Authors: Marie Andreas
I looked at all of them, my original comment had been for Alric, but if the girls’ powers were changing then they should stick around too. I still hadn’t forgotten what they and their wild kin had done to that sceanra anam on my doorstep. “None of you leave.”
The next morning was quiet and peaceful and I awoke to the sounds of little birds chirping. At least those were my first few thoughts when I woke up. It turned out that someone was yelling, I may have heard a crash of some sort, and the chirping was Crusty Bucket looping around outside my door.
I pulled my pillow over my head and rolled over. It was Sunday and as yesterday had been a horrific example of a day off, I was determined that this one would actually have some day-off qualities to it.
Then a rumble resounding from somewhere down the hall ruined my attempt at ignorant bliss. I thought about still fighting to stay in bed, but a second, and louder rumble, pointed out that really wasn’t a good idea.
Harlan could cook. It was one of the reasons his wives kept him around even though I knew he drove them crazy. But even a master chef shouldn’t be making that much noise. And definitely not an unwanted houseguest on a Sunday morning.
I rolled out of bed and tossed on my robe. Crusty Bucket backed up enough to let me swing open the door, but she was chirping too fast for me to understand. Knowing her, she was probably just telling me about some flowers outside or a new ale from the pub.
The noise collided into a majestic explosion of sound worthy of an army of two-year-olds. Then silence.
That silence made me more nervous than the noise and I shuffled down the hall faster. I really needed to get new slippers as these kept falling off my feet…I stopped looking down and noticed that I’d walked into a living room—
my
living room mind you—full of people.
As I stood there in my ratty robe and with one slipper dangling off my right foot.
Harlan seemed to be at the center of the pack, but I was too disturbed to try and sort anyone else out. At least I had my robe on; my sleepwear wasn’t fit for public viewing at all.
“Ah, there she is.” He boomed with a false joviality that made my blood pressure go even higher. “Now, we didn’t let her know we were all here, did we?” He came to my side and spun me around toward the hall. “We need to give her a chance to get more comfortably dressed for the occasion, don’t we?”
Less comfortably he meant. He didn’t appear to be talking to any one specific person in the crowd, but the entire group sounded like they muttered in agreement. I grabbed on to his arm, hard, when he made to escort me into my room. “What occasion, and why are all these people in my house?”
He made to move forward, ignoring Crusty Bucket who was still buzzing around the bedroom door, but gave up when I refused to budge.
“And what the hell was all that noise?”
“Well, you see, the Committee and me—”
“Now. I need to know what you’ve done,
now
.”
Crusty Bucket flew over to my nightstand and settled in to watch the fight.
“Why do you say that like it’s something bad?” He wagged his finger at me. “That’s your problem, Taryn, you always think everything new is bad.”
“Because, as of late, it usually is.” I stepped behind my dressing screen and threw on some digger clothes. Luckily, I’d found a stash of older, yet clean, clothes in the far back of my closet. The laundry mass wasn’t going anywhere soon.
The noise he made was part sigh and part harrumph. “I’ll grant you things have been interesting again recently. But interesting isn’t always bad, you know. The Committee of Concerned Citizens of Beccia feel that we need to resolve these dangerous events through scientific inquiry.”
I finished tugging my shirt down and came out from behind the screen. “The what? You are a concerned citizen? Just what went on last night?”
A thought struck me. “Where’s Alric?”
Harlan waved me down. “Never fear. He and the other two faeries are hiding in your laundry room. As for the committee, well, it was Foxmorton’s idea actually. He’s afraid that someone or something is targeting our city and he aims to stop them. He’s not academically minded, but he knew who to call on.” Harlan puffed himself up, then deflated with a shake of his head. “I do apologize. We just needed a place to go—”
A sound like a trash can filled with spell bombs rattled the pictures on my walls. I shoved him out of the way, swung open the door, and ran out into a mass of smoke.
Crusty Bucket started to fly out to the living room ahead of me, then had a horrific coughing fit and came back to land on my shoulder. I stepped back into my bedroom and grabbed a clean shirt to hold to my nose and mouth and ran out to the front expecting to see my entire living room blown to pieces.
Instead, once the inky black smoke cleared enough to see, I saw a group of confused academics and diggers with various stages of black ash streaked across their faces as they stood around a large pile of fabric and wood in the center of my living room. And what looked like the exploded remains of a chimera. Or perhaps, knowing what Covey had found yesterday, just a chimera head.
