The Sapphire Manticore (The Lost Ancients Book 4) Read online

  “Garbage! Leaf! Crusty! Answer me!” My heart dropped as nothing came from the wreckage in front of me. I felt people come up behind me, but I had to try to save my girls.

  “Girls!” I started to dive forward, but hands on each side of me stopped my movement. Alric had one arm and Covey the other.

  “Let me go. I have to save them,” I said as I looked for a way to get them out.

  “What? We here.” Garbage’s voice came from above us. All twelve faeries were clinging to tree branches high above us. From a distance they all looked a bit smoky but fine. Except for the fact they were all clinging to tree branches instead of flying around.

  “Are you all okay?” I leaned into Alric a bit when both he and Covey let go of my arms. My heart was pounding so fast I thought I might fall over.

  “We stay here. Is good.” Crusty let go of her branch with one hand and swung around it. The way she scrambled gave me my answer. The explosion had blown them up there, and done something to their wings. They looked fine from here, but they were at least twenty feet up so I couldn’t see them that well.

  “Can we get them down?”

  “Can we first put your wagon out? We are in the woods. Flame isn’t a good idea here.” Harlan had joined us. While his face showed concern for the girls, it switched to near terror when he faced the wagon.

  “We need something to put it out with.” Alric ran over to the second wagon and climbed inside to see if there was anything he could use to suppress the fire.

  “How did this happen?” Covey asked as she pulled a few twigs out of my hair.

  “The knight—crap.” There had been a second injured knight in the second wagon. “Alric, we have a problem.” I gave the girls one final glance, but they seemed quite happy and were swinging around their branches waving their slightly singed war blades. I ran to the second wagon.

  The door flung open when I was two feet away, and Alric and the second injured knight tumbled to the ground. They were fighting, both holding their own, but the knight wasn’t smoking or showing black spots, and from what I could see of his eyes, looked normal.

  “What did you do to him?” The knight screamed as he pulled back to punch Alric in the head.

  I was sure Alric could hold his own, but there was still a wagon on fire and faeries stuck in a tree. I needed them to stop fighting, but I couldn’t use my magic or my sword.

  Before I could come up with a brilliant plan, Orenda rushed past me, bent down next to the two fighting elves, and darted in and grabbed both of their ears.

  I knew elves were faster than me, but I barely saw her as she moved. Her tactic worked though, both men stopped immediately.

  Still holding onto their ears, she looked up and flashed me a smile. “I grew up with five brothers, three were younger than me. This stopped them every time.”

  Alric and the knight were still glaring at each other, but neither moved until Orenda looked down at them. “I am assuming you both will stop this silliness and try putting out the fire?” At their nods and embarrassed looks, she let go.

  Harlan, Tag, Locksead, and Covey had already started putting out the fire. It was out before we got there.

  Initial worry over, the injured knight whirled back on Alric, and me. “You two, you killed Gavin.” He freed his sword but to be honest, he didn’t look all too healthy. Luckily, it looked like a normal, “I may have some internal injuries and might fall over,” rather than “I’m going to blow up and take you with me.”

  “Why would we do that?” Alric said as he slowly walked to the man. “We could have left you and Flarinen at any time before now. As you saw, she can control the shield, so we could leave now as well.”

  That was news to me. Yes, technically I did manage to force my hands through it, but I wasn’t sure how, and I had a bad feeling I wouldn’t be able to repeat it.

  “What did you do?” Flarinen’s voice cut through everything as he, the rest of his men, and Qianru’s garish wagon came into view. I’d never seen it before since she mostly traveled by foot in Beccia. And this was something to remember. I knew it had to be made out of painted wood, but she had managed to find an artisan to make it look like gold-veined marble. It was trimmed in what looked like gold leaf and had the phalanx of houseboys running behind it. Joie held the reins.

  I hadn’t been happy with the way the knights had treated Alric as a prisoner. I was really unhappy with the way Flarinen and his remaining knights were looking at me now. A very unhealthy combination of anger and fear. Lynch mobs formed with those types of looks.

