Secrets of the Deep (70 page)

“Anything for you, Guardian Stone. We were a wreck with worry over you.”

He rumpled her hair. “Thanks, lass.”

“So you’ve seen Aunt Ramona, then,” Isabelle said anxiously. “Is she still unconscious? We should go check on her–”

“That won’t be necessary, I am quite well, my dear,” the Elder witch herself announced, stepping out of the house at that moment.

“Aunt!” several of them cried.

The baroness was the next to be swarmed as the children all rushed around her. For once, their enthusiastic warmth overcame Her Ladyship’s usual standoffish formality. She stiffened, looking a little nonplused, but tolerated their hugs.

Only Nixie hung back, probably for fear of seeming disrespectful—besides which, she was not much for open displays of affection herself.

“We were terribly worried about you, ma’am,” she said, however.

“We were worried about
all
of you,” Jake agreed, glancing around at the other three adults.

“Likewise,” Miss Helena replied, then frowned, noting their wet clothes. “Where exactly have you been?”

“Oh, out on the water,” Archie said with a wide, slightly forced smile.

“We went for a bit of a swim. But tell us about the rescue mission!” Jake said. “I see it was successful.” He beamed at Derek, who nodded, lowering his gaze.

“Yes, as you can see, we succeeded in retrieving Guardian Stone.” Henry smiled at his sister, who looked determined never to let herself be pried away from Derek’s side again.

“Finnderool brought us here half an hour ago. He couldn’t stay,” Miss Helena interjected, while Aunt Ramona took a seat at the lacy wrought-iron table under the vine-covered pergola.

“Are you feeling better, Aunt Ramona?” Isabelle asked, going over to sit beside her.

She nodded gratefully and took her favorite’s hand.

“Tell us everything,” Jake said to the adults.

“Well, in addition to Derek, we were able to free Celestus,” Henry informed them, folding his arms across his chest and leaning idly by the balustrade. “The Dark Druids were holding him by the power of some strange artifact that Sir Peter thought might actually be Atlantean in origin.”

Jake and the others exchanged uneasy looks, but Dani’s face had filled with dismay.

“So it
was
Dr. Celestus,” she said.

Henry gave her a sad nod. “When Aleeyah told the Elders that the Dark Druids were holding an angel, everyone thought she must be mistaken. But the rescue team managed to bring back the artifact from the mission. Curious. An odd metallic winged disk, rather like the ones you see in ancient Egyptian art. But those sun disks are merely decorative. This one generated power far beyond the knowledge of the pharaohs.”

“Really?” Archie murmured, pushing his spectacles up higher onto his nose.

Henry nodded. “It gave off an energy field of some sort that somehow forced Celestus to incarnate temporarily in mortal form. Imprisoned in flesh and blood like us, he could not escape with the usual properties of the Light Beings. He was trapped.”

“As was I,” Derek said gruffly. “Though by nothing as exotic as an Atlantean artifact. Merely in a dungeon cell.”

“I’m so sorry,” Isabelle said softly, and Maddox sent his mentor a soulful gaze.

“Eh,” said Derek, summoning up a faint smile, “I’ll be fine.”

It was just what Jake would’ve expected him to say. It was such a relief to have him back. “What about Tex?” he asked them eagerly. “Did you free him, too?”

Sorrow flickered in the master Guardian’s deep-set eyes. He shook his head with an air of reluctance.

Helena quickly took over for him. “We were unable to find Agent Munroe in the Dark Druids’ stronghold. It was very well guarded.”

“To say the least,” Henry muttered.

“Perhaps if we’d had more time,” she said. “By the way, Prince Janos sends his apologies. He would’ve come, but unfortunately he is mourning his friend Urso.”

Henry shook his head in regret. “The bear didn’t make it.”

“Oh no!” Isabelle rose to her feet.

The governess frowned at her. “Surely you didn’t know Urso, dear. He was only just released from an Order prison. Not to speak ill of the dead, but he had a dreadful reputation.”

“No. You’re right, of course.” Izzy shook her head and sat back down demurely, but Jake could guess the reason for her outburst.

Izzy did truly seem to care about Janos, and even Jake was fairly sure that Urso was the last remaining friend the ex-Guardian still had.

Most had washed their hands of him when Janos had turned vampire, even Derek. The brash Germanic bear, however, had remained unflinchingly loyal. So Jake had heard.