“You blew up my sofa?” I stalked to the stunned crowd and started ripping my kitchen implements and pans out of their hands. “Harlan, your friends blew up my brand-new-not-even-broken-in-yet sofa. Do something!” I was so mad I wasn’t even sure what to do. I dumped all of my cookware back into the kitchen and turned around to see Harlan
and
Glorinal were now standing among the stunned brains of the academic world.
Shock was still in my system, or I probably would have been more upset about Glorinal showing up at my house just when these total strangers were waging a war against my furniture. As it was, I tried to pretend he wasn’t there and hoped for the best.
For the first time since I’d known him, Harlan had nothing to say. But I did.
“I don’t care what you were doing, or what you were trying to do. I want my living room back the way it was immediately, and a new sofa—better than my last one—in my house in one day.” The academics were starting to come out of their stupor, but the diggers still looked stunned. Neither population was known for quick reactions. “And I want a brief explanation of what you did, and why.” I glared at all of them as they almost all opened their mouths to defend their experiment gone wrong. “Just one person. And make it short.”
Covey stepped forward. “I want to apologize, Taryn. We all got too caught up in our actions. While we were trying to ascertain the components of the chimera’s head, we inadvertently triggered a self-destruct event.” She glared at a gnomish academic from the University who refused to look up. “Or, someone didn’t listen to reason and prodded where he shouldn’t and blew the thing up.”
I rubbed my face, there wasn’t enough tea in the world to deal with this first thing in the morning. “I want a new sofa. And the Committee will never meet here again.”
A few of the academics looked ready to argue, but they all wilted under Covey’s glare. “Agreed.”
The academics and diggers all muttered apologies and they slowly started heading out the door.
“What happened?” Glorinal dodged the exodus, and I felt a brief relief that he hadn’t been part of this tribe of lunatics but must have been coming to my house on his own.
“I am very sorry, Taryn.” All of the bluster that normally animated Harlan’s face vanished. Possibly the first time I’d seen that.
Covey came up as well. “I really don’t know what came over me.” She gave me a quick hug then followed the group out the door. Harlan gave one more embarrassed nod and followed.
A thought struck me as they left. If Alric saw them leave he might come out of hiding. “Crusty Bucket?” I waved my hand to get her attention as she was hovering over the remains of the sofa intently. “Sweetie? I need you to go find Garbage and Leaf and tell them to stay where they are. I have a
guest
.”
She watched me and nodded her head, but then spun quickly on the sofa. As far as I could tell it hadn’t moved but I was a little worried that she thought it might. “Fine. Me find.” With as close to an annoyed sigh as I’d ever heard from her, she flew out the still open front door. Hopefully she’d fly around to the laundry cottage and Alric would understand to stay put.
“I’d offer you a seat, but those maniacs destroyed the sofa.”
“I just came by to see where the Committee had gone, but I had no idea they were so destructive.” He nodded toward the sofa. “They have the right idea though, three people have been killed by those flying monsters.”
“I only heard the sceanra anam attacked people not the chimeras?”
A brief flash of anger crossed his amazing features. “They are the same. They may look different, but they are all killers.” He shook his head and one of his stunning smiles chased off all other emotions. “Join me for dinner? Third time will be the charm I promise.”
I had my doubts about the chimeras and the sceanra anam being the same. But I didn’t have time to bring it up. I hoped that Crusty Bucket would deliver my message, but the longer Glorinal stayed here the greater the chance he’d see Alric.
And my fears were born out. The front door was still open when all three faeries came into view. Then Alric. He was wearing his cloak and fabric, but it was still a huge risk.
Glorinal must have noticed the rapid increase in my blood pressure as he turned toward the door in response.
“Isn’t that your friend’s uncle? Why is he here?”
Crap.
“He actually stays here sometimes. Covey and he don’t get along all that well, as he can be extremely difficult and not too bright, so he’ll sometimes stay here when I’m at work.” I took a few steps around Glorinal so there wasn’t a chance he could see my face.
“It’s time to go now.” I said as I turned toward Alric. “Covey went to the pub with the others.” I gave him my harshest glare and tried motioning with my eyes for him to get his magic-less elven ass back into the laundry room. I probably just ended up looking insane. I needed him back in lockup, but couldn’t really tell Glorinal that I was forcing what looked like a feeble old man into a laundry room.
“Who is your friend? I should meet him before I leave. You are like a niece to me after all.” I had to hand it to Alric, the voice was garrulous and low, perfect for an old man in questionable health. But I was still going to kill him if he messed things up with Glorinal. There had been time to turn around before Glorinal saw him, he was here just to be a pain in the ass.
