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Chapter Thirty-Six

Alric caught me as I slammed into him, but I didn’t have time to warn him before the lumbering mass followed me. I grabbed a weapon and faced the hall, ready to fight off whatever this new horror was with nothing more than a busted chair leg.

And froze when I realized it was my laundry pile.

My now lurching-about, moving-on-its-own laundry pile. I screamed and ran behind Alric. I was ready to face psychotic killers, evil magic users, or homicidal satyrs, if need be. But an animated pile of laundry was simply too much.

Alric didn’t laugh at my terror, but I swore if I saw even a tiny smirk I was going to smack him silly.

“Easy, there.” At first I thought he was talking to me, then I realized he was talking to the laundry. He reached back for my hand, and I held it out without thinking. He didn’t pull me in front of him but reached toward the laundry with his free hand. “It’s okay now. Come out.”

Nothing happened at first and I was ready to pull my hand back when the laundry exploded into the air. As the clothes went up I saw it wasn’t them doing the moving, but a mass of black shards whirling within the laundry. The same ones I knew I’d locked up in a jar.

They flew around in a tight circle moving faster and faster until all I saw was a blur. Then the mass of laundry and shards collapsed to the ground.

Alric tried to drop my hand, but I wouldn’t let him. I felt a little better that my clothes hadn’t started walking about on their own, but I wasn’t happy that these mysterious shards had used them. I followed behind as we approached the now very still laundry scattered about the floor.

I let go of Alric’s hand when he moved in for a closer look at the pile.

He moved a shirt out of the way, then rose back up. With a perfect replica of one of the chimeras buzzing around Beccia in his hand. It was about half the size of the constructs. This one wasn’t moving—at least it wasn’t now. I had no idea how it got my laundry to move—or why. Pretty sure I didn’t want to know either.

“I take it that’s the one everyone is looking for?” We had another little relic of mass destruction. To go with the homicidal maniac who was looking for it and most likely had kidnapped half the town while they slept.

Alric nodded and wrapped it up in one of my shirts. Not that I cared. After my own clothes chased me down the hall I was going to have to burn them all. There was no way I could wear any of them again.

He tucked it in a pack he found under a chair. There were some papers in it that he skimmed; then frowned and shoved back inside. It wasn’t mine so perhaps it was something he’d left behind. “Yes, and I think our first stop needs to be the pub.”

Now that sounded like something I’d suggest. World falling apart? Go to the pub. I was more than a little surprised he would think of it though.

“Isn’t it a bit early for a drink?”

He sighed. “No, it’s to see if Harlan and Covey are with Foxy. I didn’t see anyone from the pub in that crowd.”

I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. “But Covey and Harlan were with us a few hours ago, and they’d left Foxy at the pub. Those people said their loved ones were taken at night.”

“And we have no idea how late people kept disappearing.” He closed up the bag and headed outside.

The way to the Shimmering Dewdrop was disturbingly silent. Even in the early morning hours, there were always people wandering about. But there was no one. And it was late morning. The pub itself looked shuttered and I wasn’t too surprised when Alric couldn’t open the door.

He started pounding and eventually a yell came from within.

“Go away, we be closed today.” I let out a sigh. Foxy’s voice was a welcome sound.

“It’s us, Foxy. Taryn and Alric.” I thought twice about announcing it, but considering the majority of the people still in town already knew about Alric being back, I figured it didn’t matter anymore.

A rumble of chairs, tables, and other heavy objects being moved came from the pub, then the door opened an inch. When he saw Alric and me, he opened it fully. “Get in, get in. Don’t want the nasties to grab you.” Foxy pulled both of us inside and slammed shut the door. Within moments a mountain of furniture was pulled in front of it.

“Are Harlan and Covey here?” There were a fair amount of regulars in the pub, but I didn’t see my friends.

“I haven’t been seeing them since they went after you two.”