“He died bravely,” Derek mumbled.

But the mention of casualties had dropped a pall over their joyous reunion.

Maddox took a step forward, looking uneasy. “What about my mother? How did she fare?”

“Aye, and where’s Red?” Jake asked.

They all saw Derek flinch at these questions.

Several of them gasped, then the silence sharpened to a knife’s edge.

“Derek, where’s Red?” Jake repeated as his stomach lurched.

“Did my mother survive?” Maddox demanded just as quickly.

“Boys,” Henry said softly, “they were both captured.”

“What?”
Maddox breathed.

“At least we
believe
Ravyn was captured,” Henry said. “Of Red, there is no doubt. We saw them throw the ropes around him.”

“Oh, God,” Jake whispered, taking a step back in horror. “What…how…”

“Now, Jake, there is no reason to assume they mean to hurt him,” Miss Helena said quickly. “He’s more valuable to them alive and intact. After all, scarlet gryphons are very rare.”

“Guardians aren’t,” Maddox forced out, sounding like someone had just punched him in the gut. He spun away, fists clenched. “I’m going to kill that vampire.”

Isabelle glanced at him in surprise.

“He said he’d watch her!”

“Maddox, it was chaos on all sides,” Henry said.

“What did you see? What happened?” Maddox whirled back around. “And how can you not
know
whether or not she was captured?”

“I’ll tell you all we do know. But you need to stay calm,” Derek ordered. He moved away from Miss Helena and went to lean against the balustrade by Henry.

Aunt Ramona looked on all the while, silent as the Sphinx.

“Your Gryphon was the one who actually started the battle,” Henry said. “He fought his way past the manticore and got into the Black Fortress. The drawbridge was down and the doors were open, so he entered and started looking for Derek.”

“When I heard all the commotion outside,” Derek said, nodding, “I figured it was the Order, and started shouting from my prison cell, hoping someone would find me.”

“Once Red broke through the warlocks’ ranks,” Henry continued, “then Ravyn, Sir Peter, and Finnderool followed the Gryphon into the castle.”

Derek picked up the thread again from there. “They found me in my cell, and I told them where the enemy was holding Celestus. I warned them about the winged disk device, because I had seen it during my captivity. I knew it was the key to freeing Celestus. By that point, Janos had fought his way in, too. He and Finnderool went to free the angel, while Ravyn and Sir Peter stayed with me.

“Pete used his wand to open the door to my cell,” Derek continued. “But the Druids must’ve put some sort of counter-spell on it, for it bounced back at him and temporarily blinded him. Thankfully, Finnderool returned and got him out while Janos kept battling the demons they’d had guarding the angel—”

“Demons?” Dani gasped.

Derek nodded grimly. “I shudder to say that the devils guarding Celestus never tired of tormenting him. Whatever they did to me was nothing compared to what they did to him.” He shook his head, staring at the ground. “Pure hatred. I caught sight of him once, bruised, lacerated, wingless. They taunted him continually to renounce good, curse the light, and join them. Demons are just fallen angels, after all. But he didn’t break.”

“How on earth could Janos have defeated two demons by himself?” Maddox asked.

“Apparently, he got to the artifact and changed the angle of it, aiming it at them. Its strange properties had the same effect on them as Celestus. It turned the devils temporarily to flesh and blood beings, then he killed them.” Derek gazed at Maddox, as though contemplating his former promising young recruit, Janos, who had let him down so badly.

Then he continued. “Finnderool had to help Sir Peter out of the fortress, since he couldn’t see. Ravyn stayed with me to shatter the chains they’d used to shackle me to the wall. I wasn’t able to be of much use once I was free,” Derek admitted, vague on the details as to why. “So she called to the Gryphon to get me out of there. I climbed on, and Red flew me out.”

Just like I told him to,
Jake thought, aching to realize that was the exact request he had made of his noble pet. God, if he had actually believed something this bad could’ve happened to Red, he never would’ve let him go. Such a thing had seemed unthinkable. And now here it was.

“Instead of leaving the castle then, too, Ravyn stayed behind. She wanted to press on deeper into the enemy’s stronghold to try to find Tex. Janos finished his work with the demons and went with her, while Red flew me clear of the area around the castle’s entrance, where everyone else was still battling Lord Wyvern and his forces.”