“Hello, I don’t believe I caught your name?” Glorinal lit up his most charming smile and stepped forward with his hand out. “I’m Glorinal, and your niece is lovely, charming, and kind.”
The emphasis on the word niece told me he figured buttering up the old guy might earn him some points. If only he knew how much I wanted Alric out of here.
“My name is Marcos, Marcos de Jin. I have to say you’re a much better catch than her previous boyfriends.” He added a little laugh at the end that almost sounded too Alric-like.
I no longer cared if he got out of here or not. I was going to kill Alric. It wasn’t my fault Marcos turned out to be three crazy jinn brothers rolled into a single person. My hands started clenching and I stalked toward Alric.
Only to be pushed back by three sets of faery wings. I tried dodging around them, but Alric must have paid them off with massive amounts of sweets, even Crusty Bucket who had only been with him a few minutes was blocking my way.
“Girls, I just want to thank Marcos for all the help he’s given me, that’s all.” And see about smacking the grin I knew was under those wraps off his face.
Any further attempts at aggression on my part were ended as a messenger boy came racing up to my door.
“You have to come, both of you.” Even the young and agile would get winded if he had run as fast as it looked like he had. “Um, you too I guess.” He gave Alric an odd look, then shook his head. “All of you, come on, Master Harlan needs you. Your friend Foxy is tearing apart the pub!”
All of my annoyance at Alric fled. “He’s attacking the Shimmering Dewdrop?” I turned to grab my cloak, but wasn’t too surprised when Glorinal already had it in hand.
“No, he’s attacking the Dodgy Codger—aims to rip it apart beam by beam.” Satisfied that he’d delivered his message, the boy dropped to the grass and waved us on. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Just get there fast. The guards have already been called.”
Damn it. Amara was changing Foxy and now things had gotten out of control. He and Slim Jankins, the owner and original namesake of the Dodgy Codger, had never seen eye to eye, but they’d never come to blows. And certainly never gone so far as to attack each other’s pubs.
There was no way I could trust that Alric would stay here. I’d have to take him with me and kill him later.
“Come along, good Marcos, we should go rescue Foxy from whatever madness is affecting him.” Glorinal grabbed my hand and started leading us all down the street.
Even though I couldn’t see Alric’s mouth I knew he was smirking. And I was damn sure the smirk grew when all three faeries landed on him for the ride.
“Here,
Marcos
, let me help you. You look to be struggling at this pace.” He was striding along my other side, so I managed to grab a hold of his arm and slow him down. “You know how easily you get tired.”
He narrowed his eyes and I lamented again that I couldn’t see the rest of his face. “Thank you, my dear.” He dropped to shorter uneven steps better reflecting who he was supposed to be.
We were close enough to see a mob surging around the Dodgy Codger. The pub was actually bigger than The Shimmering Dewdrop, but somehow had always managed to look small and cramped. The owner was a cantankerous old goat. Literally. He was a satyr.
Glorinal glanced to Alric and me, then up toward the crowd. Even though we could see them, we were still a good five minutes away at our current pace. There were precious few straight roads in Beccia, but the one that was very straight had long ago been taken over by at least a dozen pubs. It wasn’t clear if it was by design or not, but it did make it much easier to find a drink.
“I might move faster alone, if you’re all right helping Marcos along?” Glorinal and I both glanced back up the road and it looked as if the mob was growing. Whatever Foxy had started, it wasn’t pretty.
As much as I didn’t really want him to go, we had to keep Alric’s ruse up, not to mention that I wanted him around Glorinal as little as possible. Maybe I could actually convince Alric to go back home if Glorinal wasn’t here.
“That might be for the best, we’ll be right behind you.” I was brought up short when Glorinal spun and gave me a very passionate kiss, then took off at a run.
After a few seconds I felt a tugging on my arm. “If you would get yourself under control? Your friend is rampaging, you know.”
I ignored Alric for a few more seconds, just enjoying the lingering effects of the kiss. I studiously refrained from comparing it to the one Alric had given me. Right before he robbed me and took off three months ago. I banished that thought and shook my head.
“You don’t need to come here. You really shouldn’t be out and about.” But he started walking again and pulled me forward. “Ya know, whoever did this to you could be at the pub.” If he kept wandering about like this, eventually someone was going to see under the cloak. “Someone wants you to be seen, and here you are marching around in public. They will see you eventually.”
