The Emerald Dragon (The Lost Ancients Book 3) (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Four

Since Locksead was still not going to give any of us specifics, the meeting, such as it was, broke up early. Covey stayed, talking to Locksead. The two had built up a friendship of sorts based on his growing up around her people. As she explained it, few people understood the nuances of her people’s culture and it was refreshing to be around someone who could appreciate it.

Orenda and Harlan had slipped away behind the wagon he rode in. They were never too far away from everyone else, but they definitely had something going on between them.

The faeries were off with Tag and Bunky at the far end of the camp, playing some game only they understood. I’d noticed that whenever he was around them, and playing, he looked much younger. Probably what his real age was.

I reached for the handle of our wagon, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t scream and don’t kick me.” It was Alric. When I wasn’t having half a dozen negative emotions flooding my brain, I could hear how close his real voice was to Carlon’s. Really just a few levels down for Carlon, he mostly made the difference noticeable by the words he used. And the attitude. Carlon was a complete ass. And I was thinking that Alric wasn’t too far away from that either. Interesting, but not enough to keep me from spinning around and stomping on his foot.

“You bastard. I was worried about you, and you were out here with that female elf.”

I kept my voice down. I’d thought that I wanted Covey to take him down a few pegs, and I still did. But I also wanted answers.

“I can—”

“If the next word out of your mouth is explain, I will kick you so hard the entire camp will feel it.” I looked around the group sitting by the fire. No one seemed to have noticed us yet. It’d be best if we kept it that way. I flung open the door. “After you.” When Alric tried to motion for me to go first I gave him my best Covey-copied snarl.

He got inside quickly and I followed and locked the door. As soon as it locked, Alric dropped the glamour and even went so far as to pull off the wig. It must have been expensive even though it looked like crap, based on how real it appeared. He looked paler than usual, but it could just be the difference between Alric and Carlon. I’d been looking at Carlon for the last three weeks.

“Let me….” He watched my face, and then shook his head. “No, you go first. Get it all out.”

“You son of a bitch. We thought you had been kidnapped, or killed. What were you doing here? What had you been doing with her?” I wouldn’t cry. The wetness by my eyes was just dust that must have been kicked up when I stomped on his foot.

“Maybe I should go first.” He sat down on one of the sofa cots, mine to be exact, and ran his fingers through his hair. It was such a familiar move it almost broke my heart.

“I have been working with Locksead and his gang off and on for a few years for leads on relics for my people. Carlon is a bastard so no one cares if he drops in for a job or two and then takes off. I make sure they only get relics that aren’t of historical significance, or ones we already have too many of like those sarcophagus pieces.”

Damn him, he was appealing to the tiny part of me that wanted to believe in him. I shook my head more at myself than at him. “Then what about Orenda? Is seducing an elf from another clan a new game?”

He reached forward and took my hand. Only then did I realize that I’d been digging my nails into my arm. I was starting to rethink just letting Covey at him, then talking to him when he was beaten and bruised.

“I was keeping a presumed innocent away from Locksead and the others. Some of the ones Covey got locked up were brutal.” His face was grim and I was glad I’d not met most of the gang. “She was so wide-eyed and innocent I couldn’t just let them at her.”

I jerked my hand out of his. “So your bed was better since you’re an elf? That’s rich.”

He laughed and shook his head. “I never slept with her. I cast a love spell on her when Locksead first brought her into the group, then knocked her out each night with a sleeping draught and used a spell to mimic her voice.”

I wasn’t sure about that, but my gut told me he was telling the truth. My heart wasn’t ready to believe him though, and my brain had a lot more questions. “Fine. But then why did you leave us? I…we all thought someone had taken you. You left without saying a damn word. Then we’ve spent three weeks on the trail together and you couldn’t tell me who you were?”

He rubbed his forehead. “I’ll admit I didn’t handle any of this well. And I had been trying to tell you who I was. You’re damn difficult to get alone if you put your mind to it.” He smiled, though, then let it drop when I didn’t smile back. “As for taking off, someone was trying to kill me. The attack on my cave was set with one purpose, to take out that entire area along with me in it. I confirmed that when I went back to look for the girls. I even saw someone who looked like me heading for Covey’s house when I started to come back to tell you good-bye. However, a changeling could only mean I wouldn’t be around much longer in someone’s plan. They captured the faeries and Bunky, and held them so well Garbage couldn’t even feel them. I don’t know anyone strong enough to break that bond with those faeries.”