  “She didn’t do anything,” Alric said before I could even figure out how best to respond. “Your knight was corrupted. Either it happened at the barn or he was one of them from the beginning.” There was a snarl to his words that pissed off Flarinen more.

  Which might have been his plan, as Flarinen’s focus switched from fear to anger and all aimed at Alric. Whatever history was between these two, it wasn’t good.

  “My men are not corrupt. You are. You’ve been in the outer world too long. These people have changed you.” He bowed to Qianru. “You are the exception of course, my lady.”

  I actually looked at Qianru for the first time this encounter. The elven worship was still there, but she had a very stern look as well. And it wasn’t aimed at me.

  “I believe I disagree with your assessment, good Captain. Not concerning me, of course, you are correct in that. However, I do find myself taking exception at your assessment of my archeologist. She is still under my employ if you will recall.”

  You could have pushed me over with a faery wing with that comment.

  Flarinen as well, it appeared.

  “I beg forgiveness, my lady. I’m sure you know her far better than my short acquaintance.” He actually appeared flustered as he looked around the scene. Far more people than he was supposed to bring in, another dead knight, and a smoldering wagon. The look on his face said it all—this was not going his way.

  “US!” Garbage bellowed from their tree.

  I’d forgotten about them for a moment, but that did answer the question, they still couldn’t fly. All twelve were still clinging to the branches, but looking far less entertained than they were a few minutes ago. The novelty of not being able to get down had worn off.

  I really hoped that whatever damaged their wings in the fire was short lived. Carrying them everywhere would get old fast. I needed someone to take care of them until they recovered.

  Flarinen conferred quietly with his knights, with Qianru and her houseboys standing near-by.

  I took the opportunity to walk up to the others. “Where is Bunky?” I seriously doubted that he would have obeyed me if his faeries weren’t around, but the fact I hadn’t seen him was disturbing.

  “He had things to do,” Harlan said while still watching the debate among the knights. “He told the girls he would join us here.” He frowned. “At least that was what Leaf Grub said about a week ago. I do wonder how he would get through that however.” He looked at the murky shield overhead.

  That was odd. Since he’d joined us, Bunky hadn’t been away from his faeries for more than a few hours. As a construct he was fairly indestructible, but I still worried about him.

  I also needed another way to get the faeries down.

  “We need to move on to the city,” Flarinen said. “Taryn and Alric will ride with Lady Qianru and the rest of you will ride in the second wagon. We will need to make haste since the infection of the shield is moving quickly.”

  “I’m not leaving until we get them down.” I pointed to the faeries. From the look on his face, Flarinen had forgotten them for the moment.

  “They can’t fly?”

  Crap, I knew where his thoughts were going. If they couldn’t fly, they couldn’t get away. He might have backed down about me for now, thanks to Qianru, but he wasn’t going to forget me, nor the faeries, again.

  “A temporary situation.” I looked up at the girls. They were still swinging around
but looking more annoyed than before. “The explosion your man created caused their wings to malfunction a bit. It’s happened before.” That was a lie, but I really wasn’t liking the look on his face.

  Harlan was wearing a long cloak, one of his affectations; he actually preferred them to jackets. “Harlan, can we have your cloak?”

  “Ah yes, that would work nicely.” He had been looking up into the tree, but responded like it had been his idea.

  I didn’t care as long as we could get them down. If they couldn’t fly, I’d rather they were with me than taking a chance with Flarinen.

  Harlan and Covey took one end of the cloak, Orenda and I took the other and we held it out under the tree.

  “Girls? I need you to jump down, we need to leave.”

  “We no fly. No, fly.” Crusty said with enough singsong in her voice that I thought they’d been drinking. Considering they’d been flung up about twenty feet in the air, I seriously doubted any ale bottles had been flung up there with them.