“I’m counting on it.” He turned toward me and his low voice was all Alric and all pissed. “They let me get away in hopes I would be caught and outted. And be the fall guy for whatever disaster is heading this way now. I have to find out who did this to me, Taryn. Whoever has that much power could probably level Beccia in their search for the chimera artifact.”
That actually brought me up short, although since Alric kept walking, and he was still holding my arm, he dragged me along. He, better than even Harlan and Covey, would know how much power it would take to strip another strong magic user. That much power being directed at non-magic people and /or a city wasn’t something I’d really thought about.
Alric increased his speed even though he still managed to look like a shuffling old man. We could hear the crowd around the Dodgy Codger now. I’d been afraid they would be trying to stop Foxy, but it sounded like they were egging him on. Clearly, Slim hadn’t won a lot of friends in town. That his major support had been Largen, who was now rotting in a prison deep under The Hill, probably hadn’t helped his business these last few months.
“Excuse me, good man, what’s happened here?” Alric dropped back into his crotchety old man tone as we approached the crowd.
The man in front of us had a rag held up to his head and a thin trickle of blood dripped down the side of his face. “That madman, Foxmorton, happened. Came into the Codger, nice as you please. Asked Slim a few questions, didn’t like the answers, and started tossing things about. Including people. I took a table to the head and high-tailed out of there.”
There went my tiny hope that it really wasn’t what it sounded like.
“Thank you, my good man.” Alric jerked my arm and continued toward the pub before I could ask any questions.
“Don’t you think that if the mage who attacked you sees a suspicious looking man in a full cloak that he won’t figure it out?” I dug in my heels so that he had to stop or appear much stronger than he should be.
“Why do you think the faeries are with me?” His dropped my arm. “You go inside. I’ll go around and find a place to stand out of the way so no one will bump into me.”
I wasn’t sure which annoyed me more that he was taking too many risks, or that he’d actually thought about the risks before he took them.
Harlan came out of the crowd surrounding the pub. “Taryn! The guards are coming and Foxmorton is going to kill Slim.” A huge crash came out of the pub in front of us and Harlan shot a worried look over his shoulder. “If he hasn’t already.”
I nodded but pulled Alric close so I could reach his ear. “If you get caught, neither me nor my friends are helping you, do you hear me? That goes for the faeries too.” I shot a glare at the girls, but they seemed far more interested in the mess in front of us than any threats I might give.
“I understand.” The words were there, but I doubted the emotion behind them. Even magic-less, Alric was a cocky son of a bitch and probably still thought he could handle anything.
With a final glare at all of them, I ran to Harlan’s side. “Do you know what caused this?” If I knew what was behind it, maybe I could stop it. Hopefully before the guards got here.
Harlan looked frazzled. “Not really. I’ve mostly been trying to stay out of the way, and keep others out of the way too. Covey’s off on the other side of the crowd trying to get folks to disperse.”
I patted his arm and stepped forward. It was like an invisible presence preceded me the way the crowd parted before me. Apparently, my reputation as the heroine of Beccia wasn’t going to be ending soon. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an army of wild faeries at my back this time. The ones lounging around the Shimmering Dewdrop weren’t leaving their tables at the pub, let alone saving anyone.
The Dodgy Codger had always lived up to the dodgy part of its name. I think it probably looked seedy and rundown the moment it was built. But now it looked like a disaster area not just a dive. The destruction had started closer to the bar, so the doorway and entrance were still intact.
At first I didn’t see Foxy or Slim. But I could still hear things being thrown about. Then the kitchen door slammed open and Foxy stomped out holding a body up in the air. A body with kicking goat legs. They were both yelling, but I couldn’t tell what either was saying. I pretty much guessed that Slim’s screams were relating to Foxy putting him down slowly and not slamming him into the bar like it appeared was about to happen.
“Foxy! Stop!” I wasn’t foolish enough to get much closer to him, nor did I really think he’d listen to me, but I had to try to stop him before he did something he couldn’t live with.
“Taryn?” He still held Slim above his head, but he looked surprised to see me. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be seeing this. I need to kill him.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I almost laughed. The tone was the same as if he were chastising someone for passing out in his bar.
“How about you set Slim down gently, and tell me what happened? I don’t think he’ll be going anywhere.”
Like most of his breed, Slim was far tougher than his size would imply and even though he looked beat up around the edges, he would probably be fine within a day or two. Providing Foxy didn’t use him as a battering ram on the hardwood bar in front of him.
“Can’t do that. He took Amara.”
