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The livery was only in the upper right corner of their tunics, and abnormally small for one of The Hill folks. I gave up trying to figure it out and turned to Alric. He might not have magic anymore but those elven eyes were better than mine.

I put my mouth close to his ear, or where it should be under that fabric, and whispered. “Can you see the livery?”

He shook his head and his eyes looked worried. He froze in place and watched as the guards spread out. The cloaked and hooded shape stayed still. Sort of just like Alric was.

I waited a few minutes while the guards stalked each former hole and dropped a few drops of a reddish liquid on the dirt.

Alric stayed silent and unmoving, and so did his evil twin across the glade.

Finally the cloaked figure stopped his statue imitation and walked toward the closest former hole. “We needed to add the element to the holes themselves.” He turned to the guard who had led them all in. “Do you see a way we can do that, captain?”

“Now see here, it weren’t my fault as in they told us wrong. I’d never been in these ruins.” He was puffing himself up like a bear, but there was an underlying current of fear in his voice.

“Yet, you told me and the others back home that you could bring us here in time, did you not?” The smooth deadliness of the voice made me look for clawed syclarion feet under the robes. But all I saw were boots.

“I didn’t….” The captain’s voice dropped.

The cloaked man didn’t move, but all of the remaining guardsmen froze. At first I thought it was a spell then realized it was pure terror on their side. Then the captain actually made a run for it.

At first I thought he was going to run toward us, and since Alric was looking about as moveable as those frozen guards out there I figured I was going to have to try and drag us both out of sight. But then the doomed man doubled back and tried to head toward the main trail. Judging by the terror being shown by the rest of his mates, I didn’t think he’d make it to the entrance.

Sometimes being right was very messy and unsettling.

The cloaked man managed to keep his hood securely over his face without touching it as he took two running steps after the fleeing captain. Of course since he practically flew those two steps, he landed in front of the whimpering man.

“When will your people learn?” The hooded man muttered a few arcane phrases that were too low and unfamiliar for me to make out. An instant later, the captain burst into flame and burnt to death. The fire didn’t go anywhere other than his body and extinguished itself once his body was consumed.

Like what happened to the tree Alric had been hiding secrets in.

A series of foreign-sounding words came out of Alric, but he was whispering them so I could barely hear. At first I thought that he’d forgotten he’d lost his magic and was trying to cast a spell, but then I realized he was swearing in most likely elvish or some other arcane tongue.

“We need to leave.” Alric pulled on my jacket, then stopped as the cloaked man turned toward our hideout.

The villain paused then turned back to the rest of the men, jabbing a finger at one troll-half-breed seemingly at random. “You are now captain. If your general has a problem with it, he can talk to me.” He marched around the site, kicking over piles of dirt from where the chimeras had blasted out of the earth. “We missed the birth. And we missed the closing. We will not let anything else interfere. Is that clear?”

When the guards still looked frozen in place, including the new captain who was not only frozen, but turning green, he cleared his throat. “I said, is that clear.” There was no inflection at the end of his sentence, and the men and women responded immediately this time.

“Aye.” One voice, all locked in fear of this being before them.

“Then what are you waiting for? We have a report to deliver.” The cloaked man turned and strode back down the path to the entrance, and the guards filed in behind him. A few gave sympathetic looks to the new captain.

Alric stayed frozen in place until a good five minutes after they left. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he had been holding his breath from the moment they left.

“We need to get out of here. I need to get home.” He didn’t wait for me to comment, just started heading toward the exit of the ruins. He followed the main path but didn’t stay on it. He found a thin trail that ran alongside of it, most likely one he’d used back in the day when he was hiding out here.

I scurried after him. “That’s great, but how are you going to get inside there? You don’t have any magic, remember?”

“Your home, we need to get to your home.” He shook his head and picked up speed. “I do need to get to my home but you’re right, that won’t be happening anytime soon. But I’ve got to find a way to warn them.” The last bit wasn’t intended for me as he dropped his voice, but I’d caught up with him by then.

“Warn who about what? Your people?”

He didn’t slow down but spared me a glare over his shoulder. “Yes, my people, but not here.”

It was clearly okay for him to mutter about things out here in the open but not for me to ask perfectly rational questions. Not to mention the fact he was already calling my home “home” was more than a bit disturbing. I needed to get him out of my house fast.

