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

  Being able to see around me enabled me to move faster. Unfortunately, it also allowed me to see the condition of the place. The walls were ancient and unclean. A bad feeling that the long, almost black marks staining them were very old blood crept around my mind for a bit.

  I really wanted to call back the girls and Bunky, but if whoever they were following hadn’t seen them yet, I didn’t want to give them away.

  The strange glow seemed to rise to about waist high, then stop growing. It didn’t fade, at least as far as I could tell, which wasn’t much since the curvature of the stairs meant it was pretty much out of sight immediately. I tried wiping my finger on it, and it felt like moss, but the glow stopped as soon as it was away from the wall. I wiped the dead stuff on my pants and kept moving. I had lost track of how many steps I’d gone down but still hadn’t come across any injured faeries or Bunky.

  I was beginning to wonder if this went all the way to the ground, when a faint light, that wasn’t from the weird moss, came from below. I also heard some very well-known faery laughter. Since I could now see better, more or less, I picked up speed on the way down.

  I’d been in the stairwell long enough that the bright lights of the room before me temporarily blinded me.

  I had no idea what I’d been expecting, but my three faeries and Bunky playing with a ghost-like old man was not it.

  Unless elves had found a way to float a foot off the ground as well as transform themselves into something see-through, there was no ‘like’ about it—I had a ghost in front of me.

  The faeries and Bunky all seemed very happy, but I was in a hostile place and someone had thrown a very real dirk at me. I wasn’t taking chances.

  I held out the dirk and did my best to look fierce. “Who are you and why did you try to kill me?”

  The man spun around to face me. One would think that type of movement would be difficult without touching the ground. He did it as easily as if he’d been standing a foot lower than he hovered.

  It was hard to make out his features, since I could also see the dingy wall behind him. From what I could see, he had a long white beard, kind eyes, the type that went up in the corners, and a generous smile.

  The way my life had been going lately, he was the ghost of some insane killer.

  “I didn’t try to kill you. I was merely trying to get your friends to come play.” He did a jig in the air that the faeries mimicked, and Bunky flew around them. “Siabiane said you would come and bring wee ones. Such a joy.” He pointed toward Bunky. “And this fine fellow is an unexpected bonus.”

  When he spun, his thin hair spun outwards—he was an elf. Or had been when he was alive. And there was an odd shadow growing behind him. At first I wondered how someone that light could shine through could throw a shadow, and then I realized he wasn’t causing it but it was attached to him. A freezing cold enveloped the room, but the strange ghost man kept dancing.

  “Girls, Bunky get away from him.” I stepped back toward the stairwell. There was another door, but I’d have to go through him and his growing shadow to get there. “Girls, now.”

  One would think not having been a magic user my entire life, that suddenly not having it now wouldn’t be so shocking. Wrong. I found myself mentally reaching for a spell, and finding out what the stupid bands on my wrists could do.

  I got as far as actually drawing in a spell when a shock went through both wrists and I found myself slammed into the stairwell on my ass.

  The laughter that came from the small room started out benign but took on a darker quality almost immediately.

  “I thought I knew those cuffs. Not so much of a magic user now are you?” He hadn’t moved closer, but the girls and Bunky flew to me. All looked worried.

  “Bad,” Leaf said.

  “Very very bad,” Garbage added.

  “Is go boom.” Crusty shook her head.

  That had been one of the few good things about being away from them for a while—I didn’t hear about things, or me, going boom. I still wasn’t completely sure what it meant, as sometimes it appeared to reference something actually exploding, but not always. It usually meant something bad though.

  I scrambled to my feet, and started running up the stairs as best I could. “Let’s get out of here.” Going up was much faster than going down—motivation from whatever was in the room with the ghost definitely helped.

  The ghost laughed louder. The entire council building should have heard it by now. I dove through the wardrobe door, slamming it shut once Bunky and the girls were in. The chair was back wedged under the door handle, and the faeries, Bunky, and I were as far away from it as we could get in such a tiny room when the explosion happened.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The wardrobe door didn’t blow off, but it did rattle. A lot. The faeries were all sitting on me, and Bunky was on the ground next to us. He was touching my leg, but my pants protected me.

  We waited.

  Aside from some dust drifting down from the ceiling, nothing happened. The chair stayed jammed under the door handle, and nothing more rattled, moved, or laughed.

  Yet no one came to check on me.

  Now, the bit with the dirk, the guards wouldn’t have known about. I doubted they would have locked me up to throw knives at me. But that explosion must have been felt by anyone else in this tower, possibly the entire building. From what I’d seen of the city from my window, this was the big building for the entire city. There were plenty of people who would have felt it.

  “Seriously? No one cares that I could have been blown up?” My words got a few looks from the girls but nothing from any secret watchers.

  Maybe the rest of the city had been under attack as well. Nice theory, but a look out the window told me everything was fine. People appeared to be going about their business. At least the small shapes I could see moved in an organized and calm matter.

  I needed recon. “Girls? Can you fly yet?” I still wasn’t sure what in the explosion of the dark knight caused them to lose their flight, nor why Crusty had still been able to fly right after, but now couldn’t.

  “Nope,” Leaf said.