He looked up and there was real fear in his eyes. “There is someone after me with a lot of magic. I thought it might have been Glorinal since one of my sources mentioned seeing elves in the far ruins. However, there’s no way anyone would take what he’s become for an elf. I couldn’t let whoever was after me hurt them. Or you. So I donned my Carlon disguise and went back to Locksead.” He watched me for a minute, then shook his head. “Beyond my being on the run, I think this site may have one of the Ancient relics, one of the pieces of the weapon. I would have had
us
come up here looking for it, but I had to change that plan. I’d just convinced Locksead we needed to leave immediately for Kenithworth when those damn brownies and their golem came after us in the ruins. And we found you.”

My heart wanted to believe him. And some part of me did mostly because this twisted explanation completely fit the Alric I knew. I met his eyes for a few moments, and then shook my head. “I’d like to believe all of it. But your life is just too damn complicated. Moreover, you lie far too easily. I won’t tell them who you are, but I think we should work on staying away from each other on the rest of this trip.” I had to close my eyes as I said the last part, keeping my tears in check was almost impossible.

Alric nodded and there was genuine sorrow on his face. “I understand. However, after this, I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

I rose and unlocked the wagon door then briefly stuck my head out to make sure no one was watching. It was clear. I turned back to Alric. “No. After this, I still want you to stay away. If our interests overlap, since we seemed doomed to find all the pieces of that damn Ancient weapon of mass destruction, we maintain a professional relationship.” I looked out into the night. It was too hard to look at him.

I heard the cot creak as he rose, and felt him come up behind me.

“I am sorry.” His breath was warm against my ear and he sounded so heartbroken, I almost turned to face him.

But I couldn’t. Every time I thought I knew who he was, something else popped up. “So am I.” I shut the door as quickly as I could, then fell into my cot and cried.

***

I finally fell asleep, at least I assumed as much since my next thoughts were that I should have pulled the curtains closed better and that it was way too early to be that sunny. I heard the soft snores of both Covey and Orenda, so clearly they had made it in at some point. I had a full two minutes of calm thoughts before my interaction with Alric came slamming back into my mind. In an avoidance of thinking about the emotional loss, I realized that I’d also lost my magic teacher. The intimacy of learning magic was far too much for me to interact with him that way now. However, unless I was willing to expose my secret to another high-level magic user, I was wouldn’t be able to continue training.

I let that float around my head a bit. I’d lived my entire life not having magic; in fact, I’d been a magic sink. I could survive without using it now. A tiny voice in my head pointed out how good it felt the few times I’d been able to complete a spell without the fire ants in my head and how hard it would be to give that up. Then I thought of how messed up Alric was even with his magic.

I could live without using magic. Especially if Covey succeeded in turning me into a fighter.

“Are you okay?” Covey’s cot was nearest to mine, and she pitched her voice low. I hadn’t even known she was awake.

“I will be. I’ll explain later.”

Covey grunted in agreement, and then rolled over.

I tried to fall back asleep, but that damn curtain kept letting the sun in. And I just didn’t feel like getting up to fix it.

The point was moot as Cook’s bell rang to get everyone up for breakfast.

I quickly dressed, checked on the faeries, who were still asleep, and left the wagon. Tag and I were the first ones up. He drove our wagon, but after the first night or two of being stuck in the wagon with three women, he moved to sleep in Harlan’s wagon. Both Covey and I had pointed out that we could drive the wagon, but Locksead wanted someone he trusted driving. We were good enough to be together on this one caper, but not to be trusted with one of his wagons.

“So, are you sure you don’t want me to take care of Carlon for you?” Tag asked as he dropped in alongside me. He kept his voice down low, but his face was fierce.

The idea of him taking on Alric was charming. And terrifying. I had been afraid of what Carlon could do, but Alric was far more dangerous. No one in this group seemed to have a clue he was a magic user, let alone the level of magic user he was. Had someone like Carlon had that kind of power I’d flee. As it was, while part of me knew Alric would never hurt a kid, the other part pointed out I really didn’t know Alric at all. He’d let Grimwold try to heal Locksead when he could have fixed the shattered arm with little more than a word. If he felt his disguise was in danger of becoming compromised, who knew how far he’d go to protect it.

“I think he knows to stay away from me.” I reached over and gave Tag’s shoulders a squeeze. “But thank you. It’s good to know you’re there for me.”

His smile showed his youth and I wondered again what had caused him to flee to the north and join a bunch of reprobates. Especially if Alric had been right and the nicer ones remained. I almost thought that I should ask Alric if he knew Tag’s story, then reminded myself I needed to start distancing myself from him. It would be difficult once this was over, but the sooner I stopped relying on him the better.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I hadn’t ended up eating last night, so Cook’s food should have tasted awesome. However, aside from an overwhelming realization that I should eat, I wasn’t enjoying it. Locksead, Cook, Jackal, and the others came out slowly. Alric was the last one out and sat far from Covey, Tag, and I. The faeries and Bunky had gone off hunting almost immediately after eating. I’d warned them that we’d be moving down into town today, so they’d need to find us. I think Garbage heard me. She just waved at me distractedly, grabbed her war stick, and led her troop and Bunky to the west. I had briefly tried to clarify with Bunky just how he put a spell on the faeries, but since our communication only went one direction, I still didn’t know how he did it. I left it with an admonishment to refrain from spelling the girls in the future and a promise to talk more when they got back.

