I might be willing to face the end of the world and an artifact that could destroy time, but I was not going to get between an in-season troll and her prey. I motioned for the others to keep up.
With Dogmaela taking down small buildings with her footfalls, and our little gnomish bar sitter army so heavily armed they echoed down the street for a good block, we really lost any element of surprise.
All of us, including Dogmaela, slowed down when we came out of a side street near the park.
The park was gone.
The trees on the far side were still standing, but the majority of the ones up front had all been either hacked down or turned into withered twigs. I’d never heard of a spell that could reduce a twenty-five-foot tree into an eight-foot-high skinny sapling, but someone obviously had. And they weren’t afraid to do it.
Covey had gotten ahead of me during our run and spun on me. “How do you feel?”
“Annoyed that someone ruined a rather disturbing park and is set to destroy my town?” I shrugged. “How am I supposed to feel?”
Harlan finally caught up to us and draped an arm around me. “She’s not cold at all.”
I looked from one to the other in a complete loss. “What are you talking about?”
“Taryn, you’re part dryad, the destruction of those trees should have you writhing on the ground in pain and near death.” Covey cocked her head in thought, her still oddly silver eyes narrowing. “You are part dryad, right?”
“My parents always said I was. And if I’m not then my hair turning green in the summer is really a bad thing.” The loss of the trees freaked me out, but only because of the amount of power used. Part of me was relieved they were gone. Maybe the dryad part of the family was further back that I’d been told. On the plus side it looked like those possessed squirrels were homeless now.
“Damn it, there is something I should remember about this and I can’t figure it out right now.” Covey growled and turned back toward the denuded forest. “Oh no.”
I looked the same direction she faced but didn’t see anything. At first.
The smoke from a large bonfire changed direction and I finally saw what she did, a huge stone altar right next to the bonfire.
And a familiar black-clad form was laid out on that altar. My heart dropped until his chest rose. He was still alive.
Alric wasn’t on the bad guys’ side. And most likely the bad guys now had the glass gargoyle. The prophesy had mentioned a sacrifice to the gargoyle to bring forth the power, I just didn’t think it had been so literal.
I watched as Largen and Cirocco stood on either side of another familiar face. Thaddeus was leading the sacrifice. He was in scary syclarion form, but I still recognized him. Damn it, we had to get Alric out of there. Unfortunately there were a few hundred thugs standing between us and the altar.
While that thought bounced around my head for a few seconds, followed by a screaming echo to get the hell away from everything in front of me, two growls erupted on either side of me.
Covey and Dogmaela weren’t waiting for a plan. Both of them let out scarily similar howls and charged toward the altar.
I don’t know why I had thought a plan would be a good idea.
“Should I try to stop them? I don’t think our enemy has seen us yet.” One of the small daytime bar sitters, this one a real gnome armed with enough silver to kill a band of werewolves, nodded toward our two warriors.
“How?” I shook my head. “They may be our best option.” If they could cause enough mayhem, perhaps we had a chance.
Dogmaela hit first. She tore a bloody line through a couple dozen of Largen’s assassins, then kept running until she shattered the altar. Boulders the size of the gnome standing next to me flew in the air at her impact. Covey wasn’t far behind her, but she leapt high in the air and came down in the middle of a pack of Cirocco’s goons. Within seconds half of them were down for the count and Covey was looking far more like her ancestors than I ever wanted to see. She was right about one thing, she didn’t need any weapons.
Thaddeus had stepped back at the ladies’ first attack. He was at least three feet taller than he’d been in his dwarven form, and his arms were easily as big as Dogmaela’s and covered in silver scales. His face was long and lean; jutting out to accommodate a mouthful of razor teeth, and the ridge running the top of his head looked like it had barbs. He came forward and smacked Dogmaela aside as if she were a child. She slammed into a house on the edge of the park and took out an entire wall.
