Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (91 page)

“Stop it
!
Ye idjut!”
One of them hollered
.

“See,” Glory said
, her voice calm and even
.
“I win.”

A whoop rose up from the bushes, followed by clapping and cheering
.
Clash
came up to
stand by her side.
“Is it over?
”
he
asked, looking at the trapped
star riders.
“Did you get your wish?”

“I think so,” Glory said
.
“
b
ut the
y stingy boogers are
hem
-
hawing
.

Needle pressed his cheek against the invisible wall
.
“I though
t
ye were off getting help, friend of
the
Rock Collector, but instead ye brought technology.
By what despicable
Tullah
n gadgetry are ye doing this?” he asked
.
“Shut-off this science right now or ye will be in big trouble."

"What’s more trouble than having my essence sucked out and my mortal remains tossed to the
Weinling
?”
Glory
said, feeling more than hurt by their willingness to turn her over to Lady
Gost
.
“Besides, it’s not science that holds you, it’s magic
.
I told you—you are bound
.
You can't come out until you grant my wishes.
”

"I don’t remember of you asking for any wishes, and I certainly didn’t agree to anything,” Bone replied.

“Me neither,” the other
Wybbil
s agreed.

"A few minutes ago
,
I specifically
wished
for my mother to be alive again, for
my dad
to quit getting drunk
,
and for a Nightburner of my own
.
And when I asked you if you’d honor my wishes, you said you would because
Wybbil
s always keep their word
and are honorable—stuff like that
.”

"Wh-what?
”
Needle tilted his head to the side
and
his jaw dropped
.

“Yep,”
Clash
said
.
“Heard
you
with my own ears.
”

“Liar,” Bone said.

“I
’ll prove it,
”
Clash
said, holding up
Matthew’s
Sliver
.
“
When you batted it to the moon,
the
power
came
on. I could hear it playing music from a mile away.
”
H
e
held it up to the force
field for the
star riders to see
.
When the video finished, the
three men stood in the circle,
mouths agape. Then they quickly
rehash
ed
the last twenty minutes of their lives
.

“Crimeny,” White Feather
finally said
.

White Feather
p
ac
ed
the perimeter of
the
invisible barrier
.

The
Wybbil
s went over their conversations with
Glory
,
replaying
their
conversations out loud
.
Bone
threw his
hands up in the air when
Needle
discovered the circle of willow reeds around them
.
Try as they might to pull it out of the snow, it was glued in place by magic.

“My handiwork,”
Clash
said,
rubbing his nails on his jacket.

Angry words were exchanged amongst the
Wybbils
.
T
hey argued and shoved each other around
inside the circle
.

The conversation inside the circle dimmed to a whisper
.
Glory
and
Clash
came close to the circle
cupping ear
s
in an effort to
hear
.
The
Wybbil
s formed a huddle
on the far side of the circle,
and when finished, they turned to
Glory
giving wicked-looking grins.

“Ye
be
missing
three
essential items for a valid binding,” Bone said smugly
.
“And,
one of them be
the
Elboni
itself.”

Glory
tossed her nose in the air.
“Says who?
”

The
Wybbil
s cried out, “It’s here
!
”
They
frantically
began
searching the rocks that form
ed the monument
.

When t
hey got to the last one, Bone said with an acid frown.
“
The Rock Collector
be
lying again.
None of these be
the
Elboni
.”

"Where is it?
”
Needle pressed his nose against the invisible barrier
,
nostrils fl
aring.
“I
felt sorry
for ye
,
thought ye
were
just
a misguided
child who didn’t know
no better. Co
me to find out all this time ye
knew exactly what ye
be
doing, but ye just did
n’t care who g
ot
h
armed in
the
process
. Y
e
be
a no-good-common-thief with soiled hands
who deserves whatever she gets
!"

Needle’s anger startled her, but she shot back.
"At first I had no idea what
I’d found in Queen’s Mesa
.
I didn’t know it belonged to anybody, and I certainly didn’t know it was your stupid ole
Elboni
.”

“Blasphemer!
”
Bone gasped
.
"
She
called
the
Elboni
stupid!
”

White Feather shook a finger
.
“
Even among Wybbils o
nly
the
rarest of persons, in the rarest of circumstances, have been found worthy of a wish from
the
Elboni
.
By deed and by word, ye have proved that ye are not rare, nor worthy—and therefore ye have failed to meet the conditions of
the ritual
.

“
Even if we had wanted to trade some magic for
the
stone, an agreement with the likes of ye would be impossible.
Repeatedly we tried to make ye understand this, but
in your pride
,
ye failed to see
the
most important
and obvious
condition
s
.
No
Tullah
n, especially
a stone-napping-thief such as yourself,
can ever receive a wish
, because
the
Elboni
knows
the
truth in every
man’s
heart
.”

“My heart isn’t perfect, but the Elboni wants to give me a wish anyway.”

“You propose to know the mind of the Great Stone?”

“He called you a stone-
napping
-
thief,”
Clash
said from behind,
resting
h
is
chin
on
Glory’s s
houlder
.
“I like that.”

“Not now,”
Glory said, pulling her shoulder away
.
Typical
Clash
, focusing on trivial things that didn’t matter in time of crisis
.
“Are you saying my wishes don’t mean anything
?”

“Aye,” said Needle
.