The Talking Gargoyle Part 10

Raven tapped his fingers against his armor Ariana was taking too long for his taste. He kept glancing down at the Inn seeing no one moving but most of all not seeing her. At least, they weren’t rushing in the building with their weapons were drawn looking for blood. He huffed turning back to the alleyway and staring up at the stars debating on when he should go find her.

                “Come on,” he kept telling himself. “Where are you?”

                Right before he told himself enough was enough, he went to go into the Inn himself looking for Ariana, but she dropped down from the roof landing behind him. He turned to grab the hilt of his sword smiling once he saw it was her.

                “He’s not in there,” she said. “Were you about to go looking for me?”

                “Maybe,” he told her.

                “Aw, how sweet,” she mocked him.

                “Next time, I won’t do anything,” Raven said.

                “Sure, whatever you need to tell yourself,” Ariana said. “So, what do we do now?”

                “Was any of those squirrels with him in the Inn?” Raven asked.

                “Yeah, the uglier one,” Ariana said watching Raven study the door.

                “Good,” he smirked, and they waited for a few hours until they saw the big squirrel stumbling out of the Inn’s door. The drunk thug headed away from them, but Ariana was already dashing ahead of them while Raven started to follow the brute.

                The brute had to stop for a moment to make sure he didn’t throw up anywhere. He placed his paw against the wall staring down at the ground waiting for everything to come out of his stomach. To his luck, nothing came rushing out of his belly, and he turned to start walking again to find Ariana standing there with a drink.

                “You,” he growled as she crossed her arms.

                “Not my name, but close,” she said.

                He pulled a knife from his side readying himself for the fight. “I’m going to cut you.”

                “Too bad, I’m not alone,” Ariana said pointing behind him.

                He turned around to watch Raven knock him against the wall. The drunk brute smashed against the bricks seeing stars and trying to get back up. He looked up trying to growl at the Knight, but the sword at his throat stopped him from moving.

                “We need to talk,” Raven said.

                “I’m not saying a word,” he said.

                “Oh, I bet you are,” Ariana said stepping to Raven’s side.

                “I don’t mind,” Raven hissing down at him pushing the tip of the sword deeper into his flesh, “opening you up.”

                “You want to die for your master?” Ariana asked.

                The drunk thug glanced between the two of them and then sighed heavily. “You want to know where he is?”

                “Right,” Ariana said.

                “He is not a bad squirrel,” the thug told them. “He trying to save Lona.”

                “That is not what we asked,” Raven barked at him.

                “I mean, in his defense,” Ariana said, “we didn’t actually ask him anything.”

                “Where is Zeal Whitechurch?” Raven asked driving his point home a little with cutting the thug’s flesh.

                The thug held fast against the wall and asked, “You will not hurt him?”

                “I can’t say we won’t,” Ariana said. “He did take a child.”

                “Lona is no child, you fool,” the thug snapped.

                “She sure does look like a child and act like one,” Ariana said.

                “You have no idea what you are talking about,” the thug told them. “Zeal cast an sp---”

                “Enough,” Raven said, “where is he?”

                The thug snarl and said, “Under the church.”

                “There is no basement in the church,” Ariana said.

                “What do you use to open the magical door to the basement?” Raven asked.

                “Ah, right, magic,” Ariana said nodding to herself.

                He held up his paw to show a ring. “This is how but I beg you don’t hurt Father Zeal.”

                “We heard you,” Raven said quickly using the hilt of the sword to knock the thug out for a while. Ariana reached down pulling the ring from his paw and rolling it around in her paw. It looked like a golden ring and nothing more.

                “He should have put a protection spell on this thing,” Ariana said.

                “Still might be,” Raven said. “So, you keep it.”

                “I’m starting to think you care less about me than before,” Ariana said giving Raven a flat stared dropping the ring into her pocket.

                “Well, you did get me involved in this craziness,” Raven said heading down the alleyway towards the church. They stopped at the front of the church looking up to see the spot where Lona had pointed out the missing Gargoyle. Ariana followed Raven around the church looking for where a door should be for the basement, but they couldn’t find anything.

                “Let’s check inside,” Raven said pushing the door open and walking into the small hall. They went into the back of the church looking around and stopped at an empty wall. There wasn’t a statue or painting on the wall. It was the only wall with nothing on it.

                “Let’s see what the ring says,” Ariana said pulling it out of her pocket and holding it up the wall.

                The ring started to light up like fire was being born in the gold, but the ring didn’t feel warm at all. She tapped the ring against the wall, and the fire in it started to rush out of forming a door that was hidden there. A moment later they both her the locks on the door become undone, and Raven pulled it open.

                Before him was a dark hallway with a twisting stairway down into the earth. They both study the dark for a moment when Raven looked back at the Thief and said, “Ladies first right?”

                “Get going,” Ariana said kicking him in the back as he slowly walk into the darkness. Raven took his time walking down the steps waiting for a trap to be set off, but nothing happened. They ended at the bottom of the stair staring at an old wooden door with bright lights along with a shadow moving on the other side.

                “Let me go,” Lona screamed. “I don’t want to go back!”