Gritch Troublemaker's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Gritch had his gap and his guide. Now Mira Ashenvow told him the thing that soured it all. She crouched beside him in the dark garden, her torn robe snagged on a thorn. "A hound guards this path at night," she whispered. "Big. Trained to howl, not bite. It will scream before you touch the gryphon statue." Gritch spat. Guards he could dodge. A noisy dog would wake the whole temple. He studied the path. Fruit bushes lined it. Stone glowed pale ahead. He could not run past a dog. He could not outrun its voice. But Gritch never traveled alone. He slid a hand into his ragged coat and tapped twice against his chest. Shadow bled out from his collar. It rose and thinned into a tall, ruined shape, hollow-eyed, trailing smoke where its feet should touch the ground. Mira jerked back. Her hand went to the holy symbol at her throat. "What is that thing?" "Mine," Gritch said. "Keeps quiet. Fights quiet." He pointed down the path. "Dog comes, you eat the sound." The wraith drifted forward without a whisper. Gritch followed low along the bushes. Mira came behind, close to his heels now, her fear of the dog smaller than her fear of the shadow. The hound found them near the halfway mark. It stepped from between two pillars, ears up, chest already swelling for a howl. Gritch froze. The first note broke loose, high and sharp. The wraith moved. It poured over the dog like spilled ink. The howl died in the hound's throat. Its paws scrabbled at smoke it could not grip. The thing's hollow eyes flared green. In three breaths the dog sagged, silent, and slumped against the stone, chest still rising. Not dead. Just quiet. Gritch grinned wide. "Good boy," he whispered. The wraith thinned and slid back into his coat. Mira stared at the sleeping hound, then at Gritch. "You planned that." "Always plan," he said. He hurried to the carved beast at the path's end. Eagle head. Lion body. The stone eye sat deep in its socket. He pressed it hard. A grinding sound rolled up from below. A seam cracked open behind the statue, revealing the top of a dark stair. But the hound's one broken howl had carried. Light bloomed inside the temple doorway. Voices called. Boots struck stone. Mira grabbed his arm. "They heard. Not the alarm bell, but enough. They'll search the garden now." Gritch looked at the open stair, then at the torchlight swelling behind them. The patrol was gone, the path was open, but the guards were already awake and coming. He had minutes, maybe less, before they swept down into the lower chamber too. "Then we go now," he hissed, "and we go fast." He dropped onto the first step. The dark swallowed his feet. Behind him, the voices grew louder.