Before he could say more, Amara came from out of the kitchen, with a familiar black shape buzzing over her head. The goat-headed chimera flew to me as soon as it saw me. I wasn’t sure, but the buzzing sounded happier.

“I am so sorry, I deserve everything you think of me. But I saved your friend, the chimera.” Amara had clearly been weeping and I noticed that while Foxy had stayed behind to protect her, he wasn’t standing near her.

The chimera wasn’t a friend per se, but I was happy it hadn’t been destroyed. “Are the girls here?” I looked around, noticing all of the tables were free of faeries.

“Nay. None of the tiny ones are here. Their queen came in the wee hours and called them all away. Said they couldn’t be involved.” He shook his head in worry.

The wild faeries had been a major turning point in the fight against Thaddeus over the glass gargoyle. Having their help now could make a difference in saving the townsfolk. “Did she say why?” I tried to remember what the girls had said—something about the wild ones, racing cats, and drinking.

“Just that they changed the prophecy when theys stepped in last time, not to be able to do it again,” Foxy said. “And that they’d been changed. She looked more worried than being mad, but them faeries all jumped up and flew after her like she was made of sugar. I was hoping yours were with you and your friends. No one came back after they went to rescue you.”

Alric was talking to a few of the regulars, most of whom were looking at him in pure hero worship. He came back with a sword for him and a pair of daggers for me. “I think we need to search the city. They can’t—”

A loud thud on the door followed by weak knocking cut him off. Foxy pulled the furniture back, picked up a cudgel he had leaning up against the wall, and cracked open the door.

I couldn’t see who was there, but a gasp from Amara told me she could. Foxy quickly pulled a shape inside then bolted and blocked the door again.

The livery told me it was one of Qianru’s houseboys, but not Joie. The poor boy was so beaten I was surprised he’d made it this far. He took a swallow and tried to talk, but couldn’t. Instead he held out a shaking hand toward me. A note was crumpled in it.

A fine scroll, at odds with the way the message had been delivered, greeted me.

“Taryn, if you want your friends, and the rest of your sad little town, back alive, bring the obsidian chimera and that elf to the old mines before the note expires. They start dying once that happens—and not quickly.” I looked all over the note, but couldn’t find any sign of when it expired. I didn’t know notes could expire, but I had a feeling we probably didn’t want to be around it when it did.

It wasn’t signed, but I knew it was Glorinal. We didn’t have time to go to Covey’s home and see what he’d taken, but if he had her, he most likely grabbed everything she had.

“He’s got them.” I handed the note to Alric then turned to Foxy. “You don’t happen to have any more dragon bane, do you?” It was a long shot, but anything was better than nothing.

“Nay, some guards bought me last bottles. Been hard to get as of late.” Foxy shook his head. “But ye can’t go. It’ll be a trap.” He looked around the pub as if a secret stash of fighters would suddenly appear. Merliker and Lehua stepped forward, but there were really no other fighters in the place.

“We’re going,” Lehua stated as she hefted a huge pike.

Merliker hooked her huge thumb over at Foxy. “He needs to stay and protect these people. We go and protect you.”

Foxy scowled. “I need to go. You can stay here and lock the doors.”

I shook my head. There were about thirty people in here, and none of them looked like they could fight. Foxy was their only chance. “No, she’s right, you have to stay here and save who you can.” I knew it was a trap, but we had to try something. Something that hopefully wouldn’t involve the deaths of half of the city, nor let a murdering madman have a potentially world changing artifact.

Another pounding at the door brought the debate to an end. Foxy peered out, then held open the door. The remaining houseboys, followed by the captain and more actors than were originally hired by Harlan, and a dozen academics all hovered at the entrance.

“The other townsfolk said you were going to go rescue everyone. We’re going with you.” Joie stood tall in his livery, a borrowed short sword held awkwardly in his hand.

I started to shake them off, but Joie beat me to it. “No. He was one of us.” He pointed to the houseboy who had brought me the note just as Amara lowered his eyelids. “We are now part of Beccia. We will fight to save our people. Qianru is safely locked in her mansion and protected by spells. We need to fight.”