Covey broke free of assaulting Cirocco’s guards and managed to get up to the shattered altar and free Alric from the rubble before Thaddeus backhanded her across the square. She was lighter than Dogmaela and flew much further. I forced myself to look away as she slammed into another house.
Alric rolled off the shattered altar and struggled to his feet. Thaddeus was about to reclaim his prize when he got slammed by a furious troll and an agitated trellian. While the blows he’d given them could have probably killed me, in their current state both Dogmaela and Covey were a lot tougher than that. Thaddeus had a rougher time against the two at once, but he still managed to slam them into the clearing below the altar.
Alric took the distraction to move backwards and spun to grab one of Largen’s men in a head lock. His moves were so fast I didn’t think the assassin ever saw it coming. Snapping his opponent’s neck, Alric stole the dead man’s sword and started fighting his way toward the bonfire.
“Charge!” The old gnome who’d asked me about stopping the ladies had decided waiting by the sidelines was over. Waving a sword almost as long as his entire body, he led his band of pub regulars toward Dogmaela.
I turned toward Foxy and Harlan. Out of everyone here, the three of us were the worst fighters. But I had a plan. Along with Dogmaela and the old ones, I’d asked Foxy to bring me a last resort. I just really prayed I was right about it working.
“Did you bring it?” I asked Foxy.
He gave me a sullen look that told me he still didn’t agree with my plan. “Aye.” With a grunt he handed over a small bottle.
Harlan stopped looking at the battle before us in terror and now gave that same look to the small brown bottle. “Whisky? Is this really the time for it? Are you going to kiss that syclarion to death?”
“It’s a special blend, not much call for it, as it tastes like swamp water.” Foxy didn’t look happy about me having it. “Someone bought almost all of it two nights ago, only this bottle left. That’s what I smelled on ye.”
I gave Foxy the best smile I could, then turned back to Harlan. “I’m not going to drink it; you’re going to throw it at me.” I was taking a huge gamble. But I had to try something. I’d armed Harlan, but I knew he couldn’t fight. Foxy had a better chance just due to size and strength, but he wasn’t a fighter either.
“This will work,” I said with far more confidence than I felt. “Trust me. Now take off the stopper, and throw as much as you can on me.” I grabbed hold of the two knives Covey had given me and said a prayer to any deity who would listen.
Harlan looked ready to argue, then shook his head. “Close your eyes.”
I did and an instant later the world turned dark and fuzzy.
Chapter 37
Unlike the attack in Covey’s office, I was still aware of things. Probably because the other time the alcohol had been processed into a spell and this was just a drink in the face. But it changed everything.
The world looked flatter than it had, as if my eyes were used to a sense they didn’t have any more. My body ached as if every nerve was trying to be somewhere else at the same time and only my skin was keeping them trapped. Blood boiled in my veins as untapped fury flooded me.
I wanted blood.
I turned toward the two beings before me with only the thought of ripping them apart flooding my brain. Then I realized it was Harlan and Foxy.
“Worked.” I couldn’t get anything else to come out but they seemed to understand.
; I turned and bounded toward my enemies. And I did bound. I had never felt such energy. Within seconds I was at the battle. A minute later I had slaughtered the remaining goons and thugs brought in by Cirocco and Largen. My knives moved so fast I couldn’t even follow them. It was as if my body was working with someone else’s brain.
Dogmaela and Covey nodded and came forward to help me with Thaddeus who was still locked in a battle with Alric. My vision and senses were so focused on the blood and battle before me I failed to notice anything behind me until a blow to my head almost brought me to my knees.
The rest of the syclarions. Had I thought about it, I should have realized they would have been around here somewhere. Six huge brutes with arms that more resembled a pile of boulders surrounded me. Through a tiny gap in the gray haze invading my brain, I could see at least fifteen more going after my friends. Foxy was swinging his pike like a pro, but having to guard himself and Harlan was going to wear even him out. Dogmaela and Covey were still fighting, but the numbers facing them kept growing. Most of the daytime pub regulars’ army were down already but I couldn’t tell if they were dead or alive.
