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

  I was very glad no one was watching me as the first buildings came into view. A small clump of graceful and folksy wooden buildings, with detailed scrollwork in the eaves. They looked comfortable and cozy, with just enough exotic added to make them interesting.

  I’m sure my face was that of a seven-year-old at her first circus. I shut my mouth once I realized my jaw was hanging open.

  These were not the same style of buildings as the ruins I’d been digging through the last fifteen years. These wooden structures would have been gone long before I could have found them for one thing. And the style was a bit different. But, there were elements to the buildings, like painted carvings in the wood, that were very similar to markings decorating the ruins.

  My thrill was short lived as we moved past the gathering of buildings, houses if I made a guess, and moved up a steep incline. I was about to ask if we could go back when we bent around a grove of manicured trees and their main city spread out before us.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I didn’t care who noticed, I plastered myself against the window to get a better look. I really wished Covey and I were in the same wagon. I would be surprised if she wasn’t already climbing up the side of her wagon to help Locksead drive faster.

  We were still a ways away, but at the clip we were going, we’d be there within the hour. In all the years I’d been digging in Beccia, no one had ever been able to establish a pattern to the elven ruins. They were over a thousand years old for one thing, and now, looking at the wooden structures, any pattern that had been there would have been broken when the wooden buildings disintegrated.

  Nevertheless, this city had a pattern.

  We were high enough above the plateau it occupied to be able to make out the arms of a swirling wheel. Some city patterns were based around geography, what they had to do to go around like natural landmarks, waterways, etc. It wasn’t that way with this. Water, fields, and farms, all seemed to be placed exactly where they could best accent the city structure—a giant sun with swirling arms.

  “Oh my.” I couldn’t help myself and said it louder than I’d intended. For a few moments I was able to forget I was there as a quasi-prisoner and that we were desperately trying to stop some unknown Master, a mad mayor, and the king of the rakasa from gaining a weapon that could possibly destroy, or change beyond recognition, life on this entire world.

  For a few brief moments, I was simply a digger now seeing what the ruins I’d been rummaging through for the last fifteen years were really like. Before the terror of the Breaking, before their culture was shattered and the elves vanished. I dreamt about the elves and their wonderful world when I was young—becoming a digger was something that tied me to that past. To my parents. To see all of this now, even under the current circumstances, was amazing.

  “It is impressive, is it not?” Qianru said as she peered through the window as well. Unlike Locksead’s stolen wagons, Qianru’s golden white beast had huge windows. The glass alone was probably worth more than I made in a year.

  “I recall the first time I saw this vista. The elves of the south have a different style, not bad per se. However, I do believe the isolation of this clan has kept their designs pure. It would be interesting to know of other clans as well.” She took up cushion space next to me. “Your tall, red-haired, elf maiden, for instance. She does not appear to be one of this clan, and yet she doesn’t appear to be of the south.”

  I looked over her shoulder at Alric but he shrugged. Orenda had only given us information as it came up about her people. And none of it was a lot aside from the fact they were even more paranoid than Alric’s clan and had been formed by a bunch of kids and teenagers.

  Perhaps Qianru could get more information out of her, and at the very least it would distract my patroness for a while.

  “She is not one of ours, my lady,” Alric said. “Yet she comes from a clan formed by survivors of the Breaking. She is a good lady and a true friend.”

  I was grateful for the save. He said it much better than anything I would have come up with. Although I wasn’t sure how much longer I could handle Lord Alric and his speech affectations. A shudder went through me. What if this was how he normally talked? Flarinen had been stiff, but not so affected. He also had clearly given up his birthright of being a high lord long ago.

  My terror must have shown on my face. Alric winked at me before Qianru had completely looked back.

  “Oh! I must talk with her! Please do introduce us once we have arrived in town. Where will you be staying?” The last question was directed at both Alric and I, but I didn’t think telling her we were probably going to be visiting the local jail for a bit was a good idea.

  Flarinen hadn’t called us prisoners directly in her hearing, so she most likely thought this was some sort of pleasure trip.

  With exploding guards.

  I really wondered why she hadn’t asked about how a wagon burst into flame for no apparent reason. Whatever the reason, it worked out well for me, since I didn’t want to tell her.

  “I have many commitments in town for the first few days. Regretfully, I need to steal away your archeologist as well. The others are not so constrained, so I am sure you can make arrangements with them,” Alric said.

  Okay, annoying speech or not, he was handy. Of course he did just throw my friends under the wagon so to speak, but there was a chance that being around Qianru might keep them out of trouble.

  Qianru and Alric dropped back into small talk and I let my mind drift as I watched our approach to the city. I was excited about seeing a real elven city, but terrified at what had chased us there. We’d moved ahead of the red swirl, and most likely by the time we got to the city itself it would barely be visible. But we’d know it was there.

  Being new to this entire magic thing, I had no idea what impact that mage’s goo was going to have on the shield’s power. Had this happened a few months ago, I would say they should take down the shield and join the rest of the world.

