Olivia lunges forward throwing the stick she is holding. It whistles through the air like a missile, spinning end-over-end, straight for Tannith’s hated face.
An instant before it strikes Tannith’s hand flashes up to catch it in mid-air. She flicks her wrist. The stick flies back and smashes Yip right off Olivia’s shoulder.
He hits the ground hard and staggers back to his feet.
“First,” Tannith says, as she leaps to the ground, “I’m going to take your little gargoyle friend and snap his head off with my bare hands.”
“I’m not a gargoyle,” Yip snaps. “I am a Grotesque, a Guardian of St. Giles.”
Olivia remembers the chalk drawing by the gates to the park. She sees again the broken Grotesque’s head lying on the ground.
Olivia sprints off, ducking and weaving through the headstones, leaving Yip to face the Trixies alone.
Chapter 37
Run, Run as Fast as You Can
Yip looks up in despair. His right arm is numb from shoulder to finger tips from where the stick hit him. The pain doesn’t sting nearly as much as Olivia abandoning him to face Tannith and the Trixies alone. He takes to the air as the creatures surge toward him.
He sees six Trixies tearing after Olivia before a fist-sized stone whistles past his head. Two more stones zip past, one glancing off his wing sending chips of stone flying. He wobbles and spirals toward the ground.
At the last second, Yip tucks and rolls, smashing into a headstone. He grunts in pain. There is no time to sit and catch his breath. He pushes himself up and darts away. A hoard of Trixies race after him, hot on his trail.
“Run, run as fast as you can little gargoyle!” Tannith calls after him. Her laughter echoes among the headstones.
“Hold them off as long as you can, Yip,” Olivia’s mind-shout sounds faintly inside his head. “Lead them away from me then try to make it to the school.”
The school is Yip’s only hope. If he can keep the Trixies off his back and make it onto the grounds of St. Giles, the wards will protect him.
At least then, it will be one-on-one and he might have a fighting chance.
Yeah, right.
Even he doesn’t believe that.
A Trixie jumps out in front of him and Yip kicks out. His taloned foot catches the Trixie under the jaw and flips it backward. It staggers up again and continues to run after him.
~~~
Olivia races up an alley, glancing over her shoulder. Two of the Trixies round the corner after her. She trips on a garbage bin, startling two large stripy tom cats. They hiss and bare their teeth. Both of them turn their heads toward the entrance of the alley and growl out a challenge.
The Trixies hesitate and Olivia pushes herself up and runs on. She scans the ground for something to use as a weapon if they catch up to her. For the moment she is out of tricks and if they catch her, she is going to have to fight. Yowls and screeches of pain follow her out of the alley.
A Trixie leaps out of the shadows and tackles Olivia to the ground. They tumble apart and Olivia staggers back to her feet. She kicks the Trixie to the ground and runs on.
She can hear the pounding footsteps closing the distance behind her. Olivia bursts out of the alley onto one of the busy streets. People crowd the footpaths and cars zip by in both directions.
Olivia dashes out and onto the road. Brakes lock up and burning rubber stings Olivia’s nostrils. A car misses her by centimetres but smacks into the Trixie with a sound that makes Olivia feel sick.
The Trixie explodes into a swirl of shadows.
A man tries to grab Olivia’s arm but she shrugs him off and spins away, sprinting as fast as her legs can carry her. When she crosses into the cobblestoned streets of Old Haven, Olivia takes to the rooftops again.
There are three of them on her trail now, one on the street looking up, and the other two hopscotching over the roofs. Olivia leaps a wide gap. Her foot shatters a roof tile as she lands. Her legs slide out from under her and spill over the edge of the three-storey building. She scrabbles for a hold, clutching the guttering. The broken tile spins and smashes on the footpath.
Olivia pulls herself back up to the roof just as the two Trixies following are about to make the leap after her.
