”

  “What? He was helping them?” Covey didn’t come out of the room, counting on the shadows to keep her change unnoticed. I had no idea how long she’d stay in this warrior Covey state but while it would be difficult for Foxy, it might be what we needed to try and even up the score against the syclarion. At least long enough for us to get out of town. She clearly wasn’t happy that Alric was on the other side.

  “Nah, not his way. He told me where to find you all as he was heading to some house up on The Hill, said he had a job to do. The little ladies weren’t really clear on direction.” Foxy leaned forward so the faeries couldn’t hear him. “To say truth, they didn’t say much at all, just keep talking about ‘boom’ whatever that be.”

  I couldn’t help the goofy smile I was sure had plastered itself across my face. I was far more pleased than I should be that Alric hadn’t been working for the syclarion. “Wait, how did he know where we were?” Doubt punched a hole in my smile.

  “Ah, he saw you being carried off. But couldn’t rescue you.” Foxy shook his head. “He may start fights, but he’s not strong like me.”

  Now that was a blatant falsehood. I’d seen Alric fight. He was freakishly strong and more talented in ways of fighting than half the army. Yet he’d sent Foxy to save us. Which meant he was up to something else. Like an attack on Thaddeus’s house. I may have to kiss him for good when this was all over.

  “We have to get out of here.” Covey stepped forward but had wrapped a battered poncho over herself. She looked a bit odd, but it covered most of her skin and with the hood pulled up it wasn’t possible to see her face.

  “She okay?” Foxy had gotten to his feet and was pushing the unconscious guard back into the room we’d been kept in. But he kept an eye on Covey the entire time.

  “I am fine.” It sounded like her teeth had barely unclenched to let the words out. “We need to find that one who changed. The little one.”

  Foxy took a step back but he just nodded sagely. “I understand. But you won’t find him if he changes back into a syclarion.”

  “I will find him.”

  Personally, I never wanted to hear Covey’s voice hit those levels again in my life. And I think if she were as furious at me as she was about that syclarion who had pretended to be Thaddeus, I’d probably die on the spot and save her the effort. And that was just from the tone of her voice.

  Although, thinking how terrifying Thaddeus was maybe this might be a match.

  The crinkled look crawling across Foxy’s brow told me he was thinking that something might be up with Covey. I needed to get us moving before that thought worked its way into his brain.

  “Harlan, can you get the faeries to come out of the room?” The girls had stayed behind and were entranced by something in the back of the room.

  Harlan shrugged and stepped back inside only to be chased out a moment later by all three faeries. That was one way to get them out.

  “No, no, no. Boom is coming.” Garbage had taken point and was waving a tiny fist in the air. “Stay here. Safe.”

  Leaf and Crusty bo
th looked uncomfortable and I realized they were going to go against their de facto leader.

  “They no stay. Must go.” Crusty looked sad, then held up a tiny piece of thin fabric. It took me a second to realize it was some of Covey’s shed skin. “Queen Mungoosey said this happen.”

  “No!” Garbage flew over and ripped the skin from Crusty’s hand. “Dangerous. They stay here.”

  It was a scary day indeed. Kidnapped by syclarions, seeing Covey change into a monster, and I actually understood what the girls were talking about.

  This ‘boom’ they kept talking about was going to happen soon. The faeries’ queen knew about it and told them. Garbage knew about it and didn’t want us to be hurt. I was more than a little surprised at that, but the look on her tiny face, on all of their faces actually, made a lump form in my stomach.

  The faeries were far more than what most people thought. I wasn’t sure exactly what, but over the last week I’d realized they were more than just rampaging little drunkards. Something bad was going to happen in town, something that involved us. Garbage was going against her queen to try and save us.

  I held out my hand and waved Garbage over. “Sweetie.” I rubbed the back of her head, something I did when they first came to me to get them to trust me. “Is it important that we all go into town? Is the boom going to happen there?”

  Garbage tried to fold her arms and be gruff, but her eyes gave her away. “Yes. Queen Mungoosey said you there, he there, she there.” She pointed to me, Harlan, and Covey. “Big boom bad. Things die.”

  “How do you know this is the time?” I kept my voice calm, but the fact was, as she spoke, something verified her words, and what they really meant, in my soul.

  “This.” Crusty had picked up another small piece of Covey’s skin and flew over to Garbage and I. “Friend is changing. Sign.”

  So a cat-like faery queen predicted that Covey would go berserk as a sign of the coming apocalypse? I wouldn’t believe a word of it except for what my gut was telling me.

  I looked at my friends then at the faeries. I had to believe there was more of a reason for us to go into town than just die. Queen Mungoosey knew things no one else did. She knew we needed to go there.

  Or maybe just me.

  “Garbage, sweetie, could the others stay here? Maybe if I just go…”

  The look on her tiny face told me my answer. Not only did I have to risk my life for whatever this prophesy was, I needed to risk my friends’ lives as well.

  “I don’t care what they say, I’m going with you.” Covey had pushed back her hood, her skin was still mottled, in fact it was almost glowing, but her voice sounded calmer. Hopefully that meant her strength was still there, just maybe not the animal insanity.

  Foxy and Harlan had both been standing back, but both nodded solemnly. Even though Foxy hadn’t been included in the faeries’ list, he was clearly not going to leave us.

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. There was something to be said about friends willing to follow you into certain mayhem, and possibly death, on the say-so of a faery. Or rather against the say-so of a faery.

  “No! I tell you, you go not to boom. Leave, you leave now.” Garbage’s lower lip trembled.

  The sight of all three faeries with tears in their eyes was enough to have me running for the hills. But Queen Mungoosey had saved my ass at least two times that I knew of and I couldn’t let her down.

  “Garbage, we can’t. Your queen needs us there for a reason. We’ll be okay.” I went to pat her head and she flew out of my hand.