“Lord Wyvern?” Archie echoed in surprise.

A chill ran down Jake’s spine at the name. “Who exactly is that?”

“The Druid Council’s top henchman and enforcer.” Derek glanced at Helena as she caressed his shoulder, then continued. “When Red set me down, I took one of the scarlet feathers that he offered me and used it to start healing my wounds, but this took some time, as there were…quite a few.” A shadow flickered behind Derek’s eyes.

It tore at Jake’s soul. He barely dared contemplate what all they might have done to the steely warrior.

Then he wondered if this Lord Wyvern himself had been the torturer, and his heart clenched like a fist.

“After taking me to safety, Red headed back into the castle to try to find Tex, I assume, and rescue him, same as me,” Derek said in a heavy monotone. “That’s when they took him captive. I’m sorry, Jake.” The battered Guardian looked at him in pain. “They lassoed him with…many ropes from all directions. As soon as they had dragged him inside, the fortress jumped. Janos barely made it out in time, but I never saw Ravyn emerge.”

Maddox breathed an oath.

“Maddox, hear me,” Miss Helena said firmly to the Guardian woman’s clearly panicked son. “Yes, your mother is trapped inside the Black Fortress. But there is no reason to assume that she has been discovered.”

“She’s one of our best,” Derek said, nodding. “She can be very stealthy, and if I know Ravyn, the Dark Druids don’t even know she’s there.”

“Yet,” Maddox said in a low, cold tone. “And what will they do to her if she’s caught?”

Silence.

Maddox nodded, looking devastated. “That’s what I thought. When the castle jumped locations, where did it go?”

“We don’t know yet,” Helena whispered.

Jake’s mind was reeling.
How could Red be captured?

Dani was watching him anxiously, while Isabelle murmured to Maddox, “I’m so sorry. If there’s anything I can do—”

“Tell your vampire friend he’s dead to me. He said he’d watch over her. Guess I should’ve known what a promise from him was worth,” Maddox said, and walked away.

Isabelle looked after him, crestfallen.

Jake followed his friend.

“Give them a moment,” Henry advised the others in a low, sympathetic tone as the two boys withdrew to try to absorb the news.

Walking dazedly into the garden, they just stood there, staring into space.

“I could’ve saved her. I’m sure I could’ve at least prevented this somehow. They should’ve let me go!”

“Why did I ever give Red permission?” Jake whispered. “He spent eleven years in a cage because of Uncle Waldrick! And now this.”

“They’ll kill her if they find her. No,” Maddox whispered absently. “Worse. Sorcerers can do far worse things to people than kill them.”

Jake closed his eyes.

The horror in Maddox’s soft utterance over his birth mother’s disappearance had Jake almost reliving the loss of his own parents.

It all suddenly became too overwhelming, but then Archie joined them. The voice of reason, as always. The boy of boundless patience, who, for all his eccentricities, did not know how to give up.

“Stop it, you two,” he ordered, his tone firm but earnest. He stopped on the top step of the sunken garden, into which they had descended. “It won’t do to start jumping to conclusions. The Order will find the Black Fortress again—they found it before—and they will both be rescued, just as Derek was.”

“We will not stop until they are free,” Henry vowed, coming over.

His twin was a step behind. “Even if they catch her, Maddox, they spared Derek.” Helena gestured at her beau.

“But now we’ve made them angry,” Maddox murmured.

“Was anybody else lost?” Isabelle asked in trepidation.

“Several did not survive the battle,” Henry admitted. “As I mentioned, Urso was killed by the manticore.”

“And there was a wizard. Hanley Fletcher.” The Elder witch had risen from her chair and stalked over to them, her head high, a glimmer of flinty determination in her eyes. “He fought bravely, but he was overcome. There was a centaur warrior who died, and an elven healer, as well.”

“My lady, how do you know all this?” Miss Helena asked, mystified.

“Because she was there,” Nixie said. “In astral form.”

“Yes.” Aunt Ramona nodded.

“Is that why we found you unconscious with blood coming out of your nose? Aunt Ramona, what happened?” Isabelle persisted when the old woman did not answer at once.

“I encountered someone I knew long ago. An old enemy, one of the Dark Druids. He detected my presence, and I’m afraid…I was bested.” She looked away and said no more on the matter.