Olivia punches the roof, snatching up another piece of broken tile. She flings it at the Trixies as they jump across the gap. It hits one of the creatures in the shoulder and it twists in the air before crashing hard onto the roof. It screams as it tumbles over the edge.
Olivia grimaces and runs on. There are only two following her now. She starts to believe she might actually get away.
The gap across the alley from Fat Jorge’s Curio Shop to the wall at the back of her house is too far to jump but the strange wire net across the top is still there.
Olivia wobbles across the gap like a tightrope walker. She is almost across when the cable goes slack. As she falls, Olivia reaches out and catches a cable. She looks back at the Trixie poised on the roof behind her; and about to sweep a claw down to cut this cable too.
Olivia hangs on and swings like Tarzan toward the back wall of the alley. She lands hard, her shoulder slamming into the bricks. Air whooshes out of her lungs. Stunned, Olivia gasps to catch her breath.
The Trixie following her on the ground races into the dead end alley and skids to a stop.
“Nowhere to run,” it goads. It’s in no hurry now, obviously savouring the moment.
Olivia reaches down and opens the little green door into her own back yard. She slips inside and closes the door behind her. Grabbing the chair leaning against the back of the cubbyhouse, Olivia jams it under the door’s latch, just as the Trixie crashes into it from the other side. The door shudders but holds. It won’t hold for long though.
Olivia doesn’t go into the house, even though the wards Yip placed would keep them out. She scales the drainpipe like a monkey and races across the roof in the direction of the school.
~~~
Olivia scrambles up the school fence by the corner of the cemetery. She slumps against it sucking ragged breaths into her burning lungs.
The gap left by the broken iron picket is just wide enough for a child to squeeze through. This is the shortcut where some of the kids still slip into the school instead of walking all the way around to the front gate. And this is why Olivia still believes Brother Westerman spends most mornings tending the graves, to stop the kids invading his cemetery.
A jagged piece of iron snags Olivia’s top as she wriggles through. It tears loose and she tumbles face first onto the coarse grass of the cemetery.
A long fingered hand snakes in through the gap tangling in Olivia’s hair.
“Argh,” she cries as she is jerked back against the iron bars. Her head cracks into metal hard enough to make her see stars.
So close, Olivia despairs.
Chapter 38
Shattered Stone
Yip is hard pressed and almost exhausted.
This is like déjà-vu.
It was only a few days ago he had made this same mad flight from the Trixies with Cygnet.
That didn’t turn out very well at all.
He makes three more attempts to fly out of the Trixies’ reach but each time he launches skyward, a barrage of stones force him back into the cover of the twisting streets and parked cars.
Yip glances back and a rock whistles past his nose, shattering the window of a car. The car alarm blares into his sensitive ears and he ducks for cover. The rock skitters to the ground by his feet. Yip scoops it up and hurls it with every ounce of strength he has, straight at Tannith.
The callous leader of the Trixies grabs the closest of her young followers—it can’t have been more than four years old—and pulls the thing in front of her like a shield.
The rock thwacks into the tiny face. Its legs kick out once and it falls apart.
Yip runs on.
~~~
Tears brim in Olivia’s eyes. Her scalp stings and the throbbing pain where her
head smacked into the bars makes her want to vomit. She slumps sideways. Only the strong hands of the Trixie keep her upright.
The smell of burning skin wrinkles Olivia’s nose making her nausea soar. She can taste it rise onto the back of her tongue.
The Trixie calls out in pain and snatches its hand back from the touch of the cold iron.
Olivia topples forward onto her hands and knees, vomiting in the grass. She wipes her mouth on her sleeve and stares at the street.
The two Trixies snarl in frustration on the far side of the fence.
Olivia staggers up and backs away. She stumbles and bumps heavily into the tall figure of The Lady. Her eyes are drawn into the incredible blackness beneath the statue’s deep cowl. Somehow, this sight gives Olivia the strength to go on. She straightens and hurries up the hill toward the main building of the school.