  “Fly go boom,” Garbage added.

  “Belch.” Crusty stood on her head.

  It was nice not having them all talk at once, but this was going to get annoying very quickly.

  I needed someone to go down and see what was going on, someone who could peek in the windows below me. Bunky could fly, but until he and I found a way to talk, that was not going to help.

  I’d have to count on Garbage.

  “Girls, I need you to do a very important job for me.”

  Garbage and Leaf looked at me as earnestly as they could, which wasn’t much in Garbage’s case. Crusty was looking up at the table where the almost empty ale bottle was.

  Sigh.

  “I need Garbage and Leaf to ride Bunky around the tower. Do not let yourselves be seen, this is a very secret mission.” I stared both faeries down. They weren’t really cowed, but maybe it would stick in their heads. “Report back what you see in the floors of this tower. Keep an eye out for our exploding ghost friend and Alric. Come back after you view all the windows, or when night falls.”

  While the girls rarely understood the concept of time, they did understand night.

  “Do not talk to anyone—even if you see Alric. No one can see you, do you understand?”

  Two faery nods and one very enthusiastic chimera nod-bounce. Bunky didn’t have much of a neck, so his nods took over his entire body.

  “No me?” Crusty finally looked over at us.

  “No, sweetie. I want one of you to stay here. I might need you for something else.” I really didn’t think the people who locked me up had any plan of coming to check on me any time soon. However, if someone did come in, it might be helpful to go invisible. They’d figure I was locked out of my magic, and they would be right, but they wouldn’t be counting on Crusty’s ability to hide me.

  I’d need to figure out where t
hey would be less likely to step on me, and hope they let slip some information when they thought I’d escaped.

  If anyone ever came up to check on me.

  Garbage, Leaf, and Bunky huddled around each other, and then waved Crusty to join them. After a full two minutes of high-pitched faery chatting and a purring Bunky, they all looked back to me.

  “Is good, we go. She stay.” Garbage pointed to Crusty, and then she and Leaf climbed up on Bunky. “We no break word—she stay.”

  Word? “What word?” Those girls had never given their word in their lives—well, they’d never held to it anyway.

  Garbage looked at Crusty and I, nodded, and brandished her war stick. Bunky lifted off and they were gone.

  I picked up Crusty who was climbing up my leg and held her up to my face. It sometimes worked better to keep Crusty’s attention if there was less distance between us for her to get lost in. “Honey? What word was Garbage talking about?”

  Crusty seemed fascinated by my nose for a few moments, and then sat down on my hand. “Can have bottle?”

  The bottle the faeries had been working on was empty, but mine was still sitting there where I’d left it. I’d always thought of Garbage as the mercenary of the three. Either I hadn’t been paying attention, or my little Crusty was learning.

  “Fine, you can have the ale in my bottle, providing you tell me what’s going on.”

  Crusty beamed at me and started to jump off my hand. I grabbed her with my other one.

  “After. You get the ale, after we talk,” I said. “And I say when you can have it.” Crusty usually wasn’t paying enough attention, or wasn’t sober enough, to be sneaky. I wasn’t sure that hadn’t changed.

  Crusty sat back down. At least she hadn’t started mimicking Garbage’s scowl. “Is okay. Uncle Harlan tell us watch you. Rescue you.”

  I was already sitting down, but if I hadn’t been I probably would have fallen over. That was an extremely well-said bit of information for any faery.

  “We give word.” She gave what passed for a serious nod for her, but she only looked at me briefly, then she peered longingly at my bottle of ale.

  “You gave Harlan your word?” I knew I was getting more information than usual out of her, but it still wasn’t much. Why would Harlan send the faeries and Bunky to rescue me when he knew I needed to stand trial or whatever their elven plan was? Moreover, the whole point with switching the cloaks was to keep the faeries away from the elves, not send them right into the heart of things.

  “No, gave her word. But Uncle Harlan say okay. At least he not stop.” Her face scrunched up at the last line and I wondered if Harlan hadn’t been able to stop them. Her neck was about to pop off her head as she tried to face me but stare at the bottle behind her.

  I took a deep breath. The faeries were dicey about names. Harlan’s they usually said right, or called him cat. Me, and most everyone else, not so much. Identifying ‘her’ might be tricky.

  New plan. I stood up, still holding onto Crusty, then walked next to the cot and sat down near the bottle.

  “How about we do it this way? I go through names, and you stop me when the lady who told you to come to me pops up. The bottle is right here, so when you get it right you can have it.”

  Crusty stood up on my hand, clapped her hands, and danced around. “Game!”

  Happy that she could watch me and her bottle, she sat back down on my hand.

  “Covey? Orenda? Qianru?” Tiny little head shakes at each. “One of the other faeries?”

  Again a head shake. Okay, there were no other females with us. “Did Bunky bring back someone with him?”

  Crusty rolled and laughed at that one. “No, he know us.”

  Okay, not helpful.

  The girls already said they had been motivated to do something by another woman. “Siabiane?”

  “Yay!” Crusty jumped up, leapt off my hand, and ran for the bottle. She stopped so suddenly she almost fell over her feet. “Is good?”

