Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Didn’t he call it something else?” Sebastian cut in.
“Oh yeah. The Beyond. He thought this creature would want to lead them down to the Beyond.”
“The Beyond,” Niamh said wistfully, and it was clear she knew that place. “But he didn’t mention what he thought the creature was?”
“Well, later he said I looked like a sprite in the Forgotten Wood or a—”
Niamh sucked a breath through her teeth. The basajaun beside her looked over sharply, puffing up.
“He said that name?” Niamh asked. “The Forgotten Wood?”
“Yeah,” Nessa said. “He also mentioned a wandering haunt…” She stared at Niamh with acute focus. When that didn’t elicit another response, she continued. “He seemed very knowledgeable about those creatures, like he’d had a personal run-in.” She explained what he’d said about it.
Niamh stared at the bar in front of her, obviously thinking. “Now how would a gargoyle his age know anything about all of that?” she said softly, as though to herself. “Is there anything else strange about this lad? The eyes, I know.”
“The two kinds of blood, if that’s what came out of his wings,” I said.
“Ah yeah. I remember seeing that and wondering if it was a trick of me eyes.” Niamh nodded. “Anything else? What’s his history like? Where’d he come from?”
Nessa and Sebastian both shook their heads.
Nessa said, “That cairn has pretty good records on their people, but there’s nothing on him. He was a walk-up, meaning he entered the cairn and asked for a trial to be a guardian.”
“None of the other cairns have his name, either,” Sebastian added.
“Here, Ulric…” Niamh reached out of the spell, grabbed Ulric by the sleeve, and dragged him in. She repeated what they’d just said about the lack of records.
“Is it any wonder?” Ulric asked. “He’s massive, he’s fast, he’s incredibly strong and powerful—no one is going to question a guardian like that. They’d do anything to keep him happy. Forget the bracelet; he’s that cairn’s greatest asset. If he doesn’t want to give his life history, they’re not gonna push.”
“Right so.” Niamh rattled the ice in her empty glass. “Sebastian, be a good lad and take down this spell. I need me a drink to mull this over, and if I shout now, no one will hear me.”
“We’ll hear you,” the basajaun said, “and wish we didn’t.”
“Exactly.” Niamh rattled her ice cubes again.
Sebastian did as requested.
“Any thoughts?” Nessa asked.
Niamh didn’t answer until she’d gotten her cider, taken a sip, and then sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Silence spell, Weird Mage.”
“Yup. Got it.” Sebastian did the spell.
“First,” she said, “ye won’t hear about the Forgotten Wood in any polite society. Old magic is right, from the beginning of the world. From before time existed. Twisted magic, now. Twisted creatures.”
“You’ve been?” I asked.
“Oh aye, I’ve been. A cousin dwelled there for a time, long ago. I’ve done deals with creatures there. Hunted there. That was all in my youth, mind, when I was as dense as they come.”
“And wandering haunts? Sprites?” Nessa asked, clearly riveted. “You know about those?”
Niamh nodded very slowly, her eyes far away. “Interesting he thought those types of creatures might dwell within Ivy House. He must not know much about magic if he thought that.”
“And why is that?” Sebastian asked.
“If they tried to lead him to the Beyond rather than taking his soul, that says he has blood magic. That’d explain the eyes and his ability to see in pitch black. It would explain the different blood. But he doesn’t know modern magic. He’s knowledgeable about the area but not knowledgeable about the magic, it seems like. Hmm…”
“What’s blood magic?” Nessa asked.
“Old magic,” Niamh said. “Ancient magic. It exists in some creatures and dwells in the Beyond. In the Forgotten Wood and a few other places in the world where I’d warn ye never to go. Ye’re not able for it. Or, well…” She looked again at the mages, lingering on Nessa. “Some of ye are, maybe.”
“We weren’t asking to go,” Nessa said quickly. “We’re just trying to figure out what the deal is with that big gargoyle.”
“I’d go,” Sebastian said quietly. “I want to learn more about this old magic.”
“That’s a dangerous game ye’re playin’,” Niamh told Sebastian. “If ye’re not careful, ye’d lose yourself right handy chasing those shadows. Ye’d become something else entirely, something that I wouldn’t let back into this world.”
“So it’s a different world?” Nessa asked.
“Might as well be.”
“How could he bleed both orange and red?” Sebastian asked. “Because he did both.”
Niamh was staring at Sebastian now, but her eyes didn’t seem to be seeing him. “Mixed breed. Blood magic will always be different colored, but if ye aren’t full-blooded, ye’ll have normal blood too. There is no medical sense to it. That’s how magic is. Ye have it or ye don’t, and if ye do, it’ll show. I’ve only ever seen green blood in the creatures I’ve encountered, but that doesn’t mean much. There are many types of creatures in the dark places.”