She has an idea. It probably won’t work but it’s the only one she’s got. Olivia just hopes Yip makes it. Everything depends on the little Guardian. Without him, her plan has no chance of working. If he doesn’t make it to the school, everything is lost.
From the base of the West Tower, Olivia looks up to the dizzying heights she has to climb. She scrambles up the rough sandstone wall to the window leading into the main room of the West Tower. As she reaches the opening, she looks back and sees the two frustrated Trixies watching her progress from behind the fence.
At least I’ll only have to face Tannith, Olivia thinks, as she slides the window pane up and slips into the dark room.
Olivia opens the double doors and steps into Brother Westerman’s work room. When she comes back out, she has a heavy sack slung across her shoulder. She climbs out through the window and struggles onto the flat roof of the tower to wait.
~~~
Olivia catches the movement across the road from the school. Yip is coming but he is heading straight for the two Trixies who followed her.
“No,” she rages.
Olivia concentrates with all her might and sends a mind-shout toward Yip. It’s a long way. She prays he hears her. “Yip, in front of you.”
His head flicks up slightly but he runs on heedless—straight toward the Trixies lying in wait to pounce.
He mustn’t have heard.
They leap out in front of Yip, but the tiny Grotesque is ready. He tucks and rolls between them, evading their clasping hands by millimetres, and then he spirals up and over the fence in a tornado spin of dark wings.
~~~
Trixies mill by the fence in frustration but Tannith pushes through and vaults over the spear topped fence in one bound. She lands with a sneer. The younger Trixies had let their glamours slip in the graveyard but Tannith wore her human form. Now for the first time tonight, she lets her glamour slide away. Her arms and legs stretch out giving her a long stilted gait that carries her forward much faster than any human legs ever could. The claws on her hands spear out, as long as knitting needles. She clatters them together menacingly as she sees Yip and then Olivia. Her eyes burn with red, demonic fire.
Yip flies as fast as his little wings can carry him. He lands on the roof of the school next to Olivia. His face radiates worry and fear as they watch Tannith storm toward them.
Olivia reaches into the sack and pulls out half a brick. She hands it to Yip and retrieves a second one for herself.
She looks at him, holding his gaze.
Yip’s eyes widen and he nods once.
Olivia takes aim and lets fly with the rock. It glances off Tannith’s raised arm.
Tannith hisses in pain.
Yip’s rock just misses her head.
Tannith hesitates giving Olivia time to snatch up a second stone. As she takes aim, Tannith grabs Olivia’s first rock. She throws it so hard that it makes a whistling sound through the air.
Yip grabs the bag as the stone smashes into him. He somersaults backward and disappears over the edge of the building.
Olivia hears the sickening sound of smashing stone. She looks down and sees something small and round roll out onto the path.
Tannith stops and picks up Yip’s shattered head. She looks at it for a second and tosses it negligently onto the grass.
Olivia screams in horror.
Chapter 39
The Oldest Trick in the Book
Tannith scurries up the building like a daddy long legs spider up a drainpipe.
“And down came the rain…” Olivia says wistfully, but there is nothing incy-wincy about a teenage Trixie in full furious flight. The stone Olivia throws down smashes into Tannith’s head, snapping it to the side. It just makes her angrier, if that is even possible. The rage on the Trixie’s face is terrible.
Olivia gulps.
Tannith pulls herself up onto the flat tower roof, her bright golden hair flying like a living thing about her gaunt fanged face. She hisses like a cornered cat.
“I’m going to enjoy this.” Tannith spits the words as she closes the gap between them. “The last little Guardian is dead. Now there is just you.”
Olivia backs away.
“Poor little Olivia, the living-stone girl.” Tannith’s smile is terrifying. “I’m going to change that.”
Olivia grits her teeth and backs up to the parapet and looks at the ground. She refuses to beg to this horrid creature.
“Do your worst,” Olivia yells defiantly, and clenches her hands into fists.
“You’re an abomination, Olivia Stone.”