  Nevertheless, between the rakasa, the newly aggressive behavior of the syclarions, the Dark elven mages, and a growing collection of tiny relics of destruction, I now thought they should fortify it and find a way to hide for another thousand years. With everyone I knew and loved inside, obviously.

  I looked down at Alric’s feet, but there wasn’t anything there. He’d been careful about the packs that held the obsidian chimera, the emerald dragon, and the collection of spell books and minor weapons we’d found in the barn. If they weren’t near him, they were near one of our friends. I wasn’t sure when he had told them what was in the packs, and maybe he hadn’t, but it was good he trusted them now.

  “Well, now you see why I had to come here,” Qianru’s voice had gone up a few octaves in her enthusiasm of her topic and dragged me out of my thoughts. “The sapphire manticore is simply the most important piece for my collection.”

  That was a new one. I glanced up to Alric to see if that was one of the pieces the codex spoke of. He shook his head slightly, but the line between his brows told me that wasn’t a sure thing.

  “A manticore? You mean one of those mythological beasts with a scorpion tail?”

  “Yes! And this one is a giant sapphire, the size of a wagon wheel. My information led me to the charming village outside of here. I met Captain Flarinen, and he found a way for the council to accept me as a liaison of the south. Isn’t that lovely?”

  The size of a wagon wheel? That sounded far too big to fit in with the sizes of the relics we’d found so far. Alric’s scowl, when Qianru wasn’t looking, didn’t change at that added description.

  I wish I could read that damn codex for myself.

  “Does it do anything?” Damn it, that was not what I’d meant to ask out loud. It must be fatigue from really bad sleep for the last few weeks. Clearly my ability to keep things inside my head wasn’t working. Not a great time to be questioned by a bunch of snotty and powerful elves.

  “Do anything?” Qianru tilted her head, doing he
r best watcher impression to see what was going on in my mind. “Why, no, dear. It’s a giant sapphire carved in the shape of a mythical beast that hasn’t been seen in over a thousand years. It doesn’t need to do anything. It just needs to be.”

  I smiled and nodded, not really trusting my tongue to do what it was supposed to. I also silently willed her to go back to talking to Alric. I’d find a way to grill him later about this manticore. It was a good thing these were relics and not real. If this was part of the Ancient weapon, whoever made the thing really liked dangerous beasties.

  “Speaking of items, didn’t you have a sword earlier? My dear, when did you take up such a dangerous hobby?” Qianru was locked onto me now.

  “I did have one. It’s in the other wagon though. I figured with all of the dangerous people around it might be a good idea to protect myself.” Thank goodness my brain didn’t fail me now. “There could be relic thieves about, you know.” And there it went again. The wide eyes and grin told me I’d said too much.

  “Oh, excellent! I knew you had a tale or two to tell.” She peered back and forth between Alric and me. “You ran afoul of some thieves, did you? Tell me everything.”

  Alric leaned forward and took Qianru’s hand. “We would love to, but I was on a secret mission for my people concerning relic thieves. I’m afraid until we meet with my superiors we cannot speak of it.”

  Qianru nodded as if she completely understood, then peered into my lap at the pile of faeries. Who were all still passed out, thank the goddess. Then she looked up to us.

  “I suppose I can tell you two then, being as you are a high lord and whatnot. But I am going to be doing some work for the elven crown as well.” She glanced around, but since it was only the three of us, I wasn’t quite sure who she expected to be listening in. “Within a week, I will be leading an expedition to the Spheres.” She practically jumped with excitement as she grabbed my hand. “And I want you to come with me.”

  There were a lot of thoughts slamming into each other in my head right then. None of them were very coherent. The Spheres. The big giant balls of unknown make and purpose on the outer edge of the Forgotten Lands. And she was going on an elf-supported trip to investigate them.

  Little was known of them except there were six of them and they were so high that seeing the top of any of them from the plains they sat on was impossible. Their seventh member was a pile of rocks no larger than my head, but made of some material that no one had been able to move.

  Moreover, they were quite possibly some of the oldest structures in the known world.

  That frown line was back between Alric’s brows. Yet another thing I was going to have to bug him about in private. If we were ever in private. I finally admit that I was falling in love with the guy and we’d had no time alone since then.

  I shook my head at the random thoughts and realized that Qianru’s smile was starting to crumble a bit while waiting for my answer.

  “Really? I have always wanted to see those! Thank you!” Luckily I didn’t have to feign my enthusiasm much. Alric’s scowl went deeper as Qianru’s smile grew bigger.

  “Excellent, my dear. Once you have taken care of whatever you and Lord Alric need to resolve with the council, we can start planning.”

  Ah crap. For a little while my sleep-deprived brain forgot about the whole “technically a prisoner” bit. Alric and I weren’t having a nice chat with the elven council. He was being brought up for treason and I wasn’t sure what they were calling it, but I was up for stealing one of their spirit swords. That I hadn’t actually taken it from anyone was a moot point. I wasn’t an elf, and therefore my having one was a problem. I had been successfully convincing myself that Glorinal’s cry of “mine” when I found the sword, or it found me, was simply his demand to take it, not that it had belonged in any way to him.