The gathered actors and academics behind them nodded. While I was really clinging to the hope that Glorinal wasn’t the murderous necromancer, I had lost all doubt that he was working with him. There was a chance we weren’t getting anyone back.

“We don’t have time to argue.” Alric looked up from the note and headed for the door. “I found the timer spell on the note. We have a half-hour to get to the mine or they all die.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The oddly matched group that marched out of the city would have been a thing to talk about, if there had been anyone out on the streets of Beccia to see us. Anyone still in town was hiding behind closed and bolted doors.

We were almost out of the city, when the silence was shattered by the sound of heavily booted feet running. A lot of them, and they were heading our way.

Alric, Lehua, Merliker, and the archer from the acting troop, all drew weapons and stepped in front of the rest of us. After our most recent altercation with the city’s guardsmen, Alric couldn’t be blamed that he raised his sword as they came into view.

Lehua didn’t seem happy either. “What do you want?”

The houseboys, actors, and myself, all shifted back to stay clear if things went nasty. I had my daggers, but I also knew I wasn’t trained with them.

“We’re going with you.” A pale half-giant-half who-knew-what stepped forward. “We all lost people too. I saw you fight those bastard syclarions,” his nod included me, “and we’ll be taking our chances with you.” The guards behind him were letting him lead, for size reasons if nothing else, but they all muttered in agreement.

I wasn’t clear on Alric’s plan, providing he had one. But I knew he wasn’t planning on trying brute force. Still, those gray-clad guards came from somewhere, and if Glorinal was behind this, they were most likely with him. Maybe the city guardsmen could help level that end of things.

Alric nodded and sheathed his sword. Lehua and Merliker lowered their pikes, but both were watching the guardsmen with narrowed eyes.

We couldn’t afford the time to stop and plan, but even I knew we couldn’t just charge in there and hope to have a chance to save the kidnapped people.

Alric and the leader of the guardsmen dropped their voices as they discussed their plan as we walked, but the barmaids and I were hanging close and listening.

“We know they have fighters, we’ve seen about twenty, so bet on at least twice that. We need you and the others to take them out through the woods while she and I go in the front.”

The pale guardsman grunted and shook his head. “We can handle what they throw at us, we go in together.”

Alric rolled his eyes. “We don’t have time for this. They only want us, you need to take out as many guards hiding in the woods as you can find, then come rescue your people.”

“That bastard took my boys and their ma. I get to kill him myself.” Emotion was winning over logic, but it would end up getting people killed.

Alric pulled himself into his haughty elven lord stance. “Are you a magic user?” The sneer in his voice hung in the air like a slap. “Because I am, and I don’t even know that I can take him down.”

He didn’t add that he probably had faced Glorinal already, and lost his magic to him, and was just now getting some of it back. I sure as hell wasn’t going to point it out either.

The guardsman narrowed his eyes, then finally nodded in agreement and stayed silent while Alric outlined the rest of the plan and handed another guard his pack along with some whispered instructions.

Not much of a plan. He and I were bait and distraction, the others would sweep the woods for the gray-clad guardsmen, then come into the mine and free the townsfolk.

I found myself really wishing the faeries were here. Preferably Queen Mungoosey and the entire horde, but at this point I’d settle for just my three. We knew there would be a cost for their help against the syclarions, I just hadn’t thought this would be it.

At Alric’s nod, the rest of the team started fading into the forest. I hoped that Glorinal didn’t have people out this far.

He and I continued on in silence. Part of me wanted to ask how much magic he had back. But not only was this possibly the worst place to ask, I didn’t think I really wanted to know.

The forest sounds around us stopped as we rounded a sharp corner and found ourselves in sight of the mine entrance.

“You can stop there, if you please.” Even though I knew it was Glorinal behind this, hearing his voice, or rather a twisted, sneering version of it, come out of the dark of the mine hit me hard.

