Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (11 page)

Time to go
.
S
he
gave an encouraging smile before hoisting
George
onto h
er
back
.

“
When we get home, I’ll warm us up some nog, and we’ll eat
more
pie
?
How does that sound?”

“Yum!” he replied.

H
er
legs carried them over the narrow trail
that
wound through densely spaced trees
.
Gray clouds hid the setting sun
.
Birds sang as the shadows of the forest deepened
.
An hour passed before they
came to the same spot of
sagging barbed wire
s
he had crossed over on Harvest Day
—
when
the sound of low mutterings made h
er
stop
.

H
er
brothers,
Randy and Danny, were supposed to come home from
opportunity
school for the holiday.
They had always loved the woods because it
hid their mischief.
If anybody was out here, it had to be them, and they were probably doing something
illegal
.

If she could uncover whatever her brothers were scheming
, the
information
might come in handy for blackmailing purposes
.
Setting
George
down on a fallen tree trunk,
she
held a finger over h
is
lips. “
Be very quiet.
Stay right here.
”

Curious,
s
he inched closer
to the conversation
.
The sound of gritty male
voices got louder
.
They didn’t sound like
any of her brothers
.
Sh
e glanced back at
George
, who was
fiddling with a twig
, looking bored
.
Then
s
he turned
her
attention back to the conversation t
hat was
t
aking place up ahead.

“One more,” said an unfamiliar voice, “then we continue
the
search.”

“Aye,” another voice replied.

Probably a couple of bums,
Glory
thought, just passing through
.
She
crept,
carefully parting branches until
coming
to the edge of
a s
mall clearing
. Three
short guys
sat
side-by-side
on a log
.
The
y wore capes that fluttered
i
n the breeze
.
Didn’t people stop wearing capes centuries ago
?
T
he
y
were wearing
old gangster style hats and heavy m
u
ddy boots. Someone get the fashion police pronto. The shadows of the forest muted the smaller details though
.
The threesome might as well be talking shadows for the little she could make out
.

“It can’t be far, lest Wybb would have no power at all,” the first bum said.

“A reasonable assumption,” said the bum in the middle. “But so far there be nothing reasonable about this mission. How could someone or something simply pick it up and walk away without a trace
?
That’s not supposed to happen.”

The three bums talked with strange accents.
Glory
squinted, wanting to see more of them,
but everything was lost in black and gray.

“No use dwelling on it,” the first bum said, “It be gone, and as soldiers
of
the
Elboni
, our duty
be
to find it
.”

“But
the
magic be everywhere,” the third bum whined. “We have searched for days.
Pinpointing its source has proved impossible.
”

Clearly
,
the bums had lost something important, something
…
did they say
magical
?
Sure,
s
he thought with a smirk, ma
gica
l
like a drunken hallucination
.

“Searching this miserable indigo world will take forever,” the first bum complained. “But Wybb doesn’t have that long.”

“
The trail be cold, but take heart. We know the thief came through here.
”
replied the first bum
.
“
Find
the
shoes that match
the
prints
we will find
the
Elboni
.”

Elboni
—
w
hy did that word sound so familiar?

The bums stopped talking to eat
.
By the way they held their food
s
he guessed hotdogs were on the menu
.
A
s they raised the hotdogs to their mouths, the hotdogs began to struggle, squeal, and flick their bushy tails.
Glory
’s eyes popped
.

Those weren’t hotdogs
!
 

Sh
e watched in horror as a bum bit the head off a cute, furry squirrel
.
Crack, snap, pop went the bones as he chewed
.

Glory
’s hand shot to h
er
gagging
mouth
.
Backing away from the scene
on her toes
, she
prayed the bums
would
n’t
hear her
leave
.
Who knows what freaks like that might do?

Not wanting
to alarm
George
, she returned
to him wearing a fake smile.

“Hey
George
,”
she
whispered
.
“Let’s play a game
.
Whoever talks first
…
”
S
he swallow
ed
the urge to simply pick him up and dash off through the forest.
“
…
loses.”

“
George
likes games!” he replied enthusiastically causing
Glory
to cringe
.
She
cast a nervous glance over h
er
shoulder, but no bums appeared on the scene.

“The game starts now,”
s
he said lowly. “So shush yourself.”

Glory
knelt down on one knee, while
George
wrapped
thin
arms around h
er
neck and climbed on h
er
back
.
Sh
e immediately darted through the forest, over the stubbly fields, not stopping until home.

S
afe at home with a belly
full of biscuits and pie
,
Glory sat
on her bed in a pair of
pink
puppy dog pajamas. She
couldn’t get the stone
out of
mind and
had second thoughts about burying it. Then again, nobody would ever find it there.
Must do some research
. 

A minute later, s
h
e s
at on the
edge of the bed sifting through a shoebox full of polished stones
.
Holding one up to the lamp
,
s
he turned it this way and that
.

Opaque white, no doubt quartz,
s
he thought. The stone looked nothing like the indigo
rock
.
She r
eturn
ed
the box
to its designated place
underneath the bed,
and
then
pulled out another
one full of
glass-like stones
in soft pinks, white
s
and yellow
s. Not even these
c
altites
could
compare in
smoothness
.
The pink and tan feldspars
looked like ugly step sisters compared to the rock she had found today. She
passed them over and continued to rummage through
her
collection until something thumped
her
on
t
h
e
rump
.
Without looking
up
,
s
he knew it was Brandon’s foot
.