We were only five minutes behind the group of guards and one insanely dangerous magic user, and I really didn’t want to catch up with them at the entrance gate. I wasn’t sure how they got past the guard and watcher. Well, the guard could easily be bought off—he looked like the type that would probably do it for a sandwich. But watchers were hard to mess with. They didn’t answer to the guard so much as to whoever set them to task. In this case a high and powerful committee up on The Hill who ran the ruins.

Alric was still picking up speed though, so I grabbed his cloak and pulled him back.

He jerked free, when I shook my head and held my finger up to my lips. The guards must have gone a lot slower than us as they were still at the entrance. Alric’s elven hearing should have noticed them before I did but he was too focused on getting back to my house and worrying about whoever that magic user in the robe was.

The entrance guard was beaming and smiling and counting some coins—eh, I still say he would have done it for a sandwich. The watcher didn’t move at all. Not one head bob, caw, sniff, nothing. Had they killed it? My understanding was that killing one of them would bring in all sorts of alarms. But then again that magic user seemed to be very on top of his game and was clearly enough to freak out Alric. Who knew what he did to the freakish bird.

With a few more words from the new captain to the entrance guard, they all exited the ruins. We waited a few more minutes as the watcher woke up out of whatever spell it had been put under with a start. It just suddenly gave a loud caw, shook its head, and glared at the entrance guardsman.

“Here you go.” He held out his hand and gave the bird some treats.

“Great, even the damn birds can be bought off.” I kept my voice low, but the watcher still turned to where we were still hidden off the main trail. That it turned its white eye toward us was even more disturbing. But after a few moments it turned back to the guard.

It probably wouldn’t look good if we were coming out of a non-sanctioned trail right in front of the guard, so I motioned for Alric to go back a ways. Once the trail bent away from the guard’s sight line we got back on it.

“Really, Uncle, that’s where I work.” I raised my voice to make it sound like we’d been in mid-conversation as we approached the guard. Both guard and watcher did look up, which was good. I wasn’t sure if the watcher would look up if she thought she’d already scanned us in the woods.

But we made it past them with no comments other than a grunt from the guard. Fortunately no staring or caws from the watcher this time.

“Hey, are you like that other fella?” We’d already passed the guard and could just keep moving and pretend we didn’t hear him.

Alric stopped dead still and slowly turned. At least he was still keeping up his old man persona. “What was that?” He added a waiver to his voice that made me wonder how many different people he’d been while he lived here in Beccia.

“Afore you two, there was a group, had a man all wrapped up like you. Didn’t know if you two were the same.”

We hadn’t said Alric was a leper, but the implication was there. Clearly this guard thought the covering might be for something else. He might be smarter than he looked or sounded.

“I’m sure not,” Alric gave a rusty sounding laugh. “This is the result of age and a life ill spent. I didn’t see the other man, but I doubt we are the same.”

The guard looked at him for a bit which caused the watcher to re-focus her attention on us. I pulled Alric’s sleeve.

“Come now, Uncle, I’ve kept you out of the home long enough. It’s time for medicine and tea.” I wasn’t sure why Alric wanted to engage the guard. Maybe he thought he could gain some information from the guard about our very dangerous magic user. He resisted being pulled at first. I agreed that we needed information on anyone interested in that dig site, and particularly someone that powerful, but asking a guard for it was just going to cause suspicion.

Finally he nodded to the guard and let me lead him away.

“Are you trying to get us hauled in or killed?” I hissed as I led us away as quickly as seemed reasonable.

“He had a reason he asked that, there must be something similar between us.” He flashed his eyes at me. “And not just that we both were covered.”

I stepped around a bunch of rocks that someone had laid out years ago as a decorative path to the ruins. As far as I knew, no one thought they were decorative and they just ended up making people fall. “He didn’t look bright enough to have thought beyond that. Most likely he thinks all blonds are the same, too.” I dropped my voice as another pair of diggers headed toward the ruins. These weren’t there just to nose around though, both had backpacks filled with equipment. Very busy around here for a Saturday.

I wouldn’t know if things were usually this active on a Saturday. I tried to avoid here on the weekends, unless I actually had a good find. Normally I would just be thinking about rolling out of bed at this time.

“Who was he anyway?” I knew Alric knew who I was talking about because he kept silent for a few moments.

“Not sure.”

Great, we were going to play this game. There was no way he could tell me he didn’t have at least an idea who the cloaked figure was. It took a lot to rattle Alric to the level I’d seen in the ruins. The last time had been when he was facing the end of the world and was about to be flung into another dimension.