  “I know you can’t fly. I need you to jump.” I saw Flarinen out of the corner of my eye and he was looking annoyed again. I wasn’t sure how long Qianru could hold him off.

  “Jumpity jump jump!” Now it was Leaf who was acting drunk as she bounced around on the branch. In addition, I heard a suspicious clanking sound.

  “Girls? Do you have ale up there?”

  A bunch of brightly colored and feigning innocence faces peered down at me. I didn’t see the empty ale bottle until it slipped out of Crusty and Garbage’s hands. I stepped aside right before it hit me.

  Damn it, they could now make objects invisible by touching them as well? I glanced over to Flarinen to see his reaction. Not good.

  “Where did they get that?”

  “Didn’t you see it?” Harlan said before I could come up with something. “It was right there next to her.”

  I really hoped the girls didn’t have more or if they did, they could hide them. “Girls, I need you to put everything away, and jump. These fine people can’t wait any longer.”

  Trying to be subtle with the faeries was dicey in the best of circumstances. Considering I had no idea how long they’d been drinking, the circumstances were no longer dicey, they were close to tragic.

  “We jump!” Crusty started jumping. Up to higher tree branches.

  “No, down, jump down.” Garbage lined up the rest of the faeries, ignoring Crusty, and then she started pushing them off the branch one at a time.

  “Dive!” With her swinging her war stick in the air as she yelled, she really looked like some insane commander.

  The faeries all held their noses as they fell, all of them keeping their wings tight around their bodies.

  Garbage even reached around and pushed herself off.

  All of them were down except Crusty.

  I could barely see her as she’d gotten up into the higher branches fairly quickly. The rest of the faeries were bouncing around in the cape and not showing a hint of getting off. Flarinen’s glare was starting to deepen.

  “Harlan, wrap the girls in the cape and put them in Qianru’s wagon.” I handed him my corner while I kept an eye on my bouncing blue faery.

  “Crusty, sweetie, I need you to come back down here.”

  “Jumpity jumpity, minkies, jumpity!”

  Damn it, I needed her down. I glanced at Flarinen, but he was looking up. I shut my eyes and focused on Crusty and an entire wagon full of ale.

  “Mine!” Crusty yelled as she dove head first off her high branch. Very high. She was picking up speed and while I originally thought I could catch her, I was beginning to think that was a very bad idea.

  My fears dropped when two feet above my head she flared out her wings and swooped toward Qianru’s wagon.

  “So why can she fly?” Harlan asked me.

  “She no fly, she drunk.” Garbage yelled as Crusty flew over Harlan and landed on Qianru’s wagon.

  “Where ale?” Crusty said then flew inside. She came back a moment later. “No drinkie!”

  “Crusty? Can you fly to me?”

  She gave the wagon one final disgusted look, and then flew over to me. “So you can fly, but they can’t?”

  “No, no, no, me no fly, me drunk.” To reinforce that, she belched and did a jig on my hand. One that ended with her falling over.

  I walked up to Harlan and dropped Crusty in with her friends. Then I took the cape-bag.

  “If you are all ready, I believe we need to get to town before that does,” Flarinen said. His tone was that of a benign lord, however, the fact his jaws looked so tight I was afraid they were going to pop said it was an act for Qianru’s sake.

  Best not to push it.

  The inside of Qianru’s wagon was more impressive than the outside. She even went so far as to have small figurines, eerily in her likeness, embedded into the sides of the wagon.

  “Now, my dear, sit next to me and tell me how you came to be here instead of back in quirky little Beccia?” Qianru patted the seat next to her with enough force to point out that I really didn’t have a choice. “And do let your little friends out, as they are quite adorable.”

  Clearly Qianru’s experience with faeries was very limited.

  “I think a better story would be how you came to be here, fair lady,” Alric said from his seat. He was now looking like an elven high lord should look. The change in his features was shocking and all done by attitude. “I’ve not been home much the last few years, but my people are not known for being friendly to outsiders.”