  I didn’t really know anything about spirit swords, but I was pretty sure they wouldn’t go to a member of the Dark.

  “Does she wander off like this often? I never noticed it before.” Qianru’s question, directed at Alric, although she waved a hand in my direction, broke me out of my thoughts. Again. At this point the elves could toss me in jail, as long as it was a place I could sleep.

  “Sadly, yes,” Alric said. Then he winked at me and gestured toward the window. “Lady Qianru and I are both very acquainted with the city, but you might want to stay awake for this.”

  I ignored the barb—I was tired after all—and looked out the window. During our little discussion we’d covered the distance to the city.

  If it had been impressive from a distance, it was beyond description as we entered it. The buildings were mostly made of stone, but wood was worked into them in such a way that magic had to have been involved.

  The building we pulled up in front of was so impressive that it was almost terrifying. Actually, once I realized it was the council building, it went to completely terrifying. The pillars across the front were easily as wide around as some of the oldest gapens in the ruins. In fact the tops of them looked like stylized trees, branches running together to form the roof.

  The color at first appeared ivory, unlike the brighter buildings around it; this gave it a solemn appearance. However, once we stepped out of the wagon, it was clear the entire building was opalescent. Subtle colors raced across every surface, growing darker and greener as you looked to the top.

  “See? Is this not amazing? There is simply no way that we could have fully understood the majesty of the elves’ works from those ruins. And I’d dare say Eirlian is even more majestic than the city under Beccia,” Qianru said as she descended the wagon step behind me. “You are lucky you were called to council, it would have been a shame to miss this.”

  Her words let reality crash into me again, and I’d been doing such a good job avoiding it.

  I frowned as Flarinen and his remaining men jogged up behind us, with Locksead and the second wagon behind. This was going to be awkward.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “Alricianel Lis Treann Flairn Delpina, you are requested to stand forward and present yourself to the council,” Flarinen said, and then stiffly faced me. “Taryn St. Giles, you are also requested to present yourself.”

  Okay, that was doable. Presenting didn’t sound near as bad as being arrested. Maybe Flarinen wasn’t such a bad guy. Then I caught the look he shot Qianru when he thought she wasn’t looking.

  Nope. He didn’t want to look bad in front of his crush, and hauling in her clearly favorite digger and a fascinating high lord might do that.

  I’d take whatever I could get. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was still holding on to the chance of going to explore the Spheres with her. It was a nice fantasy and I was keeping it as long as I could.

  “Us too,” Garbage said with a slightly muffled voice. I’d forgotten that I was still holding the cape-bag of drunken faeries until she spoke. Good thing she did or I might have wandered into court with them.

  The question was how to get rid of them before I went inside without making Flarinen and his people even more annoyed at me.

  I peered inside the closed-up cape, but only Garbage and two of the extra nine were stirring. I could try shaking them awake, but if they hadn’t slept off whatever bender they’d gone on, having a dozen still drunk and groggy faeries stumbling around the elven capital wasn’t a good idea.

  “How are you feeling, sweetie?”

  Garbage looked around at the others. Apparently, to figure out how she felt, she needed to see how her friends felt.

  “Is still drunk.” She peered up at me looking fairly sober, but I knew better than to trust it.

  Flarinen had gone up the broad stairs to the gates of the council hall, and his men were loosely scattered around us. I couldn’t run for it, but I might be able to keep these little drunkards out of elven hands for a bit longer.

  Harlan and the others had gotten out of Locksead’s wagon, but were just standing around waiting. They weren’t being arrested, so I was pretty
sure they could go after we got hauled in. Harlan had a second cape on. It wasn’t the same color as the one I held the girls in, but it was close enough. It was a damn good thing he was a creature of habit.

  I motioned him over and he came to my side. I must have looked like I was planning something, because he had his conspirator’s face on.

  “Are we going to escape with you and Alric and make a wild dash for the border? Or just run into those deep woods and hide from them for a few months?” He actually went so far as to rub his paws with glee.

  I let out a sigh. “Neither. Alric and I both are going in willfully, but I need you to get the girls out of here—they’re still drunk.”

  Garbage was still watching me from her pile of faeries. But at least she seemed to be paying attention.

  “I need you to stay quiet for now. Uncle Harlan will protect you, but you need to stay quiet.” She nodded, or at least it looked like a nod, and I tied the ends of the cape together.

  “I’ll need the one you’re wearing,” I told Harlan as I shoved the faeries into his arms.

  “Now see here, I only have a few capes with me on this trip. I don’t see why you’re on a campaign to take them all.” He cradled the faeries protectively, but his tail still lashed about.

  “I know, and you’ll get it back, I promise. But I need something to fool them for a bit.” I glanced back, but Flarinen was still in a very animated discussion with the two guards at the front gate.

  Harlan might be difficult sometimes, but he was also quick to catch on. He watched Flarinen for a few seconds, and then jogged back to the second wagon. He came back almost immediately with the bundle and thrust it in my hands.

  “Nothing but a few shirts that got ruined during our travels,” he whispered. “I do hope Captain Flarinen enjoys them. The knot is one of my special ones as well.”