  “No you won’t. We leave. We leave no watch you die. Queen say we can’t be there. She say no faeries be near boom.” Without looking back, all three faeries flew opposite from the center of town.

  I dusted off my hands and turned toward my friends. “That leaves the four of us against an army of syclarions. Who’s with me?”

  Chapter 36

  There wasn’t even a question on any of the three faces before me and my gut did another twist. Was I taking us all to our doom?

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, Taryn.” Harlan stood firm, but the fact was he was a lover, not a fighter.

  None of us were. I certainly wasn’t unless we could figure out what was in that spell bomb that caused such a change. Even then I wasn’t sure how I felt about my body going off damaging villains without my brain seemingly involved. Covey was the closest we had to a fighter. My normally very academic friend was busy patting down the unconscious guard for any weapons. She’d already given his revolving short crossbow to Harlan. She pulled out two knives and handed them to me.

  I took them, then nodded back at her. “But don’t you need something too?”

  Covey let loose a howl that would have made a pack of wolves run in fear. She flung back her poncho and flexed her fingers. Rather the talons that had once been her fingers.

  They looked long and sharp enough to take a good chunk out of even a syclarion’s hide.

  “I’m good, I think.” She turned to Foxy. “Are we going to be okay?”

  Foxy had been holding back during the encounter with the faeries, and he watched all of us now. His eyes stayed on Covey the longest, but they didn’t waver. He nodded slowly.

  “Aye, we are ok.” A look of compassion flashed across his face and I realized that he faced looks like Covey was going to get every day. Even in a world of dangerous beings, looking like one was difficult.

  Covey handed me two sheaths for the knives and we started into town.

  “Do you think now would be a good time to tell us the plan?” Harlan sounded like his normal self. The terror of the last hour was gone.

  I looked up where a quickly growing column of smoke marked the center of town.

  “Sure. We go that way.”

  I really hoped I knew what I was doing. The faeries were sure I was going to die and didn’t want to stick around for it. Some ancient prophesy predicted that this was where my world ended—possibly where the whole world ended, or at the very least was changed into something horrible for anyone who wasn’t with the syclarion in charge. I had myself, one pissed-off trellian, a 765-year-old chataling, and a barkeeper.

  The odds were not in my favor.

  Even though I still wasn’t completely sure which side he was on, I would have been extremely happy to see Alric right about now. Preferably armed to the teeth and with a small army of secret friends just like him.

  Unfortunately all that greeted us were a bunch of empty streets and heavily shuttered doors. You could tell the folks who had already started taking down their winter shutters, they were back up and being supported with whatever wood they could find.

  Apparently the general population of Beccia was far smarter than I was.

  We were all moving as slowly and silently as possible, but I still didn’t see any syclarions. I turned to Foxy with a questioning look, but he just shrugged and shook his head. Obviously it hadn’t been like this before.

  We were just crossing the street one over from the Shimmering Dewdrop when an idea hit me. I dropped back to Foxy. “Is Dogmaela still in her condition?”

  His heavy brows hunkered down over his eyes, but he nodded. “Aye, she’s at the tail end of it. She’s hiding in my apartment. But I don’t think we should be being of disturbing her.”

  “Is there anyone else in the pub?” I gave his arm a pat. “I’m sorry, Foxy, but we don’t have a choice. We know we’re up against the two biggest crime lords the city can muster, plus an unknown number of syclarions. Even Covey can’t take on all of those.” I didn’t mention that I might actually be able to do some damage if we could get them to do whatever they did to me with the spell bomb. Somehow I didn’t think walking up and asking for another dose would help though.

  But maybe I could improvise. I grabbed Foxy’s arm and held up my wrist where the liquid from the spell bomb had hit. It had dried long ago, but Foxy had a hunting dog’s sense of smell. “Do you recognize this?”

  He slowly nodded.
“Mayhap so, mix of a few things, but aye, I recognize it.”

  “I need you to get Dogmaela, anyone in the pub, and whatever this was. As much as you can.” I had no idea if any of this was going to work, but I had to try something.

  Foxy shook his huge head, and clenched his jaw so his tusks protruded a full couple inches out. Then he sighed. “I don’t know as what you gotten us into. But if we need people, I guess we have no choice.” He held up one giant paw. “But you stay. I’s told them to protect the pub.” He bobbed his head. “Stay put. We be back.”

  I forced a tough smile as he turned towards the pub. I didn’t want to use people, but I didn’t see we had a choice, there was really no one else standing to try and fight back. Along with the lack of syclarions on the street, there hadn’t been a guard to be seen. Had the entire police force just vanished? A low explosion shook the ground, and another burst of smoke joined the dark column. Now that we were closer I could make a better guess as the where whatever was going on was happening. The park.

  The battle for Beccia and possibly the world was taking place in a park.

  Maybe I had really underestimated those squirrels.

  Harlan was just starting to get fidgety when Foxy, Dogmaela, and a small gnome army came down the lane.

  They weren’t all gnomes, only three were, and there were only about ten, rather small for an army. But the fact was we now had added a breeding troll and ten cranky and heavily armed little old people to our fighting force. Not much granted, but better than before.

  Dogmaela was still looking a little wild around the eyes. She ignored Covey and myself, but was looking sideways at Harlan.

  “I think Dogmaela should be up front. She and I will take point.” I then put the army of the old after us, and had Harlan, Foxy and Covey bringing up the rear. Covey was still sounding guttural, and looking unique, so even though she wasn’t saying much I knew she was still taped into that ancestral anger.

  As we moved forward, Dogmaela started to quiver. Her in-season trollish sense of smell obviously found something ahead of us that she liked. With a grunt she started jogging. Her footsteps caused windows to rattle at every building she passed.