  I fought to keep my snort under control at that. Openly hostile would be a better way to call it.

  “Oh, Lord Alric, they have been nothing but wonderful to me. Unlike that vile Jovan who clearly was of inferior stock. Did you know that I knew there was something wrong about him from when we first met?” She fluttered her hand at him. “I did. But I doubted my own instincts, and instead based my opinion on the way elves in my homeland behave. But your clan has been as warm and welcoming as my own people.”

  “Well, how could they not?” Alric’s tone was going through a subtle change, mimicking Qianru’s in a way. “You are clearly of superior breeding; even my stubborn people respect that.”

  I’d always thought that Qianru’s vile bird feather hat had been her worst look. While I was very grateful that her attempt at mimicking a watcher bird didn’t seem to be along on this trip, I was horrified at how the simpering look that invaded her face appeared. Some faces should never simper, coo, or anything like that. Ever.

  “Oh, you are such a dear, Lord Alric.” Her hand flew to her mouth in a show of fake embarrassment. “Dear! I forgot to check if you had a longer name you would prefer to be called. I have been so rude.”

  I’d heard Alric’s full name once, when Flarinen called him out to be taken in for treason. I couldn’t tell anyone what it was because it was too long and had what sounded like far too many vowels. Alric’s little act better not go so far as to make people use that long, pretentious name.

  “Nay, fair lady, I am quite comfortable with my shortened moniker. It would be an honor to have you continue calling me thus.”

  I wasn’t going to be able to keep a straight face in the midst of this, so I opened the hastily tied-up cape-bag and peered at my wards. They were mostly dozing, I had a feeling they’d probably been off drinking somewhere before faery intuition brought them back to take care of the knight. Technically against my orders since I had told them to stay away until I called them.

  A few snores told me most had already passed out, but Garbage still seemed awake even if she was piled up against a snoring Leaf and an awake Crusty who was studiously wiggling her fingers at nothing in particular but grinning like a fiend.

  “Garbage? Honey? What happened? Why did you come back?”

  “Lady tell us to.”

  “Lady? What lady?” Had they met some strange elf woman at whatever bar they’d found? “Garbage, where was the lady?”

  She was starting to
drift back over her friends, her head bobbing slowly. “In head. She tol’ us, you go boom.” She struggled to lift her head and could only get one eye open. “You no boom. Like you.” Then she passed out.

  I looked over to Crusty, not usually a fountain of information, but she was the only one left at this point. She wiggled her fingers and toes at me, shared an enormous smile, and then crashed over her friends and started snoring.

  So much for that. They met a lady in their heads? I thought about the voice we’d heard when the rakasa and that strange figure attacked. Well, some of us. She’d only spoken to the magic users. Could she have sent the faeries to us? To me?

  Flarinen had been sure it was this strange woman named Siabiane, but I never got a chance to ask Alric about it. By the way he and Qianru were cooing over elven lore and life as a high lord, I couldn’t very well ask him right now.

  Not to mention he’d taken the hit by asking Qianru questions so she wouldn’t question me. Eventually, she would though. She often reminded me of a watcher bird, they shared a lot of the same features and she had their intense focus. The likelihood of her forgetting about asking me what I was doing out here was about the same as the university granting Crusty an advanced degree.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything beyond the truth, and I knew that wasn’t going to go over well. To distract myself from the inane babbling going on, as well as hopefully help me come up with a plausible explanation that avoided the whole weapons of mass destruction in tiny Ancient relics, I looked out the window again.

  The giant trees I’d seen before were gone and we were coming into a groomed forest. That was the only way to describe it. Unlike the giant wild trees of before, the ones here were all tamed and crafted to almost look like sculptures. The road looked different as well. Tiny smooth stones covered it but didn’t make the wheels or the horses’ hooves seem any louder. It was as if I could see the sparkly shiny stones, but the horse and carriage traveled smoothly, as if they were riding over one of the paved roads in the big city.