Olivia’s face flushes with anger. Only Brother Westerman can get away with calling her that. She leaps forward, smashing her stone fist into Tannith’s face.
Tannith’s head rocks back but she just stands there and wipes a thin trickle of blood from her lip.
Olivia feels sick when Tannith licks the finger clean.
A backhanded slap sends Olivia cart-wheeling into the parapet. Her back smacks into the stone and the wind whooshes out of her lungs again. She flips over the dizzying drop and grasping fingers just catch the lip of stone.
Olivia manages to pull herself away from the edge. She slumps onto the roof. Her face stings and tears half-blind her. As hard as she tries, Olivia can’t catch her breath.
Tannith walks slowly forward to finish her off. “I’m going to toss you off the roof to see if you can fly.” She pauses to let the realisation of her threat sink in.
Olivia looks up and raises a shaky hand to point over Tannith’s shoulder. “Look,” she wheezes.
Tannith bursts into fits of laughter. “Oh, come on, Olivia. You can do better than that.”
Olivia gives a defiant shrug. “Can’t blame a girl for trying.” The words come out between weak panting breaths.
“That literally has to be the oldest trick in the book,” Tannith gloats.
And Olivia smiles.
Tannith hesitates, just for a fraction of a second and turns around just as the sack full of bricks smashes into the side of her head.
She is thrown from her feet.
Tannith looks up to see Olivia and Yip standing above her.
“How?” She staggers up and looks down at the stone head lying crookedly on the grass. Just like in the chalk drawing Olivia had seen by the lion gates.
Olivia follows her gaze. It was the stone head in Brother Westerman’s workroom—not Yip’s.
“Yeah, it looks a little bit like Yip, doesn’t it?”
“Tricked you,” Yip says, poking out his forked tongue and waggling his fingers in front of his nose.
“No!” Tannith’s cry is filled with anguish. She looks down at her hands and sees them start to unravel before her eyes. “No,” she screams again. Her hair falls away and shadowy skin peels in strips from her face.
“And don’t come back,” Olivia shouts, as Tannith, the leader of the Trixies, finally disappears into nothing.
Olivia looks toward the road.
With Tannith gone, the power that drew the Trixies together is broken. The other Trixies scatter and disappear into the dark streets of Haven.
Oliv
ia collapses and slumps down with her back against the stone.
“We won,” Yip says in amazement.
Olivia almost manages a smile.
“I thought you had run away,” Yip says.
“Would I do that?” Olivia reaches up and pats Yip on the shoulder. “We’re partners.”
Yip smiles.
He looks even more Grotesque when he smiles. Olivia laughs then groans in pain. She reaches around to the sorest place on her back and groans again. Yip helps her climb back to her feet.
“I hope we don’t have to face anything worse next time,” Yip says. “At least until I can train you properly.”
“Worse?” Olivia demands.
“Yeah, Trixies are nothing.” Yip waves dismissively. “They are just pests. There are much worse things out there in the dark.”
Olivia groans again.
~~~
Olivia wakes the next morning to brilliant news.
“Dad just called the vet and Rum-Tum is going to be all right,” Mum says, as she sweeps into the room. “My goodness Olivia, what have you done to your face?”
Olivia reaches up and touches a swollen and tender place on her cheek. “Oh, I got up to go to the bathroom last night,” she lies. “I walked into the door.”
“Why didn’t you wake us?” Mum demands, fussing over her.
“I’ve already been too much of a bother lately,” Olivia says lamely. She gives Mum a huge hug. She really doesn’t mind the fussing.
Olivia looks down at her stiff grey fingers. It doesn’t seem as bad, knowing she’ll be able to move them again once the moon rises tonight. Olivia steps gingerly out of bed and limps across to the dressing table. She ties her hair into a ponytail with her favourite scrunchie and takes a long look at her reflection.
For the first time since the accident, she doesn’t cringe.
Olivia Stone and the Trouble with Trixies Page 12