“That’s interesting, because you reacted like you knew—”

“Watch out!” “Run!” “They’re coming!” I heard the pounding footsteps at the same time I heard the yells. A group of people, vendors from the morning market by their dress, were charging across the path about ten feet ahead of us. Closely followed by a trio of flying creatures.

Chapter Sixteen

I let out a breath when it was clear they weren’t my flying faeries, nor were they sceanra anam. They were about the size of a large cat and all shiny black. They were gone before I got a good look, but the serpent-like tail on the last one, and the fact they were far rounder than the sceanra anam, made my stomach drop.

“Let me guess, chimeras?” I hadn’t heard any chomping or other lovely sounds like I had outside my house this morning. But that didn’t mean they weren’t hunting those people for food. Something obviously made the people think they were in danger. Of course if any of them had seen one of the sceanra anam, they’d be running away from anything large, dark, and flying.

Alric nodded. I’d figured those elven eyes saw more in those moments than I did. “Yes, that’s what they would look like. Although the one I am looking for is a statue, singular, and would not be out chasing the general populace.”

I had my questions about that. What were the odds that creatures would appear at the same time a statue of them was supposed to be found? Not to mention those looked pretty damn small to be chimeras of myth. They were, in fact, statue sized.

I wasn’t going to get into an argument with a wanted elf lord out here in the open. If he got hauled in, they’d probably take me as well. But we were going to carry on all of these discussions when we got back to my home.

I let go of Alric’s arm as soon as we crossed the threshold and locked the door. And pocketed the key.

I was getting answers from Harlan and Alric if we had to stay in here all day long.

“Hi, Taryn. I was planning on leaving before you got back, sorry.” Covey’s voice came from the kitchen followed by herself a moment later.

Three. I was now not opening that door until I got answers from all three of them. I was still very upset about Covey’s duplicity, but I wanted answers more than I wanted her out of my house.

“No one is leaving until we sort this out.” I ignored all of my uninvited houseguests and went over to the faeries’ castle. I might need them right now, but of course the castle was empty.

“Does anyone know where the girls went?”

“They said they had something to do.” Harlan said. “And I gave them some more coins and asked them to find information about the sceanra anam.”

“Information? They barely remember where they live at night. What kind of information could they bring back?” When I’d first been forced to bounty hunt, years ago when my first patron mysteriously died, I really thought I was going to have an advantage with them. We could all be searching in different areas, report back when we found someone, etc. I quickly found out that wasn’t going to be the case. Oh, I could use them for immediate tracking if someone tried to get away, especially at night—their eyesight was as good as a cat’s—but beyond that, not so useful.

For one thing they only seemed to say a tiny part of what was going on in their heads. It was in their head, so they didn’t understand why it wasn’t in yours. Getting information out of them was painful. Information. Damn, I had wanted to grill them on how long faeries had been around, they went loopy before we got very far earlier.

“I asked them to fly around and see if they chased out any sceanra anam.” Harlan shrugged. “I figured they should be able to recall where that happens, if it does.”

“That is well and good, but I did have further questions for them once they’d recovered.” Alric had obviously been thinking the same thought I had. He still hadn’t removed his cloak or covering, most likely because of Covey, but I saw her face. She knew who was under there, so he might as well show her.

“So that really is Alric?” She came in from the kitchen carrying a mug of coffee. She must have brought it herself. I was tea all the way, but Covey thrived on massive amounts of caffeine and tea wasn’t enough.

Alric turned so she couldn’t get a good look at him, but I was having none of it.

I walked up and pulled off Alric’s cloak and hood and managed to take a fair amount of the extra fabric he’d added with it. “She might as well know. She’s in on whatever this is.” I took Alric’s arm and spun him to face her. “This is who he really is.”

Covey gave a cough and a sputter, and dropped onto the sofa. Her jaw gaped, but no words came out. Harlan came to her side and made soft cooing sounds.

After a moment she shoved him aside and shook her head.

“Who is that? Is this a joke? That’s not funny, Taryn. I was lying to you only to protect you, and if this is your payback—”

“It wasn’t a joke, Covey.” I noticed that Alric dropped his voice a bit. He and Covey had spent many nights bonding as academics when we were trying to solve the case of the glass gargoyle. I knew he modified how he looked around her, dropping his shoulders, using a softer voice, even wearing glasses. It was probably a good idea he reminded her of that person right now.