Hopefully they’d stay out of trouble. At least no more than usual.

Tag let out a sigh as they vanished from sight. “How did you get them to stay with you?” There was a lot of wistfulness in those words.

“I was cursed with them by a crazy hedge witch years ago. She saved my life and in payment made me take the three faeries as my wards. We thought they were the only ones around until a few months ago when the wild ones started showing up.” I gave him a smile. “I’m kind of used to them now.”

“Those weren’t wild though, were they? They dress like your three.”

In my head, I added “and they act like my three, drink like my three, and gamble like my three.” Instead, I just smiled. “They
were
wild. My three have managed to corrupt whole flights of formerly wild faeries.”

Tag nodded and I could practically see him planning to get some faeries of his own. Not a great idea, but since I was the only one I knew of with her own flock of the little miscreants, I couldn’t speak to how well his plans would turn out.

Harlan came to join us, and his scowl was something of epic proportions. “I heard tell that varlet Carlon laid hands on you?”

I glanced to Tag, but he was watching the preparations taking place. Three of the four wagons would be carrying on to the dig site on the outskirts of the town. Locksead and Cook would be staying in the fourth one in a group of trees a few hours from the entrance gate to the town. Locksead’s arm had been having more problems. In addition, he’d tripped two nights ago, and along with more injury to his arm, he wasn’t walking well.

The three wagons going in needed some final touchups to make them look like they belonged to a group of serious diggers. A lot of it involved heavy applications of dust and dirt to the outside. Apparently, the road dust we’d added on our trip wasn’t sufficient in Locksead’s eyes.

“Tag, could you make sure they don’t get any of that in our wagon? Jackal looks like he’s having a little too much fun.” I shook my head at Harlan when he started to keep up his questions. Tag didn’t seem to have heard him the first time; I wanted to keep it that way.

“What?” He looked back where Jackal was attacking our wagon. “Oh, sure. I’ll help him do it right.” He nodded to Harlan, and then jogged over to our wagon.

Leaving me with a big problem. Harlan was horrible at keeping secrets, yet, if I didn’t tell him, he would keep hounding the Carlon issue, and possibly the man himself, until something gave way. I personally didn’t give a rat’s ass whether Alric’s cover was blown. However, professionally, his position within this known group of relic thieves in general, and this caper in particular, was important. We knew there were at least four more pieces of this Ancient weapon. If one of them was at this dig, like Alric believed, and we could get it and keep it, that still left us with three more to find. We might need Carlon in the future.

I studied Harlan’s face, trying to use it to help me decide what to tell him. There was entirely too much stubborn determination there. I had hoped that Orenda would be enough of a distraction to keep him off the Carlon issue. Actually, considering how ill-used Orenda had appeared to have been at Carlon’s hands, it may have just exaggerated his concern.

Alric would just have to live with one more person knowing his most recent secret.

“Don’t yell, or raise your voice, or do anything to attract attention. It’s crucial no one else besides you, me, and Covey know this.” I glared at him when he looked ready to argue. “I’m serious, Harlan. The faeries don’t even know.” I waited until he gave me a begrudging nod before continuing. “Carlon is Alric.” I held up one hand when he took a deep breath to explode. “I’m not going into all of it now, but that is him, and no, he did not do what they think he did to Orenda. Nothing happened. He was trying to protect her from the others in this gang, including Locksead. He needs to keep his cover and we can’t let anyone else know.”

Harlan got up off the bench and started pacing. A good sign. It meant he was thinking instead of reacting. But the way his tail was twitching about made me fear he was thinking of ways to boil Alric in oil. Regardless of whether he took advantage of Orenda or not.

“So he…and then he.…” He stomped a few more paces, then spun. “How did you find out and why didn’t the girls notice?” He looked triumphant as if he’d found a way out of a situation he didn’t want to deal with. There was probably more than a little feeling of betrayal going on. He’d prided himself on becoming Alric’s confidant of sorts. Or so he thought.

“He used sewerweed. The girls had a different term for it, but they said he smelled of it so badly, it blocked all the other scents and made them steer clear of him.”