  I nodded and watched her jump into the half-empty bottle. Alric had never mentioned Siabiane before, but then he’d said little about anything to do with his homeland. He clearly knew her and liked her. Flarinen didn’t like her and that alone was a reason to give her a chance.

  Yet she’d brought the girls and Bunky right to her people. Moreover, the insane ghost down below had mentioned her, which sort of nudged her to the not-so-good side.

  I would have liked to ask Crusty a bit more about our mysterious Siabiane, but I had a feeling I’d gotten all that I was going to get out of her. Besides, she was swimming in ale.

  I was thrown out of my thoughts by heavy feet echoing up the stairwell beyond my door. It was hard to tell with the echoing, but it sounded like a lot more feet than needed to bring in one unarmed, magicless woman.

  Crusty drank the last of her ale, and I tumbled her sodden little body out into a shirt and dried her off. She belched at me and tipped over.

  “No. Crusty? I need you to make me invisible.” I kept drying her off as I walked to the far side of the cot and sat down. They would see me immediately unless I could get Crusty to do whatever she and the other faeries did to make people invisible.

  The steps were much louder now, probably on the last bend before the landing in front of the door.

  “Come on, sweetie, you can do this.” I held her head up to get another belch. They must have been drinking before they came to see me. I’d seen her drink far more and not be this loopy. Finally her eyes focused and she nodded.

  Just as the door burst open.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  That was one of the problems with this new little trick of the faeries: I couldn’t tell if it worked or not. I felt the same. Crusty looked the same. Not until someone looked at us and didn’t see us, would I know if it was working.

  “Get up. You’re needed in the chambers.” The first guard through was the most solid and stocky elf I’d ever seen. He also bellowed before he even fully came into the room. He looked around, right at me in fact, but kept looking.

  “I told you two I felt something,” he yelled and two more almost as stocky guards came in. They all had the same green armor as the ones below, but it looked off for some reason. Ill-fitting and badly made. Two things I’d doubt elven guards in the employ of the council would allow.

  Crusty gave a snort, but I shook my head and put my finger up to my lips. She pantomimed locking her lips shut, but convulsed in silent giggles as the guards tore around the small room. They swung open the wardrobe door, but whether or not the door to the other stairwell was still there, I couldn’t tell. The guard shut it immediately.

  “Maybe she fell out the window. You threw the dirk too hard,” the second guard said as he looked out the window. Then he noticed the nicked wood. “Naw, she ducked. I told you she still had magic.”

  The third guard continued to upend the room silently, including the cot next to me. I held my breath as that brought him close enough to smell his sweat. Fear sweat seemed to have a distinct odor. He didn’t react to either Crusty or me.

  “We had one job, kill her.” The first guard stalked to the third guard and poked him in the chest. “You missed. Now she’s managed to escape.”

  All three spun as a familiar creak came from the wardrobe.

  “I thought you checked?” The second guard accused the first.

  “I did check and there wasn’t anything there.” The first guard stomped to the wardrobe door and pulled.

  It didn’t open.

  Considering that my biggest issue had been how to keep that thing closed, this was a new and possibly bad turn of events.

  The second guard joined him and they both pulled.

  Not a budge. I had to hold Crusty close to me because she was laughing so hard.

  Even I almost lost it when the third guard started pulling. Now keep in mind, up until a few months ago, I, like most of the people in the land outside of this enclave, thought the elves had vanished. Qianru had implied elve
s were plentiful in her homeland to the south, but that had only happened in the last few months as well—and there was growing evidence they weren’t all the good kind of elf.

  Growing up dreaming of looking for the lost elves, I’d always felt elves had a certain mystique and elegance. I never thought I’d be thinking of a bunch of elves as dumb brutes, but these three were aiming that way.

  Just as I felt I couldn’t keep Crusty, or myself, quiet, the door imploded. It also pulled the three guards, the wardrobe, and the nearby chair all into the stairway behind the wardrobe. It felt like the black gaping maw that remained watched me.

  I released Crusty and she gave one little chirp of a giggle, but I think it was left over from her trying to keep them in. Even my chronically drunk and confused blue faery looked worried at the hole.

  The noise from that implosion really should have brought people running.

  I stayed in my corner, holding Crusty for a few more minutes. However, I didn’t hear any yelling, footfalls, screams of the dying. Nothing.

  “Why not we leave?” Crusty had pulled her face very close to mine and was really trying to keep her eyes focused.

  “Because we can’t, honey, the door is…” The door was open. It was only about an inch or so, but clearly those three big elf guards weren’t worried I was going to get out when they were there.

  And Crusty had been the one to notice it. That was a true shocker.

  I had come along voluntarily to this event in part to see the elven city, but also because of Alric. I had agreed to be locked up. What I had not agreed to was being locked up in an old tower, attacked by some guards, and almost blown up by some weird ghost-thing.

  I was getting out of here.

  A tiny part of my brain pointed out finding out what happened to those guards might be a good thing. They had tried to kill me after all.

  The rest of my brain squashed that idea immediately. Then stomped on it for good measure. There was rampaging curiosity and there were suicidal tendencies. I really planned on keeping the second one out of my life.