There went my being able to stop him. But that explained Foxy’s actions. What it didn’t explain would be why Slim would kidnap a treeless dryad.
“I didn’t take anyone, you stupid mutt!” Slim wasn’t the brightest person, even for a satyr. A bright person wouldn’t be using someone’s mixed heritage as an insult when that person was holding him eight feet in the air and ready to slam him down with a force guaranteed to shatter bones all the way back to his grand-goats’ era.
A growl the like I’d never heard came from Foxy and he managed to add a few more inches of height to his stance holding Slim.
“Shut up, Slim!” I needed to talk Foxy down and fast. A change in the sound outside told me the guards were finally showing up outside. “Foxy, how do you know he took her? When did she go missing?”
Foxy stopped growling but didn’t lower Slim any. “She be gone since this morning, early. A stranger told me this creature had kidnapped her.”
I slowly took a few steps closer and slowed my speaking even more. “Where is the stranger? Why did he say Slim took her?”
Foxy scrunched up his brows and lowered his arms a bit. My arms were aching just looking at him, but knowing Foxy’s strength he wasn’t even noticing the weight. “He left, just said this scum took Amara because of her cooking to ruin me.”
“I don’t even serve food, you thick-skulled reject!” Slim was really not helping me calm Foxy down and the kicks he gave in emphasis of his words just caused Foxy to lift him higher again.
“He has a point, Foxy. Would you want to eat in this place?” Slim gave me an evil glare but I ignored it. I was doing this to keep my friend from going deep under The Hill, not because I really wanted to keep Slim out of the hospital. From the stories I’d heard, he probably deserved everything Foxy had done to him so far.
Foxy’s brow scrunched up again and he lowered Slim to just a few inches above his head. “That be a good point. But why would the stranger lie?”
“Because he wanted you to hurt me, that’s why! I have enemies you know.” Slim refrained from kicking this time, but I could tell he wanted to. Maybe he’d finally figured out that kicking just got him closer to the ceiling.
“Then where is she? Amara left for the market at first light, but never came back.”
He lowered Slim a little more, but the crowd outside was definitely taunting guardsmen now. The mob would slow them down, but we were out of time.
“Look, we can figure that out back at your place, okay?”
“I’m pressing charges! He destroyed my place! I’m—”
Slim passed out and went limp like a rag. Some satyrs were too close to their goat cousins and would just shut down if they got too worked up. Unfortunately, Foxy wasn’t expecting that and almost dropped him. That jerked Slim back to consciousness, and in the ensuing scuffle, they both ended up smashing into the much abused bar. Slim alone probably would not have done much damage to the solid wood bar. But Foxy probably weighed a good five times as much and they crashed through the top.
I started swearing under my breath but it wasn’t because of the booted feet I heard coming up to the door. There was a stash of artifacts that Harlan would have been proud of now exposed in a secret area under the bar. Right on top were a few very bent pieces that had to be from the same sarcophagus that Harlan had. I picked up and threw a bottle of expensive liquor toward Slim to distract him and grabbed as many pieces of metal as I could and tucked them into my cloak while he scrambled to catch the bottle.
The change in sound from outside told me that Foxy and I had moments to get out of here before the guards worked up enough courage to come in. I leaned as close to Slim as I felt safe. “Look, I saw your stash. If you send the guards after Foxy, I’ll make sure the Antiquities Commission and the guards know all about it.”
He took a half-second to let a full glare boil, then nodded and waved toward a small side door I hadn’t noticed before. Whatever he was into it was far bigger than him wanting Foxy in jail.
I got Foxy outside just as the guards entered the pub.
“But where is Amara?” Once his uncharacteristic rage had fled, Foxy’s emotions had gone back to full sorrow.
“Let’s go back to the Dewdrop and we can track where she went.”
We stepped out into the crowd and I looked around for Glorinal. He wasn’t the tallest person in Beccia, but he was tall enough that I should have noticed him. Maybe he’d had to leave. He still hadn’t fully recovered from the fire up on the Hill, and had looked pale when he came to my house.
I was just about to go further into the crowd to look for him, when a flash of color went off to my left, and for the briefest of seconds all three faeries and Alric appeared sitting on a small hill next to the Dodgy Codger. Then a ruckus to my right caught my attention and Alric vanished again when I looked back.
I almost ran back to grab Alric when I saw what the ruckus was. Another elf. This one looked taller than either Glorinal or Alric and had deep red hair with a white streak over his left brow. Next to him was Qianru.