“Damn it. I told him about that effect on the faeries a few weeks ago. How dare he use my knowledge to hide from me?” Now he had something justifiable to focus on, his tail was in full lashing form. Betrayal of an emotional kind was harder to address, but betrayal of a knowledge kind was ripe for justifiable annoyance.

He stomped about for a good five minutes, muttering new and inventive swear words under his breath. Then he turned to me with a horrified look. “But what of you? Has that foul bastard broken your heart?” It had taken a while for that thought to run through his head, but his face was full of sorrow now.

I opened my mouth to lie, when a sceanra anam burst into our clearing. The faeries were nowhere in sight, and this one had the look of a hunter not the prey as it circled the group. If the old elves’ tales were true, these creatures preferred the evil and guilty. This thing probably thought it hit a smorgasbord.

I stepped in front of Harlan. For my own safety and peace of mind, the last thing I wanted was for anyone in this gang of thieves knowing I was a magic user. However, I didn’t trust that Alric would break his cover and save us.

“Everyone, stay still. Don’t try to—”

Jackal ignored my warning and threw a knife at the flying snake. He missed, and the sceanra anam flew right for Jackal. I got ready to pull in a spell, but Alric and Grimwold stepped forward near me.

“Trust me, I’ve seen a magic user of your caliber take one of these out before. Just concentrate.” Alric was holding Grimwold’s shaking hand up as he whispered a spell in his ear. I knew Grimwold couldn’t blow his nose with a spell, and I knew how much energy it took to blow up a sceanra anam.

However, a moment after the spell left Grimwold’s lips, the sceanra anam exploded. Alric patted Grimwold on the back, but he was also leaning on him for support.

Sneaky bastard. He found a way to get around his Carlon persona not having magic. Although, that might be something I could use as well if I needed. I reached out to say something to Alric, and then shook my head at Carlon. Alric was too confusing and too complicated. I knew he’d do anything for his people, but I had begun to think we were his people as well. It made it easier to stay mad at him if I carefully ignored the fact he left all of us to keep us safe.

Locksead let everyone congratulate Grimwold on his skill for a few moments, while I noticed Alric slowly limping away to his wagon. He shouldn’t be that drained. I knew frying the thing as he had cost him, in part because he was also trying to funnel it through Grimwold. It would probably have left me passed out on the ground. But Alric was too strong of a magic user for that to have affected him like that.

“That’s enough,” Locksead said. “It’s going to take a few hours for these wagons just to make it to the city, even longer to the dig site I secured for us.” That was new; he hadn’t told us we had a spot, just that he would tell us what spot to get when we got there. When had he done it? I watched him as he barked a few more commands to the people near him. He probably had it set up before he even got down to Beccia. He was someone who left nothing to chance. I took in his waving his splinted arm about in emphasis. Well, nothing outside of a bunch of tiny monsters who flung him out of a forest.

I quickly grabbed Harlan’s arm before he could go to his wagon. “Remember what I told you: no one can know.” I caught his automatic glance to where Orenda was loading the last of our stuff back into our wagon. “Especially her.” I grabbed his face and turned it to me. “How do you think she’ll react if she realizes he’s an elf?” My point was brutal but clear. I needed Harlan to have his own motivation for not letting Orenda, or anyone else, know who Carlon really was.

His face darkened. “Point taken. But when this is over he and I are having a long conversation.” He lashed his tail a few times for emphasis and then stomped off to his wagon.

Locksead was barking orders again. I glanced over, as they didn’t seem to be directed at me but at the wagon drivers. Whenever he yelled, or got aggravated, or well, anytime he was annoyed, his hair ruffled up like a white-plumed show bird. I kept the giggle to myself at that observation.

“Tag’s wagon goes first, then Carlon, then you.” Locksead’s voice was loud enough for the entire camp to hear but was aimed solidly at an also irate Jackal.

Jackal’s voice was too low to pick out the words clearly. Unusual, but I noticed over the last three weeks he did that when he was really mad. However, why would he care what order the wagons went?

Then I looked to Alric. Carlon. Whoever he was. He leaned against his wagon with a nasty smirk on his face. Great, so as part of his persona he was in a pissing match with Jackal?

“Those two wagons have our real diggers. There may be questions when you people go in; I need Taryn, Covey, and Harlan to answer them. You and your boys are grunt labor; you’d be in the back.”

Jackal snarled a few more too low to hear words, then shot Alric’s back a vicious glare, and stomped over to his wagon.

Alric might need to watch it with Jackal. Something seemed unhinged about him. More so than the rest of this merry crew. He came across as big and stupid, but I had a feeling there was a lot more brain in there than we thought.

I shook my head and started to get in the wagon. Had I not only been on one foot, and that one foot on the flimsy wagon steps, I probably wouldn’t have felt the rumble.