“You wanted us, you have us. Let the others go.” Alric said. He had to know it wouldn’t be that easy, but he had to try.

Glorinal’s laugh was one I’d never heard before. Deep and dark, the type that only came out when other people were in pain. “Not yet. I may still need them. But right now, put your weapons on the ground and step away from them.” He raised his voice. “All of you.”

I glanced behind us and saw the pale guardsman and two other idiots creeping down the road toward us.

“You know what? Don’t bother.” An instant later all three guardsmen dropped as arrows came out of the woods above us and hit each one of them in the throat.

Alric’s face was stone as he unbuckled his sword belt and flung it and the blade a few feet from him. I followed with my daggers.

“Now come forward slowly.” A pair of gray-clad guards dropped to the road from the trees, picked up our weapons, and followed behind us in case we changed our minds.

Alric took a few steps forward, then stopped. “I get why you want me, you need to finish what you failed at before. My magic was too much for you to handle so you couldn’t finish the job, right? Couldn’t handle someone with real power.”

I rocked back a bit. Alric obviously had had some recent epiphanies about his abduction—would have been nice if he had shared them with me before now though.

Before Glorinal could respond, Alric continued. “I don’t know why you want her though. Aren’t you done with her yet?” The snooty, rude tone was for Glorinal’s benefit, but it still rankled.

“I have my reasons, for everything. She will serve us well if nothing else. As for you—”

“Enough of this. Bring them” A new voice, old and cultured, cut him off. We were closer to the entrance, but I still couldn’t see who was inside.

A sword at my back nudged me forward in response of the command. We moved into the darkness of the mine faster than my eyes could adapt and I stumbled into Alric.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me close. “The plan is off, when I say run, you run. Keep running.” I had no idea what had changed things, but there was real fear in his voice now. I hadn’t recognized the second voice—but he had.

One of the guards pulled me away and had a knife at my throat in an instant.

Jovan, Qianru’s former elven assistant and owner of the voice, stepped forward. “Leave her.” The smell of burnt flesh erupted next to me and the guard dropped his suddenly glowing red knife and ran off screaming.

Glorinal stepped forward, but the change in personality, or rather the dropping of his façade, made him almost unrecognizable. “I’m running out of guards, you can’t keep doing that to them.”

“I can do whatever I want, boy. They are below me. Everyone here, including you and our little elven lordling, are below me. How will you lesser beings learn, if I don’t punish you?”

Jovan’s common was perfect now, even if it was oddly accented. Alric shivered as Jovan slowly walked around him then paused and studied Alric’s face. “Do let me guess. Delpina’s brood?” He reached out and ripped away Alric’s tunic right where his elven marking lay on his chest. Alric’s shivers grew worse as Jovan traced the markings with a finger. “Her son?”

The muscles along Alric’s jaw looked ready to pop as he fought to keep his mouth closed. But it didn’t last long. “Great-grandson.”

Jovan took a step back. “So the clans are reduced to breeding as rapidly as lesser beasts now. How pathetic.” He wiped his hand on Alric’s tunic, and turned back to Glorinal. “You went after an elven high lord, even one young and of diluted blood, and you wondered why his magic almost killed you?” He made a tsking sound, but ignored Glorinal’s fumbling excuses as he turned to me.

“And what are you?” He lifted my chin and peered into my eyes. I couldn’t pull away if I tried. “That idiot Qianru thought you were just something lucky to have on the dig, since you found the last artifact. But as she was with everything else, she was wrong.” His free hand pressed hard into the side of my face and I felt a spell surge toward me.

It stopped before it set in though, and Jovan dropped my chin and pulled back as if burned. For a second there was fear in his ancient eyes. But he quickly covered it with a sneer. “We will have time to find out all of your secrets. Slowly and painfully if need be.”

Without waiting for a response, he turned and marched further into the mine. The sword at my back kept me moving, but I also felt a tingle. Some part of his spell had gotten through and I was forced to follow him.

Alric had been right, I should have run.