Then my vision started clearing.
The blow to my head had broken whatever type of whisky rage I’d been able to get into. And left me right in the middle of six enraged syclarions. I held my knives ready and frantically tried to call up the fighting skill I’d just had. Nothing.
The one who’d hit me from behind grinned and moved in for the kill. The others didn’t help him—they didn’t need to—but they formed a tight circle to keep me in.
I dropped back, but there was no way I could get a knife into that thing before I was smashed.
Suddenly three blurs of bright color and war feathers were between me and the syclarions.
Leaf Grub, Garbage Blossom, and Crusty Bucket had come back. I wouldn’t lie, seeing them did make me feel better. But I didn’t think they could do much with just the three of them.
I was wrong.
Garbage charged forward, her tiny war blade hitting the attacking syclarion a good fifty times before he even reacted. The other two girls were right behind her.
The syclarion froze, tilted his head to one side, then died.
And I mean classic dead. Eyes rolled back, massive chest not moving, dead before he crashed to the ground.
Now when the wild faeries had attacked Zirtha, I’d figured it was a spell and possibly the sheer number of them. But my three? Taking down a full-sized syclarion?
“We here. Save.” Garbage nodded grimly, then flew up to challenge the other syclarions.
Crusty hung back with me.
“Crusty, are those blades magic?” I wasn’t sure who I was more afraid of at the moment—the huge brutes surrounding us or my three little flying delinquents.
Crusty looked around then buzzed close to my ear. “No, silly. Poison.”
That didn’t reassure me as much as I would have hoped.
But even poisoned war blades weren’t going to save me from the herd of syclarions around me.
Just as the girls gathered to go after the next one that moved toward me, an avalanche of color hit us.
The wild faeries.
My understanding was that the faeries couldn’t help and that was part of their own prophesy. Yet mine had broken that, and now so were the others.
Queen Mungoosey hovered near me while the army of faeries made short and terrifying work of the syclarions.
“Not that I’m not grateful, but I thought you had to stay out of this?”
The small furry cat-like faery sized me up with wise golden eyes. “The ones living with you chose. They chose to risk all of world to save you. We honor that.”
Risk? “But you are indestructible. You can’t kill a faery.”
The queen’s face dropped a bit. “No, we can die. And they risk far more than just us. But not today.” She grimly held her own war blade as if daring anyone to get through her army and hurt me.
Within minutes the syclarions were dead. Except one.
While I’d been going through my own crisis, Alric and Thaddeus had still been fighting. Alric glowed; the dye from his hair had worn off far more than I thought, and a clear bright blond shown through. His fighting was amazing, I’d seen him fight before, but not like this. He moved so fluidly it was as if his sword was part of him, and seemed to know where he was going to be a half an instant before he moved. If it weren’t for what hung in the balance, for that small glass gargoyle that sat on its own small altar between them, I would have enjoyed watching him move.
Thaddeus in his natural form was a full foot taller than Alric, but that didn’t seem to slow Alric down at all.
Alric had the advantage of speed over Thaddeus, so he had time to whirl toward us, take everything in, then feint back toward Thaddeus before he could respond. The maneuver worked when Alric flung himself toward the altar and grabbed hold of the gargoyle.
Thaddeus threw down his sword and started pulling in some powerful magic energy. It was so strong even I felt it rip through my soul.
I wasn’t as surprised as I should have been to see Alric do the same.
Although Alric held the gargoyle, it seemed to almost drift between them as Thaddeus cast spells to open its power and Alric fought to keep it closed.
Alric’s glow increased until he was almost too bright to look at. Unfortunately Thaddeus followed suit. His glow had a sick unhealthy red tinge to it, and I felt a stirring of my lost berserker rage building up. I ran towards them, even though I had no idea what I was going to do. I had to stop this.