At least until she could see him again—he was still hidden behind Harlan.

“Alric? That
is
you? Are you in disguise again?” She tried pushing around Harlan to get up to see Alric but Harlan held her from it.

“Fine, then would someone please tell me what is going on? You did blow up, and for most people that would imply death.” That was Covey, an academic all the way. She managed to get that time honored “You had better explain yourself” tone all students knew without actually saying the words.

“It only appeared that I blew up. The syclarion, myself and the glass gargoyle briefly went into another dimension, and he didn’t make it back. I did.”

“And the gargoyle?” There was more than a little concern in her voice. I couldn’t blame her; that thing freaked me out along with most of the people of Beccia. Or it would have if they had fully understood that a small hunk of magical glass was responsible for almost pulling them out of time and sending them into a nether world.

Covey’s issues went a bit deeper than that. She was fairly certain something about that gargoyle had caused her to turn into a berserker. Her people were reptilian-based but over centuries became bipedal and learned to control their fiery emotions. Armies of trellians decimated their homeland before they learned to calm the berserker rage.

I personally was grateful she’d flashed back to her peoples’ old ways. I wasn’t sure how many of us she saved, but it might have been a very healthy number.

“It…exploded.” I heard the pause in Alric’s voice, and I was pretty sure she did as well.

“So it’s gone?” Yup, she heard it.

“It’s no longer where it can hurt anyone.” Interesting avoidance there on Alric’s part. It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t telling her anything either. And considering that his people weren’t sure where it and the laboratory went, it wasn’t completely the truth.

Covey looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but was overwhelmed as where to begin. I’d never seen her like this.

I felt sorry for her. Shock wasn’t something any academic dealt with well, especially her.

“Alric is an elf, a real live, honest-to-goddess elf. Someone jumped him and sucked out his magic so he can’t hide who and what he is anymore.” I stepped away when Alric looked ready to try and quiet me. “Oh, and someone has wanted posters all over town for someone who looks an awful lot like him.”

Covey verified her much stronger than she looked status, as she easily pushed Harlan over and leapt to her feet. A child faced with a mansion of candy and toys couldn’t have had that much wonder on her face.

“You…you’re an elven lord. One of the ruling elite and most powerful of the magical classes.” Her golden eyes got even bigger.

If she started to bow, curtsy, or genuflect in any way I was going to tackle her. “He’s still Alric. He just looks different. And like I said, magic all gone for now, so not so much a member of the magical classes.”

“For now? Can he get it back?”

At that, Alric turned to me as well with an odd look on his face.

“How would I know? Magic sink over here, remember? But why couldn’t he? Someone took it, we take it back.”

“We?” Alric was full on smug smiling now. He was reading way too much charity on my side.

“Yes, we.” I didn’t feel up to the fighting to make sure he knew I was still really pissed at him. I was. But keeping it up all the time was annoying me more than him. “For good or bad we all seem stuck with each other for whatever is going on around here.”

Alric was still looking amused; the other two looked confused. “What?” I took my comfy seat. “Our best chance for figuring out what is going on, solving it, saving the world, and letting me go back to a normal life is if elf-boy gets his magic back.”

Covey had gone back to watching Alric with still too much adoration until I got to “saving the world”. That broke her free to focus back on me. “Wait, I thought all that was going on was that Harlan suspected someone up on The Hill of smuggling out artifacts from the ruins without proper authorization.” She turned to Harlan. “That was what we were doing, right?”

“Yes, yes we were.” Harlan twitched his nose then looked down under her continued glare. I was happy to know I wasn’t the only one being lied to in this room. “Well, in part you see. But mostly, yes, that’s what we were doing.”

“In part? What else were you doing?” Covey might be currently suffering from elf-worship, but even slightly addled she was brighter than all of us in this room. “And why are you back?” I was pleased to see annoyance replacing adoration.

Alas, Alric was made of sterner stuff than the average university student. He held her stare for a full minute, then finally walked past her, pulled out a chair from the dining room, and sat down. “There are a lot of issues right now.” He turned back to me with a frown. “One of which is what we’ve been ignoring, but could prove crucial. We need to clarify Taryn’s magic sink status. I can’t tell now, obviously, but you can’t be a sink. I never ran magic through you. Whatever happened in that final battle, it was all you.”