Before I could get there, both Alric and Thaddeus flew at each other.
And exploded.
Rather there was an explosion of the air above them as if the energy of the two striking each other had to be physically expended. Everyone previously still standing was slammed to the ground. It even knocked a majority of the faeries out of the sky. Alric and Thaddeus were locked around each other each trying to hold onto the glass gargoyle. Waves of painful distortion flew out from them making my skin burn and eyes ache. Time seemed to pour from them in waves, slowing down some people, speeding up others. The world was starting to burn, to fluctuate into something other than what it had been.
Alric pulled back and kicked at Thaddeus with a yell probably heard miles away. Thaddeus rolled back, and then he, Alric, and the glass gargoyle burst in a ball of light and sound that ripped open the air around them. A portal hovered behind them, horrific swirls of color bleeding out of it.
Then it slammed shut with a blast that blew out windows and slammed down walls. Thaddeus, Alric, and the glass gargoyle had been destroyed. Nothing but a crater remained where the altar and bonfire had been.
Chapter 38
I was still in a daze an hour later when the officials had chased myself and all the non-injured combatants out. Unfortunately, that meant me, Foxy, and Harlan. Dogmaela and Covey both were pretty banged up but should be fine. Five of the Shimmering Dewdrop’s daytime regulars didn’t pull through and the other five were all in the hospital.
Queen Mungoosey had asked that my girls go stay with her for a few days. Apparently what they did in coming to help was both very good and very bad, and the faery council had to discuss it. I knew that having the faeries go with their queen for a few days was the right thing, but it still made coming into the empty house all the harder. I was grateful that Alric had saved Beccia. Actually he probably saved the entire world. If Thaddeus, or whatever that bastard syclarion’s real name was, had been able to gain control of the glass gargoyle, things would have been bad all over within a very short time. I shuddered at the feeling that hit for the brief moment Thaddeus had been able to open the powers of the glass gargoyle. It may not have destroyed the world, but it would have made it unlivable.
But why did Alric have to go and die?
Even if he had died while I thought he was one of the bad guys, I’d admit I would have missed him. But to find out that he was one of the
good guys, and a major player of some sort at that, and then for him to die? I was almost too numb to really feel the pain that caused. As if I knew it was there, I felt the edges of it, but it hadn’t really hit me. Nothing seemed real at this point.
Lost in my numbness, I found myself over at the girls’ castle. They’d dragged out a bunch of their prizes, obviously when they’d come by to get ready for the battle. Least I could do was clean them up.
Carefully dusting off the bits of artifacts and arranging them in their castle settled my thoughts of loss.
At least until one clear ball tumbled out from a pile I was moving. It was one from the first batch the girls had brought home from the squirrels’ stash in the park. Alric’s anti-disguise spell must have changed it like all of the others, but they’d kept it in their castle.
Until now.
It was an exact version of the glass gargoyle that had just cut a huge chunk out of the center of Beccia. However, unlike the other one, this was clear.
I had a split second when I thought I needed to show this to Alric. Then the image of the explosion hit me again. The pain of that realization dropped me to my knees.
Wishing I had anything alcoholic in my house, I got back up and dropped into my chair still holding the gargoyle. I needed to find somewhere safe to bury it. If no one knew about it, no one else could be destroyed by it.
A solid pounding on the door slammed me out of my thoughts. Who in the hell could even be up at this time of night? And more importantly, who would be up and about after the day we’d had? Beccia had survived, but at a catastrophic cost. Both Cirocco and Largen were claiming they were spelled, but the fact was Thaddeus got them to do his dirty work because they’d both been that evil and that greedy.
I shoved the gargoyle into my outer pocket and cracked open my door. Only to fall back as a gloved hand pushed it back. The figure was also wearing a hood, but I knew who it was.
The Glass Gargoyle (The Lost Ancients Book 1) Page 29